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< ⧉ Global [Corruption] is in progress. >
< Progress: 1 / 3 >
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The city of Redmilk was a logistics hub along the northern strait of Hiaka, located closest to the Hattengraj Empire.
It was also the primary manufacturing and southern distribution center for the “Pink Drug,” and in recent months, it had drawn so much capital and manpower that it was being called Hiaka’s second heart.
The reflected benefits were shared by everyone in Redmilk.
“Alright, let’s set sail. We’re hauling in more catch than ever today.”
“Let’s do it!”
The crew was in good spirits.
Lately, every fish they caught had been selling out at great prices.
As they headed out into the northern sea, they cast and reeled in their nets repeatedly, forgetting all about the labor.
“Two nets up! Whoa, what the—? That’s a huge haul!”
And today, especially, the catch was enormous.
“Hey! Someone help! The net’s about to tear!”
“Damn, cook! Stop making rice—we’re already full!”
“What, what’re you scared of, running to our boat like cowards?”
Laughter echoed across the ship.
They’d barely hauled in two rounds of nets, and already the deck was bursting.
They could feel the boat's weight in the soles of their feet.
And there were still two nets left in the water.
Everyone was seeing Hika in their heads.
Click!
‘Today’s a jackpot. What can I buy my wife for her birthday?’
‘Maybe I can finally get Dad that horse he’s wanted...’
‘I should move house.’
As they each danced through their little daydreams—
“C-Captain!!”
One of the sailors cried out in shock.
“What is it?”
“Y-You need to come see this...!”
The captain rushed outside and looked out over the sea—then immediately climbed the mast ladder in a panic.
He stared, slack-jawed.
“...What the hell is that...”
The sea—
The vast, majestic sea that had once gifted the continent a piece of its dominion—
A thick purple mass was rapidly spreading across it.
Riding the waves, it swept outward, devouring the waters in its path.
“Turn back—we’re heading back!!”
The captain shouted.
“What?! Captain, what about the nets?!”
“Leave them! We’re turning back! Now!!”
He didn’t ignore the instinct honed by thirty years at sea.
That instinct saved his life.
That day, eleven fishing vessels and seventeen trade ships were swallowed by the sea.
It all happened within the span of thirty minutes that morning.
***
It was an awkward lunchtime.
After wrapping up a rare special lecture for the Department of Assassination, I stopped by the Zone 0 faculty cafeteria—only to find Professor Gula already seated there.
“Oh? Professor...”
This was the same Gula who, back in the day, used to think to himself that I was a bastard and a son of a bitch the moment he saw me. But now? He stiffened the moment I appeared.
Pretty much every professor did.
Even more so after the news article about me being part of the royal family.
It was clear they all found me intimidating now.
“For someone rolling in cash, you sure slum it at the faculty cafeteria...”
“The food here is good.”
“...Damn, that actually sounds classy coming from you. If I said it, I’d sound broke.”
Gula gave a wry laugh.
Still the same cynical tone.
“It’s good, right? Can’t deny that.”
“Hell. If I were you, I’d be over at the royal palace restaurant every day, eating caviar on foie gras.”
But in front of me sat a 30-Hika bowl of ramen.
I liked this more.
“You ordered the cheapest thing on purpose, didn’t you? Trying out the commoner experience?”
“......”
“Jealous as hell. Shit. Hurry up and eat—I wanna know what poverty tastes like. Want a bite of my crappy bread?”
“......”
Gula kept grumbling.
Clearly eaten up with envy.
In the past, I would’ve thought he was trying to pick a fight—but now I just found it funny.
I liked how consistent this man was.
And then it happened.
The [Corruption] status screen popped up.
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< ⧉ Global [Corruption] is in progress. >
< Progress: 2 / 3 >
< ⧉ You are being summoned to a [Hell Difficulty] Corruption Zone. From this point forward, you are given 7 days. During that time, prepare to face “One-Horned Demon Trappycche.” Your objective is to kill Trappycche while saving as many humans as possible within the isolated zone. Be warned: If humans are not properly controlled, they may attempt to kill each other. Complete annihilation within the zone is possible. >
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When I opened my eyes, I was standing on a strange street. A city I’d never seen before.
Turning my head, I spotted something in the distance: a massive translucent wall, the [Quarantine Barrier], stretching across the world like a giant pane of glass.
Just like in the Bomiteka incident.
'So it begins.'
The Corruption: Trappycche Battle had arrived.
