For My Glory, I Will Trample Your Freedom

An explosion so massive it could have brought the entire dungeon collapsing down.

The Witch was certain, this time at last, that the intruder was dead.

"You, and me. Same as this dungeon."

[?!?!]

But once again, the intruder shattered her expectations with effortless ease.

"It's a power you were never meant to wield, so of course you can't control it properly. Even when your instant-death magic blankets the whole domain, it leaves 'weak points' behind. Just like how a spatial rift opened up in the dungeon itself."

Ryu Hwi, who had appeared behind the Witch without her noticing, ran her through the back with his Gunsword.

[Kuhaak?!]

The Witch shrieked and buckled as the blade pierced through her back.

But the Witch did not die from something like this.

Ryu Hwi seized the wing jutting out from her spine.

"Touching it directly, now I understand. As I thought — this wing is what's causing the bug."

A fragment of Space Alien, the game labyrinth terminated three months ago. Ryu Hwi tried to pull the source of the bug out of the Witch.

[Kihihi! Wai, wait, waaaait! N-n-no! Th-th-those wi-wings g-gave me, gave me free, freedooooom!]

The Witch screamed in a panic.

"Freedom?"

Ryu Hwi's hand stopped.

Right now, this Witch possessed a genuine 'will' of her own.

[I, I-I, I have, I have always, always been here, following only the ro-ro-role I was given, gi-given, without ever, without ever questioning, ques-questioning it, over and, over and over.]

"……"

[But when I, when I got those wi-wings, I was f-freed from the binding, the b-b-binding that held me, the binding that bound me. My wings. M-my, my wi-wings.]

In other words, the Witch — who had existed only to play out the role scripted for her in World of Phantasm — had happened to come into contact with a fragment of Space Alien and become a bug.

And thanks to that, she had gained the ability to question her own role, and to break free of it.

To the Witch, those wings were nothing less than salvation — a key to a brand-new world.

"So you wanted to escape your circumstances, even if it meant becoming a bug. We're alike, then."

[A-al-alike?]

"Yeah. Alike. I'm struggling to claw my way out of a garbage world too."

Ryu Hwi felt a pang of kinship with the Witch.

Sensing that emotion, the Witch let herself hope that perhaps her wings might be spared.

If those wings were taken from her, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she would revert to what she used to be. Back to the old days, when she questioned nothing and simply served the role she was assigned.

[If we, if we're al-alike, then you, you'd under, you'd understand how I, how I feel, wouldn't you? So, so please—]

"Oh, we really are alike."

Ryu Hwi let out a sigh, almost as if pitying the Witch's plight.

"Right down to the part where we'll stop at nothing to get what we want."

Behind Ryu Hwi, outside his field of view, the word DEATH was floating into existence.

No doubt she had intended to trigger her instant-death magic the moment he let his guard down — but he had already seen through it with Intuition.

Even without Intuition, he wouldn't have fallen for something this transparent.

When he kicked the hilt of the Gunsword buried in her back, the Witch let out a horrible scream.

The word DEATH hovering in the air blurred and faded away. Ryu Hwi wrenched the wing from the Witch's back.

"For my glory, I will trample your freedom."

[St-st-stop, st-st-stooooop!]

The Witch's wail echoed through the cavern.

She was terrified by the fact that the freedom she had finally obtained was about to vanish — that she would become a puppet once more.

Paying her screams no mind, Ryu Hwi ripped the wing out entirely.

[GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!]

The wing was the cause of the bug. Even torn from the Witch's back, it would not simply be destroyed.

The bug, as if it were a living thing, extended long tentacles as though to swallow Ryu Hwi whole.

In that instant, light flashed from Ryu Hwi's hand. A single, fleeting flash — and that light erased the wing that had caused the bug.

His long-hoarded, last-resort SSR.

Ryu Hwi unleashed that power against the bug.

Krrzzz—kkk.

The wing, writhing like a living creature, was engulfed in static noise and began to disintegrate.

