NOVEL NEXT Chapter 580
<580 – Delicious Linked Quest (4)>
There comes a time when every veteran player has faced a nail-biting moment during their newbie days.
━━━
[Will you save her?]
1. Yes (Strength 99, Agility 99, Stamina 99, Title [Guardian of the World] required)
2. No
━━━
Those dirty, shabby conditions make sure you can’t save certain NPCs, organizations, or nations on your first playthrough!
I didn’t really have a special bond with Senior Nepher-tem, but when I saw Senior Velvet and her coming down after hearing the sound of a trap getting wrecked while I was having fun on the first floor, I immediately understood.
This playthrough’s [Unlucky Saintess] was designated as Nepher-tem.
– If sacrificing one person can ensure the safety of an entire region, we will willingly sacrifice her.
– If her misfortune is pitiable, then how can we, who will suffer due to her misfortune, not be pitiful ourselves!
– Your compassion ultimately only points towards those closest to you, while ignoring the misfortunes of everyone else— is that not a cruel hypocrisy?
The script that players will see after lifting the curse of the unlucky saintess digs deep into human conscience.
The exclusive DLC content, [Unlucky Saintess], which can be discovered after advancing one grade, grants random NPCs that have players be irresistibly charmed by their adorable antics with a “Do you still not want to lift the curse?” routine, smashing players’ mental states with the absurd event of residents’ delayed petitions!
“I never thought there would come a time when an NPC would just lift it on their own!”
In games, specific DLCs would usually stay put until the player interacts with them.
But now that the game feels real, NPC Senior Velvet was indulging in the DLC content on her own.
If she was going to eat it, she might as well enjoy it.
She even had preferences.
She used the curse as she pleased.
Passed her misfortune onto others.
Completely discarded the disaster that would come back around later.
With a pitiful audacity typical of newbies, I couldn’t help but shake my head.
“That’s strange. Didn’t you see it with your own eyes?”
“What do you mean?”
“The blood-thieving Tetraphos was thoroughly crushed under my stomp without mercy.”
Senior Velvet touched her cheek with one hand, giving a mesmerizing smile.
“No matter how much I crave after an adorable child, I won’t gently discipline a cheeky child showing their teeth. A slap is in order so they won’t show their teeth again.”
“Eek! I don’t want to be hurt!”
“Bow your head and apologize. Admit you were wrong. Say you will never defy your senior again. It’s still not too late if you do it now.”
“But I think it’s fine! I’ve kept quiet until now considering your dignity, you know?”
“…You’re letting me off? Me?”
“I got help when sending off Senior Tetraphos! But this time, I won’t go easy!”
Senior Velvet’s smile grew even stronger.
“Then give it a go. A no-mercy battle.”
[Spatial Synchronization]
[Scale 1:100]
[Giant Finger Press]
A space domination technique that links body and senses to manipulate a gigantic entity in a chosen space.
When Velvet’s technique activates, the pre-phenomenon and the time to trigger are extraordinarily brief, but its power is brutally intense.
It sounds good at a scale of 100, but 170 cm at 100 times is 170 m.
It’s no surprise that someone gets squished under the tips of gravity-defying shoes and flings off with a flick of a giant finger.
Newbies would generally aim for high-powered magic to counter this kind of technique, but there’s no chance at strength against strength.
“Velvet’s technique, its true size is its weakness!”
Techniques that are too big can’t be used indoors.
Even if they could, only a portion of the body could be enlarged.
While others feared the immense pressure of a giant indoors, I could think about how that senior might reveal their true power outdoors, where there’s no spatial constraint.
Not just a finger, but the whole palm.
Not just the toe of the shoe, but the entire leg.
The [Ultimate Full Power] that’s on a completely different level in size and impact means you can’t even dare to confront it unless you’re a Marine who Specializes in Strength All-in.
If I were in a male form, I would have exceeded the destructive capability that the limited body can exert and dominated the senior indoors, stacking up achievements until I could overpower the full power of the senior in round two.
But right now, I don’t have that kind of strength.
Instead, I curled up, owning a small body the size of my forearm in strength mode.
[Continuous Jump]
Just being fast isn’t enough, as I learned the hard way by getting caught on her foot two times previously.
That’s why I pulled out my new technique in front of Astarot, flaunting a quick roll.
But my tactic wasn’t about speed.
[Martial Arts]
[One Hit Technique: Powerful Throw]
Bang!
The giant finger of the senior smashed through the “wall” beyond the space, surrounding my whole body with a mana sword to activate the one-hit technique and break the wall.
The strong defensive technique of the student council, claiming it could withstand the broken rolling trap, crumbled under the impact, causing surprise to flash in Senior Velvet’s eyes.
