Chapter 186: How Do You Know?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 186: How Do You Know?
Two hours after lights out, they begin gathering in my room one by one.
Park Yu-jeong, dressed in light casual wear, arrives earlier than promised, while a fully armed Shizuka enters exactly on time.
"Are you heading off to war or something? Are you trying to advertise that we’re about to pull something?"
"..."
Deciding to ignore Park Yu-jeong, who picked a fight every time she opened her mouth, Shizuka sat down in a chair without even giving her a glance.
Undeterred by the cold shoulder, Park Yu-jeong continued to chatter away. Five minutes later, Chika arrived, followed by Angelica ten minutes after that, both offering apologies.
"Sorry, Han-byeol took a while to fall asleep, so I'm late."
It couldn't be helped, since I’d asked them to gather in secret even from their own roommates. Everyone was likely high on the excitement of the school trip.
I led the girls and stealthily headed for the first floor.
It took a bit longer than expected as we had to stay alert for anyone wandering the hallways or the possibility of bumping into staff or Barbat officials. Eventually, we moved to a secluded corner near the lobby.
The receptionist at the lobby was a concern, but as long as we didn't make too much noise, they probably wouldn't come all the way over here.
I stood before a worn-out statue of a dog... or maybe some other animal; it was hard to tell given the traces of time.
"Do we just push that?"
"There's a passage underneath, but you won't be able to move it with brute force."
Chika was surprisingly proactive.
Well, she had to be. This was a chance to gain power.
The thrill of exploring unknown ruins wasn't what mattered to the people gathered here. By chance, I had assembled a group of people who were all desperate for strength.
For both Chika and Shizuka, strength was essential to progress their character stories. For these two, I didn't need to do anything else—just manage their mental state and help them grow their individual power.
For Chika, the happy ending was becoming strong enough to pummel her father, the perennial runner-up. For Shizuka, it was becoming strong enough to crush the Amagi family.
Technically, that made three of them, since Angelica’s character story also involved overcoming her weakness and fulfilling her desire to become strong.
As for Park Yu-jeong... she was the type to prefer tangible, immediate gains over the mystery of ancient ruins.
"Hmm, do we just turn this?"
Park Yu-jeong showed interest as she looked at a disc attached to the dog's collar.
The disc was divided into several layers starting from a central point, with the discs getting smaller toward the center. By rotating these discs, one had to align a geometric pattern to its original state...
Indeed, solving a puzzle to open a blocked path was the golden rule.
It was a bit ridiculous that no one had solved this puzzle for such a long time despite it being so out in the open, but either way, it worked out for me.
The problem was... I wasn't sure if I remembered it correctly. Was it 8-4-4-7-2, left-left-right-left-right?
Normally, you'd have to roam the map to find hints before solving the puzzle, but since this was reality, there was nothing where the hints should have been. I had to rely entirely on my memory.
If someone had spray-painted a red '8' on the hotel wall, the staff would have found it and wiped it off long ago. Thanks to that, I had zero hints to work with.
"The drawing isn't easy to deduce. I think we need the original image first."
"Can't we just try turning them one by one?"
Park Yu-jeong and Chika debated as they stared at the discs.
You guys didn't touch it, right? I only remember how many times to turn it left or right, so if it's different from the starting position, I can't solve it.
Tense, I turned the outermost disc to the left eight times, the next one to the left four times, then the next to the right four times...
"Do you actually know what you're doing?"
"Quiet for a second."
Chika, don't talk to me, I'll lose track.
As I turned the innermost disc to the right twice, the shapes on the divided discs aligned into a pattern resembling a magic circle.
Click—
A low sound effect, signaling that something had been activated, reached our ears. I took a step back from the statue.
With a heavy grinding sound, the statue slid back, revealing a staircase leading downward. Everyone looked at me with wonder.
Wait, no. Park Yu-jeong and Shizuka were looking at me with suspicion.
In a world where people can't even leave the Government territory they were born in, there was no way for me to explain how I knew something even the people of Barbat didn't.
Before anyone could ask, I headed down the stairs first.
Since I entered without a word, they exchanged glances before following me down. If they kept pestering me with questions once we were down there, I’d just have to use Frey as an excuse again.
