The moment the brilliantly golden hammer pronounced the false artist guilty, the chaos lodged within my soul began to disappear.
……When I came to my senses, the first thing I felt was not ‘myself,’ but ‘others.’
Hundreds, thousands. No, perhaps even more than that.
As the Conductor’s mind scattered, scenes of the countless massacres it had committed flashed through my mind.
The concert hall filled with suffering that it had created and the mindscape of the streaming studio I had manifested—
[You have won the ‘Authority Trial’ against the ‘Conductor of Flesh’!]
[Survivor: Ash Gray]
Both disappeared along with those death-cry-like messages, wavering like mirages from a bygone moment.
‘Something is strange.’
The message that should have appeared did not.
For example…… the message that appeared after a boss died or ceased to exist.
[Judgment : You are not guilty…….]
It was a familiar sentence.
Yet it still had not appeared, unlike when I defeated the Toller of Execution.
‘What is happening?’
I had clearly won the struggle for control. I had overwhelmed my opponent in the trial and personally witnessed its destruction.
Then why?
‘I am not returning to reality……?’
It felt as though something was preventing me from returning.
‘No. I am going back……!’
I already knew this was an unreasonable Trash Game.
But I had not given up yet.
Then my vision suddenly wavered, and my consciousness grew muddled.
…….
…….
…….
“Damn it, clever boy! Are you coming to your senses?!”
“Ugh…… Where am I?”
At some point, Ravenwood had begun calling to me urgently. My consciousness remained faint, but perhaps because of the peculiar medicinal odor, it was enough to awaken me.
To be precise, it smelled more like a foul sewer than medicine.
‘Ugh, my head feels as though it is about to split…….’
Far too many emotions had passed through my mind.
In any case, my body had not been taken from me. That much, at least, could be considered fortunate.
What would happen if my mind were consumed in this unreasonable game?
There was no guarantee that I would come back to life as I would have in the original story, or that I would awaken after a day even if I died. I could not deny that the entire incident had left me deeply uneasy.
“D-Did we get it?”
“You crazy old hag! You cannot say that!!”
“Why can I not say it, clever boy?”
Ravenwood, who had just uttered a cliché bordering on a forbidden incantation, tilted her head calmly as though she truly did not understand.
How was I supposed to explain this to her?
“Think about it, old hag. How would you feel if someone prematurely celebrated while you were conducting research?”
“……Hmm.”
She assumed a thoughtful posture at my question.
“I suppose it would feel quite unpleasant.”
“Right? It is a magical incantation, so make sure you never say it again.”
At least we had succeeded in securing the slums, which could now serve as our ‘Base Camp.’
‘We can finally catch our breath.’
It was certainly good that we had unexpectedly cleared the area as though fighting through a boss rush, but something about it still worried me.
We had encountered the bosses at their respective residences and in the slums instead of meeting them at the ‘Lower Court.’
‘Well, perhaps it does not matter.’
Many things still bothered me, but none of them were important at the moment.
I wanted to rest. I wanted to close my eyes and sleep.
Those thoroughly human desires crept through my entire body.
As the tension left me, the strength drained from my legs as well, and I sank to the ground.
“Old hag, we should get out of here now…….”
“Damn it! What in the world is that?”
My eyes had grown unfocused, leaving me slightly dazed, when Ravenwood spoke and a low groan reached my ears.
The walls of flesh were gone.
The Conductor was gone as well.
Then what was—
《It, hurts…… So pain, ful…….》
《I cannot…… hear the performance…… anymore!!》
The restored ground around us began to writhe, and objects resembling human tissue slowly emerged from beneath it.
“What in the world is happening?!”
Ravenwood’s voice was sharp.
I felt exactly the same.
Things that never would have happened in the game were occurring one after another.
《G-GRAAAAGH!!》
In an instant, the surrounding scenery returned to what it had been moments earlier.
Those embedded in the walls tore away pieces of their own bodies and hurled them to the floor, while those buried beneath the ground desperately struggled to crawl free.
‘Damn it…….’
I snapped fully awake.
It was not because my mind had ordered my body to summon more strength.
The resurrected residents and lawbreakers grew grotesque bones that protruded from their bodies or snapped apart, while their melting flesh tangled together until they became an enormous mass of meat.
