The Truth
The truth.
Nothing beat getting something for free, but earning it as fair payment for a job wasn't so bad either.
"If it's a deal, both sides ought to come out ahead, right?"
The wrinkles at the corners of Doctor Samington's mouth deepened.
"Stating the obvious. Now then... shall I start with what I can offer?"
"Please."
Yujun's eyes locked onto Samington. He was genuinely curious what the man could be holding to wear a face that confident.
If he had his way, he would have demanded a Synchronization Marble, but he doubted anything of the sort existed in a world as close to virtual as the Illusion Queen's.
A Synchronization Marble is far more likely tied to No-Pay Casual Gamer.
There wouldn't be one in a virtual world.
Doctor Samington drew an item from his pocket.
"First... this should suit you."
What he offered Heminine was, more precisely, a doll. She checked the item information.
◈ Option: A doll imbued with the power of the Illusion God. Its mere presence greatly increases the might of all illusion-related abilities.
Heminine's mouth fell open. It was an item with an option tied to illusion abilities, the very thing she had longed for—and a Mythic one, at that, which greatly increased their power. She was just reaching out to take the doll when Doctor Samington tucked it back into his coat.
"Not yet. I haven't gotten what I want."
"What do you want? What is it you want! What do you want! Huh? Something you want? Huh?"
Heminine was more worked up than she had ever been.
"Whoa—don't come any closer. You're scaring me."
"I'm telling you to hand it over. Can't you pay in advance? It's useless to you anyway, isn't it? Right? I don't lie, and I don't betray people. And if you give me that doll, don't you think I could take care of whatever you want in no time?"
"Whoa, sis. Calm down. Let's hear the old fossil out first."
It had gotten bad enough that Harp stepped in to stop her. Only when she met Harp's cute little face did Heminine manage to settle down.
"I'd like to see what I'm getting, too."
It was Yujun's turn. Doctor Samington nodded.
"Of course. You'll like it."
What he held up from a short distance was a strangely shaped stone.
"A Stone of Omnipotence?"
"Oh. You know it?"
"How could I not."
He already had two Stones of Omnipotence, and both were mounted on his equipment. Few people alive understood quite how good an item it was.
"If you already know it, there's no need to show you. Do my favor, and it's yours."
"Talk."
"Simple enough. There's an existence called RTZ-3080 that manages this entire city. No—more precisely, it isn't a living creature. It's an artificial intelligence."
"Sounds like an expensive name. And?"
"RTZ-3080 means to go beyond this planet and invade others. It has more than enough ability to do so, so the odds it succeeds are high."
"An artificial intelligence? Do we just destroy the robots?"
"Mm. Robots... isn't quite right. You'll have to destroy the memory of a supercomputer somewhere in the city. And because of the backup systems, the base has to be wiped out all at once."
"A base? Where is it?"
"The middle of the city. Hidden underground."
"There was a building that shot up incredibly high, wasn't there? Looked like well over a hundred floors. Is it under that, by any chance?"
Doctor Samington smiled and nodded.
"Sharp eyes. But that building is for show. The real thing is underground."
"Hmm. So we sneak underground and smash the computer? No—just blow the whole thing away?"
"That's right."
Yujun looked at Heminine.
"What?"
"Could his request have anything to do with breaking the Illusion Queen's world?"
"That's something no one knows. Still, the larger the scale, the higher the chance, wouldn't you say?"
"Then we should just do it."
"Yes. No question!"
Heminine's eyes had already glazed over, and anything like a rational judgment looked impossible. She seemed able to see nothing but the Doll of the Illusion God. Even without her, Yujun had meant to accept the doctor's offer for the sake of the Stone of Omnipotence.
"But why us?"
"Hm?"
"There are plenty of other players. There has to be a reason you picked us of all people."
"I called you simply because you looked strong. If someone stronger had been here, I'd have called them. Unlikely as that may be."
"Wouldn't this have been settled long ago if you'd just handled it yourself?"
At Yujun's question, Doctor Samington burst out laughing.
"You. Aren't you taking RTZ-3080 a little too lightly?"
"They're robots, at best. Honestly, are they even a match for a player?"
"That's only true when the robots don't have player abilities."
"...They do?"
"A minority of them do. Minority by ratio, mind you. There are still thousands of them in the city."
"...Hm."
"The robots' firepower is already formidable, and with skills and traits on top of that, they are by no means easy opponents."
It was a little unsettling. Did that even make sense? Player abilities, on robots that weren't alive? Doctor Samington was an immense powerhouse in his own right. So there had been a reason he wouldn't step in himself.
"How strong are they?"
"And since when has strength been something you can put into words? All I can say is that I wouldn't even dare."
"...Hm."
By Yujun's estimate, Doctor Samington was on par with Balrog. That a one-armed human had reached that level was astonishing enough, and even he wouldn't dare.
Robots fitted with laser weapons, and skills, traits, and titles besides... yeah. That would be monstrous.
"So that's why you left it to us?"
"Indeed. And I'm far too important a person to risk myself."
