Ch.243[Episode 243] Greedy Things

“By the way, Sir Dominic, why are you trying to save that person?”

Aaaa asked Sir Dominic as they walked.

“What kind of relationship do you have that makes you try so hard to help them?”

Sir Dominic was momentarily speechless at Aaaa’s question.

Aaaa’s words were like arrows piercing straight to Sir Dominic’s core.

Sir Dominic fell into contemplation after hearing Aaaa’s question.

What kind of relationship do Hime and I have?

Sir Dominic thought.

First of all, it was certain they were friends, or perhaps something more.

Unryu Hime was one of the first friends Sir Dominic made in Gachaland, and they had frequently encountered each other since then.

They had even overcome quite a few difficulties together.

So were they comrades?

Sir Dominic seriously considered this, but soon shook his head.

The feeling when he was with Hime was different from that kind of friendship.

The more Sir Dominic thought about it, the more confused he became.

He simply couldn’t clearly define the relationship between himself and Hime.

“Hime is my… friend. My best friend.”

“I believe they call it BFF in Gachaland,” Sir Dominic blurted out awkwardly, then looked at Aaaa with an uncomfortable expression.

“I see.”

Aaaa simply nodded at Sir Dominic’s answer, seemingly unconcerned with how complicated Sir Dominic’s thoughts were.

In truth, it was just a casual question for Aaaa, so they didn’t attach much significance to it.

“Friendship is important. Let’s rescue that lady before your friendship is tested any further.”

Aaaa said, lifting their head sharply.

Making their throat into a straight line, Aaaa suddenly stuck their finger into their mouth and pulled out a rolled-up paper that had been hidden in their throat.

“Ugh, sorry if that was disgusting. There are sometimes data miners who target this map. I don’t know why they covet speedrunners’ maps when they could use their own…”

Feeling embarrassed, Aaaa cleared their throat unnecessarily, removed the plastic-like material covering the paper, and unfolded it.

The paper was a massive grid with 180,000 cells horizontally and 120,000 cells vertically, with various colors filling each cell.

“This is the map I mentioned earlier. A paper containing the sweat and sacrifice of speedrunners.”

Sir Dominic looked more closely at the grid cells of what was called a map.

There was a shining dot on the paper with a long fluorescent line trailing behind it, and Sir Dominic instinctively realized that the shining dot represented where he and Aaaa were, and the fluorescent line showed the path they had traveled so far.

Aaaa stared at the map for a while, then turned it slightly toward Sir Dominic and pointed to three locations.

“I think she’s in the northern direction. To be precise, she’s likely to be here, here, or here, between 10 o’clock and 1 o’clock.”

Sir Dominic could discern the terrain of the places Aaaa pointed to on the grid map. The areas Aaaa indicated had walls shaped like dogs, stars, or indescribably shining polyhedrons.

Why would they build walls with such chaotic structures?

“Glitchburg wasn’t originally designed with human access in mind. That’s why there are quite a few messy structures like these.”

Aaaa answered Sir Dominic’s question before he could even open his mouth.

Sir Dominic looked up at Aaaa as if wondering how they knew.

And as Sir Dominic’s lips began to move, Aaaa answered faster than he could speak.

“Dynamic vision is important for speedrunners. Besides, your expressions are so rich that they’re easy to read.”

Aaaa pointed to their eyes and spoke confidently to Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic began to wonder if his thoughts were really that visible on his face.

“Actually, that’s not important right now. Shouldn’t rescuing your companion come first?”

“Ah.”

Only after hearing Aaaa’s words did Sir Dominic come to his senses.

Having momentarily lost sight of his original purpose, Sir Dominic reaffirmed his goal.

First, rescue Hime, then escape this place and return to Gachaland.

With his objective clearly set, Sir Dominic bowed his head to Aaaa in gratitude.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I’ve remembered what I had forgotten.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, let’s start with the closest location. Actually, the 1 o’clock direction looks closest on the map, but there’s a complicated, winding path to get there. Let’s go to 12 o’clock first.”

Aaaa pointed to the dog-shaped space at the 12 o’clock position on the map.

Sir Dominic nodded.

“Let’s do that. The sooner the better.”

As soon as Aaaa received Sir Dominic’s agreement, they jumped to their feet.

Then, without a word, Aaaa began leading the way, staying within Sir Dominic’s field of vision.

Sir Dominic silently followed behind Aaaa.

…

“…Is he gone?”

