Conquest Complete, So Why Is the Affection Dropping? - Chapter 67
I stared at the affection window in disbelief.
‘I’ve experienced reality hits in various ways since transmigrating into this game, but this is a first.’
If they were aiming for a new dimension of gaming that provides fresh experiences even to veteran players… I’d like to say that was the wrong choice.
My score for this is: F.
“Joo-ah.”
While I was thinking of things like ‘The final fate of a trainwreck game that tore up the canvas while trying to paint the big picture.jpg’, Marvis came closer and touched my earlobe.
When I flinched and hunched my shoulders at the touch on such a sensitive spot, Marvis quickly withdrew his hand.
“Sorry. I was trying to fix your hair.”
“Huh? Ah. Because my ears were showing?”
Since I’m wearing the cat ear headband, having my real ears visible would make it look like I have four ears, so he was covering them with my hair.
Couldn’t I have just taken off the headband?
This man’s tastes are truly peculiar.
They say people act according to how they look, so I guess there was a reason he had such an unusual physique from the start.
When I looked up at Marvis with my ears covered by my hair, just making eye contact caused the affection to rise again.
[Marvis’s current affection: 44]
‘I should stop thinking about gaining affection points the easy way.’
Despite ‘quick, easy, and convenient’ being the current trend, I now understand why developers stubbornly stick to difficult hard quests. Having affection rise dramatically without doing anything doesn’t feel sweet – it actually kills motivation.
Ba-bam!
……Just as I thought that, a new quest appeared with an exaggerated notification sound.
Surprise Quest, [There’s Always a Bigger Fish]!
On this bone-chilling winter day, the heating pipes have broken down of all times.
Help the Dark City residents have a warm winter.
Success Reward: Reputation +500, Bonus Roulette
Failure: Reputation -100
The quest name doesn’t seem to have much to do with the content, but it’s not bad timing for a quest to appear when my motivation to play was at rock bottom.
‘Wait, there won’t be any data mixing errors this time, right?’
I quickly checked my profile window.
Reputation: 100
Money: 10,000G
Good good, thankfully it’s properly reset. I nodded and asked Marvis.
“Marvis. Are the heating pipes broken?”
“Hm? The pipes should be fine. They were replaced recently.”
Oh my. Does this mean I have to search the Dark City myself to find the broken location? As I was contemplating whether I’d have to undertake an unexpected exploration quest, a small child wearing large, round mouse ears came running over.
“Chief! Chief!”
“What’s wrong? Mickey.”
A name reminiscent of a certain copyright-sensitive company’s mascot. Looking closely, those trademark round large ears that belong to that unnamed character were twitching.
Could those be real ears instead of a headband? Is it because they’re of the Demon Race that they have animal ears? Is Marvis’s human-like ears because he’s mixed-blood?
What pulled my wandering thoughts back to reality was Mickey’s next words.
“The central heating pipes on the 78th floor aren’t working! Something must be blocking them inside because no heat is reaching the upper levels!”
“What? Where’s Mason?”
“He passed out drunk yesterday, and even Morgan hitting his bottom with a fly swatter won’t wake him up!”
It’s hard to tell whether this conversation should be taken seriously or laughed at, but at least I now know the situation for completing the quest.
’78th floor… just how many floors does this Dark City have?’
I had noticed the elevator went quite deep down, but now I’m thinking it might even surpass Sauron’s Eye in the middle of Seoul.
“How long until the upper floors get cold?”
“Less than two hours left! At this rate, all the citizens living on the upper floors will freeze to death!”
Mickey stamped their feet while twitching those round ears.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t noticed in the temple where the temperature was constant, but the current season was winter. Plus, the Dark City is underwater.
Even if the deep-sea temperature drops, it wouldn’t go below freezing, but since people can die of hypothermia even at 10 degrees Celsius, ignoring this situation would obviously lead to casualties.
“Marvis. Where’s the broken pipe? I’ll try to fix it.”
“You?”
“I’m the Divine Master, aren’t I? Fixing things with divine power should be simple.”
“……”
Marvis’s expression twisted strangely.
He doesn’t seem to expect much from me, but based on my experience with Kaint, if I just lounge around in his mansion, the system would likely impose penalties again.
‘I guess once born as the Divine Master, a life of hiding abilities and living in seclusion isn’t allowed… Is this the fate of a star.’
But it wasn’t particularly disadvantageous to me. Raising reputation and saving the elderly and weak of the Dark City who are vulnerable to sudden temperature changes – isn’t that killing two birds with one stone?
“Divine Master? Chief, could this person be the savior who brings destruction?”
