episode_0025

“What, what?!”

When Dike heard the word “sacrifice,” he shook his body violently, and the tightly bound curtain was loosened, granting him freedom.

Tensely, Dike hunched over and rolled his eyes from side to side.

Sacrifice.

The word brought to mind an event that Dike hadn’t asked Yoo Dahee about—the day of the human offering.

Three bodies.

And the complete destruction of the arena…

Could it be—thought Dike, as the idea brushed through his mind.

“Just asking in case… the incident with the arena being destroyed last time…”

“Um… It might make sense to think that way. It happened because of the summoning of Great Old One, At’laq Na’cha.”

Adikia, who was standing nearby, also reacted with a stunned expression at Yoo Dahee’s words.

He had thought it was unusual, but it seemed like the culprit was even crazier than Adikia had imagined.

Dike’s mind became complicated.

Provoking an outsider? No, before that, the fact that an outsider could be referred to in such a way…

“…Could it have been the dimension of At’laq Na’cha where you went and returned?”

If it was the apostle of an outsider, then everything made sense.

Dike’s eyes sparkled as he awaited Yoo Dahee’s response.

Eyes that discern the truth.

Yoo Dahee, well, there were some differences, but since she had visited the place where At’laq Na’cha resided countless times to ask for spider silk, she didn’t particularly deny it.

She had visited places even more extraordinary than that in the first place.

Always sticking close to Yog-Sothoth, occasionally running errands for Shub-Niggurath, intervening in the fights between Nyarlathotep and Cthuga, and mediating, doing all sorts of odd jobs and traveling to various places.

Oh, she had also unavoidably translated the tablets of Ubo Sathla on one occasion.

Truly experiences she never wanted to go through again.

Of course, Dike, who was unaware of these facts, simply assumed that Yoo Dahee was nodding in agreement and let out a sigh.

Yet, Yoo Dahee herself was far from calm.

“Anyway, the management already knew everything, and I’ve already concluded the discussion with the responsible person from Michaela’s side.”

“The management… has already concluded the discussion…?”

“Well, it was settled that we wouldn’t discuss it further as long as I don’t perform any rituals related to Atlock Nacha.”

“But wasn’t it because of the gallery that you were arrested back then?!”

That’s a different matter altogether.

In the end, in a way to control Yudahee, the management proposed a ban on rituals as a condition, considering the two were connected… Yudahee seemed to know something.

“Then it’s even worse now, isn’t it? You won’t perform any more rituals!”

Dike exclaimed, but Yudahee paid no attention, merely closing the distance as if ignoring him.

This time, Yudahee murmured that she had to fix the mess in her head stained by that flower garden, grinning slyly.

“And what I vowed was only about ‘rituals related to Atlock Nacha,’ I never said I wouldn’t do anything else, did I?”

“Nonsense!”

Whether she said it or not, Yudahee swiftly reached out towards Dike, but perhaps due to her determination to escape.

“Ah.”

She narrowly missed grabbing him, feeling regretful.

Dike, who was about to dash out through the door after pushing the sofa, was stopped in his tracks.

“Do you think I’d let you go so easily?”

There was another goddess ready to stab a knife into Dike’s back as long as the conditions were met.

“Adikia, if I catch Dike, I’ll make a contract with you ‘until the next arena.’”

“…?!”

“You, you! Don’t say a word!”

Our club owner, Adikia, who was suddenly thrown this transfer proposal, blocked their path with a purple divine power flashing in her hand, feeling dissatisfied.

Even though the condition ‘until the next arena’ was attached, Yudahee contracting with herself?

Considering that the place she went to was somewhat alien, it was a bit of a stumbling block… but despite that, Yudahee was an incredibly attractive contractor.

Just looking at her physical abilities, she was already top-tier, and on top of that, achieving her first victory on her first attempt was a record-breaking achievement!

Such an opportunity should not be missed….! Refusing it only shows foolishness!

Seeing Adikia straighten up, Dike gritted his teeth.

Even you, Brutus…! Was Caesar’s state of mind like this?

“Adikia… you little wench…!”

“What are you saying? I can’t just let go of such a good condition, can I?”

As someone who had already clashed with Yudahee, Adikia was desperate.

It seemed that if she missed this contract opportunity, there wouldn’t be a third chance for her.

The contract that made Yudahee an absolute winner didn’t bring any complaints. Besides, wasn’t there personal animosity towards Dike as well?

“If you want to leave, spit out the golden apple you’ve eaten!”

At the shout, Dike, jumping up like an irritated locust, unfortunately had too wide of a range due to his large body.

With all his might, Adikia struck a powerful slap towards Dike’s front, which occupied the largest area, facing the chest she hadn’t yet taken hold of, venting her frustration, and a spark of violet energy scattered in all directions and flowed down Adikia’s entire body.

“Kkeeeek!!!”

With a single blow, Dike spat out blood and fell silent.

Judging by the way his chest rose and fell, he didn’t seem dead…

Seeing the bruised chest through the torn clothes, it seemed as if she had put her emotions into the blow.

Like a cat under anesthesia, sticking out his tongue and fainting, Adikia lifted Dike up like a hunting trophy with both hands.

Suppressing a yawn and rejoicing, it’s truly… an incredibly ironic situation, isn’t it?

“Dike, get up! Bring out the contract! Bring out the arena!”

