#025

“Ah, and one more thing.”

Apostle Adna spoke.

“Fabio. You said you couldn’t remember any name other than Fabio.”

At Adna’s words, I tensed up again.

‘Judging by how she’s talking, it seems the lie I told back then worked….’

“If any other name happens to come to mind, summon the Saintess immediately. It is that important.”

‘Another name? What is she talking about?’

“Do I… have another name?”

“Yes. Every ‘Watched One’ has a name given to them by the Being Beyond the Stars.”

A name called by an Othergod.

‘She must be talking about the Nickname.’

Happiness called me ‘my evangelist.’

Since my alt account’s nickname was [Happy Cult Evangelist], it was highly likely that the name called by an Othergod referred to the nickname.

“If you discover what that name is, do not carelessly reveal it to anyone other than the Apostles of Order, do not record it, and do not even utter it to yourself.”

‘Is the nickname set as a forbidden word or something?’

“In particular, you must be extremely cautious about uttering the name of another ‘Watched One’.”

“What happens if I do?”

“…Well.”

Adna remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“What is certain is that a ‘Watched One’ can tell when another ‘Watched One’ calls their name.”

‘Does a notification pop up in the System window when a nickname is called?’

If it was a System window that only activated when a player called another player’s nickname, rather than an NPC….

‘Could a whisper function for multiplayer have been added?’

Since it was now certain that there were other players besides me, it was possible that the System had been upgraded for multiplayer.

The fact that the Order Sect was stronger than expected might also be a balance adjustment based on the premise of players cooperating….

‘Or it might be a feature designed to make it easier to identify and kill each other.’

If the victory condition was to be the last player standing, one would have to track down even a serf player living hidden away in some rural village.

‘If a whisper function was indeed added, the veterans would have contacted each other long ago.’

I alone remembered most of the veterans’ nicknames.

This was because ST Games always attached the player’s nickname when uploading play video clips.

While watching those clips, there were many players whose brain structure I wondered about, thinking, How can a human play like this?

‘Their nicknames were all exactly the kind of people who would play like that.’

There were quite a few nicknames that were impossible to forget even if I wanted to.

Like [Let’sThrowSaltyStones], who mainly played as the Plague God.

Come to think of it, that absurd clause stating that playlogs are collected and archived as videos without additional consent the moment you play the game might have been created as a way to provide information so players could know about each other before possessing their characters.

‘Now that I think about it, no one would know my current nickname, right?’

Since my alt, [Happy Cult Evangelist], did nothing but repeat plays where he died just to reach 1,000 hours and obtain the title, he had naturally never been archived in a clip.

With my main account, every Othergod play except for Happiness had been archived in a clip at least once….

“Even if that’s not the case, ‘calling a name’ can have special effects. If anyone asks you to recite a strange phrase, avoid them at all costs.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

‘It’s truly a stroke of luck that I didn’t come here with my main account.’

What if that lunatic who refused to give up on the game remembered my nickname?

He would have certainly used the multiplayer functions or whatever to track me down.

And then he would have either killed me or tried to persuade me.

‘I would have had to choose between becoming a heretic collaborator or dying.’

I almost missed out on the good ending of [Living comfortably and well under the protection of the Order Sect].

‘I should avoid getting entangled with other players as much as possible.’

As long as there is a feature for players to recognize one another, even a sane player might be monitored after their identity is discovered by a crazy player.

In this situation, it was safest for everyone to remain strangers.

‘The saying “ignorance is bliss” applies here too.’

“Also, above all else, what you must be most careful of is….”

‘Is there anything I need to be more careful of than a crazy player?’

“The ‘Being Beyond the Starry Sky’ who chose you as a ‘Watched One’.”

‘Happiness?’

Now that I think about it, that idiot hasn’t given me a single revelation since I dropped into this world.

Is he unable to intervene because he’s a broke bastard with no Clear Points?

‘Strictly speaking, the one who brought me here was Mother God….’

Could it be that Happiness doesn’t even know where I am right now?

Knowing Happiness, that seemed possible.

He didn’t seem to have any understanding of the game system.

Nor did he seem to have any will to understand it.

If he had the slightest understanding of what a game was, he would have compromised with his own essence to find a clearable method and then collected Clear Points. From what Mother God said, it seemed there were many things one could do with Clear Points….

‘How the hell did that guy even become an Othergod?’

It was surprising that someone with no ambition and ambiguous Divine Power became an Othergod, but I was even more surprised that he was still alive.

Did he survive because he had no presence?

‘No, there are people who eye even a mortal like me who has accumulated a tiny bit of Affinity, so there’s no way an Othergod wouldn’t be known.’

The reason the other Othergods knew of Happiness’s existence but didn’t bother to kill an idiot like him was….

‘Because they thought their own intelligence would drop if they merged with him?’

Happiness’s essence is to save everyone who prays to him.

Of course, the method of salvation is ridiculous, but regardless, his principle and essence are to never reject anyone who reaches out.

If any Othergod were to ‘merge’ by swallowing Happiness, that essence would become a part of them.

