Chapter 239
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 239
Chapter Title: Kukuru Island and Special Training Survival (6)
When I came to, I found myself lying in a bedroom at the base camp.
When did I fall asleep...? Groggy, I slowly looked around.
I could see Alice and David sleeping soundly in nearby beds, their eyes closed.
It was only then that I remembered I had failed the Mirror of Lunar Reflection's trial spectacularly. Damn Invader.
I could also tell that these two had met a similar fate.
‘Ugh, did Raven and Jellin carry us here? I feel bad for making them worry...’
Failing the Mirror of Lunar Reflection's trial leaves the challenger unconscious for half a day as an aftereffect.
That must mean Raven and Jellin, who hadn't taken the trial, had carried us from the lake to this place.
To get to the bottom of the lake, you had to enter through the center, but there was a one-way path out. They must have used that.
They must have gone through a lot of trouble. Thinking this, I trudged out of the bedroom.
Raven, who was sitting at a table checking something, immediately greeted me.
“Ah, Yuria. You're up.”
“Yeah.”
“I figured you'd be waking up soon. Hungry? Sit down and eat.”
“Hooray!”
Oh, perfect! I was so hungry I could have eaten anything!
It seemed the perceptive Raven had anticipated I'd be waking up soon.
I didn't refuse his kindness, immediately sitting at the table and stuffing the prepared bread and meat into my mouth.
Perhaps he was being considerate since I had just woken up. He seemed to have no intention of interrupting my meal for the time being.
Soon, my empty stomach was full, and the gloom from failing the trial had completely lifted.
The jumbled thoughts in my head were gradually being sorted out, leaving only the essentials.
‘Hmm, I learned roughly three things from this. The Mirror of Lunar Reflection might be something closer to an Object. I have some kind of unusual past that I don't remember. And... the Invader is ridiculously strong.’
Well, the first and second points weren't things I needed to worry about right now.
I still had no idea why it had lured me in as if calling my name.
There was no need to dwell on whether the Mirror of Lunar Reflection was an artifact or an Object.
In a few days, I'd be leaving Kukuru Island to fight the Metahuman Liberation Army anyway.
And after the fighting was over, I didn't want to get involved with dangerous items like the Mirror.
Also, I didn't have the luxury of worrying about the past I couldn't remember right now.
The fact that I was entangled with Reine, who seemed to be Raven's younger sister, in a laboratory... I was honestly curious...
But I was too busy to dwell on the past, and for now, I wanted to prioritize overcoming the trial.
I wondered what kind of potential was dormant within me.
And I was curious about how much stronger I could become if I awakened it.
‘But... honestly, isn't my trial a bit too difficult?’
The most important thing was the last point.
The trial the Mirror of Lunar Reflection had given me was ridiculously hard.
I mean, how am I supposed to fight an Invader without my psychokinesis?!
Does the Mirror have a grudge against me or something...? That's what it felt like.
“Grrr!”
“...Why are you taking it out on the innocent bread?”
“Hmph!”
“My, my. You're completely puffed up with venom. Are you a pufferfish or something?”
I am a pufferfish, so don't bother me right now!
I chewed on the bread angrily, trying to quell my frustration.
I don't know why I'm being given such a difficult task.
But I swear I'll beat this damn trial, no matter what! My passion burned fiercely.
*
Day 9 on Kukuru Island. Alice and David, who had also collapsed, had regained consciousness and recovered.
The trio of failures, myself included, decided to challenge the Mirror of Lunar Reflection's trial once again.
Listening to their stories on the way down to the lakebed, it seemed they had both received the same trials as in the original story.
Alice had to face an ancestor she'd never met and defeat her with a single, ordinary sword.
David had to win a magic-based board game against a nameless magician in a fedora.
No matter how I looked at it, their trials seemed easier than mine—facing an Invader in a laboratory with no escape.
But they seemed to have their own share of difficulties. Well, it wouldn't be called a trial if it were easy.
