006. Offering (1)

The moment I cleared the second floor, I went straight home, dropped onto the bed, and sank into thought.

It was already common knowledge that Awakened who had earned the right to climb the Tower could use the community inside it. A community reserved exclusively for users of Outer God artifacts, though—that, I had truly never heard of, nor so much as glimpsed.

No. Calling them Outer God artifact users might not even be accurate.

They did say a Being Who Accepted the Power of ■■ had been confirmed.

It doesn't end at simply using an Outer God artifact. This looks like something that opens only after a specific condition is met.

In other words, you had to pass some kind of requirement before you could use it. Thinking it over on the spot wasn't going to hand me the answer, so I decided to look around the community at once and hunt for clues.

And the more I looked, the harder it hit me that this was no place for me.

A moral, ethical, humanitarian person like myself, lingering in a pit crawling with antisocial tendencies? I had no idea what the criteria even were, but the urge to walk out of here this very moment came surging up.

Overflowing curiosity, though—that primitive need to know what other nonsense and horrors they might spew next—only sent my scrolling faster.

…Hmm. One rather interesting person in the mix.

That would be Lee Miso.

So this post was the evaluation Lee Miso had made of me. It got under my skin in more ways than one, but what was I supposed to do about it? People who are a little unwell are better left unpoked, so I ignored her to an appropriate degree and set about properly clearing up the things I was actually curious about.

Judging by the structure of this community, I could infer it had been around for quite a while. The spread of information said as much, and so did the way people talked, and so did the relationships that hovered somewhere between knowing one another and not. If that was the case, someone would already have worked out an interpretation, or the information would have gathered in one place. I asked point-blank, and replies stuck on at a pretty quick pace.

What came back was an answer that made even less sense from where I stood.

Friendly toward the Outer Gods? Me?

I neither particularly like the Outer Gods nor particularly dislike them. To be precise, what I like are the Outer God artifacts that hold a fragment of the power they possess. And why wouldn't I? I'm the only one who can borrow an Outer God's power and use it with no risk at all.

If anything, looking at how the users of this Nameless Corridor behaved—no. What Nameless Corridor? This isn't some Chinese subculture game. Just call it the Outer God Gallery, which suits it fine. Judging by the way they acted, they were putting on a thoroughly inhumane show. My disgust toward the Outer Gods might have gone up. My fondness had not.

In other words, there's a high chance this is bullshit.

So what if they treat it as established theory? Our great scholar Charles Darwin advanced the theory of evolution, and because it differed from the established view and the mainstream opinion of the day, he was despised and mocked. I, too, was tasting the trials of that great teacher, Charles Darwin.

So these people don't really seem to know the conditions either. Still, it does look like everyone here is using Outer God artifacts.

Time to change the subject, then.

Right now, I wanted to possess more Outer God artifacts and put them to work. The very entertaining fantasy of meeting every person in here one by one and taking their artifacts did flash through my mind.

Not easy. Their levels are probably quite high. The difficulty is nothing like when I relocated Lee Miso's artifact and used it, practically an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ambush.

Immediately ruled out. Broadening my thoughts in a slightly more productive direction was the right call.

Hmm. No matter how I looked at it, number four was the answer.

Even supposing some fool existed who didn't want to use an artifact this good and this useful, there was no way the supply would be plentiful. Most of them would already have handed theirs over to the black market or the government, eager to get paid.

I at least had a contract in place, so I'd come into contact with Outer God artifacts far more often than these Outer God nuts in here. Even so, that was ultimately a kind of rental, not ownership. I couldn't make one perfectly mine.

In that sense, if I wanted to possess another artifact, I had to treat it as though there were really only two choices. Climb the Tower, or beg whatever Outer God it was and squeeze one out of them.

Hmm. An Offering.

Yes. My judgment said this was the one.

There were all sorts of things I was short on if I tried to charge the Tower headfirst right now. Ordinarily, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the meta is to take the Association's support, or—if you show promise—get recruited by a guild, form a party, and climb. But I was an Outer God artifact user, and the reality was that guilds treated that as grounds for disqualification. The reputation was that bad.

With guild support difficult to expect, I had no choice but to arm myself well enough to climb alone. If that was the case, wrapping myself in more Outer God artifacts—the only kind I could use with no risk whatsoever—was the right move for me in the long run, wasn't it?

Well. Even if it's a lie, the only thing I lose is the price of the meat.

Above all, the mental contamination of an Outer God artifact doesn't take on me. Checking for myself whether that method was real would be far faster.

Now it was time to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠obtain a new artifact.

This has to be that bastard.

Lee Miso stared at the Nameless Corridor, endlessly gnawing at fingernails that could hardly be said to still exist. Her gaze was, of course, fixed on ClearMind.

Who else would ClearMind be? The way he talked, the whole mindset—plain as day, it was that lunatic Jung Hanshin. Clear mind? Please. Among the people who used Outer God artifacts, he might be the closest thing to the craziest one of all.

But it didn't matter anymore. This lunatic was a dead man walking!

Heh heh. Infidel, you crazy bastard. Look at you dropping him straight into the pot like that.

The Outer Gods dislike rudeness. They don't much care what you do while holding the fragment that contains their power. When you use that fragment as a medium to call upon them directly, however, you must observe the proper rites of each, and only then will they refrain from approaching with malice.

The method Infidel had described was not that. It was no different from deceiving them and mocking them. And if someone actually carried it out? Those beings would surely punish him, so that he could never again commit an insolent act.

“Heh heh heh~♪”

And so she hummed, waiting for nothing but the moment his pride snapped. If the Outer Gods showed even a little mercy, he would show his face on the Nameless Corridor again. If they showed none, his face would hit the news the size of a barn door and be used as material on the evils of Outer God artifacts.

And so, when she stretched her legs out, slept properly for the first time in a long while, and woke—

“…Uh. Uh. Eh?”

She witnessed a sight she could not believe, and felt dizziness bloom in her head.

Because—

…It seemed the Outer God had truly accepted that Offering.