Kusoge Online (BETA) - Volume 1 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: 
The Simple Job of Insisting, "It's Not a 
Bug, It's a Feature" 
 
 
 
Sasaraki was flying in the sky. 
It was the sky above the tower's first floor, 'The Place Where the World Starts.' 
Beneath his feet, the grasslands spread as far as the eye could see. 
They were dotted with blue and red dots indicating players and monsters. 
"...It's really just like being a god." 
In this game, players couldn't fly just as in many other MMOs. However, gamemasters could, by using their exclusive item, 'Master Wing.' 
But that wasn't all. Just by thinking, 'I wanna go there,' you could instantly move anywhere, ignoring obstacles, gravity, and borders. 
The power of a god, indeed. 
It kinda exhilarated his heart— but he soon remembered. 
"This is big responsibility, isn't it…?" 
Sasaraki swallowed hard. 
After becoming a gamemaster, he understood that this job was really nothing but foul play. It wasn't just the 'Master Warp.' A gamemaster held a whole array of abilities which were nothing more than cheats, like 'Learn All Skills,' 'Recover From All Statuses,' and 'Invincible Barrier.' 
And if you used the 'Master Screen,' you could alter the word itself. 
What was he supposed to do with all these abilities? 
"I should make this world a better place— but…" 
"Let's make a VRMMO," he had been told by Alice, but this game was already released and running. What she meant was probably not to 'make' one but to 
'fix' this one. 
But how would he fix this game? 
When he asked Alice about it, she replied… 
 
"I'll tell you later— but for now, think about it by yourself and try out the commands." 
She had pointed at Sasaraki with a refreshing smile and said… 
"The 100 Rules of Being a Gamemaster, rule number 1! 'Use your own head!'" 
Like that, Alice had shut herself away in the debugging room to check the current state of affairs. 
They had scheduled their strategy meeting in an hour. 
"Use your head, huh?" 
What could he do to put an end to the player decline? 
He'd decided to just try out a bunch of things for now. 
So he manipulated the 'Master Screen' before him. When he chose 'Data Collection,' yet another bunch of entries showed up. However, all of them said, 
'Unnamed.' It appeared that even the gamemaster tools were affected by this game's kusoge-ness. 
He tried selecting the topmost entry nonetheless. 
Thereupon, user bug reports appeared. 
[I can't open the door to my house. It keeps saying 'wrong key.' But it's my key!] 
[The radius of enemy fireballs is 300 meters. What kind of mini nukes are these?!] 
[I can't throw away the washbowl I picked up and I'm getting close to the item limit.] 
Cruel, in many ways. 
"Wait, first of all there are way too many bugs." 
 
The first one was a bug Sasaraki had already stumbled across. This game assigned a private room to each player with a lock on its door. However, if you locked it once, you wouldn't be able to open it again. They key wouldn't fit. The solution was to burst the door open. 
And if you did, the door would disappear. 
Therefore, there weren't any doors in most player houses, their interiors in plain sight. 
"They didn't touch this bug at all, huh…?" 
However, looking at the status row behind this kind of reports, all were flagged as 'solved.' And the answer to all of them was: [It's a feature. You can't use keys in this world or you'll be cursed by the key-loathing demon king?] 
"WHAT KINDA DEMON KING IS THAT?!" 
He tsukkomi'd before he knew it. They were screwing around. How was that a solution? 
"For the time being, we've to do something about this kinda bug." 
Sasaraki thought and clenched his fists, when… bingbing… 
In the grasslands right beneath him, he could see a small, flashing red light. 
"Eh…? Could this be an SOS signal?" 
If you were in a pinch, you could send out an SOS signal to ask other players to come to your aid. However, it was rarely used. On top of a cut-down in XP and item drop chance, other players couldn't see the signal, to begin with. It was a bug. 
It appeared as if gamemasters, however, could. 
"Wait, what's the point if the players are the ones who can't see it?!" 
This world really was retarded. 
"A-Anyways— 'Monitoring Mode.'" 
 
He whispered and yet another screen came floating in the air. It showed a blonde girl. She was ought to be the one who put out the SOS signal. Wearing a blue robe and a frantic expression on her face, she was swinging her mace at a bunny. 
It was the weakest monster in this game, the 'Bunny Fighter.' Which probably meant she was a beginner. After all, she had a hard time with the bunny, used the pointless SOS command, and, more than anything, was wearing a witch robe. 
"...I really wanna help her." 
As a gamemaster, it probably wasn't good to back a specific player, but he had been incredibly happy when he was saved by Azrael and Lizna, which had led him to continue the game. 
Sasaraki concentrated on that specific spot in the grasslands. 
Then he mumbled, 'Master Warp.' 
Right away, the scenery before him changed without any effect whatsoever. The girl swinging her mace was in front of him. His feet stood firmly on grassland. It was totally insipid, but the teleport seemed to have been successful. 
"You okay? Should I help you out?" 
After he had addressed her, the girl turned around. She was 15, maybe 16 years old. 
Seeing Sasaraki, she showed a bright smile. 
"Really? Please do, I've been beating it for five minutes, but it just won't give up!" 
He nodded and drew his sword. Then he aimed for the 'Bunny Fighter''s heart and thrusted at it. It easily connected; for 80 damage. The bunny lost all of its HP, disassembled, and faded. 
The girl's expression turned into a surprised one with a, "Eeeh—?!" 
"With one hit?! And it's been such a tough enemy..." 
 
"Yeah, well— it's the difference in jobs, you know?" 
"Umm— actually…" 
She scratched her head not knowing how to put it. 
"I'm Rigel. I've chosen the 'Witch' job, but to be honest, I don't know how to use magic. It isn't in the manual and I haven't met other players yet. Hey, if you're okay with it, could you explain how to use magic to me?" 
Sweat ran down Sasaraki's cheeks. 
He wanted to explain to her whatever he could, but there was a reason he couldn't. 
No one could. To begin with— 
"Ah, sorry, you're a knight so you wouldn't know, right? I'll try asking someone else then." 
"No, that's not it…" 
Sasaraki gulped deeply. 
She'd find out anyway. All he could do was telling her upfront. 
"There's none." 
"Heh?" 
"There's no magic." 
Ffffffffffuuuuuuuu. 
A cold wind blew through the virtual grasslands. 
"Eh…? Ah, I get it, you're joking, right? Hahaha, you're funny. So how do you use it?" 
"It's no joke, there's no magic. It hasn't been implemented." 
Rigel's blue robe fluttered in the wind. 
"Wait a second." 
 
"I'm waiting a second." 
"This game's called 'Sword & Magic,' right?" 
"Players can only use swords, but monsters do use magic." 
It was the truth and yet merely a fraud. Rigel stood with her mouth wide open. 
"So, it's probably better if you rerolled for a melee class." 
You could change your job two hours within your first login. 
Magicians and the kind could more or less use swords too, but their initial total HP were low, which put them at a disadvantage compared to knights and so on. 
Seeing how she had a hard time fighting the bunny earlier, she had probably skilled INT; there was no magic, so INT was a dead stat; she better ought to to reroll. 
"Hahaan." Rigel laughed proudly. 
"You're making fun of me, right? Since I'm a newbie and all!" 
"Sorry, I'm dead serious." 
"Yeah, right. It's fine, I'm gonna call a gamemaster." 
No, I am a gamemaster— is what he couldn't tell her. 
"That's what the game manual actually explained how to do. Let's see, 'Please help me, Fairy-san!'" 
PUFF—! 
"You called for Fury-chan, right—??" 
 
 
 
A fairy appeared out of pink smoke. 
 cm tall, wearing a frilly, green dress; a fairy, indeed. 
She was a system fairy. An AI serving as a player advisor. 
However, there were few players relying on her. If you asked why— 
"Your Fury-chan will disperse all your worries ? Please ask me anything ? " 
"How reliable! You see, could you explain to me how to use magic?" 
"There is no magic ? " 
Rigel's smile froze in place. 
"Magic consists of the symbols for 'demon' and 'method,' so only demons can use it ? 
It's not a bug, it's a feature ? " 
Well… I dunno what I expected… 
If you asked her about malfunctions, she'd call them 'features.' She utilized all and every hair-splitting technique to turn a bug into a feature, an awe-inspiringly advanced AI. 
Fury picked up her skirt with both her hands and bowed elegantly. 
"Has Fury-chan answered all of your questions satisfactorily?" 
"Answered what?! Then why can I even choose to be a witch?!" 
"In this world we strongly believe that everyone's free to become whatever they want to be ? " 
"Wha—?!" 
"I'm deeply moved that I could be helpful ? Until next time ? " 
Fury fluttered with her wings and disappeared to the other side of the sky. 
Rigel was left behind and shaking. 
"And here I had pretty… no, such high hopes when I logged in…!" 
 
She clenched her fists. Tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. 
Not good, the already small player count will shrink even further if I don't do something! 
"Well, but, you know, this game has its amazing sides too!" 
"Like what?" 
"Try opening the main screen." 
Albeit reluctantly, Riegel started fiddling around. The skill names showed up in the window. Four of them were lined up. You could execute them just by saying their names out loud, but first of all you had to know what they were called. 
"This? Wait, the description says, 'This is a sample text.'" 
"Ah, yeah, that happens quite often. The descriptions haven't been implemented yet." 
"Just how many corners are they cutting?!" 
"A-Anyways, try saying the skill in silver characters at the top." 
"What the heck…? Umm, main skill 'Summon Dragon Lord'... KYA—!" 
That instant, the earth trembled. A thunderous roar pierced their ears. 
"Eh? W-Wha—?!" 
Rigel was gaping with her mouth. 
At the end of her gaze, on top of the grasslands, was a dragon. A huge one, too. 
It was probably over ten meters long, had red scales, and leisurely swung its wings and tail. Rigel looked up at the dragon in amazement. 
"Eh— W-W-What is this—?!" 
"It's your own special skill." 
"Special? It's not related to my job?" 
 
