Wide-Area Attack, But It's Bounce
"……Is that so?"
Analysis results on the sludge bastard we'd locked away as the weekly boss.
The Engineer Who Cast Off Rage stated with conviction that the entity came from another world.
If a constellation of his caliber made that judgment, the chances of it originating from the Raipania Continent were practically zero.
"In that case, do you have any idea where it might have come from?"
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage says he's analyzing it, but... it's composed of materials and forces he's never encountered before, so it'll take time.]
"Well, nothing we can do about it. Our players are grinding the weekly boss battle hard, so we'll just gather more data and analyze from there."
The sludge called it 'us' back then.
It clearly meant it came from some group—comrades or underlings, something like that.
Not a god or constellation, but wielding power on par with the divine, with the ability to nullify constellation authorities.
Even our sponsor's power got neutralized on the spot, and by the time the Demon God finally brought it down, her strength was nearly depleted.
If that thing had been even a bit stronger, or the Demon God a tad weaker, or if the pissed-off Demon God hadn't poured out her divinity and demonic energy without looking back, we would've been in real trouble.
And then there was that 'seed' it mentioned.
Couldn't say for sure, but contextually, the seed it talked about was probably the sin of Pride implanted in the Demon God.
The Engineer suggested the possibility that these beings were the ones who planted sins in Ren, himself, and the Demon God.
Right now, that seemed the most plausible explanation... but if so, they weren't just nullifying divine powers—they could interfere to the point of twisting the very essence of gods?
And these three weren't all of them—there could be more?
No, wait—this was supposed to be a chill isekai life, haha. Why's the vibe suddenly cosmic horror? I just wanted to scrape by making games with my dream powers, nothing more. I absolutely don't want to get tangled up in this.
...Too late for that, though.
"Can't we get help from the other gods by telling them?"
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage hums... in thought.]
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage says it probably won't work.]
"Even though these other-dimensional things are eroding gods and trying to bend them to their will?"
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage laments that gods are all arrogant types who can't unite.]
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage sighs deeply, saying the Demon God, that dumb knight, and himself were all reclusive loners holed up in their own worlds, so they lack connections—or should I say, divine networks—to convince anyone.]
……Oh, right.
Ren was holed up in her room due to sloth from the start. Sure, she has Hans and the others now, but with them unable to roam freely or reveal themselves, we can't rely on their help.
The Engineer was a god who spent his days researching to revive his love, only venturing out occasionally to cool his rage. The other gods probably see him as some anger-management deity. ...And he kinda was.
And the Demon God... she's the biggest lost cause. The one who beat down Ren and the Engineer, blackmailing them for game episodes. No way a wild filly like her has friends.
"……So what do we do? We haven't even gathered all the info on these guys yet, and if another one shows up, we could really be in danger."
The sludge judged I was removing the sin of Pride and attacked me as an interloper.
That must be their sore spot. Whether it was part of some long-term plan or grand scheme.
Having unintentionally stripped away sins three times already, we're in no position to just play nice.
Not that we could get along with things that erode gods anyway.
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage asks if we can't just enlighten the other ones' sins the same way they did to us.]
"How the hell would I even know how to do that?"
Both Ren and the Engineer were flukes of coincidence.
The Demon God did it somewhat intentionally, but she made the decisive choice herself at the end to shed her sin.
I don't even know who's infected with sins—how am I supposed to hunt them down and craft custom stories?
No guarantee it'd work anyway.
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage says we can just scour all the constellation names to find them, right?]
"Even if we find them, there's no guarantee I can cure their sins. I'm just a lucky-ass game director, man."
If I could cure them, they'd regain sanity like the Demon God and maybe join our side—but if not, it's a disaster.
Just thinking about the Demon God rampaging still makes my legs shake.
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage asks if you really think a single game can warp the core concept that forms a god's nucleus.]
"……Huh?"
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage says you're no ordinary being.]
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage asserts that if you were someone who could be dismissed with 'just,' he'd still be gripped by rage.]
"Thanks for the high praise, but…."
*Ring ring ring*
An alarm from another terminal chimed in.
It was the Demon God.
*
"Sorry about that."
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage chuckles dryly, saying it's fine—we can talk later.]
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage says stabilizing her mental state is top priority right now, since she's basically our greatest asset.]
"Thanks for understanding."
A continent-shaking crisis discussion gets interrupted by game character balance talk. Classic.
"We'll pick this up later, then…."
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage warns not to downplay game characters as 'just' performance in a game.]
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage strokes his chin, saying perceptions of that performance might influence reality.]
[Engineer Who Cast Off Rage advises not to stress too much since the boss is doing fine, then ends the chat.]
…….
Player perceptions of the game affecting reality, huh.
I'd considered it to some extent.
Player beliefs contributed to reviving Hans and Kate, so yeah, their perceptions could shape reality too.
That's why I dialed back the Demon Queen Perlerina's peak performance and set her attacks to bounce—to keep things balanced.
She wouldn't demand I turn her into some overpowered noob-smashing Demon Queen, right…?
* * *
The private server made for the Demon God.
"You're here, Apostle of Dreams!"
As soon as I logged in, the fidgety Demon God shot to her feet, greeting me.
"You came! Great!"
She grabbed both my hands and shook them wildly. The King of Ten Thousand Demons who'd just smashed an otherworldly monster now looked like a puppy desperate to pee.
I glanced at Demon Queen Lina beside her.
She gave a sheepish smile and slight bow, as if to say sorry.
She revealed her true identity to me right away, but not to the Demon God. Maybe I should just spill it.
"Apostle of Dreams. These blasphemous fools dare to disparage our Perlerina's performance."
The Demon God shoved the community screen in my face, ranting.
"I'm fine, really, Demon God."
Lina waved it off, but…
"No! Even if it's just her incarnation in the game, we cannot tolerate insults to our Lina! It's utterly unacceptable!"
She had no idea the current Lina had merged with her revived mentor. Unyielding.
"……Oh my."
Lina even blushed watching the Demon God.
...I just wanna flip the table on all this.
How'd this whale—who didn't even know how to whale—end up browsing communities? Probably wandered there while trying to pull and play Lina.
Wait a sec.
Actually, this might be a blessing. If she'd seen all the 'sexiness' praise scattered around instead of performance gripes, she might've threatened to end the continent.
"I'll handle this part."
"By buffing Lina's power?"
"Nah. That's the easy fix, but it'd cause more headaches. Overbuffing to break balance would just get us hate from pushback haters calling it pay-to-win trash or game-ruining."
"Th-that won't do! Then what?!"
I scrolled through the community reactions.
Originally, to drive gacha pulls, I planned AoE content right before the Demon Queen banner ends—or tease it.
Can't scrap that now, so no immediate content to shift perceptions on her, but…
"How about adding a hospitality buff?"
"……Hospitality buff?"
Temporarily apply one strong enough to shift perceptions—say, to the hot Assassin of the Abyss. Mobs spawn periodically; kill 'em for attack buffs.
That should flip player views plenty.
But I'd overlooked one key fact.
The hasty new character's AoE mechanic—designed to cap her power—was clashing with the hospitality buff.