My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 14 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 — I Have No Wish to Commit So Flippantly to Such a Heavy Contract!

People commonly said that Sora Akino was terminally optimistic. She loved herself, had little sense of danger, and came across as an airheaded pacifist.

While some of that must have been with her from birth, a good deal of it also came from her upbringing. She was brought up in an affluent and overprotective household that waited on her like a princess. Being both attractive and bright, she never suffered setbacks or frustration, each and every one of her desires being granted for her as a matter of course. Of course, those wishes were all rather easily fulfilled. From the beginning, she had never wished for very much.

In her eyes, the world was a warm, kind, and gentle place. It was only natural for a girl in her position to feel like everything revolved around her. Of course, she also understood that acting like that would make people despise her. Though there may have been some exceptions, she knew that a measure of humility was necessary in most situations. No matter how much money she had or how talented she was, she wasn’t the richest person in the world, nor was she the head of some dictatorship. It was clear to her that she needed to distinguish between what was possible and impossible for her.

In that respect, her desire to become an idol was something well within the realm of possibility. She felt like becoming one was something of an obligation she had to the world. She knew her appearance, musical talent, and physical fitness were well above average. She honestly felt like hiding that talent away would be a crime. In the end, after considering a number of ways to put her skills to use, she decided that becoming a pop idol was the most effective option. It wasn’t the result of a childhood dream, nor of any admiration she held for the profession. Despite all that, her talent was undeniable. She immediately took center stage as the leader of her idol group, a result she thought was only natural.

After becoming an idol as a middle school student, she applied to enter an ordinary high school rather than one specialized in the performing arts. There was no particular reason for her decision, except perhaps that the school was quite close to her home. She had no intention in the least of leaving her gracious and supportive parents’ home. One might have expected a girl of national fame attending an ordinary high school to cause something of an uproar, but her daily life ended up being rather calm and ordinary.

That was all a result of her aura. Sora’s natural disposition had a way of influencing the people around her. Ordinary people she passed on the street found it difficult to approach her, while her classmates interacted with her like any other student. It was almost as if the world was responding to the way she wished it would be. Normally, dreams and reality diverged sharply, but for Sora, that wasn’t the case.

There had been no doubt in her mind that this peaceful life would continue forever, but it had eventually come to an end with her being drawn into another world. Even she felt helpless after such a bewildering experience.

However, she didn’t lose her composure. She had been summoned by the Sages to another world. Considering herself the protagonist of the story, she didn’t think it was all that strange. She felt no need to step up and become a leader for the class after their arrival. At school, she was just another student, and she had no issue maintaining that here. If there was someone else suited to the task, she was happy to let them handle it. Luckily, Suguru Yazaki had taken the reins of leadership, and she was happy to let him.

His first decision had been to abandon their classmates who had failed to receive the Gift, using them as bait while they fled to the nearest city. Though she objected, Sora ultimately cooperated. There may have been a way they could have saved everyone, but with their limited time, there was only so much they could do. Yazaki had proposed the plan, and Haruto Ootori had approved it. As much of a pacifist as she was, she wasn’t personally or proactively involved in the plan, so she excused herself of guilt.

Whether thanks to their efforts or not, the class managed to reach the city, clearing their first mission. The second mission quickly appeared in the corner of their vision.

Second Mission

Objective: Accomplish Great Feats

Advice: A great feat is an accomplishment that anyone would recognize. Defeating a Demon Lord or pioneering untamed wilds would be examples. However, with no knowledge of this world, it will be difficult for you to understand what might be counted as a great feat. With that in mind, I have enlisted the king of Manii. I imagine he could use your help, so I suggest you assist him.

With that advice, they had no choice but to head for the capital. At some point, a number of their classmates broke off from the group, but she was sure they had their own reasons. Without making any effort to find them, the remainder of the class pressed on. Riding the train would get them to the capital quite quickly, but they wouldn’t grow at all on the way. So instead, they decided to train while heading for the capital on foot.

At first, things went quite well. Yazaki served as leader, while the rest of the class supported him. But as they passed through the Haqua Forest, the future started looking bleak. As their Gifts developed, a clear gap in abilities was starting to form. The Gift changed depending on the personalities and skills of the people who received it, so there was no equality in how it developed. At this rate, those who excelled in fighting would continue to grow, leaving the others behind. It was natural for those who couldn’t fight to become ashamed and timid, while those with the strength to fight grew condescending and overbearing.

Yazaki was losing his ability to keep the class united. The General class had skills based on leadership, but they were only effective if everyone involved agreed with the plan. He had no way to force people to comply. Yazaki didn’t have the power to lead everyone alone. Realizing that this failing put their chance of clearing the second mission in jeopardy, Sora decided to take the role of leader for herself.

