Ch.174The End of June

“Sasith!! Save the salt for later!! Hurry up!!”

I shouted loudly.

“Got it!”

Sasith ran through the collapsing factory while firmly holding Prill’s hand.

“Urggghhhh…!!”

Green Beard opened a dimensional rift while sweating profusely. A portal formed from it.

“Everyone!! Get in!!”

Green Beard shouted.

“Jump!!”

I immediately threw myself into the portal. It was the golden rule to jump when entering portals.

Whoooosh-!!

With that, we all escaped from the collapsing clone factory.

———

Whoooosh-!!

Green Beard had cleverly opened a portal to our hideout. We all tumbled onto the floor of the hideout.

Blue Beard, Green Beard, and my soul’s sanctuary, the amazing Violet, were nowhere to be seen. Well… they were probably in the soul room. I’d visit them later. That’s what I thought.

“Huh?!! Teleportation?!! That’s impossible…!”

Madoka looked at us with startled eyes.

Tap tap tap… click!

Mika, who had been writing something in the hideout, also stared at us with wide eyes.

“Mika. Want me to make you a cup of coffee?”

Eri casually offered coffee to Mika. Eri is… a strange one. She’s oddly calm about the weirdest things.

“I’ll have one too.”

Tina calmly placed her order with Eri.

“Sure. You must be tired from monster hunting. I’ll make one for everyone.”

Eri said with a smile.

“No!! Aren’t you going to question this?! I’m talking about the teleportation!!”

Mika shouted.

“Weird things always happen around Shota. So I’ve given up trying to make sense of it.”

Eri said with a smile.

Well… the Divine Ship incident had somewhat ruined Eri. She had met too many humans with superhuman abilities there. Since the Divine Ship incident, she rarely questioned anything strange anymore.

During summer vacation, she even encountered that bizarre hermit villain. Because of that, Eri’s common sense had completely collapsed.

“Oh. Maybe I’m dreaming about big brother? Yes, this must be a dream.”

Madoka seemed to decide that all of this was just a dream and went back to sleep. That’s right, sleep well and grow up healthy. Madoka was a promising talent who I looked forward to seeing in 10 years. I hoped she would grow up well.

———-

Anyway, it only hit me after we arrived at the hideout.

“We did it!!!!!!”

I immediately let out a loud roar.

“WOOOOOOOOH!!!!”

My other companions joined in the celebration. Even Sasith abandoned his cool persona and shouted loudly. Well, that was because Prill was also shouting enthusiastically.

We had stormed the Other World first, rescued Prill, and defeated some pretty strong enemies. It was impossible not to feel the rush.

“……..”

Mika, not wanting to be left out of the atmosphere, was also timidly shouting. Mika is really cute.

“Tsk. You’re bothering the neighbors. Keep it down.”

Eri immediately slapped me and said.

“Uwaaah….Eri mama. I’m sorry.”

I immediately buried my face in Eri’s chest.

“There, there. Our Shota knows how to apologize properly. Good boy.”

Eri patted my head.

Seriously… Eri was the best.

“Anyway, this means Prill is safe now.”

I said. We had recovered the soul stone, and now Prill had no more weaknesses that Pink Beard could exploit.

“But… that Pink Beard guy or whatever seems to have a really powerful organization.”

Taiga said.

“Ah… that’s true.”

In the game, it was just text on a screen, so it didn’t feel that significant.

But seeing his clone factory in person gave me a different perspective. What we dealt with was just one of his factories. Pink Beard had consumed six planets, and similar factories probably existed on all of them.

“We have no choice. We’ve already made him our enemy. Besides, they’re planning to destroy the world. Sooner or later, we would have had to face them.”

I said.

If we couldn’t stop Pink Beard, this world would be destroyed too. We had no choice. We had to stop him. Even if it hadn’t been about Prill, we would have clashed eventually.

“Shota is… surprisingly calm. Should I call it strong-minded?”

Umi looked at me and said.

“Ah. I understand. How should I put it… he seems used to these situations.”

Sasith said.

“………”

Because I’m a transmigrator. I was about to give that reason internally, but something felt off.

It didn’t seem like I was this calm simply because I was a transmigrator.

‘That high-quality dream back then… past life hero… something seems about to surface…’

Somehow… I felt like I had faced countless world crises before.

Massive undead armies, demon lords bent on destroying the world, super computers that dominated humanity… such memories flashed vaguely through my mind. Compared to them, Pink Beard seemed almost cute.

“Maybe I should get psychiatric help…..”

I muttered without realizing it.

“Only now?”

Taiga immediately retorted.

“Shota’s mental instability is his charm.”

Umi said.

“Heroes are supposed to be a little crazy. It’s a sign of their extraordinariness.”

Tina smiled brightly.

“Umi, Tina… you two should go to the hospital with him.”

Taiga rubbed his aching forehead as he spoke.

