Otherworld TRPG Game Master - Chapter 298



Chapter 298 – S5. The Stellar Explosion ~The Dawn Awakens, Again~ -1

“Reaching this point was the condition for victory.”

“…Victory condition?”

Swoosh.

A hologram emerged from the void of the white space. It was the form of the ‘Great Beast,’ shifting into different shapes with each passing moment. Among them were forms (phases) that Gordius had not yet confirmed.

“It possesses an infinite number of forms based on information. It adapts by changing its appearance according to the era and environment… but the destination is mostly the same.”

The hologram of the ‘Great Beast’ transformed. Just before, it had been a swirling information bomb.

“The form that inflicts the greatest damage on the world, a self-detonation that gathers all its power… it cannot be anything but a persistent adversary, right?”

“………”

“The initial form, which could change into any shape, left me no choice but to pray for a way to overcome it. But this ‘final’ form, with its fixed end, I was able to prepare for.”

The tattoo on his wrist was that preparation.

Then.

“…Is it really over?”

“Yes. It is over. I will take care of the ‘Great Beast’s’ final desperate pattern, and the world will regain its peace. Restoring the broken civilization will surely be a daunting task… but we can envision hope.”

“Is that so…?”

I did it.

Gordius succeeded in saving the world from the unprecedented threat known as the “Great Beast.”

Yet, for some reason, the shadow in his heart loomed larger than the joy of victory. The young man from another world, gazing down at the white floor with dimmed eyes, cautiously asked the mad wizard.

“…Will I be able to go back?”

“Yes. This place is not your world. I can give you about a day’s grace, but you too must awaken from this dream and return to reality.”

“What will happen to the remaining people of ‘Divine Stellaria’?”

“Naturally— they will continue to live.”

Right. That was it.

The reason Gordius could not fully rejoice in this monumental victory was that—

Even if the story ends, life does not.

The Western world had been contaminated by radiation due to nuclear war, the social order of South Korea had collapsed, and what loomed before the survivors was yet another form of survival competition.

After defeating the “Great Beast,” they would bask in the joy of victory for a few days, but ultimately, the people of ‘Divine Stellaria’ would come to realize that a thorny path still lay ahead, one that would require a long journey.

Gordius had been granted three months of their time.

And upon reflection… it seemed that even after subduing the “Great Beast,” there was still a little change left over. Wouldn’t it be the duty of a conscientious merchant to provide after-service?

He looked directly at the mad wizard and said,

“Is there no way to stay longer?”

It was a question, but in truth, it was closer to a declaration. He meant that he could only find peace by remaining here to lay the groundwork for the future.

The mad wizard chuckled.

“You say something amusing. Are you worried about the remaining people?”

“…Yes.”

“Then, I suppose we must take a little detour. That wrist tattoo has the function of sealing the ‘Great Beast’s’ thrashing patterns. And that power is right here, in our grasp.”

Whooom──.

A black sphere appeared, floating gently. Perhaps it was the power that had spread destruction across the world. Just seeing it sent tingles through the skin, a magical energy conglomerate with unimaginable output.

The mad wizard spun it on his index finger.

“I was planning to seal this as it is.”

“…”

“However, instead of sealing this power— we could use it to turn back time. To a past where everything was beautiful.”

“Excuse me?”

Gordius’s eyes widened.

Did he just say that we could defy time? That man?

If so. If that could truly happen… he could wrap up the story from the very beginning. If he prepared from the time when modern civilization was flourishing, he could fold the “Great Beast” in half before it even rampaged.

I can erase the death of Woo Chae-rin…!!

Hope filled his eyes, but the mad magician drew a firm line.

“It’s not such a favorable story, Gordius. Of course, if we start from a time when modern civilization was intact, creating robots would be easy. But as a cost of reversing time, the clock tattoo will vanish.”

“…What do you mean?”

“It means that the Deus Ex Machina to stop the ‘Great Monster’s’ rampage will not exist in the second round.”

The mad magician suggested with a somewhat sinister smile.

“It’s ‘Hard Difficulty.’ You will have to overcome the final phase without anyone’s help. What do you say… will you take on the challenge?”

There was no need to think about the answer.

“I will.”

When given the chance to turn everything back, who could endure without taking the challenge!

The mad magician burst into laughter and clapped his hands. Then, Gordius’s consciousness floated, and the pure white space began to recede rapidly.

“Very well. You will know exactly what you need to do. Good luck, Gordius. May you find happiness at the end of the story!”

A sensation of being pulled downward. And when he opened his eyes…

…

“Master! Master?! The ‘Great Monster’ is acting strangely?!”

It was the moment right after the clock tattoo emitted light, inside the cockpit of ‘Meteor.’ The tattoo crumbled into dust. Gordius quickly recalled the dreamlike conversation he had just had.

