Dark Moon
“Vel Terrier…”
I rolled the name around on my tongue, digging through my memories. Nothing surfaced. I had never heard it even in the original game.
Is she only identical in appearance to the character I created?
“You don’t have to take my name so seriously. I’m not even active in Neo London.”
“…Did you come from Hamburg Innovation, by any chance?”
Hamburg Innovation.
A city-state on the same level as Divine France and Neo London. Its territory and population were smaller than the others, yet the mechanization technology it possessed was the finest in the world.
If you want to replace your flesh with machines, go to Hamburg Innovation—that was the saying that went around.
“Oh. Sharp. How did you know? You shouldn’t be able to tell just from looking.”
“I guessed from those mechanical eyes. Something of that quality would be hard to get anywhere but Hamburg Innovation.”
The truth was, the starting point of the character I had created—‘Jjapaguri’—was Hamburg Innovation, so I had simply taken a shot.
Face, figure, voice, personality. She was the spitting image of the character I had designed. Even her place of origin matched. She was definitely my ‘Jjapaguri’.
It was strange.
Seeing a character I had only ever watched on a monitor standing face-to-face with me felt deeply surreal. And even though we were meeting for the first time, she felt familiar.
I didn’t show it. I turned away. She was a character I had made. So what? I couldn’t exactly declare, “I created you, so now you’re mine.” In this world she lived her own life.
I tossed a coin into the fountain.
“Hold on. You still haven’t told me your name. You’re just going to leave it like that?”
“…Yujin Meier.”
“Yujin Meier. Hmm. Got it. Nice name.”
“You didn’t just input it?”
“I didn’t replace my brain with machinery. Just the arms, legs, and eyes. Wait—should I count the heart too? No, that… Ha. Why am I even telling this to someone I just met?”
“…….”
The sixth coin plopped into the fountain.
“What brings you all the way out here? Work?”
“Personal business. I picked up a piece of information that’s been bothering me. I can’t go into detail. You understand?”
“Yeah.”
Probably something tied to her personal storyline.
In the original game, a player character’s story branched according to origin and class. Her story…
She’ll handle it herself.
She and I were nothing to each other. Reminding myself of that, I threw the seventh and final coin. In the game, tossing seven coins into the fountain would trigger a temporary luck buff message. Nothing appeared before my eyes.
“You must make a lot of money. If you’re going to throw cash into a fountain, toss some my way instead.”
“I didn’t throw money away. I bought luck.”
“With seventy credits? That’s enough for a decent meal at a restaurant.”
“With luck, I might earn more than that.”
“Ha. I don’t buy that… Wait, are you a fortune-teller?”
“Suddenly I’m feeling a surge of trust. Seventy credits… maybe I should try it too. Does it have to be exactly seventy?”
“One-credit coins or ten-credit coins—as long as there are seven.”
“Really? Music to my ears.”
She flung a one-credit coin toward the fountain. I walked past her and left the village. The sun was sinking; the black moon was beginning to rise.
The village was quiet as a ghost town. Everyone would be locked inside their homes, lying in bed, praying for the day to end quickly.
Levitation
My body rose into the air. I flew toward the fourth-largest mountain to the south.
Flying was far from peaceful. Black-shelled eagles, frenzied by the Dark Moon’s influence, came screaming at me in mad swarms.
Electric Whip
I cracked them out of the sky with lashes of electricity. The crisply roasted black-shelled eagles plummeted to become food for other beasts and monsters.
After killing maybe thirty of them, I reached my destination.
I scanned the surroundings, gauging my position.
I saw a cliff before I descended. That’s the way.
Thud!
My heart gave a massive lurch and stopped.
Sudden cardiac arrest.
I twisted my face and forced the heart to beat again with mana.
Damn it. Cardiac arrest right from the start…
I glared up at the Dark Moon hanging in the sky.
On the night of the Dark Moon, each region suffered its own set of status ailments. In the outskirts of Neo London those were cardiac arrest, random disease, and half-body paralysis. They always faded after a short time and the body returned to normal. The problem was that you never knew when or where the next affliction would strike.
After about five minutes the stopped heart began beating on its own again. I no longer needed to force it with mana. That alone was a relief.
The cliff appeared.
Looking down, I saw a sheer vertical drop. The bottom was so dark and deep that the end was invisible.
No need to go down, so it’s fine.
I approached the edge. Suddenly the flow of mana twisted and went wild. In that state even I would have trouble casting magic. That was why I hadn’t flown straight to the cliff.
I found the right place. All right, then…
I looked around. At the cliff’s edge a faintly blue flower was blooming; I spotted it without difficulty.
In this world there were plants that bloomed only under the Dark Moon. One of them was the blue flower before me—the Blue Distortion.
A flower with the power to distort mana. It had to be harvested while in bloom. When it wasn’t flowering it was no different from ordinary weeds.
