A Gift from Hecate
"What kind of nonsense is that, out of nowhere……."
Just then, Ragna stepped close and reported what had happened.
"Sir, Rider-On's connection has become unstable."
"Huh?"
"We can't determine the exact cause, but the community is flooded with complaints. It's been down for almost three hours already."
Something had gone wrong with Rider-On. That much was obvious — what he couldn't figure out was why they'd come barging into his territory to throw a tantrum over it.
"If you try to connect to Rider-On right now, this is what shows up on screen."
Noir sent over the data.
Across a blood-red screen, letters of blue had been etched.
I cannot tolerate the existence of the foul abomination known as the game labyrinth Rider-On. Vanish, along with the existence of sin itself.
— H
And of all things, the background was the red of Jucheongwang. On top of that, the method of attack — corrupting game data itself. It wouldn't be strange at all if people started suspecting that the culprit was 'Ryu Hwi'.
He had a rough idea of who had pulled this stunt. The 'H' was the decisive hint.
'That damn human……. Really out here playing games however she pleases, isn't she?'
Pleasure of the soul. To achieve that purpose, she would stop at nothing.
As he was grinding his teeth, a transmission came through from somewhere.
"Hecate!! What the hell did you do?"
"It seems Mister Crowley has grown rather displeased with how much fun you gamers have been having lately……. Interfering with Super Gemini again would go against my own principles, seeing as that attempt failed once — and Rider-On is simply more fun to play with……."
"So you blew up Rider-On? Is that it?"
"Oh no, no. The ones who carried it out were other 'people'. The 'H' was just a light little prank to let you know I exist!"
He didn't like watching S.E.N run wild and play whatever games they pleased. Worse, she'd deliberately left a message evoking Jucheongwang.
"And by the way — the woman who ruined your life? She's in a dreadful state. Half out of her mind. Parts of her body replaced with prosthetics. But that's not enough to satisfy you, is it?"
Come to think of it, Seven had spoken as though something had happened not only to Rider-On, but to Asea as well.
"Well, I didn't do anything to her, either. It's just…… you're not the only one who bears a grudge against that woman."
Whether Asea lived or died meant nothing to him. What he hated was getting dragged into messes he hadn't created.
"Fine, Hecate. Thanks to you, I now know for certain that S.E.N is not to be dealt with."
"How cruel. Everything I did was for your sake."
"Spare me. I already told you plainly — I have no intention of being dragged around by anyone. And whoever bothers me will pay, every last cent."
"As expected, socializing with others is difficult for you. Then let us meet again — through something even more delightful."
"Hey, Hecate!!"
With those final words, the connection severed.
"Those bastards, seriously……."
"Um, sir?"
Ragna, who had been surveying the situation, spoke up carefully.
"Shouldn't we let Mister Seven go soon? He's practically foaming at the mouth."
"Ah."
He'd forgotten.
Seven sat on the reception room sofa, arms crossed over himself.
"So it wasn't you people. Where's the proof?"
"I was in Super Gemini when Rider-On started falling apart. My play records prove it. Believe me or don't — your choice."
"Funny. The ones benefiting most from all this are unmistakably you people at Jucheongwang, aren't they?"
"Well, that's true."
Ragna took a sip of the tea he'd brewed.
"You got scared of the revolutionary game labyrinth we built, and used your precious Delete to pull this stunt. Am I wrong?"
"I suppose there are people who'd suspect that."
"And you hold a grudge against Asea. Who else could it be but you?"
"I'm easy to suspect. Doesn't mean I owe you anything to clear my name."
Suspicion toward Jucheongwang would no doubt swell — a massive hassle, but nothing more.
"Speaking of which — you people seem awfully proud of the Rider-On you built."
"It's the first game labyrinth in the Human Realm! Nothing like the Super Gemini you people made!"
"Quite the pride you take in a labyrinth you built by smashing other people's heads in."
"What?"
Seven's expression darkened dangerously.
"What, you don't know?"
At Seven's reaction, Ryu Hwi let out a hollow laugh.
"And here I thought you were so clever. To think you don't even know how your own game labyrinth was completed. Absurd."
"What kind of bullshit is——"
"You've got that John Doe guy, don't you? Call him. Let's hear what that silver tongue of his has to say for himself."
A hologram flickered to life right beside Seven. The screen read ⟨NO SIGNAL⟩, but the voice came through loud and clear.
[A technique that uses Seven's SEED as a conduit to transmit video into the target's SEED.]
YggON had instantly analyzed what John Doe had done.
"I heard my name being called. What exactly did I do? Jealous of Rider-On's success, are we?"
"You ran human experiments."
He wasn't taking Hecate's information at face value. But 'John Doe' was more than capable of exactly that and worse.
The sight of him calling the labyrinth residents 'NPCs' while carrying out his merciless experiments was still burned into his memory.
