I got into school for nothing - 158
I got into school for nothing (158)
Lesson 32. The Progress Is Too Fast - 2
―Constellation [Breath of Life] rages, destroying everything around it. It screams, unable to comprehend why you wield greater influence over the Tower than it does.
―Constellation [Breath of Life] declares its intention to cease its sponsorship of you. However, it shrieks upon realizing it cannot reclaim its Authority from you.
―Constellation [Breath of Life] curses you for arbitrarily seizing its power, and swears to bestow perfect death upon you next time.
―You have discerned that Constellation [Breath of Life] possesses an alternate name, [Conductor of Death].
―Constellation [Clock of the Toy Army] begins to ponder which side to take.
Ban Yuwon's prediction that a Constellation might be interfering in this Chain Room was absolutely accurate.
To be precise, the very fact that the core component, which served as the key to the Chain Room, was buried within an elite monster's body in Room 84 could be seen as evidence of intervention.
What Ban Yuwon had done against the legion of armored insects—a force powerful enough to even force Dokgo Yeon, a wielder of absolute martial prowess, to retreat—was extraordinary.
And what about him controlling the electrical discharge, which had begun in Room 94, as he pleased?
‘So a Constellation was involved after all. I knew something felt off...’
He hadn't imagined that one of them would be the very Constellation sponsoring him, but even this was easy enough to understand.
In any case, regarding his manipulation of Authority, hadn't Breath of Life already shown reactions escalating sequentially from surprise, shock, and doubt, to finally rage?
The decisive blow was, of course, the liberation of Cellon in Room 90, but even without that incident, Breath of Life was already sufficiently hostile towards Ban Yuwon.
‘And Clock of the Toy Army, this fellow...’
It was a bit ambiguous.
Anyway, its reaction when Cellon's seal was broken had been equally unsettling.
Since he had been exposed as being able to freely manipulate their Authorities, there was no need to allow them to observe him any longer.
Ban Yuwon mercilessly severed the connection to Breath of Life, and even to Clock of the Toy Army.
Presumably, other Constellations would learn about this as well, right? He had hoped to receive a couple more sponsorships if possible, so it was a bit disappointing.
“Oh, ohhh... Ban, the base is going berserk!”
“No, this isn't going berserk. This is...”
But he had no time to leisurely ponder about those Constellation bastards now.
The moment the mechanical egg—Lilyth—swallowed the core component of the broken base and buried itself in the mechanical plaza's central object to replace it, the object instantly contracted, enveloping the mechanical egg. In sync with that, vibrations began to surge throughout the entire base!
“Ban, that! Shouldn't we tear it off?!”
“No need. Let's get out of here first!”
Ban Yuwon interpreted the golden string of characters overflowing and surrounding the object.
Combination, Fusion, Absorption, and finally, Hatching.
He had thought it would continue to give him trouble by not hatching.
But it seemed that finicky fellow had finally made up its mind.
“If we stay here, we'll get combined too!”
“What?! You, you, you—that's sexual harassment!”
“You lunatic, this isn't the time for that!”
Ban Yuwon grabbed the reddened As Light, who seemed to have gravely misunderstood something, and began to sprint.
Crackling, the wires buried in the floor burst out everywhere, unable to withstand the gravitational pull emanating from the object, and the iron plates scattering in all directions were soon swept up and whirled into a vortex.
And since everything was discharging electricity, even a single brush would trigger a chain reaction, leaving them injured!
“Hold on tight—no, this won't do.”
“Kyaa!”
Ban Yuwon scooped As Light up into his arms.
Just like a groom carrying his bride at a wedding!
“Ban?!”
“Going fast.”
The moment Ban Yuwon declared this and took a single step, the surrounding scenery warped.
Though still within the base, they had moved hundreds of meters, almost to the very ‘limit of his sight’.
“Spatial movement! This is!”
“Yes, it's Blink.”
Among the concepts absorbed by his Giwon Sword was ‘Spatial Control’.
Since the Giwon Sword functioned by perceiving its surroundings and exerting influence outside the body, its compatibility with the ‘Spatial Control’ concept was a perfect match.
And what became possible with this perfected Giwon Sword was short-range spatial movement, or ‘Blink’.
He had previously heard from Yumina how difficult Blink was.
He'd been told that it was difficult to instantly grasp spatial coordinates and cast movement magic in a combat situation, making it treated as the exclusive domain of psychics—
As long as Ban Yuwon wielded the Giwon Sword, it was as if he was perceiving the coordinates of all space within his sight at every moment, so with the added concept of ‘Spatial Control,’ there was no reason he couldn't use Blink!
