Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: How to Steal the Protagonist's Woman
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"Then I'll be off."
"Take care!"
"I pray nothing happens to you."
"Come back safe, nyang!"
I entered the warp case amid the send-off from the three sisters(?).
As I stepped inside, the door closed, and Armonia, dressed in her captain's uniform, addressed the three.
"Yes."
With Viola's bright reply, the other two responded as well and left the warp room.
Armonia began the briefing in the now-quiet warp room.
"...A tutorial village, huh."
Armonia continued her explanation.
(The World Tree is divided into an upper and lower layer; Su-ho-nim, you will be proceeding through the upper layer. The lower layer is currently being handled by the Zodiac.)
(It has been about a year since Yggdrasil began its summoning ritual, but it is reported that the Sanctuary has not yet deployed their protagonist. The reason for this remains unknown.)
(However, according to Zodiac's intelligence, there are signs that the Sanctuary is preparing to deploy their protagonist soon. While the source is unclear, the Zodiac has expressed confidence that this information is reliable.)
I listened quietly to the briefing but couldn't hold back my curiosity and asked a question.
"Ooh! A wish? If it'll grant anything, then 300 million Enel done right away?"
"Why?"
"Aw..."
Great expectations lead to great disappointments.
I'd been planning to wish for Enel and then go straight to direct sex with Armonia...
"A treaty?"
It was an agreement to tackle Yggdrasil's upper and lower layers separately.
And it included a clause not to engage in 'direct' interference during the conquest.
Compared to other worlds, Yggdrasil had little information available and high risk levels.
To exclude dangerous situations for protagonists with only one life, they'd made this treaty.
Since they could rule the upper and lower layers separately anyway, it was basically "no needless bloodshed."
"Bu~t! They're not doing direct interference, but indirectly requesting us to interfere, huh?"
"But if you think about it the other way, once the Holy Order bastards finish their conquest, they planned to indirectly interfere too, huh."
They wouldn't have added such a clause carelessly.
Those calling themselves agents of the gods aren't that stupid.
They probably planned to quickly conquer the upper layer by any means, rule it, and then indirectly sabotage Zodiac's protagonist to take the lower layer too.
But why haven't they deployed the protagonist yet...
The delay only hurts them.
Something about that nagged at me.
"Hm? What is it?"
Armonia's expressionless words carried weight.
"...Yeah, do that."
Of course, I don't want to die either.
Better to get exposed and survive with a ton of hassle than die undetected.
I had a rough idea of jobs, but blessings and sponsorships were complete mysteries.
Armonia would explain it all anyway.
(Yggdrasil performs a summoning ritual in Zephyrum, calling chosen beings from across the entire universe to the Colosseum at the center of the village.)
(After the summoned beings receive basic explanations, their individual spaces are activated as they leave the Colosseum, granting them time to check and modify their basic abilities.)
She explained that personal spaces were completely private, invisible to outsiders.
And upon entering, the important job selection begins first.
Not everyone can choose every job.
For someone with zero magical talent, the mage job doesn't even appear on the list.
It recognizes talents and shows suitable jobs in recommended order.
"...And the fact they survived means those jobs had high utility. Okay."
"Whoa, isn't that way too broken OP?"
A passive that manifests exactly as written?
No matter how I thought about it, it defied balance.
Stuff like "-Doesn't die." should be possible too, right?
To my baffled self, Armonia explained blessings in detail.
Upon arriving in Zephirum village, every being receives points.
Points are an all-purpose currency usable in Yggdrasil to raise abilities or buy items.
The key is, even if you write the desired blessing on the paper, you can't register it without enough points.
For example, writing something absurd like "Those who meet my eyes become my limbs" on the paper would demand an astronomical number of points.
That raises a question.
What if you don't write a blessing and hoard points like crazy?
But there's a safeguard for that too.
The deadline to write a blessing is before breaking through layer 3.
If you don't write one by the time you pass layer 3?
You end up tackling Yggdrasil without a blessing, at a severe disadvantage.
"So, how many points do you start with?"
"Huh? Isn't everyone supposed to start on equal footing?"
Third, sponsorships.
Not the 'real' gods that Armonia and I knew.
It referred to beings from that world long ago who were god-like in strength.
They fought constantly, and eventually, all the gods killed each other in the Twilight War.
In the end, all gods died, their souls housed within Yggdrasil.
...That was the gist of the backstory.
Bored with eternal life inside, the gods asked Yggdrasil to summon beings from across the universe to watch and enjoy as minimal entertainment.
(And if they find Su-ho-nim's daily life appealing while observing, they will sponsor points.)
(It is said that some gods provide sponsorship simply because they like a person's first impression.)
(Beings who receive such initial sponsorship are then able to write better Blessings than others.)
"So, basically... if you're handsome or pretty, they give more points?"
Filthy lookism...
"Yeah, there'll be tons of handsome and pretty ones. Probably just enough to feel a slight deprivation."
"Huh? Why?"
"Enel is the best..."
The true god's currency, Enel.
There's nothing Enel can't do.
It's incomparable to mere points.
"What's the exchange rate?"
While others start with a thousand points, I could start with tens of thousands.
Which means...
"Whoa... How much will those Holy Order bastards dump in? I'm freaking worried."
The Holy Order with their massive Enel reserves...
How much Enel would they use for blessings?
(That is the part I am most concerned about as well.)
(For now, this is the condensed version of the information we have. I will inform you of the rest as you proceed.)
"Okay! Got it."
With Armonia's final words, the warp activated.
...
...
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw crowds of people around me, with clamor filling the air.
The suddenly summoned people were shouting about where they were.
I pretended to fluster too, figuring it wouldn't do to look too calm.
'Whoa, all humans? No other races?'
'Makes sense...'
I understood immediately.
If summoned with orcs or goblins, starting would be impossible from the get-go.
It'd turn into a real colosseum match right away.
As everyone here clamored, a being appeared in the colosseum center amid a pillar of light...
"Hello, everyone! Welcome to Yggdrasil!"
It was a fairy.
'Wait, fuck!'
'Fairies, fuck, fairies!!!!!!'
Armonia didn't understand me at all.
A storm began raging in my previously calm mind.
The first thing that comes to mind with fairy bastards.
'Fuck, those guys start by smashing heads to assert dominance!!'
'Huh?'
She explained that the fairies here act as GMs to help those suddenly brought to this world.
'It's the same up to that point...'
Fortunately, Zodiac's info had no tales of fairies exploding heads.
Thinking about it, they'd have warned me beforehand if it was that crucial...
'Phew...'
Yeah, logically that's true, but...
I awkwardly scratched my head and said,
'It's a staple webgame trope...'
Armonia was about to enlighten me like she was treating a gaming addict.
Then a burly man approached the brightly smiling fairy, yelling furiously.
"What the hell are you?! Send me back to my original world!!!"
"Hahaha. Calm down, please, and listen to me..."
The fairy tried to soothe the man with a calm smile.
But the man wouldn't listen.
"Shut up and send me back to my original worl."
"Ah, damn... annoying..."
The fairy frowned and raised a finger at the man.
Bang!
His head exploded.
"Kyaaack!"
"F-Fuck!! His head exploded!!"
The colosseum turned into pandemonium.
'..............'
"...Shit."
And so, I arrived in the most dangerous world I'd seen yet.