The Sponsors' Gathering
[Success Myth] had finally identified the summoner who opened the first door. The target was the summoner sponsored by Death's Cat. In response, Heaven's Rabbit urgently requested an executive meeting. Though [Success Myth] had moved quickly, Heaven would soon pinpoint the summoner as well. Once that happened, it was only a matter of time before they discovered that Rabbit had removed the summoner from the list. She needed to demonstrate that she had taken action before that revelation came to light.
At her flustered state, Terror's Platypus clicked its tongue and chuckled. "It's been quite some time since I've seen Rabbit-san this rattled. Then again, a blunder of that scale could easily result in a transfer. Heh heh."
"Hah. Don't say that with such a delighted expression. It makes me want to kill you."
"Heh heh. Calm yourself. This time, I intend to assist you. Do you know? That beast recently invaded our company and hospitalized eight employees. Truly... truly outrageous. The tyranny of a conglomerate."
Rabbit clenched her trembling fists. The platypus was lumping the entire conglomerate together in its complaints, fueled by its usual dissatisfaction with Death's Cat's actions. But she had to endure it. The only way she could resolve the situation now was with [Success Myth]'s help. Causing friction with an executive who had outwardly offered support would only complicate the tasks ahead.
Soon, the final executive arrived. Rabbit, who had convened the meeting, presented the agenda. "I propose, using executive authority... a joint investment solicitation."
The room stirred at her words. Voices of disbelief echoed from all sides. Joint investment in an individual summoner was an exceedingly rare occurrence. No matter how exceptional a summoner might be, they were infinitely inferior compared to their sponsors. Even if that summoner were destined to one day surpass their sponsors, they could never receive [Success Myth]'s joint investment.
Objections poured in from many members. "Heaven's Rabbit... are you serious?" "You've lost your mind. I'm out." "Even if they opened the first door, aren't we still at Stage 4? Why invest in someone I can't even claim?" "Rabbit's desperate."
Rabbit acknowledged that their reactions were entirely normal. To sponsors, summoners were little more than entertainment. As such, summoners were typically treated as pawns at best, or pets at worst. Of course, some formed deep bonds, but those emotions resembled attachment to a game character. That made sharing them all the more difficult. Above all, [Success Myth] making a joint investment implied viewing the target not as a source of amusement, but as an investment. Treating a mere summoner as a group-level profit opportunity was an affront to their pride.
Rabbit chose her words with utmost care. Mishandling their sensibilities here would only escalate the problem. What needed emphasis was not the summoner, but the sponsors' own greatness. "Everyone, please calm down. As you all said, to us, he is nothing more than a single summoner. But the conglomerates Heaven and Death are targeting him. That is why I make this proposal. It is not an investment in him. It is about securing a card to play against Heaven and Death in the future. I hope there are no misunderstandings."
At Rabbit's speech, [Success Myth] fell into contemplation. Of course, none of the sponsors were unaware that she was deliberately engineering this situation due to her own crisis. But who was she? A woman who had seized the finance department of Heaven without a single failure in the cutthroat job market, fiercer than any battlefield. At the very least, there would be no lies in her words.
"So that's how it was..." I sighed as I walked along the wall with Baengnae. I had realized it. Why I had obtained three [Grasping Pincers] as rewards from the artifacts. The nature of 'belief' manifested in various ways. And its direction was not always positive. Without realizing it, I had been thinking that [Grasping Pincers] was a bad thing. No, I had outright considered it trash. I had told myself it wasn't that bad when giving it to Boots, but deep down, I had believed I obtained a useless Soul Engraving. And the world had responded to that unease.
Generally, the human brain reacted more strongly to negativity than positivity. With the negative proposition of [Grasping Pincers] filling my mind, when the moment to obtain a Soul Engraving arrived, that belief had manifested into reality. "No way, I can't even control my own thoughts?!"
Many things made sense under this structure. For instance, those who rapidly reached Stage 7. They either possessed selfish, vicious greed or were purely altruistic saints. In both cases, their desires were so clear and pure that the world had opened paths for them. 'It's obsession. Pure obsession.' The more I repeated it, the more obsessed I felt. This wasn't something to laugh off as a joke. It was serious. By nature, I always moved while considering the worst-case scenario. And if even those negative assumptions became 'belief,' then every worst case I imagined would become reality before me. Yes, just like now. 'No, seriously?'
