Chapter 156
Chapter 156
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 156
Chapter Title: The Clichés Backfire
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"Wait! Hold on a second, mister!"
O Dok-seo let out a scream.
"If that happens, all the outer god-level forces we've prepared will turn into mere mortals! Aren't we screwed?"
"Hmm."
Even witnessing the exact same cliché, I thought of Vegeta first, while O Dok-seo thought of a mortal.
It was a perfect example of how otaku mindsets evolve with generational shifts.
Unfortunately, now wasn't the right time to discuss subculture imagery and symbolism.
In real time, the Baekhwa Girls' High School students (night class) were being slaughtered by the All-Creation Amuser.
-Hic, hic, hic, hic!
-Purple tissue? Want some purple tissue?
-Kooong... Kooong....
Within the 16-bit low-res domain unfolded by the All-Creation Amuser, murky dotted NPCs respawned.
The NPCs hopped along—pop pop pop—and beat the Baekhwa Girls' High School ghosts to death.
They were 'necromancer' NPCs.
Dim robes. Grotesquely twisted staves. Candle decorations too slender to serve as proper lighting.
True fashion disasters, committed hikikomori vibes oozing out—impossible to hide even in 16-bit blurry graphics.
-Hehehe, spirits everywhere.
-I'll capture and enslave them!
-Kongkongkong ghosts? Hang 'em on a cuckoo clock and set the alarm. Nothing like the thrill of a human skull shattering.
The ghosts panicked and scattered.
Sure, these days MZ-generation necromancers enroll in academies, date around, and blow cash on conglomerate heiress diamonds, but in RPG worldviews, necromancers still ranked at the bottom alongside thieves.
Despite appearances, the Baekhwa Girls' High School ghosts were an in-group that had thrived together with spirited unity.
They fell helplessly to the grudge-fueled black magic of the necromancer NPCs.
"You bastards!"
Cheon Yo-hwa, the Awakener who claimed to be Korea's original necromancer, flew into a rage.
"Stop bullying my kids—!"
Thwack!
Cheon Yo-hwa charged at full speed and smashed a necromancer's head with a kick.
In this battlefield where both NPCs and ghosts had devolved to 16-bit, only Cheon Yo-hwa boasted overwhelming photorealistic graphics.
Even if descended in human flesh, even under the 'ally-weakening enemy' cliché debuff, Cheon Yo-hwa was still Cheon Yo-hwa.
Crimson aura blades flew every which way, scattering 16-bit blood splatters from the NPCs.
In an instant, Cheon Yo-hwa reduced the necromancer horde to rubble.
-D-Demon King!
"Huh?"
-The Demon King has appeared!
As the necromancers cried out, blue wings flapped overhead.
['The Operator of the All-Creation Amuser' points out that an abyssal monster has appeared to slaughter humans on behalf of its kin.]
['Demon King Appears' cliché, along with 'Humanity's Alliance to Subjugate the Demon King' cliché, activates.]
Crackle!
New NPCs spawned in the All-Creation Amuser's domain.
Graphics still low-res, but like master-crafted pixels, each character's traits stood out sharply.
They were 'priest' and 'saintess' NPCs.
-Behold the vile Demon King's atrocities!
-Necromancers stray from the path of benevolence. Yet they are still human. They cannot compare to inhuman monsters by nature.
-O God! Aid us!
Following the black magic necromancers, white magic priests unleashed ranged holy spells at Cheon Yo-hwa in unison.
Cheon Yo-hwa screamed.
"Eeeeek!"
She had reason to.
The spots hit by holy magic devolved from photorealistic to 16-bit graphics.
Her right arm and left leg crackled, resolution dropping.
Even Mu-gan's main body was beginning to be corrupted by the All-Creation Amuser.
"Senior! S-Senior!"
Cheon Yo-hwa desperately called for my help while dodging the ranged attacks.
Holy magic was a terrible matchup from the start.
Wasn't Cheon Yo-hwa black magic-aligned?
Hundreds of priests—no, already over a thousand respawned priest NPCs—chased her down.
O Dok-seo, watching the surreal pursuit from beside me, muttered awkwardly.
