Cat's Bargain
The calculation was definite. The calculation was definite. Just as I was about to press the [Battle Start] button, a familiar sound echoed from somewhere. The habitual cat-like noise, as if air had been let out of something.
[Nya-ha.]
‘Cat…?’
I couldn’t tell if she had come to watch or had been there all along, but I had something to demand of her. I immediately shouted into the empty air.
“Death’s Cat, explain yourself!”
[Hic…! How did you know I was here? And explain what? I-I didn’t do anything.]
“Don’t play dumb! You raised the difficulty to the maximum without even consulting me, didn’t you?!”
[Hah, busted!]
‘She’s actually saying “busted.”’
“What are you going to do about this? Explain yourself, Cat!”
Another silence followed. But I had figured her out by now. This creature was the type to flee the moment things turned against her. The way to handle them was simple. Leave just a small opening, and she would happily leap right through it.
“You owe me a huge debt, Cat. So do me one favor. If you do, I’ll cleanly forget about your crime!”
[Umm… What’s the favor?]
She took the bait immediately, just as expected. I pointed at Baengnae.
“Give me something like the regeneration cells Baengnae has.”
[You mean Soul Engraving… That’s far too expensive to give away for free. It’s hard to smuggle out, too.]
‘So it really was valuable?’
It certainly looked impressive. But since I had already obtained one at a lower stage, I hadn’t thought it was worth that much trouble.
“Honestly, I find that hard to believe. If it’s that valuable, why was it given as a basic reward?”
[Soul Engraving is like a bib for beginner summoners. You need an enormous number of tokens to sponsor one…]
“How many?”
[At Stage 5 difficulty, three?]
“What about Stage 3?”
[Impossible. Even if you cleared twelve, you’d only have thirty-six tokens. The cheapest engraving requires at least fifty.]
I looked down at Baengnae. This one had apparently eaten something far more expensive than I thought.
‘If it’s that good, I want it even more…’
“How about this. If you give me one Soul Engraving, I’ll accept your sponsorship even in Stage 4!”
[Nya-ha… That’s a strange thing to say… I’m the one who gives sponsorship, so why should I have to give you anything else… And there’s also the chance you’ll die in Stage 3!]
“Oh come on! That’s exactly why you should give me the engraving—so I don’t die in Stage 3! Are you an idiot?!”
[Nya…]
It was always best to be aggressive with salespeople. After all, if Cat didn’t make a contract with me, her snacks would be in danger. A long silence passed while she thought—or perhaps fled. Finally, her answer came.
[A guest just arrived… If you really want the Soul Engraving, I’ll tweak the probability a little when I give you sponsorship. This is the best I can do…]
‘Tweak the probability? That works.’
One guaranteed good reward was far better than a pile of junk. I answered generously.
“If I keep receiving engravings, I might get caught, so I’ll only take the single best one within the limit!”
[Nya… Fine, let’s do that. And this is a small gift as an apology. Make sure to accept my offer in Stage 4 too! I have to go greet the guest now.]
With those words, a small medicine pouch dropped from the air. Inside were two pills.
‘What is this?’
◈ Effect: Induces temporary death for 30 minutes
◈ Usage: Halts status effects such as melting
‘…?’
Even if I wanted to ask more, Cat had already gone to greet her so-called guest. Whatever the case, getting more items was always a good thing.
“Time to work.”
I turned the screen back on and pressed [Battle Start].
Death’s Cat sipped her tea.
“Nya-ha. Delicious.”
Heaven’s Rabbit, sitting across from her, munched on a snack.
“Cat. You found yourself quite the strange one.”
“Nya-ha-ha. Lucky, I guess. By the way, what brings you to Stage 3? Weren’t you in charge of Stage 5?”
“Hm? Didn’t you get the notice? The higher-ups are in an uproar looking for the summoner who took down the Vampire Giant in Stage 2. Quite a few of us, including me, were dispatched.”
“Ah, right, I saw that. But someone like that should’ve already cleared Stage 3, no?”
“You really don’t read the official notices, do you? The analysis says that anyone capable of defeating the Vampire Giant would have lost most of their forces. That’s why every summoner who settled down in Stage 3 is under investigation. We’re swamped.”
“Nya-ha-ha. How interesting. Crunch! Delicious! But why go through all that trouble when you could just check the records?”
The rabbit finally pressed a hand to her forehead. She had come for work, but dealing with the cat always left her feeling exasperated.
“Ugh… How did a Vampire Giant even appear in Stage 2 in the first place? It was a bug. That’s why the system management department deleted all related records.”
The rabbit stood up with a faint smile.
“Anyway, I should get going. I have work to do.”
“Leaving already? Well, take care!”
There had been no lie in the rabbit’s words. The megacorporation ‘Heaven’ had dispatched employees to find the summoner who defeated the Vampire Giant. Among them were operatives like the rabbit, tasked with extracting information from other corporations.
Heaven’s Rabbit pulled out her list of sponsored summoners and drew a red line over the cat’s name. It meant neither she nor her summoner were the target.