Once Angelica, the last one, entered, the statue moved back to block the entrance.
The walls of the passage emitted a faint glow, enough to see the ground in front of us. I continued downward, and the others followed, trusting me for now.
Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, we saw a massive plaza large enough to fit several football fields. In the center stood giant humanoid statues with dog heads, identical to the one we saw at the entrance.
"Those things aren't going to move when we get close, right?"
Have you been here before? How do you know so well?
Just as Chika suspected, the statues—standing seven or eight meters tall—were designed to eliminate intruders.
They would attack if we moved further in, but since we knew that in advance, we could take the initiative.
"Angelica, you've been frustrated lately because you've only been using minor spells, right?"
"Huh? No, I'm fine."
Long-range magic was great for sniping from outside detection range, but its firepower was too weak. Since she’d been stuck in the sniper role every time we went on a request, she had to be itching for some real action.
I pointed at the statues and smiled.
"Let's go for maximum firepower for the first time in a while."
"Okay, just say the word."
The insecure, timid Angelica I first met at the entrance ceremony was gone. She answered my instruction with confidence and gathered her mana, bringing her hands together near her chest.
"Just how long is she going to charge... Whoa—"
Park Yu-jeong, who had been looking at the statues from a distance, turned back to Angelica and let out a fascinated chuckle.
Though she was physically frail and her spells took a long time to cast, Angelica could gather an infinite amount of mana into a single point. This was a feat bordering on a miracle that even the 12 Zodiacs would find hard to replicate. The sheer volume of mana gathered in her hands had already surpassed its limit, warping the surrounding space.
Startled, Chika and Shizuka reflexively took a step away from Angelica.
"I used to wonder why you kept her around, but I guess that question's been answered."
Everyone looked down on Angelica because she was kind and gentle, but in terms of pure firepower, she was top-tier.
Park Yu-jeong stared intently at Angelica while moving as far away from the statues as possible.
Actually... I think she can stop gathering now. It’d be a disaster if she accidentally brought the whole ruin down because the spell was too strong.
Just as I was about to tell her that was enough, Angelica’s closed eyes snapped open.
No matter how cute she was, she was currently holding a nuclear warhead in those tiny hands. I was too intimidated to even speak to her.
Angelica slowly extended her hands forward, launching the nuclear warhead.
"Tsar Bomba!"
So she really did decide to name the spell that.
It was something I’d shouted instinctively after seeing its power in the Illusion Space, and it seemed Angelica had taken a liking to it.
BOOOOOM—!!!
The unstable mass of mana flew in a straight line and created a massive explosion the moment it touched a statue. Shizuka quickly swapped her stick for a sword and slammed it into the ground, manifesting a defensive barrier.
After a wave of blinding light and a shockwave swept past, Shizuka deactivated the barrier. The statues had vanished without a trace.
Only the ruined walls and floor bore witness to the fact that the Tsar Bomba had detonated. Silence hung heavy in the air.
"I'm not very good at adjusting the power, so I was worried it wouldn't be enough. I'm glad it worked."
Look at this nuclear-warhead-girl, smiling brightly and saying she's "glad" after vaporizing the statues without leaving so much as a pebble behind.
Since she could actually gather mana for about ten minutes in the Illusion Space, Angelica wasn't exaggerating.
Chika looked at her with newfound caution, Shizuka stared as if seeing her in a new light, and Park Yu-jeong’s eyes were filled with intrigue.
Seeing the way the three of them looked at Angelica made me feel proud. Even though Angelica herself was just giggling, completely oblivious.
"But were those things really going to move?"
This is why being too good can be a problem.
Because Angelica had erased them without a trace, there was no way to prove whether the statues would have actually moved or not. I had envisioned a scenario where Chika and Shizuka would take down the half-broken statues as they tried to stand up, but Angelica did such a good job that it only fueled Chika's suspicion.
Giving a vague answer, I entered the passage at the far end, where a purple veil—something that clearly screamed "do not enter"—awaited us.
Park Yu-jeong, who had been studying the barrier-like veil, looked at me.
"Alright, so what do we do now?"
"Do you trust me now?"
"Yeah. So, can't you tell me how you knew all this? I'm curious."
"Can't do that."
