Episode 32

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find unused program

bloc_moth reboot fail. (0xc??null?)

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A startled Abrea gripped his sword, and across from him, Adam, standing beside Retake, sucked in a breath at the unexpected situation—but my eyes were fixed on the chat window.

[Party] Honeybread : how’d you know????

If he’d “half-expected it,” that meant he knew something, didn’t it? Had there been some kind of omen before we entered? Now that I thought about it, when the screen went dark as I entered the dungeon, my character suddenly died and the screen glitched out. But even if it was Retake, could he have predicted from that that he’d end up in a party with me?

[Party] Retake : mmtching

[Party] Retake : matching

[Party] Retake : was weird

[Party] Retake : They definitely said the party would be completely random regardless of class or stance, but the matching took weirdly long.

[Party] Retake : Even if it was a weekday and matching was limited to same-server players, for matching time to go over 20 seconds

[Party] Retake : makes no sense, right???

[Party] Retake : So I really just tried it on the off chance

[Party] Retake : I only half-expected it...

[Party] Retake : hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Seeing Retake—who never sent messages in short bursts unless we were in combat—acting like that, it seemed he was pretty excited too. Was this how Abrea felt when he saw Adam using the Bia language?

I had no idea what to say in this unbelievable situation, so I kept typing and deleting messages over and over……

[Party] Retake : But I’m going to watch the cutscene first

[Party] Honeybread : ;

And then, all of a sudden, he shut up, saying he was going to watch the story.

You hardcore story otaku bastard. I pouted.

[- Adam : “I didn’t expect to end up in the same place as you.”]

As the standoff continued with both sides surprised, Adam was the first to speak. Abrea immediately snapped back like a burst of flame.

[- Abrea : “You. You told me to see and experience it for myself or whatever, so why are you here? Is this your lackey, and did you bring me here with it? You’re just a medical officer—are you planning to harm me with that frail body of yours?”]

What Abrea pointed to as the “lackey” was the small, glowing angel. The angel landed on Abrea’s head and tilted its head, while Adam, lost in thought by himself, let out a deep sigh.

[- Adam : “Watch your mouth. That child isn’t a being who listens to orders from the likes of us.”]

[- Adam : “I did ask it to bring you here. But I didn’t expect to run into you like this. We came in to investigate too. This place has multiple entrances, so I didn’t think we’d meet.”]

[- Adam : “Don’t think I set a trap because I wanted to do something to a nobody like you. Just imagining it is exhausting.”]

Adam shook his head as if he’d been accused of the most ridiculous thing imaginable, and he genuinely looked tired.

That aside, it seemed the story this time also had a heavier script focus on the Bia race. When I thought about how Retake, the one actually interested in the story, probably couldn’t even see what it was about and was just doing some exploration mission or whatever, I felt both sorry for him and pleased that he’d gotten what he deserved. It definitely wasn’t because he hadn’t answered my question.

[Party] Honeybread : Looks like the story is centered on the Bia again this time. You okay with that?^^

The part where Abrea and Adam were arguing didn’t seem all that important, so I took the opportunity to talk to Retake.

[Party] Retake : I don’t know what the script says, but

[Party] Retake : I can hear the dialogue properly, so I understand it?

……He could hear the dialogue properly? Had they accidentally inserted the wrong voice files? That was strange. They weren’t the sort of people who made that kind of mistake.

In Dusk, since they turned chat into alien gibberish so you couldn’t converse with opposing races, they also tampered with the voice files very thoroughly, completely garbling the audio so different races couldn’t understand one another.

For example, there had been a combat mission in a previous quest where we fought a small-scale war against a Jeoba unit. Even then, the lines spoken by the Jeoba NPCs had been so thoroughly crushed and distorted that you couldn’t even infer the pronunciation, and the memory of thinking they’d really gone all out still stuck with me.

But right now, Retake was saying he could even understand the opposing race’s dialogue properly.

[Party] Honeybread : ???

[Party] Retake : We were surprised too. We thought maybe it was a bug...

[Party] Retake : Separate from that, it’s a gain that we can understand the story now.