"No, it differs from player to player. There are tens of thousands of different kinds implemented." 
Rigel opened her mouth wide. He knew how she felt. Sasaraki had been astonished at first, too. 
Was it even possible to put so much work into something to implement a few ten thousand skills? 
On top of that, these main skills were the one thing completely implemented and not bugging. With everyone having their own specific skills, the players could come up with strategies to synergize them. Basically because of their sheer number and variety, skills were this game's, more or less, sole strong point. 
"Wai— if they're able to put that much effort into something, then why's this such a kusoge?!" 
"Well, errr… beats me?" 
"It's weird, right?! Put that kinda effort into debugging, alright?!" 
Sasaraki totally agreed. 
This game needed a word consisting of nine characters, and it was 'debugging.' 
Rigel put a hand to her forehead and mumbled in sheer amazement… 
"What kind of idiots are these devs? I'd really like to see the stupid faces of those gamemasters." 
"...Haha…" 
Sasaraki smiled wryly. 
This comes a bit late but I'm a gamemaster, he probably shouldn't say that. 
* * * 
 
Debugging. The task of fixing bugs; a word hardly related to this game. 
"But I have to do something!" 
Anyways, there were too many bugs in this game. He was determined to, first of all, do something about them. 
After he'd made his decision, Sasaraki returned to the debugging room and found a book. 'Sword & Magic Online Development Guide,' it was thicker than a dictionary. Sasaraki fired himself up and threw the book open. 
At last, he mumbled… 
"Alice." 
"What is it?" 
"I don't get any of this." 
Once more, this time more grandly, he sighed. 
In Sword & Magic Online all development commenced from within its virtual space. 
"Virtual space costs no rent, you know?" 
"That reasoning really lets me feel how tough of a place the world is…" 
While saying that, Sasaraki directed his gaze forward. In front of him, like projectors in a planetarium, three gigantic black spheres were hovering in the air. Countless fine lines intertwined within the spheres. They appeared to be the blueprints of 'Sword & Magic Online.' 
Or such he was explained, but he was totally clueless. 
"There's a successor memo from one of the former programmers." 
The memo got displayed on Sasaraki's 'Master Screen.' 
 
[SOS Command Implementation Defect Memo 
As the result of my investigations, the implementation of the SOS call leads to the inversion of the gravity variable, leading the players to fall into the sky. 
Perhaps, the SOS's and gravity's variable names overlap. Who'd do such stupid crap? Anyways, there's no fixing this retarded code. I entrust this to whoever's reading this now. Farewell!] 
"Don't just farewell on me—?!" 
"By the way, if I remember correctly, that's the guy who ran away three days after he had started." 
"I kinda want to run away too…" 
But for Lizna and Azrael's sake, there was no escaping. 
"Alice, you can't write code, can you?" 
"Hmm…" 
Alice put her hand to her chin for some reason, showing a thinker's gesture. 
A couple of seconds passed then she suddenly bowed. 
"Sorry, I can't read a single line of the source code." 
The source code was the text which described the program's course of action. 
"I seeeee…" 
There seemed to be no other way but to leave the programming to the professionals. 
"But even if we can't read the source code, we can still debug, you know?" 
"Eh…?" 
 
Alice whispered, "World Record open." Thereupon, four 3D columns appeared on the main display at the wall. Each of them captioned with either, 'Job,' 'Item,' 
'Skill,' or 'Monster.' 
"Those are this game's main databases. Do you know what we're going to do from here on?" 
"Errr… we're gonna change the data instead of the logic?" 
"Bingbingbing." 
Alice chuckled amusedly. 
"First of all, we're gonna revise the item and job descriptions to make them easier to understand." 
"I see. Sounds good!" 
It was far off from a fundamental solution, but they should've been able to prevent a tragedy like Rigel's earlier by just writing something like, 'Not implemented yet, please don't pick,' into the witch job description. Plus, if it was just data alteration, Sasaraki was probably able to help, too. 
"By the way, I've already prepared the descriptions." 
Alice took something out of her robe. It was a quadratic package. 
It did look like the 'Item Cube' he was familiar with, but inside it was a slowly rotating disc. 
"It's a 'Data Cube.' Well, you'd call these things storage media in the real world, right?" 
Sasaraki accepted the cube. It was basically weightless. Like a balloon. 
"For now, I changed all item descriptions yesterday." 
"Yesterday…? Eh…?" 
He blinked in surprise. 
"Wait, how many items are there?" 
 
"If we're only counting those you can put into cubes, about 300000." 
"And you revised the descriptions of all of them?" 
"Yeah. As you might think, that amount took an evening." 
"An evening?!" 
Revising 300000 items… 
No matter how you look at it, that seems physically impossible, doesn't it? 
"Actually, Alice, did you do an all-nighter?" 
"So?" 
Taking a break, Alice showed a refreshing smile. 
"It's to make the players happy. It was— really fun, you know?" 
It didn't sound like she was lying. Sasaraki gulped. Somehow, it made him happy. 
Alice was genuinely trying to make this kusoge better. If it was together with her, it'd surely be possible. 
"So how can we replace the data?" 
"By using the 'Data Editing' panel, but before that we need a certain item. We're going to turn the encryption key that we need to access the encrypted database into an in-game item called 'Key of the World.'" 
"Isn't it problematic to have such an important thing as an in-game item?" 
If, by chance, a player would get their hands on it, it'd be mayhem. 
"Of course it is, highly so, but is there a single feature in this game that isn't problematic?" 
Alice asked in surprise. 
"I'll leave the item spawn to you." 
Sasaraki nodded. Item Spawn was one of the gamemaster commands and he had been trying it out in the grasslands moments ago. The window popped up 99 
and he specified the spawn coordinates to be right in front of him. "Item number 
'000002,'" he said via voice input— then a buzzer sounded. 
A warning in red letters hovered before him. 
[ERROR: Spawning the corresponding item is prohibited.] 
""—Heh?"" 
Alice and Sasaraki raised their voices simultaneously. 
"What's the meaning of this?" 
He tried to input the command once more, but it kept returning the same error. 
"Spawning prohibited…? Eh? Why?" 
"This is thanks to me ? " 
He heard a cutesy voice. When he turned around, the system fairy, Fury, was hovering besides Alice. She had a careless smile on her face. Passing by the puzzled Alice, she came flying next to Sasaraki and bowed. 
"Master, thanks for your hard work earlier?" 
"Master?" 
"I'm system fairy Fury-chan. So you are my master?" 
Fury softly handed something over to him. It was a small, golden bell. 
"If you ring that, Fury-chan will come visit you?" 
"Sasaraki. Be cautious when talking to her." 
Alice said flatly. 
"She holds intelligence that rivals a human being's." 
"A human being's—? Wait, isn't that prohibited by law?" 
If I'm not mistaken, the progressiveness of an AI has been restricted as there've been unsolvable human rights problems. 
 
"There was this rotten programmer who ignored laws and ethics, you know? He was like, 'I'll create my beloved Fury-chan, I don't care about the law, I AM, no, FURY-CHAN IS THE LAAAAAAAAAAAW!' and after his rampage, she'd been born— 
you hear stuff like that happening quite often, right?" 
"I'd be worried if I did?!" 
This game's abyss is deep. 
"So why do I have to be cautious?" 
"'Cause she's evil." 
"Evil—?!" 
"Originally, she was supposed to be a counselor who'd comfort depressed players, but… it seems like she's been badly influenced by the players' 
complaints and verbal abuse too much. I'm telling you, she's evil, watch out when she's telling you something." 
"How exactly is she evil?" 
"Like exploding a player in the middle of an adventure and making him think it was a bug." 
"She's evil!" 
"I'm just offering thrills?" 
"...Wait, wouldn't it be better to lock her away if she's that evil?" 
"She may be evil but she doesn't tell lies. She has her uses." 
"Fury-chan tells nothing but the truth?" 
"A very warped truth." 
She seemed to have been programmed that way. 
"Back to topic— Fury-chan, what do you mean it's your doing?" 
"Like I said, I prohibited the spawning?" 
 
Fffffuuuuuu. A cold wind blew through the debugging room. 
"Wai— How exactly did you do that?!" 
"Master, should I answer?" 
"Eh…? Ah, yeah, go ahead." 
Fury began explaining with a theatrical expression… 
"With the 'Key of the World,' you could freely add and remove NPCs, right? And actually, Fury-chan is a system-side NPC? I don't want to die, so I threw the 'Key of the World' into the data shredder to live forever?" 
Fury spun in a circle and at last assumed a pose, pointing at herself. 
"And now Fury-chan's eternal! Ehehe, whoopsie?" 
"NONONONONO?! DON'T DO WHOOPSIES, OKAY?!" 
Sasaraki shouted. This fairy was really evil! 
Blingbling, the button on Fury's chest flashed. 
"Ah, it's another gamemaster call? I'll have to excuse myself?" 
Fury raised her arms above her head and vanished in an instant. 
The two of them were left behind. Alice directed her gaze at the cube at hand. 
The 'Data Cube' she'd spent the whole night on. 
At last, she folded her arms and closed her eyes. 
"...Fu—" 
Alice leaked a small laughter. 
"Fufu— Don't make such a miserable face, Sasaraki." 
"Eh—?" 
She brushed up her silver hair and smiled with an expression full of confidence. 
Could she have a plan? Maybe a backup of the 'Key of the World?' 
 
"Remember this: The 100 Rules of Being a Gamemaster, rule number 2!" 
Alice smiled brightly and thrusted her finger at Sasaraki. 
"If in trouble, laugh brazenly!" 
...This world might be doomed, after all. 
* * * 
"So, what are we gonna do now?" 
"Wait here for a bit!" 
Apparently, something had come to Alice's mind, so she had brought a bunch of drawing paper. She spread the papers, about twice as big as she was, out on the floor. They even had measure squares on it. And on them were quite the detailed drawings. 
"What are these?" 
"Dungeon maps." 
Alice replied with a smile. 
"So why are they on paper in a virtual world?" 
"'Cause I like them better this way!" 
She replied in a childish tone and smiled. 
"We're gonna do level design now. We can do that without the key." 
"Level design?" 
"Basically, it's creating towns, fields, dungeons, you name it." 
 
Alice explained while slapping away at the drawing papers. 
"We're gonna show the users that the devs have turned over a new leaf." 
"For that reason we're gonna add a new dungeon?" 
"Yeah. A tutorial dungeon that will teach beginners this game's 101." 
"I see, sounds good!" 
"This should be even better than changing descriptions!" 
"...T-That's right, huh?!" 
I get the feeling she said that as a distraction, but I'll brush it off as just my imagination. Well, from a practical standpoint, there should be demand for a tutorial. It could keep beginners like Rigel from quitting the game. 
"Hence— open up the tools, Sasaraki!" 
Sasaraki nodded and operated the 'Master Screen.' He chose 'Design Level' from within the 'Creation' menu. The screen grew huge and a wire frame model appeared on the floor next to the drawing papers. 
"Now first of all open the map processor." 
Now you're acting like a teacher… Sasaraki thought and tapped at the icon. 
At his feet appeared a cardboard saying 'Ehime Mandarin.' 
"That's the map processor. All parts you can use have been put in there." 
"That's fine and all, but… why Ehime mandarins?" 
Alice had also used it as a chair substitute before. 
There was a whole bunch of mandarin boxes scattered throughout the debugging room. 
"'Cause mandarins are yummy, right?" 
Alice smiled refreshingly. 
 