The moment the bug was purged, the Witch's entire body deflated like a punctured balloon.

With the bug gone, the information displayed properly.

Thanks to YggON's modified universal appraisal mode, the details were even more thorough than usual.

[You, an intruder who has slipped into my──hidden, into my hideout. Kneel, kneel before the magic of I, Cyriel.]

With the bug erased, she had reverted to the kind of being that faithfully carried out her original assigned duty.

Where before her broken speech had been incoherent yet unmistakably alive with will, now there was no will in the Witch's words at all.

Confirming this, Ryu Hwi moved the sword still pierced through her body and cut her down on the spot.

Ryu Hwi looked down at the fading Witch.

She really had been just like him.

Trapped in a hellish situation, and finding some means to break free of it.

The only difference was that the Witch had lost, and Ryu Hwi had won.

Ryu Hwi swore it aloud.

"I will never be the loser again."

The gamers preparing near the dungeon entrance sneered the moment Ryu Hwi emerged.

Word had already reached them from the gamers ahead of them: some idiot had challenged the dungeon 'solo'.

"Wow~ seven whole hours? Not bad lasting that long, for a solo guy, huh? Right?"

"No kidding. Well, he's learned his lesson about reality now, I guess."

Ryu Hwi ignored whatever they were chattering about.

A short while later, fresh information arrived all at once to the gamers gathered to conquer the Witch's Hideout.

Ryu Hwi, the one who had actually cleared it, checked the information too.

"He cleared this dungeon?! Rank 1?! That's impossible!"

"He beat Linpel's record solo?!"

"The clear time, what's the clear time?!"

The gamers were in an uproar.

He'd soloed the dungeon. And not just any dungeon — one that had been impossible to clear at all for the past several months.

His goal had been a time attack, sure, but……

Even Ryu Hwi was stunned.

By the original plan, even in the best case he should have shaved the 1st place record by a margin of no more than ten minutes.

Instead, he'd cut it by ten hours.

An unprecedented record had just been born.

"That's impossible! What the hell did you do?!"

"You cut it by ten hours? There's no way that's possible solo. What kind of trick did you pull? Talk!"

The gamers surged toward Ryu Hwi, shouting him down.

Ryu Hwi sighed as he looked back at the other gamers. This wasn't shaping up to be a crowd that would let him walk away peacefully.

"This dungeon had a bug in it. The bug is the only reason I was able to cut my time."

And that was true — by exploiting the gaps the bug had opened up, he'd been able to slash his time dramatically.

"A bug? And that record got officially registered just now?!"

"Ugh…… this is pissing me off. Are you kidding me? It's not even his real skill. You happy having a record registered like that?"

"If you have any shame, don't go bragging about it. Seriously, what a dog."

Listening to their complaints, Ryu Hwi found himself wondering what on earth these idiots were even saying.

He had his own frustrations, to be fair. This wasn't the kind of record he'd wanted to set.

He'd wanted to smash through every single mechanic of the dungeon head-on and grind Linpel's record into dust.

But a result ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was a result.

You use everything available to produce a result.

If a bug appears, you exploit the bug. If there's a cheat, you use the cheat.

He had no interest in dealing with idiots who didn't even understand the most important truth of the game labyrinths: it's all about the result.

"The bug's fixed now, so you won't have to wrack your brains over clearing this dungeon anymore. Stop worrying about me and go put some effort into your dungeon runs."

"What did you say, you little…?"

One of the gamers reached out to grab Ryu Hwi by the collar.

But Ryu Hwi, Intuition already active, had predicted the move and slipped aside with room to spare.

The other gamers tried to seize him as well, but not a single one of them could catch his movement.

Shaking them off with consummate ease, Ryu Hwi walked away without so much as a backward glance.

The gamers moved to chase after him, but the most level-headed among them held them back.

It was the big burly gamer who had worried about Ryu Hwi at the very start. He had attempted the dungeon himself, long since hit Game Over, and was in the middle of preparing his retry.

"Did you not see that guy move just now? He's not someone we can handle!"