[Spatial Synchronization]
[Scale 1:100]
[Giant Finger Stretch]
Her fingertip crushed the wall bit by bit, chasing after my disappearing back.
But it was too late.
[Jump]
[Mana Booster]
[Quick Motion]
[Mana Control]
[Super Acceleration Technique Deployment]
The speed, even a small but sturdy body struggled to withstand, made my head spin.
[Sense Block]
[Balance Sense]
So, I cut off my sensations and relied on my balance sensor to control my body.
I leaped higher than the wall being dented by her finger, quickly disappearing from sight again.
[Domain Expansion]
[Forced Detection]
[Mana Wave]
[Shockwave]
[Vision Radar]
[Pierce Eye]
Confident that the giant finger hadn’t felt the pressure on its skin, I unleashed a variety of detection means, spreading out rapidly like the ripples in a lake!
I launched a coup de grâce spell, breaking through with six different waves of energy resonating!
[Gravity Expansion]
[Freediving Assassination Technique]
At the end of the last winter vacation, I received training in freediving assassination from Rung Nosa!
But there’s a difference this time—rather than throwing a dagger at a target perched on a cliff, I’m diving headfirst with my entire body towards Senior Velvet.
Considering the effect, it could easily slip past a shield even for a competent person like Ishtar!
[Domain Penetration]
[Auto Shield Destruction]
[Shockwave Neutralization]
The automatically deploying defense technique was breached.
However, the slight stimulus during the breach caught the senior’s attention.
SWISH.
Her head tilted back.
The instant our eyes met, her hand shot upward.
[Power Synchronization]
[Power 1:10000]
Her fingertip shot up to the sky.
Awareness, and then motion.
It was too late to react against the freediving assassination technique.
But that was enough for her.
The slow motion of her finger amplified to an astonishing 10,000 times the power between us, delivering the pressure of a fire truck’s water cannon.
BOOM!
The building’s ceiling was completely blown apart.
If I had hesitated even slightly in dodging, I would have been launched outside the building, feeling the pain of a full-power Velvet Senior firsthand.
But in this contest of wits, I had won.
As the magical wind originating from her fingertip stirred the nature mana, I could slip through the gaps in the distorted domain.
<6th Level Dodgeball – Rolling Ball>
[Deadly Technique: Detachment Sword]
During Professor Armstrong’s lecture in the second semester of first year, a technique acknowledged by Blue Wolf Swordsmen Master [Jaosu Swordmaster Gael].
The menacingly powerful deadly technique penetrated through to Senior Velvet right up close.
“This isn’t it.”
“Huh…?”
When I first showcased Detachment Sword.
Master Gael had unfolded a superior defensive technique, outmatching the exam sword used in the demonstration.
But now, my weapon wasn’t a sword but my whole body, and it wasn’t a duel or an exam, and most importantly, Senior Velvet was weaker than Master Gael.
So naturally, it should have worked.
Contrary to my expectations, Senior Velvet took my assault of raw physicality without a hitch.
[Material Synchronization]
[Scale 1:100]
[High-tech Armor]
A high-tech magic tool created by mimicking the empire’s armor within the Student Council.
The massive armor crafted with pinnacle technology of the Production Department shrank to my size 100 times.
Yet, it didn’t break completely.
Through the tiny gap, Senior Velvet locked eyes with me, raising a finger as she spoke.
“A teenage boy might try to prove the legitimacy of his actions with his strength. But you’re not a boy, right? So in this battle, you must show me another possibility for breaking the curse of Nepher-tem.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The finger of the giant’s hand, capable of demolishing walls with one blow, thumped the surface of the broken armor one after another.
“There’s no loophole in a curse. No matter how you try to deceive, it will always come back to you. I’m sure you’ve thought about how to do that ‘deception’, right? Then show me that deception.”
“Oh, I already did that!”
“What?”
“Doesn’t it feel empty on the side?”
Velvet turned with a look of realization.
Where Senior Nepher-tem was supposed to be…there was none.
[Acceleration Afterimage Sword]
[One Hit Technique: Ghost Charge]
[Doppelganger Technique]
I wasn’t the only one trained by Rung Nosa.
There’s Jiang, Jezel’s party, and Hiscliff too.
I had plenty of time to learn the doppelganger technique by watching their skills closely.
Thus it was completed.
Creating a masterpiece of deceit with the technique that leaves an afterimage.
The doppelganger, filled with mana and confusingly real, poofed out of existence right before Senior Velvet’s eyes.
While she was watching my retreating figure outside the student council building intently, she didn’t pursue me.