#183

My eyes met Pandemonium’s.

A brief silence followed.

“…Were the numbers on your system window glitched too?”

“Yeah. First time I’ve seen something like this.”

Callister tugged at my sleeve.

“Fabio, what’s happening?”

“…I don’t know.”

I carefully touched Andrea.

I tried to bend his fingers, but they were hard as stone.

It wasn’t just that his movements had stopped; it felt as if his entire body had become a statue.

‘Time is frozen, but is it a situation where only the players can move?’

Tadak-tadak, the sound of firewood burning continued at a constant rate.

The fact that combustion was continuing meant that time for inanimate objects was still flowing.

‘What about the sun? Are the stars moving?’

If I had the Astrolabe, I could have checked immediately.

Right now, the star clock was in Athanas’s hands.

‘…I wonder if that side has stopped too?’

Suddenly, I felt a strange sensation, like a prickle at the back of my neck.

A sense of incongruity.

I consciously recognized where I had experienced this before.

Andrea’s pupils were moving very slowly.

Eyes of a color mixed between green and brown.

Our gazes met.

It stared at me.

It was looking at me.

It recognized me.

It was….

‘Shit.’

“Hyung?”

Without realizing it, I hid behind Pandemonium.

The back of my neck was damp with cold sweat.

“…Move backward slowly while rotating.”

I remembered what that unpleasant sensation was.

The eyes watching me.

That gaze.

‘Order.’

Loclem is watching me.

Through Andrea’s eyes.

‘Why?’

No, I know.

Gods do not look down upon the earth from the heavens.

Gods….

‘They sense the world through the prayers of their believers.’

Even in Conclude, only areas with believers are marked on the map, and information is updated whenever a prayer is received.

‘That’s why I targeted the moment right after the service when raiding villages with priests.’

If prayers aren’t offered during the next service, and the one after that, a Holy Knight will be sent from a nearby diocese to check, but by then, the village is already devastated.

‘Even without killing the priest, you can deceive Loclem by brainwashing them and offering false prayers.’

God is blind and deaf.

Just as it is easy to deceive a supervisor who judges situations only by documents without field verification, God is also easily deceived.

That is why those who dare offer false prayers to God are severely punished.

‘Because if everyone colludes to trick God, He has no choice but to be fooled….’

That is why God occasionally borrows the eyes of a believer to look at the world directly.

Though those subordinates, from Archbishops downward, cannot withstand it and end up bleeding profusely.

‘The notification window said “Descent”.’

Does that mean Loclem has descended to this land?

Into Andrea?

No, but the area was the entire ‘Dark Realm’.

“…Stop here.”

I slowly stepped away from Pandemonium and moved in the opposite direction.

It was to see who the gaze was directed toward.

What is Loclem trying to ‘confirm’?

The players?

Or….

‘Shit.’

The gaze clearly followed me.

Suddenly, a surge of irritation rose within me.

‘Why?’

Why me?

Does He have some grudge against me?

Shit, I even helped with the Sanctuary Declaration.

The moment the bell rang, Loclem must have ‘perceived’ the entire Capital Church.

Didn’t He realize then that I was a nobody?

I was a pathetic wretch who couldn’t even withstand a single gaze.

‘…If He wanted to screw me over, there were much simpler ways.’

If the bell ringer had just given me a slight nudge, I would have died.

No, even if he had just told me to stay still.

I would have waited until hypothermia set in….

“What do you want now?”

“Hyung?”

“Shit, this is fucking annoying.”

I snatched the Saintess’s Sacred Relic floating in the air and gripped it with both hands.

It felt like my hands were burning, but I gritted my teeth and ignored it.

“Loclem!”

I looked straight into Andrea’s eyes.

Just doing that caused tears to stream down my face.

“What on earth do you want! Are you just going to wipe out all the players? Fine! Do whatever you want! But! Before you kill me, you must deal with the Mother God Player first! I don’t want to die twice! Order doesn’t like doing things twice either, right?”

“Hyung, what are you doing! Do you want to die?”

“Shit! I’m doing this because I fucking hate dying!”

