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Early TNG Vol. 21 Chapter 3 Part 2
🕑 Added 2024-11-20 03:33:57 +0000 UTCFull title: THE NEW GATE
Note: This part has not been TLCed yet, and might slightly differ from the public version. If you found any typos/mistakes, pls write them in the comment. Thanks.
Translator: Anon
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Shin contacted Schnee through 【Mind Chat】 and conveyed his thoughts.
“(I think it's possible, but you'll have to wait for someone to go outside when you want to escape. Right now, the only people entering and leaving are those who have been infected by the Hihiganula. Even if there are supplies of black spheres as Shin mentioned, you don't know when you'll be able to leave... We can set up a diversion here, but if we cause a commotion, it'll ruin the infiltration.)”
Schnee didn't say it was dangerous, given Shin's strength. However, she seemed to be worried that Shin was depending on the other person to do something as he couldn’t enter or exit by himself.
“(It's just a spur of the moment idea, so it's not very strong when you put it that way. I think it's important to know what's going on inside. If it comes down to it, I'll use 【Teleport】.)”
If he used 【Teleport】, he didn't need to worry about the entrance or exit. The location of the Moon Shrine, which was materialized to analyze the poisonous smoke, was registered as the teleport destination.
When Schnee said she would be monitoring the research lab alone, Shin allowed it because of this.
【Teleport】 allowed one to move from the location in an instant, so it was better as a means of escape than as a means of transportation.
“(...I understand. I'm planning to use 【Teleport】 in case of an emergency, and there's a chance things are moving along while I'm doing this. However, it's far more risky to infiltrate than it is to surveillance. Just be careful, okay?)”
“(Yeah, I know. I intend to do as little as possible. However, depending on the situation, there is a possibility that I will have to get involved. I'll let you know that in advance.)”
Sacrificing the little one to save the big one. Shin couldn't do that. If someone was about to be killed as a sacrifice, Shin would have no choice but to get involved.
Leaving Schnee to contact Filma and the others, Shin walked behind the corpse parasitized by the Hihiganula.
The corpse approached the laboratory with firm steps that looked alive to an outsider. The guard corpses didn't react, so he just passed by.
Shin followed the man's corpse through the door.
Since he had tested the continuous formation of platforms with 【Flying Shadow】 before passing through the door, there was no problem. Shin walked at a height about 20 cemels above the ground. Once inside the laboratory, the map began to function. Like a dungeon, it seemed to be distinguished as something separate from normal areas.
Although it was a section of the royal castle, the laboratory was not particularly large. There was an area where the poisonous smoke was likely coming from and there were five small rooms, each about 6 tatami mats in size. There were also two rooms that seemed to be storehouses, each 10 mels wide.
There were 10 moving presences, including the corpse in front of them. Of these, four were at the point where the poisonous smoke was coming from. Three in what appeared to be a warehouse. One in each of the two small rooms. And one for the corpse in front of him.
Shin followed after the corpse for the time being. Their destination was the warehouse. Thanks to 【Through Sight】, he knew that the three presences in the warehouse weren’t corpses. They were trying to hide their figures with robes, but Shin could see right inside. There were two young men and one woman. All of them were in the level 150s, higher than the average adventurer, and all of them were alchemists.
It looked like the warehouse was where they kept the black spheres. The woman took one from a box and put it in a bag, then threw it at the corpse. The corpse caught it without any trouble and left the warehouse.
(Should I keep an eye on the poisonous smoke?)
The source of the poisonous smoke was in an area with no door connecting it to the hallway. There was no need to follow the door to the corpse.
Just as Shin had predicted, at the end of the hallway was a cauldron about three mel in diameter, and poisonous-colored smoke was being sucked into the upper part of the room. It didn't look like there was any wind, but the smoke wasn't drifting into the room.
The things stirring the cauldron were corpses parasitized by Hihiganula. There were two of them. One woman was throwing what looked like ingredients into the cauldron, and another was an old woman working at a different table. Both were at level 150, just like the men in the warehouse.
Checking the materials in stock, Shin approached the old woman working at the table. And he noticed it right away. An eyeball had been carelessly placed into the basket. Next to it was a small, thin human arm.
He wasn't mistaken. There were few monsters that resemble humans in THE NEW GATE. That was not to say there weren't any, but their skin color and shape were different from the arms of the participant or any other human, and even the human-like creatures like zombies look clearly strange. There were certainly no monsters with arms that were the color and shape of a young child at a glance.
