Irreversible (1)

Slice!

The severed head tumbled across the floor, and I flicked the blood from my blade. The other cultists who suddenly met my eyes let out sharp gasps. A perfectly natural reaction—they could already see their own fates coming.

“Time to pay for your sins, you wretched demon bastards!”

But it wasn’t as if I could only think of myself. The Inquisitor was already in the thick of it as well.

“Hero ba—!”

Thud!

I watched Kimchi Mandu cut down her share of them, then snuck a glance at my experience bar.

As expected, kills by the Inquisitor gave me zero experience. A bit of a waste, really.

“Ugh.”

At least the Archmage and the Thief were hanging back. Well, even if they had joined in it wouldn’t have been a problem. Experience could always be farmed elsewhere.

“Uh, could you maybe spare one of them for me?”

The Thief suddenly spoke up out of nowhere. Both the Archmage and the Inquisitor turned their heads toward him.

“What do you mean by that?”

He hadn’t fought with the same ferocity as the Inquisitor or me, but he had at least protected the Archmage and pulled his weight. Thanks to that, the Inquisitor’s voice was not nearly as hostile as before—though a clear note of disapproval still lingered.

“Nothing major, just…”

The Thief stepped over to the heap of corpses that had been piled on the altar—bodies used in the summoning and then crushed flat by the Nucker. Every last drop of blood had been drained, the flesh pulped into an unrecognizable mass. Not a single intact corpse remained.

“One of my comrades has family among the kidnapped. I just want to give him a chance at revenge.”

Considering the Thief’s own backstory—throwing himself into the back alleys to kill the noble who murdered his friend—the request made perfect sense.

In the original game one of the Thief’s class branches had even been Avenger. The job names for the Thief line had been so god-awful that that one stuck in my memory.

“If you can’t get a precious person back, at least let them have a proper revenge, right?”

“Private vengeance is forbidden by law.”

Unfortunately our Inquisitor was a walking brick ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wall of righteousness.

I watched the Thief’s face curdle, then reached down and grabbed the scruff of a Demon Contractor still twitching on the floor. The bastard still had a breath left in him.

Thud.

“Ghak!”

Perfect. He landed right at the Thief’s feet.

“Demon Knight…?”

“…Sir.”

“Remember this. If that demon spawn escapes, I’ll take your head along with his.”

“…Ha. Surveillance is kinda my specialty, y’know. That’ll never happen.”

Personally I wasn’t a big fan of private revenge, but I couldn’t say I didn’t understand it either.

Besides, the Demon Knight was a guy who had already lost every chance at vengeance himself. A small favor like this felt right.

And the quest accepted subjugation as well as elimination, so this should still count.

“Demon Knight!”

The Inquisitor clearly disagreed. If she were a D&D character she’d be pure Lawful Neutral.

“Hrrk… I curse you… I offer my blood and flesh to—”

Slice.

Did he really think I’d listen just because he called my name?

“Archmage…!”

“Demon Contractors are dangerous. Unless you plan to restrain them with Holy Power and haul them in, best to kill them. There’s no telling what they might attempt.”

“Even with their tongues cut out and the tendons in their limbs severed, they can still pull something?”

“…Don’t leave them alive too long. A demon’s power is different from ordinary magic. Never let your guard down.”

“No worries. I’ll finish him the second we step outside.”

I’d thought it a shame to lose the experience, but I never expected I’d end up doing all the cleanup myself.

I methodically stabbed every last one still muttering curses. The Inquisitor had been too busy arguing with the Thief to kill more than a few, so my experience bar shot up past the halfway mark on its own.

“The law must be obeyed…!”

Ah. No one left alive? Even Enemy Detection stayed silent. The quest updated too.

Good. Time to leave this dungeon.

Hmm. Or better yet—log out right here? I had less than an hour before the full-dive timer would force me out anyway. Whether I could finish the quest properly in that window was doubtful.

Getting cut off mid-quest would suck the fun out of it, so ending cleanly while things were tidy wasn’t a bad idea.

Plus, a distinctive place like this made it easy to remember exactly where I’d left ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠off when I logged back in later.

Any other game and I wouldn’t care, but these NPCs were way too realistic. If I came back flustered and out of character they’d notice. I refused to let the persona collapse even for a second.

“Logout.”

I made the decision and executed it.

What the hell was this message?

“…? Logout.”

“…???”

…A bug? No way. What kind of game bugs out on the logout function?

Was the company trying to go under on purpose? Even the best-made game becomes trash the second logout stops working. That’s virtual reality 101.

“Logout.”

“…Logout!”

What? Seriously, what? The repeating windows left me unable to think straight.

