The entrance door to the boss room opens.
Everyone braces themselves.
But nothing comes.
what?
Tattattatta…..
“Master, be careful! Something in stealth is coming!”
Boom.
“Wow wow wow”
Suddenly something hit me…
No, did you hug me?
「Eh…….」
“Master, Master, Master――!”
“Kah, maple!”
“Eh, maple? Where did it come from?”
“Hey, don’t call people like insects!”
“Eh, is it maple?”
“Kaede-chan?”
“Your Majesty! I hope you’re safe!”
The next person who came running up was Tadanobu.
Kneel in front of me and put on a relieved face.
Kaede-sama, deactivate your stealth. You can’t see me because I’m outside the party, that you can’t see me.
“Ah, that’s it. …Release.”
Kaede was hugging me.
Looking up at me, tears are flowing.
“I’m glad I was able to meet you, Master.”
“Where did you guys come from…”
“Your Majesty, if you don’t mind, I will report it to you.”
Kaede doesn’t seem to care.
“Ah, please, Tadanobu-kun.”
“I was able to defeat the boss on the second floor without any problems. However, there were three exits from the boss room.”
“Eh, three…”
“So, one is the duck team, and the other is Yukki-san, Botamochi-san, and us, so we split up into two parties.”
“I see”
“We had a tough fight in the boss room on the 3rd basement level…we were almost dead.”
“Oh, it’s the second boss.”
“As I thought, this one also came out… I hope you and your lords are safe.”
“No, it’s thanks to the sacrifices of Mr. Doubletim and Mr. Tamotsu who were trapped here.”
“Is that so? Actually, we, too, were victims of Yukki-san and Botamochi-san.”
“eh!”
“Lord, if possible, I would like to openly apologize to you…until I face my shame and meet you.”
“No, if you’re gone, Yukki-san’s sacrifice will be in vain. I’ll never forgive you for that.”
“Gyoi.”
“Yukki-san, what happened when you disappeared? Was it a respawn effect?”
“My lord, it’s exactly as you said. That’s the same effect as when you respawn.”
“Really”
“So, even after defeating the boss on the 3rd floor, I couldn’t find the gentlemen, so I went back to the boss room on the 2nd floor.”
“Hmm? Did you manage to return to the boss room on the second floor?”
“Just to be safe, we did not unlock the treasure chest in the boss room, that we left Lizzie in the boss room. If they all leave, the room may be reset.”
“Oh, amazing! Tadanobu-kun, you’re too clever.”
“No, this is not my advice, but Captain Duck’s advice.”
“I see… as expected of Captain Duck. So, what happened to Captain Duck?”
“The duck captains will go as far as they can go. We will capture the boss of the third floor, and if we can’t find the lords, we will return to the second floor and proceed through the remaining exit.”
「I see……」
“When I went down to this floor, I thought it might be possible that the monsters had already been wiped out, so I rushed to the boss room.”
“I see, that was good timing. If the boss had been reset, we wouldn’t have been able to join.”
“It was really good.”
Is it a blessing in misfortune that I was able to take time here?
“You did well, Tadanobu-kun, Kaede. ……But Kaede, it’s time to get away from Master. Master is still recovering.”
Himemi tries to pull away Kaede who is clinging to me.
“That’s right, Kaede, it’s my turn next. Even I was trying so hard until just now that I lost consciousness.”
Misaki joins them.
No! I’ve been away from the master for a long time.
Kaede, who was grabbed by the back of the two and was about to be pulled away, clung to my avatar and resisted.
However, the two of them can’t stand it and are separated.
“Alright!”
The moment Kaede was pulled away, Misaki hugged him.
“Wait a minute, Misaki.”
“Hey Misaki!”
“Ah, cheating, Misaki-chan!”
“Next is my turn, Hey Master, I did my best, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did your best, Misaki. That salvo and the final flaming arrow were brilliant. Thank you.”
“Wow, I was praised by Master-, Master, stroke my head, stroke me.”
“Ah… Uh, yeah”
It’s true that thanks to Misaki, no, thanks to everyone, but I have no choice but to do it here.
I stroked his head.
“Uhya”
Misaki raised a strange voice in delight.
“Aaaaaah, cunning, Master, you didn’t want me to do it for you!”
Kaede grabbed my arm.
Himemi turned away with an astonished face.
Mami swells while sitting.
そういえばセンちゃんが消えている。
It must have lost its HP and returned to the item box.
–Warning, you’ll reach your limit soon.
Huh, again?
Hey, hey, hey, …… it’s only 6pm, it’s too early to go to bed. ……
Besides, I just slept for twelve hours.
How long are you going to sleep in the Metaverse?
What is it, my brain is exhausted so much…
“Sorry everyone, I think I’m going to sleep again…”
“Eh, Master, have you already?”
“It seems so, Himemi, I’m begging everyone for a while.”
“Yes Master, I will definitely protect you during your vacation.”
– You’ve reached your limit.
bang.
“Ah, Master.”
“that……”
“Your Majesty…”
《Oblo Underground Fifth Floor》
“What’s going on! What’s going on, Eve?”
“Someone is breaking into security”
“Why! Why didn’t I notice it until now!”
