Otherworld TRPG Game Master - Chapter 275



Chapter 275 – The Wrong Path -3

“Is there anything else we need to prepare?”

“If I could, I’d want to prepare more. But my brain says it’s more efficient to cut down their prep time by an hour than for us to prepare for two more hours.”

“From what I heard in the briefing, he seems quite mentally weak. How about we film a video of us tangled up in bed, deep and intimate, and stream it?”

“That’s not human…”

I shuddered at the chilling idea from Yuri, which sent a wave of unease through me.

After washing my head from the aftermath of the last battle, regaining my strength, stabilizing my mental state, finishing the combat preparations of the mages, and activating the teleportation magic circle, it would take about 13 hours to get ready.

A short time that would be over after lunch and dinner.

I clapped my hands and stepped onto the magic circle. I gathered all the available forces at this moment. With this, we could take down the demon lord, who had devoured mana like a pig.

And we also had a hidden card on our side.

He doesn’t know about Selvier. He’s unaware that my childhood friend, who ran away, has awakened into a powerful burst damage dealer, capable of unleashing tremendous DPS in an instant!

I’ll roast him in one go. And if the demon lord gets caught this time, he better know he’s really done for. I have a wardrobe collection ready for ten traitors.

“Let’s go, let’s handle this cleanly and wrap it up! How much could he have prepared anyway?”

—

(1) Suppression of the Violet Mage Tower Master, Yuna Yurensto, Violet Iris

The doppelgänger had been wearing a faint smile ever since declaring ‘acting.’ It didn’t seem relaxed, but it was sharp.

Wisdom swirled slowly within those red eyes.

“Can you win against the Violet Mage Tower Master, Demon Lord?”

“Impossible.”

“I thought so…? The more I think about it, the more it feels like cheating. Even if the output of the fable itself is powerful, there’s no way to cover for the sublimation ability.”

It’s pure raw power that crushes finesse. No matter how much magic you twist or schemes you devise, if a giant’s hand covers the sky and delivers a smack, you’ll be flattened.

If I don’t find a way to deal with her, we’ll lose.

I’m currently activating a sub-plan to brainwash Irid and summon a boy knight, but that’s not certain either. It’s true that the Empire’s sword master works for the royal family, but what exactly lies beneath that is anyone’s guess.

However, there is room for strategy.

“Suppression is possible. The Violet Mage Tower Master has no hesitation in killing, but ‘I’ am different. She’ll likely act coy, fearing to be hated. ‘I’ will also try to avoid killing as much as possible.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“Quality over quantity. I’ll gather a large number of troops to attack. The members attached to the fake won’t have enough area-of-effect spells. There’s over a 90% chance that the Violet Mage Tower Master will step in.”

“…For now, there will be soldiers from Irid’s Defense Bureau, and we could manipulate civilians to fill in, but that alone won’t be enough, will it?”

That’s right.

Simply pouring in the incapable won’t suffice. If it’s just a pathetic quantity, there’s no need to even reach sublimation; she’ll instantly neutralize them with her illusion magic.

“Mima is quick to judge. She’ll probably come soon. At least within a day. Is it possible to gather trained troops in the meantime?”

“Raising it is obviously impossible. But bringing it here is entirely feasible. We have a dark sorcerer on our side, don’t we?”

“………?”

Swoosh—

The doppelgänger donned the guise of a woman who seemed to embody all the lust and allure of the world, the Succubus Queen. He chuckled softly, flicking his fingers.

“The Succubus Queen was responsible for ensnaring the imperial nobility. She was ‘my’ downfall, but we didn’t clean up all her followers, did we? There must still be some left. Fools waiting for the return of their deceased queen.”

“But what if there aren’t enough?”

“We’ll have to siphon troops from other dark sorcerers. We have the power of the ‘Heroine,’ the knowledge of the dead queen, and an excellent actor… It should be easier than twisting a child’s wrist.”

The doppelgänger received power from the dark deity, fully utilizing his status as an information entity to weave a web. Just as he had at the academy, he unleashed the dream demon to access the minds of the uncounted.

Connecting dreams to dreams. Creating a temporary nest that links minds, spreading the poison known as love and pleasure.

“Oh, ohhh… My lord of souls, I knew you would return!”

Receiving support from the nobles who worshipped the Succubus Queen, still unable to forget her.

“Daddy, daddy, where are you…?!”

“They call, they call. The goddess beckons.”

Civilians for psychological pressure, part of a hostage situation.