Once she had decided to keep everyone together, the rest was simple. She already had the charisma to make people love and obey her without relying on something like the Gift. On top of that, her class of Idol gave her the Oath skill, which granted wishes in exchange for vows taken by the wisher. In short, by drawing vows out of her classmates not to attack each other, she leveled up all of their abilities. In this way, she was able to prevent their classmates from using their Gifts against each other.

Once Sora assumed her new role, things proceeded smoothly. At least on the surface, the class was fully united, and training progressed without issue. Their growth continued at an efficient pace, so they made the decision to leave the Haqua Forest.

From there, they took a train to the capital and met the challenge of the Underworld beneath the city. Sora had thought they would find some way to clear the Underworld together, but in the end, she died before it could be accomplished. Upon reaching the sixth level, they had all been thrust into a death match with each other. In the middle of the death match, she had been caught and devoured by a strange blob.

And then the world was reset.

Unlike their first experience, this time, a strange new life form had invaded the world. Sora decided to join Cavern Quest, where she received a message from the Great Sage. The disappearance of a number of their classmates was because of Yogiri Takatou’s powers. So the natural course of action for her was to kill Yogiri and save her lost classmates.

Her reason was that there would be fewer victims this way. Comparing the lives of her many innocent classmates to that of a single mass murderer who would only continue to kill, there was no other conclusion she could have reached.

Yogiri apparently had the power to kill anything and everything, but Sora wasn’t afraid of him. She was rather optimistic. Her opponent wasn’t a god, or a king, or a mindless monster. He was a high school student, someone she could speak to and reason with. If she could make him listen, he would realize the weight of his sin. She honestly believed he would sacrifice his own life to save his classmates.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Anyway, you’re saving me, right?!” As pathetic as he knew it was, Hanakawa was more than happy to grasp at any lifeline thrown his way.

“Yes, that was my intention,” Sora replied with a bright smile. Confronted with that calculated, perfectly refined smile, Hanakawa’s heart began to race.

He had no idea what had happened, but for now, the dragon had stopped moving. He quickly scurried to Sora’s side. The dragon’s right leg had been shredded. With a leg suddenly missing, it had lost its balance and collapsed. But even now that leg was starting to regenerate. It didn’t seem like any magic was being used, so it must have been a natural property of the dragon itself. Enormous, fast, breathing fire, and capable of healing most wounds, it was clearly a creature to be feared.

“Umm, your class is Idol, right, Sora? I cannot imagine it is one with much combat ability...but are you actually rather strong?” Hanakawa asked, uneasy. The dragon had been injured, and he could only imagine it was thanks to Sora, but she didn’t appear to have much in the way of combat strength.

“Of course not. Idols don’t fight, so we’re not strong at all.”

“Huh? But did you not do something to that dragon?”

“I only came because I heard someone calling for help.”

Hanakawa stared back at her. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Sora was certainly cute, and as much as it ill-suited this dungeon, her stage outfit had been quite well put together. But in this situation, it hardly felt like she’d be saving him from much of anything.

“So you will save me?”

“That was my intention...but how are we going to do it?”

“Uh, I must ask, what skills does the Idol class actually afford you? I would imagine something like singing and dancing, thus perhaps the ability to charm enemies? Well, even if you cannot make them into allies, something that would make them lose interest, or some sort of hate management would be perfectly acceptable here!”

“My main skill is Oath. Making a vow to me grants you a wish, and if you break that vow, you’re punished. Ah!” she suddenly exclaimed. “Why don’t you make a wish to get us out of this, Hanakawa?”

“Er, I am not quite sure we have time for that!”

The dragon, having finished regenerating, was now glaring at them. It seemed the creature didn’t understand what had happened either, so it was still on guard against them, but it wouldn’t hold back forever. Hanakawa couldn’t imagine it would stand idly by while he made his vow.

“Umm, by the way, do you have any quick ideas for a wish you could grant me?”

“Hmm. If your vow is something like ‘if I use my right hand, I’ll die,’ then it should give you a good power boost.”

“I have no wish to commit so flippantly to such a heavy contract!”

The dragon could attack at any moment. He didn’t have the time to think of a balanced vow.

“I feel like things will work out regardless,” Sora said, not the least bit afraid.

Hanakawa realized they were suddenly surrounded by people. From young men with Japanese fans dressed for an idol concert, to middle-aged men in business suits, to young girls in school uniforms, the crowd contained people of all ages, genders, and professions.

“What is this?” Hanakawa asked.

