Chapter 153 - The Strategist V

7

Speedrun stream, ON.

["We have now collected almost everything we need in Japan. It is time to return to the Korean Peninsula."]

"No! Absolutely not! No matter what happens, I am never getting stranded at sea again! Never!"

With “the sea” newly added to the phobias section of her character sheet, Oh Dokseo resisted desperately.

But her worries were unfounded. We had no need to rely on Hamel’s Journal a second time. By remodeling Inunaki Tunnel into the “Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel,” I treated her to a comfortable journey on foot.

["Oh. Please be careful. One step to the left there will tear your limbs off and kill you."]

"Aaaaagh?"

Dokseo was positively delighted by the rare experience of walking between Japan and Korea.

"Comfortable, my ass! This is a hellhole where one wrong step kills you instantly! ... Wait. You used this place as a hideout in other runs? Mister, are you actually insane?"

["Your progress is slow. Please try harder. A character named Yu Jiwon traveled through this void on a bicycle."]

"Who the hell is that?!"

["Now then. Considering we are still in the very earliest stages, Oh Dokseo’s aptitude as a shrine maiden has already grown to an absurd level."]

We blithely ignored our young, thoroughly Gen-Z Dokseo’s complaints. Both the Saintess and I were a little too old to indulge the feeble whining of today’s youth.

["Oh Dokseo is currently working her way through all manner of anomalies related to creative works. The ‘Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel’ she is walking through now is also a work of imagination."]

["Hamel’s Journal, The Monkey’s Paw, the hate potion, magical-girl fiction, the undersea tunnel. There is no known precedent for anyone approaching the God of Alienation of creative works this closely in such a short time."]

["At this point, she can probably summon a status window without difficulty."]

"Oh, r-really?"

["Yes."]

The Saintess answered firmly on my behalf.

For the record, she was still riding on my back, and we were keeping several hundred meters away from Dokseo.

["The conditions are especially favorable inside this tunnel."]

["Since the Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel is itself a creative work, it functions, however weakly, as a temple to the ‘Operator of All Things at Play.’"]

["Try calling it out as a test."]

"..."

Dokseo could not see us at all.

In the pitch-black tunnel, surrounded by darkness that looked ready to disgorge ghosts at any moment, she murmured,

"... Status window?"

Immediately afterward, she startled.

"I-it’s real! A status window really appeared!"

["Can you see a translucent hologram?"]

"Yeah! I can see it perfectly right now!"

I clenched my fist. It had worked.

The [Operator of All Things at Play] normally only began descending to earth after at least five years. Yet it was already showing its true colors.

Since ancient times, devils and gods had been unable to refuse summons. Every refusal diminished their power.

Oh Dokseo, our “shrine maiden” and “altar”; the Saintess’s assistance; my strategy and instructions; and, on top of those, the anomalies related to creative works serving as “offerings.”

We were drawing closer to the darkest god.

["Excellent. Only a week into the speedrun, we have successfully brought down at least part of the ‘Logout Game.’"]

["Even among the Gods of Alienation, this anomaly is an extreme shut-in. Merely forcing it out of hiding is a tremendous achievement."]

["Let us check Oh Dokseo’s stats at this point."]

"Oh, okay. I’ll read them out!"

The status window, as Dokseo described it herself, was as follows.

――――――――――

[Stats]

Name: Oh Dokseo

Title: ‘Shrine Maiden of All Things at Play’

Classes: Prophet, RPG Character, Magical Girl, Shrine Maiden, Bookish Girl, Protagonist

[Stamina: Rank E] [Strength: Rank D] [Intuition: Rank B+] [Agility: Rank C] [Intelligence: Rank B] [Charisma: Rank B-]

Personality Traits: [Misanthropy] [Human Worship] [Timidity] [Passion] [Misfortune (Status Effect)]

Exclusive Skills: [Omniscient Regressor’s Viewpoint (EX)], [AT Field (S)]

*Omniscient Regressor’s Viewpoint (EX): A prophetic ability that allows you to read about events in the world before they occur.

By reading a novel whose protagonist is a person named ‘Undertaker,’ you can learn which scenarios will unfold in the future.

Knowledge is power. No matter how thoroughly the void contaminates the world, to you, who ‘already knows’ about this situation, it is not a void, but merely an event.

Claim the position of protagonist.

*AT Field (S): An ability that rejects outside interference.

Provides an absolute defensive barrier against all physical forces that would strike or affect you. However, it can only be used once per day. The barrier lasts one minute.

