The Pocket Watch

Information was being dismantled and melted away.

Beneath the countless swords that poured down without end, the very codes that composed the slime began to tear apart one by one.

-----!!!!!!!!!!!

----!!!!!!!!!

---!!!!!!!

It never even managed a death cry. Even the auditory data that burst from its vocal organs was shattered into fragments of information and vanished.

The enormous blizzard blanketing Zone E-225 was a giant grinder that dismantled information itself. As an information lifeform, the slime had no way to survive inside that mill.

"...Ugh! Sister, what kind of insane thing are you doing?!"

Unfortunately, that applied just as much to the supercomputer of Zone E-225.

I had been doing my best to spare the machines... but with the slime having already half-swallowed the computer, completely missing it was impossible.

So when the blizzard finally subsided, Alice was staring at the half-wrecked server room with a face on the verge of tears.

"Hic... my servers..."

Computer E-225 was already more than half gone.

Shards of data cleaved cleanly in two drifted through the air, while broken malware settled over them like radioactive fallout, still trying to erode what remained of the machine.

I had withdrawn the blizzard too late... but that did not restore the ruined servers. Watching Alice's devastated expression, guilt slowly crept up my spine.

"Um... so... sorry."

"...It's fine. Catching that malware was something that had to be done, after all."

I got the strange feeling that the light had gone out of Alice's blue eyes.

Uneasy, I took a few steps back—and a chilling voice reached me.

"Still, since it seems we've caught the malware, we can begin searching for the mastermind now, yes?"

Click—

The hour hand stopped. Time in Zone E-225 froze. Every shattered code that had been floating through the sky was pinned in place, preserved mid-flight.

Tick, tick, tick—

Inside the frozen time, the second hand of the pocket ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠watch rang out. The hand that had pointed at 60 began to reverse—59, 58—counting backward.

Watching the shattered information slowly reconstruct itself, Alice murmured in a voice gone cold.

"The executive who planted that malware had better hope he never gets caught."

"What are you planning to do?"

"...Before they haul him away, I'm going to dump every single gore image stored on the dimensional server onto his computer."

Heh heh heh...

Alice clenched her fist, a sinister smile curling her lips.

"Let's have him experience the full malice of humanity."

"Uh... yeah..."

The dimensional server was a colossal information storage device that recorded every scrap of human data. Built in the ambiguous boundary between reality and the virtual world, that vast server logged every piece of information from the virtual realm.

Including every deviant fetish and every gore image circulating across the internet.

"Ha... that executive's going to have a rough time."

I don't remember my previous life all that well, but the day I saw the kind of gore images people casually call "xkas" is still crystal clear.

I genuinely thought the sky had turned yellow. I couldn't eat properly or sleep properly for the rest of the day; the images just wouldn't leave my head.

Thinking of that as the guy's future gave me a small, vicious spark of satisfaction.

"Anyway, thank you for your help, Sword Saint Sister."

"Don't mention it. I got to see something pretty interesting myself."

As a discharged soldier, time was the one thing I had in abundance.

A whole month for data recovery? I could wait that long easily.

"So a month and the recovery will be complete?"

"Of course! The backup data ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠got completely wiped out too, so we're essentially half-recreating it using the dimensional server's processing power. It might take a few extra days... but at the latest, it'll be finished cleanly within next month."

"Then call me around then."

My body was beginning to fade, little by little.

It was the time limit on dimensional server access. Even with a Class 1 security code, I couldn't remain inside for more than an hour.

"Sister, are you leaving now?"

"Yeah. Time's up."

The price of drawing Winter Sword β without thinking it through had been steep. As the medicine wore off, my mind was starting to fray at the edges.

So I stepped out of the dimensional server—into a garden of evening primroses blooming endlessly beneath the vast expanse of outer space.

"Well then, I'll be going."

"Wait a moment!"

Alice hurried over. She took out a new pocket watch and held out the one I had been using.

"Take this with you."

"A pocket watch?"

"There's no time to explain, so I'll just show you quickly, okay?"

Click. She opened the cover of the pocket watch and set both the hour and minute hands to twelve o'clock sharp. The other watch she held began ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to glow.

"See? This is a calling device that summons me."

"Why would you give me something like this...?"

"Because I like you, Sister. You're the first person who's ever helped me like this, and the first who's actually talked with me."

The girl closed one eye in a playful wink and continued.

"So please call me whenever you need me. Even if I have to allocate dimensional server resources to do it, I'll help you."

