“I’m saying—PROGRAM TAMPER.”
While walking along the border line of ENDLESS WORLD’s districts, I stepped onto a patch of mud soaked with melting snow.
The sole of my shoe made an unpleasant squelching sound.
If I had to describe it, the sensation was something like—
I should have been able to stride forward cleanly, but reality reminded me with perfect timing: You’re still not qualified to act that cool.
The Knight Imperial City corresponding to N2 District should never have been like this.
That place had clear rules, strict order—even the shadows seemed artificially designed.
Not this damp, freezing border zone mixed with snowmelt and mud.
Of course, the time flow in ENDLESS WORLD was ten times faster than reality.
Even if a blizzard had just passed through, from a system-logic standpoint, it made sense.
—The problem wasn’t there.
“Is something the matter?”
Kiyama Yune—
In other words, PROGRAM TAMPER—only lifted her head from the book pages after I spoke.
Her tone remained calm, so calm that I had to wonder whether even the emotion of “confusion” required internal computation before she would activate it.
“Sudden questioning from the witch. Indicating a reasonable level of puzzlement.”
“You can skip the thesis-defense-style supplementary explanation.”
I couldn’t help but retort.
“My question is simple—why do we have to log into ENDLESS WORLD from a bathroom?
The academy obviously has ‘full-immersion exclusive rooms,’ right?”
“Answer: I am not a student of that academy.”
Her tone was as natural as stating a physical law.
“…Couldn’t you at least add ‘therefore’?”
“Unnecessary.”
She lowered her head and resumed reading.
—Fine. I get it.
In front of this person, emotion was nothing more than redundant noise.
“Then at the very least we could have gone to a BHAO club in N3 District, couldn’t we?”
“Objection overruled. Low-efficiency proposal.”
She didn’t even glance up.
I took a deep breath and told myself not to lose to a woman who was reading while walking.
“Reason?”
“First: we are not currently engaged in an immediate territorial contest. This distance does not constitute risk.”
“Second: my identity is excessively conspicuous in N2 District. Exposure is undesirable.”
“Third—”
She turned a page.
“I need to finish this page before we arrive.”
Third point is clearly just personal preference forcibly inserted, isn’t it?!
This isn’t rationality anymore; this is academic tyranny, isn’t it?!
Of course, I only dared say those things in my head.
Because I had already figured out Kiyama Yune’s personality.
—Absolute rationalist.
The type who would not revise her plan just because “you think it’s unreasonable.”
So the scene ended up exactly like this:
Across a snow-covered wasteland.
A bespectacled girl walking with her head buried in a book.
And a black-cloaked Night Witch who was noticeably shorter.
No matter how you looked at it, we didn’t resemble a pair about to reshape the world order.
The leave request, naturally, was ruthlessly dumped on Heita.
Under the cover of the AR plugin, all he could do was give me that “you’re pulling this stunt again” look of condemnation—nothing more.
As for Kiyama Yune, she was officially tagging along as my “transaction partner” to meet Ameno Yotsuba.
By the way, I initially refused.
But when I tried to refuse, her response was—
“If you refuse, I will correct my judgment by initiating another duel.”
She said it with such earnest seriousness that it didn’t even sound like a threat—
More like she was simply stating an inevitable branch of outcomes.
So my mouth closed automatically before the word “refuse” could fully form.
So what exactly does she want from DEATH LORD?
The rhythm of my thoughts unconsciously quickened my steps.
And yet Kiyama Yune somehow kept pace—while still reading.
Is this person really human?
Then, the moment we crossed the N2 District border and officially stepped into N3 District—
The world changed.
No more knights, ramparts, imperial city.
What greeted our eyes was—
Snow mountains.
Endless rolling peaks buried under violent blizzards, silent and colossal beneath a gray-white sky.
And halfway up one of those peaks—
Something had crashed there.
“…”
I stopped walking.
It wasn’t a building.
Nor was it any naturally formed terrain.
It was—
An unidentified flying object.
The metal shell displayed an asymmetrical curved structure, as though it had been forcibly compressed by some incomprehensible force field.
There were no conventional entrances on the surface—only crack-like fissures resembling biological breathing pores.
A faint blue-white glow leaked from within.
“Confirmation: design logic inconsistent with human origin.”
Kiyama Yune finally closed her book.
For the first time, pure interest appeared in her eyes.
“A UFO.”
She pushed up her glasses.
“Quite the peculiar sight.”
As we drew closer, the shell automatically unfolded.
As though the object itself possessed life.
More like a living structure that, upon sensing “permissible entrants,” voluntarily opened a passage.
The interior space was far larger than it appeared from outside.
Gravity direction was unstable; the “floor” beneath our feet occasionally rippled like the surface of water.
The walls were covered in patterns resembling neural networks. Light flowed slowly along them.
“…This already exceeds the normal scene-generation rules of BHAO, doesn’t it?”
I couldn’t help murmuring.
“Hypothesis: this is an anomalous zone marked by the system as an ‘unaffiliated territorial core.’”
At that moment.
A figure emerged from the deepest shadows inside the craft.
Heavy armor covered his entire body. Dark-golden patterns gleamed with dignity and pressure under the cold light.
Shadows draped across him, lending the monarch an air of profound mystery.
Standing to either side of the monarch were two towering, imposing Death Knights.
I swallowed hard.
Even the Night Witch probably couldn’t win against a single one of those Death Knights, right?
“You’ve arrived.”
The voice was low, calm, devoid of excess emotion.
Yet it instinctively made me straighten my spine.
That was DEATH LORD.
Ameno Yotsuba.
He stood there as though he had known we were coming all along.
His in-game appearance was completely different from reality.
Perhaps the real-world Ameno Yotsuba still carried more approachability.
“Night Witch.”
His gaze first landed on me.
There seemed to be a trace of gentle appraisal in it.
“And you, PROGRAM TAMPER.”
He then looked toward Kiyama Yune.
“Or perhaps I should address you as—the KING of N1 District.”