Chapter 57

Flames

“You’re saying you can really stop the Second Apocalypse… all by yourself?”

Long-tailed Tit asked again, clearly unable to believe it.

I answered with a languid smile on my lips.

“Are you doubting me again?”

“N-no, that’s not it! I just didn’t know such a thing was possible… Is stopping the Second Apocalypse one of the privileges you received for clearing every zone?”

Of course, the privilege I had received for clearing every zone was the inheritance of titles. I had no idea how to stop the Second Apocalypse.

However, there was no chance that all the objects containing divine revelations—the “Meteor Items”—would suddenly fall into my hands, so there was also no way to prove that I was lying.

After all, at present, no one but me knew what privilege I had received for clearing every zone.

Even players who had unlocked the system could only see one title on my status window: Friend of Lunamoon.

In that case, even if I claimed that my privilege was “the right to stop the Second Apocalypse by gathering all nine Meteor Items,” only I would know whether it was true or false.

The Love Zone player known as “God,” who had exploited the other players’ ignorance and deceived them by calling the system a “divine revelation,” probably never imagined that the exact same trick would be used against her.

As long as she had no way of checking my privilege, she wouldn’t be able to dismiss the possibility that I was telling the truth.

In any case, all of us needed to survive the Second Apocalypse, so ordinary players would find my claim that I could stop it extremely tempting.

The players who already possessed Meteor Items probably wouldn’t be too pleased, though.

I relaxed my domineering posture slightly and spoke in a gentler tone.

“You’re free to believe me or not. Either way, it isn’t that I refuse to cooperate. I have a mission entrusted to me, and I’m simply acting to fulfill it.”

“Ahh… A mission…!”

He seemed deeply moved by the word “mission.”

The hope that had appeared on his face at the thought that the Second Apocalypse could be resolved so easily soon gave way to concern.

“Then… what exactly are these objects containing divine revelations?”

“You’re a player too, so you should know. I need the Meteor Items.”

“Meteor Items? Then you must mean the earring Manshin possesses. She said she uses it to communicate with the gods…”

Long-tailed Tit fell silent, looking as though he was wondering how he should convey this information to the person called Manshin.

I watched him for a moment before casually asking,

“By the way, why were you pretending to be injured?”

“Pardon?”

Perhaps my question had come too abruptly, because he raised his head and stared at me in confusion.

“I heard you were pretending to be hurt before you were captured.”

“Ah… That was…”

“It’s fine. Just tell me honestly.”

“I was planning to capture the NPCs and interrogate them about you, Dopamine Addict. I failed, though…”

“You intended to take on two people in that condition?”

“Well, I was going to kill one of them and cripple the other so he couldn’t use his legs.”

If I hadn’t given those officers some early education, there might have been bloodshed.

“But those NPCs were unbelievably perceptive! It was almost as though they had expected something like this to happen…”

Long-tailed Tit trailed off, then suddenly looked at me as though he had realized something.

“Now that I think about it… Did you know beforehand that I was coming?!”

Without the slightest change in expression, I answered,

“Yes.”

“No wonder they were so smart for Cola Zone NPCs…!”

“It’s fortunate. If you had harmed them, I wouldn’t have been able to simply let you go.”

At my words, tension spread across his pale face, as though he had finally remembered that he had trespassed into another player’s territory.

“I… should probably return now so I can report this to Manshin…”

“Why? You must be tired after coming all this way. Why not stay a little longer?”

“N-no, thank you. I need to report this incredible revelation as soon as possible so we can stop the Second Apocalypse before it’s too late.”

It seemed the thought had finally crossed his mind that I might not let him leave peacefully.

I could interrogate him and extract information about the Love Zone, but…

Keeping him around would only increase the risk of exposing the fact that I was a player.

It would also be troublesome if he started talking about divine revelations in front of the NPCs from my zone. It would be better to send him away quickly while pretending to be generous.

I opened my inventory and took out an old-fashioned combat ration I had kept as a spare.

When I pulled the ration out of thin air, Long-tailed Tit let out a quiet gasp of admiration.

He was impressed, but not particularly shocked. God had probably already used her inventory in front of him to demonstrate her supposed divinity.

I tossed the combat ration in front of Long-tailed Tit.

It wasn’t a modern ration containing star-shaped candy, but an old one that tasted like military boots. Since none of us could taste anything anyway, it hardly mattered.

“Take it. It should help you recover enough to make the return journey.”

“Th-thank you…!”

I let him hurriedly gather the ration before asking in a subtle voice,

“In exchange, there’s one thing I’d like to ask…”

***

“Are you certain it was wise to let him go like that?”

Meursault asked as he watched Long-tailed Tit stagger away in a daze.

“He was far too calm when he was captured for someone who had merely lost his way. That bothers me.”

“What’s the problem? He’s just a child.”

“…These days, children frighten me more than anything.”

Why was he looking at me as he said that?

