As the competition unfolded, darkness spread throughout the city. Although darkness wasn’t Rhode’s enemy, as of now, he didn’t think that his team was in a favorable situation in the slightest. Because whether it was Little Five or Catherine, both of them looked like moving light bulbs that glowed in the darkness. Using the logic of the deep-sea fish, it would only be strange if they didn’t attract attention while striding through the pitch-black city. And as it turned out, Rhode was entirely correct.
“What are they?! So annoying! Damn it, go to hell!”
Swish!
Along with Little Five’s complaint, a green blade ray flashed across the air, splitting the twisting, black slime-looking monsters into half. Immediately after, the carcasses of those monsters crumbled and disappeared, while the high-rise that was full of clamors restored its peace.
“Phew…”
Looking at this scene, Rhode put away his weapon. He lifted his head and looked around him; although there weren’t any sources of light other than the huge light bulb of the glowing Catherine, he was able to see the view. To be honest, although the outside of the high-rises looked just like magical towers, the moment he entered, he found that the inside was simply the layout of typical office buildings he remembered from Earth.
There was a reception desk in the lobby, elevators and offices on both sides, desks in rooms, and all sorts of decorations. Not only that, but all the entertainment rooms and bars that one could think of were also here. Rhode wondered where Karin retrieved all these memories. But he could tell that she seemed to have no understanding of how these things worked and just treated them as decoration like furniture.
Currently, Rhode, Little Five, and Catherine had entered one of the high-rises. Of course, they didn’t pick this high-rise randomly; it was due to the fact that the first mental crystal was right at the top of it. For that reason, Rhode brought the two young ladies here and after reaching their destination, they were attacked by these bizarre and shadowy, slime-looking monsters.
He wasn’t surprised that they were attacked since he more or less figured out what was going through Karin’s mind. On the surface, it seemed as though this challenge was to familiarize Rhode with the card spirits’ mental projections. But perhaps there was also an underlying reason for them to get to know each other better.
Either way, there had to be an external force that forced them to unite; otherwise, even if they formed teams, they would likely split up in pursuit of their individual interests. And when that happened, instead of promoting mutual understanding and trust between them, Karin’s idea would surely make things worse and more troublesome.
But after some observations, Rhode discovered that although these mental projections didn’t recognize anyone else perhaps due to them being dominated by their original selves, they were still concerned for others. For instance, even though Little Five just finished a fight with Catherine and couldn’t wait to let her die by herself, after seeing Catherine follow her, she just curled her lips, warned her not to be a drag, and didn’t say anything more.
Meanwhile, Catherine didn’t fight back at all. If she were Mini Bubble Gum, she might not stop until she forced Catherine to jump off a building. However, Little Five was apparently not as unreasonable as Mini Bubble Gum. Although Rhode found that she disliked getting along with Catherine, she still didn’t direct malicious abuse at her. It seemed like this was just a really simple personality crash for both sides.
Despite that, Catherine…
Looking at Catherine beside him, Rhode was truly completely speechless. Earlier on, he was only guessing. But now, he was certain that this Catherine was definitely one of the most non-existent personalities or perhaps one that the Angel of Light abandoned. She could be said to carry pacifism to the extreme. And although she possessed great power, she didn’t even have the slightest intention of fighting.
There were so many times when she was just surrounded by those shadowy monsters that could easily bite her neck off and yet, didn’t even move an inch. She looked like she would rather die than to not follow through her non-violent and non-cooperation ideologies to the end.
Rhode and Little Five were left speechless. But even so, they didn’t intend to let Catherine die. After all, this Catherine was also one of Catherine’s personalities and it was also hard to determine if it would be a good thing for her if she lost this personality. And aside from this extreme pacifism, this Catherine was easy to get along with.
Although Rhode thought that her personality was extremely saintly, she still seemed to understand the reason and didn’t find trouble waiting for others to save her like many other Mary Sues. On the contrary, she followed Rhode and Little Five closely, but despite that, her sad gaze as she watched the monsters perish left Rhode at a total loss. To be honest, he should be glad that the real Catherine didn’t have such a saintly personality; otherwise, how could they accomplish bigger things together in the future?
“That’s pretty much what it looks like now.”