“I do have another skill. It’s called Fanatic Fans. Fans of mine always seem to appear out of nowhere, ready to help me at any moment.”

“Quite literally appearing from nowhere in this case! We’re in the middle of a dungeon in another world here!”

The legion of fans rushed at the dragon. The dragon swung its right leg, crushing a chubby young man to a pulp. It seemed the fans weren’t especially strong...or so Hanakawa thought until the dragon’s right leg exploded. The creature recoiled. As it did, a man in a suit leaped onto its left leg and detonated.

The dragon roared, a mixture of pain, confusion, and perhaps even fear in its cry. It was bewildered. Humans with no fear of death were continuously rushing in and self-destructing. With no understanding of what was happening, it was only natural it would be afraid.

“So...is that how you saved me earlier? And yet you acted as if you had no idea what had happened?”

She had even acted as if she didn’t know what they were going to do next.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any control over this skill,” Sora explained. “They appear on their own and do whatever they want. I don’t think I can really say I’ve done anything.”

“I see...” In other words, she wasn’t taking any responsibility for the actions of her fans. “But a suicide attack?”

“The word ‘fan’ is derived from ‘fanatic,’ isn’t it?” she said. “I think my most passionate fans would be capable of this.”

“They aren’t being summoned from our world, are they?” Hanakawa asked.

“Of course not. If they were, I could never ask them to explode like this. I believe they’re illusions made from magic.”

Though that didn’t seem accurate to Hanakawa, he didn’t argue further. If that’s what she wanted to believe, he was happy to leave her to it. The dragon had lost all interest in him. No matter how many humans it killed, no matter how many it trampled, there were always more appearing out of thin air. Though they weren’t individually strong, the explosions they caused, while individually small, quickly added up to something significant.

As resilient as the dragon’s hide was, it was clearly being injured by the explosions. Although it could regenerate rather quickly, it wasn’t quick enough to deal with the succession of blasts. Beyond that, regenerating those lost body parts had to be costing the dragon something.

“This reminds me of seeing honeybees cluster around a wasp to kill it with their body heat...”

As the dragon’s movements slowed, the fans stopped exploding. Instead, they swarmed over it, smothering it under their weight.

“I think we should probably step back a bit,” Sora said, turning away from the dragon and starting to walk.

Glancing back from time to time to check on the situation, Hanakawa followed her. After a short time, an enormous explosion shook the dungeon. Despite how far they had walked, they could still clearly feel the shock wave from the blast pass over them, followed by a huge rush of mana.

Mana was what the Battlesong system used as “experience points.” When monsters died, it was released into the air, which could then be absorbed to make you stronger. This mana dissipated quickly, so being close to the source was important to maximize the benefits of defeating the monsters. Normally, the distance they had put between them and the dragon would cause them to lose out on most of the benefits, but the sheer amount of mana the dragon expelled as it died meant that it still reached them. Despite doing almost nothing, it was an unexpected windfall of growth for Hanakawa.

With confirmation that the dragon had been slain, the two returned to the scene of the battle. The creature was totally unrecognizable. Huge amounts of blood and flesh painted the floor, walls, and ceiling of the corridor. There was no way it would be regenerating from this state.

“That is...incredible...”

“I’m glad it worked out,” Sora said.

It had been at the sacrifice of countless numbers of her own fans, but Hanakawa didn’t bring that up. As Sora had said, they must have been born from magic somehow. It seemed like there were plenty of human bodies mixed in with the parts of the exploded dragon, but Hanakawa decided he was just seeing things.

“So, are you intending to clear Cavern Quest as well, Sora?”

“Technically I’m more interested in talking with Takatou, but I need to get to the final area to reach him, so it’s more or less the same thing.”

“I am looking for nothing more than escaping this place. Would you perhaps mind if I accompanied you?”

Hanakawa hesitated a little to ask. He had the distinct impression that he shouldn’t get involved with Sora, but even so, there was no way he was getting through a dungeon as dangerous as this one alone. If he wanted to survive, he needed friends.

“Of course. We’re classmates, so we need to help each other.”

“Then...I suppose we should head towards the next gate? Actually, do you have a Philosopher’s Stone?” Hanakawa recalled the scene at the beach. There had been plenty of players there, but he didn’t remember seeing Sora. There were only a limited number of original Philosopher’s Stones, so it would be difficult for her to get her hands on one of those. It was almost certain she had gotten one of the fakes made by the witch.

“I got stuck when I entered the prison area, but luckily, someone was willing to give me theirs.”

“I...see! How lucky!”

A single party only needed one stone to pass through the gates, so if they had extras, they’d have no reason not to give them away. Hanakawa decided not to think about the issue any further.