“……… The dark sorcerers under our command are slipping away. ‘Despair’s Engraving Snare’! And the response from the ‘Virgin’ we thought was dead…!”

“………”

Some of Duke Redburn’s minions.

The key is to adjust the difficulty appropriately. Not too many, not too few; not too strong, not too weak.

If it’s too difficult, the purple tower lord will unhesitatingly kill them all to save the mad sorcerer. If it’s too easy, she will swiftly dispatch the minor forces and join the main battlefield.

The amount of troops that can buy time without crossing the line. It wasn’t a hard calculation. The performance of a brain with a 51% share was impressive, but above all.

“……… I know her well. Better than anyone else.”

To the extent that he could grasp her psychology and guide her movements.

(2) Expansion of Fable-Class Personnel

“In the end, it’s the elite few who will conclude the battle. Just the two of us will likely prolong the time. The connection between the fake and the glass is solid. Of course, if it drags on, we’ll win… but…”

“Does that mean the purple tower lord will tidy up the battlefield and join us first?”

“Exactly. It’s not that there’s no way to break through, but the more preparations, the better. We need more cards to play.”

He scanned the checklist in his mind. The North? Too far and time-consuming. The dark deity’s dimensional portal wasn’t a technique that could be carelessly used, so that was out.

Princess Elein is too far away and not someone who can be easily ensnared, so she’s excluded. Bennett seems likely to discern the fake from the real, so he’s out too. He decided to handle it by taking his sister hostage and binding her.

Fable personnel near the capital, Crown Hall, who could be persuaded and brought in right away.

“Ah, let’s use Envers.”

“That brat?”

“Surprisingly, Enbus’s illusion is a counter to fantasy magic. It saturates the information in the area, making it difficult to cast spells. If you throw it at the fake one, they’ll be thrilled.”

The Evil God-chan nodded in understanding.

Persuasion or brainwashing should work just fine. The boy named Enbus had his own beliefs, but compared to other session players, he was soft and inexperienced.

If I just show him a glimpse of the Namgoong siblings’ illusion and say, ‘You are the pride of the Namgoong family, so fight!’, I felt like he would easily fall for it.

“…There are two more players left in the capital besides Enbus.”

“I know. But they’re too high-risk, so I plan to eliminate them.”

(3) Eliminate the Capital Knight Commander Lulu, Roderus Redburn

One, the risk is high.

“The moment I sense another hostile transcendent force, I lose.”

“…”

One, there’s a lack of human connection.

“And there’s no guarantee they’ll fight for me. Look, from Roderus’s perspective, I was just a target for assassination. Even if I approached him in Oh Hye-in’s form, it would look strange.”

“A magical girl and her mascot asking for a murder contract would feel off, even to a fool.”

“So it’s better to completely exclude them. If they happen to side with the fake, it would be the worst. So, Evil God-chan, shall we take a little outing?”

—

While grooming the fur near the sleeping Hayan (a former Faceless), a chilling sensation made her tail puff up.

“…”

There was a movement of magical power from downstairs. Faster and more precise than anyone else’s fantasy magic. It belonged to a mad wizard.

Had the main body returned?

Perfect timing. I had just finished explaining the connection between the mad wizard and me, but to nail down the details, I needed to discuss it further.

However, something felt off. The flow of magical power wasn’t gentle. It felt almost like an attack. An uneasy feeling kept creeping in.

Downstairs, Lulu and Daesu were probably preparing dinner together…

Thinking that I might not know what was happening, I set up a barrier around Hayan and cautiously made my way down.

Yet, there was not a single sign of life.

“…Daesu, Lulu, where did you go?”

No answer came back.

The two of them usually always say something before going out. Lulu, for instance, would always ask if she should pick up some chicken skewers on the way back. This was strange.

“Main body, are you there? If something’s happened, come out. We need to set things up, and I need to go back. It’s getting a bit tough to keep pretending to be a mother.”

“Really?”

Chilling.

At the voice that echoed from behind, Mungae instinctively unleashed a flurry of illusion magic in all directions. Spraying mist, shattering textures, sending mosquitoes and flies scattering. It was a contingency for an emergency escape.

But, shattering all those illusions, a hand suddenly lunged out.

It grasped her throat. From the shallowly dug claws at the nape of her neck, a torrent of malignant information poured forth. Mungae twisted her body in response to the blatant mental assault, screaming.

“Ah…!”

Then, crimson eyes revealed themselves.