How many people could witness such a hideous spectacle without being jolted awake?
‘I truly feel as though I am going to lose my mind.’
Nothing that could be called human remained here.
A mad scientist’s creation covered in hundreds of arms, legs, eyes, and heads was staring down at Ravenwood and me.
Before I could even finish thinking, that accursed mass of flesh reached toward us.
“Damn it, you look like a meatball!”
I swung the longsword in my hand and knocked away the approaching arm.
My body creaked and my head spun, but I was fine. At least an alien parasite had not suddenly taken control of my body and blown a hole through my abdomen.
‘I could not call this situation good even as an empty compliment!’
I tried to think positively, but I knew far too little about my opponent.
Could it be burned? Or perhaps—
《GRRROOOOAAARGH!!》
The mass of flesh rolled its body and repeatedly thrust its arms toward us.
Ravenwood pulled a bottle containing yellow liquid from inside her clothes and tried to counter it, but that was not enough.
Arms and legs stretched toward us like those of the Thousand-Armed Guanyin. There were far too many for Ravenwood and me to block them all.
“Urgh!”
In the middle of the assault, Ravenwood was struck by one of the flesh mass’s arms and sent flying.
“Old hag!!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs, but Ravenwood clutched her head after the impact and staggered, unable to rise.
“This is the worst.”
……Unlike the Toller or the Conductor, it possessed no special attack patterns.
The nameless mass of flesh merely rippled like an enormous swamp. It was little more than a byproduct of overwhelming hunger and chaos that devoured every living creature around it.
《It hurts. Hurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurtshurts so muuuuch――!!》
The flesh mass continued scattering anguished screams throughout the area as its body melted.
A tsunami of flesh.
What else could possibly describe it?
The mass slowly rose around us like an incoming tide, intending to swallow us whole.
“Ugh…… Clever boy! I think we need to escape from here first!”
Ravenwood finally regained her senses and spoke to me.
Of course we had to leave, but escaping would not be easy in our current situation.
The only way out was the hole in the ceiling. However, there was nothing we could use as a foothold.
Creating one was impossible as well. We did not possess some crafting skill that could produce blocks after a few seconds, as though this were a crafting game. The very idea was out of the question.
In other words, the only thing we could do in our current situation was destroy the creature.
‘Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.’
What was I supposed to do?
That was the only thought inside my head.
Had it been an enemy I had encountered before, I could have devised some countermeasure.
However, none of my knowledge applied to that incomplete meatball.
‘There must be some way…… Is there no solution?’
Physical force was ineffective.
I continued swinging my sword and knocking its limbs away wherever possible, but that had its limits. How could a blade possibly work against melting liquid soup?
What about a mental attack?
No, that was out of the question as well. There was no chance that a mass of flesh like that would understand an attack delivered through a trial.
“Ha…… Seriously. What a goddamned Trash Game.”
An ordinary person would certainly have abandoned all hope and surrendered.
An ordinary person, that was.
But I was a Trash Game streamer.
Even if I lacked ‘information’ about this game, there was one thing I knew for certain.
Physical force was ineffective only when it came to ‘cutting power.’
There were countless other methods.
For example――
“Old hag, can you make a Special Hardening Agent right now?!”
“If I had not brought the ingredients with me, clever boy, I would have smashed your head in! Thirty seconds…… Hold out for that long!”
Ravenwood and I looked into each other’s eyes and nodded.
Her eyes were hidden behind her mask, yet somehow, I felt as though this could work.
‘In this situation…… that is the answer.’
Without delay, I raised William’s longsword, pointed it toward Ravenwood, and murmured.
“Will to Protect.”
[The Unique Skill - Will to Protect activates!]
[Blocks one fatal attack against the designated target (self or ally).]
[Cooldown: 10 minutes]
The cooldown had already ended.
The problem was the mass of flesh.
When Ravenwood and I separated, it made no effort to target her.
《SKREEEEEE――!!》
……Its target was unquestionably me.
Still, it was better to protect her in case something happened.
I could move freely, but Ravenwood could not. There was no avoiding the fact that manufacturing the drug would take some time.
‘Tsk. In the game, crafting only required a single click.’
These realistic complications were unbearably troublesome.
But what could I do?
Life had always been that unreasonable.
‘Thirty seconds…….’
