◈ Episode 70. I Cannot Stand By and Watch (1)[Quest: Marcelo’s Research]
The first thing to flicker was the Magic Tower, Marcelo’s quest.─Approach to the Anomaly (In Progress) ▲●Conquer the rift. (Repeat)●Witness the Arcana Continent. (Success)
Conquer the rift.
The newly appeared quest objective beneath it.[Success]
That word told me once again.
The Quirnberg Machine Tower.
The place visible outside was the real Arcana Continent.
The Arcana Continent in my memories was from a full twelve years ago.
Back when Arcana had been nothing more than a game.
Yes, of course even mountains and rivers would have changed several times over.‘But still.’This wasn’t on the level of mountains and rivers changing, was it?
Burning forests and earth.
Smoke blanketing the whole area.
Villages trampled without a trace.
The wretchedly collapsed walls
said that the state of the city was no different.
But more than anything else.‘There are demons everywhere my eyes can reach.’I had expected it to some extent.
In that short time,
considering the influence demon-type monsters had exerted on reality,
the state of the Arcana Continent could only have been worse than reality, never better.‘Even so, this seems a little too serious…….’The exact situation on the Arcana Continent?
Of course, there was no way for me to know.
After all, even the scenery of the Arcana Continent I was seeing now was probably only showing the area around the Quirnberg Machine Tower.
But that alone was enough to understand the severity of the situation.‘Think calmly.’I had been startled by the unexpected sight.
But once again, I benefited from Grandfell’s setting of never swinging between joy and sorrow.
Without wavering, I was able to think rationally.‘What matters, always, is reality.’[『Anomaly』] itself.
As long as rifts existed,
connecting the Arcana Continent and reality,
the crisis of the Arcana Continent
would be no different from a crisis that would soon befall reality.‘From now on, I can’t rely on the update logs.’It wasn’t that I distrusted all update logs.
In the first place, update logs themselves existed to help players.
Everything began and ended with demons. It was because of the demons.
Because the chances had grown that those things would hide their identities
and, while possessing ‘something,’
flood into reality through the rifts.
“Utterly cowardly.”
Now that I knew that fact,
Grandfell’s pride could not stand by and watch such a sight.
Monsters were one thing, but demons strutting about reality?
That was something that could not exist in Grandfell’s dictionary.‘I have no choice but to get even more serious about conquering rifts.’As if researching the Anomaly wasn’t enough, they had even touched his pride.
In the end, the ones dying would be me and my struggling legs……!
It would not have been strange to organize my thoughts around there.
“This scenery, too, cannot be tolerated.”
I continued speaking like that.
Yes, for me—
no, for Grandfell—there was still something left to do.
As I said, demons strutting about?
Once witnessed, it could not be left alone.
Even if it was happening on the Arcana Continent!
It was impossible to interfere with the Arcana Continent from reality.
But within the space of [『Anomaly』],
inside a rift?‘It might be possible to interfere with the Arcana Continent.’As if proving that possibility,
another quest was flickering.[Class Quest: Akshan’s Legacy]
The beacon of survival has surely been delivered.
Last demon hunter.
Recover the legacy of your order, lost to evil.─Train your weakened body. (Repeat)─Investigate the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower. (Success)─Activate the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower. (In Progress)
Activate the Quirnberg Machine Tower.
The moment I confirmed the new objective,
Clank─!
Shiiiiik─!
the mechanism I was riding slowly came to a halt.
Soon, a magnificent sight unfolded before my eyes.
Massive gears and mechanical devices were interlocked with one another.
I had searched the [Quirnberg Ascension Lever]
and thought I had roughly grasped the structure of the Machine Tower.
But that enormous device was designed with circuits incomparably more complex than any lever.
“It is almost like a heart.”
The exclamation left my mouth.
At the same time, a message appeared.[Quirnberg Machine Tower
-You have entered the top floor.]
This was the top floor of the Machine Tower.
If one had any sense, they would be able to tell.
The activation of the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower, would take place right here.
On the top floor.
I did not hesitate.
Click─I approached the enormous mechanical heart.
If someone saw me, they would probably ask in concern.
Was it all right to touch it recklessly?
Wouldn’t it break if I touched it like that?
It was a perfectly reasonable concern.
As I had just said, the mechanical heart was made up of an abstruse and complex structure that even Grandfell’s talent could not immediately grasp.
However.
“What is needed to hunt demons is not knowledge.”
Yes.
Whether it was complex, a crystallization of tremendous technology, or whatever else.