The doppelgänger, wrapped in a fierce ominousness, spoke softly while crushing Mungae in real-time.

“If you’re tired, you should rest. I’ll retire you.”

“How did you… Dae-su and Lu-ru…?”

“There was a connected passage. Riding the backdoor opened by the ‘Parsim Hyeonjeon,’ I turned him into a magical girl through a remote session. It’s the same principle this time. I subdued you from within.”

They were saving the city alongside Oh Hye-in in a dream.

The second season of the magical girl series, which continued from the intro stating that a threat had returned, necessitating their summoning. Rodellus seemed to feel suspicious about the situation, rummaging through the dream.

How could he wake himself from this slumber? The one dominating their minds was that insane sorcerer.

Crisp-!

After observing Mungae’s distorted emotions for a moment, the doppelgänger tightened her grip and crushed her in an instant. Not a single fragment was left behind; it was all absorbed by her.

“Alright, I’ll leave the sleeping Dae-su and Kim Lu-ru to you, Akshin-chan. If you suddenly sense a kill opportunity, you might wake up from the dream, so take your time and kill her. If you feel like it, you can even devour her soul.”

“…Is that really okay? She’s your player.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not a trick question. It’s just… you’ve become more precious. You can eat to your heart’s content. You don’t even have to work. If you enjoy your meal there, I’ll take care of everything.”

“……..”

He left to handle the remaining tasks.

Before Akshin-chan lay only the defenselessly sleeping Lu-ru and Rodellus. Surely, the soul imbued with fables, sublimation, and deep emotions would be a great source of power.

She elongated her black, sharp scales like claws. Then, after resting them on Rodellus’s nape, she pondered for a while.

And then.

“Oh, did you eat? It’s clean without a corpse.”

“…Uh. It was unnecessarily sweet and tasted bad.”

“Shall I brew you a cup of coffee? With plenty of ice.”

“No thanks.”

She secretly hid the two without killing them.

Having already betrayed them, she should have devoured them to gain strength, now that she had the chance to return to her original form. Yet, in the end, she didn’t eat them; instead, she hid them to protect them from the doppelgänger.

It was a decision she couldn’t even understand herself.

When we reached the imperial capital, Crown Hall, what awaited us was an army filling the streets. It had only been half a day.

Civilians, dark sorcerers, knights, agents—everything was gathered in abundance.

“Looks like they really prepared for this, those crazy b*stards…”

If they had been given more time, would they have even brought a Dragon Heart from the royal palace? Even though it’s my clone, I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Beside me, Selvier’s eyes widened as he tugged at my sleeve.

“Brother, wait a moment. Is that possibly Enbus…?”

“Yeah. No, why the hell is that b*stard over there…?”

A chill ran down my spine.

I quickly scanned the surroundings, feeling a wave of fear wash over me, and I cast my magical aura several times to sense the area. What if that doppelgänger had brainwashed my precious players to turn against me?

What if Bennet condemned me as a demon, and Roderus denounced me as the ‘Corrupted Sorcerer Demon King Lucifer Zechniel’…?

Then I might just scream.

But fortunately, the only one standing over there was Enbus. Had he not managed to recruit the others?

“A mad sorcerer seeking to plunge the world into chaos! I, Namgoong Cheong-hwi, shall bring you to justice!”

“Why are you just standing there, you idiot!”

“Selvier, getting angry won’t help. Looking at that b*stard’s eyes, he’s definitely under a hypnosis spell. He’s deeply entranced, and it won’t be broken in the short term… No, damn it. How is someone who even recorded a fable so weak against hypnosis?”

Maybe it was because he hadn’t faced enough trials.

Would it have been more reassuring and solid if a dozen or so people from the Namgoong family had died, their clan had crumbled, and they had been forged in the trials of the Celestial Demon?

The saying of Teacher Sel, who proclaimed that trials were necessary for academy students, felt particularly meaningful today.

“This isn’t the time to space out, Mima, they’re coming.”

“Ugh… Yuna, take care of that swarm! If they all fly away, Irid’s hypnosis will break, and we won’t be able to sleep! Selvier and Yuri, let’s go after the doppelgänger together!”

“Uh, okay! I-I’ll shoot carefully!”

We divided our roles and formed our ranks.

This was a battle for the happiness of our future. The doppelgänger seemed to have prepared various things, but for now, it was still a fight we could handle. Just as I was thinking that, the doppelgänger’s first strike pierced through.

“…Mima, I can’t write the fable.”

“What?”

It was ‘Fable Block’.