#43
43. Prologue (2)
I immediately drew my sword.
I don’t know who. Even now, right in front of my eyes, I couldn’t recognize my proper appearance.
But one thing I can say for sure is that this bastard is directly related to the cause of my coming here.
“I finally met you.”
An unpleasant voice like scratching iron pierced my ears.
I put strength into my right hand holding the sword. The palms were stained white.
‘… … I want to kill them.’
The blood and sweat I shed.
And the hellish battlefields we went through.
It was all because of this guy.
Although I couldn’t see the figure, the voice was as clear as this in my mind.
I took out my shield and put it on my left hand.
take a slow breath
power I don’t have.
Desperately weighing tactics to kill him. Compare my level and skill, and the opponent’s ability. Suddenly, a strong headache crept into his head.
‘Damn it… … .’
I couldn’t seem to find an answer.
Right now, I am a level 10 with one star. I was just a hero with five or six low-level skills. On the other hand, its power could not even be measured. I clearly remembered the ability to annihilate a Diora party composed of 6 stars and 5 stars in less than 10 seconds.
I corrected my distorted vision.
It was in a place close to me, but I couldn’t see it surrounded by a strange fog. What appeared to be the man’s mouth wriggled.
“Aren’t you going to run at me? You must be resentful.”
“If you’re going to make noise, send it back.”
“Fufu, it’s good, it’s good. Indeed, if he hadn’t had that level of self-control, he would have died early.”
His arms trembled and he clapped.
The headache got worse. I took a step back and took a position where I could swing my sword at any time.
“Are all hero promotions like this?”
“Can’t you? you are special This place is a gift for you. This is my stage prepared for you, the glorious ranker of Pick Me Up.”
The fog that covered the fields dissipated.
Through the fog, the figure appeared.
‘… … female.’
More like a girl than a woman.
Her near-perfect features and body remind us of dolls. The girl, wearing a light black dress, slowly walked towards me. The fairy who brought me here flew around the girl.
“I don’t know how to introduce myself.”
“You can understand it as a bitch like a dog.”
“That’s a bit troublesome.”
The girl smiled picturesquely and snapped her fingers.
A luxurious chair covered with leather seats appeared. The girl sat on it and cast her gaze at me.
If you look closely, it looks very similar to Isel.
Isel grew in size, and I had a hunch that he would become just like that after a few years of growth.
The girl smiled slightly as if she noticed my gaze.
“I don’t resemble Issel, Isel resembles me. He’s just a copy of me. He’s 100 million and 479th. Oops, isn’t that similar to the number of downloads of Pick Me Up?”
“……What are you?”
“Finally the question came up.”
The girl laughed and pulled out a business card from her bosom.
The business card the girl threw lightly spun and landed in my hand.
<Co-CEO of Moebius Co., Ltd., @※☆>
<010-6666-5555>
The name field is overpainted with special characters.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Because there are not just one or two names. I use them appropriately depending on the situation.”
I folded the business card, threw it on the floor, and trampled it with my foot.
“Excuse me.”
I imprinted his true face in my eyes so that I wouldn’t forget it. And he spoke.
“Did you bring me here?”
“Perhaps.”
In an instant, I almost jumped out without realizing it.
The girl squinted her eyes and smiled as if she knew my condition.
“Don’t hate me too much. It was unexpected to me that you were summoned to Moebius. It was unexpected. It was some kind of accident.”
“I don’t know anything about your situation. If you don’t want to die, send it back.”
“You’re going to kill me with just one star. Aren’t your dreams a bit big?”
“It will change over time.”
“Then killing you now would be the answer.”
A red light flashed in the girl’s eyes.
At the same time, a spear made of a black shadow rose from under the girl’s feet and pierced my chest. I didn’t dodge
“You have great courage.”
The spear stopped right in front of my heart.
The girl waved her hand away and the spear returned to her shadow.
‘This guy has no intention of killing me yet.’
You could tell by looking at the situation.
It was unclear exactly what the upper limit of his ability was, but it was clear that it was unusual. He directly intervened in the mission stage surrounded by transparent walls and even penetrated the promotion process.
There must have been several chances to get rid of me.
But the girl overcame it and called me here. It meant that it had a different purpose. I desperately suppressed the bubbling thoughts in my head.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing special. I just wanted to talk to you.”
“conversation?”
“Yes, Loki. The world’s 5th ranked and indomitable master. I’m your fan. I don’t know how many times I’ve admired your play while monitoring. The mighty Niflheim is the number one target even at headquarters. That’s it. How could I neglect you?”
The girl smirked and rose from her chair.
The chair magically disappeared.
“I have come to tell you the truth of this world.”
