Chapter 72
Chapter 72
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: In the Name of Glory (8)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
***
*Creak—*
- Deer Drug Please: Whoa, just opening it up like that.
- Take a Look: The guts to blow a ten-pull without even offering up some loot first! That's the kind of boldness you need to be the head of a group!
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: ★★ Low-Rank Heretic Zealot x 10
As soon as he placed his hand on the doorknob, the chat room lit up with complaints about not playing any gacha BGM, how that sloppy mindset would never snag good allies, and so on. He ignored it all. This wasn't some end-of-the-world mobile game from the old days—this was Gedroits's Game, boasting the highest realism in human history. Where did superstitious folk beliefs like that even have a place?
'Senadis definitely mentioned something about a grand bishop. That means this suicide mission was planned at the heart of the Radiant Church headquarters. It's not some lightweight jab they just threw out.'
A headquarters like the Radiant Church's had mountains of work. Expanding influence, crushing heretics, training holy knights diligently, navigating the political snake pit of the capital's nobles with their religious power. For people like that to carve out time for a plan meant they'd prepared enough to punch straight into the enemy's heart.
*Click.*
With eager anticipation, Professor opened the door—and what met his eyes was—
*Crash!*
"Kyaaack!"
"You... you beast of heresy! You've finally revealed your true colors! Die!"
A gaunt, bald monk in white robes and a hairy beastkin man rampaging around him.
"Hungry..."
"Ah, aaah... Master, I'm... returning to mana’s embrace..."
"No! Hold on! Is there no one out there? Anyone, please—water, food!"
There was a neatly set table in one corner of the room with bread ready, yet these people wandered in delirium, looking like they hadn't eaten in days.
And then...
*Sniff, sniff sniff.*
"Gr... grr?"
What he'd thought was a metal statue moved and turned toward him. Thick limbs like pillars, clad in massive armor. Peeking through the gaps was pale green skin.
A long-tusked, flat-nosed pale green face suddenly approached Professor, sniffing him eagerly before breaking into a joyful grin.
"Little... big human?"
"You... you don't mean... Notum?"
"Little big human! Meet again!"
Notum greeted Professor with a beaming smile, her expression full of disbelief.
No doubt about it. A troll who held affection for him and called him "little big human." The armored troll before him was the talking troll he'd met in the forest when he first entered the game—the hero unit Notum.
***
*Whoosh! Fwoosh!*
Professor set aside the joy of reuniting with Notum for now and focused on assessing the people here. Ever since Mental Fragility had upgraded to Overcome Mental Fragility, the nagging headaches were gone, and now information flowed into his mind as naturally as water.
A quick scan revealed that, contrary to expectations, most of them were familiar faces.
First, the easiest to identify: the starving bunch on the verge of death.
"Ughhh, h-hey there. You just came in from outside, right? A-any chance you have something edible?"
A skeletal old man. The bread on the table looked a bit stale but perfectly edible, yet he clutched his starving belly without so much as glancing at it.
"Otman. You're Otman Bodler of the Lead Flow School, correct?"
"You... know me?"
Professor sighed and nodded. Of course he did. They wouldn't recognize him in his current form, though.
Otman Bodler. A familiar face from day one. This old mage was the one he'd met in the magic tower that day—the kindhearted grandfather mage who'd been ready to die for his disciples while he shook down the tower with his hostage ploy against the Tobrun forces.
"And those behind you are your disciples, right?"
"Ah, so... you know everything. You're from the Church, then."
The old man's face fell in slight disappointment, but suddenly his eyes bulged wide! and he clung to Professor's pant leg.
"If so, please—tell the Church to reconsider the Lead Flow School! That experiment was Isaac and his disciples' doing alone! The tower lord was away, so that bastard Isaac, next in the hierarchy, ran the tower as he pleased—"
Otman's desperate plea cut short. Because Professor pulled out fish and leather pouches full of clear water from his inventory.
*Spring!*
"F-Fishy smell!"
"Food!"
"Edible food!"
Fish he'd caught in the river before heading to Tobrun, and clear water he carried for emergencies like a sedative.
The moment he took them out, they pounced like wolves starved for three days. Watching them, Professor was certain: the ragtag group in the corner were indeed the Lead Flow School mages from back then.
He watched the mages stuff raw, day-old, gutted fish—reeking of the river—into their mouths like beasts, tears streaming like waterfalls. To the one beside him, Otman, who watched with a longing expression, he handed a separate fish.
