Sworded Affair

Chapter 194 : Minutemen

Disabling a digital bomb was nothing like how it looked on TV, Emma quickly learned. That was a good thing, because there wasn't nearly enough time for the Monitor Lizard to write an entire new page of incredibly verbose code all on the spot. Instead, he booted up what looked like a control panel of some sort, and entered his username and password. That brought up a nested window, where he did the same thing again, though hopefully using some different login details, if his organisation were at all competent. That brought up yet another pop up, just a single blank cell without any description, into which he entered a ten digit code. Finally, a screen full of identical red buttons appeared, distinguishable only by their labelling. He clicked three of them, and the computer switched itself off, as did the surrounding server racks.

All of this took less than thirty seconds, a series of actions that were clearly well-rehearsed: oddly though, the countdown on Emma's display still continued. His workstation went down in seconds, whilst the surrounding hard drives took a bit longer, falling silent at a rate of perhaps one row every second, the sticky notes attached to them vanishing as well, exposed as some kind of hard light projection.

[WARNING: This Dungeon is unstable, and will collapse if unbeaten in 25 seconds.]

"Okay, that's everything shut down," the Monitor Lizard explained. "Course, that doesn't mean we're out of danger just yet. Once the clock hits zero, there won't be a nuclear sized explosion anymore, but all of the storage drives are going to empty simultaneously, and there's a lot of attacks, solid objects and other weirdness inside them. So, uh, you might want to kill me quickly, and then find a way to protect yourself. Just saying."

[WARNING: This Dungeon is unstable, and will collapse if unbeaten in 15 seconds.]

Emma didn't need any more prompting than that, summoning Epitaph and going for a decapitating swing, willing to make it both quick and painless, given the circumstances. The Lizardman didn't resist at all, and his final expression was not of anger, grief or even fear, but simple, sincere relief. The failsafe at his heart hissed, but with the power already down, there was nothing for it to do, nothing active to take any orders it might transmit. The fight was over, and so, without even a moment's pause, the flood of notifications began.

[Monitor Lizard defeated.

Monitor Lizard simulacrum created.

Dungeon cleared.

1000 EXP gained.

Quest - It's The Green You Need

Objective: Raise the Potted Hydra until it blooms. [COMPLETE]

Objective: Convince the Hydra to give Saint a vial of its blood. [COMPLETE]

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Rewards:

Three Headed Hydra is awake.

Three Headed Hydra sees Saint as his mother.

Saint has received a gift from Echidna, Mother of Monsters]

Rewards began streaming in, including ones that Emma had honestly forgotten about, given that Saint had taken up most of the job, dealing with it. That was only fair enough, considering that the Nekomata would be the one getting most of the benefits, but she still got the notifications, apparently.

[In order to fulfil the agreement with the Monitor Lizard, we recommend selecting Blueprint - Menagerie for your outstanding reward for reaching Level 17. Y/N?]

Emma chose yes with little difficulty; she'd already been leaning towards that, and the permanent improvements for her summons across the board, compared to the more specialised or single-use options on the docket.

[You might want to turn your defences on, too.

WARNING: This Dungeon is unstable, and will collapse if unbeaten in 5 seconds.]

"Oh, damn. Thanks for the reminder."

[Ephemera (Toggle: ON)

Null Zone (Toggle: ON)]

Emma quickly did just that, before her fixation on the upcoming rewards doomed her.

[You're welcome. Wouldn't be the first time a System user died like that. Now, where were we? Oh yes, quests.

Quest - Vae Victis

Objective: Deactivate the gateway beneath Blenheim Palace before it explodes. [COMPLETE]

Rewards:

25,000 Thrones gained.

Commendation (Order of the Empire, First Class) gained.*

*Ordinarily, this would include a fancy ceremony, where you'd be formally knighted and receive a medal for services to the Empire, but well, the Apocalypse happened and everything is a clusterfuck right now, so call it a field promotion. An announcement will be made to all the official publications in the Empire, and while there are no formal, legally defined benefits for this, like a salary, it's a mark of high esteem, a tradition going back over a thousand years. You'll find that many of the oldest, strongest Masters are quite fond of tradition.

Season Ticket (The Ghost Train) gained.*

Good for 3 months from the date of first use. Summons The Ghost Train, crewed by a complement of Tanuki, and guaranteed to deliver you to any location known to them.*

**The crew retain the right to refuse transport to active warzones, quarantine sites, and nuclear waste storage facilities.

Residence Permit (Avalon) gained.*

*An exclusive private island, home to the most prestigious and wealthiest citizens of the Empire. You can be one of them, now, assuming you can afford the purchase price.]

The second information dump was even longer than the first, and Emma hadn't made it even halfway down the list, when everything exploded. None of it touched her, of course, with both layers of defences active, but it was still surreal to watch, as a barrage of elemental projectiles, ordinary projectiles, books, graphics cards, dead bodies, undead bodies and pornographic magazines burst out of each and every storage drive, destroying them irreparably on the way out, just as it destroyed the rest of the room around them.

The roof wasn't built to withstand such abuse, and caved in shortly thereafter, however many floors as existed further up coming crashing down, burying Emma beneath the rubble, and then she couldn't see anything anymore, except for the System text, which remained ever present. Emma could have made her way out, eventually, using the slow, crawling speed levitation she could manage even in an intangible state, but quite frankly, there was no reason to bother. The Dungeon was clear, the enemy's plans were foiled, and there was nothing left to do for the day.

[Null Zone (Toggle: OFF)]

With only rubble left to pose a problem, Emma didn't hesitate to turn off her magical defence, followed by a swift activation of Return, to put a definitive end behind a very bizarre adventure.