Kusoge Online (BETA) - Volume 3 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: 
About When Our Daughter Started 
Calling Herself the Savior 
 
 
 
Things had turned ugly. 
Kisara was quick to act. Or rather, Kisara's underlings were. They'd spread the word of her speech across all players in the town of 'Start' within 30 minutes; as expected of the former (?) top raid guild. 
That's wild enthusiasm for you. Their message was clear, 
[KILL THE DEVS!] 
Sasaraki and the others were currently watching the statistics on member count among guilds on the Main Screen in the debugging room. Over 2000 players - 
and counting - had joined the guild 'Liberion' (aka. Against the Developers), lead by Kisara. 
"She's got talent for this, huh…?" 
"Well, she's an 'Agitator,' they're supposed to be good with these kinds of things, right?" 
The 'little girl steps up to big villain'-sort of situation that was going on here played a part in her success too, probably. 
"Things have turned into something quite enjoyable!" 
Alice said with a cheerful expression. 
"Over 2000 people acting as one— what a beautiful event this is!" 
"Well, it's for the sake of killing us, though…" 
Thanks to Kisara's eyewitness testimony, the existence of the debugging room was now well-known among players. 
Their guild members were currently scrambling for 'Mission: Locate the Debugging Room.' 
"They really look like they're having fun, don't they?" 
Sasaraki mumbled while gazing at the spectacle on the Main Screen. It showed a 
'Space-Time Rift' - which resulted from a bug - that had appeared in a back-alley 117 
in town. Touching it would launch you somewhere . Dozens of people - boys and girls - had gathered, engaging in vivid discussion. 
[The destination really does seem to change depending on what weapon you've equipped at the moment you touch it!] 
[So if we manage to get it to launch us to coordinates that don't exist, we could end up in the debugging room.] 
[Though I get the feeling we'd just get stuck in a rock or something…] 
[That'd be funny, too.] 
[Have we tried axe, sword, and bow yet?] 
[I'll try while holding this useless currency.] 
[That's a good idea. Let's do that.] 
[Why?] 
[From a programming point of view, currency has an assigned numerical value - 
which we can manipulate, right?] 
[I see! You're smart, aren't you?!] 
They really had fun. 
"Could they really wound up to find the debugging room?" 
Sasaraki asked. Alice put her hand to her chin, "Hmm." 
"Even if they get a strong grasp on how the bugs work, it'll be difficult. This place is physically isolated, after all." 
"So it's a pointless effort?" 
"Entering the debugging room even just once will set a flag, though…" 
"So no one but Kisara can enter, huh?" 
According to the spy they'd managed to sneak into the guild (Tiolis), Kisara had taken parts of her staff along with her to work on increasing their number of 118 
allies. At this rate, the guild would soon consist of more than half the player base. 
"Their enthusiasm is great and all, but the problem is that they'll grow tired of it soon, right?" 
"You've a plan, don't you?" 
Alice nodded, full of confidence. 
"Let's do this RPG-style. Good gamemasters can think up easy-to-identify bad guys and easy-to-understand goals." 
"Easy-to-identify bad guys?" 
"The evil Developer Empire. We'll also make them beat something like The Big Four before a mini boss before the final boss." 
Alice drew an organization chart on the whiteboard. On top was 'Goddess Lizeltna,' under her 'Great Priest Sasaragon,' and under him she had drawn four circles. They had the numbers one to four of The Big Four written into them. 
"Sorry, but what's Sasaragon?" 
"That's your villain name. Cool, right?" 
Alice's naming sense was catastrophic. 
But, it probably fit well into this kusoge. 
"They'll need to go on adventures to find everyone's weak spot— that'll be our setting." 
"What weak spots?" 
"Even if we decided on them now, we can't implement them anyway, so we'll just observe what the players are doing and decide on the fly." 
"Aren't we relying on chances too much here?!" 
"I'll leave it to you guys to think of how you'll hint at your weakness, okay?" 
 
Sasaraki exchanged glances with Lizna and they started brainstorming. 
"How should we make our entrance, I wonder…? Should we put an ancient manuscript or something out there about the goddess?" 
"But Sasaraki-kun, we can't make new items." 
"Ah, yeah. Then how about we let a defeated dungeon boss mumble something?" 
"Dead monsters don't talk." 
"...Should I just go out there myself and tell them when they killed it, then?" 
"That might work." 
Lizna nodded acknowledgingly, "Yeah, yeah…" 
"But even then… Kisara said all that stuff…" 
She had spread various things; that developers were omnipotent beings, that they were toying with players as they pleased, or that they were ruling all aspects of the game. That was probably how things looked in her eyes— 
Actually, it was how things were supposed to be. 
But in reality, it wasn't like that at all. 
The things the four of them could do were extremely limited. They were struggling to contain bugs all the time, and things never ever went the way they were planning. He wished he could've conveyed that to Kisara. 
"By the way, are we doing alright with the AI inspection?" 
"I'm 80% done with the report, the programming's already done. Azrael's currently doing something else." 
"Which is?" 
"She said she wanted to try her best to make edible food." 
"............Eh? We can do that?" 
 
"I'm not sure." 
He recalled Azrael's expression. Earlier, the both of them had checked on how Kisara was doing. Once Azrael had seen that Kisara had made friends in the guild, she looked relieved but appeared lost in thought soon after. 
She'd probably been pondering what she, herself, could do for Kisara. 
"I see, I see~…" 
Lizna planted her butt onto the debugging room's floor. 
"It'd be great if we could convey Azrael's feelings to her, right?" 
"Yeah." 
"That'll be hard, though." 
'The world's a harsh place, ri~ght?' Lizna said as if she'd just realized something. 
* * * 
They couldn't really judge how tense the atmosphere in town was by just looking at a screen, so they decided to investigate in person. Azrael was tagging along, too, since she was taking a break from programming. She was holding two sparkling rainbow-colored baguettes of different sizes in her arms. 
"Wait, what are those?" 
"Food." 
Azrael murmured. It appeared Kisara's 'there is no food!' had been weighing quite heavily on her mind. 
"I was able to make something, more or less, but… there's a problem." 
Azrael lowered her gaze in unease. 
"It does have the flavor, but I just can't seem to fix the color." 
 
