Chapter 483
Chapter 483
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Last Parade (14)
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Pafak!
"Oof."
The hand that had been casually gripping his collar suddenly flew off with a burst of blue sparks, and World—who'd been gasping like he was about to keel over—vanished in an instant.
"Hey, Professor. I just picked up a mana reaction. Did 'that guy' go?"
"Oh, Ottman. You were down below?"
"In the relevant worlds, the significant supporting characters get summoned around the Parade Car. 'World' here? I'm pretty tangled up with him myself."
"...I saw it. Good work...."
"What're you talking about? Water flows where the land is flat. He just went on his way."
Ottman approached with his usual warm, kindly face and stood beside me.
"...'Saw it,' huh. So that means the kid made it there just fine, right?"
"Yeah. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas."
The moment I recalled him, something I'd barely shoved down in my chest surged up, but I forced it back down.
It was too precious an emotion to just spew into the air. Especially when the recipient had bounced off to some corner of the city.
"Speaking of which, that's one impressive bastard. Even if the Extra Stage is small, it's still a world. For someone the entire world hates to pull off that kind of power... That looked like short-range teleportation. Did I see that right?"
"Yup. Guess it's because he's from an AI background—same as in World 4, he's got a knack for spatial magic."
.
.
.
.
"You stupid tin-can fuck."
Where the hell do you think you're going? We haven't even started yet.
....Rustle.
I reached into my pocket and felt a rectangular paper pack. The red-and-white exterior was wrapped in pristine plastic, and inside the lid marked "Lucky Strike" was filled with pure, snowy-white cylinders.
"No way. That stuff still exists out there in the world? I thought it was discontinued back in the old days."
"Nope. I found it by chance rummaging through a bunker with a buddy. Lit up the one I snagged."
I tapped it twice—tak, tak—and put the filter in my mouth. In my hand was a lighter that matched the brass Zippo I'd used outside perfectly, down to the scratches and wear.
Click, click—
Fwoooo....
"If there's a jury, there has to be a judge too, right? Don't you think, Mr. Self-Proclaimed 'World'?"
Well, he's got a mechanically fast-spinning brain, so he's probably weighed this and that.
Treating NPCs as mere data blobs let Levit Princess clear two worlds with near-perfect efficiency, sure—but Thousand Stream Emperor just used his World 3 for safe runs and still breezed through the Extra Stage, grabbing his reward without a hitch.
He must've figured the pressure this tiny world could exert on a completer was limited to mobs swarming him yelling "Why'd you play like that?!" or trying to persuade him, and at worst, torturing him to break his mind.
"I can guess, but let's ask anyway. Ottman, why'd you send Thousand Stream Emperor off? Honestly, you could've just turned him into a shut-in here and been done with it."
"...Well, we were all exhausted by then—us and Lady Atlahyba too. Andrey Gedroits set the bar for completers way too high, and we'd been failing for so long our data souls were wearing down into 'errors.' As long as they weren't total scumbags, they had the skills to save the world, so why not let 'em go? That kind of thinking."
"That's awfully human of you."
"Even in this state, we're still human at heart."
It wasn't that we lacked the power to punish him—we were just too worn out, sealed away in GG, to hope for more. Levit Princess was cause for double celebration. Even a lunatic like Thousand Stream Emperor sparked hopes like, "Maybe the Rabbit who left first will put in a good word?"
So the judge—this Extra Stage's guardian of balance, whose authority everyone acknowledged—let them go. After giving them a rather unpleasant education, that is.
"But Lady Atlahyba isn't here. She's a management AI with a full personality, not a data soul. Same for the other management AIs like Aldarshax or the World Tree."
With the management AIs integrated into the system in World 4, all that remained in this Extra Stage were the data souls—former humans—and one shredded player personality stored in fragments in the server room.
"And as for me..."
"Save it. You're the great saint, the world-saving hero, one of only three completers—and the only one who got pure cheers and praise in the Extra Stage. The one every personality in GG reveres."
"Uh.... I wasn't aiming for that grandiose."
"That's why I'm summing it up short and sweet. Even if Lady Atlahyba or the other admins were here, you'd be the 'owner' of this Extra Stage. No one cherishes everyone here more than you."
....That's how it happened.
Professor Park.
(Former) BDSM Caravan Leader.
(Former) Saint and Hero of World 3.
(Former) Hypno-Brainwashed Grand Demon King and Warlord of World 4.
And now, Judge of Extra Stage-4.
In a world where each data soul formed the core computers of the massive GG world—a world where if they believed the sun rose in the west, it would— the master every personality yearned for deep in their hearts.
In this tiny world, at least, I wielded power close to the almighty 'developer privileges' the system so desperately craved.
"...No matter how I thought about it, this was the only way. To save my life and get all these data souls out of here too."
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.
.
.
"I had to yank out every scrap of GG control authority the system had desperately clawed together—in the trap I set."
