Ch.124[Episode 124] Towards the Administration

From the falling airship, Sir Dominic was gazing at a large building in the distance.

Sir Dominic recognized through part of it that the building belonged to the Executive branch.

“Sir Dominic! Don’t you have some kind of escape device?”

“Wow! We’re floating!”

The airship’s falling speed was getting faster and faster.

As gravity and falling speed offset each other, their bodies began to float slightly.

Even in this situation, Sir Dominic was holding onto the steering wheel.

He needed to get as close as possible to the Executive branch.

That way, he could save more time.

Now the airship was falling at nearly a 45-degree angle while burning.

If not for Sir Dominic’s efforts, it would have already crashed vertically.

Spewing smoke and flames, the airship fell into an alley.

With sounds of crumpling, crushing, shattering, and twisting, the airship that entered the alley soon exploded with a huge noise, creating a pillar of fire.

People around the Executive branch could see the pillar of fire that seemed to reach the sky.

…

“Master, as you instructed, we’ve blocked those heading to the Executive branch… but some got through, they say.”

A person in a black hood spoke to someone wearing a bathrobe, sitting in an armchair slowly swirling a martini.

“I know. I was watching.”

An unusually young and beautiful man answered the hooded figure.

His voice contained excessive charisma and a bewitching charm.

Taking a sip of the martini he had been swirling on a terrace with an impressive view of the Executive branch, the man looked at the black hood with a terribly beautiful smile.

“Hood.”

“Yes?”

“Take it off. That hood.”

When the black hood hesitated nervously, this beautiful man just smiled brightly.

But one thing was clear: the atmosphere now was different from a moment ago.

“Kuk.”

The hooded figure knelt down.

The man continued to smile while looking at the hooded figure.

Was it the composure of the strong?

The man was so relaxed that he was sipping his martini while looking at the hooded figure.

Yet there was a heavy atmosphere.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, the hooded figure looked at the man imploringly.

“Take it off.”

The man said firmly, still wearing his beautiful smile.

Finally surrendering to the man, the hooded figure slowly removed the hood with trembling hands.

“Yes. That’s much better.”

The man smiled at the woman who had been wearing the hood, then looked back at the burning alley of the Executive branch as if he had lost interest.

The woman had spiky hair and teeth.

Just like General Joseph of the Secret Society John Shepherd Expedition.

“So.”

The man put down his empty martini glass and took out a new bottle of liquor from a small refrigerator.

Apparently planning to drink whiskey on the rocks this time, he took round ice from the freezer, placed it in a glass, and slowly poured whiskey over it.

“Is there anyone you think might be a variable?”

This beautiful man asked the Joseph-like woman.

The woman nodded and said to the man.

“Of course. Currently, a small number of tier 4 and above personnel have been detected inside the Executive branch. We’ve also identified one tier 5 personnel who was enhancing in the industrial district.”

“Wasn’t today supposed to be a day off for the Executive branch’s high-ranking officials?”

The man voiced the information he knew.

“I thought only tier 3 and below were working today because of the shift system.”

“They’re the duty officers from each department. They’re there in case of emergencies, they say.”

The woman added, “And that emergency has indeed happened.”

“Well, isn’t that an expected variable?”

The man sipped his whiskey.

He was not drinking to get drunk but to savor the atmosphere, as evidenced by his flushed expression while watching the burning alleys of the Executive branch.

Bang! An explosion sound was heard from far away.

An airship that had been floating in the sky fell into an alley and caused an explosion.

The man squinted at the intense light of the explosion, blinked a couple of times, then returned to his normal self and looked at the woman.

“What about that man?”

“Which man do you mean…?”

“Sir Dominic.”

The man stared into the woman’s eyes.

His gaze was so intense that the woman couldn’t even think of looking away, feeling as if he could read her thoughts.

Was it because of his gaze? The woman spoke her opinion without even thinking of lying or embellishing her words.

“Sir Dominic is indeed a Newbie, but I don’t think he’s someone the Master needs to worry about.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

The grotesquely beautiful man grinned.

“But you know, Sir Dominic is a man I really want to have.”

The man pulled out a character card of Sir Dominic from inside his clothes.

The character card, preserved in a card protector decorated with hologram coating and gold foil, showed how precious Sir Dominic’s card was to him.

“They say only 10 of these were released in the world. Yes. That alone makes it valuable enough. But—”

The man smiled with frightening charm.

“How valuable would it be if I could have the only one? Not a doll or data, but the original itself. If I could have that one and only original.”

Then I’d have no reason to stay in Mountain Bridge Marsh.

The man muttered and smiled viciously.

