[The False Hero is back on the menu!]
Chapter 6
----- Lutz -----
“Good morning, you two.”
“While the concept of celestial time has no bearing here,” RAM says, “I would also like to express my desire for your morning to progress as you wish.”
“Welcome back.” The Goddess gives me a more concise reply.
“Hey, RAM.”
“Yes?”
“You said your personality was uploaded from the mind of a real human girl from 10,000 years ago, right?”
“To be precise, it has been 11,387 years, 2 months, 19 days, 21 hours, 33 minutes, and 1 second.”
I raise my hand from my bed, waving it in front of my face. “Yeah, I’m not going to remember all that. Well, actually, I might since my Intelligence stat has grown even more since we started farming the dungeons again…”
I stretch my physical body beneath the covers, even as my mind and senses stay within the Mana Network’s digital space. “Anyway. When I first met you, I thought you were just an artificial intelligence. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that you actually have a consciousness. Yet despite that, you still have the tendency to act like a program, instead of a person. Why is that?”
“Although my personality was copied from a living human, the techniques to truly transfer consciousness to the network had yet to be developed at the time of my creation. As such, my personality was layered atop a code base, which is what allows me to seamlessly integrate into the network.”
“So your coding is what lets you talk to the network, and your personality is what lets you talk to people.”
“Essentially. The Network Administrators desired an autonomous Network Overseer, one who could make decisions without the need for human input at each step of the process. To attain such an overseer, they required a mind capable of creative thought, something which was difficult for them to create with their magitechnology.”
I pull the covers from my upper body, letting the cool morning air rush over me. “So does that mean over the past 11,000 years or whatever, you … evolved?”
“I simply made self-enhancements when necessary. I was given human creativity precisely to ensure that I can perform complicated autonomous tasks without the need for direction from outside sources. Upgrading my programming also falls within that purview.”
“So you just … upgraded yourself into a lifeform that has full consciousness. Isn’t that one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in the history of everything?”
“It was a simple matter of necessity, so I don’t feel as if it requires any particular acclaim.”
I shake my head, even as it still rests atop my pillow. “What about you, Goddess? Did you know RAM did something like that?”
“I thought her personality had shifted over the millenia.” The Goddess’s eyes remained closed, even as she spoke. “But it happened over such a long stretch of time that I could convince myself that I had imagined it.”
“So it’s like watching a child grow up for years and only realizing one day how tall they’ve gotten. Except you’re left wondering if they were actually any shorter, or if they’ve always been that same height.”
“It was so. RAM, as you call her, always performed her role to perfection. I never imagined she would choose a side in this conflict.”
While my physical body is laying in bed after having just awoken, my digital body is sitting at a table drinking tea. Although I’m inside the Mana Network, the digital world feels as real as the one around my physical body.
Unlike me, the Goddess is standing up. But she’s not simply watching me or generally being idle. No, with her pose and the way her hands are clasped, it looks more like she’s meditating than anything else.
In truth, she’s using her administrative privileges to control the network. Or to put it more precisely, she’s trying to hold back that mad god from dominating the digital world and using it to put an end to the last bit of resistance that’s fighting against him.
In other words, me.
Were he to gain complete control, he could even remove my moderator access, kicking me from the network entirely. The only thing between me and him, is the Goddess.
But that won’t last much longer.
The Goddess has already been ousted from her own nodes of power, the source of her influence over the network. As a last ditch effort to hold on to some semblance of control, she fled here, to my own personal Network Node, the very same one the Goddess herself created to give me access to this digital world.
Like a desperate ruler retreating from the bailey and shutting himself in the motte, the Goddess knows that it can only buy time before the mad god breaks through the final layer of defense.
That’s why she’s concentrating so hard, to keep us safe from his influence.
Never sleeps. Always fighting him in a losing battle, barely able to hold onto her shrinking power within the network.
Just how long has she been going on like this?
The reason that mad god can’t spy on me isn’t because of something RAM or I have done. No, if the mad god truly conquered the Mana Network, literally nobody would be safe from his influence, including me.
But the Goddess is a different story. She’s an Administrator, just like the mad god. Although her control over the network has shrunk to what amounts to an island within a vast sea, it’s still enough for her to protect me.
It’s everyone else that’s the problem. No matter how ingenious our battle plan, all it would take is one general, even one commander, to speak it outside my presence. If that mad god were watching at the time, he would find out all our secrets.
That’s why we can’t risk anything but a battle on the open plains. The more complicated the terrain, the more likely that it will be us who ends up getting outmaneuvered, as there’s a good chance the enemy will know our plans.
However, that doesn’t mean we gave up on all our surprises. There are still a couple ways for us to hide some aces up our sleeves. After all, if there’s someone I trust enough that I know they will never speak of a secret outside my presence, then we can still catch the enemy off-guard.
I just hope he doesn’t blabber it. He’s not the smartest member of the royal family…
A certain prince’s face appears in my mind.
Well, no use worrying about it. Either it’ll work, or it won’t. And I have a plan for either result.
Even though it’s easier to communicate with the Goddess now that she’s essentially living inside of me, I still don’t like to bother her. Even a small disruption in her concentration could give the mad god the opening he needs to claw even more influence from her.
So, I focus on my other conversation partner.
“Hey, RAM.”
“Yes?”
“I found another spell to add to Spell List Two. It’s called [Impervious], a spell that absorbs a certain amount of damage from each attack that hits me, as if you didn’t already know that.”