"Dungeon implementation's honest work, so I came up with an UI that'd make it even just a bit more fun." 
"Your way of coming up with things kinda strikes me as weird, you know?" 
Alice trotted over to Sasaraki, put her buttocks on the floor in front of him, and hugged her knees. With a smile, she gazed at him. It appeared as if she intended to watch over him while he worked. 
"Should we start, then?" 
The tutorial they were creating was an orthodox, single layer dungeon. 
Within the box were 3D models of paths, rooms, and so on. You built the dungeon by simply connecting the parts like you'd do with toy blocks. 
"Hee…" 
It was a bit like shop classes. 
Certainly much simpler than he had imagined. 
"But you can't make more complex stuff like this, right?" 
"Fufufu, you think so?" 
Alice grinned broadly. 
"For example— Right. Try setting up a trap on that path over there." 
"How?" 
"By making a wish to the fairy." 
"...Hah?" 
"Look, open your mouth and try wishing for it." 
Alice urged him on in a cheerful tone. 
"Err… 'Fairy-san, please place a trap.'" 
Thereupon, the model changed in an instant, a pitfall had been placed on the floor. 
 
"Wait, what the heck?!" 
"A fairy lives in the map processor, or rather, an AI. She'll grant the gamemaster's wishes." 
She said proudly. 
"Eeeeeh…?" 
Today's AIs are incredible, just like Fury earlier. 
Looks like they're gifted with perception not much different from a human's. 
Thinking that, he kept building while he used Alice's blueprint as reference. 
"Alice. This room's empty, you know?" 
Each room had memos from Alice regarding its events. 
However, one room close to the entrance was still blank. 
When he pointed at it, Alice laughed with a, "Fufufu." 
"You come up with something. It's fun, you know?" 
"Eh—? But it's better if you do it." 
After all, Sasaraki was a beginner. He had no sense for development. 
It was probably better if the experienced Alice did the important things regarding a dungeon, like setting up traps and the like. 
"That's a no-go." 
Alice formed a big X with her arms. 
"We promised, right? That I'd show you the fun in being a gamemaster." 
After she shot up, Alice suddenly spread out her arms hands as if to indicate the size of the whole world. 
On her face was an innocent smile, just like a child's. 
 
"Making dungeon's one of the most fun things to do as a gamemaster, you know?" 
"Well, but… how do I come up with events?" 
"It's simple. I'll tell you." 
With the smile still on her face, Alice trotted over to Sasaraki. 
"First of all, imagine the friends you have in this game." 
Friends? 
Lizna and Azrael came to mind right away. 
Those were the two friends Sasaraki had here. Suddenly, he could hear a sound beneath him. At his feed, small figures had appeared. One of a girl wearing a black cloak, the other of a girl in a white robe. Those figures looked very alike those two. 
"Mhm, looks like you did it." 
"...And this is...?" 
"Your imagined players. As I thought, it's those two girls, isn't it?" 
Alice smiled cheerfully. 
She continued while tapping at the deployed map processor. 
"What kind of traps would let those two enjoy themselves—? This is where your creative skill comes to light." 
"Eh, but… if I do that, my friends will be the only ones enjoying themselves, won't they?" 
"That'd be fair enough, you know?" 
Alice announced in a strong tone. 
"When you're thinking up gimmicks for a dungeon, it's very important to have the players you want to enjoy it on your mind, okay? Exactly because you got 107 
those whom you make it for on your mind, you can give it your best shot. After all, people can do everything if it's for someone else's sake." 
Alice pointed at Sasaraki sharply. 
"For the sake of your beloved ones— breath life into this dungeon!" 
Sasaraki gulped. 
Then he tried to put some thought into it. 
He closed his eyes to concentrate. 
What would it look like if those two tackled this dungeon? Azrael would probably be careless and open the chest without a second thought and die. After that— she'd probably be cautious to not fall for it again. 
If I could reward that cautiousness… 
Azrael'd surely grin proudly. 
"—How this?" 
Telling her his train of thoughts, Alice nodded deeply with a, "Mhm, mhm." 
She gave him a thumbs up and smiled. 
"Sounds awesome! Let's make it happen right away!" 
Sasaraki smiled broadly. She really had praised him for his idea. 
Making a dungeon together with the goddess was a lot more fun than he had thought. 
After having passed the time doing this and that, Sasaraki heaved a deep breath. 
A half-transparent 'Data Cube' hovered in front of his eyes. 
Inside was the complete dungeon data. 
In other words— they were done. 
 
"Good job, Sasaraki." 
Alice patted him on the back. 
Then, a popup showed up on his screen. 
It was a message from Lizna. 
[Are you free? We're going to grind some levels, Azrael's here too, you know?] 
Normally, he'd readily accept the invitation. 
But he couldn't anymore. It hurt his heart. He'd probably be unable to go on adventures with them for all eternity. After all, he'd decided to become this world's gamemaster— someone behind the stages. 
"Errr… how should I refuse…?" 
"Hm? Why refuse, Sasaraki? Isn't this just perfect?" 
"Heh?" 
Their gazes met. 
"What's perfect?" 
"We got a new dungeon here, right?" 
Alice poked the 'Data Cube.' 
"Eh—? You wouldn't…" 
"Remember this, Sasaraki. It's one of the greatest joys as a gamemaster." 
Alice raised her right hand and mumbled something. Thereupon, her attire changed from her white robe to some leather garment that looked easy to move in. She winked and put her up-pointing index finger in front of Sasaraki's eyes, saying… 
"You're the first who gets to clear all the dungeons!" 
 
* * * 
They placed the tutorial dungeon within the center of 'Start,' 'Teleport Plaza.' At the other side of a sign which said, 'Construction Work, Do Not Enter' - 
something which shouldn't be found in a VRMMO - stairs lead underground. 
In front of the stairs stood Alice in her adventure clothes and Sasaraki. 
And standing before them were Lizna and Azrael. 
Both of them with their mouths wide open, staring at Alice. 
"I'm Alice, Sasaraki invited me. Let's get along, you two." 
Alice smiled and bowed elegantly. 
—Sasaraki had accepted Lizna's invitation, after all. 
He had tried to hide the fact that he was a gamemaster and said, "I've found a new dungeon!" 
Although he'd been hesitating to drag those two in this mess, Alice's sound argument was, "It's essential to hear the players' opinion when test-playing, right?" — 
But more than anything, he wanted Azrael and Lizna to try out the dungeon he had made. 
After all, he'd made this dungeon with them in mind. 
He wanted to hear their impression. 
"Y-Yeah, let's get along… Huh? Huh…?" 
Lizna gazed at Alice. 
"Hey, Sasaraki-kun." 
"What is it?" 
 
Lizna whispered in his ear with an anxious expression. 
"So you're a lolicon?" 
"THAT'S NOT TRUE AT ALL?!" 
He shouted on the spot. 
"Could she be the reason why you still haven't confessed to Azrael-san?" 
"Why would you assume that I'll confess?! Wait, you're completely wrong! She's just an acquaintance!" 
"But for Sasaraki-kun to bring along a girl… I thought you were a loner with zero communication skills…" 
"You're surprisingly cruel, aren't you, Lizna?!" 
She stared at him even more intensely. 
Not good, what if she finds out that Alice and I kissed? 
I've to be double careful to not let them find out that I'm a gamemaster. 
"Muu—" 
Azrael glared at Alice, growling. 
"Azrael, what's wrong?" 
Upon being called, she moved next to Sasaraki. 
For some reason with a bit of an unhappy expression, she said… 
"...Who's this kid?" 
"I told you, she's a friend. A pal. I came to know each other when I leveled up blacksmithing." 
They'd decided to go with this kind of setting. 
"H-Heeeh? A friend. A friend, huh? So you had friends beside us…" 
Azrael mumbled to herself. 
 
"Ah, o-of course I've friends, too! Not in my friend list, but in RL I've a hundred, no, 300! So you've some friends too, huh? Yeah, I-I'm relieved that our guildy isn't a loner!" 
She rattled on in a panic for some reason. 
"Uuuh… there's gotta be a hitch… Ah—!" 
Something seemed to have come to her mind. 
"Hey, Sasaraki, isn't she setting you up for a badger game?" 
"...Sorry, come again?" 
"Badger game." 
He really did hear her right the first time. 
"For what would she try to seduce me? To begin with, Alice is twelve." 
"She's surely a spy from a rivaling guild! It's standard procedure for a spy to be a kid!" 
"You know that our guild's got no rivals…" 
To begin with, our guild's more of a dungeon-clearing PvE kinda guild rather than PvP, and it's just us three. Who'd gain anything by pulling that sort of stunt on us? 
"She's a mysterious, silver-haired girl, you know? There's gotta be some sorta secret behind her!" 
"Nonono…" 
She does have a secret, but it's got nothing to do with espionage at all. 
"Anyways, Alice, was it? Don't trust her. My sixth sense is tingling!" 
"I think your sixth sense is something that goes in the trash bin…" 
What's wrong with her? Clear enough that she can't possibly know about her being a gamemaster. 
"Azrael-san, is something wrong?" 
 
Alice drew closer to her with a refreshing smile. 
Azrael's expression grew grim and she shrunk together while shouting… 
"YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DECEIVE ME—!" 
"Hah?" 
I whispered the state of affairs into Alice's ear. 
"I see. Her thinking's really fantasy-ish, isn't it?" 
"Please don't tell her that, alright…?" 
"That's a compliment, you know? She's fun and all— Anyways, I get it." 
Alice trotted in front of Azrael. 
Azrael drew her body back in caution. 
"Waah—!" 
Alice pointed at Azrael's hips. 
"Could that at your waist be 'Magical Sword Gram?!'" 
"Eh? Ah, y-yeah, that's right…" 
"Amazing! It's my first time seeing it!" 
Azrael broke into a slight smile. 
"I'm not that well-informed, but could you be that famous player?" 
"Yeah— o-of course! During the beta test I was widely known as 'Deathbringer Angel!'" 
"Eh…? Beta test?" 
Alice inclined her head. 
"Yeah. It was a closed beta, so there are hardly any players who knew about it at the time!" 
Alice stared at Azrael. 
 
