Please Stream in My Place
“Please stream in my place.”
Under the eyes of everyone watching.
Riiiiing~
Light flared to life with the chime that had become Kiki's trademark. The symbols on the slot machine spun in a blur, and the Light of Heritage began seeping into the White Savior.
Change.
Radiance burst from the White Savior as a dazzling transformation swept over it. At a glance, it looked all but certain to succeed.
“Oh! Did it land?!”
'...Oh ho?'
Yena and the Agent were watching Kiki with rapt fascination too. Was it actually going to work?
Tick.
Tick.
7
7
-77□-
Two of them, at least, had landed. If only the last one...!
[7?]
[77777777]
[Did a Transcendent masterpiece just drop?!]
[One more to go!]
[C'mon White Savior, stick PLEASE]
[EXPLODE!]
[Honestly if it fails this is gonna be peak entertainment lol]
[pleasepleasepleaseplease]
[stickstickstickstickstick]
[Came back from the future, it's 100% sticking lol]
[777!]
Tick.
7
7
♤
-77♤-
“?”
[Huh?]
[????????]
[what the actual f—]
[It failed?]
[No 777 then?]
[Eh?]
K... Kiki?
Failure...?
BOOOM!!
[Enhancement has failed.]
[The Light of Heritage (Semi-Legendary) turns to dust and vanishes.]
[The White Savior is flustered.]
“What was that?”
No, this was supposed to fail? After I threw in every scroll and boost imaginable to drag the odds up?
'On this?'
I turned to look at Kiki. The machine was fiddling with its own mechanical arm, running a self-diagnostic, of all things. When Kiki averted its eyes, I stepped closer and met its gaze head-on.
“Kiki?”
K... Kiki...?
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[That tin can, I swear lmaooo]
[Garbage-can tier holy shit]
[NOOOOOO my Light of Heritage!!!]
[Isn't this probability manipulation?? How the hell does 47% not stick ffs]
[so close so close so close so close]
[Time to scrap the metal, no?]
[Kiki...]
[It's become a star in the night sky...]
[no lol what's the point of making two if you fail the last one]
[Those probability scrolls went to waste lmaooo — Legendary-tier ones are genuinely expensive]
[47%...]
[About time we retired Kiki]
Kiki! Kiki kiki!
“Yes, I'm sure you did your very best.”
We had thrown every trick we had against the absoluteness that pins probability in place, and the result was failure. Kiki had even awakened a new ability through the Agent — and still, this was its ceiling...
“...You had some other intention here, didn't you? Like with the Heavenly Skewer. Tell me you did.”
......Kiki.
“Because there's no way this adds up. You pierced the odds of getting struck by lightning — there's no version of reality where 47% beats you.”
However unlucky I might be, this was too much. It simply made no sense.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
“Um, Lily...? I don't think smacking the machine is gonna make anything pop out—”
“Well, they do say machines only get fixed when you hit them.”
Not that I was actually hitting it.
[Lily...]
[Lily LOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[Lily has fully lost it after the fail lmaooo]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[A 47% fail is honestly a bit too cruel]
[chillchill]
[Doesn't this just put her back at square one? She only got this far by winning stuff she was never supposed to get]
[FYI: the biggest victim here is Yena, who burned every single scroll she had]
[LOLOLOLOL]
[Nah? The real victim is Lily, who's about to eat free rent lololol — Yena came out ahead]
[fr lol]
Thwack.
'You can stop now. That child truly gave it everything.'
“...Right. I suppose she did.”
At the Agent's gentle touch, I let go of Kiki. Only then did the woozy, wobbly machine vanish with a cheerful pop!
My fault, I suppose. My luck was just too rotten to push past even 47%...
'But it wasn't for nothing. That child always guides its wielder down the best possible path.'
“...So this failed enhancement is part of some bigger picture?”
'Most likely. Absolute power is so overwhelming that nothing against it will ever be perfect — but luck is never a light thing to gamble with.'
“Hmm...”
Still, what a waste. If only a single one had been made from the start, fine — but we'd gotten our hopes up, invested the cost, and come out at a net loss. And the Light of Heritage was an item of which only two existed in the entire world. Had it succeeded, I would now be holding two pieces of Transcendent-grade equipment.
“White Savior.”
[The White Savior avoids your gaze for no particular reason.]
[The White Savior insists this was an unforeseeable accident.]
“An accident?”
[The White Savior maintains that the light did, in fact, seep into it — but an intangible force severed the connection.]
[The White Savior requests that you grip it and see for yourself.]
......
I wrapped my hand around the White Savior. There was, undeniably, a different aura to it now than before. The light had seeped in — but the failed enhancement had severed that connection before it could take root. And even so, compared to the Multicolored Successor's explosive transformation, the change was minuscule.
'So this puts it at semi-Transcendent... no, I'd call it plain Mythic+.'
One thing was certain: it had not reached Transcendent grade. That much was simply fact.
'Nothing to be done about it, I suppose.'
“Yena?”
“Wh-what...? Yes?”
“Here you go.”
Whoosh!
