Alexander wasn’t being intelligent at this point.
He knew it, but he still carried on. Missing a day of school, that could be passable. A second day? Well, he may get a talking-to, but it could still be acceptable. He had good attendance, all things considered.
But three days in a row where he missed classes?
He was sure that he was going to get in trouble. But right at this moment, he couldn’t really care.
Flappy Bird had been finished, at least the preliminary version.
It was enough that he uploaded everything to the App Store and it had gone live some hours ago.
It started out slow and…well, it continued to be slow.
He didn’t expect it to suddenly blow up out of nowhere. It’s not like his game was revolutionary or anything.
And he priced it only at one dollar, or about 160 yen, depending on exchange rates.
He had been working more than overtime at this point as everything got up and running. He was watching the downloads like a hawk the first few hours.
So far, Flappy Bird had been downloaded 87 times in the past six hours.
It wasn’t a lot, but it also wasn’t a small amount considering.
He had the idea to post it as an add on his official Fate website too. And since then, the downloads had been climbing steadily.
It felt good, admittedly, for him to be earning money that belonged solely to him. Money that he earned through genuine hard work. Sure, he was stealing from someone else, but at the same time, he put in the effort to make this game from the ground up.
Taking another look at his website, he saw the views count had exploded again. Before, it was nearly at eight thousand; that was a couple days ago. Now, it had passed 13,000.
13047, to be exact.
Once he reached the ten thousand mark, he actually received his first request for an advertisement.
Some kind of medical supplement from a company he never heard of. As much as he wanted to take that money in, he felt like he needed to have some type of bottom line.
For now, he wanted to keep the website mostly add free.
A small advertisement that he alone utilized in the corner was about the extent that he was willing to compromise for now.
In the future, he would use it to advertise other Fate stuff or anything else he decides to create to help support his needs.
He actually finished Flappy Bird yesterday, yet he still hadn’t returned to school today. The pots of coffee had been adding up while he worked away because he was trying to finish up his last project.
As the time ticked away, he wrapped up the finishing touches on the artwork he had been given a quest to create.
His drawing skill wasn’t superb, but with some time and effort, he could get it about where he would find it acceptable.
Alexander hadn’t had a good sleep in almost a week at this point, but the excitement from finally finishing was enough that it pushed away the fatigue he was feeling. It’s not like he hadn’t slept, but it seemed to be the bare minimum as he had been pushing himself.
He didn’t usually work this aggressively, but he felt like this was an important turning point to set the foundations for the future.
It had taken him days of work, but he finally finished everything.
His mobile game had just gotten up off its feet and was starting to take off, if slowly.
And how he finished the quest assignment and hesitantly applied to have it evaluated.
[Ding!]
[Quest submission received, evaluating work.]
[Estimated Evaluation Time: 4:58]
That was fine for him; he knew it would take a few minutes.
Inbetween the drawing though, when he would get frustrated and need to take a break, he had been working on a side project.
Nothing too intense, but he had started work on a forum for his website and an accompanying wiki page.
He remembered how important the wiki was to the readers and lovers of the fandom, and he wanted to get ahead of things to make sure it was all handled properly.
It wasn’t difficult; most of what he needed could almost be just straight copied from existing domains or was open source.
Really, what took the most time was just getting the colors and overall tone of the background correct.
He wouldn’t call it perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was operable and sufficient for now. He just wanted a place that let fans interact and build more hype and expectations for future work.
The quickest way to expand was to build a community.
With a community, you had free advocates.
You had people going out and talking about the product, willingly advertising it for nothing more than their own interest.
He let out a long-earned sigh of relief just as his system pinged him again.
[Ding!]
[Evaluation complete.]
[Evaluation 76/100]
[Evaluation: Acceptable.]
[Quest complete!]
[Reward: One Gacha Roll, 10,000 USD to be redeemed at your convenience.]
Alexander realized that it was convenient that it didn’t just plop a chunk of money onto his lap out of nowhere. Nor did it try to deposit it into his bank account, where there might be questions asked.
For now, he was going to keep it in the system storage.
His future plan was to spend it on advertisements anyways, so there was no point in withdrawing from the system.