Hime cautiously raised her head and looked around when she no longer sensed the presence of the mysterious entity… the miner.

At first, she had been caught off guard and subdued, but with her full concentration as a trained kunoichi, Hime’s sense of presence could detect most auras.

Confirming that her captor was no longer nearby, Hime put down the ropes she had already untied.

“I want to get out of here quickly…”

Hime muttered as she rose to her feet, rotating her wrists.

She hadn’t liked this space to begin with, but after the recent attack by the stranger, she disliked it even more.

If necessary, she would have used the emergency escape button to leave this place immediately.

But Hime couldn’t do that.

“…It’s broken.”

Hime took the emergency escape button out of her pocket.

Or rather, what used to be the emergency escape button.

Actually, the name didn’t matter anymore.

The emergency escape button was so damaged that it might as well be called a piece of scrap metal now, apparently completely broken during the recent attack.

“What should I do now…”

Hime felt despair filling her heart.

The reason Hime had been able to move confidently through this space until now was because of the existence of this emergency escape button.

Her last resort, which she had been saving for an emergency, had vanished without ever being used.

“Now all that’s left is for Sir Dominic to find me…”

Hime sat back down and hugged her knees.

She wasn’t sure if Sir Dominic was looking for her, but Glitchburg seemed endless.

In this vast space, dark and full of bugs, what were the chances of Sir Dominic finding her?

And even if he did beat those slim odds and find her, getting out of here would still be a problem.

“I should have just stayed there…”

Hime blamed herself, thinking she should have waited in place when she first got lost.

She sank deeper into her thoughts.

One thought led to another.

I shouldn’t have done that. If I had stayed put, wouldn’t Sir Dominic have come to rescue me by now?

Hime’s thoughts began to drift in an increasingly pessimistic direction.

It was Hime’s bad habit.

Now Hime threw the completely broken emergency escape button aside and curled up her body, as if trapped in her own world.

Behind her, something dark and sticky was approaching.

…

Sir Dominic and Aaaa had checked all three spaces they had initially suspected, but Hime was nowhere to be found.

Now Sir Dominic and Aaaa had arrived at the fourth space.

It was a place with a picture of a card pack nearby, where touching the picture would trigger a card pack opening effect.

Aaaa carefully closed their eyes and ran their finger along the wall, then suddenly opened their eyes where the rough texture of the wall disappeared.

There was a wall there, but Aaaa’s finger had penetrated it up to the wrist.

“It’s here, Sir Dominic. This is the entrance.”

Sir Dominic approached the wall at Aaaa’s words.

He reached out to the wall as Aaaa had done.

While he could feel the solid texture of the wall elsewhere, this particular section accepted his hand as if there was nothing there.

“I’ll go in first.”

Sir Dominic held up his shield and boldly advanced toward the illusory wall.

Naturally, Sir Dominic was able to enter the hidden space without any hindrance.

When Sir Dominic first entered this place, he was greatly disappointed.

Like the other spaces, this one was also filled with black darkness.

Sir Dominic looked around just in case, but indeed, this space contained only darkness.

Sir Dominic closed his eyes in disappointment.

Where on earth could Hime be?

Should he place his hopes on the next location?

“Hey, is that you, Sir Dominic?”

Hime’s voice came from somewhere.

How much must Sir Dominic have been thinking about Hime to hear such an auditory hallucination?

“Hey, Sir Dominic? Is that really you? This isn’t an illusion, is it?”

It sounds as if she’s right beside me, but where is Hime and what hardship is she enduring—

“What’s this, an illusion? Sir Dominic is clearly right in front of me…”

Sir Dominic was worrying about Hime when he suddenly realized that the sound in his ears was too vivid to be a hallucination.

“Um, Sir Dominic? I think you need to open your eyes? Isn’t that person Hime?”

Aaaa, who had followed Sir Dominic inside, whispered softly to him.

Sir Dominic’s eyes flew open at Aaaa’s words.

“…Hime?”

“Ah, you responded. So you’re not an illusion after all. Um, can you help me?”

Sir Dominic stared blankly at Hime, who was smiling awkwardly.

Astonishment rather than joy came first.

Why would Sir Dominic feel more astonished than joyful upon seeing Hime?

The answer lay in the scene before Sir Dominic’s eyes.

“Why… are you buried in that slime?”

“?”

The slime beneath Hime wobbled as if it had heard its name.

Hime was currently stuck in the slime like a flag planted in a giant pudding.