Rhode said and took a careful look around him. The shadowy monsters that ran out of the darkness had disappeared entirely. But he believed that this wasn’t the end. Although the three of them had experienced many battles on their way here, the closer they got to these towers, the greater the resistance that they encountered.
Judging from that, the shadowy monsters should have been set up by Karin to protect the mental crystal. These monsters were also getting increasingly stronger. Although there was no pressure for Rhode, it was a different story for Little Five. She wasn’t a core personality, so she naturally didn’t inherit much power. Just like the three Celestinas from before, even though the little Celestina and demonic Celestina possessed the original’s abilities, in front of the core personality, they were beaten without even the slightest ability to fight back. There was nothing else they could do except to cry and run home to their moms.
The same went for Little Five. In Rhode’s perspective, her strength now was similar to Celia’s in the past and not comparable to the awakened Celestina and Celia in the slightest. Fortunately, as a specter, Little Five didn’t have to worry about injury and death, and her spiritual trait made her immune to physical attacks. In that regard, it also kind of made up for the fact that she wasn’t strong enough to fight.
“What should we do next, Mr. Rhode? Do we have to climb all the way up?”
After hearing Rhode’s answer, Little Five asked with a frown. It wasn’t entirely without reason that she asked. Because it wasn’t until they arrived at the bottom of the building that they realized Karin used some method to forbid the option of ‘flying’. So even if Rhode activated his Void Dragon attributes, he wouldn’t be able to fly and this meant that everyone could only walk up the stairs. Of course, it wouldn’t exactly be tiring because this was the mental world. But… These towers were hundreds of meters high! Climb the stairs? Only God knew how long it would take to reach the top.
“Of course not. I suppose we have other ways.”
After hearing Little Five’s question, Rhode turned to her and replied. At that moment, Little Five was still in her spiritual form with her long sword hanging on her back. However, what left Rhode unable to restrain a smile was that she held a bag of fries in her arms, munching on them and looking very satisfied.
It was only a moment when Rhode found out that this young lady was quite a chowhound. In the previous battle, she accidentally hacked the refrigerator in the room in half. Rhode wasn’t that concerned about the damage; it was just that he didn’t expect Karin to do such a good job in restoration. Not only the refrigerator, but the snacks inside it were also restored. Meanwhile, Little Five’s curiosity piqued as soon as she noticed the snacks.
It was especially after learning from Rhode the methods of eating them, where she fell in love with them almost immediately. Thus, wherever they went, the first thing she looked for was a refrigerator and sliced it open for snacks. Even though Rhode wanted to correct her on the proper way of opening a refrigerator… He couldn’t be bothered to lecture her after seeing her eating so happily.
After taking a glance at Little Five who munched on fries, Rhode turned away to look at the hall in front of him. The previously clean hall was ruined after Rhode and Little Five fought against the shadowy monsters. The smooth marble floor looked like it was bombarded with holes and the front desk was split into several pieces. The vending machines at the side also weren’t spared either, with all kinds of fragments scattered over the ground. But these weren’t part of Rhode’s concerns; what he cared about were the two heavy iron gates located on both sides of the navigation platform.
I wonder if Karin has figured out exactly how to use them…
At this thought, Rhode strolled to one of the iron doors. He extended his arm and pressed the triangular button beside it.
Ding———!
Along with a crisp tinkle, suddenly, the top of the dark iron door emanated a soft glow. And upon seeing the glow, be it Little Five who was munching on snacks or Catherine who followed behind her with a handful of snacks like Little Five’s mobile shopping cart, both of them were stunned. But after seeing that Rhode had no intention of fighting, they calmed themselves down and went up to his side curiously.
“Mr. Rhode, what is that?”
Looking at the massive iron gate that flickered with light, Catherine asked curiously. Along the way, they gained quite a lot of knowledge from Rhode. They learned that the vehicle with four wheels was called a car; the vast, black screen was called a TV; and the compartment that stored a lot of delicious food was called a refrigerator… Of course, it wasn’t like they didn’t ask him how he knew about these things. In the face of a foodie and a fool for peace, Rhode blindsided them easily without letting either of them delve deeper into the issue.