This was a scenario I had never even considered. No gamer in the world would imagine something like this.

“Demon Knight?”

…No. Stay calm. There’s no way the company would leave a bug this catastrophic unfixed unless they were completely insane. So this had to be… just a location thing.

Some games had rare no-logout zones, right? This was probably one of those. They just worded the message to scare people.

“…Never mind.”

I’d gotten more rattled than I thought. A little slip of character just now. Anyone would after seeing that message, though.

“Where are you going?”

A sudden rush of urgency made me hurry toward the exit.

“To execute the fallen who colluded with demons.”

I couldn’t exactly say “I’m going outside to try logging out again,” so quoting the updated quest was the natural choice.

Of course I had no intention of clearing it. The second I left the hidden underground passage I was shutting the game off.

“……! P-Please wait a moment!”

The Inquisitor called after me urgently, then began murmuring a prayer under her breath.

Probably purification. A faint chill ran down my spine from the Holy Power.

“Sir.”

But right now logout was more important.

I ignored her request and stepped into the passage we had come through. Someone hurried after me at once.

The Inquisitor was still purifying, the Archmage stayed at her side—so that left only the Thief.

“Thank you.”

The words came not in his usual flippant, needling tone, but in a serious voice, rough and sincere.

Even though the faint groans of the Demon Contractor continued behind us, I decided to treat them as background music.

“…Thieves never forget a grudge. And we never forget a favor either. I’ll repay this one for sure.”

“Unnecessary.”

Favor or not, once that face belonged to the poster boy of the Thief class he was basically guaranteed to join the party. Whatever.

“…Even if you say it’s unnecessary, I’ll still repay it.”

“I already said it’s unnecessary.”

Had this passage always been so long? I picked up my pace. My mental health was precious.

“Who goes there!”

“Oof. Cops.”

We ran straight into a pair of guards just coming down the stairs. Enemy Detection stayed quiet—apparently they didn’t count as hostile.

“Y-You! Who are you!”

“Surrender at once!”

But I was soaked head to toe in blood, so the guards raised their weapons with trembling hands.

They clearly didn’t want to fight, yet they looked like they’d die if they didn’t draw. Pure self-defense spears and swords, obvious as day.

“Surrender?”

I toyed with the hilt of my sword. My character concept didn’t include being broken enough to cut down ordinary civilians who weren’t demons or criminals. That was the hard line.

The irritation boiling up, though—I didn’t bother hiding that.

“Demon Knight!”

“Wait there!”

Thankfully less than twenty seconds into the standoff, the Inquisitor and Archmage came running from behind.

Perfect timing. The Archmage looked like even straightening his back was a struggle.

Well, they’d been wandering all night and then jumped straight into combat without rest. A fragile mage was bound to be exhausted by now.

“W-Who are you people!”

“I am an Inquisitor of the Order!”

Staying here would only get messy and complicated. Even my concept knew that much—stepping aside this time was fine.

I calculated hard and took one step back. The Thief did the same, so the Inquisitor was able to move quickly to the front.

In her hand she held the Order’s sacred relic for identification.

“Th-The Order…?”

“We detected Demon Energy in the underground passage, slaughtered every Demon Contractor, and are now leaving. These people are my allies. Lower your weapons.”

“D-Demons!”

“…Is that true?”

The Inquisitor didn’t bother with long explanations. Sacred light simply poured from her body, gently illuminating the dark passage.

The soldiers who had been exchanging glances hurriedly lowered their weapons.

“Forgive our discourtesy, Reverend.”

“You were only doing your duty. Do not apologize.”

Apparently an Inquisitor ranked higher than I’d thought. Beside me a quiet mutter drifted out—the Thief’s.

“Priests my ass… bunch of thugs…”

…Kid, if you start as a priest class you don’t even get to join the party, right? Actually he probably wouldn’t join now either.

I’d always assumed the Demon Knight had the worst personality, but the Thief line looked pretty nasty once you dug in. In the original the story delivery had been so annoying I never properly read the scripts.

“Shall we go?”

While I was thinking that, the conversation with the guards seemed finished. The Inquisitor looked at me with clear “let’s move” eyes. Exactly what I wanted.

“Hey, hand over the criminal.”

“Huh? This one’s mine, though.”

“The Inquisitor ordered the Demon Contractor recovered.”

“…Ah, that thug bastard…”

“What did you just say?”

“I said the passage is narrow so I’ll hand him over outside, is what I said?”

“…That was not a long sentence.”

“I talk a little fast, y’know.”

We climbed the stairs and stepped out of the vegetable shop. The afternoon sun stabbed sharply into my eyes.

“Ah, but I’ve got something urgent, so I’ll be right back.”

