Field: Linpel

[What a mess.]

The moment they connected to Rider-On, spread across Zone 17, YggON spat out the insult.

[It reminds me of World of Phantasm.]

"Tell me about it."

Ryu Hwi shared the sentiment. Rider-On had been a reasonably polished game labyrinth once — now look at it. Left like this, gamers would start losing faith in Yggdrasil 2.0 altogether. The situation needed resolving, and fast.

[And yet, despite thinking that, you showed zero intention of moving until you got your 'reward.']

"That's that. This is this."

[I'm starting to lose faith in my own Master. He's such trash.]

"Anyway, before we start the raid — let's clear out everything we've been putting off, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just in case."

Recent results had been so terrifying that tickets and points had piled up. And 84,500 Exp on top of that. He'd been hoarding the experience points to level up other skills whenever possible, but if the situation demanded it, he might have to pour it all into the Heavenly Demon Divine Art instead.

"Whew……"

[Are you planning to do the Random Box?]

The atmosphere around YggON was frightening. Even YggON was dreading the next pull. His luck lately had been so bizarre that Ryu Hwi actually found himself wishing for a dud.

"Here we go!"

53 normal tickets plus 253 pulls' worth of RP. He hurled every last one of them at once.

"O-ohhh! Ohhh!"

[Ohhhhhhh……!]

An endless stream of N-card trails flickered past. Only the occasional R broke up the relentless repetition of NNNNNN. Most of it was junk from Super Gemini or Rider-On, and odds and ends from other companies' game labyrinths.

……NNNNNRRRNNN……

Past the 200 mark, and not a single SR.

NNNNRNNRNRNRNNN……

"Total wipeout."

306 pulls combined between tickets and RP — and a miracle had occurred: not one SR had appeared. The skill point gamble flopped too, adding only about 40,000 Exp.

"Alright, that's the bad luck spent! Now — the remaining SR vouchers, the SSR ticket, and the 1,000-pull milestone ticket. Let's roll them all!"

[YES! My Master!]

He fed in every ticket without a moment's hesitation. Most SRs were items he'd never have use for anyway; about seven of them turned out decent.

Aside from the Golden Hammer — an A-rank item from Super Gemini — it was all bike-related. He was more than satisfied. Whatever came out of the SSR pull, he figured he could laugh it off.

"I never said break this badly, damn it!"

[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]

YggON's first full-throated roar of laughter in ages. It was the kind ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of laughter that said now THAT'S my Master!

"YggON, is there any achievement related to duplicate systems?!"

[Nope. Reality is cruel.]

"What about combining systems, then……"

[Impossible. Reality is cruel. Just grind them into experience points and be done with it.]

"Son of a—!"

[The crisis of world collapse has been safely averted. Think of it as bad luck spent, just like you said, Master.]

"Grrrrrrrgh……"

[What will you do with the experience points?]

"Let me combine the SSRs first, then decide."

He had three Shuffle Guns.

[Ah, Master. SSR items are complete in and of themselves, so combining them triggers a special enhancement process. You'll see when you try it.]

From SSR onward, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠every combination added a +1 to the item and upgraded one of its functions — and which function got enhanced was random.

If only the draw count had gone up……

An increased hand and deck limit technically counted as an enhancement, sure, but he'd been hoping the draw would rise to two cards per turn.

Last up: skill enhancement. His current experience points totaled 125,500 Exp.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art was the only lifeline he had right now, so Ryu Hwi invested everything. Ideally he'd have pushed it to Lv5, but that would cost 112,000 Exp. He fell well short. He'd have to make do with Lv4 for a while.

He checked the upgraded art's performance.

"That should be everything prepped. I'd love to do the bike customization too, but that's better done with time to spare. Seven's probably already on the move, right?"

Ryu Hwi hadn't entered Rider-On in Zone 17 alone. Seven had also entered the labyrinth with 5555's help, and by now would be moving to rescue Asea. Whether Asea lived or died meant nothing to him — Ryu Hwi was after the cause of this labyrinth's ruin.

Hecate had claimed she hadn't done anything directly. Which meant someone acting on Hecate's orders had stirred up this whole mess.

He activated the Rider-On Air Road system. A translucent road stretched out across the ruined city, reaching into empty air.

Even with Rider-On in shambles, the Rider-On system itself could still be rendered.

[Of course it can. It's being rendered by a UR system.]

He tore down the translucent road on his bike.

"What could anyone even do to make it end up like this?"

[Most likely there was a fatal flaw in the system from the very beginning. John Doe said he joined hands with S.E.N — so S.E.N may have deliberately fed him flawed technology.]

If YggON's guess was right, then John Doe had gleefully put S.E.N's tech to work without so much as a basic verification.

