The Heavenly Demon Plunders (4)
She wasn't surprised. This was nothing more than a foreseen outcome. In the span of a year, the monsters and traps emerging from the labyrinth had changed considerably, so there was no reason the paths themselves would have remained the same. Enri couldn't possibly have been unaware of that. She had simply chosen to ignore her own incompetence.
The chat's sentiment was vicious. If it was this bad in my own stream, Enri's broadcast must have been even worse. Perhaps as savage as when I had set my own stream ablaze in the past. Or maybe they were simply used to Enri's foolishness and were watching with a resigned "Well, that's just like her" attitude. Either way, it was clear this would be troublesome for Enri.
Enri stared blankly at the gray wall before glancing sideways at the chat window, beads of cold sweat forming on her brow. It really was burning up in there. What could she do? The moment her confident knowledge became useless, this outcome had been inevitable. With all her streaming experience, she must have predicted this much. How would she handle it? Curious, I watched what she would do next—when she suddenly dashed toward me, dropped to her knees, and lowered her gaze.
What was she doing?
“Hwaryeong-mom! Help me!”
...Mom? I wanted to ask what nonsense she was spouting, but unfortunately, I had heard that word before. Viewers spouting such drivel wasn't exactly a new phenomenon.
“Aegyo~ Enri doesn't know anything at all! Please fix it, Mom!”
Watching Enri make those bizarre sounds as if someone had cut out her tongue made me long for my pipe. The same person who had been too embarrassed to do anything properly while wearing a maid outfit in reality had transformed this much just by putting on the mask of VR. In a way, it was quite professional behavior.
It was unsettling to watch an acquaintance throw herself into the fire just to put it out.
“I'd like to, but this one's carrying quite a lot of stuff.”
If I blew Enri's head off, there'd be a mountain of items to discard. That alone was reason enough to keep her close.
Thanks to Enri throwing herself at me, the hostile atmosphere in chat eased somewhat. Not everyone had stopped grumbling, but time would smooth things over. So this was the dignity of a veteran. It was impressive, but not something I wanted to imitate.
With the immediate problem dealt with, it was time to think about how to escape this labyrinth. But—
“Mom. Should we try going back the way we came?”
“Do you remember the path we took?”
“Uh... well. No. Aegyo~ Enri doesn't know anything!”
She was going for the "I know nothing" concept because pretending to remember would only earn her a scolding. Fine. That was probably better.
“Whether you remember or not, it wouldn't have been a solution anyway. The paths were shifting in real time behind us as we walked.”
“...What?!”
The paths had been moving and changing routes behind us. So even if we retraced our steps, we'd only run into more gray walls.
“Th-then what do we do?”
“What do you mean, what do we do? We go back.”
We'd already filled our bags wandering the labyrinth—did she intend to abandon everything? There was only one thing left for us to do. Return.
“But how—”
“You were so eager to point at me and ask for help earlier, and now you're giving up? Stay put. I'll handle it.”
Only the paths we'd walked had changed—not the direction we'd been heading. So as long as we could travel in a straight line, that would suffice.
Leaving Enri staring at me with hopeful eyes, I stood before the gray wall and placed my palm against it to test its strength. It was certainly solid, but not unbreakable. As proof, when I added more force to my palm, fragments began to fall. However, this body probably couldn't destroy it. At the very least, it would be far more difficult than smashing the boulder that had rolled toward me earlier.
As I stared at the wall and pondered, an idea occurred to me. The reason Enri and I couldn't afford to die was because we'd lose our resources. In other words, as long as we made it home and stored the resources, dying wouldn't matter. If I was willing to throw my life away, there were plenty of options.
Let's see. Considering the distance we'd walked inside the labyrinth and the distance from the labyrinth to our base, we shouldn't run out of time.
Having made my decision, I returned to Enri and hoisted her onto my shoulder.
“Hwaryeong?!”
It was an action without prior agreement, so Enri was flustered, but I ignored her and pressed several pressure points.
Most viewers, now accustomed to my actions, had already guessed what I was about to do the moment I pressed the pressure points. Enri was no exception. When she saw me pressing the points, she stopped struggling.
