[Warning]
You are about to be reconnected by username: Vasilisa.
Do you agree to be reconnected?
(Yes)/(No)
"..."
At first, he didn't understand the letters on the screen. In fact, he didn't understand there was a screen for a long time. Then, when he finally noticed it, he didn't read it—the text was too difficult to process and was probably a result of his imagination anyway.
So, he refused.
[Warning]
You are about to be reconnected by username: Vasilisa.
Do you agree to be reconnected?
(Yes)/(No)
An untold amount of time later, the same box appeared. Again, he pushed it away—it prevented him from seeing his beloved blue light.
[Warning]
You are about to be reconnected by username: Vasilisa.
Do you agree to be reconnected?
(Yes)/(No)
The third time, or maybe the nth time—he couldn't remember—he finally decided to try and read the screen. It was then that his metaphorical eyes opened wide.
"Re-Re… Reconnected?"
He didn't know why, but the word made him feel a great surge of emotions. Yes, reconnected. Reconnected. That sounded good. Definitely better than its opposite… whatever that word was.
"Oo-ooo oh??? Blue!!! Blue!!!"
The window. He just noticed, but it was blue. A blue shining brighter than the sparks he used to look at. He had decided he would "watch" this window forever. He would "stare" at it for eternity.
"..."
Yet, the window never moved. It was predictable, unchanging—unlike the blue lights. Such a waste of color, he thought. He needed blue, true chaotic blue. But there was something he hadn't tried yet—reading the whole thing. He remembered it was about being reconnected, which he knew was a good thing, but he didn't know what the rest was about.
"Va-si-li-sa."
That rang a bell, but he couldn't remember who that was exactly. It vaguely reminded him it was important, though.
"Y-es."
As he read the word, the window seemed to register it as him agreeing. Suddenly, it was as if he was sent through a tunnel of blinding lights. All his senses were stimulated to a degree he had never experienced.
In a flash, he was floating in the air above a familiar girl with light-brown hair.
"You finally replied! Good grief, I thought I lost you!"
Next to him was a literally identical girl, but with longer hair and different clothes. She seemed smug about something, but he couldn't tell what exactly.
"So, you saw now? I told you that there is no such thing! Simply put, you are dead, and I—"
"Blue?"
"Pardon me?"
He had noticed—her eyes were shining blue.
"Oh…" he said.
It took him quite a few minutes to fully realize what was going on.
"Excuse me but are you fine? Hey, are you—"
"Yeah, I am okay now. But… Just to be sure, how long did it take you to bring me back?"
"A few minutes, thanks to your repeated refusals!" she said, holding her hips. "Did you enjoy death that much?! I was afraid you would never want to come back!"
He couldn't know he she was lying to him or not, but he definitely felt more than "a few minutes" in that place. Maybe that was just a side-effect of having no body? For a lone mind maybe a second is as long as a century? A chilling thought, truly, especially since it sounded totally reasonable.
The girl floating next to him pointed at the girl identical to her, on the ground.
"I am not a god. If you just left, who could possibly save me from—"
"I see."
Without waiting, Noah made the menu appear.
"Dodge."
"Hm? Wait, you are—"
The floating Vasilisa was cut mid-sentence. The following second, Noah was back in her body.
"—sa!!! Nooo!!!" he heard behind him.
It was probably… that redheaded girl trying to tell him to be careful.
"(Oh… I was about to die, if I remember correctly.)"
The thought sent a shiver down his spine. No, he didn't want to go back to that place again. He wouldn't die again, even if he had to kill to stay alive. Even if he had to make a miracle, he would dodge this attack.
His body moved automatically as if possessed by an unknown being. In the blink of an eye, he had rolled out of the lava ball's path and started running toward the slime again. Even though he felt like he was about to fall many times, his body somehow remained strong, steady, focused on the task he had given it.
"(I see… That's what she meant as the power of a player.)"
The solution was there from the start. He just had to fully reject this avatar and stay behind it as a "player."
Only a player can manipulate a body with such precision, after all. Ignoring every variable he didn't need to know, moving became incredibly easy.
"(Now, let's kill that thing.)"
He remembered the dagger Kate had given to him earlier. He didn't remember where it was exactly, but that was of no concern for a player—his avatar knew perfectly where to find it.
[Equipped]
Steel Dagger X1
"Ah," he heard inside his head, "you finally understand how this works, do you not? Now you can truly—"
"(Shut up.)"
He had no interest in that girl inside of his head. The blue of her eyes was dull, predictable like the one from that screen. However, on the body of that slime, he found what he was looking for—blue sparks dancing all over its body.
A sudden desire took over him. He had to strike them with his blade. For some reason, he felt like he would feel incredibly fulfilled if he did. His blade started shining with the same blue sparks as a sign he had to accomplish the two bodies' connection.
The slime didn't have time to flee. With a single strike, Vasilisa's blade cut through its viscous body.
Kate, however, was worried. Of course, she was relieved to see that Vasilisa dodged the lava shot and the explosion afterward, but when she saw her running toward the slime with a dagger, her heart dropped again.
The reason why the rest of her team probably left those two alive was because slimes were totally impervious to physical damage. With limited numbers of spells usable in a single day and how expensive mana potions were, it wasn't rare to see parties of miners willingly let a few slimes live because they didn't want to waste a spell.
But Vasilisa was different. She was using a rank 2 spell mindlessly. Surely, she had enough emplacements to handle a few slimes like these no problem, right? At least that was what Kate was thinking when she asked her to throw her spell again.
Yet, Vasilisa, ignoring logic, lunged at the creature with nothing but a dagger—a being made of lava.
She wanted to yell at her to stop, but her voice couldn't reach her in time. Just when she expected the slime to melt the girl, a miracle happened. With a single hit, the slime exploded into a puddle of lava.
Standing behind it, Vasilisa held her dagger in perfect shape despite the substance in which it had been plunged a second ago. Her eyes, previously dark, were now shining like two pale blue flames.
"This… This is…"
She had heard of it before. An instance in which a physical weapon succeeded in hurting a being that was normally unaffected by that type of damage. The core of the Blue Path.
"A critical hit…"