100. At This Point, Isn't This Voyeurism?
100. At This Point, Isn't This Voyeurism?
The Heavenly Demon had a single hidden treasure.
That was none other than the 'Heavenly Demon's Secret Record', the sole martial arts manual containing the Heavenly Demon's techniques, and it was said that whoever possessed it could become the mightiest under heaven, one who could shake an entire generation.
─Kkatok!
"Tch."
And for Mai, it seemed her smartphone had become her Heavenly Demon's Secret Record.
How was she getting Kkatok messages all day long? On top of that, she apparently used the camera function quite diligently, because all sorts of photos were coming through.
'She's even taking pictures like this now.'
Mai was now gradually crossing over into the realm of voyeur photography.
After agonizing over whether to stop this or not, I decided to just leave her be.
It wouldn't stop even if I tried anyway.
If I left her alone to keep taking pictures until her heart was content, wouldn't she just tire herself out and stop?
Sometimes, neglect could be an excellent teacher.
─Kkatok! Kkatok!
"Wow... She's taking shots that honestly rival event CGs."
Honestly speaking, it was because the composition, the image quality, and everything else were way better than expected too.
***************
The coastline.
Deeper to the right, following the long stretch of shore.
When I advanced in time with the low tide, a cave-like place came into view on the other side.
"They say you can only go there when the water has receded."
"Definitely."
A shallow path created by the receding water.
If it were high tide, it was a place where one might simply be swept away and drown—but, that was only how it looked on the surface.
'The inside is actually a hollow cavity.'
It wasn't like I would drown and die just because it became high tide.
I simply couldn't leave the dungeon until the water receded again. No big problem would arise from that, right?
"Hooooh..."
If it took more time than expected, or if the stress exploded, Minerva's discontent level would gradually rise.
And if that degree and value grew high enough, the probability of escaping when a monster ambushed us would gradually decrease, and eventually her virginity would be taken by a jellyfish tentacle monster, or she would receive Siren's eggs into her womb, and so on—various defeat NTR CGs were prepared.
'Well, unless I deliberately lose, my stats are too high to even lose easily.'
The point was just not to let my guard down.
I held up Agape and advanced cautiously.
"Chrono, I will take the vanguard."
"No. I'll take the lead."
"Huh? But Chrono, you're..."
"Just listen to me."
Midway, Minerva offered to go first, but I pulled her back.
The reason I pulled her back was simple.
"....Hm."
A pit with a suspiciously large number of stone piles.
I switched Agape into a gun and fired a bullet. The stone pile collapsed, and a bright crimson tentacle burst out from within.
─Pshiiiiiiiik!!!
"I knew it."
Bang! Bang! Baaang!
Quickly, three shots.
One at the tentacle, then another, I sincerely fed it bullets.
"Phew, done."
The tentacle's own attack power was nothing special.
It was just annoying because it's a 'stress gimmick' where arousal level and excitement rise and stress values increase the moment you get caught.
"...To think there was a trap here..."
Minerva stared blankly down at the tentacle monster.
I spoke to Minerva.
"There'll be a few more of these guys ahead. Can you distinguish them?"
"....Still, I am uneasy about putting you, Chrono, in the vanguard."
"For your information, if you get caught by these things, the worst case is your virginity gets taken?"
"However, I believe in you, Chrono."
Right.
No matter how you are, even you'd change your tune if your virginity was on the line.
Minerva and I went deeper into the dungeon and began rummaging through this place and that.
"Chrono, here, an Athena guild emblem has been dropped."
The Athena guild emblem lying on the floor.
"This is... a helmet. And it's from the Hera guild side at that."
Athena guild equipment supplies placed in a warehouse.
"This place is... ueup... uooook...!"
In what looked like a food storage, the corpses of humans and animals had become jeotgal and were fermenting.
And finally.
"Just what is this place...."
A great gate emanating an aqua-blue hue.
A place that clearly looked anything but ordinary at a glance.
Minerva might not know, but I knew.
'It's the spawning ground.'
Beyond this, the Queen Siren was stationed.
Additionally, other Sirens were also stationed inside there.
"...Chrono, do you happen to have a method?"
"Well."
There were two ways to enter inside there.
The first was to force it open with strength and go in.
It looked mysterious on the outside, but the composition itself was simple.
Coral and sea soil.
Since it was a wall made of Siren's love nectar and human flesh,
if someone like me or Mars seriously put our strength into it and tried to break the wall right now, we could probably break it sufficiently.
'But the moment we break it is probably a BAD END, right?'
Right now, there were over 100 Sirens hiding just inside there alone.
If the Queen was added to that, Minerva and I would be captured in an instant. I would become a baby-Siren factory, and Minerva would become an egg hatchery for the Queen Siren.
...If you ask how I know that, it's because I actually had experience turning the entire party into a hatchery before.
"Let's head back for now."
"Huh?"
Therefore, another method was needed, not opening it by force.
The way to open this event was simple.
"And let's come back once more at night."
"Hm... May I ask the reason why?"
Minerva's question.
