The Tiger's Den

XENIX.

Wolya had gone in person to see people she never even wanted to associate with. Back in the days when she still ran the Entertainment District, she'd crossed paths with them more than once — a strange crowd, entrenched in the district, yet every last one of them Gold rank. She'd have preferred never to meet them again, but XENIX had specifically named Wolya and demanded she come.

"I don't like coming here one bit."

Bisque grumbled as she trailed behind Wolya. True to the Entertainment District, structures baring humanity's desires in their rawest form crowded every corner, and she had no idea where she was supposed to look.

A golden bracelet gleamed on Bisque's arm — a Yggdrasil Item borrowed from Midgard, just in case anything went wrong.

"What the hell do these XENIX people even do? They just up and built the core source code for DQ and handed it over. Have you known them this whole time?"

"But of course."

Wolya sighed. "XENIX itself is a 'team' only just newly formed, but its members are all familiar faces. They belong to Enuma Elish, the kingpins of the Entertainment District — for years they've been making and distributing all manner of experimental 'mods.' As for what became of those mods, well, I needn't explain. You know full well."

"..."

"Some of them belong to Ouroboros, a Platinum outfit, no less. In other words, they're the connecting link between Enuma Elish and Ouroboros. A most curious arrangement, that — a Platinum corporation like Ouroboros subservient to the Entertainment District's Enuma Elish."

"..."

"And for reference, Tiamat, boss of Enuma Elish, is S.E.N. That much I only learned recently, mind you."

"Aren't we walking straight into a tiger's den right now?"

"'Tiger's den' would be putting it mildly."

Even amid the Entertainment District, one building glittered with particular extravagance. Bisque grimaced at the facade, gleaming so ostentatiously it practically begged to be stared at.

"Don't tell me that's the place?"

"It is indeed."

"Even nouveau-riche Golds wouldn't pull a stunt like that."

"Bear this in mind: in the Entertainment District, it's the lunatics who reign strongest."

Wolya headed for the building without a moment's hesitation.

Ah... I just want to go home.

Bisque couldn't bring herself to follow right away. She hesitated, then trudged after Wolya, feeling exactly like a cow being led to slaughter.

Inside, the building was surprisingly ordinary. Or perhaps the exterior had simply been so overwhelming that her senses had gone numb. The interior was every bit as gaudily decorated, but she couldn't help thinking it was still an improvement over that gold-painted facade.

Rough-looking men glared at Wolya and Bisque with sharp eyes from every corner of the building. But apparently word had come down, because not one of them moved to interfere with the pair.

At last the two arrived at a corner of the building's fourth floor.

"This the place?"

Wolya checked the nameplate on the door: XENIX.

"Funny how this is the only modest-looking spot in the whole building."

No lavish ornamentation, a poor corner location, starved of light by the structures pressing in around it.

"Could it be that XENIX gets treated poorly even within Enuma Elish?"

"More likely it's because this happens to be the finest spot in the building for putting up a 'development room.' Enuma Elish holds those with game-development skills in high regard, you see."

Without so much as a knock, Wolya opened the door and walked in, and Bisque hurried after her. The moment she crossed the threshold, a strange sensation crawled over her, and Bisque shuddered.

Twelve people were gathered inside, absorbed in some kind of work. One glance at the equipment filling the room made it obvious this was a development lab. They weren't using the JYS development room, it seemed — they were working in reality instead. Or rather, they couldn't use it.

The equipment here was so luxurious that even 5555 had yet to reproduce any of it inside a labyrinth. With gear that couldn't be manifested in a game-labyrinth dev room, working in the Human Realm was their only option. Wolya stared at the machines, openly covetous.

The one working deepest in the room noticed Wolya and rose from her seat.

"Wolya. Welcome."

A red-haired woman with horn-rimmed glasses, neat and composed in appearance. On the surface she seemed perfectly normal, which made it impossible to fathom why Wolya was so wary of her. The other eleven had their share of eccentric looks, but by Entertainment District standards they seemed downright tame.

