Chapter 87: 6F Hidden (1)

As I followed the knights, I studied my surroundings.

The interior of the building was spotless.

Everything had a distinctly modern feel, suggesting a fairly advanced civilization—much like the Hidden Route on the fourth floor.

For one thing, the knights’ armor wasn’t medieval. Its design looked mechanical, almost engineered.

More importantly, the knights themselves weren’t human.

Through the gaps in their helmets, I caught glimpses of faces with three eyes. They belonged to the same race as the nobleman who had spoken to me earlier.

I tried to piece together what I knew.

For now, my role was that of a slave.

And they had praised me for putting on a good match.

...A slave gladiator?

Was this some kind of colosseum scenario?

The deeper underground we went, the cleaner corridors gave way to older, mustier passageways.

Eventually, we arrived at what looked like an enormous detention facility.

It was there that I finally saw people with the usual two eyes.

Humans.

Countless bedraggled figures of all ages and both sexes were crammed into cells, shackles around their wrists and ankles.

The knights dragged me toward one of the cells.

Clack.

When we reached it, one of them moved to fasten shackles around my wrists.

For a moment, I considered resisting.

In the end, I stayed still.

For now, it seemed best to go along with whatever was happening. I simply didn’t have enough information yet.

If things turned ugly, I could always force my way out.

“What are you waiting for? Get inside.”

With my hands shackled, I stepped into the cell.

Every eye turned toward me.

The knight walked away, leaving only two guards stationed outside.

The people inside immediately crowded around me, all speaking at once.

“You’re alive, Tu-ro!”

“Are you all right? Were you injured?”

...Tu-ro?

That must have been my name in this role.

They stared at me with worried expressions. Some of them looked close to tears.

Their reactions seemed sincere enough, so at least these people appeared to be on my side.

“You must be exhausted. Please rest, Tu-ro. There’s no telling when those bastards will drag you out again...”

The man who spoke glared at the alien guards outside the cell, hatred burning in his eyes.

The others guided me to one side of the cell.

I sat down with my back against the wall.

I needed to get a better grasp of the situation.

The hostile faction was the three-eyed race.

My allies were humans like me.

The three-eyed people had enslaved the humans, and I had just returned from some kind of match.

That was all I knew so far.

“Um... would you like me to massage your shoulders, Tu-ro? Or perhaps you could rest your head on my lap. You should sleep whenever you have the chance...”

The woman who had sat beside me kept fussing over me.

I glanced around, then lowered my voice.

“Hey...”

“Yes, Tu-ro!”

“No, no. Lean closer for a moment. Quietly.”

When you didn’t know something, sometimes the simplest solution was just to ask.

“I’m feeling a little disoriented.”

“...Pardon?”

“I hit my head during the match. My memories are all mixed up. Could you explain what’s going on?”

The woman stared at me in alarm.

“A-amnesia? Oh no...!”

“I’m only a little confused. I think my memory will come back if you fill in the gaps.”

Would she buy that?

After a moment, she nodded stiffly.

“A-all right. What exactly don’t you remember?”

“How did we end up imprisoned here?”

“...Th-that far back? You don’t remember any of it?”

“Just tell me quickly.”

When I pressed her, she began to explain.

She wasn’t particularly good at it, but I could follow well enough.

In short, we belonged to a people known as the Panrop.

The three-eyed race were called the Kalundi, an alien species that had descended from beyond the stars and invaded this continent.

With overwhelming military power, the Kalundi had brought countless nations and peoples to their knees.

It hadn’t taken them long to conquer the world and reduce humanity to slavery.

The matches were a form of entertainment for them.

A sport.

They forced human slaves into death matches and enjoyed watching them kill one another.

For this particular tournament, they had gathered scores of slaves, divided them according to ethnicity, and forced them to fight with the survival of their respective peoples at stake.

And I was the warrior representing the Turop Tribe.

In other words, the lives of every person imprisoned in this facility depended on me.

“Hmm...”

“W-well? Does any of that sound familiar?”

“Yeah. I think some of it is coming back.”

After hearing her explanation, I sank into thought.

I had a rough understanding of the setting now.

The next question was how to clear the Hidden Route.

‘They said only the final round remained.’

The nobleman from earlier had told me that only the final was left.

So there was one more match.

Would winning it be enough to clear the route?

It would have been nice if things were that simple, but...

From what I had seen so far, Hidden Routes rarely ended so cleanly.

For now, I would wait for the final to begin.

Then another thought struck me.

‘How long is this going to take?’

A sinking feeling settled in my stomach.

Time passing inside the Hidden Route also passed in the outside world.

I had entered directly from my room.

If I disappeared for an entire day, my family would assume something terrible had happened.

Every Hidden Route until now had begun immediately, so I had never considered this possibility.

I might end up wasting one of my precious attempts for something this stupid.

Would I have to pretend to go on a trip every time I entered a Hidden Route from now on?

‘Nothing I can do about it.’

If they kept me waiting too long, I would simply break out and cause trouble.

It probably wasn’t the correct way to clear the route, but still.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait for very long.

Clank.

