Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 79

Episode 79

'I wondered what he was talking about.'

It seemed he still had that on his mind.

It was a little unpleasant, but Elaine's suspicion was reasonable.

If he showed complete faith in me, whom he'd only known for a few days, that in itself would be a plot hole.

And compared to bastards like Kassel or Adam, who brought up system windows showing suspicion as easily as breathing, Elaine was on a cute level.

"It's fine."

I, who had been looking at him with slightly surprised eyes, eventually answered indifferently.

"I ignored you guys too, so let's call it even."

At my words, Elaine's face distorted slightly.

"Noona, as expected... you're kind and weird."

Elaine Griselda now feels a slight disappointment toward you.

Elaine Griselda now holds a faint trust toward you.

If that bastard could also see this crazy system window, we could determine who is the weirdest one here. It was a real shame.

I ignored his familiar nonsense.

"Shari!"

Just then, as if their discussion had ended, Elena approached us with a brightened face.

Lucy came trotting after her.

"Is the meeting over?"

"Yes. We've drafted a rough budget for how to use the money you gave us for building the houses..."

"That's fine."

I politely refused as she tried to hand me a paper densely packed with writing.

I had just been thoroughly treated as a pushover because of that, but I still wanted nothing to do with troublesome tasks.

"More importantly, about when do you think the shop and the herb garden will be restored?"

"Ah! That, we can mostly organize in a day, so don't worry."

In just one day...!

I looked at Elena with deeply moved eyes.

If it had been those damn Dover Village residents, it would have taken at least three days.

"...I'm so happy."

"So we're gonna live wif pwetty onni? Lucy's happy too! Yaaay, so 'cited!"

Lucy clapped her hands and cheered at my words.

I meant I was happy because the work was getting done so quickly, but I just smiled along.

And with that, the elves' new residence was decided.

As the home of the Dover Village Apothecary NPC.

⚜ ⚜ ⚜

For a while, peaceful days continued.

It was because there were roughly three weeks left until the start of the main scenario, the Hero Selection Tournament.

The elves would cultivate the herbs, and I would whip up potions with them.

Sometimes I still had to acquire materials from monsters, but with teleport scrolls, it was quick.

If even that was too bothersome, I'd buy them from the pop-up general store at a premium.

There were no headaches, and of course, I didn't have to struggle desperately to solve some extreme-difficulty quest.

It had also been a long time since I'd opened the chat window, as there was no need to argue with those developer bastards.

'Please let it just stay like this until the ending.'

However, the peace I'd found for the first time in a while ended not long after with the sound of a bell.

After rescuing the slaves from the black market and subduing Ballakk, about four days in game-time had passed.

Today, too, I was holed up lazing around on the second floor, using the excuse of making potions, when a summons suddenly came.

[Ding-dong.]

[GM Ari has summoned you.]

At the summons, which I hadn't received in a long time, I was startled and stared blankly at the system window.

If it was something worth summoning me over, it definitely wasn't anything good.

I suppressed my reluctance to open it and grudgingly opened the chat window.

Me: What's wrong?

GM Ari: Shari-nim, an unexpected situation has occurred.

GM Ari: Shari-nim, since you're an NPC, the quest window doesn't pop up, so we unavoidably have to deliver this directly. ㅠ

"Eh? An unexpected situation?"

Just as I was tilting my head at the unexpected news.

GM Jinu: The tournament has been moved up to one week from now.

GM Jinu: Kassel already finished his reinstatement and has even taken control of the Imperial Palace. Congrats congrats congrats

"What?!"

At Jinu's following words, I shot up from my lying position on the bed.

It was an unbelievable speed.

For the Hero Selection Tournament, which had been three weeks away, to be moved up to just one week away.

According to the main scenario, this was a point in time when Kassel shouldn't have even crossed the threshold of the Imperial Palace yet.

GM Jinu: It's seven days from now.

Hadn't Jinu also said that he was scheduled to arrive in the capital today, leading Adam's knights?

Although, seeing Kassel appear in the black market, I knew that bastard had come up to the capital early.

Since the army, including Adam, wouldn't have arrived, it would be today, seven days later, just as Jinu said.

I thought today was supposed to be the deposed crown prince's official move in the capital.

Me: You said he was arriving in the capital today! It's still morning, does it make sense for him to be reinstated and take control as soon as he arrives?!

GM Jinu: He already stormed the Imperial Palace at dawn four days ago.

My jaw dropped.

Dawn four days ago means he went straight to the Imperial Palace right after parting with me.

'That crazy bastard...'

The number of syndicate members he dealt with in the black market must not have been small.

I got goosebumps at the bastard's terrifying power and drive.

I couldn't quite believe it, so I kept asking.

Me: Why? Why on earth is he doing that?

Me: You guys didn't mess with something just to screw me over, did you?

GM Jinu: We don't know either. It was Kassel's own will.

Me: Don't be ridiculous. What 'own will' does an AI have! You ordered him!

GM Jinu: Tsk tsk. Denying reality, are we? The blame game is strong, isn't it?

GM Ari: Please, both of you, calm down! ㅠ

As if judging that another fight was about to break out, Ari hurriedly jumped in.

