Chapter 486
Chapter 486
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Gedroits's Heirs, Deul (1)
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Beep- Beep-
A regular, sharp mechanical tone greeted me.
Crash!
There was the sound of something like a metal chair toppling backward,
"...Pro, Professor! Can you hear me? Are you here?"
A faintly familiar voice,
Rattle-
Bang!
The sound of that voice's owner clumsily shoving aside the metal slab that had been between her and me, presumably the chair from moments ago.
Screech- Grind!
Along with the twisting of metal, the dry light of LEDs seeped in, stinging my eyes.
Beep--- Beep---
Next to the screen displaying my heartbeat as a pulse, I saw a woman clutching a crowbar and panting for breath.
Skin so pale it was almost translucent. A slightly gaunt frame from her long hospital stay, a white patient gown that matched her skin perfectly, and long, glossy black hair that contrasted sharply.
"Da...na-"
"Don't talk. Focus on breathing."
Dana Elishia Hyacinth. Or, the woman known as Speed Wagon. One of my oldest internet friends.
"You've been under for 9 hours and 38 minutes. Thirty-seven minutes ago, every login pod connected to GG started blaring warnings. Twenty minutes ago, the active transport drones and the GG forums went down simultaneously. Three minutes ago, a DDoS attack via mass data dumping hit the Dome's media and broadcasting division linked to your account, so everyone's shifted there. Two minutes ago, your body twitched, the player log showed 'logout,' and right then the pod overloaded and crapped out, so I yanked you out by force. If you want to know anything else, I'll tell you everything—just focus on fully 'coming back.'"
"Breathe. Feel your heartbeat consciously. Focus on the sensations in your fingertips and toes."
She knew me too well, laying out the situation before even asking if I was okay. My lover.
Sure, there was a mountain of things I needed to know right now—like why she was the only one in my lab, what the overloads and crashes and DDoS even meant.
Tap.
"...Sorry."
But right now, that was all that came to mind.
9 hours and 38 minutes.
What should have been an instant had stretched out like taffy.
The guy who'd sworn he'd be right back the moment he lay down hadn't woken until Dana smashed the busted login pod with those delicate hands.
For her, for whom the last logout after clearing World 3 was just a week ago, what must it have looked like—me diving back into that damn virtual world after just another week and failing to come out on time again?
"I'm late."
That emotion could probably be read in the small metal chair tossed behind me, the crowbar gripped in Dana's blister-covered hands. In the arm still trembling as it refused to let go, and in eyes shaking even harder.
The warnings blaring everywhere, the screens screaming that something had gone very wrong—screens at which Dana, no doubt an ace hacker and programmer, had been pounding the keyboard until just now.
As I gathered my dazed mind to explain what had happened in there, how much I'd missed her, how our memories had kept me going, why I'd been late—
"...Sorry...?"
She stopped dead, muttering in a mosquito-like voice... and slowly raised the crowbar in her hand like a broken marionette.
"Uh..."
For some reason, senses honed on countless brushes with death were ringing alarm bells.
Creak- Clank!
I cautiously, very carefully tugged at my arm, but sure enough, the thick chain held my wrist fast. Precautions for emergencies, given my build. Mm-hmm. Same as last time.
"You said... you'd be right... back..."
Crunch!
"The system's down, petabytes of compressed data flooding your account by the second, overloads, warnings, and in the middle of it all, you..."
"Da, Dana?"
The crowbar raised high gleamed under the flashing emergency lights.
Mm. My pod was fully detached, and I'd shown I was fully lucid, so there was no reason for that crowbar to be raised for anything healthy.
"For the past nine hours and forty minutes, do you have any idea... how worried I was..."
"L-Let's calm down first. My body's tough, but if you hit me with that now, I really will cross a river of no return-"
"...A week. You make me wait like that, come back from the brink of death, and then after just one week you crawl right back in... And even before that, so meaningfully... you held me, like someone who might never come back...!"
"Dana! W-Wait!"
"You, you irresponsible man!!!"
Whoosh-!
Clang!
The swung crowbar rang out pure and clear, quivering right next to my head.
"P-Please hold still, ma'am..."
"No. I can't."
"Yes, ma'am."
Whoa. So this is Dana angry.
Come to think of it, Dana was all soft and gentle, but Speed Wagon had a pretty cynical side as a user.
Adorable. If I weren't gripping the crowbar embedded in the login pod and grunting, I'd appreciate it more leisurely. It didn't graze me—it missed entirely. Of course. Dana didn't have the strength to full-swing a heavy crowbar and bury it next to my ear with that kind of control.