They would end up with a restriction that has few advantages and only disadvantages.

Then the new Othergod would have to repeat the same moronic behavior Happiness did.

‘Even I wouldn’t pick up an essence like that.’

No bird tries to eat a caterpillar with disgusting poison.

Evolving to be not worth eating can be a great survival strategy.

‘But damn, that just means he survived because he’s such a hopeless blockhead that the other Othergods didn’t even glance at him.’

Absolute waste of space.

“If he gives you any revelation or tells you to call his name, you must never be tempted by it.”

Hearing Adna’s words, a question suddenly occurred to me.

‘Now that I think about it, have I ever called Happiness out loud?’

I’ve called the System, but I don’t think I’ve ever called Happiness.

“Calling a god’s true name, rather than their epithet, is extremely dangerous. The moment you call the name, you are reaching out to connect with the god, and if the other side takes that hand, there is no telling what will happen.”

Adna warned seriously.

“Therefore, it is always safer to refer to beings who transcend humanity metaphorically.”

‘…Come to think of it, the Order Sect always referred to Othergods only by epithets.’

The Order Sect of the Heretic Slayers referred to the Plague God only as the ‘Plague God,’ or ‘Lord of Disease and Suffering,’ ‘The Afflictor,’ ‘The Disgusting and Unclean Being,’ or ‘The Mass of Pus and Ooze.’

Even though the cultists would often scream [O, Italakahim!] and call the Plague God’s name whenever they were beaten.

‘I thought the Heretic Inquisitors just gave the Othergods creative nicknames to provoke them.’

So Athanas calling the Plague God things like ‘Your master, who has a mass of pus instead of a brain’ wasn’t just to piss off the cultists.

‘No, this should have been in the setting guide….’

To think I only found out about something this important after possessing a character.

What if I hadn’t thought to come to the heretic-friendly Order Sect, which kindly provides such warnings?

‘I might have died in a ridiculous way.’

I should start thinking in epithets too.

It would be absurd if something I was thinking accidentally slipped out and caused a problem because it was an Othergod’s real name.

‘An epithet….’

Mother Aellusia’s most major epithet is [Mother of Mutants].

Depending on the playstyle, various epithets appear, such as [Producer of Deformities], [One Who Profanes the Order of Life], [Contaminated Womb], or [Blasphemous Mother].

‘Well, just Mother God should be enough.’

That’s what all the users call her.

And I’m used to the title Mother God.

As for Happiness….

‘He would need to have had some influence in-game to even have an epithet.’

None of the people who played Happiness ever went as far as becoming hostile with the Order Sect.

An epithet is determined when the Order Sect detects something strange, defines the Cult Leader and their followers as ‘heretics,’ and triggers an event to set an official epithet. But Happiness’s cult never even reached the stage of being considered strange.

To use an analogy, an epithet is like a gang name given by the police to manage organized crime groups.

But for the police to recognize it and say, ‘Ah, a new gang has emerged. I should categorize them,’ the gangsters have to actually commit violence and move in groups, right?

If Kwak Du-pal (38), who has no gang members, wanders the streets alone or with one friend he managed to make and just bumps shoulders with people, he’ll be marked as a suspicious person, not categorized and managed as an organized crime member.

True to being such a trash Othergod, Happiness had no proper designation among users.

He was called all sorts of things haphazardly: Pseudo-Othergod, Idiot-god, Unupdated-god, Fishing-god, That-thing-not-yet-cleared, Happy-happy, Happy God, Hap-god.

Hardly anyone remembered the name Happiness correctly, so they called him Happinesss, Herpes, Hepenis, Happy-penis, or whatever they felt like.

That’s why there were always people asking, ‘How can a god’s name be Happy D***?’

The nickname ‘Happy D***’ derived from that was the most frequently mentioned, but….

‘I’ll just call him Happy God.’

“Not calling names carelessly, and using metaphorical titles is safer…. I will carve the guidelines you taught me into my heart.”

“But that alone is not enough.”

‘What?’

Metaphors aren’t enough?

Then what am I supposed to do?

Before saying anything, do I have to recite a spell like [This statement is based on complete fiction and has no relation to actual persons, organizations, events, or gods]?

“…For some names, simply hearing the pronunciation and remembering it creates a door or a passage in the mind through which a higher being can invade the psyche.”

‘What the fuck, that’s terrifying.’

My brain gets hacked just by hearing a specific word?

Is this cosmic horror?

I mean, the genre of Conclude is cosmic horror, but….

‘Still, there must be a way to block it, right?’

Fear like an abyss, an irresistible giant power, and a helpless human before it… that’s cosmic horror, but Conclude is basically a strategy game.

The [System], which balanced the game by placing dozens of restrictions on Othergods, would not allow a skill like an unblockable instant-death move.

‘I believe in you, Order Sect! There must be a way to block it…!’

“Those without sufficient divine power cannot even perceive such an invasion.”

‘Dammit!’

Are you saying those without divine power aren’t even human?

A world where you must possess divine power—not immunity, but divine power—if you don’t want to die!

Chapter 26