Hari ke-96 – Malam Hari, Penginapan White Weirdo
Mereka marah. Nyatanya bahkan Armored Pres-san, Dancer Girl-san, dan Slime-san menentang tinggal di belakang atau pergi sebagai tim terpisah.
Tapi kenyataannya, mengajak mereka itu overkill. Memiliki kekuatan sebesar itu dalam satu tim akan membuat kalimat konyol seperti 『Aku cuma mau hancurkan dunia sebentar, pulang sebelum makan malam』 kedengarnya seperti ancaman nyata. Berlebihan, berlebihan sekali, perlengkapan terlalu lengkap, overload kekuatan total. Maksudku, kita bicara tentang tiga individu kelas Kaisar Dungeon yang berkumpul. Itu bukan cuma distribusi kekuatan yang tidak seimbang, itu konsentrasi titik ekstrem. Pada tahap itu, yang tersisa hanyalah kekerasan. Kehadiran mereka menciptakan zona pukulan ultra-pekat kemurnian tinggi di mana tidak ada yang bisa eksis selain pukulan.
Tapi meski begitu… aku tidak ingin membawanya ke jantung gereja. Jika terjadi sesuatu yang bisa menetralkan ketiganya sekaligus, keseimbangan kekuatan akan terbalik. Dan jika ada kesempatan sekecil apapun mereka bisa dimanipulasi, maka membawanya akan menjadi kesalahan fatal, kegagalan, dan kebodohan murni. Lebih dari apapun, aku tidak ingin biarkan mereka menyentuh kegelapan. Meski aku sendiri ingin menyentuhnya!
Yah, terlalu berlebihan. Mereka terlalu mencolok untuk infiltrasi diam-diam. Bukan tipe yang bisa bergerak tenang dan diam seperti aku?
「Aku cuma mau menyelinap ke Katedral Agung, diam-diam memukul siapa yang perlu dipukul, ambil apa yang perlu diambil, dan pulang jadi orang kaya? Jadi tidak ada masalah sama sekali, total aman, kan? Kalau soal itu, gadis-gadis justru lebih berpotensi diisolasi dan diepung sebagai umpan, jadi mereka yang butuh perlindungan. Pada akhirnya, front paling penting adalah Perbatasan, diikuti Kerajaan. Jadi aku cuma pergi wisata santai ke Teokrasi, sambil sabotase dikit? Seperti perjalanan dewasa untuk menemukan diri sendiri versi No Ticket di Youth 16 Pass. Ada pepatah lama, 『Saat bepergian, tebas tuan-tuan tanah di pinggir jalan』. Jadi aku cuma diam-diam menebas jalan, dan semuanya akan baik-baik saja, oke?」
Mengingat aku berhasil menyelinap ke istana kerajaan dengan keamanan ketat dan perlindungan sihir tanpa ketahuan siapapun kecuali Pria Paruh Baya yang suka Rerorero itu, kemampuan stealth-ku jauh terbaik di antara semua orang di sini. Aku tidak menghabiskan waktu di Hutan Iblis menyelinap ke belakang goblin dan memukul mereka sia-sia. Bahkan dari segi build, aku jelas tipe penyelinap, tempur kecepatan tinggi, spesialis tempur dekat penyihir, jadi pasti total aman… Mungkin…? Tapi serius, apa yang harus aku lakukan dengan build ini?