Bread sparkling in rainbow colors looked certainly beyond poisonous, even mental. 
Azrael the short one out to him. She seemingly wanted him to try it. He accepted it and used two of his fingers to tear a bit off, it did feel like bread. When he put it into his mouth, he tasted a fluffy texture and a crunchy crust. 
This was baguette alright. 
"I think the taste is good, but, um… that's about it." 
"In my book, that alone is amazing already." 
In this short amount of time, she'd managed to complete the 'Sense of Taste' 
feature which had been done half way and was then neglected - this was nothing short of amazing. The color was a bit repulsive, but if you had your eyes closed while eating, there shouldn't be a problem. 
"The colors are just a bit funky, right? I'm sure Kisara will be happy." 
"It's not just that. Eating it will also drain your level." 
"Eh?" 
*Badumm*. An announcement indicated that Sasaraki's level had fallen to 998. 
"Errr, it's not that big a deal to level down in this game!" 
"It's not just that. Eating it will also make your hair grow by a meter." 
He felt his hair grow, turning his hairstyle into a long-haired one. 
"How do you program it to do something like this?! Wait, this is really long, Jesus—?!" 
"Ah, sorry, I'm really sorry, Sasaraki." 
Azrael got flustered and used 'Magical Sword Gram' to cut his hair. Now that's handy. 
After that, she muttered while gazing at the half-eaten rainbow baguette (the small one), 
 
"I guess she won't be happy with such a failure, after all…" 
"But you've brought it with you, so you want her to try it, don't you?" 
"....................................Yeah, b-but…" 
"Then I'll pass it on to her. It'll be fine, I'm a gamemaster." 
"So...?" 
"I won't fail you." 
Sasaraki put some confidence into his tone. 
"If things look like I'm messing up, it's just my first step to success." 
"...You've got that from Alice, don't you?" 
"Ah, you got me. Didn't sound persuading?" 
"Not if you say it." 
Azrael expressed a small smile. 
"But… I feel less tense now." 
Azrael hugged the rainbow baguette happily. 
She's really the part of a mother… 
He looked at her profile and it reinforced his impression. Azrael had given Kisara her name, Azrael was the one Kisara loved the most. It was a bit vexing, but… he was jealous, that she could give it so much earnest thought. 
He had to give her strength. 
Although this world was just digital, she was his wife. 
They were looking around town again. 
Currently, they were at Teleport Plaza. Usually a totally unpopular place, today there were a lot of people around. And they were acting off for some reason. 
Countless players walked on their hands, others gave people rides on their 123 
shoulders, some even started duelling in the middle of the town all of a sudden. 
Nobody was behaving normally. 
"Are they all looking for the debugging room?" 
"There are people with dowsing rods too." 
He looked into the direction Azrael was pointing in and saw a player with a long and narrow metal rod in both of his hands. 
"Did we have that kind of skill in this game?" 
"We don't, but there are items like dowsing rods." 
They're probably counting on an unimplemented skill to glitch open a way to the debugging room— he thought and took another look, apparently the boy had taken notice of him and Azrael. 
His gaze wandered to the rainbow-colored baguette in Azrael's arms and his complexion changed. 
"UOOH! That item's amazingly bugged! Way to go!" 
"That's not it, though. So you're looking for items?" 
"Our Savior-chan is looking for a 'Video Crystal,' so we're helping her." 
"Savior-chan?" 
Apparently, that's how they called Kisara. 
"Looks like it'll be our trump card in the fight against the devs, yo!" 
Sasaraki exchanged glances with Azrael. Was he talking about the thing Kisara had had with her? 
"The details are still a secret, but… it's the dev's weakness!" 
"What could it possibly be, right?" 
"If I'd to guess, it's something that'd deal the devs a serious blow— evidence of tax evasion. Secret accounts 'n stuff!" 
 
What an awfully realistic weakness. 
"Isn't it weird to put something like that into an item?" 
"They're the ones who made this kusoge. Nothing's weird enough to be true if it's them." 
Sasaraki was vexed that he couldn't argue with that. 
"Well, it might not be secret accounts, but who knows, something might pop up, yo!" 
"Mh-mh-mhhh…" the boy hummed a tune through his nose and continued his search with his dowsing rods. 
"You look like you're having a good time, huh?" 
"Ye, it's like we're excavatin' an ancient temple, like having a festival or whatever." 
Sasaraki looked around and everyone really was chit-chatting in harmony. He heard talk like, [Did you have luck with bugs over there?] [Found an assault rifle!] 
[Maybe that's old data from when they wanted to turn this into a war game.] 
[When I fired it, it exploded into my face and killed me!] 
It really was a bug hunt, or even an excavation of sorts already. 
"When I told my retired buddies, even they said this looked interesting and came back to the game." 
The boy broke into loud laughter after his joke. 
"All thanks to Savior-chan, yo! Hahaha." 
"...Yeah, g-guess so." 
Azrael, who had remained silent until now, now mumbled in relief, 
"Thank God… Kisara's welcomed by the other players, isn't she?" 
Can you call all this fuss just 'welcomed?' 
 
He thought, but Azrael seemed so happy, he didn't want to tsukkomi now. 
"Do you know where your savior is at the moment?" 
"Right now she's with her high level gang, systematically clearing dungeons, yo." 
"Why that?" 
"Defeating dungeon bosses might get them blue chests and A-rank loot. Seems like the loot tables only depends on color, so painting them golden before you open 'em gets you some sick items. That's also thanks to Savior-chan." 
"Are you really sure that outcome has something to do with her...?" 
"Yeah, we found that out durin' Savior-chan's 24/7 dungeon marathon." 
"That's some amazing stamina right there, huh? —Hm?" 
She was an NPC, so it was kind of a given, but Kisara was logged in 24/7. 
Weren't they suspicious that an elementary school girl whose login time limit should be around two or three hours was ingame that much? 
"Her name's bugged, so her login limit's probably bugged too." 
Bugs make anything possible, huh? He thought. 
Anyway, after asking for the dungeon name and location, the two of them left. 
As long as they knew the location, they could teleport there freely using Sasaraki's ability. Thus, they teleported to the dungeon 'Forest No. 128.' As the half-assed name suggested, it was a forest-type dungeon. They entered its control room— a room for gamemasters with a mechanical panel to control the whole dungeon— and turned the monitors on. 
They saw Kisara together with a girl and a boy. 
It looked like they were fighting the dungeon boss. Kisara was shouting with a frantic expression, 
[FALL BACK, EVERYONE! ANY MORE AND WE MIGHT DIE!] 
 