“…No way.”

The sharp-toothed woman seemed to realize something and took a step back.

Then she looked at the man with an expression mixed with bewilderment and fear.

“Don’t tell me all of this is… a plan to obtain Sir Dominic?”

“Correct.”

The man clapped his hands, smiling brightly like a child, as if impressed.

“To think you figured it out that far. I’m glad I made that ‘offer’ back then.”

The man looked at the buildings around the Executive branch that were starting to burn more intensely and drank the last sip of his whiskey on the rocks.

Now only partially melted solid ice remained in the cup.

“The time is coming soon.”

The man said quietly.

Then he put the remaining ice from the cup in his mouth and instantly crushed it.

Considering it was stone ice with metal-level hardness, what incredible bite strength!

After chewing and swallowing the finely crushed ice pieces, the man made an ecstatic expression as he imagined that moment.

“When that time comes, Sir Dominic will have to choose. Whether to obey me, or to defy me and die. Just thinking about it… excites me. Don’t you think?”

“…Yes, Master.”

The man revealed his twisted personality with a terribly beautiful smile, then burst into frighteningly attractive laughter.

The woman was rolling her eyes as she watched the man.

She began organizing information based on what the man had said.

And she started scrapping the current plan and devising a new one.

The time was not far off.

The time was not far off.

The man and woman had similar thoughts.

But the results would be quite different.

…

Near the Executive branch alley, at the airship crash site.

With a soft thud, a ninja landed on the rooftop of a still-intact building.

“Are you okay?”

The ninja called out to the smoke and fire-filled alley below.

“I’m fine!”

And from below came a voice that, though coughing from the smoke, was reasonably intact.

“Sir Dominic is fine. You can relax now.”

“Phew. There’s no way my master would die from something like this.”

The ninja reassured the disciple behind her.

The disciple with cold light-colored hair, beautifully reflecting the flames like fire in ice, sighed with relief.

As you all know, these three were Sir Dominic, Unryu Hime, and Alice.

They had survived the falling airship.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say they survived because this was GachaLand.

Just before the crash, when Sir Dominic thought they were close enough to the ground, he shouted to Unryu Hime.

‘Escape right now! This height should be sufficient!’

Sir Dominic remembered Unryu Hime’s physical abilities from Enchant.

Thinking she must have grown stronger since then, Sir Dominic believed this height would be manageable for her.

And his belief proved true.

At first, Unryu Hime hesitated even after hearing Sir Dominic’s words, but at his shout, she steeled herself and jumped.

‘Take Alice with you! In her current state, she might take double damage from the fall! I’m a tanker, so I can protect myself, hurry and escape!’

Yes, Sir Dominic was a tanker. Though he had no shield now, some of his traits were still active.

[[Standard-Bearer]: Those with this ability give buffs to nearby allies but increase placement cost by 1.]

Also, the special ability [Standard-Bearer] was created when he obtained the flag, not that the flag was required, according to the tooltip.

[[Tanker][Standard-Bearer] Synergy: Reduces damage taken by nearby allies by 4%.]

Moreover, according to the [Tanker][Standard-Bearer] synergy description, the effect was still maintained.

Yes.

Both Sir Dominic and the system judged that this special ability was still usable.

That’s why he had confidence he could endure.

On the other hand, what if Alice stayed?

Alice was classified as Sir Dominic’s equipment, so attacks on Alice were considered attacks on Sir Dominic.

Then, was there any guarantee that the damage wouldn’t be doubled when both Sir Dominic and Alice were damaged simultaneously?

The situation was too urgent to experiment with this fact.

But Sir Dominic knew from several experiences that in GachaLand, things that seemed like they might work usually did.

A bug would definitely occur here too.

Understanding Sir Dominic’s intention, Unryu Hime carried Alice and jumped out through a hole in the airship.

With the light footsteps unique to a kunoichi, Unryu Hime and Alice landed silently on the rooftop of a building that hadn’t yet caught fire.

Afterward, Sir Dominic’s airship crashed as far away from that spot as possible and exploded.

Even though death in GachaLand meant revival with almost no penalty, that didn’t mean death felt good.

Knowing this, Sir Dominic made his own gambling move to survive as much as possible, and that gamble succeeded.

“By the way—”

The joy of survival was short-lived.

Sir Dominic now returned to reality and called out to Unryu Hime.

“I don’t know which path leads to the Executive branch! The smoke is too thick!”

“I understand!”

Unryu Hime heard Sir Dominic’s words and surveyed the surroundings.

“Ah.”

And she realized something she hadn’t noticed until now, having focused only on the airship.

The world was burning.