Mesugaki Tank Enters The Academy

The city, now a sanctuary for citizens, was as calm as a windless lake.

Whoosh!

Maybe it was because I’m used to hearing cheers in every place I step, but this silence felt oddly comfortable.

Tick-tock…

After all, living in such tranquility might not be so bad.

“Do you really think that’s possible?”

Just as I was dreaming of a leisurely rural life, Arthur clumsily chimed in.

“After saving the world, you’ll basically be treated as a sage. People will try to find you everywhere.”

Could you not shove reality into my fantasies? I mean, is it so wrong to entertain a happy thought?

“The problem is Lucy’s face is well known, making it difficult to hide in a quiet place. Unless we go deep into the mountains, we can’t avoid attention.”

“Actually, hiding completely might enhance Young Lady’s mystique, making people more tenacious in their pursuit.”

“Even if they spread bad reputations, I doubt anyone would pay serious attention.”

Could you ease off from utterly smashing my little daydream?

Reality feels so bleak that it’s about to drag me down!

I feel like my mental state will shatter before even entering the dungeon!

“Don’t worry. Lucy, I’ll handle it all.”

I casually ignored Frey, moving forward until I sensed the divine presence in the city center.

Ah, the energy commonly felt from the church folks. A Holy Knight of the Pope, huh!

“Weapons out. Shoddies.”

I walked through the streets while radiating divinity.

In a city that had recently emptied of people, traces of human existence still lingered.

The faint smell of food, clean window frames showing where human hands had touched, a door left ajar while rushing out, teacups visible beyond the door swaying with the breeze.

This city still held remnants of daily life.

And while the remnants of routine remained, people would surely return.

My reason for being here is to protect their daily lives.

With more strength in my hand gripping the shield, I pressed forward and spotted knights lined up at the entrance of the dungeon.

Instead of drawing their weapons upon seeing us, the enemies politely bowed their heads.

“Welcome, Apostle of Jushin and companions. We have been waiting for you.”

“You waited in a creepy place with no people? Wow. What kind of perverted deeds are you planning? Mind sharing the delusions you had? I’d love to mock you. Yeah?”

“This place is a trial gifted by His Grace for you. Please enjoy your time inside.”

As the lead knight stepped aside, the others moved in line beside the entrance to the dungeon.

Their demeanor resembled welcoming sinners headed for hell.

“Is it Bell?”

I pressed down on Frey’s head, which had become precarious in a different sense, making her quiet, and I stepped into the dungeon following the knights’ lead.

As far as I recall, this dungeon had a concept related to mirrors.

It had strong puzzle vibes, so if I just knew the strategy, I could breeze through in no time.

When I played from the other side of the monitor, I used glitches to finish in seconds, but with my friends here, I can’t just pull off something outrageous like phase through walls, so let’s go with the standard strategy.

There’s really no need to rush anyway.

As I mentally drew the map and stepped into one mirror, the surroundings suddenly shifted.

The scene looked like a poverty-stricken land.

People with bones starkly exposed sat scattered on the streets, and from the houses, the cries of hungry children echoed, while corpses lay on the roadside, yet no one showed intent to clean up.

It’s not that they can’t feel sadness.
It’s not that humanity is lost.
They simply lack the strength to cry, the energy to mourn for others.

“…This is where I came before.”

As I stared blankly at the painfully realistic and thus despairing sight, Phoebe finally spoke.

Her voice, seemingly indifferent yet slightly trembling, revealed that even to a Saintess, this scenery was grotesque.

“It was a place stricken by prolonged drought leading to famine. Due to the war in our homeland, it took a long time for support to arrive, and by the time I got here, the situation was already dire.”

“Is it one of the Saintess’s nightmares?”

“Yes. A sight I cannot forget.”

I closed my eyes, trying to erase the scene I had just witnessed.

And then I thought about the variables arising in this dungeon.
The original dungeon did not feature such gimmicks.
In each room were merely headache-inducing puzzles. There were no methods to provoke the adventurer’s mind.

It’s changed.
But why?

“Lucy.”

“Don’t fidget and wait. You should have more patience than a dog.”

After self-hypnotizing myself into seeing the surroundings as merely scenery, I opened my eyes again.

