Hmm... it's smaller than the blueprint
Hmm... it's smaller than the blueprint
"Kkolk, kkolk."
The irritating dust tickled my respiratory tract, forcing out a dry cough as my airways tried to clear the passages on their own.
"Ah! Aris! You're not broken, are you?"
I'd definitely need Aris to keep unlocking more areas... I can't lose Aris like this now. But the room was so full of dust it was hard to distinguish anything.
I waved my hand to fan away the dust. As it cleared a little, I could faintly see Aris's silhouette. It was left in the center of the room in a shape that looked like just a pile of debris, making me wonder if it was completely shattered.
"Ah, man..."
It was a shape that naturally made one think it was completely broken.
creak
Then, something within the pile of wreckage began to move.
"Huh?"
And a young girl who sprang out from that wreckage.
"W-wait a minute! Why are you naked?! Ddeuddae-ya! Find some clothes, quick!"
While I was covering my eyes, the Ddeuddae-ya scrambled out of the room and returned not long after with clothes. The clothes... were a design somewhere between a nun's habit and a maid's uniform, a Gothic design that was quite pretty. There was underwear too.
"Why is there something like this...? What kind of place is this really...?"
For now, I keep my eyes closed and let the Ddeuddae-ya dress her. The girl, still seemingly dazed, doesn't resist and lets them put the clothes on her as they please.
"Um... who are you?"
I don't know if she'll understand me... but I try talking to the now fully-dressed girl.
"?!"
The girl shows a slightly startled expression, then it changes to an expression and behavior suggesting she's pondering something, before she opens her mouth as if having realized something.
"Aris, joining the party."
Aris...? That golem I named?
"You're Aris?"
"Yes. Even after my class change, I am still Aris."
The self-proclaimed Aris, spouting words that remind me of a certain 'battery-eating robot' from a game.
"But... class change?"
Looking at the tablet, notifications came flooding in.
[Achievement: Golem! Output Limit! Additional!]
[Reward: Class Change Coupon]
['Aris', who has met the requirement, is undergoing a class change.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Hmm... It's smaller than the blueprint]
[New Personnel 'Aris (Unique)']
[Due to priority, Aris → Cathedral Management Golem, name has been changed.]
Achievement...? Class change...?
"Hah."
A hollow laugh escaped. It really felt like playing a game. The world I lived in turning into something like a game... an antiquated trope that even recent subculture wouldn't use. It made me wonder, 'Am I really alive?'
"Angel-nim?"
I heard Aris's voice. She called me Angel-nim. Right, gotta keep doing what we were doing.
"Aris, try sitting on that chair over there,"
I didn't know if she'd listen, but I spoke to Aris as if making a request.
"Yes, understood."
Judging by her speech pattern, she seemed like a 2P color version of the battery-eating robot, but the fact that she was actually talking like the battery-eating robot gave me a strange, complicated feeling.
"Hmm..."
Looking carefully at her appearance, I could definitely see traces of what she looked like when she was a golem. Hair with a deep blue-black sheen matching the color of her armor, and eyes that glowed gold, as if showing off that they were once decorated with brass and gold.
...And she was taller than me. But still, she was a beautiful girl.
"Aris...? Is it okay to call you that?"
"Yes, my name is Aris."
"Can I touch your body a bit?"
I said, pointing at Aris with my finger.
"...Huh? By any chance, are you a pervert, Angel-nim?"
It seemed she had a well-formed sense of self-awareness.
"No, I want to see what your body is made of,"
"Are you unaware that statement invites even more misunderstanding?!"
Aris spoke as if shocked.
"Then I'll call it a chassis inspection!"
"...Understood."
Aris held out her arm as if she had no choice. Probably a sign of permission.
Hmm... First of all, the exterior has a human form. When I touched her hand, I felt soft skin, but pressing a bit harder, I felt the hardness of metal.
I moved up bit by bit, gauging the thickness of the skin... no, the outer casing.
"Eung-at?!"
"Hmm... The outer casing on the forearm seems a bit softer and thicker, I see,"
This time, I go down. I touch the foot that supports the chassis.
"Angel-nim...?!"
