Chapter 119: It's My Turn to Play a God-Tier Roguelike!

‘Kitty! My precious kitty!’You pulled Rosmontis into a fierce, desperate embrace, burying your face right between her soft white ears. You took a massive, shuddering breath, filling your lungs with that warm, fuzzy, unmistakable scent of a clean kitten.’This is what it feels like to be alive! Are you seeing this, chat? This is my cat, an absolute god-tier feline!’

“Doc… tor?” Rosmontis sniffled softly. For some inexplicable reason, the Doctor’s usual sterile scent had suddenly shifted, becoming infinitely more comforting and pleasant to her senses.

Yielding to the warmth, she cooperatively perked up her delicate ears and nuzzled her fuzzy cheek against the Doctor’s jawline.

Just as you were preparing to squeeze her into another affection-fueled hug, your eyes caught sight of something in her hands. She was clutching… a tattered, ominous-looking doll?

Your blissful smile instantly fractured. “…Rosmontis, sweetheart, when you were walking over here, did you happen to pick up a Blank Suicide Note off the ground?”

Yato tilted her masked head, her voice laced with genuine confusion. “Doctor, didn’t you just throw that exact piece of paper away? You said something along the lines of, ‘If my brother is getting soaked in the rain, I refuse to use an umbrella; no one but me is worthy of preparing your last words.'”

“Right.” You nodded slowly, a deep sense of relief washing over you. “Then we can just draft a brand new one ourselves right now.”

‘Bastard 0325, why haven’t you dropped a Blank Suicide Note for me yet?! Do you have any earthly idea how utterly disgusting the self-healing phase on that tanky-as-hell boss is?!’Mid-mental breakdown, you glanced down and suddenly realized your coat was entirely the wrong color.’Wait… is this the Scale-Binding Raincoat?’

[Grants Camouflage to all ranged Operators.]

Flipping back the heavy, shimmering fabric of the raincoat, your eyes widened. Hanging securely at your waist were the Golden Chalice and the Knight’s Commandments.

Under the increasingly panicked and bewildered gazes of your three Operators, you finally lifted your head, a serene, almost manic smile spreading across your face. “Ah, about that… there is absolutely no need for a suicide note anymore. I just had a sudden epiphany that my previous statement made perfect logical sense.”

‘Even if I have to carry the Forsaken Great Lock on my back and manually hold the boss’s damage bar in my own two hands, I, the Doctor, am completely invincible in this world!’

Yato and Steward exchanged deeply unsettled looks. The Doctor appeared to have genuinely lost his mind.

Rosmontis, however, was simply delighted by the sudden shift in mood. She quietly wrapped her slender tail around your calf, anchoring herself to you.

The lingering scent of sorrow that usually clung to the Doctor had completely vanished.

Your gamer instincts flared. You noticed that the complex patterns carved into the floor tiles had subtly lightened by a few shades. ‘Is this a new stage loading in?’Narrowing your eyes, you rapidly cross-referenced the corridor’s architecture with the layout from just a few minutes prior. At first glance, it seemed identical, but the visual guiding lines in the masonry had fractured into three distinct paths. If you had been walking on autopilot, you would have completely missed the interaction prompt.’Three paths… Is this a Narrow Escape node?’

“Yato, what does your vanguard intuition tell you?” You tilted your head, looking directly at Hypergryph’s favorite daughter. Thanks to the mysterious account booster 0325 speedrunning the early game, this god-tier roguelike run was basically a guaranteed clear. Any path in a Narrow Escape node would be perfectly fine.

Yato blinked, clearly taken aback by the sudden weight of your trust. She peered down the corridor you were gesturing toward, but no matter how hard she strained her eyes, she only saw a single, unbroken hallway.

“Ah… the fork will reveal itself as we walk forward. You can think of it as a form of artistic resonance.” For a brief, agonizing moment, you struggled to find the words to explain abstract game design mechanics, architectural illusions, and psychological pathing to a squad of hardened mercenaries.

Yato looked highly skeptical of your supposed artistic sensibilities, but she dutifully closed her eyes, tapping into her combat instincts. “If there truly are three hidden forks, the third one radiates the highest threat level… but the second one feels fundamentally wrong. I have a very strange premonition about it.”

The third path being the deadliest was standard roguelike logic, but the second path having a unique aura? That demanded immediate investigation.

You took the lead, striding confidently ahead of the formation. After less than twenty paces, you abruptly stopped, raised your hand, and rapped your knuckles against the seemingly empty air. A sharp, hollow sound of bone striking thick glass echoed down the corridor, leaving Yato staring in sheer disbelief.

“One-way mirrors,” you explained smoothly, tapping the invisible barrier again. “It is a standard theatrical trick often used to conceal hidden spaces within a structure, or to artificially inflate the perceived dimensions of a room. The only truly surprising element here is how immaculately clean the glass is. Two well-placed mirrors are more than enough to visually expand this corridor to three times its actual width.”

