Chapter 263: 139. A Small Clue -2 (Part One)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
**
It had happened a really long ti ago.
A large ga company held a public event, which also doubled as an experint of sorts.
The whole thing was being broadcast live, and they recruited volunteers like myself, who were ushered into the large open capsules.
“Argh, don’t be nervous, now,” I heard soone say, and shifted my gaze over to a dude wearing a scientist-like lab coat next to .
Although the temperature inside this location was okay-ish, this guy was still soaked in cold sweat from top to bottom, while he was continuously manipulating the complicated machinery I was lying in.
This man, who happened to be one of the ga developers, finally saw staring at him.
He said, “Don’t be nervous and just breathe in, breathe out, Johan.”
Huh, not even bothering with polite speech, are we? Besides all that... Johan? That wasn’t my na.
“Excuse , but I’m not Johan.”
The developer flinched a little and awkwardly waved his hands around. “Ahaha! I-I know. I’m Johan.”
“...”
“Fuu-wuu-! You know, I’m getting really nervous here. This is my first ti being in a live stream, you see. Let’s not forget, we’re about to unveil the world’s first-ever virtual reality ga, aren’t we!”
The developer began rubbing his hands like so kind of a fly. Maybe he was trying to lessen his anxiety that way.
But watching him act like that only made nervous, instead.
“...You guys have done enough testing beforehand, right?”
“E-eh? Of... course. If we haven’t, we sure as heck wouldn’t broadcast any of this live, you know. You can rest easy.”
I saw how he took his ti answering just now, and that awkward, cramped smile on his face, doubled my anxiety level in an instant.
Even though he was telling to relax, how could I do that now?
I glanced around and spotted what looked like doctors performing dical checks on the people inside the other capsules.
“W-well, if you’re still feeling nervous, please read this in the anti. I’m sure it will help you brighten your mood.”
The developer nad Johan handed a book to so that I could at least stay occupied during this standby period.
[A Story of a Ring.]
That’s a famous fantasy novel from overseas.
The old-school classic had been revised for this latest edition. They had even made movies based on the book, too.
I accepted the novel.
“Well, I’ll be on my way now.” After he said that, the developer walked away from my side.
I opened the cover of [A Story of a Ring] and started reading the novel’s contents.
I heard the announcent from the speakers, “Well, then! Let’s get this show on the road. Everyone, be on standby! Ten minutes before the live broadcast!”
Just as the door to my egg-shaped capsule closed up, I quickly put the book on the shelf next to . The book fell upside down and I got a glimpse at its publication date.
The publication date was 20XX April 28th.
“Alright, we’re on air!”
The capsule’s door sealed shut. Minutes ticked by.
The overall flow outside sounded like the broadcast was well underway now.
I did as the guiding ssage in my ear instructed and chose my in-ga profession.
It was right then that an ergency bell loud enough to deafen suddenly went off.
An urgent voice could be heard next, shouting out “What’s going on?!”
My whole body was getting hot for so reason, too.
“What the hell?! What’s going on over there?!”
“Stop the broadcast! Cut the feed, now!”
“Who the f*ck placed a faulty capsule over there?!”
“Who worked on that capsule?!”
“F-fire! Fire extinguisher!”
The capsule was sealed tight, so I couldn’t even leave. Its interior quickly filled up with black smoke, and I couldn’t even breathe.
As if that wasn’t enough, a horrifying pain similar to electricity coursing through my whole body overwheld my senses.
Finally...
‘Is that... a black hole...?’ This sensation of being sucked in, as if sothing or soone was forcibly squeezing my body and yanking inside.
I was sucked inside an unknown space. My darkened vision was rapidly spinning around.
I no longer had a body by then, only my soul tumbling nonstop in this space.
I flew past what seed like an endless stream of darkness, only to be flung into what looked like a tunnel bathed in bright light.
By the ti I regained my consciousness...
“Keo-uuuuuhrk?!”
I was being hung by my neck in a forest filled with the undead.
“Kuwaaaahk!” Blood rushed to my head. My fingers dug into the rope, trying to pull at it.
My neck couldn’t endure the tightening pressure. My dangling feet kicked the empty air as I struggled.