Clearly needing strength, the top of the foot had almost no outer casing. I lifted the foot and touched the sole area; unlike the top, it felt quite soft. Probably for weight distribution.
"Ugh..."
From the foot to the ankle, from the ankle to the calf, and the thigh area here was definitely soft. Despite her slim-looking physique, it boasted considerable softness. Then, what about the inner thigh...
"Please behave, you pervert angel!"
Thwack!
In the end, I got hit.
[Hunters patrolling around the Tower,]
December 2034
[Gatherings of Hunters, What is a Guild?]
January 2035
[Birth of the Hunter Union for the Improvement of Hunters' Rights,]
March 2035
"Our National Alliance, having jointly investigated and analyzed the Towers in each country with the Hunter Union, concluded that the Towers are connected to a dimension different from Earth's, that there are so-called 'monsters' in that other dimension, and that these monsters crossing over to our dimension has caused Earth, our world, significant damage."
A person who looked somewhat tall with a receding hairline, wearing glasses and a white lab coat, was announcing something.
"Wha... Wha..."
The reporters who heard his words began to murmur.
"A different dimension? What do you mean by that!"
"The dimension and timeline of the Tower applied differently each time one entered, leading us to judge it as a separate, independent dimension from Earth. Hunters have something like a personal notification window visible to them and..."
The researcher dropped another bombshell statement.
"Notification window? What do you mean by that!"
"Do you think the world is a game?!"
Again, the reporters murmured and fired off questions.
"Yes, please look at this data screen."
[Tutorial Clear!]
[Difficulty: Easy]
[Reward: Strength Stat +2]
[Class: OOO]
[Strength: 5]
[Magic Power: 2]
[Defense: 5]
...
Something like a notification window floating in mid-air, similar to a game screen.
"And the notification window could be photographed with a camera. From here on, the Chairman from the Hunter Association will explain."
"Wha... Wha..."
Again, murmuring reporters.
"We determined that to prevent monsters from emerging from the Tower, we must continuously 'conquer' the Tower."
A young but imposing-looking man in a neat suit stepped onto the podium and began to speak.
"That notification window says 'Easy' on it. Were there other difficulty levels?"
A question from a reporter who had been observing the data screen carefully. The press room fell quiet at the sharp question.
"Yes, the difficulty levels were Easy, Normal, Hard, Chaos, and Impossible."
A very briefly flustered Chairman, yet he answered smoothly. For a young person, he seemed to handle it remarkably well.
"Did you personally participate in the Tower investigation? What was the reason for choosing the Easy difficulty?"
A reporter continuing the barrage of questions.
"I did not participate. As we did not know exactly what the Tower interior was like, if there was something called difficulty, we judged it safest to investigate with the lowest difficulty."
"Why didn't you participate?"
A reporter who had been quiet the whole time suddenly began questioning, as if seizing an opportunity.
"It was because once you choose a difficulty, you cannot change it thereafter."
"Was it right to choose a difficulty so rashly, thinking there might be something else!"
The reporter, as if having caught a good opportunity, continued with provocative questions.
"Even in that 'Easy' difficulty, three researchers and five of our hunters died!"
The Chairman shouted with tremendous volume, as if angered by those words. The podium he was resting his hand on shattered under his grip.
After the war with monsters lasting from as short as 7 months to as long as 8 months, it became known that psychics, hunters, had abilities surpassing humans, not just physically but with unknown powers as well.
"Ahem... My apologies."
The reporter backed down. The press room fell quiet again.
"...Any questions?"
The Chairman, seemingly having calmed down, began taking questions again.
"What is the exact structure of the Tower?"
"We cannot disclose that yet, but footage from inside the Tower is scheduled to be released soon."
"Watching that news again? That's from years ago, almost three years, isn't it?"
My older sister, scratching her stomach as she came out of her room, started talking.
"Watching that kind of news won't make you awaken..."
Awakening, the very first process to become a hunter.
"Instead of watching that, practice swordsmanship. I even got you an academy membership."
A hunter who has undergone Awakening chooses a difficulty in the Tower, completes the tutorial, then begins climbing, conquering floors.