"Sorry?"
Something about the doctor's tone was strangely off.
"Do you have a map, by any chance?"
"Do you need one?"
"With a barrier up, I doubt I could find it by sense alone."
"There is no barrier. I've infiltrated several times and confirmed everything already."
"And if one shows up?"
"Then there's nothing to be done. You're blowing the whole place away regardless—what use is a map? I'd like to rest now, so be on your way."
"No. There's something to do first."
"What?"
"We need to form a soul contract."
Doctor Samington's face went slack, as if the whole thing were a nuisance.
"That. Must we?"
"And what exactly am I supposed to trust you on?"
"Very well. It's not as if I intend to stab you in the back. I've no reason to refuse."
A soul contract was an uncomfortable thing, but so long as the promise wasn't broken, there was nothing to lose. Yujun formed one with Doctor Samington on the terms that they would receive the promised items once the job was successfully finished.
Heminine, whose magic lagged considerably outside of illusion, couldn't form a soul contract on her own, so Yujun helped her through hers as well.
"You... you carry a sword around. Between magic and the sword, which is actually your main?"
Once the contracts were done, Heminine asked.
"The sword."
Once he might have said both, but now it was the sword, without question. He had thought so even before obtaining Sword Unity, a skill born at EX++ rank. It showed clearly in how he dealt with the strong. Balrog had been the same, and so had the two apostles. Whenever he met opponents above a certain level, he always finished them with the sword. It was the more comfortable way, and his confidence in his swordsmanship overflowed to match.
It was a confidence unbecoming of an ordinary college student who, until a few months ago, had never even held a sword. The abilities he carried had made him that way.
"The sword is your main, and you still use soul-contract magic?"
"I doubt that's so rare."
"It is rare. A player like that."
"Meaning they aren't nonexistent."
"Well, yes, but..."
Heminine couldn't forget the sight of him flying in at a terrifying speed with Fly magic still cast. Fly magic wasn't affected by physical stats at all. The mana stat carried heavy weight, and more important still was the rank of the magic skill. Judging by that speed, it had to be SSS at a minimum. Either that, or he was carrying an absurd amount of mana in his body.
Which is why I assumed he was a magic-specialized player...
Plenty of players carried bladed weapons as decoration, to throw their enemies off. In practice, that sort of disguise worked surprisingly well. Maybe that was the sense in which he had said he handled a sword better. That was what Heminine thought.
"We'll be going."
Yujun said it to Doctor Samington. The doctor raised his mechanical prosthetic.
"I won't see you off."
"Sure, sure."
Whether to call it a laboratory or a ruined building, Yujun and Heminine left it behind and headed straight for their destination. From behind, Heminine tapped him on the back.
"Do you think those robots are for surveillance?"
"Seeing as they clean the streets too, they seem multipurpose... though I imagine they've all got cameras on them."
"Cameras?"
"Like vision orbs."
"How do you know all that? Have you been here before?"
"Hardly. There's something more important."
"What?"
"The robots have started watching us."
Heminine looked baffled.
"They look the same to me."
"We should hide ourselves."
Yujun knew the robots' field of view covered a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and that the footage they captured in real time was being sent somewhere. How he knew it was a question in itself. Probably because his sensory ability had developed so far.
Why are they watching us?
There had to be a reason they had suddenly started. Nothing good would come of walking around in the open. Yujun expanded the range of his senses. It felt like looking down from the sky, the whole city coming in at a glance. It was only a feeling—his actual vision didn't change—but he grasped the shape of things well enough.
Is it actually true the only living things here are the illusion race?
The robots moved at fixed intervals. Their routes seemed predetermined; they circled the same ground. The problem was that their fields of observation left no gaps. There were simply too many of them, and each had a wide radius of sight. Nor were the robots only on the ground.
Whirr. Bzzzt.
Drones cutting through the empty air. A great many of them.
Count the drones, and sneaking around undetected is close to impossible.
Yujun had no choice but to take out an item. Two invisibility rings.
"Invisibility rings? Something that precious... and you have two of them?"
Heminine asked, startled.
"Yes. I'll lend you one. We'll need a soul contract."
"...So you don't trust me."
"They say you don't lend items even to family."
"But will you be all right?"
"With what?"
"A soul contract takes a considerable amount of mana. Won't that get in the way of a fight?"
"I've got mana to spare, so it's fine. Just accept the contract."
"...All right."
Wearing the invisibility rings, the two made quickly for the place where the hidden base lay. In truth, with a building of such staggering height to mark it, reaching the destination wasn't particularly hard.
However—
"Your name was Heminine, right? What have you been doing, not putting any points into Agility?"
The robots kept fixing on Heminine. Her Agility was hopelessly low, and an invisibility ring depended heavily on that stat. Yujun could brush right past a robot and it wouldn't notice. Heminine was spotted at once even when she followed from a good distance off.
"Good grief. What a klutz."
"......"
"Hopeless. Slowpoke."
Yujun kept at it, nagging without pause. Heminine, who had never once been treated this way, flushed red and went pale by turns.