1.
Recently, while I’d been at home playing games with Silver Wolf, a thought had occurred to me.
About gambling.
Back in Korea, I’d been so obsessed that I’d dumped my entire fortune into it.
But here, I felt far less inclined to gamble my money away.
Why was that?
“Kill him!!!”
“We’ve got the numbers on our side!!”
“For Yuto’s revenge!!!”
“You had the nerve to use a woman as bait and blow my friend’s head off!?”
Fuck.
It was because every single day was already a spectacle.
I’d already dodged more than ten thrown weapons flying at me from behind.
One wrong move, and I’d violate the rule that says, “Scars on the back are a man’s shame.”
Allies who stabbed you in the back the second you showed a hint of weakness.
Fixers charging in for blood and revenge.
Pickpockets eyeing my credits like hawks.
With the entire city acting like this, of course I wasn’t craving stimulation.
The scent of the slums.
It was something you could never experience in the sterile, polished streets of Korea.
“That bastard attacked us first, damn it!!!”
I shouted my grievances with all my might, but nobody listened.
Typical Neon City behavior.
People only remembered the things that happened to them.
“Adrian, are you okay?”
“Huff... huff... Don’t worry about me, just keep firing that slingshot!”
I let out a ragged breath.
Honestly, this was fucking exhausting.
Silver Wolf was smashing the ones in front with her slingshot, but the real problem was whether my stamina would hold out while I carried her too.
“...Just hold out a little longer.”
I deliberately stuck to the narrow roads.
If we stepped out into a wider area and got surrounded by the mob, Silver Wolf and I would be dead on the spot.
“Gulp, gulp... devour them.”
Silver Wolf formed a hand sign.
But perhaps she was reaching her limit, because she was already sweating bullets.
“...You’re... saying... that... now?”
“Shut up. I’m concentrating.”
Silver Wolf brought her hands together again.
It wasn’t exactly the time to be mimicking something she’d seen in an anime, but I had no choice but to trust her.
“Gulp, gulp... devour them.”
Shiver.
I didn’t know the first thing about Ether Editing.
But the moment Silver Wolf spoke, goosebumps erupted across my skin.
When I tilted my head slightly, I saw blood trickling from Silver Wolf’s nose, but she didn’t seem to care as she manifested something above her palms.
“Pac-Man.”
A bizarre little orb wearing black, pointy sunglasses.
It floated up, hovering over Silver Wolf’s palm.
“Wh-what the hell is that...!?”
“Watch closely, Adrian.”
Pac-Man hovered over her outstretched hand and locked onto the enemy with surgical precision.
“This is my Ether Editing.”
A shrill, tearing sound rang out.
I felt a shockwave slam into my eardrums.
KWA-AAANG!!!
The blast kicked up a gale that tore through the street.
I had to stop running for a moment, staring blankly at the scene.
“Aaaagh!!!”
“What the hell!?”
“Dammit, what is this!?”
People were, quite literally, exploding.
The first man who collided with Pac-Man burst apart, and the floating orb began taking bites out of everyone around it, one by one.
Clothes and chunks of flesh were sliced away cleanly and vanished.
Everything Pac-Man bit into was being sucked into that strange orb.
“Silver Wolf, you...!”
“I-I can do more!”
Something was wrong.
We had gained the upper hand by summoning Pac-Man, sure.
But Silver Wolf’s condition was deteriorating rapidly.
Blood was pouring nonstop from her nose, her eyes were bloodshot, and blood was even leaking from the corners of her mouth. She was clearly wrecking her own body to force Pac-Man into existence.
“Silver Wolf, stop!”
“No! I can’t stop here!”
Silver Wolf gritted her teeth and glared into the darkness beyond.
The ones Pac-Man was shredding were just ordinary eighth-rankers.
The real threats hadn’t arrived yet.
“I can prove it. I can...! I can protect you!!”
The moment Silver Wolf spoke, a flash of light erupted.
Pang!
A spear came flying in at a speed I couldn’t even react to.
Before I could move to block it, the spear pierced straight through Silver Wolf’s shoulder.
“Ghk...!”
“Silver Wolf!!!”
I caught her as she collapsed.
The spear had gone clean through her shoulder.
“Hey, how many more times can you use that thing?”
“Three. If I use it any more, my arm’ll blow apart from the strain.”
I could see her arm, stained a deep, visceral red.
The man holding the spear was already preparing to throw again.
Another man stood beside him with a Japanese sword, staring us down.
Behind them, the eighth-rankers lined up, as if they no longer needed to intervene.
“You bastards killed my brother?”
“...Men are fine to kill. Women aren’t.”
Oh, shit. We’re fucked.
Two seventh-rankers.
The last time I killed a seventh-ranker named Yuto, I only barely won thanks to the pork stir-fry switch.
