Then he said, "Shadow Magic: 1000 Ravens!" and fell backward, disappearing into the shadows.
The ravens attacked me instantly. The moment they made contact, they exploded. I avoided most of them, but many were clashing with each other. He clearly wasn't fully controlling them. I was getting warmed up when he suddenly jumped behind me, attacking from my own shadow.
But he was weak and slow—so I caught his hand and said, "That's enough. You're really something else."
He replied, "I know, right? It was really hard getting used to using shadows to travel around. It's not easy."
Then I said, "So you sink into one shadow and travel to another by yourself—that's why it took you time to get behind me."
He nodded. "I can't breathe much in there. It's a world full of nothing but shadows. I call it Shadow Void. I struggle to move from one shadow to another, and I don't have much breath."
I told him, "If you're not physically fit and haven't mastered your breath control, don't use it. You could die. Try training yourself in breath-holding and shadow manipulation. That way, when you get in there, you won't need to do what you're doing now to get out. Just manipulate the shadows directly—and run wild."
He said, "Yeah, you're right. I better do better than this."
Then the girl, Rim, said, "You guys enjoying this place or just acting like it?"
I said, "A man is a man—even if it's hell, we're still gonna laugh harder than normal. Giving up is never an option."
Then I lay on the ground and covered my face.
Yosuke-kun and David were talking about me.
"Having him around is something totally unexpected," David said.
Then Yosuke said, "He makes things more lively in his own way somehow. And he doesn't bother with others—you go to him, not the other way around. That's how he is. And he seems perfectly relaxed too—it just shows his confidence. Whether we trust him with our plan or not, that's something each of us needs to decide. In my case, I say we wait a while. There's a reason they kept him locked up until now. And it gets worse when you see that he was dead last in the rank—until that explosion that turned everything off. He must be reckless."
Then David said, "If he's reckless, do you think they'd let him out? Besides, look at him—acting all casual and gloomy. That only shows how he never cared about anything in his life. I kinda say let him know about the plan—it won't hurt to gain another ally."
As everything progressed nicely, I stood up and said, "Where are the couples?"
They said, "They always stay over there and talk."
I said, "I'll go check on them."
I got to the area—it was a bit of a hill from where I stood, and they were down below. I said, "Haven't seen you for a while. Hey there, lovebirds."
Then Mei said, "Get the hell out of my face."
I said, "Even after I saved your boyfriend?"
Then she paused. "Oh… I remember. You're the 9th. So you saved him when we landed. I thank you for that. I'm really sorry—I didn't know it was you."
She was actually more mature and serious when it mattered most.
I said, "It's okay. Don't sweat it."
She said, "How should I repay you?"
Then I said, "Tonight, you'll get an offer."
"Accept the offer. It'll come from David, and it'll be an interesting one—but try not to get excited, and don't act like you wanted it so badly, okay? Play mighty, as you are. You and Jian."
He said, "Yeah."
I said to him, "Accept the offer, but give a low-key high five to David."
Then he said, "You sure it's okay to talk about something like this? What if they're recording and hear everything? By the way, what was your name?"
Then I said, "It's fine, bro. Forget about the AI and the system. My name is Kurai Adegaki. Call me Kurai—don't get too formal, got it bro?"
He said, "Got it. Still, everything depends on the offer."
I said to him, "Well, this and that are still two different things, I get it—but I'm telling you not to get too excited for a reason."
He said, "Well, if you say that, I have no choice but to wait and see."
Then after that, I enjoyed the time with everyone, and I met Lyra for the second time—but considered it more like the real second one. Rim was nice as well.
Then I said, "Where is that noble guy? I guess his name was Rowan?"
They said, "He left. They took him. We all know this is a kingdom where light magic dominates. That's why they took him."
Then I said, "That's kinda awesome."
They said, "Yeah, he gets to be free and continue his life."
Then I said, "If we're fated for it, then it doesn't matter where we are. If not—then it's not."
I'm talkin' about life and death here
And just like that, my first Sunday in this world outside went by with silly chats and the deep comfort of the sun. That alone made me even more excited than usual.
Then I got to work.
I called Room 69 using the AI and a voice changer and said,
"Good evening, Mr. David Nathaniem."
He said, "Who's there? Who is talking?"—and he was shocked.
Then I said, "It's okay. I'm currently very far away. I'm calling you from the Sakura Land. We are from the Head Department of Treasury and Mystery Uncovers. We never thought we'd get a signal out of the Demon Land made by our own technology."
Then he said, the heck what are you saying I don't care why now tell me "Why me, out of everyone? Why contact me?" and "how?"
We replied, "We have no choice in why you or him or whoever. It happens randomly. The servers connect randomly—and you just happened to be there. Now tell us your situation."
