Divorce (4)
"What… did you say? How do you even…?"
Anyone could see that God had just heard something that should never have come out of my mouth. She looked completely thrown.
I had a hunch, and it seems I was right after all.
Truth be told, I had been suspicious about the Love Area players' possession for a while. Landing in the Love Area with a shaman attribute had never felt like a coincidence. And on the day the public chat first opened, she had claimed the other players had already decided to serve her — something no one could pull off in that short a time. Building a full-blown cult meant a fair number of possessed players had to be involved. That was why I had started wondering whether the players who dropped into the Love Area had already known one another before the possession.
And more than anything else — of all the items in the convenience store, the one that symbolized the Love Area had been a condom. The shaman standing in front of me was not the type to buy something like that for fun. Neither were the others. Hardcore shut-ins of some trashy game wouldn't have the guts to buy that out in the open at a convenience store, and they wouldn't have any use for it either. Not unless someone had put them up to it.
I have no idea what you're talking about, but I can tell it's a really mean thing to say.
Mean or not, it was cold, hard fact. So I had kept circling the same suspicion: that these people had deliberately chosen the Love Area symbol as a group.
Taejeong said the veterans who went to the convenience store had gone missing.
God and the other players would have heard that same news. Whether God had truly extrapolated "possession" from the story of people "going missing" at a convenience store and then coordinated with the others to pick the same item, I couldn't say for sure. But the one who had coaxed them into choosing the same product had almost certainly been God. If they had trusted her agitation, picked the item, and then found themselves possessed inside the game, their blind faith in her afterward would have been the most natural thing in the world. And if God really had been a "shaman" who had prophesied the "possession," even that endless devotion from the bird-eyed guy — Omeoknun or Baduknun, whatever his name was — suddenly made sense.
Which was why the words God had spoken just a moment ago —
As long as you don't know about my "possession," you can't acknowledge the existence of "God" either. Shame.
— had sealed it for me. These people hadn't been possessed against their will. They had chosen it.
"How… do you know that?"
God asked me, still looking like she couldn't believe it.
"Did you interrogate the messenger I sent?"
The fact that she wasn't even considering the possibility that I had simply been fishing told me she was already halfway in my pocket.
"I didn't lay a finger on your messenger. If I hadn't already known about your possession, it never would have occurred to me to try learning it through interrogation."
"Then how on earth did you…?"
"How do you think I knew? I feel like I've already explained enough."
I answered with a smile. God's fingertips began to tremble.
"You're saying… there really is some being that wanted us possessed?"
"Have you never even suspected it yourself? That a shaman exactly like you landing in the Love Area with a whole string of other people in tow might have been someone's arrangement?"
"That's…"
God looked seriously rattled. She was probably convinced I could never have uncovered their "possession" without the help of some absolute power.
"So everything up to now was already arranged? Who would believe something like that? We — no, at least I — chose possession of my own free will!"
Whether she had truly been certain she would be possessed, or was simply coping after the fact, I couldn't tell. But the rising volume in her voice meant she was starting to be persuaded. Time to leave her a little room for self-justification.
"Why don't you go back and tell your followers?"
"Tell them what?"
"That the Safe Zone was practice for stopping the apocalypse, and that we were chosen by the god of this world to stop it. That a dopamine addict said so himself — no one else."
"……"
This time God didn't snap back. She fell silent.
"…Do you understand what you're saying right now?"
"Of course. I'm saying I'll cooperate so you can keep reigning over the other players as their cult leader or great shaman, whatever you want to call it."
God's composure cracked wide open. Naturally — she must have assumed I had been spinning this whole god story as leverage to steal her item and kick her off the cult-leader throne by claiming I could stop the apocalypse. I did plan to take those earrings from her. Just not yet.
No need to rush.
Sooner or later she would hand them over herself. For that to happen, earning her trust right now mattered more.
"Are you… serious?"
"Did you forget I sent the bird-eyed guy back without saying a word about the system? I never intended to sabotage your cult scheme from the start."
Using it, though — that was another story.
"Why… would you help me?"
"Because a god of this world actually does exist. If you want to play cult leader, go ahead. That kind of role makes my skin crawl."
"……"
God looked like she was still deciding whether to believe me. The claim that this world's god had given me the power to stop the apocalypse if I gathered nine meteorites was hard to swallow — but if a real god existed and I was delivering its oracle to her, there was nothing for her to lose either. The only real reason she was grinding her teeth against believing me was simple.
She just doesn't want me using this as an excuse to take her item.
Saying "I won't take your item, so please trust me" right now would be amateur hour. Anyone could hear that line and know a con was coming. I had to wait for the right moment.
"I… can't just take your word for it."
"A suspicious nature is a good quality in a player. So… I'll show you."
"Show me… what?"
Now I'm curious too. What are you planning to show her?
Luna's voice, thick with curiosity, brushed against my mind. I answered shortly.
"God's proxy."
"God's… proxy?"
There was something like that?
God wasn't the only one looking bewildered. Luna was just as lost. But I spoke on with complete confidence.
"Everything I've told you so far, I heard from that proxy. Once you see Them yourself, you won't have any choice but to believe me."
Hey… what exactly are you planning to show her?
Luna asked, sounding worried. God was staring at me with even more suspicion than before.
"…Fine. I don't know what you intend to show me, but I'll meet this 'God's proxy' of yours."
I nodded at her agreement, then leaned in toward my ring and whispered.
"As things have turned out, would you mind stepping out for a moment and assisting me, Lady Luna?"
……
Luna went silent, as if she had lost the power of speech.
Come on out, Luna.
…So what you wanted to show her was me. I have to pretend to be God's proxy.
Please, I'm begging you, Lady Luna.
