The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 156

────────

The Strategist VIII

"Wait! Wait a minute, mister!"

Oh Dokseo screamed.

"If you do this, all the semi-divine forces we've prepared will become useless! Aren't we screwed?"

"Hmm."

Despite witnessing the same cliché, I first thought of "Vegeta," while Oh Dokseo thought of "ordinary people."

This was a good example of how the perception of otakus changes with generations.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to discuss the "images and symbols" of subculture.

The students of Baekhwa High School (night class) were being beaten down in real-time by the The Admin of All-Play.

-Huff, huff, huff, huff!

-Do you want some purple tissue? Do you want some purple tissue?

-Snooore… snooore...

In the low-resolution 16-bit realm that The Admin of All-Play had created, dark-colored NPCs respawned. The NPCs rushed forward and began beating down the Baekhwa High School ghosts.

They were 'Necromancer' NPCs.

Dark robes, grotesquely twisted staffs, and faint candle decorations too feeble to serve as proper lighting.

They were the kind of beings who seemed determined to embrace the lifestyle of hikikomori from their fashion alone. Even the blurry 16-bit resolution couldn't hide their inherently outcast aura.

-Hehehe, the world is filled with spirits.

-I'll capture them and enslave them!

-Knock, knock, a ghost? I'll hang you on a grandfather clock and set the alarm to your screams. The sound of heads smashing is thrilling.

The ghosts were terrified.

Recently, MZ-generation necromancers might enroll in academies, date, and flaunt their wealth as rich heirs, but in RPG settings, the perception of necromancers was still among the lowest, along with thieves.

Even so, the ghosts of Baekhwa High School had been a close-knit, popular group. The ghosts were no match for the necromancer NPCs' grudge-filled dark magic.

"You evil bastards!"

Cheon Yohwa, who once claimed to be the original necromancer of the Korean Peninsula, was enraged.

"Don't bully my kids!"

Wham!

Cheon Yohwa sprinted forward and kicked the head of a necromancer.

In the battlefield, where both NPCs and ghosts had been downgraded to 16-bit, Cheon Yohwa alone displayed overwhelming real-time graphic skills.

Even though she had descended into a human body, and despite the "debuff" from the "weakened former enemy turned ally" cliché, Cheon Yohwa was still Cheon Yohwa.

Red aura flew in all directions, and the 16-bit blood of the NPCs splattered everywhere. Cheon Yohwa quickly decimated the necromancer group.

-The demon lord! It's the demon lord!

"Huh?"

-The demon lord has appeared!

As the necromancers shouted, blue wings fluttered in the sky.

[The 'Administrator of The Admin of All-Play' points out that Endless Hell has appeared to slaughter humans on behalf of the monsters.]

[The 'Demon Lord Appearance' cliché, and the 'Humanity's Alliance to Defeat the Demon Lord' cliché, are activated.]

Crackle!

New NPCs emerged in the realm of The Admin of All-Play. Although the graphics were still poor, the characters' features were as distinct as if crafted by a master pixel artist.

They were 'Priest' and 'Saintess' NPCs.

-Behold the wicked deeds of the demon lord!

-Necromancers have strayed from the path of righteousness. But even so, they are still human. They cannot be compared to inherently inhuman monsters.

-O God! Help us!

Following the necromancers' dark magic, white magic priests began to unleash divine attacks toward Cheon Yohwa.

Cheon Yohwa screamed.

"Hyaaaack!"

It was a scream worthy of the situation. The parts of her body struck by the divine magic had degraded from real-time graphics to 16-bit graphics.

Even Endless Hell's main body was beginning to be contaminated by The Admin of All-Play.

"Senior! Seniiooor!"

Cheon Yohwa cried out desperately for my help as she dodged long-range attacks.

Divine magic was simply a terrible matchup for her. After all, wasn't Cheon Yohwa also dark magic?

Hundreds of priests… no, over a thousand priests NPCs had already respawned and were chasing Cheon Yohwa.

Next to me, Oh Dokseo witnessed the surreal chase scene and said hesitantly.

"Shouldn't we help, mister?"

"Well. If I stepped in, I could easily sweep away the NPCs. But the main target of this subjugation is still The Admin of All-Play. If I get involved in that childish game and get hit by the 'cliché,' it'll only put us at a disadvantage."

