The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

Chapter 155

────────

The Strategist VII

9

The only way to counter a nuclear bomb was with another nuclear bomb.

And so, nations that possessed nuclear weapons naturally refrained from using them against each other. Nuclear war was something that only appeared in fictional apocalyptic stories where the world had already been destroyed.

The situation was similar for the Alien gods.

Alien god-level anomalies rarely clashed directly. After all, unless one was a fan of bleak stories driven by tragedy, there was no reason to dive headfirst into a mutually destructive fate.

- Kya ha ha ha ha ha

But this world was indeed an apocalyptic world where everything had been destroyed, and it just so happened to be the temple of a Alien god who ruled over all creative works.

Thus, Endless Hell descended.

It was a confrontation between Alien gods. It was like a death match between nuclear-armed nations.

- Kya ha ha ha ha ha kya kya ha.

- Did you miss me?

Every time Cheon Yohwa\'s lips moved, an eerie laughter echoed from all directions.

The world of low-quality noise spread by the [Administrator of All Things Playful] was being devoured by Endless Hell, who had been released from the seal of the hourglass.

The two Alien gods began to clash over control of the world.

["The Administrator of All Things Playful" announces that a critical bug has been discovered on this server.]

It seemed that The Admin of All-Play was caught off guard by the unexpected situation.

It was as if a game administrator, expecting a simple user conference, suddenly found the CEO of a rival company taking the microphone and declaring, "Your company\'s game is a disaster," in front of everyone. It was an outrageous breach of business ethics!

Flutter, flutter.

The main body of The Admin of All-Play, a blue butterfly, began to flap its wings frantically.

It flew around, seemingly taking in its surroundings. Then, it realized that there were hundreds of magical girls who followed it gathered here.

"What, what\'s this? What on earth is going on...?"

"Isn\'t the event already starting?"

The magical girls were confused. From their perspective, chaos had suddenly erupted.

The blue butterfly decided to use them.

["The Administrator of All Things Playful" declares the monster summoned here as a target for extermination.]

[The name of the boss monster is Endless Hell. It has descended by taking over the body of Cheon Yohwa, the student council president of Baekhwa Girls\' High School.]

[Endless Hell seeks to destroy the world. Stop Endless Hell.]

[A huge reward awaits the user who successfully defeats this boss monster.]

[Temporary buffs will be granted to characters participating in the raid.]

Whoosh-

A light radiating from the blue butterfly enveloped the magical girls. It was an easily recognizable buff effect.

The magical girls shouted.

"See, I told you! It\'s an event!"

"That over there is the monster!"

With the game administrator clearly distinguishing between friend and foe by declaring "That\'s a monster," the magical girls\' confusion noticeably subsided.

"Attack! Everyone, attack!"

"But it\'s Cheon Yohwa――"

"You idiot! They said the monster took over her body!"

Urrrr.

Some of the magical girls formed ranks, while others rushed wildly towards Cheon Yohwa.

They were a disorganized mob, but they were still awakened beings who had received a buff from a Alien god. They must have been experiencing a level-up effect beyond comparison to before.

Despite the wave of hundreds of humans rushing towards her, Cheon Yohwa\'s lips only curled into a relaxed smirk.

"Ah ha."

- Ah ha.

The mocking laughter spilled out simultaneously from Cheon Yohwa\'s lips and within Endless Hell\'s domain.

Click.

Cheon Yohwa lightly clicked her tongue. Click, click, click. The surrounding scenery, already tainted by Endless Hell\'s domain, echoed the sound repeatedly.

"Huh?"

"What?"

Thud, thud.

Magical girls began collapsing one after another as they heard Cheon Yohwa\'s tongue-clicking. Some fell flat on their faces, propelled forward by the momentum of their charge.

One of Endless Hell\'s powers as a Alien god: the "Dream of a Happy Future." The magical girls were helplessly drawn into it.

Even the tutorial fairies were not immune.

"Eeeek-"

"This, this sinister aura belongs to the Fairy Lord?"

"It\'s impossible to resist..."

"Eek, who could have guessed that right after we managed to behead the king, an even more extreme war hero dictator would emerge..."

"A revolution is just a continuous series of unlucky events..."

Thud. Thud. The fairies\' eyes glazed over as they lost consciousness and fell helplessly.

The "Tutorial Fairies" also possessed attributes of a creative work. You could say they were closer to The Admin of All-Play. It was better to neutralize them here before the real battle began.

The awakened beings and fairies who had fallen to the ground did not rise again.

The entire group of magical girls and fairies had been swiftly neutralized in one counterattack.

"So, this is what it looks like from the outside."

A happy dream.

I had only experienced that power myself, but it was rare to observe it in real-time from Endless Hell\'s side.

I casually walked over to Cheon Yohwa\'s side.

"Are you okay? If your mind gets consumed by the Alien god, it\'s all for nothing, Yohwa. You need to stay in control."

"Ahaha. I\'m still holding up, Teacher."

Cheon Yohwa looked up at me at an angle.

"Or should I call you Senior?"

"..."

"Just kidding! But really, the minds of the Alien god and mine are mixing rapidly. It\'s like trying to keep my eyes open while sinking into ink, you know? Anyway, I think I should finish this quickly."

"I intend to."

Oh Dokseo staggered towards us.

"Ugh, did I succeed...?"

"For now. You could say we\'ve cleared the most important first stage. Well done, Oh Dokseo."