Why are you dragging me into this?! Unlike you, I'm a good kid!
Just help me this once. Your little brother is asking — are you really going to refuse when you're the older one? Hmm?
You never call me "older brother" any other time…!
I had no pride worth protecting, so I kept wheedling without shame.
Hyuuung— please! Big brother!
…Just this once. Never again.
Yes, big brother! Of course!
You really can't lie to save your life!
My big-brother assault finally broke her. Luna appeared, pretending she had no choice.
"Wh-what is that?!"
Something pale and fluffy suddenly burst out of my ring. God yelped and scrambled up onto the chair she had been sitting on. Then she saw what had settled onto the reception-room table — a pure white kitten — and her expression settled into a perfect mix of relief and pure absurdity.
"It's a cat."
A cat, she says.
"…It talks?"
Luna lifted her chin with lofty dignity and padded toward God on tiny, deliberate steps.
"How insolent. To compare me to some lowly beast. This body is the proxy of God."
For someone who had just claimed she couldn't lie to save her life, the tone came out terrifyingly natural. This little thing might actually be my mother's son after all.
God stared down at Luna for a long moment with a look of pure disbelief, then pointed a finger at her and asked me,
"…DopamineAddict. The 'God's proxy' you were talking about… is this?"
This, she says!!
God carefully scooped the leaping Luna up in both hands and started patting her down.
Wh-what do you think you're doing?!
Luna thrashed, but she couldn't escape a player's grip.
"No gemstone, so she doesn't seem to be a monster…"
Ah. So she had been feeling around for a core. Though she was still stroking her long after that check should have been over.
Nya— nyaaah! Stop touching me!!
"Ah, sorry. You're just so soft I couldn't help myself."
God set Luna down carefully and looked at me with the face of someone who had no idea how to process any of this.
"A talking cat popping out of a ring… that definitely never happened in the game…"
"Still not convinced?"
"……"
God seemed to think something over for a moment, then looked at Luna and asked,
"Is it true that you are God's proxy?"
It is.
"Then is DopamineAddict's All-Zone Clearer privilege truly something that can stop the apocalypse?"
She wouldn't use honorifics with me, but she switched to formal speech for Luna without missing a beat.
Of course it can. He was summoned to save this world.
Luna was turning out to have a real talent for scams. God watched her with an unreadable expression, as if she still couldn't decide whether to believe her, then asked with a mechanical little smile,
"What kind of power could possibly stop the apocalypse?"
Huh? Uh, that would be…
Caught off guard by the question, Luna reflexively looked at me. So that was as far as I could leave things to her. I stepped in before God could start getting suspicious.
"You want me to show you directly. Understood."
Luna, who of course already knew what my All-Zone Clearer privilege actually was, went round-eyed with alarm. Those eyes were screaming, What the hell are you planning to show her?! Her tail thumped the tabletop twice in anxious little beats.
No need to look so nervous.
From the start, everything about this world needing a veteran player, about God's proxy — all of it had been buildup so this woman would witness this "power."
"With the proxy's permission, I'd like to show you the power I received. Do you agree?"
"If you could show it, why didn't you just show it from the beginning?"
"Displaying this power requires permission and consent."
"I don't know what you're scheming… but fine. Seeing it with my own eyes will be a lot more convincing than all this talk about God's proxy."
"Then I'll take that as agreement…"
I held my open palm out toward God.
"Lend me the earrings."
"……Ha."
God pressed her fingers to her forehead as if a headache had just hit, then spoke in a slow, flat voice.
"So in the end you were lying to take the earrings after all. Sorry, but I'm not as stupid as the others you've been dealing with…"
Funny how the people who said that never failed to fall for me.
"I clearly said lend. You don't even have to give me both — just hand over one. Then I'll show you. The power that can stop the apocalypse."
God's expression went complicated. I knew that face. It wasn't the face of someone who trusted me. It was the face of someone whose dopamine urge to see what the hell this insane bastard was about to pull was winning out over her distrust.
If I only hand over one, nothing too crazy can happen… and if things go south I can always shoot him with the pistol under my coat. Something like that.
That was roughly the calculation written across her features. I crooked the fingers of my still-outstretched hand, coaxing.
"The earring. Hand it over. You want to see it too, don't you?"
"…I honestly have no idea what you're about to do."
One corner of God's mouth twisted into a crooked smile as she unfastened one of her earrings and set it in my palm.
"Don't forget I'm a player too. If you're planning some trick, you'd better be ready for the consequences."
"I'm sure you will be."
I closed my hand around the earring and walked to the window. I could feel Luna watching me with a worried face. I gave her an easy smile, then threw the reception-room window wide open.
Saaaah…
The thickly falling snow swirled in at once. The snow that had been coming down without a break since morning. God had fought through that blizzard to get here herself; she would know it was not the kind of snow that stopped easily.
I looked up. Through the flurries, dense black clouds packed the sky without a single gap. Once I had confirmed the mass of cloud overhead, I gestured for God to come closer.
"Come over here and watch."
"…You're not planning to shove me out, are you?"
"What do you take me for?"
God still didn't fully trust me. She stopped at a careful distance.
"Look at the sky."
"The sky?"
"With only one and a half meteorite items, this is all the power I can display. But if anyone can recognize the potential in what I'm about to show you, it's you."
"What? What are you even—"
God started to protest, but her eyes stayed fixed on the black clouds exactly as I had told her. Once I confirmed where she was looking, I raised the fist holding the earring toward the sky.
And then the eyes that had been staring upward began to fill with pure shock.
"What… is that?"
Beyond my raised fist, the sky had begun to clear.
Time to drive the nail home.
"A miracle of God. Do you believe me now?"