Then Saraki thought, Speaking of which, she's a developer. Alice should know about the super secret closed beta and Azrael's part in it. Perhaps she knows her from before already? 
"...Yeah, I see!" 
After having given it some thought, Alice smiled innocently. 
"So you're a beta tester! You really feel like one—!" 
"Well, there's no beauty who feels like one as much as I do, huh?!" 
Azrael averted her gaze, seemingly embarrassed and happy. 
"I'm a beginner! So please teach me if you would!" 
"Of course I will!" 
Azrael replied proudly. 
Sasaraki stared blankly while Alice returned to him. 
"Sasaraki, she's as cute and naive as a puppy—!" 
She looks really happy, doesn't she? Well, as long as they get along… yeah. 
"Should we get a move on and clear the dungeon, then?" 
The three girls nodded upon Sasaraki's words. 
Azrael entered the dungeon as the vanguard. 
Passing through a stony corridor that led to the first room, they arrived at the blue chest Sasaraki had placed earlier. Azrael rejoiced that, "We're in luck, aren't we?!," opened the chest, triggered the boulder trap, got buried beneath the boulder, and died. It was a seamless death procedure. 
Lizna enjoyed it, "That's a new one!" 
Alice also assumed a triumphant pose and smiled. 
"Alright. This is going just fine!" 
"How's this fine?!" 
 
Three minutes later, Azrael revived and came back. 
She was smiling, but for some reason sweat ran down her cheeks. 
"I… I wasn't serious right now—! I was just kidding, alright?!" 
Being told that with such a flustered face rather worried him. 
In any case, they continued to the next room. They passed through a limestone cave from whose ceiling water was dropping down and arrived in a room looking just like the first one. Again, it harbored a blue chest Sasaraki had set up. 
According to their calculations when they had implemented it, Azrael was supposed to notice the trap this time. 
She was staring at the chest intensely. 
"Huh…? Isn't that the trap from before?" 
Nailed it! 
Sasaraki assumed a triumphant pose in his mind. 
Would she try to open it from afar now or how would she deal— 
"Or it might be a feint and a different trap entirely." 
"Eh…? No, the color and shape are the same, so it should be the same from before, right?" 
Azrael laughed proudly with a, "Fufun." 
"Sasaraki, you don't get it. You have to read how the developers are thinking." 
I am the developer… is what he couldn't say. 
"The room, chest color, and everything else being the same; it's obvious, too obvious." 
"Wouldn't it be better to not overthink this…?" 
"Well, just be quiet and watch. I've got a good plan." 
A good plan was something Azrael haven't had so far. 
 
She quickly faced the chest. Lizna shouted, "Give it your best, Azrael-san! I'll be watching over you!," from a safe distance, three meters away. Azrael opened the chest. A *clonk*-like gimmicky sound echoed, and the boulder fell. 
And so— just when he thought he'd be waiting for her revival… 
"I've seen through you—! Killing Blade!" 
Swooooosh! Azrael ran strikes upon the boulder with 'Magical Sword Gram.' The huge boulder blew off like a ping-pong ball and crashed into something, which left behind an unharmed Azrael, laughing proudly. 
"Fu—" 
Hoisting her sword, she turned around to Sasaraki. 
"They didn't use the same trap twice during the beta." 
After a short while… 
"...Haha…" 
It had been different from how he planned it out, but yeah, this hadn't been bad either. 
Beside him, Alice was applauding with a smile, too. 
Lizna should've been smiling too— but she was nowhere to be seen. 
On a closer look, she had been flattened by the boulder. 
"Aaah—?!" 
Azrael shouted. The death and ascension effect was glittering away. She ran besides it and right after, the boulder rolled away. Flattened by Azrael, she had died for 800 damage. 
"...Uwaah…" 
"These two know how to have fun, don't they?" 
Alice chuckled again. 
 
"Hey, Alice… could it be that we're the worst kind?" 
They had been luring those two unsuspecting girls into traps and killed them. 
Weren't they just like the evil masterminds you'd find in games, novels, and the like? 
"Oh my, you're realizing that now ?" 
Alice smiled brightly. 
"Try looking at your job name." 
"Eh?" 
He opened the status screen for now and it had turned into 'Great Devil King' 
(read as: 'The Gamemaster'). 
"Great Devil King?!" 
"Gamemasters are evil masterminds, after all." 
"I'm feeling awfully guilty now, though?!" 
Maybe I should've let them know that this was a test-play? No, if I said that, it'd be the same as telling them that I'm a gamemaster. I don't want that. I want them to enjoy the game without knowing anything about all that. 
If they can't do that— then there's no meaning in me having become a gamemaster. 
"Fufu. Rest assured, those two are having fun in their own way." 
"...I wonder…" 
After half an hour of clearing the dungeon, they had done it. It took a total of seven deaths (breakdown: Lizna two times, Azrael five times) before they reached the final room. It had a solemn feeling about it and was made out of marble. Observing the inside of the room from within the passage, they spotted a gigantic monster they hadn't seen before. 
Azrael and Lizna gazed at it with their mouths wide open. 
 
"Alice, what's with that dragon in there?" 
A dragon with its scales glittering in red. 
Its total length was about ten meters, its wings spread across the whole room. 
"That's a unique top-class monster called 'Rainbow-Eating Elder Dragon King,' 
recommended level should be 450." 
"Didn't we place a 'Great Goblin' with a recommended level of 3 in here?" 
"Seems like something went wrong with the actual placement. That bug happens quite often." 
"...Uwah…" 
Then Azrael laughed with a, "Fufufu…" 
"I get it! Lizna, that's surely just an illusion to make us panic!" 
"I see! As expected from Azrael-san!" 
The two of them readied their weapons with a smile. "Sasaraki, onwards!" Azrael shouted and charged into the boss room. Right after, they got enveloped in the dragon's seven-colored blaze and took about 40000 damage. Both of them dissolved into thin air without a grain of dust of them left; the overkill effect. 
"They died, didn't they?" 
"They sure did, didn't they?" 
"What are we gonna do about this?" 
"It'd be good for the test play to see the dungeon cleared, right? —Well, can't be helped, then." 
Alice undid her earring and handed it to Sasaraki. 
"Here, take it." 
"...What is it?" 
"A weapon." 
 
No matter how you looked at it, it was just a simple ten-sided dice. 
"Try throwing it at the dragon." 
"Won't it kill me if I attack it?" 
"Fufufu, it'll be fine. Try it." 
Alice said with strange confidence. 
Sasaraki did as he was told and lightly threw the dice at the dragon. It touched 
'Rainbow-Eating Elder Dragon King''s tail. Right after, DOGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA, the dragon's body bounced from wall to wall around 300 times like a pinball. 
The damage displayed, 800,000,000. 
Eighthundredmillion. 
"GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU…………" 
An apparently sorrowful roar later, 'Rainbow-Eating Elder Dragon King' 
collapsed. 
The sparkly death effect rose from its entire body. 
"...I think I just read a very strange number…" 
A hundred million. Eight of those. 
"It's my favorite weapon— The 'Dice of the Goddess,' you know?" 
Alice raised her hand and the dice rose from the floor and flew towards her. 
She caught it and smiled proudly. 
"It deals a hundred million damage per pip on the side that hits. It hit with the 
'eight' side, so it's eight hundred million." 
"This is way too out of our league! Actually, how's a dice a weapon?!" 
"It's always been my childhood dream to beat up monsters with a dice." 
They kept talking like this when Lizna and Azrael returned. 
 
"That's just weird! What's the meaning of this?! 40000 damage?!" 
"We set a new overkill record, didn't we?! Yay—!" 
"I don't wanna set records like that—! Aah, what are we gonna do about this guy?!" 
"It's fine, Sasaraki took care of it just now." 
""He?"" 
Azrael and Lizna peeked into the room. 
It was exactly the moment when the dragon's gigantic body glittered red and vanished. 
Both of them gaped with their mouths. As did Sasaraki. 
"By pure chance, I happened to have a skill that nullifies the dragon's blaze. 
Sasaraki charged at the dragon with my divine protection and then it was just amazing! He dodged its sharp fangs and tail attack and slashed at it, suddenly the dragon got knocked down and all that was left was Sasaraki's gallant figure!" 
Alice narrated brightly. The other three were still left with their mouths gaping. 
"I'd really like to show you too… We should totally call him Hero of the Goddess now, right?" 
"Wai— Alice, what nonsense are you spouting?!" 
He whispered to her in a panic. 
"Hey, we've to hide the whole gamemaster thing, don't we?" 
"Amazing, Sasaraki-kun!" 
Lizna's eyes sparkled. Ohoh, they totally believe it! 
"Sasaraki-kun's a man who can get things done if he tries, isn't he?!" 
"No, I didn'—" 
"So he's not just a loser and weak-minded lolicon, is he?!" 
 
"Wait, you thought I was?!" 
"Wait a sec! No matter how you look at it, this can't logically be true—?!" 
Azrael cut in. Yeah, it really couldn't be. 
"Even if you defend against the blaze, Sasaraki couldn't pierce its scales at his lev—" 
"Your deaths flared up Sasaraki's sword, you know?" 
Alice started telling yet some other utter nonsense. 
"Watching his treasured companions fall, Sasaraki-san shed tears of blood and as the result of his emotions pushed to their limit, he awoke his EX Skill 
'Immortal Soul.' His sword acquired the strength to cut up his arch enemy— the strength to instant kill the dragon—!" 
Why would she tell such an obvious lie? 
"I… Immortal Soul?" 
Azrael mumbled in puzzlement. 
Aaand she noticed— he thought, when… 
"Unfair—!" 
"Hah?" 
For some reason, Azrael flared up at him with tears in her eyes. 
"What's with that cool skill?! It's unfair if only you get to have one—!" 
"Wai— Too close! You're too close, Azrael!" 
She was close enough for her breasts to almost touch him. 
And she didn't notice herself, she had probably gotten too excited to. 
"Sasaraki-san's a hero, right? Amazing!" 
Lizna looked at him with sparkling eyes. 
 

Sasaraki wanted to hold his head. Why did things turn out like this? 
"I'm really jealous of how well you all get along." 
Alice chuckled beside him. 
* * * 
Five minutes later, Azrael had come back to. 
"D-Don't misunderstand! It's not like I was jealous or something!" 
"No, see, just listen to what—" 
"It just surprised me a bit!" 
"Listen to—" 
"I swear! I totally, absolutely swear!" 
Azrael hadn't listened to him at all. 
Things kept going on like that until they'd dissolved the party. 
The debugging room, one day later. 
He heaved a huge sigh while sitting down on the ground. 
After all, he had just relived yesterday's happenings in his head. 
"Gamemasters really are evil masterminds, aren't they…?" 
Placing monsters and traps, luring players into them… 
No matter how you looked at it, it were a devil king's deeds. 
"But it was fun, right?" 
"Uh—" 
He had nothing to return to Alice's words. 
 