Shin thought back to the Shiten cult ritual he'd learned about when a church priest kidnapped Millie, a child with precognitive powers. It was a ritual in which humans were sacrificed. When he heard that they were doing such a terrible thing, he thought they were crazy. But seeing what was going on, he couldn't help but think that they were insane.
Shin left the room and took a quiet breath, partly to calm himself down.
Then, he switched his focus and walked forward. He also needed to check the presence of the two in the small rooms.
With 【Through Sight】, he could see a man with the build of a professional wrestler and an old man with a long beard in each room. The man appeared to be meditating, remaining still and not moving. The old man appeared to be working with his longsword, which was resting on a stand.
Shin made his way over to the room where the old man was. The door was half open, probably because there weren't many people there. That way he could enter without touching the wall or door. Also, since the old man had his back to the door, it would be difficult for him to notice if he opened it.
When Shin arrived in front of the room, he entered carefully so as not to touch anything with his clothes. The old man was still working. He didn't seem to have noticed Shin.
(...This guy!)
The name of the old man revealed by the skill was FunkyFunky. Shin recognized that name.
As death in the game became a reality, players sought better equipment for various reasons, such as to protect themselves and progress through the game.
Amidst all of this, one player was selling high-performance equipment cheaply. His name was FunkyFunky.
High-quality equipment was laid out with the slogan, “I’m donating my personal wealth to help everyone.” Some players were suspicious, but many took the opportunity to buy the equipment.
Then, tragedy struck.
An incident occurred in which all of the equipped weapons, armor, and accessories suddenly exploded. Yes, FunkyFunky had given the equipment the ability to explode after a certain number of uses. It was only in exchange for that negative element that it was high quality.
It would be unreasonable to expect non-blacksmiths and other combatants to see the hidden disadvantages. The explosion that came as a price was extremely dangerous, and even high-level players were at best close to death, and at worst, it was enough to kill them instantly.
By the time the incident came to light and the cause was identified, FunkyFunky had already fled. Shin cooperated with the investigation.
When he was arrested and taken into custody, FunkyFunky gave the reason for the crime as being because it looked like fun, something that Shin and the others couldn't understand.
The worst criminal prankster in the history of THE NEW GATE. That was the player named FunkyFunky.
“Now we're ready.”
A twitching laugh escaped from his wrinkled mouth.
The longsword he held in his hand was eroded by a curse on a level incomparable to anything Shin had seen before.
Shin slightly unsheathed his sword silently. What was he doing here? What had he done up until now? Those were the questions he should find out, but Shin was certain that FunkyFunky wouldn't talk.
The player in the form of an old man before him was the type of person who wasn't afraid of his own death. Even in his game days, he was the type of guy who would only say what he wanted to say and then try to self-destruct. Just looking at his current words and actions, it was clear that he hadn't changed at all.
FunkyFunky's eyes, staring at the longsword, seemed even more cloudy than when Shin had last seen them.
In addition, the hand holding the sword was quickly rotting due to the effects of the curse. It was hard to imagine that someone who would laugh at that could be sane.
Shin stepped forward and drew his sword at the same time. In the blink of an eye, the blade was approaching FunkyFunky's neck.
It was the longsword that FunkyFunky was holding that responded to the attack.
The blade, which had turned a poisonous color, deflected the blade as Shin swung it. Perhaps because FunkyFunky was holding it, he was unable to completely parry it. Forced to move in an unnatural way, FunkyFunky's body could be heard creaking in its bones and joints.
“Int-Intruder! But you're too slow. You're too slow. Even if you cut me, I won't stop!”
After just a few blows, FunkyFunky was out of breath.
Not only was he originally a non-combat class, but the sword was forcing his body to move. His bones, joints, and muscles were all reaching their limits, and the vivid sounds of hard things breaking and tearing echoed through the room.
It must hurt, it must be painful. And yet, FunkyFunky spoke with an expression that said he was having so much fun.
The synergistic effect of his unreasonable movements and the curse had put his HP in the red zone, even though the attacks hadn't hit him. Even if the attacks didn't hit his main body, two or three more blows would push FunkyFunky's body beyond its limits.
“What are you planning!?”
Shin asked, knowing there would be no answer.
He didn't let up on his attacks during that time. If he was the player, he might be able to escape using 【Teleport】. There was no doubt that the items and skills he possessed far exceeded the standards of this world.
If Shin let him go now, he would soon recover and return to his evil ways. Even if he couldn't get any information out of him, Shin couldn't let him escape.
