Chapter 48

However, there was one process that needed to be gone through first.

“Alice. What would you like to do?”

-Pardon? What do you mean?

“I’m asking how you’d like me to help. Do you just want to escape this mansion, or do you want to get to a safe place? Things like that. Since it’s your problem, I can’t just do what I want without at least knowing what direction you want to take.”

After falling into contemplation and remaining silent, Alice instead threw back a question.

-What do you think, Mr. Yuseong?

“Why are you asking me that?”

-Honestly, even as we’re having this conversation, I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t know how I got here, why I’m being targeted by monsters in this strange mansion, and I can’t even properly remember what happened before coming to this mansion.

“……”

-I believe your judgment would be more rational and helpful than mine. Whatever option you choose, I’ll follow your decision. So please tell me what you think.

The most straightforward method would be escape.

Since they had brought cold weather gear and food, if they could get out of the mansion through a side without cliffs, they could retreat to a safe place even if it took some time.

However, through the experience gained from completing quests so far and his user’s intuition, Yuseong vaguely felt that this method wouldn’t result in a high rank.

“…I want to explore this mansion.”

Simply running away isn’t enough.

Finding out exactly how Alice ended up in this situation and what the true identity of this mansion is would be the only way to receive a high rank.

And Alice’s response to that was simple.

-If that’s what you think, then let’s do that.

“Are you sure that’s okay? Your life is at stake here?”

-I said I’d follow your decision, didn’t I? And if we fail, so what? We can just start over from the beginning.

“Ah, about that… we might not be able to retry if we die this time.”

-…What? What do you mean?

“It’s not certain, just something that might happen, so don’t worry too much about it.”

-Wait a minute! That changes everything! If death is final! I take back everything I said! Let’s just leave!

Yuseong stood up with a satisfied smile.

He had been feeling a slight pang of conscience about aiming for a high-rank clear while using an innocent girl’s life as collateral, but now that she had willingly given permission for whatever he might do, there was no need to hesitate anymore.

-I never gave permission!

“Hm? What’s that? I can’t hear you very well?”

Ignoring Alice’s protests, Yuseong peered through the door crack to check the corridor.

‘No one’s here for now.’

This mansion was filled with monsters more dangerous than the one defeated in the first quest.

If they went out thoughtlessly without any preparation, they might not even last a few minutes before meeting their end.

[Spending 50,000 karma points to retrieve Brant Republic Research Lab #53 Mountain Close Combat Armament Prototype(C+)]

“That’s quite expensive.”

Exactly ten times the points spent on the [Unidentified Organism. Highly Hostile to Humans] quest.

He knew that even the same item would require different karma points depending on the civilization grade for each world, but this was the first time he’d seen something need this much.

‘Is it because I’m bringing SF world weapons into a fantasy world? No, just because there’s a witch and an old-style mansion doesn’t mean I can be certain this is a fantasy world. It might just need more points because plasma weapons are made with such advanced technology.’

Pushing the newly emerged question to a corner of his mind, Yuseong carefully stepped outside.

Although he had experience roaming the mansion hundreds of times during the first quest, all the doors had been locked then, and because of the monsters, he couldn’t move far from the room he was trapped in, so he hadn’t learned much about the mansion.

But now the situation was different.

Crackle!

-What’s that now?

“A universal key.”

He swings the plasma axe to destroy the handle part.

Though it was a crude method, it was just as effective, allowing Yuseong to easily check the closed rooms.

-Guest room, storage, empty room. Nothing seems particularly special?

“This one looks different though.”

A door larger than the others with much more elaborate decorations.

After lightly pushing the handle inward, Yuseong looked around and muttered in a deflated voice.

“A dining room?”

A long table that could seat dozens of people and dust-covered tableware.

Opening the lids revealed no contents.

While looking around the dining room for anything useful, Yuseong stopped in his tracks upon discovering a huge painting on the wall.

A painting of a woman who looked exactly like Alice except for appearing somewhat older, with gray hair and golden eyes.

“Come to think of it, I definitely saw a painting like this in the corridor last time too.”

Back then, he’d passed it by since the situation hadn’t allowed time for puzzles, but thinking about it now, it was quite significant.

“Could be your family?”

-I told you before, I don’t have any family.

“Just because you don’t know about them doesn’t mean you don’t have birth parents. Maybe your parents lost you when you were young, then found you later and brought you here to live together?”

-Do you really think parents who brought their child to live together would throw them into a mansion full of monsters? Don’t you have any more plausible theories?

At Alice’s question, Yuseong made an ambiguous expression and said.

“I do have some. But they’re not exactly pleasant theories for you to hear…”

-That’s fine, tell me.