Steward, looking thoroughly spooked by the haunted funhouse vibes, huddled closer to your back. “Doctor… are you absolutely sure we aren’t lost?”

Yato watched the young Caster instinctively cower and let her half-blade slide an inch out of its scabbard with a sharp click. “If the Doctor ever gets us lost, you can just use that Split-Stream Technique of yours to carve us a new exit.”

“You have a problem with getting lost?!” You whipped your head around to stare at Steward, utterly appalled. ‘That was definitely not in his Operator files!’

Steward looked back at you, his expression the picture of pure, unadulterated grievance. “Doctor… I just got scolded…”

“Oh. My deepest apologies, then,” you replied, your voice instantly dropping back to a flat, emotionless deadpan.

‘The account booster must have taken the wheel for a second there. I had no idea what was happening.’

Just ahead, the corridor opened up into a massive, grim stage constructed to resemble a beast’s fighting cage. Huddled in the darkest corner was a lone figure clad in heavy, battered armor. The metal plates were slick with fresh, dark blood, and his entire body trembled with violent, unnatural spasms. A few damp strands of silver-white hair poked through the ruined collar of his armor, plastered to his shoulders by sweat and gore.

“No… I don’t want to kill anymore…”

His sanity was teetering on the absolute brink of collapse. His gauntleted hands gripped his weapon with white-knuckled intensity, locked in a battle-ready stance, but it was purely a trauma-induced physical instinct.

You gently patted Rosmontis on the head. “Go. Give him his release. Let him pass on to a better place.”

Rosmontis, deeply empathetic to the agonizing pain radiating from the caged man, nodded with fierce determination. “Yes, I will! A better place… Doctor, you mean Heaven, right?”

“What are you talking about?! I mean my assistant’s office on the Rhodes Island landship!”

Rosmontis froze. “?”

She looked up at your deadpan face, then turned to look at the man trembling on the stage. Her eyes locked onto the thick, luscious silver tail curled miserably around his armored legs. She quickly pulled out her mental notebook and began connecting the dots.

‘Degenbrecher brought a whole bunch of big-tailed squirrels to the ship.”The Doctor went out of his way to help Kjerag.”Nearl and her sisters all have very shiny, beautiful tails.”The Doctor completely changed the political landscape of Kazimierz.”Dr. Kal’tsit usually hates it when people try to touch her tail.”The Doctor seems to be having a lot of disagreements with Dr. Kal’tsit lately.’

She never bothered recording timestamps in her notes, because a genius kitty like her could easily deduce the chronological order of these vital clues!

Rosmontis clenched her tiny fists. A bright, fluffy, massive tail… the Doctor must want it desperately. He had just started smiling again. If she failed to secure this prize for him, would he be as heartbroken as she was when her favorite stuffed toy was taken away?

No. She, Rosmontis, the elite Annihilation Specialist, would make the Doctor’s dearest wish come true!

At that exact moment, Mulo, who had been completely drained of his will to live and was simply leaning against the cold iron bars waiting for the sweet release of death, caught a tiny flicker of movement in his peripheral vision.

If he had been left alone in this cursed place, he might have drowned in his own fear forever. But where did these intruders come from? Were they a fresh batch of actors selected by the Troupe, or just hapless travelers who had wandered off the path?

Perhaps he would never be able to tear off the mocking Gentle label the Crimson Troupe had permanently branded onto his flesh…

But no matter what his fate was, he absolutely could not let these innocent people die on his stage.

Gritting his teeth against the searing pain in his muscles, Mulo forced himself to stand. He prepared to severely hold back his strength, planning to go easy on the fragile, innocent little Feline girl who was bravely stepping onto the bloodstained stage.

But the very millisecond he locked his knees and stood upright, a colossal, building-sized tactical sword-shield descended from the heavens with apocalyptic force.

BOOM!!!

The sheer kinetic impact shattered the air. Mulo stared blankly at the monolithic slab of metal that had nearly vaporized the entire structural foundation of the stage with a single, casual strike. He swallowed hard, his throat suddenly completely dry.

‘Oh no… it looks like I should be the one praying for her to go easy on me.’In a dark, unnoticed corner of the room, on the official Crimson Troupe program list bolted to the edge of the now-pulverized stage, the elegant script reading’Tragedy: Narrow Escape’suddenly caught fire. The magical ink scrambled frantically, obediently rewriting itself to read:’The God-like Power and Speed of the A-Rank Little Girl.’

Because staying alive was nothing to be ashamed of.

[Rhodes’s Note: The Doctor is referencing several highly sought-after collectible relics from Arknights’ Integrated Strategies (Roguelike) mode. The “Blank Suicide Note,” “Scale-Binding Raincoat,” “Golden Chalice,” and “Knight’s Commandments” are all incredibly powerful items that can easily break the game’s difficulty when combined, turning a grueling boss fight against the “Forsaken Great Lock” into a trivial speedrun.]

[Rhodes’s Note:

Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?

(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent! 🙇‍♂️):

Massive thanks for reading and supporting the operation!]