I Made a Game Featuring Constellations - Chapter 5



The Sacrifice that Overcame Indolence

“How did I end up here…”

The goddess stared at the entrance of the dark cave, which resembled the gaping maw of a dragon.

She had been attending a strategy meeting, but now she found herself part of a special forces unit from her past, tasked with subjugating the queen.

“I’m sorry for bringing you to such a dangerous battlefield so suddenly.”

The knight Ren, who led the special forces, approached her, perhaps thinking she was scared.

“But this mission is of utmost importance for the future of humanity. If we miss this opportunity, unlike them, we won’t be able to replenish our resources and troops, and humanity will perish. That’s why we need the cooperation of a strong warrior like you. Please, join us.”

Despite the rank difference that allowed for a more forceful command, she requested.

Her past self, who had shown the appearance of a hero.

The goddess wanted to reclaim what she had lost.

“…Alright, let’s give it a shot.”

She wanted to change her lazy and incompetent self, who was even scolded by the apostles.

“Thank you so much!”

The goddess, along with the delighted knight Ren, entered the cave.

‘…In my past life, I entered the underground cave with ten special forces members.’

In her actual past life, she had defeated the queen with ten heroes who assisted her.

Unlike the current knight Ren, she hadn’t brought soldiers.

This situation was created to progress the protagonist-centered event due to the nature of the game, but the goddess was unaware of this.

‘It must be because the history is not properly recorded.’

She felt a bit complicated.

The fact that her comrades, who fought alongside her, dealt with the elite monsters, and perished so that she could reach the queen, were not remembered.

‘No, perhaps I am the most wrong for not passing that fact down to future generations.’

The goddess reflected on how wrong her life had been so far.

-Uwooo!

-Kieeek!

The goddess and the knight Ren cut down numerous monsters as they advanced.

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Despite the kingdom’s army drawing the attention of the main force of monsters outside with desperate will, the queen’s guards kept pouring in to protect her lair.

After cutting through hundreds of monsters and reaching the very bottom of the cave,

-Kirrrk.

-Kirrrk.

Three Elder Guardians emerged.

‘Even though we killed one outside, there are still three!’

In her previous life, there were only three Elder Guardians in total.

It seems the influence of the abyss has significantly raised the difficulty.

Chaeng!

Knight Ren blocked the attack of the two charging aggressively.

“I’ll leave the remaining one to you!”

“The remaining one, huh.”

The goddess faced off against the remaining Elder Guardian with her sword.

She had to kill this creature as quickly as possible and help Knight Ren.

Compared to her previous life, she had lost her original arm and her sword had changed, making it difficult to face two Elder Guardians.

Clang! Clang!

With the finesse of swordsmanship that had reached transcendence, the goddess deflected the Elder Guardian’s swinging blade.

-Kiruk!

Then, she cut down the blade of the Elder Guardian, who wore a look of dismay.

Crash

Without giving it a chance to retreat, she swung her sword again, finally slashing the Elder Guardian’s neck.

As the goddess gripped her sword in reverse to confirm the kill by splitting the Elder Guardian’s headless body once more,

Wooong

A blue light flickered from the Elder Guardian’s body and surged towards the goddess.

“What, what is this?”

Startled by the phenomenon she had never seen before, the goddess tried to evade the light, but it permeated her body at a speed even she couldn’t react to.

Thump!

A small ripple stirred within her.

Thump! Thump!

The ripple grew larger and larger.

And finally,

Bang!

As the ripple completely covered her mind, a pair of wings sprouted from her back.

“The wings of the Elder Guardian?”

The essence of the Elder Guardian had been absorbed by the protagonist character.

“…So that’s what happened.”

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.

Despite the dire situation of having to defeat the queen with just the two of them, without the ten special forces members, why were there so many players who cleared this episode?

“If the absorption of essence is possible, the story changes.”

The traits of [Acceleration], [High-Speed Flight], and [Tough Vitality] that the Elder Guardian possessed were activated in the form of essence, and the goddess’s avatar was strengthened.

Although it was far from her true self, the omnipotent feeling that wrapped around her entire body was akin to a superhuman at the human level.

It was the special ability possessed by the protagonist of the game [Akashic Archive].

Boom!

The goddess kicked off the ground and leaped at the two Elder Guardians who were pushing back Knight Ren.

Bang! Boom!

And the sword strike of [Acceleration], which momentarily broke the sound barrier, crushed the two Elder Guardians.

“Huff… Huff… You… That power….”

The goddess’s avatar, clad in armor and wings created by the Elder Guardian’s abilities.

At a glance, it was a situation where one might mistake her for a monster or an agent of the abyss.

“No, no. Thank you for saving me. It would have been dangerous without you.”

Knight Ren brushed it off as if it didn’t matter.

“Now, all the obstacles are dead.”

Knight Ren shook his sword once and adjusted his chrome arm before slowly walking out.

“And beyond that lies our ultimate goal, the mother of those who will end this war and save everyone.”

She smiled slyly and looked back at the goddess.

“Thanks to you, we could come this far. I express my gratitude. Now it’s the final stage. Are you ready?”

The goddess silently nodded.

“Good. Then let’s go. To save humanity.”

* * *

Boom!

-Screeeech!

