TEOCH 51

I woke up with a bout of severe dizziness.

It was as if I had been hit with an anesthetic; I couldn’t muster any strength in my body. Never mind getting up, my entire body was so heavy I couldn’t even lift a single finger, and my head was just spinning, making it impossible to even think properly. I tried my best to at least open my eyes, but right now, it was all I could do to keep the nausea rising in my throat at bay.

Eventually, I gave up on trying to get up and just repeated deep, difficult breaths. Right, since it’s come to this anyway, it wouldn’t be so bad to rest a little longer and gather my thoughts. That aside… where was I?

“Mr. Rohan, the snail, the snail…!”

“This friend is having one heck of a nightmare.”

“It’s all right, Damian. There are no more snails. Okay?”

“The snail… Sir Rikiel is going to die…”

“He’s a lost cause.”

Rehas chuckled, and even Rikiel, who rarely laughed, let out a snort of amusement. Tristan seemed to be trying to soothe Damian one way or another, but of course, it was of little use.

Listening to that nonsensical sleep-talk, I slowly began to recall the events of yesterday. Right, that’s what happened. I remembered stopping the island’s collapse, fleeing down the mountain, and killing two mushroom rats in a cave we had barely managed to enter.

I also recalled cutting off the spore-releasing mushroom and throwing it outside the entrance, breaking branches to hide the cave mouth, and, still not feeling safe, standing guard all night until I drifted off.

Killing the mushroom rats was something that happened at dawn, so I must have fallen asleep around the time the sun was rising… In that case, what time is it now? I hope the sun is at least up. Even evening would be fine.

“Ugh, ughh…”

“Rohan? Are you awake already?”

“What time… ugh, what time is it?”

“First, drink some water and then talk. Your voice is completely shot.”

I took the canteen from Rehas and drank with difficulty. Although it was just lukewarm water, I felt my head clear up considerably as it went down my throat, but unfortunately, the water ran out after just a few sips.

As I was lightly smacking my lips, Rehas brought over a gourd filled with purple water and offered it to me. I purified the water and drank it again. It was much cooler than before, at least.

“There’s a river nearby, so I fetched some water. You were sleeping, so we couldn’t wash up or drink…”

“You should have woken me up then.”

“Well, was there really a need? It’s just barely noon.”

“Only that much time has passed?”

“Yeah. Besides, the sunlight outside is too harsh, so it’s not a good time to go out. It would be better to wait until it gets a little cooler, what do you think?”

“That certainly sounds better.”

I nodded my head in agreement with his suggestion. If I really pushed myself, I could go outside, but there was no reason to right now. The amplifier we absolutely had to find on this island was already in our possession, and thanks to the carcasses of the mushroom rats we killed at dawn, we weren’t short on food. There was no reason to rush our exploration while braving the heat.

Besides, we needed rest right now. I massaged my stiff shoulders and checked on my companions’ conditions. Every single one of them looked pale. Especially Rikiel and Damian, who had suffered the most yesterday; they looked so gaunt I would have believed it if someone said they had lost several kilograms overnight. Rehas and Tristan were in slightly better shape, but they were exhausted all the same.

“By the way, has everyone eaten?”

“No, as you can see, Damian is in that state.”

“Ugh, Mr. Rohan, you can’t die…”

“…We were waiting a bit. He kept looking for you the whole time he was sleep-talking. He was quite passionate, you know?”

“I suppose it’s because he went through a lot. We should let him sleep a little more.”

I let out a dry laugh as I looked at Damian, who was flailing about while using Tristan’s lap as a pillow. Just how much mental anguish did that optimistic person suffer to be having nightmares? Seeing him act so unlike his usual self was amusing, but at the same time, I felt a pang of sympathy. He’s definitely going to have to keep suffering like this in the future…

‘According to the message that first appeared, the same thing will probably happen on the other eleven islands. We’ll have to go through this chaos every time.’

According to that message, it clearly said this would happen on all twelve islands. If the other islands follow the same pattern as today, it leads to the conclusion that we’ll have to run to stop a collapsing island less than a day after arriving on a new one. We managed to survive the ‘River Island’ somehow thanks to its relatively low difficulty, but there was no guarantee we could survive like this on the other islands.

‘How should we deal with the other islands?’

I could guess how the ‘Volcano Island’ would collapse, but it was scary because I couldn’t guess how to avoid that collapse. The ‘Swamp Island’ and ‘Grass Island’ were places where we had to move with utmost caution because their appearances were so similar it was hard to tell them apart, yet their conquest methods were completely different.