I shrugged and stepped through the veil.
I was already feeling unwell, perhaps due to gate aftereffects or something, but entering this place made me feel even worse.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah... First, why don't you guys see if you can get through?"
Starting with Shizuka, they each placed a hand on the veil to check.
However, only Angelica was able to step inside.
Just as I expected. You couldn't enter by force unless your mana stat was above a certain level. I’d suffered so much when I first encountered this in the game.
Since only Angelica—who becomes a total glass cannon without someone to protect her—could pass, I’d had to control just her to go inside, only to get slaughtered by every enemy we met.
"Should I try to force it open?"
"No, there's no need. Take my hand."
I stopped Chika from trying to break through with brute force, as was her style, and reached my hand out through the veil.
When I pulled, Chika followed without resistance and passed through the veil with ease. When I let go, she was pushed back outside the veil by an invisible force.
"How did you do that?"
"Um... you know I found an intelligent monster last time, right?"
I gave them a long-winded explanation about receiving some power from the monster before stepping back out of the veil with Angelica.
How could I, with my pathetic mana and gate aftereffects, pierce a veil that even Angelica barely managed to pass? It was all thanks to the "Good Child" title.
As for the specific mechanism? I only know the game; I don't know much about the actual theory of magic. If they asked for the logic behind it, I wouldn't be able to answer.
Without this, Angelica would have had to go in alone and remove the magic stone at the very end for the veil to disappear.
"You can pass as long as you're touching me, so everyone hold hands."
When I held out my hand, Shizuka gave me a displeased look but took it anyway. Chika took my other hand, and from behind, Angelica hugged... Angelica?
"Uh... well, I'm also, I'm also a bit tired... and I don't think I can hold out for long... so I'll just hold onto Yeon-woo as we go in."
Good grief, she's adorable.
Seeing everyone else getting skinship, she wanted in on it too, so she clung to my back. She hugged me tight as if she didn't want to let go, and I could clearly feel her large breasts against my back. I decided to quietly pretend I didn't notice.
It felt very soft and nice.
"Then I guess this is the only spot left for me?"
"Hey, be serious."
"Ehh~ I am being serious. This is the only handle left."
As I jerked my hips back to dodge her hand reaching for my dick, Park Yu-jeong giggled. Honestly, she never missed an opportunity for sexual harassment.
"Can't be helped then. I'll settle for this today."
She placed her hand on my shoulder, and we walked awkwardly into the veil, huddled close together.
But... how were we supposed to fight?
The enemy limit was set so that only those with high mana could enter, so the enemies that appeared weren't that strong. But I was currently blocked on all sides by girls and could barely walk, let alone fight. Did we even have the capacity to engage?
However, my worries vanished in an instant.
"Kieeeek!!"
The moment a four-legged beast that looked like a Zergling appeared, Shizuka’s hand flashed, and its head fell off. The poor beast must have waited a long time for the ruins to be discovered, only to lose its head the moment it showed up.
Even though I was holding her hand, I could only see Shizuka moving with my eyes; I couldn't feel it through my touch. Was she moving only the arm holding the sword without shaking her body?
She wasn't an Akito-level powerhouse for nothing.
We advanced without much trouble, and once I removed the magic stone, the strange pressure weighing down on our bodies vanished.
Hey, wouldn't it hurt my feelings if you let go so coldly the moment the power disappears?
Shizuka and Chika let go and took a step back, while Park Yu-jeong, who still had her hand on my shoulder, smirked.
"What's next? I'm starting to get suspicious."
Starting? You've been suspicious since a while ago.
All that was left was to defeat the swarming enemies and take down the boss.
"Kiaaaaaaak!!!"
A piercing screech echoed from afar, and everyone reacted, taking their combat stances.
A beast that looked like a version of the Zergling-like creature Shizuka had sliced earlier—but ten times larger—slowly emerged from the darkness, boasting a massive frame. It was so heavy that vibrations traveled through the ground with every step it took.
"Prepare for battle. Is it okay if I give the orders?"
"Yes, please."
Only Angelica answered, but silence meant consent.
It felt quite moving to be giving orders to Shizuka. Since we’d be together from now on, I needed to clearly demonstrate my capabilities as a team leader here.