“…They’re kind of…the same…in Fr*m games…” “…What are you two talking about this time?” It was a marble palace, adorned in mystical holy markings with a ceiling over twenty meters high. Before them extended an endlessly long hall that was supported by tall, lavishly decorated pillars for as far as the eye could see, with multiple offshoots from the main path in eyeshot as well—but that wasn’t all. A large group of Demonias—skeletons clad in armor—could be seen rushing the party from afar. And just like the heroes, above each of the skeletons’ heads were red and blue bars. They likely worked the same way: The enemy would be rendered incapacitated should their HP fall to zero. Without paying much mind to their attacks, Izuna kicked into high gear and followed her party’s strategy by slamming her hands into the ground. Ka-boooom!! Two small fists slammed loudly against the floor, leaving a crater and creating an echo. “There! I can hear some stairs, please! This way, please!!” Through echolocation, Izuna was able to pinpoint the stairs to the next floor within seconds. The path to the stairs was not without traps, but Izuna saw right through each and every one of them using her incredible perception. She did this all while carrying Sora and Shiro piggyback, and following close behind was Til, who did the same for Steph. “I knew this going in, but…you guys are so OP as a race…” “…B-B-Brother…! D-don’t drop…meee…!” “AAAAAAACK! I’m gonna fall!! I DON’T WANNA DIEEEEE!!” “L-Lady Steph! Please don’t scream into my ear!” The brilliantly ornate walls and pillars, as well as the high ceiling, were easily scaled by the dynamic duo as they zoomed through the wide halls shouldering their three companions, who clung on for dear life. No Demonias were capable of catching them—let alone getting a glimpse of them. Those who attempted to chase the group blindly were quickly picked off by Sora and Shiro, who skillfully fired their projectile weapons from Izuna’s back. Less than eighteen minutes passed before the party finally reached the end of the ninth floor and ran up the stairs to the tenth when they came across something new: a door that sat in the middle of a distorted magic circle… …Yeah, that just screams, “Welcome… Beyond this door awaits the room of the tenth-floor boss. ” From the looks of it, I bet we’re not gonna be able to skip the boss fight… Sora, Shiro, and Steph hopped off Izuna’s and Til’s backs to discuss their next move. “I’m guessing there’s a boss waiting behind that door. One that we won’t be able to ignore like the rest of the enemies. In other words, this will be our first battle.” As Sora said this to his party members, each of them clutched their weapons. “Here’s the plan,” Sora continued: “Steph, you’re our tank. You’re gonna be on the front lines. I want you to get as close to the enemy as you can, and catch as many attacks as you can with your shield. You are going to be our literal shield—our lives are in your hands… We’re depending on you.” “I know. You can count on me.” Steph shook off the doubts she had about this weighty role before giving a firm nod. Sora nodded back. “Izuna and Til, you two are gonna be our melee DPS. Use your agility to dodge any attacks the enemy throws your way, then deal as much damage as you can from behind Steph’s shield. If possible, try to draw aggro away from Steph so she isn’t being constantly attacked. Me and Shiro will be the ranged DPS—we’ll attack from a distance. You guys got that?” It was a clear and simple plan, but Sora’s eyes invited any questions they may have had. “…Wh-who’s gonna protect you and Queen Shiro, Sir…?” Til had the same concern that Jibril and Emir-Eins had shared earlier. It was almost as if she asked the question for them once more, as they were in the inventory bag, but with a bold grin— “…We won’t…need it… They won’t even…hit us…” Did you guys forget what happened when we fought the Eastern Union? Not even a bloodbroken Izuna could hit us with her hail of bullets. The siblings’ confidence almost felt arrogant, and elicited a group-wide gulp. But their confidence wasn’t as unwarranted as their initial response made it seem— “Don’t worry. If there are multiple enemies, or if the boss uses some kinda attack that can’t be dodged, we’ll put our backs to Steph’s. You two only need to focus on supporting her, and we’ll be safe.” Their confidence had its foundation in a contingency for attacks they couldn’t handle—it was all part of the plan. With each party member knowing their role, the group nodded to each other. Sora then turned to the door that stood between them and the boss once more, and Shiro muttered to him: “…Brother… This’ll be, tough…without a healer…” She’s right… There’s no way to heal ourselves in this game. This is likely the reason no one’s been able to beat it so far. “Let’s go.” With unusual tension in his voice, Sora said this before touching the magic circle that encompassed the door. Doing so caused the magic circle to shatter into pieces, and then the door opened with a loud, heavy sound. And then— A low sound erupted from the center of the room—so low, in fact, that the Immanity party members couldn’t even initially hear it, but they sure could feel it. The sound echoed in their bowels, but what shook them even more was the imposing figure that was the source of the growl. Standing before them with a massive ax was a Minotaur. At five meters tall, the bovine-headed Goliath growled viciously as it stared them down. Just like the enemies they’d encountered up until this point, there were two bars above