Earth No. 675
A dinsion where all work had already been completed.
According to the law of causality, it should have quietly flowed toward its final stage on its own.
And yet—
the one responsible for the 89th Floor, the freely contracted soul Demon Dragon Karatos, had suddenly been erased.
Out of nowhere.
What happened?
The cause was a teor.
He had been struck by a falling teor and died.
But that made ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) no sense.
If a teor was falling, couldn’t he have just teleported away?
Why would he stand there and take it?
The administrators of Earth No. 675 turned their attention to Berlin—
a city that had now been erased by the teor.
What lingered there was a violent residue of magical flow.
This was no ordinary teor.
[...A teor?]
[Looks like it.]
[Did Karatos summon it? Suicide, maybe?]
[Why would that greedy bastard kill himself?]
[Right. No way.]
To make matters worse, a system error had occurred.
No matter how powerful a teor was, it should never have affected the system itself.
And yet the system had shut down for repairs.
After so ti passed—
SPOT!
Soone appeared in the massive crater where the teor had struck.
[Who is that?]
It was not just one person.
They had appeared as a group.
[Looks like a summoner...]
[Then why is there a summoner here?]
[How should I know?]
This dinsion had no summoners.
And even if it once had, they should have died long ago.
[That guy is probably the cause of the system error.]
[Check the system logs. We need to know who he is.]
[The system’s still recovering from the shutdown—ah! It’s back.]
[What do the logs say?]
[...Huh?]
[What is it?]
[F-first, an achievent popped up.]
[What achievent?]
[Dragon Slayer.]
[...What?]
That ant he had killed Karatos.
A human had killed a dragon?
A dragon dying was not, by itself, that important.
They were consumables anyway.
The real problem was that an achievent had appeared.
Achievents were granted only to players—
and only to players affiliated with this world.
[Why would an achievent trigger?]
He was not even affiliated with this Black Tower.
[...Th-that’s because.]
[Stop stalling. Say it.]
[He just acquired nationality.]
[...]
What?
They could hardly believe their ears.
[N-nationality acquisition? That’s impossible... Are you joking?]
[But it really happened.]
This was bad.
Very bad.
[Could he be a survivor of Earth No. 675? A remaining player? An unregistered one?]
[No. He ca from the White Tower.]
[The White Tower?]
There was only one possible route.
[The elevator.]
[Yes. He ca from Earth No. 1001 via the elevator.]
[...]
This was enough to drive anyone insane.
[So a player from another dinsion entered our world and acquired nationality?]
[That’s right.]
[...Hahaha.]
All they could do was laugh hollowly.
[Those idiot administrators of Earth No. 1001—what the hell were they doing while letting that guy run wild?]
[Should we open communications?]
[Open it. I want to curse them out.]
[No. Don’t curse them. Keep it to a formal protest. At this point, we need their cooperation.]
This was a nightmare.
A world where all players were gone,
versus a world where even a single player still existed.
The difference was enormous.
Causality itself would intervene.
The rules that governed and sustained a world.
And the result appeared almost imdiately.
KUGUGUGUGUGU—!
A Black Tower began rising out of Berlin.
Originally, Earth No. 675 had no Black Towers left.
They had all vanished.
Why?
Because every affiliated player had either died or lost their awakening.
Without players, there was no reason for Black Towers to exist.
Monsters had already overrun the entire world.
That was why their status had shifted from
“Black Tower Administrators of Earth No. 675”
to simply
“Administrators of Earth No. 675.”
But now—
a single Black Tower had been created on Earth No. 675.
For the sake of one lone player.
[...We’re screwed.]
If that tower were ever fully cleared...
the consequences would be unimaginable.
*****
White Tower, 17th Floor
The reclusive shut-in alchemist Aliamari was inside her residence,
refining top-grade Magic Stones as usual.
Now that the elevator existed,
a large quantity of top-grade Magic Stones would be needed for round trips.
Naturally sourced ones would not be enough.
There was no telling when the Black Tower veins might run dry.
Thanks to an achievent reward, the summoner had ridden the elevator for free this ti—
but who knew how often it would be used in the future?
At least 10 kg of top-grade Magic Stones had to be kept on hand at all tis.
Refining top-grade Magic Stones was incredibly tedious.
It was basically endless repetitive labor.
Heat refined Magic Stones in the alchemist’s cauldron,
purify them, condense them, leave only the pure crystal behind,
then repeat the whole process again.
A 1000:1 ratio.
One ton of refined Magic Stones to produce just 1 kg of top-grade Magic Stones.
At best, she could make around 300 g per day.
She wanted to finish today’s quota quickly and log into her ga.
The Rift team fight was waiting for her.
Still... when was the summoner coming back?
Nothing bad had happened, right?
Well, the summoned entities had gone with him, so it should be fine.
Just then—
THUD THUD THUD!
The 17th Floor suddenly grew noisy.
Voices murmured outside.
He’s back.
A smile blood across Mari’s face.