Baengnae and I were using the right-hand rule to walk along the wall through the maze. But did you know? The right-hand rule, also known as the wall-following method, had a flaw. No matter how complex the maze, one could draw a line along the outermost wall. Let's call every wall connected to that outer wall a single 'wall mass.' If the entrance and exit of the maze did not both exist on the same 'wall mass,' the right-hand rule would not hold. Even so, I believed the right-hand rule was a guaranteed way to find the exit. Even if the first attempt returned me to the starting point without reaching the exit, I could simply grab a new, untouched 'wall mass' and try again. After all, the right-hand rule was a theory that didn't account for time. If infinite time was assumed, the right-hand rule would inevitably lead to the exit. Therefore, an [Exit] would surely appear before me, who was using a method that guaranteed reaching the exit. And appear it did. As many as the number of all 'wall masses' existing on this map. 'There are... 27 exits?'
And from each of those exits, something emerged. Twenty-seven bull-headed figures, three meters tall with thick muscles covering their entire bodies, began charging toward me while swinging massive axes. Bwooo— Bwooo— Bwooo— 'No, you said exit! Was it an exit from this life?!' I made a quick judgment. "Let's run!"
Combat was out of the question. There was no way to win in sight. Even if victory were possible, fighting in this unprepared state was unwise. "No, is this for real?!" Fortunately, once we put a certain distance between us, the bulls returned to their respective 'exits.' They seemed to be territorial monsters. For now, I sat on a nearby rock and caught my breath. 'That scared me...' Of course, I had seen far worse monsters, but the reason I was so startled was the lack of information. Those things weren't in the community. I was flustered by the sudden twist of the [Event] producing creatures with no information available. 'Is there no way to lure just one?'
Each one looked powerful, but every entity had some kind of weakness. If I could somehow isolate one and learn its information, the answer would likely become clear. But the lure strategy I was considering was soon discarded. Wasn't the very reason I could escape now because they were territorial? If escape was easy, luring was impossible. 'This is troublesome.' If these were creatures observed somewhere before, I could go there and test them. But even that was impossible. As I pondered, one place came to mind where I could obtain information about them. 'Ah, that existed!' I unfolded the map. Then I searched the area around the monkey habitat for where a black cave might be. That place would become the key to conquering the [Exit].
Black caves were fundamentally safe. Yet they were also peculiar zones that could pose any level of danger. Because throwing gold into them would produce native creatures matching the amount deposited. At first glance, it sounded incredibly useful. But after numerous users in the community verified it, the conclusion was 'don't do it.' The price was unreasonably expensive. For example, summoning one monkey from a black cave required 2 gold. There was no reason to pay money to summon creatures you could encounter in groups of fifty just by walking through the monkey habitat. Of course, other attempts had been made. Users like me, for whom creature corpses became resources, had aimed to summon powerful single entities. They gathered large amounts of gold and summoned increasingly stronger creatures. And what they discovered was that depositing 1,000 gold or more would definitely produce a giant snake. The user who summoned it uploaded their final sighting of the snake before going silent. Since they had handled 900-gold creatures without issue, they left behind the lesson never to attempt 1,000 gold before disappearing. 'For bull-heads... roughly 600 gold?' That was the amount I judged based on the momentary pressure I felt and the combat prowess visible from their appearance. But even if it cost more, it wouldn't matter much. After all, gold just kept piling up with nowhere special to spend it. If I could resolve the [Event] and obtain twenty-seven bulls by using something that was useless anyway, it was the right choice to make the trade. 'The 1,000-gold giant snake... I'll pass for now.' Of course, I was curious. But curiosity was something to indulge when you had the luxury. Doing it now was just recklessness. Didn't I still have the [Event] left besides the [Exit]? It was right to handle them one by one, carefully. For now, the priority was confirming the bulls' strength and weaknesses. Equipping forces accordingly. And devising a suitable strategy to fight all twenty-seven bull-headed beings simultaneously. "Alright, strategy complete. Let's go." We turned our steps toward the black cave that would serve as the first step in that entire process.