"Management….."
I hesitate, even though it's from the person I've been waiting for. The one who runs the mysterious game. Probably, or rather, most likely...a god of another world. The pressure of talking to such a person is overwhelming. But there was no time for hesitation. I decided to answer the call.
"Hello?"
"Oh, Yoshio? It's me, me, me."
You're still as light-hearted as ever. I'm a little less nervous because of it.
"Yes, I know."
"So, you've got a lot to say."
"There's a lot of..."
How did Carol come to Japan? Why am I here? What is the purpose of this game called "Village of Destiny"? Who is the management?
"I'll give you a quick rundown first, and you can ask questions later. First of all, let me make an apology from the management. As I explained before, the game you're playing is still in the testing period, and there are some bugs and specification errors."
It's common knowledge in games these days that there are bugs during the test play period. It's so far from reality that I almost forgot that this was a game set during a test period.
'So, I've been working hard to deal with the bug, or rather the hole, to prevent that from happening."
" Hole?"
I was told that I could ask questions later, but I couldn't help but speak up.
"Yeah, a hole. Well, in order to explain it, I'll have to tell you about....I'm sure you've noticed this by now, but "Village of Destiny" is a game where you play as a god by connecting that world to Earth."
I had expected this, but the management made it clear to me. Everything I had imagined up until now had been replaced by reality, and the escape route of "what if" had been closed.
"The world you're in right now is a little higher than Earth. Think of it as having two tanks, one for the other world and one for the earth. And the other world is higher than the Earth's tank."
As I pictured the scene in my mind, I took out my notepad where I wrote down the rules of the village and drew a simple picture.
"Once upon a time, there was a war between the evil gods and the main gods, and a crack appeared in the world. That is, there was a little hole in the tank."
I added a small hole to the picture of the otherworldly tank. Water spills out of the hole and trickles down to the Earth tank.
"The gods tried to plug the hole, but even though it was easy to destroy, it was surprisingly difficult to repair. The hole was small enough that the more powerful gods and demons were not swept away, but the less powerful followers were sucked into the hole and swept into the next tank."
"You think that's you, the management, and the followers?"
"Bingo!"
Management = God. I've been prepared for this so far...but you can't tell me not to be surprised by the existence of God.
"It's not a physical hole; it's more like a mystical crack in space."
Why did he suddenly talked like a high school girl?
"This world is above Earth, so water can only flow from top to bottom, right? That's why God's power flowed unilaterally to Earth."
"Well, some kind of invisible mystical power...like the aura of God flowed into Earth."
"Yes, that's it. God's aura."
Apparently, the management isn't very good at explaining things.
"I wanted to go back to my original world, but it was difficult to climb up the waterfall of divine aura that kept flowing down. And on top of that, most of my followers lost their powers when I crashed."
He seems to like the divine aura that I've aptly expressed and uses it a lot.
"I'm not going to go back, but I'm going to get together with my followers and somehow live on Earth. I'm not going to go back, but I'm going to get together with my followers and somehow make a living on Earth. Well, I used what little God power I had left to tamper with the memory of the landowner, and took over the land and buildings where the God aura was flowing down, and started a game company."
"...why a game?"
"The first thing we need to do is to bathe in this flowing divine aura to maintain our existence. We can leave for a little while, though. That's why I couldn't leave this place in Hokkaido where the divine aura flows, so I looked for a job where I could make money without moving, and I happened to find a small game company in this building I bought."
I wonder what happened to the people from the game company who were involved. I'd like to know, but I'd rather not.
"We are gods, and if we lose faith, we will cease to exist. That's why we used the game as a way to earn money while keeping our followers."
I understand the logic, but it takes time to accept and come to terms with it.
"Why did Carol and I went to this world if you, the gods, couldn't go back?"
"Humans are dwarfed by gods, you know. It is possible to send two people and one animal against the current. We can easily send tributes from the other world, by the way, because the power is flowing from there to here. It is easy to send things from the top of the waterfall to the bottom, but it is quite difficult to send things from the bottom of the waterfall to the top of the waterfall."
