IBHJ Chapter 875

The game designers, either intentionally or as a prank, had given the slime invincible power within the game world, but they hadn't anticipated someone or something breaking the game rules and defeating the invincible slime!

Due to the lack of a script for the slime's death, the game rules had created a contradictory conflict.

Simply put, there was a logical contradiction in the base code. As a result, the slime revived but didn't attack Evil Blossom. Instead, it kept bouncing around it.

"A bug... is that possible? Could there be a bug in this Connection Point that's turned into a virtual game?" Illya looked at him in disbelief.

"As long as it's a virtual object created with data logic, bugs are inevitable. Besides, the existence of bugs isn't scary. What's scary is people who know how to exploit them." A smile spread across his face.

He was very good at seizing opportunities!

Altera's eyes sparkled as she looked at him, her voice filled with emotion. "As expected of the Holy Sword wielder who defeated me. So cool, Artoria Pendragon."

"I know Artoria-neesan is amazing. But..." Illya's expression was puzzled. "Why does that sound like something Shirou-niisan would say?"

Shirou: "..."

Oh no.

He turned to Illya, smiling as he said, "Because the king said it before, and I wrote it down in my notebook and reviewed it day and night, so I haven't forgotten."

"I see..."

Illya nodded, thinking to herself that it made sense. Artoria-neesan had been influenced quite a bit by Shirou-niisan. She just hoped she wouldn't turn into a hidden sadist like him.

Seeing that Illya had filled in the blanks herself, he inwardly sighed in relief.

Actually, it wouldn't be a big deal if others knew about the body swap.

As Artoria had said, many Heroic Spirits' Noble Phantasms and skills could achieve this effect. Even a Master's Command Spell could make their Servant briefly ignore gender and transform into someone else. This wasn't unusual, nor was it something to be ashamed of.

But if that golden mongrel found out about his situation, Shirou knew he'd never hear the end of that obnoxious "Kuhahaha" laughter for the rest of his life.

He wouldn't even be able to trash-talk Gilgamesh recklessly anymore.

This was absolutely unacceptable, so he had to keep it under wraps.

"Guda, guda!"

The slime, trapped in the bug, continued bouncing around in front of Evil Blossom.

Just as the mud was about to strike again, he had an idea and took control.

Snap!

Evil Blossom abruptly froze, then exploded into a swarm of mud that rushed towards the slime like predatory bubbles, engulfing it in a muddy prison.

With a flick of his wrist, the bubble containing the slime dropped before him.

Illya peered at the slime trapped in the mud, then looked up at him and asked, "Artoria-neesan, are we going to use this against the Gatekeeper? The slime has a bug, will it even work?"

Her face was full of worry. Clever as she was, she'd immediately thought of several ways the slime's bug could backfire. It's true what they say, the smarter you are, the easier it is to overthink things.

"Don't worry, we'll pull it off," he reassured her with a smile.

He was different from other smart people. Usually, the more people know, the more they fear, and the harder it becomes for them to make progress. But he was different. The more he knew, the more afraid he became, yet the more determined he was to keep going.

Illya gazed at the King of Knights. His smile felt warm and comforting. For some reason, it reminded her of Shirou-niisan. Without even realizing it, Artoria-neesan has become just like Shirou-niisan, she mused.

"Altera, how do we accept that Hell-level newbie quest?" he asked, turning to her.

"You want to take on the Hell-level newbie quest?"

He nodded.

"No one has ever completed it... But I know even if I say that, you'll still want to challenge it, Artoria. So, I'll stick with you until the very end."

After a pause, Altera's expression softened, "Friend..."

He scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed. Originally, he'd acted out of self-interest, hoping to resolve the conflict between Artoria and Altera so they wouldn't fight anymore. But now it seemed Altera genuinely wanted to be friends with Artoria.

It looked like he'd have to talk to Artoria about this when they got back. She probably didn't want to be enemies with Altera anymore either, did she?

Still, this whole impersonation thing was a bit unfair. He should find a time to properly apologize. But the pressing issue right now was dealing with the Gatekeeper and rescuing Mordred!

