Ch.156[Chapter 156] A New World

Sir Dominic swung his shield relentlessly.

The edges of his shield showed no mercy as they mercilessly pounded every weak point of Park Chunbae.

Park Chunbae had a mouth. But he couldn’t even scream.

Partly because Sir Dominic’s attacks were so strong and fierce that screams couldn’t escape, but also because the continuous stuns prevented his body from responding.

Malley stood watching Park Chunbae being attacked, not daring to even think about stopping Sir Dominic.

At first, Malley had tried every trick to interfere with Sir Dominic, but soon realized it was futile.

Park Chunbae felt like he was going insane.

Sir Dominic’s stuns were bad enough, but the biggest problem was that Sir Dominic’s attack power was abnormally low.

As a tier 1 dealer, Park Chunbae’s health wasn’t very high.

Due to lingering effects from before the reorganization, it was slightly higher than other tier 1 dealers, but still weak nonetheless.

How many times had such a Park Chunbae been hit by Sir Dominic so far?

No one had counted, but Park Chunbae instinctively felt he’d been hit hundreds of times.

And yet his health was still at half.

A simple calculation meant that to escape this torture through death, he would need to take hundreds more hits.

Park Chunbae looked at Malley with pitiful eyes.

He wanted to surrender immediately, but whenever he tried to shout surrender, Sir Dominic’s shield struck his philtrum and lips.

Realizing he couldn’t declare surrender with his own mouth, he was begging Malley with his eyes to declare surrender for him.

But Malley couldn’t read Park Chunbae’s gaze at all.

His eyes were so swollen from Sir Dominic’s strikes that the pupils were indistinguishable.

Sir Dominic strikes, Park Chunbae takes the hits.

And Malley blankly watches the two.

The situation continued like a repeating video.

Sir Dominic raised his shield once more.

He briefly squeezed his eyes shut as sweat dripped from his forehead into his eyes, but the shield he had swung hundreds of times flew accurately toward Park Chunbae’s chest.

That’s when it happened.

[TIME OUT!]

[After 10 minutes, the outcome will be determined by judgment.]

[Sir Dominic & Sir Dominica’s remaining health: 98%.]

[Park Chunbae & Malley’s remaining health: 78%.]

[Judgment result: Sir Dominic & Sir Dominica pair wins.]

Sir Dominic’s shield stopped in mid-air as if blocked by something.

“…The match is decided.”

Sir Dominic looked at the system window, withdrew his shield, and removed his foot from Park Chunbae’s stomach.

Park Chunbae tried to get up with his battered body, but he had been beaten so severely that even standing was difficult.

Finally, Park Chunbae was able to get up only after Malley came over to support him.

Limping with Malley’s support, Park Chunbae glared at Sir Dominic with a vicious expression.

“Next time, I won’t lose so pathetically!”

After shouting that, Park Chunbae slowly disappeared into the alley with Malley.

Sir Dominic looked at the alley where Park Chunbae and Malley had disappeared with a bewildered expression.

I must acknowledge that determination at least. Sir Dominic nodded.

“By the way…”

Sir Dominic remembered fighting alternately with Sir Dominica just now.

Why had Sir Dominica appeared?

And where was the space Sir Dominic had been when Sir Dominica was out?

As if answering that question, a system window appeared before Sir Dominic’s eyes.

[Tag Match System has been activated.]

[Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica have become a pair and will fight alternately.]

[The one not engaged in combat will watch the battle situation from the waiting room.]

[Decorate your waiting room! You can gain various effects!]

“Ah,” Sir Dominic exclaimed.

That place with the slime was apparently called the waiting room.

“And the reason we could win by judgment at the end was because of the waiting room’s recovery ability.”

Sir Dominic turned his head at the familiar voice.

There stood a female knight wearing knight’s attire with tricolored feathers on her head similar to Sir Dominic’s, holding up a shield.

It was Sir Dominica.

“And… this one helped too.”

Sir Dominica held up her phone.

Inside the screen, a slime was bouncing around.

Sir Dominic also took out his phone and turned on the screen, and the S.P.Y app that had disappeared until just now had returned.

The slime was bouncing around there too.

“Thanks to the slime’s recovery ability, we could recover faster.”

[[Slime] exists in the waiting room. The waiting room is granted the trait [Recovery].]