“…”
“Loki, what do you think about the story of a mobile game? The story is one of the things that users don’t pay much attention to in a lottery game. Rather than that, they focus a lot on the content. So do I. The story of Pick Me Up is, to be honest, It’s a bit outdated. There’s nothing special about the world. After a while, most Masters don’t even know such a thing exists.”
The girl snapped her fingers.
As if the stage of a play has changed, the field covered in darkness has changed to a different place.
It’s a familiar place.
It was a remote city that was the main stage for the 5th and 10th floors.
However, there are differences. I looked around. The river in the east is completely dry, and only roots and branches remain in the lush forest in the north. The plains with not a single blade of grass left are cracked, exposing the red ground. Only ruins remained, not to mention the city.
And above all, the sky is black.
It wasn’t that it was dark because it was night. Then you shouldn’t be able to see anything.
It was a completely different sight.
“Do you know where this is?”
“I don’t really want to know.”
“Sorry about that. I’m a braggart. This is a city called Nelsa in the Heim Peninsula, on the Taonier continent. As you can see, it’s been destroyed.”
It’s not about being smashed.
The girl snapped her fingers again.
The place has changed again.
“This is Silkia. Kaia. Edora.”
The stage changed every time he snapped his fingers.
The backgrounds are different, but they have one thing in common.
Not even a single animal, not even a single insect, is visible.
Everywhere was in ruins.
“Pionia. Madian. Icardia. Rilgia. Halsea. Arantia. Sysnia. Even Bardia. This is the current state of all areas in Taoni.”
The girl smiled meaningfully and then continued.
“Do you think Niflheim is different? Everyone is like that. All the continents belonging to Mobius became like this. More than 100 million worlds perished at the same time.”
The field returned to its original darkness.
“Here, there is a book with a fixed ending. The ending is bad. Everything ends. The characters in the book hope to change the ending. What should I do? The answer is simple. Just bring in a character outside the book. I have to rewrite the story. Even if the setting and probability are messed up, even if the axis of space and time are mixed up and ruined.”
“…”
“A being in a higher dimension can twist causality just by observation. That’s why Pick Me Up was created. Master Loki.”
What a great story I told you.
“so.”
“so?”
“Why are you telling me that?”
“I ask for your cooperation.”
“Cooperation?”
“Save the world with me…”
I pulled out the dagger from the back of my belt and threw it.
hooked
The dagger neatly pierced the girl’s head.
Black blood gushed out from the cracked forehead.
“I was wondering what you were talking about, but you talked dog bullshit and got down on your own.”
“Think carefully, Loki. Is the answer yes or no?”
With her forehead split, the girl smiled leisurely.
I answered.
“X.”
Out of nowhere, call a place like this, make them go through hardships, and then cooperate?
I will look at all the crazy bastards.
I muttered as I prepared for battle.
“I won’t cooperate with you. You scumbag. If you’re going to kill me, kill me. I’ll let a knife through your head.”
“You’re talking too much. It hurts. Whoop, whoop…”
Took.
The dagger stuck in the girl’s forehead was pulled out by itself.
The wound that had been bleeding black blood healed in an instant. Blood spilled on the floor and dug into the girl’s shadow. I suppressed the urge to run at him and chop him up.
‘ha.’
I slowly discharged the heat overflowing from my head.
I have a skill called calm. The initial anger subsided to some extent, and I was able to look at the situation calmly.
‘Now I can’t kill this bastard.’
I’m 1 star.
It’s only level 10.
The skills were insignificant and the imprint was not open.
‘Not yet.’
If you kill it, after you grow more power.
No matter how strong he is, if it’s a boss monster, there will definitely be a strategy.
Close your eyes and open them.
My head became much clearer.
I said.
“I don’t want to talk to you. Send me back.”
“I’m sorry. I spent a lot of interference to call you to this place.”
The girl continued with an expression of not being sad at all.
“Loki, I value you highly. More than any Master in Pick Me Up. Even the rankers in front of you are nothing but fireflies in front of the moon compared to you. Do you know why? because it was done.”
The girl snapped her fingers.
A hologram appeared in the center of the field.
[Master, believe in your bond with the hero.]
“Do you know where this sentence comes from?”
Know.
It was part of the guide that appears when clearing the tutorial.
“You were the only one who truly embodied the meaning of this sentence. Out of 100 million Masters, you were the only one.”
“What are you saying.”
The girl snapped her fingers again.
The landscape changed once again. Hologram letters slowly emerged in an unfamiliar background.
[Floor 80.]
[Mission Type – Complex]
[Target – Unknown.]
“Do you know where it is, Loki?”
The girl smiled.
“This is the 80th floor stage of Niflheim, six months ago.”
