A world turned upside down inside darkness.
As the far side of that place suddenly brightened, Eve realized she was trapped behind iron bars.
Over there was a stage.
On the stage were a small room and people. And almost all of them were women.
Looking closer, Elize was there. For some reason she was wearing a nurse’s outfit. Rebecca was there too, and she wore a police uniform with a bright smile. Gray, whom Eve had always thought of as cat-like, had literally put on cat ears and a tail, dressed in something extremely provocative.
For Eve, it was a situation she could hardly understand and could not accept. But then she remembered she had roughly ten minutes of time left in her head.
The human?
There.
Outside the bars.
In a far, tucked-away corner of the building, she saw a glass capsule containing the human.
And for some reason she could feel life from it.
“......!!”
Eve was greatly startled. The human was alive. Eyes still closed, head lowered, but she felt a pulse; she felt life.
Eve understood. This was the same place as the world that had existed before, but it was a world where curses did not work.
Now she should get out and do something—anything.
“......?”
Eve rapped the bars with her hand.
They didn’t open.
Looking around, she alone stood in a vast space of darkness. And she saw no door to leave the cage.
I’ll rip it open.
She gathered every ounce of strength she had and tried to wrench the bars apart, but they wouldn’t budge.
At this rate, Eve realized she was in the same position as a prisoner locked in a cell.
I can’t stay here.
Ten minutes....
No, those bastards earlier already spent time fussing among themselves, so about nine minutes must be left. Eve began to burn up inside. Nine minutes. Only nine minutes. In that time she had to reach Dante and somehow save him, but the bars wouldn’t open.
“.......”
Then she saw something high above.
A red button was just there in midair. Letters were written on it.
[Single Pull] / [10 Pulls]
A pull?
What’s that?
When she thought she wanted to press it, the button came closer.
But when she pressed [10 Pulls], the words <Insufficient currency: ‘Star Shards’.> popped up.
“......??”
So she tried pressing [Single Pull], but again nothing changed. Only the words <Insufficient currency: ‘Star Shards’.> floated up.
She didn’t know things like this. She couldn’t know what situation she was in, where this was. All Eve knew was that she was in a hurry and had to do something.
Then, a tiny button appeared next to [Single Pull]. It said [Watch Ad for 1 Pull].
Now about eight minutes remained.
Grasping at straws, Eve pressed it.
At the same time, her vision flashed.
“??”
In an instant Eve was standing in a completely unfamiliar place. The human? Gone. This was somewhere else entirely. Around her, something like an ocean stretched to the horizon, and she was on a bridge—
Suddenly, oil drums started rolling in from the other end of the bridge.
“?????”
Drums rolling from left and right.
She had to run, but her body only moved left and right. And at some point there was, for some reason, a gun in Eve’s hands.
Instinctively she fired it at the drums. The one with the lower number broke, something popped out, and it got absorbed into her.
“.......”
For now, she destroyed drums. The gun powered up. She split into three, like clones. Bigger drums rolled in. Eve had to keep firing.
Thrown into an absurd situation, she grew more anxious: thirty seconds vanished in an instant. Seven minutes thirty seconds remained. And she was just sitting here shooting some unknown gun.
[ Download ]
At last, as the world blurred, text appeared. Eve looked around and carefully pressed the [X] mark.
When she came to, she was back in the same prison. As the single pull started, the sigil of the Auspicious–Inauspicious Star □ rose in the air, then with dazzling light and a burst of music, Gray danced on a lotus and held out a sheet of paper.
[ C-rank, Twin Assassin Big Sis Luine ]
Then a woman in revealing assassin garb popped out and gave Eve a long sidelong glare.
“Don’t ask too much of me. ......I’ll take orders.”
After that, the woman silently walked toward the [Stage]. To that distant, lit room.
That was the end of it.
Eve waited, but no other interaction occurred.
A person jumped out of a sheet and went that way. Toward where Dante was. But she herself was still trapped. And in the air, the [Single Pull] button still shimmered.
“?????”
What on earth was going on?
Meanwhile time passed—about seven minutes left.
For now, Eve pressed [Single Pull] ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) again. And again, a ridiculous world unfolded.
A dim office. A severe-looking man posed in a chair, then stared straight through Eve and said,
“...Everything in life has its time. Miss the timing and what should work, won’t.”
Of course Eve couldn’t hear him. Whatever that meant.
“So come before it’s too late. I hear Hiaka Academy gives you 5,000 pulls for free....... They say there’s less than a week left.”
That was the end. The man kept posing, and Eve started to feel even more on edge. She counted numbers in her head. Six minutes thirty. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight....
She had no idea why she had to be watching crap like this here.
[ Download ]
Then she pressed the [X] again and she was back in the prison. Another pull. A woman whose name Eve didn’t know burst from the sheet Gray held out and laughed. “I like you! Let’s work hard at academy life together!” Eve began to feel this situation turning slowly horrifying.
She turned her body and looked around. Even if she ran inside the prison, there was no end. Perhaps thirty seconds of running. The endlessly spreading space was round, connected with the [Stage] at the center.
“Ah......!!”
“Ahh......!!”