Adikia roared loudly.

[These guys are starting to piss me off, what a bunch of jerks lol]

– Did these idiots really complain in the gallery and then irresponsibly bail?

– Seriously lol

– After releasing one damn video of the shitty arena, they’re hesitating whether to fold or not.

“I’ll survive without you. Please…! I’m currently ranked 13th in line…!”

“If you’re 13th, there’s still a long way to go, right? Just because she dropped out, doesn’t mean it’s over.”

“The back number is currently at 9999+ though?”

“She was a fairy, lol.”

“This guy’s really annoying.”

“Activating Gonick tracker… as soon as the planet is identified, I’m coming to kill you, you bastard.”

“[Announcement!!!!!]”

– It’s a lie

– Gabrielle smiling and pointing.jpg

“What the hell is this? Is it real?”

“Of course it’s fake, why would it be real? Why the hell is it real? There’s even a mark from the management office. And there’s also a mark from before the war.”

“But why is this written in ‘maeo’ instead of ‘shin-eo’????”

“It seems like it was first released to the demons rather than the gods. Seems like a leaked version.”

“Wait, are we abandoned?”

“Mikaela, it’s freezing… open the door….”

“But why is the download count increasing and yet no one talks about the related story?”

“Oh, haha, do you think there’s a hipster who learned ‘maeo’ among the gods? Hahaha”

“They’re like the indigenous Texan redneck KKK shouting, what do you expect? Haha”

“Why the hell did they release it to the demons first!!! What’s the management office doing!”

“It’s out.”

Of course, none of this applied to Yoo Dahee.

If there was even a little help from outer space, Yoo Dahee was the person who would eagerly promote even the foreign media’s nonsense. And with enough time… if he thought that Yog was excellent, if not chilling, then it would be strange not to acquire it.

The acquisition of ‘shin-eo’ along with ‘maeo’ was inevitable.

Yog had definitely said that it would be helpful someday…

“…Surely he didn’t peek into the future, did he?”

The suspicion was strong, but what could be done?

…As a mere mortal, was there any choice but to comply?

Because of that, Yoo Da-hee was able to read the leaked version without much difficulty, but Adikia, who was next to her, seemed to be making a sour face and skimming through it roughly, wasn’t she?

At least she could make out the overall map of the arena depicted in the illustrations…

“It’s quite big… the arena…”

A vast size of 100km X 100km, incomparable to the previous one.

Considering that the previous arena, despite consuming all the resources of the planet, was only 10km X 10km, this was truly a remarkable improvement.

Correspondingly, various terrains with numerous conditions were added, along with teleport points for swift movement.

In fact, strategically and in terms of game pace, it seemed to have accelerated even more.

As she continued reading, there was an unexpected change.

“Wow… this is quite surprising.”

“Huh? You can read this language?”

“I can read, write, and speak it. I scored a perfect 800 on the SAT.”

Despite her appearance, she had become an elite in alien languages. There might not be an SAT for demon kings, though.

This allowed her to absorb information faster than others… It seemed that even in the gallery, some knowledgeable individuals were translating guides by utilizing collective intelligence.

Gradually revealed information, among which the deletion of what was commonly referred to as the magnetic field was also shocking to the deities.

In the previous matches Yoo Da-hee participated in… before the magnetic field narrowed, everyone was wiped out, but if someone got stuck in an odd place and started a sit-in protest, wouldn’t that be more like a battle royale genre?

Naturally, both viewers and participants disliked such occurrences, so they had attempted to solve it by forcibly narrowing the activity area… However, in the current new arena, there was no sign of any such thing.

So, it seemed that new means of dealing with it had emerged.

As she slowly read further down, a startling additional detail was revealed.

– A random demon king affiliated with Manmaeon Company will directly participate in the arena with restricted power. (Participant’s proportional specs)

– The participating demon lord is only one, and after a certain period of time, the demon lord will be released from a designated location to roam the field.

– Once released from the designated location, the demon lord prioritizes tracking those who have stayed in one area for a long time.

– In addition to the victory condition of being the last one standing in the arena, there is an additional victory condition of capturing the demon lord.

– If the demon lord is defeated, regardless of the number of remaining participants or their rankings, the match ends, and the one who defeated the demon lord becomes the ultimate winner.

– If a group, rather than an individual, defeats the demon lord, rankings are determined based on damage contribution.

– If the demon lord is not defeated, except for the final three, all others will receive a -1 point penalty.

– The demon lord…

Below that, numerous details firmly indicated the demon lord’s participation in the arena, and the divine gallery blazed once again.

[Demon. Lord. Participation.]

-Damn it!

-The demon lord who squeezes planets like cheese and swallows a bursting supernova without a care.

-??????

-Isn’t this totally insane?;;

-Is this photoshopped? Please tell me it’s photoshopped, please, please, please, please

-Photoshopped kekekekekeke, you guys are so gullible… Haven’t seen the demon lord yet, huh kekekekeke

-Considering that it flew off due to a dispute with the prediction faction of the 1/5th of the lower Milky Way, isn’t the answer obvious? kekekeke

-How the hell do we catch that thing?

-Why are you the only ones seeing this, why are you the only ones seeing this, why are you the only ones seeing this, why are you the only ones seeing this, this is apple discrimination, you bastards!