"I'm going every day~ You just haven't seen me because you're busy, I'm really good. And what if I become a mage? Why am I practicing swordsmanship?"
I fired back a remark at my sister who kept scratching me.
"A Magic Swordsman is cool, swinging a sword while using magic,"
My sister struck a pose of swinging a sword.
"But sister, you're a mage too, a pure mage who doesn't know a thing about swordsmanship. And there are only three Magic Swordsmen in the whole world,"
I hit her with facts.
"No, I'm not a mage, I'm a Magical Girl! That's what it says in my class!"
My sister pulled out a pink staff from mid-air and spun it pirouetting.
"...Isn't it embarrassing?"
My sister's face reddened at my words.
"It's fucking embarrassing. What's a Magical Girl at this age..."
Hearing that, my sister slumped down on the spot, covering her face and muttering.
"What, 27 is young."
"Wow, look at you, bluntly saying you're 24!"
One of Korea's top five mages, a hunter rank A Magical Girl, Cheon Byeol-i, that's my sister. On the internet, she's called 'Cheonbeol' [Heavenly Punishment]. I guess she must be strong.
Ddeerong—
The sound of a phone ringing was heard.
"Ahh, gotta go on a mission. They say monsters came out of the Ulsan Tower. I'll be back soon,"
My sister, checking her phone, said that, and with a brief moment of concentration, spun the pink staff pirouetting once more.
Soon, a rainbow-colored light swirled around her body, and shortly after, she transformed into an outfit with a short frilly skirt, white thigh-highs, and a large ribbon on her chest and back, with frills attached. Her previously messy hair was also perfectly styled.
The sloppy T-shirt literally transformed into a pink outfit smothered in ribbons and frills.
"...Isn't it embarrassing?"
"...It's embarrassing. Ahh! Hey! Cheon Hye-ryeong! I'll be back today, so don't skip meals!"
Saying that, my sister stepped onto the staff floating in the air. It was an incredible sense of balance. She said she fixed it with magic.
"I wanted to eat together today... Isn't sister too busy?"
I complained a little to my sister.
"If I'm not here, South Korea won't run, right? I'll gather a lot of magic stones too. I'll finish as quickly as possible and come back."
Magic stones gained immense value after it became known they could be converted into various forms of energy quickly and with high efficiency.
"Bring some sashimi on your way back, let's eat it with soju. Have a good trip~"
"Okay,"
My sister flew away at high speed through the open window.
"Haah~ She's fast every time I see her,"
Saying that, I turned on the news.
[LIVE]
The news screen said, and the screen showed my sister flying.
My sister, as if doing fan service, made a V sign.
"...Is she really embarrassed? She seems to be enjoying it. Crunch, crunch,"
I took snacks from the cupboard and started watching the live news while eating.
...
A giant monster resembling an octopus, ignoring magical firepower with incredibly fast regeneration. Usually, monsters with fast regeneration have their wounds set on fire, but that monster is an aquatic monster.
Chiiik—
As it put its burning wound into the water, rapid regeneration was visible again.
Bang!
My sister barely dodged a tentacle swung by the monster.
And she quickly fired off magic.
"Sister..."
No matter where you looked, it was clear, she was struggling. Her clothes, body, and face were covered in wounds here and there, and her exhaustion was also evident.
"Ah."
My sister's leg was caught.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
My sister slammed repeatedly against the ground.
My sister, unconscious on the spot,
Bang!
Lost her life due to an additional tentacle strike.
Saying the broadcast signal was unstable, the screen changed to the news desk.
...
The funeral was held with an empty coffin. Because the body was too severely damaged to be placed inside.
Looking around, people who were said to be my sister's colleagues filled the funeral hall.
I looked at my phone.
[South Korea's Star Sets.]
[South Korea's Representative Mage Cheon Byeol-i, Deceased,]
[The Magical Girl Falls.]
All sorts of sensational headlines announced my sister's death.
I turned off my phone screen.
Tears flowed.
My eyes didn't blink. I didn't have the strength to.
Something appeared before my eyes.
It was a notification window congratulating me on my Awakening.
My class was Magic Swordsman.
I dismissed the notification window and crouched down to cry again.