‘What on earth do I stop first?’
A thought that flashes through the mind of a combat officer from the Foreigners Management Agency.
Grrrmmmmmm!
The Ilshin Hotel is tipping.
This is the “miracle” wrought by the kindly [Dweller in Darkness].
It’s thirty-seven stories by floor count, but each story of the Ilshin Hotel has an unusually tall ceiling.
So its height comes to a full 190 meters.
In Sejong City, packed with skyscrapers, that’s ordinary enough—but if it topples at that angle, the Ilshin Hotel becomes a “190-meter blunt weapon” swinging toward the city.
And the buildings the Ilshin Hotel “beats on” will suffer a hideous chain collapse.
(I like shiny things. Won’t this city glitter beautifully too?)
Sejong City is about to experience an unprecedented catastrophe. And this isn’t the only thing the Agency’s combat officers have to stop.
Gwoooooaaang!!
With an impossible roar, the [Mobile Parliament Carrier, Skyborne Democracy] comes surging from the hotel’s direction.
This is the “miracle” wrought by the sagacious [TikTok Man].
Everyone aboard the airship—save a single passenger—has become his believer.
(The one still in his right mind is the captain of the [Mobile Parliament Carrier]. A man unusually stern and upright. Struggling alone to resolve the situation, he will be driven to despair and madness.)
Collapse and collision aren’t the only threats. The cultists may exploit the [Skyborne Democracy] to trigger a second and third disaster.
All forces must be committed to retake the captured [Skyborne Democracy].
Add to that the problem Kim Sinhwa has created.
"Waaagh! What is happening!!"
"People are falling!"
It was an act meant to save people from the shock of the building’s collapse and the ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) explosions, but to the Agency’s officers it looks like yet another calamity, a crime.
"Save me! Now! Hurry and save me! Kim Sinhwa is here!"
Even while dropping helplessly, the Foreigners Management Commissioner’s voice tears out in frantic bursts.
Thanks to his stentorian cry, everyone with sharp ears realizes that [Kim Sinhwa] is behind all this chaos.
"Kim Sinhwa!?"
"Are you saying Kim Sinhwa caused everything!?"
Kim Sinhwa—the [Ruin Mage] who brought a terrible catastrophe to Busan.
A heartless criminal with the largest bounty in history, a monster outside humanity who commands countless nonhumans and countless cultists.
Kim Sinhwa is behind this uproar? Then, even if they abandon other objectives, capturing him must be the top priority.
"Where’s Special Team One??"
Our only permitted hope. In other words—where is Yang Seoho?
"H-he’s in Gwangju right now!"
"Gwangju? Can he possibly get here immediately?!"
From Gwangju to Sejong City is about 150 kilometers.
A brazen demand to cross that distance in one go—or the hope that if it’s Yang Seoho, maybe she can.
In truth, Yang Seoho has the ability not only to resolve this situation, but also to fulfill that hope.
If she moves at full power, she covers about 600 meters per second.
Of course, her top speed varies with weather and condition, and she grows fatigued if she sprints at full power for long. She can’t hold one speed forever—but—
Under ideal conditions, the time for Yang Seoho to reach Sejong City from Gwangju is roughly...
Four minutes.
But there are things even Yang Seoho can’t do.
"We can’t reach her!"
"She seems to be in combat!"
Why doesn’t Yang Seoho have the ability to sense a disaster 150 kilometers away!
Swallowing that absurd protest, the Agency’s combat officers choose the best action they can take.
"Evacuate the civilians first!"
"Damn it—what do I do?"
A thought that flashes across Curtain Call’s mind.
Grrrrrmmm!!
The building tilts.
Mun Seunghee and Curtain Call roll to the far corner in an instant.
"Damn it, Bahu!!"
"Woof!"
Baukalak’s howl comes from one floor up.
"Why are you there!? Get down now!"
Regrettably, that’s impossible.
Baukalak, Eric, and Hyeonggeun have all rolled to corners as well.
The hole Kim Sinhwa opened is now far, far away.
Grrrrrrrr—
The building is leaning.
To reach the exit, they’ll have to claw their way up a treacherous slope.
"Damn it!"
Kwaaaang!
Curtain Call leaps and hammers the ceiling. It takes damage but doesn’t break through.
"What! Why isn’t it opening!?"
"It’s built of anti-magic materials! I don’t know how the Mage did it, but—"
Mun Seunghee answers in a rush. In short, it’s a wall they can’t easily break.
If Curtain Call weren’t exhausted—or if she had proper gear—she might punch through.
"A few more hits and it’ll open!"
But there’s no time.
"Screeeek!" "Chiiiiiik!" "Chik! Chiiiiiik!"
A deluge of [Mutant Rats] pours like liquid from every corridor and every passage.
A “miracle” granted by the generous [Horned Authority].
Rumble-rumble-rumble! Rumble-rumble-rumbllllle!
So many they can’t be counted.
Tens of thousands of teeth and tens of thousands of claws rush to rend and tear the living. Too many. Dodging is impossible!
(A challenge at the extreme! An enemy to overcome! Explosive action! Splendid! Now bring me blood and screams!)
"Awooooo!!"
Baukalak’s howl filters down from the upper floor.
The message it carries is menace: Come closer and die.
But hearing that, Curtain Call pauses for the briefest moment.
Because a threat display means rats are flooding Baukalak’s floor too.
"Damn!"
Curtain Call falls into a short conflict.
Enemies surging, the protectee, split teammates, a leaning building.
What she can do, what she wants to do, and what she must do are all scattered.
What she can do?
She can rage and shout and smash the onrushing enemy.
What she wants to do?