"To think you'd come here in person. All that bothersome scheming was worth it after all."

"Lamyu..."

Wolya regarded the woman before her with a face full of annoyance.

"That dignified gentleman's voice of yours, every time I hear it. And I do so love the mismatch between your looks and your voice."

Wolya's current prosthetic body was that of a woman dressed as flashily as anyone you'd see downtown — and out of that body poured the voice of a stately middle-aged man. Anyone would find the bizarre pairing unsettling, and this woman liked it... Whatever else might be said of her, her tastes were certainly strange.

"Borrowing your strength this time was never my intent. If anything, what puzzles me is how you knew to reach out at all."

"We have our own information network, that's why. Well — it has been a while. Shall we have some tea?"

"Regrettably, I haven't the time. You did ask to see me, did you not? If you have business, I'd appreciate you getting to it quickly."

"Cold as ever. We built you that crucial core source code, and this is the gratitude we get? Not exactly cheerful, is it?"

"Tch..."

Wolya scowled, clearly displeased with the whole situation.

XENIX had been the one to reach out first, in the beginning. Somehow they'd even known Jucheongwang was short-staffed; XENIX's leader, 'Lamyu', had contacted Wolya directly. The business was simple: if you have work to spare, pass it our way.

Wolya had naturally intended to refuse — but for some reason, Ryu Hwi signed off on the final approval. Even after she told him the XENIX roster was made up of human garbage, he barely batted an eye. Since they were moving at this particular moment, he reasoned, odds were good they were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an S.E.N pawn: let them run wild as they pleased, and watch.

As a test, Wolya had passed along the section of source code they were struggling with — and within days, finished data came back. After checking it, Ryu Hwi went so far as to dump the entire in-development DQ dataset on them, instructing her to share only the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠source they produced.

She'd wondered if handing over the whole of DQ's development wasn't going too far, but Ryu Hwi's position was simple: as long as it got finished, who built it didn't matter. He even had the production credited entirely to XENIX, ordering that every developer's name be listed in the staff roll. Jucheongwang's name could be tucked in alongside — nothing more. Jucheongwang had cooperated, but on paper, XENIX led the development.

Given the data, the blueprints, and Jucheongwang's design plans, XENIX unveiled Dragon Qualia before long. Fast — too fast. It was enough to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠make one suspect they'd had a good chunk of DQ built from the very start.

"No doubt Tiamat needed DQ brought into being as quickly as possible. Perhaps all she lacked was the 'blueprints' we happened to hold."

Ryu Hwi had expected things to unfold this way from the beginning. Whatever Tiamat schemed, it didn't matter — he intended to use even her plans. Since the Nox incident, something about Ryu Hwi had changed. There had been signs before, but Nox was the turning point.

The eyes of a man who had made his resolve. He was like the Ryu Hwi of back when Wolya had first met him.

"Let me ask once more. Why go to the trouble of summoning me? You know full well I don't care for you people."

"Impatient as ever. Well, I only wanted to confirm you were still in one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠piece. Jucheongwang has been drawing a great deal of attention lately, hasn't it?"

Lamyu flashed a friendly smile. Wolya clicked her tongue, as if nothing about it amused her.

"Confirm I was safe, you say... As you can see, my 'head' is perfectly intact. Rest easy."

"How reassuring. Do take care going forward. That head of yours is a treasure to all humanity, after all."

Lamyu's smile was loaded with meaning.

After that, a few more words were exchanged, and Wolya and Bisque left XENIX. That really was all it amounted to — a few exchanged words — and Bisque was dumbfounded. What on earth had been the point of summoning them all the way here?

"More importantly — what was that about your 'head' just now?"

In answer, Wolya tapped her own head. "What that one covets is my 'head' and the SEED attached to it. You already know what I've been through, don't you?"

"That's..."

Wolya had already explained to every member of Jucheongwang what had happened to her.

"And Lamyu is hardly the only one with an interest in my head. It seems I'm regarded as some unknown 'artifact.' Thus far I've managed to stay in one piece, but..."

