Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 810

Final Day

There’s no way this is a coincidence.

Machine Monster Arta was the final boss of Arta Secret Base.

Those two simply couldn’t have happened to share the same name.

The intuition I had developed as a gamer who had played Dungeon & Stone for nearly ten years told me so.

Is using Final Day on this island the condition for meeting this guy?

I had no way of knowing until now.

Which meant there was only one thing to do.

“Raven, cast barrier magic,”

“So suddenly? You told me not to use it this entire time because it eats up too much mana.”

“We’ll just have to endure the cost if we want to talk to this thing here and now.”

“Understood.”

After receiving my order, Raven immediately spread a dome-shaped barrier around us.

Boom! Flash! Rumble!

The translucent barrier blocked the hail of meteors and lightning bolts raining down from the sky.

Good. Now we’ve got a quiet place to talk…

“[Oh? Interesting. A language similar to the common tongue, but with a different structure…]”

The man looked each of us over.

[Still, I suppose it hasn’t been completely lost if someone here can speak it. Well, the language itself is of little importance.]

Then, suddenly, something changed in the way his words reached us.

Marone flinched in surprise.

I turned toward her. “Huh? You can understand him, Marrone?”

“Pardon? Yes… I don’t know how, but I can understand what he’s saying. Even though my mind knows he’s speaking another language…”

Seeing Marrone’s reaction, the man, or monster, or whatever he was, asked cautiously,

“Um, excuse me… Is this your first time experiencing thought communication?”

“Yes? Ah, yes… I don’t know what it is, but I’ve never even heard of anything like this before.”

“Whew… looking at your attire, I suspected as much, but it seems a great deal of technology has been lost. Do not be alarmed. It merely connects the wave circuits emitted by the brain waves, allowing us to ‘understand’ each other’s words. It is only natural for it to feel unfamiliar at first.”

The man who had introduced himself as Arta then fell silent, gazing past the barrier Raven had created at the meteors and lightning outside.

“So this is the final day of the world… It is exactly as I imagined…”

His eyes sparkled as he watched the meteors and lightning pouring down outside.

There were still many suspicious things about him, starting with the fact that he had emerged from that mysterious portal. And yet, strangely enough, I didn’t feel any danger from him.

Because, well…

“Heh heh… With this research result, I won’t have to worry about next year’s budget…”

His appearance, the way he spoke, the clothes he wore…

Despite the somewhat gloomy atmosphere he gave off, he seemed harmless.

“Hey, you said your name was Arta?”

“……Yes? Ah, yes. I got distracted for a moment. But who are you people? And if you don’t mind, could you tell me what the current situation is?”

“We’re the ones asking questions.”

“Ah……! Yes! Of course, you must be curious too. I’ll answer anything you ask. In exchange, may I make one request as well? Ah! It’s nothing major, so please don’t be too wary!”

“…Say it.”

“If I answer everything you wish to know, could you also answer my questions? To be honest, I have many things I’m curious about regarding this situation too… Hahaha…”

What was with this guy?

Was he actually hiding his strength? His boldness contrasted with his frail appearance and took me slightly aback, but gathering information was the priority, so I readily nodded.

“As I said before, my name is Arta. Currently… no, I suppose I should say previously? In any case, I am the chief researcher of the Empire’s 1st Magic Engineering Research Institute. Haha, not to brag, but only the deputy director and the director outrank me.”

“Research Institute…?” I repeated, frowning.

The term sounded familiar somehow.

“Oh?” he said with interest. “Are you perhaps familiar with our institute?”

Not exactly. But I did have a guess.

“Is it the institute that used monsters as test subjects to create biological weapons?”

“Pardon? We are not that kind of place. Our institute is, so to speak, at the forefront of magic engineering development. While weapons are created through our research data, we are not a laboratory established for the purpose of making weapons.”

Hmm, is that so…

The place I had explored on the first underground floor had been called the Panthelion Research Institute, after all. Not this “magic engineering” whatever.

“Anyway, so what’s a big shot like you doing here?”

“What else would a researcher from a research institute do? Research, of course.”

“Ah… I suppose you’re all running short on time. Considering you’re not experts, let me explain it simply as possible.”

He continued calmly.

“Our research concerns the observation of future time and space.”

“The observation of time and space…?”

“Correct. Observing the future in order to alter the present. That was the core principle of our research.”

“Not the past?”

“Haha! You must be thinking of time travel, but it has long since been proven that changing the past to alter the present is impossible. That is why we turned our focus toward the future instead.”

What? So his storyline is that his research succeeded, and that’s why he’s here now?

Isn’t this supposed to be a fantasy setting?

It came out of nowhere, but I more or less understood the setting for now.

“So, may I ask one question in the middle? To be honest, I have been dying of curiosity since earlier.”

“What year is it now?”

So the setting was that we were people from the future.

***

RPG stands for role-playing game. Simply put, it was a game where you played a part.

In the broader sense, the new reality I had been thrown into was no different. As long as I stayed in character and followed the story forward, the episode would eventually reach its conclusion on its own, and I would be given a sweet reward.

That was why…

Now is the time to obtain clues for the story progression.

Once I reached that conclusion, I spent some time talking with Arta to gather information. The only difference was that this wasn’t like the game, where I could mash the spacebar, skip all the dialogue, and go straight to clearing the quest.

“New World Year…? Good heavens! Even the name of the era has changed?”