“You, you, this—”
“It's still a secret. To be honest, I haven't even mastered it enough to use in combat.”
However, immediately after using Blink, there was a momentary lapse in his spatial perception, and since he hadn't corrected this yet, it was difficult to use in actual combat.
But escaping from a collapsing base? That was entirely possible!
“We're going in quick succession now.”
“Waaah! Waaah, waaaaaah!”
As Light, who yelped every time the scenery shifted with each consecutive Blink, was quite cute.
But there was no time to pay attention to him now.
Just calculating the gaps between the structural elements like surging iron plates and wires, and the storm of electricity spreading like a spiderweb in all directions, to make spatial jumps was mentally exhausting!
However, this dramatic and urgent escape suddenly came to an end.
“Lilyth, just how much is that thing going to swallow—Waaaaah!”
“Kyaaaah!”
KWA-BOOM!
Without any warning, something massive crashed through the base's ceiling and plummeted down!
However, Ban Yuwon's eyes gleamed at the sight of the blue sky revealed beyond the shattered ceiling.
‘Outside... now!’
The next moment, Ban Yuwon and As Light were suspended in mid-air.
Ban Yuwon, having finally succeeded in getting outside the base, looked back to see a colossal armored centipede half-destroyed and buried in the ground, having ripped through the base.
―Kiiik! Kiiiieeee!
It didn't seem dead yet, but the moment it touched the base, it was finished.
Lilyth's fusion was extending its demonic grasp to it as well.
Seeing Ban Yuwon and As Light appear above its head, it violently resisted, convulsively spraying venom, before its entire body was torn apart by the gravitational pull and it sank into the base.
“Ban Yuwon!”
“Yuwon, thank goodness you're safe... Light?”
The party members, who had been cornering the centipede until now, spotted Ban Yuwon and As Light emerging outside and quickly approached them.
As Light, who had been tightly hugging Ban Yuwon's neck with both arms even in the chaos, noticed Rucell's dagger-like gaze and hastily pulled away from him, planting his feet on the ground.
“Hmm...”
“...”
However, Rucell's gaze showed no sign of softening.
With Ban Yuwon right there, she couldn't react violently, so she simply sent him a jealous look.
But As Light, instead of simply excusing himself by saying ‘this and that happened,’ was strangely returning Rucell's gaze with composure.
Naturally, it was only a matter of time before this escalated into an intense staring contest.
“What's going on, Ban Yuwon?”
Ignoring the rather tense exchange of glances between Rucell and As Light, Dokgo Yeon opened her mouth.
Her gaze was fixed on the mechanical base, which was collapsing as it drew in the giant centipede.
Ban Yuwon, likewise, escaped from the two of them and clung to Dokgo Yeon, replying.
“The battle's over. I conquered the secret hidden in Room 95.”
“And that's the result? To be honest, it feels like a giant monster is about to appear from inside that thing.”
“It's on our side, so it's fine.”
“On our side?!”
Even as the group conversed, the horrifying gravitational pull emanating from the center of the base was gradually expanding its reach.
Room 94... no, the entire mechanical field that constituted Room 95 was contracting, compressing into the base's core.
The armored insects that had survived until now were no exception.
The sight of the insects, their bodies ripped apart by the gravitational pull that only affected machinery, twitching on the floor before dying, was utterly gruesome.
“Ah, you guys, get inside for now.”
Ban Yuwon stored Tikke and all five mechanical familiars into his inventory.
Eve, who had been transformed into a colossal armored tank, shifted into a broad-backed wyvern, carrying the entire party into the sky.
“This... can it be uploaded?”
“Why ask so suddenly? It's all going to be edited out anyway, from the moment you deployed the mechanical familiars.”
“I suppose that's true.”
That Room 95 was so overwhelmingly vast was now almost unremarkable.
However, the sight of the entire massive room compressing into a single point was utterly unbroadcastable.
“Just how incredible is it going to become?”
“Shishishit...”
At Ban Yuwon's muttered words, Eve made a sulky face.
This was because even she was certain that Lilyth, who had been inferior to her, would now appear as a definite stronger entity after gobbling up everything.
“It's okay, you're still the firstborn.”
“Shishishit.”
“Yes, yes, good girl.”
As he was stroking Eve's neck and comforting her, that moment finally arrived.