In the end, the Quirnberg Machine Tower was Akshan’s legacy.
A decisive weapon made to hunt demons.
“Unless it is a ritual.”
So I did not hesitate.
I placed my hand on the mechanical heart.
I began the ritual unique to demon hunters.[‘Quirnberg Machine Tower’ has been selected as the sacrifice.][Skill, ‘Exorcism Ritual,’ is activated.]
Clank─!
The mechanical heart began to beat.
Creak─!
Chiiiiiiiik─!
The enormous mechanical devices meshed together, and the entire Machine Tower began to vibrate.
An exorcism ritual to eliminate demons.
The Quirnberg Machine Tower was the sacrifice.
The Machine Tower offered as a sacrifice would, until it ceased operation,
hunt the demons rampaging across the Arcana Continent.[Quirnberg Machine Tower is beginning operation.]
Ruuuuumble─!
The vibration and shaking gradually intensified.
Within my trembling field of vision, a message appeared.[You have cleared the Quirnberg Machine Tower rift.]
Clear.
Soon, the rift, the space of [『Anomaly』],
would close.
When my vision returned, I would open my eyes in reality.
But I knew.
“Legacy of Akshan.”
No, I believed it without a doubt.
“Fulfill your pride as a decisive weapon.”
Until the very end,
the Quirnberg Machine Tower would hunt the demons of the Arcana Continent.
As if that belief was not mistaken,
within my blurring vision,
messages appeared one after another.─Activate the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower. (Success)[You have fulfilled the conditions.][You have uncovered the secret of the Quirnberg Machine Tower.][The decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower, begins its counterattack.][Experience is accumulating in the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower.][Fame is accumulating in the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower.][Regarding the accumulated experience and fame…….]...[You have cleared the Quirnberg Machine Tower rift.]……
It was Hoyeol.
In the end, Lee Hoyeol had cleared the rift.
That message appeared before every player in the Quirnberg Machine Tower.
Once again, it was a performance that left them clicking their tongues in disbelief. More than anything, this was an attack speed they had never imagined.
“No, how did he fill thirty points all at once?”
“It was definitely twenty-one points the last time we checked, wasn’t it?”
“B-By the way, why is this thing doing this?!”
Ruuuumble─!
Isn’t this thing collapsing?!
The Machine Tower was shaking so violently that it made them make a fuss.
Their doubts and curiosity could only grow even bigger.
“What happened upstairs?”
“Seeing how the rift was cleared so quickly, was there less there than we thought?”
“Surely it’s not, like, a self-destruct device or something, right?”
“Ah, this is driving me crazy! Does Lee Hoyeol have no intention of streaming or anything?!”
They were so curious that they wanted to get irritated over something absurd!
But that atmosphere did not last long.
Soon, messages appeared before the players as well.[Someone has uncovered the secret of the Quirnberg Machine Tower.][The decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower, begins its counterattack.]
“!!!”
This time, they could tell immediately.
That someone was Lee Hoyeol!
Hoyeol had truly uncovered the secret of the Quirnberg Machine Tower in this short amount of time.
But wait, a decisive weapon?
The players’ expressions slowly began to change.
“……
Begins its counterattack? Counterattack? What counterattack?”
“Then this shaking right now? It’s not collapsing?”
“Don’t tell me it was something like a transforming robot?! This thing?!”
Shock upon shock─a true succession of shocks─but they could not keep being surprised forever.
Rift clear.
Just as the system message had said,
when they opened their eyes again, the scenery of reality greeted them.
In that dumbfounded moment,
the rift that had formed in the Yusra Kingdom.
The players who had entered the Machine Tower through it thought.‘……
Wait, Lee Hoyeol!’‘Where is Lee Hoyeol?’‘……
If I can get even one word out of him, this will be huge!’They looked around.
They resolved to grab Hoyeol by the ankle if they had to and cling to him.
Truly, those messages had appeared like a storm rushing in.
What had happened upstairs?
What was the secret of the Quirnberg Machine Tower?
It said a counterattack had begun, but a counterattack against whom?
And what kind of foreshadowing was this decisive weapon?
Thanks to that, their questions had piled up by the truckload.
The viewers watching—no, the entire world—must have felt the same.
So if they could obtain even one answer about it.
“……
Good.”
For the sake of the world’s right to know, I shall step forward.
The players steeled themselves with solemn resolve.
Finding Hoyeol among the crowd?
That was not particularly difficult.
Starting from his hair—silver hair.
Hoyeol’s presence, born from his appearance, could not be buried even if one tried.
