Usually, torture involves objects and scenes that send shivers down your spine just at the sight of them.
But here, not a single terrifying instrument of torture was in sight.
There was just a single machine that looked like an old-fashioned TV.
The only thing related to torture here was the interrogation chair to which the coachman Trop was bound.
Wires from that TV were connected to Trop.
"Uuuugh..."
"Sniffle, sniffle..."
Despite this, everyone there was clutching their heads with expressions full of despair.
To anyone watching, they clearly looked like people in a torture chamber.
Above all, only the torturer there, Sofya, wore a happier expression than anyone else.
"How's that? How's that? I use this all the time. You set the pain intensity like this... Shall we try a 5?"
Click, click.
Sofia turned the dial next to the old TV, then jabbed her finger into his leg.
"Ouch! Aaaargh!"
"How's that? Isn't it amazing? Just by adjusting the pain sensitivity, I can inflict pain this easily!"
In Shikeworld, various systems existed, and among them was a sensory control system.
Literally, you could adjust various senses within the game.
Naturally, the most important one was pain perception.
It was, after all, a measure to balance realism and safety.
Of course, in this crazy world right now, there was no such thing.
"I, I... really told you... everything I know... I don't know anything else... Please... please... It hurts..."
A grown man was crying like a child, simply begging.
With pain set at "5," even a breeze would feel like it was scraping his skin—so it was only natural.
The problem was that the machine's pain scale went all the way up to 10.
The bigger problem was that her tongue was even sharper.
"But something's off, isn't it?"
"What... what do you mean... I really have told you everything I know..."
"No. No. That's not it... You clearly said you reported someone with a bug, right?"
"Yes! That's right! I can swear to it in front of the PD!"
"Is that so? But one thing puzzles me."
"...Yes...?"
"I heard that a fellow Devotee who was active elsewhere met a novice outsider. It's highly likely that it was him, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it. A Level 5 player heading toward a station near the Guild—a terrorist? Doesn't it make more sense to think that someone who's just set foot in this world heard about the Guild and is heading there?"
At his deduction, the carriage knight's face turned as white as a sheet.
"That means he wasn't originally on the same side as that terrorist, right? He was just carefully hiding his identity and disguising himself as a passenger."
"Th-that..."
"Then you wouldn't have known he was the beginner we were looking for. And you couldn't have known he had a bug to begin with?"
"Oh, it's a misunderstanding..."
"Which means you just lied to us to stop that terrorist."
"Wait, just a moment... Let me explain..."
As if she had nothing more to say, she turned the dial.
"H-huh, huaaaah! Please! I was wrong! Have mercy on me!"
"Oh, come on. Relax. Watch this."
She tapped his knee with her finger again.
"H-huh, hua... Huh?"
"Doesn't it hurt?"
"Y-yes! Thank you!"
"That's weird. How can you hate something this good?"
With that, she tied the cord connected to Trop's arm to her own.
Then she pulled out a peculiar dagger shaped like an awl from her thigh.
And... she turned the dial to 10.
"Eek...!"
Thud!
She plunged the dagger straight into her own thigh.
"Ahh! Huuuaaaaah... Huuuuh~."
Thud! Thwack! Thwack-clack!
After stabbing herself a few more times, she left the dagger lodged in her flesh and began to swing it around.
Surely, pain worse than her body burning must have overwhelmed her.
Yet, she filled her mouth with a smile.
"...What on earth?"
"Ah, is it strange? Of course, I find it strange too. Why my body has become one that feels nothing."
She locked eyes with Trop.
At the same moment, she pulled the dagger out of her thigh.
"It's strange that I can only feel pain."
"Hmm... hmmmm..."
"Okay, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! I was just trying to finish this up, but it took longer than expected!"
"A-are you going back...?"
"Hm?"
She tilted her head at Trop's question, which held a glimmer of hope.
"What do you mean?"
"Eh...?"
"Lying to a Devotee is the same as lying to the PD. Such a person has no reason to live in the Kingdom, you know?"
She pulled a piece of paper from her other thigh.
"In accordance with the sacred rules of the PD Order, I hereby banish you from this world. Congratulations! I hope you do well in your new home!"
The paper burst into a violet flame, and the ashes rose into the sky.
Soon, the ashes clumped together again, transforming into a dark, purplish glow that shone above Trop's head.
A mechanical, impersonal voice boomed out loud enough for everyone to hear.
