The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

Chapter 154

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The Strategist VI

8

Finally, the [The Admin of All-Play] sent a notification, but it hadn\'t fully revealed itself yet.

If we were to compare it to a hikikomori, the current state was akin to the door being slightly ajar.

It wasn\'t enough to say that the harsh reality had been revealed just yet.

A final decisive blow was necessary to drag this severe recluse out into the dazzling light of the outside world.

First, I logged into the SG Net and checked the current situation.

-Anonymous: Did the status window pop up??

Just as we had planned, a festival was in full swing on the community boards.

-Anonymous: I thought my ability was just igniting, but the status window says it\'s actually \'flame conjuring.\' I\'ve been a crappy awakened who didn\'t even know his own ability until now...

└KoreanVillage: What\'s the difference between igniting and flame conjuring? Aren\'t they both just fire?

└Anonymous: Igniting just sets fire to physical objects, but flame conjuring can also set the community on fire...

└KoreanVillage: ?

└Anonymous: The more the flames grow, the more my ability strengthens. I\'ll show you right now, so just wait...

-Anonymous: Now that I can see the status window, life feels worth living again.

-Anonymous: Haha, Oh Dokseo, you were keeping this awesome thing all to yourself, huh? LOL

-CookingQueen: Interesting.

-Officer: Just out of curiosity, were those who posted certification that they\'ve become magical girls all female?

└Anonymous: LOL

└Officer: ?

└Anonymous: You\'ll find out if you go there. LOL

I nodded.

The \'status window\' was spreading like a trend among the awakened.

At first, the normal folks who instinctively felt uneasy about the enigmatic group called the Magical Girls Association changed their minds when five-star reviews like "This shop is a gem!" started pouring in.

If the strategy continued smoothly like this, it wouldn\'t be long before we could drag the hikikomori God out from behind the door.

"By the way."

Just in case, I asked the Saintess.

"Saintess, among the awakened who have their status windows up, is there anyone with a useful ability?"

[I\'m constantly checking, but nothing noteworthy has been confirmed yet.]

The Saintess, who was in charge of monitoring, answered calmly.

[The \'teleportation\' ability you asked about last time hasn\'t been found either.]

[There were some who awakened to \'light-footed\' or \'body technique\' abilities, but they fall far short of teleportation.]

"Hmm."

As expected.

I had searched several times until the 593rd turn, looking for someone with the teleportation ability who could save Old Scho’s wife.

But if we still hadn\'t seen even a hair of such a person, the chances were high that a teleportation ability user didn\'t exist.

Maybe someone like that exists on the other side of the world... But if they\'re that far away, even if we found them, it would lose its meaning.

I tucked away the old disappointment into the drawer of my mind and turned to Oh Dokseo.

"What do you think, Dokseo?"

"..."

"Can you feel the connection with the Alien God?"

Oh Dokseo was sitting quietly in a meditative pose. For the latest model otaku like Oh Dokseo, it was a rather difficult posture.

"Ugh... I feel like I can sense it, but maybe not...?"

Oh Dokseo was grimacing, her legs trembling.

While the Saintess and I were progressing the strategy behind the scenes, Oh Dokseo had the role of approaching the [The Admin of All-Play].

"Try to concentrate a little more. The Alien God has already extended its claws towards you. You just haven\'t realized it yet."

"But, Uncle, this pose is too painful. Can’t I adjust it...? I\'d rather kneel. I’m serious; my leg bones feel like they\'re going to break, and it\'s hard to focus..."

"No. Since ancient times, the lotus position has been reputed to be the most effective posture for attaining enlightenment. There are tens of thousands of protagonists in works of fiction who achieved great awakenings in this pose. The lotus position is the best position to connect with the The Admin of All-Play."

"It hurts... It seriously hurts a lot..."

She couldn\'t adjust her posture, no matter how uncomfortable it was.

Three hours later, after being forced to continue meditating in the lotus position, Oh Dokseo, enraged, started to lose her mind.

"Damn it, how can you focus in such an uncomfortable position! You crazy old man! I can\'t feel any connection with the Alien God, but I sure as hell feel the disconnection between my legs and hips!"

"The malicious energy of the Alien God is already within you. Can you truly not feel it?"

"I\'m feeling more pain! Pain! Agony! My leg bones feel like they\'re going to snap, and I can\'t concentrate, no matter how many times you tell me!"

"Hmph. Well, well."

This is why I worry about young people these days.

If she said she couldn\'t do it, what choice did I have but to change the environment for her?

[Now, I\'m going to build a temple to summon the \'The Admin of All-Play.\']

First, I kidnapped three hundred writers and opened the \'Canned Hotel.\'

With the help of the tutorial fairies, it only took two days.

