Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 147: Boxed In

Dark red blood and viscous, pitch-black goo swirled together, washing down the cheap plastic drain of the pop-up shower I bought from the system.

I stood under the scalding spray, bracing my hands against the flimsy vinyl walls as I let the water beat down on my neck.

Through sheer luck, I was alive.

But then again, it was through sheer bad luck that I was this close to death in the first place.

The overpriced healing potion I chugged ten minutes ago had done its job, but ’healing’ in this world wasn’t some warm, comforting glow. It was a violent, agonizing biological reset.

My twisted shin bone had forcefully snapped back into place. My shattered ribs had aggressively knit themselves together with sickening, wet crunches, and the torn flesh on my shoulder had practically sewed itself shut.

I was physically whole, but the phantom aches still throbbed deep within, and my hands were shaking so hard I could barely hold the soap.

I scrubbed my skin raw for the nth time, desperate to wash off the sweet chemical stench of that Eldritch goo.

But scrubbing my skin didn’t stop my brain from flashing those hundreds of overlapping, golden footprints cutting straight through a subterranean death trap.

[They live down there... My paranoid hunch was correct.] I thought, closing my eyes with a deep sigh. [Entropy has an entire underground base right inside the Nexus.]

Now I knew for a fact, Entropy worshipped the same Eldritch God that spawned Outsiders.

And the invisible horde wasn’t a threat to the cultists; they were the ultimate cover and guard dogs, violently mind-rending anyone else who got too close.

And the Hollow Cinder Mine was sitting right on top of it all.

Funding a terror cult like Entropy required vast resources. And a high-yield, completely legal Orichalcum mine was the perfect corporate front.

But my brain immediately hit a snag.

If the mine was an Entropy front, why were the Outsiders actively attacking it? Why slaughter those peeps at the mine if they were all on the same team?

I turned the shower knob, cutting the water off as the realization clicked into place.

To sell the lie.

If a highly profitable mining site sitting in the fringes of the Outsider territory wasn’t getting attacked, the Guild and the military would instantly get suspicious. They would send inspectors. They would dig.

Entropy intentionally left the Hollow Cinder Mine off the Outsiders’ "friend list."

What were a few dead adventurers or cultists and some lost ore if it guaranteed the Guild never looked closely at the real operation buried underneath?

I stepped out of the plastic stall, grabbed a cheap towel, and aggressively rubbed my hair dry.

The camp was most probably a front.

That meant the dwarven manager controlling the logistics was a cultist. The miners swinging the pickaxes were cultists too.

And Garek and his Iron Vanguard stationed there to ’protect’ everyone?

Yeah, they too... most probably.

My towel paused mid-rub.

[But what about Mitsuki?]

If the Shrine Maiden was in on it, I was walking straight into a sacrificial altar tonight.

[System...] I asked internally, my heart kicking up a nervous rhythm. [Is there any chance Mitsuki is with Entropy?]

-Ding!

{Negative.

Should the Shrine Maiden harbor allegiances to an Eldritch God, Lady Amaterasu would instantly sever her divine connection and reject her prayers. Assuming the mine is an Entropy front, the priestess is a blind variable.}

I let out a heavy breath, dropping the towel onto the dirt.

Okay. Mitsuki was innocent. She was just dangerously oblivious to the vipers in her own camp, or worse, her marriage.

But that innocent ignorance brought me straight to the real horror of the upcoming Full Moon ritual.

Tonight, the Outsiders would flood the basin. Their primary weapon was that expanding domain, the exact same mind-wiping barrier I just watched turn a massive magic beast into a braindead husk.

To prevent the Outsiders from mind-controlling me and forcing me to open the gates, Mitsuki was going to place a curse on my core.

The curse would completely sever my control over my mana for ten seconds should her ritual fail.

And my assigned handler for the night?

Garek himself.

His explicit job was to stay right next to me, ready to knock me out cold the second the ritual was interrupted or I started acting weird.

Yesterday, that sounded like a solid, practical failsafe.

Today, it was a death sentence. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

If Garek or the dwarves were Entropy, I was willingly paralyzing my only means of defense. I was handing them the certificate for my own execution.

If I refused the curse now, I’d raise suspicion. After all, I pretty readily agreed to it.

And even if I somehow managed to dodge the curse, should Mitsuki’s ritual fail, I’d be under Outsider control anyway.

If Entropy has really declared me a target, I can be sure as shit her ritual will fail. After that, it’s open war.

I was entirely boxed in.

[Fuck my life...] I groaned, rubbing my face.

I had no choice but to play along, walk back into that camp, and hope I could outmanoeuvre a locked mine full of potential cultists.

I opened the System Shop, grudgingly spent the credits to buy a pristine replica of my shredded clothes, and quickly dressed.

I tossed my bloody, acid-burned rags into the inventory and also double-checked my alibi. The massive carcasses of the Iron-Hide Boars and Mystic-Horned Stags sat neatly there.

I was just the dumb, lucky F-Rank rookie delivering groceries. I hadn’t seen anything. I didn’t know anything.

I checked the sky through the canopy. It was late afternoon, and the light was already taking on a sickly, faded hue as the sun dipped lower.

I stood in the quiet forest, staring through the trees in the exact direction of the Hollow Cinder Mine.

[This was supposed to be a fun little adventure where I’d make friends and stuff... and now I don’t even know who’s friend or foe.]

Taking a deep, shaky breath to steady my violently hammering heart, I took the first step out of the woods.