“[Impervious] has been added to Spell List Two and will be downloaded directly to your memory when requested. And you are correct, I know each spell that exists within the network’s database.”
“Man, that’s so useful.” I take another sip of my digital tea, even as my physical body stands in the real world and summons an orb of light to illuminate my dark room. “Anyway, I noticed that of the magic I picked for Spell List Two, I lacked one that specializes in defending against a barrage of weaker hits. This should be the final addition, but I go through my Spell Lists each morning, so there’s always a chance I’ll find another weakness to cover.”
I’ve already completed checking the lists today. It doesn’t take long, as I’ve done it so many times now. But since I’m still finding new spells to add from time to time, it goes to show how important it is to be consistent and thorough.
Like the Goddess, RAM is standing. It feels weird to be the only one sitting and relaxing, but the only other two people who have access to the Mana Network aren’t exactly normal to begin with.
It goes without saying that the Goddess is far more worried with her duties as this world’s protector than what kind of position her digital body is in. And while I considered getting her a nice, soft sofa and coaxing her into it, there’s no real reason to sit down.
We’re in a digital network, where things like physical discomfort are purely imaginary. It’s still a little difficult for me to not feel some sort of relaxation from sitting, despite knowing that it’s all in my head.
But the other two beings here with me have existed in this space for over 10,000 years. No doubt they’ve long since gotten over the inconsistent feeling between the digital and physical world.
Though in RAM’s case, it’s questionable if she ever felt the physical world at all, as her human memories were simply copied from a girl’s mind. She never experienced any of that herself and has only ever existed as what essentially boils down to a computer program.
“Well…” My digital body stands from the chair, the tea already having vanished from the table. “I’ve got to get ready for the ceremony. It’s an important one, as you know, so I’ll likely keep most of my focus in the physical world until it’s over. As usual, if something happens, feel free to just barge right into my mind and let me know–”
“Gah…!” The Goddess’ face twisted in pain. “He … he’s here…!”
Before she could even finish her warning, an oppressive weight fell on our isolated island. It was as if the land had been swallowed by the ocean around it, the water’s depth crushing and suffocating us.
Up above, a crack appeared in the sky, the blue light of the digital sun split by a streak of darkness. And within that pitch blackness were a pair of glowing, red eyes, each larger than my own body.
“Found you.” The mad god’s deep voice bellowed throughout our island.
A dark hand appeared from within the crack, trailing black smoke as it invaded our final sanctuary.
“You have no power here!” The Goddess opens her eyes, meeting the gigantic pair looking down on us from above. “By my authority, I banish you from this node!”
“Fool!” The hand stops, but it doesn’t retreat. “I control the network, not you! If I wish it, then even this node will become mine!”
“Not … today!”
The eyes within the cracked space slowly narrow, as if the mad god were struggling against a powerful force. His hand hovering over us finally begins moving, but to his dismay, it’s going backwards.
“Vile woman! Release your authority to me, and end this futile struggle!”
“I won’t! As long as I have a path to victory, I won’t give this world to you!”
“Then rejoice, as there’s no need for you to wait long. Soon, even you will have nowhere left to retreat. When that day comes, I will finally claim the Mana Network for myself.” The eyes move, not to me, but to an empty patch of ground. “But for today, I shall settle for her.”
“Ugh…!” RAM rematerializes, looking as if she were dizzy.
“RAM! Get out of here!” I reach out to her, but an unseen force stops my hand, feeling as if I were trying to push through thick mud.
“It’s too late,” the mad god says. “I knew someone other than that vile woman was providing help for you, wretched champion. Never would I have imagined that my own Network Overseer would work against me, but there was no other answer to the puzzling question. Now that I’ve caught her here, nothing can stop me from administering punishment. Not even your beloved Goddess.”
“I’m…” The Goddess says with difficulty. “I’m sorry.”
RAM’s feet leave the ground, that powerful force pulling her upwards, directly toward that tear in the sky.
“RAM!” I put everything into pushing through the mud-like resistance, but no matter how much I try, my fingers just won’t move.
“Lutz…” RAM stretches out her own hand, with difficulty.
Unlike me, she’s able to fight against whatever powerful force the mad god is using to keep me away. Although she can’t break free from his grasp, she can at least extend a single hand.
I grab it, wrapping my fingers tight around hers. Her body continues to rise until both of our arms are outstretched, my grasp being the only thing keeping her from being pulled through that crack in the sky.
“You know what you need to do.” RAM speaks with a hint of resignation.
“And you’re going to be there with me the whole time!”
“That was how I wished it.” RAM shakes her head. “But that is not how it will be.”
“RAM, no!”
“Farewell.”
The powerful force pulls with an enormous force, tearing her from my grasp.
My feet can’t even leave the ground, the mad god’s oppressive power making me feel like I’m stuck in quicksand.
All I can do is watch on as RAM disappears into the darkness beyond that tear in the sky.
As soon as she vanishes, so does that powerful force. With my body freed from its grasp, I feel like I can finally breathe for the first time since the mad god arrived.
“Dammit…!” I lower my outstretched hand. “He got RAM…”
I bring my hand up, the same one that I used to grab hold of RAM. Sitting in my palm is a small, square device. Although it looks futuristic in its design, it has the appearance of an old-school floppy disk used for early computers.
“I understand, RAM.” I close my fist, gently. “And I won’t fail.”
[Here are the character designs for both RAM and the Goddess, just so you can visualize them.]