“This is called an elevator. I was just going to give it a try, but it looks like it’s working. If nothing is wrong, we should be able to ride this thing to the top of the tower.”
Ding———!
At that moment, along with his words, the door of the elevator opened. Soft, bright lights emanated from the interior and illuminated the otherwise dark and gloomy space in front of them. Upon observing the ‘elevator’ before them, Little Five and Catherine put up apparent, uneasy expressions. After all, in their perspective, this tiny and narrow space didn’t seem safe.
Besides, in case of any attacks and other troubles, perhaps they wouldn’t be able to flee to safety. But after seeing Rhode enter the elevator, they knew they couldn’t comment much and followed him inside quickly. After the three of them entered the elevator, Rhode reached his hand out and pressed the button that would bring them to the top. The door slowly closed, and along with a mechanical click and sense of levitation, the elevator rose toward the top.
“Mr. Rhode, is this thing safe? Will those monsters ambush us again?”
Little Five was considered quite alert. Although she indulged in the fries, she hadn’t forgotten that battles would occur at any time. On the contrary, Catherine leaned against the wall after entering the elevator, staring blankly at its design as if she were in a reverie. However, Rhode and Little Five were already used to that behavior of hers. After all, Catherine wasn’t much of a fighter in the first place. Even if she weren’t in a daze, she would still be standing on the spot and getting beaten up without retaliating. Thus, there was no need for them to remind her to be wary of the situation.
“Well… I can’t say for sure, but let’s be careful; I don’t think it’s as simple as we think it is. Since it was announced that this is a competition, surely we won’t arrive at our destination so easily. It’s better to be more cautious, just to be on the safe side.”
It also wasn’t unreasonable for him to say that. So far, although things went well for them, to say that they would be able to go smoothly to the end, even Rhode didn’t believe it. In movies, TVs, and games, if the protagonist were to take a shortcut, he or she would certainly be punished; either by an elevator blackout, monster attack, or having to run up and down several levels of the maze to turn on the power and retrieve the key card, before killing the boss to get into the core area.
Frankly, Karin was considered to have decent moral principle for not designing this place so that people like Rhode’s team would have to go to the basement to obtain kerosene, head to the generator room on the first floor to turn on the power, run to the administrator’s room on the third floor to extract the password for the guard room on the first floor, take the password back to the first floor to open the guard room door to get the key card, and finally swipe the elevator…
But Rhode didn’t think that Karin would let them get through the hall on the first floor without experiencing some hindrance. He was sure that there would be a considerable obstacle waiting for them ahead…
Boom!
As it turned out, at the same time this thought cropped up in Rhode’s head, a deep explosion rumbled all of a sudden. Immediately after, the elevator shook violently before coming to a complete stop with a sharp creak. Soon after, the elevator lights that illuminated the interior vanished at that moment and everything was shrouded in darkness…
“W-What’s happening?”
The first to break the silence was Catherine. Even though she seemed endearingly silly, she also sensed that something went wrong, not to mention Little Five and Rhode who were mentally prepared that ‘something would happen’. When he heard Catherine’s question, he didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and listened to the sounds below.
It wasn’t only one explosion—after the elevator stopped, they heard continuous explosions coming from below. If Rhode wasn’t mistaken, the explosions sounded somewhat familiar. If he recalled correctly, it seemed similar to the explosions that he and Little Five created earlier… Not only that, but they also heard the faint howls of shadowy monsters from below.
In other words, there’s someone below us?
At this thought, Rhode puckered his brows. A very bad thought cropped up in his mind. Come to think of it, he didn’t know how far the other mental projections were away from him, but because he didn’t encounter anyone else for so long, he subconsciously believed that they were probably very far away. But now, it seemed like this wasn’t the case.
It was apparent that his team was coming for this tower, while the rest also seemed to have spotted this tower as well, which wasn’t really all that surprising. Based on what he observed, the distance between the 12 towers wasn’t that far. But also for that reason, he was optimistic that there were most likely no other challengers on his side. But now, it seemed likely that in the process of retrieving the mental crystal for the first time, his team was about to face some competition…
At this thought, Rhode couldn’t help but feel a few drops of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
My luck can’t be that horrible, right?
