On the way to the second dungeon, news broke out that a battle with the Evil God of Fire had begun.
They successfully solidified the lava flowing from the volcano and now vowed to subdue the Evil God according to their plans.
“The Apostle of Magic told me to pass this on to you, Employer. Until now, your predictions have never been wrong. There’s no doubt it will be the same in the future, so please don’t worry and just do your best.”
That prideful guy said something like that? Especially with the Evil God descending right in front of us?
I couldn’t help but picture Nevera on the other side of the monitor, reflecting on the gap between the Nevera in reality and the Nevera in the game, and I chuckled lightly.
Why is it that the expectations of others don’t feel burdensome, but rather pleasant?
As I looked around with a smirk, my friends were grinning at me.
Feeling embarrassed by their warm gazes, I pretended to be angry to hide my emotions.
“Hey, you fools! Is this really the time to be smiling!?”
“The preparations for the teleportation were completed a while ago.”
“Are you sure you’re really ready?”
“Don’t worry! I can’t make any more mistakes!”
Is that really something to brag about? Forgetting my embarrassment, I stared at Joy, who cleared her throat and conjured a magic circle.
“Then I’ll teleport us right away!”
“Wait a minute, Joy. I have something to ask Lucy Allen first.”
“What is it? Useless Prince. If it’s a stupid question, I might kick you.”
“When we entered the first dungeon today, the scenery inside was different from what you expected, right?”
The moment I asked, I felt I understood what Arthur was worried about.
Since I had decided to use the glitch, it had gone without a hitch, but the scenery inside the dungeon was completely different from what I knew.
As the knight had said about preparing gifts, the Pope was my weakness. In other words, he had meticulously remodeled the dungeon to disturb my mind.
Other dungeons would likely be the same. They couldn’t change the fundamental concept, but the contents inside would be filled with mechanisms solely designed to screw me over.
That’s not something to just laugh off as no big deal.
I’m weak against the emotion of guilt.
“So I want to ask. When faced with a situation where you have to commit a sin, can you stay calm?”
“Third Prince.”
“Saintess, I’m not pressing you. I just want to think ahead and decide what we can do together.”
If there are things they cannot do, they’ll do them if I can’t. They’d willingly take on the guilt for my sake.
“We agreed to share the burden. This is just an extension of that.”
Listening to Arthur’s words full of resolve, I couldn’t help but snicker and poke his chest.
“Sorry, but that doesn’t look cool at all! You look more like a psycho eager to kill, and it’s disgusting!”
“Don’t brush it off lightly as a joke. Don’t you know? Someone has to transcend sin.”
“Pfft. Haha. Hahaha!”
“Why? Why are you suddenly laughing?!”
Seeing Arthur’s bewilderment, I laughed for a while before playfully tapping his cheek.
“To think you could only come up with such foolish thoughts. How pitiful and cute, Useless Prince.”
“Hey.”
“If you’d been a little cooler, I might have fallen for you. But thinking about Peanut Prince, it seems tough for you to be cool.”
I deliberately looked down and laughed at Arthur’s agitated response, ignoring him and extending my hand to Joy, who looked worried.
“What’s with that look? Do you want to play the cool prince like the little one?”
“Are you really okay? I mean, we know Lucy. We’ve always been beside you.”
“Really? That’s a bit creepy.”
If it were any other day, Joy would have screamed that it didn’t mean that, but today she didn’t even avoid my gaze and stared at me.
So, I answered her with a bit of seriousness.
“It’s only natural to be unable to take my eyes off my cuteness, so I’ll forgive you for now, but there’s one annoying part.”
“…What?”
“You say you know me well, yet you doubt me? Do you really think this Lucy Allen will suffer in a shabby dungeon full of idiots?”
As I pulled at my noticeably growing belly fat, Joy hurriedly backed away, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Why are you pulling at that all of a sudden!”
“I just thought it might be a suspicion pocket since it’s grown so much.”
“It can’t be!”
“Strange. Everything else is the same, but that’s the only part that’s gotten bigger. So doesn’t that mean it’s a problem? Piggy?”
“I’m not a pig; I’m a fool!”
“Okay, fool. Answer me. Who is suffering where? Hm? Hm?”
As I lifted my foot, Joy raised her guard, making me want to laugh out loud.
Ah, seriously. It’s so pathetic I feel sorry for teasing her.
With that ugly face, how can she be so cute?
“Just stay there and watch me work. I’ll show you how shabby the idiot’s minions are.”
The Soul Academy, where I dedicated my life outside the monitor, was probably something created by the Shoddy God.
Being a being great enough to be the center of many gods, it must have meddled in other dimensions too.
Thinking of it this way casts the glitches in the game in a different light.
Originally, glitches are bugs or errors unintended by the developer, but what if Armadi intentionally included them in the game?