I pointed at the wall in front and said,
"See that groove-like thing in the center of the wall? It looks like a mechanism where you need to insert something to open it, and I predict the 'Sirens' probably have it."
"? What does that have to do with coming at night—Ah, now that I think of it, this was a dungeon where Sirens dwell, wasn't it?"
"You caught on?"
"......Chrono."
Minerva looked at me and asked.
"Why is there not a single Siren to be seen in a Siren dungeon?"
"What's the big deal? They're nocturnal, that's why."
"....!!"
The tales about Sirens.
One of the famous tales was about a Siren who climbed onto a rock on the night of the full moon and sang.
And what took that as a motif was exactly the 'Siren's Tear' event.
Put another way, this was a dungeon that had to be tackled at night, not during the day, to properly conquer it.
"...Then, why did you come during the day, Chrono?"
A natural question, certainly.
But viewing it as a student cadet, it was a brainless question since...
"Then, do you want to come at night, fight these things, and fight the Sirens at the same time?"
"Ah....!"
It was easier to clear out annoying traps and monsters beforehand for a later infiltration.
I then took out path-marking moss from my bag and marked it in front of the boss room.
"That is... coral Garu, isn't it?"
"I bought it when I went to the market with Mai."
It was originally an item sold as dye, but I brought it along thinking I could use it like this.
It roughly felt like drawing on a blackboard with chalk. The color itself was also similar to the coral color spread beneath the dungeon floor, so it seemed like it would be easily missed unless you looked closely.
"Chrono... you had a plan from the beginning, didn't you?"
"Of course."
At least when it came to events I knew of, I was always a person with a plan.
...There were a few things like 'mandatory NTR events' that I couldn't stop even if I knew about them, which gave me a headache, but I believed in the original protagonist for that part.
'I wonder if he's at the succubus dungeon around now?'
Or maybe he was still just constantly doing missions.
No, he's probably focused on missions. In the first place, cramming all the week's missions into one go was abnormal in itself.
'Or if he split the party completely in two to earn points, then...'
Nah, no way.
That's going too far.
In the first place, the main heroines were the type whose NTR event would trigger if you neglected them even for a moment by mistake.
He wouldn't do something idiotic like splitting up for individual missions just because he didn't want to see that.
...
..
.
Around that time, at the Ares Guild.
[Ter: 437P]
[Mars: 311P]
"What the fuck?"
Mars, who experienced defeat for the first time in mission points.
Beside her, Ter smiled a triumphant smile.
"Now, it's my victory. Admit your defeat, Mars."
"No... How the fuck does this make sense? I clearly know the number of missions you cleared, you bastard?"
She didn't know the exact number, but she knew this one thing for sure.
The number of missions Ter cleared was less than the number Mars cleared.
Yet why did he have more clearance points?
"Fufu, it's a simple story."
Ter spoke toward Mars.
"I know you're outstanding. But that's only your 'individual' strength."
Ultimately, no matter how great you are, you're just 'alone'. That's what it meant.
"!,....You... you bastard, don't tell me...?"
At Ter's words, Mars turned her head.
[Yuno: 32P]
[Merk: 44P]
".....Haah."
Yuno and Merk.
The points of these two, who had been in the same party as Ter, hadn't increased at all.
"You... you fucking really...."
She understood.
Even for Mars, whose intelligence was below 20, not understanding this would make her an idiot.
"Concentration? You concentrated the points?"
"Concentration, you say. It was merely an unavoidable sacrifice for victory. And I also gave them appropriate compensation for it."
"..........."
Mars clenched her fist tight.
She wanted to hit him. She wanted to smash that head of his right then and there.
If—it had been her before she met Chrono, she might have done just that.
"Fine. I admit it. This match is 'my defeat'."
"Then──"
"That shitty date request you mentioned, I'll accept it."
But, you know.
"I lost to 'all of you'. I didn't lose to 'you'."
"Is that an excuse? How unsightly."
"I wonder which side is truly unsightly? And───Yuno."
"!,..... Yeah...."
Mars turned her head toward Yuno.
"Are you satisfied with this?"
".........."
"Are you satisfied with this?"
"....I am, because I want Ter to be happy."
"That's not what I'm asking."
You frustrating idiot.
Mars asked.
"Is this... is this the fucking right thing to do?"
"......I am..."
Yuno did not answer.
Frustration. Irritation. Anger. Disgust.
Amidst the swirling vortex of emotions, Ter hugged Yuno close as if he were some magnanimous man and said,
"Yuno, thank you. I love you."
"......... Yeah..."
Ter's words saying he loved her.
Yuno did not look at Ter, but stared at the ground.
Ter did not look at Yuno, but stared at Mars.
Therefore──Mars could tell.
"....Pathetic bastards."
Neither of them was looking at each other.
One side simply had no feelings,
and the other couldn't bear to face it directly.
"Really, birds of a feather flock together nicely."
Mars's single remark.
"Uht.....!!"
Yuno bit her lip firmly.
"....Uht.....Hooooh....."
However, she couldn't say anything at all.
Because Mars's words were clearly an undeniable fact.