"May our lives flow like a river. Please, eat, Otman."
"Like a river to the sea, may our meeting's end lead to the same place. Ohhh, truly, the flow has guided you here! Thank you! Truly, thank you!"
As Professor recited the water mages' greeting while floating a small water orb above his palm, Otman's wary expression melted away in an instant.
Gobbling it down greedily yet skillfully with his bare hands—unlike his disciples—Professor could piece together what had happened.
"The Church... suspects the Lead Flow School over that day's events?"
Otman shook his head gravely at Professor's question.
"It's not suspicion—it's certainty. Shortly after that red mutant wrecked the tower and fled, the Radiant Church's holy knights stormed in."
"You stayed in the tower?"
"Ah, that flooding was for ordinary folk. We're water mages, aren't we? Even with mana sealed and bodies bound, our enlightenment doesn't vanish. The mutants headed outside, so staying put in the familiar tower seemed safer. We even guided the water around us and used the pressure to snap our bonds."
Huh. Makes a guy who'd strutted around calling himself a mage for knowing a single first-circle spell feel ashamed. That was a lifetime water mage's true skill. Next to the anti-magic crystal, unable to use a speck of mana, amid that torrent—and they sat there calmly unscathed.
From what he gathered, the holy knights dragged them here and grilled them: [Why were you so calm at the site of a mutant attack?] [Why didn't humanity's enemies kill you and just flee?] Unable to answer, they'd been detained ever since.
"We're innocent! Those monsters smashed the tower—how could we side with them? I saw you through the window, walking in with the priest of your own accord! What did the Church tell you? See? Please, save us! I don't care about an old fart like me, but these promising young ones need to live! Heretics? Absurd!"
Like last time, and now again. This grandpa always prioritized his disciples first.
- Take a Look: Professor hate levels off the charts.
- Jokasss: professor, have you no conscience?
- Take a Look: Who dumped this saintly old man—who just teaches his disciples magic and sips water with raw fish, content as can be—and his pupils into this hellhole?
- Highway Nacho Man: Satan and crew, standing ovation! Hell awaits the day professor dies! Post-death transfer season, we'll welcome you with the best terms—
'Hmm... saying I feel nothing would be a lie.'
Honestly, he hadn't expected this for these mages. The tower was trashed, sure, but nobles and mages? They shouldn't be starving anywhere. Yet branded heretics and snatched by the Church. Obvious: scouting talent for a suicide squad, and boom—mages knee-deep in a heretic incident? Perfect excuse to kidnap them.
Professor eyed the mages—six fish gone already, now looking revived. Five including Otman. There'd been over fifteen captured back then. Why only these? No way... because of me?
"This... all the Lead Flow School mages? I thought there were more. Did the Church... k-kill...!"
As Professor trailed off in horror, Otman grimaced.
"Thankfully, not what you're thinking. The rest were taken by their families. These left here are all commoner mages."
"Not all. Otman sent for family aid too, but he chose to stay."
"Hey now, kid. No need to say that. It's obvious. How could I sleep easy at home leaving you lot in this suspicious place?"
"M-Mage!"
"Master! I'll serve you like a father forever!!"
*Hug!*
Now revived, the mages embraced and wept. No need to probe further. Combat prowess later.
Next: Notum, who'd been beaming at him warmly.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: This one's the real deal.
- Speed Wagon: Ask for details on her. Hero unit with no info. Failed recruit popped, but event-forced ally means she's important.
- Jokasss: Makes you realize how Thousand Stream Emperor no-lifed World 3. All these key hero units—no info whatsoever. Explains why World 4's stuck for years.
- Take a Look: Armored troll! Armored troll! Armored troll! Armored troll!
- Highway Nacho Man: Hero unit armored troll? At least 4-star.
Yeah, he was curious too. After all, he'd ditched her in the forest for "independence" or whatever. Why was she Church-captured? No clue.
Leaving the mages murmuring eternal... lifelong... father... by mana vows, Professor approached Notum. She patted the seat beside her with thick hands. Still overflowing with goodwill.
He sat, and she patted his head.
"Little big human. Grown well. Now little medium human? ...Hm. No. Still smaller than Notum. Still little big human. But changed much. Independence, very hard. Little big human hurt much. Pain?"
"Uh... yeah..."
*Pat pat.*
"Good job. Grew well."
*Sniff!*
Suddenly misty-eyed watching Notum inspect his scars with constant warmth. Unconditional care in GG's brutal world from a comrade. This girl had a knack for tugging heartstrings.