The mystery of the system for receiving tributes from other worlds has been revealed. Based on the story, it was pretty much impossible to send us over here.
"So, I understand Carol, but why me?"
"That's my way of thanking you. You protected her as a believer, and you kept the Bible. I really appreciate it."
"Well, no, it's natural to help the villagers."
I was quite shocked because I never expected to be thanked by God.
"And there's one more reason why....It's a good thing that you're not the only one. So, if the main gods find out about this one, we're going to be scolded..."
"Perhaps, you transferred me to another world to make me keep the secret."
"I'm not sure what you're talking about."
That's a bit of a slippery slope. I'd like to know if he's always been this way or if he's been inspired since he came to Japan.
"I'm sure you're aware of that. So I asked them to take refuge there until the discussion was over."
So that's what it was. I've been transferred to another world out of concern for my safety.
"One more question. Why did the Evil One wanted the Bible so badly?"
"What do you think, Yoshio?"
He returned my question with a question.
"They wanted to weaken the Lord God's side by taking the Bible. Or did they want to misuse the Bible…..?"
I thought about it during my trip to Hokkaido and after I came here, but that's all I could come up with.
"You're missing a lot. In the first place, the Bible is the source of power that our followers have left in the world. It is because of it that we can connect to the other world from faraway Japan and use miracles."
It was such an important thing. I picked up the Bible and looked at it intently.
"Have you ever seen a post like this on a game forum? There is only one player per squire. Well, it's true, and each squire has left one copy of his or her alter ego, the Bible, in the world. When the village is destroyed and there are no villagers left...that is, the game is over; the Bible is moved to a new village where there are followers. So even if the village is destroyed, the new village will choose a new player and the game will continue."
So, there was a player who was my predecessor. I have no way of knowing what kind of person he was, but if it were possible, I would like to meet him.
"But if the Bible is in Japan, and the Evil Gods take it and seal it up, God will never be able to exercise his power again. On the contrary, his existence will fade away, and eventually people will forget him and he will disappear."
I swallowed my spit when I heard the cold voice that sent a chill down my spine at the end. It made sense why the evil side would want it, even if they had to pay a lot of money for it.
"Well, there's a lot more to this game that I can't talk about, and I'm blurting out the details, but that's a trade secret. However, the actions of the evil gods this time are clearly against the rules. We also negotiated directly with the evil gods, telling them not to mess with Yoshio-kun at all. It took us a while, but we got their approval, so don't worry. God will not lie to you."
I'm happy to hear that, but I have a question to begin with.
"Um, can you guys from the Lord God side talk to the Evil God side?"
"Yes, we can, because we work in the same building, and we co-developed this game. The specifications are similar, right?"
...Really? I thought I wouldn't be surprised anymore after learning so much about the various backstories, but this is the biggest surprise of the day.
"Oh, that was a surprise? I told you that we need to be bathed in divine aura to maintain our existence. It's the same for the Evil God's followers. In other words, they're stuck here, just like us. We wanted to do something on our own, but the evil gods are better at brainwashing...people and altering their memories."
That's a outrageous thing to say. In order to survive, the Lord God and the Evil God's followers teamed up to develop a game....It seems that both the Lord God and the Evil God were originally from the same faction, so it's not so strange, is it? It's like having rival companies in a building. It's not impossible when I think about it.
"I'm sorry, but I've got to go, so I've got two things to tell you. The first is that the two players on the evil god's side who did this and that with Yoshio-kun in Hokkaido are targeting that village, so be careful. It seems that the idiot who was seducing the players, a follower of the Evil God, resents you and ordered them to attack. You'd better assume that they know about your miracle and get ready to fight."
By two players, I assume you mean Habata and the all-black, mature businessman. When it's two against one, the upcoming "Temptation of the Evil God" doesn't seem to be a fair game.
"And here's another suggestion. You can choose to stay in the village or return to Japan...."
"...What?"
A dumbfounded voice spilled out of my mouth. I thought there would be no more surprises, but at the last minute he dropped an oversized bomb on me.