Otherworld TRPG Game Master - Chapter 287



Chapter 287 – The Parallel World Story Told by the Magic Sword

I successfully managed to seal 1% into the magic sword.

During the process, several minor injuries and one moderate injury occurred, but they were merely bruises, so the damage would heal overnight. Essentially, there was no real harm done.

Now that the preparation and packaging of materials were complete, all that remained was to enjoy it.

Gazing at the magic sword tightly bound with magical ropes, we began discussing how we might prepare it. First, we talked about the Evil God-chan Mk.2 plan.

If this one could also be corrupted into a hero, that would be the best outcome.

“So… Aisha’s friend, I mean, she would have a little sister? We would create, that is… give birth to one, right?”

Yuna asked with sparkling eyes and a fluttering expression. Her choice of words gave off a somewhat couple-like vibe, and she seemed to be having a great time.

I joined in on the flow. Adopting a serious, fatherly expression as if contemplating a second child, I gently asked Aisha.

“Perhaps you might have siblings. Aisha, would you prefer a little sister or a little brother?”

“…I don’t need either a sister or a brother?!”

“Oh dear, family should get along well. And even if a second child is born, my love for you, Aisha, will never change.”

“I said I don’t need it!”

They say siblings are born programmed to kill each other, and Aisha was already grinding her teeth at a child who hadn’t even been born yet.

If possible, I would prefer a daughter. I attached my magical energy and accessed the interior of the magic sword. After examining the internal data and self-awareness, I planned to initiate a transformation or whatever else was necessary.

“…Huh?”

“What’s wrong, Mima?”

“No, there’s no self-awareness. The internal information is… so tangled that it’s hard to read.”

“There’s no self-awareness? Didn’t the magic sword cast a hypnotic wave on the academy students?”

So I had assumed it would have consciousness, just like Aisha.

However, the 1% residing in the magic sword was closer to a pure bundle of information, and its tendency to interfere and corrupt was distinctly mechanical. It operated much like bacteria or viruses.

This… was a deliberate measure taken by ‘it.’ In an attempt to detach 1% from its own body, it had given me the dirty parts that lacked consciousness and were encrypted.

“It sacrificed flesh instead of bone to minimize damage.”

“Right. It seems Aisha’s case felt quite threatening. If it continued to corrupt the hero, it might end up being consumed itself. In that case…”

This confirmed it. Though it was sealed in my mind, it was aware of how the external situation was unfolding.

If it hadn’t witnessed Aisha’s change of heart, there would be no reason for it to be so finicky about self-awareness, would there? I don’t know the specific method. Can it feel what I see, hear, and sense?

Or perhaps some other… kind of means, an external device.

“If that’s the case, there’s no need to imbue the cursed sword with self-awareness. A USB containing valuable information… that level of recognition would be just right. Once the research is done, I’ll give this to you, Aisha.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re the one who’ll make the best use of it, being one step removed.”

Special items aren’t meant to be shared with others.

Aisha, holding the tightly bound cursed sword and turning it this way and that, furrowed her brow as if sensing something amiss. When I gestured to ask what was wrong, she replied.

“It was once whole, but now it’s split apart. Maybe that’s why, I can feel a pull. It feels like my 1% is trying to connect with it. To return to its original state.”

“…Is it a dangerous situation?”

“No. The cursed sword has no self-awareness, and since it’s just a 1% fragment, it can be easily contained. But I think we need to be more cautious with the next extraction. It will likely try to coalesce as well.”

Is that so? If that’s the case, the risk will sharply increase with each extraction.

I decided to shelve the plan of chipping away at it 1% at a time to ‘destroy’ it. Even if we gradually separated it and scattered it across the continent like Exodia, it would eventually come together and resurrect, wouldn’t it?

It’s really infuriatingly complicated.

After that, a discussion ensued among the veteran illusion mages about how to extract information from this cursed sword.

The cursed sword is currently like a treasure chest tightly bound. It’s surrounded by all sorts of locks, strings, and defensive mechanisms, making it difficult to extract the data inside. We need to break through this.

“We could steep it in magical liquid… and extract the information like a broth. If we do it little by little, we might be able to extract only the necessary information.”

The great mage’s tea bag theory.

“How about this? Since we’ve confirmed it has no self-awareness, we could run it through a filter in the session. Then we could gradually investigate within the session. This way, it won’t be able to cause a ruckus like in the Cthulhu era.”

My TRPG theory.

And Aisha, the authority on the research of ‘it’ (since she is), made her final argument.

“The fact that it has no self-awareness means we can use it as we please. If we use it as a whole data pack… we might be able to get answers without needing to decrypt the information.”

It’s like asking a question through a hole without unlocking the treasure chest and shaking it to get an answer. It was a black box theory of hitting the variables without finding function F.