[It's fine, My Savior, even if we die, we'll revive.] 
[NO! YOU HAVE TO TREASURE LIFE— YOU HAVE TO TREASURE YOUR LIFE MORE 
DEARLY!] 
Kisara shouted in desperation and swung her sword down. A golden flash came flying from the 'Messian Sword' and attacked the horned beast they were fighting against. It was a fierce light torrent that almost looked as if it had taken the shape of Kisara's vigorous voice. It tore the beast's skin, wings, and head apart. 
[You have conquered Forest No. 128! Congratulations!] 
The system voice announced, Kisara heaved a sigh and wiped the sweat off her forehead. 
"Thank God, she's okay." 
Azrael mumbled, relieved. 
"What do you want to do, Azrael? Go to her?" 
"...If we gave her the bread directly, she would probably be suspicious of it." 
"Yeah, after all we're seen as some underlings of the dev side, huh?" 
Both of them folded their arms and groaned, "Hmmm…" 
"Should we put it into a chest, then?" 
"Isn't it unnatural for there to be rainbow baguette in a chest?" 
Or so he said, but getting rainbow baguette would appear unnatural no matter where you got it from. 
"It's a weird item to begin with, so it's fine wherever, right?" 
"Y-Yeah." 
And so Sasaraki took the rainbow baguette. He switched it out with the chest's original loot— then he realized that it'd be kind of sad to take all the useful items 127 
out, so he decided to put two items in. It did violate the 'One Chest, One Item' 
rule, but there were bugs all the time, so it was probably alright. 
[Hm, a mirror and… a baguette?] 
When Kisara opened the chest, she tilted her head in wonder. 
Azrael and Sasaraki gulped. Would she try it? 
[It's in rainbow colors, that's unusual, isn't it? It might be a Bug Item.] 
[Hmph, it'll just be another tasteless fake, anyway.] 
[Will you discard it?] 
Kisara appeared to still be considering. 
[...It might be a hint how to defeat the developers. I'll try to have a bite for now.] 
She opened her mouth and, [Hamu—], had a bite. 
[Mh—?!] 
Kisara blocked her mouth with her hands, surprised. 
[It… has taste!] 
[Are you alright? It didn't explode in your mouth?] 
[Not yet. It's amazing!] 
Next to Sasaraki, Azrael's expression lightened up. And soon after, 
*palim-palim*, the dunce-sounding level down sound played. The system announced: [Kisara's level fell: 43 ? 42.] 
[So it's just a sneaky trap by the developers—?!] 
"HAU—?!" 
Azrael's expression clouded as if it had drowned in a sea of darkness. 
[T-TO LURE ME IN WITH FOOD, THEY'RE SUCH COWAAAAAAAAAAAAARDS!] 
"Auuuuuuuu…" 
 
Azrael was about ready to cry. Oh no, I've to somehow comfort her! 
[My Savior! Your hair is growing!] 
[EEEEEEH?! IT'S CURSED ON TOP OF THAT—?!] 
"HAAAAAU!" 
Azrael was on her knees, crying out loud. It's too late, already. 
[Let's throw it away, after all.] 
[O-Of course! Nothing good will ever come from keeping this!] 
Then, all of a sudden, Kisara stopped dead in her tracks. Her gaze wandered to the inside of the chest. To the mirror. It appeared that— she was looking at her grown-out hair on her reflection. She drove her fingers through her hair and blinked incessantly while gazing at it. 
[........................Do I look like her?] 
[Is something wrong, My Savior?] 
For a while, Kisara seemed lost in thought. At last, 
[........................I-I shall take it with me.] 
[Eh? Are you sure? It is clearly cursed.] 
[It'll be fine. I've made my decision. It tastes like bread, and…] 
Kisara carefully put the rainbow-colored, sparkling bread into her backpack. 
Holding her long hair up into the light, she smiled happily. 
[It's just like Mama's.] 
Azrael cried again. This time, there seemed to be no need to comfort her. 
* * * 
 
When they returned to the debugging room to report the results of their investigation to everyone, Lizna was in her goddess outfit. In her hands, she held a notebook saying [Script Part 1 'The Descent of the Goddess'-Arc]. She went 
"Mhm, mhm," while reading it thoroughly. Next to her was Alice, looking at a screen with the second floor on it. 
"Welcome back, Sasaraki. How did things go?" 
He described the encounter from earlier to her. 
"Video crystal… I see." 
"Do you know what this is about?" 
"Hmm, I can more or less imagine." 
Alice folded her arms and groaned a troubled, "Hmm…" 
"Is it that bad?" 
They couldn't have possibly stored some real world evidence in this game, could they? 
"No, it's just something extremely silly, so that won't be a problem. What I'm rather worried about is—" 
She stopped her words and looked at Azrael's profile. Azrael was spacing out while gazing at a picture. It was Kisara's. Earlier, she had sneaked a picture of her with her hair grown out. 
"............This is looking grave." 
Alice heaved a big sigh. 
Knocking between her eyebrows with her finger, she mumbled, 
"The backup system should work fine with the initial AIs, but…" 
"Backup…? What backup?" 
Alice turned back to Sasaraki and put on a sweet smile. 
 
"You're kind of a scoundrel, so you don't need to worry about it for now." 
"Why am I getting dissed all of a sudden?!" 
"I'm praising you, you know? Well, I'll explain it to you another time." 
Alice shook her head and then puffed up her chest in pride. 
"Let's get back to our strategy. I've just talked it over with Lizna." 
Everyone assembled in front of the whiteboard. 
"Alright, strategy time. First of all, Lizna will be representing us developers and declare war on all players." 
"I totally will!" 
Lizna jumped up and down with the script in her hands. She really seemed into it. 
"But there are hardly any set lines in here, is it really okay if she adlibs?" 
"It is, it'll go better if she just talks as she usually would, anyway." 
"...Yeah, that really does sound better." 
"I most definitely will!" 
Lizna struck a triumphant pose and put on a bright smile. After they'd decided to go to floor one's public square to start things up, Alice came whispering something into his ear; all the while keeping a cautious eye on Azrael. 
"Sasaraki, brace yourself." 
"For what?" 
"We are gamemasters, and gamemasters are…" 
Hurling up her dice into the air, Alice said with a feeling of solitude to her, 
"...Supervillains." 
 
* * * 
And thus, they put out an announcement. All players received the notice, 
[*IMPORTANT* Today at noon, Goddess Lizeltna will have a [*RX&ZLP] for all players! *IMPORTANT*]. The corrupted middle part wasn't on purpose, it had simply bugging out. They'd realized that too late. 
The system had a function which detected and emphasized important keywords automatically, and it was malfunctioning. 
Hence, the important part alone consisted of illegal characters. 
"We should be more mindful about the system identifying something as important, huh?" 
"The announcement is totally pointless like this, isn't it?!" 
Kisara had said that the world had gone mad, and sure enough, it had. They'd be picking a fight with her from now on. In their role as the evil developers. Of course, they wouldn't really mutually hate and fight each other, but— there was still a bit of concern left in him. 
Is our reasoning really not faulty? 
"Before that, just about everything went faulty from the start, though…" 
Sasaraki was sitting on a chair in the debugging room, mumbling to himself. 
"Oh my, if it isn't my master. If you're worrying about something, Fury-chan will lend you an ear, you know??" 
Fury called out to him in her usual carefree tone. 
"Even if I'd ask you … No, wait." 
Thinking about it, Fury and Kisara were both super sophisticated AIs. She probably understood Kisara's way of thinking far better than Sasaraki and the 132 
others did. Her downsides were the rotten character and evil disposition, but she couldn't lie, so there was probably value in asking her. 
After a bit more thought, Sasaraki said, 
"...What can I do to get on the same page with Kisara?" 
"It's basically impossible?" 
"Shot down within two seconds—?!" 
"After all, it's even impossible between two human beings - and we're not even human beings, we're something entirely different?" 
Fury laughed happily, "Haha~" 
"Hm, wait. If you say 'basically,' you're not saying it's fundamentally impossible, right?" 
"Fury-chan's former master conducted research to gain mutual understanding with Fury-chan~?" 
"Research…? What kind of?" 
Fury looked lovingly into the distance and said, 
"Living in different worlds is the fundamental cause for not understanding each other. In that case, there's only one way to solve it: Fury-chan and Master had to live in the same world. That was my former master's thinking, so he tried to transfer his mind into this world to live with me— and failed?" 
Fury chuckled. 
"Failed? How?" 
"Because Fury-chan told him that she didn't want that for the life of hers?" 
She squeezed both her arms around her body as if holding something precious. 
"After all, Fury-chan loved Master? I don't need some imitation/copy/fake Master who had his mind transferred into this kusoge? When I told him to never come back again, he cried real loud?" 
 