“A psychiatric date with my boyfriend!! Awesome!! Mental health issues are trendy now! We’ll be a mentally unstable couple!! It’s a hit!!”

Umi’s eyes sparkled.

“………”

Umi, she’s also quite twisted in her own way.

Anyway, I understood Taiga’s concern.

“But why didn’t someone with that much power eat Earth sooner?”

Sasith voiced such a question. Well, it was a valid question.

With just clone troops and Other World monsters, they could have easily swept everything away with a simple attack.

“That’s impossible.”

Here, Prill, our Other World information specialist, opened her mouth.

“To cross from the Other World to another multiverse, you need a rift. If the rift isn’t wide enough, you can’t send large-scale forces.”

Prill said.

“Ah…..”

Sasith seemed to recall how Green Beard struggled to open the portal.

That’s right. Opening a portal itself consumed enormous energy. Green Beard looked like he was about to die just sending our small party through.

Naturally, there was no way he could send large-scale forces.

“For large-scale forces, the rift needs to be expanded. That’s what dungeons are for. Through dungeons, they progress the erosion to deliberately widen the rift connecting the Other World and Earth.”

Prill said.

“Ah… so that’s what dungeons are.”

Taiga seemed to understand.

“Yes. But you guys have been conquering and eliminating dungeons every month. Thanks to that, the rifts that were trying to expand are closing again. Pink Beard’s plans are being disrupted. Thanks to you.”

Prill said with a smile.

“Then… we have only one thing to do.”

Sasith nodded.

“Right. Just like now, we need to conquer each dungeon that appears every month. We prevent people from becoming addicts, stop the erosion, it’s a win-win.”

I said.

Despite the complex world-building explanation, the summary was that we needed to work hard and conquer dungeons.

“Then let’s continue as we have been. For now… let’s rest well today and tomorrow. We’ll resume activities the day after tomorrow.”

Sasith said.

“Use your day off to comfort Prill. She’s been through a rough time.”

I said with a smile.

“D-don’t pretend you don’t know about that stuff!!”

Sasith shouted with a reddened face.

Anyway, we chatted amicably before falling asleep. The party’s bond definitely felt deeper after this incident.

———–

At that time, Pink Beard belatedly visited Clone Factory No. 1.

It was the largest of his clone factories and boasted the highest production capacity.

But… it had been completely destroyed.

“Slave. Didn’t you say you would handle the Prill matter? It was a simple task of dismantling Prill and creating a new clone… I never expected you to mess up this badly.”

Pink Beard said, looking at Slave whose limbs had been shattered.

The factory was destroyed, and losing the largest facility was quite a painful setback. It was enough of a loss to delay the Earth invasion plan by several months.

Moreover, the elite clones—Jevanni, Mist, Muscle, and Lizard—had all been killed.

‘To think mortals could be this strong…’

Honestly, it was beyond his calculations.

“I’m sorry!! Who knew… they could perform multiple summons of psycho-robos!!!”

Slave bowed his head and shouted.

“Multiple summons…?!”

Pink Beard’s expression hardened. Even among Other World humans with high psycho-robo compatibility, those who could perform multiple summons were extremely rare.

“Yes!! Those guys are dangerous!!! Give me one more chance!!!! I’ll make up for it!!”

Slave shouted.

“Fine. Make up for it, Slave.”

Pink Beard said.

“Thank you….”

Slave’s expression brightened. However, it immediately froze.

“You can make up for it with your death.”

Pink Beard swung his arm, which had transformed into something like a monster’s mouth.

Crunch!!!

Pink Beard devoured Slave in one strike.

“Sigh….. what’s the problem here.”

Pink Beard irritably stroked his beard.

At that moment, one of his lieutenants walked toward Pink Beard.

“Ah. Prophet. It’s you.”

Pink Beard turned his head.

It was Pink Beard’s advisor who possessed a psycho-robo with the ability to foresee the future.

“Lord Pink Beard….. we must abandon the Earth invasion!”

The Prophet said with a stern expression.

“What are you saying? This level of damage…..”

“That’s not the issue!! It has appeared on Earth!!! That one…!”

The Prophet muttered with a terrified expression.

“That one…..”

“Have you heard of… the Hero? That one… has possessed someone on Earth…!!!”

The Prophet shouted.

“The Hero…. you say.”

Pink Beard wore a serious expression. He had heard of the Hero before, which was why he looked so grave.

A legendary being who, when a multiverse is in crisis, possesses someone from that world to maintain balance.

“The Hero….. is here?”

Pink Beard soon came to a conclusion.

“Aiueo Sasith….. it must be him!!”

That would explain it. The use of the secret technique of multiple summons made sense now. Being the Hero, he would naturally be capable of such feats.

“I see. He is the Hero. I must eliminate him.”

Pink Beard began to formulate a plan based on this information.

He completely failed to mark the existence of Arigiri Shota. That was Pink Beard’s fatal mistake.