Assassination Threat?

What scattered across the wasteland wasn’t mist or wind, but merely chaotic colors.

Mixed within the colors were the stench of orc flesh and the acrid scent of scorched scrap metal.

-Crrrack.

Alice rose from atop a heap of scrap metal.

How much time had passed?

Hmm, at least a week had definitely gone by, but her sense of time was vague.

-Squeak…!

Using a hill of corpses as a bed.

Living with blood, flesh, and scrap metal as pillows made her head a little foggy.

【It has been exactly 24 days.】

“Ah, already? No wonder my body feels so stiff.”

Her arm creaks.

The artificial skin was torn. The metal skeleton was bent in the opposite direction of the joints.

It wasn’t that the monsters were too strong to handle.

It was just that she had been fighting continuously for 24 days without proper rest.

During that time, she couldn’t eat or sleep, and she endlessly killed the swarming scrap orcs.

At first, she smashed the approaching scrap orcs with AOE magic, but after being alone in a world where colors were distorted for a full 24 days without encountering anyone, she started to get nervous.

Mainly about energy.

‘I’ve merged several times to become a bit more human-like, but I guess it was too much to fight for 24 days straight without proper rest.’

The scrap orcs were persistent.

If she killed 50, 100 would swarm in, and if she killed 100, 200 would swarm in from different directions.

At first, she killed them with excitement, but as she continued to fight without rest for a day, she began to beat the scrap orcs to death in close combat rather than using magic or liquefied breath that consumed a lot of energy.

She smashed their heads and hearts with mechanical tendrils, and sucked up the life force and energy remaining in the scrap orc corpses like dregs with the power of Gluttony.

She was worried that the power of Gluttony wouldn’t work in the virtual dungeon, but perhaps because the dungeon’s safety device was deactivated and it became just like the real world, she could absorb the scrap orcs’ life energy as it was.

【Human, but it has already been 24 days.】

“I’m still okay.”

I know that this is obviously an abnormal phenomenon.

No matter how suitable scrap orcs are for Academy students to fight, a minimum of 50 and up to three-digit numbers of scrap orcs respawned from somewhere and attacked me in one wave.

Moreover, they didn’t even give me time to rest properly and kept swarming endlessly, so there was a high probability that someone was trying to screw me over and tampered with the Academy’s virtual dungeon.

【Human, I suggest forced eviction through hacking.】

“Theresa, how much time has passed outside?”

【51 minutes have passed. However, 576 hours and 28 minutes have passed for Human. Your internal energy is normal, but long-term operation and degradation may erode Human’s mental strength.】

“I’m okay.”

【I’m not joking.】

“I’m not being reckless either.”

【Listen to me, Human. Why are you so stubborn?】

As Theresa said, it’s not that there’s no way to escape this endless monster hell.

I could have Theresa hack the source code of the virtual dungeon and immediately deactivate this situation, whatever it is, that has trapped me, and go outside.

【Human is not even in the same space as the other students right now. For about 764 hours, I have been searching for nearby life forms and operating the Bio Radar, but no life forms other than Human have been detected except for the monster waves. The time multiplier is also incredibly high, and in this situation, additional monster waves will erode Human’s body…】

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

【Human, I’m not kidding. Why are you deliberately taking risks that you don’t have to take?】

I’m fine, but from Theresa’s point of view, who prioritizes my safety above all else, it’s understandable that she considers the endless waves of monsters swarming into the virtual dungeon without safety devices as a risk factor.

“Someone sent me here. It wouldn’t be with good intentions, right?”

【That’s highly likely.】

“Then they’ll come on their own when the time comes, right? Besides, continuing to fight for a long time without rest like this is quite a valuable experience.”

In fact, the experience of combat data accumulating in real time was quite good.

I became accustomed to immediately replenishing the damage to my body and lost energy with the power of Gluttony even after being attacked by monsters, and my internal combat data was accumulating at an incredible rate as I fought against the monster waves for 24 days without proper rest.

“Now that my body is finally catching up, it’s a shame to give up already.”

【My top priority is Human’s safety.】

“I’m always grateful for that. And I need to start doing things on my own, little by little, right?”

More than anything, my body was finally catching up with my mind.

No matter how high my body’s specs became or how many merges I achieved, I always felt like my body and mind were operating separately.

In my head, I was already imagining myself doing a spinning somersault in the air, hitting the opponent’s head with my knee, and then running towards the scrap orc group attacking me as soon as I landed, but this body, half-filled with metal and flesh, had a serious delay in each movement.

The delay was only a fleeting moment of less than 0.001 seconds in real time, but that alone was enough to disrupt the rhythm of my body and the flow of combat.

So I used quantity.

I wanted to collect polygonal combat data to resolve the imbalance between my body and mind.

If my body isn’t used to it, I just need to create a situation where it has no choice but to get used to it.

The scrap orcs aren’t strong enough to kill me right away, but it was only natural that my nerves became sharper and more sensitive than when I merged, as I continued to fight them for 24 days without rest.

“And my body is fine thanks to our super AI. Don’t worry.”

【Human’s mind is an area I cannot touch.】

“That mind is saying it’s okay, but you’re being quite verbose. What about our auxiliary personality?”

Thanks to the power of Gluttony, I’m not short on energy.