Anyway, I couldn't die getting beaned by my furious Dana's hammer upon returning, so I desperately mustered a defense.
"Um... Dana. Truth is, this is kind of a world-shaking crisis-"
"Probably tangled up with Saha, right? Drones, servers, forums—all down. I know it's some major shift involving GG."
"Ah... And actually, inside there-"
"Lives of tens of thousands of unrelated people on the line, something unavoidable barreling down, something only you could solve. Absurd as it sounds. Anything less, and you wouldn't break a serious promise and make me worry like this."
"Yes. Spot on."
And just like that, shot down completely. It had been so long I'd forgotten—Dana was a famous info broker, and of course, she could process info just as well as I could.
"You're reckless. As reckless as you are kind, and as kind as you are, you don't hold back. You don't take care of yourself. No brakes on the good side."
Ting- Clang!
Finally yanking out the crowbar, Dana's grip gave out, and she dropped it.
"I won't tell you to look after yourself. I knew who you were and loved you for it."
Her bloodied hand cupped my cheek.
"But. If there's no room for Professor Park in your actions, make room for me."
"I'll try harder. So when you throw yourself into saving everyone again, I can stop you instead—I'll work to carve out that much space inside you."
"So please... don't leave me alone."
Drip, plop.
Her falling tears wet my face.
Dana. You don't know it, but you've been that for me for 28 years.
In the pain of memories erased and my very existence warped from the roots, the reason I didn't lose my way was a unchanging North Star shining as my guidepost.
[Come back.]
That single command to return had guided me, lost in the vast ocean, allowing me to reach the end without straying—and to return here.
"Got it."
With Dana, no long words were needed.
Creak!
Snap! Grind!
The arm snapping the chain wrapped gently around her waist.
Wail-! Wail-!
Thud thud thud!
[Professor Park's handler! Where's the handler!]
[Login signal cut minutes ago—what the hell are you doing! Who's still in that room!]
[D-Dana's the only one left in there...]
[Big noise! Hurry!]
My hearing, slowly returning, announced uninvited guests.
"...Missed you, Dana. More than you can imagine."
Holding her as she burrowed into the login pod, I quietly lifted the detached lid and fitted it over the shattered part.
Screech-!
Then, I mercilessly twisted and crushed the connection points with my fingertips.
Bang!
Rustle rustle rustle!
"Variant suppression team, entering!"
Right now, no one would disturb us.
"Dana's identity unconfirmed!"
"Professor Park's pod shows bio-signs! No special movement yet... but."
"Report properly! No movement!"
"Th-The bio-signs inside the pod... there are two!"
"...Huh?"
And so the someone in my arms, who was a bit shy about publicity, wouldn't flee in embarrassment.
"Professor, wait... Eek! There are people outside.... You need a doctor, and GG experts' assessment... Ahh!"
"See. I think I know exactly what I need most for my health right now."
Having weathered anxiety incomparable to 9 hours and 40 minutes, I hugged tight the happiness now in my arms, vowing never to let go.
『...It's Professor Park. Get lost if you don't want to die.』
Don't ruin the mood—scram.
As the figures milling at the door debated between Dome elite crisis protocols and the killer intent from continental slayer Professor Park leaking through the dented pod.
Bang! Bang!
"Now now, as you can see, a very in-depth, dynamic meeting on BDSM's future is underway inside... So considering the occasion, limit warning shots to two. Plenty of ammo left loaded, and I have no intention of punching more holes in the ceiling. Get out without wasting a second."
"Th-This guy! But if the professor's not fully okay, Dana could be in dan—"
"Th-Those two... if you disturb... it'll count as mur, murdering my future niece or nephew...! Kee-hee-hee!"
"W-Waaah! I-I have a wife and daughter in sector 47!"
Two familiar voices, apparently rushing in, drove off the intruders with gunshots and screams.
....Phew.
"Nice."
"...Pervert."
"Not that. Ow! No, Dana! That's... definitely not a complaint...!"
Loved ones, cherished friends, the barren wasteland air I couldn't help but love.
By time spent, I'd lived longer over there, but this was undeniable.
My world of blood and gunpowder, death and monsters, where ruin marched on.
Not much better than there, full of connections and good memories in GG...
"Really. Feels like home."
But it was my home. Where I belonged. Where I had to return.
"...Welcome home."
"Yeah."
My home, where my people waited.
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