Shin didn't give him time to take out the crystal stone. He parried the longsword, which moved against FunkyFunky's will, and cut off the arm holding it.
FunkyFunky fell. In that brief moment, the crystal stone was about to materialize. Shin stepped in instantly, cutting the shining stone in half along with FunkyFunky.
The upper half of FunkyFunky's body, split into two, and fell to the ground. A moment later, the lower half also fell.
“It's a festival, have fun.”
“A festival?”
A festival, as the former PK player said. Shin had a bad feeling about this.
“You came too late. It's a shame I won't be able to see the results of my experiment.”
FunkyFunky opened his mouth to answer Shin's question. However, before he could say another word, a blade flashed through the air.
FunkyFunky's head separated from his body and rolled to the floor. A twisted smile remained even in death.
“He was a joker until the very end.”
Shin's voice came out of his mouth in a low, cold voice that even he realized was different from usual.
Shin's senses became sharper against the PK player, as if he had gone back to the past. His emotions were not dragged down, but his body still seemed to have remembered when he fought as an avenger. However, it helped him now. His sharpened senses told Shin that FunkyFunky was about to unleash his skill.
An unnatural surge of magic power covered FunkyFunky's body. Shin had seen the skill that was about to be activated many times during his time in the game, and once in this world.
【Self-destruct】 skill. Some PK players did not hesitate to use the skill to take their opponents down with them in exchange for their own lives. Those who prioritized their own desires and pleasure. Those who, even after it had become a death game, did not change their belief that the world was just a game.
They were those who, always dragging others down and destroying themselves, were the players' top priority.
To stop the self-destruct skill, it was necessary to reduce their HP to 0 before the countdown reached “0”. Somehow, FunkyFunky's countdown was “1” the moment it appeared.
Thanks to his former senses, Shin was able to react in the short time before the countdown reached “0”. It was difficult to judge whether he was happy about that or not, though.
“He noticed me, didn't he?”
The man in the next room moved towards him. Shin tried to disappear again, but he immediately sensed something else.
“Could it have been that he set it so that his death would be the trigger!?”
Under the floor, the walls, the ceiling. The roots of Hihiganula grew from everywhere. The man who was heading in this direction, the women in the cauldron room, and the parasitized corpses all got entangled with the roots and dried up.
This was Hihiganula's special attack. It caused a giant flower to bloom and produce seeds according to the total amount of HP drained. More vicious plant-type monsters would emerge from those seeds, so players who knew the ecology of Hihiganula knew that if it used this attack, they should just burn it.
“It's even absorbing poison. Who knows what'll come out.”
As Shin gathered magic power in his palm, he connected 【Mind Chat】 to Schnee.
There was a PK player, Shin had slashed him, and Hihiganula was trying to eliminate the humans inside as well.
After concisely relaying the information, Shin held his palm over the ground.
“Burn!”
From Shin's hand, pale blue flames spread in all directions like fire running along a fuse. They branched out finely and ran all over the room, spreading throughout the lab - or more precisely, the entire Hihiganula.
If one could see the roots of the Hihiganula, they would see that the pale blue flames reached every single one of them.
Flame-type magic skill 【Ash Flame】.
Shin poured more powerful magic into them, and the thin flames flared up all at once. The fantastical blue flames were visible for only a few seconds. When the flames disappeared like an illusion, the roots of the Hihiganula had turned to white ash. With no remaining power, they would crumble at the slightest vibration.
“It looks like it's going to collapse. I'll take as much as I can.”
With the disappearance of the Hihiganula that had taken root, the lab was full of holes. It wouldn't happen immediately, but it was only a matter of time before the whole building collapsed.
At this point, the only clues they had were the documents that were left behind. Shin put every single stack of papers that seemed to be research materials into his item box.
After collecting the materials from the room, Shin immediately went to the next room.
Fragments were falling from the ceiling. After collecting the materials from the small room before the lab collapsed, Shin went to the room where the cauldron was. He collected the remaining materials and ingredients in the same way.
He planned to mourn some of the materials, the ones that had been human, later.
About half of the contents of the cauldron in question remained. If the cauldron were to break when the building collapsed and the contents spilled out, it would likely result in deaths.
“We can't just leave this like that, can we?”
Shin tried to see if he could store the whole cauldron in his item box, but there was no change in the cauldron. It didn't seem to work that well.
Next, he tried freezing some of the poison inside and storing it. Doing this to some liquid materials changed the storage category. The attempt was successful, and he quickly froze the rest and stored them separately in his item box.
