Thereafter. Azrael had raged in the Debugging room. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIEEEEEEEER—?!" It was a pretty absurd complaint from her. Sasaraki had shouted, "I TOLD YOU IT'S A ROMANCE PATCH, BUT YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN, ALRIGHT?!," and as thanks 'Magical Sword Gram' had come slashing at him from diagonally above, but it bounced off of his Invincible Barrier and dug into Azrael's stomach instead, resulting in suicide. She returned five minutes later. Next she'd started to strike at the wedding ring with her magical swords to destroy it. After 15 times or so, her sword missed and hit her, resulting in suicide again. "That looks funny!," Lizna had said, followed her example, and died too. Three minutes later, both of them returned. "W-Why did things come to this…?!" Azrael had said while weeping uncontrollably. "Anyways, divorce! Divorce, I tell you! Right now!" "Sorry… there doesn't seem to be a divorce system…" To recite Fury, "Divorce? What could that word mean? ? Your love is eternal ? " It appeared that in her former perv master's word pool there was no such word as 'divorce.' Once married, you'd be together until the day you die, no matter what. A way too fairy tale-ish view on marriage, indeed. "Well, aren't you two lucky ones?! Congratulations!" "T-There's nothing to congratulate on, you know—?!" "Anyway, in the end everything worked out with nobody dying!" "Nobody could die from the beginning, right?!"
Or so the two of them kept on quarrelling until they reached their login time limit. Which leads us to now. Sasaraki had seen those two off and returned to the debugging room, Alice looked at him and smiled. "Welcome back, Sasaraki." She was munching away on potato chips at the low dining table. On her face she wore a mischievous expression. Apparently, she was enjoying the current situation, too. Sasaraki expressed a light nod and sat down opposite of her. He took a potato chip out of the bag and chew on it. It had no taste but it felt like it calmed him down. "Today was tough, wasn't it? Thanks for your hard work." Alice chuckled. "How was Azrael?" "Really enraged." "As expected, huh?" Alice heaved a conscience-stricken sigh. "But forgive her, okay? She was serious about all this in her own way." "Yeah, I know." "Let's apologize to them together later— and to Fury too, okay?" Alice looked alongside the wall of the debugging room. The throne Azrael had been sitting in was standing there. Sitting in that throne, Azrael had seriously been willing to give her life. She had tried to sacrifice herself in order to save everyone.
Though it had been pointless. And though she'd gotten cold feet towards the end. At least her determination alone had been the real deal. When he recalled her words from when she'd been afraid of dying, his chest began to hurt again. "...We mustn't… let anything happen that would make that kind of resolve necessary to anyone, right?" Alice said in a sigh. "Really enjoying a game where your life's on the line—" She crunched yet another potato chip. "—That's only something for people who're funny in the head." Alice continued as if speaking to herself. "People dying from this game— is absolutely impossible, you know?" A few seconds of silence passed by. It probably really was as Alice had said. However— something bothered him by the way she had put it. "Hm? Something wrong, Sasaraki?" Alice smiled sweetly. She was a way too insolent, silver-haired girl. Her Job was 'Goddess of Creation.' She looked like an elementary schooler but was versed in games, and no matter when he logged in, she was there. He had never seen her sleep. Obviously, she wasn't normal. Actually, if he put the pieces together, she had to be an— "Hey, Alice. You're lying when you say no one would die, right?" "Lying? Oh yeah, Kirine will hang by the neck and—"
"Not that… You tried to kill yourself earlier, didn't you?" A few seconds of silence went by. Finally, Alice grinned broadly. "When was 'earlier?'" "When you tried to use the 'Immortal Pendant.'" She had been hesitating to use the pendant to stop the patch. And if an AI were to use the pendant, it'd be deleted. In other words, Alice was— "You're an AI, right?" Alice didn't respond. She put both of her elbows on the low dining table and gazed at Sasaraki. With that, Sasaraki was convinced. Alice isn't human. She's a goddess living in this game's world. And earlier, she was determined to die in order to save it. What had driven her to go that far—? She really must love this world and— "Beeeeeehb—" Alice formed a big X with her arms. "...Heh?" "You're wrong, Sasaraki. You're rather romantic yourself, aren't you?" Alice started to chuckle. "That's a pretty lively imagination you got there. Yeah, I'll put that into a quest next time." "Eh? No, I'm not trying to imagine things. I'm being serious here." That moment… "Fufufufufu—"
