Chapter 124
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: Lesson 25. The Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder - 5
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The moment he set the letter ablaze, the change happened instantaneously.
Strangely enough, the path they had raced along in the carriage seemed to rewind, swiftly flashing past them.
Before long, everything blurred and crumbled away, and at its end, a new backdrop rose up.
"Oh, they're coming. The wave of armored beasts is rolling in soon!"
"What about reinforcements? Aren't the troops from the neighboring city coming? How can they do this?!"
"Damn them, ignoring us in a crisis like this— this city's done for! Finished!"
"Too late to run now. Look down at the base of the hill. You can already see their shells reflecting the light...!"
—Room 39.
Ban Yu-won and his group stood in the heart of the chaotic city.
"Ban, my Student ID's showing something weird."
"Mine says Room 39 too, so it's fine."
So, blatantly triggering an obvious cue like that lands you in this mess, huh.
It had happened once before, but a multi-shift that skipped multiple rooms at once dramatically ramped up the difficulty of the room waiting on the other side.
In other words, the multi-shift they'd just pulled had lumped together Rooms 35, 36, 37, and 38, cranking Room 39's challenge to match.
"What the hell did you do...!"
"The city's in an uproar."
Dokgo Yeon scanned their surroundings with a calm, composed expression, standing beside Light, who was still dazed from skipping a whopping five rooms.
"Doesn't look like we can mingle with these folks and do much from here on out."
"The last video showed plenty of that, so I skipped it this time for some punch."
The screams echoing from all directions made it clear: the crisis hitting this city was barreling down without a moment's delay.
If they'd gone through Room 35 normally, it might've been an epic tale of rallying the masses to fend off a monster wave—but that would've been dull and dragged on forever.
More importantly, Ban Yu-won was confident that with their current party's strength, a low-floor monster wave like this was a walk in the park.
"Feels way too impulsive and reckless, though."
"Tell 'em it's the producer's gut."
"S-sorry, mercenaries!"
Right then, amid the soldiers struggling to control the panicking civilians, one soldier radiating obvious power burst forward.
Ban Yu-won guessed that, without probing with his Authority a few times, the guy probably held around 300 in Life force.
That put him at a level where early-admission Irecto could've taken him down easy—a real powerhouse!
"We're grateful you came to help us in this mess, but the city's in such turmoil we can't even welcome you properly..."
The moment the NPC popped up, every Rebelion member's gaze locked onto Ban Yu-won.
Damn that Light guy—swearing he'd treat NPCs like real people, but dumping the talking on me when it counts!
He grumbled inwardly but stepped forward with a polite expression.
"No worries. We didn't come for fanfare. We just want to lend you our strength."
"Unbelievable! To think there are still mercenaries as noble as you out there, coming without pay to a place where death could strike any moment..."
"Pay? Sure, we'd take it if offered... but anyway."
If they saw them as mercenaries, he'd play along to keep the rhythm.
Ban Yu-won was sure this soldier had enough authority, so he just dropped a light hint.
"Once this disaster passes and we all survive, we'll talk then."
"Hahaha, you're a real straight shooter—the first I've met like this. ...Let's survive."
The soldier shook Ban Yu-won's hand with a serious look, then turned and bellowed.
"All soldiers, assemble! Seal every city gate and prepare for the wave! Block infections from the wave—no matter what, evacuate civilians to safety by force if needed!"
"Oh, so he's like the captain of the guard."
Ban Yu-won watched the soldiers snap to attention at the shout and nodded casually in admiration.
Light approached with a complicated expression, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I trust you, Ban. You meant it when you said this would cut down on casualties, right?"
"Of course. I don't lie. Pulling in the neighboring city would've spelled disaster from that point on. Easier to block the monsters maybe, but then you'd get infighting among humans—infected ones included—and it'd blow up way worse."
He never lied.
He just omitted some parts and exaggerated others.
"Ugh... Yeah, even I think that now. But if we can cleanly handle the incoming monster horde ourselves..."
"Crisis over. Bigger rewards too."
"—Right! No need to get innocents killed for nothing. Let's crush this wave ourselves, badass-style!"
Fired up by Ban Yu-won's words, Light clenched his fists and yelled "Ooh—!"
Idiots are so easy to handle.
Ban Yu-won wondered if he deserved a "Light Master" title by now.
"Declaring you'd treat NPCs like people just came back to bite him... Idiot."
"He knew how Light would react and prepped the pitch accordingly... Idiot."
The Rebelion party climbed to the city walls without anyone stopping them.
This nameless city, built midway up a mountain, wasn't metropolis-sized but solid enough for tens of thousands.
A barren rocky peak loomed behind with no trees or life, and a lake nestled nearby—classic backed-by-mountain, lake-in-front terrain.
'That mountain's all dried up, so not quite perfect... but the terrain's so rugged, no worries about monsters coming that way.'
