“…So this is how it ends.”
I couldn’t help but lament as I stood before Kaimona Iasky, the Guild Master of the Magician’s Guild, now fallen on the ground.
I had intended to avoid killing him if possible, but after completing the ritual, Iasky attacked me without a word.
With no way to use teleportation magic in this tower, and the exit sealed, I had no choice but to fight.
Even after I reduced his HP to the brink of death, the event didn’t trigger, and unfortunately, I had to kill him.
“I should have triggered a subjugation event halfway through,” I muttered.
It had taken a considerable amount of time to reach this final event since joining the Magician’s Guild.
I found myself muttering the same thought I’d had many times during that journey, now for a different reason.
Closing my eyes, I was flooded with memories of the absurd events within the Magician’s Guild.
First, upon joining the guild.
To join, one had to undergo a baptismal ritual. However, there was a bug where the trainee’s robe would be forcibly equipped, which would erase any equipment the player was currently wearing. I had to reset the game in tears.
Now, a patch has been applied, and it seems the system has been changed to allow players to equip their gear beforehand, but I really wish they wouldn’t place such traps in events that seem entirely risk-free.
After that, I was forced to serve as an assistant to a reclusive magician (most of his instructions were just “bring me that,” making it a complete luck-based game. Failure would nullify all the friendship points I had accumulated). I was repeatedly tasked with unreasonable errands (sometimes they would demand items that weren’t even implemented, making them impossible to complete). I was caught up in strange experiments that permanently lowered my stats (and there was no announcement that they had changed, so if it hadn’t been Stamina, which usually doesn’t fluctuate, I would have saved without noticing). I was also given the absurd request to sell magic books from the shops at high prices (which, of course, were unsellable, so I pretended they sold and paid the money out of my own pocket). I went through immense hardship.
Every time Iasky made an unreasonable demand, I don’t know how many times I considered triggering a subjugation event.
After enduring all that hardship, and to gain the favor of the level-obsessed Iasky, I finally became a guild executive by reaching level 150. It was only then that I could accept the quest that led to the final quest.
The final guild event for the Magician’s Guild, “The Execution of the Nation’s Demise,” was a chain event.
It required three prerequisite quests to achieve its ultimate goal: performing a forbidden ritual.
First, a quest to destroy the homes of the “opposition” magicians who resisted Iasky and his radical faction.
I didn’t understand why this was part of a chain event leading to a ritual, but if it was a prerequisite, there was nothing I could do.
Since buildings generally cannot be destroyed in the game, we were supposed to use a suspicious giant called a Magic Golem, and it was the worst.
Despite being powered by magic, it had zero magic defense and would be destroyed immediately if it received concentrated magic attacks.
Furthermore, if you moved too far from the golem, the quest would fail. This led to a ridiculous strategy of first going to the opposition’s house to neutralize the enemies, then immediately accepting the quest.
Next, securing the magic book “Necronomicon,” necessary to assist with the ritual.
It seems that to manipulate an overwhelming amount of magic power, an item to control it was needed, and that item was this book called the Necronomicon.
This book lay slumbering in the library’s basement, but to clear this quest, one had to solve an unreasonable quiz event, and I reluctantly had to consult a wiki for the walkthrough.
Finally, securing Mithril as a catalyst for the ritual.
To gather magic power from the town, not only was control difficult, but a large amount of catalyst was also required, and apparently, a large quantity of Mithril was indispensable.
The result was a request to deliver 1,000 Mithril-based equipment, a number that was clearly insane.
Adding to this, only Mithril-based equipment had a peculiar “inventory shortage” after purchasing a certain amount, a malicious detail meticulously implemented by the “Nekoneko” staff. The “Thousand Visits to the Mithril Statue” pilgrimage, which I was forced to undertake, was hell even in retrospect, but I somehow managed to deliver 1,000 Mithril equipment.
After this arduous preparation, the ritual event finally began.
