[30 minutes later.]
“Urgh, be careful! <Rune Bear> got taken out!”
“So what if it did? That newbie only showed up after three months!”
Whether that giant 300-meter bear was summoned or transformed, I didn’t know. But even after we defeated it, self-proclaimed “newbie hunters” who massacred newcomers kept blocking our path.
“Watch out! A punch is coming—gah!”
“Hikari!! Tch…! Forget it! I’ll deal with you next time!”
“Hey! Are you abandoning your comrade?!”
“Since when were we comrades?!”
And so, we pushed forward by defeating them.
“Damn it, if that mecha existed on our Earth, those beasts that took over the entire American continent…! Arghhh!!”
“…”
As I had Elaine and Justice mow down every enemy that came charging at us, I began to feel something odd.
“Yui Otohara. What do you think about that maid fighting up ahead?”
“Huh? She’s just an insanely strong S-rank Hunter, right…?”
“And the mecha?”
“Uhh… its design kind of resembles something I saw on TV as a kid, but… just vaguely?”
Not just Yui Otohara’s reaction.
“Master. More enemies ahead.”
“Urgh, you must be the strongest on your Earth, right?! Someone with a theme like yours has to be powerful!”
And those newbie hunters relentlessly attacking us to steal our Tower Coins—same deal.
“Then you must have tons of Tower Coins. I’ll kill you and take every last one of them—ugh!”
“How dare you.”
“No! This woman!! Just a cosplayer pretending to be some concept character!”
“You’re quite skilled with a sword, but not enough to reach me.”
“Dammit, if you’re going to waste Tower Coins on some maid costume, just hand them over! Our world needs more Tower Coins—more Hunters!”
Wow.
I almost said it out loud.
But that’s not the important part.
What matters is not the plight of those S-rank Hunters attacking Elaine and Justice—it’s their reaction.
‘Why don’t they recognize the summons as characters from a game?’
With someone like Elaine or Justice, you’d expect at least one person to say “Wait a second!”—but there’s nothing.
Especially—
“Hey, maid! What country are you from?!”
“I am from the Kingdom of Granade.”
“Ugh, what a committed act! I meant is it Korea, China, or Japan—gahhh!”
Seeing how these Hunters reacted to Elaine, I became sure of one thing.
‘They have no idea who Elaine is.’
Does that other world not have [Granade Impact: Redive]?
It’s possible.
The Towers have been around in human history for quite some time. Depending on each nation’s circumstances, maybe games developed differently.
In Yui Otohara’s Earth, there might be characters with the black-hair-gold-eyes Perfect Maid concept. But whether they’re from a game, anime, or a hero who died challenging the Tower with that theme—no one knows.
In other words.
‘The ones we summoned from games are seen as Hunters from our own Earth in this Babel.’
Unless I explicitly say, “Actually, I summoned a fully limit-broken and fully refined game character,” they’ll just rely on what makes sense to them.
A character summoned with 2 million won that has SS-rank stats?
That’s nonsense.
To them, the logical conclusion is that she’s simply an SS-rank Hunter dressed up like a game character.
“Aah. Elaine? Want to try this line on them?”
“Understood. Ahem.”
I gave instructions to Elaine, who was still squaring off with a Hunter desperately aiming their sword at her.
“You’re asking where I’m from? If you must know, I suppose you could say I’m American.”
“Grr, why would an American be in the East Asian Babel?!”
See that?
Instead of saying “You’re not American—you’re from Granade Redive!”, they’re immediately asking why an American entered the East Asian Babel.
“Isn’t it my choice which Babel I enter?”
“Urgh…! That’s true, but still…! Gahhh!”
Elaine swings her sword and knocks the S-rank Hunter out cold.
“Unlike the others, you don’t seem to have killed before.”
“Ghh…!”
“However, trying to take my master’s and my assets by force makes you no different. So, I won’t turn you into Ironblood.”
“What the hell is Ironblood?!”
If she were just a normal S-rank Hunter, she’d be taken down with a single blow, just like Ironblood was—
“Urgh, how are you all this strong?!”
“If you spend 2 million won, you can be this strong too.”
“ARGHHHH!!”
As expected of people who climbed Babel, it took several exchanges with Elaine’s blade before they went down.
Elaine and Justice—
Both wield power far beyond the typical S-rank Hunter.
The power of Full Limit Break and Full Refinement should not be underestimated.
Not even in Babel, where the strong gather.
Look around.
