Chapter 155 - The Strategist VII

9

The only way to counter a nuclear bomb was with another nuclear bomb.

And nuclear-armed nations knew to tread carefully around one another. Nuclear war was something that happened only in fictional apocalypses where the world had already ended.

The Gods of Alienation were no different.

Direct clashes between God of Alienation-class anomalies were exceedingly rare. Unless you were a misery-fiction enthusiast obsessed with tragedy, why would you deliberately plunge into a fate of mutually assured destruction?

-Kya ha ha ha ha ha.

But this world really was an apocalypse where the world had ended, and this particular place happened to be the temple of the God of Alienation that ruled over all creative works.

And so Gapless descended.

God of Alienation versus God of Alienation. Two nuclear powers had entered a guillotine match.

-Kyahaha hahahaha kya kyaha.

-Did you miss me?

Every time Cheon Yohwa's lips moved, chilling laughter echoed from every direction.

The world of low-resolution static that the [Operator of All Things at Play] had spread through its surroundings was being devoured in turn by Gapless, newly released from its hourglass prison.

The two Gods of Alienation began clashing for control of the world.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ announces that a serious bug has been discovered on this server.]

All Things at Play seemed flustered by this unexpected development.

It was like a game operator arriving at what it thought was an ordinary player meet-and-greet, only for the chairman of a rival company to grab the microphone and deliver an opening address: “Your company's game is garbage, and here's why.” Wasn't that outrageous behavior utterly devoid of professional courtesy?

The wings of All Things at Play's true body—the blue butterfly—fluttered with growing urgency.

It flew as though surveying its surroundings. Then it realized that hundreds of magical girls who followed it happened to be gathered here.

“Wh-what? What the hell is...?”

“Has the event already started?”

The magical girls were bewildered. From their perspective, everything had suddenly descended into chaos.

The blue butterfly decided to use them.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ designates the monster summoned here as a subjugation target.]

[The boss monster's individual name is Gapless. This enemy has descended by stealing the body of ‘Cheon Yohwa,’ Student Council President of Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School.]

[Gapless is attempting to destroy the world. Stop Gapless.]

[Immense rewards are promised to users who successfully subjugate this boss monster.]

[Characters participating in the raid will receive temporary buffs.]

Light flared outward from the blue butterfly and enveloped the magical girls. It was an unmistakable buff effect.

The magical girls shouted.

“See! I knew it was an event!”

“That's the monster over there!”

Once the game operator openly identified friend and foe by declaring, “That's a monster,” the magical girls' agitation visibly subsided.

“Attack! Everyone, attack!”

“No, but that's Cheon Yohwa—”

“You dumbass! It said a monster stole her body!”

The magical girls surged toward Cheon Yohwa, some in formation and others in a clamorous frenzy.

They were little more than a rabble, but they were still awakened who had received a God of Alienation's buffs. They would be enjoying a level-up effect beyond anything they had experienced before.

Yet even as hundreds of those humans came charging in a wave, Cheon Yohwa's lips merely curled in an unhurried sneer.

“Aha!”

-A ha.

That mocking laugh spilled simultaneously from Cheon Yohwa's lips and Gapless's domain.

CLICK.

Cheon Yohwa lightly tapped her tongue against the roof of her mouth. Click, click, click. The surrounding landscape, already steeped in Gapless's domain, echoed the same sound countless times.

“Huh?”

“What?”

THUD. THUD.

The magical girls who heard Cheon Yohwa click her tongue began dropping one after another, starting from the front. Some pitched forward with all the momentum of their charge.

They helplessly succumbed to one of the God of Alienation Gapless's powers: a dream that showed them a happy future.

It wasn't just the humans. The tutorial fairies were no different.

“Waaaugh—”

“I-is this sinister energy the Fairy Monarch's?”

“We can't possibly resist it...”

“Eek! Who knew that right after we finally chopped off the king's head, a legendary war-hero dictator would show up...?”

“Revolution is one unfair bullshit setback after another...”

THUD. THUD.

The fairies' eyes grew unfocused, and they fell limply to the ground.

The ‘tutorial fairies’ also possessed the attributes of creative works. You could call them anomalies more closely aligned with All Things at Play. It was best to put them out of commission here before the real battle began.

The awakened and fairies sprawled on the ground could not get back up.

A single counterattack had incapacitated the entire group of magical girls and fairies in an instant.

‘So this is what it looks like from the sidelines.’

A happy dream.

I had experienced that power firsthand, but opportunities to watch it unfold in real time from beside Gapless were rare.

I strolled over to Cheon Yohwa.

“Are you all right? If the God of Alienation devours your mind, all this will be for nothing. Yohwa, you have to stay behind the wheel.”

“Ahaha. I can still hold on, Mister.”

Cheon Yohwa tilted her head and looked up at me.

“Or should I call you my upperclassman?”

“...”

“I'm joking! But the God of Alienation's mind and mine are mixing together rapidly. Hmm, it feels kind of like I'm submerged in ink and barely keeping my eyes open? Anyway, I think we'd better finish this as quickly as possible.”

“That's the plan.”

Oh Dokseo staggered toward us.

“Ughhh. I did it, right...?”

“For now. You can consider the first and most important stage cleared. Good work, Dokseo.”

“I seriously thought I was going to die sitting in the lotus position...”

In the hotel's back garden, Cheon Yohwa, Oh Dokseo, and I were now the only people still standing on our own two feet. The Saintess was waiting inside the hotel with the authors.