「Maksudku, tidak aneh ya menyelinap dengan empat orang yang punya daya hancur tertinggi? Kayak, dengan kekuatan berlebihan itu, menyerang Katedral dari segala arah dan menjadikannya lokasi demolisi justru pendekatan yang lebih wajar? Kayak, jelas banget kalau kita pergi dengan anggota itu, tidak ada stealth sama sekali, cuma penghancuran dan pemusnahan total, dengan niat nol untuk bersembunyi. Kita akan berakhir dengan infiltrasi terbuka dan berani, atau bahkan penyerangan frontal?」
(Jiggle-Jiggle)
Ya, kekuatan paling efektif saat dikonsentrasikan. Dan ya, memecah pasukan dan mengirim gelombang lemah adalah strategi terburuk, tapi memfokuskan daya tembak maksimum ke tim stealth terasa salah? Itu kayak mengirim grup yang putus asa mencoba stealth, tapi bahkan kalau ketahuan tidak ada yang perlu dikhawatirkan, dan mereka kuat banget sehingga serangan frontal penuh justru lebih cepat. Tidak ada gunanya bersembunyi kalau bersembunyi tidak punya nilai strategis?
「Kamu tidak bisa, pergi, sendirian. Mutlak tidak.」
「Bersama. Kalau berbahaya, Maka kita semua pergi sekaligus.」
(Bounce-Bounce)
Bukan, aku mikir menyelinap justru biar tidak jadi berbahaya, tapi mereka nggak ngerti? Rencanaku sempurna, masuk diam-diam ke Katedral Agung, musnahkan target tanpa suara, meledakkan itu dengan tenang, dan bawa oleh-oleh pulang. Dan mereka kelihatannya tidak puas. Sepertinya aku harus coba meyakinkan mereka dengan penjelasan lebih sederhana, lebih mudah dicerna.
「Maksudku, aku cuma mau jalan masuk, bunuh beberapa barang, ambil barang lain, terus bakar semuanya, itu saja? Di dunia lama kita, itu kayak tugas tiga langkah simpel yang bisa dilakukan anak kecil buat tugas pertamanya (pembantaian), kan? Kaya gitu?」
Sepertinya Tatapan Datar ini jawaban mereka. Jawaban bagus, tapi terasa tidak meyakinkan, dan aku tahu mereka mikir, 『Serius? Kayak, serius?』. Jawabannya begitu bagus hingga aku hampir ganti strategi ke pendekatan lebih personal, tapi merinding, jadi berhenti. Aku sudah lihat bola besinya. Ini bukan waktunya.
Sambil ngobrol, aku lanjut kerja, memithrilkan dan meng-enchant dengan properti baru semua peralatan yang aku tunda upgrade kalau ada yang lebih bagus. Lebih baik fokus pada survival dan daya tembak sekarang daripada khawatir item baru yang mungkin. Kita bisa cari mithril lagi nanti, tapi pertarungan tidak menunggu. Meminta pertarungan menunggu karena latihan belum selesai tidak pernah berhasil, jadi tidak bisa mengandalkannya. Dan aku akan tetap berfikir bahwa latihan kita lebih sulit dari pertarungan sebenarnya hanyalah khayalku.
「Yang tersisa earcuff yang masih dianalisis… Rasanya bisa dipakai buat anting… tapi piercing dilarang aturan sekolah kan? Then again, tidak ada cek seragam akhir-akhir ini, dan pakaian siswa perempuan jadi begitu kacau sampai ancam moral publik. Disiplin sekolah itu runtuh total. Bahkan konselor bimbingan tidak pernah muncul. Guru-guru sekolah apapun itu menganggap siswa mereka apa? Bahkan wali kelas kita tidak muncul? Kurasa dulu ada? Atau cuma khayalku? Tunggu… sekolah itu dulu punya guru nggak sih?」
Bikin earcuff fokus deteksi. Bagus kalau bisa tambah Space Perception, tapi tidak bisa. Itu bikin otak berdesis kalau tidak biasa. Pernah dengar tengkorak berdesis, tapi otak sendiri pertama kali. Mungkin fenomena lokal dunia lain, tapi sakit. Nyaman, tapi tidak bisa direkomendasikan.
