While the villains who climbed onto Illinois’s bridge were busy bombarding the beasts on the deck, I summoned a special entity for the final check.
“Alice.”
[Yes, yes! This is Alice, the control AI for the Summon Management Application!]
I don’t usually call her often, so the moment I did, she responded with a cheerful voice right away.
“After summoning the fifth summon, what are the conditions for summoning the sixth?”
[U-uhm…]
“Something like ‘Clear 10 S-Rank Towers,’ is that it?”
[Uh, well, that’s outside my authorization, so I can’t say… Ah, p-please don’t be angry or disappointed!]
From this, Alice might seem utterly useless and incompetent, but it’s precisely because of her that I, as a Summoner, can perform feats that defy physical laws.
Summoning and reverse summoning.
Connecting the real world and dungeon interiors.
Controlling summons in real-time via smartphone and PC.
Just look at Elaine’s current battle situation through the split-screen on my smartphone—Alice is relaying that information in real time, making it all possible.
So, no, Alice isn’t incompetent.
It’s just that, when it comes to things like systems and rewards, she tends to leave you scratching your head about whether she can meet your expectations.
“Alright, Alice. Then you should at least be able to answer this.”
[Yes! Please ask! As long as it’s within my authorization, I’ll answer anything!]
“If I keep completing missions after the fifth summon, will I be able to summon the sixth?”
[Yes!]
Now that was a satisfying answer.
“Okay. So this isn’t the final one, then.”
I’ve been putting a lot of thought into choosing this next summon, but thankfully, I won’t have to take it outside the dungeon to agonize over it.
“If you’d told me the fifth was the final summon, I’d be stuck outside thinking myself to death again. Whew.”
“Partner. I’ve got a question.”
Kiharu climbed onto the desktop and raised her hand.
“If summoning the next summon requires breaking the contract with an existing one, then would that mean I—nyahhh!!”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I grabbed Kiharu’s face with one hand.
“That’s not happening. I chose you, and I take responsibility for you. Maybe in games, you swap out old characters for new ones, but reality doesn’t work that way.”
In mobile gacha games, sure—when an old character becomes obsolete, you might quietly drop them from your main party. But would that ever work in reality?
“Companies may replace worn-out parts with newer, more efficient ones, but that’s not how our party operates.”
“But what if that day eventually comes?”
Drei crossed her legs and tapped her temple with a finger.
“Even with things like hackers or androids, it’s the same. On my side, there are plenty of newer models that outperform me.”
“I won’t deny that.”
Despite her stats, Drei is essentially a ‘veteran special model from an older generation’ in the world’s setting.
If she’s considered a Gen-3 android in-game, then newer Gen-4s are already in action, and Gen-5s appear as cutting-edge enemies that pose a real threat.
Of course, since she’s a skilled and popular character, she could still beat models two generations ahead. But sometimes, the damage was so severe, she’d have to replace most of her body.
“If anyone should be replaced, it’d probably be me, right, Kiharu? You may be a 4-Star in game terms, but inside you is a final boss-level goddess.”
“Even so, right now I’m just a sword-wielding healer cat. While I was taking down three villains on the deck, you took down seven.”
“What is this? Are you two planning to leave me?”
This whole “If someone has to go, let it be me” back-and-forth was getting a bit ridiculous.
“I said no one’s getting replaced, didn’t I?”
“Commander. But someday…”
“Maybe someday it’ll come to that. But that’s a problem for the future, and I’ll find a way no matter what.”
I pointed at Alice, quiet as a dead thing inside the smartphone.
“After all the S-Rank Towers we’ve cleared so far, you think there’s no way to strengthen our summons or Hunters? Right?”
[Ah… ahaha…]
A vague laugh.
“That outside your authorization too?”
[B-because it’s outside my authority, I can’t confirm that such a thing exists… aaaaaaagh!!]
Alice screamed.
Drei flinched, frowning, and I quickly closed the smartphone.
“No need to say any more. If a feature like that appears, we’ll either go with upgrading the current summons, or I’ll just get in touch with the developers and request a special modification for Drei.”
“They’re in China, though?”
“China, Japan—does it matter? As long as there’s a way to legally improve your specs, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
If a situation ever calls for bending the law just a bit, as long as it doesn’t involve killing anyone, I’m prepared to act.
“Why do you think I made Illinois my ‘home’?”
BOOM!!
A massive explosion erupted outside.
I had turned the speaker off, so I wasn’t listening—but one of the villains wasn’t attacking the beasts. He was unloading on Illinois’s sealed bulkhead.