Certainly, it had loosened his lips when he saw those two move about in the confusion his traps caused. 
When he had been a player, it seemed unthinkable. 
"Then it's all fine." 
"...Is it, I wonder…" 
That didn't help vanquish the guilt he felt, at all. 
"Anyways, we've finished the tutorial, right?" 
"Well, we fixed that 'Rainbow-Eating Elder Dragon King' and all, didn't we…?" 
After they had parted with Azrael and Lizna, they addressed the issue and did another run. The dungeon was supposed to work correctly now. Also, they'd placed a well-visible signpost at town, since it was supposed to guide beginners. 
"Ah, right, right. I made sure to tell Fury to have an eye on the signpost, okay?" 
"Why that?" 
"'Cause those signs are ordinary objects." 
Ordinary objects were one kind of object which existed in the fields. Mainly furniture, like shop doors or tables, came under it. All objects in this game were freely movable by players. So they got stolen, destroyed, and/or burnt quite often. 
And they didn't go back the way they were supposed to be by themselves. 
Previously, they did, but the steal ? sell loop was an easy way to make money, so they made them unstealable— well, they wanted to but seemingly couldn't, hence they fixed it by making them not reappear. Thanks to that, all NPC houses in 'Start' were as empty as if they'd done a moonlight flit. 
"If it breaks, we've to make Fury put up another one." 
"We're really just all over the place, aren't we…?" 
 
Sasaraki said and took the bell out of his pocket. The golden bell Fury had handed to him. Ringing it would summon her to Sasaraki's side. "I'm Tinkerbell, you know? Tinkerbell!," she had said herself. 
Anyhow, he rang it. 
"You called for Fury-chan, right, Master??" 
A fairy appeared out of a small pillar of light while fluttering with her wings like a butterfly. 
"I'd like to ask something of you—" 
"Before that, I've an urgent report to make—?" 
"Eh? What kind of?" 
"The guild 'Pursue the Brilliance of the Stars' has discovered the first floor's final dungeon?" 
He had heard that guild name before. It was the guild which seriously tried to clear this kusoge. They had an extremely well reputation among the players. He had to meet them yet, but they were sure to be an assembly of super serious players. So their hard efforts had been rewarded, how joyous, indeed! 
"It looks like they're recruiting players and headed to clear the dungeon as we speak?" 
Fury said, "Look, look!," and displayed the current state of affairs in town on the main display. In front of the square's water fountain, a man clad in plate armor held a speech to a few dozens of people. He appeared to be the guildmaster of 
'Pursue the Brilliance of the Stars.' 
"Heeh… Huh? Azrael's there, too." 
She seemed somewhat fidgety. 
"My level's too low, but… No, I'll surely manage now." 
It were modest words different from her usual self. 
 
She caressed the scabbard of 'Magical Sword Gram.' 
"E-Even Sasaraki acquired an EX Skill on his own…" 
No, I acquired nothing— but the words wouldn't reach her even if he said them out loud. 
"Yep, I should join. I just didn't try yet, but if I try, I can do it!" 
Azrael clenched her fists and somewhat steeled her resolve. 
"I feel reeeally guilty right now…" 
"That's a gamemaster's fate, you know?" 
Alice chuckled. 
"B-But they sure get fired up, right? Isn't that a good thing?" 
Close to a hundred players listened to his speech and seemed like they'd join. 
Considering there were more than 10000 players, it was only one percent, but it probably wasn't bad to have an event unfold— or so you'd think. 
"So, what are we going to do about it??" 
"Huh? Why would we need to do something about it?" 
"Are you drowsy, Master?? Let's butt in there?" 
"...Hah? Why?" 
"Fury-chan recommends to let her tear that guildmaster to pieces?" 
"Nonono, you mustn't do that. We're not going to do anything bad, alright?" 
"Attempting to clear this tower is a sin already, you know??" 
"Like, why?!" 
"Care to make a guess??" 
She answered his question with a question. 
Why, huh? I've no idea why clearing this game'd be worrisome. 
 
"My! My master has the purest of hearts, hasn't he? But...?" 
Fury spun around to Alice. 
"If it's our tainted Alice— she should know what this means, right??" 
Alice folded her arms with a poker face. She seemed to ponder about something. 
"Alice, what's the meaning of this? Why's it bad if they clear it?" 
"—Sasaraki." 
She said in a surprisingly serious tone. 
"I said it to you before, 'Let's make a VRMMO,' right?" 
"Eh…? Ah, yeah. It felt kinda off." 
"How so?" 
"You know, the game's already done and all." 
A few moments of silence went by. 
Beside her was Fury, blocking her mouth to hold back her giggling. 
"Unfortunately, 'make' was the right word to use." 
Alice mumbled at last. 
"Because it's far from done." 
"Eh—?" 
What do you mean— before he could even ask that, Fury cut into the conversation. 
"Time for a national debut? This is 'Sword & Magic Online''s true form—?" 
Fury pushed a button. 
He saw the tower soaring high in the sky at the main display. 
 
The tower's outer stone walls grew more and more transparent until he could see its inside. 
It was empty. 
"—Eh?" 
From the tower's top to its bottom, the vast majority of it was hollow. 
At the bottom, grasslands labelled 'First Floor' spread afar. At the top was a cube-shaped floor, labelled 'Floor 255.' That's all there was, the rest— everything from floor 2 to floor 254, just wasn't there. 
Fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. 
For some reason, a cold wind blew in the debugging room. 
It was probably just an illusion, but Sasaraki could feel it for sure. 
"Wait a moment." 
"I'll be waiting until the end of service?" 
"What's the meaning of all this?" 
"I love my slow master? To put it in other words—" 
Her shoulders bounced cheerfully, Furi seemed to enjoy herself. 
"There's no such thing as a second floor?" 
"N—NONONONO! WHAT THE HECK?!" 
He shouted out of reflex. 
"This game's about clearing 255 floors, right?!" 
 
"And everything from the second floor upwards hasn't been implemented, Maste~r?" 
"WHY?!" 
"It's nothing unusual? Our first floor is designed to take at least a month, so there was no need to implement all floors already to begin with and it's no problem at all if you develop one floor per month?" 
"But it's become a problem now, hasn't it?!" 
This game's selling point had been to brave 255 floors of undiscovered adventures. How could there be 254 floors, 99% of the game, unimplemented? It was like a fraud. Actually, it was a fraud. 
If these serious players knew about that, there'd be a riot for sure. 
Which was why her former master tried to interfere with the game clearance, too. 
"No, like, what are we gonna do?!" 
"It's fine, Master? Leave it all to Fury-chan?" 
"Leave it to you, huh…? What are you intending to do?" 
Fury put on a fairy tale-ish smile. 
Then the main display changed back to the guild speech. 
"Isn't it obvious??" 
She pushed the button with the skull and crossbones on it. 
BOOOM! 
"UOOOOH?! YUTANGA-SAN EXPLODED?!" 
"AGAIN?!" 
"That makes the fifth time in three days, doesn't it?" 
The onlookers at the plaza started to get noisy. 
 
"Wha—?! W-What are you doing, Fury?!" 
"Didn't I say already? With this Fury-chan-exclusive 'Unreasonable Button,' all of the players getting close to the last dungeon…" 
She presented the button with her hands like an offering and expressed the brightest of smiles. 
"...will be torn to pieces by Fury-chan—?" 
This fairy's pure evil! 
"Stop talking nonsense and stop that, Fury." 
Alice interfered and picked up Fury's button. 
"That's right! They're players who're clearing the game, you can't just—" 
"We can't leave this important task to the likes of you." 
"See? Alice is also saying that— Hah?" 
When he turned around, Alice was smiling. 
"Sasaraki, remember this! The 100 Rules of Being a Gamemaster, rule number 3!" 
She spun around and pointed at Sasaraki, then said… 
"Even if players die, you shall let them have fun doing so!" 
* * * 
Frost Mountain. 
A snow area at the edge of the first floor harboring a mountain in its northern-most part. About 1500 meters above sea level. Ignoring the derp how 129 
there could be something like that within a tower, this solemnly soaring mountain seemed to hold the last dungeon of the first floor. 
"...There they are, right? The raid group…" 
"There they are, aren't they? Slowly closing in." 
Sasaraki and the other two had come to the mountainside. Behind them was a snow dragon nest. Beneath their cliff was a big plaza, and numerous players assembled on it. The rock surface covered in snow that served as the plaza was gaping unnaturally. 
According to Fury, that hole was the dungeon's entrance. 
Standing in front of the entrance was the guildmaster who had exploded before. 
"Hm. We've 85 people who didn't desert… Quite the number." 
He could hear someone say. Probably a guild member of 'See the Brilliance of the Stars.' Counting the players who'd come, he seemed to assign them into groups. When he strained his ears even more, he could hear the voices of other players, too. 
"Good job finding this, isn't it? That there'd be an entrance on a hidden path within the rock surface without any hint whatsoever…" 
"Word on the street is that they just checked the whole map meter by meter like in super old RPGs." 
"For real?! Why would they be so serious with this kinda kusoge?!" 
"The developers may be funny in the head, but those guys aren't much better either." 
"Saying that I'm funny in the head…" 
"It's a compliment, isn't it??" 
Fury clapped her hands. 
 
"Actually, those people don't seem all too motivated, do they? Won't they screw this up even if we leave 'em be?" 
"They may be a mere mob for the most part, but there are super motivated people in there too, you know??" 
"Look, look!" Fury pointed. 
On top of a big rock in the center of the plaza stood one man. 
Zooming in on him, the man wore a gigantic sword on his back and a grim expression on his face. 
"Ladies and gentlemen!" 
The guildmaster's commanding voice cut through the crowd. The friendly chatter stopped instantly. 
"You did well braving the overly frequent bugs to come here! I, Yutanga, give you my thanks! Thanks to our ten days long investigation, we have found the last dungeon by coincidence within these mountains! Having done the painful job of searching for hidden doors by knocking at rocks 30000 times over, I want to testament my deepest gratitude towards my companion, Tiolis!" 
The girl standing behind him, wearing short, black hair, light armor, and an epee, was applauded. 
Tiolis lowered her head seemingly embarrassed. 
"And here Fury-chan went out of her way to hide it as good as she could, their efforts are so uncalled for, right??" 
Sorry, Yutanga-san. The perpetrator of this hide-and-seek's right here. 
"Well then, let's discuss the fight. According to our scout reports, players who die within the dungeon, won't be able to reenter it for at least a week. Our guess is that it's due to the boss's 'Soul Leech' curse!" 
The crowd stirred. 
 
