The Meteor Cartel
I forwarded the proposal from the Myth Union to my network of contacts, and their reactions were all over the place.
These bastards are just rude, unlucky pricks in real life, but they put on this weirdly polite act in chat. Seeing it now is honestly starting to piss me off.
I thought that was the end of it, but a little while later Wahando invited all four of us into a group chat.
It didn't matter to me since I could just send a clone, but the other two didn't have that luxury. It felt like they were making a personal appearance.
After Wahando entered the room and sat down, the massive elephant Sesaisa and the equally enormous T-rex Mihun took turns coming in.
Their huge eyes alternated between staring at me and Wahando.
Since I'd been dragged into this too, I just looked at Wahando. He seemed to think everyone already knew the situation and skipped the explanation.
"I didn't exactly introduce it. I just let them know. Wanted to see what you all thought."
Wahando boldly laid out exactly what was on his mind.
Well. Yeah. The four of us with the absolute worst personalities in this game.
So?
Twelve consecutive battles against strong enemies would grind any world to dust. And it didn't seem like Wahando had any other powerful allies like us.
My eyes flashed open inside the dark hood. The elephant and the T-rex both grinned wickedly.
General Wahando, who will consult on industry and military matters.
Immortal Mihun, who will consult on heroes and terrain.
Marquis Sesaisa, who will consult on the Spiritual Realm.
And Biin, who will consult on ecosystems.
"Why don't I get a title? Call me Demon King Biin."
"Understood. Demon King Biin. With the four of us, it's complete. If we strengthen each other through mutual consultation, we'll be so perfect that we won't need any other helpers."
Wahando passionately explained the validity of his strategy, but he didn't really need to.
Because all four of us completely agreed with it.
Everyone laughed. The word 'temporary' already hinted that we'd eventually turn on each other.
Still, we should at least pick a proper alliance name.
"How about Meteor Cartel?"
"The Noble and Cruel Four Stars of National Destruction."
"Palace of the Evil Star's Fate would be good."
"I have decided on Absolute Annihilation Invincible Explosive Crushing Four Heavenly Army."
Why the hell do all these bastards suggest alliance names like this...?
I have no idea why we're fighting over the alliance name before we've even properly united.
It would be a waste to argue about the name when we should be discussing strategy. So, with me having the highest score and excluding the puns, we settled on Meteor Cartel.
Behold. Life is truly great.
Shut up already. We're just the Meteor Cartel.
Anyway, that made four of us.
The Lord of Mass Extinction.
The Tyrant of Living Hell.
The Demonic Immortal of the Wild Dragon.
The Overlord of Shurado.
These four would destroy the self-proclaimed Myth Union.
Wahando said he had signed a 'peace as long as trade continues' treaty with the Myth Union. In other words, if we decided to attack, we could break it. It was on a much lower level than the 'Absolute Non-Aggression and Confidentiality Treaty' we'd made with each other.
This hermit crab bastard had a lot of information, would suffer heavy losses once the contract ended, and above all, he was the one who planned all the strategies and tactics. We had to give him some points. That much was acceptable, but I couldn't help but be a little taken aback by the next topic of discussion.
I was shocked that the three of them had decided this on their own.
"Huh? You're going to surrender?"
When I asked that, Sesaisa and Wahando looked at me like I was crazy.
Mihun at least gave a slightly different answer.
Even setting Mihun aside as an exception, Sesaisa and Wahando spoke of surrender as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I started to say something, then just closed my mouth.
Right. Why did I think surrender wasn't an option? Because I'd killed every opponent I'd ever faced?
Well... Even if I seriously wanted to win, if I valued their abilities highly regardless of my personality, I'd probably accept their surrender in the end. After all, lower gods were bound by absolute obedience to commands.
Then why had I thought I couldn't surrender?
No, actually, this question was even more interesting.
This guy was always the exception. Then Sesaisa and Wahando.
Wahando answered fairly quickly.
I was starting to suspect that Wahando simply considered anyone who lost to him in battle as beneath his standards.
When I looked at Sesaisa, his answer came surprisingly late.
"Yeah. By the rules, taking them as subordinates would be far more advantageous. For the record, no matter who I recruited, they couldn't make my ecosystem any healthier anyway."
And honestly, I just hated intelligent beings called players.
Sesaisa remained silent for a long time under our gazes.
After pondering for quite a while, he suddenly shouted in a booming voice.
"What the...?"
I see.
Well, everyone has one or two secrets. We moved on to establishing our strategy.
But even as we did, I couldn't say it.
Why hadn't I considered surrender?
In short, why hadn't I even considered any option other than simply dying if I lost the game?
The clone conversing with them was seriously discussing strategy, but my main personality—the one rummaging through community forums in my world, gathering clues about the Myth Union—felt deeply unsettled and couldn't focus on gathering proper information.
Even after learning that surrender existed, I hadn't even considered the possibility that I myself might surrender.
If I won, I would become a true god. If I lost, one human would simply disappear.
I see. They all really want to win. Is that obvious...? If they didn't want to win, they wouldn't have joined the game in the first place.
But still. Is that really all there is to it?
The organizers told us that losing the game would result in soul annihilation. In other words, it implied that souls existed in this world.
If souls truly existed, then an afterlife probably did too. And if so, reincarnation or a final judgment might exist as well.
In that case, even death wouldn't mean true eternal sleep. There would be something after.
Then perhaps some might participate in the game with the desire to completely end a life that was truly and perfectly 'them'.
Suddenly, just as the discussion was winding down, Sesaisa asked me.
He wasn't going to let me brush it off.
What should I say?
I wasn't finished talking yet...
That was all there was to it.
As a gamer, I hated ruining the game itself under any circumstances.
So I'd rather become a Demon King who stakes his life on victory.