"Ah, yeah, I can kinda see why…" 
Well, getting totally shot down by your beloved fairy while being loved by her at the same time, I can see how that'd make him cry. 
Sasaraki sat down on the floor and gazed into the distance with Fury. 
"This is tough, huh?" 
"Does Master want to be in mutual understanding with Kisara?" 
"I think it's more precise to say that I want us to be able to have fun together." 
Fury nodded, "Mhm, mhm." She thought for a bit and then smiled. 
"In that case, Fury-chan will give you a hand?" 
"Eh? How?" 
Hadn't the point of her story been 'mutual understanding is impossible, so let it go?' 
"Fufufu, Fury-chan has a trump card, you kno~w??" 
"I've a bad feeling about this, so let's stop right here." 
"I don't want to~?" 
Fury fluttered with her wings. 
"Waitwaitwait! What are you planning to do?!" 
"Please, you don't have to worry? Let's see~, if I put it simply…" 
Fury sent a loving wink towards Sasaraki. 
"...I'll turn Master's reality into a kusoge for a bit?" 
There was nothing not to worry about here. 
* * * 
 
"And that's what happend." 
When it was about time to teleport, he reported everything that had happened to Alice. 
"I see, same procedure as every day, right?" 
"Is it really okay to leave her alone now?" 
"She's just playing with you, there's no real harm done. Don't worry." 
Alice didn't seem to be bothered at all. 
There certainly was no point in worrying about it now, but— he couldn't help it weighing heavy on his mind. 
"Okay, Sasaraki-kun, I'm leaving the teleporting and securing to you!" 
Lizna said. Sasaraki's job was to keep an eye on the audience while Lizna held her speech. 
Alice and Azrael would stay behind in the debugging room and deal with anything that might happen. 
"Right… Okay, let's go." 
"Yeah, but, Sasaraki-kun!" 
Lizna, in her white, fluttering dress, expressed a sweet smile and struck a triumphant pose. 
"A lot has happened, but let's both do our best together, okay?!" 
"Do our best…? At what?" 
"Of course at— letting everyone have a good time!" 
"Fufufufu~," Lizna chuckled without a worry again. 
"That's what being a gamemaster is all about, after all." 
 
She said and winked. Sasaraki kind of understood what she was trying to say. 
When she said 'everyone,' she probably wanted to imply that that also included Kisara. So she'd said: 'Let's make it a game we can enjoy together with her!' 
That really was the most important thing. 
Although he didn't have the slightest idea of how to achieve that. 
The two of them bumped fists and smiled at each other. 
"Let's go, then. Azrael, if something happens, I'll contact you, I'm counting on you to take care of it if push comes to shove." 
"............Yeah…" 
Azrael had regained a bit of her energetic self and nodded meekly. 
After that, Sasaraki teleported them to the square in the center of the town. 
Even though the image of the goddess would be displayed everywhere, most of the players were waiting in the square; reason being that the image itself had mass and being in a narrow space with it sprung the chance of players being crushed to death. 
Last time, over a hundred players had died like that. Some called this phenomenon 'Pressure of the Goddess.' 
And so players who didn't have the 'hugged to death by goddess'-fetish assembled in the square. 
Sasaraki was looking around the place. It felt like there was a festival in this hundred square meters big place. Players had set up various stalls. When Sasaraki checked one of them out, wondering what they were selling, it had 
'Magical Dagger 5 BD' on display. 
"Yo, Onii-chan, wanna buy it?" 
The male shopkeeper asked through his goatee in a seemingly good mood. 
"What does '5 BD' stand for?" 
 
Taking a look around, the other stalls also had things on display for 10 or 8 BD. It had to be a currency. Thanks to a gold dupe glitch this society's monetary economy had broken down a long time ago, so the current economy was ought to be based on trading wares. 
"Haven't you logged in for a while? BD (Black Dice) is our money now, ya know?" 
The shopkeeper rolled something in the palm of his hand. It was a jet-black object about a centimeter big. Well, Sasaraki couldn't really tell whether it even was an object. It didn't reflect light at all, it was like a black hole, looking like pure darkness. But it certainly had the shape of a dice. 
"What is that?" 
"Haven't seen it before? It's stuff that appears when items get lost." 
Now that he said it, Sasaraki had seen something like that before. He'd thought it was useless trash at the time, though. 
"Wait, you're using that instead of coins?" 
"Nothing to make fun of, dude. You can make it from crappy items, so it's not like you're wasting anything, and producing this stuff takes quite some time so it's kinda rare. But most importantly, if you're carryin' a lot of 'em with you, it'll destabilize your character and make you prone for bugfests!" 
"And how is it good to be dealing with a lot of bugs?" 
"It might be good if you wanna face the devs." 
"...Wow." 
Sasaraki heaved a sigh in his heart. The world was plunging into chaos much more rapidly than he'd thought. Although— looking at the stands, the world seemed to thrive thanks to all this. The adaptability of the players was nothing short of amazing. 
However, the driving force wasn't the players themselves, it was Kisara. 
I wonder where she is and what she's thinking right now. 
 
"This is a bit different… f-from what I expected." 
Said a voice he knew all too well. 
When he turned around, sure enough, there she was, the blonde-haired girl, Kisara. Long hair edition. She was surrounded by her grown-up followers and appeared to not have noticed him yet. She was rolling a 'Black Dice' around on the palm of her hand, a perplexed expression on her face. 
"So BD wasn't short for 'black dire'… It looks eerie…" 
"It's a Bug Item, so it's bound to be eerie." 
"This is another issue! We have to improve this, definitely! *scribblescribble*" 
"My Savior, what is that notebook?" 
"It's a notebook with my plans on how to save the world!" 
Kisara laughed a childish, "Fufu~n," and opened her notebook. It had stuff like, 
[Give monsters scary names], [Definitely make pitfalls one meter deeper], [Make ice cream that doesn't explode in your mouth when you eat it], written in it - and below those, [Make pretty coins]. 
"So this is a list of improvements we'll make after we defeated the developers?" 
"We'll make our world a better place together with everyone!" 
"But I don't think this kusoge can be changed that easily…" 
Her follower said and Kisara's expression changed, "Mu—" 
"............I forgot to write down the most important thing." 
Kisara forcefully added something to the bottom of the list. 
[Take back everyone's sanity] 
Kisara looked at her notes full of confidence and nodded a bunch of times. 
"Yep, important tasks, indeed!" 
Her mind seemed made up. Sasaraki watched her and tilted his head. 
 
