Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Funding 30x Event
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After Virtual Idol Heart-chan achieved unprecedented success, the Violet Magic Tower Master's condition seemed a bit off.
She appeared to have formed a slightly unpleasant misunderstanding.
"......"
The look in her eyes screamed, 'Are you seriously gay?'
She was the only one on the entire continent who knew the true identity of the enigmatic beauty Heart. It was understandable that her custom-made disciple's (male) illusion magic (female character) had shaken the continent like a storm, leading her to think that way.
But the Violet Magic Tower Master failed to grasp one crucial truth.
"Characters and players must be clearly distinguished."
"......?"
Yes. Characters and players must be kept separate.
In RPGs, you can immerse yourself in a character, but you shouldn't become one with it. The moment you do in GTA, your real life goes down the drain.
The same goes for TRPGs.
Just because you're rolling a super-hot girl character inside doesn't make you one, and identifying with her leads straight to disaster. You'd catch the disease of not being able to treat the game as just a game.
'GM, my character worked so hard—sure, the die rolled a 1, but couldn't it still succeed?'
A level 1 picking a fight with a dragon, and it's a fumble? What am I supposed to do?
'GM, my character is an elf, so she doesn't want to sit at the same table as these pathetic humans! It's not that I don't want to play—it's what fits her!'
Everyone else picked human races. How do we even run the session?
"........."
......You're just sitting there silent after your character failed the check and fired up Hearthstone?
"Urk."
I clutched my chest and staggered, overwhelmed by the rising demon of obsession.
Anyway, characters and players must be distinguished, just like how a novelist writing a furry girl protagonist doesn't become one.
I manipulated Heart to rake in sweet donations, but that was about creating and unleashing the character Heart—not me crossdressing online.
I like women.
"S-Surely the heartbreak from Northern Grand Duke still lingers...?"
How did she interpret my torment as trauma?
The Violet Magic Tower Master started rolling out forbidden love bait. Time to play dumb.
Misunderstandings are hard to clear up. If they don't believe you whether you explain or not, the answer is to leave it to the heavens and get back to work.
Right away—magic development.
I'd already decided on the next spell to create.
Don't they say a story's three elements are characters, events, and setting?
I'd just finished my paper on implementing Virtual Idol Heart: Realistic Hologram via Illusion Magic ~Enhancing Tactile Illusions Through Audience Immersion~.
Illusion magic is, after all, just illusion. Like how chopping off a finger or burning a person in a dream doesn't cause real wounds, no matter how much you fool with illusions, physical damage is zero. A fatal flaw.
Also, superhumans beyond a certain level resist illusions poorly. High magic resistance or strong will makes it ineffective. Swordmasters shatter hypnosis with a grunt.
What compensates for those weaknesses is my custom hologram.
It hijacks the target's will to instead amplify the illusion magic. If they even slightly want to believe, it inflates that emotion to solidify the illusion.
That enhanced illusion can even replicate touch. Illusions you can feel!
In development, resource limits prevented smells, but now refined, it can add scents too. With characters implemented so perfectly, next up is backgrounds.
Earth, flowing streams, rising sun, blowing wind.
Sunlight shattering through rustling leaves, the scent of phytoncides. If I can make them feel that as illusion?
My isekai TRPG plan would be complete. Motivation surged.
I boldly demanded of the Violet Magic Tower Master.
"I'll hole up in my room for about three years developing magic, so feed me three meals a day with meat and don't bother me for trivial stuff."
"Y-You're getting more trash-talky by the day... B-But three years?"
"Two and a half at shortest."
"U-Um... You know about the presentation next spring, right?"
"Pardon?"
"The Magic Tower research showcase... N-Nobles and royals visit each tower to audit funding use... W-We always get grilled, but this year we have you, so..."
"Hmm..."
Code red.
I'd pulled in donations with Heart, but conscionably, it wasn't a fortune. If I'd sold my soul and shaken my butt, I could've funded another tower—but that would've shredded my fragile male heart.
The funding scale was too massive to shrug off cuts with "I'll earn my own." Gotta secure the budget somehow...
A presentation, huh.
Demoing the Virtual Idol project would be a hit, but the tower might literally go up in flames that day.
Having her discreetly inquire, Heart-chan's popularity was beyond imagination.
Even two years after "graduation," guys were still hunting her traces. Public reveal? No way. Their dream girl was a male mage's illusion?!
They'd come with pitchforks and gasoline.
Nor did I want to churn out sleek mass-destruction spells for show. My soul would die researching boring, unimpressive magic.
Hmm.
I didn't agonize long.
"Just trust me."
"R-Really? Not some... weird thing again?"
"Yes. Even the bigwigs will love it."
"O-Okay, I trust you then... G-Good luck! Lamb for dinner tonight...!"
Her face lit up as she dashed off doot-doot. Seeing her gastritis-pale cheeks bloom was a sight.
Yeah, peace of mind first.
There's such a thing as white lies. If I'd voiced my true thoughts—"On second thought, I'm not the Tower Master. Budget woes aren't my problem; you earn it"—would she smile like that?
I doubt it.
I prayed her mental peace lasted. Good food depends on it.
Even the Tower Master's calmed heart, bought by my hot check, churned into a storm as the presentation loomed.
One week before.
Having declared "I trust you," she couldn't ask "Ready?" or "How's it going?" Instead, she paced around me.
She'd steel herself, blurt "H-Hey, talk!" then pivot smoothly to "N-Nothing... How's the stew today?" Prime material for my nerd character notes.
After three days, pity overrode research zeal. Seeing her gnaw nails like a woodpecker was too pathetic; I showed her my magic.
