I Am Not the Enemy of Society
Delete.
That was the power Ryu Hwi had revealed when he took down Linpel Darius — a mysterious force capable of deleting game labyrinth data outright.
Many had doubted it. A power that could erase the data of a game labyrinth? Nothing like that had ever existed, and nothing like that should exist.
Even when Gabriel Darius of Linzea Guild announced that Linpel's account data had been deleted, plenty of people suspected it was simply a mistake.
As if to blow their doubts away, Ryu Hwi used Delete once more.
Open your eyes and watch closely. This is 'Delete.'
His glowing hand reached out and seized the Doki Doki Cube God, as if to say exactly that.
Five seconds later, something went terribly wrong with the enormous heart shape.
Cracks began to spider out from the very spot where Ryu Hwi's hand touched it.
The Cube God thrashed and shrieked, but the cracks refused to stop.
The divine entity of this game labyrinth vanished in a miserable, pathetic display.
"When a game labyrinth experiences a contradiction like this, it begins to close down just like so."
Ryu Hwi pointed a finger at the sky, and the camera swung to follow.
The sky was collapsing.
It started as a single small crack, then spread across the whole of it — a spectacle so grand, so magnificent, so utterly terrifying that anyone watching understood at once: this world was over.
"As for World of Phantasm, I plan to bring it down as well — precisely as Linzea wishes. I do hope you'll be watching."
Beneath that crumbling sky, Ryu Hwi spread both arms wide and bowed to the crowd.
"And one last thing. There's been talk that the fall of World of Phantasm could bring the world down with it, so allow me to correct the record."
Ryu Hwi extended his finger straight toward the camera.
"When World of Phantasm falls, what collapses isn't the world. It's Linzea Guild and Latia Soft — rotten through with greed and laziness."
Then, against the backdrop of the vanishing world, he said quietly:
"I am not the enemy of society. I am……"
His goal was one thing and one thing only.
"Yours."
When Gabriel Darius had named him "the one who would break the game labyrinths," people had been skeptical. Destroying a game labyrinth was simply too abstract a concept to take seriously.
But now Ryu Hwi had, with theatrical flair, brought an entire labyrinth crashing down.
Some who watched the footage felt fear. Modern society and the game labyrinths were bound together, inseparable — and the sight of Ryu Hwi dismantling one so casually struck them as a threat.
Others cheered at the sight of him in that video. They reveled in it — the Delete that erased data, the collapse of a game labyrinth, that shocking, magnificent performance.
The online communities erupted all over again with talk of Ryu7017.
But this was different from when he'd surfaced as mere entertainment. This time, Ryu7017 stood at the center of the storm.
People began digging into the game labyrinths still standing. More than twenty mazes had shut down in the past month alone.
Had they closed naturally?
Or……
"H-here is everything I have on Ryu Hwi."
Garcia — once Ryu Hwi's friend — bowed his head, sweat dripping down his face.
He was somewhere he could never have dreamed of setting foot in before. District 3, accessible only to those with Gold rank or higher. The trunk of Yggdrasil, piercing up out of the earth, was visible at close range.
The World Tree stretched its branches beyond the sky and into outer space — a sight magnificent enough to make anyone's eyes glaze over — but Garcia had no room in his head to spare for it right now.
Gabriel Darius… came here in person?!
An upscale café in District 3. Across from Garcia sat Gabriel Darius of Linzea Guild.
Gabriel, arms crossed, read through the information Garcia had submitted. Garcia waited like a docile lamb for the verdict, fully intending to sell out Ryu Hwi's history to Linzea Guild and pocket the reward.
"Both parents Bronze. Deceased. No siblings. Graduated high school and university in District 57. Nothing but starved, worthless information."
"Ugh."
"Linzea's intelligence division gathered all of this long ago. Nothing new, nothing special. I was told you were Ryu7017's friend — that's why I arranged this meeting. Did I expect too much of you?"
Cold sweat beaded on Garcia's forehead.
"Th-the guy, he, um, he trained using his school's simulation rooms since way back. He had real talent. He even placed in simulation competitions, several times."
"Hm?"
"And also——"
"I don't need that kind of trivial detail."
Gabriel cut him off.
"What I want to know is the account he uses. There's no doubt Ryu7017 is an Unknown. What I want to know is whether there is someone — anyone — supplying that account to him."
"Well, that's……"
"I've examined every possible avenue for obtaining an account. The most likely scenario remains that he got one through a personal acquaintance."
"C-couldn't it have come out of a Random Box?"
Garcia recalled the account creation voucher that hung in the Random Box shop as an SSR-grade prize. An absurdly slim chance, by all accounts — but it was possible to pull one.
"Of course I considered that possibility. In fact, there is a record of an account creation voucher being pulled near the district where he lived."
"Then——"
"But some time ago, an account creation voucher turned up at an auction held in that very region. Its origin: a 'Random Box.' In the decades since the Random Box shops opened, the number of times an account creation voucher has been pulled can be counted on one hand. Do you understand what that means?"
