…
Somewhere in the multiverse…
Open
With a delightful fizzy sound, a soda can was opened.
Sip
"Ahh~ delicious, mortals certainly have many very tasty things…" said a young blonde girl with magenta eyes.
The young girl wore a peculiar school uniform, but the most striking part of her appearance—aside from a pair of cat-ear headphones—was a neon-pink halo above her head. Munching on snacks that she summoned from somewhere, she gazed intently at the screen in front of her.
"Fufu… So far, everything is going well for that kid. Now, what should I do to make things more exciting?" she wondered aloud, pulling out a keyboard adorned with strange, intricate designs. Her intentions were unknown.
"Hey! Loki, I told you not to do anything stupid!" yelled a voice.
The girl, now known as Loki, dropped the keyboard in fright, and it fell to the floor with a loud clatter.
"Ah! This is bad…" complained Loki, beads of cold sweat forming on her forehead.
Behind her, another figure appeared.
It was a woman with long pink hair, with two peculiar strands sticking up like antennae from the top of her head. Her dark pink eyes widened in horror at the sparking keyboard on the floor.
"What the hell have you done…" said the woman.
"Damned Cupid! I've told you countless times not to sneak up on this goddess!" Loki snapped.
"You little brat! How dare you speak that way to the Goddess of Love! Do you not value your life?" retorted Cupid furiously.
"You think I'm afraid of you?! This goddess has already caused Ragnarok in so many universes your little mind can't even count!" Loki shouted angrily, her small cat tail in her uniform raised, ready to pounce.
Whack
Whack
"Little girls, stop causing such a commotion…" another figure said gently.
It was a charming woman with long, dark red hair. Her face bore a tired yet gentle look, and like her expression, her ruby eyes were somewhat dimmed.
Though she seemed kind and gentle, her presence was sinister and unsettling.
"That hurt, Lilith…" Loki grumbled, rubbing her head.
Cupid merely rubbed her own injury in silence, her gaze shifting worriedly to the sparking keyboard that had now started to smoke.
"Arara∼ this doesn't look good…" Lilith observed as the screen to which the keyboard was connected began filling with lines of code.
Meanwhile…
A small violet-colored cat watched the screen in front of her with scarlet eyes, intrigued.
This small violet-furred cat was none other than Lady Luck herself. Though she had a humanoid form, she preferred this one.
Lady Luck was watching her charming host practice his skills. She had developed quite a fondness for the boy and was delighted to see him grow.
Beside her, Apollo was happily humming while watching reruns of Hoshino Ai's performances.
"The multiverse is truly something amazing, don't you think, Lady Luck?" Apollo asked as he watched the girl mature.
Apollo had seen her once during one of his lucid moments.
However, when he focused on her, he felt sorrow.
The mortal's fate was unbearably grim.
Though he was able to grant her some influence over music, her dark destiny couldn't be altered.
By the time he regained consciousness, the girl had already died, leaving behind two young children.
Unfortunately, each child only inherited half of their mother's talent, and worse, both had troubled minds.
Even though he could visit other realities, it didn't make much difference.
The girl's fate was always the same, in line with Multiversal Law, so he couldn't intervene.
But now that the host was here, things were entirely different.
He was delighted to see such talent flourish, perhaps even surpassing its counterpart in other realities.
As Apollo was lost in his happy thoughts, an energetic Cupid approached him, pale-faced.
Feeling a bad premonition, Uriel, who was observing Kaede on the screen, rose and came over to see what was happening.
"What's the problem?!" she demanded sternly.
Given Uriel's personality, she normally wasn't so harsh, but she had a strong dislike for someone like Cupid. Not to mention Cupid's repeated meddling with the system had caused issues that she and Lady Luck had to handle.
Cupid took a step back, startled by Uriel's fierceness, but quickly collected herself, standing firm and returning Uriel's glare.
She was also a powerful goddess, even if her silly appearance might suggest otherwise, okay?
"Wait… wait, this isn't the time!" she shouted, focusing on the issue at hand.
"Lady Luck, we have a problem… the thing is," before Cupid could finish, a stream of code invaded all the screens.