I pulled a box from my coat. I plucked the petals of the Blue Distortion and placed them carefully inside. True to its name, the flower possessed the ability to warp mana.
One of the essential materials for repairing a broken mana road.
Because it bloomed only under the Dark Moon—and deep in the mountains at that—the price was enormous. Selling it on the black market would net a handsome sum.
One root won’t be enough.
I looked toward the cliff.
The cliff in front of the triangular rock… there.
Huu.
I exhaled the tension and headed for the cliff.
Steeling myself, I lifted my right foot and stepped out over the void. The foot did not fall; it landed on an invisible floor.
…It worked. Good. Looks like I don’t need to clear the prerequisite quest after all.
I focused hard. Ignoring the black moon staring down from above and the cool wind, I walked out over the cliff.
7366. 7366. 7366.
I repeated the number under my breath as I advanced. Exactly seven steps later I stopped. Looking down, I saw only the black abyss of the cliff. Falling would mean instant death.
Three steps to the right.
Thud, thud, thud.
Six steps left. Six steps right.
The moment I completed the final step safely, a door appeared in midair. Without hesitation I seized the handle and pushed.
It was a space of about three pyeong.
Blue sky, fresh air, moist earth.
Blue Distortion flowers bloomed there in a dense cluster. At a rough count there were easily a hundred blossoms.
Success.
A smile tugged at my lips as I crouched. One by one I harvested the petals of the Blue Distortion.
A certain gardener’s secret garden. A hidden space you can enter only after clearing the sub-quest and only when the Dark Moon is up.
As you can see, coming here lets you gather Blue Distortion in bulk. I could return later, but the flowers would be gone.
After collecting every last Blue Distortion I stepped back out through the door. I was still standing in empty air, yet the flow of mana had returned to normal. I had harvested every Blue Distortion that had been disrupting it.
Levitation
I flew through the air and landed on the mountain.
I hesitated.
Should I head back right now, or risk going after something else?
Go back. Tonight isn’t the only chance. First return, fully repair the mana roads, then come again on the next Dark Moon night.
There was no need to rush. Leaving the lingering regret behind, I lifted myself into the air once more.
KWAANG!
An explosion rang out.
I stopped midair and turned toward the sound. The location was the mountain to the right of the clearing—the place that hid an ancient ruin.
…Telescope.
I enhanced my vision with magic.
Looking down into the distance, I saw Vel Terrier—whom I had met only hours earlier at the village fountain—fighting a Diroid.
Diroids.
Robots that had risen in rebellion against humanity.
The nobles and citizens of Neo London hated Diroids with a trauma-level intensity. Once, a Diroid uprising had nearly destroyed the nation. The reason present-day Neo London resembled Victorian culture was, in large part, because of the Diroids.
Vel looks like she’s in trouble.
I decided to help her. I had a question for her. If my guess was right, she should have been somewhere else entirely.
Flying toward her, I prepared a spell formula.
Crackle-crackle.
Lightning mana surged skyward and gathered.
The Diroid, body and skin of steel, raised its head and looked up. Twin red lenses flared as they locked onto me.
In front of it Vel moved with rapid agility, pulling the trigger of her pistol. The bullets struck the Diroid’s head dead-on yet failed to deal meaningful damage.
“Mage detected. Estimated 5-Class. Target priority changed. Eliminate the human.”
The Diroid raised an arm toward me. Click-clack. The arm transformed into a gun barrel and aimed. Energy gathered at the muzzle, about to fire—
Thunderbolt
A massive bolt of lightning struck the Diroid a split second earlier.
The surroundings flashed bright as midday. The Diroid collapsed to the ground and did not move.
As expected, lightning magic works beautifully against machines.
I landed. She was wiping sweat with the back of her hand, still catching her breath, and fixed me with a steady stare.
“Was that unnecessary meddling?”
“…No. Thanks. You saved me. That Diroid’s armor wouldn’t take armor-piercing rounds at all—I was in a real bind.”
I looked past her.
Despite the wreckage of the battle, a mechanical door leading underground still stood intact.
“Ah, this is an ancient ruin I found by chance. Nothing to do with the Diroids, so don’t worry. I threw everything I had at that door and it wouldn’t break. Any idea how to get in? You’re a mage.”
“I know.”
“…For real? I was just asking… Fine. Then help me out. Whatever we find inside, we split fifty-fifty. I found this place, so I figure I’m entitled to half. What do you say?”
“We should check what’s inside before we talk about splitting.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
I walked up to the door.
Standing directly in front of it, I stared hard at the mark engraved on the surface. A pattern resembling a lotus.
“Do you know what that symbol is? I searched and nothing came up.”
“The mark of the Transcendentalists.”
“Transcendentalists? What’s that? Superhumans?”
“No.”
I spoke while looking at the door.
“Only transcendence is our ultimate.”
Ziiiiing.
The door opened.