Squelch. Squelch!

He had said he would know exactly what to do, and indeed, he did.

The swirling magical energy from the chest of the ‘Great Monster’ had been refined into a portal, gracefully spinning in a spiral.

Beyond it, the past of South Korea was visible. Before the monster appeared, a dazzling forest of buildings shone brightly!

“Kim Yoon-seo. That’s a portal to the past.”

“What?!”

“I’m going to the past to change all of this future. I’ll make sure no one dies; as soon as the ‘Great Monster’ appears, I’ll take it down. Will you join me?”

“Of course! But, um… you’re not crazy, right? You’re saying this in a perfectly sane state, right? You’re not under the ‘Great Monster’s’ illusion, are you?!”

Does it really look that way?

If a comrade, who was in a desperate situation, suddenly started babbling nonsense, Gordius himself would probably begin to doubt.

But the flow of magic proved the truth.

“Opening cockpit.”

Screeeech──!

The chest of ‘Meteor’ Unit 2 opened, revealing the interior. The high-altitude wind rushed into the cockpit. Gordius looked at Kim Yoon-seo.

“Whether you stay here or go with me, I will change the future. I won’t let you regret moving… Thanks to that, we met, didn’t we? You will be happy.”

“Oh… No, I’ll go with you! But really, you’re not going to just give up and jump off or anything, right…?”

“Do you remember? We prepared the necessary equipment to counter the hypnotic waves of the ‘Great Monster,’ and we set up the dashboard to display any mental attack hits. The system is functioning normally. I’m going first!”

Thud.

Without hesitation, Gordius leaped into the portal.

“Ugh… Damn it!”

Kim Yoon-seo also hesitated for a moment, then squeezed her eyes shut and jumped into the air.

Whoosh──!!

The portal leading to the past swallowed the two pilots and gradually shrank, disappearing as if it had never existed.

—

⋯⋯⋯⋯.

Where is this place?

It’s so dark that I can’t see anything. I can’t even tell if I’m standing or sitting. Gordius calmly reflected on the past. Why am I in this darkness?

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

There’s no damage to my memory. I can recall it.

He accepted the mad professor’s proposal.

Yes, the professor dangled the enticing bait of ‘Time Regression’ before him. Gordius inhaled the smell of the sewer deeply. It felt like the starting point of the first round.

Could time be the same? If so, that means there are still two weeks left until the ‘Great Monster’ appears. He walked along the gently flowing water without hesitation. There was no need to wait for the darkness to adapt.

Since he already remembered the path, it was okay if he couldn’t see ahead in the pitch black.

He discovered a ladder.

Thud. Thud.

Climbing the ladder, the sound echoed throughout the passage every time his shoe sole hit the rungs. When he reached the top, a manhole cover was sealed tight. This was definitely a roadway.

Clunk.

He nudged the cover slightly to scout. There was no sign of vehicles passing by. Gordius quickly crawled up and crossed the empty road towards the sidewalk.

There, a dazzling spectacle awaited.

On a moonlit night where darkness settled quietly, the city was far from asleep.

The towering buildings, so high he couldn’t tell how far to tilt his head, proclaimed their existence with colorful LEDs. The lights of the windows flickered intermittently, reminiscent of a master’s performance.

Even the shorter buildings didn’t fall behind in splendor. They flaunted their charm with vibrant signs and sleek architectural styles. It felt as if all the stars that should shine in the sky had descended to the ground.

The roads remained intact and unobstructed, with vehicles passing by smoothly.

It was undoubtedly before the appearance of the ‘Great Monster.’ Checking the date on the electronic billboard confirmed that it was indeed the moment he first set foot in this world.

“Ugh.”

My heart races like crazy. The silhouette from my memories flickers before me.

The image of Woo Chae-rin, who studied the magic engine alongside me in *Stellaria*. I can remember it vividly. Now it was my turn to reclaim that image.

I clench my fist. This opportunity is not a dream.

“Yes, it’s no longer a dream. I will utilize all the social infrastructure to build *Stellaria*. And at the end of it all──”

I will create a sturdy, colossal robot that anyone would have to look up to.

And thus──

I will save the world.

—

Gordius robbed a bank. With the mysterious power of magic, he took the living expenses he urgently needed, leaving behind a promissory note promising to repay double. After meeting Joseph, he would truly repay it.

Afterward, he shed the robe of the golden tower and bought a neat long coat to change into. He also put on a watch and styled his hair. As he finished his preparations, dawn was breaking.

The first target to pick up was pilot Kim Yoon-seo. It was convenient since she was nearby.

He didn’t know the way to her house. But fortunately, there was only one middle school in the vicinity, so he figured he could find her by taking a quick look around there.