Perhaps half a day had passed when the knights returned to the cell.

“Out, 199.”

At once, someone cried out in protest.

“Th-that’s outrageous! Tu-ro hasn’t even been allowed a few hours of rest!”

The knight drew his sword and advanced toward the man who had shouted.

That lunatic.

I rose immediately and stepped between them.

“My apologies. I’ll come with you.”

The knight stared at me for a moment.

Then he sheathed his sword and jerked his chin toward the exit.

Leaving the others’ anxious faces behind, I followed the knights out of the holding facility.

They led me to a portal.

Beside it stood a rack displaying a variety of weapons.

One of the knights removed my shackles.

“Choose a weapon and enter.”

...Was this the final?

I hesitated between a sword and a mace before choosing the sword.

Then I stepped through the portal.

Fwoosh!

The scenery changed.

I found myself standing in the middle of an enormous arena shaped like a colosseum.

Whoaaaa!

Deafening cheers poured down from every direction.

Every spectator in the stands was a three-eyed Kalundi.

[And now, the final match you have all been waiting for!]

A voice boomed across the arena as though amplified through a microphone.

Feeling like an animal on display, I looked toward the opposite side.

The announcer continued.

[The final shall be a one-on-one duel with no unnecessary rules! Number 199 and Number 21—the two greatest warriors to survive from more than three hundred contestants—shall now fight with the fate of their peoples at stake!]

My opponent was a huge man wielding an axe.

His rigid expression was filled with grim determination.

A Nexus stood at each end of the arena.

A blue one behind me.

A red one behind him.

[The first contestant to destroy the opposing Nexus shall be declared the victor! Following the match, every slave belonging to the losing side shall be executed as the closing spectacle! We ask that all members of the audience remain seated until the ceremony is complete!]

The cheering became even louder.

...This was only a trial inside the Tower, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.

[And now! Let the match begin!]

The duel started.

The man roared and charged straight at me.

Clang!

I caught the descending axe with my sword.

He pressed the attack with ferocious intensity.

I blocked and evaded each blow.

He wasn’t weak.

Still, he seemed to be no higher than Level 50.

At Level 80, I had plenty of room to spare.

‘What should I do?’

I could counterattack and defeat him immediately.

But the fight was too easy.

That alone made it obvious that winning the final wouldn’t be enough to clear the Hidden Route.

Would another event begin once the match ended?

Maybe I should finish this quickly and see what happened.

I made my decision and counterattacked.

Crash!

One powerful strike shattered his grip and sent the axe spinning through the air.

For an instant, the unarmed man froze in panic.

I seized his arm and threw him over my shoulder.

“Gurk...!”

Leaving him sprawled on the ground, I headed toward his Nexus.

The crowd fell silent for a heartbeat.

Then the arena erupted in cheers.

The man scrambled back to his feet and rushed at me again.

I grabbed him and threw him aside once more before beginning to strike the Nexus.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He desperately tried to stop me from destroying it.

The despair on his face made it easy to imagine what he was feeling.

He couldn’t afford to surrender either.

If he lost, every one of his people would be executed.

But I couldn’t exactly throw the match for his sake.

I continued tossing him aside whenever he approached and kept attacking the red Nexus.

Crack!

Within moments, it shattered.

[...And the match is over! An overwhelming victory for Number 199!]

Perhaps because the final had ended so anticlimactically, the crowd responded with a strange mixture of cheers and boos.

The man, who had kept rising like a weighted doll no matter how many times I threw him down, finally fell to his knees.

Then another voice rang across the arena.

“Silence.”

At opposite sides of the colosseum stood two seats positioned above all the others.

The Kalundi man seated in one of them had risen.

At a single word from him, the entire arena fell quiet.

He continued.

“I, Patoum, Third Prince of the Kalundi Empire, commend thee on thy victory.”

“...”

“Number 199. What is thy name?”

I answered.

“Tu-ro.”

“Tu-ro. As promised, all members of thy people brought here shall be spared. Furthermore, as champion of these games, thou shalt be released from slavery and granted Second-Class Citizenship of the Kalundi Empire.”

Cheers filled the arena once more.

Citizenship.

Whatever.

I kept silent and waited to see what came next.

The so-called prince spoke again.

“Thou mayest take pride in this honor. Hast thou anything to say as champion?”

...Anything to say?

Not really.

“Thank you.”

So I simply thanked him.

Then—

[You have failed to clear the Nightmare difficulty 6F Hidden. (2/3)]

[You have been removed from the Tower.]

What?

The Tower expelled me, and I found myself back in my room.

Still stunned, I sank into my chair.

“...What the hell?”

Why had I failed?

What had I even done wrong?

I replayed the final moments in my head.

The prince had asked whether I had anything to say.

I had thanked him.

Then the failure message had appeared immediately afterward.

...Was that the problem?

Had I been expected to give a different answer?

— Did I not tell thee to slaughter them all? Yield thy body to me, and I shall kill every last one of these Kalundi creatures.

I sighed in exasperation.

“Are you deliberately trying to ruin the clear? Why is your answer to everything always ‘kill them all’?”

