Chapter 87

Chapter 87: Resolve (1)

When Artus released mana, a Gate opened.

At first glance, it might seem similar to the Gates Evil Gods opened, but the principle and the destination were entirely different.

A Gate glowing with a lustrous green light.

It was a passage leading to the Spirit Realm.

【Enter.】

An Seri followed Artus's instruction and headed inside.

When Camila tried to follow, Artus blocked her.

【You are not qualified. Even if you tried, you could not enter.】

"How stingy."

Camila said that, but she didn't look particularly disappointed.

Of course, unlike Camila, I was very interested in what my student would face inside.

So I took a Mana Stone from my pocket and activated a spell.

【What is that?】

Even a supreme-tier spirit showed curiosity at magic it had never seen before.

Instead of answering, I showed him.

─Is this where the trial takes place?

Video played and audio projected from the square-cut Mana Stone.

The footage showed the inside of the Spirit Realm.

Artus was horrified once he grasped the situation.

【What is this? Peering into the Spirit Realm— surely this is not magic created by humans?】

"To be precise, it's a spell that shows us the scenery Seri is projecting."

【Unbelievable... for unauthorized beings to intrude upon the Spirit Realm......】

"It's not intrusion. We're just peeking."

"Oh! Look there!"

Camila shouted, and we all focused on the Mana Stone.

An Seri's trial in the Spirit Realm had begun.

The final quest was one that made even players who'd developed their characters through the late game struggle and give up, but for the current An Seri, it was a quest she had a shot at clearing.

Because the trial's difficulty scaled to whoever entered.

Before An Seri stood another An Seri.

─Is that... me?

The trial was a battle against yourself.

You had to fight and defeat a clone of yourself with identical specs.

"There's a slightly transparent Seri."

"It's a fake created by the spirit."

【To be precise, it is a fake stronger than the real thing.】

One of the elements that made this game's difficulty even worse was that monster AI was extremely high.

Beyond just having complex patterns—it was so difficult that people questioned whether actual humans were controlling the monsters.

There was even a time when a compilation of X-Tube videos showing monsters toying with newbies went viral.

For the record, that video had more views than all of my channel's videos combined. I shed tears of blood that day.

In the game, monster AI was classified into four tiers. From lowest to highest intelligence: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Hell difficulty.

Even at Normal difficulty, the AI had better control than most newbies.

An Seri's clone was Hell difficulty.

Hell difficulty AI was an insane tier that could overwhelm most users through control alone.

In reality, it'd be the same or worse—never easier.

"If conditions are identical, then the difference in technical proficiency and combat experience should decide the outcome, right?"

"No. Look at the weapon the clone is holding."

As if that wasn't hard enough, An Seri's clone had one more problem.

While everything else was replicated identically to An Seri, the weapon alone was different.

The weapon the clone An Seri held was none other than Clairvoyance.

"A golden bow?"

The name Clairvoyance might bring to mind an accessory or secondary weapon, but it was actually a bow.

The naming was a bit silly, but its power was anything but.

FWEE—!

The clone fired at An Seri.

An Seri threw herself to the ground, rolling once to dodge.

─A sneak attack? How cowardly!

Camila asked.

"She dodged it......! Looks like she's got a chance?"

【Don't be absurd. Keep watching.】

Along the path the arrow from Clairvoyance had traveled, wind began to stir.

Before long, it became a massive tornado that swept away everything in its vicinity.

FWOOOOOOSH—!

"Wh-what is that......"

【It is a weapon imbued with my power. It ought to be capable of at least that much.】

This was why An Seri with Clairvoyance was called broken.

A wind spirit and an archer.

For an archer, there could be no better combination.

─Ngh......

An Seri, caught in the tornado, was battered beyond recognition.

She fought on, but the fundamental specs were different to begin with.

─Take this!

This time An Seri launched an attack, but the clone dodged easily.

At the same time, the clone also fired an arrow.

