Coincidences Sometimes Happen (4)
The Wiki guide said it could be cleared without actually killing the Guardian.
I frowned at the walkthrough in the Wiki. Our friendly Guardian here didn’t even seem to care that I was standing right in front of him, reading a strategy guide.
He doesn’t exactly look like he plans to let me through.
He hadn’t even answered the question I’d asked at the start. I doubted he’d let me in just because I said I was only going to the castle entrance and back.
“……”
So what was I supposed to do to avoid killing him outright?
Should I just ignore him and sprint past?
No. The bridge was way too narrow.
If I could somehow get him while he was in his defensive stance, maybe it would work, but the moment I tried to slip by him, there was a good chance he’d react.
Could be worth keeping as a last resort, I guess…
Or maybe there was another entrance somewhere else?
That actually seemed pretty likely.
The very fact that the castle was linked by this high bridge might itself be a fake-out.
Compared to trying to run past that bastard, looking for another route felt a lot more plausible.
Is that all there is?
I was still frowning at that thought when—
Thud… thud…!
I turned at the faint sound in my ear and looked to the side.
“……”
A cliff.
A drop of dozens of meters.
And the hulking Guardian standing on a narrow one-man bridge.
Drop him…?
If I could just knock him off, then defensive stance or not, it wouldn’t matter. Even if he managed to defend against the impact, I could just slip past while he was busy with that.
But how?
I spent a moment wondering how I could push him off this stone bridge, and then it hit me.
“St… stone… m-mana stone…!”
The magic I’d assumed would obviously never work.
I could use that to destroy the bridge.
Water magic, lightning magic—none of it would mean anything to that armor.
I hadn’t even considered magic before because swinging a steel sword directly was stronger than low- and mid-tier spells anyway.
But if I wasn’t targeting the Guardian himself?
If I showed him magic, he’d probably snort and try to shrug it all off.
He’d likely go straight into defense and start stacking buffs.
If I rushed him directly and collapsed the ground beneath him, he’d go down with it, but what if I attacked from a distance?
If the whole bridge collapsed, that would be game over…
Honestly, that seemed more likely than simply trying to squeeze past the Guardian or find some hidden side path.
If there really was a hidden route, then even if the bridge came down, I could still clear it.
Clack.
“……Hey.”
I stepped forward and called out to the Guardian.
“I’m about to show you my finishing move. If you can stop it, then go ahead and try.”
“……”
Putting on a smug voice, I glared at him and spoke. Without any reaction, he merely crouched down and gripped his shield as if to say, Go on, then. Try it.
Attack stance when I don’t charge in first.
And when I do move first, that ironclad defensive stance.
Watching him, I carefully slipped a hand into my pocket.
Water magic or lightning magic probably wouldn’t bring this bridge down very easily, but…
I didn’t learn that 10,000 TP fire spell for decoration.
If I concentrated the magic on one point, it should work.
This wasn’t a concrete bridge. It wasn’t even a cement bridge.
It was just a stone bridge, the kind you’d expect to see in the old Middle Ages.
If the shock concentrated beneath his feet, he’d absolutely fall.
“I’m counting on you, Wiki…”
Considering everything she’d done for me so far, this had to work.
I trust Wiki. If it failed, I’d have to scold her later.
Whoosh!
First, let’s test it.
I pulled out two low-grade mana stones and flung them straight at the Guardian.
Water Ball and Lightning Bolt.
A sphere of blue lightning shot over the water that had soaked the armor, but the Guardian didn’t even flinch.
Still crouched, he blocked it with his shield and stared at me without so much as a groan.
Yeah, keep looking like that.
Clench.
Three mid-grade mana stones.
It was a fortune—3,000 TP—but this was do-or-die.
If I blew the attempt and he figured out what I was trying to do, then I’d really be out of options.
“……”
Please work.
Just collapse neatly, right under the Guardian’s feet—nothing more, nothing less.
Whoosh!
Fire Burst…!
The three mid-grade mana stones flew through the air.
The Guardian must have thought it was the same attack as before, because he still didn’t budge.
Three… two…
I counted down in my head as the stones disappeared from sight.
“One…!”
BOOOOOOM—!!!
At exactly the expected moment, a deafening explosion rang out and black smoke began to rise.
Please, please, please…!
Please let this be a cheap, shameless win.
Please let this be the correct way to do it.
I stared at the Guardian hidden behind the smoke, waiting.
Then—
KUUUUUUNG──!!
“……!”
Before the smoke even began to clear, I heard the sound of something massive slamming and bursting apart.
The kind of sound you’d hear if a heavy stone had been hurled off a high cliff.
