VIP Chapter 286: Shuna is Still Clearing Dungeons (4k)
Even though Shuna was very familiar with the entire dungeon system, possessing extensive knowledge and exploration experience, she found herself at a loss on a certain floor of a dungeon that hadn’t spawned any “monsters” or “traps,” and where even the exit was nowhere in sight.
“Huh?”
“Hello. It’s straight ahead, to the sides, and behind. Please.”
“Uh… you’re quite polite?”
“Straight ahead. Please raise your hand slightly, at a forty-five-degree angle.”
*Click.*
“Side. Please raise your hand high and show your side.”
*Click.*
“Behind. Please maintain the same pose as for the front.”
Shuna’s primary rule for clearing dungeons was to follow the dungeon’s “guidance” as much as possible when she got “lost” or “confused” on a certain floor. This applied whether there was a monster waiting to be fought ahead, a pit that looked like a trap, or a signpost indicating “door ahead.”
Initially, she simply found this rule practical for temporarily solving problems. After experiencing the Tenth Demon City and hearing about the operational principles of dungeons from Lucifer, she found a theoretical basis for this rule. Dungeons accumulated “energy” by having adventurers clear them, so it made no sense for them to impede progress on a floor.
However… what was this actually supposed to be?
“Decoding successful. Now, please enter the data of ‘Will Hysterm.'”
Decoding? Shuna crossed her arms, tilted her head, and couldn’t quite grasp the meaning of the word.
“And… Will? Why Will’s data? Where has that woman, Treya, thrown me? This isn’t her dungeon?”
Shuna quickly formed some “guesses” in her mind. Since demons were beings who controlled emotions, memories, and contracts, was it possible that… this was Will’s extracted memories? If so, would she be able to see some very cute things?
Like Will as an infant, just born?
Like Will, so serious when he wrote that first letter to her?
Like Will, who used to get bullied and cry at school?
But, in the next instant, as she stood still, the white surroundings began to move wildly and rapidly. These scenes were imprinted with what looked like “photos,” but they moved so fast, the continuous still “photos” flickered rapidly before Shuna’s eyes.
“They should just be static images, but moving at this speed has turned them into a dynamic visual… right?”
At the same time, an utterly incomprehensible “language” was being broadcast throughout the entire space.
*“▆▆▆W▆▆▆Chuang▆▆▆▆▆Yige▆▆▆……”*
The reason she recognized it as “language” was because she could discern some regularity in the pronunciation, not just a string of “gibberish.”
“It’s normal to hear languages I don’t understand in a dungeon. But… if these are Will’s memories, why are there so many new languages I don’t understand?”
She was confident! Although she hadn’t communicated face-to-face with many people, she had learned at least four or five languages through books. This was the first time she had encountered entirely new languages. Maintaining her composure, with her arms crossed, she stared intently at every “photo” that flashed before her.
“I can’t see clearly. Are Will’s memories this blurry?”
It wasn’t as Shuna had imagined. She didn’t see an “infant” Will. She couldn’t even discern the images clearly. The clarity of these “photos” was abysmal; she could mostly only see the “colors” and “human figures,” let alone recognize anyone. It was just that… these colors and figures gave Shuna a “strange,” unfamiliar feeling, as if they didn’t exist in this world.
“If these were my memories, from when I arrived in this world until now… they should be very clear.”
She paused after muttering this to herself. “Ahahaha, that’s right. I don’t have memories before thirteen, so I can’t know how a normal person recalls their childhood.”
But…
Suddenly…
The countless flashing photos stopped abruptly on one. The surrounding noisy sounds also ceased at that instant. It was like flipping through a book at high speed and suddenly stopping at the conclusion, causing that “ending” to remain before her for a long time.
“Hmm?”
The place depicted in this “photo” was vast, like a four-meter-high wall that appeared before Shuna. On it… was a “drawing” that looked like a mere sketch. Compared to the other photos Shuna had seen, it was surprisingly clear. A black-haired, black-eyed girl, with slightly messy lines, holding a dagger to her neck with one hand, while the other hand pointed a dagger at the camera, the blade glinting.
“…”
Shuna’s mind began to race. Though it was just a “drawing,” though it seemed like only a few strokes of a sketch, and even the expression was merely an outline, she recognized it instantly.
“Is this… me?”
The moment she uttered these words, an unusual sound echoed around her.
*Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump— *
Heartbeats. The entire room was filled with intense heartbeats, but Shuna could tell they were abnormal—chaotic and rapidly accelerating. Accompanying the heartbeats was a language she couldn’t understand at all, seemingly chanting three-syllable “words.”
*“▆▆▆, ▆▆▆… ▆▆▆!”*
As if some “accident” was accelerating, the entire image began to shake violently.
*Ding—*
“What… is that sound?”
As this bell-like sound rang out and she finished speaking, the white space went dark, plunging her into “darkness” for a moment.
“…”
Though she couldn’t see or feel anything, she didn’t move, nor did she do anything. She simply stood in place.
“No need to rush. I’m sure it’ll light up soon.”
For some reason, knowing this was “Will’s” memory, she still maintained a sense of vigilance, thinking that a super monster might appear somewhere, as is common in dungeons. But upon seeing that unfinished sketch, which looked like a rough draft no matter how you looked at it, she felt very “relieved.” She felt that standing here, nothing would dare to harm her. She felt an inexplicable sense of “safety.”