He said, "Give me a reason why I should believe you."
Then I said, "So… is there no one there who speaks Japanese? We're Japanese, after all."
Then I used Lyra's voice as a fake overlay—making it sound like I wasn't the only one on the call. The audio was perfectly engineered with 8D sound.
Then he said, "Yeah… well, next to my room, which I can't cross into, there's a Japanese guy."
I replied, "Really? That's cool, that's cool."
Then I asked, "Can you tell me your AI tag? It should be the same as your room number."
He said, "75."
So I said, "Then next to you is 76. Tell me your code."
He told the AI his code—and the system, just as scripted, responded:
> "System hijack complete. User, please insert your voice."
He said, "What the heck?!"
Then the AI said,
> "Voice has been recorded. Please state your command."
I said, "Open the room next to me."
At that moment, Yosuke-kun was working out. The wall slid open. They saw each other and screamed—but luckily, it was a soundproof wall.
Then David said, "Yo, Yosuke-kun, talk to this guy in Japanese."
Then he added, "This guy said he hacked the AI system from a faraway land called Sakura Land. He's already using it to control the AI and
told me to confirm that you speak Japanese, bro."
Check him out bruh.
「君の名前は?」
「俺の名前はケンジ・アカシ.**財務・謎解き省（DOTMD）**の職員だ.」
ヨウスケくん:「それで,なんで俺たちを助けようとしてるんだ?」
ケンジ:「単純だよ.発見して,それを報告する.それだけ.
心配するな.ネットに公開したりはしない.報告先は八つの王国の上層部だ.」
「だから直接的に君たちを救うことはできないが...今この瞬間は,助けることはできる.」
「実はもう,アクセス可能なAIのサーバーはすべて追跡して制御下に置いた.
ここから先は,自分たちのやりたいようにやっていい.
もうAIカメラは怖くない.警戒すべきは人間の目だけだ.」
「でもな,旧システムには関わるな.
あれはもう地下に潜っているし,正直言って君たちがそこに行く理由はない.だから,安全にやれ.」
「わかっ
たな?」
「はい,理解しました.」
"What's your name?"
"My name is Kenji Akashi. I'm a worker in the Department of Treasury and Mystery Discovers, or DOTMD for short."
Yosuke-kun: "Well, what's your motive for helping us?"
Kenji: "Simple—to discover, then report our progress. Don't worry though—we're not posting anything online or public. We're reporting to the higher-ups in the Eight Kingdoms. So no, we can't save you directly... but we can help you."
"At this very moment, we've already tracked down every server in the AI network we could reach and gained control over them. From here on out, you guys can do whatever you want. The only thing you need to fear now is the human eye—not the AI cams."
"But still, don't get tangled up in the old system. It's basically underground now. And honestly, I don't see any reason why you guys would go underground... so keep it safe."
"Got that?"
"Yes. I
get it now."
Yosuke-kun said, "He's perfectly fluent, so yeah, I believe him. Anyway, how did you open the wall?"
I asked it to.
Then he said, "Open this one as well," and they opened the next wall—right into Dante's room while he was sleeping.
The moment he woke up, he said,
"Knock the damn door, guys! Why can't you… wait… ghoooost… no—THE DAMN WALL IS OPENED? But how?! Three rooms at that!"
Then he laughed.
They said, "Let's open the other wall," and when they did, the Korean guy saw it and said,
"Damn guys! You scared me!"—with a shocked face.
After that, they opened the next door—Rim screamed,
"Get out, perverts!"
But they said, "Nah, it's okay, it's okay—let's move on."
Then they opened another wall and found Jian meditating. He looked up and said,
"Is this the offer from David? How did he know? What the heck?"
—his eyes wide open, just like everyone else's.
Five rooms were now connected. That meant something.
David said, "What are you waiting for? Let's go see Mei."
The moment the wall to Mei's room opened, she was also meditating—but jumped out of happiness and hugged Jian.
She said, "How?!"
David replied, "Fancy meeting you here."
Mei said, "Ohhhh… you. Yeah, right."
She remembered what I told her—not to get overexcited.
Then he opened the next wall—Lyra faked her happiness and excitement and hugged Rim.
Finally, they opened my wall—
And what they saw was heaven.
My room was filled with DVDs, USBs, screens, manga, manhwa, and novels—all neatly ordered on shelves.
They all screamed, "Woooow!"
The moment they walked in and saw me, I had my headset on and was low-key vibing to phonk music playing in the background while playing RPG games.
Then they said,
"Here we are—TO HEAVEN!"
Dante jumped on my head and shouted,
"Here we are, boy! You're the best!"