“You're going to smash the wall?”
“Yes.”
“...Hwaryeong. I don't know about anything else, but you can't bring down the ceiling! We'll get crushed to death!”
She wasn't asking if I could break the wall. She really had gotten used to me.
“Don't worry. Do you think I can't control it to that extent? Even if the ceiling collapses, we'll still be able to get out alive. All you need to do is watch from the side.”
“Kyaaaa! Is anyone there?! Someone save me! I'm going to get crushed to death before I even starve!”
After I'd explained everything, Enri started screaming beside me. Where had all that begging gone? Enri. This was your choice. You forced this on me. If you'd memorized the entire labyrinth layout, I wouldn't have had to make this decision. So shut your mouth and endure it.
Channeling the inner energy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art through my body, I drove my fist into the wall. Like a cookie shattering, a hole opened up and fragments that had once been part of the wall rained down.
“Now then, Enri. I'm going to pick up the pace, so be careful not to bite your tongue.”
“This wasn't the labyrinth strategy I had in mind at allllll!”
*
“With this, the framework should be complete.”
Pipi smiled in satisfaction as she admired the house she'd built outside.
“There's still more to do, but this is the rough shape. It's all thanks to Hwaryeong-nim.”
She'd been able to finish the house much faster than originally planned. It was all because of the resources Hwaryeong had brought. The amount she'd plundered from various people far exceeded what could normally be gathered in the first hour. With that much material in the hands of Thread veteran Pipi, this was the result.
“Now I just need to upgrade the tech, lay the outer walls, dig a moat, and set up protective magic.”
“Hmm. If I pull an all-nighter for a day or two, it should be enough, right?”
Pipi grinned as she watched the lively chat. Normally, her stream didn't have this much activity. While watching raids and sieges in Thread was fun, the process of getting there wasn't particularly entertaining. Farming, upgrading tech, and building structures was incredibly tedious. Because of that, Pipi—who streamed Thread all day—never had many viewers. Barely breaking a hundred on a good day.
But today was different. Being teamed up with two major streamers, Enri and Hwaryeong, had pumped up her viewer count significantly. Watching the nonstop chat, Pipi felt her motivation surge and clenched her fists.
She'd give up sleep for the duration of this streamer server event! She'd give it her all!
“Huh? What's wrong?”
So Enri had trusted her memories from a year ago, taken Hwaryeong into the labyrinth, and gotten lost? Um...
“This is bad, isn't it?”
Thread might not manage its users well, but it wasn't a game that didn't receive updates. Over the past year, Thread had received numerous content updates, including changes to the labyrinth. New monsters, new traps, a system where paths periodically shifted. While the items farmable there were highly efficient, the developers had deemed it too easy and cranked up the difficulty. So if you entered with memories from a year ago, you'd end up lost.
“Should I call them and give directions? But reaching out first feels weird too.”
While pondering what to do, Pipi decided to check Enri's stream to see what the two were up to.
‘Hwaryeong! The ceiling's shaking—is this okay?! Right?!’
‘Aegyo~ Enri worries too much. It's fine. At worst, we'll just die.’
‘That's the problem!’
“...Huh?”
What Pipi saw was Hwaryeong punching through the labyrinth walls and advancing, with Enri screaming from her shoulder.
“What?”
Hm? What was this? Pipi blinked at the scene that defied all common sense. Labyrinth walls were breakable objects—yes, that was true. It was even one of the techniques used to ambush other users inside the labyrinth. But they weren't objects you could casually punch through. The walls required considerable magical firepower to destroy. Hwaryeong wasn't even wearing enchanted equipment or using enhancement magic, so why was this working?!
“...Ah. Right.”
Though bewildered by the scene that shattered her veteran common sense, Pipi found herself nodding at the donation message. Having watched Hwaryeong's streams for a long time, she understood well that Hwaryeong wasn't someone who could be bound by common sense.
“As expected, there's no need to worry about Hwaryeong-nim.”
Convinced the two would find their way out on their own, Pipi turned off the stream, leaving Enri's screams behind. She should focus on what to do once they brought the materials back.