I can’t use wide-range magic including liquefied breath like on the first day, but the sensation of piercing and smashing the scrap orc’s jaw and head with the Mantis Blade and absorbing its life energy at the same time was quite special.

Theresa is probably worried about my mental fatigue and stress that have been continuously accumulating, not my body.

At that moment, the sky vibrated.

The space distorted by colors shattered like a glass window, and someone appeared from the cracks.

A dandy.

His face was so pale that he looked like a young master who had never seen sunlight.

“Looks like the guy who trapped me here has come in person.”

【…!】

My senses detected the new presence before the sensory sensors Theresa was in charge of, so it seems that the 24 days of suffering were worth it.

But the dandy who suddenly appeared didn’t seem to have any intention of having a peaceful conversation with me.

“Die! Alice!”

“What?”

Huh? Me?

But why?

Several large icicles were created in the dandy’s hand and aimed at me all at once.

Wait, suddenly telling me to die?

I thought he would at least try to have a conversation?

What an absurd guy.

-Bang!

Several icicles shaped like spears flew towards me at high speed.

Well, even though they flew at high speed, it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t dodge them.

-Swish!

I tilted my head to avoid the attack, and then dozens of icicles were regenerated in the air and flew again.

This time, there were quite a few, so I had to move my body directly, and they pierced the spot where I had been. As soon as I moved away, a new barrage of icicles poured down like ghosts.

The attack wasn’t intense or difficult.

It wasn’t like Fira’s self-destructive cold, which froze the entire space without warning, and the icicles were clearly visible, so it was easy to avoid them.

Since he’s using ice magic, he must be a cold mage of that type.

I dodged the attacks and looked around the area. The orc horde and the hill of corpses that had been chasing me for 24 days without rest had disappeared.

“Theresa, have I ever met that guy before?”

【That is Gresus from Class A-1. We have met his face in the morning essential ideology class, but we have never had a conversation. However, it is presumed that Gresus holds the source code of the virtual dungeon.】

“Why?”

【The scrap orc wave has also stopped, but the dungeon’s safety device is being activated around him.】

What? Safety device?

As I made a puzzled expression, Theresa arbitrarily lifted a rock stuck in the ground with a mechanical tendril and threw it at the guy named Gresus.

But Gresus didn’t even try to dodge and smirked.

-Crack!

The flying rock stopped abruptly in mid-air and then froze as if it had a glitch.

【I have confirmed the activation of the safety device. All attacks, including physical, magical, and supernatural abilities, are currently ineffective against that entity.】

“It’s useless. Since I have the source code of the virtual dungeon, you can’t hurt me.”

“So the opposite is possible, I see.”

“Haha! Of course!”

Gresus flew leisurely next to the rock and aimed the icicles at me again.

“Alice, you are currently in a state where a double time multiplier is applied to the inside of the dungeon. In the meantime, I used the source code to collect your combat data and consume your energy. Your capabilities are beyond imagination, but you must be tired after fighting scrap orcs for 24 days without rest!”

“So?”

“Can’t you grasp the situation? If you’re a commoner who got lucky and made a sudden rise, you should know your place and immediately kneel before me and beg for your life.”

Suddenly?

No, I don’t particularly have a grudge against you. It’s not like you’re an assassin from the Arbentaine Family either… Even if I was caught being an Overseer, I wouldn’t know what to do if someone I have no relationship with suddenly told me to die and beg for my life.

It’s true that you’re after my life, but I can’t figure out why. More than anything, even if a kid attending the Academy said he would kill me, it wouldn’t really hit me.

No, why are you so confidently revealing that you’re going to kill me in the first place?

Is it kindness to tell the other person to prepare thoroughly?

If you’re going to tell someone to die, at least stab them in the stomach with a knife and say it when you’re sure of victory.

Otherwise, you’ll get caught like this…

“H-How are you dodging! It’s not just a day or two, you’ve experienced a full 24 days! You must be tired from all the fighting…?”

“…No, well. Why are you so surprised?”

Because I’m not tired.

Tiredness is something that only applies to living things.

Well, I certainly have my metal skeleton and artificial skin damaged if I don’t get proper rest, but that doesn’t mean I can’t dodge such shoddy attacks.

I sucked all the energy from the scrap orcs with the power of Gluttony, so even if I have mental fatigue, there’s nothing wrong with my body.

Of course, that kid named Gresus might think, ‘If you’re a human, you can’t be normal after fighting continuously for 24 days,’ but unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to me, who is half-can, half-human.

“Ick! How about this!”

Since he kindly told me he was going to attack, it seems that he’s definitely not an assassin.

What assassin would shout “Die!” at their target?

And usually, kind assassins are often killed by that kindness.

That kid named Gresus was the same.

-Creak!

The mechanical tendrils collapsed the ground all at once, creating a huge cloud of dust.

Even though he made the icicles quite well, he didn’t have clairvoyance or magic to see through the dust cloud, so his aim quickly became awkward.

“Kuh! Such tricks! Come out! Come out and fight fair…!”

There’s no need to rush.

He’s not spamming icicles and is waiting for the dust cloud to settle, so it seems he can’t shoot them indefinitely.

Still, that Gresus or Gresup or whatever his name is must have been confident.

He has the code to oversee the virtual dungeon, so he must know that effective hits won’t work on him.

“Theresa, hacking.”

【Confirmed.】