I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 49

I explained my short plan.

The operation was simple. I would deliberately touch the Mimic, and when the Mimic swallowed me, Damian would defeat the Mimic and save me.

And in that process, Evangeline would laugh at my messed-up state.

Seeing the prince make an even bigger mistake than slipping on oil, her embarrassment would lessen a bit.

“Ah, I understand.”

Damian nodded right away.

“Um, but…”

Immediately after, Damian tilted his head.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Huh?”

I paused for a moment.

“I understand the intention, but isn’t there no reason for Your Highness to get messed up?”

“……”

That’s right, why?

It’s not like anyone told me to do it, and it’s not like Evangeline would join my command just because I went through this slapstick.

After a moment of thought, I shrugged and answered as it came to mind.

“Well… it’s my specialty to make someone laugh while getting messed up!”

My main job is a streamer.

If I can make someone else laugh by getting messed up and suffering during a broadcast, it might be a worthwhile thing. That’s probably how I’ve always thought.

“……”

Damian tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand well.

I smiled back and tilted my head along with Damian. I don’t know either, man.

***

My slapstick operation was a great success.

As soon as I touched the treasure chest, long arms and legs popped out from both sides of the chest and grabbed me.

When the chest opened wide, it was full of sharp teeth inside.

“Whoaaaaa! Shiiiiiiiiit!”

A long tongue that came out of the chest licked my face. I screamed for real, not acting. I hate ittttt!

The Mimic’s long tongue stretched out like a frog and tightly bound my body.

I was lifted into the air and then plunged straight into the Mimic’s mouth…

Thwack! Thwack-!

…or not.

Damian pulled the trigger in succession. The first magic bullet pierced the Mimic’s tongue, and the second magic bullet pierced the Mimic’s body.

Kieeeek!

The Mimic, letting out a death cry, died on the spot.

Damian caught my falling body. Thud!

“Gack!”

“Ugh!”

Of course, Damian wasn’t a physical type but a fragile sniper.

Unable to withstand the weight of my fall, he tumbled to the ground with me.

“Your Highness?!”

“Oh my, Your Highness! Are you alright?”

The rest of the party members rushed over in a panic at this commotion, but they were all speechless at the sight of me.

“Oh dear, I was trying to open a treasure chest without knowing it was a Mimic and got into trouble… What, you guys. Why are you laughing?”

I gritted my teeth at the party members who were clearly trying to hold back their laughter.

But not only Jupiter but also Evangeline, and even Lucas, couldn’t hold back their laughter.

Especially, unlike the two who were openly laughing, Lucas was even putting his fist in his mouth to desperately hold back his laughter. Just laugh…

Well, it’s understandable that it’s funny.

The Mimic’s tongue was wrapped around my body, and I was soaked in the Mimic’s saliva from head to toe.

It was a sight that could hardly be called a royal figure.

Damian took out a towel from his bag and handed it to me. I grumbled as I roughly wiped my head with the towel.

“What, what. You guys. Dungeons are originally like this! You make mistakes, get into trouble, and see each other’s embarrassing sides. It’s fine as long as we’re safe, damn it.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll remember this side of you, senior.”

Evangeline, who was giggling, shook her head.

“Really, you’re completely different from what I had imagined.”

You too, you little kid. You’re so different from the perfect tank Evangeline I had imagined.

‘Still, it’s a relief that she’s laughing.’

I shook the wet hair with a towel and let out a sigh of relief inside.

It feels like I’ve committed a sin when Evangeline is upset. Please live with a smile like that, even for your father’s sake.

The situation was quickly settled, and a standard high-grade magic core (R) came out of the Mimic’s mouth.

We decided to take a break for a while to collect the items and for me, who was a mess, to reorganize.

Evangeline, who seemed to be in a much better mood, was even humming a tune as she collected items from the golem wreckage.

“……”

After wiping my body with a towel and taking out a water bottle to drink, I felt a blatant gaze.