When I suddenly invited them to a luxury hotel, the writers let out joyful cries.

"Please, save us!"

"You only need to write. Oh, and when you start a new novel, please make sure the introduction features a god. The god\'s name should be fixed as [The Admin of All-Play]."

"Let us out of here!"

"Then, please do your best, writers."

A worker devoted to their job is a happy being. Under my leadership, the writers became truly happy beings.

A week later, after pressing the writers to churn out serials, those guys started to appear around the hotel.

-HONK HONK HONK!

-Honk! Beep! Beep beep beep beep beep beep!

It was the reincarnation trucks.

As unassuming as they might seem, each of them was a strange phenomenon associated with creative works. They were directly affiliated with the [The Admin of All-Play].

This area, now packed with \'hundreds of writers\' and \'hundreds of reincarnation trucks,\' gradually transformed into a suitable land for the descent of the Alien God.

It had become a kind of shrine dedicated to the strange phenomenon in creative works.

And that’s not all.

“You all, go and dance around Dokseo.”

“Yes, comrade Secretary! We shall obey your command!”

The tutorial fairies, too, had strong attributes connected to creative works when you traced their lineage.

The self-proclaimed dream demons joined hands and began forming a large ring dance. At the center of it all was Oh Dokseo, struggling to maintain the lotus position.

The fairies hopped around, singing in unison.

“All of history until now is a history of-♪”

“Class struggle-♪”

“Freemen and slaves, nobles and commoners, lords and serfs-♪”

“Workers of the world, unite-♪”

“Unite-♪”

“...”

Oh Dokseo, trying her best to concentrate on meditation with her eyes closed, looked like she was chewing on bird droppings.

And that’s not all.

I altered the terrain in the backyard of the Canned Hotel to create a waterfall. It took quite an effort to divert the water, but for a regressor who’s been through 593 turns, it was just a half-day’s labor.

-SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH!

As a result, a refreshing stream of cold water poured down on Oh Dokseo\'s head.

Had Oh Dokseo not trained with me in the ‘Room of Spirit and Time,’ her spinal health would have been severely compromised.

And that’s not all.

[The ‘The Admin of All-Play’ announces a surprise event.]

[In the newly opened hotel garden, offer a prayer praising the ‘The Admin of All-Play’!]

[The 200 most devout believers will receive a 3x drop rate for rare items for the next year!]

These messages weren’t sent by the Alien God.

The Saintess had sent them, impersonating the Alien God.

Of course, from the perspective of the average awakened, there was no way to distinguish the real from the phishing scam.

“Hey, don’t push! Don’t push!”

Murmurs spread.

Before long, the Canned Hotel was bustling with ‘magical girls’ gathering to participate in the event.

“Why is there a waterfall in the hotel garden?”

“Look over there! It’s Oh Dokseo! She’s meditating under the waterfall!”

“Wow, damn. She’s hardcore. As soon as the event notice popped up, she ran over and claimed the best spot.”

“I guess you have to be that determined to become the top awakened in Korea…”

“Exterminating Ten Clans was impressive, but honestly, she’s a bit much. Doesn’t she lack human warmth?”

“The fairies are doing some weird dance…”

“I can feel it. This is definitely going to be a legendary event.”

“The Admin of All-Play! My faith in you is the deepest!”

The garden filled with about five hundred magical girls.

They must have thought there was some secret to Oh Dokseo’s posture because they all assumed the lotus position as well. Some even joined her under the waterfall, muttering the Admin of All-Play name.

Oh Dokseo, now stuck in the middle of this mass of magical girls, looked increasingly disheartened.

I tilted my chin.

“Hmm.”

It was a truly perfect scene.

No matter how much the ‘The Admin of All-Play’ might want to hide, there was no way it could avoid descending now!

[The shrine has been completed.]

Let me draw a simple layout.

At the very center was Oh Dokseo in the lotus position, playing the role of a shrine maiden.

Above her, the waterfall, the ‘exclusive property of enlightenment,’ was pouring down, and around her, about five hundred magical girls were chanting prayers.

Around them, hundreds of fairies were dancing in a revolutionary circle dance.

Around them, on the outermost layer, three hundred writers were furiously engaged in creative work, while beyond the horizon, hundreds, even thousands of reincarnation trucks were continuously respawning.

In other words.

To describe the 4D sound effects now hitting Oh Dokseo\'s eardrums, at a time when she needed to focus on meditation more than anything, using the style of realistic literature, it would go something like this:

-SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH!

“The Admin of All-Play! Look at me!”

“All we have to lose is our chains-♪”

-HONK HONK! Beep! Beep beep beep!

