WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The World Is Not a Game ◈
Chapter 13
──────
A formation of fighter-bombers flying at Mach speeds dropped hundreds of bombs on the monsters below. The creatures were torn to pieces before they could even react.
The warp energy within them gave them resistance to physical force, but only up to a point. They couldn't survive overwhelming firepower.
A few flying monsters that had escaped the blasts belatedly took to the air, but they couldn't catch fighter-bombers flying far above them at several times the speed of sound.
For a brief moment, the land was clear of monsters.
At the center of the blast zone, where thick black smoke rose into the air, a strange black mist suddenly stirred. It soon formed a large, arched doorway about six meters tall, and a group of people stepped through.
There were nine of them, dressed in all kinds of clothing. Their presence was far too powerful for ordinary humans.
They were the S-rank Closers who had come to take on the SS+ rank dungeon.
Only a little over ten seconds had passed since the bombs fell. The devastated ground was as hot as a heated griddle, and toxic gases released by the bombs filled the air. But none of that mattered to these superhumans, who had surpassed human limits.
“The Himalayas. I came here as a tourist forty years ago. But looking at the place now, it's no different from a shadow world. Haah. It feels like my memories have been erased.”
An Indo-Aryan man floated a handspan above the ground, looking around at the twisted landscape as he spoke with regret. Chuck emerged from the gate of black mist behind him and shook his head at the lament.
“If this expedition succeeds, this place will return to the way you remember it. Enough pointless sentiment. Let's enter the shadow world.”
“No, not yet. My sixth sense tells me there's still something alive nearby. It's too powerful to ignore. If I'm right... at least two of us will die the moment we turn our backs on it and enter the shadow world.”
Tension spread among the other Closers at his warning.
As some of humanity's finest Closers, they all had an above-average ability to sense other presences. But none could match Dhanush, the Hidden One, India's prized S-rank Closer.
He could use Ghost Form to convert his entire body into warp energy, freeing himself from all physical forces. This also made him far more sensitive to warp energy than other S-rank Closers.
After looking around at the empty air for a moment, he continued slowly.
“I can feel a stealthy but terrifyingly powerful warp disturbance getting closer. Since it survived the bombing, it must be able to take on a spirit form like me. Add exceptional stealth and a psychic attack that seeps into our minds so gradually we don't even notice...”
“Heh heh. So the Goddess of Nightmare has come to welcome us before we even go inside. I'd have preferred the goddess of fortune, if I had a say...”
Before Chuck could finish speaking through his hearty chuckle, his body split neatly in half from top to bottom.
But no blood or organs spilled out.
Chuck's figure shimmered like a mirage. It was an illusion made of light.
As Chuck's mirage fell apart, a storm of cutting winds swept through the surrounding Closers, slicing their figures to pieces. But the Closers themselves had already darted backward like lightning.
“Fuck, I hate that one more than any other S-rank monster. And we're facing it at this range? This is the worst!”
As the Closers evaded the attack and prepared to fight, an evil laugh echoed inside their heads. An obscene-looking purple silhouette emerged through the billowing clouds of smoke left by the explosions.
Nikki grumbled at the monster as it came into view. It was a giant standing a full thirty feet, or nine meters, tall.
It had eight arms tipped with clacking pincer blades, pale purple skin that gave off a strong, sweet scent, a smooth head like an egg ghost's, and a figure that resembled a naked woman.
Twisted golden chains and glittering jewels hung over its strangely lewd body. Their sinister light shifted from moment to moment, stirring an empty, aimless greed in the heart.
Anyone who hadn't recognized the creature and prepared in advance would have found their gaze drawn to those chains and jewels without realizing it.
-!!
The moment the goddess fully revealed itself, all its purple skin split open with a Crack!, exposing thousands of mouths.
Then they let out a series of chilling screams.
These weren't sounds heard through the ears. They were psychic waves that seemed to wrench open the skull and shake the brain directly. Their horrifying malice swept over the Closers' minds like a venomous snake's tongue licking its prey.
-Kkikkigigikk! Kkakkakkakkakkak!
Having fought this creature before, they had already raised mental barriers. But the goddess still managed to read the thoughts flowing across the surface of those barriers. Its skin, covered with thousands of mouths, writhed as human faces began to emerge.
- “Mom! Mom! Mom!”
- “Hyeokjin! I... I'm pregnant with your child! Don't leave me!”
- “Sis! I'm here! Help me! It's horrible here! Aaaagh!”
- “You left me to die, brother. You could've saved me, but you killed me for your own greed. Don't tell me you had no choice because you had to protect the family business, the company. You think I was weak? I was better than you. You were afraid I'd inherit the company! And wasn't killing me enough? Did you have to kill my wife and daughter too, just to eliminate any loose ends? The Gentleman of Radiance?! What a joke. Chuck Mattis, you're a murderer. A cold, vile murderer hiding behind hypocrisy and lies!”