We didn't need the other awakened.

Now that we had achieved our immediate objective of summoning the [Operator of All Things at Play] into reality, I was sorry to say we had no further use for the magical girls.

With a flutter of its wings, the blue butterfly looked down at us.

Around it, All Things at Play's ‘low-resolution static’ and Gapless's ‘colors’ continued to alternate in a ceaseless crackle.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ classifies the current abnormal situation as a malicious hacking attack.]

[Effective immediately, the ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ regards malicious users who cause extreme harm to game server operations as enemies.]

It intended to treat us as mere viruses. That was the strategy this God of Alienation had chosen.

As everyone knew, the [Operator of All Things at Play] defined this world as a game and itself as its operator.

Naturally, an operator possessed overwhelmingly greater authority than its users. At the same time, however, it could not directly interfere with every user playing on an ordinary account.

That would overstep the bounds of its role as operator.

That was why, even though it must have been watching our clandestine efforts to subjugate it all this time, it hadn't been able to impose any particular sanctions.

But if it defined us as entities disrupting the game environment through ‘illegitimate means,’ that changed things. As the operator, it could bring the hammer down on us as much as it pleased.

The God of Alienation Gapless was effectively a virus shaking the game to its foundations.

To counter it, All Things at Play would have to draw upon its full, inherent power.

[At last, the stage's final boss has appeared. Exactly 40 days, 11 hours, and 36 minutes have passed since we began the speedrun.]

In response, our party also defined the current situation in our own way.

We were malicious users? Perhaps we were. But exploiting a game's loopholes and bugs was perfectly acceptable in a ‘speedrun.’

This was entirely legitimate play.

[Now all we have to do is defeat that blue butterfly, and our speedrun will be a success.]

The Operator of All Things at Play kept generating static, as though trying to drown out the Saintess's commentary.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ points out that Gapless was originally intended to be a boss monster. Sealing a monster, summoning it into a neutral area, and releasing it causes serious harm to other players.]

[The God of Alienation keeps muttering something or other. These are an anomaly's desperate struggles. Let's simply ignore them.]

A human voice and a God of Alienation's voice flowed into our minds in turn.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ asserts that it does not cause significant harm to humans. On the contrary, its game server can provide humans with rapid growth.]

[Oh. Now it's trying to negotiate. This is a pattern we haven't seen before, but Gods of Alienation are surprisingly reluctant to fight unless they're at a truly decisive juncture. They can devour the world without lifting a finger, after all.]

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ offers items of immense value to the characters named ‘Oh Dokseo’ and ‘Cheon Yohwa.’]

[Naturally, we press the decline button here.]

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ informs you that a group of merely three or four people can never overpower it.]

I looked at Cheon Yohwa.

“Yohwa. Release them.”

“Yesss! Upperclassman!”

RATTLE.

As though she had been waiting for those words, Cheon Yohwa flung open the suitcase she had brought along.

Inside the bag's pocket dimension were ninety-nine glass hourglasses.

“Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School! Everyone, assemble!”

CRASH!

Cheon Yohwa upended the suitcase, then shattered every glass vessel that tumbled out with her aura.

Ninety-nine ghosts were released.

If ‘Cheon Yohwa the human’ was Student Council President of Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School, then ‘Cheon Yohwa the God of Alienation’ was Student Council President of Hundred Tales Girls’ High School.

At their leader's call, the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons appeared.

-Hee, hee, hee, hee.

-Would you like red paper? Or would you like blue paaaper?

THUUMP... THUUMP... THUUMP...

The underworld ghost, the Hinako ghost, the Thump-Thump-Thump Ghost, the school broadcast ghost, and so on.

The visuals were a little bizarre, but this was still an ‘assemble’ moment. The tide of battle turned in an instant.

[...]

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ determines that further negotiation is pointless.]

[Eliminating.]

And then.

For the first time in 593 runs, I finally witnessed the combat power of the ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ as it cast aside every restraint and entered the fray.

How would it attack?

As I stood fully prepared, the God of Alienation's mechanical voice flowed into my mind.

[The ‘Operator of All Things at Play’ points out that Gapless originally appeared as an enemy before joining your allies.]

[Activating the Cliché: ‘Powerful as an enemy, but drastically weakened upon becoming an ally.’]

“Huh?”

BZZZZZT!

The instant the God of Alienation finished speaking, the domain of low-resolution static suddenly expanded to the horizon.

It truly happened in a split second. Just one second earlier, Gapless's multicolored domain had been fighting back, yet All Things at Play's domain swept over the world regardless.

Beneath a sky instantly blanketed in static, the ghosts of Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School began to distort.

BZZT. BZZT.

The image quality of the ghosts that had burst into reality grew progressively cruder. Down to AAA game graphics, then VR game graphics, then 32-bit, then 16-bit.

“Eek. Huh? Oh, Upperclassman. What do we do...?”

Beside me, Cheon Yohwa panicked.

Why was that? Perhaps it was my imagination, but her face radiated an intense ‘Vegeta’ energy.

“I-I think I've suddenly gotten a whole lot weaker...?”

“...”

I see.

In that moment, I realized what power the [Operator of All Things at Play] truly possessed.

Cliché manipulation.

It could pull out any Cliché from creative works whenever it wished.

Using those Clichés to manipulate the world itself—that was this God of Alienation's power.