Could I endure that long?
The thought crossed my mind as I watched the approaching wave of minced flesh.
I shook my head and lightly slapped my cheeks several times.
‘I have already played the Trash Game called life.’
Yes. I was the Trash-Game Sommelier.
I was prepared to be knocked down as many times as necessary.
……Giving up over something as trivial as this made even less sense. Had I not experienced broken games countless times before?
I steadied my heart.
What could I use in this situation?
What could I do before the Hardening Agent was completed?
‘Think, think, think.’
What could I do?
What did I possess?
‘Remember.’
I had already used Will to Protect. It had a ten-minute cooldown, so I could not activate it again immediately.
Objection was used to refute an opponent’s logic.
Turnabout Trial existed to counter a powerful Domain that could not otherwise be resisted.
‘That is it.’
I suddenly remembered the ‘Linked Skill’ the Toller had used.
“I activate Brand of Sentence Enforcement.”
SNAP!
I snapped my fingers and designated a target at the same time.
That target was…… the nameless mass of flesh.
Would merely thinking about it and pointing at it be enough?
[Searching for a target for Brand of Sentence Enforcement….]
[The target of the Brand has been selected!]
[Target: Flesh-Stitched Predator]
……That was a bizarre name.
‘It does not matter.’
I had been concerned that Sentence Enforcement might not work.
Fortunately, I had quickly checked the skill’s tooltip.
[All stats of the Sentence Enforcement Target decrease by 30%.]
[All actions of the Sentence Enforcement Target are temporarily halted.]
……That was what I had been aiming for.
I had wondered whether it would work on a mere mass of flesh that possessed neither will nor intelligence.
However, if it was a remnant of this unreasonable game――if it still obeyed the laws, then it had to work.
I believed that it would.
《G-GRRRRAAAAAAAH――!!》
It truly worked.
The juice made from ground flesh stopped moving.
‘This is enough.’
Thirty seconds, as Ravenwood had requested.
That might have been a short time to some people, but temporarily halting the flooding sea of flesh was more than enough.
“Clever boy, catch!”
The completed Hardening Agent left Ravenwood’s hand and flew toward me.
The flask contained a liquid with a sheen resembling mercury.
It was the Hardening Agent I remembered from ‘Gray Judgment.’
“Eat this!”
I hurled the Hardening Agent toward the temporarily immobilized sea of flesh.
The flask shattered, and the substance inside spread across the creature’s collective mass.
《G-GRAAAAGH!! OOOOH, OOH. GRAAAAAAAH――!!》
It released an indescribable scream.
The Hardening Agent spread like a virus, and its body slowly began to solidify.
‘This…… is not enough.’
Even as its body hardened, the creature continued to writhe.
The Hardening Agent could not completely end the situation.
More importantly, I had thought that immobilizing it would solve everything.
‘That means something else remains.’
We had to act before it began moving again.
“Old hag, check whether there is another object or fixture around here besides that thing!”
“You should only work an old woman so hard! At this rate, I will break! I will!”
“What are you talking about? Move unless you want to die!”
Despite my words, I could not see anything particularly useful.
The answer had to be somewhere within the waves of flesh.
……I calmed myself and searched.
Now that the creature had stopped moving, I had enough time to examine it properly, unlike before.
Then I noticed something embedded in its heads.
‘There it is.’
It had only become visible after the Hardening Agent slowed its movements.
Among the countless tangled heads and bodies, a grotesque lump of flesh rose higher than the rest.
Embedded in the crown of its head was…… a half-broken, pitch-black conductor’s baton.
It was the object the Conductor of Flesh had been holding.
I became certain that it was the medium sustaining this absurd situation.
“Ravenwood! Throw more Hardening Agent!”
“Heh…… It appears you found a solution, clever boy!”
Ravenwood threw the additional Hardening Agent she had prepared toward the sea of flesh.
……Its movements were clearly slowing.
We had to put it down completely before it awakened and began moving again.
‘How?’
That question suddenly arose in my mind.
Would the masses of flesh truly stop simply because I destroyed the baton?
‘No. There is a way.’
The method flashed through my mind.
What the creature had seized was—
‘The soul itself.’
“Objection!!”
With all my strength, I raised my hand and pointed directly at the conductor’s baton.