Item Transfer

Item transfer.

What was that supposed to mean?

There was one item I never received.

The Auto-Resurrection Scroll. It had been the only one he owned, and its disappearance had struck him as strange. Was he receiving it now?

Let's check.

Yujun opened his inventory. Items spilled out in one long, unbroken list, and there were far too many of them. Hunting down whatever had just been transferred was going to take a considerable amount of time.

"Sirius. How long until we get there?"

"Just a little farther!"

He needed to find it before they reached the Underground Kingdom. To save time, Yujun pulled off the Helm of Omnipotence (Improved), took out the Eagle-Eye Scouter, and settled it over his eyes.

How much time passed after that?

In the end, he found them: ten new items, sitting in the deepest reaches of his inventory.

Two rings, and the real prize.

The other seven were low-level pieces of equipment he already owned and would never have any cause to use. What startled him were the remaining three.

Two Rings of the Lord of Fair Judgment.

And then—

He had also obtained a consumable he had never once seen in his life. It was dazzling just to look at — the sort of item that set his mouth watering.

It was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠good news, certainly. And yet...

How?

Items the No-Pay Casual Gamer character had never possessed had been transferred to him. Wasn't this supposed to be a synchronization with that character's inventory? He had raised the character himself. If anyone could claim to know exactly what sat in that inventory, it was him.

A system that seems to stand above even the gods isn't likely to make a mistake like this...

Then what?

Did the game keep running on its own even after the servers shut down?

Yujun's eyes went wide. It was plausible. A thought tossed out at random, and yet it carried a strange logic. The No-Pay Casual Gamer character had gained an intelligence of its own and started moving? The items hadn't been things Yujun obtained at all, but things No-Pay Casual Gamer had gone out and earned for himself?

Once he looked at it that way, everything locked into place.

Surely the No-Pay Casual Gamer character isn't about to show up in front of me for real.

No-Pay Casual ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Gamer was nothing more than a game character. Virtual data, without substance. Even so, unease crept in.

Everything that happens in the Tower of Infinity is already past believing. A game character coming to life wouldn't be the strangest of it.

If No-Pay Casual Gamer truly existed...

How badly would he want me dead?

Yujun had cleaned out every item in the inventory, and on top of that had unwittingly taken even the things the man had struggled to obtain himself. He meant to hunt down more Synchronization Marbles and carry off still more.

If I were No-Pay Casual Gamer, I'd count me a mortal enemy.

The character had been born through Yujun, yes, but having one's items stolen was an entirely separate matter.

It's nothing more than a hypothesis... but if it's true, I'd better be careful.

If someone plundered his items, Yujun would chase them to the ends of the earth to take them back.

Ah. This isn't Earth.

He used the Weapon Arts Imprint Scroll first. Consumables of this sort were simple. All it took was pouring mana into them.

The scroll crumbled to dust and vanished, and a change appeared on his status window.

He was never going to fight bare-handed, so the imprint's effect might as well have been permanent.

Yujun equipped the level 600 Mythic ring without a moment's hesitation. The Ring Imbued with the Sword God's Power that he had worn before was plenty fine in its own right, but a level requirement was a tyrant, as always.

Wearing the Ring of the Lord of Fair Judgment, Yujun smiled in satisfaction.

So this is the life of a golden spoon.

Even if he sat perfectly still, the world seemed determined to spoon-feed him everything. Come to think of it, finding the Synchronization Marble this time had been something of an accident too, hadn't it? His luck was good. Too good.

They had walked perhaps five minutes more when Sirius stopped dead.

"Here!"

"You mean here...?"

There was a hole, its depth impossible to guess. The problem was that the entrance was far too small.

"How are we supposed to get through that?"

"Ah..."

Sirius stared blankly at Yujun and the others.

"Huh. You're right."

"We have to pass through here to reach the Underground Kingdom, don't we? There's nowhere else?"

"U-uh. This is the only one I know."

It felt like someone had struck him across the back of the head. Sirius meant no harm, but Yujun very much wanted to flick that vacant face.

Good thing I moved the Synchronization Marble out of the way first.

If he hadn't even secured that, the unfairness of it would have been unbearable.

"We can't go in here."

"Then what do we do...?"

Sirius said it with his front paws stuffed in his mouth.

"What do you mean, what. We smash our way through."

"Th-that won't work."

"Why not?"

"High-level players from a few of the kingdoms tried really, really hard to widen the entrance. They all failed. You know — the message that says your caliber's too low, so you can't damage it?"

"Even when the one trying was a higher level than you?"

"Yeah!"

So it was like the maze walls and the iron doors from the last event. Back then, too, any attempt to simply break them had been blocked on the grounds that his caliber was too low.

"I've got a way."

"A way?"

Yujun poured Chaos into his sword and swung it at the hole.

A tremendous shock followed, and a roaring blast. When the dust settled, the sight that emerged was astonishing. The hole, once so narrow that Sirius alone could barely squeeze through, had blown wide open.

At that unhesitating display, not only Sirius but even Manuela stood with their mouths hanging open.

"Somehow it didn't collapse."

Yujun scratched his head as he muttered. The hole had grown larger than he had intended. He clearly hadn't controlled his strength.

Even a one percent rise in my stats makes a visible difference...