I swallowed hard.
The cool night wind started to disperse the blast little by little.
And then, a moment later—
“Oh, shit…”
I let out a dry laugh at the sight of the high bridge stretching out before me.
It worked.
Clack.
I walked slowly toward the broken end of the bridge.
When I reached it, I looked down over the cliff where the Guardian had fallen.
“……Wow.”
“You shall not pass—!!!”
With his armor completely shattered and his body wedged in the rocks below, the Guardian was screaming bloody murder.
……That’s a human, right?
He looked positively monstrous.
Like a demon, a ghoul, a zombie—some hideous thing like that.
Was he never human to begin with?
I had no idea why he looked like that.
Maybe he wasn’t guarding the castle at all, but assaulting it, and this whole thing wasn’t about stopping me in the first place.
……Am I being too optimistic?
He might simply be a monster the Tower created.
Honestly, I didn’t care what he was, but his face was damn unsettling.
BOOM—!!
“Holy shit.”
The Guardian below, now meeting my eyes, began smashing wildly at the rock around him with one arm.
As if he meant to break out by force, I quickly turned my gaze to the far side of the collapsed bridge.
“Haa…”
Far.
No, seriously, it was absurdly far.
This looked like a world-record long jump attempt.
Should’ve only used two mana stones. I didn’t know it’d hit this hard.
“I will never…!! Let you through—!!”
“Shit, something will work out.”
If I didn’t jump, I’d die anyway.
That bastard looked like he’d climb back up in no time.
“Huu…”
After backing up quite a ways, I took a deep breath.
If I made this jump, I could meet the Jutak.
Honestly, it wasn’t like I was planning to do anything earth-shattering once I met her…
“If I can’t make it across, then dying’s good enough for me—!”
Yelling like some clown with his face painted on, I sprinted at full speed toward the collapsed bridge.
＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊
“……”
Swallow.
“……”
Thump, thump—!
“W-what do I do… what do I do…?”
I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
I had no idea what I should do.
My heart was hammering so hard it felt like it might burst. My head was so full of thoughts that maybe I was dreaming this whole thing.
That was the message I’d received from Wiki yesterday.
It came out of nowhere. Totally out of the blue.
Actually, I thought it would be later, because she’d said something like next week was more likely.
“Uuugh…!!”
She did that for me.
She worked hard just so she could meet me again.
I hammered the blanket that had been changed to a fresh one while I was asleep.
I wondered if Wiki was looking forward to this as much as I was.
I still didn’t know exactly how she made her money, but hearing that she’d worked hard for me made my heart pound like crazy.
She’s just excited to meet a person, that’s all…!!
Even when I kept repeating that to myself in an effort to calm down, my head kept filling with completely pointless flower fields.
“Ahh…”
I remembered the Wiki I’d seen a few weeks ago.
That smile she’d given me, the gentle voice that had told me she’d listen to anything.
Burning hot.
“……!”
That day, our hands had been layered together—no, not literally layered, but anyway, my hand felt hot.
Maybe today I’d really end up, s-s-holding her hand.
If she smiled at me like she had before, and spoke kindly to me again… then…
“Calm down, calm down…”
I kept opening and closing my hands, breathing deeply over and over.
When exactly was she planning to come? When was she planning to go back?
So much time had already passed, but there was still no reply.
What am I supposed to do when she gets here? I’m not exactly good at interesting conversation or anything…
I definitely didn’t want to drag things into the gloomy territory of old stories like last time and ruin the mood again.
I wanted us to talk happily, and for her to go back feeling lighthearted.
Because then… then she’d come to see me again later.
“Ah… first I need to clean up the hideout…!”
It wasn’t that dirty.
There was barely anything in it to begin with.
There were a few things that had accumulated over the course of my regressions, but they were nothing with any real meaning.
Still, I wanted it to look as neat as possible.
All I had to offer was lukewarm water and hard bread, after all.
Let’s at least fold the blanket neatly…!
I felt like I had to do something, anything, or my heart would never calm down.
Ping-!
“Wiki님?!”
At the sound, I checked the device at once.
It was Wiki. It had to be Wiki. I wanted it to be Wiki.
Just as I’d hoped, a message had arrived from Wiki.
I didn’t even think about lowering the corners of my mouth, which had been lifting on their own, and I read the message as if enchanted by it.
KingGodWiki
“I, right now…?”
She was asking whether it was okay to come right now.
Right now… yes, she could come right now.
The hideout wasn’t even that dirty to begin with.
-Fine
So I was just about to send back a message saying it was fine when—
I, I just woke up…!
The fact that I probably didn’t look my best flashed through my mind.