It was Damian when I turned around. I smiled brightly.

“Why, Damian. Do you still not understand me?”

“……Yes. I don’t really know what’s inside Your Highness.”

Immediately after, Damian smiled bashfully.

“But, I know you’re a good person.”

“……”

I awkwardly gulped down the water. I even got called a good person for doing a slapstick, how strange.

***

We continued to move forward.

The back alleys of the darkened city were intricately intertwined. But there was only one path we could advance on.

All the other alleys that branched out around the main route ended in dead ends.

Lucas even tried to force his way over the high stone walls blocking the alleys, but,

“Kuh?! Damn it!”

‘Darkness’ did not allow it.

The sticky, jelly-like darkness retreated when we shone our lights on it, but it did not retreat when we tried to stray from the path.

Everything beyond the stone walls was covered in this darkness.

“It seems we can’t go outside the designated path. We’ll have to follow this alleyway quietly.”

Lucas, who had reached his arm into the darkness above the stone wall, came down urgently and said that. I asked purely out of curiosity.

“Did you touch that darkness? What did it feel like?”

“Well, if I had to describe it…”

Lucas described it with a pale face.

“Back when I was a trainee knight, I was once swallowed whole by a giant Sandworm monster. It felt similar to the sensation of being trapped in the monster’s stomach.”

Evangeline shook her head.

“I have no idea…”

But somehow, I felt like I knew. Was it because I was just wrapped up in the Mimic’s tongue?

“It’s sticky, mushy, and stuffy, right?”

“Exactly, Your Highness! That’s it!”

“Okay, let’s move on…”

Evangeline’s face turned pale. She must have imagined it.

There were dilapidated buildings scattered along the stone wall.

Most of them were old, rotten shacks, unlike the glamorous city visible in the distance.

But we couldn’t enter these buildings either.

“The door…”

Damian muttered in front of the first shack.

“The door… is blocked.”

Both the doors and windows were firmly sealed with iron plates and planks.

Lucas tried to pry off the iron plate, but the seal didn’t budge.

“It seems to be magically treated. We won’t be able to open the door with simple force.”

Jupiter said, looking at the closed window.

Damian tilted his head.

“Did they lock the doors to protect the house from something outside? What was outside?”

“No, Damian.”

I shook my head and pointed to the nails that secured the iron plate with my hand.

“This seal was done from the outside.”

“……!”

“It’s to prevent what’s inside the house from coming out.”

Damian, swallowing hard, asked me in a trembling voice.

“Then, what could be inside these shacks…?”

“Well. We don’t need to know right now.”

I turned away from the shack and took a step towards the path ahead.

“Let’s move on.”

The party members followed me one by one. Damian, who was looking inside the shack until the very end, also came running after us.

***

[Area 2: Hidden Back Alley]

– Clear Progress: Normal Room 3/4 Boss Room 0/1

– Acquired Treasure Chests: 4/5

The rest of the strategy was uneventful.

Whenever the narrow alleyway seemed to widen a bit, steam golems would come rushing out without fail.

But it was only difficult at first, and after figuring out the strategy, they were easy opponents.

Evangeline blocked, Lucas restrained, Jupiter removed the armor, and Damian sniped.

The team’s teamwork, which had been creaking, gradually came together, and in the third encounter, four steam golems appeared, but all the party members were able to smash them all without suffering any minor injuries.

‘The acquired items… let’s see.’

I opened my bag and looked inside.

Three R-grade magic cores. Several magic stones. And a bunch of unidentified metal gauntlets.

The durability of the gauntlets was far superior to ordinary iron. I had picked up a few to commission research at the blacksmith.

‘Not bad, but a bit disappointing.’

The R-grade magic cores weren’t bad, but it was a bit underwhelming for me, who had hoped for a more exciting reward.

‘Should I look forward to the boss room reward…’

As I was thinking, the alleyway suddenly widened, and the alleyway ended, and a small square appeared.

‘The next room.’