That guy's trash, sure, but he didn't seem that stupid?

Maybe S.E.N possessed some separate ability — something other than System Engage. A power capable of wrecking an entire game labyrinth in one stroke.

[What's your plan now? Even calling it the cause of the Collapse, the scope is far too broad to search.]

"I'll rely on Intuition."

[Analyst, hello? Analyst? Where exactly did you sell your analytical capabilities?]

"What good would analysis do in this situation?"

The scenery before his eyes shifted from moment to moment. Even if he tried to analyze it, there was no data to analyze.

[You convenience-junkie trash cheat bug skill, you!]

"It came out of YOUR random box, so what do you want from me?"

Bickering with YggON, he blazed through the fractured space. This place was a game labyrinth, and yet not one. A world with a game labyrinth overlaid onto reality — most of its information had been built by leaning on the real world.

A sudden unease crept over him.

What if, someday, technology emerged that could fully fuse the Human Realm with the game labyrinths? Would reality break this easily too?

Enough with the useless thoughts.

Right now he had to find the cause of Rider-On's collapse.

"Hup!"

A massive building suddenly erupted in front of him, but he dodged it without difficulty. The more dangerous things got, the harder Intuition worked on his behalf. Weaving freely through the ever-shifting world, he hunted for the source of Rider-On's distortion.

"Ah. Turns out I didn't even need to look."

[It's outright screaming 'I am HERE.']

One glance was enough to tell the place was suspicious. Around that single point, the world's scenery warped like rippling water and snapped back, over and over.

[You're going? There's an enormous chance it's a trap.]

"It's inviting me that enthusiastically. How could I refuse?"

The translucent road extended itself, forming a path straight to the heart of the distortion. He opened up the throttle — and while he was at it, tried out his newly acquired Rider Skill.

The instant it activated, a booster gauge appeared before his eyes and the bike shot forward like it had a rocket strapped to its back, spitting wind as it roared down the road. He felt no air resistance whatsoever, so handling it wasn't difficult at all. The bike carved across the open sky and quickly reached the place where the 'cause' waited.

The center of Rider-On's distortion. Steel girders jutted out from buildings in every direction, tangling together like a spider's web — and at its heart hung someone, caught in the web like a moth.

When he saw that face, he was briefly at a loss for words.

"Ha ha, hahahaha…… Hecatee!!"

Those S.E.N bastards had a singular, exceptional talent for pissing people off.

"And I have to look at that filthy face HERE, of all places? What is this, some kind of revolting class reunion?"

A man standing at the center of the warped world, appearing as if he were fused with it.

The man who, for no reason other than that Ryu Hwi displeased him, had stomped his life into the trash. And now he was unrecognizable — haggard beyond belief. He looked no different from a street vagrant, like one of those Unknowns who had given up on everything and simply waited to die.

Linpel's head rose at the sound of Ryu Hwi's voice.

"Ryu Hwi! Ryu Hwi!"

His face twisted into something grotesque.

"Sho yoo fihallee came, huhhh!"

He couldn't make out a word of it. The pronunciation was mangled.

"YggON, you said the Yggdrasil 2.0 update turned everyone in the world into gamers, right? But people who lost their accounts weren't included — were they?"

[Correct. Yggdrasil no longer grants qualification to those who have lost their chance. Gabriel Darius has also lost his account.]

"Then why is that guy HERE?"

This was Rider-On's world. It was a game labyrinth anchored to the Human Realm, but Linpel Darius shouldn't have been able to enter it. At best, spectating from the outside would have been his limit.

[The most likely explanation is that S.E.N did something to him. And the hidden bomb inside Rider-On was definitely detonated by……]

"That guy, right."

Linpel kept shouting something, but his slurred pronunciation made it impossible to understand.

"So I just need to Delete him?"

[I doubt it's that simple. That human and Rider-On appear to be half-fused into a single entity. If you Delete him carelessly, Rider-On itself will likely throw a fatal error and collapse.]

He couldn't have cared less whether Rider-On collapsed — but if it did, there was a good chance word would get out about what Jucheongwang had done. And now that he'd struck a 'deal' with Seven, a Rider-On collapse was the one outcome he had to prevent.

Linpel coughed up blood. Enough of it that he should have been dying.

And yet, for some reason, Linpel was smiling — a smile that crawled under the skin. A grotesquely warped grin. Just looking at it raised gooseflesh.

That was the moment Intuition screamed its warning.

That thing was not the 'Linpel Darius' that 'Ryu Hwi' knew.

Linpel tugged at the arms bound in steel girders and covered his face with both hands.

"Sy… sys… tem. En──gage."

And then, moving his lips, he spoke words that should never have been possible.