GM Ari: Unfortunately, it's true. ㅠ

GM Ari: In any case, due to this unexpected situation, the game scenario's progression has also been moved up, so we ask for your understanding, Shari-nim!

GM Sera: For reference, the Saintess's tour of the capital's outskirts is tomorrow.

The conversation ended with Sera's words, tossing me the quest news as if she were doing me a charity.

"Argh... Just because they're not the ones doing it."

I looked resentfully at the bastards' chat messages, talking as if it was someone else's problem, like watching a fire across the river.

But thinking about it again, it wasn't an entirely bad thing.

Kassel, that crazy bastard's, bulldozer-like execution was baffling, but in any case, who benefits the most from the game's progression speeding up?

It was me.

'Right. Since it's already like this, if I can't avoid it, I'll finish it faster than anyone else.'

Still, seeing the developers pass on the news of the sub-quest being moved up as an aftereffect of the accelerated tournament schedule, it seemed this was an unforeseen variable for them as well.

'Tomorrow, is it.'

It was then. With a clatter, a short, blond head popped up from the stairs.

"Onni!"

Lucy, holding an egg as big as her torso, ran to me in a panic, as if something terrible had happened.

"Cheondung moved!"

"Did he?"

It was something that had happened often over the past four days, so I replied nonchalantly.

"Lucy!"

Just as I thought. As always, with another stomping sound, this time a green head shot up from the stairs.

As if he'd been using all his strength just to play with a child, Elaine, his face flushed, huffed and shouted.

"That's cheating! Why do you keep running to Teacher Apothecary-noona's room!"

"Bleh. Heehee!"

Lucy, who had trotted over and hidden herself neatly behind me as I stood in the middle of the room, stuck her tongue out at Elaine.

"That tiny little thing! After I raised her, changing her poopy diapers!"

Seeing that, Elaine couldn't bring himself to push me aside and just stomped around in frustration.

'As expected, she's smart.'

Unlike her uncle, the quick-witted child had already accurately grasped the power dynamic in this bizarre cohabitation.

"It's distracting, so stop!"

I stopped the two of them, who had started to circle around me.

And then I glared at Elaine and said.

"We have to go somewhere, so get ready, Green Mask."

It was my way of telling him to knock it off and have some tact.

As I passed the bastard and went down the stairs, Elaine and Lucy trailed right after me.

"Where are you going?"

"We have to go back to the capital now to fulfill the contract."

"Already? We haven't finished playing yet..."

As if he hadn't expected to return this early, the bastard muttered with a sullen face.

I also had no idea things would progress this quickly, so I didn't really have anything to say.

"Then what are we going to do when we get there? Espionage? Assassination?"

"No."

I sharply cut off Elaine, who had quickly regained his spirits and was listing off his wishful thinking.

"We're going to participate in the tournament opening in one week."

"Tournament...?"

"Yeah. A competition where people form parties, go to dungeons, and hunt monsters..."

"Tch, even I know that much!"

I was kindly adding an explanation just in case he didn't know, but Elaine suddenly cut me off, as if his pride was wounded.

That was a relief.

Elaine continued, asking with a face full of curiosity.

"Did that person tell you to participate in that and get first place?"

"That person?"

"Our employer, noona's and mine. The Crown Prince, was it...?"

"Ah."

Right, I told that lie, too.

Feeling a pang of guilt over the employer I had forgotten about, I answered awkwardly.

"He didn't say to get first place... but it would be good if we could, if possible."

I didn't really think we could get first place.

I wasn't participating for that purpose, and anyway, it would be difficult as long as Adam was there.

However, I needed to at least rank reasonably high in this tournament to get Elaine noticed by Kassel.

"I'll never lose to those Empire bastards."

"Wow! Then samchon is gonna be numbew one?"

"Right. First place is me, no matter what."

Before I knew it, Elaine and Lucy were sharing a strange pledge.

I stared at him blankly, with slightly unfamiliar eyes.

Originally, Elaine, who was forced to participate in the tournament by his sadistic owner, would be left alone, unable to form a party with anyone.

This was because no hero would team up and fight with a filthy, non-human ex-slave.

Here, the user could make one of two choices. One was to reveal their achievement of liberating the slaves in the black market and take the easy route by joining Adam's party.

The other was to hide the achievement and form a party with Elaine.

It was a system where each user would decide after weighing the rapport-building with the two, but naturally, most chose the former.

This was because there was almost no chance of getting first place if they partied with Elaine.

In the end, Elaine, left all alone, ends up partying with a single extra hero who was also not chosen.

'It's kind of like that. The outcasts who don't get picked for a group project end up becoming a team.'

The two outcasts were, of course, assigned a completely insignificant dungeon.

Since it was a competition, the dungeons were naturally ranked, and the higher the rank, the higher the monster levels and the more points were awarded.

Because of that, to gather points, Elaine eventually went around bowing and scraping, volunteering to provide combat support to parties that needed help.

In other words, he was like a mercenary who fought in their place.

But the points gathered that way were nowhere near enough to make the rankings.

At that point, what Elaine ended up doing was...