This man had supposedly been a Nightmare Climber himself.

How had he ever cleared a Hidden Route?

— Why should I concern myself with such trifling matters? Whether I cleared the trial or not, I simply slew them all.

“...There’s a reward for clearing it.”

— Skills and items are worthless baubles. My power had already reached the level of a demigod.

“Very impressive. So why couldn’t you reach the top of Nightmare?”

Ignoring the Demon King’s furious response, I returned to my thoughts.

The failure message had appeared the instant I gave my answer.

That meant the answer itself was the key.

But what was I supposed to say?

After thinking for a long time, I finally organized my thoughts and left the room.

“Where are you going?”

“Out for drinks with some friends. I might be back late.”

[Enter the Nightmare difficulty 6th Floor?]

I rented a motel room and entered the Tower again.

All right.

Attempt two.

I cleared the sixth floor, allowed the knights to take me to the cell, waited to be brought out again, and entered the final arena.

Just as before, I overwhelmed the unfortunate man and destroyed his Nexus.

“...I, Patoum, Third Prince of the Kalundi Empire, commend thee on thy victory.”

Once again, I stood before the prince.

“Hast thou anything to say as champion?”

The same question.

This time, I answered differently.

“...Would it be possible for me to receive another reward in place of citizenship?”

A murmur spread through the audience.

The prince smiled, apparently intrigued.

“Another reward? What is it thou desirest? The survival of thy people is already assured, regardless of thy reward.”

I looked across the arena.

The defeated man was still kneeling there in despair.

“I ask that you show mercy and spare the people of the opposing side as well. That is the reward I desire in place of citizenship.”

What were the clear conditions for the sixth-floor Hidden Route?

I had thought about it carefully.

The only background I had been given was that each people’s survival depended on the outcome of the match.

Maybe the answer had been there all along.

Perhaps the condition was to save not only my own people, but the opposing side as well.

There was no chance the answer was to massacre every Kalundi in sight, as the Demon King kept insisting.

That probably wasn’t even possible.

“...Thou wouldst have the opposing people spared as well?”

The prince stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“A paltry reward compared to citizenship. Yet it directly contradicts the very premise of these games—that only one people may survive. Hmm. A difficult matter.”

“...”

“What thinkst thou, my sister?”

The prince turned toward the seat on the opposite side of the arena.

At his question, the Kalundi woman sitting there rose.

She looked down at me with a faint smile.

“I rather admire this slave’s spirit. He makes his demands boldly. Are you entrusting the decision to me, dear brother?”

“If it pleases thee, then so be it.”

“Then I shall give my answer tomorrow. Until then, perhaps the slaves’ executions may be postponed.”

The prince nodded.

“Very well. Tu-ro, my sister, Princess Ratium, shall decide by this hour tomorrow whether thy request shall be granted. Until then, the executions of the losing side’s slaves shall be delayed.”

No failure message appeared.

I cheered inwardly.

‘Did I get it right?’

So this really was the correct answer.

I turned and met the eyes of the man on the opposite side of the arena.

Only moments earlier, he had been drowning in despair.

Now he stared at me in disbelief.

He bowed his head in gratitude.

I gave him a small nod in return.

As the spectators began filing noisily out of the arena, several knights approached me.

“Come with us.”

Just like that, they led me away.

— If thou desirest to save both sides, thou couldst simply slaughter every one of these three-eyed wretches. Yet instead, thou insistest on creating more work for thyself.

I answered the voice inside my head.

‘This is how you clear Hidden Routes, Demon King. You use your head. You can’t solve everything by charging in like a brute.’

— Silence.

‘Then stop ruining the moment. Can’t you see that everything is going perfectly?’

Still, where were they taking me?

We entered what appeared to be a palace.

After some time, we stopped before an ornate door.

The knight escorting me knocked and stepped back.

The door swung open.

Beyond it lay a vast, luxurious chamber decorated with glittering jewels of every kind.

Inside the room was the princess.

“Enter.”

She lounged sideways in a chair as she spoke.

The knight who had opened the door walked around behind her and took up position like an attendant.

Hmm.

What was this?

Had the princess summoned me?

I stepped inside.

The door closed behind me.

“Come closer.”

At her command, I approached.

She blinked all three of her eyes, looked me up and down, and gave a quiet laugh.

“Slave. Thy name was Tu-ro, was it not?”

“Yes.”

“I found thy spirit pleasing. And thy face is rather to my taste as well.”

“...”

“If thou canst satisfy me, Tu-ro, I shall show mercy and grant thy request.”

...Satisfy her?

How, exactly?

I was thinking that persuading the princess must be the final step required to clear the route when—

“Strip.”

“...Pardon?”

The princess smiled seductively and ran her tongue across her lips.

“Did I not tell thee to satisfy me? Remove everything and come here.”

She rose from her chair, crossed the room to the bed, and lay down.

Uh...

For a moment, my mind went completely blank.

— Puhahahahaha...!

The Demon King’s laughter thundered inside my head.

Oh, fuck.

I had prepared myself for a life-or-death crisis.

A chastity crisis was the last thing I had expected.