Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 100

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TL: ALT

Chapter 100 – 「 」

The post-collapse dungeon, which had turned into a devil’s domain, was broken through with brute force.

The view opened up for a change.

“This is…”

The room that Kudave and I stepped out of was a huge room, drastically different from what it had been a moment ago.

The size of the room is… about the size of a fighter jet for a dogfight.

But it is not a room open to the outside.

Instead of a ceiling, it is the darkness of the dungeon we fought to get out of.

In contrast, countless white lines extend from the floor to the ceiling.

The white lines seem chaotic at first, but when viewed as a whole, they form a geometric web.

You know, black chocolate covered with white chocolate like a net.

That’s what I first thought of when I saw the sprawling scene.

Or it looks like an artistic piece of pastry that was entered in a pastry contest.

But the scale of it is outrageous.

From a short distance, Kudave would look like a grain of almonds.

A cluster of white lines spirals outward and upward from the bottom.

Find the center of the spiral with your eyes.

It should be obvious if you follow the lines backward, but for some reason, you cannot find the center of the spiral.

That’s strange.

I tried tracing the spiral again in reverse, but the white mesh disappeared before I knew it.

I’m sure I’m following it with my eyes, but I don’t even know when it disappears.

It’s like those deceptive picture books I saw as a child.

Like a waterway that circles endlessly regardless of its height or a fork that has only one crotch when it should have three ends.

It’s like following something like that with your eyes.

“That’s the ‘hole,’ Yuto.”

Kudave pointed to “there” with a slight tilt of his chin.

I could see where he was pointing, but I couldn’t see “there.”

It was not that I could not see it because it was covered by something.

Even if I wanted to see it, I couldn’t.

It was in my field of vision, but I couldn’t feel that I was looking at something.

“What is this? Is something wrong with my eyes?”

“I see, humans are incapable of perceiving「 」.”

There was an unnatural jump in Kudave’s words.

“Eh, what did you just say?”

“It’s「 」”

“You’re not kidding, are you?”

“Hmm. It seems you don’t even accept「 」as a language. That is an interesting phenomenon. Does it mean that the words that refer to「 」are malfunctioning in the cognitive stage?”

He seems convinced, but I have no idea what he’s talking about.

“You mean there’s something in the middle of that vortex-like thing?”

“Is there something, huh? If anything, what you’re seeing is the phenomenon of the absence of something. Or should we say that there is the phenomenon of something else? Technically, it is not even an event.”

“I don’t like to hear such philosophical talk out of the blue.”

“It’s something between two worlds. Another way to say it is something that is “not” between two worlds. This is only natural when you think about it. As long as the world is something that exists, there cannot be something that exists between two worlds. If there is “something” there, it means that the place belongs to one of the worlds or is a world by itself. But it is also inaccurate to say that there is nothing. In the space between worlds, there is a possibility that a new world could be born. There is a “not” that can be an “is,” but since it is a “not,” it cannot be an “is” in the ordinary sense of the word…”

“No, even if this explanation says ‘this is what it means’…”

“I’ll be in trouble if you ask me to explain further.”

“…In short, it’s like ‘color is emptiness’ or ‘what is nothingness?’ I don’t know about the rest.”

“I don’t know about the latter, but the former is not far off.”

“Then let’s call it emptiness for now.”

“Huh. The emptiness peers through a hole into the other world. Crawling in from the outer edges of the void are the fibers of the Boundary Dragon Splefnir.”

“Is that what all that white stuff is?”

“Yes, that’s right. But the hole itself seems to be smaller than I thought. The penetration of the ‘fibers’ seems to have occurred only through the gaps.”

“Perhaps the ritual was incomplete because of Clovis’ death?”

The ritual to open the passage to the other world was completed when Clovis was killed by the Brain Eater implanted in his brain.

But Clovis must have prepared this ritual for his own return to the other side.

Since the ritual was completed with the death of the performer, it could only have caused a smaller phenomenon than originally intended, couldn’t it?

“Perhaps. There is still a large amount of emptiness flowing in here that does not belong to either world. We might be able to use them to repair the hole.”

“Really? How do we do that?”

“That’s…”

Just as Kudave is about to open his mouth, a white net comes at us in a wave.

It was a tidal wave of white netting, big enough to swallow Kuderweh.

“Tch!”

Kudave showered the white net with his breath.

The net glowed purple and immediately disappeared.

It should have been visible, but it wasn’t―it was a void.

But maybe that was the trigger, the white net swirling in space―the “fibers” of Splefnir―all coming at us at once.

“Yuto! Rewrite the void in that ‘hole’!”

Kudave says to me as he burns away the “fibers.”

“Rewrite it! How?”

“A void exists between worlds… Well, it doesn’t really exist, but it’s there! In short, it is a void that belongs to neither world! Write the ‘rules’ of this world into that void!”

Fibers weave together, creating shapes like cloth, domes, spheres, and cones…

It is like a fingerless game of cat’s cradle.

There is a geometric beauty to it that I can’t help but admire, but I know a dangerous thing when I see it.

Every tenth of a second since a few minutes ago, I have felt a sense of danger, like a sumo wrestler about to fall out of the ring.

It was the last day of the Grand Sumo Tournament, a big match that could not be lost. In the ring of the National Sumo Hall, which was filled to capacity, the image of me being pushed around by the opposing sumo wrestler, just one step away from breaking the ring, came to me out of nowhere.