I tossed the Green Hermit — no longer of any use to me — over to Yena. She caught the dagger in both hands as though cradling an infant, staring up at me with wide, rounded eyes.
“You're... you're giving this to me?”
“I'll lend it to you indefinitely, as promised. If I ever need it back, you return it then.”
“Whaaat! I literally love you!”
Yena bounced into the air, sprinting this way and that in celebration. After running herself breathless for a good while, she glanced back at me standing there quietly, then came trotting over at a quick, shy pace.
“Um... Lily? But, um, are you sure about this?”
“Sure about what?”
“I mean, I'm super grateful, thank-you-so-much-and-all-that, but... didn't you say you'd decide after seeing whether it succeeded?”
“I did.”
The four enhancement scrolls Yena had provided. The Legendary-tier one in particular was so rare it was priceless in every sense — no listings, no market, nothing — so I'd agreed to settle our outstanding rental fees with the scrolls themselves. Had things gone well, I'd intended to waive the future rent entirely. But the enhancement had failed, which meant that past fees aside, the rent going forward would have to be paid after all.
“But I'm just giving it to you. You've helped me a great deal, and there's still so much ahead of us.”
“Lily...!”
“In exchange, you work hard, understand? You know what I mean, right?”
“Yes ma'am! I'll do my absolute bestest! At your service!”
Yena bowed her head over and over in thanks.
[LOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[Yena has become a dog]
[Of course you grovel like that when someone hands you a Mythic item lol]
[Yena... my Yena...]
[Kya~]
[THE. LILY.]
[Man, but the enhancement failing really is a shame]
[That's genuinely insane, for real]
“Since we're on the subject — will you help me right now?”
“Anything at all!”
Yena's red eyes gleamed. I smirked and drew out the Multicolored Successor. Now a Transcendent-grade masterpiece, it radiated an aura even more alien than before. The color drained from Yena's face the moment she saw it.
“Don't tell me...”
“I never planned on doing things this way. But it seems I'll have to change the plan.”
I explained it to Yena. No — to everyone watching.
My original plan had been to succeed at the enhancement using that 47% chance. Even without great luck, even odds were worth a challenge. But it had failed, and the Light of Heritage had crumbled to dust.
So who — or what — was the true culprit behind this whole affair?
“...The probability?”
“The probability. And that probability was never absolute to begin with.”
The odds dictated by the System were not absolute. The only magic the System had imbued into the Light of Heritage was the chance of success — and that much was something Kiki's ability could raise without any trouble.
“Kiki pierced a probability as brutal as 'the odds of being struck by lightning' and managed to forge not one but two items. And the enhancement just now — what happened with it?”
“It... failed?”
“Right. It failed without even breaking through half. Same probability system — so why does one go through and the other not?”
Both were enhancement and crafting systems built by the System itself. Yet somehow Kiki's power worked flawlessly only on crafting. The answer lay in the item itself — in the Light of Heritage.
“The System recognizes the power called 'Kiki.' Kiki is a pet I obtained through a dungeon, and using a pet's ability is well within the rules — nothing for the System to object to. But...”
“It doesn't recognize the Light of Heritage! Because it wasn't made by the System!”
“Exactly.”
The Light of Heritage was a power created not by the System, but by the someone who had entrusted Drak with his mission. Because of that, the towering law of absoluteness crushed it down, and it could only ever be used in a heavily nerfed state.
The Enhancement Probability Scrolls had applied at full strength precisely because they were a power born of the System, rooted deep in this world's foundations.
[So?]
[???]
[Oh?]
[Wait, is there a fix?]
[What's the Multicolored Successor got to do with it?]
“So what happens now? Where does that leave us?”
“It's simple. The problem, in the end, is the maker of the Light of Heritage — isn't it?”
Everything that had happened traced back to the fact that the maker had never recognized Kiki. And that maker was very likely waiting, staged, within the Multicolored Successor's trials.
“So I'm going to go meet them. In person.”
“...I'm sorry, what?”
“To have a little talk about the Light of Heritage. Getting an enhancement done while I'm there would be a nice bonus.”
“No wait, hold on. Then—”
“It won't take long. Hardly any time passed at all with the Kraken, after all.”
Actually... it might take a while. This time I intended to see the matter fully resolved before coming back, so it could stretch longer than expected.
Which meant there was exactly one thing Yena needed to do for me.
“Please stream in my place.”
“Eh?!”
[????]
[??]
[Our Yena is taking over Lily's stream?!]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[Yena conquering Lily's channel lmaooo]
[Huh?]
As with most mental worlds, the broadcast would cut out the instant I entered a trial. Only the me on the outside could keep the stream running.
“H-here? Is that even possible...”
'Stay as long as you like. I was getting bored around here anyway — this works out nicely.'
“Sounds like a yes from the management.”
I had the host's blessing, too. Yena was already breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Then I'll leave it in your hands.”
“...You will come back soon, right?”
“Of course. Worst case, I'll be back within three days.”
“Three days... I'm sorry, what? THREE DAYS?!”
I slipped the Multicolored Successor around my neck.
My vision went black.
Blue.