The words ‘brings destruction’ and ‘savior’ contradict each other, but now wasn’t the time to point that out. When I nodded lightly, Mickey’s eyes grew as big as saucers, and their mouth fell open.
“Finally, the light of salvation has come to this Dark City! Divine Master, please save us!”
Mickey grabbed both my hands and pleaded desperately. Though I was planning to help anyway, such an extreme reaction left me unsure how to respond.
I tried to pat Mickey’s hands to calm them down, but they seemed to take it as a handshake and shook my hands even more vigorously.
Perhaps due to cultural differences, communication isn’t going smoothly.
I went up to the 78th floor with Marvis, following Mickey’s lead. Thanks to Marvis grabbing Mickey by the scruff of their neck when they tried to run up the stairs and leading us to the elevator instead, we were able to ascend comfortably.
It had been quite a while since I fixed the elevator, but it seemed no one except Marvis used it, as Mickey was busy looking around through the iron bars saying “Wow, wow” in amazement.
I briefly wondered if this behavior was appropriate given that people on the upper floors were about to freeze to death due to the broken heating pipes, but I decided to accept it as part of the Dark City’s culture.
When the elevator stopped at the 78th floor and the iron-barred door slid open with a clatter, Mickey, finally coming to their senses, dashed between the alleyways while making a fuss.
“Ah, wait! You’re too fast!”
“Joo-ah, hold onto me.”
“Huh? Aaah!”
Marvis wrapped one arm around my waist, lifted me up, and started running.
The alley was barely wide enough for a small cart to pass through, with junk piled up on both sides. Someone as big as Marvis would need to be careful not to bump into anything, yet he ran through the alleyways swiftly and effortlessly while carrying me.
The central heating pipes were located at a point where three alleyways met.
Several thin pipes were arranged in parallel, all connected to one large main pipe.
If something was really blocking the inside, it was certainly true that there was no hollow sound or steam coming from this section alone.
“O Savior of Destruction, please save us quickly!”
How fresh it feels to hear such embarrassing words in the Dark City that I couldn’t even hear in the temple.
I wanted to roll up my sleeves and get to work, but since my dress was sleeveless, I just smoothed my bare arms and stood in front of the heating pipes.
“Shin Joo-ah, can you tell me what’s broken?”
I don’t know.
“I think I have an idea.”
But my skill is omnipotent!
Show me, power of Divine Master!
I stretched both hands toward the central heating pipe and channeled divine power into the pipe’s body.
I could repair collapsed walls and restore devastated village buildings, so surely I could fix broken pipes too.
There was nothing wrong with my faith.
And there was nothing wrong with my skill.
Restoring damaged data…..
A long loading bar slowly began to fill.
“Savior of Destruction, is it not done yet? If we don’t fix it quickly, people on the upper floors will freeze to death!”
Mickey started bouncing around me impatiently.
They’re more impatient than I thought. It was quite a sight to see them so absorbed in looking outside while in the elevator.
“Please wait. Without the process of endurance, one cannot achieve glorious results.”
Wondering if they were being sarcastic because my work looked too simple and easy, I deliberately furrowed my brow and put on a serious expression.
Though I had told Marvis it was a simple task, presentation conquers all.
My reputation would rise higher if I showed how much effort I put into fixing it.
“Hnnng…!”
I took a deep breath and clenched my fists as if trying to squeeze out every bit of power into the pipes.
“Oh my, Savior!”
Mickey covered their mouth with both hands. They seemed moved by my dedication to help people I’d just met.
“……huff……”
Next to them, Marvis was also covering his mouth with his large hand. Judging by his trembling shoulders, he seemed to be having trouble containing his overwhelming emotion.
‘Just wait, I’ll raise both your reputation and affection!’
97%, 98%, 99%……
The moment the status bar hit exactly 100, I crossed my hands and thrust my arms upward with a battle cry.
It felt like I was becoming the protagonist of an anime I used to watch as a child – embarrassing, but somehow fun.
And, as if impressed by my remarkable acting skills, fireworks burst above my head.
BOOM!
Bang!
Bang!
Along with the flames.
“……”
A hole burst open at the top of the central pipe with a bang, and the pipe started spewing flames like a flamethrower.
Aaack, what is this!
“Amazing, Shin Joo-ah. Your power is so overwhelming that the pipe couldn’t handle the divine power and exploded.”
“How incredible! As expected, the Savior who brings destruction to the world has a different scale of power!”
“Stop admiring and put out the fire first! Call 119! Get the fire truck here!”
As I yelled at the two men who were applauding as if congratulating an award-winning actor, I saw two figures – one tall and one short – running up breathlessly from behind.
