Chapter 154 - The Strategist VI

8

The [Operator of All Things at Play] had finally sent a notification, but it had yet to reveal itself fully.

To compare it to a shut-in, its bedroom door was now open just a crack. That hardly qualified as giving it a taste of harsh reality.

We needed one final blow to drag this chronic recluse into the brilliant light of the outside world.

First, I logged into SG Net to check the situation.

-Anonymous: Did your status window pop up??

Just as we had planned, the community was in full celebration mode.

-Anonymous: I thought my ability was Ignition, but my status window says it's Flame War. Turns out I've been a scrub awakened who didn't even know their own ability...

└Goryeojang: What's the difference between Ignition and Flame War? Aren't they both fire?

└Anonymous: Ignition only sets physical objects on fire, but Flame War can set online communities on fire too...

└Goryeojang: ?

└Anonymous: Apparently my ability gets stronger the bigger the flame war gets. Hang on, I'll show you myself...

-Anonymous: Now that I can see my status window, life finally feels worth living.

-Anonymous: Damn, Oh Dokseo's been keeping this good stuff all to herself lol

-CookingQueen: Interesting.

-Historian: I ask purely out of curiosity, but were all the people who posted proof of becoming magical girls female?

└Anonymous: lol

└Historian: ?

└Anonymous: Go and you'll find out lol

I nodded.

Status windows were spreading like a craze among the awakened. Even the normal people who had initially felt an instinctive aversion to the mysterious organization called the Magical Girl Council changed their minds when five-star reviews saying, “This place is great!” began springing up everywhere.

If our strategy continued this smoothly, we would soon be able to drag the shut-in God of Alienation out of its room.

“Oh, right.”

I asked the Saintess, just in case.

“Saintess, have any of the awakened who received status windows turned out to have useful abilities?”

[I'm checking continuously. But I haven't confirmed anyone yet.]

The Saintess, who was in charge of monitoring them, answered calmly.

[I haven't found the ‘Teleport’ ability you asked about last time either, Undertaker.]

[Some people have awakened lightness arts or footwork abilities, but they fall far short of Teleport.]

“Hmm.”

As expected.

Over the course of reaching my 593rd run, I had searched several times for someone with a teleportation ability who could save Old Man Scho's wife.

If I still hadn't found so much as a hair on such a person's head, there was a strong chance no teleporter actually existed.

Perhaps there was one on the other side of the planet... But at that distance, even finding them would lose much of its significance.

I tucked that old disappointment into a drawer in my heart, then turned to Oh Dokseo.

“How's it going, Dokseo?”

“...”

“Can you feel your connection to the God of Alienation?”

Oh Dokseo sat still in the lotus position, meditating. It was a rather difficult pose for a modern-day otaku like her.

“Ugh... I think I can feel it, but then again, maybe not...?”

She grimaced every which way, her legs trembling.

While the Saintess and I worked on our strategy backstage, Dokseo was tasked with approaching the [Operator of All Things at Play].

“Try concentrating a little harder. The God of Alienation has already extended its sinister reach into you. You simply haven't noticed.”

“But, Mister, this pose really hurts. Can't I sit differently...? I'll kneel instead. Forget concentrating, I seriously feel like my leg bones are going to shatter...”

“No. Since ancient times, the lotus position has been renowned as the most effective posture for attaining enlightenment. Hundreds of thousands of fictional protagonists have achieved great enlightenment in that pose. It is the best possible position for connecting with All Things at Play.”

“Uuuugh, it hurts... It really fucking huuurts...”

Uncomfortable or not, she couldn't change her posture.

Three hours later, after being forced to continue meditating in the lotus position, Oh Dokseo flew into a furious frenzy.

“Fuck, how am I supposed to concentrate in a position this uncomfortable? You crazy bastard! Forget feeling connected to the God of Alienation, all I can feel is my legs disconnecting from my hips!”

“The wicked energy of the God of Alienation already resides within you, yet you truly cannot feel it?”

“The pain is worse! Pain! Agony! How many times do I have to tell you I can't concentrate because it feels like my leg bones are snapping?!”

“Good grief. Honestly.”

Young people these days.

What could I do if she said she couldn't manage it? I had no choice but to change her surroundings.

[We will now construct a temple to summon the ‘Operator of All Things at Play.’]

First, I kidnapped three hundred authors and opened the Canned-Author Hotel. With the tutorial fairies' help, it took only two days.

Upon being unexpectedly invited to a luxury hotel, the authors cried out with joy.