Move and shot.

The technique of dodging and attacking simultaneously.

For an archer, it was the alpha and the omega—the fundamental and the ultimate technique rolled into one.

An Seri also dodged and attacked like the clone, but the clone's movements were visibly smoother by anyone's measure.

"Even with identical specs, the gap in technical mastery is that wide......"

"Look at the clone's feet."

"...Wind?"

What made the wind spirit truly broken was its ability to assist movement more than its offensive power.

Aided by the spirit, the clone effortlessly evaded An Seri's attacks.

"What kind of weapon is that? That's broken, completely broken."

Camila's tone made her disbelief plain.

Couldn't agree more. That thing was just a broken item.

"There's a reason it's An Seri's best-in-slot."

"Best-in... what?"

"Nothing."

The continued fight was a one-sided affair.

No matter what An Seri tried, the clone crushed her with overwhelming specs, leaving her with no way to cope.

Before long, An Seri took a headshot from the clone.

In the material world it would've been a fatal blow threatening her life, but inside the Spirit Realm there was no real damage.

Her Spirit Realm body died, and the ejected An Seri returned.

"I'm back......"

An Seri's voice was thick with exhaustion.

It felt like she'd spent days in there alone.

【The number of attempts is unlimited. You may continue challenging as long as you wish. Provided you are capable, of course.】

"......"

An Seri silently glared at the Gate to the Spirit Realm.

Being defeated without even landing a blow must have been frustrating, but she couldn't easily go back in.

Even though dying in the Spirit Realm left no physical damage, the sensation and memory didn't simply vanish.

The memory of dying must have inflicted tremendous psychological shock.

In the game too, dying a certain number of times would erode a character's sanity, turning them into a madman.

"It's okay to rest for a bit if it's hard."

"...I'll be back."

An Seri headed into the Spirit Realm again.

But instead of the boldness from her first entry, her steps were now filled with hesitation.

An Seri came back out even sooner than the first time.

On top of that, her face had gone beyond haggard to outright pale.

"One more time......"

"Stop."

Going in this state would only shatter her mental further.

So I stopped An Seri from heading toward the Gate.

"I can do it."

An Seri clung to stubborn pride.

Even though she herself knew she couldn't win in her current state. She just didn't want to admit it.

It was impossible for anyone to clear this trial on the first try.

There was no way to beat an opponent who used the same techniques but wielded a superior weapon.

Of course, in the game, if you had the control you could defeat it easily—but at least in reality, that wasn't the case.

To pass this trial, you had to keep challenging.

The clone demonstrated human-like intelligence, but it was ultimately a clone.

A clone couldn't think like a human. It moved only within its programmed parameters and was incapable of learning.

But An Seri was not a clone—she was human.

Through learning, she could grow without limit.

Fighting the clone, getting hit by the clone, dying—all while continuously analyzing, studying, discovering her own weaknesses, and correcting them to grow stronger.

What Artus wanted to see through this trial was the user's mental fortitude.

The will to keep challenging endlessly, undaunted even by death.

No matter how talented An Seri was, with combat experience limited to a handful of bottom-tier dungeons, there was no way she could endure hundreds or thousands of deaths right now.

But that was fine.

We had a shortcut.

"When raiding a dungeon, would you just throw the vanguard in without preparation? Once you've gathered data, you should analyze it thoroughly before attacking."

"Ah... you're right. Of course."

An Seri agreed with my words.

I'd expected the headstrong girl to be more stubborn, but she conceded surprisingly easily.

There was no rule that said she could only learn the clone's patterns and movements through fighting.

Studying and analyzing recorded footage worked just as well.

An Seri played the recorded footage and began calmly analyzing.

Watching her, Artus clicked his tongue.

【What in the... I designed this trial to teach through getting hit, and she's studying by watching?】

"That's your fault for not designing the trial properly."

【Damn it! How was I supposed to know humans could create magic like that?】

Ordinarily, reaching this point in the story should've happened around the mid-to-late stages, when a character was mentally mature enough.