Alice's eyes glittered silvery. A shodder ran down his spine. Why did she look as if— she's incredibly enjoying herself? "Sasaraki. You're forgetting one important thing." Alice jumped on the low dining table. "This game's a kusoge!" "No, I remember that." "The goddess sacrificing herself to save the world— that kind of dream-like twist's impossible here, don't you think?" Alice flicked her fingers. Suddenly, an electronic sound could be heard and the main screen's display changed. "Eh…?" "Look. That's footage from the camera in EastEnd Games' conference room." The footage was playing on the debugging room's main screen. There were a whiteboard and a bed on a linoleum floor. It did look like a conference room. Someone was lying in the bed. On a closer look, it was a silver-haired girl wearing a VR gear. Actually, it was Alice. "........................Huh?" Why's she wearing a VR gear? "So who's an AI?" Alice grinned at him broadly. "Heh? No, well, errr... ah! Maybe you got a double and…" "Should we hold an offline meeting once Kirine's been discharged?"
"EEEEEH?!" What is this? The girl on the screen really does look like Alice. "Sasaraki's naive, isn't he~?" Alice continued her chuckle. "This world's a lot stupider than you think and—" She poked her finger on his forehead and smiled.
"—A lot more fun, too." Alice expressed a refreshing smile that didn't at all let you think she could be lying. "Got it? I'm not a goddess, I'm just a genius gamemaster, you know?" "B-But the 'Immortal Pendant' thing…?" It should be fact that she'd been hesitant to use it. "You've to figure that out by yourself." "Fufufu," Alice chuckled and Sasaraki heaved a deep sigh. I don't really get it, but— anyway, my guess seems to have been wrong. Well… thinking about it, it'd be weird in many ways. To begin with, Alice is too smart to be an AI. She has to be a real girl, yeah. The second he thought that, Alice clapped her hands together twice. "More importantly, let's hurry and continue with the second floor." "Yeah… right, we should do that, shouldn't we?" He had forgotten all about it thanks to Azrael's pointless incident, but they were in the middle of implementing the second floor, 'The End of the Endless Ocean.'
There was nothing like a goddess in this world, so they had to improve it on their own. They needed 10000 active users. For that sake, they had to give it their best and create the second floor first of all. "We also have to do better than the competition, right?" "The competition?" Alice blinked incessantly for some reason. Finally, she clapped her hands together as though she had just remembered. "A~h, you're talking about Ultimate? You don't have to worry about that." "Heh—? Why?" "I told you, didn't I?" Alice flicked her fingers. An Ultimate World Online ad started playing on the screen. Ultimate Reality, Best Game Ever, those kinds of words banged onto the screen. "A commercial like a dream, right?" "Well, true that." "Which is why…" Alice grinned broadly and announced… "It'll definitely— be pretty stupid." * * * The next day.
An internet bulletin board was on the main screen within the debugging room. Sasaraki, together with Azrael and Lizna, gazed at a collection of posts. [It's terrifying. The color is. It's set on negative, it's like a horror movie!] [All the time I've that feeling in my mouth as if I was gnawing on gravel! What is this?!] [Everyone's spawning in the exact same spot, so I'm getting stabbed and killed by everyone's weapons.] [HELP: When I'm leaving town, I fall through the ground and get stuck in a black hole.] [Who the hell approved the release of this kusoge?!] It were reviews of Ultimate World Online. They were a hundred times worse than what they'd been used to seeing. It appeared that the released game was the worst kusoge in history. "—What should I say…?" Looking to his sides, Azrael and Lizna were gaping with their mouths. Seemed like they felt just like him. "This game's…" Azrael mumbled in a sigh. "The… The far lesser evil, huh…?" "Thank you, Azrael." Alice replied with a smile. "Alice, how did you know that it'll be such a kusoge?" "That's simple." She raised her finger.