“Please spare us!”

“All you need to do is write. Oh, right. When writing a new novel, please make sure a god appears in the opening. Its name must be [Operator of All Things at Play].”

“Let us out of here!”

“Well, keep up the good work, authors.”

A worker devoted to their profession was a happy soul. Under my leadership, the authors were reborn as happy souls.

One week later, once I had pressured the authors into churning out serialized chapters, those things began appearing around the hotel.

HOOOOONK!

HONK! HOOONK! HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK!

Reincarnation Trucks.

Whatever they looked like, every last one was an anomaly connected to creative works. They belonged directly to the [Operator of All Things at Play].

With hundreds of authors and hundreds of Reincarnation Trucks concentrated in one place, the area gradually transformed into land suited to the God of Alienation's descent.

It had come to function as a kind of temple dedicated to anomalies of creative works.

And that wasn't all.

“You lot, dance around Dokseo too.”

“Yes, Comrade General Secretary! We obey!”

Tracing their lineage, the tutorial fairies also had a strong affinity with creative works.

The self-proclaimed dream demons joined hands and began a great circle dance. At its very center, Oh Dokseo struggled to maintain the lotus position.

The fairies sang in chorus as they hopped about.

“The history of all hitherto existing societyyy ♪”

“Is the history of class struggles ♪”

“Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf ♪”

“Workers of the wooorld ♪”

“Uniiiite ♪”

“...”

Eyes closed, desperately trying to concentrate on her meditation, Dokseo looked as though she had chewed on bird shit.

And that wasn't all.

I reshaped the terrain in the Canned-Author Hotel's backyard to create a waterfall. Diverting the water took a fair amount of effort, but for a regressor on his 593rd run, it was merely half a day's work.

ROOOOOSH!

As a result, refreshing cold water now cascaded onto Dokseo's head.

Had she not trained with me in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, it would have done serious damage to her spine.

And that wasn't all.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ announces a surprise event.]

[Offer prayers praising the ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ in the garden of the newly opened hotel!]

[The 200 most devout believers will receive triple rare-item drop rates for the next year!]

Those messages hadn't been sent by the God of Alienation.

They were texts sent by the Saintess, impersonating it.

Naturally, ordinary awakened had no way of distinguishing the real thing from a phishing scammer.

“Hey, don't push! Please don't push!”

The crowd buzzed.

Before long, the Canned-Author Hotel was bustling with magical girls who had gathered to scoop up the event's rewards.

“Why is there a waterfall in the hotel garden?”

“Look over there! It's Oh Dokseo! She's meditating under the waterfall!”

“Holy shit, she's ruthless. She must've rushed here the instant she saw the event announcement and grabbed the best spot.”

“I guess you have to be that ruthless to become the best awakened on the Korean Peninsula...”

“Defeating Tenlegs was impressive, but honestly, I don't know. Doesn't she seem a little too inhuman?”

“The fairies are doing some strange dance...”

“I can feel it. This is seriously going to be an event for the ages.”

“Operator of All Things at Play! No one's faith in you is deeper than mine!”

They swarmed in.

About five hundred magical girls packed the garden.

Apparently thinking there was some secret to Dokseo's posture, they assumed the lotus position themselves. A few even joined her beneath the waterfall, murmuring the name of All Things at Play.

Stranded in the middle of the magical girls, Dokseo's expression grew increasingly sour.

I dipped my chin.

“Hmm.”

It was a truly perfect scene.

No matter how badly the Operator of All Things at Play wanted to hide, it could no longer avoid descending!

[With this, the temple is complete.]

Let me sketch a simple layout.

At the very center sat Oh Dokseo in the lotus position, serving as the shrine maiden.

Above her poured a waterfall, that staple of enlightenment, while roughly five hundred magical girls chanted prayers around her.

Around them, hundreds of fairies performed a revolutionary circle dance.

Around those, in turn, three hundred authors devoted themselves to fervent creative activity, while beyond the horizon, hundreds upon thousands of Reincarnation Trucks respawned endlessly.

In short, if I were to describe, in the style of realist literature, the 4D sound effects reaching the ears of Oh Dokseo—who needed to concentrate on meditation as hard as she could—it would go like this.

ROOOOOOOSH!

“All Things at Play! Look at me!”

“The proletarians have nothing to lose in the revolution but their chains ♪”

HOOOOONK! HONK! HONK HONK HONK HONK!

“They have a world to wiiiin ♪”

“O Operator of All Things at Play!”