It seemed like an interesting idea, and since attempting it wouldn’t damage the data inside the cursed sword, we decided to adopt Aisha’s idea.

Thus, after about half a day of tinkering, we created the following.

“Cursed Sword Internal Module ‘Storyteller’, answer our questions.”

– ……….

“What would happen if a gate opened in the sky of South Korea?”

– If a “gate” were to open in the sky of South Korea, the situation could unfold very differently depending on various scenarios. South Korea is a vassal state located in the eastern and western parts of the Empire, inhabited by elves, and shows a strong affinity for fire magic. However, depending on what “gate” signifies──

“Indeed, it answers freely about information it doesn’t know.”

A sort of ChatGPT, the ‘Storyteller.’

By taking advantage of the fact that it stumbles over unknown information, we could gauge how much it knows and what it doesn’t. It felt a bit like a game of twenty questions.

“Do you know about Cthulhu?”

– Cthulhu is a recipe passed down through oral tradition from bards of three thousand years ago, meaning a smoked duck dish served with ginger──

First of all, I have no information about my past life. Moreover, it seemed I couldn’t grasp what was happening within the session. If I had seen Bennett’s chaotic adventure, I would have known about the giant octopus as well.

It seems that ‘it’ cannot reach even to the isolated information space of the simulation world. This was quite valuable information. From now on, I should plan operations within the session.

Then, conversely, how much does this creature know?

“Imagine if I hadn’t chosen Yuna. What if I had started my life as a wizard in the Red Tower?”

– ⋯⋯⋯⋯.

The magic sword creaked for a moment as if deep in thought, then soon began to unravel its tale.

– In the Red Tower’s residence, there lived two people.

—

The residence of the Red Tower, the Fire Soul Palace (火魂宮).

This space, where the master of the Red Tower resides, was covered by a hemispherical structure made of thick magical alloy. This was not for protection against external threats.

It was a structure designed to protect the outside from the searing heat and radiation emanating from within.

Due to various experiments and magic circles conducted inside, the average atmospheric temperature of the Fire Soul Palace approached 105 degrees. It was an environment where most living beings could not survive.

If one were to spit, it would evaporate. Any liquid secreted from the body would boil and turn to steam. Just breathing would scorch the lungs. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a hell of searing heat.

Only two people lived there.

On a bed imbued with fire resistance, a voluptuous woman lay bare, revealing her unadorned body. Her red hair flowed like lava, and her eyes resembled the blazing sun.

Her skin was flawlessly white, while other parts of her body bore the hue of cherry blossoms.

With every languid breath she took, a large mound rose and fell, swaying slightly. It was so seductive that any man would harbor lustful thoughts.

Her fox-like eyes held a certain charm, and the tear droplets at the corners of her eyes added to her enchanting aura. She draped her body in a sensuality that could sway a nation and opened her mouth slightly to say:

“Ah~ I feel like yawning~!”

“Please don’t speak so loudly, Master of the Tower.”

And then she got scolded by her disciple.

–

The master of the Red Tower, Vermilion, is a kind and unpretentious person. Only to herself.

She behaves whimsically like a cat and rarely considers the feelings of others in most situations. Had her ideals not been beneficial to the Empire, she would have long since become a public figure of the Empire.

She perfectly embodies the image of a mad yet capable scientist striving for the advancement of humanity.

Her motto was, “I do not listen to the words of those weaker than me,” and by sheer luck, the disciple she had caught ten years ago was still slightly weaker than her.

“Master of the Tower, today we need to start the renovation of the third magic circle──”

And so, she acted on her own whims.

Pulling the disciple’s arm, he laid her down on the bed and pressed his lips against hers in a deep kiss. The disciple pounded her fists against Vermilion’s head, but she was not weak enough to be deterred by such blows.

In fact, that defiance only ignited Vermilion’s passion.

Vermilion seized both of the disciple’s wrists and pinned her to the bed. Dark hair framed her face, and indifferent red eyes gazed up at her. Reflected in those eyes was a sense of detachment.

Neither the violent body nor the situation where a beauty desired her s*xually held any value in those indifferent eyes.

Vermilion found that utterly delightful.

“Hey, shall we start the day with a nice little round again today?”

“I don’t want to.”

“You know it’s pointless to refuse, yet you stubbornly keep saying no… I find that amusing.”

“Go to hell.”

Vermilion leaned down, pressing her body closer. And──

—

“Stop…!!”

Clang!

Yuna interrupted the scene by striking the magic sword with her tiny fist. The bed wrestling between the red magic tower and me faded into the air, no longer described.

And Yuna looked up at me with the expression of a devoted wife who resented her cheating husband but couldn’t bring herself to abandon her love, clinging on instead. It felt unfair to be looked at that way. I hadn’t even been the one to start it.

