Ch.92Chapter 92 – Intensifying Battle (2)

“Adler, take a look at this.”

“…What is it?”

“There’s something quite interesting in the weekly newspaper.”

As I was walking down the street after leaving the hospital, Professor Moriarty’s cheerful voice came from beside me.

“Is that so.”

“Don’t be like that, just take a look.”

With a troubled expression due to what had just happened, I was forced to stop walking when she thrust the newspaper in front of my face.

“…There are many strange things happening in London these days.”

The professor muttered, deliberately avoiding my gaze.

“Any stranger than what we’ve experienced over the past few months?”

“That’s true. But in my opinion, these might be comparable.”

When I looked at her with slightly irritated eyes, the professor, who had been watching my reaction, tapped the newspaper that was still pressed close to my face and muttered.

“For instance, it says that rainbow-colored rain fell for an entire day in the central-eastern region yesterday.”

“…Rainbow-colored rain?”

“That’s not all. Simultaneous moaning sounds were heard from cemeteries all across England, and there was a sighting of a human resembling a wolf…”

“Ah…”

Hearing those words made my head throb.

‘So it’s starting now.’

In this world, until the end of the first semester summer vacation, it’s essentially what you’d call a tutorial in gaming terms.

That’s because from the second semester, precursors to strange phenomena gradually begin to appear, and from the second year onward, bizarre incidents start breaking out almost daily.

‘And the more we fail to resolve them, the more the world goes to hell.’

The problem is that despite being at the end of summer vacation, incidents that should only occur at the end of the second semester are already starting to happen.

For example, the incidents Professor Moriarty just mentioned are all original episodes recorded in the game under the names “Rainbow Rain,” “Howling of the Cemetery,” and “Reassembled Wolf.”

Of course, since these incidents were designed by the story department—the same ones who colluded with the design department to insert my modeling directly and turned Issac Adler into garbage that couldn’t even appear in the main story—the quality and tricks are quite crude.

To be honest, they’re so simple that even the incompetent London Metropolitan Police could solve them without Sharlotte stepping in.

But that’s not the issue.

Rather than focusing on cases that don’t require intervention, we should focus on the fact that incidents that should appear later have been accelerated.

‘It must be due to the erosion…’

There was no “erosion rate” in the game system I designed.

Of course, there were no probabilities for being kidnapped, imprisoned, or subjected to something censored with a question mark in the game either.

But those things could potentially appear given the system characteristics that show current probabilities.

However, from what I’ve observed so far, the “erosion rate” seems to operate differently.

‘Mainly, the erosion rate increased whenever beings that shouldn’t exist in this world appeared before me…’

In the case of Gil the Reaper, the first anomalous being to appear, I naturally hadn’t established any settings for him.

And the next to appear, Arsène Lupin, was a character I fought tooth and nail to remove from the main story and relegate to DLC content when the clueless story team tried to include him.

To be honest, I wanted to remove him entirely because I disliked the idea of Lupin appearing in a game based on the Sherlock Holmes series, but it was too late since the illustrations and modeling were already complete.

“Hmm…”

Organizing my thoughts, the “erosion rate” that appears as a bright red warning before my eyes seems to be caused by characters who aren’t part of the Sherlock Holmes series.

The rate increased exponentially with the appearance of fictional characters like Lupin or real historical figures like Jack the Ripper.

‘…And it also increased slightly when the plausibility of cases started to collapse.’

What could be the reason for the sudden appearance of characters that weren’t in the game?

And if the “erosion rate” reaches its maximum, what exactly would happen?

‘…Whatever it is, judging by how strange incidents are being accelerated, it can’t be a good outcome.’

Between the Curse, these damned eyes, and everything else, there’s so much I don’t know despite having designed this world, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing.

Since this is a world I created, it’s up to me to protect it.

To do that, I need to build my criminal empire several times faster than I am now.

Only then can I wage a full-scale war against those uninvited guests trying to erode this world.

“……..”

And for that, the most important person is—

“…Adler.”

This Jane Moriarty, who had been repeatedly poking my cheek with her finger while I was deep in thought.

“What is it?”

“Our pinky promise has come undone.”

“…Ah.”

“Let’s make it again.”

When I asked with a deliberately cold gaze, she held up her pinky finger and muttered with a bright smile.

“…Here.”

“Thank you.”

It’s truly strange.

Every time I look at the professor’s face lately, I find myself avoiding her eyes.

“Don’t try to sneak in two fingers.”

“Was it that obvious?”

On top of that, I find myself being unnecessarily prickly with her.

‘…This isn’t right.’

I should just smile slyly as usual and give her a few eye-smiles.

And occasionally whisper what she wants to hear—it should be that simple.

“……..”

Just as I can no longer view Sharlotte as merely an object of admiration after the Ivory Box case.

Have I finally fallen in love with the professor?

‘…I’m such trash.’

I was starting to feel guilty, but it was already too late.

If I were to say now that I love them both.

Either London would disappear from the map of England, or I would be physically torn in half.

In other words, I have to choose one of them.

“…….”

Fortunately, since I won the previous bet, I can postpone making a choice for some time.

But I can’t do that forever.

Eventually, the time will come when I must choose someone.

‘…Perhaps at Reichenbach Falls?’

While I can’t predict when such a moment will come, I can picture the location.

Surely I won’t end up with a bad ending where I fall down the waterfall caught between the two of them?

‘…Maybe I should just truly take over London and have them both.’

Just as I reached such an almost delusional possibility after much deliberation—

– Squeeze…

Professor Moriarty suddenly took my hand.

“What is it?”

“…I’ve been thinking about this for a while.”

For some reason, I felt strange and tried to pull my hand away, but Professor Moriarty held it firmly and wouldn’t let go.

“No matter how I think about it, I believe I like you.”

“What?”

“The fact that my eyes don’t change color must be a matter of my constitution. Or perhaps my mana is too strong to be influenced by you.”

Her gray gaze began to stare at me intently.

“Despite all these possible reasons, isn’t it too harsh to deny the fact that I love you just because this pair of eyes won’t turn golden?”

“…Then perhaps you should love me more.”

“I love you enough to want to die if you were to die.”

At those words, I was momentarily speechless, and the professor began to whisper quietly in my ear.

“…I want to make you take responsibility for turning me, who only knew mathematics and murder, into this, but I simply can’t prove my feelings.”

“………”

“So after racking my brain, I’ve arrived at a simple and clear solution.”

As I tilted my head at her meaningful statement, I quietly listened.

“…When this case is over, shall we sleep together?”

“Pardon?”

At the words that suddenly came out of the professor’s mouth, I could only stop in my tracks as my thoughts came to a complete halt.

.

.

.

.

.

“What did you… say?”

After standing dazed on the quiet street for a while, Adler asked with a forced smile, to which Professor Moriarty replied calmly.

“I’m suggesting we engage in sexual relations.”

“……….”

“If I directly receive your essence, wouldn’t my eyes finally turn golden?”

She muttered with excited eyes, then began tilting her head side to side as she looked at the completely frozen Adler in front of her.

“I wonder why I didn’t think of this from the beginning.”

“………”

“I don’t understand why I’ve been overlooking the most certain, clear, and rational method that leads directly to victory.”

It seemed that Sharlotte wasn’t the only one who had realized a blind spot.

“What do you think, Adler?”

“Um…”

“You’ve stained my once-pure mind with your ideology, so isn’t it now time for you to stain my body with your color?”

“Please calm down first…”

But as Adler tried to pour cold water on her solution, his previously frozen brain began to quietly go haywire when he heard what she said next.

“…But if I were to get pregnant, would you take responsibility?”