With it deemed acceptable, that memes he felt comfortable uploading the art online.
It would be one of the first entries into the Wiki and one of the first topics on the Forum to discuss once it gets up.
He leaned back in his chair for a few minutes before sighing again and getting back to work. He promised himself that he wouldn’t stay up all night again and would get proper sleep before going back to school in the morning.
@***@
Far off on another side of the world, in a small cafe, a young woman was carefully balancing a tray of drinks.
The building was crowded, housing people from all walks of life. However, a nearby school had them seeing an influx of younger patrons at certain intervals of the week.
It made for some busy days.
The young woman tried her best to maneuver around the crowded seats; there wasn’t much space as it was a small cafe, but she did her best until she accidentally bumped into someone’s outstretched leg.
She stumbled, unable to catch herself before falling over.
The hot drinks spilled all over as she let out a yelp and cry.
All the patrons in the cafe turned to look at the woman covered now, soaked in the drinks meant for the table ahead of her. The glass shattered on the ground, causing an even bigger mess.
Immediately, looking at her pitiful state, a bunch of the patrons started to laugh.
Tears swelled up in her eyes.
“Dammit, again, Anna!?” The manager ran out to see the commotion.
“I didn’t mean to!” Anna all but began to cry under everyone’s mocking gaze.
"Just…just get in the back and clean yourself up; I’ll get the next round of drinks made.”
Under everyone’s gaze, she stood up, head slumped and waddled into the back.
She could hear the manager saying his apologies and promising to comp the guests’s drinks. She knew that this was going to come out of her paycheck, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.
“Did you drop another order, Anna?” One of the baristas peeked around the corner.
“It was an accident; someone made me trip.” She sniffled.
The barista sighed. “Look, Anna. You’re a sweet girl, and we know the Manager hired you while you were in a tight spot, but how long are you going to keep making mistakes like this?” She shook her head. “Yesterday, you clogged the sink and we had to get a plumber out. The day before, you broke two plates. Last week, you broke one of the milk dispensers.”
Anna flinched at every single word.
It was hard to argue with facts delivered so blatantly.
Anna just looked at her pitifully.
The barista sighed. "Just…go clean up in the back; there are some towels back there. I’m back from my smoke break. In a minute or two, I’ll go help clean things up, and you can do dishes, alright?”
Anna nodded. “Thanks.”
The barista waved it off.
Anna walked further into the back to what was essentially the break room, if it could be called that.
Nothing more than a closet, barely enough room for a person to sit down by themselves and stretch their legs.
“Why is being a human so hard?” She set her head down on the table. “I hate this, why am I still so unucky?”
She knew she was having a streak of bad luck. And it technically wasn’t entirely her fault.
“Just because I don’t want to die, I’m cursed like this? The world is so unfair.” She muttered. “I barely even have any power left; can’t you at least let me live as a human?”
Anna was just an alias.
It was short of Inanna.
Or, perhaps more famously known as Ishtar.
A goddess from an extinct pantheon. No worshippers, no one to praise her or give her offerings or faith.
She had deteriorated to the point where she couldn’t even be called a goddess anymore. In fact, she was barely above that of a normal human at this point in time.
It took her almost all her remaining power to enchant the owner of the cafe to let her get a job without checking her identity or looking into her background.
Frankly, if that failed, she was going to resort to other tactics to get herself hired.
Compared to her previous self as a full goddess, at this point in time, she wasn’t even confident to say she had enough power remaining equivalent to her fingernail now.
Out of the remaining gods from her pantheon, only she and Ereshkigal remained, and that was mostly because the death goddess could sustain herself much easier compared to other types.
It might even be praiseworthy to say that Ishtar surviving to this point was a feat in of itself.
But it didn’t come without detriments as she desperately clung to life. It was like a curse that hung over her, a dead pantheon pulling at her to join them.
It was the nature of a world.
A god belonged to a pantheon, a cosmology.
When that worldview died, it dragged the deities associated with it along with them.
There were exceptions, Death Gods being ones that could hold out much easier, as their work allowed them to attach themselves to a creator concept of world importance.
But for gods like Ishtar, it was a death sentence.