I tensed up, preparing for an encounter with monsters.

The rest of the party members also carefully stepped into the square, preparing for battle.

In the center of the square was a dried-up fountain, and in the center of the fountain was a statue of someone.

It was a statue of three people standing side by side.

For some reason, the statues of the two people on the left and right had their heads destroyed, and only the statue of the man in the center was intact.

The man in the center was wearing a crown on his head, so I thought he might be the king of the Lake Kingdom.

‘Why were only the two statues on the left and right destroyed…?’

As I was having a useless question,

“Ah!”

Damian suddenly shouted.

Everyone was startled and looked at Damian. Damian pointed to the other side of the square.

“Look, over there!”

When I looked at where Damian was pointing, my eyes widened.

The only lights in this city were the torches and lanterns we were holding.

But on the other side of the square that Damian was pointing to, another faint light was flickering. Which meant…

“I-It looks like a person!”

While everyone was surprised, I didn’t let my guard down.

“Let’s approach carefully. Prepare your weapons.”

In a city covered with monsters, there is only one thing scarier than monsters.

People.

The people you meet in a place like this can’t be normal.

‘Is it a hostile NPC? Or a friendly NPC? Which one is it?’

The hostile NPC, ‘Pied Piper,’ who appeared in the last stage, suddenly came to mind.

He tried to ruin the stage in an unexpected way.

‘If I’m not careful, it’s game over in one go! I must never let my guard down.’

We cautiously approached the light on the other side of the square.

As we got closer, the scenery there was revealed with the dim light.

“……!”

About six steam golems were lying in ruins, and some of them were on fire, with oil leaking from their bodies.

This was the light we saw.

And a small woman was squatting in front of the fire.

“Hmm?”

The woman, who turned around at the sound of our approaching footsteps, recognized us and was delighted.

“Oh, aren’t you the Lord of Crossroads’ party.”

“……!”

A woman with a worn-out cloak, a hood covering her head, white hair, and a worn sword.

Recognizing the identity of the other party, I muttered with a sullen expression.

“Nameless?”

It was Nameless, the NPC who guided us to the Lake Kingdom during the last exploration.

Nameless, looking at us, spoke in a slightly surprised voice.

“It seems you’re taking this exploration quite seriously? To come all the way here.”

“What are you doing here, Nameless?”

Although we had met before, I didn’t let my guard down.

This guy is an NPC I’ve never met in the past 742 playthroughs. I have no way of knowing whether he’s hostile or friendly.

I think he’s not an enemy since he guided us, but that doesn’t guarantee he’s on our side.

“I was just taking a break. Living in this Lake Kingdom is a tiring thing, you know.”

Nameless muttered and turned to face us.

“Anyway, if you’ve come all the way here… I’ll have to acknowledge you and take out ‘this’ too.”

Nameless reached her hand into her old cloak.

Me and the party members all flinched. We were nervous that she might take out some kind of hidden weapon.

Immediately after, what Nameless took out of her cloak and laid on the ground was,

Thud!

…a mat.

Following that, Nameless began to place various items on the mat one by one.

Me and the party members were just staring at Nameless, not understanding what was going on.

Eventually, Nameless, who had finished displaying the items, spread her arms and said nonchalantly.

“Since you’re here, how about buying something?”

“……”

“I’ll sell you my high-quality goods at a low price.”

I was so dumbfounded that I just stared blankly at Nameless before shouting.

“Wait, were you a merchant NPC?”

“NPC? I don’t know what that is, but I am a merchant.”

Nameless nodded readily and added.

“It’s a buy-one-get-one-free event.”

“……”

“There’s even a 30% first-purchase bonus discount.”

“……”

“What are you doing? Are you not going to buy anything? Are you just going to stand there and watch this super-special chance? This kind of massive discount service doesn’t happen often.”

I let out a hollow laugh, squatted in front of Nameless’s mat, and asked in a low voice.

“So, what are you selling?”