[Moving NPC No. 13921231 to the trash. Permanently banishing the target NPC from the current server]
"No, nooo! Please! Please! Spare me!"
"Come on, you're not dying. You're just moving to a new home!"
"No, no, please! Don't do this!"
"Go live your best life over there! Good luck!"
Soon, the light formed into a portal, and purple hands burst out to grab Trop.
He was sucked right into the portal.
"Ugh, aaaargh!"
At the sight, everyone fell to their knees, trembling.
This was why all the citizens of the Kingdom—no, every NPC—feared the Devotee.
Leaving them behind, she stretched with a refreshed expression.
"Alright, I've finished the rest of the work! Shall we go for a walk for the first time in a while?"
With those words, she opened the door.
There stood Captain Luchen and Mira.
"You don't have to follow me."
"Oh, don't be so cold. Our captain's having a hard time—as teammates, we should step up. Plus, it's been a while since I've spent some quality time with our little sister Mira."
"Don't even think about it."
Captain Lucen quietly pulled Mira toward him, almost as if hiding her behind his back.
Seeing that, she burst out laughing.
"Speaking of which, what about you, sir? Still playing solo?"
"Same as always."
"Our 'Dark One' is on a mission somewhere else. Seriously... there's probably no other team that operates as separately as we do. "
"We can't have a crisis big enough to bring everyone together."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you're right. Come on, let's hurry up and go. Let's catch the guy who tricked our Captain."
*
Meanwhile, the two who had been tricked were even more excited about the adventure.
"Oh ho. There really are all kinds of creatures out there."
At the entrance, the two were nervous.
After all, this was the Kingdom's territory, and if they were found out as players even a little bit, it would be the end of them.
But seeing the staff member with an animal headband handing out pamphlets and the excited tourists, their tension melted away.
It was clear that the claim that this was one of the Kingdom's top tourist cities was no empty boast.
They had arranged various tourist attractions throughout the city, tailored to different age groups and social classes.
...
Thanks to this, the sights were branching out like the trunks of trees into multiple paths.
It was just like several river currents.
What was peculiar was that the crowds were converging toward a single point along those river currents.
It seemed like a design intended to let people take in plenty of sights before gathering everyone in one place.
"People are gradually gathering in one spot, aren't they?"
"Let's just head into the crowd. It's safest to be among the people."
Indeed, Newbie looked more natural than anyone else right now.
To anyone watching, he looked like a tourist accompanied by a pet fairy.
Whispering to each other, the two made their way through the crowd into the city center.
There, a host stood before an empty stage—glamorous yet eerily foreboding—and shouted.
"Alright, the moment you've all been waiting for! The undisputed ruler of Taming City! The ultimate being whom no one has ever tamed—no! Rather, the one who tames everyone with fear! Please give them a warm welcome!"
Everyone clapped and cheered as if they already knew who was coming.
"Here he comes! Horror Crypt Lord!"
As if in response to the cheers, a figure appeared on stage amidst a massive blue inferno.
That figure truly had an appearance befitting a lord of terror.
However, it became clear why everyone was cheering despite the word "terror."
A body and cloak engulfed in blazing blue flames.
A massive frame easily exceeding three meters in height.
An exterior clad in armor that looked solid to anyone who saw it.
That being certainly lived up to the epithet "Lord of Terror."
At the same time... it was incredibly cool.
"Wow..."
A giant metallic golem knight with a skull head engulfed in blue flames.
It was the Horror Crypt Lord, the greatest of Taming City's countless living attractions.
Swish. Sssshhh. Ssssh.
Behind him stood a figure who was terrifying in a different sense.
A man in a flashy suit, wearing a strange clown mask and holding a whip and a syringe.
He appeared and vanished amidst the blue flames spewing from the Horror Crypt Lord.
"Wait, someone just passed by."
"Who? There was no one there."
"That's strange. I'm sure I saw someone."
Did I see things?
Newbie began to get a feeling that not everything in this city would be pleasant.
Just then.
A flash...
For a moment, the Horror Crypt Lord's violet gaze, engulfed in blue flames, paused in Newbie's direction before moving on again.
The creature suddenly struck a threatening pose, as if in a hurry.
"Huh?"
"What? Scared?"
Excel chuckled.
"No, didn't that guy just see me?"
"Come on... don't be silly. There are at least thousands of people here—why would he single you out?"
"I, I guess so...?"
At that moment, neither of them knew.
That the Horror Crypt Lord's eyes could see things others couldn't.