Wolya and Bisque stepped out of the building. Sensing something, Bisque glanced around.

"It was a trap after all, wasn't it?"

"Ha. You think that damned woman would dig a trap this obvious? No question whose handiwork this is."

One, two — then ten burly men revealed themselves. Ten grown men surrounding two women in broad daylight — yet everyone else in the Entertainment District only kept their distance, as if eager to have no part in it.

"Bisque. Can you manage?"

"Eh, this much is nothing."

Bisque stroked the bracelet. "At least there'll be less collateral damage than if you stepped in."

Wolya's current body had all manner of 'weapons' built in. She wasn't an idiot; she'd never come to a place as dangerous as the Entertainment District without countermeasures.

"Still, wouldn't it have been better to bring Ryu Hwi instead of me?"

Even surrounded by ten burly men, Bisque looked completely at ease.

"Out of the question. Leave it to the Ryu Hwi of right now, and it won't end with a hospital stay."

"Fair point."

The Ryu Hwi of now was an active volcano that could blow at any moment. Even when he smiled, you could feel something seething and boiling beneath the surface.

Bisque shifted the bracelet into its 'weapon' form — a hammer-shaped Yggdrasil Item, its abilities [Gravity Control] and [Physical Enhancement]. The moment she drew it, the men who'd been lounging with such confidence flinched.

All brawn and bluster, a pack of ugly brutes.

A short while later, having dumped the fallen men unceremoniously in an alley, Bisque dusted off her hands. Wolya was in contact with someone.

"Who is it?"

"Ryu Hwi."

"What's he say?"

Instead of answering, Wolya sent Bisque the data. It was the DQ broadcast. With Noel absent from the commentary seat, Ryu Hwi was running the stream solo.

"DQ was supposed to be locked to maximum difficulty for Ryu Hwi specifically, right?"

"That's right. This time he didn't touch a thing, yet the difficulty locked itself automatically. As if Yggdrasil itself were testing him."

Was there something to games built on S.E.N blueprints? DQ, too, had imposed its highest difficulty the instant Ryu Hwi connected to the game labyrinth.

She'd heard that Ryu Hwi had lost most of his skills in the 'Nox' incident. All that remained were Delete, the Sage's Spellbook, Seyril's Blessing, and the newly acquired Gate of Origin. And even the Gate of Origin had its effects severely dampened by the Golden Headband.

Maximum difficulty, faced with almost no combat skills to speak of — the Sage's Spellbook aside. Anyone could see he was in for far more suffering than in Legend of Lambda.

But Ryu Hwi blew past those expectations with ease.

"This is..."

Watching Ryu Hwi's broadcast, Bisque held her breath.

"Just now, Ryu Hwi said—"

Wolya's voice changed register. Proof that the personality had switched. Now wearing the persona of 'Zero', she suppressed a laugh of genuine delight.

"'Boring,' he says."

"Sell all Draupnir."

Every time his Draupnir count hit ninety-nine, Ryu Hwi sold the lot. The one frustrating thing about the item was that it refused to stack past ninety-nine — he had no choice but to sell them off as they accumulated.

Checking his current RP, Ryu Hwi looked around.

Dragon Qualia. An outstanding game labyrinth. It faithfully honored the fundamentals of the RPG genre while achieving remarkable polish, and the story it told was simple, too: a being called the 'Demon King' threatens humanity, and the hero chosen to stop him sets out on a journey to bring him down.

The royal road of the RPG. The scale was still modest, being only 'Part 1,' but Parts 2 and 3 were said to be planned on this foundation.

Like World of Phantasm, it adopted a 'Lv Status System' — yet astonishingly, Dragon Qualia recognized that Ryu Hwi ran on an entirely separate system, and proposed something new tailored to him.

Ryu Hwi accepted the system's proposal, and thanks to that, he was progressing through the game labyrinth more smoothly than he'd expected.

"Boring, indeed."

Drinking a potion, Ryu Hwi looked back over his shoulder. The corpses of monsters had piled up into mountains.