And he had just swapped in two rings that increased every stat, with the Weapon Arts imprint on top of that. Of course a blow charged with Chaos had been amplified.

Yujun stepped past Sirius and drew close to the hole.

"What..."

Thinking he must have seen wrong, he rubbed his eyes. The view remained exactly as it was.

"Sirius, is this right?"

"Is what right?"

"Why are there clouds down below?"

"Why wouldn't there be?"

Sirius tilted his head, as if Yujun had asked something perfectly obvious.

"Am I the strange one here?"

Yujun looked to Manuela. She had seen the same sight, and she shook her head.

"I've never seen anything like this either."

"Right?"

Beyond the hole lay another world. He had assumed an underground kingdom would be some small realm planted in a gloomy, lightless space. It was nothing of the sort. Whether such a thing was even possible was a question for later. How were they supposed to get down there?

He asked Sirius.

"Oh! I just Double Jump before I hit the ground! Double Jump is my skill. It's really useful for stuff like this!"

"Is that so."

Double Jump. What a curious little ability.

"Then how did you get up here in the first place?"

"My uncle helped!"

"Your uncle?"

"My uncle's a mage. You could say he's the greatest mage in the Underground Kingdom."

Pride showed plain on Sirius's face as he said it.

"Impressive."

"Right, right! My uncle's seriously cool."

"You go first."

"Okay!"

Sirius leapt toward the hole without a shred of hesitation, dropping at tremendous speed.

"Next is Paranet."

"Yes?"

"Your turn."

"M-me? I possess no gift of flight, I fear..."

"Then use Thousand-Pound Drop."

"Would that not simply make me fall all the faster?"

"What happens if you use Thousand-Pound Drop in midair? I'm curious. Aren't you?"

"...I am not curious in the slightest."

"Come on. Your mouth says that, but your body's honest."

Paranet was trembling all over. The fellow wanted a taste of the drop tower, that was all. Yujun kindly took that excitement into account.

"Give Thousand-Pound Drop a try. You're a summon, so you won't die, and if it goes badly I can always unsummon you."

"...Very well."

Paranet took his place before the hole with a look of grim resolve.

Yujun had a reason for driving him toward what amounted to death. He needed to confirm what Thousand-Pound Drop actually did. Was it merely a matter of growing heavy, as the name suggested? If all it did was add weight, then the day they met a sturdier foe, Paranet would be unable to bring any real power to bear. The difference in defense decided a fight. But if Thousand-Pound Drop raised defense as well? Nothing could be better. Considering that defense also reduced falling damage, there would never be a better chance to test it than now.

"Huff... huff! This appears to be a height at which a person might feel the very height of t-terror. I shall make the attempt. AAAAAH!"

Paranet vanished down the hole on the tail ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of his scream. For him, it was remarkable courage, and Yujun was genuinely impressed.

"Yujun. Let's go."

"Yeah."

Once they were through the hole, Yujun and Manuela descended in perfect comfort and safety on a Fly spell. Paranet was nowhere to be seen. He really had used Thousand-Pound Drop. From the start, once Yujun gave an order, a summon like Paranet had no power to refuse it. He'd had no choice but to swallow the bitter mustard and use it.

That was when it happened.

A tremendous roar slammed through the whole area — a sound so immense that even Yujun's ears, high in the sky, stung with the force of it.

"Hm? Don't tell me..."

Durek.

He was the chief who ruled Jhorhen, the second-largest mountain stronghold in the Underground Kingdom. The Jhorhen Mountain Stronghold was so vast that even the kingdom did not dare issue an order to subjugate it, and it was famous as a monumental headache. Lately, with internal strife breaking out between the royalist faction and the noble faction, Jhorhen's influence had only continued to grow.

"Boring."

Durek, master of the immense mountain range, yawned and stretched. He glanced to the side. There were the slaves brought in last time.

"Not a single piece of merchandise I like."

"The kingdom's watch has been strict of late. Abducting civilians is no simple matter."

Karim, his second-in-command, said it. Durek nodded.

"It happens. I understand."

In truth, the slaves they already held numbered in the tens of thousands. Those put to work as labor made up about two-thirds. The remaining third existed for when Durek wished to toy with them, or to relieve his urges. Killing slaves out of boredom was commonplace. If one displeased him, he killed them. If one looked filthy, he killed them. When his mood soured, he would cut down even a favored slave without hesitation. Durek was a dwarf that capricious, and that cruel.

"If only something amusing would hap—"

He broke off mid-mutter and hurled himself aside.

Something of appalling mass crashed down on the very spot where he had been standing. A violent shockwave tore through the air, and the bandits nearby were swept away in a rush.

"Wh-what is that!"

"Aaaagh!"

The mountain's peak was reduced to a wasteland. The surrounding terrain, the sturdy wooden buildings they had raised — all of it was blown away. The slaves, already in a wretched state, lost their lives to the last, and even the bandits of comparatively ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠greater strength were left with serious injuries at the minimum. Even Durek, chief of the stronghold, was bleeding from the mouth. Had he failed to notice that something was wrong and simply stayed where he was, he too would have died a meaningless death.

Cold sweat broke over him at the thought.

And then the culprit of it all, Paranet, shot bolt upright.