Chapter 108: Outsider
Every game company usually has a flagship game series.
Cases like Nin×do’s Legend of Link or Gam×ric’s Pocket Monsters are like that.
Gamers who love games often call the series that forms the foundation of a game company the ‘main series.’
Among them, the globally famous game developer, Game Chrome.
The main series of the so-called ‘GamChrome’ was none other than ‘Soteria.’
‘A game where the protagonist becomes the savior of a world.’
Unlike game companies that tend to rehash similar settings, narratives, and worldviews as their series continue, GamChrome showed a peculiar approach.
They presented entirely different and unique worldviews for each series.
Aside from the main settings, such as the protagonist becoming a savior or sharing titles like Sotēr or Soteria, there were no commonalities.
So, quite a few works failed.
People, after all, tend to like what’s familiar.
[Do these GamChrome bastards have no backup plan? Why do they keep recklessly charging in? I mean, as a player, I’m grateful, but… aren’t you guys going to go bankrupt?]
[222 Don’t go bankrupt…… Brother is scared.]
……Actually, even from a game user’s perspective, GamChrome did attempt many adventures from time to time.
‘All or nothing.’
Anyway, among such attempts, some games achieved tremendous success.
One of these was,
「Soteria: Replay Hunter」
‘SoriHeon’ for short, was a game genre that commonly mixed Hunter-style elements with an apocalypse.
In a world where science and magic had developed, rifts to other worlds opened, and awakened individuals who wielded unusual abilities were divided into Hunter/Hero factions and Demon/Villain factions, confronting each other.
‘Such a common, common setting.’
The protagonist was the director of the Hunter Management Bureau.
As an incompetent person with no special abilities, he was the first to be appointed to an institution entirely composed of superpowered individuals.
A story of him gradually gaining the trust of the Hunters who initially distrusted him as a newly appointed director, and making heroic strides as the savior of all.
[Lolllll What’s up with GamChrome]
[Did they finally succumb to capital?ㅋㅋㅋ Let’s go with a mainstream story]
[Ah, are we going for a healing story?]
However, the protagonist soon experiences a shocking event and regresses.
To the first day he was appointed as director.
[Shocking True Story) SoriHeon Revealed to be a Regression Story]
Although Elwin’s past life’s ego was faint, he clearly remembered the thrill of that time.
But it wasn't long before he realized it was a misconception.
The protagonist, who was struggling to change the future, was suddenly murdered and returned to the first day of his appointment yet again.
[Infinite loop story? FML, I knew this would happen……]
[I thought it was a restorative tonic, but it was poison]
[IthinkI’mgoingcrazyIthinkI’mgoingcrazyIthinkI’mgoingcrazyIthinkI’mgoingcrazyIthinkI’mgoingcrazy]
On top of that, the immutable grand principle of the ‘Soteria’ series.
─The principle of equivalent exchange.
To obtain a reward, one must take risks, and every miracle comes with a price.
The same applied to the loop ability.
As a price for the protagonist repeating a cycle, one of the characters who died in that cycle was randomly offered as a sacrifice.
And the character offered as a sacrifice, after the protagonist loops again, disappears from all timelines.
Forever.
[Crazy]
It was natural for the minds of the protagonist and the users who learned this to break down.
Among the characters who disappeared forever were many of the protagonist’s precious people and the users’ beloved characters.
According to the setting, those selected as sacrifices would move to another dimension and live on after death, but…… this was practically annihilation.
A game character doesn't appear in the game?
Then they’re dead.
Even the protagonist didn’t know this.
Until he saw the ending, he believed they had disappeared forever because of him…….
[Dev(il)elopers who would make Satan unemployed (not a typo)]
Thinking back, it’s a demonic idea.
[GamChrome, you ×-like bastards……!!!!!]
[Give me back my favorite character, FML]
[You show me that crazy narrative, relationships, and god-tier visuals, and then you take the kids to the underworld??? Where is GamChrome headquarters? I’m going to set it on fire right now.]
‘SoriHeon’ was a devastating story where the protagonist’s mentality shattered, a fa(tal)ly harm(ful substance).
It wasn't healing, it was killing.
He had forgotten to mention that GamChrome were bastards with no business ethics who always made stories devoid of dreams and hope.
Those bastards had no heart.
They didn't know the ways of the world.
[Hey, I’m not asking for much, just show us our kids… You said they’re alive in another world…… I mean, are they really alive??]
[Even a side story… or a special event, please, just release something.]
[GamChrome developers will be banned from both hell and heaven after death.]
However, those who had deeply immersed themselves wanted to meet the characters who had disappeared as a price for the loop again.
Their deaths were too futile to just let pass by.
A world where everyone is happy…… they knew GamChrome wouldn't grant that anyway, so they just wanted to see their beloved characters alive somewhere.
[‘Soteria: Replay Hunter’ Sequel Production Confirmed!]
Then, for some reason, GamChrome energetically announced that they would release a sequel and spin-off game for ‘SoriHeon.’
‘The randomly selected sacrifice, upon death, retains their memories and moves to another dimension somewhere.’
……A game produced based on that ‘SoriHeon’ setting.
That was none other than…….
「LAMPAS」
The world Elwin had reincarnated into.
In other words, this meant that heroes and villains from ‘SoriHeon’ who had been dimensionally displaced were living here in LAMPAS.
The criteria for being chosen as a sacrifice were random, regardless of faction.
However, the original inhabitants of this LAMPAS felt something heterogeneous about such dimensional travelers and created a term to distinguish themselves from them.
─Outsider (Stranger).
