NOVEL WEB Chapter 100: A Slim Chance
Pardofelis's eyes sparkled as she gazed at the typewriter, practically treating it as her treasure. If she owned that typewriter, her supply business could overcome so many obstacles!
If it were hers…
Ah, wouldn't the locations of valuable items be laid bare before her? And countless leads to precious intelligence and secrets… Just the thought made the little cat excited.
"...Elysia, don't look at me like that. In the scene, I was just part of the crowd observing your body," Mobius muttered, taking a step back and speaking quietly, avoiding Elysia's gaze.
"But wasn't there always a saying in MOTHs? Something like, if someone feels unwell, it must've been Mobius' doing, hm~?"
Elysia raised an eyebrow and spoke leisurely.
Regarding her sudden death at the beginning of the story, Elysia was already well aware of it. After all, she was one of the main voice actors, how could she possibly be completely in the dark?
"Don't leave out the rest of that phrase on purpose. The second half mentions Kalpas. And… death should be considered an item malfunction, right? So it must've been Kalpas' doing!"
Mobius frowned deeply, visibly annoyed. She could tell Elysia was teasing her.
But as for spreading the message of Elysia's death everywhere? She wouldn't stoop to that level.
Elysia was nothing more than…
Elysia turned to Kevin, asking him with a teasing tone,
"Kevin, if pulling the trigger on me could save the majority, what would you do?"
Kevin, staring coldly at the screen, finally looked over and answered indifferently, "This time… I'll make the choice I truly believe in."
"Oh?~" Elysia's eyes brightened as she stared at Kevin's frosty expression for a long while before nodding. "Well, I'm looking forward to it. In the memory space, Kevin, will you finally complete the thing you care about most?"
Kevin: "..."
"That's not what I care about most," he said, shaking his head.
"Hehe, I was just casually bringing it up. After all… at the moment of my incident, what you remembered was that phrase… It seems that event truly left a scar on your heart."
Elysia spoke simply, twining her fingers together with a hint of embarrassment. She hadn't expected that her words would linger in Kevin's mind for so long. Salvation, after all, meant carrying the regrets of an entire era forward.
She never resented him for it. That was her own choice.
As for the thing he cared about most, it was clearly related to MEI.
"Hmm, and what about you, Elysia?" Mobius asked, her tone nonchalant.
"Oh?"
"Your most important matter, huh~ Think about it. Isn't it funny that you might die before completing something? Oh, don't get me wrong—I'm talking about both reality and the game here."
Mobius tilted her head slightly, clearly uninterested in making direct eye contact. Her cold voice quietly questioned Elysia, as always, poking at sore spots and lacing her words with that distinct sarcastic tone.
"If I had to say... I guess I half-accomplished it not too long ago," Elysia replied, scratching her cheek as she fondly recalled the events of a few days prior. Fighting alongside her companions had been a wonderful experience.
Though many of the other Flame-Chasers operated behind the scenes, they still provided their support.
"Huh? Don't tell me you've lost your mind. Not too long ago… what? Gaining a bit of weight and turning into Miss Plump Fairy? Or was it that afternoon tea with three Theresas and three Fu Huas, where you said, this feels great; I want to remember this day forever? Or maybe Klein complaining that she's slowly regaining her original form, and yet you still treat her like a doll and hug her?"
"Which one of these sounds like your wish?"
Mobius furrowed her brow and gave a stern critique. However, in her mind, these did seem plausible.
Elysia fell silent. Everyone else in the room also fell silent, giving Mobius some strange looks.
Mobius's concern for Elysia seemed… a bit excessive.
"Ahem," Elysia coughed lightly, as though she had choked on a drink, before finally relaxing and sighing in mild frustration. Look at that, was this really the image her companions had of her?
"Doctor Mobius, your thought process is a bit off. My biggest wish might simply be fighting alongside all my friends," she said, clearly upset.
"Hey, hey, hey, did you notice…"
The Herrscher of sentience leaned in and whispered to the nearby "old Timer," her tone conspiratorial. Luo Mo also leaned in instinctively, after all, he had accidentally overheard.
"Mobius and Elysia's relationship isn't as bad as she makes it seem!"
She grinned like a child who had just discovered a new continent.
Luo Mo found it utterly uninteresting, retreating back and adjusting his imaginary glasses as he observed Mobius, who looked angry, and Elysia, who was smiling.
Wasn't it obvious?
Mobius's sharp tongue was clearly the hardest thing in the entire Elysian Realm.
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Meanwhile, things were escalating beyond Mei's comprehension. Attempting to leave the Elysian Realm, she found that no matter how she exited the hall, she kept returning to a battlefield.
Wave after wave of monsters appeared, surrounding Mei endlessly.
It seemed someone in the shadows had decided she wasn't allowed to leave.
Her hope of escaping vanished in an instant, leaving Mei with no choice but to stand her ground. No matter what, she wielded her sword and fought on.
But the number of monsters showed no sign of decreasing.
Among them, faded monsters began to appear, their numbers growing rapidly.
These faded creatures bore a striking resemblance to the one she had once pursued with Pardofelis in the Elysian Realm. Despite the chase, they had turned out to be no different from ordinary monsters—simply discolored.
However, now, the pressure from the monsters made escape nearly impossible. To make matters worse, an unfamiliar force began to erode her from within, clouding her vision and sapping her strength.
Gradually, her body weakened.
Then… everything turned black.
Mei collapsed to the ground, the path out of the hall completely cut off.
The cause… unknown.
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"Faded monsters… and Mei fainted? How strange. What could simultaneously affect Mei and memory constructs? And this fading, why would the memory space fade like that?"
The Herrscher of sentience analyzed the situation seriously.
"Reminder: Once Mei enters, she essentially becomes a data construct as well," Fu Hua remarked, though she herself was puzzled by the events. The companions beside her maintained a strict defense.
"But there's still a difference," the Herrscher of sentience retorted, raising an eyebrow and glancing at Luo Mo with a smile.
"Luo Mo~ Why don't you offer a reminder?"
"Didn't you say the Fu Hua duo should start investigating and that everyone else should stay out of it?" Luo Mo grumbled.
"Hey!"
"Why not ask Kiana? She'd be perfect for this," he added.
"..." The Herrscher of sentience turned to look at Kiana, who was smiling foolishly, then quietly turned back. "Honestly, this was just a small activity for me and the old timer. Telling you about it was just to see if you'd suddenly blurt something out. And look, now you're panicking!"
Luo Mo rolled his eyes at her.
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In the depths of the Elysian Realm, where Mei had once fought Aponia,
Now, Aponia was fully focused on forming some sort of mental connection, trying to find leads on the lost Flame-Chasers.
She had stationed numerous adjustable monsters as guards.
Normally, they weren't necessary, but given the current turmoil within the Elysian Realm, they might serve as a warning.
Yet, before the figure standing before her, these monsters turned into a wall of eternal ice the moment Kevin stepped into the area.
A single burst of cold froze them completely, leaving no chance for resistance.
Aponia, her hands in a prayer gesture, seemed to sense something. Her eyelids fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes.
When she saw Kevin, she showed no surprise.
If anyone could reach her so easily… it would undoubtedly be him.
However, he rarely set foot here. If you counted the occasions without Elysia's presence, this was practically unprecedented.
"Kevin, have you finally decided... to fulfill your responsibility as a leader?"
Aponia looked at him, her tone calm.
"The typewriter was deliberately damaged," Kevin said, arms crossed, quietly recounting what he had learned. "There were a lot of files left behind, but their contents only stated... Elysia is dead."
"..."
"In addition, there was another file, containing information related to the Twelfth Herrscher."
Kevin paused, a cold glint flashing in his eyes before he continued, "More specifically, it's related to Sakura's sister."
Aponia closed her eyes, seemingly mourning. She silently let time flow by before sighing bitterly, a wry smile appearing on her face.
"Sakura must have sensed it already. Rather than saying she's confirming it, it's more accurate to say she already knew. She talked to Kalpas before about severing Herrscher powers."
"That's why... I handed the key to Griseo earlier. After all, if Sakura were to choose her next target for revenge, it'd probably be me, right?"
After all, she was the true culprit.
She sighed deeply, as if concluding and summarizing, "The seeds we sow with our own hands... we ultimately cannot avoid reaping them."
"But... Kevin, it seems you don't agree?"
She cast a perplexed gaze at Kevin, the seemingly passive and unsuitable leader, yet the only one qualified to lead in Elysia's absence.
Kevin, however, was unwilling to hastily label one of his companions as the culprit. Even with all the evidence pointing to that unresolved case from the past, he refused to believe it.
He didn't know why, perhaps it was Elysia's constant insistence on trusting every companion. Or maybe he simply didn't want to doubt anyone anymore. He didn't want the bullets in his gun to be aimed at his friends.
He simply listened to Aponia's words calmly, and then… did what he had to do.
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The Herrscher of sentience , after hearing Aponia's explanation, lit up and announced her deduction:
"I guess Sakura? Working with Kalpas? It's not impossible, right?"
"...Fu Hua, be honest. Did you misjudge the case back then?" Luo Mo asked quietly.
"This… this is just Knowledge's imagination running wild. Besides, Sakura couldn't have made Elysia vanish entirely, or made Kevin feel so threatened," Fu Hua hesitated, glancing at the emotionless Sakura. She still defended the Herrscher of sentience.
"Using sword techniques to freeze space? Maybe that's plausible. After all, pink-haired characters often share mutual understanding," Luo Mo dismissed the idea but encouraged further guesses. With so many clues, particularly Sakura's sister, the answer seemed obvious.
But watching the detective's process wasn't bad either.
"True, if Elysia underestimated her and added her desire to take Sakura's sister, it might've worked," the Herrscher of sentience muttered, stroking her chin and indulging her imagination.
"What do you mean 'take her sister'? Am I that kind of person?" the pink-haired one protested.
Rin laughed joyfully, her crescent-shaped eyes gleaming as she listened to the Herrscher of Knowledge's speculation. She paid no heed to Elysia's protests and continued to build on the theory, ignoring the fact that Rin wasn't even in the Elysian Realm at the time.
Luo Mo's lips twitched in exasperation. It seemed the true self-serving detective was her.
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In a small pavilion in the Eternal Paradise, Su couldn't help but speak.
Although his eyes remained closed, his heart was filled with anxiety.
"Kevin, what is it... that's causing your hesitation?"
News of their companions' deaths, the absence of any results, the disappearance of Sakura and Kalpas—internal and external causes remained a mystery.
As the leader of the Flame-Chasers, Kevin seemed to be doing nothing.
But as his friend, Su could see that Kevin was trapped in hesitation, a hesitation so profound it could sway even the strongest Flame-Chaser.
He couldn't help but speculate. Seeking answers from Aponia, maybe even Mobius or Vill-V... had he gathered perspectives from all sides and still couldn't decide?
"It's a choice," Kevin replied. His brows remained furrowed, but he couldn't reveal the truth, not about that matter, that person, or even the hypothetical enemy.
If what he suspected was true, speaking it aloud would mean total defeat.
Yet...
Should he trust the one who had told him everything?
He didn't know, but he understood he had to make a decision. His companions were waiting for him.
Whether the choice was right or wrong...
What was being tested now was his trust in his companions, Sakura and Vill-V.
"Then... what should I do?" Su asked, resigned. But Kevin wouldn't have called him here for nothing.
"I need to entrust something to you," Kevin said.
Suddenly, a radiant blue light overflowed from him. It was a key, the most critical item that could not be lost.
If even the strongest Flame-Chaser couldn't safeguard it, what kind of danger was Kevin preparing to face?
Su didn't know. He opened his eyes, but they were engulfed in the dazzling light, leaving him unable to see anything clearly.
Entrustment…
He naturally understood the weight of those words. In his memory, he could hardly recall Kevin ever saying anything similar. This time, it was clearly no joke.
"Su, can you still see the future of the Elysian Realm?"
"All I can see is endless darkness."
"…Alright."
Su couldn't understand why his answer made Kevin's steps seem lighter. It was as if Kevin had confirmed some thought and, with that certainty, moved forward more determinedly than ever.
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It was a fragment of memory, from the time after dusk but before the moonrise.
"Ten percent. With only a ten percent chance, you want us to wager our only sword on the table?"
"...?" The soft sound of someone weakly arguing back.
"…No, I agree."
"Because it's obvious… the other plans don't even come close to ten percent."
A faint laugh came from an unknown corner, carried by the cold wind with a hint of mockery.
"I understand. He would certainly reject such a gamble… but in the end, I am not him."
"The long years he bore alone are also not mine."
Kevin spoke softly, his eyes filled with resolve.
This was the biggest gamble he had ever made.
He could only hope he wouldn't fail.
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