The Lucky Box Event (2)

Raymond — writing under the handle LichGonnaLich — felt his very sockets burning with fury.

"These wretches, too lowly to prove even their own worth…!"

Fine. He would admit it. Honestly speaking, he had underestimated SF, the crowning achievement of scientific progress. But then, this 'UniverseEmperor' fellow looked like nothing more than a shameless attention-seeker with an advanced case of delusions of grandeur, no matter which way you examined him.

Raymond had to steady his trembling finger bones as he gazed down at the object laid before him.

Clatter—

So cross-dimensional matter transport truly was possible. The evidence sat right there before his eyes, and yet it was hard to believe. Countless intelligences had poured tireless effort into unearthing the truth of the Interdimensional Integrated Community.

How many transcendent beings had burned their entire lives on the study of that community, only to pass away into futility?

One had no choice but to believe that other dimensions existed…

The Interdimensional Integrated Community. The beings gathered there came from all manner of worlds — and the name itself said as much, did it not? Even setting that aside, one might have tried to convince oneself it was merely a network spanning other planets within the same universe.

But transcendent beings who had actually traveled into space had already confirmed it.

There was no rule that a world counted as non-SF could never reach the stars. Raymond remembered — a single demon dragon once worshipped as a divine dragon had struck out into the cosmos. It had ultimately burned to cosmic dust at the limit of its mortal lifespan, true, but over several centuries it had wandered the void, steadily leaving journal entries on the community as it went.

Those journals stated it plainly: no matter how far it roamed, it could sense no community link beyond its own.

And there was a second reason, as well.

Parallel worlds, they were called — worlds that mostly resembled one another but differed in small ways. Could a single dimension truly contain so many parallel worlds? At the very least, Raymond thought not.

Those possessed or reincarnated into other bodies inevitably wept with longing for their homelands. It stood to reason: the lives they had built vanished in an instant, and they had been torn from their families mid-existence. People developed homesickness from merely living in a different country — how much worse when the entire world had been swapped out from under them?

And so, as a rule, the weary and homesick sought out people from their homeland on the community to share in companionship.

I've always thought them weak creatures — though it's not as though I can't understand.

But in time they would discover that the world they had lived in differed, if only slightly. A different president, a history bent just a little out of shape. Finding one's true homeland was next to impossible. No — even those who claimed to have found it had simply ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not yet discovered the discrepancies, Raymond believed. They were all parallel worlds.

Which meant other dimensions genuinely existed, and it was inevitable that transcendent beings would throw themselves into dimensional research.

Yet the result, as one could see, was —

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Dimensional magic that even the most powerful transcendent beings had never found so much as a clue to.

Who on earth is this 'UniverseEmperor'…?

The Lich King Raymond stared at the contents of the box and wore a grave expression.

Somehow, the gift's composition struck him as deeply, personally insulting.

Are you mocking me?

"Why have you sent me such items, UniverseEmperor?"

It was a question that could receive no answer.

He surely couldn't have sent it without any reason at all…

Could it be a message from UniverseEmperor — a nudge to remember the human heart I had before becoming a lich?

"Hair regrowth tonic…."

The lich raised his rattling hand of bone and slowly swept it across his skull. The blue soulfire burning in his two empty eye sockets flickered faintly.

I absolutely did NOT decide to become a lich over my hair.

"But… had I only met UniverseEmperor a little sooner… then perhaps…."

Raymond flinched. The memory of the days before his lichdom — the era of his most crushing stress — had come surging back.

Me, the Lich King, filled with regret? Absurd!

"A ga-aa-aast! An abomination most foul!!"

Truly a cry befitting the being in all creation who looked the most like an abomination: the Lich King himself.

Some time later, having composed himself, the Lich King Raymond rested his finger bones against his jaw. Not that it mattered — whatever gift the box had held, it was nothing compared to cross-dimensional matter transport.

"…First, I must befriend the administrator. And after that, once I extract the dimensional technology, it would be no bad thing to invade UniverseEmperor's dimension in turn."

Raymond gazed at the post he had uploaded and smiled a smile of deep satisfaction. It was a piece written to praise the administrator in just the right measure while elevating the dignity of magic all the same.

An attention-seeker like that administrator was bound to reply!

Reading through the community's comments, Raymond waited for the administrator's response with the very limits of his patience. For he sensed that if he began replying to the rabble, he would be unable to hold back the stream of curses.

Ding—

"There it is!"

And what manner of reaction would the great 'UniverseEmperor' deign to show him?!

For a moment, Raymond doubted his own eyes.

"…?"

Why on earth?

He had done everything the administrator demanded — had even posted the verification shot…

He had waited quietly, hadn't even hurled insults on purpose…

Raymond never realized that the "verification shot" he had taken framed nothing but his own third rib.

"WHYYYY?!"

Three days later, the Lich King posted a protest, fury dripping from every bone.

Politely worded, of course.

The effect was immediate.

"GRAAAAAAGH!"

The Lich King clutched his skull and screamed.

"You DARE suspend ME!!"

Three days later, the Lich King appealed for mercy — this time, truly, with feeling.

Karlstein was spending his days in a frantic blur of busyness.

"If you're going to be deranged, at least be deranged elegantly. Tsk. Delete this… and this too…"

(An elderly orc swinging his lower half about, roughly.jpg)

(An extreme close-up of the Insect Queen, roughly.jpg)

(A goblin holy knight who transcends his very species, roughly.jpg)

Ever since he'd activated administrator mode, this, too, had become part of his duties. He could have simply delegated it all to Aria, but that was not an option — every task he offloaded onto her was imperial work he would then have to perform himself.

"Ghk! Mental Fortitude!!"

There were moments when he stumbled upon images so monstrous they were known across ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the community as 'tactical nukes,' and recoiled in horror. With content flowing in from every dimension, Earthlings could not even imagine some of the abominations that surfaced there.

Thankfully, thanks to his Mental Fortitude trait, he recovered quickly. Small mercies.

"You, however, are permanently banned."

And so, in the middle of his frantic water-quality management of the community, something caught his eye: a verification shot posted by a famous user by the name of LichGonnaLich.

"I tell this lunatic to post proof that he received the event prize, and THIS is what he uploads?"

He slapped the lich with a three-day ban for the rudeness of it. Then, three days later, he slapped him with a second ban on trumped-up charges — the crime of daring to place SF's cutting-edge science on the same level as magic.

"Beat it, already. Tch."

In the end, once he'd confirmed the lich's surrender, he graciously granted him clemency.

"But why is nobody posting proper reviews of their prizes? Begging for reviews would just be pathetic."

It was then that his eye fell on a review posted by a user other than the lich.

A famous user by the name of DemonKingVirdel.

"Unofficial bare-handed combat ranking… number three?"