After completely turning off the rapidly scrolling log in front of her eyes and even muting it, Suji let out a dejected sigh.

There were too many thoughts.

She stared intently for a long time at the seawater approaching and receding before her eyes, then pushed her hand into the water.

The feeling of water covering the back of her white hand felt good.

“This too… is all artificially created, isn’t it.”

If that’s the case, what is real and what is fake from where to where?

Dungeons, gates, towers, monsters.

To think that all these things are merely set values.

Then is the Earth where humans live also something deliberately set up by some divine being?

She felt another familiar presence approaching.

“Ilaine?”

Without turning around, she asked, and he pressed something cold against her cheek.

When she reached out, it was a cool misugaru drink with lots of ice.

“Ah, I won’t eat this…”

“I added honey. Since you haven’t eaten anything while in your room, I thought this might help change your mood.”

Suji blinked.

She usually didn’t like misugaru because it was chalky, but she liked it with honey added.

He really knows my tastes from A to Z.

Suji was about to take the glass when she suddenly turned around.

Saint and Peace seemed to be lost in thought, their minds complex about the “extinction” she had told them about. Perhaps because they both had large families, their faces were full of worry.

She raised her head and shifted her gaze to Ilaine’s face.

His handsome and manly face, beautiful as if carved from stone, showed no particular expression.

Suji heard the ice clinking in the misugaru in her hand and ended up laughing.

“Why are you laughing?”

The fact that he asked so nonchalantly was the funniest part.

“Just now, I explained that humanity is going extinct.”

“Well… yes.”

“And you were just making misugaru?”

“It seems you finished talking.”

Ilaine, who had been standing as if about to leave soon, bent down and sat next to Suji.

Then, looking at the sea together, he said.

“Humans die someday.”

“That’s true.”

“In the flow of life and death passing by like that, moments spent with precious people are not many. Making misugaru is no big deal.”

Suji scratched her cheek slightly.

Seeing his nonchalant face, he probably didn’t mean anything else by it, just that he was glad to be with his team members. Why did she feel awkwardly embarrassed for no reason?

“I’ll drink it well.”

She quickly tilted the glass.

The chalky yet sweet taste of misugaru going down her throat was good.

As he said, perhaps because her stomach felt a bit cooler, her mood seemed to lighten a little.

“How did it go?”

“There’s nothing much to say… They’re asking me to climb the tower.”

“The owner of that ring?”

“Yes. It seems they bet on humanity surviving without going extinct. What a joke.”

Even from Suji’s grumbling words, he seemed to have guessed the general context.

Ilaine also glared at the sea with an unpleasant face before asking again.

“So. What do you want to do?”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Of course…”

Suji opened her mouth, but words didn’t come out easily.

Now that she knew the monster that killed her mother was still in that tower, part of her wanted to go up and settle things. But she also clearly didn’t want to be played with like a toy.

Before Ilaine came, she thought she had already made up her mind out of indignation, but it wasn’t an easy question to answer right away.

“…If we climb the tower, it will be a perilous journey. They say it easily, but if we need to become strong enough to defeat such ridiculous monsters, how could that path be easy? What about you, Ilaine? Are you okay with going?”

Unlike her, he answered immediately without even thinking about it.

“I hope the team leader finds a direction that makes her happy.”

Suji let out a small laugh.

She had expected him to answer like that even before asking.

He was always like this, after all.

‘Why?’

Why is he so nice to her? Why does he care for her this much?

It was a question she had never pondered before.

She and Ilaine just clicked from the start. They got along extremely well.

Not just in combat, but she also liked how he respected the hierarchy in everyday life.

But that was from Suji’s perspective.

Why does Ilaine always prioritize her like this?

The image of him calling her “Daphne” in the vision flashed before her eyes.

If one of the two visions she saw as a reward from was of the future to come, what about the other one?

Is that also a vision of the future?

“I wonder why Ilaine calls me Daphne?”

He turned his head as he sat blankly staring ahead next to Suji. His expression was the same as usual, but somehow he looked flustered.