"Sh-Should we help her or something? Mister?"
"Well. If I step in, I could sweep those NPCs aside easily enough."
"But the main target of this subjugation is still the All-Creation Amuser. Jumping into its childish games and getting hit by a 'cliché' myself would just put us at a disadvantage."
"Oh."
"It's better if I hold back for the finishing blow. Dok-seo. Here, we shouldn't get caught in the enemy's tricks—we need to exploit their weaknesses instead. Don't we have any clichés we can claim in this situation?"
*You're an otaku, aren't you?*
O Dok-seo instantly grasped the implication of my words.
She groaned.
"Uh. Hold on, clichés... So, the outer god's assembled an alliance under the pretext of the Demon King and monsters...?"
In that moment, O Dok-seo's eyes sparkled.
"...Ah! Aha! That's it! That's the one!"
"That's it?"
"Monsters were just minding their own business when evil humans attacked first, killed them for fun, and enslaved them! The 'humans are actually the bad guys' cliché! Tons of novels and comics use it!"
O Dok-seo bolted out like Archimedes shouting Eureka.
Before her lay Hanako the ghost, beaten half to death earlier by a necromancer.
Red, blue, and purple tissues littered the ground impressively.
Squeeze.
O Dok-seo knelt and embraced Hanako's shoulder.
-Purple tissue?
As Hanako blinked in confusion, O Dok-seo put on an indignant face.
And shouted.
With utmost grievance.
"Why...!"
-Purple tissue?
"Why do humans persecute us like this...!"
Pause.
A blue butterfly halted mid-motion at O Dok-seo's impassioned wail.
Not just that—the thousands (already grown) of priests and saintesses chasing Cheon Yo-hwa whipped their heads around.
With all eyes on her, O Dok-seo showed no shame, delivering a flawless performance.
"Hanako just wanted to hand out toilet paper to people using the bathroom...!"
-Purple tissueee?
"Kongkongkong Ghost was just a kid who moved with his head, not his legs! Humans torment, despise, and abuse us just for being different! I curse you! I curse you, humans...!"
The half-subjugated Baekhwa ghosts and Cheon Yo-hwa, catching her breath after the chase paused, wore strange expressions.
*Were we ever that nice?*
But in fiction, real history didn't matter much.
If realism ruled, King Arthur would have been a man.
['The Operator of the All-Creation Amuser' accepts the shrine maiden's claim.]
And that was the monster's weakness.
I wanted to applaud.
*Well done, Dok-seo! That's the one!*
Monsters couldn't deny their own essence.
Especially not when O Dok-seo was the shrine maiden the All-Creation Amuser had pegged as its champion.
If the shrine maiden prayed aloud, the god had to answer.
Refusing would damage the All-Creation Amuser itself.
That was why the shrine maiden could pierce the outer god's authority in reverse.
The reason she absolutely had to be an ally in any outer god subjugation plan.
['Actually, the Evil Side Was Humanity' cliché activates.]
Chaos erupted for real.
-Purple tissue, want some?
-I actually wanted to walk with my legs, not my head, too.
Suddenly, the ghosts' facial muscles shifted to 'human'-like.
Noses straightened, lips aligned, and above all, eyes gained sharp focus.
Just like in goblin-protagonist stories where goblins bizarrely resemble humans!
The ghosts' language skills evolved abruptly.
Plausibility extended to their appearances.
The miracle of the inhuman genre.
"Why did necromancers try capturing ghosts, get wrecked, and suddenly have shrine priests show up to help!"
O Dok-seo, the outer god's shrine maiden who wrought the miracle herself, pointed at the sky.
"And not just a few—thousands of priests allied instantly! That means the necromancers and shrine were secretly connected behind the scenes! Otherwise, no plausibility!"
No way.
I actually clapped this time.
What now? Our Dok-seo was a genius.
-Connection? What's that mean?
-Something like they're linked, I guess.
-Our shrine was tied to necromancers in secret?
Murmurs rose.
The 16-bit NPCs grew flustered.
Even adding fantasy worldview detail by not understanding "connection."