Even while I was handling the contract marriage with Rebecca, I’d been roughly estimating the timeline.
This time, I’d already disseminated response protocols to other academies under Hiaka Academy’s name in advance.
“Hey. Did you hear?”
“Huh?”
“Some fishing boats got wrecked out at sea.”
I was walking slowly through the streets when I overheard the panicked voices of citizens.
'Trappycche.'
Most likely modeled after the yellow slime mold, this grotesque demon lacked a definitive shape.
At its core, it was essentially a human-sized brain with a horn embedded in the middle. From there, its blackish-purple jelly-like flesh extended and moved.
That flesh was contaminated—emitting poison and corroding metal and wood alike.
Simultaneously, inside its body, demon claws and horns moved freely, shooting out like liquid metal to attack humans. The force of those strikes was strong enough to shatter a metal ship in one blow. And after each strike, the material would melt back into liquid and vanish, making counterattack nearly impossible.
On top of that, it always had the upper hand, no matter the terrain. As long as its body could make contact, it didn’t matter if it was land, sea, or cliffside. So long as it could touch it, it could go there.
Even this alone made it a terrifying opponent.
But the real problem was...
'It grinds humans down.'
In terms of threat level, Trappycche ranked just below Jinksythe.
But in terms of difficulty?
Higher than Jinksythe.
It was a demon biologically optimized to exterminate humanity.
As its name “Trappycche” suggests, it’s based on Trap—one of the 12 Ability Types among demons.
And the core of [Trap] is invisibility.
Similar to [Stealth], but with one key difference: it occupies territory.
That creates a tactical dilemma for humanity.
'If we move in to attack...'
If humanity chooses to act—
'They walk into its trap.'
They’ll step into a pre-set snare, and someone is guaranteed to be wiped out.
On the flip side—
'If they don’t move and just wait...'
It kept expanding its territory. The range of its traps grew broader.
Like the ever-growing minefields after World War II or the Korean War—Trappycche’s body kept spreading outward, transforming the entire area into a massive trap.
When it moves quickly, it travels over land or sea. But if Trappycche wants to fully conceal itself and occupy a location, it can just as easily move underground.
'I need people. People...'
I moved quickly toward Redmilk’s City Hall.
At the same time, I activated my [Mini-map] to survey the terrain and anticipate Trappycche’s movement patterns.
Then I opened the Crystal Orb and checked the incoming transmissions.
I had sent out multiple early alerts after Ran warned me about Trappycche.
< Unread Messages: Glory, Eve, Princess Rebecca >
It appeared the Hero Party and Dormant Dragon Cadets had been summoned into the Quarantine Zone—at least those three.
'Two Heroes and a mage. The numbers are lacking, but the party composition isn’t bad for dealing with Trappycche.'
The city of Redmilk was also a solid location.
Most likely, the One-Horned Demon had come to destroy the Pink Drug production here—but obviously, preparations had been made on this side as well.
Hiaka had increased Redmilk’s military force nearly sixfold over the past few months.
'This is the scenario I was aiming for.'
Like this, humanity was now responding organically to demonic threats.
The Bomiteka battle had relatively few casualties—but this time, I hoped there would be even fewer.
And I hoped the key figures—myself included—would survive.
I hoped, with everything I had.
At that point, I reached City Hall.
Some incident must’ve already occurred—staff looked frantic, and guards were running everywhere.
I grabbed one of the employees.
“Ah, sorry, we’re a little busy right now...”
“Tell the mayor that Senior Professor Dante Hiakapo has come to see him.”
“Excuse me? Wha...?”
The staffer’s eyes went wide.
“Ah...!! Y-Yes! Please wait right here...!”
Up to this point, everything had gone as expected.
But when I finally met the mayor—his face hollowed and dark—I felt a crack form in my expectations.
“Professor! Please come in!”
The moment I entered his office, the mayor fell to his knees before me, his hands trembling violently.
“Professor Dante...”
“What are you doing? Get up.”
“Professor Dante... Please... Save us...”
He was a young mayor. Newly elected just two weeks ago.
Now he was drenched in cold sweat, unable to hide his despair.
And when he explained the situation, I «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» was genuinely taken aback.
“...What?”
“Eighty percent of our guard force is currently deployed elsewhere.”
In the past few days, hornless demons had gone wild in the mountains west of Redmilk, attacking the trade routes. The damage had been significant.