An auditory hallucination of Retake’s laughter lingered in my ears for a moment before disappearing. I must have watched way too many of his streams.

While we exchanged a few brief messages, Abrea and Adam had somehow stopped arguing and were now talking in a calmer atmosphere than before.

[- Abrea : “So this is a place called the ‘Mirror Maze,’ and once we reach the top floor of the maze, we’ll be able to conduct a focused investigation into the abnormal phenomena occurring in Ateliena? So until we get out of here, we should form a temporary alliance?”]

In other words, for the sake of smooth and uninterrupted dungeon progression for the users, the NPCs were going to form a party too.

[- Adam : “That’s right. And if my guess is correct, the truth that will resolve the cognitive dissonance you’ve been unconsciously feeling should exist here as well. Thanks to those two puppets, we were able to enter the ‘Hidden Mirror Maze.’”]

[- Abrea : “……The truth?”]

[- Adam : “Yes. The truth the temple is desperately trying to stop.”]

[- Adam : “I need to investigate the abnormal phenomena, and you need to find the truth. For that, we have to cooperate and make our way to the top floor of the maze. If we’re going to break through the guardians protecting it, we’re better off with every extra hand we can get.”]

The part about being able to enter the Hidden Mirror Maze thanks to us seemed to mean we’d entered another dungeon derived from the existing Mirror Maze. And the guardians protecting the maze must, of course, refer to named bosses.

[- Abrea : “……Fine. But just try betraying me. Even if I die, cutting down one weak, paper-thin body like yours before I go will be nothing.”]

[- Adam : “What’s the point of putting in effort to kill a body that won’t benefit you even if you take it? Shut up, and if we’re going together, take the lead.”]

[- Abrea : “Annoying bastard.”]

Even while grumbling, Abrea obediently lifted his shield and stood at the front. After that, the angel that had been sitting on his head and resting sprang up as if it knew what it had to do and began guiding us along the path we needed to take.

The light emitted by the angel as it flew swiftly left behind a pale violet trail, and the camera angle moved smoothly along the white, sleek glass corridor that stretched in that direction. Soon, the screen gradually faded to black, and the story cutscene ended.

After a short loading screen, I was able to move my character freely. Retake was standing right beside me. Seeing his nickname, which had always appeared red, now colored blue—the party member color—gave me the same sort of wrongness I might feel if I saw a prohibition sign painted in red paint suddenly painted blue instead.

[Party] Retake : Wow

[Party] Retake : Bread-nim really is my party member.

Retake’s reaction wasn’t much different from mine. Seeing that chat, I naturally moved my eyes to the party list.

Wow, how could this be?

Divine Knight Guardian Lv.45 | Honeybread

Medical Officer Harmonizer Lv.45 | Retake

This…… was possible. I’d thought it was a sight I’d never see unless one of us changed races. No, I’d never even imagined it in the first place.

I stared hard at the monitor, seriously wondering if this was a dream. Just then, Retake suddenly clicked on me, targeted me, and used a healing skill. Then a valid heal was applied over my full HP bar, and all kinds of effects flashed.

[Combat] You have received the Foresight effect from Retake.

[Combat] You recovered 11,801 HP from Retake’s Healing Formula IX effect.

[Combat] You recovered 8,242 HP from Retake’s Healing Formula IV effect.

[Combat] You recovered 10,079 HP from Retake’s Ancient Wisdom effect.

[Party] Retake : Whoa

To think I’d receive healing from Retake……

I couldn’t snap out of the fresh shock. Then, as if I’d caught something from Retake, I used various party protection skills just like he had.

[Combat] You used the Righteous Pilgrimage skill on Retake.

[Combat] You used the Steadfast Will skill on Retake.

[Combat] Retake recovered 7,148 HP from the Vitality Recovery effect.

[Combat] Retake’s Vitality Recovery effect applies an increased natural recovery speed effect.

[Combat] You used the Moonlight Protection skill on your party members.

It was so, so fascinating that the combat log showed messages saying Retake had healed me instead of attacked me. In the end, I couldn’t hold back and pinched my cheek. My cheek hurt, as if proving this wasn’t a dream.

Rubbing my stinging cheek, I asked Retake in a daze.