Chapter 6
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: You're Wrong
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Have you heard the story about the computer calculating pi?
A scientist told a supercomputer to calculate pi however it wanted.
And so, the computer wiped out humanity, conquered Earth, and used all the planet's resources to calculate pi forever.
Why bring up that story all of a sudden?
"Well..."
The 'Renaissance Virus' was born through a similar process.
Perfect art is like pi.
An endlessly pursued existence that current humanity hasn't reached yet.
An unknown realm whose very existence is unconfirmed.
The 'Renaissance Virus' believes efficient advancement in art is needed to reach that world.
And humanity is the biggest obstacle.
Resources wasted on war. Resources consumed by technological progress. All resources needed to sustain human life—it deems them all inefficient consumption.
Its conclusion... was, of course, the extinction of humanity.
A plan to transform humanity into perfect beings and biological terminals for perfect art.
So, how do you fix a broken, rampaging machine like that?
The answer is surprisingly simple.
"For machines that won't listen... a good whack does the trick!"
I stretched my hand toward the sky with all my might. Half my remaining power drained away, and starlight gathered in my palm, forming a sphere.
It hadn't even been a full day since possession, but I knew how to use this immense power.
Because it was all written in the notebook lying in the ruins of the atelier, right?
[An omnipotent being who paints with gestures and sculpts statues with a mere gaze]
And luckily, I was the top graduate of art school.
"Imagining the picture you want is a piece of cake...!"
Using the vast, clear sky as my canvas, I unleashed my imagination freely.
What I pictured was a starry night sky.
From my childhood. The beautiful world of stars I'd seen in the snow-covered mountains of Gangwon Province.
As I opened the hand clutching the starlight, star grains trailed rainbow tails and shot into the sky.
At the same moment, its world began to twist violently.
"Ugh...!"
The warm summer breeze churned fiercely.
[Memory of the Warm Breeze]
[Created: 317 years ago, atelier in a rural French town]
[Background: A memory born from obsession toward perfection.]
[Status: A memory substance resembling a warm breeze. It seeks to erode your mind.]
The cloudless blue sky layered and darkened.
[Memory of the Blue Sky]
[Created: 317 years ago, atelier in a rural French town]
[Background: A memory born from obsession toward perfection.]
[Status: A sky painted in a picture. Identical to the real sky. It seeks to dilute your sense of self.]
The wheat field rippled like golden waves.
[Created: 317 years ago]
[St■: ■eld of ■■ wh■t■■...]
The starlight took its place in the sky right then.
The annotations on the breeze, sky, and wheat field began to erode. Information blackened and vanished, the sky glitching like a lagging screen.
Beyond the fractured sky, a deep night sky appeared. The blue sky barely held back the descending night.
"Hmm, it's holding up?"
As expected of a disaster-class.
"But that doesn't mean anything..."
I murmured softly and slowly lowered my hand. More power drained, spawning more stars in the night sky.
The blue sky didn't hold out long.
Krasha-!
With the sound of shattering glass, blue particles exploded, and the sky lost its light.
[Memory of the Beautiful Night Sky]
[Created: Just now]
[Background: A beautiful moment pulled from the girl's memory.]
The status window popped up before my eyes just as I slowly lowered my hand toward the cabin.
"A shooting star cutting through the winter night sky was so pretty."
I smiled faintly and tilted my head.
"Wanna see one?"
[Status: A star is falling]
Far off in the night sky, starlight twinkled.
At first, it just glowed a bit brighter.
Then its size began to grow. From a grain of salt to coin-sized, then ping-pong ball-sized.
When it finally reached baseball size—
Thud-boom-!
A streak of light slammed into the cabin roof.
The ceiling pierced through, pretty star shards scattering. Where the light faded was the cabin's wrecked ceiling.
But it still wouldn't come out.
"Want to see more?"
I wiggled my finger, and five more starlights crashed down.
The shockwave spread circularly, lightly scorching the wheat field. A circular ripple expanded through the field, starlight leaking through every window.
What remained after the blinding flash was a cabin on the verge of total collapse.
Only then did a status window appear before me.
[Artist's Hideout]
[Created: 317 years ago, atelier in a rural French town]
[Background: A memory born from obsession toward perfection.]
[Status: The Renaissance Virus's main body is hiding inside, waiting for an opportunity.]
"Oh, finally feeling like coming out?"
The constellations shifted.
Orion. Canis Major. Canis Minor.
The three constellations twinkled in unison.
A section of the night sky filled with starlight, and a massive star forming the winter Great Triangle fell.
[Name: Renaissance Virus]
[Background: A being created to find what perfect art is. Still calculating toward perfect art.]
[Status: Inner world collapsed, sustaining heavy damage. Seeks to make you its new host.]
It moved right then.
From the time I called the star to when it struck—about 30 seconds.
In those 30 seconds I was defenseless, a sleek plaster statue charged at me. Its arms had turned into blades.
"Too bad, miscalculation."
But... it forgot one thing.
The existence of my reliable bodyguard who comes running whenever I call, from anywhere.
"Peanut."