"Human experiments? Give it a rest, Ryu Hwi! I know you were wronged by Asea, but dragging innocent people into your slander, I won't——"
"Oh, what now? They were people with barely any days left to live anyway — is that a problem? They contributed to the advancement of great technology. They should be grateful, if anything."
"……"
Seven's breath caught in his throat.
One look was enough to tell. GA-ES's Seven was, at heart, a decent human being.
He had his share of ambition, and certainly the ability. That character of his had drawn many people to him, but…… he was so busy gazing upward that he never once looked at what lay beneath his own feet.
"John Doe. Is what you just said true? You ran human experiments?"
"Haah……. Come on, boss. I helped you because I thought you were the kind of man who stops at nothing to get results. And now you persecute me for it? That's hardly fair, is it?"
"That's not the point! John Doe, is it true?! To complete the Human Realm labyrinth — did you really run experiments on human beings?!"
"No, what's the issue? Bugs are the same thing, aren't they? You completed those by sacrificing the labyrinth NPCs too — what's the difference? Sacrifice worthless things to create valuable things. What could be more magnificent than that?"
"Humans and NPCs are differ——"
"Shut up."
At Ryu Hwi's single word, Seven froze with a stunned look on his face.
"NPCs are fair game, but humans aren't? The game residents are living beings with emotions, same as us. They're not things someone like you gets to casually write off as 'NPCs'."
Seven tried to raise some objection, but Ryu Hwi had no intention of hearing it.
"I suppose you're fine with going around telling people, 'This is what I made!' — showing off bugs that were created by experimenting on game residents?"
Seven bit his lip in frustration. He had known it was wrong — but he'd filed the residents away as 'mere NPCs' and turned his eyes away from reality.
"Well, I've been exercising some restraint, you know? Things would've gotten truly dangerous if Asea hadn't helped. That woman is a riot, really — drawing in the very person who used her own twin as an experiment subject."
A twin. An experiment subject.
New information about Asea had tumbled out, but he had no particular interest in it and let it slide. What did grate on him was John Doe's entire way of thinking.
So this was how the bastards who committed those atrocities at Saint Yggdrasil Hospital thought……
"John Doe."
At that moment, something clicked in Ryu Hwi's mind, and he called out to him.
"What's your connection to Saint Yggdrasil Hospital?"
"Now there's a nostalgic name. Saint Yggdrasil Hospital, huh……. I worked there until about two years ago. Quit because the so-called experiments had gotten boring."
He had always blamed himself for his mother's death. Because he was pathetic and useless, he'd walked straight into that trap, and in the end she'd died without ever being treated……
That was what he had believed.
The useless fool who couldn't even be there at the moment of her passing. Still, he had prayed that at least in her final moments, she might go in peace.
But when the full scope of Latia's crimes came to light — when the horrific experiments carried out at Saint Yggdrasil Hospital were exposed — he finally understood just how stupid he had been.
"I'm sure the ones who need to know already know, but those experiments were truly dull. Separating souls, and whatnot — nothing but nonsense spouted while subjecting brains to extreme loads. The screaming never stopped, day after day. You have no idea how much it hurt my ears."
The moment the topic turned to experiments, John Doe chattered away, positively delighted.
In that instant, Ryu Hwi involuntarily activated Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
At the aura surging off Ryu Hwi, everyone else in the room held their breath.
[Master.]
"Hoo."
At YggON's call, he barely managed to force down the rage boiling up inside him.
"Ah, let me say this up front — I can't tell you much about those experiments either. I wasn't interested in them, so I barely remember anything at all. The Latia lot didn't find them fun either, honestly……"
What a talkative man. He volunteered information all on his own — convenient, really. It stoked the fury all the more, but he could vent every last ounce of it later, when the time came to blast him apart.
"So? Still want to brag about that precious 'Rider-On' of yours?"
"……"
"Well, it's certainly a well-made game, I'll admit. I've played it a few times myself and racked up my own debts there. Even if it's a labyrinth that could never hope to reach 'Super Gemini' without its special premise of being set in the Human Realm."
"Ggh……"
Having learned how his beloved Rider-On had actually been made, Seven was too shaken to offer any rebuttal at all.
"5555, are you listening?"
"What's Rider-On's condition?"
At present, connecting to Rider-On was outright impossible, but 5555 had somehow forced her way in and was observing the interior.
5555 tore into Rider-On without mercy.
"Hold on, hold on……. And who exactly are you, criticizing someone else's work? Oh, are you by chance the human who made that Super Gemini? Calling that outdated piece of junk a new-era labyrinth — have you no shame?"
No sooner had she finished than John Doe started tearing into Super Gemini.
The sound of 5555's sigh rang out loud and long.
"You've got some nerve, running that hole in your face——"
"You DARE——!!"
John Doe's voice choked off, unable to string a proper retort together.
Having apparently lost interest in him, 5555 ignored John Doe entirely and brought up a certain screen.