“Yes Master, I’m sorry. It looks like you used a clone of mine and overwrote some security.”
“A clone of Eve? Something like that… how… who else could do that?”
“Master may have used the Adam Clone System created for Heaven World.”
“Oh… Damn it, I didn’t have time to completely delete it while it was left in the headquarters. Did you find it?”
“Master, Minami-san has contacted me.”
“Minami, connect me.”
“Yes. Please talk to me.”
“Minami, what’s wrong?”
“Amakaze-san, do you know a man named Ajiro who came to our house as a new leader after Amakau-san disappeared?”
“Ajiro… I think I heard it somewhere, was it the guy from the head office?”
“Do you know if I say white hacker?”
“That’s right, it’s the guy from the security department that the head office outsourced! White hacker Daisuke Ajiro.”
“It seems that Ajiro brought in the Adam Clone System, created a clone of Eve, tricked Eve into entering through a backdoor, and overwrote part of the security.”
“Damn, you can do it, Ajiro!”
“Could it be that he’s the one who caused XANA Mother’s Bug Buster Penguin to go berserk!”
“I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but there’s no doubt that it’s involved. It’s to interfere with Mr. Amakaze’s plans.”
“How much do you know…”
I don’t think they know what’s in it. Anyway, they want to sabotage us and stop us from doing what Mr. Tenpu is going to do.”
“Damn it, you don’t care about the possibility of your users being sacrificed!”
“As far as Ajiro’s words and deeds are concerned, he is a man who will do anything to achieve his goals.”
‘Where’s the white-hat hacker in all this? But why are they sabotaging us like this? It’s a plan that won’t cause anyone any trouble.”
‘Perhaps the head office was afraid. That Mr. Tenpu would go public with his abandonment of some of the children.”
“It’s a suspicion of the common people.”
“I think they resorted to forceful means in order to regain control over Eve as quickly as possible. They may have suspected that they were using Eve and Oblo to reveal something.”
“That’s right. I’m trying to make it look good, but I want to show the Astro Human Project’s recovery rate high and quickly take over the world’s market share. That’s what I really mean.”
Yes, I think so. I think so. Before Mr. Tenpu, I was sent from the head office to the eve development department because I was reluctant to falsify the recovery rate.
“It’s a business that will determine the future fate of Real Devils Inc., which is costing a huge amount of money.”
“However, I didn’t think that Adam’s developer, Mr. Amakaze, would even try to get rid of him. What’s more, he’s been tamed and monitored so that he won’t go to another company.”
“The non-disclosure agreement was also renewed to something more unfavorable.”
“I had that too. Oh, come to think of it, I had an interview today, and it seems that you were interested in Mr. Amakaze.”
“For me? Where are you interviewing?”
“Umm, if I remember correctly…the monthly metaverse? I don’t think anyone has talked about it since the gag order was issued.”
“Monthly Metaverse! It’s run by XANA Guild Union members!”
“XANA guild?”
“Do you remember who came?”
“Umm, wait a minute, I think… I have a business card… ah, I have it. Um, Wakaki-san… Hayashi-san and Mado-san.”
“Jackie-san!”
“Do you know each other?”
“I can’t get in touch with those people!”
“Umm, that itself is easy, but… recently, I’ve been under suspicion as well, so I’m being monitored.”
“I see, that’s bad. If the south is eliminated, we won’t be able to get information there…”
“If it’s the XANA Guild… That’s right, I have an acquaintance in XANA named Monetone-san. I don’t know his real name, but I do know his contact information, so let’s see if we can contact him from that direction.”
“That Monemone-san might be a Guild Union member.”
“Eh, is that so! Then it seems to be fine.”
“Yes, but please be careful. The Union may also suspect me.”
“Okay. I’ll do it carefully.”
“Yeah, please. I’m sorry, get involved.”
“No, it’s not for Amakaze-san, I’m doing this out of my own sense of justice.”
「Yeah」
“Then, I will contact you again.”
“Oh, please.”
“Eve, delete all call logs for now.”
「Yes, master」
“So, are the people I respawned from Oblo okay?”
“Yes, one of them has appeared at the guild union headquarters, and the others have appeared at the pier point. There are also AIs, so I think we will be able to deal with the Buster Penguin somehow.”
“Are the Buster Penguins still unstoppable?”
“Since the XANA side considered the invasion of XANA Mother to be dangerous and entered a defense system, there is no way to stop it. Part of my cloned security system intentionally bugged XANA Mother’s security. and the real me is seen as the same.”
“Then, can’t we eliminate Clone Eve’s security?”
“It’s becoming difficult for me to distinguish between my own program and a cloned program. I’m taking measures to distinguish between them, but they may be attacked first. In other words, these five layers are also at risk. will be
“Kuh… but the construction of Heaven hasn’t been completed yet.”
‘Yes, you can enter. You can already enter, and you can close it, but it’s incomplete, and I can’t cut off your connection to me.”
“It means that it will be found soon.”
“Yes, if you’re a white hacker, it’s even more so.”
“I understand. I have no choice but to wait.”
「Yes」
“How are the children doing?”
“Everyone is having fun playing. No problem.”
Okay, I get it.
(Written by Jiraiya / Edited by Achille)