At first, I wondered what it was, but it turns out that the Critical Moment skill―the skill that detects attacks that will reduce your HP to zero if you get hit―reacts to Splefnir’s fibers.

In other words, if this white twig were to swallow me, I would die in a single blow.

There is something floating around the twig that escapes my perception.

The density is uneven, but it is thicker around the “hole” and thinner toward the bottom of the dungeon (the ceiling, from my point of view).

The emptiness that defies recognition makes it difficult for me to accurately grasp the movement of the fibers.

I can see the fibers because they actually “are” there, but every time I see the void in my vision, my eyes become blurred.

Kudave told me to carve the rules of this world into that void.

So, if I make the void a part of this world, I can close the hole.

Well, I understand the idea.

But,

“What are the rules?”

“The rules of this world! Don’t you understand?”

“The rules of this world… I understand!”

The first thing that came to my mind was the “rules” that govern this crazy modern world.

Status.

And skills.

But that’s not all.

The next thing that came to my mind was the “causality” that God was talking about.

The causality of this divine sword is rooted in the mythology of this country since the beginning of time.

So, by inscribing the rules of this world into the void, we can make the void a part of this world.

Perhaps because the ritual of summoning Splefnir was done halfway, a large amount of emptiness is flowing in through the hole.

By making the void a part of this world, we are trying to plug the hole.

“It won’t last long! The more time passes, the more fibers will grow! The fibers rewrite the void around them into themselves! Splefnir, the dragon that defines the boundaries of the world… knows how to deal with emptiness!”

It seems that over there, they are trying to turn the void into Splefnir’s fibers.

This means that the more time passes, the more dramatically it becomes a disadvantage.

“I get it! Kudave, give me three seconds! After three seconds, I want you to go to the hole as fast as you can! I don’t recognize the ‘hole,’ so keep your head pointed right at the ‘hole’!”

“All right! Kuhahaha! It’s like a mythical battle! It’s flowing, it’s flowing!”

I focus my attention on my thoughts above Kudave’s head, which is now moving rapidly.

No, it is not the thoughts that are important, but the feelings.

Imagine what I am about to do as pessimistically as possible.

I have only one chance.

Kudave shows tremendous aerial maneuvering, but some fibers are beginning to stick to parts of his body.

Kudave will last three seconds, no matter how hard he tries.

After that, he must be able to make a charge.

But if I miss this one, I don’t think I’ll get a second chance.

If Kudave gets hit, that’s the end of it.

If I am thrown into the sea of fibers that will kill me instantly if I touch it, all my skills will be useless.

Of course, the divine sword I borrowed from God is just one.

I’m going to incorporate this skill into the maximum firepower combo that I have in mind, so once I use the divine sword, that’s it.

Even more than Kudave’s approach, this would be a completely unparalleled one-hit wager.

On top of that, it’s an attack from above Kudave at maximum battle speed.

The biggest problem, even before combining skills, would be whether or not to miss the attack.

It’s a one-shot, timing game.

It’s a complete skill stop.

By the way, I’m not very good at music games.

I can’t help but press faster than right under pressure. The people who are good at it say you just have to match the rhythm, but if you don’t look at the notes and press in rhythm, you’re sure to miss.

I think it’s because they’ve worked the score to death, so they can just match the rhythm and match the notes. If someone like me, who has no musical background, just vaguely follows the rhythm, it’s bound to be a little off. Even if I say I can match the rhythm, I have to learn which notes go with which.

In that case, I have to do my best to press the notes.

But it’s also true that the more notes there are, the more you can’t handle them by skill stop. The higher the difficulty level, the harder it is to maintain concentration.

It’s hard to start out nervously staring at the notes and then succeed without missing a single skill stop.

Of course, I understand the feeling of accomplishment when you get a perfect score or the feeling of becoming one with the song by repeating the score.

I know I’m going to be called a coward, but every once in a while, I try to play a music game just because I’m afraid of something, but the high-difficulty songs break my heart, and I keep deleting the app.

Huh? There are no shortcuts to getting good at music games; you just have to put in the time to get good at them. That’s a fair point, but if the balance between the rate of your progress and the amount of effort required is skewed toward the latter, you’ll lose your motivation. As a result, they will move on to other games that are easier to enjoy. In the end, I don’t think I’m cut out to play music games.

Not being able to keep rhythm also means not being able to pause, not being able to read pauses. In other words, I’m an idiot who can’t keep up with the pace of the world. My life has always been like this. I’m oblivious to the rhythm of the people around me, and I’m the one who’s frowned upon if I make a sound when I’m out of time.

Even in a music game where you can always start over, I’m in such a mess, but this time, it’s a timing game where you have one shot.

This is an extremely difficult version of the infamous QTE (Quick Timer Event: a button suddenly appears in the game, and you have to press it before it disappears).

If you fail to press the □ button that appears for a split second, the world dies.

Please stop this. This game sucks too much!

Why do I have to play a one-shot game with the fate of the world in my hands, a QTE that probably lasts milliseconds? I’m a guy with no sense of rhythm who’s been thrown off every rhythm in his life. You definitely picked the wrong person! What did I do wrong? But I’m sure there’s no one else who could do it but me. I know I can’t escape it, but that’s why I want to escape this reality!

I only had 3 seconds to let my soul scream in my mind.

I appeared in a subspace that was not reality, where time stopped, and everything became a purple outline.