FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH AN ADMINISTRATOR
Since gaining those levels netted me 200 skill points, it’s time to pick up a new Evil Eye skill.
This time, I’m going with Heavy Evil Eye.
It increases the effect of gravity on any target in my field of vision.
Now I can slow my opponent’s movements with Heavy Evil Eye, weaken them with Cursed Evil Eye, and finally seal their movements completely with Paralyzing Evil Eye.
My triple-threat Evil Eye combo is complete!
This whole arrangement is based on the goal of stopping my enemies in their tracks.
I already have plenty of other moves for attacking.
If I have to, I can always pick up some magic skill or other for 100 points.
Huh? Why don’t I just do that in the first place, you ask?
I’ve gotten a little obsessed with the whole Evil Eye thing, but if my stats are anything to go by, I think I’m supposed to specialize in magic?
Does that mean I should really be focusing on only magic skills in the first place?
C’mon, that’s not true.
At least, let’s say it isn’t.
I’m definitely not getting hung up on this simply because I like the idea of having eight different Evil Eyes at once.
I’m not, okay?
Anyway, I’ll be saving the rest of these points for a while.
I don’t know how many more I’ll get as an evolutionary bonus.
I’ll adjust my strategy based on that as I go on.
If I get a really big amount, I might even be able to aim for skills that’ve been too expensive to get so far, like Sloth.
Aaanyway.
Its usefulness in any kind of battle isn’t the only reason I picked Heavy Evil Eye.
Now, let’s test this out. Evil Eye Activate!
Oof! What’re you doing, information brain?!
What do you mean, what? I’m increasing my own gravity.
It’s heavy!
Well, I was thinking. What is it I lack, if anything? Muscle, of course!
Great, here comes a speech.
When the Z warriors trained in super-high gravity, they became strong enough to defeat the ultrapowerful enemies who came after them!
Yeah, yeah. I get what you’re saying and all, but it’s making de-scaling kinda difficult, you know.
Well, the whole point is to get used to it by keeping it active all the time.
Great idea! Good luck, body brain!
Let’s try one thousand times the gravity next!
No, that’d kill me!
So, yeah. I decided to try applying extra gravity to myself all the time.
If I’m constantly using it on myself, I bet it’ll raise my physical stats, not to mention give me more Evil Eye proficiency points to boot.
It might even increase my Herculean Strength skill level or something.
Since this Evil Eye skill’s only at level 1, it doesn’t feel like anything but a little extra weight right now, but I’m sure it’ll be quite a burden once it levels up.
Then, if I deactivate it during battle and return to normal gravity, I’ll get to have a “remove the power limiter”-type moment!
Sweet.
I’m definitely gonna yell “RELEASE RESTRAINTS!” or something when I do it.
Well, I can’t actually speak, but you know what I mean.
Huh?! My Space Perception is reacting to something!
A distortion in the air?
I’ve never experienced this before, but somehow, I know exactly what’s happening.
Teleportation.
Something is about to teleport here.
I have no way of stopping it.
At my Spatial Magic level, I can’t even teleport myself, never mind interfere with someone else’s ability to do so.
Judging by the distortion in space I’m sensing, I’m guessing whoever’s teleporting here must be really good at Spatial Magic.
That means they’re way stronger than me, at least when it comes to Spatial Magic.
Most concerning of all is that they’re using magic in the first place.
That means, without a doubt, that the user must be on a very high level of intelligence.
So far, I haven’t seen a single monster use magic.
Even the fire dragon I defeated earlier is no exception.
It had magic skills, but it never once used them.
That’s only natural.
Magic involves a very complicated process of composing spells.
The user needs a certain amount of intellect to be able to accomplish that.
In the fire dragon’s case, it was far more effective to use its own skills to create fireballs than trying to construct magic spells.
There may be some monster species that can use magic, but they have simpler and more powerful skills to use instead.
However, whatever’s about to teleport here is utilizing some seriously complicated magic.
Which means it must have a specific reason for coming here.
But what could that be?
All that’s here is…me.
In other words, it must be coming here because of me.
I can’t imagine that it’s just teleporting here by coincidence.
All this reasoning flashes through my mind in seconds with Thought Acceleration.
The air cracks open, and a man appears.
A very dark man.
I don’t know how else to explain it.
He’s wearing black armor so tight, it’s as if it’s part of his body.
The small section of his face that’s visible is dark, too.
So is his hair.
Only his eyes are eerily red.
I know the moment I lay eyes on this guy:
I can’t win here.
He’s on a different level.
And something else confirms this suspicion.
<Cannot be Appraised>
Those words.
Yet, for some reason, I don’t feel like I’m in danger.
In fact, I feel a strange sense of kinship with this man.
And at the same time, I feel a little bit of irritation toward him.
Why is that?
I’ve definitely never met this dark man before.
I don’t know why I would feel this way toward such a strange figure appearing out of nowhere.
What in the world are these feelings?
“*********?”
The man speaks.
But I don’t recognize the language.
Without thinking, I tilt my head.
“+++++++++?”
The man says something else.
Could you please speak Japanese?
Otherwise I’m not gonna understand.
No hablo…whatever language this world uses.
The man frowns.
Hmm.
Well, he doesn’t seem hostile at the moment.
But what do I do?
I don’t understand him, and even if I did, I can’t talk.
I could probably communicate in writing, but all I know is Japanese.
Either way, we wouldn’t be able to understand each other.
This is a problem.
The man seems a bit flummoxed as well.
As we stand in awkward silence, something suddenly drops onto the ground between us.
It’s a smartphone.
Huh?
Wait a sec.
It’s weird enough that a smartphone exists here at all, but how did it appear in front of me like that?
This thing just popped up out of nowhere without my Detection picking up anything!
“Hello? This is Administrator D speaking.”
A voice suddenly comes out of the smartphone.
Two voices, in fact.
One speaks in Japanese, and one is a language I’ve never heard before.
No, wait, is it the language the guy was speaking earlier?
“******?!”
Ah, the man sounds really surprised.
Which means the other language is the one he was speaking before: the language of this world.
“Yes. This is D. Ms. Spider, please wait a moment.”
Oh, okay.
I was asked to wait, so that’s what I’ll do.
The voice on the smartphone speaks with the man in this parallel world’s language.
It’s a woman’s voice.
A very beautiful voice, but deeply unsettling for some reason.
It’s that sort of thing.
She speaks in a flat, emotionless tone that’s kind of frightening, too.
What’s going on here?
Just hearing her voice is enough to make me tremble.
With each new statement, the man’s expression changes.