I needed to wash up. I didn’t exactly have much to dress up with, but I at least needed to look clean.
I wanted to meet her as quickly as possible, but not like this.
Could you wait just 30 minutes...?
No, wait 15 minutes...! Fifteen minutes is enough!!
Right after I sent the message to Wiki, I bolted straight into the bathroom.
Wash up fast, get ready fast.
I had to greet the Wiki I’d been waiting for all this time.
Please wait just a little longer, Wiki...!
＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊
“……It’s been 15 minutes.”
No reply had come back from Jutak.
I wondered if something had happened, but nothing ever really happened in the Tower in the first place.
It wasn’t like there’d been some kind of accident in the Tower.
“Hmm…”
My TP was cutting it close.
If I sent another message and got a reply storm that dropped me below 50,000, that would be a real disaster.
Waiting for Jutak to answer wasn’t a bad idea, but… maybe she was simply waiting there quietly.
I hadn’t sent a reply on my side, either.
Either way, don’t I need their permission to go over there?
Star Voice and Star Lounge both required the other person’s consent.
In that case, maybe it would be fine to just use the Star Gate function right away.
If Jutak was ready, the gate would open. If not, I’d get a notification saying I’d been denied.
I pressed the O button without really thinking.
50,000 TP. A function worth five million won.
I had a lot of things I wanted to test, and a lot of things I wanted to talk about, but mostly I was looking forward to meeting Jutak.
Just talking over Starlink was enough to make me smile—so how much more fun would it be to talk in person, seeing each other face to face?
Whoooosh…!!
The moment I pressed the Star Gate function, space in front of me began to warp.
A black hole had suddenly appeared in the air, and it was growing larger by the second.
A gate… or maybe it was more like a portal than a gate.
...Was she waiting for me?
Jutak knew that messages cost money.
At this speed of acceptance, maybe she’d just been waiting quietly because she knew I was coming.
The 15 minutes I’d originally mentioned had already passed. It’d be fine to just go on through.
Swallow.
“……I’m pretty damn nervous.”
[Quest Title]
☐ [Objective 1] — [0/x]
☐ [Objective 2] — [0/x]
🎁 Reward: [Reward]
[Remaining TP: 205]
I’d already spent all my TP.
There was no turning back now. I’d gone this far, so I had to cross over. If I died, well, I’d just resurrect here again.
“Huu.”
Watching the Star Gate spinning in the air, I took a deep breath.
Let’s go and make history.
I had to do what had never once happened in this Tower before—for everyone’s sake, for everyone I had to save.
I had to do what only I could do.
Clack.
“Let’s go—aaagh?!”
The moment I reached out toward the portal, my body began getting sucked in.
Like being pulled into a vacuum cleaner, some enormous force dragged my body in by brute force.
The world in front of me went pitch black.
Up and down vanished, and it felt as if my senses were being twisted inside out.
It was a sensation completely different from what I’d felt in Star Lounge.
It felt like I was floating in space.
In the darkness, a single line of light appeared.
The source of that light, growing larger and larger, looked like a white hole in reverse of the black hole that had served as the entrance.
The exit…?
My body naturally drifted toward the black hole… no, the white hole.
Then, the instant I touched the gate, my body was sucked into the opposite side again—and—
Thump.
“Tch…”
I was bounced right back out of the gate and landed hard on my ass.
Groaning at the sudden pain, I slowly looked around.
It was similar to the place I’d been in before, but different. It was clearly a hideout, but it wasn’t the same hideout I lived in.
There were unfamiliar things scattered everywhere, but there was no sign of my precious bed or pillow.
Which meant, in other words, this place was—
“……Huh?”
“……Jutak.”
I whipped my head around at the voice.
And then… at the sight of Jutak, I blinked blankly.
“Uwaaa…”
“……”
Jutak was wrapped in a towel.
Water droplets clung all over her body, like someone who had just stepped out of a bath.
Following the streams of water dripping from her wet hair, I stared up and down like I’d been spellbound.
“W-w-what, whaaaat…?!”
“Um… hi…?”
Jutak, flustered, flushed bright red as if she might burst at any second.
“Ah, um… Wi, Wiki-nim…!!!”
“……”
With an expression that looked complicated in every possible way, she started flailing her arms around.
She stumbled backward, shook her head wildly, and, looking ready to cry, shouted something like I shouldn’t be looking—
Then, slowly—
“……Wow.”
“Ah……”
—My God.
Was this also the coincidence you laid down for me?
She’s fucking huge.
The tiny giantess—no, the tiny giant—was probably the phrase the first person to see Jutak ever left behind in this world.
That 50,000 TP was already worth it.
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