According to the prior explanations, the ritual was supposed to “simultaneously purge the resistance forces within the guild and the latent rebels who do not acknowledge the value of magicians, thereby showcasing the Magician’s Guild’s authority to the world.”
However, when all preparations were complete, the Guild Master, Kaimona Iasky, spoke these words.
“Well done. With this, I shall transcend humanity.”
In other words, Iasky desired this ritual from the very beginning for his own selfish ambitions.
The advancement of magicians was of no consequence to him.
Iasky had always been a level-obsessed individual, tending to blindly worship strength.
But I never anticipated that this would be a foreshadowing to something like this.
Nevertheless, I reluctantly assisted Iasky with his ritual.
If I wanted to stop the event, I should have triggered a subjugation event at the very beginning.
There was no turning back now.
If that was the case, I had to see it through to the end.
Nothing worse could happen, could it?
The ritual, performed with such a resigned attitude, was, in a way, successful.
Or rather, should I even call it a success?
The forbidden ritual to “transcend humanity” only managed to create a grotesque creature.
Iasky, who had been reduced to a pathetic state, immediately attacked me upon the ritual’s completion, claiming it was a test of strength, and was easily defeated.
Just because his form had changed, his essence hadn’t evolved.
As the saying goes, “much ado about nothing.”
After such extensive preparation, with grand incantations and flashy effects, to end up like this.
“…Let’s head back.”
This ritual site was located on the top floor of the Tower of Sorcery.
Apparently, the magic circle of the Magician’s Guild, also used for the initial baptismal ritual, served as a teleportation gate to this ritual site. While Iasky’s magic had instantly brought me here, with his death, teleportation was no longer possible.
In the Tower of Sorcery, other teleportation magic or items are ineffective. Perhaps, data-wise, it’s not connected to the map, and I couldn’t even leave through an Illusionary Mirage.
Even if it was troublesome, I had no choice but to walk back.
With a sense of exhaustion from having been dragged into such a ridiculous event, I slowly descended the tower.
As soon as I reached the first floor and opened the entrance to the Magician’s Guild, an unexpected cheer greeted me.
“Oh! Our new leader, Asama!”
“Long live Asama! Long live Asama!”
The guild members of the Magician’s Guild, who were supposed to be Iasky’s faction, looked at me and began showering me with praise.
I don’t quite understand how the system processed it, but I, having defeated Iasky, was now considered the next Guild Master and a hero who succeeded where Iasky failed in the ritual.
“Asama-sama. You have succeeded in the noble ritual that no one in the world has ever accomplished. You are the hope of all magicians. The Magician’s Guild is yours from this day forward. Please accept this ‘Ruler’s Staff’ as proof.”
Deekil, the Vice Guild Master, handed me the staff, and I somewhat absentmindedly took it.
What was the point of the opposition who desperately tried to stop such a trivial ritual?
In the end, the so-called purging of the opposition amounted to nothing more than destroying their fortified houses. What was this charade?
Frowning at the sloppy narrative development, this was the quiet finale to the Magician’s Guild event, with no ending credits or staff roll.
At first, I didn’t notice anything unusual.
What I found strange was when I headed to the item shop to restock the healing items I had consumed.
“Ah, hey…?”
There was no one in the shop.
Normally, as soon as I entered, the excessively cheerful NPC shopkeeper would greet me in a ridiculously bright tone.
Yet, the shop was deserted, and not a sound could be heard.
However, this was odd.
Either to prevent shoplifting or for some other reason, it was unheard of for a shop to be unstaffed during business hours.
The only exception would be….
“…This.”
Peeking behind the shop counter, I found a red ribbon.
Worst of all, it was familiar.
It was an accessory the item shopkeeper always wore. Seeing this lost item, I became certain that my worst premonition had come true.
The only possibility for no one being in the shop.
It was when the shopkeeper had been killed for some reason.
Especially since the last patch, if a person died, they would drop an event item. If this ribbon was some kind of event item, it made sense.