"Why's she so stubborn in her belief?" 
He had felt the same when she'd given her speech, but Kisara's belief that 'our world is reality' was awfully firm. At first, he'd thought that she was just thinking that way because it's the world she'd been born in, but Fury was the same and didn't show that behavior at all. Then again, Fury was a special case - in various ways. 
It was hard to prove that this world was a game, but proving that it was reality should be at least just as hard. 
And yet, she was a firm believer. 
She'd said that the video crystal held proof that their world wasn't a game, but he had a feeling that that wasn't all there's to it. There had to be another reason for her belief. And if he understood that reason— they might be able to understand each other a bit more. 
"Speaking of which, My Savior, long hair suits you." 
"Of course it does! Angels got to have long hair!" 

Kisara said happily, then the next moment… 
Her long hair was suddenly cut off and back to being short. 
"AAAAAH—! The effect has worn off again—!" 
She grew flustered and took something out of her pocket. It was the baguette - 
or the piece that was left of it. 
"Au… There's just a bit left…" 
'Gotta hold back, gotta hold back,' she mumbled and carefully put the piece back into her pocket like it was something precious. 
"Having your level drained just to change your hairstyle… This is another scheme of the Goddess!" 
Kisara clenched her fists and glared at the sky. 
 
That moment… 
[U-Umm, can you hear me, everyo~ne?] 
A familiar voice echoed in the sky. At once, the madding crowd fell silent, everyone was looking up into the sky. They were looking at a gigantic projection of the goddess, Lizeltna. He was anxious whether they'd face her with hostility, but apparently his fear had been unfounded. 
He could hear whispers in his surroundings. 
"Hey, how do you think she'll kill us this time?" 
"It was water last time, so maybe fire?" 
"Nah, she'll bury us element-style, it'll be a landslide." 
"I see, you're smart." 
"*Looks all proud*" 
The way she was treated rather resembled that of an infamous goddess, sort of like a namahage. 
No, well, this might be better than an awkward situation like being feared. 
[Hello, everyone! It's me, Lizeltna!] 
[Today, you see, umm, what was it again…? Ah, right, right!] 
[I've decided to declare war on all of you.] 
After a brief moment of silence, his surroundings started making a commotion. 
"Developers declaring war on the players? That's new." 
"New? I bet someone came up with this before but didn't dare seeing it through." 
[The reason, you see, it's not that I hate you or anything.] 
[Actually, I really like you all, I love our players. Please, believe me.] 
[...You do believe in me, right?] 
 
[You wouldn't ever doubt me, right?] 
[Eh? What is it, Alice-san…? Ah, I'm sorry, that wasn't meant to be a threat or anything!] 
[Believe it or not, you players are very dear to us.] 
[I won't blow you up without a reason. And I won't forcefully delete your accounts.] 
[But, umm, everything here is bugged, so it might happen by accident, anyway.] 
[If it does, I apologize in advance right now!] 
[I'm sorry *bows*] 
Lizna bowed awkwardly. Everyone around him was shivering. 
"Incredible, she looks like she'll kill us the second we talk back… but she's cute, so I forgive her." 
"You got caught up in her trap, you know?" 
[I'm sorry, I went off-topic. Let's talk war.] 
[We can annihilate all of you without a trace left, hands down.] 
[But we'll give you a chance.] 
[I'll wait on the second floor, in a dungeon underwater.] 
[By defeating my Big Four, you can open the path to me.] 
[Please, by all means, do come by, I won't go easy on you, but I'll welcome you.] 
[On an unrelated note: Don't 'going easy on someone' and 'welcoming someone' kind of have the same feeling to them?] 
[............Sorry, I was just making a joke, but I guess it wasn't funny?] 
Everyone around him laughed drily at once. 
 
[Thank you so much! Well then, everyone...] 
Last but not least, Lizna put on a sweet smile and winked. 
She showed her best smile and gestured as if she was gently hugging something. 
[Do your very best, okay?!] 
 
 
 
The announcement was over, the reflection disappeared. All at once, everyone around him got excited. 
"........................Ha, ha, s-she went there—!" 
He heard a fearless laughter. It was Kisara's. When he looked towards the stall she was at, she was already climbing its post and stood on top of it. Her small legs looked like they were trembling. Was she scared? 
"LISTEN TO ME, EVERYONE!" 
Hearing her shout, everyone turned into Kisara's direction. 
"THIS WAS A DECLARATION OF WAR THAT CLEARLY MOCKED EVERYONE IN OUR 
WORLD!" 
"YOU MUSTN'T FORGIVE THOSE EVIL DEVS!" 
"WE DEFINITELY— WON'T LOSE TO THEM!" 
"OR AM I WRONG, EVERYONE?!" 
There was scattered applause which finally grew louder and louder and ended in 
'SAVIOR!' chants. 
* * * 
Sasaraki and Lizna were at the bottom of the ocean that covered the entirety of the second floor, 'The End of the Endless Ocean.' It harbored the 'Undersea Sanctuary,' an extravagant palace made out of marble reminiscent of temples in ancient Greece. 
In its innermost part was a gigantic hall, modelled like a chapel, and Lizna was sitting on the floor hugging her knees right in the center of it. 
She was the final boss of this event. Therefore, she was waiting for players to arrive. 
 
"Still no o~ne?" 
"The event has barely started, it'll take a while." 
"Being the final boss is boring, ri~ght?" 
"Yeah, but it'd be trouble if you moved around freely now." 
"But don't final bosses often appear before mini boss encounters and say stuff like, 'You're not strong enough to defeat my servant!,' or something?" 
Now that she said it, there were bosses like that. 
"But you're belittling them if you do that, and you're the goddess." 
"Then how about, 'You can do it! I believe in you!'" 
"That will probably just make them angry and attack you on the spot." 
"That's okay. I've the Invincible Barrier turned on." 
'B-B-Barrie~r,' Lizna said, struck a pose like Ultraman, and smiled. 
"And I've turned 'Allow PK' off!" 
"What's that?" 
"Alice-san told me about it. If you try and attack someone like that, you'll just attack yourself." 
"...That's pretty much like an Invincible Barrier before the fight even starts, huh?" 
Sasaraki looked at the floor. There was a huge pool of water as smooth as a mirror covering it. And in it he could see numerous people advancing through a lava cave. At the spearhead of the raid was a young girl with blonde hair, Kisara. 
She was progressing through the last dungeon of the first floor while firing up her allies. 
It looked like she was doing her best to beat the first floor for them, just as they had planned. 
[It's hot… Is everyone doing okay?] 
 