Ultimately, unable to bear the pain, I dropped the Sacred Relic on the floor.

My palms were red, as if I had suffered a burn.

‘Shit, it’s like I’m some evil spirit hit by holy water.’

I felt miserable because it felt like Order had replied with, ‘Fuck off.’

I rubbed my cheek to wipe it, then paused for a moment seeing the red color on my hand.

‘Was that not tears flowing?’

“Callister. Come here.”

“…Fabio.”

‘Why the gloomy face?’

I thought he’d be happy.

Anyway, after using a high-performance biomass processor to cleanly remove the protein stains, I put on the gloves Andrea had intended to give me.

The system notifications remained silent.

“Hey. Padeul Padeul. Do you understand what’s happening right now?”

[…I do not.]

“Shit, why don’t you? You’re a Helper. In the first place, how does the tutorial emergency whatever work? You say it’s at the system’s discretion—when does a message like that even appear? Answer me.”

[Did I not say I do not know? The meaning of ‘do not know’ is that there is nothing I can answer. You fool.]

“Just tell me what you suspect. Make up some nonsense.”

[…The system does not make mistakes. Never.]

“And?”

[But a being that never makes mistakes cannot exist.]

‘A contradiction.’

“What’s the conclusion?”

[That is all I can tell you.]

“…….”

What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

“You’re fucking terrible at explaining. I should have picked up a Civilization God’s Helper instead of this idiot.”

[It is not that I am unable, but that you are unable to understand! O foolish one.]

Yeah, probably.

I let out a long sigh and walked out of the chapel.

On my way, I saw a man in priest’s clothing who had collapsed and lost consciousness.

I stood before the man.

‘…It’s the same here.’

Even with all my strength, I couldn’t move a single strand of his hair.

The hazy pupils of his half-open eyes moved slowly.

Just by meeting his gaze for a moment, my eyes began to sting crazily.

‘I can just think of all of Order’s priests as CCTVs.’

Because of the tutorial emergency life-saving device, they can’t do more than ‘see’, but….

“Hyung, can’t you tell me what you’re thinking right now? I’m starting to get scared.”

“…When the emergency life-saving device activated.”

“Huh?”

“The effect disappeared as soon as we escaped the danger, right?”

“Eh? Uh, yeah. I think so.”

I tilted my head back and looked up at the sky.

Even though there was plenty of time until evening, the sun was already dipping.

I could feel that the Winter Solstice was just around the corner.

‘…What is the system’s plan?’

The Saintess mentioned that there were several Watched Ones who had ‘converted’ to Order.

In other words, there were players who had already suffered a Game Over at that point.

‘Whether they gave up the game intentionally or were actually captured.’

It meant that survival was not guaranteed for players just because it was the tutorial period.

But what about this situation?

‘Even if I wanted to be struck by lightning, I’d have to wait for hours.’

There is nowhere to run, but dying isn’t easy either.

“…Has time ever slowed down this much? To the point where the opponent looks frozen.”

“No. In the first place, this is my first time experiencing time dilation rate adjustment.”

‘This incident is indeed exceptional.’

I frowned.

‘It said the system does not make mistakes.’

Then how should I interpret this?

I don’t know.

I have no clue.

“…House Lizard.”

“Huh?”

“House Lizard said I would never realize it.”

As long as I am under the influence of the system.

What the War God Assistant said was similar.

He said he had explained it enough, but that I was the one unable to understand.

“When?”

“…When you introduced the Main Hall basement as your study.”

“What? Weren’t there no contaminated humans there?”

“Francesco was there the whole time. He just wasn’t visible to you.”

“Shit, what?”

As I blinked, hemoglobin-rich tears flowed down.

Just by looking, I break like this.

But rather than being overwhelmed by that power, that gaze, I strangely felt a sense of pity.

Such a massive and powerful god….

‘In the end, He’s inside the system.’

Like a whale caught in a net.

Unable to even open His mouth, barely able to roll His eyes.

“Hyung, where are you going?”

“Main Hall.”

“Why there?”