Gadis Adik Elf, punya 『Deteksi Emosi』 yang kelihatannya berguna, tapi ternyata hanya jalan kalau kamu beningkan pikiran dan dengar kebisingan mental di sekitar untuk rakit detail. Tidak satupun dari mereka cocok untuk itu, jadi mereka nyerah cepat. Seluruh keberadaan mereka berteriak di tingkat jiwa 『Kata mereka manusia punya 108 keinginan duniawi? Itu bohong』. Gadis-gadis ini seperti kekacauan berjalan berteriak di level jiwa, tidak mungkin mereka bisa menenangkan kebisingan itu. Astaga, nggak sangka mereka jadi begitu bahkan jadi siswa SMA.
「Oke, jadi tambahin Motion Perception, dan max Presence Detection sama Enemy Search? Tapi kalau begitu jebakan jadi menakutkan, jadi tambahin 『Trap Detection』 juga… setup tiga magic stone bikin earcuff raksasa! Telinga akan melebar melewati ukuran lucky ear jadi telinga ultra-panjang, levelnya kayak ada yang bakal teriak 『Telinga Raja itu Telinga Keledai』 atau gitu. Harus dikecilin! Ini masif.」
Lalu ada pengembangan praktis main-gauche sebagai senjata pendukung. Analisis fitur 『Auto-Defense』 funnel perisai bahu sudah cukup maju untuk dipakai praktis, tapi terlalu mahal untuk produksi pasar, jadi aku simpan, tapi kalau kita masuk pertarungan nyata dengan nyawa mereka di taruh, maka meski rugi, aku harus produksi. Yah, butuh magic stone high-grade banyak, tapi itu bertebaran di dungeon, jadi biaya teknisnya nol, kan?
Saat aku fokus mendalam, puncak konsentrasi, mana habis tanpa aku sadar… Di sana, dua kecantikan tak tertandingi duduk, menatapku, mengunci bibir mereka. Cih, aku jaga mana buat balas dendam hari ini, bahkan pakai full gear, tapi aku lupa total karena gangguan dari Pria Paruh Baya! Seperti yang kupikir, tidak ada baiknya terlibat dengan mereka sama sekali. Mereka musuh abadi sejati bagi Laki-laki Sekolah Menengah. Karena tidak bisa berbagi langit yang sama, sepertinya tidak ada pilihan lain selain menguburnya di bawah tanah, tapi aku tidak dapet jawaban bagus. Mungkin membakar mereka caranya?
Anyway, berkat Pria Paruh Baya aku tidak terjebak di situasi krisis parah. Bilang tikus terpojok akan menggigit kucing, tapi Laki-laki Sekolah Menengah terpojok berbahaya jiwanya disedot habis! Ya, mereka mendekat dengan senyum lapar seperti binatang. Gerakan lidah mereka melewati batas biadab jadi sesuatu yang tidak bisa ditampilkan tanpa mosaik, liar seolah ingin memamerkan skill lidah mereka. Rerorero ini begitu ekstrem sehingga Pria Paruh Baya yang suka Rerorero pun tidak berani dikaitkan. Rerorero tertinggi rerere… Ah!
Sebelum aku sadar mereka sudah setengah telanjang, hanya memakai babydoll menawan yang membuat mereka terlihat lebih biadab dan memikat daripada tidak memakai apa-apa. Mendekat dari kedua sisi, mereka langsung ambil Item Bag-ku, meninggalkanku tanpa harap pulihkan mana dengan jamur sihir, dan saat kepalaku pusing karena kekurangan MP, mereka mendekat lebih dekat, begitu dekat hingga aku merasakan napas mereka di kulitku.
Day 96 – Late Nighttime, White Weirdo Inn
They were mad. Apparently even Armored Pres-san, Dancer Girl-san, and Slime-san are against staying behind or going as a separate team.
But the truth is, taking them is an overkill. Having such a force on the same team would make stupid line like『I’m just gonna go destroy the world real quick, will be back for dinner』sound like a genuine threat. Over-the-top, excessive, utterly overgeared, a complete overload of power. I mean, we’re talking about three Dungeon Emperor-class individuals grouped together. That’s not just unbalanced distribution of power, that’s extreme point-concentration. At that point, there’s nothing left but violence. Their very presence creates a high-purity ultra-condensed beating zone where nothing except beatings can exist.
