Ch.239[Chapter 239] Speed Runner

Sir Dominic and Hime walked on for quite some time again.

They didn’t bother counting how many steps they had taken.

They simply continued to put one foot in front of the other, alternating between left and right.

“This place is truly inhospitable.”

Sir Dominic sighed.

“It’s just vast with nothing of interest.”

“Well, it’s Glitchburg. The structure was probably designed only for bug isolation.”

Probably. Hime deliberately kept this last thought to herself.

“Still, we’ve walked quite a distance, so we should be—”

“Wait.”

Sir Dominic, who had been walking ahead, reached out his hand to cover Hime’s mouth.

Hime’s fox ears perked up in surprise at Sir Dominic’s sudden action, but they soon drooped in what seemed like comfort from his large hand.

“I hear something.”

Regardless of Hime’s reaction, Sir Dominic focused on listening to a sound coming from somewhere.

The sound was a tap, tap, tap, like someone striking the ground, but the rhythm wasn’t that of normal walking. Rather, it had quite a long interval, as if someone was leaping high into the air and then landing again.

“It seems to be nearby.”

Sir Dominic removed his hand from Hime’s mouth and drew his sword.

He raised his shield and began scanning the surroundings.

The tapping sound striking the ground grew closer and closer.

Sir Dominic turned toward the direction of the sound.

He planted his shield firmly on the ground and knelt on one knee, bracing for any potential impact.

He looked like a fortress.

“Get behind me, Lady Hime!”

Sir Dominic shouted to Hime while keeping his gaze fixed on the darkness where the sound was coming from.

“Ah, yes!”

Hime, who had been stroking her mouth where Sir Dominic’s hand had been, thinking what a reassuringly large hand it was, suddenly came to her senses at his warning.

She quickly threw herself behind Sir Dominic’s back.

…while subtly pressing her back against his.

Regardless, Sir Dominic finally spotted a silhouette running from the distance.

The silhouette was moving diagonally, leaping in a zigzag pattern, and with each light tap on the ground, it seemed to accelerate.

The speed was so fast that Sir Dominic thought he had never seen anything move faster, even among the many vehicles he had observed at driving test centers in the past.

Sir Dominic gripped his shield more firmly and stared intently at the approaching silhouette.

He didn’t dare blink for fear of losing track of the silhouette’s movement, even as his eyes began to dry out.

Finally, when the distance between Sir Dominic and the incredibly fast silhouette closed to about 20 tiles, or 10 meters, the identity of the silhouette became clear—it was a bald man wearing only underwear.

“Uh, uhh? Get out of the way! Move!”

The bald man in underwear seemed to have just noticed Sir Dominic and shouted in panic for him to move, but naturally, Sir Dominic wasn’t agile enough to dodge someone moving at such speed.

“We’re going to crash!”

Finally, the suspicious man collided with Sir Dominic’s shield.

Surprisingly, the sound of impact wasn’t a bang! but a light tok. The impact was as minimal as the sound, as the man who hit the shield simply dusted off his underwear and sighed.

“Oh, goodness. There was nothing here just a moment ago. Um, are you hurt?”

The bald man in underwear extended his hand to Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic, bewildered by the unexpectedly minimal—almost non-existent—impact, took his hand with a dazed expression.

“Hmm. That was quite good. I hit the incline well, broke through the wall nicely… I must have shaved off about 0.02 seconds.”

After helping Sir Dominic to his feet, the man looked back in the direction he had come from, then sighed once more and pressed a red button that seemed to appear from nowhere.

With a beep, the clock above the button stopped.

“This attempt is a failure. I never expected such a variable. I didn’t think I’d meet anyone else here besides us.”

“Us? Hmm… Anyway, pleased to meet you. I am Sir Dominic of Ferallant.”

Sir Dominic, noticing from the other’s reaction that there was no hostile intent, slowly lowered his shield.

“That’s an unusual name. Is ‘of Ferallant’ your surname and ‘Sir Dominic’ your given name?”

“No, I have no surname. The ‘Sir’ is because I’m a knight, you can just call me Dominic.”

“Ah, I see. That’s quite an elaborate name. My name is ‘AAA.’ I’m a speed runner.”

“AAA? That’s a rather… unusual name. By the way, what is a speed runner? A profession of running fast?”

“Something like that. Let’s say, we’re people who compete to achieve specific goals as quickly as possible.”

“Hmm. I don’t quite understand.”

“It’s like this. If there’s a Stage 1, we compete to see who can clear that stage the fastest.”

“…Why would anyone do that?”

Sir Dominic couldn’t understand AAA’s explanation.

