Time to Go See How She's Doing
A month has passed.
A month is a long stretch of time—but maybe it's also remarkably short.
Once the test broadcast ended, the community and DeoEn erupted into chatter, same as always. Transcendent-grade weapons and the trial of the Multicolored Successor. The mysterious being known as Ilmacheonwang, the raw power of the Silver Purifier. And on top of all that, the giants of Erteurn, still shrouded in mystery.
Theories had piled up like a mountain, people talked about them endlessly, and the questions came pouring in at me from every direction. I'd given them the broad strokes, but I never touched on the Celestials or any of the finer details.
I mean, I'd already come right out and declared I'm an alien!—but not that many people actually believe me.
There are plenty of reasons, though the biggest one is simple: this world is already too weird.
It's been four years since virtual reality games so realistic they might as well be real first hit the market. VR turned the whole world upside down—and then some—and it's produced a growing population of rankers whose sanity has drifted well outside the range of "normal."
The most famous example is Leo.
From what I hear, there was a firestorm of controversy when Leo first appeared on the Empire's side. Back then the perennial debate was always whether Sword God or Michael at ranks one and two was stronger, but their true power had rarely actually been shown. They'd only ever flexed it in ranked matches or raids.
Leo, though, wiped out an entire nation as part of a World Quest, flaunting utterly overwhelming force. And since Leo's mind had gone off the rails at the time too, conspiracy theories ran rampant—chairman's daughter, bug character, you name it. One theory in particular, "Leo isn't a player, it's an NPC!", was treated as practically confirmed fact.
Hidden pieces were rare back then, so it was even worse than my situation.
Of course, things more or less died down once the real-world Leo came forward and proved who they were.
Anyway, with characters like that popping up one after another, no one believes me no matter how loudly I declare myself an alien.
There are way too many boys crying wolf in this world.
Unless I turn on a camera in the real world and cast magic on the spot, I doubt anyone would ever believe me.
"Hmm..."
And so the month rolled by—academy lectures, ranked matches, the occasional hunting session, all amid the endless buzz.
Classes were on smooth track. My rank had just climbed to twelfth, freshly armed with the Veil of Blockade. My level had barely moved.
Compared to the days when incidents simply refused to stop coming, it had been an astonishingly quiet month. Nothing particularly noteworthy by DeoEn-wide standards either—but somehow, I couldn't shake the feeling of a calm before the storm.
December 1st.
Exactly thirty days from now, DeoEn's fourth anniversary begins: the Great Cataclysm.
I sit in the dean's office, gazing out the window. Snow-white flakes drift down, just heavy enough to be pretty. Elbritte keeps a warm climate year-round, but to get that end-of-the-year feeling, I'd cast a spell to make it snow without the bite of the cold.
Pretty nice, honestly.
Thud!
The dean's office door swings open. The intruder barged in without even knocking—but I just smiled and welcomed her anyway. Arms, legs, everything wrapped in a skimpy robe: one very cute intruder.
"Leo has returned!"
"How was the sword?"
"Nope nope!"
Clack. Leo strode over and set the Silver Purifier I'd lent her down on the table.
"It really doesn't fit me at all. The spirits hate it."
"What about the blocking magic?"
"Doesn't work. Even if it did, I don't think it'd actually take."
Figured as much. I took the sword back with a sigh of disappointment.
It was a peaceful month, but I'd spent every day of it struggling to find a "worthy bearer" for the Silver Purifier. I'd drawn up a shortlist of candidates and gone hunting for someone who fit the criteria—and the first person I'd approached was Pharaoh.
An ancient monster of the soul who moved exactly as I willed, and one well-versed in the blade to boot. But of course, wielding a sword in his statue body was a nonstarter, and he still couldn't properly control his own flesh, so he was out.
I'd considered Aisha next, but for whatever reason she'd vanished entirely over the past month. Even her academy attendance had stopped—nowhere to be seen.
Which left me lending the Silver Purifier to Leo to see if she could use it. She'd nodded happily and thanked me, but after a handful of attempts, she gave up. The reason: the spirits themselves are non-living beings.
Spirits aren't ordinary life—they're spiritual entities. Not so fragile that purification would seriously harm them, but they aren't fully alive either, and the sword rejected them all the same. Still, between Leo's mastery of spirit arts and the sword's own ego, it had been worth a shot...
"Nope, nope. I really can't do it. Honestly, I'm not even that great with swords..."
"It can't be helped. Thanks for trying."
"Eh, it was a fun experience though. Heehee."
"How's your training coming along?"
"Great! It's so much fun!"
Since awakening her Nymph powers, Leo had recently thrown herself into union with the nymph essence—learning to truly wield mana the way only the residents of this world, not mere players, could feel and use it. If she pulled it off, she'd be able to handle the spirits' own magic with ease.
"And the Empire? How are things over there?"
