#124

I felt a slight sense of incongruity.

‘It’s not exactly a bad vibe…’

How should I put it?

‘…It feels like he’s become more interested in me?’

“I told you to ask, so why are you just staring at me in silence?”

“Because you suddenly seem kinder.”

The boy’s face stiffened.

“…And? Do you have a problem with that?”

“No, I was just wondering what part of what I just said raised your Affinity.”

“Do you think I’m some NPC whose Affinity goes up if you pick the right dialogue options?”

“Regardless, your Affinity did go up.”

The boy let out a hollow laugh, as if he found the situation absurd.

“I guess my Affinity shot up because I was glad to meet a player who actually wants to go home.”

“…Are there people who have no intention of returning home?”

“Surprisingly, yes.”

“What absolute psychos. Do they actually want to keep living in a place like this?”

As I grimaced in disgust, the boy suddenly burst out laughing.

“Ah, that’s hilarious. You’re right. Those guys are all crazy! Lunatics!”

‘…I wasn’t trying to be funny.’

His reactions were unpredictable, but I decided to just let it slide.

“Then, second question. Tell me who that ‘crazy bastard’ is you’ve been mentioning. It would also be great if you could give me a brief overview of the other players.”

“Are you trying to count all that as a single question?”

“In short, it’s information about the players, right? Why not?”

“Wow, I didn’t take you for this type, but you’re completely shameless. You day-robber!”

The boy suddenly smacked me on the back.

‘What the hell?’

Who’s calling who a robber?

Ridiculous.

“Well, I was planning to warn you about that crazy human anyway, so I’ll overlook your stubbornness. The crazy bastard… where should I even start explaining this?”

“…Tell me how you first found out about him.”

“That would be best. The first time I met that crazy bastard was in Bonaparte’s group chat.”

“Bonaparte?”

“Ah, the moment you say a Nickname out loud, the chat window pops up. That’s why everyone has a separate nickname for their Nickname.”

‘Like a callsign.’

“Bonaparte is… Napoleon Bonaparte. You know, right? If you put ‘Nya’ in front of it…”

I understood immediately without needing that much explanation.

More importantly, meeting a ‘crazy bastard’ in a chat room created by Nyapoleon meant…

‘Is the crazy bastard someone different from Nyapoleon?’

“…Is the group chat function provided by the System? How did you get in?”

“It was the fifth day after I possessed this body when I received a message from Bonaparte. I was lying in bed with a blanket over my head, unable to accept the fact that I’d been transported to the Dark Realm…”

‘I guess nobles have people to feed them even if they stay in bed for five days.’

“…Suddenly, a message popped up. Bonaparte said he had been calling out every Nickname he knew indiscriminately, and I happened to be caught.”

‘I thought about doing that on my first day at the Capital Church; someone actually put it into practice.’

“He said it would be good for players to create a place to exchange information and interact, and that he would find a way for us to talk to each other. He claimed that putting our heads together would definitely be helpful.”

“…You didn’t actually fall for that and share things like your current Unit information, did you?”

The Prophet gave an awkward smile.

“Did I?”

“…Only that I am the player of the Distorted One. Beyond that, he actually stopped me before I could say more. He told me not to carelessly speak about the Unit I possessed.”

‘Is this kid actually an idiot?’

“So, what about the group chat? Is it a structure where the person who invites others becomes the room leader?”

“Not exactly; it’s all manual.”

‘…A manual group chat?’

I couldn’t even imagine what that meant just from the words.

“It was a structure where Bonaparte would collect what people said, organize it, and then relay it back… like that.”

‘…So.’

Nyapoleon: Anomalocaris said, ‘Isn’t it too hot lately?’

Nyapoleon: Hallucigenia said, ‘True.’

Me: Fucking hot.

Nyapoleon: Opabinia said, ‘Fucking hot.’

Nyapoleon: It is indeed hot.

He operated it like that?

‘That is incredibly inefficient.’