“As you know, demons have been hyper-aggressive lately. The Central Guard promised support to cities engaging in extermination campaigns...”
As a rookie, the mayor had been enthusiastic—and in an effort to fully wipe them out, he’d sent most of his forces.
“The hornless demons along the trade route have been mostly eliminated. We found and destroyed their bases too...”
“When were they due to return?”
“This afternoon...”
I closed my eyes.
It wasn’t random madness that had made the demons attack the trade route.
They had attacked specifically to lure out the city’s forces, just in time for Trappycche’s corruption.
Now that the [Quarantine Barrier] had formed, those forces couldn’t return.
The demons had struck precisely where humanity was weakest.
'No way the Central Guard sent out an official order on a whim. This was connected to the palace.'
It didn’t take much to realize this too was the scheme of the Two-Horned Demon Setian.
“Let’s check our current forces. Gather any reserves and mercenaries available, even if you have to pay double.”
“Understood. I’ll bring them through the Guard.”
There wasn’t much time.
I moved quickly.
***
Normally, Redmilk’s Guard doubled as a military force, with a standing number around 5,000—on the higher end for a city.
But now—
Even after mustering all available reservists and mercenaries with bonuses, the total number assembled was only about 1,400.
“This can’t be. That’s all we have...?”
“Yes...”
The mayor looked crushed.
Even with extra recruitment efforts, they’d only added 200 more.
Being a trade city with a powerful standing guard, Redmilk wasn’t attractive to reservists or mercenaries—there simply wasn’t much work for them here.
“We need at least 2,000... Look harder. Anywhere, find 600 more...”
Even while watching me cautiously, he kept summoning people to scrape together more troops.
But after half a day, not a single additional soldier joined.
And it wasn’t like we could conscript untrained fishermen or merchants.
In the real world, a starving child with a rifle could become a pirate.
But this was a game world. Only those who had trained could count as combatants.
'This is bad.'
I didn’t have a silver bullet either.
It was a sealed space.
How the hell was I supposed to find more people?
“...I’m back.”
Around then, Glory returned from his trip to find the party’s missing assassin.
“......”
And Eve, who’d run off from home the other day, waved as she walked up.
She hesitated a bit when she saw Glory but still gave a small wave.
Glory awkwardly waved back.
“Damn, this place is too damn big...”
Princess Rebecca, who’d also been summoned, arrived at City Hall.
Glory gave her a rigid 90-degree bow.
Eve fidgeted, then waved again.
Rebecca, arms crossed, ignored both of them.
The two Heroes were [Challenger]-class.
Rebecca’s rank was unknown—but at minimum, she was [Master]-class.
Since the strongest people in the city were probably just barely [Master]-rank, our key fighting force was now gathered.
“Place to recruit more troops, huh...? Didn’t look like it on my way in.”
“......”
“If you don’t know, how the hell would I?”
As expected, none of them were much help when it came to managing forces.
Strong as individuals—but only that.
“Just stay ready for combat.”
That was all I said before heading back out to comb through the Guard, the mercenary guild, City Hall, wealthy firms, and workers’ unions—anywhere I could find potential soldiers.
“My apologies, but we’ve only got a dozen self-defense fighters left...”
“As for mercenaries, we already sent everyone who agreed to sign on...”
But if people hadn’t shown up when the mayor put out a reward, they weren’t going to come just because a professor was out there searching.
'No one left, really?'
At this point, the tradeoff was dangerously high.
Were there truly no more people to pull?
'One more person means three more live... We need at least 500 to 600 more.'
Even with Eve and Glory, we were at a disadvantage in terms of raw power. Both of them were [Challenger]-class, but on the lower to mid end. At best, Glory might be at the [Grandmaster] threshold.
Best-case scenario: half survival.
Worst-case: total annihilation.
'There has to be something...'
By then, night had fallen.
I returned empty-handed, sitting on the comms tower rooftop, overlooking the city.
'What the hell is that...'
I noticed a strange group of people. They wore hoods, heading somewhere in silence.
There were quite a few—at a glance, over a hundred.
'Wait a second.'
Redmilk had a night curfew. A rule left over from the days when trade companies waged private wars and assassination clashes were common.
And yet, these people were moving somewhere after dark—
Heading through sealed underground tunnels, or down into dry storm drains.
'...What is that?'
Grasping at straws, I began following them in stealth.
With a cast of 『Concealment Veil』.
And soon—
I witnessed something shocking.