Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 161

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“What about you, Evan?”
“Give me a moment.”
I stretched my status window wide to lay everything out at once. The Department Head Professor, who understood what my gesture meant, whistled and remarked that it had grown even larger.
“I possess a Super Rare Blade Deflection skill that blocks edged weapons to a degree. I have a Super Rare Thousand Toxin Immunity, granting resistance to a thousand different poisons. I can employ Super Rare Mana Manipulation, Normal Horsemanship, Normal Cold Resistance, and an Ultra Rare tier Free Freezing spell. I possess a Super Rare tier Superhuman skill and a Rare tier Accuracy skill.”
I listed off the skills that would prove effective against the Machine King, but silence followed. I was accustomed to Reina looking at me as though I weren’t human, but when even Kanna regarded me that way, it stung.
“Well, um… Evan…”
The beast-kin Wenri, who had been trailing off and gesturing vaguely, drew a deep breath and spoke with solemn resolve.
“Are you aiming to become the next Demon King or something?”
“I’m aiming to graduate safely with my classmates.”
Given how precarious things are now, I lamented that my grades were short and I’d had to take summer courses again. Wenri shook her head vigorously, then pulled a portable flask from her pouch and took several gulps of brandy.
“May I speak frankly?”
Of course. I had invited her for her counsel, after all. I nodded first, and Gerth nodded as well. The others voiced that they wanted to hear the plain truth. With that, the beast-kin Wenri began massaging the back of her neck and spoke in a languid tone.
“A direct confrontation is out of the question. Fight for a hundred years instead of a hundred days—the Machine King still won’t fall.”
I’d sensed it vaguely after one clash, but hearing the ultra-genius tactical beauty Wenri confirm it hit hard. Come to think of it, in the original work, the protagonist didn’t win through normal means either. Sera, drowning in protagonist buffs, happened to destroy the Machine King’s interior through a double extreme point, halting its power.
I should have summoned Sera with a totem. How does she always hit the weak point in one shot?
“From the start, your premise was flawed. Why must you defeat the Machine King to make Sky Island fall?”
The Department Head Professor had been present when he went to Serpent King’s Tower to retrieve Gerth, so Wenri had heard all the circumstances. The beast-kin woman zeroed in on us three with limited time, berating us as battle maniacs so obsessed with solving everything through force that even our capillaries were filled with combat cells. After her tirade, she took another sip of brandy and spoke as though sighing.
“When machinery isn’t in use, you simply turn it off.”
“But what if Makina doesn’t possess a device to shut it down?”
“Then you relocate the power source far outside Sky Island. Why do you think Sky Island circles around Bunny Land?”
Well, why indeed? As we all tilted our heads in confusion, the woman made a whimpering sound and said she’d explain it in terms even a lizard could understand. Gerth and the Department Head Professor seemed displeased at the deliberate mention of lizards.
“Numbered units like Chirpy’s Father or simple robots like healing units carry their own power sources. But the mechanical staff working in Bunny Land have no power source of their own. They draw power from the Machine King’s Sky Island.”
“I see.”
So Bunny Land needs to stay in this vicinity to operate daily due to the power issue? That’s why they don’t travel all over the country with this floating island.
“You’re correct, Evan. I guarantee it—if there’s no off switch, taking the power source far outside Bunny Land will absolutely cause Sky Island to fall.”
Excellent! Then I could resolve the limited-time mission without destroying the Machine King? The moment I heard that, the Department Head Professor and Gerth’s shoulders relaxed, their expressions brightening with relief.
“With this method, I can assist Evan.”
“Auntie, just have them rebuild Sky Island.”
From the start, they’d taken a passive stance, saying they’d only observe—they never committed to helping us destroy the Machine King. They merely watched while we took a beating. They probably couldn’t bring themselves to directly kill someone like a brother. I felt relieved as well.
“But wouldn’t it be just as difficult to siphon off enough power to defeat Makina?”
“For this, we’ll leverage something our collective mother goddess experienced.”
Wenri, about to say something, glanced around before looking at Gerth.
“Once we remove all the cameras and listening devices here.”
Accustomed to such tasks over the years, Gerth rummaged through the penthouse, systematically eliminating hidden cameras and bugs with soft popping sounds. Once the woman confirmed there were no more disturbing noises, she pointed upward with a clean gesture.
“Let’s launch a DDoS attack.”
