Chapter 260
Chapter 260
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 260
Chapter Title: Reward (1)
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It was a moment that felt like time had stopped for Coco.
Scattering flecks of golden light.
A white flash brushing past her nose tip.
And a tiny slicing sound.
All of it happened almost simultaneously, and Coco's frozen time began to flow again.
The first thing Coco did afterward was pull her body back.
Tap-.
In an instant, she put distance between herself and Yuri.
“…….”
Without a word, she lowered her gaze to look at her cigarette.
The cigarette, which had been half intact until just moments ago, was neatly severed near the filter.
And the severed part...
“This what you're looking for?”
It was held vertically on the blade of the sword Yuri extended forward, smoke rising from it.
The glowing red ember and thin trail of smoke felt like incense Yuri had lit himself.
As Coco stared at it in a daze, surprise slowly crept into her eyes.
‘...How?!’
She had certainly predicted that Yuri's holy sword would come right up to her chest.
But that was exactly where her prediction ended.
The holy sword suddenly scattering, a blade slipping through the gap to slice her cigarette—that scene.
None of it had been detected by her domain at all.
No, it wasn't just a failure to detect.
For that instant, Yuri's presence had completely vanished from her domain.
And what that implied was simple.
‘My domain... got offset?’
The moment she realized the answer, Coco finally looked straight at Yuri.
She noticed that something about him had changed.
Before the fight began, Yuri had exuded a rough, massive aura that clearly felt more advanced than twenty days ago.
But not now.
The energy that had swirled like a storm, wasting away, was all neatly reined in.
Now, he gave off the feeling of a massive mountain—clean and solid.
Based on what she sensed, Coco let out an incredulous laugh.
‘This guy, I knew he'd make a leap... but he straight-up soared!’
Twenty days ago, she had known Yuri was preparing for a major breakthrough.
But she hadn't imagined it would completely shatter the wall and propel him into a new realm.
That was only natural, perhaps.
The wall between Accredited 6-dan and 7-dan was that high and sturdy for the recognized.
Breaking it down in a mere twenty days was impossible.
And yet.
‘Turns out the guy who could do it... was right here.’
Shattering the wall and opening a domain in just twenty days.
If she told anyone else, they'd dismiss it as a lie.
‘Well, even I who saw it with my own eyes can hardly believe it...’
What about those who hadn't witnessed it?
“Ha!”
Coco exhaled a short sigh, venting the surprise welling up in her chest.
Meanwhile, Yuri gazed at the tip of his sword and smiled.
‘Good.’
The sensation he'd felt moments ago.
It was undoubtedly the feeling of opening his domain.
And the true sensory domain Yuri felt was on a whole different level from the pseudo-domain woven from Ma-ryu's spiderwebs.
If the pseudo-domain felt like poking objects with a tree branch to analyze their form and info,
The true domain was like touching and feeling them directly with his hands.
In terms of speed at grasping information, the pseudo-domain couldn't compare to the true one.
However.
‘This... overlaps?’
Curiously, he could use the true domain and pseudo-domain simultaneously.
Yuri chalked it up to the two domains operating on different systems and moved on.
Truth be told, there was something even more pressing on his mind.
‘What was that just now?’
Moments ago, he'd clearly opened his sensory domain, but then it felt like the domain vanished.
That's why Yuri had initially doubted if he'd properly opened it.
But now, the domain felt crystal clear again.
His face turned serious.
‘Is my domain... defective?’
Had issues arisen because he'd forced it open almost like a lightning breakthrough?
God, how he'd obtained this domain, and it turns out defective!
Unable to hold back any longer, Yuri asked Coco.
“Hey, um... just hypothetically.”
“……?”
“...Are there people who open defective domains?”
“Defective?”
“Do opened domains sometimes have flaws?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Well, it's like this...”
Yuri explained what he'd felt to Coco.
Her eyebrow twitched as she listened.
“You... what the hell did that old man Johan teach you? You don't even know the basics of domains?”
Her tone assumed she knew all about his relationship with Johan.
Yuri, expecting as much, replied nonchalantly.
“That old geezer has zero talent for teaching people. He just roughly tells you whatever he feels like sharing and calls it a day.”
Coco let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
“Ha? So you're telling me... I got done in by a guy who doesn't even know what offset is?”
“Offset? What's that?”
Yuri tilted his head, flicking the still-burning ember off his sword tip with a pop-pop.
At his innocent expression, Coco sighed and explained the basics of domains.
A moment later.
Having heard the explanation on domains, a spark lit in Yuri's eyes.
‘So, it's not defective?’
Not a flaw—just one way to utilize the domain.
An essential technique everyone who used domains had to master, even.
His heart skipped a beat at the info.
‘Offset...’
Offset from domain collisions.
An unavoidable phenomenon for any domain user.
But the amazing part was that this offset effect didn't occur with the pseudo-domain.
Yuri could confirm this, having clashed endlessly with Coco using the pseudo-domain until now.
Plus, he'd been able to slice Coco's cigarette earlier because the true domain vanished, but the pseudo-domain remained intact.
His eyes sparkled.