The ‘Bird Island’ had mostly flying-type monsters living on it, right? About half of them are neutral, but if they all start to show aggression as the island collapses, they’ll be really tricky to deal with… I fell into thought, forming various hypotheses, but that wasn’t the only problem.

I rummaged through my bag and took out the amplifier. It was originally a perfectly shaped disk, but now, with a third of it broken off, it had an incomplete form.

From now on, this amplifier can only be used twice more. If we have to keep using things like a ‘controller’ or a ‘jewel’ like this on the eleven islands we still have to break through, it will be a significant obstacle to conquering the bosses. It meant we would have fewer ways to respond to instant-death attacks.

‘Do I need to find another way to block the guardian’s instant-death attack? Or, maybe this itself is part of the difficulty increase…’

All sorts of complex thoughts rose and faded in my mind. Was the game itself forcing a ‘fast clear where you kill the enemy somehow before taking an instant-death attack,’ or was there another means to stop the island’s collapse that I just hadn’t found? Numerous questions arose, but for now, I couldn’t answer any of them. I’d have to explore at least a few more islands to even get a clue.

‘I might even have to die a few times. Just like I always have.’

The thought occurred to me suddenly, and I was inwardly surprised, but in fact, when I thought about it, it was a natural conclusion.

I was already sick and tired of starting everything over from the beginning. It was by no means an easy task to find the ‘answer’ to break through this world without even a proper guide, and due to the nature of this game lacking a proper save function, repeating a playthrough dozens of times to solve a single piece of a puzzle was a truly common occurrence.

It will surely have to be that way this time, too. Thinking that made me feel a little more at ease.

In any case, I never expected to clear the ‘second playthrough’ in one go from the start. After dying and dying again to the point where I couldn’t even remember what the first playthrough was like, to the point where I started to suspect that the first playthrough might be a delusion created by my own mind, to the point where my mind was so broken it couldn’t take it anymore, only then would I be able to defeat the Demon King once again and stand at a crossroads of choice. Whether to return to my original world, or to repeat this meaningless act once again.

‘Yes, this will eventually pass, too. What meaning is there in this momentary suffering…’

I convinced myself of that and let out a slow sigh. Trembling in fear of death right now is a pretty ridiculous thing when viewed from a distant perspective.

What’s the point of being sad and frustrated over something I’ll experience over and over anyway? Right now, the situation of the ‘island’s collapse’ itself is bewildering and frightening, but after repeating it several times and getting used to it, it probably won’t be that agonizing. By then, I’ll find the answer whether I like it or not.

“Oh, Your Majesty? Why are you here? Your Majesty is supposed to be in the royal castle…?”

“It seems you had a bad dream, Damian. Are you having a hard time?”

“…Ah.”

“It’s all right. There are no more snails, so for now, you can rest well.”

I gazed blankly at my companions. Damian lay on Tristan’s lap, blinking his eyes for a long while, before he seemed to finally come to his senses and shakily sat up. Tristan just smiled gently as he tidied his messy hair.

Rikiel and Rehas were dressing the mushroom rat carcasses in a corner of the cave. Unlike before, when they didn’t have any particular conversations, they seemed to have gotten quite close now. Of course, the one leading the conversation was still Rehas, and Rikiel was just listening, but for that unfriendly knight to be chiming in on the other person’s words was truly a great leap forward.

“Now that Damian is awake, we should grill something to eat. My goodness, what kind of sleep-talking was so loud!”

“He was tired yesterday, so it couldn’t be helped. And aren’t you pushing someone who just woke up too hard?”

“That may be true…, but that friend needs to eat something, too. He threw up everything he ate yesterday, so he’s probably quite hungry by now, don’t you think?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Their relationships are meaningless as well, though. The thought suddenly popped into my head, leaving a slightly bitter taste in my mouth, but I didn’t let it show. In any case, for now, there was nothing as important as building trust with each other.

Even if it’s a relationship that will all turn to dust with a single death, even if no one but me will remember this relationship, for now…

“I will help as well. Let’s prepare it together.”

“Are you sure? You look awfully pale. Shouldn’t you be resting, too?”

“No, I’m so hungry I can’t rest at all. I need to at least fill my stomach a little before I can think about resting.”

I silently butchered the dead rat’s meat with the two of them. For now, I should focus on resolving the current situation, but since I’ll end up ‘starting over’ when I die, there’s no need to feel too much pressure. I settled on that conclusion and cleared my head of thoughts. For now, I just wanted to focus on eating and resting.