the Minotaur’s head—each extra-long, just as one would expect from a boss monster. Steph couldn’t hold back a brief “Eeep!” when she and the rest of the party charged forward. As soon as they stepped into the boss room, the door behind them roared once more while it closed. The magic circle from before reappeared, this time behind the Minotaur. Looks like I was right! We gotta beat this guy if we wanna go up! Sora shouted this to himself on the inside as he cocked his Anti-Matter Rifle, the sound of which acted as a signal for the rest of the party. Shiro, Izuna, Til, and Steph all followed suit and readied their weapons. Okay… This guy doesn’t look all that quick, but we won’t know until we try… “We need to rush him!! Use as little of your power as you can to beat him as quickly as possible!!” Sora shouted these words so loudly that his companions were only just barely able to hear them over the Minotaur bellowing another deep roar. The battle then commenced, with both sides charging toward each other at once, and the party’s first real battle began… All in all—the battle went smoothly. In terms of physical strength, the Werebeasts lived up to their reputation as the Ixseeds’ strongest race, with Izuna as their representative—especially with her bloodbreak ability active. Dwarves were always known to be a close second, with their dynamic visual acuity and brute strength; Til, too, did her people justice by adeptly wielding her weapon. Appearances didn’t betray the Minotaur boss, as its sluggish attacks didn’t even come close to connecting to the party’s two speedsters. The pair invited attacks that they skillfully dodged by using the walls and ceilings for footing. Then there was Steph; her Great Shield was more powerful than anyone could’ve imagined. Only slivers of damage from the Minotaur’s mighty great ax managed to chip through her shield. Far behind Steph were the siblings—the boss launched throwing axes at Sora and Shiro, but they skillfully dodged any that came their way. This was how the battle quickly approached its end… “We almost have him!!” Steph called out to the party. The massive Demonia was under a constant barrage of blows between Izuna’s Kitty Gloves, Til’s Great Hammer, and the siblings’ bullets. The long HP bar above its head slowly depleted to its last bit when it happened. ……… “Oh…? What’s this…?” said Steph. The Minotaur suddenly fell to one knee and, without making a sound, was engulfed in light before disappearing. “Whew… That was pretty good for our first fight… It sure ate up a lot of resources, though…” Steph was caught off guard by the sudden finish while Sora looked at each party member’s HP-MP bars and reviewed the battle. This was our party’s first battle. Up against a strong enemy, the only damage we took was chip damage through Steph’s shield. We still have over 90 percent of our MP left as well. In normal circumstances, this would easily be considered a flawless victory. But…the problem is, this is only the tenth floor. You don’t need to be a galaxy-brain gamer to know that the Minotaur will be the weakest boss we’re gonna face. And not just the bosses—the mobs we’re gonna try avoiding will get stronger and stronger, too… Losing roughly 10 percent of our MP on the tenth floor of a hundred-floor dungeon is not great… Shiro, Til, and Izuna all shared Sora’s concern, but the fifth hero had other worries on her mind. “U-um, hello?! You’re acting like this is over, but the boss still had some HP left!! Wh-what if he pops out and attacks us again?!” What if he’s only hiding? The vigilant Steph looked frantically around the room for a potentially hidden enemy, but Sora filled her in: “Oh…you didn’t notice? The Demonias we defeated all disappeared the same way.” “Come again?” “You saw how me and Shiro were picking some off on the way here, right? Izuna and Til beat some, too.” “Oh, yes…I did find it a bit strange, given that your orders were to ignore any enemies before the boss.” “I mean…you didn’t think we were gonna go up against the boss without knowing how the system works, did you…?” Steph cocked her head in befuddlement. Sora winced and explained what the rest of the party had already noticed. “First, whenever we defeat an enemy, we recover some MP. This goes for the boss and the random mobs we defeated on our way here.” “Wait, really…?” The entire party nodded, which caused Steph to blush with embarrassment, but Sora continued. “Yup, and since this was the first time any of us took any damage, it looks like our HP recovers a bit, too. Take a look at yours.” There were next to no ways for the party to heal their HP in this game. While they could get some back this way, there was one little problem… “Here’s the thing, though: The MP it takes to defeat an enemy outweighs the amount of HP we get back.” On the way to the boss, the party—save for Steph—defeated a handful of mobs, mainly skeletons and slimes, but… Even when they distributed the attacks between the four of them, the MP they received upon a single victory just wasn’t worth it. It was a net loss between the four, who were using their MP to make attacks. Though they received a bit more after defeating the boss, it was still a net loss, with them each losing nearly a tenth of their MP pool. “It looks like I was right about there being little to gain from fights.” Though there was still the question of why they recovered HP and MP in the first place… “But…we have some bigger problems to deal with. Three, to be exact.” Sora said this, then held out his hand and extended up the first of three