"Oh."

"It's better for me to stay on standby to deliver the final blow. Oh Dokseo, instead of getting caught up in the enemy's methods, we should exploit their weaknesses. Isn't there any cliché we can use here?"

You're an otaku, aren't you?

Oh Dokseo understood the implication of my words like a ghost. She groaned.

"Uh. Wait, a cliché… So, right now, The Admin of All-Play has formed an alliance to defeat the demon lord and monsters, right…?"

At that moment, Oh Dokseo's eyes sparkled.

"Oh! Oh! That! That!"

"That?"

"The monsters were actually just minding their own business, but the evil humans attacked first, killing them for fun and enslaving them! The 'actually, the humans are the bad ones' cliché! There's a ton of novels and comics like that!"

Oh Dokseo shouted "Eureka!" like Archimedes and rushed forward.

In front of her lay Hanako, a ghost who had been half-dead from the necromancer's attack. The sight of red, blue, and purple tissues scattered around was quite striking.

Squeeze.

Oh Dokseo knelt and embraced Hanako's shoulders.

-Purple tissue?

As Hanako looked confused, Oh Dokseo put on a face full of righteous anger.

Then she shouted.

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

In a voice full of deep resentment.

"Why…!"

-Purple tissue?

"Why do humans oppress us so…!"

Pause.

Oh Dokseo's passionate outcry made the blue butterfly pause for a moment.

And that wasn't all. The thousands of priests and saintesses who had been happily chasing Cheon Yohwa all turned their heads.

With everyone's attention focused, Oh Dokseo continued her act without a hint of shame.

"Hanako was just trying to hand out tissues to people in the restroom…!"

-Purple tissue?

"The Knock Knock Ghost was just a kid who moved with their head instead of their legs! Humans, just because we're different, you treat us with such cruelty and contempt! I curse you! I curse you, humans…!"

The ghosts of Baekhwa High School, who had already been half-subdued, and even the exhausted Cheon Yohwa, who was catching her breath after the chase, wore strange expressions. Were we really that nice?

But in creative works, reality often didn't matter much. If realism were important, King Arthur would have been a man.

['The Admin of All-Play' accepts the Shrine Maiden's claim.]

And this was precisely the flaw of the anomaly.

I almost wanted to clap my hands.

'Well done, Dokseo! That's it!'

The anomaly couldn't reject its own essence.

Especially not when the person in question was Dokseo, the Shrine Maiden that the The Admin of All-Play had appointed as its champion.

If the Shrine Maiden prayed loudly, the god had to answer that prayer. The moment it refused, the Logout Game would inevitably suffer damage.

At least, the Shrine Maiden could penetrate the power of the alien god in reverse.

This was also the reason why the Shrine Maiden had to be brought onto our side in the plan to subdue the alien god.

[The cliché 'Actually, the Evil Force was Human' is activated.]

Then all hell broke loose.

-Do you want some purple tissue?

-I always wanted to walk with my legs, not my head.

Suddenly, the ghosts' facial muscles began to change into something more 'human.' Their noses straightened, their lips became neat, and most notably, their eyes sparkled with focus.

Just as in stories where goblins bizarrely start to resemble humans, even though they're the protagonists!

The ghosts' linguistic abilities also suddenly evolved. Their facial features gained coherence. This was the miracle of the non-human genre.

"Why on earth would priests come to help just because necromancers were getting defeated by ghosts!"

Dokseo, the Shrine Maiden of the alien god who had personally performed the miracle, pointed to the sky.

"And it's not just one or two priests, but thousands uniting at once! This means the necromancers and the temple must have had a secret connection all along! Only then does it make sense!"

I couldn't believe it.

This time, I really did clap. What should I do? Our Dokseo might be a genius.

-Connection? What does that mean?

-I think it means something like a link between them.

-Our temple was connected to the necromancers in secret?

Murmurs.

The 16-bit NPCs began to panic. Yet, they still tried to adhere to the fantasy setting by not understanding the term "connection."

Dokseo shouted.

"Monsters have always been unfortunate! They've always been unjustly persecuted! We weren't bad!"

Strictly speaking, the only ones who had been unfortunate were Dokseo, me, and the saintess after consuming the 'Hate Pill.'