And now I was supposed to take on two of them at once without any of that trickery?
They might as well be telling me to slit my own throat and move on to the next loop.
Should I give up?
Would it be the right choice to bring this hatchet down on my own neck right now?
“It’s... not over yet!”
Silver Wolf’s eyes, still in my arms, snapped wide open.
Pac-Man shot upward.
“Hah. Hup.”
The man with the Japanese sword swung in a flash, knocking Pac-Man away.
He was nothing like the eighth-rankers, who had been too stunned to react and had fallen into chaos.
“...Why are you so damn persistent!?”
“Hold him down.”
“Right!”
Pac-Man bounced forward, trying to bite the man.
But the instant the Japanese sword carved a wide arc, the other man thrust.
“Hit him with one shot!”
“Coming.”
The man with the spear’s arm turned a vivid red.
As the crimson light flared, the spear launched—and just before it could smash Pac-Man apart—
“Explode.”
At Silver Wolf’s command, Pac-Man glowed a pale white, then detonated in a flash.
KWAANG!!
Another shockwave burst out, similar to the first time it had been fired.
I wanted to make a joke, but Silver Wolf’s eyes still hadn’t given up.
“You fucking...”
The man’s face twisted like a demon’s.
His right arm was a mangled, half-burned mess from the explosion.
The Japanese sword was cracked and on the verge of shattering.
“...Hey, can’t you just kill them?”
“No. Women are supposed to be drugged up and used.”
Hah.
What a pain.
“Fuck, just die already, both of you!!!”
I left Silver Wolf behind and charged.
Hatchet in hand, I sprinted straight down the narrow alley with nowhere to dodge.
“Idiot. And you call yourself a fixer.”
When the Japanese sword and my hatchet collided, I was overwhelmingly pushed back.
Without panicking, I immediately let go of the hatchet and slipped inside his guard.
“Die...!”
As I lunged, I brought Silver Wolf’s dagger with me.
I had to cut their numbers down by even one. Thinking that, I drove the dagger downward—but at that moment, the bastard twisted slightly, and the blade sank into his shoulder instead.
“Ha, you got taken down by an eighth-ranker?”
“...Shut your damn mouth.”
The man with the spear sneered from the side.
The man with the Japanese sword shoved me away and swung again.
Swoosh.
The blade cut across my upper body.
It was over.
The two of them walked past my fallen body and headed for Silver Wolf.
Silver Wolf’s eyes slowly filled with fear.
Damn it, I really am pathetic.
I can’t even protect one woman.
What the hell is this mess?
My vision blurred.
Blood spilled out.
The cold sensation returned, the same one I’d felt when that woman with the scalpel cut me in half. If this kept up, I’d be moving on to my third loop.
Would using the Temporal Prism change anything?
If I used it, what I’d be spending was my own lifespan.
Even if I used it now to break through this obstacle, I’d only be relying on burning my own life away.
If I used up my lifespan this easily again, I’d probably keep relying on that crutch next time too.
My intuition was whispering to me.
To give up.
To move on.
If I turned back time, everything would be undone.
I could just start over again.
In a world that would fade and be forgotten in my time.
No one would remember.
And yet.
Silver Wolf hadn’t given up until the very end.
I remembered her fighting while bleeding, saying she could do it, saying she wanted to protect me.
If that was the case, then I couldn’t give up either.
Meaningless.
Worthless.
My experience and instincts, built up until now, told me once more.
“It’s... not worthless.”
At the edge of absolute focus, with death right in front of me, my intuition kept flowing.
My sensory understanding accelerated.
What was the Path of Pleasure?
“Go deeper, go madder. Show me your story, and make even me marvel at your madness. Even if the whole world laughs at you, carry out your fate.”
A voice that sounded like it was mocking me echoed in my head.
Don’t make me laugh.
I can’t end here.
Pleasure, comedy, tragedy, ridicule, theater, acrobatics, laughter, revelry, delight, ecstasy, joy, masks, clowns, mockery, stage, play.
All kinds of concepts rose up and fused into one.
Right now, with death looming before me.
As I slowly sank into a void with nothing in it.
At last, I grasped the feeling.
What the Path of Destiny was.
Even if the world called me incompetent, a worm, a fool for not using regression even though it existed.
I would carry out my fate.
I didn’t care what anyone else thought.
I would face my world, my divine mandate, my destiny.
As if today were my last day.
“...What the hell is that?”
“He’s got guts, at least.”
Even while blood dripped from me, I stood back up.
The men, sensing something strange, turned around and looked at me.
What formed above my hand was a mask.
The same mask I’d seen on Aha, the one that radiated overwhelming power.
I put that mask over my face.
The mask covered my entire face.
...Let’s do this.
“[Acrobatics], Sky Leap.”
The ground beneath my feet shattered, and I launched myself at them.
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