Then—
Knock knock.
“Mari?”
She hurried to the door and replied on her tablet.
Ding!
: Yes♡♥
Then—
CLACK!
The door opened, and a huge octahedral gemstone ca sliding inside.
Ding!
: I picked this up on the way. Mage Mackenzie says it’s a dragon heart. Please appraise it.
Mari snorted.
Picked up a dragon heart?
As if sothing like that would just be lying on the ground.
Even if it was the summoner, that joke was pushing it.
She was about to dismiss it—
“...Huh?”
What was this?
The giant gem resting at her feet.
That ominous color, and the explosive mana surging from within.
Shiver.
Mari’s eyes trembled.
She placed both hands on the gemstone.
T-this is... real?
It was.
A dragon heart.
When a dragon died, its vast mana condensed into a gemstone—
a core of power.
He picked this up?
From where?
Ding!
: I-it’s real. It’s a dragon heart.
At that mont—
“It really is a dragon heart. An RSS-rank alchemist confird it.”
“I told you it was a heart.”
“So what do we make with it?”
“Obviously nectar for the summoner. He has to live a thousand years.”
“An enhancent elixir would be better. If his body becos indestructible—”
“No, nectar.”
“Enhancent elixir.”
“Nectar.”
An argunt broke out.
Then—
Ding!
: But we can’t use this.
“Huh?!”
“What?”
“Why not?”
“We can’t use it?”
“It’s a dragon heart!”
“You’re not secretly trying to steal it, are you?!”
Ding!
: The energy is tainted. It isn’t pure mana—it’s full of demonic energy. It can’t be used as an ingredient.
Demonic energy.
Ding!
: This is definitely the heart of a corrupted demon dragon. Are you trying to contaminate the summoner’s body and soul with demonic energy? Do you want to die?
“Oh...”
The summoned entities instantly deflated.
They had been so excited—
and it turned out to be useless contaminated junk.
“Damn it, what a letdown.”
“I knew it. Nothing that mage does ever goes right.”
“Why are you blaming ? Rajix dug it up.”
Rajix gave an indignant cry.
Juhyeok, however, rely shrugged.
“It’s fine. It’s not like we urgently need dicine.”
Still, the others looked disappointed.
“So there’s no other use for it?”
“What about purification?”
“Yeah, dirty clothes can be washed.”
“Throw it in a washing machine? With purification potion as detergent?”
Ding!
: There is another use.
“What?”
“Spit it out.”
“You’re killing us here.”
Ding!
: It can be used as material for a weapon. In my world, we called that a demonic sword.
“A demonic sword?”
“There was sothing like that in the martial world too. Made with human sacrifice.”
“In my world too—made by refining the Demon King’s bones and heart.”
“In mine too. Seal an evil spirit into a blade, and it becos a demonic sword.”
Different thods, sa concept.
Ding!
: In this case, it’s surprisingly simple.
“Just a demon dragon’s heart, then.”
“But the weapon would be huge.”
“So what? We’ve got atshield.”
Would it be useful?
Ding!
: Is it worth using?
Ding!
: In terms of raw destructive power, nothing beats it. It can kill even dragons in a single strike.
...
Oh.
That sounded good.
A Dragon Killer.
It was almost certain that dragons would appear on the uncleared upper floors.
If they had a weapon specifically designed to deal with them, that would be a huge help.
But then—
Ding!
: Even if you make it, you can’t use it. No—you must never use it.
Ding!
: Why?
Ding!
: Because it gnaws away at the human soul. It stains the soul with demonic energy, and eventually drives the wielder mad.
Ding!
: Ah!
Nothing ever went the easy way.
Wait.
Stained by demonic energy and driven insane?
Juhyeok and the summoned entities all turned to look at one person.
There was soone.
A perfect fit.
“Why are you all staring at this one?”
Because you were the Mad Demon.
Your na literally had mad and demon in it.
“Hmph! If I can’t control sothing like demonic energy, then I ought to change my na.”
But—
Ding!
: Not a chance. This isn’t the kind of demonic energy a human can overco. You might be fine at first, but once it seeps into your marrow—
“So I go insane.”
Ding!
: Exactly. That’s why you must never wield it. You’re already half-crazy as it is—if you completely lose your mind, the summoner could be put in danger.
“That’s right. You’d be breaking Summoned Entity Rule No. 3. You might wind up senile, saring crap on the walls—”
“Enough! You dare look down on this much? If I truly lost my mind to demonic energy, I would choose death.”
“Didn’t you hear her say your soul gets wrecked? Even if you die, you’d stay like that. You’d be a crazy old ghost wandering around the 17th Floor.”
“...You little bastard.”
The Mad Demon was out.
Ding!
: If anything, it would have to be soone of the opposite nature—soone pure and holy of soul. For example, a saint or a holy knight.
A holy knight?
Everyone’s gaze shifted to Bardin.
“Hmm.”
“Ahem.”
“...Uh.”