‘So, to sum up... if I use offset, the opponent's domain becomes useless.’
His own domain vanishes too, but he can use the pseudo-domain without issue?
‘Meaning I'm the only one fine, while everyone else is screwed?’
He got it now that he'd opened the true domain.
A domain was eyes, ears, nose, and brain for an Accredited 7-dan.
Making it unusable for everyone else while he could still use his?
His lips twisted into a grin at the powerful weapon he'd gained.
A smile reeking of fishy triumph.
“Heh heh heh.”
Snapping out of his mad cackle, Yuri held out the nearly dying ember to Coco.
“So, did I pass?”
At the question, Coco plucked the cigarette butt from her mouth with thumb and index finger.
The cleanly severed end, not a speck of soot on the cross-section.
She had no choice but to acknowledge it.
“Yeah.”
Her original condition was that Yuri merely graze her clothes.
But he'd deliberately sliced her cigarette.
She knew it was to prevent her from burning it away in one go like before.
That was far harder than just nicking her hem.
‘Even if I refused to admit it, this guy who's opened a domain could touch my hem anytime anyway.’
Any other Accredited 7-dan, even with a domain, couldn't touch her at full power.
But not this guy.
With that bizarre 'pseudo-domain,' Yuri could easily brush her hem.
Coco crushed the remaining butt hard between her fingers.
Crunch-.
“Yuri Holland of the 50th Cohort has cleared the Hundred Days Tower quest on Hell difficulty...”
She shook the powdered remnants onto the floor and made her final declaration.
“I, Vice-Captain Coco Romani, guarantee it.”
Hearing the answer he'd longed for, Yuri beamed.
‘Fuck yeah, it's over!’
Finally escaping this damn tower after a hundred days locked in!
He couldn't hide his joy.
And what thrilled him even more than escaping the tower...
“So, quest rewards? Bet winnings? My gift?!”
...was how much he'd gained from this quest.
At his excitement, Coco replied casually.
“Don't worry, thirty quest reward boxes including the bet items... I won't hold out on you.”
“The gift?!”
The gift she'd promised if he entertained her.
Eyes sparkling with curiosity, Yuri pressed, and Coco smirked slyly.
“Who knows? I don't feel like I've had enough fun yet?”
His face crumpled at her teasing tone.
“...Changing your mind now?”
“When did I say I wouldn't give it?”
“Then?”
“I said I haven't had enough fun.”
“Ha? Isn't that the same thing?”
Yuri's expression soured instantly.
Not done having fun, so play more.
Wasn't that basically refusing to give it?
At his sullen reaction, Coco spoke in a soft voice.
“You, once you leave here... how are you gonna practice domain offset?”
“……?!”
Realization dawned on Yuri like a lightbulb.
Ding-!
‘Oh, right?!’
He'd planned to leave the tower and quickly stabilize and master his newly bloomed domain.
That part was fine, but what came after was the problem.
‘To practice offset... I need a domain to offset, right?’
But in the Cradle, no one except the Black Sword Soldiers had bloomed a domain.
Even among them, Accredited 7-dan and above were department head level, too busy to breathe.
‘Asking those guys to help me practice offset... I'd get stabbed, wouldn't I?’
And before getting stabbed, where the hell would he even find those elusive department heads?
In other words, to practice offset, he had to play with Coco whenever she wanted—no exceptions.
Hell, even if she told him to get lost, he'd have to cling to her pant leg and endure.
Getting it in a flash, Yuri wiped the sullen look and flashed a fawning smile.
“Oh dear, if our Lady Coco is bored... this lowly body shall offer itself and perform diligently for your amusement!”
...Correction: not fawning, but groveling.
Coco smiled in satisfaction at Yuri's constant bootlicking.
“Oh? Then let's see just how entertaining you can be.”
Quest over, no time limit needed, and no more need for cigarettes—Coco.
Her face lit with excitement as she reached behind her waist.
Out came a three-section staff.
Yuri's expression stiffened slightly.
Because she already held a three-section staff in her other hand.
Meaning she had two.
‘The three-section staff... was originally two?’
While Yuri blinked in surprise, Coco lightly swung both.
Clack- whoosh whoosh-!
Silver afterimages spinning at terrifying speed, whipping up a gale.
Yuri's throat bobbed.
Gulp-.
‘Oh shit...’
He could tell for sure now.
Until now, Coco hadn't shown even half—no, a fraction of her true skill.
Realizing the truth, Yuri's face paled.
‘...I'm fucked?’
One wrong move, and this wouldn't be a fun show—it'd be his funeral.
Shivering, Yuri shot up a hand and yelled.
“Waaaiiit!”
His echo boomed through the 9th floor.
Coco stopped the staffs and gave him a puzzled look, so Yuri whined in a crumpled voice.
“I'm hungry... let's eat first.”
Better to die after a meal than on an empty stomach, they say.
Yuri intended to eat before going down, at least.
* * *
June, entering summer after a brief spring.
A bizarre rumor began spreading quietly in the Dragon's Cradle.
That Yuri Holland, who had been on a quest...
Had died.