fingers. “One, the attacks in this game deliver no impact physics.” Were the attacks limited to only Sora’s and Shiro’s bullets, this could be chalked up to the toughness of the Demonias; but neither the random mobs nor the boss budged an inch when taking a hit from Izuna’s Kitty Gloves, which had all the force of a truck. “I mean…seeing as we’re using our hope to fight…I’m guessing our HP bars must be some hope barrier, and any attacks we or the enemy make are against each other’s barriers. How else do you think you stopped that giant Minotaur’s ax like that?” “” Now that you mention it, the boss monster’s big ax should have sent me flying… Why did I think I could receive an attack like that without dying in the first place…? The blood drained from Steph’s face once she finally came to this realization, but she was actually glad she’d gone in oblivious. Regardless, these settings would likely remain in place because of the Ten Covenants. This may have been a battle game, but harming one another was still physically impossible. So this much Sora was able to predict beforehand. The problem was that this aspect applied to the enemies as well… “This means that we can’t stop our enemies from attacking unless we fully defeat them.” The enemies wouldn’t flinch or budge no matter what kind of attack the party threw at them—the heroes had no stopping power. This meant that they wouldn’t be able to mow down big groups of mobs because they’d run out of MP too quickly. This would be a problem should they end up in a map where Izuna and Til could get surrounded— Steph gulped at the thought, but Sora still had two fingers left to raise. “Which brings us to problem two: The enemies disappear before we KO them.” It was the very thing that Steph had worried about only moments ago, and Sora explained why this was a problem. “The enemies in the Tower are Demonia staff operating on a lenient four-person-shift, four-day workweek.” “Huh…? Yes, I suppose Genau Ih did mention something along the lines of that…” Then it should be clear why the enemies disappeared before dying— “Basically, the staff running the game are protecting their employees from a welfare standpoint.” “Okay…?” And this means…? The significance of this was lost on Steph, who Sora set aside for a moment. “Hey! I know you’re listening! What’s the deal here, Schira Ha?!” He called out for someone who wasn’t there, leaving Steph and the rest of the party confused for a good ten seconds, until— “…H-His Evilness has given the green light…so if you would please, Schira Ha the Wise…” “Mweh-heh… I suppose I should no longer be surprised by your cunningness, O Heroes.” Schira Ha must’ve been outside the Tower, likely with the skeleton in the Joint Chiefs of Staff office. It must’ve gone against their company’s compliance for someone who wasn’t even staff, let alone owned by the participants, to answer them. But seeing as the little furball allowed it, Schira Ha’s voice, in all its wicked elegance, could be heard over a broadcast. “Mweh-heh… Yes, what you heroes call HP is, as you say, your hope being depleted… In the case of our staff, we warp them to a work-related injury rehabilitation center just before they run out of hope and give them the time off they require to recuperate outside the Tower.” It was well established that the benefits of the Demonia employment system never disappointed. But this spelled something else for the party— “” Steph, too, gulped upon hearing Schira Ha’s explanation, which elicited a wry chuckle from Sora as he returned to his point. While there was a safety net for the Demonia staff who competed against them in the Tower— “If our hope, on the other hand, runs out, we lose the game, correct? And since we’re the challengers, it’s safe to assume Demonia’s awesome benefits don’t extend to us?” “……………” “And we all know what happens when someone runs out of hope and loses in this game.” They would end up the same way as the people who entered this Tower before. Losing all hope—or falling into despair, which meant: “So if we run out of MP, then there’s no way for us to defeat the enemy, and then it’s only a matter of time before our HP is finished. We end up either killing ourselves, or worse, become living husks of who we were…although which of the two outcomes is worse depends on how you think, I guess.” Thus, with losing one’s hope being the losing condition of this game, every attack they made drew them closer to their own demise—little by little. They couldn’t move forward without using their own life force to attack, and there was no way to realistically replenish any hope they lost… “……………” After hearing Sora colorfully articulate the direness of the straits the party was in, Steph was joined by Shiro, Til, and Izuna in tensing up at the thought of the desperate game they had been thrown into— “…Though it pains me to say, Master, perhaps it would be better for you to remain in the party’s inventory bag instead of us…” A voice came from the bag. The speaker must have been able to tell what was going on. Jibril made the same suggestion she’d made before, and this time, Sora thought about it for a moment, before— “Jibril and Emir-Eins…swap in for Til and Izuna.” As Sora muttered this, Til and Izuna were instantly sucked into the bag and replaced by Jibril and Emir-Eins, who came swirling out. Why swap out Til and Izuna and not Sora and Shiro themselves? Jibril and Emir-Eins wondered this in confusion while the rest of the party was looking at their status bars. “You two… Why are you missing HP and MP…?” Sora asked