“Then wouldn’t the chat room owner have to spend all day muttering to the air?”

“He said he bought a function to automate that using Clear Points.”

‘…If he’s the Mother God player, he’d have points to spare.’

“More importantly, with a structure like that, Bonaparte could manipulate the content.”

How can anyone trust that?

To put it extremely, every player other than me and Nyapoleon could be a fabrication.

“Because there are players who put their real Nicknames on the line.”

‘And if you’re suspicious, you just start a 1-on-1 chat to compare the content directly?’

“…Still, it’s still suspicious whether a player who hides their Nickname is a real person or a fake.”

“You just accept that risk.”

The Prophet said he hadn’t tried talking to other players because he didn’t want to reveal his own Nickname.

“There were 15 people in the chat room in total. Out of those, 6 people used their real Nicknames.”

‘…More people revealed themselves than I thought.’

Well, in that situation, revealing your Nickname would be more efficient.

Since he’d already been caught by Nyapoleon anyway.

“At first, everyone actively discussed the game’s System or shared newly discovered information. I was mostly on the asking side.”

“Did you ever accidentally reveal your identity while asking?”

“…Bonaparte helped me a lot.”

Whenever the Prophet was about to accidentally reveal his identity, Bonaparte would warn him, asking if he really intended to say that.

Furthermore, when he was about to fall for another player’s leading questions, Bonaparte would kindly explain via private chat what information the other person could gain from that specific answer before delivering the response.

‘That’s a kindness that feels like it has an ulterior motive.’

In such a situation, if Nyapoleon were to dispose of the Prophet and continue pretending to be the Prophet, no one else would be able to tell the difference.

“So that means Bonaparte knows your full identity?”

“…Yes.”

Realizing he was easily swayed by leading questions, the Prophet decided to cautiously observe the conversation rather than actively communicating.

Among them, the most striking user was one using the fake Nickname ‘Insanity.’

‘Calling himself Madness…’

Is he a Chunibyo?

“Is that the crazy bastard?”

“Yes.”

‘So “crazy bastard” wasn’t an insult, but a literal translation.’

Insanity was a user with such vast knowledge that it seemed as if he alone had access to a wiki.

Many people wanted to speak with Insanity directly, but Insanity always communicated only through Nyapoleon, citing that he didn’t want to reveal his Nickname.

“And it’s certain that Insanity is a different person from Nya… I mean, Bonaparte?”

“I suspected that too…”

In the chat room, the speaking styles of Nyapoleon and Insanity were very different.

However, when Nyapoleon gave ‘advice’ to the Prophet, his tone was identical to Insanity’s.

“Then isn’t he just the same person?”

“…I thought it was like a sub-account at first. His attitude as the chat room operator would be different from his behavior as one of the participants.”

Such discussions came up constantly in the chat room, but it concluded with the idea that people should judge for themselves whether Insanity was a real player or a sub-account.

“There was a lot of pressure on me to prove I was a real player too, but I just ignored it.”

Despite that, there was a player who succeeded in sending a chat to the Prophet.

Just like Nyapoleon, they had simply called out random Nicknames until they hit the mark.

“That person was the player of the War God, and they said they were creating a forum for information exchange led by the Pioneer of Civilization, excluding only Bonaparte.”

“Did you join that one too?”

“He said he had already informed all the people he knew of my Nickname.”

The first impression was the worst, but once he joined, it wasn’t such a strange gathering.

It was closer to a group trying to deduce who the anonymous users in Nyapoleon’s manual chat room were.

Everyone thought Insanity was Nyapoleon’s ‘alt,’ but only the War God’s player insisted that ‘Insanity’ was someone else.

He claimed it was definitely someone he knew well.

“Who?”

“You know. That famous 8-letter one.”

The Prophet mimicked typing rhythmically on a virtual keyboard with his left hand.

“qwer…”

“Exactly. That person.”

‘…I know who that is.’

Not Insanity.

I now knew exactly who the War God’s player was.