O Dok-seo shouted.
"Monsters have always been unlucky! Always hit with every contrived setback! We weren't the bad ones!"
Strictly speaking, the unlucky ones were O Dok-seo, me, and the saintess, dosed with 'hated medicine.'
But our side had drawn the misfortune, that much was true.
I hadn't detailed it due to my aversion to grimdark tastes, but this regression's 'Chamber of Mind and Time' for subjugating Mu-gan had brought plenty of bad luck.
O Dok-seo landed the finisher.
"The shrine's high priests were the necromancers' backers! Priests claimed credit for captured spirits, funneling perks to necromancers in return!"
-Is that true, priest?
-Ridiculous! No way!
"As if! Corrupt high priests is a 99% cliché in novels! I guarantee at least one cardinal's possessed by a demon!"
-Wha.
-How could...
['The Operator of the All-Creation Amuser' accepts the shrine maiden's claim.]
['High Priests' Corruption' cliché, 'The Black Curtain Was in the Shrine's Upper Echelons' cliché, 'Demon Summoning by Priests' cliché activate.]
-How'd you know? Heh heh heh. Now that it's out, you'll all be sacrifices too!
-KyaAaak! His Eminence the Cardinal's gone mad!
Tens of thousands (grown again) of NPCs turned on each other, fighting wildly.
The hotel backyard, long since bulldozed to wasteland, now hosted a midnight religious war.
Then.
"...Ah. I'm strong again."
Cheon Yo-hwa's right arm and left leg restored to normal.
"Hiya."
-Hraaaagh! The Demon King revives!
Cheon Yo-hwa spun without hesitation, popping more priest heads.
Targeting only those 'exuding faintly sinister auras'—the corrupt priests—she seemed to grasp the flow.
The All-Creation Amuser cornered once more.
It had few options left.
['The Operator of the All-Creation Amuser' points out that even if humans have flaws, monsters have plenty of stains too.]
['Monsters have slaughtered countless lives as well.']
['No Good or Evil Factions—Only Power Struggles' cliché activates.]
Straight to both-sides-ism!
The alleyway every good-vs-evil story risks.
Sidestepping what exactly is good or evil with clean relativism, winning all debates—the taboo's ultimate technique.
The battle stalled again.
The All-Creation Amuser was probably eyeing an escape, offering a 'draw' soon.
But we couldn't let an outer god slinking in the shadows manipulating clichés get away.
*Saintess.*
I mouthed the words.
The saintess, who even now paused time intermittently to survey the field, decoded my silent message perfectly.
From me to saintess, saintess to O Dok-seo.
Relayed and retranslated, it reached the All-Creation Amuser's shrine maiden.
O Dok-seo read my intent and shouted immediately.
"Monsters slaughter lives, humans slaughter lives! Every race, every land—tragedy everywhere!"
Essentially, it was a line spoken simultaneously by me, the saintess, and O Dok-seo.
"If the world is mere tragedy and life only pain, then pray tell—what is a 'god' in such a world!"
Pause.
NPCs numbering tens of thousands by now, ghosts holding their own one-against-many but pressed by numbers—friend and foe alike froze.
16-bit grotesqueries mimicking human expressions, uncanny valley amplified.
O Dok-seo alone bore their inorganic gazes, tens of thousands of eyes.
Gulp.
She swallowed once, then pointed at the sky.
"If the world is evil, isn't the god who let it stay that way at fault?"
Exactly.
The All-Creation Amuser had erred.
In reality, both-sides-ism might pass.
But with a blatant 'god' existing?
Especially if that god declared outright, 'The world is evil either way—only power struggles matter.'
"Why serve such a god?"
The All-Creation Amuser thought it played its best card—but it was its worst mistake.
"No need for us to eternally kill and slaughter each other! The true target to subjugate is the god forcing this hell on us! That evil god alone is our enemy!"
Drawn by O Dok-seo's declaration, humans and monsters alike looked skyward.
There floated a blue butterfly.
['The Operator of the All-Creation Amuser' accepts the shrine maiden's claim.]
['The True Final Boss Was God' cliché activates.]