them. “Oh?” “…Confirmation: Both this unit and Irregular Number are missing just under two percent of HP and MP. Question: Why…?” These two had yet to fight, and yet they’d already lost a small amount of their HP and MP. No one had an answer for Sora or Emir-Eins, and they spent a few moments at a loss— “…Til and Izuna. Swap in for Jibril and Emir-Eins.” In the same fashion as before, the two tiniest party members came out with a swirl. Sora then addressed Jibril and Emir-Eins, who he sent back into the bag. “We can swap out anytime in an instant. I’m gonna save you guys for an emergency, just like we planned.” “…Yes, I understand.” “…Doubt:… Reluctance: …Understood.” While it was true that it was dangerous for Sora and Shiro to be out of the bag, as they were one hit away from death, there was a new, even bigger risk that Sora had just realized. Our trump cards in Jibril and Emir-Eins may only have one use each… “Til…let me ask you one more time. The Dwarf party that supposedly tied at this game did it in a little over a day, right?” “Um… Yes, that’s right. I don’t know the details, but they went into the Tower, and thirty hours passed before the Devil disappeared—or so I heard from the chieftain, I did!” This was the same four-hundred-and-eight-year-old information that Til had shared with the party before they departed Elkia. With this in mind, Sora’s original goal was to clear the Tower in under a day. The party needed to use as little of their hope reserves to pass through the dungeon as fast as they could, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to win. Or so…one would assume. Right…? But—was this really the case? “…Aaaanyway… Schira Ha!! I gotta ask: Why does my weapon suck so much?!” This had been on Sora’s mind both during the boss fight and during the trip there. As it would play into how he would allocate the party’s resources, Sora barked out his question angrily. “Despite how menacing it looks, my bullets only hit as hard as a single shot from Shiro’s Machine Pistols!! Between a slow firing speed, a seven-bullet cartridge, and a long reload time, my DPS is in the dumps! What gives?!” Lemme guess…’cause it’s ThE sHaPe Of My HoPe. Sure, the weapon weighs nothing and has no recoil, so it’s actually pretty easy to use despite its large frame. But something about my rifle doing the same damage as Shiro’s fully automatic Machine Pistols seems ridiculously unbalanced! Sora’s complaint was met by confusion spoken wickedly over the speakers… “Mweh-heh… I’m…not quite sure what to say to that. The weapons you possess are the physical manifestations of your own hope, and not something we staff have a hand in designing…” “…Brother…you’re, all talk… Tiny…weak…limp… Your weapon…personifies you…” “Ahhh, my dear sister… You are talking about my weapon, right? Okay, you know what—those are your expectations, not mine!! It’s not even that tiny!! Or limp for that matter!! WE’RE TALKIN’ ABOUT THE GUN, RIGHT?!” “Um, Stuch. What the hell else could Shiro be talking about, please?” “Izuna…that’s something you don’t need to know for another ten years—or, no, maybe even a lifetime. I lament the fact that I’ve come to understand this aspect of their banter…” “King Sora! It’s like you told me before! It’s not the specs of the weapon that matter, but how you use it, it is!!” “Indeed, Master. Size and speed pale in comparison to technique in the grand scheme of things.” “Affirmative/Conjecture: Its high accuracy makes it a superior model. Master should be proud.” Sora was being teased from all directions—even his friends pocketed in the party’s inventory had their minds in the gutter. Sora tore at his hair and reeled back in agony, but he was also plagued by a new question. There’s nothing to laugh about; this is way too complex. Of course, Steph’s boatload of HP stands out a lot, but it’s not just that. Her shield mitigates almost everything that comes her way without costing any MP. It’s way too OP. Then there’s Izuna’s Kitty Gloves and Til’s Great Hammer. Both super powerful, but they eat their MP pools like there’s no tomorrow. Just like how our HP and MP varies, our weapons function differently, and in too many different ways to keep track of. Our HP and MP are the visualization of our hope, and our weapons are its physical manifestation… …Hope… It stems from the soul, which has a distinct definition in this world. But is that really true? If it is, then what causes such significant differences in our weapons? “……We don’t have time for this. Let’s keep going…” There were so many questions with no answers in sight. Worrying over them wasn’t going to get Sora anywhere. He had a game to play. “We’re gonna keep rolling with this strategy. Ignore any mobs we encounter and head straight for the boss. That said, if this dungeon follows the same conventional gaming logic it has so far, then the next ten floors will be different from the first.” The party turned to the door from before, the magic circle that blocked it off having disappeared… “The stage and mobs are gonna look and act differently than the first level, so stay on your toes.” The party nodded at Sora’s warning, and with that, the Immanity members mounted Til and Izuna once more before getting back to the dungeon. Jibril and Emir-Eins followed from within the floating bag. They went on…but Sora never raised his last finger. His final question was something he himself wasn’t sure of, but had been eating away at him in the back of his mind. That Minotaur boss we just beat… It started acting different when we got it down to around half health… It