A system window appeared as if to provide additional explanation to Sir Dominica’s words.

Sir Dominic seemed to ponder for a moment before nodding.

Clearly, Sir Dominica had taken quite a bit of damage, though not critical.

But when the final judgment was made, Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica’s combined health was 98%.

At first, he questioned that number, but understanding the waiting room had recovery abilities made everything clear.

“By the way, it’s good to see you again, Sir Dominica.”

Sir Dominic raised his sword to greet Sir Dominica.

“Likewise.”

Sir Dominica also raised her sword to greet Sir Dominic.

A truly solemn sight.

“Excuse me-“

Just then, an uninvited guest interrupted.

“Junior, who is this lady? Your older sister? Younger sister?”

It was v.a.l.l.o.c., whose eyes had gone wild at the sight of a beautiful woman.

…

There was an issue where Sir Dominic’s armor penetration decreased by 15% when greeting, but no one paid attention to it.

Instead, Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica began unwinding at a nearby tavern.

Although they had conversed through the S.P.Y app, meeting face-to-face like this was special.

“By the way, if you’re here, what happens to your world?”

Sir Dominic asked Sir Dominica about a question that suddenly occurred to him.

“Ah, that.”

Sir Dominica said while tearing off an octopus leg.

“Although we called it a parallel world, we weren’t actually an officially authorized world.”

Sir Dominica said bitterly.

She took a refreshing gulp of beer as if her throat was burning, then continued.

“If it cannot be observed, it neither exists nor can exist.”

“What does that mean?”

“Now that we’ve regressed, the parallel world doesn’t exist.”

Sir Dominica smiled bitterly.

“Probably only the observed parts were integrated into this world, and the rest disappeared.”

Sir Dominica gulped down the half-remaining beer to the bottom without leaving a drop.

Sir Dominic looked at Sir Dominica without saying anything.

“Heh. Still, I’m quite fortunate. I succeeded in being observed, and thanks to the slime, I’ve been incorporated into the ‘canon.'”

“Canon?”

“Yes. Canon.”

Sir Dominica smiled brightly.

“I am you.”

Sir Dominic nodded at Sir Dominica’s words.

“I know.”

“No, I mean… I’m more like a copy of your soul. No, I am a copy.”

Sir Dominic looked at Sir Dominica.

“The parallel world is a created world.”

Sir Dominica fiddled with her empty beer glass.

“It’s closer to copying and pasting the original, then scribbling fantasies about ‘what if it had been like this?'”

Sir Dominic silently looked at Sir Dominica.

“Even now, countless parallel worlds are being created and disappearing. That’s for certain.”

When our world disappeared during the regression, I glimpsed a bit of the truth.

Sir Dominica shuddered slightly as if remembering that time.

“I was the same. I almost disappeared in a parallel world that was being deleted, but…”

Sir Dominica glanced at Sir Dominic.

“It was thanks to you.”

“Thanks to me?”

Sir Dominic questioned Sir Dominica’s words.

“Because you built up enough recognition in Gachaland and constantly mentioned me, my value rose along with yours.”

“Gachaland’s motto is value. You know that, right?” Sir Dominica smiled brightly.

“I gained ‘value.’ I became a card too valuable to discard. Thanks to that, I… officially came to exist like this.”

Sir Dominic looked at Sir Dominica’s bright smile.

That smile contained both relief at having survived and bitterness and fear about the disappeared parallel world.

“So I’ll say it again.”

Sir Dominica’s sad eyes drew a beautiful arc.

“Thank you for giving me value, for giving me life, Sir Dominic.”

Sir Dominic silently looked at Sir Dominica.

The two stared at each other for a long time.

An awkward silence.

…And the one who broke this silence was Sir Dominic.

“I have one question.”

“What is it? Ask away.”

Sir Dominica returned to her confident self as if she had never had sad eyes.

With the will to answer whatever Sir Dominic asked.

“It’s nothing major.”

Sir Dominic looked at Sir Dominica with a serious expression.

“What happens if the parallel world event is rerun? We from the parallel world are already here together.”

“Ah.”

Sir Dominica made a dumbfounded sound.

Sir Dominic’s question was something anyone might reasonably wonder about, but it was difficult for anyone to answer.