"Mmm... well, nothing's really happened."
Oh?
"Except, lately, Duke Hwangyeolgong hasn't made any public appearances, I guess?"
"Wasn't that always the case?"
"He'd still show his face once in a while, but now not even that. Who knows?"
"...Hmm."
He said he'd hold back the demonkin. I couldn't easily believe it, but if the Empire didn't want to rot from within and collapse under demonic corruption, it would handle its own affairs well enough.
Anyway—lending the sword to Leo had failed, so I needed to find another bearer. At this rate I was seriously going to end up strapping the thing into Sre's jaws and having my dragon swing it around.
"Where are you headed?"
"It's about time for 'that hour,' I think."
I rose from my seat. The place I'd been visiting on schedule for the past month.
"Time to go see how she's doing."
It was time to check on Yena.
You're slow. Move faster.
"......"
Assassination begins with the suppression of your presence. Killing intent amplifies your power, but by that same measure, it exposes you easily to your enemy. What you must hold onto is composure...
"Composure my ass."
SHUNK!!
Cut down again.
You have died.
One of the rare hidden quests in all of DeoEn. Yena, blessed with the glorious opportunity to train under an ancient race, gave a hollow laugh as she died yet again.
Just how many deaths was this, anyway? She'd counted up to two hundred thirty-one for certain, but after that she'd lost track. Probably past a thousand by now?
FWOOSH...!
"......"
Revived. Again.
Last attempt, you planted a shadow decoy on the left, then moved right and layered a second decoy before striking from below—that approach was decent.
"...Yes."
But you poured far too much force into your feints, so your real strike came out badly weakened.
"......"
Also, the Bracelet of Guidance that shows you the path is useful—but relying on it too heavily is not good.
Guidance toward the correct path was, in the end, just one of the bracelet's powers. Against anyone who surpassed the bracelet's strength, it offered no guarantee at all...
"...Wow."
A month. She'd been trapped here for a month.
She'd thrown herself at this for ten hours a day, nearly without a single day of rest—and there was still no end in sight. The number of times she'd actually managed to wound the Agent: a grand total of four. Every one of those had come from gathering her strength and unleashing Storm Slash, and even then the damage had been so feeble it shaved off a mere 3% of the Agent's health.
Three percent.
To fill the required quota of 30%, she'd have to pull this off nine more times...
Nine months?
"Ugh."
Dizzy. She was dizzy out of her mind.
Back when she streamed, she'd often heard stories from people carrying hidden quests or classes. Every single one demanded bizarre, unreasonable amounts of time and effort—and watching them, she'd thought exactly one thing.
I could probably handle that?
It took forever, sure, but it looked like fun in its own way, and judging from the text and screenshots alone it hadn't seemed all that hard. If she leveraged her own talent and her stream, it'd make plenty of good content, she'd figured.
"Content, my ass."
Run a stream of nothing but the same sparring footage over and over, and her viewers would bleed away to nothing. If it weren't for the occasional talk segments and Lily's infrequent visits, she might have sunk even lower than before she'd met Lily in the first place.
People loved watching someone get a hidden class and grow stronger—but they had zero interest in watching the process.
In fact, she could guarantee it: if she recorded these sparring sessions in full and uploaded them to NewTube, every episode except the first and the last would flatline at the bottom of the view counts.
She'd bet her life on it.
"I wanna skip this..."
"You mustn't skip it."
"Why would you even sa—huh?"
Yena lifted her exhausted head—and her eyes went wide at the familiar voice. That blue hair. That beautiful face she knew all too well.
"MISS LILY!!!"
"It's been a while."
Lily had come to visit, five days since her last appearance.
It had been five days since I last saw Yena.
Ever since Yena began training under Myoshin, I'd been dropping by every five days to offer a bit of advice before heading home—and today just happened to be the day.
Myoshin sat on an old, pink-hued tree trimming her claws, while Yena knelt on the ground before me, sobbing her heart out.
I patted her gently on the back.
"Waaah... I misshed youuuu..."
"Why are you crying?"
"What do you mean, why...! Do I look like someone who could possibly NOT be crying right nowww..."
Hm. Well, it really is an empty room. Everything in here is nothing but an illusion, and she has to die over and over again to the person endlessly drilling her. A brutal difficulty that would break an ordinary person long before they ever thought to quit.
"I brought you tasty food last time, remember?"
"...That WAS tasty, I'll give you that."
"Right?"
"When does this end?"
At Yena's desperate plea, I turned to look at Myoshin. Her face was clearly visible to me now. She gave a gentle smile and shook her head, just like back then.
Hard to say... though if you keep going the way you are, I'd say you're just about there.
"...Hahahahaha."
Frankly, at this level, you're getting off easy.
"...THIS is easy?"
Oh, absolutely.
Saying that, Myoshin turned her gaze on me.
Compared to mine, this is a joke.