You have observed everything that happens in this world from an ‘omniscient’ viewpoint. You are clearly a higher being than the characters in the novel.

Turn a bad ending into a happy ending. Or into an even more devastating bad ending. You were born destined to become the protagonist of this world.

May good fortune be with you.

――――――――――

"... That’s what it says!"

Hmm.

After hearing Dokseo’s entire explanation, I gave a sinister smile. Then I whispered so quietly that only the Saintess could hear.

"How loathsome. Our God of Alienation seems to be getting rather desperate."

"Does it?"

"Yes. It blatantly stamped ‘Shrine Maiden of All Things at Play’ into her title, didn’t it? It’s licking her to mark her as its own. An extremely infantile instinct."

"That sounds like good news for us."

"Of course."

To be fair, from the [Operator of All Things at Play]’s perspective, disaster was striking out of the blue in real time.

It had gone to all that trouble to analyze and hack me. It had raised Dokseo as its champion and pitted her against me.

And now its champion and I had suddenly formed an alliance. How galling must that be?

["The status window is begging you to please become the protagonist."]

["It makes no difference. We are already running a gameplay stream. Oh Dokseo’s success is our success as well. The God of Alienation has no way out."]

["So let us become the protagonist in earnest."]

The Korean Peninsula’s major events awaited us one after another on the schedule.

First, the great void at Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School.

I entered the school with the Saintess and Dokseo. Naturally, the Saintess and I stayed back while Dokseo took the lead.

After various twists and turns, Gapless was defeated. Almost nothing changed.

Except that Cheon Yohwa’s emotional attachment, which had originally been directed solely toward me, took a different direction this time.

"Dokseo! Let’s go out this weekend!"

Yohwa eagerly linked arms with her.

"Oh. Uh, y-yeah. Sure."

"Hehe. They say an amusement-park void appeared where Lotte World used to be. Let’s go there!"

"... But it’s a void. Isn’t that dangerous?"

At Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School, Yohwa’s mental state had originally been incredibly unstable.

Naturally so, since the children of her religious order, who were also her school friends, kept dropping dead.

I placed Dokseo in that gap in her psyche.

The hate potion made Yohwa dislike her at first. But after they experienced defeating a God of Alienation together, the negative first impression was easy enough to overcome.

["Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School cleared in ten days."]

["Gapless’s domain is an extremely dangerous void that freely stretches time like taffy."]

["From another perspective, however, it is essentially a ‘Hyperbolic Time Chamber.’ We will give Oh Dokseo a major boost here."]

While ten days passed outside, years passed inside Gapless’s domain.

I concentrated on training Dokseo while keeping out of Yohwa’s sight as much as possible.

Nor did I take a leading role in defeating Gapless. I merely swung my sword cane in secret at the very end to land the finishing blow. Dokseo had the spotlight all to herself.

As a result, Yohwa and I remained distant acquaintances.

"Oh! Hello, Mister Security Guard!"

"Hello. Keep up the good work, Student Council President."

"Yes! You too, Mister!"

Yohwa probably still felt a subtle dislike toward me. She simply did not show it.

But that did not matter. The speedrun stream continued.

["Excellent."]

["Oh Dokseo has now made a best friend of a character who should originally have been fond of another character. A most ‘protagonist-like’ act."]

["Everything is going smoothly."]

"..."

Dokseo worked her lips.

I knew the girl felt uneasy about something, but in the great undertaking of defeating a God of Alienation, we could not tend to every emotion as well.

Next.

["Tenlegs is heading south. At this rate, the refugees trapped north of the Han River will be wiped out."]

["The remaining forces of the national military and several awakened have finished preparing for a fight to the death, but they are no match for it."]

["We recruited Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School in advance for this moment. We will save Seoul together with Oh Dokseo, Cheon Yohwa, and the school’s awakened."]

Having enjoyed their level-up event in Gapless’s domain, Dokseo’s group dispatched Tenlegs with ease.

I recorded the entire battle on video. Then I uploaded it through Seo Gyu’s SG Net. (After saving him in the Tutorial Dungeon, I had left him in Busan.)

-Anonymous: Who are those kids? They’re strong as fuck;

-Anonymous: Didn’t that Tenlegs thing wipe out the whole army? How did it die so easily?

-Historian: They are much younger than I am, but frankly, I admire them. It warms my heart to feel that I have witnessed proof that hope still lives in this world.