"Fury, care to explain?" 
"Most certainly! My former master ordered me to do a delay maneuver?" 
"Uwaah…" 
Sorry, Yutanga-san. It was this evil fairy who cursed you, not the boss. 
"Well then, Tiolis. As we discussed before, I ask you to speak a few words." 
He called the girl, Tiolis, and with her cheeks blushing, she stepped on top of the rock. 
She folded her hands in front of her chest as if in prayer and gave forth her clear voice. 
"I merely want to say one thing— let us believe in this world." 
Tiolis gulped and continued. 
"When we couldn't find the last dungeon, couldn't find the road that'd lead us to the next floor no matter how hard we looked for it, a lot of people turned their backs on this game. It's surely not implemented, they said. I bet this kusoge ends with floor one already, they said. But now, here we stand, knowing that it's not true!" 
Tiolis said while smiling in tears. Sasaraki wanted to cry, too - for a different reason. 
He wanted to apologize, telling her it's not their fault. In truth, it really was not implemented. 
"Once we have made it through this last dungeon, 'The Cave of the End of Start'— surely, a new world will await us. Let us believe, this world is no kusoge. 
Even if it has a few seams coming apart— it still has lots of dreams and romance awaiting us!" 
UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The crowd raised their voices. 
Sasaraki wanted to hold his head. 
 
Tiolis spread her both hands and absorbed the cheers directed at her. 
Still smiling in tears, somehow. Thank you, thank you, she kept saying. 
"—Sasaraki, listen, and listen good." 
Alice said solemnly. 
"We will kill every single one of them." 
"Your words are way too disturbed, you know—?!" 
"Even if I glossed it over, it'd be the same, you knooow?" 
Alice stood there with her fists resting on her hips. 
"Hey, Alice. Can't we just tell them upfront?" 
"That won't do." 
She replied in a serious tone. 
"The 100 Rules of Being a Gamemaster, rule number 4! 'You mustn't unravel the secrets of the game!'" 
Alice continued while looking closely at Sasaraki. 
"If they knew that the second floor awaiting them was just a vacant land, they'd know the secrets— the limits of our virtual world. The already low sense of reality in here would completely crumble and they'd start feeling that the ground they're standing on is nothing but a game. We must prevent that at all costs." 
"...That's… certainly true." 
Still, he was reluctant. 
"What are you gonna do? Stop? I won't force you." 
He seemed to grow hesitant for a moment, but then he recalled Lizna's words. 
"I think— I'll keep logging into this world, until it ends, always." 
 
He had sworn to himself that he'd make this world go on for those two. 
"—No, I'm fine. I'll do it." 
"You sure?" 
"I won't go back on my word, you know…? Wah—?!" 
Alice grabbed Sasaraki's hand. 
"Thank you, Sasaraki. You're a really good partner, you know?" 
"Eh? Well, yeah, thanks..." 
He blushed being told those words filled with emotion upfront. 
"Then let's talk about our concrete strategy. We won't just interfere, we'll interfere and let them have fun doing while doing so, alright?" 
"Interfere— and let them have fun?" 
"We'll create interesting difficulties which will inflame their fighting spirit and hit 
'em with those. Difficulties they could brave if they all joined forces. If we do that, even if they wipe, they should feel satisfied after." 
Alice said with a proud expression. 
"It's not the result that's most important in games, it's the way getting there, you know?" 
"Is it like that…?" 
"It's like that!" 
She declared full of confidence. 
"The 100 Rules of Being a Gamemaster, rule number 5!" 
Alice pointed at herself with a smile still brimming with confidence. 
"A gamemaster, you know, has the duty to let the players enjoy themselves. Even if it's—" 
 
"Even if it's...?" 
"A total kusoge!" 
* * * 
Inside the dungeon was a sea of brightly burning lava. In contrast to its fairy-tale-ish name, the walls, floor, and ceiling in 'The Cave of the End of Start' 
were covered in blood-red stone; a dungeon that with the atmosphere of hell. 
Sasaraki and Alice (and Fury) were viewing the cave scenery from inside a small room. It had a full-blown cyber feeling to it with all its monitors and buttons. The display was divided into numerous smaller ones which showed the figures of all the players in the dungeon. 
It appeared to be the dungeon's control room. 
If you asked what this room was here for, then according to Fury, "It's for the gamemaster to beat those pitiful players to death and make them enjoy themselves, you kno~w? ? " This kinda room really did appear often within death game style manga and novels. 
"I wonder whether we'll get executed by the righteous players some day…" 
"It'd be great if we would, right?" 
Alice chuckled. 
"Alright then, Sasaraki. Are you ready?" 
He gulped. 
Nervosity had gotten to him, after all. Now he'd be killing players he didn't know anything about. To conceal the fact that the second floor hadn't been implemented. He knew that it was a necessity to ensure the continuation of this game. 
 
He did understand that, but— would he be able to manage such a devilish deed? 
Although, he had no choice. 
"Look, Sasaraki, players in-fight over there." 
Alice was pointing towards a plaza that was noticeably big on the map even. Six players had gathered there. One marker in there was red. Red indicated the player was in-fight. 
Sasaraki manipulated the 'Master Screen' and the battle showed up. It was a pond with burning lava, almost as big as a park. Soaring above the lava was a about five meter big rock, like a stepping stone. It seemed like going over the rock was the way to get to the other side. 
Hanging at the edge of said rock was a girl, about to fall. 
She seemed familiar. It was Tiolis, who had given a speech at the dungeon entrance. A spear-wielding orc was kicking at her hands. It was called 'Pigman Fighter.' You wouldn't expect by its uber-cheap naming, but it was a brutal monster and Sasaraki had gotten killed by it many times over. 
"Kuu… I-I won't lose to you—…" 
Her expression expressed anguish, but her eyes were burning with aspiration. 
How to put it— yeah, she was really brimming with hope. 
"Don't give up, Tiolis! We're coming to save you!" 
"As if we'd let an orc do whatever it wants to our Tiolis!" 
"Endure a bit longer, Tiolis-chan—! We're gonna take care of it!" 
Sasaraki's head got giddy. 
What was with these glitter adventurers? 
"Killing those player will be worthwhile, right?" 
"You're being way too evil already…" 
 
"Fufufu. Well then, Great Devil King Sasaraki, I'll leave it in your hands." 
It was definite that it'd be done. There was no choice but to get it done. 
Half desperate, Sasaraki operated the 'Master Screen.' 
The eyes of the orc who was treating on Tiolis' hands lit up silver. 
"UOOOOOOOH! Get your feet off Tiolis—!" 
A young man tried leaping at the orc close to Tiolis. 
"NOW!" 
Sasaraki ordered the orc with a yell. 
And the orc showed a magnificent reaction. He turned around towards the leaping warrior and fought back with its spear. The sword and man flew off. As soon as he fell and his feet touched the lava, smoke rose up and the damage taken got displayed, 1280. 
His body turned into smoke and Sasaraki could see the death effect. 
"AAAAAAAAAARS?!" 
Tiolis screamed in sorrow. 
"Errr, I should put up a speech flag here. Some idiotic villain line…" 
The 'Master Screen' had even that kind of request at hand. 
According to Fury, the fairy inside was giving it her best. 
"Gu-fu-fu-fu… the ho-stage plan to-tally worked!" 
"H-How dare you! How dare you do this to Ars—! I won't forgive you—!" 
Tiolis said angrily with tears in her eyes. 
"Oooh—!" 
Alice raised her voice in excitement. 
"Good job, Sasaraki!" 
 
"I really did it…" 
"Congrats on your first time!" 
Alice clapped with her hands while smiling carelessly. 
"Must be nice, I wanna try, too—" 
"Then I'll hand the Master Screen to you, okay?" 
"I can't use it. I told you that I don't have debugging privileges, right?" 
Alice said a bit lonely. However, her smile soon returned. 
"And so— you have to do your best in my stead, okay?" 
"...Yeah, well, I'll try." 
Even if she said to do his best, it was a raid group genocide. 
"So? How is it? What do you think so far?" 
He went on manipulating the monsters and bringing the players to their knees. 
If he had to put it into words… 
"...It's… a bit fun, I guess." 
It hurt his heart to see the players run in circles panicking. 
But at the same time— it felt puppeteering. 
"Fufufu, you've awoken too, huh?" 
"Well, but, is all this violence really fine…?" 
"It is. A romantic death beats a boring life. Look at the guy who died earlier." 
She said, and then the respawn point at the dungeon entrance got displayed. 
The young warrior who had died earlier had sent a message saying, [Tiolis! Let my death be the only one! I believe in you!] , and a few seconds later, he had a loose grin on his face. 
 
"Alright. That should make Tiolis remember me. Maybe she'll take my hand or something later." 
The warrior said with a grin that laid his ulterior motives bare. 
I just heard something I shouldn't have… 
"See, see? Aren't they having fu~n?" 
Alice froliced like a child and seemed to have quit the fun herself. 
"Ah, must be so nice~ I wanna too~" 
"Eh, then why don't you?" 
He thought that she was obviously much more suited for this than he himself. 
"No can do. I told you, I've no debugging privileges." 
Alice extended her hand towards the 'Master Screen,' but it went right through. 
She mumbled a bit sadly, "Well, can't be helped." 
"And so, Sasaraki, put your back into it for me too, I'll leave it to you, okay?" 
"Yeah…" 
"Kill all of them within the next 30 minutes!" 
"If somebody heard that, they'd think terribly of you, you know—?!" 
* * * 
The killing job went on. 
"You should be able to kill off the party on the top right!" 
He looked at the display Alice was pointing at. 
There were four taurus-like monsters, 'Oxhead Kings.' 
 
He could hear the two girls surrounded by them talk. 
"What should we do?! We're in trouble, Seshiriko-chan!" 
"Please calm down, Sarapi. I thought of a foolproof plan." 
"You did?! As expected of the pointlessly INTelligent Seshiriko-chan!" 
"Sarapi attracts those four monsters while I escape." 
"I see, a fabulous plan, my smart Seshiriko-chan— Wait, AS IF I'M GONNA FALL FOR 
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!" 
The two quarrelled. They seemed to be called Seshiriko and Sarapi. 
"Errr… how about… you four oxhead kings, focus Sarapi." 
Sasaraki ordered, and the monsters directed their weapons at Sarapi. 
"As expected of Sarapi. Take their blows for me. Peace out!" 
"YOU TRAITOOOR! WAAAIT! SAVE MEEE!" 
Seshiriko ran off. She turned her back on the monsters. 
"Alright. Now backstab Seshiriko." 
One oxhead kings turned around at the speed of light and chased after Seshiriko. 
The backstab connected, an attack from behind did twice the damage. 
"Haguau…" 
Seshiriko collapsed to the ground and died. 
"Ha-ha-ha, you saw thaaat? That's the death of a traitooor—!" 
"Y o u a r e n e x t ." 
"...Ha—" 
Sarapi died five seconds later from their focused attacks. 
"Splendid performance, Sasaraki!" 
 
