Ch.129[Chapter 129] Intermission

Let me turn back time to when Sir Dominic was wandering through the alley.

“Damn it.”

Senator Muscleman, currently the only one handling the tank position in the Executive branch, spat out a curse.

Unlike his usual refined and gentlemanly demeanor, Muscleman was now nervously fending off attackers with the veins in his entire body standing on end.

While Muscleman blocked the intruders’ invasion, the senators and Executive branch staff were either eliminating attackers who had slipped through or providing covering fire.

The Executive branch lobby had already transformed into something like a massive defense game.

“Firewall! Restore the firewall!”

One of the staff shouted to one of the coders.

These coders had come from System Industries to inspect the Executive branch’s security system and ended up trapped together.

They too were lending a hand in the Executive branch’s defense.

“Why on earth is Sir Dominic here?”

Amidst everyone’s busy movements, there was one coder standing in shock, looking dazed.

His name was Leonardo. Once one of the developers who created Enchant, he was now one of the coders at System Industries.

This amateur coder, who had gained wealth and fame creating Enchant but wanted to write even better code, had accepted a headhunting offer from System Industries and decided to change jobs.

Drawing on his experience creating roguelikes, he developed a roguelike algorithm security program.

It would stall for time with complex paths and deploy people to subdue intruders.

Even if the deployed person was subdued instead, time would be bought to deploy a new person.

A simple but inefficient program that repeats infinitely.

This algorithm, as inefficient as the Executive branch’s administration, precisely hit the taste of the Executive branch’s upper echelons, and he successfully supplied the program as one of the Executive branch’s security systems.

Today was the day Leonardo came to install the roguelike algorithm security program at the Executive branch, but as you know, things had gone wrong.

Leonardo carefully observed Sir Dominic’s party, who seemed to be plotting a route to enter the Executive branch.

An amazingly efficient route.

Impossible without someone’s help.

In reality, this was happening because of conflicts between the new security program and the old one causing items to mix, but Leonardo, who was visiting a site for the first time, couldn’t know that.

Instead, Leonardo focused on the idea of “someone’s help” and began making plausible guesses.

“Why is he trying to enter the Executive branch? At a time when Mountain Bridge Marsh is attacking?”

In fact, though they spoke of attacks by unknown entities, this was merely to avoid publicly revealing the existence of Mountain Bridge Marsh—those in the know were well aware of who the attackers were.

Leonardo was one of those who knew about Mountain Bridge Marsh.

There had been several attempts to breach Leonardo’s security system, and through these, he had learned of Mountain Bridge Marsh’s existence.

Attackers trying to enter the Executive branch.

And Sir Dominic, trying to enter the Executive branch just like those attackers.

A plausible situation. A plausible thought.

“Sir Dominic… has joined hands with Mountain Bridge Marsh!”

Now he understood why they maintained such an inefficient offensive.

They were merely decoys to draw attention.

The real plan was to infiltrate Sir Dominic into the Executive branch.

His thoughts began to drift slightly off course.

And as these thoughts accumulated, Leonardo reached a completely wrong conclusion.

“This is no time to waste! We must stop Sir Dominic immediately!”

The face of this young vampire, already pale from anemia and low blood pressure, grew even paler.

Leonardo jumped up from his seat, hastily transformed into a bat, and flew toward the Executive branch’s security team.

He was going to find people who could stop Sir Dominic.

…

The Executive branch’s security room was composed of several teams.

The Executive branch didn’t directly employ security personnel but entrusted security to guilds, making them compete with each other.

They wanted better service at lower costs through competition.

However, the guilds were just as cunning.

They secretly colluded and divided appropriate time slots among themselves.

Just enough to avoid catching the Executive branch’s attention.

After all, receiving guild-level supplies was quite lucrative.

Today was the day for guilds affiliated with The Tentacle Explorer to handle the Executive branch’s security.

While most security room staff had been deployed to stop Mountain Bridge Marsh, three people remained behind just in case.

“I’m bored.”

“Hmph. If you were competent, you wouldn’t be bored.”

“…I guess you’re not bored then?”