The countless human faces on the goddess's skin sent out telepathic waves in all kinds of languages. Voices chillingly identical to those of real people rang clearly inside their heads, while guilt and the images each of them most wanted to erase surged up from within.
Their attention was naturally drawn to those shocking images and whispers. Their surroundings grew increasingly dim, and their limbs felt so heavy they could barely move...
But the cruel goddess's blades showed no concern for the Closers crushed beneath the weight of their guilt.
“Move!”
Chuck's shout jolted them out of their daze as the goddess's blades swept toward them again.
The slashes were as flexible and swift as cracking whips. These battle-hardened veterans used their individual abilities to dodge, but their movements were clearly slower than before.
As the goddess went wild and drove the Closers back, Hyeokjin narrowly avoided an incoming slash and considered how to turn the situation around.
‘Objectively speaking, we have an overwhelming advantage in overall strength. If we hold out for a while, we'll naturally gain the upper hand. Unfortunately, time isn't on our side.’
He glanced around.
They were in an area being encroached upon by the shadow world. With help from the US Air Force, they had wiped out the surrounding monsters, but before long, just as many would emerge to replace them.
If those new arrivals were S-rank monsters on the same level as the Goddess of Nightmare they were fighting now... even one more would put them in danger. In the worst case, they could all be killed before they even entered the shadow world.
‘As I thought, it's better to take a brief risk and kill it quickly. The ranged ability users could do their job if we had some distance from the goddess, but this close, just dodging its attacks is all they can manage. The close-combat fighters need to draw its attention. Which means I should step up, since I'm the least useful one here.’
The moment he finished his calculations, Hyeokjin acted.
He dodged an incoming pincer blade by a hair while placing his right hand on his left forearm and aiming his left hand at the goddess.
With a click, his left gauntlet unfolded into a cannon barrel.
Orange light flashed inside it, followed by a beam of intense heat.
The deadly light-wave attack, overflowing with warp energy, struck the goddess in the face. Its attention naturally shifted to Hyeokjin, and the eight blades that had been keeping the other Closers in check changed targets and rained down on him.
‘Dodge.’
The warp-based synthetic hormones being pumped into his body had accelerated his perception to an unnatural degree. In that slow-moving world, Hyeokjin gritted his teeth and kicked backward with all his strength.
That alone was nowhere near enough to escape the goddess's descending blades. But Hyeokjin trusted the components that made up his body and the allies around him.
And that trust wasn't misplaced.
Forced to fire at an output far beyond what it could withstand, the light-wave cannon on his left hand overloaded and exploded, throwing his body backward.
Five of the goddess's blades swept past, narrowly missing him as they tried to tear him apart.
But three more were still coming.
Two nearby close-combat ability users rushed in and blocked two of them. The ranged ability users, given a brief moment to act, used telekinesis to pull Hyeokjin backward and out of the last blade's path.
It was truly perfect teamwork.
Thanks to Hyeokjin's acrobatic maneuver, the Closers now seized the initiative.
“Die!!!”
Nikki, who had been flying around on a broom to dodge the slashes, let out a furious shriek and spread both hands wide. Black mist like storm clouds burst into existence around her and engulfed the goddess.
The space-warping black mist hindered the goddess's movements. It twisted violently in apparent irritation, shaking off the restraints, then sent a slash at Nikki and cut her in half...
But that figure was another mirage made by Chuck.
“It's over!!”
The others didn't waste the openings that came one after another. Merciless attacks poured in from every direction.
Pillars of sunlight transformed by warp energy fell from the sky, crushing the goddess beneath them. The close-combat ability users drove their strikes into every part of its body.
The remaining ranged ability users unleashed their techniques as well. Every single attack was powerful enough to hurt an S-rank monster.
‘Now!’
The goddess's wounded flesh writhed and began to regenerate rapidly. But the sheer number of attacks landing at once made it stagger and drop to one knee for a moment. Hyeokjin, who had retreated earlier, was already leaping toward its face with his remaining right hand extended.
‘Maximum output. Set the overload explosion to maximum force as well. After ejection, delay detonation by about 0.5 seconds.’
Hyeokjin's right hand transformed into a cannon and fired a beam.
The beam pierced the goddess's skin like a sharp needle. At the same time, Hyeokjin detached his right arm at the joint and launched the prosthetic limb, now a beam cannon, into the hole it had made.
The right prosthetic arm shot straight into the opening.
The torn skin bubbled and closed over it in an instant. The goddess unleashed a chilling telepathic cry and tried to split the airborne Hyeokjin with its pincer blades, but...
-!!!
Its head swelled like a balloon around the spot where the prosthetic arm had entered, then burst violently with a Pop!
Footnotes:
An egg ghost is a Korean folkloric ghost with a smooth, featureless face.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