was a second phase, something pretty common in these kinds of games. Usually, you’d expect the boss to get stronger, but it was the opposite; the boss had grown weaker. The Minotaur’s attacks became more telegraphed after the halfway point, making them easier to dodge than they already were. HP and MP were the player’s hope levels put into numbers. If the boss grew weaker due to the reason Sora thought he did, and if the same game mechanic applied to the party members… No…it can’t work like that… Or else there’s absolutely no way the Dwarves could’ve ever cleared this game. Sora shook his head, relieving his mind of this concern and leaving it behind in the boss room as Izuna and Til ran through the door and up the stairs beyond it to the next floor. The party had no way of knowing, however, that Sora’s worst fear—the very fear he had left behind in the boss room—would come back to bite him only an hour later… Just as Sora had predicted, the eleventh floor revealed an entirely new world. The party left the grand marble castle for a mystical forest. It was hard to believe they were even in a tower, and while there was no distinct path to follow where they emerged, there was a pack of rabid humanoid mandrakes ready to greet them. Izuna swiftly passed through the horde of mobs with Sora and Shiro on her back, following a path that only she could discern to the next floor. Not too far behind—and above—were Steph and Til, the latter of the two jumping from tree to tree to keep on the Werebeast’s tail. At this pace, it didn’t take long for them to reach the twentieth floor and its boss: a massive Triffid plant creature. The Triffid used its vines like whips to attack the party while also clouding their vision with pollen, which it spread with each attack. The gimmick didn’t amount to much up against Izuna’s and Til’s visual acuity and high mobility. And despite the high speed of their mount, it was no challenge for Shiro to calculate the trajectory for her Machine Pistol fire, which Sora used as tracers for his own. While the Triffid did manage to connect some attacks here and there, they were met by Steph’s shield for little to no effect. Yet another easy fight. Which brought them to the twenty-first floor. This time, the stage was a complex series of beautiful cavernous limestone tunnels. The first five floors went by easily, bringing the party to floor twenty-six. “…………” “…………” The party continued to spelunk their way through the long series of tunnels in search of the stairs to the next floor, but their momentum compared to even only an hour ago had dwindled as they quietly pushed forward. Sora, swaying atop Izuna’s back, reviewed what had happened so far: First, there was the battle with the twentieth-floor boss, the Triffid. The cave terrain they’d been on since the twenty-first floor hindered Izuna’s and Til’s mobility, forcing the party to fight the groups of goblins and orcs blocking their path, which had cost way more MP than anticipated… The active party members had used almost half of their total MP. “S-Sora…perhaps now would be a good time for a short break…?” Steph suggested, sensing how grim things were getting for her companions. Steph was right—they’d been on the move for two hours straight since entering the Tower dungeon… She was keeping everyone’s physical stamina in mind. But Sora and Shiro had spent these two hours on Izuna’s back. They’d stuck to safe areas whenever they weren’t in battle. Basically, they hadn’t moved much more than they’d needed to so far. They were tired—but not in a physical sense. A different sort of exhaustion, one Sora was all too familiar with—the worst kind in the context of this game. …There’s no doubting it anymore. This is definitely… “?! Shit—I stepped on a trap! I’m sorry, please!!” Sora’s train of thought was abruptly interrupted by a turn of events Izuna’s highly acute five senses should’ve seen coming from a mile away. There was a flash, and in the next instant—the party found itself transported to a dead end— “…Crap!! We’re right in the middle of a spawn point!!” They were up against more than fifty orcs, who growled as they each clutched their axes and stared them down. Down the corridor that appeared to be the sole exit was a familiar sight: a magic circle. We’re gonna have to beat them all if we wanna leave…?! Sora clicked his tongue at the realization before giving his orders. “Steph! Get in front of me and Shiro! Izuna and Til, ignore the enemies on Steph and take them out from their flank!!” His party members nodded. The commands were simple enough, but their execution didn’t go so smoothly— “?! Whoops. Sorry, please…” “Eeeep?! Lady Izuna?! Now’s not the time for apologies, it’s not! Look out behind you!!” Izuna and Til leaped forward, except their lack of focus made it difficult for them to coordinate with one another. But that wasn’t the end of their problems… “…What…? Did…I…just…?” The unimaginable happened: Shiro missed her target. Sora tried to give his little sister cover fire, but his weapon lacked the speed and power to help effectively. Without any stopping power to keep the enemy from advancing, the orcs ignored his bullets and pushed forward— “S-S-S-Sora?! We may be a bit in over our heads heeerrreee!!” Steph screeched. Sora clicked his tongue loudly under his breath. It was time for one of their trump cards!! “Emir-Eins!! Switch with Izuna and mow ’em down!” In the next instant, Izuna was sucked up into the party’s inventory bag, and— “Acknowledgment: This unit has been deployed. Orders received. Commencing destruction. Auf