The Death’s Cat she had found after so long was the same fool she remembered. A patron being led around by their summoner. And she had casually admitted to manipulating probabilities right in front of her.
The summoner was no different. A Stage 3 summoner with abilities related to the dead, yet he only had six summons.
If even a little of ‘Death’s’ resources went to such an idiotic duo, it would only benefit ‘Heaven’.
The rabbit sneered and left the cat’s box.
Thus, ‘Heaven’s’ investigative net passed right over the Zombie Summoner.
Rumble—
I stared blankly at the rising buildings, feeling the familiar vibration. The number was clearly different from before the difficulty increase. It felt as if the entire alley was being remodeled.
‘No way, how many are they building?’
According to the community, there had only been two dwarf shops in 3-2. A 240% increase meant, even rounding up, seven. If special shops were added separately, eight would have been correct.
But the buildings rising before my eyes had already surpassed ten. Even assuming twenty dwarves per shop, that was already over two hundred of them forming a massive army.
‘Cat… Did you trick me again?’
I had no time to resent her. No matter how weak dwarves were, being surrounded by two hundred enhanced ones would be disastrous. I quickly reorganized my strategy in my head and shouted.
“For now, run west!”
We sprinted toward the Stubborn Man’s House. The city was still unfamiliar. At least the terrain I had passed through once would make escaping a little easier.
The sound of buildings being constructed behind us finally stopped. The total number of shops was eleven. Among them, three were special shops.
‘Huh? The 240% applies to special shops too?’
Even then, it should have been ten. Of course, rounding was just my wishful thinking—some calculation method disadvantageous to me had clearly been applied.
‘Whatever, ten or eleven, it’s equally troublesome!’
With so many shops appearing, the street had turned into a food alley. Makgeolli, whiskey, dumplings, pizza. Without any set concept, chefs kept crawling out in droves. And at that moment, Baengnae shouted brightly.
“This! This!”
Following her finger, I saw dwarves carrying boiling oil pots on their backs, holding hoses. They attacked by spraying it.
“Yeah… Our Baengnae’s got it good.”
‘Must be nice having no worries.’
Running away was the rational choice in many ways. Since the chefs’ weapons were all different, those carrying heavy equipment had fallen behind. They showed no signs of cooperating with each other.
‘Good. So you’re in competition with each other too?’
The oil dwarves were the first to tire out and drop back, and even after that, the middle and front groups split apart. The front group’s weapons were wine bottles, paring knives, and butcher knives—light armaments that could be held in one hand.
‘This isn’t bad.’
“Dogs take the paring knives, Baengnae takes the butcher knives, and I’ll handle the wine.”
Paring knives inflicted worsening wounds, butcher knives gave speed buffs. Both were low-grade buffs, nothing worth worrying about.
After a short wait, the dwarves reached our position. I immediately charged at the ones holding wine bottles. These were from special shops. They received random buffs every time they drank.
I kicked the lead one and snatched the wine from another with my hand. Then I immediately smashed it on the ground.
Crash—
They stacked buffs by drinking? Then I just had to stop them from drinking. I focused more on smashing bottles than killing the dwarves one by one. Getting hit by a bottle only stung anyway.
Thud— Crash!
“Hey now. Planning to drink on the job?”
“Kiee!”
“Huh? Muscle loss?”
Crash— Crash—
After getting thoroughly beaten while focusing only on the bottles, I succeeded in smashing them all. Now I could finally catch my breath. These guys might look weak at first glance, but that was only because they hadn’t experienced higher-tier buffs yet. The dwarves who had been happily pounding on me, thinking they were winning, flinched as they realized the bottles were gone.
But it was too late. The only variable in the front group had been eliminated.
With some breathing room, I looked around. The dogs were struggling more than expected. They had taken down ten, but considering there were five of them, their pace was slow.
‘Stage 3-1 really is different.’
Meanwhile, Baengnae was dominating. She toyed with the dwarves, threatening them playfully before stabbing them one by one. In speed, strength, and technique, she displayed an overwhelming advantage that made it hard to believe she was fighting multiple opponents alone.
“Nandwei. Mongnda! Boguh. Shilta!”
Her battle cry was a little off, but Baengnae clearly didn’t need help. I decided to support the dogs instead.
“Dogs! Switch with me. Baengnae, stop playing around too!”
“Alada.”
I swapped positions with the dogs. The dwarves were so cowered that they didn’t react much even when we changed places. They simply looked dissatisfied. From their perspective, the dogs were monsters who had killed half their comrades without losing a single one themselves.
Whatever the reason, giving them some breathing room was fine by me. I watched them while slowly moving toward a nearby outdoor café. There was no longer any reason for me to fight barehanded.
Whoosh— Whoosh—
“Hmm, nice. The cool breeze feels good.”
The wooden chairs in the café. These would be my precious partners for this battle. And one of those partners flew straight into a dwarf’s face.
Crack—
“Ehei… Not very durable.”
I clicked my tongue at the shattered partner. But it didn’t matter. There were plenty of new partners nearby.
“What are you doing? Come on in.”