An investigation.
I narrowed my eyes.
I didn’t need to ask what it was about. After the failed report, Yurnet had likely been looking into the El Cid case. But that was already a closed matter to me.
Did she even know that I had made contact with a high-ranking member of Mobius?
And now, out of the blue, she’s contacting me...
“Did you find anything?”
After a brief silence, Yurnet answered.
“You said hacking wouldn’t work, that there were issues with permissions. What did you do?”
I frowned.
Her words were oddly mysterious.
‘Find out soon enough?’
I shook my head.
There was something else I needed to deal with first.
“They’re probably just as much trouble for you guys. There’s no need to rush. I’ll handle it from my side.”
I leaned against the wall.
This wasn’t like her at all.
“Yurnet, what’s going on?”
She had disappeared for nearly ten days without a single word.
This wasn’t like the old her. In the past, even when she was busy as my acting master, she still found the time to contact me regularly.
Yurnet spoke in a monotone voice.
I remember that moment vividly.
She had shown me the highest floors of Niflheimr’s obsidian castle and pleaded for me to remain there. At the time, I only had one thing in mind—returning to Earth. So I turned her down.
‘Why bring that up now?’
“.....”
Her voice was tinged with sorrow.
“What are you saying, Yurnet? Why the sudden...”
Cut.
The communication was severed.
I stood there, staring blankly for a moment.
“.....”
She said she had finished the investigation into the El Cid case.
Then, she had gone on about something incomprehensible before abruptly ending the conversation.
None of it made any sense.
The Yurnet I knew would never act this irrationally.
I rushed out of the cabin. Jenna and Velkist, who had been chatting, turned their eyes toward me.
“Get the ship ready.”
Sensing something from my expression, Jenna quickly ran into the control room.
Velkist’s face turned serious.
“What’s going on?”
“I have something urgent to confirm.”
The Lucette began to hum as it lifted off the platform. Dozens of other airships were entering the air, passing through the dimensional vortex.
The emblem of Mobius Corporation was emblazoned on the side of the airships. They were part of the internal suppression team, dispatched to subdue the rogue masters involved in the unauthorized terrorist acts.
“Where should I set the coordinates? This thing’s on auto-pilot...”
“To Townia.”
For now, I needed to confirm things in the waiting room.
‘So, the investigation into El Cid is complete, huh?’
Sorry, but I’ve already finished my own investigation.
The stage of Pick Me Up was incomplete, and the core of the game, the “World Restoration Chapter,” had been lost.
Alpha Zero had given me a choice: after completing my mission, I could either return to Earth or stay and resolve the error in this world.
‘What could possibly be left?’
If there was anything yet to be revealed, it would have to be the exact cause of the error and its solution.
The error was tied to the origin of Mobius, and it couldn’t be revealed until I reached Server 1. I had put off making any decisions until I returned to the waiting room. So why did Yurnet say the investigation was over?
“Anyway, I’ll put it on autopilot now!”
Jenna quickly exited the control room and stepped back onto the deck.
The Lucette banked to the side, moving away from the dimensional vortex.
That familiar sensation of weightlessness enveloped me as the light wrapped around my entire body. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself standing in the middle of an endless inferno.
Fwoooosh!
Flames roared, threatening to consume the deck.
If the Lucette hadn’t taken evasive action, it would have been roasted alive by the extreme heat.
“.....”
The entire sky was ablaze with a deep, ominous red glow.
It was almost as if the sun had risen right in front of us.
“What... what the hell is this?!”
“Jenna, get inside!”
Jenna quickly rushed back into the cabin.
Meanwhile, the metal pillars on the deck began to glow red hot.
If I didn’t have a dragon’s scales, I would have been cooked alive by now.
“Velkist, are you okay?”
“...Barely.”
Velkist’s arms, which he had used to cover his face, were emitting white smoke.
Bzzt! The magic barrier on the Lucette finally activated, dampening the overwhelming heat. Only then was I able to take in my surroundings.
“.....”
The first thing that caught my eye was the wreckage of airships strewn across the field.
The hulls, crafted from special metals, were shattered and glowing red-hot, warping like melted candy under the intense heat. Among the wreckage, I recognized the emblem of Makramda—this wasn’t just any debris.
‘It was an ambush after all.’
They had been waiting to strike the moment we left the vortex.
Judging by the wreckage, it wasn’t just a few ships. At least ten had been in this fleet.
But now, only remnants remained.
I glanced to the side.
The Mobius Company’s internal security fleet that had exited the dimensional city was also suffering the same fate.
Countless airships were engulfed in flames, their carcasses billowing smoke.
‘They didn’t even get a chance to resist.’
Against this hellfire, any form of defense was utterly meaningless.
If the enemy willed it, we would meet the same fate as those other ships.
After all, I had brought her here.
This was Yurnet’s method of investigation.
Hacking hadn’t worked. The permissions required were impossible to access through ordinary means. The only option left was clear.
She must have asked the person who held the information.
Someone close to Yurnet, who likely knew the secrets hidden within Pick Me Up.
Could it have been Ridigion? No, he spent all day training. Myuden? Also unlikely, for the same reason. Nihaku? Not really skilled in information ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) warfare.
That left only one candidate.
Someone who had been investigating something ever since I arrived in Niflheimr.
I turned my gaze forward.
Amidst the towering flames, a dark figure swayed.
A voice as cold as ice, despite the scorching fire that enveloped the figure, pierced the air.
“.....”
The flames cloaking her body didn’t match the frigid tone of her voice at all.
I swallowed nervously.
She spoke again.