wiedersehen.” Emir-Eins’s maid outfit fluttered as she gently landed on the ground in Izuna’s place and bowed. A series of bright lights came surging out from the multiple Drones that floated around her, whiting out the entire cavern. ……… …… The flash slowly dimmed, revealing the light the enemies shed while they slowly vanished. The party was dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events, but their confusion turned to relief as they slowly processed what had happened. They all sank to the floor. “Y-you saved us… Hey, Sora! If Emir-Eins is this strong, we should have had her out from—” The start. But Steph didn’t get to finish her sentence. “Emir-Eins…switch back with Izuna…” Sora ignored Steph and made the switch, and just like that: “……I…hate…this……” Shiro dropped her Machine Pistols and fell to her knees, wailing. She hid her face in her hands as large teardrops fell down her cheeks. “Oh. H-huh…?” said Steph. “Sh-Shiro?! What’s the matter?!” Had she been hit by stray fire or otherwise hurt somehow? Steph ran over to Shiro, who was white as a sheet—but otherwise unscathed. Her HP was still full as well, which left Steph in even more dismay as her words didn’t even reach the weeping Shiro. It’s happening, Sora thought. His greatest fear about this game came true, and it happened to his sister first. He ran to her, and Shiro finally shared what had her in such despair. And that was: “Why… Brother…?! Why won’t my boobs grow?!” “Shiro!! My sister!! Are you really gonna let that be the thing that gets you down?!” Meanwhile—close by, Izuna was curled up in a ball on the floor… “…Uuuugghhh… I’m so goddamn hungry, please…!” “Oh, come on! Now you’re just being cute!!” While these seemed like trifles to Sora, the two youngest party members lamented over problems that caused the utmost despair for them personally. Tears were pouring down their cheeks like rivers when a voice came from the inventory bag: “Already Known: …This unit is useless. This unit betrayed the Spieler six thousand years ago. This unit lied to him. This unit couldn’t protect him. This unit failed her master as well… This unit cannot keep her promises…or protect those important to her…” “See?! That’s what despair sounds like—whoaaa, holy crap!! That took a serious turn!! I think I just got whiplash!!” “M-Master…what happened…? The scrap metal’s MP has been completely drained…” Yeah, I know… All it took was one fight for Emir-Eins to use up her entire MP. It’s why he switched Emir-Eins out for Izuna so soon. The problem was, he still didn’t know the reason why her MP had bottomed out. Sora was scratching his head from all the stress, when: “Wh-what’s the matter with everyone…? What happened—?” Steph was deeply confused by the sudden vibe shift, forcing Sora to find the strength to fill her in. “Nothing’s the matter… This is exactly what happened to the tenth-floor boss at around half his HP that caused him to slow down… Dammit, I had a bad feeling about that, and it looks like I was right…” It’s a funny part of playing any RPG—and most other video games, for that matter: The PC can usually move unperturbed no matter how little HP or MP they have. They could be beaten half to death and still be running around and jumping as if they’d just woken up fresh—it’s very unrealistic. That wasn’t all… Sora looked at the HP and MP bars above his head and at the bar on his left wrist. “These HP and MP bars are a visualization of our hope, she said. We lose hope when we attack and get attacked. These two bars are how much hope we have left.” So if they ran out of hope, their bars would reach zero. There’s a path you have to go down before you reach utter despair, though… Although the party was physically okay, the stress was taking its toll. Just like how Shiro and Izuna had succumbed to anxiety and collapsed in tears, there were phases they would go through, and losing a certain amount of hope most likely triggered these phases. Sora doubted Izuna and his sister could even bring themselves to move at this point. “Then why am I…and you and Til, for that matter, still all right?” “Do we look all right…? Hmmm… In your case, it’s probably ’cause you’re a tank—you aren’t attacking at all.” Indeed… Steph’s MP bar was still completely full. Even her HP was still over 80 percent—she’d retained most of her hope. Til and Sora, on the other hand, had about half their MP left, just like Shiro and Izuna. “…Hm? Oh, heh-heh. I’m used to feeling depressed, I am. I feel like this every day of the week… But I suppose if I had the choice, I would rather be drinking myself to sleep, I would…” “Same goes for me,” said Sora. “Maybe not as much as Til, but I’m pretty used to feeling like this…so I’m kinda just powering through it right now.” Although they could feel the depression setting in, they were coping somehow. Sora kept getting awful flashbacks; if he let his guard down at all, he might succumb to them at any moment. Steph, holding back her desire to shriek, asked her next question. “Th-then what are we to do? We haven’t even made it to the thirtieth floor yet…” She was correct… The party wasn’t even a third of the way to the hundredth floor. Sora, Shiro, Til, and Izuna were still at full HP and had a little less than half of their MP left. They could probably make it to at least the fiftieth floor if they pushed themselves. But that was as far as they could get. This wasn’t even taking into account that the mobs would get tougher as they progressed. Not to mention their mental health would deteriorate further as they used more of their