For reference, the Mirror of Lunar Reflection was still at the bottom of Varaya Lake, so we had to make the troublesome trip all the way there.
The trial begins the moment you touch it, so it seemed Raven and Jellin had no way to move it either.
“Ugh, I definitely won't lose this time!”
“I spent all last night studying the game's winning patterns. This time for sure...!”
Alice and David, who had been thoroughly beaten by the trial yesterday, confidently approached the Mirror of Lunar Reflection.
They stopped before the brilliantly shining mirror and reached out their hands at the same time...
“Augh...”
“Kuh...!”
A moment later, they both collapsed sideways as if overcome by dizziness.
It seemed they had once again failed the Mirror's trial spectacularly.
Well, this was only their second attempt. It was unlikely they'd succeed right away.
Raven and Jellin, who had been watching quietly from behind, darted forward and caught the two before they hit the ground.
After laying them on the ground, their eyes rolled back and completely unconscious.
Raven frowned, looking utterly bewildered.
“Failed again...? Is it that difficult?”
“From what Lady Alice said, it feels like fighting a giant waterfall with just a single stick.”
“A waterfall... So the opponent is that strong.”
Raven clicked his tongue, but his eyes showed considerable worry.
Failing the Mirror's trial didn't cause any physical harm.
But the mental toll, enough to make them sleep for half a day, seemed to be bothering him.
Then, he glanced over at me, whose turn was next.
He was probably thinking that unlike Alice and David, who needed more growth, I didn't particularly need the trial.
That seemed to be the gist of his thoughts. After all, I might not look it, but I'm quite strong.
“Are you going to do it too?”
“Yeah.”
“If you're going to... give it your best shot.”
“Okay!”
Still, it seemed he had no intention of stopping me if I said I would.
As I approached the Mirror, he gave me a light pat on the back as if to cheer me on.
It seemed Raven had nothing more to gain from the Mirror of Lunar Reflection.
This time, he was planning to fully support us.
‘I haven't even found a clue to the solution yet... But still, let's just do it.’
Taking a deep breath to steel myself, I reached out and touched the Mirror.
As I felt the coldness of the mirror seep into my body through my palm...
I blinked, and in an instant, I was back in the laboratory.
And then I felt Reine's warmth as she hugged me while I was sitting on the floor.
“Alba! I was so worried you wouldn't wake up!”
“...Ah, so it starts from here.”
“Huh?”
“It's nothing. Sorry, let's go quickly before we get scolded.”
The starting point of the past within the Mirror's trial was the same as before.
The overall flow of time, the events that occurred, and the experiments were all repeated exactly the same.
I had a feeling, and as expected, all of this was just a fake scenery created by the Mirror of Lunar Reflection.
After all, if I were truly looking into the past, I wouldn't be able to move of my own free will. I figured as much.
And then, after two days had passed here.
Reine, tormented by the experiments, came to find me and said.
“Oh, how was it today? You had an experiment today too, right, Alba? Did it hurt?”
“It hurt a little, but I'm okay.”
“Where did it hurt? Uh, should I kiss it better?”
“Hehe, it's okay.”
She cried her eyes out during her own experiment, yet she's trying to act tough...
Even knowing she was a fake, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I pulled the pitiful Reine into my arms and patted her back.
This wouldn't offer any real comfort to the real Reine.
But I hoped that it would at least bring a little solace to the girl in this moment.
“Oh, right, Alba! I learned how to do something recently!”
“Oh? What is it?”
“I've been keeping it a secret from the researchers... You have to watch carefully, okay?”
And then, just as Reine cupped her hands to concentrate and show me something.
Fierce sirens blared from all directions once again, heralding the arrival of the Invader.
‘Okay, last time I just hid and got caught. This time, I'll run with all my might!’
For two days within the trial's past, I had been pondering a solution.
