The Saintess's Transparent Body Was Only Supposed to Be Fixed (Part 2)
In the game I once loved, **Fantasia Island**, the boss's health was only in the tens of thousands. It was on the small side.
Because of that, the damage I could deal with a weapon had to be at least five digits. And having an option that raised attack power by a percentage was one of the best things around.
In that kind of game, when I stacked runes to explode the damage, of course the server couldn't hold it and just exploded.
Actually, back in the old days there was even a bug that let you stack weapon options. It used multiplication to crank up the damage until the game literally couldn't calculate it anymore.
``[System: Rune Overlap Glitch Activated - Damage Overload Initiated]`` ``[Warning: Game Server at Critical Threshold - 99.8% Stability]``
‘That’s just the game engine doing its thing, all the spaghetti code piling up and snapping.’
I checked the training dummy again. It was still in perfect condition, thanks to the unbreakable magic.
Even if the devs ignored player-friendly bugs or glitches, they usually waited at least a week before patching. They’d even leave a fun message saying they’d give you a heads-up and enjoy the server for a bit.
``[System: Warning - Rune Glitch Detected. Direct Impact on World Engine. Recommend Immediate Halt.]``
‘That’s why I loved **Fantasia Island**. But now I’m remembering a game that’s completely dead.’
I gripped my sword tighter.
Before I was reincarnated into this world, I’d seen the news about the company laying off hundreds of people because of some huge restructuring. At this point, no amount of effort was going to bring it back.
Of course they’d stopped updating, but they’d dropped all the content and weapons they’d been preparing. Player count had jumped to a hundred thousand in a single day. But the people playing it were going to keep dropping.
One day it would be a game nobody even remembered existed anymore.
Yet someone was telling me to protect the world of **Royal Child**. Did they have no shame?
“Then I’ll do it. You can get caught in the crossfire, so step back.”
“Wait, wait a second. If it’s that dangerous, shouldn’t we call the teachers?”
“Of course I’m going to stop it, that’s why I’m not calling anyone.”
I patted the nervous-looking Saintess and walked right to the boundary line of the swordsmanship training ground.
The moment I crossed it, the rune-etched stones flared to life.
Now I just needed to convert all that mana into aura and dump it into a single strike that would crush the dummy.
“…No matter how much I think about it, I’m still uneasy. Brother, do you know what kind of aftershock is going to hit if you burden the world like this?”
“I don’t know. But there’s still a chance I can undo the Saintess’s transparent body.”
Actually, Astoria had no flaws in her reasoning.
Everything I’d used so far had directly affected this world. So when I overloaded the game engine with this rune overlap, who knew what kind of result I’d get.
‘But I should try it at least once.’
Some glitches and bugs only worked if you forced them. For example, the spatial slice-and-move glitch required me to build a special device that triggered lag first.
“Then I’ll do it.”
“…Yes, please let it succeed.”
Astoria clasped her hands behind me and prayed.
Even though I couldn’t see her face because she was transparent, I bet she was squinting her eyes and hoping this would work.
The rune characters sparkled as they flooded me with an eerie amount of mana.
I had to pour every bit of power into a single sword strike.
‘One of the Baskerville family sword techniques. **2nd Form: Howling**. ’
I gathered the mana flowing through my body into my heart, changed it into aura, and reinforced myself. Then I moved every remaining bit of aura to the tip of the blade.
Normally I would have pulled every ounce of strength from my entire body and swung the sword so fast it was just a blur. That’s where the name **Howling** came from, like the sound of a wolf’s howl when the blade cuts through the air.
Now I combined that with the rune overlap glitch and slammed the dummy with overwhelming damage.
From leg to waist, waist to arm, arm to fingertips, fingertips to the very tip of the blade. I poured every drop of aura and strength in my body into that single, perfect moment.
**Crack—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!**
An explosive storm of energy burst from the tip of my sword. The sound of a wolf howling was completely drowned out as my aura, accumulated in my body, erased everything in front of me.
If I’d used this against the Crown Prince, I would have died for sure. The strike was that terrifying.
