Why Did I Have to Enroll

The moment the letter caught fire, a transformation occurred immediately.

Strangely, it was as if the path their carriage had traveled was rewinding, quickly passing by them. Before long, everything blurred and crumbled, and a new background emerged at the end.

“Oh, it’s coming. The wave of Carapace Beasts is approaching soon!”

“What about reinforcements? Are the reinforcements from the neighboring city not coming? How could they abandon us like this?”

“Those damned fools, ignoring us in this crisis—this city is doomed! It’s over!”

“It’s too late to escape. Ah, look below the hill. You can already see the reflection of their carapaces starting to shine…!”

—Room 39.

Ban Yu-won and his party stood in the midst of a city plunged into chaos.

“Ban, I think there’s something wrong with my student ID display.”

Indeed, if you blatantly trigger something so obvious, this is what happens. Although they had experienced it once before, a multi-shift that skips several rooms at once significantly increases the difficulty of the room waiting for them.

In this case, the multi-shift they experienced seemed to have combined the skipped Rooms 35, 36, 37, and 38 to set the difficulty of Room 39.

“What on earth did you do…!”

“The city is in chaos.”

Next to Light, who was dazed from experiencing a shift that skipped five rooms, Dokgo Yeon calmly surveyed their surroundings.

“It’s not the right atmosphere to mingle with these humans and try something.”

“We showed that a lot in the last video, so I decided to boldly skip it this time.”

Even from the screams of people echoing from all directions, it was clear that the crisis facing this city would descend upon them without any delay. If they had proceeded normally to Room 35, they might have shown an epic tale of gathering the strength of many people to deal with the monster wave—but that would be neither fun nor engaging.

More importantly, Ban Yu-won was confident that with the current strength of his party, they could easily overcome a monster wave from the lower floors of the tower.

“I feel this is overly impulsive and reckless.”

“Call it the spirit of a producer.”

“I’m, I’m sorry, mercenaries!”

At that moment, a soldier with a distinctly strong aura emerged from among the city’s soldiers, who were struggling to control the panicking civilians.

Without using his power to investigate further, Ban Yu-won guessed that this soldier might possess around 300 Life. That was strong enough to easily defeat Erecto from the early days of admission!

“It’s already a blessing that you came to help us in this chaos, but the city is in such turmoil that we couldn’t properly welcome you…”

As the NPC appeared, the eyes of the Rebellion members all turned to Ban Yu-won. Light, who had declared he would treat NPCs like people, ended up relying on him when it came time to actually talk to them!

Grumbling inwardly, he put on a dignified expression and stepped forward.

“Don’t worry about it. We didn’t come expecting a grand reception. We just wanted to lend you our strength.”

“I can’t believe it! There are still good-hearted mercenaries like you, coming without expecting a reward, even in a place where death could come at any moment…”

“Reward, well, if you offer one, I won’t refuse… but that’s not the point.”

If they were being treated as mercenaries, it was only right to play along to some extent. Ban Yu-won was confident that the soldier they were facing had some degree of authority, so he decided to give a light hint.

“If we all survive this disaster, let’s talk about it then.”

“Hahaha, I’ve never met someone as bold as you. …Let’s survive.”

The soldier, who shook hands with Ban Yu-won with a serious expression, turned around and shouted orders.

“All soldiers, assemble! Seal all city gates and prepare for the wave! Use force if necessary to evacuate civilians to safety and prevent infection from the wave!”

“Oh, he was indeed someone like a commander.”

Watching the soldiers spring into action at the commander’s shout, Ban Yu-won calmly admired the scene. Light approached him with a rather complicated expression and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I trust you, Ban. You really believe this will minimize casualties, right?”

“Of course, I don’t lie. If we involve the neighboring city, it would be like announcing the disaster. We might stop the monsters more easily, but then there would definitely be a bigger mess with disputes among humans and infected humans.”

He doesn’t lie. He just hides some parts and exaggerates others.

“Ugh—I think you’re right. But if we can cleanly block the monsters coming from outside ourselves…”

“That’s the end of it. The reward will be greater too.”

“――Right! There’s no need to increase the sacrifice of innocent people. Let’s stop the wave ourselves!”

Encouraged by Ban Yu-won’s words, Light clenched his fists and shouted, “Oh—!”

That’s why fools are easy to handle. Ban Yu-won thought it might be time for him to earn a title like Light Master.

“The declaration to treat NPCs like people is coming back to choke you… fool.”

“Knowing how Light would react and preparing a persuasion plan accordingly… fool.”

The Rebellion party, without any interference, climbed onto the city’s walls. This city, whose name they still didn’t know, was built on a mountainside. While not a capital-scale metropolis, it was large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people.

Behind it lay a barren mountain devoid of life, and near the city was a lake, making it a perfect example of a location with natural defenses.

‘Though the mountain is so barren that it’s hard to call it a natural defense… but the terrain is so rugged that we don’t have to worry about monsters coming from that direction.’

The walls surrounded three sides of the city, excluding the mountain at the back, and a deep moat formed with water drawn from the lake prevented monsters from easily crossing. Now, all the city gates were nailed shut, completely blocking entry and exit.

Seeing this, Ban Yu-won took out his Code Core after some thought.