hope reserves. All things considered, a more accurate prediction was that the party was probably going to fully wipe at the thirtieth-floor boss. Steph must have gleaned this from Sora’s silence. She nodded and said: “Sora…you must have a plan B—right?” This is Sora we’re talking about. The strategic mastermind behind Immanity’s strongest gamer pair—Blank. There’s no way he would set foot in this dungeon without a contingency or two. Steph was more than certain that there was a second plan to fall back on, and— “There is… It’s what I’m saving our second trump card for…” “I knew it! Then now is the time to use it! No use in holding back now!” Steph’s expression brightened up as she said this, but it wasn’t that simple. “We can’t use it yet! If we do without figuring out the game mechanics first, we’re screwed!!” Sora hollered. “!!” Steph froze up from seeing him backed into a corner this much. Unfortunately…he wasn’t in a spot where he could tend to her in that moment, for he was busy dealing with the toxic memories that were running through his mind. He took a deep breath…and steeled his nerves. Now’s not the time for this. Quit it. My friends—and most importantly, my sister—are depending on me to make a decision. I can’t afford to get caught up in my stupid past right now. Able to clear his mind of any necessary thoughts for the time being, Sora approached the problem once more. …Think, Sora. That Dwarf party managed to beat this game in a little over a day. And that was without being able to heal their hope reserves. This could only mean they cleared it in the most efficient, speediest method possible. That was what Sora was trying to do—and yet this was where he ended up. Sure, Sora’s party was probably different from that Dwarf party. They couldn’t bypass all the fights, especially from the twenty-first floor. Were the Dwarves able to do it using their heightened sensibilities? No—even if that were the case, they still had the bosses to deal with. Which meant there was no way for them to avoid losing at least their MP, which would ultimately lead to them losing hope. Losing hope meant losing your ability to think and make decisions. Any combat that happened while in this state resulted in even more unnecessary loss of hope. It triggered a downward spiral. That said, the Dwarf party had also been on their first run-through of this game. How did they make it four times farther than Sora’s party…all the way to the top…on their first try? It just doesn’t add up. There has to be something!! It’s impossible for a party to clear this game as it is—Dwarf or not!! What if…there was no correlation between the Dwarf party and the Devil’s disappearance? Maybe there was another reason that the Devil vanished suddenly, and the dungeon was theoretically impossible? No, Sora! Thinking like that will get you nowhere, you eighteen-year-old—er, nineteen-year-old idiot, you!! Their hope was dwindling, and the slow onset of despair caused them more mental exhaustion. Sora lifted his head, but then shook it and rejected the premise of impossibility. It made no sense. This game—it was made to be winnable; that was a given! Schira Ha’s behavior, the way the Devil acted—it proved this more than anything else!! It’s why I agreed to play a game with such ambiguous rules in the first place—!! Yeah…there’s a way to clear this game, all right. Actually, I’d go as far as to say that the way has already been paved for us! But the question is—how do we beat this game?! Why is there such a big difference in how our HP, MP, and weapons work? Why do our HP and MP barely recover when we defeat an enemy? Why can we use magic in a game where hope is supposed to be our only weapon? Why does it cost MP?! Why did Emir-Eins lose her entire MP pool in one fight?! Why did she and Jibril lose HP and MP without being in combat?! The answers have to be somewhere in these details!! Sora was falling deeper and deeper into thought, which was why… “S-Sora?!” “King Sora?! They’re behind you, they are!!” There must’ve been mobs patrolling the cavern, for a group of orcs had spotted Sora and were rushing the party. Sora hadn’t realized this until Steph and Til called out for him… ……… He turned and faced the aggro coming toward him head-on. Perhaps because he was lost in such deep thought, where he was thinking a mile a minute, the one orc’s sledge looked as if it were moving in slow motion. But what hit him next was not the impact of the sledge, nor any sense of being damaged, nor despair. It was two specific sensations that induced a sense of euphoria in him…a mysterious softness. But at the same time, markedly firm. The sources of the mysterious feeling were his two friends’ bodies, which had collided with his as they ran forward to save him. Specifically: Til’s belly and Steph’s bosom. And before Sora had time to process any of it— “I won’t let them get you, Soraaaa!!” —Steph shouted out, then slammed her Great Shield into the ground while Til collected Sora in her arms and jumped to the far corner of the cavern—and in the next instant… Sora witnessed Steph’s MP go down for the first time. The group of enemies stopped in their tracks and turned their undivided attention to Steph. “…Brother…! I’m so…sorry…!” “S-Sora…I’m sorry, please!!” Izuna and Shiro had been crying too much to realize quickly enough what was going on. They leaped toward him and apologized; Sora pulled both in for a hug. And then: “What exactly did you just do, Lady Steph?!” “I-I’m not quite sure myself! M-my left wrist started flashing, and then I saw some writing, but—I—I