“And we have a world to win-♪”

“The Admin of All-Play!”

-SPLASH SPLASH! Beep beep beep!

Could there ever have been an artist who painted such an emotional scene as this?

A shrine is still a shrine, but this landscape was perfectly suited to summon not a sacred guardian deity but the blasphemous Alien God.

And that’s not all.

While a heretical festival was taking place at the Canned Hotel, I quietly made my way to Namsan. Of course, it was to make use of \'Chekhov\'s Gun.\'

I packed a Walther PPK pistol in my coat and pulled my fur hat down tightly.

[Doctor Jang, your head…]

“There’s nothing wrong with my head.”

[...Understood.]

What is life?

Life is suffering.

The falling waterfall, the fairies crying out for revolution, the reincarnation trucks forced to work overtime, the magical girls chanting for the Alien God, all of them surrounding Oh Dokseo who sat cross-legged, and above all, of course, I, Doctor Jang, who willingly shaved my roots to kill the anomaly, were all engulfed in suffering.

Only the reclusive Alien God was free from the anguish of this reality.

I couldn’t contain my anger.

I started a broadcast to make that anomaly taste the bitterness of life.

[Now then, I’ve gathered almost all the creative work-related elements that I can currently access.]

[No matter how poorly Oh Dokseo meditates in the lotus position, she won’t be able to avoid connecting with the Alien God.]

[If even this isn’t enough, I’ll gather creative elements from the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It’ll be tough, but not too difficult. I could simply bring Godzilla from the Pacific and release it here.]

[Let’s sit back and see if Oh Dokseo succeeds or fails in this meditation.]

“...”

Oh Dokseo desperately tried to immerse herself in meditation.

Liquid, whether it was waterfall water or sweat, constantly streamed down the side of her face.

Thanks to my S-class hearing, enhanced by my aura, I could clearly hear Oh Dokseo\'s constant muttering.

“…Damn it, please, please, just show up. Huh? Just let me feel you. Whether you\'re the Alien God or whatever, I’m supposed to be your shrine maiden! So show up! Please! Pleeease…!”

And then.

Her earnest prayer reached the universe.

[The ‘The Admin of All-Play’ descends.]

Light spread above Oh Dokseo\'s head.

Within that radiance, a tiny ‘blue butterfly’ fluttered down as if it were dancing.

This was the same butterfly that had briefly appeared when the world was about to end due to server shutdown.

It was the true form of the Alien God.

‘It’s here.’

My mind became instantly calm.

Whether it knew I was holding my breath coldly or not, the blue butterfly was fluttering its wings leisurely.

Crackle-

A distorted, noisy light spread to the surroundings every time its wings flapped.

8-bit, 16-bit, 2-bit. The resolution constantly fluctuated between various bitrates. The very existence of the Alien God corrupted the area into emptiness.

[The ‘The Admin of All-Play’ has been carefully monitoring some recent cases where players have used methods bordering on cheating in the game.]

[This event, known as the so-called ‘Drop Item Rate Boost Event,’ has never been planned and will not be available in the future.]

[We apologize for not providing accurate information to our users sooner.]

The magical girls murmured at the Alien God\'s announcement.

“What? What does that mean?”

“It was false information?”

Indeed.

Using the Saintess\'s telepathy to impersonate the Alien God was a double-edged sword. It was a strategy that could only be used once.

If the awakened ones realized that the notifications themselves could be distorted, they would be less likely to trust telepathy, even if it was sent in the future.

So now was the best opportunity.

‘The Admin of All-Play.’

I glared at the butterfly in the sky.

It was a strange phenomenon that would only appear after causing such a chaotic scene. Its appearance rate was on par with that of a legendary Pokémon.

I had to capture it here and now.

Of course, I wasn’t a Pokémon Trainer. I didn’t possess a Master Ball that could catch a legendary Pokémon in one shot.

But instead…

“――Yohwa, sis!”

Oh Dokseo shouted out the name of Cheon Yohwa, one of our allies who had joined us. Just moments ago, Oh Dokseo had been under the waterfall; now, as she tried to stand up, possibly because her legs had gone numb from sitting cross-legged, she stumbled.

Even as he fell, she shouted.

“Sis! Now! Right now!”

“Yes.”

Cheon Yohwa swiftly dashed past Oh Dokseo, who was soaking wet and crying out in desperation.

There was no dramatic line or a striking pose.

Without hesitation, Cheon Yohwa pulled out an hourglass and smashed it on the ground.

Crash!

The hourglass shattered into countless pieces. An uncontrollable blackness spread from the broken glass shards, like ink spilling across the floor.

The anomaly contained within that hourglass was Endless Hell.