“……! Wait, stop!”

“Catch him!”

“That bastard—!”

“Whoopsie.”

“Ah, Archmage, are you all right?”

“Hoho… I’m fine. It seems a march of this length is a bit much for an old man, that’s all.”

“Ah, uh, ah…”

“I can still keep going, so don’t worry. We still have to find the fallen ones at the temple, do we not?”

I left the Thief, the guards, and the Inquisitor bickering, and the Archmage half-jokingly half-seriously drawing the Inquisitor’s attention for the Thief’s sake, and focused on the soft chime that rang out.

Region update. Now I could finally log out for real.

…I should be able to.

“Logout.”

I stared into the empty air in front of me and spoke the command. A window appeared.

“You crazy…!”

Fuck, has this game gone insane…!

“Demon Knight?”

The shout that slipped through my teeth made the Inquisitor turn toward me. But I couldn’t bring myself to fix my expression.

Anyone standing in my place would look the same. This was no longer something I could cover with roleplay.

This wasn’t a quest that couldn’t be interrupted mid-way, and there was no reason the region should block logout either. There was zero cause for logout to be locked.

And yet it still wouldn’t work? I could sue the company over this and win for sure. God damn it. That was how serious this was.

“Settings.”

I even forced the menu open and started mashing the logout button manually.

I normally avoided it because the NPCs were so smart they might find it weird—though the windows were invisible to them—but this was not the time to care.

But the same window just stacked higher and higher.

“…What.”

This… this can’t be. I felt the temperature drain from my cheeks as I muttered logout like a madman. Still nothing but the same impossible message.

“Demon Knight? Is something wrong?”

“You…?”

Horror games? Fuck that. This was real horror.

Fear clawed up my throat. I chewed my lip raw and clutched my head as if I could tear the thoughts out.

What now? What the hell was I supposed to do?

Even the buggiest trash games might crash, but never once had logout itself been locked. I’d never even heard of it.

Not once. Not like this…

“……! Emergency protocol.”

Then one function flickered into my mind. I shouted it in desperation. A system built into the capsule itself.

I’d half-forgotten it, thinking I’d never need it—but the moment a real crisis hit, it surfaced.

“Force capsule shutdown.”

“Pardon?”

“Emergency protocol, force capsule shutdown!”

“Fuck!”

It didn’t work either. I spat every curse I hadn’t used since my twenties, frantically alternating between logout and force shutdown.

Unfortunately—or perhaps inevitably—nothing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠activated.

“Demon Knight, what is it!”

“What on earth is the matter?”

What the hell am I supposed to do? If logout doesn’t work and the capsule’s emergency system is dead, how do I turn the game off? How do I get out?!

Those company bastards—how the fuck did they build a game with a bug this shitty…!

“Demon Knight. Is something… wrong?! Could it be… the demon…!”

The Inquisitor grabbed my arm and locked eyes with me. A wave of pure disgust and bone-deep unease crawled across my skin.

“It won’t…”

“Pardon?”

“Logout won’t…”

No. No. Stay calm. The nutrient packs injected for the full-dive duration will run out eventually, and then full-dive automatically ends. The game shuts off with it.

That feature became mandatory after some idiot kept playing after the nutrients ran dry and starved to death. It has to trigger. It will.

So calm down. Just a few more hours. Just hang on until full-dive ends—just a few hours—

“Snap out of it!”

Thud!

Agony exploded in my solar plexus. The HP damage sound was deafening.

“Ghak!”

What the fuck. I lowered the pain settings, why does this hurt so much…!

“You…!”

I instinctively clutched my gut and glared at whoever hit me. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Inquisitor.

“Hah! You’re finally lucid!”

Kimchi Mandu, you just punched a man in the solar plexus and you’re looking proud?! And why the hell are you smiling?! Are you actually turning into a real kimchi dumpling?!

“This isn’t a jok—”

“I apologize for striking a vital point! But you looked like you needed help.”

“…What?”

I stared at those green eyes sparkling with zero remorse and felt my sanity salute and leave. Even the catastrophe of being unable to log out felt briefly unimportant.

“I sensed the Demon Energy in your right arm stirring. The demon you were suppressing must have gone wild, did it not?”

“……?”

What kind of nonsense is this girl spouting.

“Do not worry. I do not doubt you. Even if you waver for a moment, I believe you will ultimately overcome the demon—that you will never surrender to it!”

“……?”

“Therefore, Demon Knight! If this ever happens again, entrust it to me at any time! I will buy you time no matter what!”

“……??”

“I swear I will buy you time!”

…Kimchi Mandu. I do like you, but right now you’re talking complete bullshit.