A New Possibility? Or A Hypothesis! (1)

Even before the 30th day, airborne monsters had appeared occasionally. Today, on the 32nd day, a flock of harpies arrived.

“Wow, nice eye candy.”

The only ones making such empty chatter as they ogled the harpies’ naked female bodies were Arun and the Rebound Legion.

Other representatives couldn’t hide their tension as they watched the flock blacken the sky.

“Lee Hyo-ju.”

“Yes.”

“Go and bring them here.”

It was blunt and baseless, but Lee Hyo-ju understood; when she contacted them through the communication crystal, a group of representatives was shoved up onto the battlements.

They didn’t look like they wanted to go up, but under the yells and curses they had no choice but to move.

No matter how you looked at it, those guys were real idiots.

If as many as 461 had tried to flee at once before the start of the fifth year, the guards wouldn’t have been able to stop them all—now that killing was forbidden.

At least half of them would have gotten away.

Of course, those who failed to escape would be tormented and treated horribly, but when survival is at stake, isn’t that level of resolve expected?

They’re the kind of cowards whose mere sight annoys and angers you. That’s exactly what they were doing.

Even as they climbed the battlements, they kept glancing around as if to guarantee a chance to flee even if everyone else died—all 461 of them.

“Don’t worry about chances. All of you will participate in the battle together. Arun.”

When Arun was called, the mages cheerfully came over and tied lassos around the representatives’ bodies.

Plain rope with no magical devices. An ordinary person might be stopped by it, but a representative could cut it with a little divine power.

“It’s just rope with no devices, but it’s sturdy—you can tell by the thickness, right? Now, line up along the battlements.”

“W-why are you doing this to us! Why!”

Pulled to the battlement rail, one of them put on a sanctimonious, victimized act. Two days ago he had even led the charge, insisting he had the right to participate in the Monster Wave.

“Just—”

“W-what…!!”

“Just tell them you don’t like them.”

“…You son of a bitch! What kind of crap is that…! Gah!!”

As he spat curses and struggled, a watching representative drove a fist full of divine power into his gut.

“Now, if you’re ready, kick them off!!”

Representatives stood behind the onlookers tied to the rail. On my count they all raised their feet and kicked; the scene looked like something out of a ‘This is Sparta!’ gag.

The onlookers screamed as they fell.

Fortunately, the ropes held and didn’t snap; they dangled from the middle of the wall. Not a single one fell away.

“Onlookers, now you must choose. Cut the rope and try to escape while dealing with those horny harpies, or do what you’re good at and keep watching. Who knows? Maybe the harpies won’t touch one or two of you?”

A typical representative would cut the rope immediately and hide or cling to the gate. Even if they weren’t tactically clever, they’d at least cut the rope and run.

But by the onlookers’ values, this was a huge dilemma. Hanging on the rope or dropping down both offered no guaranteed safety.

“Save me! Please save me!! You sons of bitches!!”

“Please save me. I’ll do anything. Sob.”

“Aah!! They’re coming, they’re coming! They’re coming!!”

“Hey, this joke is going too far!”

“I said they’re coming!!”

“A joke? Who says this is a joke?”

Even as harpies swarmed, my calm voice made the onlookers hanging from the wall tremble.

The funny thing was that, though the harpies clearly targeted them, not a single onlooker cut the rope and dropped. All 461 of them stayed, as if they firmly believed the harpies would pass them by.

“Huh…”

Even the representatives who had heard the explanation couldn’t understand and let out hollow exclamations. It would be hard for an ordinary representative to comprehend.

“U-uaaah!!”

When the first victim was finally dragged off by a harpy, their internal conflict registered to me. I smiled faintly, anticipating what would come next.

But contrary to my expectations, two, three, ten, twenty… as the number of victims increased, everyone kept their eyes tightly shut and didn’t move.

“They’re awful.”

The word fit perfectly.

They were awful—awfully lazy and awfully stupid. Maybe they knew they couldn’t die during training. The eyes of those being taken by harpies still held a flicker of hope.

The flock easily numbered over a thousand at a glance, and yet such baseless hope.

Monsters aren’t fools; in the wild, they target the prey that looks helpless first.

In the end, all the onlookers were dragged off by the harpies.

In the air, harpies trying to eat the representatives collided with the ‘Setting’ protecting them.

Ho?

I had an almost instinctive sense that I was watching a new method to handle monsters.

A harpy bit a representative’s nape, fainted, and fell through the air. Another harpy swooped in; expecting it to help its kin, I watched it instead snatch the prey for itself. It repeatedly opened its beak to swallow the representative, only to faint and fall again.

After a few failed attempts, a harpy bit off an arm or leg.