But no matter how much I thought about it, there was no way for my current self, unable to use psychic powers, to beat the Invader.
In other words, perhaps the Mirror's trial wasn't about defeating the Invader, but about escaping safely.
So, having memorized the lab's layout beforehand, I grabbed Reine's hand the moment the sirens blared.
“A-Alba... this is the way out...”
“It's okay! With all this chaos, the researchers won't have time to worry about us!”
An Invader appearing inside the laboratory was a catastrophe on the level of a radiation leak at a nuclear power plant.
The researchers couldn't possibly have the luxury of caring whether a test subject escaped or not.
With that conviction, I dashed frantically towards the exit...
And unfortunately, I ran right into the Invader, which was in the middle of devouring a researcher.
“Ah, crap...!”
Why is that thing waiting by the exit?!
To avoid being seen, I immediately turned and ran desperately in the opposite direction.
But had I already entered its range at that point?
The moment the giant Invader looked this way, my consciousness was cut off with absurd simplicity.
Had I been turned to ash without a trace, just like the other researchers, without even realizing it myself?
Back in reality, I fell backward with a thud and lamented silently.
Dying just from its gaze is just too much. Is there even a solution to this...?
My stomach lurched. Too drained to even feel angry, I lost consciousness.
*
But I wasn't so weak-willed as to give up after only two failures.
And the same was true for Alice and David, who were in the same boat.
Soon, the three of us challengers were attempting the trial every single day.
Of course, though we had already reached seven attempts... no one had succeeded.
At this point, I started to wonder if this wasn't a trial but some form of mental torment designed to push me to the brink.
But I remembered how Alice and David had achieved meaningful results in the original story, and I gritted my teeth and endured.
‘The trial helps draw out the subject's potential. So there has to be a way. There must be a breakthrough.’
Day 17 on Kukuru Island.
And the tenth day of challenging the Mirror of Lunar Reflection.
By now, I had spent over a fortnight in the laboratory.
I had failed the trial in every conceivable way so far.
For starters, I had been killed instantly by the Invader in various ways seven times.
I'd been killed twice by researchers while foolishly trying to escape before the Invader appeared.
I even had my neck broken once for messing with an unstable psychic.
And through this process, I became certain of only one thing.
There was no way to escape this damn laboratory, no matter what I did.
“It still hurts even with anesthesia... You're so strong, Alba!”
“Thanks...”
But fighting the Invader was out of the question from the start.
I turned to ash the moment it perceived me.
How in the world am I supposed to fight something like that? If this is the trial, they should at least give me my psychokinesis!
So now, I was endlessly wracking my brain, searching for a solution.
Then, a question I hadn't considered before suddenly occurred to me.
Why did the Mirror of Lunar Reflection send me to this specific moment, when I was being experimented on with Reine?
Wasn't there a reason it had to be this exact moment, and no other?
“Oh, right, Alba! I learned how to do something recently!”
“...Yeah. What is it?”
“I've been keeping it a secret from the researchers... You have to watch carefully, okay?”
And I finally understood why the Mirror of Lunar Reflection had sent me to this specific moment.
The reason it had set the seemingly unbeatable Invader as the target I had to defeat!
Amidst the familiar scene, sirens blared from all directions, heightening the sense of dread.
Was that why? Reine stopped what she was about to say and cowered, her shoulders hunched in fear.
But I, on the contrary, took Reine's hands and pleaded with very serious eyes, as if asking her to finish what she was saying.
“Reine. Finish what you were saying. What is it you learned to do?”
“Uh, e-eh? In a situation like this?”
“Especially in a situation like this. Please.”
“Well... it's this...”
Reine timidly cupped her hands, creating something between her palms for a very brief moment.
At a glance, it was a phenomenon so trivial it could be mistaken for a small flicker of light.
But as I stared wide-eyed, I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
Because it was only then that I figured out how to break through this seemingly unsolvable trial of the Mirror of Lunar Reflection.