On impulse, Eve tried making a sound. She didn’t know how to speak, but she knew a trembling throat could make sound. Her target was Rebecca in the center of the room on the stage. Eve hated her, but she was grasping at straws.
But Rebecca didn’t turn around. Not just Rebecca—no one there seemed to hear a thing.
Eve gave up and pressed [Watch Ad for 1 Pull] again.
After that, the absurdity continued without end.
A provocative woman in a robe smiled in a shower room and said, “Come in, first time doing 7,000 pulls?”—something Eve had to watch for thirty seconds.
Next, a woman with a child got kicked out by a man and abandoned, left wandering a cold winter street. Eve, though feeling even closer to death herself, led them to a house and took them in. Another thirty seconds flew away.
Next, she had to gather wood spread on the ground and deliver it somewhere so the base around her would grow. She couldn’t understand why she was doing this, but there was nothing else she could do. Another thirty seconds vanished again.
“.......”
At some point Eve threw the wood aside and punched at the air. There was no one to hit. She didn’t even know who it was aimed at, but the anger boiled up and she couldn’t contain it.
Meanwhile, time flowed.
Three minutes.
Two minutes thirty.
Two minutes.......
“.......”
At last, Eve began to cry.
He’s dying. Now, at the very end of an end that can’t be reversed. It should be a situation where only she could do something, but she couldn’t save him and was letting him die. Eve was afraid of that. Her heart began to tremble to the point of death.
Even so, her hand reflexively had to keep pressing [Watch Ad for 1 Pull]. Anything, somehow, even a tiny miracle.
Then it happened.
Gray, who came hopping to hand over a sheet, began to shine golden in the eyes.
“Wow, wow! I thought you were trash, but you’re not bad? Kyaa♡”
A markedly different mood than before. Gray flashed golden capped teeth—ping!—then promptly offered a sheet glowing in rainbow light.
[ SSR-rank!! ]
[ Summer Limited! Bikini Party! Would you put some oil on me? Adele! ]
A person walked out of the sheet. This time, Eve startled and stumbled back.
Brown hair and brown eyes. And a familiar face.
It was Adele.
The human’s assistant.
But her outfit was downright shocking: she wore something like strings, barely clinging on.
What on earth was she wearing? It was such a bizarre outfit that even Eve—who normally had no thoughts about clothes or covering her body—was flustered.
“Hey. Honestly, where are you going to meet a girl like me? Someone as capable as me. Confident. Overflowing with charm.......”
Adele struck strange poses, said things, winked, and pressed a finger into her cheek.
Then her eyes froze mid-wink.
Her hand stopped too.
Adele, staring blankly around, suddenly covered herself in a flurry of startled motions.
“What the fuck....”
Adele panted urgently and looked around.
“......Here... why, why am I here...?? ...Huh? No, where was I just now...?”
It was like fireworks went off in Eve’s head. She couldn’t tell what was what, but that was Adele, and her reactions were different from Rebecca and the others here.
By then it was one minute thirty. Eve frantically waved her hand.
“Huh...? What are you? Why are you in there? That’s where you go when a brief character bug happens....”
“......!! ......!!”
Eve punched the bars with her fist. Tapped her own chest. Pointed outside.
It meant: Please, let me out.
“What......?? .......”
Adele looked around, spotted Dante in the glass capsule, and her eyes widened.
“Ah. Is it because of that?”
Eve nodded just by following the direction of Adele’s pointing finger. Madly.
“Hold on. Ugh, damn it.... I haven’t shown this to anyone yet....”
Adele came closer and pointed her finger at the vertical bars. The bars began melting away one by one.
“!!!”
“Hey, but don’t tell anyone about this, okay? It’s a power I obtained with difficulty so I can leave here someday, and it’s a secret that I have this ability. I’m sick of this place.”
“??? !!!”
“...Huh? Ahh, are you maybe unable to hear? I’m sorry.... Still, you must be from a good place. Your clothes are pretty normal, unlike the folks here.”
“?????”
Meanwhile Adele melted a second bar. One more and Eve could probably get out. About fifty seconds, or maybe forty. And yet, Eve still felt something off about Adele being like that, and it kept catching her eye how Adele kept trying to cover herself even while melting the bars.
Eve took off the roomy outer jacket she wore over her T-shirt and handed it to Adele.
“What is this? You giving this to me?”
Without answering, Eve ran. Past the far side of the stage. Toward the glass capsule trapping the human.
The eyes of those on the stage turned toward her; someone shouted or screamed, but Eve paid it no mind.
She had lived being called a witch or a monster. For a long time. At the time she didn’t know the words themselves, but she remembered clearly how everyone who saw her tried to draw a blade or attack.
That was how she had lived from about fourteen until she turned twenty. And the first being who had approached her in that life and shown her kindness was there now.
Approaching from afar with care. Coming steadily to visit. Sharing good things. Sitting together, looking at the sky. Looking at the stars.
The one who then got her a driver’s license.
Eve stood before the glass capsule, panting.
Ten seconds remained.
You do not belong here.
“.......”
Eve drew the holy sword 「Peacebringer†」 from her waist and smashed the glass.
Crash!!!