The instant everything in Room 95, which had been entirely covered in metal and wires, condensed into a single point within the base, light exploded once more, painting the world white!
And what appeared from within it—
was a colossal spaceship.
* * *
After the Chain Room lost its fundamental existence and neatly collapsed, a very pleasant exploration ensued.
Even with the mechanical familiars, compared to the desperate battle that had raged until Room 95, Room 96 onwards was merely child's play.
The Rebellion party, having pushed through to Room 100 without rest, resumed their exploration after a sufficient break in Eden, and from then on, over the course of a full ten days, they set a new record by clearing an additional 30 rooms.
Considering that rooms grew larger and shifts took longer as one ascended the Tower, their exploration speed was overwhelming.
“How much longer?”
Dokgo Yeon, sitting smack dab in the center of the king-sized bed furnished in Eden of Room 130, said, crossing her legs.
With a bunch of grapes in one hand, leisurely plucking and eating them one by one, she looked like a lazy, arrogant beast.
Ban Yuwon replied, thinking that her impudent demeanor truly suited Dokgo Yeon.
“About 12 more hours. The Chain Room took up a lot of time.”
“...Which is why it makes even less sense. I thought a treasure chest would appear in Room 100.”
When a silver chest appeared in Room 90, everyone naturally expected a treasure chest with a gold or platinum border to appear in Room 100, but there was none.
Ban Yuwon suspected that the rewards in Eden had disappeared because Lilyth had absorbed all the elements that made up Room 95, but he didn't say anything aloud.
“You don't really care what comes out of a treasure chest anyway, do you?”
“But still.”
Dokgo Yeon, rolling a grape in her mouth, replied with a pout.
Ban Yuwon knew very well that no matter how much she pretended otherwise, her eyes would sparkle just like the other party members the moment a treasure chest opened.
But he didn't mention this fact.
Because he'd be beaten to death.
“Hooooh...”
If Dokgo Yeon had claimed the bed, then As Light had claimed the sofa.
Having just enjoyed a bath in the bathroom furnished in Room 130, As Light lay on the sofa in revealing pajamas, exhaling a languid sigh, looking incredibly seductive.
“Hm? What are you looking at like that? You see me every day in the dorms...”
As Light, noticing Ban Yuwon's gaze, chuckled shyly and spoke.
Immediately after, Ban Yuwon's vision went dark.
Rucell, who had been giving him a lap pillow, had covered his eyes with one hand.
“Looking at things like that will hurt your eyes, Yuwon.”
“Things like that?! Rucell, did you just say ‘things like that’?!”
“I don't understand why you're getting so worked up, As Light. Were you perhaps trying to flaunt something? ...A washboard?”
This won't do, these two.
First off, they're both happily going berserk, completely ignoring the fact that As Light is supposed to be a man.
But just as As Light was about to go completely wild and reveal his own identity—
a dazzling light began to pour forth from his chest.
“What, another seizure?!”
“Kyaa! A-As Light. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said anything...!”
“You idiots! You should be resting quietly, but instead you're caught up in a lover's quarrel, and this is what happens!”
Everyone sprang up and gathered around As Light, but As Light, clutching his necklace tightly, shook his head, denying it.
“It's not a seizure. It's... a distress signal.”
“A distress signal?”
“Yes. A distress signal from my world.”
At As Light's words, everyone cooperatively froze.
They remembered hearing that his dimension was constantly under external threat.
“I'm sorry, everyone. It looks like I won't be able to participate in the special activity...”
“As Light.”
“Sorry, Ban.”
As Light spoke without lifting his head, despite Ban Yuwon calling him.
“I invited you, but now I can't take you.”
“...We can just go next time, I guess.”
“Yeah... then, I'm really sorry.”
As Light's form vanished.
The remaining three exchanged brief glances, then sighed and rose from their seats.
“Should we leave too?”
“At least it didn't happen right at the beginning, that's a relief.”
“What could have happened? I hope he returns safely...”
Although 12 hours remained, if they proceeded without As Light, it would be considered an immediate retirement.
They couldn't commit such a foolish act just because they felt the remaining time was a waste.
But when the three exited the Tower, Yumina was waiting for them.
“Professor, As Light...”
“That's been approved, it's fine. But that's not the problem right now.”
Yumina, with an urgent expression, pointed to their student IDs.
“Your special activity destination has been decided, but...”
Ban Yuwon checked his student ID.
—Thump, a sound of someone collapsing next to him was heard.
It was the E-1 Dimension.
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