Without a worldview to support them, gods wasted away bit by bit. Withering down until nothing remained, becoming lesser and lesser until they ceased to exist.
Ishtar had hung on as something barely better than a mortal.
She didn’t have grand aspirations, no dreams of returning to her full glory. No, her biggest goal was to simply keep living. At her core, Ishtar was a coward; she was scared to die; she wanted to keep living.
Perhaps, not simply dying.
She was scared of dying, forgotten and alone.
Dwindling until not even a speck remained.
She was once a terrifying and revered goddess. She had done terrible and great things; she had left her mark on the world.
Now, she sat in the back of a restaurant, crying because she just couldn't get the hang of being a human.
She had swallowed her pride and let people laugh and mock her despite her haughty demeanor and attitude for an uncountable number of years.
And even so, this is where she found herself. Grasping at each day, hoping it wouldn't be her last.
‘Oh wow, Ishtar is pretty.'
Between her sobs, she heard something in the back of her mind.
‘I didn’t know Ishtar was connected to the planet Venus.’
Another pricked at her senses.
‘Isn’t she the goddess from the Epic of Gilgamesh? She’s kinda cool.’
‘I think she’s connected to the goddess Aphrodite too? I remember seeing something like that.’
‘Damn, Ishtar got legs for days.’
“...what?” Isthar blinked.
‘She’s a goddess of love and war? That’s neat; she must be strong then.’
‘I wonder what her Noble Phantasm would be. If she’s using Rin as a vessel, would it be jewel-related? Either way, she has that cocky look about her that says she’ll kick your ass and then step on you and you’ll like it.’
There were a few dozen more that she 'heard.'
She knew what it was; it was just not something she had experienced for a very long time.
Acknowledgement?
It wasn’t faith, and it wasn’t worship; that was for sure.
But acknowledgement was a type of recognition; it was significantly less potent than pure worship directed to her as a goddess, but for her, who had been dying of thirst in the desert, it was like someone handed her a cup of water.
She wasn’t unfamiliar with people calling out her name or ‘acknowledging’ her existence. She knew that she was taught in some classrooms by history teachers or things like that.
But it was spoken of in a way that didn’t garner the same oomph that she was experiencing.
The kind of praise that was genuine, not academic.
There weren’t many, perhaps a few dozen, but for her, who hadn’t heard praise in…a very long time, it was enough to move her old soul.
She felt a slight trembling inside of her. By no means was she now ‘back to full power’ or any such nonsense like that.
But if she had the equivalent of a fingernail of divine power remaining, perhaps now she had about half a finger’s worth?
More than what she had before enchanting the owner of this shop.
More than she’s had the past few decades combined.
It made her choke up as she heard the voices from what remained of her divine senses. The few and far-between praises of her, some of them nonsensical, some of them perverted. But she cherished each and every one in this moment.
There were some that she didn’t understand, referencing something she clearly had no context for.
But she didn't care right now.
It was euphoric to be on the tongues of mortals again, as brief as it was.
And she felt something.
When she cast her gaze out, she could see the source, a tiny flickering light in the darkness. It was as if a temple now were raised to her and someone was lighting a candle.
Someone was responsible, she could feel it, and she could more or less feel the direction it was coming from.
She had tried to get worshippers in the past to try and adapt to this era, but every attempt had failed.
Some of her faults, some not.
Without a worldview to support her, it was extremely hard to garner faith and worship.
Yet, there was now someone out there doing just that.
For the first time in a long time, she felt a smidgen of hope.
And she was going to be damned if she let this chance slip through her fingers.
One way or another, she was going to find the one responsible and do unspeakable things to them…that they would probably enjoy.
But first…she had to find a way to get there. She could tell it was far away, all the way on the other side of the world.
…and she had no money.
It was going to be a hard journey for her, but comparatively, how much harder could it get compared to her current life?
With a smidgen of power returned, she realized.
They don’t need all the money in the register, do they?
She was about to step out, but paused for a second, finding her reflection in a nearby mirror.
Since when did she have red eyes?
@***@
A/N
A wild Ishtar appears. And the consequences begin. It’ll be small at first, but the consequences of what he’s doing will start to affect the world.