Half the people who tried to steal our Tower Coins were turned into Ironblood. The rest lay unconscious.
[Partner. Everything is taken care of.]
“Good. Elaine, you can return now.”
“Yes, Master. Shall I initiate transport—”
“Not yet.”
I halted Justice and scanned the area wider with his detection radar.
No enemy signals on the radar.
Justice’s onboard radar showed nothing, but I opened the screen from the game where I originally summoned him.
‘The stage isn’t cleared yet.’
Pause.
The world freezes.
I can feel my mana draining in real time, but inside the grayscale world, I quickly scan for anything still shining with color.
Elaine.
Justice.
And me.
‘Yui Otohara… good. She’s marked as an ally.’
Yui Otohara, still frozen in grayscale, sat in Justice’s hand.
I moved the in-game cursor toward her, and thankfully, she was identified as an “ally.”
What does “ally” mean in an SRPG?
It means a unit who, while not directly controllable by the player, will assist in combat against enemies.
If she were an enemy, she would’ve been listed alongside the dozen or so foes currently clustered about 20 tiles away on the grid field displayed on my smartphone.
“…Phew.”
Feeling a bit dizzy, I immediately halted the phone’s controls.
The screen resumed real-time movement, and I leaned my head back against the cockpit seat.
[Partner. Are you okay? How about summoning Kiharu for some healing?]
“Not enough mana.”
[Then how about purchasing a Mana Herb with Tower Coins? It would increase your max mana and help restore it too.]
“Good idea. Let’s test it.”
I switched from the game screen to the Summon Management menu.
“Alice. Purchase seven Mana Herbs.”
[S-Seven?!]
“Yeah. One for me, one for each summon, and one for Yui Otohara over there.”
Even before I finished the command, I felt something pull from within me—and in an instant, seven stalks of glowing blue-petaled herbs materialized in my hand.
Quite literally, they materialized.
“Miss Yui Otohara. I bought a Mana Herb, but how do you consume this?”
[Oh, you bought one? Just pop it in your mouth and chew.]
[Ah—!!]
Alice panicked, but advice on using items is best taken from veterans anyway.
Chomp. Chomp.
It felt like chewing some leafy vegetable, but the mana I’d burned while pausing time earlier was quickly replenished.
My mana capacity increased.
And with it, mana regenerated quickly to match the new max.
“Yeah… it makes sense now. Why those Hunters were so desperate to get Tower Coins.”
I tossed one Mana Herb outside of Justice.
The glowing stalk passed through the cockpit’s barrier, flying straight toward Yui Otohara—
Plop.
It landed right on her head.
Caught off guard, she didn’t even think to grab the glowing stalk. Instead, she turned silently to Elaine, who was standing beside her.
“This is…”
“That is an advance payment from my Master.”
“Huh?”
“It means it’s your share, Hunter Yui Otohara.”
“You… you’re giving this to me?”
Yui Otohara, clearly startled, quickly snatched the Mana Herb from her head and clutched it tightly to her chest.
“You… you’re really giving this to me?”
“Yeah.”
That told me everything.
Just how obsessed these veterans were with the resources that Tower Coins could buy.
Even someone like Yui Otohara, who was relatively calm compared to the others, reacted like this.
What about those Hunters lying unconscious, the ones who hadn’t been turned into Ironblood?
‘To save their world, huh.’
They steal Tower Coins from other-world Hunters to increase their own forces.
Or give Elixirs to cure people with incurable diseases.
“…”
Wrong.
That’s not a real solution.
“Miss Yui Otohara?”
“Y-Yes…?!”
Yui Otohara, already chewing on the Mana Herb, jumped in surprise.
“Where is the final boss of this East Asia Babel?”
“Th-The final boss?”
“Yeah. It’s still a Tower, right? So there has to be a final boss somewhere.”
“Th-That’s… I’m not really sure. I mean, no one’s ever reached the boss room, so…”
“Then we just have to be the first.”
“Huh…?”
“You just hit the jackpot.”
Justice, initiate movement.
“Let’s make a deal. If we take down this Babel’s boss and Tower Coins start pouring in… Then don’t worry about any other reward…”
Even if it’s a different world.
“Help liberate Korea on your Earth.”
I’m not going to sit and watch that play out again.
“…I promise. I-I swear. Even if I have to legally change my name to O-Yui or something!”
“…”
Well, anyway—
“East Asia Babel’s getting a service shutdown today.”