"No good can come from an MMO that's being released without an open beta, right?" "........................Right…" He had learned that the hard way. "Wouldn't it have been better to release it at a later point, then?" "An unreleased game makes no money, does it?" Alice drew a dollar sign in the air with her finger. "If you're serious about creating a realistic world, it'll cost you 10,000,000,000s, maybe 100,000,000,000s of yen, you know? They probably had a budget at first too, but— seems like they couldn't wait anymore and just forced the release although it's far from complete." "Really, a story that kills all dreams…" "That's the real world." Alice laughed a small, "Fufufu." "It's a gamemaster's job to let people see dreams in this hope- and dreamless world, you know?" "Is that so?" "That's so~ Here, take a look." Alice flicked her fingers. A single girl appeared on the main screen. She had black, short hair, and an epee. If he remembered correctly, she was one of the people Sasaraki had exterminated in the last dungeon, a player named Tiolis. Apparently, she was holding a speech in front of a bunch of players at the town square. [Our last challenge of 'The Cave of the End of Start' has failed. However, this is not the end. That challenge has merely been the beginning! We are being trialed right now!
Let us not lose to the traps of those wicked developers— we will see the second floor found without fail!] [UOOOOOOOOOOOH] , shouts of cheers surrounded her. Tiolis was deeply moved and shed tears, saying, [Thank you! Thank you, everyone!] They really seemed to be having fun. "See? Our efforts paid off, didn't they?" "Is it really okay to call that genocide 'efforts?'" "It is. Plus, it's not just her." Alice flicked her fingers again and the display changed yet again. It was the tutorial dungeon Sasaraki had made; more precisely, the room with the chest, and three girls consulting about something next to it. He knew them from somewhere. Two of them from the last dungeon. And the other one— if memory served right, was the beginner girl from before, Rigel. [What should we do?! This chest reeks of trap, Seshiriko-chan!] [Please calm down, Sarapi. I have a foolproof plan.] [I've a bad feeling about this, but what's your plan, Shiriko-chan?!] [My skillful Sarapi examines the trap while the lowly I hides in the distance and waits for the result.] [I see, a foolproof plan, ind… wait, AS IF I'LL FALL FOR THAAAAAAAAT!] [Um, if you already know it's a trap, couldn't we just leave it be?] Rigel mumbled with an astonished expression, and the other two raised their voices, [Oooh—!] [I didn't think of that! Our beginner here is really smart, isn't she?!]
[Smarter than I. Ohoh. I feel an identity crisis coming.] [Y-You think so? I only stated the obvious…] Rigel said embarrassedly but not looking as dissatisfied as she would have the others believe. "...They seem to be having fun, right?" Though that way it didn't really help as a tutorial. Those girls, too, would surely be disappointed if this game were to end. So— he mustn't give up on it. They were still enjoying this world. Just like Lizna and Azrael before them, they were making memories here. And so— he couldn't let this world end. Even if it was a kusoge of unbelievable dimensions. Sasaraki gazed at the main screen and nodded. "—We've to let them have even more fun, right?" Alice smiled sweetly. "Okay, good reply!" She said and jumped on top of the mandarin box. After a twirl, she flicked her fingers. The main screen now showed a sea view. It was the second floor, 'The End of the Endless Ocean.' "Let's continue with the implementation of floor two— all for the sake of letting the players enjoy themselves!" Sword & Magic Online. Two more weeks until the estimated end of service.
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