Nikke, something’s seriously wrong with this evacuation point! Chapter 137 137: [Panacea]

A week had passed since Charon proposed that idea.

During that entire week, the three of them did almost nothing except repeatedly enter Schale Tower in Zone One.

Charon's request itself was simple:

He asked Rose to continue supporting him the sa way she had before and help him conquer that thousands-of-floors-tall Schale Tower.

That tower was practically an endless treasure vault.

Because it had so many floors, there were countless things to loot. The fact that he had found a "red" item worth thirteen million on only the second floor was sothing Charon would never forget for the rest of his life.

So if he wanted to earn enough money quickly, he really had no other choice.

The 120 million he already possessed was untouchable ergency money.

The remaining few million were the actual budget for his assault on Kivotos Tower.

Of course, he couldn't afford to run full T-six-set gear every ti. Nobody could sustain that.

Even T-five-set gear was already extravagant enough.

As for ammunition, he brought a large amount of purple rounds and a small number of gold rounds–a fairly reasonable balance.

Shiroko volunteered to co along herself.

Both she and Rose were essentially beings residing within the Shittim Chest. If they took enough damage, they would simply return to the Chest to recover, which made things extrely convenient.

What surprised Charon was that despite Shiroko's tiny limbs and cartoonishly cute assault rifle, she could actually deal fairly impressive damage.

Her bullets already had armor penetration comparable to green rounds.

Once she regained her mories and returned to her proper strength, she would probably beco comparable to purple-tier or even gold-tier firepower.

In short, every extra bit of firepower lowered the difficulty of the raids.

But the greatest surprise was the Schale Tower itself.

Just as Charon and Rose had discussed before:

If the tower had sothing like save points, then it still had value as a progression dungeon.

Otherwise, repeatedly clearing the early floors would eventually beco aningless.

And just as he had expected, during their second attempt to enter the tower, an elevator appeared in front of the original entrance.

This elevator allowed them to freely choose any floor they had already cleared, plus the imdiate next floor.

Honestly, with this feature, the tower's value as a treasure vault increased even further.

So Charon brought Rose and Shiroko with him and spent an entire week diving into it nonstop.

Since this run wasn't nearly as urgent as before, the group focused primarily on looting high-value items.

As a result, they practically cleaned every floor dry before moving on, which slowed their progress considerably.

Even the rule-based obstacle floors like the first two were intentionally explored thoroughly under Charon's lead before continuing downward.

Still, overall, floors with major rule-based chanics were actually rare.

According to Rose, places like Abydos Academy on the first floor and Millennium Science School on the second floor were considered famous schools.

Far more common were the countless smaller, less notable schools occupying other floors.

Because they lacked powerful individuals, these floors often had no special rules at all–and sotis not even strong monsters.

The most absurd part was that occasionally there were no monsters whatsoever.

You could literally clear the floor by casually taking a walk.

In this entire week, Charon pushed through one hundred floors.

And aside from the first two floors, he never encountered another floor that was particularly challenging or interesting.

But that didn't an the rewards were poor.

This week alone, Charon earned ten million Zero Coins.

Even after deducting expenses, he still made a net profit of eight million.

And just like that, Charon returned to a repetitive three-point routine.

The difference now was that his surroundings were far livelier than before.

Rose, as a forr shut-in, spent most of her ti lying inside the command capsule. Only during evening recreation ti would she accompany Charon in her physical body.

She also loved the entertainnt room.

After all, it satisfied all of her entertainnt needs.

As a digitized Nikke, she had basically lost the biological necessity for sleep.

To her, sleeping had beco more like a form of entertainnt for humans–sothing enjoyable, but no longer essential.

As long as the Shittim Chest had power, she would remain endlessly energetic.

She even frequently played gas together with Shiroko.

Recently, the two of them had beco obsessed with a bank robbery simulator.

Shiroko learned absurdly fast.

Even though both of them had roughly the sa playti, Rose–theoretically the better gar–ended up being the one getting carried.

This kind of life was genuinely happy.

Because it allowed Charon to temporarily forget all his troubles.

And his greatest trouble was already close to being solved anyway.

...

Day after day passed.

On the twenty-fifth day after Charon returned to the Shelter–

he finally gathered the full 150 million Zero Coins he needed.

After fighting every day in the deadly Zone One, and even selling off every collectible he owned, he had beco dirt poor all over again.

At this mont, he held a tiny red-and-white pill in his hand.

The dicine looked unbelievably ordinary.

Like so generic cold dicine you could buy at a roadside pharmacy.

Yet its value surpassed every item Charon had ever seen.

[Na: Panacea]

[Type: Consumable]

[Quality: Red]

[Uses: 1/1]

[Effect: Within two hours after oral consumption, cures all known, unknown, physical, physiological, psychological, and even narrative-level illnesses and negative status effects afflicting the user.]

[Remark: "dicine that cures all illness" is not rely an ideal.]

But if using it could save her–

then Charon had absolutely no objections.

Money could always be earned again.

But if Liliweiss died…

"Why are you acting all sentintal?"

Rose's "external avatar" floated in front of him and blew lightly toward his face.

"Even if senpai really died, couldn't you still use that silver coin to bring her back? Just like you did with ."

"..."

She was right.

From the mont the function of the [Styx Ferryman Coin] had been confird, he really no longer needed to agonize over it so much.

The [Panacea] was the hard guarantee.

The [Styx Ferryman Coin] was the backup guarantee.

He already possessed the ans to ensure Liliweiss would survive.

It was just that the aning behind the two thods was completely different.

The [Styx Ferryman Coin] would strip away her place in the world.

But the [Panacea] would allow her to choose.

"Still," Rose continued seriously, "you absolutely cannot let the Ark authorities learn about the Panacea."

Her tone beca incomparably solemn.

"If they discover that Liliweiss–without NIMPH control–has gained an extended lifespan, then the Goddess Squad will almost certainly be vilified, and the governnt will persecute all Nikkes without restraint."

Rose directly pointed out the most critical issue.

Liliweiss's short lifespan itself was one of the key factors keeping the governnt at ease.

The mont that sense of security disappeared, it would beco very difficult for them not to suspect that Liliweiss might eventually lead the Nikkes humanity created into becoming a third independent faction separate from both humans and Raptures.

Given Liliweiss's prestige–

whether she intended to or not–

such a thing truly could beco reality.

"So," Rose said quietly, "you need to carefully consider the timing of using the [Panacea]…"

"And whether the na 'Liliweiss' should temporarily disappear from that world."