Then, a large error message filled the screen before it shut down completely.
Lady Luck frowned.
These girls had done enough damage to trigger an automatic system reboot.
"And if that happens, then she…" murmured Lady Luck before being interrupted by the sound of all the screens powering up simultaneously.
[Error!]
[Error! Proceeding with emergency method… Contacting an administrator…]
"Oh no…" thought all the spectators, feeling the breath of a certain goddess.
…
On Tadano's side…
While he was doing his morning training, something strange happened.
"998… 999… 1000," said Tadano as he finished his set of push-ups.
Shouko, holding a towel and a bottle of water, approached to help Tadano.
Tadano thanked Shouko and happily checked his system notification.
Ding
[Set successfully completed… Agility: 25 -> 26]
Tadano felt his body become a bit lighter and felt comfortable.
On the other hand, Shouko, watching the sweaty Tadano, had some not-so-innocent thoughts, but before she could act on them, something happened.
As Tadano glanced at his points in the system shop, hundreds of error notifications suddenly filled his mind, causing him immense pain.
Beep
[Error!... Error!... Error!]
At that moment, his two clones, who were protecting Ai while she filmed a commercial and Yamai, who was handling some business matters, felt the same pain as the main body.
A feminine and masculine voice burst out in Ai's dressing room and Yamai's office, respectively.
Ai and Yamai were initially startled, then terrified as they saw the clones' incredibly painful expressions.
Tadano felt as if his soul were glass, cracking with spider-web lines everywhere, on the brink of shattering into a thousand pieces.
Gritting his teeth, Tadano endured the pain as best he could.
His view was flooded with hundreds of error notifications one after another, and the system screens began flickering.
Beep
[Basic system integrity at risk! Proceeding with automatic reboot…]
Beep
[Progress: 0.01%...]
Tadano was drenched in cold sweat, trembling all over.
His mind was foggy, and his body felt incredibly heavy.
Even so, he refused to fall, clinging to consciousness as best he could.
[Error!]
[Initiating emergency procedures… Contacting an Administrator…]
Seeing the notifications, Tadano cursed his luck today.
Even so, there were things to do.
Summoning what strength he could, he spoke.
"C-Call Ichigo… t-tell him to pick up Ai… Now…" he said in a deep, strained voice, struggling to contain the pain.
"My clones are gone and…" before he could continue, a cold, commanding voice resonated in his mind.
[That's enough… Sleep, Now!] said the voice.
As if a button were pressed, Tadano fell unconscious in an instant.
Shouko was horrified as she watched Tadano collapse, lifeless, to the ground.
The two clones with Ai and Yamai, respectively, disappeared in a puff of smoke.
In Tadano's unconsciousness, he couldn't notice a pair of new notifications.
Ding
[System reboot complete…]
Ding
[A new participant has joined the Room.]
Ding
["The Goddess of Destiny" has joined the Room.]
Moments earlier…
Somewhere in the multiverse…
Loki trembled as she looked at the tall woman in front of her.
A tall woman with gray hair, her eyes covered by an obsidian-colored blindfold, wearing a ceremonial robe seemingly woven from the fabric of space itself, appeared before everyone present.
As soon as she set foot in the room, she noticed the multiple error messages appearing everywhere.
She frowned and, with a swift movement of her hand, conjured an obsidian-colored scepter with intricate designs.
She took hold of it, and when it touched the ground, everything in the room seemed to stop.
[That's enough… Sleep, Now!] the woman spoke in a commanding tone.
Then, hundreds of strings tied to reality itself attached to the scepter. Still frowning, the woman struck the ground again, and everything seemed to return to calm.
The hundreds of error messages and all the chaos that had been caused seemed to disappear in an instant.
It was then that the woman faced everyone present.
Seeing Lady Luck, a smug smile formed on the corner of her lips.
[A long time no see… Lady Luck]
"Destiny…" murmured Lady Luck as her scarlet eyes glowed.
Author's Note: "Here's today's chapter! Haha, I managed to get another one out this week—admire me! Okay, just kidding... That said, remember to drink plenty of water, and know that I love you all. Sincerely, your favorite depressed author."
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