A map appeared on the smartphone screen.

All the red dots marked on it were Lotus’s secret bases.

Even I had never seen this before – there were far more Lotus bases than I’d imagined.

“Gyeoul, don’t tell me this is…”

“These are the locations of Lotus bases.”

“My God, how did you find all these?”

Han Yeoreum grabbed my wrist holding the smartphone.

Her grip was rough, perhaps from excitement.

“Well… it’s not exactly accurate information.”

“R-really?”

“Yes. This is a map from the world I lived in.”

“Ah…”

The Lotus bases from my world, not this one.

Han Yeoreum showed visible disappointment.

I decided to give her a small glimmer of hope.

“But I noticed the building layouts are almost identical between our worlds. The convenience stores and bus stops are in the same places, even the hardware store across the street is the same.”

“That means…”

“The Lotus base locations might be the same too.”

“…!”

I could feel Han Yeoreum’s chest swell with hope.

Our Master also showed visible joy.

“Gyeoul, how did you find out their locations?”

“A Lotus researcher joined our side. Sunny was created by that researcher too, so she knows most things about Lotus.”

“R-really? Your world had someone like that…?”

“Yes. Hasn’t anyone surrendered here?”

“No… unfortunately not.”

No one had surrendered?

What could have caused such a difference?

No matter how much I thought about it…

‘Oh?’

Maybe…

A hypothesis formed in my mind, but I wasn’t certain enough to be confident.

“Let’s get organized first. We haven’t even rested for weeks.”

“Ah, yes.”

Han Yeoreum, Master, and I.

Our small meeting came to an end.

I’d heard guild members were dispatched everywhere.

How bad must things be for so few people to attend meetings?

I could only desperately hope this world’s catastrophe would be resolved well.

**

After the meeting, I returned to the park.

Still carrying Saebyeok in my arms.

In the park, Sophia and the children were still distributing food.

As I walked toward the distribution center, I felt the pocket containing my smartphone.

‘How strange.’

Back when guild members and I went to hunt Death Worms, I’d heard something.

That internet was possible near portals if there was a skilled mage.

But now the portal was closed and there were no skilled mages, so how was internet from our world connecting?

As I pondered this mystery, a familiar voice reached my ears.

“King! Kiiiing…!”

It was Gaeul’s voice, sounding somewhat frantic.

When I turned toward the sound, I saw Gaeul carrying no less than four large bags.

‘Those are…’

The emergency bags we’d made together at home.

Filled with disaster preparation supplies.

How had Gaeul brought those here?

Had she visited our park through a portal?

Though surprised, I knew Gaeul had the ability to handle portals.

It was an undeveloped but definite ability.

‘Ah.’

Could the internet connection be working because Gaeul opened a portal?

The timing was truly miraculous.

“Kiiiing.”

Gaeul stumbled toward us, swaying under the weight of four bags.

I wanted to help but couldn’t while holding this world’s Saebyeok.

“Oof.”

Finally unable to bear the weight of the bags, Gaeul fell forward.

Toward me.

“Nyaa!”

This was going to be a fall.

As I braced for impact, somehow my body didn’t tip over.

Saebyeok had woken up and caught us both.

“Thanks Saebyeok.”

“Mm.”

Nodding, Saebyeok stared intently at Gaeul.

Then silently stroked Gaeul’s head.

“Hehe.”

Did this world’s Saebyeok’s touch feel good too?

Gaeul started smiling brightly.

“Gaeul, why did you bring the bags?”

“Hope!”

“Ah… hope.”

Han Yeoreum had said something while watching Gaeul pack items into the bag.

That Gaeul had packed hope.

Had Gaeul brought hope for everyone?

Touched by this, I patted her head.

“Thanks to Gaeul, people will have hope.”

“Heuk…!”

Swish swish.

Gaeul wagged her tail.

Saebyeok stared intently at that tail.

I’d heard Gaeul was missing.

She seemed to have many lingering feelings about Gaeul.

I decided to give Saebyeok a small hope.

“Saebyeok. Our Gaeul says this world’s Gaeul is still alive.”

“…That would be difficult.”

“Why…?”

“A monster took her.”

Saebyeok spoke matter-of-factly, like someone who had given up on everything.

It hurt to see her not even showing sadness.

“Gaeul isn’t slow enough to get caught by a monster…”

“She threw herself at it to save us. It was a pterosaur-like monster, several times faster than bullets.”

“F-faster than bullets?”

A pterosaur meant it flew through the sky.

If it was several times faster than bullets, wasn’t it practically a fighter jet?

If Gaeul was taken by something like that…

…Still, I wanted to believe she was alive.

“Actually, that thing’s responsible for most of our casualties. It swoops around snatching people up.”

“Even Master can’t handle it?”

“No. It’s clever – only shows up when Master and guild members are fighting other monsters. I’m going to catch that thing someday.”

Grind.

Saebyeok ground her teeth.