After all, this place is just one room of the dungeon. There must be a strategy somewhere, and there was surely a clear intent behind the Pope making this room.

So…
The discord in front of my eyes is likely the answer.

I raised the mace intending to bring it down on the person beside me but halted midway.

The man, too starving to even move, didn’t react to the mace that had come right up to him.

I know, I have two skills: weakness detection and aesthetic sense, which tell me this person is a fake.

I’m also guessing I’ll need to take down all the enemies that feel fake to escape this room.

Knowing all this, I couldn’t bring myself to attack someone looking up at me with innocent eyes.

Even if I did attack this man, what comes next?

Will I kill the woman over there and then smash the crying child before escaping this room?

And then what?

Once Phoebe’s nightmare ends, will another person’s nightmare begin?
Will I have to knock someone down with my mace again?
Someone appearing in Joy’s nightmare. Someone from Frey’s nightmare. Someone from Arthur’s nightmare. Could it be I’ll have to take them down repeatedly until, finally, even the innocent Lucy would have to be attacked before I can escape?

Can I really escape in the first place? Is that even the right answer?

“Lucy, something feels strange in between. Is it Bell?”

Upon Frey’s words, I pushed down the image of everyone I had imagined losing their heads.

“Do you think I wouldn’t notice that? Just stay still, idiot.”

“Okay, got it.”

As I continued to contemplate, I put away the mace and wiped my face.

Let’s change the plan.
Given that I can’t figure out the opponent’s intent, endlessly repeating the strategy isn’t meaningful.
Before I find the answer, I’ll crumble. So I’ll abandon conventional methods.

Even if unexpected variables arise from the Pope, this is still a mirror dungeon.
If the essence is similar, glitches should work too.

“Follow me.”

Without any further explanation, my friends followed me without question.

“Are you thinking of using yet another outlandish method?”

“Doesn’t it feel good to be classic Lucy?”

“There’s no need to confront directly just because the opponent is coming at us in a mean way.”

“I hope it’s something fun.”

Watching my friends understand me among themselves, it struck me just how absurd our usual antics are.
But this time? They’ll be astonished! It’ll be something more ridiculous than anything we’ve done before.

“Oh? What’s that strange thing up ahead?”

“A white land?”

The world within the mirror is vast, but like in the realm of the Authority of the End, it’s not infinite.

In the end, this world is just one of the countless rooms in a dungeon. There’s a limit to the resources one can receive.

So as I run and run, the end of the room inevitably reveals itself.

“Stop here.”

I paused in front of the boundary between the withered earth and the white-dyed ground, placing my hand on the transparent wall.

Normally, I couldn’t pass through here, but if you look closely, there’s a spot to hoist yourself.
…Wait. Do I seriously need to find a subtle gap in the wall to go up?

I could just take a big leap; that’d surely get me to the top, right?

As the thought crossed my mind, I powered my legs and jumped with all my might, only to bang my head on an invisible ceiling and plummet down.

“Y-Young Lady! Are you alright?!”

“…Pfft.”

“L-Lucy! Are you o-okay?!”

“Ugh! Lucy, you’re such a fool!”

Bam! What’s with this low ceiling?!

When I jumped from the monitor, it felt like my fingers would break from pressing the space bar, but it was really this low?!

No way!

Feeling my cheeks slightly burning, I jumped again and managed to reach the edge of the wall.

This space barely left between the ceiling and the wall.
What if I slyly slipped over?

Ta-da! Dungeon strategists can enter places they shouldn’t be able to!

Confirming my friends had also scaled the wall, I looked around before grabbing Frey’s neck as she tried to leap forward.

Unaware she was stepping into thin air, Frey’s foot dangled in the void.

“Don’t say a word and just follow quietly. I won’t stop you if you want to enjoy falling endlessly.”

After warning her again that my feet should follow closely, Joy couldn’t hold back her curiosity and spoke up.

“Lucy, can I ask just one thing? What’s going to come out if we go straight ahead?”

“A Shoddy Boss.”

“…What?”

“A trash boss with an ego so low it can only mimic others. But don’t worry too much. I’ll smash that shoddy before it even mutters a word.”

That’s what glitch running is all about!

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