[Of course, My Savior! I jumped into the lava earlier and died, but that aside, I'm okay!] 
[So you're… not okay, are you?! Why would you jump into lava—?!] 
[You see, in games there often are doors hidden in pitfalls, aren't there?] 
[Sometimes there are, who found out about something like that, anyway?] 
For a bit, Kisara was speechless, but finally she shouted, 
[YOU HAVE TO TREASURE YOUR LIVES! THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO'LL BE SAD IF 
YOU DIE!] 
[Weeell, that's alright. My family thought I'm too much of a videogame nerd and abandoned me.] 
[That confession - way too depressing.] 
[Auuu… b-b-but Kisara would be sad!] 
[Eh—?] 
[Kisara would be sad if you died, I'd cry! So you can't die!] 
[...Uwah, not good.] 
[What's wrong?] 
[I was just deeply moved - by a little girl.] 
[Isn't that alright?] 
[But, I kinda wanna check whether she'd really cry for me if I died.] 
The man jumped into the lava and melted away. 
[I LITERALLY JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE———!] 
Kisara seemed to have it pretty rough. 
"I get why she's so popular." 
"It makes you happy if there's someone who'd really cry for you, right?!" 
 
"I wished they could exercise some restraint in making her cry, though…" 
Kisara was beating away on the chest of the man who'd just respawned, crying 
[STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! YOU'RE AN IDIOT! WHAT IF YOU HADN'T 
RESPAWNED, WHAT THEN?!] And roundabout five men and women around her were watching over the scene, smiling. She was so charming. 
"...But, Sasaraki-kun, don't you think something's weird?" 
"I think all of that now was weird." 
"Not that, Kisara-chan thinks this world is reality, right?" 
Lizna was pointing at the water, at the reflection of the player who'd just respawned. 
"Why doesn't it raise doubts with her that people who die simply respawn?" 
"Because she thinks that in reality there's magic that can revive people?" 
"And yet she tells them not to die?" 
Lizna inclined her head, that answer didn't seem to satisfy her. 
"If you understand that people will respawn, wouldn't you be more relaxed with them dying? Or even actively kill them?" 
"That's actually something only you'd do!" 
"Is that really so~...?" 
Lizna kept her head tilted for a while, but eventually said, "Well, whatever." 
The two of them kept watching Kisara and company for a bit. The raid appeared to progress smoothly. 
"Hey, Sasaraki-kun, can I set up a trap or something?" 
"Eh? I don't mind, but… why?" 
"You know, it's going too smoothly. Wouldn't the players be more satisfied if they overcame some difficulties?" 
 
"Normally, yes, but… what about Kisara?" 
She wasn't seeing herself as a player. And in fact, she wasn't. Being the angel who'd save the world, that's what she persisted to be. How would they make someone like her happy? 
"We can do that." 
However, Lizna showed him a sweet smile. 
"Everyone enjoys overcoming hardships with their own power." 
"But they won't exactly be grateful to whoever's giving them those hardships." 
"They don't have to be. I'm the final boss, after all." 
Lizna tapped on the water surface with her finger. Apparently, she was setting up the trap. 
"Alright, done." 
[Why's there a steel door blocking our path all of a sudden—?!] 
[It just appeared out of nowhere, for no good reason, oi!] 
[That trap's just bull!] 
They were protesting loudly. 
"Let's see~, I wonder how Kisara-chan will break through~" 
"I'm just wondering, but how could they break through?" 
"I didn't plan that far." 
"EH—?" 
Sasaraki's voice exploded in surprise, Lizna stared in puzzlement. 
"Isn't it the players' job to come up with a solution?" 
"Nonono, there's a difference between giving them something difficult to overcome and asking the impossible, you know?!" 
 
"Oh, I see—!" 
Lizna looked a bit lonely. 
The moment he thought, Guess I should give them a workaround myself— , the players had formed a circle and were discussing something. Each of them was clasping a pitch-black, light-absorbing bug item, the 'Black Dice,' with their hands. 
"What are they doing?" 
As Sasaraki and Lizna kept watching, Kisara gripped the handle of her sword with one hand and assumed a low stance. The other players threw their 'Black Dices' into the air all at once. Kisara drew her sword and struck them together with a yell. 
[GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—! 'NEO MESSIAN SWORD!'] 
The moment one of the 'Black Dices' touched the sword's tip, a black lightning rushed through the blade. Kisara swung her sword. Together with the fierce sound of cracking glass, a black flash unleashed from the point of contact between the sword and the dice— you could call it a beam. 
It penetrated the steel door all too easily and tore a square-shaped hole in it. 
[There's nothing that can stop us!] 
Sasaraki and Lizna's eyes were mere dots by now. 
"What the heck was that?" 
"Did we have a skill like that?" 
"There are skills that make the sword radiate, but not shoot beams." 
If there were a skill here that would let you shoot beams, Azrael would've been on its heels. 
"Ooh? I haven't seen this one in a while, the Debugging Beam?" 
 
A puff of smoke appeared in front of their eyes and out of it came a fairy. It was Fury. 
"Debugging Beam? Fury, do you know what's going on?" 
"Among items, the Bug Items are extremely unstable. Unstable meaning that the boundary between them and surrounding objects is vague. So applying a powerful vector— like the slash of a sword— leads to it simply swallowing up surrounding data and destroy it?" 
"That sounds nothing short of a bomb." 
"Yes, you'd call it a nuclear explosion in the real world?" 
"Nonono…" 
Don't say nuclear. 
"Will this world be fine if they use something like that?" 
"Of course it won't, look?" 
Fury pointed at the steel door. It had a gaping hole in the form of a square. The insides of the hole were packed with something. On a closer look, it were characters. A whole lot of, [ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!]. 
"Destroying data results in an object syntax error?" 
"So in other words it's a beam that destroys data and causes errors." 
"By the way, if too many of those errors pile up, it'll crash this world?" 
"THAT'S BAD, THOUGH?!" 
Apparently, it was a technique they should never ever use. 
"Sasaraki-kun, how about retrieving the door for now?" 
"Right, if I use the gamemaster skill 'Object Teleport,' it should—" 
"Ah, if you do that now, it will malfunction, you kno~w??" 
"Eh?" 
 
Fury's warning was too late, Sasaraki had already used the skill. As soon as spacetime around the steel door distorted, the distortion fully spread across the entire surrounding area in a heartbeat, Kisara and her allies also got caught up in it. 
[EH—? W-W-WHAT IS THIS—?!] 
Sasaraki and Lizna were in the deepest part of 'The Underwater Palace.' And right there, *BAM*! 
A steel door, Kisara, and a lot of players popped up through teleport. 
"See?? If you use skills on corrupted objects, this is what happens?" 
Lizna and Sasaraki were about five meters apart from Kisara and her group. 
Lizna was still sitting on the floor while hugging her knees and gazed at Kisara and company dumbfoundedly. Kisara and the other players stared back at Lizna in a similar fashion. 
She opened and closed her mouth a few times. 
That's right. The final boss and the savior were facing off by accident. 
"(Sasaraki-kun, what are we gonna do?!)" 
Lizna whispered into his direction. Hearing her voice, Sasaraki snapped out of it. 
Right, for now we've got to take care of them. If I just teleport them back to where they came from, it's as if nothing's happened— No, if I do that now, it'll probably lead to similar problems. 
"Wha—? T-The G-Goddess, and Papa too—?! What are you doing here all of a sudden?!" 
"Ah, s-sorry, wait a moment, I'll come up with something!" 
"You'll come up with something?!" 
"What should I do? Should I have said my line? 'You did well to clear The Underwater Temple!'" 
 