Then, make a triumphant return home!

Typically in this game, newbie quests were handed out by the newbie village chief, with very low difficulty, just simple tasks to get players used to the game's interface. But the Hell-level newbie quest was nothing like that. This quest had to be accepted from a guardian at a pyramid south of the newbie village.

Shirou's group set off on their Hell-level newbie quest.

The pyramid guardian: "...I see, adventurer, are you also a believer of the great king of gods, Kukulkan? Do you want to investigate the star-fall event..."

The beginning of the Hell-level newbie quest wasn't much different from the normal difficulty one. Both introduced the game's lore, which likely involved the main storyline of this game world.

In this world, several thousand years ago, the god king Kukulkan created two major gods to manage the world in his place, then fell into an eternal slumber.

However, the gods began a long conflict, vying for the position of the new god king. Then, meteorites fell from the sky, wiping out the warring gods.

The strange energy within the meteorites corrupted the world's creatures, turning them into monsters that attacked humans. Thankfully, Kukulkan woke up in time and created barriers around human villages and towns, preventing the end of the world.

Undoubtedly, this was a typical RPG world, the kind of generic setting some hack writer would lazily copy and paste. The regular newbie quest had you running around to different NPCs to learn about game features and the world's backstory, while the Hell-level newbie quest threw in some tricky little task chains and a Q&A with the Gatekeeper.

Even though it was his first time playing, with Illya and Altera's help, he breezed through those task chains. But when they reached the final stage of the Hell-level newbie quest, they ran into a problem.

That is...

"Where's the village chief????"

Illya stared at the empty chief's house, dumbfounded.

Usually, that bob-haired chief would be standing there, ready to hand out rewards, but now...

The village chief was nowhere to be found????

What in the world?

"That guy... probably ran off..."

Shirou facepalmed, completely speechless.

By pretending to be Morgan le Fay, he'd managed to trick the chief into revealing the pigmen's location, but he hadn't expected to scare Merem away completely. This could only mean that, in Merem Solomon's mind, Morgan le Fay was truly terrifying.

"What do we do now? If the village chief ran away... how, how can we even continue this quest?"

Illya was completely flabbergasted.

It was her first time playing a game where NPCs would run away.

"Just because an NPC ran away doesn't mean the BOSS will too," he chuckled.

Even though the [Quest] couldn't be turned in right now, the Gatekeeper was still waiting in the Andes Mountains.

"But, but if we do this, won't the whole program be messed up? Won't this cause problems?" she said worriedly.

"It's fine, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. If we run into trouble, we'll deal with it then," he said with a smile.

"Really..." she sighed, muttering under her breath, "This optimistic attitude really feels like I'm talking to Shirou-niisan."

Shirou: "..."

He had to admit, even though he was consciously imitating Artoria, at their core, he and Artoria were different.

With the quest glitched and impossible to complete, he had no choice but to lead the other two on a fierce charge towards the Andes Mountains. Whether it was to rescue Mordred or return to Chaldea, they had to take down the gatekeeper!

The mountains were towering and vast, with peaks stretching as far as the eye could see. Luckily, Illya had tagged along with Mordred on a previous Hell-level newbie quest grind, so she knew the Gatekeeper's usual hangouts, one of which was a cave.

This cave was massive, big enough for a two-legged wyvern to comfortably fly around inside.

The surrounding area was thick with bushes and giant trees. Inside, it was dim and shadowy.

In the darkness, flickering lights cast two dancing shadows, one of which was trapped in a cage, curled up in a crying position. Sniffles and whimpers could be heard from the cage.

"Be careful, Artoria-neesan," Illya whispered.

Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to see a shrunken Altera looking at him seriously, her voice cold: "I will protect you, friend."

Shirou: "..."

He knew Altera had a soft heart beneath her tough exterior, but...

Wasn't she supposed to be the mage who needed protection, while he was the meat shield protecting everyone else?

Still, he had to appreciate the sentiment.