“Yeah, right.”
Pure and holy?
That perverted fanatic of a holy knight?
Even Rajix would laugh if he heard that.
Rajix let out a snorting sound.
So what now?
Just throw it away?
Then—
the magitech engineer El spoke up.
“If a human can’t wield it, doesn’t that solve the problem?”
That was true.
If not human, then fine.
And right here they had soone non-human—a golem.
“Then you, El?”
“No. Not . I can’t wield it.”
“Why?”
“I still have a soul.”
Ah, right.
Just because her body was a golem did not an she lacked a soul.
“Then who?”
“A gigant.”
A gigant?
“If we give it to an automatic ego gigant instead of a piloted one, there won’t be any problem.”
“Ohhh!”
That was it.
Automatic ego gigants had no souls, so they could not be corrupted by demonic energy.
They simply acted according to their preprogramd magitech ego intelligence.
But where were they going to get an ego gigant?
Manufacture one...?
...
“At minimum, a year. Maybe longer.”
So that was not an imdiate option.
Then—
“Our dinsional farmhand bringing one back whole from the 85th Floor would be the fastest.”
Originally, the gigant on the 85th Floor had been a piloted model operated directly by El.
After she regained her status as a summoned entity and left the Tower, it had been replaced by an automatic version.
But was that even possible?
That thing was the size of a building.
“The automatic Magnus gigant is roughly 100 ters tall, in Earth units.”
Huge.
Would it even fit?
Back when Rajix was still RSS-rank, he had been able to store sothing the size of a large dump truck without trouble.
He had said even larger objects were possible.
Now that Rajix had advanced to LSS-rank, the capacity of his subspace bag should be vastly larger.
“If we lay it down and carefully put it in headfirst, it might work.”
“The shoulder width is between 25 and 30 ters... Hard to say. We won’t know unless we try.”
Rajix let out a dubious chirp.
It was tempting to find out.
“Let’s try it. See if we can bring it back.”
Rajix gave an eager cry.
“I’ll prepare a mana EMP.”
Why were they going this far for a demonic sword?
Because of dragons.
It had already been confird that dragons existed in Max Kruger’s world.
But could they really defeat one again?
They had killed one with a teor, but that had been coincidence piled on top of coincidence.
If they encountered a dragon inside the Tower?
There was no way it would patiently wait for a teor spell to finish casting.
They needed another thod.
A concrete strategy for slaying dragons.
The demonic sword was the answer.
It’s possible.
They even had the achievent reward.
Dragon Slayer.
Attack and defense increased against all dragons—this effect also applied to summoned entities.
A gigant.
When you thought about it, it was basically a giant robot.
There were movies like that.
Monsters versus robots.
A giant robot wielding a demonic sword and clashing against a dragon...
Suddenly, climbing the Tower sounded extrely exciting.
*****
A world that had not collapsed.
No—
a world that showed no sign of collapsing at all.
This damned summoner’s Earth.
The Black Tower administrators of Earth No. 1001 had long since lost all confidence.
These days, all they did was shove Liberation Rune Necklaces into the Chinese Black Tower.
Honestly, it was aningless work.
If the necklaces spread worldwide from China and threw every country into chaos, it might at least have felt worthwhile.
But every country except China had already finished its response.
Mana suppression scrolls.
Only China was being affected.
And even that showed no sign of spreading.
All because of him—
the summoner who interfered at every turn.
The collapse of the Chinese tower?
Should they just let it collapse?
He could just go in and out with a Multinational Tower Access Ticket anyway.
They wanted to put an end to all this nonsense.
Why not just let him climb into the 90s?
But then—
[D-designer... ergency communication from Earth No. 675.]
The engineer’s voice trembled.
[Hm?]
Earth No. 675—
the dinsion where a project was already in progress.
...
Why there?
[What do they want?]
[They’re asking about our summoner player. Why he appeared in Earth No. 675...]
[...What?]
Had they heard that correctly?
[The summoner appeared in Earth No. 675?]
[That’s what they said.]
Ah.
Now it made sense.
[You installed and activated the elevator.]
It had been inevitable.
He had been mining refined Magic Stones nonstop on the 84th Floor.
Honestly, this was surprising.
The summoner was not particularly bold.
They had assud he would delay installing it—let alone activating it.
[So what do they want us to do? The elevator was an achievent reward.]
[That’s the thing...]
The engineer explained the complaint from the administrators of Earth No. 675.
Awakening registration.
Dragon Slayer.
And—
[...He acquired nationality.]
[Yes.]
Nationality acquisition.
That ant crossing dinsions and becoming an official resident of that world.
[KAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!]
Laughter burst out uncontrollably.
[He planted a flag.]
As long as the summoner maintained player status in Earth No. 675,
their project there could no longer proceed—
because of the law of causality.
[What should we do?]
[What do you think? Tell them we don’t know either and ignore them!]
Let them have a taste of it too.
Just how maddening the Earth summoner really was.
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