Alice gave him a thumbs up and smiled refreshingly. 
"The 100 Rules of Being a Gamemaster, rule number 6! Give a player's death meaning!" 
"Aren't there way too many rules related to players dying among those 100?" 
And so on went their exchange while they kept killing players in a 'romantic' 
fashion. 
 30 minutes later. 
"Ten are left, should we get ready to move on to the boss fight?" 
"But they aren't entering the boss room, you know?" 
Looking at the screen, eight people were frozen in front of the boss room's door. 
The remaining two seemed to have strayed off somewhere. 
"Are they preparing, I wonder?" 
He operated the display to get a better view of the scene. Within the walls, made out of black bricks and illuminated by candles emitting blue light, the eight people had formed a circle with Yutanga as the leader. Behind Yutanga was the door to the boss room, bearing the same demonic carving as seen at the cave entrance. 
He could hear their discussion— 
"Yutanga, how was it over there?" 
"No good. There's neither a hidden door nor a hidden switch." 
Yutanga knocked on the door with the back of his hand, frowning. 
"Hey, couldn't the door just be bugged shut?" 
"...That possibility's terrifyingly high, huh?" 
Sasaraki and Alice looked at Fury. 
She put both of her hands to her cheeks and wriggled, acting all embarrassed. 
 
"Oh, stop it, will you? It's not a bug, it's a feature? You need the magic word?" 
"What magic word?" 
"The one my former master set. It's '857'?" 
"What's the meaning of those numbers? Are there any hints for them?" 
"Those are the three sizes of Fury-chan's nice body?" 
"No logical connections whatsoever, right—?!" 
Alice sighed and said to Sasaraki… 
"Let's teleport there. They can't possibly know the magic word, we've to open the door." 
"Hmm… but wouldn't it be better if we left things as they are?" 
If they couldn't open the boss room, they wouldn't be able to clear the floor. 
Sasaraki and Alice's objective was to get in their way of beating the boss. He felt that it was fine to leave things the way they were. 
However, Alice shook her head. 
"We can't do that. Wouldn't we be the same as Fury? We've to properly reward the ten people who managed to clear the dungeon." 
Alice raised her index finger. 
"As gamemasters, we mustn't make light of the players' efforts!" 
She directed an affectionate gaze at Yutanga and company at the other side of the screen. 
"I want to let those who go through the trouble of clearing our game meet the boss." 
And then she smiled. 
"Let's exterminate them with his overwhelming power!" 
"...You sure are having fun, aren't you, Alice?" 
 
"Being a gamemaster's fun all around!" 
Alice announced full of confidence, she really did seem to enjoy herself. 
* * * 
The demon stood in the middle of a hall as big as a gymnasium and its walls glittering with lava. 
Floor one's boss (more like, this game's final boss) was different from the usual 30 monster types and their varying colors, and really looked the part. 
Anyway, he was huge. 
About three times bigger than the 'Balrog' Sasaraki had defeated before. He was 
'Balrog Rev./Level 35 Boss HP x10.' The naming might've been half-assed, but he was big, red, and strong. 
That's the kinda boss he was, but— the players put up a good fight. 
"Yutanga! Ten more seconds until his CD's over!" 
"Got it! Everyone, disperse!" 
The warriors moved away from Yutanga. 
A few seconds later, the boss released a red shockwave. 
Thanks to their adjournment, Yutana was the only one struck by it. 
"Alright, gather together again! We'll win this in five more minutes—!" 
As Yutanga had said, the demon's HP were declining steadily. 
It really did seem like he'd lose like this— talking from the boss's perspective. 
"Alice, what should we do?" 
They had added a special skill 'Flame Blaze' to the boss earlier, sped it up, boosted his attack power when his HP gauge dropped below half - basically 143 
they'd strengthened him a bunch. However, Yutanga-san had thought up a counter for all of those and reacted accordingly. 
He really knew his stuff. 
To an extent that only the master of a guild which seriously strived to clear this game could. 
Alice folded her arms and laughed, "Fufufu, not bad. Not bad at all." 
"Should we heal him up?" 
"Hmm, that'd be too cheap and disillusion them." 
Sasaraki and Alice certainly wouldn't achieve their original goal like that. 
"We want to let them enjoy themselves. So it's a no-no to give the boss groundless power-ups." 
"But it'll be beaten if things go on like this…" 
'Balrog Rev./Level 35 Boss HP x10''s HP were already about to drop below 30%. If things kept up, he probably wouldn't even hold out for another two minutes. 
"Think something up. A last moment befitting of these wonderful players." 
"A last moment…?" 
Sasaraki gazed at the fight. They were moving around in perfect formation. 
Their leader coordinated all of it, he certainly was amazing. It appeared he had recruited players so that they'd clear the dungeon filled with death traps for them while his party would tackle the boss battle unscathed. 
He was someone coming up and executing systematic strategies even in this kind of kusoge. 
What was a befitting last moment for someone like him? 
"ALRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! ONE LAST PUSH—!" 
Yutanga's roar echoed. 
 
"WE'RE ALSO WINNING THIS FOR THE SAKE OF TIOLIS AND THE OTHERS WHO HAVE 
DIED FOR OUR SAKES—!" 
His comrades' yells resounded in agreement. 
That instant, something occurred to Sasaraki. 
For the sake of Tiolis and the others who had died for them— those words had something about them. 
"Alice, how about this…?" 
He whispered the plan he'd thought up just now into her ear. 
Alice nodded repeatedly like a small animal and then flicked her fingers. 
"That really does feel right, huh?! Let's kill 'em that way!" 
Sasaraki had a stiff smile on his face. 
We really are devils, aren't we…? 
However, there was no going back now. Sasaraki operated the 'Master Screen' 
and started up 'NPC Data Revising.' He added a special skill to 'Balrog Rev./Level 35 Boss HP x10.' Then, in silence, he wished for a speech that'd stir as much hatred as possible. 
"I u n d e r s t a n d ." 
A willing reply came from the boss. 
It appeared he'd understood with that much already. What an amazing yet pointless technology. 
In any case, 'Balrog Rev./Level 35 Boss HP x10' flapped his giant wings and rose into the air. When he had gained enough distance from Yutanga and company, he landed with a bang. Then he rose his fangs over his head and shouted. 
"G u n u h a h a h a . . . Y o u f o o l s h a v e c o m m i t t e d a g r a v e m i s t a k e !" 
 
It was the message Sasaraki had asked him to say. The AI had incredible acting skills, indeed. 
"Mistake—?!" 
"I s h a l l n o w d e v o u r t h e i r s o u l s — a s t h e e s s e n c e o f 'H e l l P l a g u e!'" 
A black aura was released from the tips of the demon's fangs. Soon, the aura concentrated in one place and turned into an orb; a black orb with the diameter of almost one meter. You could see a glitter in it. 
"I s h a l l e x p l a i n i t t o y o u . T h i s m a g i c g a i n s i n p o w e r w i t h e v e r y p l a y e r w h o h a s f a l l e n i n m y d u n g e o n !" 
It was awfully kind of the boss to explain it. 
"What—?! You were hiding that kind of trump card—?!" 
No, he wasn't hiding anything. I just set that skill up seconds ago. Sasaraki had recalled Tiolis and the others from earlier, which had triggered the idea. Yutanga and his group had been able to struggle onto the boss by sacrificing the other players— and Sasaraki wanted to try and turn it against him. 
It appeared they weren't suspecting anything. 
"Dammit, our strategy backfired—?!" 
"D I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I E !" 
BOOM! The spacious room got thoroughly baked with his black flames. A few seconds later, the boss was the last man standing, with the dead players scattered at his feet, all of them displaying the demise effect consisting of them rising as sparkling spectral bodies. The world's processing load grew heavier. 
Sasaraki and Alice went down to the room. Thanks to their gamemaster abilities, they both were 'Invincible' and 'Invisible,' so 'Balrog Rev./Level 35 Boss HP x10' 
didn't target them. 
Surveying their surroundings, Alice smiled. 
 
"Mh, they're all exterminated, right? Mission complete—!" 
"We did it, Alice!" 
They gave each other a high five. 
"Wait, why the heck would we be cheering when we just annihilated a whole group…?" 
He mumbled while looking at the dead bodies of Yutanga and his group at his feet. 
Now he really felt it. Gamemasters were, in two words, super villains. 
"It's fine, I tell you. You'll start to feel good about it eventually." 
"You know, the way you're putting it really is weird… Let's go back for now." 
"Yep—" 
Sasaraki operated the 'Master Screen' to prepare the teleport. 
When suddenly… 
"Puaaah, we finally made it… Wait, Sasaraki—?! Why are you here?!" 
He heard a voice from behind. 
Turning around reflexively, two faces he knew all too well were standing on the path. 
One girl with her two aura-emitting magical swords, and one girl with pink hair. 
"Eh—? Azrael—?! Lizna, too?! You didn't desert?!" 
"That's our line, why would you—?! Sasaraki! Behind you—!" 
Azrael's expression changed, she came dashing towards him. 
The boss slashed at Azrael. She stopped it with her magical sword. 
"Wai…! Alice and I will be fine! You two run!" 
 
Thanks to the current settings, Sasaraki and Alice couldn't be targeted now. If those two weren't here, the boss's attacks were ought to cease. However… 
"WHA—?! D-DON'T BELITTLE ME, ALRIGHT—?!" 
Azrael shouted in discontent. Her eyes were slightly teared up. 
"Eh?" 
While 'Magical Sword Gram' kept jostling with the boss's sword, she shouted... 
"IF ALICE WOULD BE FINE, I'LL BE FINE, TOO!" 
...Could she be pouting? 
"No, errr, that's not what I meant with run…" 
"Then what did you mean?!" 
If I could just say that, there wouldn't be any trouble to begin with. 
"That's enough with your lover's quarrel, Sasaraki-kun!" 
Lizna cut in. She swept her giant mace sideways and forced the boss back. 
"Now it's time for us four to join forces and bring the boss down!" 
No, it'd be troubling if we did. 
"Let's retreat already! We can't win this!" 
"His HP are below 10%! We can do it—!" 
"Errr, ah, r-right! It's got a blaze, so it's dangerous!" 
"Alice is here, she can protect us against the blaze with her skill!" 
Crap, we really did say she has that kinda skill before! 
While they were arguing, Azrael and Lizna kept attacking the boss. However, they were at a disadvantage as you'd expect, and with their attacks hardly reaching, the boss's HP bar didn't budge. Their levels were too low. Like this, they'd be destroyed before long. 
 