"R-Really?!"
"Yeah. To ease your mind."
"Y-You're just... thinking sideways, but you're a genius! Y-You've prepped properly for the showcase, right? So I trust you..."
Her infinite trust warmed my heart.
She only half-muttered the "trash thinking" curse. Safe.
I levitated my staff, crossed hands, and spread them wide.
Gathering mana. Power flows through my body via precise laws.
Delicately. Like honing a water blade.
I infuse soul into perfect, meaningless motions, offering to the world. This is magic.
"Heaven is indifferent. No love in its downward gaze." "If none fathom my heart, I must cross that moon alone." "Heart as brush, blooming beneath my feet."
⟨ Moon-Crossing Scene - Skybound Fantasy Pillar ⟩
The world flips around me.
Moisture seeps from my feet. It beads into droplets, floating upward. The dry training ground becomes a serene lake in an instant.
"...Uh, eek!"
The Violet Magic Tower Master flailed splashily, but didn't submerge. Droplets scattered; the jelly-like lake cradled her feet.
A clear sky reflected beneath the lake.
In its center, a massive pillar like Sun Wukong's staff floated. Mana threads undulated like jellyfish on its surface. Beautiful, majestic—but she shrank from the intense threat.
Her instincts were spot-on. The threads were venomous tentacles. One brush, and illusion resistance crumbles.
It granted mana resistance penetration to all illusions in the space—illusion magic's pinnacle... as a background model.
Hmm.
What old otakus called Noble Phantasms, modern ones call Domain Expansion.
Tons of work honing moisture, lake scent, oppressive aura.
Befuddled by the impressive effects, the Tower Master gazed in awe, hand on chest, deep breaths.
Then cautiously:
"Wh-What does it do...?!"
I replied cautiously.
"It's cool."
"...Huh?"
"Awesome."
"...Any effects?"
"Nope."
"Gurgle."
She toppled backward, twintails flapping.
Overwhelmed by my "cool" verdict.
Hmm. Not for the showcase—powerhouses would see through the flash. Even feigned as ultimate, it wouldn't land.
She bought it because her specialty differed.
My showcase video was different.
Key point: I could produce killer visuals. Why not media like movies? Top genre: action.
Action appeals to all ages.
Nobles love novelty, they say.
Answer: Heavenly Demon.
A Heavenly Demon unleashing Supremacy of the Heavenly Demon, blasting a mountain with Heavenly Demon Death Beam? Epic.
Everyone would love it, right?
......
Analysis fail.
"Planning to scam funding with this half-baked illusion? Pathetic."
"That form—doesn't even know the sword radical. Why swing horizontal? Awkward for channeling mana."
"Kekeke... Pfahahaha! What knight uses such clumsy, inefficient tech?"
"Fancy words? 'Superior Forging'? Wahahaha!"
In a magic world, swordmasters popping from serfs isn't odd. Meaning? Nobility demands force.
Title scales with power. Or elite bodyguards. Facing war-hardened killers, my illusion was...
Like teaching soccer stars "Dribble tip: Use your heel!"
Just a barrage of abuse. Done.
Only a scrawny boy knight gave a not-bad look. Yeah, that age loves flash...
Post-fiasco, Violet Tower became 0.7 funeral home.
"M-My funding... funding...!!"
Thud.
She collapsed gasping.
I brooded grimly over defeat.
But no all-in on lethal magic; holing up gains nothing. Characters and backgrounds done—like building the server now.
I entered my lab, quietly shut the door.
"Y-You bastard, freaking bastard! Horny now—argh!"
Heard harsh curses, but
I hoped they weren't the Tower Master's...
Clop-clop. Clack.
A lord-vassal pair rode a carriage through forest paths.
A boy with a longsword bigger than himself sat high; a bearded middle-aged knight drove, reins in hand. Quite the sight.
They discussed Violet Tower's odd show.
"A laughable spell. Flashy illusion, but the content so childish."
"Hmm..."
Oddly, the knight used honorifics; the boy, casual.
The boy tilted his head.
"You really think it was illusion magic?"
"Implying it wasn't, young lord?"
"What we saw was illusion, sure. But the content wasn't fabricated. How'd that man's martial arts look to you?"
"Overblown. Ground quaking from steps? Laughable. Aura orbs from blade tip? Mage thinking. That mountain-slash finale? Ridiculous."
"That's how you saw it."
The young knight recalled the silk-clad man in the illusion.
Self-styled demon. Heavenly Demon.
His arts were clumsy, grandiose.
But his words held profound martial truths, deepened by rumination. "Superior Forging." "Water's Extremity Turns to Ice."
Could a tower hermit conjure such clarity only masters convey? Plus, his attire and terrain—unseen cultures.
More likely: a mage witnessed it firsthand, recreated via illusion, but lacked eye to capture 100% nuance.
"You mean..."
"Thought dimensional magic was lost."
Yes.
Fools dismissed it as silly mage fancy. But it wasn't an "illusion demo."
Dimensional magic.
Violet Tower announced—metaphorically—observing other worlds beyond space-time seas.
"Then why mangle such a feat? Nobles there could've poured fortunes."
"To filter."
Weed out posers, show only to true discerners.
Whisper to few elites over continent-wide fame.
Many reads, but the arrogant "lone ruler" shown screamed: "We'll do our thing; you handle the rest."
"Clever."
Block continent chaos from revealed dimension magic? Cheap investment. The boy wrote on fine parchment: "Violet Magic Tower Imperial Funding Increase: 30x."
......
Post-show bedridden Violet Tower Master got punched by sudden 30x funding, dashed everywhere kissing all she met.
Illusion magic now included lip texture.