The Living Flame
You have passed Nyarlathotep's First Trial.
Huh?
A status window message had suddenly appeared right in front of my eyes.
Nyarlathotep is an Outer God whose talents especially shine in the fields of psychological warfare and brainwashing.
Having read the situation on your own initiative and turned it into a psychological attack, you have earned Nyarlathotep's sincere praise.
So out loud she'd told me to tear my enemies apart, but what she'd actually wanted, it seemed, was for me to talk them into submission.
Reward: Avatar of Chaos +1, Subordinate Gu Haseong acquired.
Allows you to transform into an avatar of the Outer God Nyarlathotep.
However, it cannot perfectly replicate the original's full power.
Currently realizable avatars: The Black Man, The Wailer and Struggler
Gu Haseong. That was the name of the guy I had just brought to his knees with nothing but words.
So anyone I successfully talk down becomes my subordinate? Was that how it worked?
What kind of insane ability is this? Manipulating a human being like a personal servant — and this is rated a mere A-rank? Don't get me wrong, using a mental-type ability to control people like slaves was entirely plausible in theory. But I'd heard that the system itself never formally declaring "This person is now your subordinate!" was practically unheard of.
Could rank assignments actually be subjective? Was it only A-rank by Nyarlathotep's standards?
Then just how strong is this Avatar of Chaos supposed to be?
Follow that line of thinking and the value of Avatar of Chaos climbed exponentially. For now, the plan was to avoid using the avatar except when it truly mattered. Honestly, with just my mouth, I figured I could probably talk my way out of expulsion.
But the most important thing right now is...
I turned my head and scanned the classroom.
"W-wait, what just happened?" "Did Gu Haseong just... kneel?"
Yep. Cleaning up this mess was priority number one.
"Alright, everyone, listen up. Nothing strange is happening here. Because..."
Unfortunately, I couldn't focus on a single word of class that day.
80 / 100
The price of overusing my ability was that something called my SAN value had taken a hit. That number was, in short, my sanity — and an indescribable helplessness wrapped itself around my entire body. It felt like having pulled two all-nighters in a row without a wink of sleep. Rational judgment was simply out of reach.
Still, using the ability on thirty-odd people at once was probably pushing it...
The more targets the ability had, the longer the persuasion took and the more massive the SAN drain became. After all, I'd had to string together every scrap of slave-related knowledge from Eastern and Western history, somehow stitch it to the concept of a "master," and ramble until everyone finally bought it.
Ring.
On the walk home after the academy, Nyarlathotep had left me advice of her own devising after sizing up my condition.
"That woman? Who?"
I was shuffling along when I checked the chat window and muttered the question.
"You mean Cthugha?"
Cthugha. One of my other internet friends — a woman with a personality like live fire. Well, "like live fire" was putting it politely; honestly, her personality was absolute garbage. Some days mid-game I couldn't help wondering if she was a genuine sociopath.
"But how would Cthugha even know?"
"What's that supposed to... no. Wait. You can't mean—"
Cthugha was an Outer God too?
Apparently tired of repeating herself, she cut the chat there.
Cthugha... So she was supposedly some kind of "constellation," just like Nyarlathotep? Could this still be a coincidence? I grimaced and began slowly scrolling through my friends list.
Cthulhu — ONLINE
Yog Sothoth — OFFLINE
Lesser Outer Gods 1 — OFFLINE
Lesser Outer Gods 2 — OFFLINE
Lesser Outer Gods 3 — OFFLINE
...
"Nah. No way."
There was no way three of my friends turning out to be gods could actually happen. If it did, then there really was something wrong with me.
Scuff. Scuff.
Dragging a body I'd done nothing to exhaust, I started walking home. Had I been walking about ten minutes by now? The usual convenience store came into view, so I figured I was almost there. Today I wasn't going to do anything — just go straight to bed...
Ring.
"What now?"
A chat message had suddenly arrived. She'd said she was done talking, so what could possibly—
"Cthugha?"
But the message wasn't from Nyarlathotep — it was from Cthugha. Cut the contract? She already knew about our contr—
"Ah."
I scrolled up a little and realized Cthugha had already known about our contract all along. I'd simply been too busy to notice.
Startled, I frantically fired off a message to Nyarlathotep.
What?
BOOOOM!!
"Crazy—!"
My body reacted before my brain did. I threw myself down, and a massive explosion tore through the air directly above my crouched form. I'd nearly taken a critical hit.
SAN Value 78 / 100
Son of a— I was so startled even my SAN value dropped.
I fumbled for my phone and started reading the messages flooding in at the speed of light.
"He can't have gone far. Find him." "We must carry out the command our god has given us."
Solemn men's voices drifted from around the corner. I'd heard there were people who worshipped constellations like religions... but Cthugha had followers like this?
Brrring... brrring. Brrring... brrring.
"Oh, come on..."
I ducked into cover and hurriedly called Cthugha. The ringing tone stretched on and on. Yeah, no way she pic—
"Hello?"
She picked up?
"C-Cthugha?"
"What do you want, cheater?"
"...Cheater?"
I was a lifelong single guy who had never so much as held a girlfriend. The last person on earth who could call me a cheater was—
"I-I've never once dated a girl in my life, so..."
"One year ago. In Cross RPG."
Hearing my words, Cthugha began laying them out one by one, slow and deliberate.
"You married me. Remember?"
"...What?"
At those words I frowned and began slowly digging through my memory. Cross RPG. A graying old MMORPG released quite a while back — popular enough to be treated as a national game. It had a "marriage" system, letting you wed a specific player. Married couples got bonus EXP when they partied up and hunted together, so I'd married Cthugha purely as a buff strategy.
"Cthugha, marry me."
"Wh-whuh? S-suddenly?"
"No, my leveling efficiency's tanking, so..."
"W-well, if you're gonna beg like thaaat~ I guess I'll accept."
"Yeah. Cool. Thanks."
God, what a mess. I'd been too lazy to deal with it properly and brushed it off — looking back, no wonder she got the wrong idea. Still, seriously, who gets this hung up on an in-game wedding?
"That was just a game marriage!"
"Mine was real, you son of a bitch."
Yeah, we weren't communicating.
"Break the contract with Nyarlathotep right now. And contract with me instead."
"C-contract with you?"
"Yes! Whatever she can give you, I can give too! None of that slimy mind-fiddling crap — I'll give you overwhelming destructive power!"
"I-I mean, I can't just throw my first contracted god under the bus like..."
"Then die! If I can't have you, you should die, you rotten bastard!!"
Ring.
And just like that, the short phone call was over.
"She's completely lost it. For real!"
Knowing Cthugha's personality as I did, I understood one thing clearly: she genuinely intended to kill me.
Nyarlathotep has urgently sent you a gift.
SAN value restored beyond maximum!
SAN Value 130 / 100
Life suddenly surged up through my listless body. A feeling like I couldn't possibly lose. What was this? This sensation of omnipotence?
"Found him."
The moment I opened my status window, a man wielding a crimson sword burst out from beside me. His blade came cleaving down toward my head.
Avatar of Chaos — The Wailer and Struggler
And the sword snapped.