Pick Me Up Infinite Gacha! - P.M.U Chapter 202: The Black Seed (10) (Part 2)

[This hero is immune to magic!]

And then,

“Goodbye.”

Crack.

The blade pierced her heart.

That was the end.

The rampant magic ceased all at once.

Perseine staggered back with a sword stuck in her left chest.

In her wide-open eyes, I saw my figure drenched in blood.

“How…?”

“Just like this.”

I let go of the sword hilt.

Thud.

Perseine collapsed to the ground.

And she never moved again.

‘Huff…’

I took a deep breath.

The second Ascend activation.

Even with my body trained to the limit, using Ascend consecutively was a risk that could not be imagined. It wouldn’t have been surprising if I suddenly died during the fight.

But.

I managed to endure somehow.

My entire body was soaked in blood.

Both mine and hers.

If a monster like the Beast King had been with her, I wouldn’t have won even if I died and came back to life.

I would have buried my bones here.

The very idea that she would be alone was a gamble.

The sparrow said that since the monsters hadn’t completely broken free of their restrictions yet, the bosses who left their floors couldn’t stay away for long.

That prediction seemed to have been correct.

Barely supporting my collapsing body, I walked towards the altar.

Calling this an altar was an embarrassment. The marble pillars standing on both sides were all shattered and destroyed, and the walls and ceiling were pitted and collapsed. It looked as if the entire cave could cave in at any moment.

‘The final key.’

I grabbed the orb on the altar and put it in my pocket.

[Floor 45.]

[Mission Type – Delivery]

[Objective – Deliver the ‘Key’ to the special NPC!]

The mission objective window was updated.

Delivery. As long as I handed this to Pria, the tough section of the 45th floor would be over.

I could return to the waiting room.

‘As expected.’

Tap tap tap.

Faint footsteps echoed from beyond the passage.

The pursuers had already entered the cave.

They would probably arrive here in about 10 minutes.

“……”

Pria was waiting for me in a cave outside the fortress.

I had carefully concealed the entrance using the surrounding terrain, and thanks to the chaos I had created here, she wouldn’t be in danger. But getting to her was the problem. There was only one way out—the same way I had come in.

Suddenly, my vision darkened.

I nearly collapsed but managed to regain my balance.

Every inch of my body felt like it was being torn apart. I gritted my teeth and kept moving.

As long as I didn’t die.

Even if my body was shredded and my limbs were severed, as long as I could deliver the key to Pria, my condition would soon return to normal.

One last obstacle remained.

I had to evade the pursuers, exit the fortress, and return to the hideout.

‘If that’s even possible.’

I clutched my left side.

Blood continued to pour out.

I had exhausted all my strength, and now my legs wouldn’t move as I wanted.

In my current state, I couldn’t even guarantee a victory against a single soldier.

“……”

Outside, hundreds of soldiers were waiting for me.

Once they learned I had killed their leader, they would come at me with bloodshot eyes.

‘Damn it.’

For now, I decided to keep moving.

The odds were less than one in a thousand, but I wouldn’t know unless I tried.

As I stumbled forward,

Thunk.

Someone grabbed my leg.

Looking down, I saw the upper half of a birdman staring at me.

“Piiik…”

Blood and a whistling sound escaped from her mouth.

He was the birdman called the White Feather or something.

He was still alive.

I shook off the birdman’s arm and tried to move again.

But the birdman grabbed my leg again.

“Let go.”

“Gu…Save… Sa…”

Thunk.

The birdman’s head fell off.

He was dead.

Holding my leg with his left hand, and pointing at the wall with his right.

“……?”

What did he mean?

I looked at the wall he was pointing at.

It was a mess from Perseine’s magical bombardment.

‘Was he referring to that?’

Light was seeping through a crack in the collapsed wall.

‘……’

Before I knew it, the sky had darkened.

I was walking through a forest bathed in faint moonlight.

To the east of the fortress, in the corner of the floating island.

Here lay the hideout where I had hidden for a week.

‘I barely survived.’

It wasn’t the first time I had been on the brink of death.

This was nothing new.

I clutched the orb in my left hand.

The key that originally shone white was now stained with blood, losing its glow.

It was better this way than to be a glowing target.

After walking for a while, I saw the dense thicket. I confirmed the three knife marks carved into the base of a tree. It was the imprint I had left to mark this place.

I tapped the large rock placed in the thicket three times with the hilt of my sword. The bushes parted to reveal the entrance to a cave.

And then,

“Han…!”

I pushed Pria, who was about to rush out, back into the cave and closed the entrance.

There were still many pursuers outside, and we had to be cautious until the end.

‘Luckily, we weren’t detected.’

A campfire was burning inside the cave.

Nothing had changed since I left, which meant Pria hadn’t moved an inch from this spot.

“What on earth… happened? What are those wounds?”

“Sit down. Take this first.”