I scooped Yuna up and began to analyze the situation while playfully bouncing her.

“Isn’t this just some nonsense made up by that magic sword liar?”

“I don’t think so. I have some fragmented information about the red magic tower too. If I have it, then of course the main body must have it as well, and it wouldn’t be strange if it’s part of the 1%. And as for information about you… well, there’s probably a lot.”

“So there might have been a future where I rolled around in bed with the sultry red tower, ah, ow, that hurts. Don’t pinch me. It’s just a prediction, a fiction, right?”

“Try asking questions that might lead to more clues about the main body.”

Hmm.

“When I started with the golden magic tower, tell me how you think we would face each other. And what the world would become.”

– The wish of the golden magic tower has been fulfilled. The golden tower master and his disciple created the ‘Floating Land’ that moves through the sky──

—

The mad wizard descended from the central control building, heading towards the aerial island ‘Floating Land.’ At the forefront of this vast land adorned with lush greenery, a tall woman was playing, weaving a floral crown.

She was the golden magic tower master, a being who had somehow lifted a landmass the size of an island into the air.

The mad wizard scratched at the eye patch adorned with a skull design and reported to the golden tower master.

“Captain, it seems we are running slightly low on magic stones.”

“Hohoho… then let’s change course. Heading north-northwest, our target is the sixteenth magic stone mine of the Empire. I remember it being tricky to mine, so there should still be quite a bit left, right?”

“Yes, yes, sir. If there are survivors inside, we’ll proceed according to standard protocol, right?”

“Yes. We accept the clean as crew members, and dispose of the contaminated. We cannot allow a Mohican into our paradise, can we?”

Indeed. Boarding the Mohicans, whose very essence was tainted to the core, was akin to a death wish. Clatter. The mad wizard pulled a telescope from his cloak and gazed down at the earth.

Below lay a hellscape, a scene of utter chaos. The Mohicans galloped across the pitch-black land, giant strawberries rolled about, and marshmallow farms burned, releasing a sickly sweet aroma.

The mad wizard focused, preparing to drop a meteor—

—

Bang!

“Stop. This is going off the rails, isn’t it?”

I interrupted the story by giving the magic sword a light smack on the head. The narrative had veered off course, and it seemed there was no particularly meaningful information to be gleaned, so I cut it short. Suddenly, what was with the Mohicans? And giant strawberries, of all things?

Does this one not know anything about its own essence, even at 1%?

But it seemed Aisha had a different perspective.

“No, it was fine up until the middle. But as soon as it started mentioning the essence, the story fell apart rapidly. Important information seems to be managed more carefully.”

“So it won’t let its secrets slip easily, huh?”

Thus, in the attempt to substitute secretive information with other details, things like giant strawberries and marshmallow farming popped up. It must have been different originally.

Yeah, if it were that easy to break through, it would be disappointing. This persistent creature wouldn’t let go of a single life so easily; if it seemed like this much of its secret would be revealed, it would have been eliminated long ago.

“Shall I boil it?”

“Yes.”

Sizzle!

Next up was Yuna.

While Yuna attempted to steep the magic sword in hot water to extract information, I stood with my arms crossed, pondering various things. I repeatedly recalled and combined magical theories.

And I began to grasp a thread of understanding.

Just then, a session was being prepared for a showdown between a giant robot and a monster.

If I copied the information from the magic sword directly into the monster, I could probably extract data by simulating a battle in that world. As I mentioned earlier, it had no self-awareness and was well-sealed, so it wouldn’t ruin the session.

Moreover, I might catch a glimpse of the crossover between magic and technology.

My brain possessed monstrous computational power and an innate talent for magic, but in other areas, its performance wasn’t particularly outstanding. Writing poetry… that sort of thing was not my forte.

Fortunately, I had a good sense for naming.

Also, I was weak in scientific and technological development. I was a high-performance calculator, not a high-performance scientist. That’s why I couldn’t develop or use things like nuclear warheads, laser guns, or planet-destroying bombs.

So, in truth, I hadn’t been utilizing the knowledge of the civilization from my past life very effectively.

The apprentice of the Golden Tower, what was his name again? I saw the talent of an engineer in him. I wonder how he thought to attach rocket boosters to a sword in a fantasy setting. That’s what I was thinking.

If I threw all kinds of knowledge and materials at him within the simulation, wouldn’t I be able to create something… special that I couldn’t even imagine?

—

“Well, I thought it might help fulfill the student’s dream. If the student is okay with it, I would like to let them experience another world…”

“I will.”

“How refreshing! Now, please step onto the magic circle. I’ll explain the precautions to you…”

At long last, the session begins.