A landscape unfolded that made a mockery of the claim that it was a labyrinth based on reality.
The bug-ridden world of Rider-On was warped beyond recognition. Scenery flipped upside down, buildings distorted as if reflected in funhouse mirrors — a sight that made it genuinely hard to tell what was real and what was game.
'A labyrinth built upon reality' was no longer the right description. It was a labyrinth unfurled through the thorough distortion of reality's data.
A cross made of steel girders came into view.
Someone was hanging from that cross.
The moment the drone's lens confirmed that someone's face, the connection cut out.
"Tch."
A face he never wanted to see again had flashed across the screen.
"Well, is that enough for you? This happened because your labyrinth was a sloppy mess, so the rest is your problem to solve."
He wanted nothing more to do with any of it.
Seven clenched his fists and bit down on his lip. Trembling with humiliation and fury, he at last seemed to reach some decision — and knelt.
Ragna and Noir involuntarily held their breath.
"What are you doing?"
"I apologize for blaming you people. I'm begging you. Please help us."
The very man who had sneered at them, naming Jucheongwang point by point, was now on his knees, pleading.
And yet, watching him, Ryu Hwi felt nothing.
"Why should I?"
"……"
"Whether Rider-On sinks or swims is none of our business, and I have no reason to save that damned woman."
Just then, YggON whispered in his ear.
[Are you certain, Master? If Rider-On goes under as it is, bike customization will become impossible from here on out.]
So the bike customization he'd finally gotten his hands on would go to waste?
He could feel his dream of staging flashy battles astride a motorcycle flying off into the distance. But that was that, and this was this.
There was no upside to helping GA-ES.
"If you want my help, give me a proper reason. One good enough that I'd have to save that damned woman."
"Asea can't do anything on her own anymore. Her mind is deeply broken. Her nerves are so damaged that parts of her had to be replaced with prosthetics."
"And?"
Was he planning to guilt-trip him?
Seven must have been running through countless thoughts. Ryu Hwi was curious what conclusion he'd land on. A half-baked one wouldn't hold his interest for a second, though……
"Let's make a deal. I'll give you the core technology of the Human Realm labyrinth."
"What?! Boss! Wait! That's the thing I completed through endless trial and error! You can't just give it away so easi——"
John Doe protested, but Seven's resolve was set.
"The core technology of the Human Realm labyrinth — and every bit of know-how that comes with it. All of it, yours."
"Technology you built by scrambling other people's brains? We don't need it. We can produce Human Realm labyrinths just fine on our own."
"I take it you've got nothing more to offer? Then this conversation is over."
"Wait!"
Seven was desperate — desperately trying to pull Ryu Hwi's cooperation out of the fire. He thought and thought, and finally recalled the grand prize of the recent Super Gemini tournament.
"I'll give you partial management rights over Rider-On!"
"Don't need them. What would I do with the management rights to your game?"
But Ryu Hwi cut him down with a single stroke once again.
"Then I'll give you two-tenths of GA-ES's profits for a whole year! How about that?!"
"Hmm. A share of GA-ES's annual profits……. Better than Rider-On's management rights, I'll grant you. Still don't need it. Try proposing something that actually whets my appetite."
"You son of a bitch — people's lives are on the line!"
"That cry doesn't resonate with me in the slightest."
Seven's whole body trembled.
"Then I'll share the original source code of the game we've been preparing as our next title! Is that enough?!"
"Now that's not bad. And?"
Ryu Hwi smiled sweetly.
[I do believe Satan would weep with envy, Master.]
Asea stared blankly up at the sky.
A warped sky. A world stained the color of dirt. It was hideous beyond words — just like herself.
Asea thought back on the humans who had kidnapped her. Faces she knew all too well. The people she had trampled on her way to the top.
She herself had once had something precious trampled by others — and yet, in pursuit of her own ambitions, she had trampled everyone in her path. And this was the result.
She never even got what she wanted. Everything she'd stood on was denied, rejected by the very human she had once crushed underfoot.
Asea had lost it all.
Now she didn't even have the courage to kill herself; she merely dragged out each day after another.
Asea's heart was broken. No — perhaps it had broken long, long ago.
As if fleeing the ugliness of this warped world, Asea closed her eyes.
"How ugly."
Perched atop a tall building, Hecate watched her.
"How can anything be so ugly. Well — perhaps it's because they're ugly that they're human? Ah……"
Hecate's expression brightened, as though boredom had suddenly lifted.
"You've come!"
She felt the presence of the one she had been waiting for.
"Have you come to save a woman not even worth saving? Or have you come to finish her off for good?"
Hecate's soul sparkled.
"But do be careful. That loathsome woman is not the only one here with an old acquaintance."
Humanity is a creature that, with the slightest push at its back, will fall without end.
And there was at least one more of those utterly wretched beings here.
Another wretched human who had lost everything.