Ah, I see. Flood the server with massive traffic to crash it. That could temporarily halt the Machine King or at least scatter its attention. I wasn’t sure what volume of data we’d need, but if successful, it was a viable approach.
I nodded, but everyone except me looked bewildered at the mention of DDoS. Given the atmosphere here, it seemed they only used computers in the form of the Machine King, so the fantasy inhabitants might not understand. Wenri’s ability to conceive of such a strategy was abnormally brilliant.
“You understood, didn’t you, Evan?”
“I grasped the gist of it. You’re going to overload the Machine King with massive computational tasks all at once, rendering him unresponsive.”
“Thank goodness. At least there’s one person who understands.”
Wenri, the sheep-type beastkin, sobbed while sipping brandy. He declared firmly that since the other humans wouldn’t comprehend it anyway, he only needed to communicate with me. He added that he could disrupt Bunny Land’s equipment and staff connected to Sky Island by forcing them all to log in simultaneously.
It sounded deceptively simple when explained, but the actual manipulation would be grueling. From what I glimpsed while ascending Sky Island, the operating system here seemed to be nothing more than DOS at best. When I voiced my concern, Wenri laughed heartily and assured me he’d manipulated Bunny Land’s central computer before, learned how to hack employee IDs, and had more than enough time—comfortably within a week—to put it into practice.
I admired Wenri, yet I also pitied him. How exhausting it must be for this extraordinary genius to navigate existence among these dimwits, inferior even to goldfish in intellect. Every day must feel like talking to a wall. No wonder he can’t survive without alcohol.
“The manipulation can be executed from Bunny Land’s Control Room, so please spare a week.”
“Understood. Then we’ll devise support measures and ensure your safety.”
The computers used here must be enormous, like ENIAC. Since I’d only seen them in photographs, I resolved to visit later for a proper look. I explained Wenri’s operation in simplified terms so the residents of this fantasy world could comprehend it.
Leri, Gerth, and Kanna had the expression of those listening with one ear and letting it pass through the other, while the Department Head Professor and Reina at least grasped the concept.
“So this is what you meant about Mother’s situation—the Underworld King’s communications being cut off.”
“Hey, wouldn’t it help if we also made the Machine King perform complex calculations?”
This bastard always thinks things through, and it irritates me that he’s clever. I was considering how to manipulate him into solving mathematical problems, but his suggestion was actually quite plausible, which annoyed me even more.
“U-um, then that opinion is, um, adopted, um, let’s do it.”
“Friend, why are you speaking like you’re handling food waste?”
“Because I’m that displeased.”
“Fine, let’s fight.”
“Yeah, let’s fight.”
For safety, we decided to fight in the Rooftop Garden, and Gerth prevented collateral damage to the surroundings. The Department Head Professor said he’d wrap up the matter cleanly and had a drink with Wenri, while Leri volunteered to serve as bodyguard for Wenri, the operation’s key personnel.
The best way to avoid suspicion about what we were plotting was to act normally. I suggested we keep fighting until Wenri completed all preparations, and everyone agreed. So we ascended to Sky Island once daily to battle the Machine King. Of course, since the Machine King showed us no mercy, we returned covered in blood each time.

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“Happy birthday!”
“H-happy birthday, E-Evan!”
We decided to celebrate my postponed birthday on the day of the DDoS attack. I’d mentioned beforehand that today we wouldn’t fight and would simply celebrate my birthday together, but the Machine King, possessing suspicions as ordinary as any human, appeared in combat form before transforming into a form with bare, unadorned eyeballs.
The enormous eyeballs rolling around were adorable in their own way.
“Makina, you’re so cute!”
「I can’t trust anything you say anymore. No matter what I do, you call it cute or pretty.」
“But Makina, even if you stood on your head, you’d still be cute and beautiful!”
Makina said I was good at flattery and whipped me with cables—thwack, thwack. It stung a little, but since it was Makina doing it, I could endure it.
“Evan. I had no time to prepare anything but a cake.”
“No, Gerth’s cake is the best.”
That three-tiered cream cake the size of a wedding cake looked delicious at first glance. And while the underwear I received last year had proven useful, it was admittedly an embarrassing gift, so a cake was more than sufficient.
The Department Head Professor offered to give me a guitar to bring on the concert tour, Leri promised to give me a beautiful manicure after the fight, and Reina said she’d give me a card so I could go to a store and scratch off whatever I wanted—I almost hit her for that, but decided to hold back. Today was a good day, after all.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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