“That’s right. Because I’m competent.”

Yekaterina turned her head and began to chew out Plagius.

The two had joined around the same time and thought they knew each other well, but showed no signs of becoming friends.

Yekaterina sighed.

She was so bored that even insulting Plagius had become tedious.

That’s when it happened.

A bat flew into the security room.

Everyone’s eyes turned to the bat as it circled once overhead.

The bat came to an abrupt stop in midair, transformed into a human, and landed on the ground, naturally placing Leonardo at the center of attention.

But Leonardo deliberately ignored those stares and began shouting to the people.

“Sir Dominic has joined hands with Mountain Bridge Marsh!”

“What?”

Yekaterina frowned as if she’d heard something strange.

“What nonsense is that?”

“Mountain Bridge Marsh’s attack was just a feint to hide the real attack! The real attack is Sir Dominic!”

Leonardo’s words were a mess, blurted out according to his train of thought, but Yekaterina could understand his intention.

Sir Dominic? Why?

Yekaterina couldn’t claim to know Sir Dominic well, but recalling their previous meeting in Area 3, she knew he wasn’t the type of person to do such a thing.

However, unlike Yekaterina’s thoughts, Plagius seemed to believe the words as they were.

Plagius stood up from his seat and raised his plague censer and the plague dagger he had recently farmed successfully.

“What are you trying to do?”

Yekaterina asked in alarm at the rotten water dripping from the dagger.

“Going to stop Sir Dominic. That’s all I’m thinking.”

Plagius thought this was his opportunity.

A chance to achieve greater merit than Yekaterina.

In fact, Plagius and Yekaterina had joined around the same time and harbored a sense of rivalry toward each other.

Plagius in particular had a male chauvinist personality and resented women being in higher positions than himself.

Because of this, the assertive Yekaterina was like a thorn in his side.

He had vowed to himself that he would at least rise to a higher position than that woman—that’s how much Plagius disliked Yekaterina.

He wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to definitively surpass Yekaterina and reach a higher position.

“No, we should still verify…”

“Oh really? Good. Just stay sitting there then.”

Plagius truly meant for her to stay there, but to Yekaterina, it sounded like a provocation.

Yekaterina had been thinking cautiously, but Plagius’s provocation, though childish, was effective.

Suddenly irritated, Yekaterina jumped up from her seat.

“You dare provoke me? Fine. I’ll go too.”

“Hmph. I told you there’s no need to follow. Coder? Guide us. We’ll handle this.”

“Ah, yes. This way will be faster.”

Plagius and Yekaterina followed Leonardo, bickering all the way.

And there was one person watching them.

“Heehee? Ha.”

A person wearing a magician’s clothes with a skeleton drawn on his face in fluorescent material watched Plagius and Yekaterina from behind.

He was also a member of a guild affiliated with The Tentacle Explorer and one of the three people guarding the security room.

Having just returned from an urgent bathroom break, the magician watched the two heading somewhere and suddenly thought following them would be more fun than guarding the security room.

“Hahee-.”

The magician followed the two.

Leaving the security room completely empty.

…

[Sir Dominic will be here soon. Get ready.]

With Leonardo’s words, the two were warming up in the 2D world.

Both had lived in Gachaland for quite some time, so they didn’t experience the 2D sickness that supposedly affects everyone on their first visit to the 2D world.

“I’m already prepared?”

“Hmph. I’m more perfect than that woman.”

Plagius and Yekaterina were engaged in a battle of nerves.

They were so focused on trying to undermine each other that they didn’t even notice the magician arriving behind them.

“Heem.hahick.”

Perhaps that’s why? Both were startled by the sudden sound of the magician’s voice.

“Goodness! Night Magician, when did you get here?”

“Did you change jobs from magician to assassin?”

The magician felt wronged by their reactions, but before he could explain himself, Leonardo’s voice was heard.

[He’s arrived. Quickly, hide. You should be able to get one surprise attack in. Old texts say that even against a ninja, one surprise attack is possible…]

It was the moment Sir Dominic arrived in the 2D world.