"I thought I was going to die in that lotus position..."

In the back garden of the hotel.

Now, the only people still standing were Cheon Yohwa, Oh Dokseo, and me. The Saintess was waiting inside the hotel with the writers.

The other awakened beings were unnecessary.

Now that we had achieved our goal of summoning [The Administrator of All Things Playful] into reality, I was sorry, but the magical girls were no longer needed.

Flutter.

The blue butterfly looked down on us.

The "low-quality noise" of The Admin of All-Play and the "colors" of Endless Hell continued to alternate in a constant static around the butterfly.

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ has defined the current abnormal situation as a malicious hacking attack.]

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ declares that from this moment on, they will oppose any vicious users who harm the game server.]

Their attitude of treating us like mere viruses—that was the strategy chosen by that Alien god.

As everyone knows, [The Admin of All-Play] defines this world as a game and themselves as the operator.

Naturally, the operator held overwhelming authority compared to the users. However, at the same time, they couldn’t directly interfere with the users who were playing with ordinary accounts.

Doing so would be an overreach of the operator\'s role.

That’s why, even though they’ve been watching us secretly try to subjugate The Admin of All-Play, they couldn’t impose any significant sanctions.

But if they define us as entities disrupting the game environment in an "unjust way," things would be different. As the operator, they could strike us down without hesitation.

The Alien god Endless Hell was no different from a virus shaking the game from its foundation.

To oppose this, The Admin of All-Play had no choice but to muster all its forces.

[Finally, the final boss of the stage has appeared. It’s been exactly 40 days, 11 hours, and 36 minutes since we started the speedrun.]

In response, our party also defined the current situation in our own way.

Are we vicious users? Perhaps. But in a ‘speedrun,’ exploiting game glitches or bugs was also a legitimate strategy.

This is just fair play.

[Now, all we have to do is defeat that blue butterfly, and our speedrun will be a success.]

The operator of The Admin of All-Play kept generating noise as if trying to suppress the Saintess’s broadcast comment.

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ points out that Endless Hell was originally intended to be a boss monster. The act of sealing the monster and summoning it into a neutral area is causing severe harm to other players.]

[The Alien god keeps mumbling something. Just ignore its desperate ramblings.]

The voices of the humans and the Alien god alternated as they flowed into our minds.

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ claims that they do not threaten humans. On the contrary, their game server offers rapid growth to humans.]

[Ah. Now they’re even trying to negotiate. This is a pattern I haven’t seen before, but Alien gods usually don’t fight unless it’s a decisive moment. They can devour the world just by staying still.]

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ offers valuable items to the characters named ‘Oh Dokseo’ and ‘Cheon Yohwa.’]

[Of course, we reject the offer here.]

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ warns that only a handful of people cannot possibly overwhelm them.]

I looked at Cheon Yohwa.

“Yohwa, release it.”

“Yes, Senior!”

Click.

Cheon Yohwa eagerly opened the trunk she had prepared.

Inside the bag, which was configured as a subspace, were 99 hourglass-shaped glass bottles.

“Baekhwa Girls’ High! Everyone, gather!”

Clang!

Cheon Yohwa overturned the trunk, smashing all the glass bottles with her aura.

99 ghosts were unleashed.

If ‘Human Cheon Yohwa’ was the student council president of Baekhwa Girls’ High, then ‘Alien god Cheon Yohwa’ was also the student council president of Baekhwa Girls’ High.

At the call of their leader, a parade of spirits appeared.

- Hee, hee, hee, hee.

- Do you want red paper? Or blue paper?

- Snore... Snore... Snore...

Phantom spirits, Hinako spirits, Kokkuri spirits, school broadcast spirits, and so on.

Their visuals were a bit bizarre, but this was still an ‘assemble’ moment. The tide of battle turned in an instant.

[…….]

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ determines that further negotiation is meaningless.]

[Exclusion.]

And then.

For the first time, after 593 turns, I finally witnessed the combat power of ‘The Admin of All-Play,’ who fought without holding back.

How would they attack?

As I prepared myself, the inorganic voice of the Alien god echoed in my mind.

[‘The Admin of All-Play’ points out that Endless Hell was originally an enemy that became an ally.]

[The ‘strong as an enemy but weak as an ally’ cliché is activated.]

“Huh?”

Crackle!

As soon as the Alien god finished speaking, the low-quality noise zone expanded to the horizon.

It happened in an instant. Just one second ago, Endless Hell’s colorful zone was fighting back, but The Admin of All-Play’s zone engulfed the world, paying no mind.

Under the sky quickly covered in noise, the ghosts of Baekhwa Girls’ High began to distort.

Crackle. Crackle—.

The ghosts, who had materialized in the real world, started to deteriorate in quality. From AAA game graphics, to VR game graphics, to 32-bit, and then to 16-bit.

“Eh? Uh-oh? Ah, Senior, what should we do...?”

Beside me, Cheon Yohwa panicked.

For some reason, perhaps just a hunch, Cheon Yohwa’s face strongly reminded me of ‘Vegeta.’

“I suddenly feel like I’ve gotten a lot weaker...?”

“……”

Indeed.

At that moment, I realized what [The Admin of All-Play’s] true power was.

Cliché manipulation.

The ability to pull out any cliché from a fictional work whenever they want.

And by using these clichés, they could literally manipulate the world itself.