Ryu Hwi's account was not made from a Random Box voucher.
"Furthermore, there is no access terminal capable of connecting to Yggdrasil anywhere near the district Ryu7017 lived in. Someone must be backing him. If you were truly his friend, surely you've mapped out at least his personal connections?"
Garcia couldn't answer.
The only connections he knew of dated back to their school days — and if Ryu Hwi really had an acquaintance capable of supplying an account, Garcia would have hunted that person down first to sell them out himself.
Watching his face, Gabriel let out a sigh.
"My expectations were misplaced. A waste of time."
Gabriel rose from his seat.
"Th-then, my payment——"
"Payment?"
At Garcia's words, Gabriel's brow creased with open distaste.
"Ah, of course. You'll receive the standard fee. Ryu7017 is a violent man, but a capable one. And in exchange, I've learned that the only acquaintances willing to associate with him are worthless trash."
"What?!"
Being called trash to his face, Garcia nearly lunged — forgetting for a moment that the man before him stood on the doorstep of Platinum. But the instant his eyes met Gabriel's, all that bluster evaporated as if it had never existed.
"Does it upset you to be called trash — you, the man who sold out his 'friend'?"
"He's an Unknown, so——"
"If we judged people by rank alone, you wouldn't even have the right to speak to me. In my eyes, an Unknown and a man who sells his friends are one and the same."
"!"
Unable to find a single word of rebuttal, Garcia shut his mouth.
As Gabriel pulled on the coat draped over his chair, something seemed to occur to him, and he spoke again.
"That reminds me — you work for Activity, don't you? Team leader in the development department, was it? I've had a look at the data for that game your team built, the one Latia rejected."
Garcia's heart nearly stopped.
Gabriel Darius — looked at Activity's game data?!
That game was Garcia's own project, his own responsibility. Activity had been snubbed by Latia and brushed aside — but if Gabriel Darius gave it a good word, a chance at reversal might yet open up.
"Utter garbage."
Reality was colder than he could have imagined.
"At its absolute best, it's a pale imitation of World of Phantasm. Did you honestly think you could ride World of Phantasm's popularity to something? Even if it isn't copied outright."
Garcia wanted to argue back.
It wasn't a copy. Yes, they'd referenced World of Phantasm — but there were original elements in it, genuinely.
"Let me put it plainly. Given the choice between that garbage and World of Phantasm, people will play World of Phantasm. Trash makes trash, it seems."
"Don't make me laugh!"
Garcia finally snapped and lunged at Gabriel.
He'd been scorned by Ryu Hwi, a mere Unknown — and now Gabriel had insulted the game he'd poured his heart into. He lost all reason, fully aware of what ending awaited him at the end of that fist.
Gabriel didn't dodge. He took Garcia's punch square on.
Gabriel's glasses clattered to the floor, and screams broke out across the café.
"Congratulations. With this many witnesses, there will be no talking your way out of it."
Only then did reason return — along with a cold voice, right beside Garcia's ear.
"As of today, you're an Unknown too."
Three years ago, Garcia had looked down on Ryu Hwi when he fell to Unknown, and had turned his back on his desperate pleas. And now, here he was, fallen to the very same rank as the man he'd scorned.
It was the moment Garcia lost everything.
Garcia — soon, no one would use that name again.
Gabriel watched from a distance as Garcia was hauled away by the police.
Truly a pointless waste of time.
His secretary had quietly appeared at his back and asked after his well-being; Gabriel shook his head and said he was fine.
"Still nothing on Ryu7017's background?"
"No, my apologies. There are reports of several sightings in the Entertainment District, but……"
The Entertainment District was a street of the lawless — a place even Linzea couldn't touch easily.
"Spare no means. Whatever it takes, dig into the secret of the account Ryu7017 uses."
Gabriel had deduced that the special thing about Ryu7017 wasn't the man himself, but the account.
He had reviewed Ryu Hwi's records — his performance as a student and as an analyst had been merely "solid" at best, "competent" at worst. Properly nurtured, he might have become a first-class analyst for Linzea Guild, or a gamer performing respectably in the field.
But that meant, in other words: nothing more than that.
There was no way Ryu7017 alone could have caused an incident like this. Something — something else — was what made Ryu7017 special, and Gabriel wanted that something.
"Sir, you have an appointment with the CEO of Latia Soft at nineteen hundred hours today."
"The pig comes to pester me again."
"Others may hear you, sir."
"I merely stated a fact."
Everyone knew — no one needed it said aloud — that the game labyrinths had stagnated. And everyone knew the cause: Latia Soft's negligence and World of Phantasm itself. And into that stagnation, Ryu7017 had appeared.
If I can only uncover the secret of that account, then World of Phantasm can shatter for all I care.
Just then, his secretary received a call — and her face went pale.
The moment she hung up, she rushed to report.
"Sir — Ryu7017, he……"
Finally.
Gabriel's chilled, sunken eyes gleamed.
Eyes as cold as a serpent's, fixed on its prey.