ROOOSH! HONK HONK HONK!

Had any artist ever depicted such a moving scene?

There were temples, and then there were temples. No scene could be more appropriate for summoning not a sacred guardian deity, but a blasphemous God of Alienation.

And that wasn't all.

While the heathens' festival unfolded at the Canned-Author Hotel, I quietly visited Namsan. Naturally, it was to make use of Chekhov's Gun.

I tucked the Walther PPK pistol inside my clothes, then pulled a wool hat firmly down over my head.

[Undertaker, your hair...]

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with my hair.”

[... Yes.]

What was life?

Life was suffering.

The falling waterfall, the fairies howling for revolution, the Reincarnation Trucks forced to work overtime, the magical girls chanting the God of Alienation's name, Oh Dokseo sitting in the lotus position surrounded by them all, and above all, naturally, I, the Undertaker, who had willingly shaved away my hair to kill an anomaly—all of us were engulfed in suffering.

Only that shut-in God of Alienation remained free of reality's anguish.

I couldn't contain my anger.

Eager to give that anomaly a taste of life's bitterness too, I delivered my stream commentary.

[Now then. I've gathered almost every element related to creative works that I can currently access.]

[Now, no matter how pathetic Oh Dokseo's lotus-position meditation may be, she will have no choice but to feel her connection to the God of Alienation.]

[If even this isn't enough, I will assemble every creative-work-related element from not only the Korean Peninsula, but the Japanese archipelago as well.]

[It will take some effort, but it won't be all that difficult. I can simply capture Godzilla in the Pacific and release it here.]

[Shall we sit back and see whether Oh Dokseo succeeds or fails at this meditation?]

“...”

Oh Dokseo threw herself desperately into meditation.

Liquid kept streaming down the side of her face, whether waterfall water or cold sweat, I couldn't tell.

My aura-enhanced S-rank hearing picked up every word of her incessant muttering.

“... Fuck, please, please just come out. Huh? Let me feel you. God of Alienation or whatever the hell you are, you said I'm your shrine maiden! Then show yourself! Come on! Pleeease...!”

And then.

Her earnest prayer reached the universe.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ descends.]

Light spread above Oh Dokseo's head.

Within that radiance, a tiny blue butterfly descended as though dancing.

The butterfly that had briefly appeared in the final moments when this world was destroyed by the server shutdown.

It was the God of Alienation's true body.

'It's here.'

My mind instantly cooled.

Whether or not it knew I was gathering my cold breath, the blue butterfly fluttered its wings without a care in the world.

BZZZZT!

With each beat of its wings, static-laced colors spread through its surroundings.

Eight-bit, sixteen-bit, two-bit. Countless image resolutions crackled in succession. The God of Alienation contaminated its surroundings with the void through its mere existence.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ has recently been closely observing several instances of players employing methods bordering on exploits.]

[The current event, known as the ‘Increased Item Drop Rate Event,’ has never been planned, nor are there any plans to offer it in the future.]

[We apologize for failing to provide our users with accurate information sooner.]

The magical girls murmured at the God of Alienation's announcement.

“What? What's that supposed to mean?”

“The information was wrong?”

Indeed.

Impersonating the God of Alienation through the Saintess's Telepathy was a double-edged sword—a strategy we could use only once.

Once the awakened learned that notifications themselves might be falsified, they wouldn't readily trust future telepathic messages.

That made this our best opportunity.

'Operator of All Things at Play.'

I glared at the butterfly overhead.

This anomaly would barely consider appearing even after we created this much chaos. Its encounter rate was practically that of a legendary Pokémon.

Here. I had to catch it now.

Of course, I wasn't a Pokémon Trainer. Nor did I own a Master Ball that could catch anything in one shot, legendary Pokémon included.

Instead...

“Yohwaaaa!”

Among the members who had joined our side was a Pokémon master.

Oh Dokseo shouted Cheon Yohwa's name. Having been under the waterfall until moments ago, she fell once while trying to stand, perhaps because the lotus position had cramped her legs.

Even as she fell, she screamed.

“Yohwa! Noooow! Now!”

“Okay.”

Cheon Yohwa swept past like the wind, leaving the drenched Dokseo's screams beside her.

There was no dramatic line, no flashy pose. Without a moment's hesitation, Yohwa took out an hourglass and hurled it to the ground.

CRASH!

The hourglass shattered. From its broken glass fragments spread an uncontrollable blackness, a domain as pitch-dark as ink.

The anomaly contained within that hourglass was Gapless.