-Anonymous: What were their names again?

-[Three Thousand]WitchTrialJudge: Oh Dokseo and Cheon Yohwa.

└Anonymous: Ahem. That’s ‘Lady’ Oh Dokseo to you.

-Goryeojang: Okay but honestly wasn’t that magical-girl transformation scene kinda lame?? lol

└Anonymous: You could totally tell Oh Dokseo herself was embarrassed as fuck after transforming lmao

└Anonymous: The hope of the Korean Peninsula is a magical girl and a student council president. What the hell is happening...

└Anonymous: Thanks for killing Tenlegs and all, but honestly it’s a bit much haha;

In an apocalyptic age when civilization was being utterly destroyed, the title of “awakened who fought to protect refugees and achieved a miraculous, overwhelming victory” was worth a fortune.

Fame was a useful resource.

Leveraging her greatly increased prestige, Dokseo posted on SG Net.

-BookishGirl: [Tips] How to use a ‘status window’ to rapidly improve your awakened abilities.txt

-BookishGirl: Normally I really wouldn’t want to share tips like these, but hogging all the benefits while we’re all struggling through the apocalypse would be wrong, so here you go.

-BookishGirl: I know you all make fun of me on SG Net every time I transform into a magical girl.

-BookishGirl: But this magical-girl transformation isn’t actually my unique ability. Anyone can get it by following a particular route.

-BookishGirl: Next door in Japan there’s an organization called the Magical Girl Council, and they have an awakened called the High Shrine Maiden...

The awakened were intensely interested.

That was a natural response to the most famous person on the Korean Peninsula opening up a treasure trove of information she called insider tips, but that was not the only reason.

Dokseo currently boasted overwhelming combat achievements. Yet the dislike caused by the hate potion was also quietly spreading among people.

Such dark, insidious feelings as ‘Is she really that amazing?’ and ‘Sure, she’s pretty good, but does she deserve this much worship?’

Thus, many people could not help privately attributing her success to mere luck. In other words, she must have used some unofficial cheat code the rest of us knew nothing about.

Amid all this, Dokseo freely released her “personal know-how.”

The awakened took the bait in an instant, mistaking it for the secret luck and lucky break she had enjoyed.

After monitoring public opinion on SG Net, I immediately invited the High Shrine Maiden over through Inunaki Tunnel.

"What...? Are there truly this many Koreans who wish to join our Council?"

The High Shrine Maiden’s eyes widened at the mass of awakened gathered in Haeundae.

"Indeed, beauty knows no borders! To think our Council had so many comrades abroad! Magical girls are beautiful, and beauty is justice! I was not mistaken!"

"Hey, what’s that weird person with the fox tails shouting about?"

"No idea. It’s Japanese, but the dialect’s so thick I can barely understand it..."

"Isn’t that straight-up archaic language, not a dialect?"

Overcome with emotion, the High Shrine Maiden gladly established the “Korean Branch of the Magical Girl Council” and promptly made Dokseo its branch head.

She also arranged magical-girl contracts for hundreds of Koreans on the spot.

It would have been an unfortunate truth for the High Shrine Maiden to learn, but strictly speaking, the Korean awakened had by no means gathered out of appreciation for the beauty of magical girls.

The Korean Peninsula had long been a land of min-maxers. Once the rumor spread—“Hey, apparently the magical-girl class is totally busted in this game?”—people simply mashed the change-class button without looking back.

-BookishGirl: Oh, and one thing you absolutely need to watch out for when making a magical-girl contract.

Dokseo delivered the final blow to the min-maxers.

-BookishGirl: Magical girls have to decide which guardian deity they’ll serve.

-BookishGirl: Technically your guardian deity can be a pet or even a houseplant, but the more powerful your god is, the more powerful you’ll be as a magical girl.

-BookishGirl: The guardian deity I recommend is a god called the [Operator of All Things at Play].

-BookishGirl: I guarantee this one hundred percent: make a contract with this god and you’ll immediately be able to see a status window, learn what your abilities are, and even find out how to develop your awakened abilities efficiently.

That day, no fewer than four hundred awakened made contracts with a final-boss-tier anomaly that had never once shown itself.

At last.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ answers the users’ call.]

The God of Alienation’s notification rang through people’s minds.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ announces the game’s official launch.]

Day thirty of the speedrun.

We had successfully seized the feet of the God of Alienation, which had always hunkered down in hiding until the world’s destruction, and dragged it down to earth.