That was the collective term for those who had crossed over from ‘SoriHeon,’ encompassing both once-great heroes and villains.
Elwin sharply raised his head.
“Miss Jana. By any chance, did that woman have long crimson hair and green eyes? With peculiar pupils shaped like a spiderweb.”
“Ah! That’s right! Exactly!”
“……Then there’s no mistake.”
─Demon Floetta.
* * *
The Depicio hideout, shaped like a giant tree trunk enveloping the Forgotten Stone Tower.
A room in its deepest recesses.
“Hmm-hmm~”
There, a man dressed head-to-toe in black was humming a low tune, preparing something.
Various surgical tools were neatly arranged around him, and the room was splattered with bloodstains and unidentifiable fluids.
Creak, creak-
The man continued to hum while meticulously washing his hands.
Wearing thin gloves, he adjusted some device and approached the center of the room.
“Hello, White Moon.”
An altar made of grotesquely thick tree trunks.
Upon it, a dazzlingly white woman lay quietly asleep.
The man reflexively curled his lips into a smile.
“See, I told you, didn’t I? No matter how much you run, you’re in the palm of my hand.”
The man, Black Moon, could not forget the look in her eyes before she betrayed Depicio and fled.
“Did you enjoy your brief time?”
Everyone who saw White Moon’s unwavering loyal attitude, no different from before her mission, believed she would not betray them.
They said her ego and memories were sealed, but nevertheless, she was Depicio’s White Moon.
But Black Moon was different.
He had instinctively sensed something simmering and sprouting beneath her impassive facade.
No one noticed.
Not even the Leader.
But Black Moon was different.
He could keenly perceive all of White Moon’s changes.
“Of course. You are my daughter, whom I gave birth to. Aren’t you?”
Black Moon smiled darkly and stroked her hair.
At a glance, the touch seemed affectionate.
“Since I allowed you a brief sojourn…… now, let’s fulfill your duty.”
However, no parent forces their daughter to sacrifice herself under the guise of a grand cause.
They don’t forcibly take away her freedom and compel her to undergo harsh training to eradicate her emotions from childhood.
It was possible only because the child was born solely as a tool, for a purpose, as a means to realize a long-cherished wish.
“The only reason you were born was for this moment, right now.”
One of Depicio’s long-standing grand plans.
A woman of the Shadow Clan, pregnant with the bloodline of the Batevil royalty.
Into the fetus in her womb…… they intended to summon the soul of the ‘Beastkin King,’ which had been wandering the netherworld until now.
“We were in a bind because the Witches’ Association, which was supposed to cooperate, suddenly backed out…… but then, a cooperative partner who was easy to talk to appeared just in time.”
While searching high and low for someone who could handle souls, she suddenly sprouted from the ground.
Not figuratively, but literally.
A peculiar-shaped flower abruptly bloomed, and it soon transformed into the figure of a beautiful woman.
-Hello? Hello, hello, hello! Nice to meet you~! I’m Floetta!
-You seem to be in trouble…… shall I help you?
Depicio, who was not ignorant about ‘Outsiders,’ gladly accepted her as a collaborator.
Her sinister aura or cunning nature posed no problem.
Because for Depicio’s grand plan at that moment, her abilities were desperately needed.
“It’s about time. Daughter, farewell. You were a very useful child.”
Black Moon clasped his hands, cracking his knuckles, and reached out towards the reclining White Moon.
Thin threads extended from his ten fingers.
Black Moon’s specialty was mental manipulation.
Whatever he intended to do, it was clear that it would be detrimental, not beneficial, to White Moon.
But just then, White Moon’s eyes, which had been lying still as if unconscious, glinted.
“……You?!”
Black Moon, who met her gaze, took a step back, his eyes wide as if he had realized something.
But White Moon’s hand moved faster.
Shhhk-!
With swift hand movements, she grabbed the dagger she had hidden in her bosom beforehand and threw it without a moment’s hesitation.
Thwack!
The sharp dagger pierced Black Moon’s heart.
White Moon, smiling cruelly, twisted the tightly gripped dagger, mangling the wound.
Fwoosh-!
Bright red blood gushed out, soaking the already damp floor.
“Huk, heo-eok! You, you are……!! Could it be?!”
Black Moon, his face contorted in a deep frown, sweat dripping profusely, sensed his own death yet managed to open his mouth with all his might.
To confirm the fact he had sensed!
“Ahaha.”
At that desperate sight, White Moon, no, Nero, disguised in her form, laughed.
Nero also realized that Black Moon had seen through the fact that her current self was not real.
‘Is that kind of person also a father?’
Nero, who had read Jana’s memories while transforming with his unique magic ‘Impostor,’ sneered.
He, who considered blood ties to be meaningless, found this current farce utterly ridiculous.
He leaned in close and whispered, so only Black Moon could hear.
“How did you know, meow, Father?”
Black Moon’s pupils burst with blood vessels as he recognized the identity from that characteristic speech pattern.
“You, you daaaamn wretch!!!”
But his roar was short-lived.
Slice!
White Moon, with the hand not holding the dagger, drew a knife as fast as a flash of light and slit Black Moon’s throat.
The severed head rolled away with a thumping sound.
“Hmph~”
It was then!
A fair, beautiful hand appeared from somewhere and picked it up.
She stroked it with a tender touch.
“My goodness, White Moon! To cut off your own father’s head like this! You……”
A high-pitched, coquettish voice exclaimed playfully.
“You’re just my type!”
Then, her narrowed pupils bloomed like a flower.
It was Demon Floetta.