I handed the orb to the bewildered Pria after seating her.

“This is…”

“Can’t you tell? It’s what you were looking for.”

Thud.

I collapsed next to the campfire.

If I closed my eyes, I might die. My vision was blurry. I barely held onto consciousness as I examined my wounds.

My whole body was ravaged.

I rarely got this badly injured.

Anytng’s screen was already flashing red, signaling my critical condition.

“We need to treat you first, right? Wait! I’ll…”

“It’ll be fine once I go back.”

In the corner of the cave, a glowing bubble was rising.

Though faint, I could recognize it. It was the signal for mission completion and the return to the waiting room.

‘Somehow, I managed.’

I leaned against the rock wall.

The objective was accomplished.

Retrieving the key and returning to the waiting room for recovery. At least next time, I could bring the members of the waiting room with me. That alone was a significant achievement.

“……”

I looked at Pria.

This girl had been with me long enough to understand some things about the missions.

Pria lowered her eyes, holding the herb-filled clay pot.

“So, you’re going back.”

We’ll see each other again on the 46th floor.

We’ll see each other often from now on.

To the point of being sick of it.

‘I wonder how it’ll go.’

When I return to the waiting room, Pria will be left alone here.

Gathering the keys was just the beginning. To destroy the eggs of the fragments, she needed to escape the floating island.

‘Is that the mission for the 46th floor?’

I should strategize to some extent.

Whatever mission comes, it would be much easier than struggling alone.

That was fortunate.

“Why are you so gloomy? We collected all the keys.”

“But…”

Pria lowered her head deeply.

“I was just useless.”

I neither affirmed nor denied her words.

She wasn’t wrong.

Pria had hardly been of any help in previous missions.

Despite her hard training, her swordsmanship and stamina were lacking, and she had no special talents in magic or healing. She didn’t have any powerful allies supporting her either. To me, it seemed the Assinis family had used her rather than following her out of loyalty.

“……”

In front of me was just one powerless person at a loss in a given situation.

‘A normal girl, huh.’

Different from that exceptional prince.

If the prince had been the protagonist of the Townia story, as Tel said, the difficulty might have dropped several levels. The difference between the two siblings was that extreme.

“……Sorry.”

Pria’s cheeks were flushed.

Not out of embarrassment.

But out of shame.

“I wanted to be like my brother. His firm conviction, that steel-like will, the charisma that led everyone… I envied it.”

“……”

“But no matter how hard I try, I can’t catch up to my brother.”

I remained silent.

Suddenly, I thought of someone who might be right now wielding a spear.

They seemed oddly similar.

‘That’s a talent in its own way.’

Not everyone could have the qualities of a leader just by trying.

Most people end up as ordinary members of society.

‘Let’s see.’

Light was filling the cave.

Once that light enveloped my body, I would return to the waiting room.

However, the flow of light was very slow.

Was it the aftermath of the mission state becoming abnormal?

‘I guess we will return to the ground next.’

Gathering the keys wasn’t the end.

To deal with the eggs before they hatch, we had to somehow handle them.

I had scouted the floating island before entering the fortress and saw a large monster army gathered near the eggs. There were thousands of monsters swarming around the eggs.

It seemed the objective for the 50th-floor mission was also set.

Light began to gradually envelop my body.

‘Something that should be here is gone.’

I recalled the sparrow’s words.

Right.

The Assinis family.

They were supposed to assist in the battle on the ground, but the NPC support force had been destroyed.

The difficulty of the 50th floor will skyrocket.

We might have to fight the monster army solely with the power of the heroes.

‘Returning to the tower isn’t the end.’

If we delay too long, the eggs will hatch.

Under normal circumstances, we would hold out as long as possible and build up our strength, but… we don’t seem to have that luxury. If we take our time and the larvae emerge from the eggs, the difficulty of the mission will skyrocket to near-impossible levels.

‘A full-scale battle with the monsters.’

Unlike before, where we could break through with a small force or use tricks, this time it wouldn’t work.

If the enemy overwhelmed us with sheer numbers, we had to use a similar method.

Dozens of heroes wouldn’t be enough.

We needed hundreds.

The same went for the airship.

Even after Capitalism was built, it wouldn’t be enough to move the heroes on a large scale. We needed at least five ships.

Five airships and hundreds of combat heroes.

Plus the non-combat personnel and various equipment and facilities to support them.

We were short.

Desperately short on resources.

Gold, gems, and other materials.

What we gained from daily dungeons was far from enough.

[Stage Clear!]

[‘Han (★★★★)’ has leveled up!]

[Reward – 10,000G]

[MVP – ‘Han (★★★★)’]

The clear message appeared, and light enveloped my whole body.

I looked at Pria, who was crouching.

It wasn’t her fault.

The situation had simply taken a turn for the worse.

‘The boss stage rewards are ridiculously stingy.’

I closed my eyes.