The walls ringed three sides, excluding the rear mountain, with a deep moat outside the gates fed from the lake to thwart easy crossings.
And now, every gate was nailed shut, sealing off all access.
Ban Yu-won eyed it thoughtfully, then pulled out the Code Core.
"Language magic could wear off anytime. Fixed concepts are best for this."
Temporary emotions or language-spawned concepts were fluid ones with unknown expiration—unlike the immutable concepts inherent in all things, which he called fixed concepts.
He'd just named them that for convenience.
[Seal 500]
Among them, the concept of sealing was surprisingly common.
Snacks on Earth were sealed in wrappers, letters were sealed, anything boxed was sealed—and in towers or dungeons, sealed traps, treasures, passages abounded.
Since Ban Yu-won had extracted every Seal concept from them all into the Code Core...
...releasing a massive stock of this simple, ultra-practical concept was no sweat.
"Alright then..."
Ban Yu-won bestowed 500 Seals across the entire wall.
Instantly, the walls plugging the city's three sides shot up sky-high, reshaping themselves.
"Huh."
Ban Yu-won sensed his dormant Authority, Mutation, stirring to life.
Didn't see that coming.
Applying the Seal concept to Eraton City's walls. Mutation Authority activates, adding the 'Blockade' concept to the walls!
Mutation depth has reached 30!
In one go, an impregnable great wall formed—so tough even modern weapons might not breach it!
"Ooh, oooh."
"What the hell just happened, Ban?"
"Hmm. Probably... maybe..."
Ban Yu-won tested it by firing a weak photon beam at the wall.
The beam scattered harmlessly without penetrating!
Observing the concept's dissipation closely, he reached a conclusion.
"As expected—it's blocking waves. Not just light; it'll stop all waves."
"Waves?"
"Infection waves. I confirmed it before—the infection from monster waves spreads via waves."
Ban Yu-won recalled the massive monster wave from their first special activity.
The memory of humans turning into monsters via spreading waves had lingered in his subconscious, and now Mutation had leveraged it to remodel the walls perfectly against the wave.
Dokgo Yeon punched the towering wall and whistled in approval.
"Wasn't your intent, but it worked out. Eases everyone's minds inside."
"Woooaaahhh! A magic engineer! We've got a magic engineer in our city!"
Not only did the three walls rise uniformly, but they looked tougher too—citizens freaked out, and soldiers cheered wildly without knowing who did it.
From the now-higher vantage on the walls, Ban Yu-won spotted the armored beast horde charging the city and widened his eyes.
"They're seriously almost here. No time for a meal before attacking?"
"Told you we should've eaten..."
"Here."
"Ahb."
Ban Yu-won shoved an energy bar into Light's whining mouth, like a needy pup.
Then he whipped up four Life Candies on the spot, handing one to each party member and keeping one.
"Spread out, one per side. You all good?"
"Munch munch... Might be tough for me. Lend me Eve?"
"Fine. Eve?"
Ban Yu-won chuckled at Light's honesty and stroked Eve's chin, coiled around his arm.
"Shishit."
Eve fussed a bit, hating to leave him, but knew about the Stormrain Sword he'd made lately—no need to cling and guard him herself. She slithered into the air and perched on Light's head.
"Kyak."
"She'll help as Ticker or Stormrain Sword if needed."
"...Isn't this too OP?"
"That's why I've been holding her back lately. But she can go wild this time."
"Shishit, shishishit."
"So cute... Wait."
Light, smitten and cooing at Eve, suddenly had an epiphany.
"Walls on three sides, right? So no need for all four of us to split?"
"What're you on about, Light?"
Dokgo Yeon sighed pityingly.
"Look at that rugged rocky peak behind the city. Not a monster in sight."
"Yeah, so no walls there—"
"Perfect setup to smack anyone who thinks that."
"Uh buh buh."
Dokgo Yeon was totally getting a kick out of teasing Light now.
Ban Yu-won smirked and told her,
"Keep that in mind. I'd send their strongest that way."
"Got it. You too— one breach and it's over."
"I know."
Just then, faint cries from the armored beasts echoed up from the hill base.
The party looked up, nodded to each other once, and scattered to the four directions.
—Y'know, times like this? Magic's the way to go.
"Same here. Not stubborn enough to stick to melee now."
As he stood alone, Ban Yu-won grinned back at Cellon, who popped into the air to appeal to him.
"But first, let's make something together."
—Hey... what're you scheming now.
"Delivery service."
He pulled out the portkey from inventory—a teleport-enchanted bracelet.
The mana-infused artifact gleamed alluringly even now... bewitching humans and monsters alike.
—That's the gist.
Ban Yu-won planned to tweak it—not into Bright Moon Reflection Wave or whatever, but a forced spatial relocation weapon.