What if leaving the glitches uncorrected afterwards was intentional?
What if many things once thought impossible due to the limits of reality were actually possible?
Having just established an absurd dungeon strategy using a glitch, I felt a sense of conviction in my thoughts.
In the end, the dungeons of this world weren’t naturally occurring; they were created using the authority of the Evil God and his minions.
There’s no difference between a game created by someone and the dungeons they created, right?
“Lady Allen, you’re not really planning to enter the dungeon alone, are you?”
Did I come off as too strong? Phoebe spoke up, her voice filled with worry.
However, unlike her voice, her eyes were full of determination.
If I were to try and sacrifice myself again, Phoebe would likely voice the feelings contained in those eyes.
“Why are you asking something so obvious?”
“Lady!”
“Calm down and listen. It’s not that you’re a shabby mess of idiots. Sure, you can be a bit foolish and shabby, but that’s not the reason. Understand?”
It’s different from the time I entered the dungeon alone before.
I’m not the one who’s afraid of my friends suffering, trying to handle everything alone.
The reason I want to enter the dungeon alone is simply that I don’t have confidence in considering other variables aside from myself.
How could I manage glitches that need to occur perfectly frame by frame while bringing my friends along?
“…If you’re lying, I’ll lecture you all day after it’s over.”
“I’ll make you my dress-up doll for a few days too!”
“I’ll also build a performance hall just for you in the capital of the kingdom.”
“I’ll duel you! Lots of it!”
Responding to my friends’ threats with a laugh, I grabbed Joy’s hand.
“I’m going.”
The moment the teleportation magic activated, the scenery around us changed.
“Huh? Huh? Why did the coordinates go awry?”
The fool said he wouldn’t make any more mistakes, yet he pulled another foolish move, but this time, there was no reason to scold him.
Thanks to Joy’s mistake, we arrived at a lucky spot where the second dungeon awaited us.
They say when I do the right thing, luck increases.
It seems my choice this time was fine in Armadi’s eyes.
—
The hero trapped inside the mace hadn’t recovered from the shock even long after the dungeon strategy had ended.
It was shocking to realize that the enemies they had narrowly defeated could fall so easily.
“I’m sorry, everyone. I’m weak, so you all…”
“How many times are you going to say that? Just stop already!”
“It’s true that Lucy is too bizarre. It’s definitely not that you’re weak.”
The situation was so pitiful that even those who had been teasing the hero couldn’t help but fidget while trying to console him.
“Everyone, Lady Allen has arrived at the second dungeon.”
At Erginius’s words, the three’s gazes turned to the screen. In their eyes, expectations and anxiety were intertwined.
“No way more astonishing things will happen than last time, right?”
“I really hope so. If anything happens again that defies my common sense, I might genuinely want to hang myself.”
While Garad and the hero, who didn’t know Lucy well, smiled wryly, Ruel and Erginius couldn’t say a word.
Lucy Allen was someone who naturally shattered common sense and forced her understanding onto others.
“Huh? Why’s she going in alone again? I thought she wouldn’t sacrifice herself anymore?”
“What did you hear? Just now, Lucy said she made that choice because she needed to be alone.”
“…Did she say that?”
“The implied meaning was that.”
Welcoming Lucy, who had entered the dungeon alone, was a vast plain filled with soldiers.
“An endless war dungeon.”
“This is the worst. This place is not meant for solo adventurers.”
“It was truly a hellish place.”
The heroes frowned at the dungeon scenery where they had to pass through countless troops to reach the end.
This place was not a location that could be tackled alone. It wasn’t a matter of individual skill; it was physically impossible.
“Ruel, what do we do? No matter how great the modern hero is, this is…”
“Just watch quietly, hero. Lucy chose to visit this place knowing full well.”
“…Why?”
“You’ll understand when you see.”
Lucy, on the other side of the screen, noticed something surrounding her and, upon discovering a rock, lightly pushed it and laid a scroll underneath.
“Erginius, what kind of magic is that?”
“It’s levitation magic. The effect isn’t significant; it just lifts something a bit.”
Why would she place such a thing under a rock? It wouldn’t mean anything, would it?
In that moment of confusion, Lucy suddenly shot up into the air.
Like a cannonball, she flew through the air at an unbelievable speed, soaring over thousands of soldiers.
“Hey, Erginius. You said it was just levitation magic.”
“…Did I missee?”
“I just asked Lucy, and she confirmed it was ordinary levitation magic.”
“Really?”
“Is it real?”
“Why would I lie? I also don’t understand it.”
Erginius, Garad, the hero, and Ruel—none of them could comprehend what had just happened.
“By the way, Lucy herself says she doesn’t know why it works either.”
“This is insane.”
Erginius’s muttering represented everyone’s feelings.
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