“Using language magic would be unreliable. In times like this, fixed concepts are the best.”

Temporary emotions or concepts created by language magic are called temporary fluid concepts, while the immutable concepts inherent in all things are called fixed concepts. Ban Yu-won had just named them for convenience.

[Seal 500]

Among them, the concept of sealing, Seal, was surprisingly easy to find around him. Snacks commonly eaten on Earth were sealed in packaging, letters were sealed, everything in boxes was sealed, and more than anything, traps, treasures, and passages sealed within towers or dungeons were easy to encounter.

Ban Yu-won had extracted all those Seals and stored them in his Code Core, making it possible to release this simple yet extremely practical concept in large quantities.

“Alright, then…”

Ban Yu-won imbued the concept of Seal, amounting to 500, onto the entire city wall. At that moment, the walls surrounding the city on three sides rose dramatically and began to change their structure.

“Oh.”

Ban Yu-won realized that the power dormant within him, Mutation, had awakened. He hadn’t expected this.

[Imbuing the concept of Seal onto the walls of the city of Eraton. The Mutation power has manifested, adding the concept of ‘Block’ to the walls!]

[The depth of Mutation has reached 30!]

In an instant, a sturdy great wall that seemed difficult to breach even with modern weapons was completed!

“Oh, oh.”

“What’s going on, Ban?”

“Hmm. Maybe, perhaps…”

Ban Yu-won tested it by weakly manifesting Photon Magic and firing a beam of light at the wall. The beam didn’t penetrate the wall and simply dissipated!

Ban Yu-won observed the process of the concept’s dissolution closely and concluded.

“Indeed, it has the ability to block waves. It can block not just light but all waves.”

“Waves?”

“Infection waves. We confirmed earlier that the infection phenomenon during a monster wave spreads through waves.”

Ban Yu-won recalled the massive monster wave he witnessed during his first special activity. The memory of witnessing the infection phenomenon, where humans turned into monsters, spreading through waves had remained in Ban Yu-won’s subconscious. This time, with the help of the Mutation power, it had modified the walls to better block the monster wave.

Dokgo Yeon also tapped the towering wall with her fist, expressing her admiration.

“It seems you didn’t intend it, but it’s well done. It alleviated the worries of those inside.”

“Uwooooo! A mage! There’s a mage in our city!”

The citizens were astonished and fell over as the walls on all three sides of the city rose and seemed to strengthen in material. The soldiers, unaware of who exactly had modified the walls, cheered enthusiastically.

Ban Yu-won, standing on the now elevated walls, confirmed the swarm of Carapace Beasts approaching the city and widened his eyes.

“They’re really coming soon. Not even giving us time to eat.”

“That’s why I said we should eat earlier…”

“Here, eat this.”

“Nomph.”

Ban Yu-won stuffed an energy bar into the mouth of Light, who was whining like a dog needing a walk. Then he promptly created four Life Candies, distributing one to each member and keeping one for himself.

“Let’s spread out and each take a side. Can everyone handle it?”

“Munch munch… I might struggle a bit. Lend me Eve.”

“Alright, got it. Eve?”

Ban Yu-won chuckled at Light’s honest confession and patted Eve, who was wrapped around his arm.

“Hiss hiss.”

Eve, reluctant to part from Ban Yu-won, pouted a bit, but knowing that she didn’t need to stick to Ban Yu-won’s side thanks to the recently created Storm Sword, she soon released herself into the air and settled on Light’s head.

“Eek.”

“If necessary, she’ll transform into Tike or the Storm Sword to assist you.”

“…Isn’t that a bit overpowered?”

“That’s why I’ve been holding back her activities lately. But this time, she can let loose a bit.”

“Hiss hiss hiss.”

“So cute… wait a minute.”

Light, who was swooning over Eve, suddenly had a moment of realization.

“The walls are on three sides. So we don’t all need to spread out, right?”

“Hmm? What are you talking about, Light?”

Dokgo Yeon spoke with a tone of disdain.

“Look at the rugged mountain behind the city. There are no monsters there.”

“Yeah, so there’s no wall there—”

“Which makes it the perfect condition for someone to attack from behind.”

“Uh-oh.”

It seemed like Dokgo Yeon had also developed a taste for teasing Light. Ban Yu-won chuckled and spoke to Dokgo Yeon.

“In that sense, I’m counting on you. If it were me, I’d send the strongest one that way.”

“Understood. You take care too. If we get breached, it’s over.”

“I know.”

At that moment, the faint cries of the Carapace Beasts began to echo from below the hill. The party exchanged nods and dispersed in all directions.

—I think magic is the best in times like this.

“I agree. I won’t be stubborn in situations like this.”

As soon as he was alone, Celon emerged into the air, making her presence known, and Ban Yu-won responded with a smile.

“But before that, let’s make something together.”

—Hey… what are you thinking again?

“Home delivery service.”

He took out the Portkey—a bracelet imbued with teleportation magic—that he had stored in his inventory earlier. The artifact, brimming with dark magic, sparkled attractively even at this moment, possessing a charm that seemed capable of enchanting both humans and monsters alike.

—That’s what I’m talking about.

Ban Yu-won was planning to modify it into a forced spatial relocation weapon… not the famed Moonlight Slash.