But that anger didn’t last long.

“Monsters!”

“Everyone move to the park!”

Before citizens could even share the joy of food distribution, new monsters arrived.

What looked like thousands of them were charging toward our park.

“Gyeoul, hide in that building.”

“What about you?”

“…I have to fight.”

Saebyeok ran toward the orc horde.

As I stood there blankly watching her back, Gaeul tapped my shoulder.

“King!”

“Yes?”

Gaeul handed me a bow and quiver.

She’d brought the weapons I’d left in the other world.

“Good job, Gaeul.”

“Heuk…”

After patting Gaeul’s head, I nocked an arrow to the bow.

It was a lightning arrow made by Jung Yu-na.

‘I’ll provide support from behind.’

Climbing onto the ruins of the collapsed guild building, I shot the lightning arrow at the orcs.

Whoosh-!

Thunk-!

The rapidly flying arrow struck the forehead of an orc in the front line.

It fell backward, sprawling out.

At that moment, powerful lightning burst from the arrow.

Crackle-!

The chain lightning electrocuted over a dozen nearby orcs.

Though one arrow killed many orcs, it was a tiny fraction of the thousands.

“…!”

Saebyeok, who had been charging toward the orc army, turned to look at me.

She stared wide-eyed at me holding the bow.

You can fight?

Her eyes asked the question.

Perhaps this world’s version of me didn’t fight.

Instead of answering with words, I responded by shooting another arrow.

Whoosh-!

Boom-!

The explosive arrow flew into the center of the orc horde and detonated.

Being made by Jung Yu-na, its power was considerable.

“……”

Nodding at me, Saebyeok charged toward the orc horde.

Soon other guild members joined the battle one by one.

Even against thousands, they were just orcs.

As guild members rapidly cut down orcs, they kept glancing around while fighting.

Most were scanning the sky.

‘…Because of the pterosaur?’

They’d said it snatched people while guild members were fighting.

They must have suffered many losses, as they kept looking around constantly.

Fighting like this would prevent them from showing their true abilities – would they be alright?

As I watched the guild members with worried eyes-

Boom-!

High in the sky, a small sonic boom came from above the invisible clouds.

I looked around startled, but it seemed no one else had heard it yet.

‘It’s circling rapidly around us.’

I quickly drew an arrow.

It was one of my emergency arrows.

I nocked the arrow swiftly and tracked the creature’s sound.

After focusing intently on the sound for a while.

Boom-!

I could feel it starting to dive rapidly.

The frightening thing was that its movement was even faster than sound.

The diving sonic boom was heard long after it appeared below the clouds.

‘Ugh.’

If it’s faster than sound, listening for it is pointless.

I hurriedly shot an arrow toward it.

More precisely, I shot toward the person it was targeting.

Whoosh-!

The rapidly flying arrow spread like a net, capturing the person the pterosaur was aiming for.

A small rope was attached to the net, and I used mana to pull hard on it.

“Hup!”

Being an adult woman, she was quite heavy.

Still, I barely managed to throw off the balance of the person caught in the net.

Slash-!

The creature’s sharp claws narrowly missed the person bound in the net.

Just as I thought I’d saved them-

“Oh?”

I spotted it flying straight toward me.

In that startled instant.

The massive pterosaur’s foot seized me.

Normally I could have barely dodged with my reaction speed, but having pulled someone and lost my balance, I was too late to avoid it.

“Ah!”

In the blink of an eye.

I was flying through the sky.

Fortunately it hadn’t gripped tightly enough to crush my bones.

“Ah! Ahhh!”

I could see Saebyeok screaming below on the ground.

**

While guild members were engaged in battle.

The two Levinas were hiding in a building.

It was the building where this world’s Gyeoul lay sleeping.

“Princess, Levinas made this many carrots.”

This world’s Levinas waved carrots at the sleeping Gyeoul.

She shouldn’t look weak when Princess wakes up.

Hehe.

As Levinas forced a laugh, Gaeul entered the building.

“Horned rabbit.”

Gaeul came in wearing a large bag on her back.

It was the emergency bag they’d made together before coming to this world.

“Gaeul puppy, isn’t that the hope bag?!”

Levinas opened her horned rabbit eyes wide and approached Gaeul.

Seeing this, Gaeul giggled brightly.

“Hope!”

“Yeah! Filled with hope…”

Huh? Hope?

Levinas opened the bag Gaeul had brought.

Inside was the ‘Long-lived Horned Rabbit’s’ mana stone.

It was the mana stone Levinas had secretly packed.

A precious mana stone containing memories of first meeting Gyeoul.

Looking down at the stone, Levinas turned to this world’s Gyeoul lying in bed.

They’d said she was cursed, right?

But isn’t a curse also a type of magic?

“The Long-lived Horned Rabbit’s mana… heuk!”

The Long-lived Horned Rabbit’s ability was to completely erase mana.

Levinas’s mouth fell open.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep