At Yujun's Words, Vanessa...

Yujun's words drew a look of pure disbelief — not only from Vanessa, but from Heminine as well.

It was the sort of reaction that only made sense if you knew nothing of the situation he was actually in. The odds were high that Manuela, Do Jiyun, Paranet, and the rest were waiting for him in the Sky Prison, and even if they weren't, there was nothing to be gained by lingering in the Illusion Realm any longer. Better to take what there was to take, and leave quickly.

"You stepping aside, or not?"

"A job I took on, I see through to the end. Come on, then. Let's tangle."

Vanessa looked positively thrilled, and she was quick to explain why.

"Truth is, I've been wantin' a fight with you for a while. You looked strong. And ain't this just the place — dyin' here don't mean you really die. We can go at it all we like, and it won't matter a whit who falls."

"Fine. Understood."

It was what he had wanted, too. Sword Unity, raised to GX Tier by a highest-grade skill gem — at last, a chance to see what it could really do. Vanessa's power was nothing ordinary, which only made her a better test. Against a middling opponent the fight would be over before he had time to feel the weight of the evolved skill at all. The first offering laid on the altar of GX-Tier Sword Unity happened, by coincidence, to be Vanessa, the very first person he had faced in the Illusion Realm. She wanted the fight herself. Was there a more fitting opponent anywhere? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yujun decided he would set no limits. He would bring her down at full strength.

Vanessa fought with a peculiar choice of armament: a single short dagger. Unlike the first time he had seen her, she wore armor now, but the dagger was still all she carried.

That dagger looks familiar...

He knew it by sight. It had definitely been in his inventory once.

Ah. The dagger I sold on the Black Market.

He couldn't be certain Vanessa had been the one to buy it. The world did not contain only a single copy of any given item. Even so, a Legendary piece sitting just shy of Mythic was hardly something you saw every day.

The player who bought it off me back then had a woman's voice, too.

So Vanessa was female, it seemed. A branch royal was still royalty, and royalty, he had been told, possessed gender. Only now did every piece of the puzzle click into place.

Just then Harp sniffled.

"That big sister is strong. Be careful, Dad. If it looks dangerous, I'll jump in."

"Yeah. Thanks."

Yujun cast Flash, and his body vanished. Vanessa didn't whip her head around looking for him. She reached out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with her senses, feeling for his presence, and the instant she barely pinned him down a sword came flying in from directly in front of her. She had been privately certain the strike would come from behind. She threw herself into Blink in a panic.

Fwip!

Yujun used Flash again. As he closed to within arm's reach, Vanessa hurled her dagger. Throwing away her one precious weapon made no sense at first — until it did. She was buying time. He did more than slip the blade. He caught it in his hand, and a hologram message bloomed before his eyes.

Yujun laughed, short and hollow. Last time he had been careless, and the illusion had been woven by Sorsin together with a whole pack of the illusion race. This time it was Vanessa alone — and she had succeeded in laying the magic on him by herself. Before his mind could be dragged into the virtual world, he threw up dozens of layered shields. Then the world changed.

I raised Equanimity all the way to SS, and it still folded this pathetically.

The cast had been far faster than Sorsin's, too. That was why he hadn't been able to brace for it.

The grain's faint. Hard to make out.

What mattered was that a grain existed at all. Show him a grain, and Yujun was confident he could sever it without a hair of error. With the Swordsmanship trait and Sword Unity behind him, the chance of a mistake was as good as zero.

He kicked off and leapt high. Only two grains were visible, and one of them was a trap. Honestly, they looked like much of a muchness — even judging by how difficult each would be to cut, he could barely tell them apart. Even so, he knew which one to sever. Grain Finding, amplified by his Genius trait, told him so.

So Vanessa knows grains exist.

Otherwise she would never have built a trap like this: a choice between two. Without the Genius trait, it was subtle enough that he might never have noticed. From midair, he cut the grain on the right.

A clean slice. Then a shattering crackle. The whole sequence had taken a little over two seconds. The sky broke into pieces, and the world came down with it.

Yujun opened his eyes. Vanessa hadn't so much as touched his shields — because of Harp.

"Stay back! I'll blow you away!"

"......Cute as a button, and mean as anything. Who'd have thought."

The ground all around them was already ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scorched to nothing, as if Harp had poured out a full Breath.

"Dad! You okay?"

"I'm fine. And Harp — you did well. If something like this happens again, do exactly what you just did."

"Okay!"

"That's my Harp. Good job."

He stroked that fluffy head by way of reward. Harp's eyes drifted half-shut beneath his hand.

"Ooooh... This is what I've been living for lately."

Vanessa moved to cast illusion magic again.

Not falling for it twice.

He had already been caught twice. This time he slipped aside at once, reading the flow of mana to pinpoint where the spell was coming from. Illusion magic flew so fast that it was anything but an easy trick — but his reflexes were high enough to make it possible. Even Vanessa couldn't help a hollow sort of disbelief at that.

"You dodged illusion magic? That was possible?"

"You saw it. So now you know. It is."

Even as he spoke, Yujun moved the second sword and the third — blades he had already set waiting in the empty air, unnoticed.

Whoosh!

Vanessa had never registered them. Reacting in time was impossible. One sword drove cleanly into her abdomen.

Thuk!

"Aaaaagh!"

This was no graze. A piercing wound — and even she could not swallow the scream. Yujun walked up to her.

"Your illusion magic is insane. The craftsmanship was no joke."

"Kh... What was that, now?"

It was clearly a compliment, and yet it soured her mood all the same. More than anything, he had broken out of the illusion far too fast for precise to feel like praise. When the spell first took him, she had been certain of victory. Then the man slipped free in the blink of an eye, and he hadn't even looked particularly rattled. Even without that white divine beast getting in the way, she didn't think she could have finished him. And in fact, Vanessa was subdued with pathetic ease. A single attack.

"What in the world kinda technique is this? I don't... ngh... remember ever hurtin' this bad. And swords flyin' around on their own — that's a first for me, too."

She had plenty of questions. Yujun didn't bother to answer any of them. The sword sank into Vanessa's throat. He bore her no malice. He was only helping her out of the pain a little faster.

Using Painful Strike has turned into a habit... This is no good.

If he wasn't careful — if he started throwing Painful Strike around without a thought — people might decide he was some kind of deviant.

I'll have to watch that.

Heminine approached, her face sharp with venom.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You were going to abandon me!"

"To be precise, I knew I wasn't going to kill you."

"Liar..."

"You're right. Sharp of you. I've found the exit. Let's go."

"..."

Heminine's expression eased. Even so, without him she never would have made it this far. Raised as royalty, coddled and held up as something precious, she still knew this was not the moment to resent him.

"And just when did you find the exit?"

"While we were fighting."

"...Does that even make sense?"

"Put a lot of points into Agility. Then it will."

It was time to settle the rewards.

Yujun had run wild through the Illusion King's world so thoroughly that no one would have blinked at the claim he had carried the whole thing alone, and he had backed Heminine — Illusion Queen to be — in every way that mattered. Materially, and otherwise.

After all that, there's no way the reward is mediocre.

It wasn't an event hosted by the System, but in the Illusion Realm, destroying or escaping a world someone had labored to build earned a reward scaled to your contribution. And he had escaped, unharmed, from the highest and most intricate world in the realm.

Honestly, if you only looked at the illusion-magic trial, it wasn't even that difficult...

The real problem had been the underground base researching nuclear arms. A little later, and this planet would have vanished without a trace before Heminine ever sat her illusion trial. Even if some scrap of it had luckily remained, nothing alive would have survived on it.

In the end, she passed the illusion trial because of me. The reward ought to be worth looking forward to.

The banquet hall of the royal palace. Heminine and Yujun stood still, reading the hologram windows that rose before their eyes.

More systematic than I expected.

Like the sudden events the System sometimes created, it seemed to analyze every situation, factor, and achievement within the event, then distribute rewards accordingly. Yujun ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠relaxed. He had worried some portion of his performance might be shaved off in the accounting. Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.

The Doll of the Illusion God. He had obtained the same item Heminine had received as a reward.

No idea whether I'll ever have a use for it. Still, I ought to hold on to it.

He could think of it as a souvenir from the Illusion Realm.

Why is a World Tree Seed coming out.

It was undeniably a fine item, but he already had several World Tree Seeds. He didn't need another. He would much rather have drawn something else. The Mythic-grade equipment he had received at random was no better in its own way — it came shackled to a level 400 equip requirement. And there was one more disappointment. There was no experience reward.

Levels matter nearly as much as items, though.

Still, the rewards already in hand were more than enough to be satisfied with. The Long-Aged Elixir, especially.

The higher your Luck, the better the odds that a Long-Aged Elixir would grant a superior trait. And not once, in all the times he had taken one, had the result been bad.

Not using this now.

Goddess's Grace, which Manuela had obtained from the skill archive — under that blessing, Luck climbed sharply.

Knowing that, and eating it anyway, would be ridiculous.

Once he took the Long-Aged Elixir, he could go to Manuela and Do Jiyun soon enough. The thought that he would also be seeing his old companions from the game before long left Yujun, for reasons he couldn't quite name, strangely excited.