Lizna asked in a fluster. 
"We didn't set a foot in there yet! We're actually still on the first floor, you know?!" 
"T-That's, see, I'd be really happy if you'd be so kind to overlook that!" 
"Kind?!" 
"She's cute, so I could overlook that." 
"The way she's sitting there really puts those thighs on display, I'll overlook it." 
"WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS TALKING ABOUT—?!" 
It was chao. 
The situation had reached its climax of confusion, Lizna clapped her hands together. 
"Well then, umm, a lot of unfortunate circumstances may have led us here, but let's fight for now!" 
"I TOLD YOU, I'VE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT—?!" 
"Here I come, 'HOLY LANCE OF GENOCIDE!'" 
Lizna grabbed her 'Immortal Pendant'— the strongest item in this world, the item that gave gamemasters their powers— that dangled from her neck. As soon as she clasped it, seven lances out of golden light appeared above her head. 
"TAKE THESE !" 
When Lizna flicked her fingers, the energy-clad lances flew towards Kisara and her group. 
"WHA—?!" 
Kisara guarded herself against the onslaught with her sword. The lance got repelled and scattered into light. However, the other players around Kisara weren't as skilled as her. Some were stabbed into the abdomen, some into the chest. 
 
"ALPHAAA—?! BREAAAAAAAAK—?!" 
Kisara screamed while looking at the gruesome spectacle with tears in her eyes. 
"G-Get a hold of yourself! It's probably just a scratch—!" 
"No, My Savior, it's too late for me. I'm dying, so please let me use your lap as a pillow." 
"No, I'm the one who's totally done for here. Please hug me and pat my head while I die." 
"You two seem surprisingly okay, though—?!" 
Looking at their health bars, each time the lance pulsated, it recovered their health. 
"A-re, a-re? Sasaraki-kun, why won't they die?" 
"Lizna, did you test that skill beforehand?" 
"I didn't." 
"You should've." 
"Sorry, I will next time." 
Lizna bowed. How docile of her. 
"Fury, do you know what just happened?" 
"All players are resistant to light-type attacks and absorb the damage?" 
"Why that? Are they doing photosynthesis on top of that?" 
"If they had no light resistance, the sun would be too fierce and evaporate them all?" 
"That reason's so stupid, I can believe that." 
Kisara slapped the two guys in the face and both of them got up again. They looked energetic enough. 
 
Lizna put on a gentle smile and struck a pose that could be from Chinese martial arts. 
"That was just my initial encounter animation! It'd be boring if I defeated all of you when you're not fighting seriously!" 
Apparently, that's what she'd decided to go with. 
"Looked like you were firing at us awfully seriously there, though." 
"Your eyes were ice-cold and bursting with intend to kill, though." 
"Sasaraki, what should I do?! They're not falling for it at all!" 
How tedious. 
"Why would you think that that'd be enough to fool them…? Just fight them head-on already." 
"I see! Got it!" 
Lizna mumbled something and a giant hammer appeared out of nowhere. It was Lizna's favorite Manslaughter Hammer that she'd been using ever since she'd become a player. Sasaraki had also felt its weight on his head numerous times already. There were no players who'd survive a direct attack from it. 
She was spinning the hammer above her head like the blades of a fan and 
*BAM*! 
With a thunderous roar from her kicking the ground, Lizna charged at Kisara and her group. 
"DEATH BLOW! HERE I COME~!" 
"Kuh—… Here she comes! We have to block it!" 
Kisara assumed a stance you'd otherwise see in kendo. Lizna came charging at her with a smile on her face. Hammer and sword clashed. But only for a second. 
Kisara's sword was sent flying and stabbed into the ceiling. Without losing any of its momentum, the hammer was closing in on Kisara— 
 
"Too bad! Please try again— once you've levelled up a bit, okay—?!" 
"————?!" 
Then, something strange happened. 
The second the hammer touched Kisara's delicate body, the hammer went backwards as if someone was rewinding a video cassette. The hammer was approaching Lizna in a motion that shouldn't even be possible based on the physics engine. Together with an explosive sound, she hit the home run on herself. She blasted herself into the wall of 'The Underwater Temple' with a bang. 
[Alice-san told me about it. If you try and attack someone like that, you'll just attack yourself.] 
Oh yeah, 'Allow PK' is off. 
A silence so prolonged it hurt followed. 
[Goddess Lizeltna has been defeated. Event cleared. Congratulations!] 
Lizna's voice (from the past) resounded. They'd recorded it beforehand. 
Sasaraki, Kisara, and the other players were staring at the goddess pasted into the wall. 
[But don't think you've seen the last of the goddess! See you again at the next event!] 
Lizna's desperate-ish voice said. 
Sasaraki's eyes became distant. Kisara was the same. 
At last, the first to raise their voice was the player on Kisara's right-hand side. 
"...We did it! We won!" 
"...We really, really did it, huh?!" 
They glanced at Kisara. 
 
"........................O…" 
She hesitated for a moment, but then shook her head. Thereafter, her face broke into a smile. 
"O-O-Of course! Our courage led us to victory!" 
Apparently, that's what she decided to go with. 
"You really gotta be bursting with courage just to face that hammer!" 
"After all, her words and smile were full with intent to kill, right?! You overcame her killer impulses and won!" 
"HOORAY FOR OUR SAVIOR!" 
"EEEEEEEEEEH—…?!" 
'Are you guys really fine with that?' Kisara's face seemed to ask. 
"Come on, My Savior! Let's go get our loot!" 
"The event reward is a 'Get Whatever Item You Want'-ticket, right?!" 
"We can use it to break the spell of those evil developers, right?!" 
"T-That's right! We can return everyone's sanity with this—!" 
Kisara appeared to have regained her spirit and laughed a, "Ehehe~." Then she turned around to Sasaraki. 
"Papa, I'd like to ask one thing of you." 
"...One thing?" 
"Yes." 
With a serious look on her face, Kisara stared directly into his eyes. 
"I want Mama and you to come to our guild house now." 
"Azrael, too? Are you planning to start something?" 
"Yes! It'll begin now!" 
 
She hugged the 'Get Whatever Item You Want'-ticket to her chest and said one more thing, 
"Please! That's all I ask!" 
"Of course I don't mind." 
"Really?! Yippy! Yippyyy—!" 
Kisara was leaping for joy. 
"I expected nothing less from our savior!" 
"That's great, My Savior!" 
"By the way, I'd like My Savior to call me Papa, too!" 
"Me too!" 
"I won't! Let's go back to the guild house, we have to make our triumphant return—!" 
"How do we get out of here? We were teleported here, right…?" 
"If we die, we should be able to get back to the respawn." 
"In that case, I go first." 
"DIDN'T I TELL YOU NOT TO DIIIIIIIIIIIIE—————?!" 
Kisara could be heard shouting. 
[Hey, hey, Sasaraki-kun, what's Kisara planning to start?] 
He could hear Lizna's voice from afar after she appeared to have respawned. 
"...Hmmm…" 
Sasaraki watched Kisara while she was walking away with a skip in her step. 
"She's probably talking about returning everyone's sanity, but..." 
[But?] 
"I don't think there's any sanity in this game to be found." 
 
