Dusk (BL Light Novel)

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find unused program
bloc_moth reboot fail. (0xc??null?)

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A shocked Abrea gripped his sword, while on the opposite side, Adam, standing alongside Retaking, let out a startled breath at the unexpected turn of events. But my eyes stayed glued to the chat window.
[Party] Honeybread: how’d u know????

If he “had a feeling,” that means he knew something. Was there a sign before we entered? Now that I think about it, when we were loading into the dungeon, the screen went dark and my character died suddenly—there were even cracks across the screen. But how could Retaking have guessed from that that he’d end up in a party with me?
[Party] Retaking: t-the matc
[Party] Retaking: matching

[Party] Retaking: was weird
[Party] Retaking: it’s supposed to be totally random regardless of stance or role, but for some reason, it was taking forever
[Party] Retaking: even if it’s a weekday and it only matches players on the same server

[Party] Retaking: waiting over 20 seconds doesn’t make sense???
[Party] Retaking: so I thought just maybe—
[Party] Retaking: gave it a shot…

[Party] Retaking: it was just a maybe, but…
[Party] Retaking: LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Retaking never typed like this unless we were mid-combat. Seeing him break his usual style, I could tell he was just as rattled as I was. Maybe this was how Abrea felt when he heard Adam speak in the Bia language?
I kept typing and deleting in the chat, too stunned to say anything coherent, until...

[Party] Retaking: Anyway, I’m gonna watch the cutscene for now
[Party] Honeybread: ;
He suddenly went silent to watch the story.

Goddamn story-obsessed nerd. I pouted.
[- Adam: “Didn’t expect to end up in the same place as you two.”]
As the stunned standoff continued, Adam broke the silence. Abrea immediately snapped back at him.

[- Abrea: “You’re the one who told me to see and experience it for myself—so why the hell are you here? Was that angel your little puppet, and this whole thing a setup to drag me here? What are you gonna do, try to harm me with that flimsy healer body of yours?”]
The “puppet” Abrea pointed to was the small glowing angel. The angel tilted its head curiously as it landed gently on top of Abrea’s head, while Adam, lost in thought, let out a deep sigh.
[- Adam: “Watch your mouth. That child doesn’t follow orders from people like us.”]

[- Adam: “Yes, I did ask it to bring you here. But I didn’t think we’d run into each other like this. We came to investigate too. There are multiple entry points here—I didn’t expect we’d cross paths.”]
[- Adam: “Don’t flatter yourself thinking I set a trap to lure you in. Just imagining it makes me tired.”]
Adam shook his head, genuinely looking exhausted, like he couldn’t believe he had to deal with this misunderstanding.

Still, it seemed like this story was heavily focused on the Bia race again. The fact that Retaking—who actually cared about story—was probably just running fetch missions and missing all this narrative felt both a little sad and kind of satisfying. Not because he ignored my earlier question or anything. Nope.
[Party] Honeybread: Looks like the story’s Bia-focused again. U good with that?^^
I decided to ask Retaking during a lull in the bickering between Abrea and Adam, which didn’t seem too important.

[Party] Retaking: I don’t know what the script says,
[Party] Retaking: but I can actually hear the voice lines just fine?
…He can hear the voice lines? Did they accidentally put the wrong audio files in? That’s weird. These devs don’t usually make mistakes like that.

In Dusk, cross-race dialogue is deliberately scrambled in chat into alien text, and the devs even go as far as distorting audio files so the opposite race’s speech is completely indecipherable.
For example, during a past quest involving a small-scale war against Jeopa units, all the Jeopa NPCs’ lines were so warped and distorted you couldn’t even guess what they were saying. It was impressively deliberate.
But now Retaking was telling me he could understand enemy faction dialogue perfectly.

[Party] Honeybread: ???
[Party] Retaking: Yeah, it surprised us too. Might be a bug…
[Party] Retaking: But hey, it makes the story way easier to follow so I’ll take it

I could practically hear Retaking’s laugh echoing in my ears like a phantom. I must’ve watched his streams too much.
While we were chatting, Abrea and Adam had cooled off and were talking calmly now.
[- Abrea: “So this is the ‘Mirror Maze,’ and if we reach the top layer of the maze, we can investigate the anomalies happening in Ateliena more thoroughly? And you want us to form a temporary alliance until we get out of here?”]

Basically, the game was telling us the two NPCs were forming a party for smoother dungeon progression.
[- Adam: “Exactly. And if I’m right, there’s a truth here that’ll resolve the cognitive dissonance you’ve been feeling. Thanks to those two puppets, we were able to enter the ‘Hidden Mirror Maze.’”]
[- Abrea: “…Truth?”]

[- Adam: “Yeah. The truth the Temple is desperately trying to suppress.”]
[- Adam: “I’ll investigate the anomalies. You’ll search for the truth. But either way, we’ll have to cooperate and climb to the top layer of the maze. We’ll need all the help we can get to get past the guardians.”]
Apparently, the fact that we had made it possible to enter the “Hidden Mirror Maze” meant this was a derivative dungeon branching off from the original “Mirror Maze.” The “guardians” were probably the named bosses guarding the maze.

[- Abrea: “…Fine. But try anything shady and I’ll cut that frail paper-thin body of yours in half, even if it kills me.”]
[- Adam: “Why would I waste time killing a body that’s not even worth the effort. If we’re doing this, shut up and lead the way.”]
[- Abrea: “God, you’re annoying.”]

Grumbling, Abrea raised his shield and stepped forward. The angel, still perched on his head, suddenly leapt up like it knew exactly what it had to do and began guiding us.
It flew ahead, leaving a pale purple trail of light, and the camera smoothly followed the gleaming white glass corridor in that direction. As the screen gradually faded to black, the story cutscene came to an end.
After a short loading screen, I could finally move my character freely. Retaking was standing right next to me.

His name—usually bright red—was now in the blue reserved for party members. The same feeling you’d get from seeing a red “Do Not Enter” sign painted over in blue washed over me—an uncanny wrongness.
[Party] Retaking: wow
[Party] Retaking: you’re actually my party member now

Retaking seemed just as stunned as I was. I glanced over to the party list.
Holy shit. How is this even possible?
Holy Guardian Lv.45 | Honeybread
Medic Harmonizer Lv.45 | Retaking

This… was real. I thought I’d never see something like this unless one of us changed races. Hell, I’d never even imagined it.
I stared blankly at the monitor, seriously wondering if this was a dream, when Retaking suddenly targeted me and used a healing skill.
A wave of bright effects sparkled across my already full HP bar as multiple heals stacked on top of it.

[Combat] You received the Foreseen Insight effect from Retaking.
[Combat] Retaking’s Healing Formula IX restored 11,801 HP.
[Combat] Retaking’s Healing Formula IV restored 8,242 HP.
[Combat] Retaking’s Ancient Wisdom restored 10,079 HP.
[Party] Retaking: woah
To think I actually got healed by Retaking…

Still dazed, I turned around and did the exact same thing—casting party protection skills on him.
[Combat] You °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° used Righteous Pilgrimage on Retaking.
[Combat] You used Steadfast Will on Retaking.
[Combat] Retaking’s Vitality Recovery restored 7,148 HP.
[Combat] Retaking’s Vitality Recovery granted increased natural HP regen.
[Combat] You used Moonlight’s Protection on the party.
Seeing the combat log show "healed" instead of "attacked" by Retaking was so surreal, I couldn’t help it—I pinched my own cheek.

Yep. That pain confirmed it wasn’t a dream.
Rubbing my stinging face, still reeling in disbelief, I turned to Retaking and asked.