But even so… I don’t want to bring them into the heart of the church. If something were to happen that could neutralize all three of them at once, the balance of power would reverse. And if there’s even the slightest chance they could be manipulated in some way, then bringing them would be a blunder, a failure, and outright idiocy. More than anything, I don’t want to let them touch the darkness. Though I do want to get touchy myself!
Yeah, it’s just too much. They’re too conspicuous for covert infiltration. They’re not the type who can move quietly and stealthily like me?
「I’m just going to sneak into the Grand Cathedral, quietly bludgeon whoever needs it, grab whatever needs grabbing, and come back a rich man? So there’s absolutely no problem, totally safe, right? If anything, the girls are more likely to be isolated and surrounded as decoys, so they’re the ones who need protection. In the end, the most important front is the Frontier, followed by the Kingdom. So I’m just taking a safe, carefree sightseeing trip through the Theocracy, with a little sabotage on the side? Like a coming-of-age journey to find myself with a No Ticket Version on the Youth 16 Pass. There’s even an old saying, 『When traveling, cut down the roadside gods』. So I’ll just quietly slice my way through, and it’ll be fine, okay?」
Considering that I was able to casually infiltrate the royal castle in the Kingdom, with its tight security and magical protection, without anyone noticing except for that ReroReroing Middle-Aged Man my stealth capabilities are by far the best among everyone here. I didn’t spend all that time in the Evil Forest sneaking up behind goblins and clubbing them for nothing. Even build wise, I’m clearly a stealthy, high-speed combat-oriented, melee-specialist magician, so it has to be totally fine… Probably…? But seriously, what am I supposed to do with this build?
「I mean, doesn’t it seem weird to be sneaking around with the four people who have the highest destructive power? Like, with such an excessive force, simply attacking the Cathedral from all directions and turning it into a demolition site would be a more justified approach? Like, it’s pretty clear that if we go with those members, there’s no stealth at all, just annihilation and obliteration and extermination, with zero intent to hide. We’d end up quietly settling on a a bold and open infiltration, or actually assault?」
(Jiggle-Jiggle)
Sure, power is most effective when concentrated. And yeah, splitting forces and deploying in weaker waves is the worst kind of strategy, but focusing maximum firepower into a stealth squad just sounds wrong? That’s like sending a group that’s desperately trying to be stealthy, but even if they are discovered, there’s nothing to worry about, and they are so strong that a full-frontal assault would be faster. There’s just no point in sneaking around if hiding holds no strategic value?
「You can’t, go, alone. Absolutely not.」
「Together. If it’s dangerous, Then we all go at once.」
(Bounce-Bounce)
No, I’m thinking of sneaking in precisely because I don’t want it to become dangerous, but they don’t get it? My plan is perfect, slip quietly into the Grand Cathedral, obliterate targets without a sound, blow it up discreetly, and pick up some souvenirs on the way out. And yet they seem dissatisfied. Looks like I’ll have to try convincing them with a simpler, easier-to-digest explanation.
「I mean, I’m just gonna stroll in, kill some stuff, pick up some other stuff, and then burn it all down, that’s it? In our old world, that’d be like a simple three-step errand that even a little kid could do for their first solo chore (massacre), right? Sort of?」
I guess these Flat Gazes are their reply. A good reply, even, but it doesn’t feel like they were convinced, and I could tell they were thinking, 『Really? Like, really?』. The reply was so good that I actually was this close to switching strategies for a more personal approach, but a chill ran down my spine, so I stopped. I could already see the iron ball. This is not the time.