"Spare me! He's just a filthy cheat who exploits bugs!"

"You idiot! Did you not hear what he just said? The bug is fixed — nobody's going to have to struggle to clear the dungeon anymore!"

"So what……?"

The big gamer, clearly fed up, let out a deep sigh.

"It means that the reason no one has cleared the Witch's Hideout for the past several months is because of the bug! Which means that guy solved, all by himself, the very bug that made the dungeon impossible to clear! Do you not understand what that means?!"

At his words, the other gamers put on surprised expressions.

But most of them believed that Ryu Hwi had simply gotten lucky and dodged the bug — or better yet, that the bug itself was what had let him shorten his time.

He accomplished in one run what no one had managed in three months — none of them truly grasped what that signified.

"Ah, wait a second……"

Then, one of the gamers who had stayed out of the commotion and simply watched the scene unfold remembered something.

"Isn't that guy Ryu7017?"

As if to prove that guess correct, before long a new video went up on Yggtube.

Deep Sea Unknown Escape Diary, Part 2 — Time Attack in a Bugged Dungeon

Dungeon cleared.

1st place in the dungeon rankings achieved.

With those achievements, he had obtained 12 YggON tickets and 1 SR-guaranteed YggON ticket.

And with that, the reward for subjugating the Witch Cyriel came in.

500 RP.

For comparison, the Chaos Dark Knight had been worth 15,000. A figure that showed just how many tiers above the Witch that being truly was.

He'd certainly had to work hard against the Witch Cyriel too — but that was the bug's fault. Without the bug, there would have been no reason to struggle anywhere near as much.

"The drop items were a bust."

[Probability Manipulation is useless for these, as you can see!]

YggON's grating voice rang annoyingly loud in Ryu Hwi's ears.

The drop rates confirmed through appraisal had been: Cyriel Robe (17%), Cyriel's Ancient Staff (14%), ☆Amulet of Glory (7%), ☆Mandrake (4%).

The robe or the ancient staff should have been well within reach, but the result, as you could see, was a bust.

At least the Heart had dropped — if that 52% chance had missed, Ryu Hwi would have collapsed under the weight of his own self-loathing.

Rates are trash. Guaranteed tickets are justice.

Ryu Hwi hadn't expected anything from the reward drops in the first place. What mattered was that Linpel's record had been broken, after all.

White Lake.

White Spider Forest.

Ancient Ruins.

In total, three dungeons currently held 1st place records set by the party centered on Linpel Darius.

Just like the Witch's Hideout, those records still stood unbroken three years later.

Strictly speaking, there had been one more — but that record had reportedly been shattered two years ago by a gamer from a different guild.

By the 'Asea' party of GA-ES, the guild's ace, built around a female gamer.

"Well then. The remaining three. Time to erase that irritating name, one by one."

One after another, the records Linpel Darius had set in World of Phantasm were being broken.

Naturally, the news reached Linpel Darius himself — the guild's ace, a gamer holding countless records.

"Hm."

Linpel Darius sat on a plush sofa, reading the materials.

Four records broken in this short a span of time — something was off.

And according to the documents, that gamer had targeted only the dungeons where Linpel himself held the records.

"Is he picking a fight with me?"

Linpel read his opponent's intentions with pinpoint accuracy.

Having idly finished skimming the materials, Linpel rose from his seat.

"He's extended such an enthusiastic invitation. It would be rude of me to ignore it."

The others in the Linzea Guild had tried to talk Linpel down, urging him not to move hastily.

His personality had a few problems, granted, but Linpel was the ace of Linzea — its poster boy, its face.

Another scandal was the last thing they wanted.

But Linpel was not a man who quietly obeyed what others told him. He moved however he pleased.

"Ryu Hwi? Ryu Hwi…… Ryu Hwi…… who was that again? Ah, whatever. We'll be meeting soon enough anyway—"

"Linpel! We have a problem!!"

Just then, one of Linpel's comrades came rushing to find him, visibly rattled.