A gigantic monster, large enough to stitch together four or five ogres, the queen of the beasts, let out a shriek and fell.

Even in her previous life, Ren would not have been able to kill such a monster unless she had collapsed the cave, prepared to die. But it was no match for the goddess’s avatar, who had absorbed the essence of the beast.

‘…If I had this power in my previous life, would things have been a little different?’

Perhaps because of this, even though she had easily defeated the queen, her heart was restless.

“Haha…hahahahaha!”

Knight Ren, covered in blood, laughed loudly.

“It was a heroic feat, my friend! A warrior clad in black armor, flying around and hunting the queen of beasts! Your name will go down in history as a legend!”

As she laughed wildly, she suddenly looked puzzled.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t asked your name. What a mistake! …Let me ask again. What is your name?”

There were so many things she wanted to say.

That she was another self from the future, and about the events that had happened in the future.

The moment the goddess’s avatar, who was pondering what to say, opened her mouth

Ding

[Ending the session.]

The surroundings went dark as if the film had been cut.

“Good job. I’ll give you 9 out of 10 for the first test.”

And when she opened her eyes again, there stood a black-haired boy, the manager.

[Ending the game]

Flash

The goddess, who had exited virtual reality, was greeted by her usual room.

“……”

She knew.

That place was not the past but a world within a game.

A fake, merely decorated like the distant past that she could never return to.

“Laziness…”

The goddess’s constellation name was [Sacrifice Fallen into Laziness].

She was famous for being a passive constellation, not actively transcending herself to ascend to divinity but being deified after death.

Despite having great power and faith, she was a quiet god who didn’t even come out of her place, let alone use that power.

“It feels like I’ve woken up from a deep sleep.”

Why did she live like that?

Even though she couldn’t remember the comrades who were with her back then, she was just lazing around in her room instead of honoring them.

It was something completely out of character for her.

A sense of alienation, as if something had interfered with her consciousness, filled her.

But now, it’s different.

Though it was a false dream, it felt like being liberated from the deep dream that had been encroaching on reality through that dream.

Thanks to that, I was able to return to my senses.

Now I understand.

What I need to do.

“First, shall I go and express my gratitude?”

The power that implemented the game [Akashic Archive] is the power of dreams.

If it’s the god of dreams, it must be her.

The goddess recalled the little goddess she had seen a long time ago.

* * *

Ding

[A sacrifice lost in sloth expresses gratitude.]

“…What?”

The message of gratitude from Goddess Ren was delivered in the form of a constellation message, just like the messages from our constellation.

In the midst of a confusing situation, I couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.

[No, it’s okay! I didn’t say anything about our apostle’s identity! says the storyteller in the dream, trembling.]

No, if you’re that scared, it’s okay to tell them about my identity.

I’m an apostle too, after all. Why have you been trying not to reveal my identity all this time?

I thought it was a goddess who was angry that we had used her in our game without permission, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Instead, she expressed her gratitude.

So, she asked our constellation to give her my contact information so she could thank me for creating the game.

Gratitude, huh.

Maybe it’s because I made her story look cool.

I’m glad I didn’t include any negative scenes to sell the character [Knight Ren] as a limited character.

If I had made her look even a little bit ridiculous or bad, both the constellation and I would have faced divine judgment by now.

Thinking about it sends chills down my spine.

[The Sacrifice of Sloth asks if it’s okay to make one request.]

“Of course! You allowed us to use the goddess’s story, so please, ask for anything!”

She’s the key character in the most important tutorial of our game, so I should bow down and comply with any request.

It’s fine if she asks to raise her nose a bit or to add a halo effect in key scenes.

However, her request was completely unexpected.

[The Sacrifice of Sloth says she wants the names of 10 special forces members to be included in the game.]

“Special forces?”

After hearing the whole story from the goddess Ren, I understood what she was asking for.

The special forces that entered the underground cave with her to defeat the Queen of the Abyss.

They each sacrificed themselves in important positions to guide Ren to the queen, playing a decisive role in the mission’s success.

But since everyone, including Ren, met their end underground, there was no one left to tell their story, and with the queen’s death, the monsters perished, leaving only the fact that they had succeeded.

With no one to convey the detailed story, the tale that remained in history was only that of Ren, who had been renowned from the beginning and was the leader of the special forces.

The stories of the soldiers who drew the monsters’ aggro outside could be passed down to future generations, but the stories of the special forces could not be conveyed.

The goddess Ren’s request was to leave their stories in the game, at least.

“Don’t worry, Goddess. Now, everyone in the world will have no choice but to know the names of those ten.”

The tutorial is the part of the game that people remember the most.

If it is deeply imprinted in the tutorial, her request can be fulfilled.

And the [Queen of Monsters] was scheduled to appear first in the weekly boss content as the final boss of the tutorial.

It would be appropriate to introduce them as helpers in that weekly boss battle.

In the future, players will hunt the queen every week to obtain various resources and honor the ten heroes in that place.

When I told her about the changes that I would include them in the game as heroes and that the Queen of Monsters would be killed tens of thousands, millions of times by the players, the goddess laughed.

[Sacrifice that overcame indolence smiles brightly.]

It was a bright smile that could be felt even through the language of the constellations.