“Anyway, I spoke to him properly. I even untied him, and he still didn’t try to harm me. Isn’t that enough? We came here to hunt monsters, not suspicious children.”

“That is true, but…”

Meursault still appeared deeply uneasy about my lenient decision, but Lucas and Bones, who had captured the child, seemed greatly relieved.

“I’m glad he really was just a child.”

“What kind of stupid brat wanders around a place like this?!”

These idiots would faint if they knew they had nearly been killed by that stupid brat.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything else unusual in this area, so let’s head back.”

“Since there haven’t been any signals, it seems the other teams haven’t found their targets yet either.”

The teams had agreed to fire white signal flares and gather together whenever they discovered one of the large-class monsters marked for subjugation.

However, even after my conversation with the Love Zone player had ended, not a single spark could be seen in the sky.

In situations like this, there were usually two possibilities.

Either the previous winter had been too warm and the monster population had decreased, or the monsters had learned that humans came to subjugate them once the weather warmed and had hidden themselves deep underground.

The winter after I possessed this body certainly hadn’t been mild, so it was more likely that the monsters were hiding.

If that were the case, they would eventually come out in search of food. All we had to do was kill time and wait.

Even so…

“It’s strange that we haven’t seen a single one.”

“Is it?”

“Not just the large-class monsters. We haven’t encountered even one small- or medium-class monster.”

The only thing we had found during our search was a player pretending to be a child.

This was clearly not a normal situation.

However, Meursault and the newly commissioned officers only stared at me blankly.

“…Forget it. Why am I bothering to explain this to people who’ve never participated in a subjugation before?”

“This is your first one too…”

“What did you say?”

“We’ll clean up the area!”

Lucas clamped a hand over the grumbling Bones’s mouth and hurried off to dismantle the temporary tent they had erected.

Meursault watched them for a moment before turning back to me.

“Is the situation truly that unusual? I may rarely participate in subjugations personally, but I’ve read many reports. They usually state that the small- and medium-class monsters become frightened and flee whenever a subjugation force appears. The teams searching in the other directions also reported finding tracks that suggested the monsters had fled in a panic.”

“Yes, I heard that too. But there are only ten of us.”

Normally, it was only natural that small- and medium-class monsters would disappear.

When hundreds of armed humans deliberately marched out to hunt, it would be stranger if the monsters, with their sensitive senses, did not flee.

But there were barely ten of us.

We were far too adorable a force to terrify small- and medium-class monsters with sheer numbers.

“That’s why it bothers me that so many monsters fled in a panic, as though they were terrified.”

“Hmm… Monsters do possess extremely sharp senses, don’t they?”

“They do. What about it?”

“They must have sensed it from afar. ‘Ah, something vicious has emerged from the zone…’”

For a moment, I was speechless and simply stared at Meursault.

“Was that supposed to be a joke?”

“…You there! You mustn’t carry it like that.”

Putting on an extremely awkward performance, Meursault avoided my question.

I watched him pretend to assist the soldiers while spouting nonsense, then my expression stiffened slightly.

Meursault’s joke being painfully unfunny was one thing, but I had begun to feel an inexplicable chill.

‘It’s far too quiet…’

This region had never been an area where many monsters roamed in the first place.

Perhaps my unease was unfounded.

In any event, my objective had been to check the barrier around this area. Now that I had personally witnessed a Love Zone player cross over, I had essentially achieved that goal.

There was also no sign of the blue wall that had existed in the game, even to the naked eye.

A Unicorn Zone player had crossed over before as well, but I had worried that perhaps only that particular player possessed the ability to move between zones.

In that sense, this was reassuring.

‘But if that’s the case…’

Home Protector, who had yet to contact me, was now more likely to have suffered something at the hands of God from the Love Zone.

Of course, he might simply be too busy progressing through his route to contact me. Or perhaps he had grown suspicious of me and was deliberately remaining silent.

Still, my instincts told me that something had happened to Home Protector.

If God was bold enough to send a player all the way into my zone, she must have personally visited the neighboring Tobacco Zone as well.

Not that I had any intention of going to rescue Home Protector.

I was interested in the Meteor Item he possessed, though.

‘I suppose I’ll have to see how that shaman reacts to my supposed privilege for clearing every zone.’

The most likely reaction was that she wouldn’t believe me.

Still, something told me the Love Zone player might display a bolder style of play than I expected.

I was looking forward to it.

Just then—

“Huh?”

One of the men carrying the supplies let out a vacant sound while staring toward the distant sky.

The members of the team with especially keen senses, myself included, immediately turned their heads in that direction.

A moment later, they filled our vision.

White flames decorating the sky.

“Beautiful…”

Several of the newly commissioned officers, who had no practical combat experience, stared in awe at the sight before them.

But Meursault’s expression and mine turned cold.

“Those are…”

White signal flares.

The signal fired upon discovering a large-class monster.

And the direction from which those flares had risen was the central area being searched by Team One—

the team accompanying the Commander.