Even as we talked, I kept working, mithrilizing and enchanting with new properties all of the equipment I’ve been putting off upgrading in case something better turned up. Better to focus on immediate survival and firepower than worrying about possible new items. We can always go look for more mithril later, but the battle won’t wait. Asking a fight to wait just because training isn’t done has never worked, so can’t count on that. And I’m going to stick to thinking that our training being tougher than the actual fights is just my imagination.
「What’s left is the earcuff which is still being analyzed… I feel like I could use it to make earrings… but weren’t piercings banned by school rules? Then again, no one’s been doing uniform checks lately, and the female students’ clothing has gotten so out of control it’s basically a threat to public morality now. The discipline of that school has collapsed entirely. Even the guidance counselor never shows up anymore. Just what do the teachers of that whatever school even take their students for? Not even our homeroom teacher shows up? I think we had one? Or it’s just my imagination? Wait… did that school ever have teachers?」
Let’s make the earcuff detection-focused. It would be great if I could add Space Perception, but I can’t. That one gets your brain creaking if you aren’t used to it. I’ve heard of skulls creaking, but the brain itself is a first for me. I guess it might be some kind of the other world’s local phenomenon, but either way, it hurts. It’s convenient, but I can’t really recommend it.
Elven Little Sister Girl, has 『Emotion Detection』 which seemed useful at first, but apparently it only works if you clear your mind and listen to the mental noise around you to piece the details. Not one of them is even remotely suited for that, so they gave up quickly. Their entire beings are borderline screaming『They say humans have only 108 worldly desires? That’s a lie』. These girls are like walking, shouting chaos at the soul level, there’s no way they’d be able to calm that noise down. Good grief, To think they’d be like that even after becoming highschool students.
「Okay, so boost it with Motion Perception, and max out Presence Detection and Enemy Search? But if we do that, traps become scary, so if I’ll add 『Trap Detection』 too… the triple magic-stone setup makes the earcuff huge! The ears would stretch out past lucky-ear size into some ultra-extended ears, it’s on the level where someone’s gonna start shouting 『King’s Ears are Donkey Ears』 or something. I need to shrink it down! It’s massive.」
And then there’s the practical development of the main-gauche as a sub-weapon. The analysis of the shoulder-shield funnel’s 『Auto-Defense』 feature had progressed far enough for practical use, but it was too expensive to be viable for market production, so I shelved it, but if we’re going into real combat with their lives being at stake, then even at a loss, I need to produce it. Well, it will need a ton of high-grade magic stones, but they’re just lying around in the dungeons, so technically the cost is zero, right?
While I was deeply focused, the very pinnacle of concentration, my mana ran out without me even noticing… There, two peerless beauties were sitting, staring at me, locking their lips. Tch, I was conserving my mana for the sake of today’s revenge, even wearing full gear, but I totally forgot about that because of the disturbance created by the Middle-Aged Men! As I thought, nothing good comes from getting involved with them at all. They seem to be genuine mortal enemies of Highschool Boys. Since we can’t share the same sky, it seems there is no other choice but to bury them underground, but I can’t seem to get a good answer on that. Perhaps burning them is the way?
Anyway, because of the Middle-Aged Men I’m not locked in a dire pitch predicament crisis situation. They say a cornered rat would bite a cat, but a cornered Highschool Boy is in danger of having his very soul sucked out of him! Yes, they are closing in on me, wearing almost beast-like hungry smiles. The movements of their tongues went past being lewd and turned into something that can’t be displayed without a mosaic, going wild as if trying to show off their tongue skills. This Rerorero is so extreme that Reroreroing Middle-Aged man doesn’t even dare to come up as an association. The supreme Rerorero rerere… Ah!
Before I even noticed they were already half-naked, wearing only charming babydolls that made them appear even lewder and more alluring than if they were wearing nothing at all. Approaching me from both sides, they immediately took away my Item Bag, leaving me without any hope to recover my mana with magic mushrooms, and as my head was spinning from the lack of MP, they pressed even closer, so much so that I could feel their breaths on my skin.
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