There was something about him that resembled a squirrel caught eating a hidden acorn.

“…Did I call you that?”

“No. I was just saying. Ugh, I don’t know. Now it feels like not just people, but even ‘great beings’ are arbitrarily throwing expectations at me, and I don’t know what to do… Somehow I feel even more tired.”

“If the team leader says she wants to rest, you can rest a bit more.”

“Yeah. I know that, but…”

Suji let out a deep sigh.

They say it’s most fun to put off work right in front of you and take a break, but how could you relax when humanity will go extinct if you don’t climb the tower right away?

It’s really an absurd threat.

She was so upset that she took off the ring and muted the window, but she felt that eventually, she would have to listen to what they said.

“It’s all good, but… let’s really rest a bit more. I wanted to try water skiing and wakeboarding, and I wanted to try flyboarding too… I wanted to read some comics too. This is really ridiculous.”

As Suji grumbled and crushed the sand at her feet, Ilaine stared at her intently and said.

“Why don’t you try negotiating?”

“Negotiate?”

“From what I’ve heard, it seems the ‘great beings’ are more anxious and can’t stand it. It sounds like negotiation might be possible to some extent.”

“…Negotiation, huh.”

Suji lifted her head and looked at the numbers rising in the notification window.

Thinking they would keep doing this until she put the ring back on, the ‘great beings’ kept sending notifications, and over 300 numbers had piled up in the muted status window.

“But what could we get from negotiating with them?”

“We should get something, shouldn’t we? Your mood is already foul enough.”

“…That’s true.”

Suji put down the empty glass and gathered her thoughts for a moment.

What she needed right now was time.

Time to organize the suddenly given, unbelievable information and to stabilize a bit.

To think she has to accept that a countdown to human extinction has begun. It’s enough to drive one mad.

After taking several deep breaths, she opened her inventory again and put the ring back on.

− Finally.

“What do you mean, finally?”

− What if you suddenly leave in the middle of talking like that?

“What do you mean, what if? We can’t talk forever anyway.”

− I specially invited you by building the tower with a massive loan service just to have this conversation.

The being kept grumbling, seemingly displeased with Suji’s blunt response.

‘I hoped it wasn’t the case, but was really summoned because of me?’

It seemed they couldn’t give her a hidden item that could communicate without going through any system.

‘This is really frustrating.’

Why should humans listen to complaints when they’re betting among themselves within the system they created?

“That’s none of my business, so I’ll speak and cut off whenever I want.”

− Wait. Why are you in such a bad mood? You have to climb the tower anyway, and I just added some hints.

“Hints? You mean about all humans dying?”

− Yes.

“How thoughtful of you.”

Suji caught herself being sarcastic again without realizing it and deliberately took a deep breath.

First, she needed to calm her mind.

For the negotiation too.

“But I can’t climb the tower in this state.”

− …Why?

“If I was going to keep climbing, I wouldn’t have taken a break in the first place, right?”

− …What’s the problem? There’s not much time left.

“That’s what I’m saying. That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m not a machine, how can I keep going without rest from now on? I could die while climbing, you know. There are still many things I haven’t experienced, wouldn’t that be unfair?”

− What do you want?

Suji smiled softly.

“You should have come out like this from the start.”

− No. You seem to be misunderstanding, but I can’t grant everything you ask.

She thought there would be loopholes anyway.

There’s no way there would be proper documentation for such an absurd bet by these lunatics.

Suji swallowed and spoke slowly, as if coaxing.

“The gist of that bet is that humanity has 10,000 days to prepare for the Second Wave after the First Wave, right?”

− That’s right.

“But I need some time to prepare if I’m going to climb the tower again.”

− Why do you need that?

“Let’s say I’m an office worker. I’ve used up all my vacation days that I saved without using once to rest now, but the chairman comes and says the company will go bankrupt if a new project isn’t solved? Would I feel motivated to go to work right away?”

She thought it was a perfect analogy, but the being replied blankly as if it didn’t understand at all.

− Then what should I do? Give you more time until your vacation days are over?

Suji’s eyes sparkled.