“What happened…?”
While her overly cheerful character setting was sometimes annoying, I actually quite liked her.
To think she was dead. Even if it didn’t affect the story progression, it made me feel a bit gloomy.
Normally, when progressing through the story, such minor characters rarely die, but it does happen in “Nekoneko.”
Still, I had no memory of any event where NPCs suddenly died like this. Had I accidentally stepped on a mine without realizing it?
I went outside to gather information and then…
“…”
That’s when I finally noticed.
There were absolutely no people in the town.
“No way, you’re kidding me!”
From there, I ran around town, checking not only shops like the weapon store and inn but also ordinary houses, noble estates, and even shrines.
And when I could easily enter the castle, which should have been guarded by soldiers, I finally understood the situation.
In other words, the people of the town had vanished, no, they had died.
I knew the cause.
There was only one thing that came to mind.
That ritual performed by Iasky.
The ritual to “simultaneously purge the resistance forces within the guild and the latent rebels who do not acknowledge the value of magicians, thereby showcasing the Magician’s Guild’s authority to the world.”
And the explanation was that the ritual gathered magic power from all over the town.
Based on that, I had mistakenly assumed that the purging would occur due to the effects caused by the ritual.
But perhaps that wasn’t the case.
The ritual only created an ugly creature that benefited no one.
Honestly, its direct impact was insignificant.
But what if the process, rather than the outcome of the ritual, held the real power?
If the act of gathering the immense magic power required for the ritual served as the purging mechanism, it would make sense.
It does make sense.
With that ritual, all the magic from the people of the town, no, from all the creatures in the town, was gathered, and those whose magic was forcibly taken perished. That must be the setting.
The ones who survived were probably only those who were in the Magician’s Guild at the time.
“What the hell is this?”
My vision seemed to go dark.
Even though it was within the game, in just a few hours, the old lady at the greengrocer’s, the innkeeper, the King, the Princess, and that annoying idiot magician had all died.
And I had even participated in such a ritual.
There was no profound reason.
It was simply because I was already involved, and for that reason, I had senselessly taken the lives of so many people.
Thinking about it made me feel sick.
But, but still.
“…This is within the scope of what ‘Nekoneko’ would do.”
I wasn’t just playing this game, “Nekoneko,” for nothing.
If it were my first playthrough, before experiencing that “Demon King’s Blessing” event, I might have panicked.
But this situation was, in a sense, a second time around.
I had already built up some resilience.
At least the entire population of one town was gone, which in some ways was a greater loss than before, but I wasn’t forced to save. All I had to do was reload to the data before the ritual and escape this situation. I manipulated the menu screen and tried to load…
“Latest patch…?”
There, I found an unfamiliar announcement.
It was an official announcement from “Nekoneko.” It was news of a new patch being completed.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I opened the page.
Enumerated were countless bug fixes and specification changes, and at the end, was a surprising item.
“Guild event impact reset!?”
The timing of this item was impeccable.
“Due to feedback that continuing normal gameplay after completing the guild event becomes difficult, we have introduced a relief measure returning the character’s status to just before the final event…”
The information in the announcement was scarce.
However, based on the text, it seemed that performing this ‘impact reset’ would revert all states to just before the final event, excluding the player’s stats and inventory, along with the event progression.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I murmured.
I thought it was too convenient, but maybe this was fate, a helping hand from heaven.
With trembling hands, I tried to apply the patch…
“Damn…!”
I immediately groaned.
To apply the patch, I had to exit the game once.
Even with the latest VR game, I couldn’t apply patches and play simultaneously.
“What should I do, then?”
The question was whether to save this situation.
I tried to recall when I last saved.
…I had no memory of saving in the last few hours.
I wanted to avoid quitting the game without saving and having to repeat this mentally taxing event again. However, I was uneasy about saving this state…
“Well, it should be fine.”
If I applied the patch, it should work out.
I deliberately thought optimistically and then ran to the monolith to save the data.