"Eh, is that really okay?"

"How the dimensional server's spare resources are used is for me, the librarian, to decide."

The promised hour had passed, and my vision began to blur.

The stars that looked ready to pour down went out one by one, and the library filling the cosmos slowly faded. A strange weightlessness rose as if my consciousness were surfacing.

"In exchange, please come visit the dimensional server every so often. Promise?"

"Well... that much shouldn't be hard."

In the flower garden thick with evening ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠primroses, the girl standing with her hands behind her back finished speaking.

"See you again, Sister!"

With those words, my consciousness surfaced.

"Even if you call them they won't come, so cut it out."

The moment I returned to reality, countless messages flooded the ceiling of the closed capsule. I dismissed the now-familiar warning windows and jammed the syringe I was holding straight into my arm.

"Hhh..."

The long needle pierced my skin, and a thick, muffling sensation immediately swallowed my entire body, erasing every sharp edge of pain.

My senses, stretched to their absolute limit, rapidly contracted. My head, which had felt ready to crack open, slowly began to cool.

But that was not all the drug did.

"...Ah."

What came next was pleasure so intense it bordered on madness. The high from a single syringe of the narcotic was not something this body could endure.

"Hhk...!"

A heated sigh slipped out against my will. The instant I registered how dangerous this felt, an unstoppable wave of ecstasy crushed my whole body. My mind went blank and distant.

I needed to get out of the capsule, but I could not even sit up.

Strength had drained from every limb. Even a Sword Saint could do nothing when her body refused to answer.

"Hhk..."

A weak moan escaped me.

It felt like sleep paralysis inside a nightmare. Terrifying pleasure was trying to devour me whole, and because my body would not move, I had to endure the drug's mental assault with limbs that hung limp and useless.

"Help... me..."

I used to be fine with this. But after spending time with people, receiving attention, feeling warmth—everything had become too cold. I hated the version of myself that endlessly demanded love and care.

One minute stretched into an hour. Certain I could not stay conscious through this, I closed my eyes and stopped thinking.

That was the moment the capsule opened.

With a soft psshh of escaping air, a familiar face appeared.

"...Haa. I figured I'd find you like this again."

"Maria...?"

"Yes. Your attending physician."

My limp body was lifted into Maria's arms. Holding me in a princess carry, she asked with a complicated expression,

"Did you take the medicine on your own again?"

"...Ugh, I didn't have a choice."

"May I ask why?"

Once she laid me on the bed, I felt a little better. Warm hands pulled the blanket over me in my place, covering the body that still refused to move.

Faced with that affectionate touch, I could not bring myself to hide anything. So I forced my mana to rise and whispered,

"Hold... my hand. I want to tell you too... but I need a secrecy oath."

"A secrecy oath? Don't tell me you went into the dimensional server."

"Ahaha..."

I laughed weakly and looked away. Maria's sharp gaze was hard to endure.

"Your VR device's mana pattern was strange, so I came to check... Haa. I won't ask what happened. But next time you plan something like this, call me first."

"Thank you so much, Maria."

"It's nothing. Just what a physician is supposed to do."

A brief silence settled between us. Not knowing what else to say, I simply tilted my head slightly into her stroking hand and closed my eyes.

At some point the cold and the loneliness had completely disappeared.

I liked this hand that cared for me. I was grateful for Maria, who always helped me. And I began to wonder whether today's events were something I could share.

"...Maria."

"Hm?"

"In the dimensional server... I ran into a virus."

"What?"

Maria's complicated expression flooded with shock. Given her position, that was only natural.

As the daughter of the Far Eastern Army Commander, Maria already knew of the dimensional server Archive's existence. That also meant she understood just how secret it was.

"I was trying to look into the Northern Psychic Research Institute, but a massive virus cluster was wiping the data."

"Wait—the only people who could do something like that are—"

"World Government executives, yes."

Even conversation was exhausting in this state. I took a light breath before I could continue.

"I drew the Winter Sword. The reason I'm like this right now is because I forced myself to handle that calculation load."

"It was that dangerous a virus?"

"Yes."

Fortunately, Maria was the Far Eastern Army Commander's daughter.

"So I was wondering... could you ask Uncle Mikhail if he knows anything about the Northern Psychic Research Institute?"

"Of course I can."

"Hehe, thank you so much."

"Then... sleep well."

Feeling the cool silver of the pocket watch in my palm, I drifted off just like that.

"Ah, damn..."

And just like that, I overslept spectacularly.