"Sasaraki, what are we going to do?" 
Alice whispered to him. They had two options: Save them, or watch them die. 
And he was reluctant to pick either. Would they beat the boss, the second floor'd open. On the other hand, would he watch them die, Azrael wouldn't ever forgive him. 
In that case— 
Sasaraki had worked things through in his head at a speed like never before and shouted... 
"—GEEEEEEEH—!" 
He kicked the ground and attacked the boss with a war cry. 
"Azrael! Attack from the front! Lizna, Alice, and I will take its attacks!" 
"Eh—?" 
"His weak spot's the abdomen! You should be able to penetrate its armor with 
'Magical Sword Gram!'" 
Azrael froze for a moment, but soon she expressed the smile of a child. 
"F-Fufu—! Sasaraki, you seem to have understood at last!" 
Azrael took Magical Sword Gram in both her hands and held it up high. 
"O Gram, answer my calls! 'INVOKE!'" 
A violet aura gushed from its blade. Now it would have a critical hit chance +50%. 
"Let's go, everyone! We'll defeat him—!" 
Sasaraki nodded and ran in first. 
It had already been decided how this'd end. Sasaraki and the others would attack the boss but be exterminated in the blink of an eye. He'd die with them. It wasn't out of compassion or anything, it was to hide his gamemaster status and— because this way would be much more fun for them. 
 
Then Alice shouted... 
"Ah, SASARAKI, WAIT!" 
"Sorry, Alice! Please just play along!" 
"That's not the point, I know what you're trying to do, but first—" 
She said something, but there was no time to listen. 
"I'm over here, 'Balrog Rev./Level 35 Boss HP x10!'" 
Sasaraki attacked and hence could be targeted too now. 'Balrog Rev./Level 35 
Boss HP x10' swung his sword down splendidly. He stopped it. It was awfully heavy. 
"KOOOOOOOOOH—!" 
A weird sound echoed from overhead. He prepared his flame blaze. Even Yutanga and the other high level players had lost half their HP when it hit them, Sasaraki and the others would probably die instantly. They'd be killed by this blaze— but before that. 
"Azrael! Now—!" 
He had bent his body back for the blaze, which laid bare his weak spot, the abdomen. 
It was the ideal moment for Azrael to attack. 
"Got it— GOOOOOOO—!" 
She roared from behind with fighting spirit. 
Alright. This should do. Sasaraki would shield her and Azrael would land a hit. But the boss wouldn't die— he was absorbing player souls to recover— in the end, the four of them would be totally annihilated. That was the scenario Sasaraki had thought up. 
That moment… 
"Eh…? W-What is this—?!" 
 
Azrael's movement turned into slow motion. 
What now? An omen of death perhaps? No, there's nothing like that in this game. 
However— the pile of dead players over where Azrael was, was emitting the vanishing effect exactly now. It was really beautiful. Too beautiful. It lagged. 
And so, objects started to dislocate. 
Magical Sword Gram, originally targeted at the demon, now went astray and pointed at Sasaraki. The moment the sword was about to reach his head, a golden barrier appeared around Sasaraki, the magical sword got repelled. 
"Eh—? Wai— SASARAKI—?!" 
Azrael shouted in surprise. Her gaze shifted above the barrier, towards the words which had appeared. 
[Immortal Object] 
""—Hah?!"" 
Azrael and Lizna said in surprise. 
The instant Sasaraki panicked and tried to cancel it, the boss's mouth opened. 
GOOOOOOOOH! He released his black blaze. 
The black flames released in the form of a cone burned everyone in seconds, with the exception of Sasaraki. Which left only him standing. Looking to his left, Lizna had gotten killed; looking to his right, Azrael had gotten killed, and the demise effect had just started. 
Sasaraki aside, it was total annihilation. 
The boss kept swinging his sword. 
And each time it got repelled by Sasaraki's Invincible Barrier. 
 
"That's why I told you to turn off your invincibility…" 
Alice said with a sigh. Sasaraki had nothing to return. 
"Could I have… screwed up?" 
"You screwed up big time, huh?" 
About ten seconds later, he heard a system notice. 
[You have received messages from players Azrael and Lizna.] 
Heavy-hearted, he pressed the play button. 
"Wait a sec, Sasaraki! What the heck does Immortal Object mean?!" 
"Azrael-san, I've heard of it before!" 
"You know about this, Lizna?!" 
"Yes, gamemasters appear to have an Invincible Barrier when testing!" 
"Gamemasters— Tha— Wait! Why would he—?!" 
"........................Uwah…" 
His voice leaked without thinking. 
"Sorry, my warning was too late." 
Well, it wasn't Alice's fault. Sasaraki had been the one to forget to deactivate the Invincible Barrier. 
In the silence, 'Balrog Rev./Level 35 Boss HP x10' kept banging away at Sasaraki's barrier. Without a word, Sasaraki turned on his 'Invisibility.' The boss's attacks stopped dead. When he turned around, he locked eyes with the boss. 
His pupil-less eyes seemed to say, "S o , w h a t y o u g o n n a d o n o w ?" 
No kidding— what am I gonna do now? 
 
 
 
* * * 
The four of them were standing at the respawn point at the entrance of 'The Cave of the End of Start' amid a snowstorm. 
Sasaraki's heart felt incredibly chilly, too. Or rather, the gazes that were piercing him did. 
Lizna aside, Azrael's gaze was virtually freezing. 
"Umm, in other words…" 
Lizna pointed at Sasaraki sharply. 
"Sasaraki-kun's a gamemaster." 
He nodded. In the end, their investigations had revealed Sasaraki and Lizna's secrets. That the developers had run away, that the end of service was nigh, that he had been invited by Alice to become a gamemaster— and that he'd been the evil mastermind who killed all the players in the dungeon this time around. 
Sasaraki surveyed the three girls. Alice had her eyes still closed and her arms folded. Earlier she had said, "I'll leave what we're going to do up to you." She had probably wanted him to 'use his own head' as a gamemaster. 
What to do— no matter how hard you thought about it, there was only one thing. 
Apologize. If he explained the circumstances, they'd surely understand. 
And right after he had determined himself to… 
"Sasaraki-kun, we're sorry." 
"Heh?" 
Instead of Sasaraki, Lizna was the one to bow her head. 
"Eh…? No, why are you apologizing, Lizna?" 
 
"Because we misunderstood you, Sasaraki-kun." 
"Misunderstood me?" 
"In reality, you really weren't a cheating lolicon who wouldn't even try to save us." 
"That's what you misunderstood?!" 
With a serious expression Lizna nodded deeply. 
"But— you're different. You're just Alice-san's disciple but when it comes to the girl you like, you're totally devoted to Azrael-san after all, right? Men really do love big boobs, my strategy was on spot, right?!" 
"What is your strategy?! Actually, that's not the issue here, is it—?!" 
"Eh? Then what is?" 
Lizna inclined her head. 
"Alice-san, there's a problem?" 
"Of course there's no problem at all." 
Alice smiled with her arms still folded. 
"Nonono! I deceived and killed you two, right?" 
"So?" 
"So…?! You're not angry?" 
In a VRMMO a character was, so to speak, you yourself. Killing that character in cruel ways was normally be something you'd be angry about. Explaining that, Lizna put her finger to her chin and sunk into thought. 
"Mh… I see… Mhhh, so…" 
Lizna clapped her hands together and smiled. 
"Sasaraki-kun, would you release that barrier from before?" 
"Why?" 
 
"It'd be in the way." 
He didn't really understand, but Lizna smiled at him sweetly. 
For now, Sasaraki gripped his 'Immortal Pendant.' 
"Immortal Barrier, off." 
He mumbled, and right after, for an instant the golden barrier flashed up around him and then dissolved into air with a mechanical sound. As soon as the barrier had completely vanished, Lizna held her mace aloft with an ominous sound. 
"Eh?" 
"TAAAAH—!" 
The mace came flying down at him, and split his head open. Of course, there was no pain. Instead, a sound as if a frog had been crushed echoed. In front of him it said '285 Damage,' his vision shook, then the world turned gray. 
His vision got crammed with big letters. 
[You Died. Reason: Player Lizna (Weapon: Death Avenger)] 
His mind still not catching up, the scene in front of his eyes changed. 
Sasaraki was standing at the respawn point. In other words, right where he was before. Immediately next to him, there were the three people from just now. 
Lizna was smiling from ear to ear. Alice was smiling sweetly as always. 
"Now we're even, okay~?" 
Lizna laughed a seemingly embarrassed, "Ehehe~" 
Blood dropped from her mace, the snow was soaked red. 
The proof of a player kill. 
"But Sasaraki-kun, I think you're misunderstanding something." 
 
Lizna chuckled at the still speechless Sasaraki. 
"It's usual to die in this game, so— there's no one who'd get angry if they're killed, you know?" 
Lizna laughed carefreely. 
Well, I think that's just you being very special— 
"Look, Azrael-san's feeling the same, right?" 
"Eh—?" 
When he turned towards Azrael, she seemed to be talking about something with Alice. 
"You want to see my status? Sure, take a look." 
Alice nodded and flicked her fingers, the profile window appeared in the air. Her name said Alice. Her job 'The Creator.' Her level was some weird thing like 
'FFFFFFFF' for some reason. 
"What's this?" 
"My level's about 4300000000, so the display's bugging, doesn't it?" 
"Four-dot-three-billion—?!" 
Azrael gulped hard. 
"Incred… You're really a game… The creator of this world, its absolute ruler…!" 
"Well, err… Azrael?" 
When he called out to her, Azrael turned around to him vigorously. 
"Sasaraki!" 
"Waah—! S-Sorry!" 
"D-Don't you have something you wanna say to me?" 
Azrael bent her body forward with her arms folded. She seemed to vent something on him. 
 
"Errr, ah, yeah. I'm really sorry, I deceived and killed you." 
"Not that!" 
"Heh?" 
What then? 
"C'mon, there's something else you should say, right?!" 
"Errr… sorry to have lied to you?" 
Azrael gulped something down. 
"That's true too, but… right now, there's trouble 'cause all the devs ran off, right?" 
"Big trouble, yeah." 
"So, look, you know, you need more help, right?" 
"We do." 
"Especially the help of knowledgeable players that were in the beta test!" 
"It'd be great if we could." 
Another few moments of silence went by. 
Azrael bit her lips and glared at Sasaraki, leaking a "Gununu—" 
"Sasaraki-kun doesn't understand a maiden's heart." 
"A devilish act, indeed, huh?" 
"Lizna and Alice, too?!" 
I've really no idea what's going on. 
"In other words…" 
Lizna took a step forward pointing at herself while smiling sweetly. 
"You're going to let us help out as gamemasters too, right?"