Not just survival—the one true victory plan.
The only method possible for me, who'd cleared the world perfectly and won every data personality's cheers.
"Ha ha, talk about greedy. Even as your memories were being ripped out, you were thinking of taking everyone with you?"
"What can I say? That's just how I'm wired."
That was the result of my insatiable greed.
A jagged personality who had no choice but to attempt it, knowing success odds converged on zero.
My slapdash plan—rushed with only the endgame in mind, doomed to fail otherwise.
Was filled in by help from inside I never expected.
"...Don't cry."
"Yes."
"It's a good day, isn't it? This is your world now—if you cry, it'll rain."
"I'll make an umbrella and pour it out."
In the end, I saved everyone—except one.
Just one.
The guy who'd sworn he'd find me eventually but showed up grumbling because I took too long.
"I.... guess I am pretty greedy...."
That one absence was unbearable. Of all people, you.
The emotions I'd crammed down, the scolding that couldn't burst out—they must've detoured into my choked throat as tears.
Or maybe it was just because I'm a water-affinity mage, leaking like a sieve.
I sent the clouds from my mouth carrying the rainwater from my eyes.
Tak, tak, ziiiip—
"Time to get to work after that smoke."
"Right you are. Time's passed quite a bit, hasn't it?"
Since the Extra Stage started... about 30 minutes?
Kreek, krrrrick—
Clang!
The castle-wall cannon that had been aimed at the sky turned toward the city,
And the crowds waiting their turn began pulling out their favorite weapons one by one from beneath their festive parade outfits.
Not hero-unit caliber, but they were souls who'd lived varied lives across countless worlds. Hands that once gripped hoes now clutched bandit-worn shortswords or pirate cutlasses.
They seemed more than equipped to face the enemy they'd been forged from—souls compressed and mashed together haphazardly.
"Where's Aldrich?"
"The ones not here all went after that villain. Aldrich especially seemed to have a ton of grudges—he was in a real hurry."
"...Makes sense. With so few data souls here, even beating him nonstop would take way more than 480 minutes."
"Even oppressed as he is, he's dragging things out using admin-level authority. I held my tongue out of sympathy for you, but if we let him slip away lounging like this, I'll regret not dumping him in a well forever from the start—"
"Yes, yes. Won't happen."
The Extra Stage—vast if you think about it, narrow if you don't.
Atop the Parade Car, now arrived at the stage's heart, the royal castle, I raised my hand.
Crack, crunch. Drip!
Small stuff like smokes and lighters? Thinking it is enough. But a desperately fleeing management AI? Can't handle him that casually.
To image it crystal clear, I form hand seals.
A circle with middle and thumb, and multiple hour and minute hands with ring and pinky.
I raise the mudra symbolizing a multifaceted clock and visualize.
"System, call."
"Player 'Professor' unique authority. [GG Time Dilation Authority] activated."
No doubt about it—time won't be an issue.
-...-...-...
Ding-!
[Command_accepted]
[1 : ???]
Guess the system handling this is AWOL—kinda underwhelming response.
"Eh, let's see. 480 minutes, six hours... one, two, three...."
With Ottman slapping his knee and muttering admiration behind me, I finally scribbled the equation in the air after laborious mental math and punched in the answer.
"...6 to 1,927,200. Right about there."
----Ding!
[The time dilation for World—'Extra Stage_4' has been set to 6 : 1,927,200. Six. To. One hundred ninety thousand seven hundred twenty.]
A mechanical voice announced it, accompanied by an indescribable sensation. Like the world's edges shifting.
"Whoa, Professor. That's...."
"Yeah. The authority I got for clearing World 3. Even World Tree or Lady Atlahyba don't have this—it's completer-exclusive."
Unless Andrey Gedroits himself shows up, no touching this. It's from countless looped simulations, never once part of any world—dormant in that weird vending machine until a completer arrived.
"Now that that's set, everyone—vent all you want on that World guy. As much as you like. I'll go last."
"Ha ha, really. Nice to have breathing room, but you're not going first? No grudge bigger than yours, surely?"
"That's why I'm saving it for last."
....Tak, chiik!
Smoke from the second cigarette rose like a clock marking the remaining time.
"My payback.... is gonna take longer than anyone else's here."
I said it, retracing memories of someone that surfaced when I closed my eyes.
'This is all thanks to me, right? When it's done, build a massive altar, pile up a pyramid-sized grave! Every holiday, lay out all kinds of canned goods! Got it?'
"...Two portions, for everyone."
-Boom!
As if signaling the start, flames burst from the city alley where a castle-wall cannon fired.
The grand opening salvo for a grand, magnificent final parade.
A lavish festival honoring the sole absence here.
I hoped the system's brain—counting down to the split-second even now—was filled with hope.
Planning to drop by exactly at the 480-minute mark. I wanted to see how well that bitch mimicked human despair.
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