“Whoa—”
Finally, she heard it: a baby’s cry. The black space she stood in opened up like a newborn opening its eyes, a “rift” appearing from a distant horizon. Then, she found herself in a complete room. Before her was a scene that seemed to have recreated a memory. The entire room appeared rather luxurious, like a residence fit for “nobles.” Combined with the baby’s cry she had heard earlier, this must be… Will’s birthplace.
So—
Indeed, she turned around and saw the “child” lying in a small crib.
“Little, little, little, little, little Will—!”
But he wasn’t crying. His deep blue eyes darted around, as if trying with all his might to gather information about “this world.”
“Well, you can’t see me. That makes sense. This is ‘memory,’ not the past, so I can’t interfere with you.”
“Master, I’m very sorry. We did our best, but Madam she…”
The doctor standing next to Will spoke towards Shuna’s “back.” From this moment on, Shuna could understand the words within the memory.
“Wait… could it be…”
She turned her head and saw a man with light blonde hair and gold-rimmed glasses standing behind her.
“Undoubtedly… Carver Hysterm. Though, much younger.”
Of course, no adventurer would fail to recognize the Guild Master. Especially in this era of photography, he was a celebrity.
“Master, please accept my condolences.”
However, although she could understand their words, their lip movements didn’t quite match. Upon closer inspection, the positions of the people in the room were also somewhat strange. For example, Carver was floating above a chair, while the doctor was sitting on the railing of the crib. It was as if someone had later heard the account and placed the present people in seemingly correct positions before filling in the dialogue.
“It’s alright. I came back just to see her one last time.”
Carver’s tone was exceptionally cold. “As for him—let’s call him Will. After all, she wished for this child to live by his own resolve and will.”
He named the child without hesitation and turned away without a second glance. “I have other business to attend to and must travel. I’ll leave him in your care.”
“…That’s somewhat unsettling.”
Shuna crossed her arms and gazed at Carver’s retreating back. When Shuna was investigating the Hysterm family, she had heard that Will was the only child of Carver’s legitimate wife, who had died in childbirth. After that, Carver had no more children and even severed ties with the women around him.
But… perhaps because this was Will’s memory, Carver’s emotions seemed unusually abnormal to Shuna. If he truly loved his wife, shouldn’t he have been grieving her death in childbirth? If he was merely trying to cultivate an image of a devoted man, shouldn’t he have at least looked at his child with emotion?
But… in this memory, Shuna only perceived… a sense of “numbness” from him. It was as if he had no emotional display regarding the matter, only a simple… “Experience it and get through it. Hmm… he has that kind of mindset.”
Before she could ponder why, the room she stood in began to “spin” rapidly. Like the photos shown earlier, some blurry, some clear, scenes played out like a stage play, showing her how little Will learned to stand, walk, and talk, up until he was four or five years old…
At this point, Shuna could confirm one thing: The memories were playing out in “chronological order.” Not a jumbled mess. The blurry parts were likely memories Will himself deemed unimportant, while the clear parts… for example, when he fell and ended up confined to bed for three days during his first use of acceleration magic in winter, those were probably his most profound memories.
“Then… if this is memory playing out chronologically, the memory where I just saw Carver was Will’s birth. So, what was the memory I saw before the screen went black… the one that even contained my own existence?”
Several possibilities already came to Shuna’s mind. For instance— a past life?
“Ahaha, how could such a thing happen?”
To be told now that Will might have had over twenty years of memories before his birth, and more importantly, that she herself had appeared in those memories—even romantic novels sold on the street wouldn’t dare write such a story.
“Never mind, let’s look at cute little Will~”
Shuna squatted down and watched the little Will, holding his toy bear, sitting on the floor and earnestly fiddling with its arm.
“He’s a bit chubby, but… his eyes are still as beautiful as they are now.”
…
A person’s childhood is often a period that feels long while living through it, but feels short when looking back. It was the same for Will. In the blink of an eye, Shuna had watched him pass through countless seasons.
It was another winter. This winter, Shuna witnessed something that made her burst into laughter—the dog that had accompanied Will for many years, which he had cultivated with excessive care, walked out of its kennel, stepped on its bowl, spun several times, and crashed into a tree, dying.
“This guy, why does he remember this scene so clearly? He even remembers exactly how the dog’s tail wagged. You really are a strange person.”
She muttered to herself and waved her hand. “Never mind. If I had encountered such a funny event, I’d probably remember it for a lifetime too.”
Then… she stood there and heard Will’s entire “destiny” speech, as well as Iaar’s self-recognition process from wolf to dog. These were fresh memories; she hadn’t heard Will mention them.
“Talking about destiny, destiny, destiny at such a young age… you’re really…”
She was lost for words and trailed off mid-sentence. Then, she sat down on the “snowy ground,” although she couldn’t feel the “snow” in the memory. The scene began to spin, returning to Will’s room. The room he had lived in since birth. There, she saw what astonished her the most in the entire memory… the most unbelievable thing.
“Today is the first day of organizing the ‘System.’ Let me think, what should be the first mission written…”
Little Will, after everyone else had fallen asleep, climbed onto his seat and turned on the desk lamp. He opened a red booklet, writing “Quest System” on it. But he didn’t write anything on the first page. Instead… he flipped to the last page.
“Let’s write down the ultimate mission first.”
Shuna walked over to the desk. She gazed at the last page of the book.
[Reward: Find your “Heroine.”]
Then, Will wrote, like a tireless typewriter… a page of Heroines. At that moment, his expression was nothing like a child of his age, nor even like his current self. There was something very rarely seen in him… “madness.”