‘Too many questions.’

I ignored Pandemonium and continued my train of thought.

‘If the result wouldn’t change regardless of what I did, the system would have declared the game over instead of activating the life-saving device.’

Like a Solitaire game popping up a notification saying there are no more cards to move.

‘So, from the system’s perspective, there is some way left.’

In this infinitely stretched moment, I can do something.

No, I must.

‘…That must be what it means, right?’

Shit.

Now that I think about it, this is bullshit.

Why do I have to be the one guessing?

Can’t it just tell me what to do?

Send a Quest.

Pop up a Challenge.

‘The fact that this situation happened in the first place is because the system isn’t doing its job.’

If House Lizard found a loophole in the system, shouldn’t they have blocked it with an emergency patch or something?

‘System doesn’t make mistakes, my ass.’

If this were an online game, this would be a major disaster requiring an immediate announcement and a server rollback.

“Hyung! Please answer me. What are you going to do at the Main Hall?”

“…I’m going to the 24th basement floor.”

“Basement?”

You system bastard.

Are you listening?

If you keep doing nothing, I’m just going to leave, okay? Huh?

I’ll go to a system out-of-bounds area and hear the Ultimate Answer or whatever from House Lizard.

‘So if that’s not the answer, send some kind of signal.’

I stopped in front of the stairs leading down to the Main Hall’s basement.

Just looking down made my stomach churn violently.

‘Shit.’

Do I really have to go here?

Really?

I gripped my left arm tightly.

[Fabio, Fabio, Fabio, Fabio, Fabio!]

The paper crane suddenly shouted as if having a seizure.

“…What?”

Why is this War God Assistant bastard suddenly making a fuss?

Did Mother God send a whisper?

‘…Wait.’

Has Padeul Padeul ever called me ‘Fabio’ before?

[You mustn’t go down! Fabio!]

‘Could this be a Record?’

‘…Come to think of it, this paper crane was made by cutting up the book of records.’

I thought it would be fine since the ink had all drained out.

It seemed the influence of the 4th basement floor ‘Record’ still remained.

“Why can’t I go down?”

[I don’t know. The ‘me’ who knew, just disappeared.]

“You’re the Record from the 4th basement, right? What happened down there? Do you know what House Lizard—no, Francesco—is doing now?”

[Francesco? I don’t know. First time hearing that word.]

‘Shit, I want to ban the word “don’t know”.’

Whether it’s Padeul Padeul or the Record, why is it always “don’t know, don’t know”?

Are they sunfish?

“You told me. Francesco. You said he’s someone who writes well. That’s his name.”

[I did? Cannot do knowing. Much disappeared. Still continuing.]

“What does ‘cannot do knowing’ even mean? Just say you don’t know.”

[Don’t know? ‘Don’t know’ disappeared. Don’t know. Just now know. I don’t know. My name. Fabio? Know? My name. Name.]

‘…Are you asking if I know the name of the Record?’

I don’t.

It’s not that I forgot; I’ve truly never heard it.

But I had an intuition that the moment I honestly answered that I didn’t know, this ‘fragment of record’ would completely vanish.

‘But I really don’t know, so what am I supposed to do.’

Just guess?

Among the gods of the Dark Realm, there are cases like Floren or Opia where you can tell what kind of god they are just by hearing their name.

If so, there’s a possibility that the name of ‘Record’ is similar to a word I already know.

‘Words that mean record or book….’

What was it?

Memory, log, record, archive, book, scroll, codex….

After some deliberation, I chose one word.

“Codex?”

[Codex?]

“Codex, is that right?”

[…Codex. Codex! Codex? Codex! I am Codex!]

[SYSTEM: ‘Codex (Remnants of Record)’ is deeply influenced by your words!]

[SYSTEM: An anecdote is added to the achievement ‘Miracle of the Silver Tongue’.]

[SYSTEM: Affinity has increased very slightly.]

I sensed it immediately.

‘Shit, this is the wrong answer.’

[I am Codex! Cute. It’s a wonderful name. Codex. I must write it down! So I never forget again! I am Codex!]