don’t think this is going to last very long!!” Sora saw it as well. He was overcome by a strange calmness. He looked at his own left wrist. And there, he saw what he needed to see. He found what he was looking for. He knew the exact reason why the blue bar at his wrist—his MP—had slightly replenished just now. And he knew what the blank space between the bars and the base of his left wrist was for. He also knew what Steph had just done—she had pulled the enemies’ aggro… Everything made sense. Everything… Heh… Ha-ha… “…Ha-ha-ha… AHHH-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!!! Hope! Right!! You could call that hope, I guess?! I guess it is hope, in a way!!! AH-HA-HA-HA!!!” “…B-Brother…?” “S-Sir, did you bump your head…?!” He’d gone from utter silence to maniacal laughter. The rest of the party wondered if he’d finally lost his sanity, but he ignored their confused stares. Without an ounce of hesitation or doubt, Sora took up his weapon—his mighty Anti-Matter Rifle. He then lifted the lengthy barrel, pointed it at the enemies beyond Steph’s shield, and with every bit of his might, he imagined: Hope is our only weapon in this game… These weapons are the manifestation of our hope… I get why my weapons sucked so much—I’d been using them like normal!! I get why my bullets were so dinky despite the gun looking so cool!! Sora visualized as clearly as he could what he believed his hope should look like. With all his might, he pictured what he hoped he had, and then—it happened. In the blank space between his left wrist and his two status bars—a string of letters surged into his vision in a brief flash: Unlocked: Flashbang Shot The next instant—Sora felt the bullets within his cartridge switching into something else, which he used as a sign to pull the trigger. Fire erupted from the vents of the gun as a bullet came rushing out of its barrel with a loud bang and bright flash. The bullet broke the sound barrier as it ripped through the space between its ejection point and its target, striking true. Steph could feel the air of the passing bullet blow gently by her shield and— “?! What was?!” she screamed, but her words were muffled by the deafening, blinding explosion. Before she could even turn to Sora for an answer, she soon realized… “Huh…? Wh-what just happened…?” The bright light subsided, and the group of enemies that had been whaling away at her shield had folded into themselves like lifeless puppets. A dazed Steph stared in confusion, for the enemies were still at full HP but had collapsed on the ground… What just happened? Steph wasn’t the only one with this question, and Sora had the answer the entire party wanted: “Ha-ha-ha!! I knew it! Our weapons take on the shape of our hope—and there’s a skill system in place for learning how they work.” The same went for the rest of the party—including Jibril and Emir-Eins within the floating inventory bag. Sora knew his friends had no idea what he was talking about, but he laughed off their dubious stares and continued. “Til!! Did you hear what kind of Dwarves were in the party that went when they cleared this shindig?!” “Huh? Well, uh, yessir! I did, indeed…?” I should’ve checked with her sooner! Maybe then I would’ve been able to figure this out faster!! “Lemme guess!! There was a married couple, or two people in a relationship, right?!” “Uh, hmm… Oh, yeah! Yes indeed! It was the then-chieftain and his six wives, it was! Or so I heard!!” “Goddamn it, Til!! You mean to tell me he went in with a literal harem for a party?!” Sora spat with disdain; this answer went far and above his expectations. But what mattered was that he was right. He finally figured out how this worked!! “S-Sora?! The enemies are getting back up!!” Steph screamed. Sora glanced over at them and grinned. He knew this was coming. His skill, after all, did nothing more than stun the enemies. It was only meant to last a moment, and that was about to end—which brought Sora to his next move. “You wanted a plan B, Steph? Well, here it is! Jibril, switch with Steph!!” Sora then summoned his second trump card from the party’s inventory. Steph was sucked into the bag while Jibril was spat out. And without a moment’s delay, Sora gave his orders. “I want you to shift us back to the safe zone at the bottom of the Tower!! Can you do it?!” “But of course. For you, Master, I shall make the impossible possible—!!” Jibril said this with a brief bow, and in the next instant, the entire party melted into space and disappeared. ……… Elsewhere…in the head staff office outside the Tower. A large screen showed the heroes vanishing into thin air. The footage left the suited skeleton and the rest of the staff in utter disbelief… “…Hey, Schira Ha! Did they just leave?! Are you sure they will come and face me?!” the evil furball shouted from one corner of the office. “Yes, they shall. That much is as certain as you are adorable, Your Evilness. But if I may be more precise: They are the only ones capable of ever making it to you.” The wicked lady’s snake eyes were brimming with confidence. “You still think that, even though they ran away before making it to the thirtieth floor…?” “I do, Your Evilness. I will say it for you as many times as you wish.” Her red lips smiled seductively as she cuddled this fragment of the Devil. Schira Ha did just as she said—whispering lovingly into his ear for the umpteenth time: “They are the heroes you have waited an eternity for. They are the only ones who can fully realize your true hopes and desires. The first-ever heroes’ party…”
Chapter 187
40 min read