“The first theory is that this mansion is some kind of experimental facility. Like, they threw you and the monsters in here for some experiment, and the culprits are watching us struggle from a safe place? It’s trendy these days to start with a horror or creature vibe in an old mansion, then later reveal high-tech research facilities and researchers.

-…I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all.

Alice expressed her confusion, but Yuseong was intent on listing various clichés and stories similar to their current situation.

“…Then there’s the possibility that something went wrong with an experiment by the woman in this painting. In other words, you are that woman. The trope where the protagonist who seemed to be an innocent victim caught up in events turns out to be the villain who lost their memories is quite common.”

-Stop! I’m sorry, but I can’t understand anything you’re saying at all!

“Ahem, well, such things exist.”

Belatedly realizing he had been excitedly rambling about stories only he knew about, Yuseong cleared his throat.

“Besides this painting, there doesn’t seem to be anything helpful in the dining room. Let’s move to another place…”

Splat!

Yuseong’s expression twisted at the sudden sound.

Masses of dark red flesh blocking the door, expanding and contracting repeatedly.

And when dozens of eyes appeared through gaps in the flesh and met his gaze, Yuseong unconsciously let out a curse.

“Oh sh-“

The flesh mass, inflated like a balloon, charged towards them at a terrifying speed.

Yuseong, who had been careless thinking it wouldn’t be very fast given its size and appearance, barely managed to dodge the attack after receiving a small wound on his cheek.

Splat! Splat!

-Kyaaaaaah!

Alice screamed at the nightmarish sight of dozens of tentacles made of flesh attacking from all directions.

‘Many in number but simple and slow. Raise the perceived time with Asura Perception Way and…’

One by one.

While steadily cutting through the tentacles and slowly moving forward, Yuseong suddenly used Flash Step to close the distance instantly and buried his axe in the main body.

However, the flesh mass didn’t stop moving.

Rather, as if enraged by the pain, it began moving more violently.

‘Damn, if this drags on, all the monsters in the mansion will gather here!’

Though the flesh mass wasn’t screaming, its size meant it was creating loud noises by sweeping up all the furniture and dishes around it.

It was a situation where they needed to take down the monster and move locations immediately.

In that moment, Yuseong’s eyes turned golden and began analyzing the flesh mass thoroughly.

‘There’s the core.’

There was a core that glowed brightly and supplied magical power throughout the body whenever the flesh mass writhed.

The problem was that the core was located deep within the body and kept changing position.

‘The axe won’t work. No matter how hard I try, it won’t reach that far inside, and using Energy Release would be ineffective since the core keeps moving. Then there’s only one method left… The problem is using it will draw serious aggro’

Crash!

Clang!

Seeing the monster rampaging chaotically, Yuseong made his decision.

Even if it draws aggro, they just need to defeat this thing as quickly as possible and move elsewhere.

Rather, hesitating and allowing other monsters to join this fight would be the worst possible scenario.

-There’s nowhere left to retreat!

Alice screamed at the cold sensation behind her back.

However, Yuseong smiled and said.

“No need to retreat.”

[Spending 5,000 karma points to retrieve K2 Rifle(D)]

Bang!

Blood spurted from the flesh mass along with an ear-splitting explosion.

As the creature stiffened, seemingly surprised by the sudden impact and sharp sound, Yuseong didn’t hesitate to keep pulling the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He used Eye of Truth to track the core’s location and his shooting skills to accurately place the bullets.

The first bullets stopped halfway through, unable to penetrate the thick flesh, but after continuously embedding more bullets, the flesh monster, its core finally penetrated, trembled and collapsed to the ground.

-…What is that?

While regeneration ampules and plasma axes could be thought of as healing potions and magical weapons, this was on a different level entirely.

A device that took down enemies instantly with thunderous sounds didn’t match any knowledge Alice possessed.

“Ah, this is called a gun. A common weapon from our world.”

-Gun?

“Yeah, that’s what it is. Let’s run for now.”

The monsters would be coming this way in real-time after hearing the gunshots; moving locations was the priority now.

However, they were a bit late.

“Ah, damn.”

-…Please tell me you were joking earlier about not being able to retry anymore.

The monsters had already noticed the commotion and were gathering here.

Looking back and forth at the monsters approaching from both sides of the corridor, Yuseong clicked his tongue briefly and took out a new item.

The first time is always the hardest.

Once you cross one line, crossing the next becomes much easier.

[Spending 10,000 karma points to retrieve K413 Grenade(D+)]

He pulls the safety pin and casually throws it toward the opposite corridor.

A moment later, along with a thunderous explosion, thick dust rose up.

Aiming his rifle at the monsters who were either pulverized or staggering with injuries, Yuseong muttered with a bright smile.

“I wonder if you’ve heard of a female high school student who served in the military.”