Sir Dominic was one of those people who enjoyed everything in Gacharland slowly.

Of course, those who knew Sir Dominic might disagree, but at least that’s how he thought of himself.

He was the type of person who would ask when he didn’t know something, and even when he did know, he would look at it carefully once more.

“It’s nothing special. Just personal satisfaction, you could say.”

AAA laughed with a “heh heh,” as if he understood Sir Dominic’s reaction.

“By the way, how much do you know about Gacharland, Sir Dominic?”

“Not much.”

Sir Dominic shook his head and replied that he didn’t know much in response to AAA’s question.

Although Sir Dominic had tried to learn various things about Gacharland and had come to know quite a bit, Gacharland was still largely an unknown world to him.

Even this place, Glitchburg, was like that.

Sir Dominic couldn’t even begin to fathom how many more secrets existed in Gacharland.

“But you are interested in Gacharland, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

Sir Dominic nodded.

There were few people as interested in Gacharland as Sir Dominic.

“We’re the same. However, we are… well, yes, fanatically interested in everything about Gacharland.”

AAA began to shake his legs as if unable to contain his excitement.

“What happens if you throw your body against a wall in Gacharland? If you try once, you’ll naturally hit the wall and fall down, or it will hurt. But what if you repeat that simple action ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times? Will the wall collapse? Or will it remain the same? Or will the wall stay intact but your body pass through to the other side?”

AAA, trembling more and more with an inexplicable exhilaration, soon shouted even louder with an increasingly shaky voice.

“What happens when a spear that pierces everything meets a shield that blocks everything? Will the spear win? Will the shield win? Or will the shield remain intact but the person holding it get hurt from the spear’s penetration damage? Or will the shield block the spear’s attack, and instead the person holding the spear get hurt from the recoil of the spear being blocked by the shield?”

AAA, who could no longer contain himself and was even blushing while trembling violently, soon returned to a normal state and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Well, that’s what it is. We’re people with extreme curiosity and competitive spirit.”

“I, I understand. I get it, but could you step back just one step? It’s overwhelming.”

Sir Dominic, startled by AAA’s intensity, took one step back.

AAA, seeming to realize he had gone too far, also stepped back with an embarrassed expression.

“W-well, that’s what I mean.”

“By the way, what does all that knowledge have to do with being a speed runner?”

Sir Dominic asked AAA about his curiosity as soon as he felt they were at a comfortable distance.

“Couldn’t you discover these things slowly?”

“Well… all this curiosity is for the purpose of improving records.”

AAA tilted his head as if it were obvious.

“Perhaps we do speed runs to utilize this knowledge, but that’s like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg. Rather than worrying about that, it’s better to refine the route.”

Sir Dominic nodded as he looked at AAA.

Just as people value different things, he figured the person before him was that kind of person.

Of course, he didn’t understand everything, but he accepted that such people existed.

“Come to think of it, if you’re attempting a speed run, does that mean you also know about the exit from this place?”

“That depends on which exit you’re referring to.”

“The exit I’m talking about is the way back to Gacharland.”

“Ah, if that’s what you mean, then yes, I know.”

“Really? Could you possibly show us the way?”

Sir Dominic looked at AAA with shining eyes, as if he had finally found a clue to escape this place.

AAA seemed to ponder for a moment, stroking his chin with his fingertips, before accepting Sir Dominic’s request.

“Alright. Since my record attempt is ruined anyway, taking a break to guide you all wouldn’t be so bad. Follow me.”

With those words, AAA began to leap away in a zigzag pattern with a peculiar posture.

Sir Dominic stared blankly at AAA, who was quickly getting farther away, when he suddenly realized that AAA’s speed was too fast.

“Please slow down! We can’t keep up!”

AAA, who had already moved about 100 meters away in just 5 seconds, seemed to realize his mistake and stopped in place.

He tapped his feet impatiently and gestured for them to hurry up.

“Let’s go too, Lady Hime.”

“What? Oh! Yes!”

Sir Dominic spoke to Hime, who was still hiding behind his back.

For some reason, Hime had been closing her eyes and pressing herself against Sir Dominic’s back, intently feeling his heartbeat through his back. She jumped in surprise and moved away from him.

Hime’s face turned bright red in an instant, and her ears and tail thrashed wildly.

She shuddered with embarrassment at the thought of being caught by Sir Dominic, but fortunately or unfortunately, he was already running toward AAA.

“…Haah.”

Hime let out a deep sigh—whether of relief or frustration at Sir Dominic’s obliviousness was unclear—and followed after him.

Probably deceiving herself that it was because of the darkness.