That strategy game veteran using the Nickname ‘Pandemonium.’

‘”Knew well” my ass.’

He was completely off base.

“He said if he were an Othergod, he would have definitely picked that person as his first choice, and that it made no sense for a human who was so obsessively devoted to this game to not be here.”

That piece of shit, and I even bought him food.

“…If you called the Nickname and they weren’t there, aren’t they just not there?”

“He said they might have bought a Nickname change ticket with Clear Points or logged in with a sub-account. He claimed they would have predicted this situation in advance…”

‘Half of his wild guess was actually correct.’

Though I didn’t intentionally enter with a sub-account.

“Anyway, if that person really is Insanity, there was a discussion about which Othergod they would have chosen.”

“What was the conclusion?”

“Since the Mother God player was already known, the conclusion was that it must be the Distorted One or the Lord of Nightmares.”

‘Ding~ The correct answer was Happy God.’

Sigh…

Dammit.

“So, what made you think Bonaparte and Insanity are not the same person?”

At my question, the boy’s expression darkened slightly.

“…Insanity entered the chat room operated by the Pioneer of Civilization.”

I frowned.

“Is that chat room based on the same principle? Then wouldn’t it simply be that the Pioneer of Civilization teamed up with Bonaparte?”

“He said he had no intention of sending such chats… He had never invited Insanity, nor had he ever spoken to him, yet every chat he sent had Insanity’s words appended to it.”

Suddenly, I got goosebumps.

“Then you’re saying Insanity hacked the System?”

The Prophet shook his head and pointed to his head.

“He suspected that it wasn’t the System, but this side that had been hacked. The Pioneer of Civilization left a message saying he might already be controlled by Insanity and that he was going to visit the Church of Order, then he disappeared. After that, no matter whose Nickname I call, no window pops up.”

“Which means…”

‘He’s dead?’

“That’s what happens when you get a Game Over. Well, I don’t know. He could be somewhere in the Church in a mad state.”

‘That’s terrifying.’

“The War God player told me to be careful, insisting that Insanity is definitely the player of the Distorted One.”

“…And?”

“I honestly told him that I am the player of the Distorted One and that Insanity is probably the Lord of Nightmares. I didn’t want to experience someone else being logged out. We had become a bit close…”

The Prophet fell silent for a moment.

“…After that, I got a message from Bonaparte. He said it was a message Insanity wanted to send to me.”

The content was short.

‘Have you forgotten the advice I gave you?’

“That’s freaking scary.”

“I was too afraid to dig deeper into what that meant.”

“What about the War God player? Did you tell him about that message?”

“I did, and after that, he ignored everything I said. I think he blocked me.”

‘He probably thought this kid had a backdoor.’

Just as I had been anxious that ‘Oblivion’ might hear me talking to Athanas.

‘I should be careful too.’

I shouldn’t reveal too much critical information to him.

“What is the third question?”

“The third is…”

Originally, I was going to ask for his Nickname.

But I felt it would be better to ask after finding out more.

“…The second question got too long, so I’ll tell you after this situation is wrapped up.”

“You’re not using some trick to avoid telling me the ending, are you?”

“No, I’ll tell you that now.”

‘It’s not a very long story anyway.’

“Usually, the Cult Leader Unit who contracts with the Distorted One has a desperate wish, right? When you see the ending, the Distorted One pretends to grant that wish and then betrays them.”

“…An Othergod betrays their Contractor?”

“Yeah. Betrayal and deception are his very essence. To be precise, it’s disappointment. Naturally, the Contractor is betrayed too.”

“Then who on earth contracts with the Distorted One?”

“Someone like you who doesn’t know any better.”

“……”

“Anyway, it’s best not to trust the Distorted One. Always doubt the Quests he gives. He’s probably just trying to mess with you.”

“Actually…”

“Hmm?”

The boy looked up at me.

“A Quest just popped up telling me to make a good impression on you.”

“What?”

“How should I interpret this?”

Chapter 125