If the Video Magic shortcut hadn't existed, I'd have planned to just give her hints about the prerequisite quests and leave it at that.

We quietly watched An Seri.

She replayed the same scenes over and over, scribbling notes with each viewing.

A venomous intensity was visible in An Seri's eyes.

Camila asked.

"Guardian, does pain carry over in there as well?"

【It does. Every sensation transfers exactly.】

"That must hurt terribly. And yet Seri is......"

Camila wore an expression of incomprehension.

She'd had her own share of hardships fighting the mafia.

Knowing how weak humans become before pain, it was natural that watching someone keep challenging after being broken twice seemed baffling.

"It hurts, I'm sure. But she fights anyway."

"I don't understand. Wouldn't it be better to just run away...... those people all ran."

Perhaps Camila was seeing someone else's image in An Seri.

I didn't know who this young child was comparing to An Seri, but I could tell that envy seeped from the way she watched.

"You said you're from Korea?"

"Yeah."

"If I'd been born in Korea, would things be different from now?"

"Is your current life not to your liking?"

"Obviously. The harvest fails every year, those rotten bastards steal what little we have, people leave the village every year. I'm sick and tired of this life."

It was a voice heavy with bitterness.

In the short phrase "sick and tired," Camila's entire outlook on life came through vividly.

So I decided to give her an answer from the heart.

"There was a girl."

"Huh?"

"A girl whose parents were the Guild Master of one of Korea's top guilds. If you'd been born like that, you wouldn't be sick and tired, right?"

"I suppose not. That's a life where you could do anything."

Camila—raised in a São Paulo slum, who'd gathered the village residents and become a mafia boss at a young age.

She'd grown up in what could be called the polar opposite environment from a girl born blessed among the most privileged.

"The girl was gifted. As clever and talented as you, Camila. But she couldn't inherit the guild. Because there was a firstborn son who was less capable but born first."

"I'd still have been happy."

"Maybe. The firstborn was jealous of the girl. He thought she'd be an obstacle to inheriting the guild. So the firstborn tried to kill her."

"...Over something like that, your own family?"

"Yes, over something like that. The girl barely survived. But she couldn't go on like before. Camila, what would you do if you were in her shoes?"

"I'd fight and seize the Guild Master position. If you do nothing, you die."

I'd expected that answer from Camila, who'd become a mafia to survive.

I nodded in satisfaction and asked.

"Do you think that girl's life was happy?"

"No."

Camila said it in a hollow tone.

"So the conclusion is that no matter how you're born, you can't be happy?"

"No. The girl who could have become that child changed her own life. There's no reason you can't change yours."

"That's a strange thing to say."

"It is. Strange. But it's the truth."

Camila mulled it over, then looked at An Seri and asked.

"...Is that girl someone I know, by any chance?"

"No. She's a fictional person."

"That's a relief."

A fictional person, and she had to remain fictional.

A future like that should never come to pass.

Camila was quiet for a while.

We spent the time silently watching An Seri.

In the peaceful atmosphere, Camila, perhaps tired, began dozing off.

Given the environment she was in, it wouldn't be strange if she hadn't slept properly in a long time.

I laid her down comfortably, resting her head toward me.

But then, a loud noise jolted Camila from her nap.

There was an aircraft flying low in the sky.

VROOOOOOM—!

"Mmm... what......"

"A plane's passing by."

"A plane......? Huh? Oh no!"

Camila bolted upright at the word "plane."

The mention of planes reminded me of the airport where we'd met Camila, so I joked.

"I'd have a problem if you went off to rob tourists in front of a Hero."

"Those aren't passenger planes."

At Camila's words, I looked up at the sky again.

She was right.

Those were far too fast to call passenger aircraft.

"Don't tell me......"

"Looks like those guys are back."

Military fighter jets.

That was the true identity of the things filling the sky.