But anyway, it was true that misfortune had gathered on our side.

I hadn't bothered to describe it because I'm not into bleak stories, but in this run, significant misfortunes had occurred in the 'Room of Spirit and Time' during the mission to subdue the Endless Hell.

Dokseo delivered the finishing blow.

"The temple's high priests were the real masterminds behind the necromancers! When the necromancers captured spirits, the high priests took the credit for themselves and rewarded the necromancers with various benefits!"

-Is that true, priest?

-That can't be! It's impossible!

"Impossible? Corrupt high priests appearing in novels is a 99% guaranteed cliché! I bet at least one cardinal has been possessed by a demon!"

-What?

-How could that be...

['The Admin of All-Play' accepts the Shrine Maiden's claim.]

[The clichés 'Corruption of High Priests,' 'The Hidden Villain was in the Temple's High Ranks,' and 'Demon Summoning by a Priest' are activated.]

-How did they know? Haha. Now that we've been found out, I'll offer you all as sacrifices!

-Aaah! The cardinal has gone mad!

The tens of thousands of NPCs (the number kept increasing) began fighting and bickering among themselves.

The hotel's back garden had long been destroyed. A religious war had broken out in the dead of night.

And then.

"...Ah. I'm getting stronger again."

Dokseo's right arm and left leg also returned to their original state.

"Hoyt."

-Aaagh! The demon lord has resurrected!

Dokseo, without hesitation, turned and smashed the heads of the priests again.

Targeting only the 'corrupt priests exuding a sinister aura,' it seemed that Dokseo had grasped the flow of events.

The The Admin of All-Play was once again driven to a corner.

At this point, it had few choices left.

['The Admin of All-Play' points out that, while humans may have faults, monsters also have many stains on their record.]

[Monsters have slaughtered countless lives.]

['There are Neither Good Nor Evil Forces, Only a Struggle for Power' cliché is activated.]

The classic false equivalence!

The alleyway every story about good and evil inevitably stumbles into. By taking a conveniently relativistic perspective, it avoids discussing what exactly is good or evil and wins all arguments with the forbidden technique of moral relativism.

The battle once again reached a stalemate. The The Admin of All-Play was likely eyeing an escape route, thinking, 'How about we call it a draw?'

But I couldn't let the alien god, hiding and deviously manipulating clichés, get away.

'Saintess.'

I moved my lips.

The saintess, who had been watching the battle closely, often freezing time itself, immediately understood my silent words.

From me to the saintess, and from the saintess to Dokseo.

The message was translated and relayed until it reached the The Admin of All-Play's Shrine Maiden. And Dokseo, understanding my intention, immediately shouted.

"Monsters slaughter lives, and humans slaughter lives! No matter which species or land you look at, the world is filled with tragedy!"

In that sense, it was essentially a line spoken by me, the saintess, and Dokseo simultaneously.

"If the world is just tragedy and life is only suffering, then tell me, what kind of existence is 'God' in such a world?!"

Everything stopped.

The tens of thousands of NPCs, the ghosts fighting valiantly but overwhelmed by sheer numbers, all froze, regardless of sides.

16-bit abominations, whose attempt to mimic human expressions only made them more uncanny.

Dokseo faced the countless pairs of soulless eyes alone.

She swallowed hard once and then reached out, pointing to the sky.

"If the world is evil, isn't it the fault of the god who allowed the world to become evil?"

Indeed.

The The Admin of All-Play had made a mistake.

In reality, moral relativism might work. But in a world where a 'god' so clearly existed, what then?

Especially when that god directly declared, 'The world is evil, and only power struggles are legitimate.'

"Why should we serve such a god?"

The The Admin of All-Play might have thought it had played its best move, but in truth, it had made the worst mistake.

"If we have no reason to kill and be killed endlessly, then the only target that deserves to be hunted down is the god who imposed this hell upon us! Our true enemy is the evil god alone!"

Led by Dokseo's outcry, all humans and monsters simultaneously looked up at the sky.

And there was a blue butterfly.

['The Admin of All-Play' accepts the Shrine Maiden's claim.]

['The True Final Boss was the God All Along' cliché is activated.]

[Translator - Jjescus]

[Proofreader - Gun]

v