It slowed down the flow of time itself, flickering everything around me.
Flicker. Flicker.
Like someone messing with a light switch, the entire world had glitched.
“…What on earth are you doing right now?”
“I dealt an attack the world can’t withstand. If I keep this up, I’ll have to read the whole area again from scratch…”
I smiled faintly while watching Astoria’s transparent body slowly return to normal inside that flickering light.
“…So the Saintess’s form will come back.”
“Eh? Really…?”
Astoria looked down at her own hand and showed a surprised expression.
Her sapphire eyes, light-blue eyelashes, and snow-white skin were so beautiful that even I—who didn’t care about anything—felt my mind go blank.
“Something feels off about the surroundings… but my appearance really is starting to show.”
“Give it a little more time and it should return to normal.”
I took a small breather while watching the world slow to a crawl.
The training dummy kept shattering and regenerating. Chunks of the marble pillars in front of me slowly fell.
If I just waited, it would all restore itself.
I was a bit uneasy, but if it didn’t bug out like in the game, it would be back to normal soon enough.
The real worry was that, just like in the game, everything might freeze completely and I’d never be able to bring the Saintess back here.
No matter what glitch or bug I used, every action I took affected this world.
“Amazing. How did my appearance—”
The very moment I relaxed, the Saintess’s voice slowed down like the game had lagged. Everything around me stopped.
The dummy that was still regenerating, the cracking marble pillars, even the Saintess whose face looked happy—all of them froze.
It felt like time itself had stopped.
“…Saintess? Saint Astoria? Can you hear me?”
No matter how many times I asked, there was no answer.
I even waved my hand right in front of her eyes just to be safe, but she didn’t react.
Had time truly stopped? Or had my overwhelming damage kicked me out of this world?
In this strange world where everything was frozen, the only thing that could move was me.
“Maybe it was better not to use this method.”
I realized I’d made a mistake and gave a sheepish smile.
In the original game this glitch was so powerful it had been patched after just one week.
I’d used a harsh measure to fix the Saintess’s transparent-body bug, but if I’d known the world would stop, I should have used the workaround with the famous weapon that had tons of glitches.
“But what can I do? Every time I try, I just go back to normal and can’t fix the root cause.”
I looked carefully at the Saintess’s frozen form and muttered to myself.
Objectively, she was breathtakingly beautiful. If she weren’t transparent, a whole crowd of men would have cried.
But that was the end of it.
I was too busy surviving in this world to keep sending feelings to Saintess Astoria.
“…So what now?”
I stared at the ceiling of the swordsmanship training ground, which had been blown wide open by my strike.
The evening stars had stopped twinkling too. Everything was frozen as if rejecting me.
**[Lord God Atra’s Apostle, you who explore and act upon the schism of this world.]**
Right then, a voice came from somewhere.
It was Lord God Atra. The god worshipped in the Holy Kingdom of Valentia, the one who had chosen Saintess Astoria.
**[Why did you choose that method just now.]**
“…Because it’s the right thing to do? Living your whole life as a transparent person is sad.”
The voice spoke to me in this frozen world.
I immediately sensed it wasn’t an ordinary existence and answered with calm boldness instead of fear.
**[That is not your concern.]**
“Why? You turn people into transparent beings on a whim and tell them not to do anything?”
**[It is the principle of equivalent exchange. A vessel had to change because the holy power had to fit inside a human body.]**
“Have you ever asked the Saintess for permission?”
Originally I stopped believing in gods after my father died.
I was actually the opposite. I wanted to ask why the gods had done it to me.
**[…Foolish question.]**
“Why? That’s a perfectly reasonable answer.”
Those enormous eyes seemed to be looking at me.
“Changing an innocent girl into a divine vessel and making her transparent was wrong.”
I smiled as if welcoming the being standing between the cracks of this stopped world.
“…Shadow of God, Bert.”
What I was seeing right now was the entity that often appeared as a plot hook in the first game, **Fantasia Island**.
Back then, believing in Bert had given me ridiculously overpowered skills. It was a god I could never forget no matter how hard I tried.