[Open up! OPEN THE DOOR! Aaaaagh!!]
“I built this place to be a safe zone, to support you all in peace—away from lunatics like that.”
Click.
Illinois’s main gun fired at the villain, and he became a star in the Ironblood sky.
When a mana-depleted being falls from the sky, rolling across the ground, and beasts start licking their chops nearby—that’s just fate.
“If a situation arises where you guys need to be replaced, it means a disaster so huge that we need that power to protect the world. In that case… I’ll have to accept it.”
“Accept it?”
“Yeah. I mean… give up on this world, maybe?”
At my words, both Kiharu and Drei looked at me with wide, startled eyes.
“Maybe we capture a Tower, lock up the boss so it can’t die, and just live inside it. Or try convincing the boss to let us stay inside.”
“There’s no internet in there, though?”
“Wow, do you think I can’t survive without internet?”
“It was a joke.”
Kiharu chuckled softly and tapped the desktop where she sat.
“If that ever happens, we should pre-install every offline game out there so we’re prepared.”
“I’ll set up a server with AI players to make it feel as close to online as possible.”
“Yeah. That’d be enough.”
Kiharu, Drei, Elaine—fighting the boss right now—and Illinois too. None of them need to worry.
“Even if I go on to summon not just six or seven, but hundreds or thousands more, I have no intention of changing my core party.”
Therefore—
“Summoning the fifth one now doesn’t mean you guys have anything to worry about.”
I had just completed the final training for a very special being I had carefully chosen.
“Alice. Is summoning now possible?”
[Yes! The summoning conditions have been met! Now the only thing left is…]
“Acquiring the summon ticket, right.”
I tapped the signal on my smartphone lightly.
“Let’s wrap up and get out, Elaine.”
Shing.
Her reply came in the form of a drawn blade.
6 / 6.
And then, the Tower began to tremble.
* * *
[The White House – Oval Office]
“This is absurd…”
One of the S-Rank Towers rising from above Devil’s Tower, pointing toward the sky, disappeared.
The roar of cheers from aides and reporters beyond the office doors shook the room, and President Luigi gave a hollow laugh as he checked the calendar.
“Not even three months since the Day of a Million Awakenings, and most of the S-Rank Towers that have plagued the U.S. are already gone.”
As President, he had gone through unimaginable hardship.
Even being the President of a world without Towers would have been enough to drive someone to collapse from overwork. But then the Towers arrived, and the madness became overwhelming.
And now—someone appeared who was effortlessly destroying them.
All it took was an American Express Black Card and a few support supplies.
His work was so fast that staff began shifting from saying “as expected of a Korean” to “that crazy Korean.” But even so, he was clearing S-Rank Towers at an unbelievable pace, one after another.
Now that he had cleared three S-Rank Towers simultaneously, the question was—how would he handle four at once next?
Or… would he go for that towering presence in the sky—Babel?
“…He really does make you hope.”
President Luigi clicked his tongue as he watched Illinois emerge from the gate.
With feats like that, of course everyone in America would want him to stay in the country forever.
But on a global scale—
Beep Beep Beep.
An emergency alert.
Not on a smartphone, but from the telephone sitting atop the President’s desk.
Startled, President Luigi immediately picked up the receiver.
“What is it?!”
[Mr. President! Emergency! A missile has been launched from the classified military base in Utah!]
“…What?”
For a moment, President Luigi couldn’t even process whether what he heard was in English.
“A missile was launched? Why?”
[It’s a hack! We believe it’s… possibly from Russia…!]
“What’s the missile targeting?!”
[…Devil’s Tower! The Master exiting the Tower!]
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Still gripping the receiver, Luigi turned to the live broadcast.
[Wait… is that… something?]
One missile came into view on the broadcasting station’s camera, which had been focused on Illinois.
“…You’ve got to be f**king kidding me.”
When Luigi saw the black and yellow pattern painted on the missile, he cursed reflexively.
“No—stop it! Do something—”
But it was already too late.
The missile struck directly toward Illinois’s bridge.
■■■■■■■■■!!
As the explosion engulfed the screen, President Luigi dropped the receiver.
“America’s… humanity’s hope…?”
Flash.
In the middle of the explosion—
Something flashed like a pair of sharp eyes.
A green light flickered—and the explosion twisted into something it was never meant to be: a strange, pink-hued blast that shot upward into the sky.
“What the hell is that…?”
Within that rosy smoke—
A sharp silhouette emerged, centered around what looked like a glowing blue orb—
A towering figure that resembled a—
“…Robot?”
It appeared with its fist raised high toward the sky.