But at the sa ti, all sorts of knowledge suddenly popped up in my head: magic, the Necromancer Class, necromancy, skills...
This choked-up, gasping voice leaked out of my lips almost instinctively. “Re... resurrection of the dead.”
When I muttered that out, a rotting corpse limply crawled out from the ground below .
“Save... ... Help... !”
The zombie’s eyeballs shifted around before it reached out with its rotting hands. It grabbed the rope tied around my neck, then ripped it apart.
“Haaaak...” Cold air rushed into my lungs.
I collapsed on my back on this cold ground and stared up into the sky.
As my vision faded away, I saw it.
This place was filled with vegetation that I had never seen or heard of before.
A completely unfamiliar world that I didn’t recognise.
Those were my mories of the monts after I arrived in this world.
**
Back in the ice castle’s corridor...
I rubbed my face while staring at this novel. The loose fragnts of my past mories were clicking into place.
“I rember now.”
I turned the book over and looked at its back cover.
The publication date was 20XX April 28th.
This book was the sa one that I read. It ca from the sa place I had.
‘Ahhh, you son of a b*tch...’ I ended up cursing inside my head.
My hand was already rubbing and massaging my temples by then. Chaos was filling up my head.
What the hell was going on here? Could it be that this warp thing was connected to sohow?
‘Hang on, maybe the reason why I ended up in this world was...?’
“Stop the subjugation.”
The holy undead spreading out to all corners of the ice castle stopped moving right then.
I kept massaging my temples while glancing at the novel, then issued another command, “Capture all the vampires alive.”
The fierce glowing balls of light in the skeleton’s heads shook around.
“Do not leave a single one behind, and capture them all.”
No, I wasn’t planning to spare any vampires here. It’s just that now I had questions to ask them, that’s all.
“And then... interrogate them.”
All of my undead heard my orders and began moving once more. The screams reverberating throughout the ice castle grew even louder and more tragic.
The holy undead put away their swords and spears, replacing them with maces and shields, instead. Rather than muskets, they now wielded crossbows and bows while relentlessly advancing inside the castle.
“S-spare !”
Holy skeletons smashed their maces on the vampires. The bloodsuckers were being dragged around by their legs, while so ended up resembling hedgehogs from the barrage of arrows and crossbow bolts. Those boasting tenacious lifeforce were dragged before .
Then, I interrogated them. While showing them the novel, I asked them what this was. But the vampires all shook their heads and said that they didn’t know.
“Dammit.”
The small fry found here didn’t seem to know anything.
Right, what I needed wasn’t so blood-creations, but a true Progenitor. The culprit who constructed the warp gate in the first place, in other words.
“Find this Count Timong.”
That guy was a Count-class Vampire, so regular undead wouldn’t stand a chance against a monster like that.
“Kasim, Nasus!”
I stomped down on the floor. The lake of holy water was imdiately summoned there, and Kasim and Nasus pushed their soaked bodies out from its depths.
They knelt down before and bowed their heads.
“Go and capture the Vampire Count.”
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
Count Timong was busy packing away all the data related to warp magic in his bag.
Although he had already committed it all to mory, these things were still far too valuable to be stolen away by so asly little human being.
‘Soone managed to decode the warp that I created!’
The odds of an Alchemist, not a Magician, activating the warp were uncomfortably high, judging from how one of Timong’s own warp circles had been utilised.
This just didn’t make any sense to him, though. Just which insane bastard was it?!
Timong had barely managed to create this warp magic by researching it for the past thousand-plus years. On top of that, he had even encrypted everything in an ancient language.
‘Yet, whoever it was, he managed to decode it all!’
That man must’ve been a genius that might appear once in a millennia or so such!
‘If I lose my valuable research data to that bastard, then...’
Then, soone other than Timong would co to possess authority over the warp magic, instead.
Such a thing could not be allowed! Only he, Timong, was qualified to peek into the domain of the gods and decipher the truth, and no one else!
“Yes, I must flee from here.”
The research data could not just be destroyed. Timong had to gather other researchers interested in the warp gate and continue on with the research sowhere else, using this data as their foundation. That was the only way to save himself another several decades.
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