As if that were not enough, this time the mass of muscle, Nam Taemin, was even beside him.
However.
“……
Hah.”
The right to know, solemn resolve, whatever.
The moment they faced Hoyeol,
their lips froze and would not part.
When they tried to ask, they remembered.
The icy attitude Hoyeol had shown the public so far.
-No, what are you doing??? Did you forget the question??-For real, you’re making me hit subscribe twice.
-Just ask something, please!! Or what, are you just collecting donations?!
That was more frightening than the viewers’ angry chat.
After all, they were players.
As in the Quirnberg Machine Tower rift,
there was no guarantee they would not run into Hoyeol again.
But if, by any chance, they got on Hoyeol’s bad side……?‘……
This is insane.’Suddenly, Hoyeol’s performance in the Machine Tower flashed through their minds.
The sight of him passing through traps with overflowing elegance.
Ten consecutive wins in an instant in a tournament where even earning one victory was difficult.
Because they had personally witnessed that sight.‘I must have lost my mind!!’Unlike reporters who knew nothing,
they could not shove themselves at Hoyeol.
Yes, the more one knew, the more one saw.
Because the players knew Hoyeol,
they could not bring themselves to grab him by the ankle and cling to him.
“I will be going first.”
At that one word from Hoyeol, the crowd parted.
And so, between that countless throng of people,
Hoyeol left the place
without a single wrinkle or speck of dust on his clothes.
“……
Phew.”
Only then did a sigh escape.
Excuses burst out from the players left behind.
“No, I’m telling you, there was nothing we could do!”
“You saw that icy expression, didn’t you? Seriously, as if it wasn’t your problem……!”
“Unsubscribe? Go ahead. No, do it all you want!! Views, comments, dislike terrorism, whatever. Lee Hoyeol is way scarier than all that!!”*I immediately headed for the portal.
I arrived at the Magic Tower.
I climbed the stairs and opened the door to my office.
Thud─Only after closing that door did it sink in.……
No matter how I thought about it, I think I hit the jackpot.
The top floor of the Quirnberg Machine Tower.
The final message I had witnessed there.[Experience is accumulating in the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower.][Fame is accumulating in the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower.][You have obtained acquisition rights to the accumulated experience and fame.]
Acquisition rights to experience and fame!
And not just anything, but the experience and fame obtained by the Quirnberg Machine Tower. It was an object with the grand modifier of “decisive weapon” attached to it.
On top of that, I had personally confirmed
the Machine Tower’s level of technology with my own two eyes.……
Maybe I won’t have to blame my level anymore?
It was the decisive weapon, Quirnberg Machine Tower, that had begun its counterattack.
As it hunted demons on the Arcana Continent, it would accumulate experience,
and naturally gain fame through its deeds.‘And I’m the one who gets to swallow all of that…….’It would not have been strange for my heart to pound as if it would burst from that anticipation.
Yet, as expected, I was not merely calm, but shameless.
Clack─Before I knew it, I was tilting a teacup.
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
What a personality that makes it hard to set a mood. Truly.
Of course, if I thought about it calmly, it was too early to rejoice.
After all, what I had obtained was only “acquisition rights.”‘It doesn’t mean I’ve acquired it.’In other words, whether it was experience or fame accumulated in the Quirnberg Machine Tower,
it would only become mine once I “acquired” it.
There was no way to know how to do that right now.
Because the Quirnberg Machine Tower existed on the Arcana Continent.
Clack─So for now, it would be right to calm this excitement.
Yes, let’s think of it as a savings account and forget about it.
So that I can become someone who can stand proud before my level.
So that I will no longer be pathetic.
It is like savings set aside for the future.
Scritch─Of course, my hand paid no mind to that kind of mental victory
and had been moving busily since earlier.
Letters engraved onto parchment with a feather pen.
The recipient, naturally, was the chief mage, Marcelo.
[Marcelo’s Research], that quest objective had been accomplished.
I had also learned new facts in the Quirnberg Machine Tower.‘I should discuss that with Marcelo.’The situation on the Arcana Continent witnessed within the rift.
The possibility of interfering with the Arcana Continent.
Even the identity of the Quirnberg Machine Tower.
Since there were quite a few things I had found out in my own way, there was much to say.
Scritch─Soon, Marcelo’s reply appeared on the parchment.
I had certainly said there was much to say.
“……!”
But at the first sentence that appeared, I was left speechless.
The Quirnberg Machine Tower.
I had thought its technology was no ordinary thing.……
That “race” is coming up here?!