But because they were onlookers, their ‘harm Setting’ was set to ‘minor injury.’ The Setting still granted protection, so the captured representatives ended up falling to the ground unconscious.

They didn’t die from the fall. Perhaps because they were outside Exorsus, the Setting’s response lagged even more. Like spitting out inedible food, the bodies slung through the air only showed the blue protective barrier after several bones were already broken.

Pff!

Seeing that repeatedly felt like watching a tragicomic routine—an outdated gag where they take the hit and then block.

“Naruan, go collect the unconscious ones.”

“Huh? Which unconscious ones?”

“Both. Kill the harpies and bring back their corpses.”

“Ah! Got it, boss!”

“Yeah, good. We’ll need to use this often. Perfect as meat shields. What should we call it? Stun bait?”

I watched Naruan descend the wall with five or six representatives.

“Captain.”

“Ah, Inex. What is it?”

“How should we deal with the remaining harpies?”

“Ah, wipe them out.”

“Yes.”

As Inex relayed the order and moved to deal with the fewer-than-one-hundred remaining harpies, watching the onlookers’ comedy brought back my conversation with Sio.

“They make them?”

“Yes, they’re made. By the ‘Setting.’”

“…Crazy. Why make monsters? Does that make sense?”

“Hah! You fool! The protection representatives get from the ‘Setting’ makes sense? That’s just as nonsensical.”

Shio’s retort left me speechless.

Indeed, even I thought it was excessive that representatives were unconditionally protected by the ‘Setting’ up to the fifth year.

“That, too, will gradually fade.”

“Huh?”

“Why do you think this Monster Wave happened? Do you think, as you representatives say, it’s to test how strong you’ve become over five years?”

I had thought there was a testing aspect. When I said so, Shio smiled faintly.

“That’s included. But there’s a more important reason: to cultivate numbness to killing and to adapt to injuries.”

“Huh…”

I understood what Shio meant faster than anyone.

“You get it. As expected—contrary to your size or the ignorant things the two old men do—you understand this well, don’t you?”

It’s terrifying. The schemes of the gods and the Creator, whom I’d mocked and bullied, gave me chills.

“So they want you to kill well, and fight more fiercely…?”

“Exactly.”

“Hah… they’re real bastards.”

“You just realized that? Do you think transcendent ones call gods trash for nothing?”

What these filthy bastards want is for representatives to tear into each other more thrillingly.

A numbness to killing—dulling the sense of taking life by repeatedly slashing monsters.

Adaptation to injury—an adjustment period so representatives become used to comrades getting wounded during the Monster Wave.

When the fifth year begins and you enter the Garden of Gods, the first thing the patron god tells you about is ‘absorption.’ Ludicer didn’t do that, but from rumors that once circulated among representatives in my previous life, patron gods spoke of ‘absorption’ in grand terms.

Representatives numb to killing.

Representatives adapted to minor injuries.

And if they harbor illusions about ‘absorption’ on top of that?

A slaughter begins. That’s why, before legions were formed, it was common for comrades to wake up with their throats severed.

“Then can you kill a representative?”

“No, not to that extent. It’s just that the reaction becomes progressively slower. That’s the ‘Setting.’”

“Slower? You mean the ‘Setting’ experiences delays?”

“Who do you think you’re selling this to! You know it too! Just think of it as the ‘Setting’s delay getting longer.”

The Setting’s delay lengthens. Does that mean, as the Monster Wave progresses, there’s a possibility of fatalities beyond severe injuries?

“So in December, will people die?”

“Hmm… I can’t say for certain. But it wouldn’t be strange if such representatives appeared.”

Seeing those on the ground unconscious with limbs grotesquely twisted confirmed Sio’s words.

While I was momentarily lost in thought, with Inex and the representatives acting as bait, the mages and Liru’s possessed archers wiped out the remaining harpies.

It didn’t matter if other representatives grew accustomed to slaughter or adapted to injuries. Our legion members had been through tougher training under Talis.

Rather, while the 32nd day Monster Wave had been easily dealt with using the onlookers as meat shields, I called Lee Hyo-ju, Hazel, and Merus aside to discuss the fundamental reason Shio had summoned me.

As I walked toward the guard captain’s building, my expression did not relax despite how easily we’d defended against the 32nd day Monster Wave.

[32nd Day Report]

North wall.

Minor injuries: none, serious injuries: none, dead continentals: none.

(461 representatives crippled.)

East wall.

Minor injuries: 517, serious injuries: 444, dead continentals: 157.

(1,137 representatives crippled or with broken cores.)

West wall.

Minor injuries: 321, serious injuries: 211, dead continentals: 239.

(550 representatives crippled or with broken cores.)