Professor wordlessly punched Notum's knee like she had. Yeah, she'd make a great friend.
Wiping his nose, buoyed by reunion joy, he asked,
"You've changed a lot too. How'd you leave the forest and end up here? What's with the armor?"
Notum's serene face darkened.
"Notum no want."
Figured. The building looked cramped for a 3-meter-plus troll. Cramped for him; prison for her. No one chooses a place like that.
"Notum just want promised hundred words."
*Twitch!*
He flinched involuntarily.
'...Right, I owed her too! Hundred words! Said I'd bring them next day and bailed!'
Chat room remembered too—threads popping up.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Karma from that side too?
- Deer Drug Please: Y'know, start of game was harvest season, so it's fall now. Chain from first meeting loops back. Magic of autumn or whatever?
- Take a Look: Professor, pony up hundred horses or face the wrath of the fearsome armored troll!
Already calculating horse costs as "horse" left her mouth. Debt payoff leftovers...
*Ding!*
[Funds: 367,210 sil]
...? Wrong?
*Ding!*
[Funds: 367,210 sil]
Huh? What?! 360k sil? Memory: earned 1.8 mil, paid 1.1 mil debt. Why only 360k left?!
Hadn't checked status since. No spending, no need. But no big outflows? Last withdrawal was debt transfer via exchange...
'Ah! Transfer! Exchange!'
- professor: Guys!! Anyone know current game->exchange conversion fee?
- Jokasss: Over 30% recently. Dome dumped big cash, heard they're 24/7 underdome bot farms for sil. Fees ballooned.
'Damn! That's it!'
Fee used to be 10%ish years back. Gedroits built it to counter macro farms—inflation-proof by scaling fees on exchange inflows. Post-apocalypse, massive sil shuffling jacked fees. Outbound to exchange fees; inbound from exchange free. Cuts exchange sil use. High production? Poof via fees.
Point: corporate greed hit vague Professor hard.
'Cheapest old/sick horse 25k sil. How, how...!'
*Fidget fidget.*
Panicking, Notum calmly patted his head again.
"Okay, little big human. Notum learned much living with humans. World has unavoidable things."
*Sniff!*
Notum, you...!
"Little big human no wrong. 'Bad guys' problem."
"Bad guys?"
"Yes. Bad guys. Notum wait, but little big human no come. Go stone nest for words myself, meet bad guys little big human spoke of. Stealing horses bad guys."
*Huff!*
Notum snorted, face fierce at the memory.
"Uh... r-really?"
Floating on感动 waves, Professor dredged up their first meeting.
'Weird. I told her that story, but it was made up? How'd she meet them? Actual horse thieves by absurd coincidence?'
Nah. Let's trace: parted with Notum, entered Turan, slept one night Silver Roar mercs, next day noon conscripted to battlefield—
*Smack!*
'Holy shit, eureka!'
"Mutants! You met mutants!"
"Mutants? Hm. Iron humans made that cry before dying. Mutants. Mutants."
Notum waited a day as promised. Sun rose, no horses—she headed to Turan for them herself. En route, ran into a few mutants marching on Turan!
'Edeorna aside, mostly grade-8 mutants! Uncontrolled, charging ahead—few straggling into forest paths? No biggie! Notum ambushed by strays from main force!'
Professor slapped his knee. Wild. Notum's forest sat right on the Turan path. Stayed? Main mutant wave would've squashed her. But horses lured her out—saved her life.
- Jokasss: Breaking news~ Add one hero unit event~
- Take a Look: Professor pulls chunky unknowns hourly. Thick ones too.
- Mukaba: Conditions not hard? Don't kill Notum, poke to lure from forest somehow.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Plenty dragged Notum out before.
- Mukaba: Same as guy who severed tendons, sold to circus vs. teary 'live well~' farewell Professor?
- Speed Wagon: Shut up. Notum still talking.
"So, what happened?!"
Notum scratched her head, recalling slowly.
"Four-leg weak but many. Notum wise. Dire wolves dangerous in pack. Run smart. Also Notum hungry, no strength."
She smacked her lips mid-sentence. Room full of bread, no meat visible. Trolls omnivores, but meat over bread, sure.
"Then running... met humans fighting bad guys."
Mages in corner, even bald priest and beastkin perked ears. No TV, no net—stories only entertainment.
Talking troll leaving forest to live with humans? Earworm for sure.
***