It doesn’t happen often, but right now she wants to save those big, honest, stupid, weaklings.
And what she must do?
"Don’t worry—we’ll get out on our own!"
Hyeonggeun’s swaggering shout.
"Collie! Earn money!"
Eric, prioritizing the mission.
"Awooooo!!"
Collie, we always have to be the winning team. Lead the team to victory!
"Aaagh! Those idiots! Why spout garbage like that!"
But now she knows what to do.
We won’t see each other after tomorrow.
With that thought, Curtain Call scoops Mun Seunghee up from the floor.
There’s plenty else to do.
As the Feast’s Offering, he’ll need strategic choices too.
What ending will this story meet?
First, let’s watch how far the Feast’s Offering can go.
Vision expands in a snap.
A brain accelerating at incredible speed.
Sensing danger, my Intelligence stat pulls in every shred of information around me at maximum capacity.
The world feels slow—frozen in time.
"So damn much to do."
Multiple crises erupt at once—things that can’t be resolved in one move.
Now that it’s come to this, I think I see what they want from me.
"Are they telling me to pick what I’ll save?"
The beings of the Abyss are probably laughing at me, watching.
Whatever I choose—whatever I fail to save, they’ll inflate that into the worst possible outcome.
"Except..."
Aren’t these punks underestimating me?
No Abyssal being has descended in person, and nothing here triggers my phobias.
It’s a bit of a shame I left all my artifacts behind to avoid showing my full hand to Baek Beomjin.
But compared to the handicap matches I’ve had so far, a no-items match isn’t even a handicap.
So the answer is simple.
A corridor tilting by the second. A rat tide almost rolling downhill.
"Get back!"
Kwarurururung!
"Collie! Collieee!"
Mun Seunghee, clinging to Curtain Call’s short arm, yells.
"Shut it! If I have to choose one, I choose to protect you!"
Because that’s how the team wins. Even if those idiots die, at least I’ll make them idiots who were on the winning team.
"Aaaaaaah!!"
Kwaaaang!
Curtain Call’s attacks whip like a storm, or thunder.
A resolve to drag Mun Seunghee through and smash these rats no matter what.
But Mun Seunghee shakes her shoulder and shouts again.
"No! No! Collie, there’s another way! There! Run that way!"
She points in a direction that seems absurd.
"Damn it, what? Did that mask lunatic send something again?"
"No. This is my ability. Please! This is the tenth floor, right? Listen to me and run that way!"
What does being on the tenth floor have to do with anything? So you had an ability too?
Curtain Call thinks it, but the instincts that have saved her so far demand she follow Mun Seunghee’s lead now.
"Fine!"
"Hey—anyone going to help me out?"
Among the ones renting space in my head—the few likely to answer that thought...
"What’s this? You need our help?"
"Sinhwa, we were waiting for you to call."
"W-what sh-shall we d-do?"
Only three answer immediately? Whatever.
"Move as you like. In your own taste."
Just help me maintain the spells while I focus.
"T-then let’s ch-change the m-mask first!"
Good idea. I didn’t like the [Infi Mask] anyway.
I spread my right hand toward my face.
It’s a hair-trigger situation, but this might be the most important rite of all.
[Living Flesh]
Slllrrrip— slrrrriiiiip—
The skin in the center of my palm splits. No—opens like a new eye forming there.
Glup, shlrrrrk— splat— gllllrk—
And from that opening, an amorphous mass of flesh flows out.
It wraps my face and hardens—becoming the likeness of a huge buffalo skull.
A simple shape, but a structure loaded with magical context.
From the hastily wrought buffalo mask, pitch-black extradimensional mana pours, amplifying my power.
"Hey, why didn’t you bring a single weapon? Let’s secure weapons."
As you wish.
[Lightning Discharge]
[Magnetism Control]
Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!!
Blue lightning pours from my whole body.
Currents wrap me like the wings of a great bird, or a flapping cloak or robe hem.
Whirrr— weeeeee—
The metal-drawing force imbued in the current pulls every piece of metal in the hall.
Assassins’ knives and darts, smuggled firearms, metal decor set around the hall, a broken chandelier.
Scrap floats around me, drawn by the lightning.
And the scrap naturally forms the cores of spell circles that will support my magic.
"Good. Now, let’s fly."
[Flight]
A cool wind surges past.
Under a pitch-black sky spreads the grand night view of Sejong City.
And people reach hands toward me, screaming.
Somehow, everything feels excessively unreal.
Well, either way, I’m having fun.
"Sinhwa, can I use tentacles?"
With no artifacts, that’s the best choice.
Shrrrllllp!
My left-hand tentacle explodes outward, branching.
Spells triggered through a tentacle conduit.
[Gremlin’s Prank]
[Invisible Hand] [Gale Trust]
[Spell Enhance: Maximize]
[Spell Enhance: Range Increase]
[Spell Enhance: Multi Cast]
Viiiiiiiiiiiiing!!
I rake the [Mobile Parliament Carrier] with engine-fouling magic and push it back at the same time—
[Giant’s Grasp] [Weight Reduction]
[Gravity Inversion] [Chains of Dominion]
[Spell Enhance: Maximize]
[Spell Enhance: Range Increase]
[Spell Enhance: Multi Cast]
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
—I heave the tilting Ilshin Hotel upward and hold it.
"Sinhwa! What now? You can’t do all of this."
"Yeah, idiot. Choose what to focus on!"
"Huh? You two are saying that too?"
"W-w-well then, how will you proceed?"
"Choose? Choose what? I’m saving everyone."
If you’re a gamer, going for an all-clear is the only natural choice, isn’t it?