“The world once came to an end because of the witch, and now only the city-state ruled by the Raphdonia royal family remains… I can hardly believe what I’m hearing!”

“Ah, did I make it seem as though I understood the situation here? Haha, I suppose that is somewhat true. The coordinates I selected were at the very end of infinite time. The final day, you might say!”

“Pardon? Why did I choose such a place? Well, who wouldn’t? I was curious to see the end of the world I lived in!”

“Oh? Haha! Am I not frightened? Well, should my heart stop or should I fall into a dangerous situation, I will return to my original time. As long as I don’t die over there, I’ll be fine. The finest magic engineers are waiting for me there, and they can drag me back even from the brink of death.”

“Hm? Why magic engineers instead of priests? Has magic engineering declined so terribly in this era?”

“Well then, how did the world end up like this? From what you told me earlier, the witch who tried to destroy the world is already dead, is she not?”

Through our conversation, Arta learned about our world, and I learned about his.

And in the end…

“For the end of the world to truly exist… I must discover its cause and find a way to prevent it. People of the future, will you help me? If you do, I will prepare something in the past to stop this disaster before it ever happens!”

“To think the end of the world truly exists… I must learn the cause of this apocalypse and a way to prevent it. People of the future! Will you help me? If you assist me, I will return to the past and try to prepare a way to stop this tragedy!”

The quest content was roughly like that.

Well, the most important thing is the reward.

“…What will I give as a reward? Do you all not want to stop the apocalypse? I have nothing I can give you, but…”

Hmm, so the reward comes in a different way?

Maybe there’s a treasure room that can only be entered if he’s present, or something like that.

“It was a joke. If we fail, the world ends, so what does a reward matter? If it helps stop this apocalypse, I’ll do anything.”

With that, I brushed aside the topic of a reward as if I had only been teasing him.

“I knew you were joking! Let us continue our conversation while we move.”

“Yes, that would be best. I do not have much approved time remaining either.”

“Approved time?”

“Ah, I forgot to mention that. There is a limit to how long I can remain here, so I must gather as much information as possible within that window.”

“What happens if you don’t return before that time runs out?”

“That will not happen… But if it did, I would have no choice but to face the end of the world alongside you.”

“I see.”

For now, I treated it as nothing more than idle curiosity. It wasn’t as if I could tell him to his face that I was considering forcing him to stay if no special event or reward appeared while we showed him around.

Maybe the real quest begins if this guy fails to return to his original time.

This was a hidden secret I had never encountered during my days playing the game, so I needed to investigate it as thoroughly as possible.

“Raven! Release the magic now!” I ordered

Once Raven dispelled the barrier, we officially resumed our exploration of the island.

“Excuse me, Mr. Arta?”

Raven, who had been unable to take part in the conversation because she had been focusing on maintaining the spell, began trying to speak with Arta as well.

“Mr. Arta?”

Or rather, she attempted to.

“Do you… not want to talk to me?”

At last, he admitted, “Ah, it is not that… I am simply rather shy…”

“But you spoke quite freely with Mr. Yandel.”

I paid close attention to their exchange, hoping something useful might come out of it. However, all I learned was that Arta was hopeless at talking to women.

And…

“I am also interested in magic engineering. Could you tell me a little about it?” Raven asked politely.

“Oh! A beautiful person such as yourself is interested in magic engineering?! Truly?!”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yes. I am…”

“Haha! Ask me anything you wish. I will answer every question!”

…apparently, Arta was weak to women who showed an interest in magic engineering.

Alright. From now on, I’ll have Raven ask him anything I need to know.

I listened for a few more minutes, but the magic engineering concepts they discussed were completely beyond me, so I tuned them out. Still, I did not stop them. Anything that added to Raven’s knowledge was a good thing, so I simply focused on clearing the island.

[Over 50% of monsters within the region have been eliminated.]

[The authority of the Ancient Beast is weakened.]

[Over 60% of monsters within the region have been eliminated.

[The authority of the Ancient Beast is weakened.]

[Over 70% of monsters within the region have…]

“Ahem… M-my apologies, but I really should be using this time to focus on gathering information rather than chatting like this.”

“Ah…”

“D-do not worry! I will do everything in my power to save you, Ms. Raven!”

By the time we had eliminated about seventy percent of the monsters on the island, Arta seemed to regain his senses. He stopped discussing magic engineering and returned to his original purpose.

“So… Mr. Jandel, was it? You said the cause of the end was a beast. Why are we not heading toward it?”

Hah, now he asks? Just how weak is this guy to women who fit his type?

It was honestly absurd, but I answered him anyway.

“We need to kill the monsters on the island first to weaken the beast.”

“Ah… I see.”

“Have you figured anything out while looking around?”

“Well… Not much yet.”

Yeah, no surprise there. He had been focused on Raven the entire time.

“Ah! But there is one thing I noticed,” he added.

“What is it?”

“The center of the island, where that beast that brings about the end resides! I can sense powerful waves of mana coming from there.”

Mana waves…

Was it a secret room I had never found in the game? Or was it simply the boss’s location?

Well, whatever it was, I would know soon enough.

[Over 90% of monsters within the region have been eliminated.]

[The authority of the Ancient Beast is weakened.]

It was time to face the boss.

Continue reading more chapters at henprogressive.com

Please join here, I need supporters to help me continue translating Surviving game as a barbarian and Lee Gwak
If it doesn’t work support me here buymeacoffee.com/hennoveltranslations. There are advanced chapters for supporters as well.