He couldn’t tell if she had followed him in or not. If she had, there would be memories of the future, and if not, there wouldn’t be. That would mean he would face the challenge of persuading a middle schooler to become a pilot.

“Giving up… is not an option.”

Controlling a hundred-meter-tall giant robot alone was overwhelming for Gordius. Therefore, Kim Yoon-seo, with her exceptional talent for magic manipulation, was an indispensable asset. The fact that magical talent knows no age was also a significant advantage.

As a well-dressed, handsome foreigner walked confidently into the school, the students’ gazes turned toward him. He strode in boldly, scanning the first-year classrooms with his eyes.

And he found Kim Yoon-seo in Class 1-3.

She was sitting regally, using a sprawled-out male classmate as a makeshift chair.

“………”

“………Oh, you’re here? Even after ten years, you look just the same, Wizard. Is this the power of the cryogenic capsule?”

“What are you doing with the kids? Aren’t you over twenty now?”

“No, um… I thought you were being territorial? And since I’m in first year now, isn’t it okay…?”

It seemed she was relishing the fact that ‘in the last round, I was a veteran one-armed pilot, and in this round, I’m a perfectly healthy middle school girl?!’ Kim Yoon-seo jumped down and joined Gordius.

She couldn’t meet his eyes; it felt a bit embarrassing even to herself.

“Let’s go. Have you met Joseph?”

“Not yet. I don’t even know where he is.”

“I know. When he gets drunk, he talks about the old days, and during this time, he’s probably wandering around checking the bunker conditions built in South Korea… and going to girl group performances?”

“Let’s go catch him.”

The pilot duo skipped school for the sake of the world.

Because a tremendous monster will appear in the future, I had to invest all my assets to create a 100-meter-tall giant robot within two weeks, as explained by Gordius.

Joseph was about to die laughing.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha──!! Hic, hee! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

“To attempt to assassinate me with laughter is truly a novel approach. You say the future me told you to invest so I wouldn’t regret it? In a giant robot? Pha ha ha ha ha──!!”

The cold-hearted businessman Joseph Williams put a stop to these audacious con artists. And with the same finger, he waved them away as if to say, “Get out.”

“I’ve had my laugh, so now scram. Next time, come up with a more convincing idea⋯⋯.”

Crack.

Gordius cracked his knuckles.

“It was you who insisted I should force you to invest, Joseph. I didn’t want to act so dishonorably. I’m merely fulfilling the contract.”

From noble mtl dot com

“⋯⋯Mr. Wizard, you seem to be enjoying this a bit too much.”

“『Golem Creation』.”

Rumble, rumble!

Earth golems erupted from the ground, instantly blocking the doors and windows.

“W-what?! Did you set up a stage in advance?! No, that can’t be…?!”

Joseph fell into a panic at the sudden genre shift to fantasy. And he finally realized. The man before him, Gordius, wasn’t here to seek investment.

He was here to collect!

“I’ll persuade you with my whole being, so you can feel the necessity deeply.”

“D-don’t come any closer! I said don’t approach me──!!”

After that, he was thoroughly persuaded in a chaotic manner.

—

Thanks to Joseph’s voluntary and dedicated participation, the project began to slowly take shape. The immense wealth blessed by Bitcoin merged with the originally constructed luxurious underground bunker, quickly transforming it into a robot production facility.

“My blood-like money⋯⋯.”

“Sigh.”

“Not only did I get scammed, but I can’t even complain freely?!”

Most matters could be resolved with money. However, hiring personnel, especially a leader, was a difficult task no matter how much money one had.

After all, this was an unprecedented project of creating a giant robot. In this world, there was no one with such experience except for Gordius.

So here I stood to recruit. Holding a bouquet of flowers in my arms.

In front of the entrance to the ‘Space Research Center.’

Beyond this, the past version of Woo Chae-rin lives. Her heart is racing.

“Y-you’re Mr. Gordius, right? Please, this way! I’ll introduce you to the facilities…!!”

“I appreciate it, Director.”

Having become an investor who poured Joseph’s money into the research institute, Gordius entered with the utmost escort from the bald director.

And in a corner of the lab… he met her.

In shabby attire, thick glasses, a face laden with fatigue, a crooked lab coat, and shoulders drooping as if life had become unbearably dull.

Her appearance was closer to mold blooming in a corner than a lotus flower, yet to Gordius, she radiated a vivid and beautiful light.

He walked.

He could not hear the director’s question about why he was heading that way, nor the whispers of other researchers. All his senses were focused on her.

In this place, where ten years had passed, Gordius knelt on one knee before Woo Chae-rin and presented her with a bouquet. Then he spoke.

“I admire your thesis. There’s a head position open in the research group I’m forming, ‘Stellaria.’ Would you consider taking it?”

“…Huh?”

Woo Chae-rin froze at the sudden recruitment assault.