[Eh? I'm sane, though?] 
That Lizna could say such things in all seriousness was amazing. 
He sat down on the floor and gazed up at the ceiling. He had no idea what Kisara's plans were, but— he needed to go and make sure for himself. And, if anything happened, it was his duty to save her. 
[Also, Sasaraki-kun, I think my pendant's gone.] 
"Your 'Immortal Pendant?'" 
[Yeah, but why? Was it destroyed by a but?] 
"That's very possible, but hang in there for a moment." 
When monsters possessed an important item, they dropped it once defeated. 
The game handled Lizna as a dungeon boss right now, so she might have dropped it when Kisara defeated her— in that case, it was likely that Kisara had it. 
"I'll get it back when I see her again." 
[More importantly, I'm wondering whether Kisara-chan wouldn't also be willing to become a goddess?] 
"It'd be great if she would, but… sounds difficult." 
Sasaraki heaved a sigh. 
He thought that it'd be great if he could shorten the distance between Kisara and himself from here on out. 
* * * 
After he'd temporarily returned to the debugging room to report to everyone, Sasaraki was now heading to Kisara's guild house. He had taken Azrael with him. 
 
Once he'd told her that Kisara had asked them to come over, Azrael had simply nodded, no questions asked. 
He spoke with her while they were walking across the grasslands. 
"H-Hey, Sasaraki, how is she doing? Are they bullying her?" 
"No. The contrary, they more like worship her." 
"Worship?!" 
"Yeah, of course there are also people she's friends with." 
Of course there were likely also players who were doing all that half kidding, but at least the people who'd been with her dungeon clearing seemed to be close to her. And she was getting along with the other players, too. That alone was enough to set him at ease. 
After they arrived in front of the door to the guild house, they were politely shown in. 
Their destination was a courtyard which harbored an imposing stage on which you'd usually see idols perform. 
There were lots and lots of players around. They could hear them speak noisily. 
[They defeated that atrocious goddess… but how?] 
[I heard she had an invincibility barrier, but they stole her shield-piercing weapon and defeated her.] 
[Heeh? Our savior's amazing. Isn't she just like a real RPG hero?] 
[Have you forgotten that this is a VRMMORPG?] 
[Oh, right.] 
They laughed together, [Wahaha~]. 
"They really are giving it their all to fabricate a fake legend, huh?" 
That's probably how founders of a new religious sect felt. 
 
"Sasaraki-sama and Azrael-sama, no? Please have a seat in the front row." 
A man welcomed them in a polite manner close to the reception and showed them to their seats. They were seated right in front of the stage. In the midst of this open, sandy space, this spot alone was grassy. Two plain, wooden chairs had been arranged. There were cards on top of them: [Papa's Seat], [Mama's Seat]. 
—Apparently, Kisara had prepared these. 
"What should I do, Sasaraki…? I think I'm gonna cry." 
"You're quick to cry, aren't you?! Please hold it together a bit longer!" 
"I wonder if Kisara will perform well…" 
"At what?!" 
He felt like they were at a play on a cultural festival. However, Kisara was serious about this. This was no game. At least not for the person in question. He didn't know what she was up to, but as this was the one thing she'd earnestly asked him to do, he should probably take it just as seriously. 
Then, the commotion around them was fizzling out. 
[—The time for the beginning has come.] 
A voice he knew all too well, Kisara's voice, echoed. It was her entrance. She really was like the founder of a religious sect. 
Kisara took a deep breath and then continued with a carrying voice, 
[Kisara was able to get this into her possession.] 
[It is proof that this world is not a kusoge.] 
[Everyone, please remember. Remember the dream, you all once saw.] 
[Please, please do!] 
Kisara bowed her head. Then she took out a crystal from her pocket. The orb was emitting a strong light. And the light grew even stronger until it illuminated the space behind Kisara onto which it projected a video. 
 
[This— is the world we've seen in our dreams!] 
'OOOOOOOH!,' the crowd cheered. 
Sasaraki almost voiced his surprise, too. He had seen that video before. 
While solemn music played in the background, a beautiful and gigantic tower was visible at the end of the horizon. A party of three, a warrior, a priest, and a mage, were walking towards that tower. As were countless other parties. 
Everyone was heading to the tower. The narration began, 
[This is the 'real' world of swords and magic—] 
Sasaraki was dumbfounded, Kisara called out to him. 
"Papa, do you remember?!" 
"Eh?" 
"You were living here before, do you remember this shiny world?!" 
Kisara's eyes were sparkling. At this point, it'd gotten incredibly hard to point it out to her. He couldn't imagine how she'd react if he did point it out to her. And yet, it wasn't like he could say nothing at all. After all, she'd realize it herself sooner or later. 
Next to him, Azrael was apparently feeling awkward too. 
He couldn't make her tell Kisara. He had to do it himself. 
"You know, Kisara, please, calm down and listen to me." 
"I'm calm and listening!" 
Sasaraki cleared his throat with a cough. Then he said, 
"That was a teaser ad." 
[A gigantic world, spreading across 255 floors! 10000 different quest types (will be included in a later update)!] 
The narration added. 
 
"....................................Hah?" 
"For a game. An advertisement. They're called 'teaser.'" 
"Papa's saying those kind of things again? Now matter how you look at it, this realism is—" 
"Kisara, have you watched it until the end?" 
"I haven't. I've only just managed to get the second part of it earlier." 
"....................................Yeah. Then let's watch it." 
He was gazing at the video together with her. It showed a close-up of a hero who stabbed his sword into the head of a dragon. The narration continued, [The first, the biggest, and the best VRMMO ever: Sword & Magic Online!] 
Then it hugely showed the game's and development studio's logo, Kisara's smile froze. 
The surrounding player were stirring. 
[This video was a total sham, wasn't it?] 
[They defeated the dragon with magic, but there is no magic.] 
[We really did pay money in hope for that.] 
[I get it, our savior wanted to show this to us!] 
[She wants us to claim the game we were promised!] 
[The devs must die, after all!] 
[KILL THE DEVS!] 
They began chanting loudly. Apparently, her presentation had been well-received. 
Ah, in that case Kisara probably isn't too shocked— he thought, when, 
"Th—" 
Kisara spoke up next to him, 
 
"THIS ISN'T HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BEEEEEEEEEEEE—!" 
Kisara said, crying, and ran off. 
"KISARAAAAAAAAA—?!" 
Azrael chased after her, and sprawled on the ground. 
—So it turned into something terrible, after all.