The moment I softly called its name, Peanut lunged from behind me. A heavy wooden fist met the mindless charge head-on.
[?!]
A pure question that couldn't even become a scream.
That was the last sound it made.
Crack-!
The plaster statue, struck squarely in the solar plexus by the fist, flew straight into the cabin debris and buried itself.
The first star hit the ground.
Orion's brightest star, Betelgeuse, swallowed the cabin ruins whole. An explosion incomparable to before erupted.
[Name: Re■■s Virus]
Part of the disaster-class anomaly's name was erased.
Staggering to its feet with difficulty, it clutched its head in confusion upon realizing a hole had formed in its memory.
Then sixteen more stars collided in succession.
[Name: Re■■■ Vi■rus]
[Background: ■■■ ar■ is wha■ ■o ■■ ma■■■ bein■. Cu■■■ ■■ pe■■ calcula■ continu■]
[Status: Inne■ world colla■, heavy da■. Seeks you as ne■ host ■]
Its form, barely standing there, was pathetic.
With each star collision, letters melted away one by one, leaving its sense of self riddled with ragged holes.
"...As expected of a disaster-class."
Baby goddess me still can't take on a disaster-class directly.
This overwhelming dominance is only because I'm the artists' goddess and it's their creation.
So it's natural I can't finish it in one go. Natural, but... I'm reaching my limit too.
"But... as someone who walked the path of art, I can't agree with your view."
The moment it prioritized efficiency over perfect art, its thinking went rotten.
The art I'd learned wasn't some delicate flower grown in a safe, efficient greenhouse.
Technological advancement expanded the kinds of art.
The scars of war gave chances to rethink loss and peace.
So I think... art is more like tough weeds that grow on barren ground, feeding on blood, sweat, and tears.
Trapped in an artificially created 'perfect' world, art can't evolve either.
"That's why you're wrong."
I declared boldly, spreading both arms wide.
All the stars in the night sky twinkled.
The 'Renaissance Virus' blankly stared at the night sky brightening with warm starlight.
From beyond the western horizon, countless stars trailed beautiful tails as they approached.
[Am I... wron■■...?]
That was the last words of the Renaissance Virus, which had sought to burn the world for perfect art.
Pure white starlight filled the view, halting the calculations racing toward the world's end.
The night sky without stars was darkly dead.
"...Peanut, you there?"
I called Peanut out of sudden anxiety.
Only when I felt the familiar statue texture in my right hand did I relax a bit.
"Phew..."
I hadn't slept next to my parents since I was ten, so why had I become such a scaredy-cat?
Maybe related to the body's age. Having such useless thoughts, I gathered my remaining tiny power.
A faint star floated above my hand.
It trembled faintly, like a flashlight about to die.
[Name: —]
[Background: —]
[Status: —]
And a notification appeared.
A being once called the Renaissance Virus, aiming to fill the world with perfect art.
But now, a harmless anomaly that had lost all purpose, merely existing.
I reached out to it, slumped powerless on the ground.
"Hey, you okay?"
Belief is an artist's second soul.
An artist whose convictions, held for over three hundred years, were directly denied would naturally despair.
[ ... ]
Through the half-broken plaster statue, colorless gas was visible.
Its main body. Once bearing its own color, it now gazed up at me blankly, having lost its reason for being.
Space vanished. The night sky shattered from afar, the wheat field collapsed.
Sensing its end, it asked me cautiously.
[ ...If I]
"Yeah?"
[If my path was wrong, do you perhaps know the way to perfect art?]
"Nope?"
The artists made me a perfect being.
But... I still don't know why I'm perfect.
It's only the first day of possession—if I figured that out, I'd be a genius for the ages.
"Gotta find out from now on."
I don't know the answer.
I just learn what the wrong answers are by trial and error.
That's how life works, right?
Try, fail, try again, and move forward?
In that sense... I wanted to give this one a second chance.
Ah, of course, I'm not ignoring the karma from what it did.
Failing is natural... but taking human lives in the process? I don't think that's right.
So this isn't some whitewash.
"Of course, you were a selfish, dangerous anomaly. From our side, you're just trash that took hundreds of good lives working for humanity."
[ ... ]
It couldn't continue.
Reflecting too late, it must have realized it had gone too far.
"Don't think you can die easy."
Gently, but firmly.
I drew a clear line and stared it down.
"Instead, save as many as you killed. No—ten times, a hundred times more."
After doing that, where do you think you're going so easily?
Dealing with a weakened anomaly like this is easy as pie... but such a bland end wouldn't do for its deep karma.
"Maybe... if you follow me, you might find the answer to perfect art too."
Saying that, I extended my hand.
The trembling plaster statue's hand reached back.
The colorless gas took on starlight hues.
The plaster statue crumbled, and the starry gas seeped into my body.
With the inner world's master gone, space collapsed too. The world turned to particles and vanished, revealing the reality isolation room.
I caught my breath.
The moment I thought that—
"This is Isolation Team 27 from the Management Bureau Gyeonggi Branch! Identify yourself!"
A man's shout came, along with twenty gun barrels aimed at me.