Following that, I unhesitatingly selected the option to end the game.
Naturally, ending the game did not mean shutting down the VR machine.
This VR machine also naturally had a function to launch a dedicated browser and browse the internet.
“Patch! Patch!”
In my excitement, I muttered strange things to myself and began manipulating the controls ferociously.
At my command, multiple 3D windows were instantaneously deployed.
Simultaneously, due to a prank by Maki who installed a VR app, a deformed “Patch! Patch!” text materialized in cyberspace and disappeared like bubbles upon hitting the windows.
Literally scattering my inner thoughts into cyberspace, I manipulated my avatar for net surfing and at the speed of light, accessed the official “Nekoneko” page and initiated the patch application.
“Alright, success!”
Perhaps because there was a slight delay after the patch’s release, I accessed it on the first try.
Even though it shouldn’t be a large amount of data, the slowly decreasing gauge was nerve-wracking.
But this was normal.
In fact, using this time to check the patch details had recently become my enjoyment, a time I considered blissful.
With a bubbling feeling of impatience and anticipation, I scrolled through the official announcement page I had opened in a separate window and checked the patch details.
I quickly skimmed through the numerous bug fix explanations that I usually studied carefully and soon reached the bottom section, “Regarding the Guild Event Impact Reset.”
The method for this impact reset was simple.
Just before the final guild event, which would have irreversible consequences—for example, in the Magician’s Guild event, it would be the moment of transferring to the ritual site for the ritual—an internal pseudo-save process would occur. Then, after clearing the guild event, by performing a specific procedure, that data would be loaded, and all states except for the player’s stats and inventory would be reverted to the point of the pseudo-save.
And that specific procedure was…
“Sleeping in a bed? You mean…—”
In short, it was a dream sequence.
I continued reading, chuckling at the “Nekoneko” staff’s typical sense of humor.
For the Magician’s Guild impact reset, after the ritual’s success, sleeping in the bed on the newly added top floor above the ritual site would automatically trigger the impact reset.
For the Warrior’s Guild, it was simple: sleeping in any inn after the guild event would activate the impact reset.
Sleep status could be achieved by selecting “Sleep” from the game menu, lying down for a certain period in specific locations like beds, or by being afflicted with the “Sleep” status ailment.
Additionally, there was a related change: after the Magician’s Guild event’s ritual succeeded, the player would be unable to leave the guild, ultimately necessitating the impact reset. This made sense if you thought about it.
If dead NPCs dropped quest items, and players left the Magician’s Guild to collect these items from those killed by the ritual’s effects, they could easily obtain quest items that should not have been obtainable. This was likely a countermeasure.
I found the dream sequence questionable but thought they had considered the details thoroughly, as usual, and I finally read the last line, marked with an asterisk.
“Hm…?”
Suddenly, something like dust got in my eye, and I felt like I saw strange text, so I rubbed my eyes.
…But then again, since it was VR, there was no dust in my eyes. This avatar was not programmed with such a pointless function.
Figuring it wasn’t dust but a localized visual impairment bug, I looked at the last sentence again.
*Please note that for data management reasons, this relief measure is not available to those who completed the guild event before the patch was implemented. We apologize for the inconvenience.*
“U-, ugh…”
A strange sound escaped my lips.
The letters “Ugh, ugh” streamed across the webpage, but I didn’t have time to care.
Once more, just once more, I closed my eyes and slowly opened them…
*Please note that for data management reasons, this relief measure is not available to those who completed the guild event before the patch was implemented. We apologize for the inconvenience.*
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Under the merciless wording, I continued to spew out gigantic strings of text into the VR space.
And then, one hour later.
“Damn yoooooouuuu!!!”
On the road near the starting forest, I was mercilessly beating a female thief who had attacked a carriage, wielding a rusty sword in a fit of rage.
—This was the Magician’s Guild event I experienced.
—And the reason I started my third playthrough of the game.
