Pick Me Up!

From that point on, time flowed once again.

“…….”

I looked up.

A gray sky. It was midday, but light was hard to find. Without the magical lights installed across the Imperial Capital, it would be no different from night.

The current climbing floor: 87th floor.

The subjugation of the Red-Tail King, Lantia, concluded on the 85th floor.

Even in its frenzied state, it relentlessly used various illusion spells, hallucinations, and reality manipulations to bother us. But in the end, it fell to the relentless siege tactics of the Townia strike force.

Lantia had already sustained greater damage than Shutenberg by the time it was sucked into the void. We merely finished off an already half-dead boss.

And the climb continued.

It wasn’t just because they received little attention anymore; the comments section had turned into a battlefield of curses and disruptions. Recently, I too stopped checking Anytng’s MyTube channel.

‘Three years is a long run.’

Even a well-made PC game would be considering server shutdowns by this point.

A game that once boasted over 100 million users at its peak had now experienced an irredeemable free fall.

When visiting the official café or game galleries, you’d see core players stubbornly continuing to play, while others fiercely criticized the game, often resulting in keyboard battles.

The unstable servers that crashed multiple times daily, severe lag and bugs, completely unbalanced heroes, and a system where death meant permanent erasure—all combined with the randomized difficulty of missions based on account luck. Features once seen as strengths now dragged the game down.

The stock price of Möbius Corp, once a leading global corporation, plummeted to the floor, recording hundreds of billions in losses, and its app store revenue rankings dropped day by day.

By the time I return to Earth… perhaps the game “Pick Me Up!” will no longer exist.

Well, not that it matters. Even if the service continues, I have no intention of holding onto “Pick Me Up!” anymore. If I get my phone back, the app will be the first thing I delete.

‘This place… isn’t for me.’

I brushed the top of my head with my hand.

Ash-gray snow, piled on my hair, scattered down.

Townia’s sky had not only lost its light, but it also began raining ash-like snow every few days.

“…This is strange.”

Jenna shook her head.

Her gaze wandered to the desolated Imperial Capital, ravaged beyond recognition.

Covered in ash, the ruins could hardly be called buildings, and the people in tattered rags looked like beggars. Hope was absent from their eyes.

“They said that if we cleared the missions, we could save Townia. So why does it keep getting worse the further we go? We killed that big bird Shutenberg and the red-tail monster, didn’t we? So why is it like this?” ℟ãɴỔΒЕʂ

“Perhaps it was all a lie. I never trusted those sweet words from the beginning.”

Velkist smirked.

“A lie? Then what have we been fighting for…?”

“For survival. The missions aren’t entirely useless. Even if this place is destroyed, the waiting room will remain. Isn’t it enough to live there?”

“But! There’s no guarantee that place will last forever!”

“It’s at least safer than here. This place is as good as finished.”

Velkist’s eyes shifted toward an alley.

There, a pile of mercenaries’ corpses lay stacked.

There was neither time nor manpower to bury them. They’d likely be gathered in one spot and burned.

According to Pria, new rifts opened every week, pouring in fragments.

Even if fragments were dealt with and the rifts closed with dimension-cutting swords, the rifts reopened soon after.

Larger and larger rifts spewed countless enemies.

It was a one-sided defensive struggle, with no room for counterattack. Most of the 10,000-strong mercenary force had already perished.

“Now….”

No more refugees came from outside.

With no means to suppress fragments spilling out of the Imperial Capital, the entirety of Townia’s provinces must already be crawling with enemies. Other than the people remaining here, there were likely no survivors left.

“All… lies?”

Jenna’s pupils quivered.

Bright and cheerful as she usually was, this time she had lost her composure.

“The forest where I used to live….”

“It’s probably gone. Don’t cling to it.”

“How can you say that! Oppa, say something! This can’t be how it ends. If this is the end, then what was all that suffering for? I fought so hard to get back home….”

I opened my mouth.

“Calm down. The mission isn’t over yet. Enemies could appear at any moment.”

“This is….”

Jenna stared at me with a dazed expression.

“Oppa, you’ve changed. The brother I knew….”

“…….”

There was nothing left to say.

When I turned my head away from Jenna, the remnants of a collapsed two-story building came into view.

In front of the broken door stood someone.

<Han Israt.>

That wretched…

<I see. You’re running away again? I gave my all for you. Even in death, I fulfilled my duty.>

Ever since the end of the 80th floor, I’d been seeing things.

<Traitor. Coward. Weakling.>

“Shut up.”

I muttered under my breath.

Bloodied Edis grinned at me.

When I waved my hand, her figure dissolved into an afterimage.

‘Damn it.’

I’m utterly rational.

I make logical decisions that fit the situation.

So why do they keep haunting me?

“Velkist, stay with Jenna. I’m going to see Pria.”

“You’re not taking her with you?”

“Help her pull herself together. In her current state, she’s liable to get killed.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

Jenna had her head down.

Since our first battle, she’d endured countless bloody skirmishes without ever wavering.

And now, even she had lost her composure.

‘The mission… isn’t over yet.’

We were still in the middle of the 87th-floor mission.

Although it was an exploration-type mission, there was no telling what might happen.

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