Using the corpse of this dragon like a chair, a young man sat with his legs crossed, gazing up at the sky.
“If you ask me what’s going on here, then my only answer is that I’m Tatsuya Mikagami.”
The man jumped down with a flourish and landed with a light tap.
He had silver hair and an eye patch. His outfit was a simple hoodie and jeans combo. His face was beautifully built and rather androgynous.
“Nice to meet you, Shinobu Iijima. I’m an Observer, so I’ve been watching you for a while now. It’s a little weird for me to say ‘nice to meet you’ at this point. Ha ha.”
Tatsuya Mikagami...?
Ms. Kaori had mentioned that name. He was supposedly the number one ranked player in La Vita Online, a med student, and a player for several national sports teams. Superman, in other words.
He was also the man who killed player killers, had gathered enough guild coins, and made it to the world outside.
So why is he here on the path to Agartha?
Why are we in Shibuya?
Why did he kill that demon lord?
And what did he mean by he’d been “watching me for a while now”?
I had so many things to ask, but no idea how to phrase any of it.
“Oh, right,” he said. “I’ll give you and the girl the EXP for these bosses.”
He sharply snapped his fingers, and a voice echoed in my head.
—You leveled up!
—You leveled up!
—You leveled up!
Once mine stopped, Alice started panicking and babbling. “The level ups... They just won’t stop!”
“What on earth...?”
“It’s still going... It’s...going up so much!”
I couldn’t hear her version of the voice of God. But didn’t this guy say he was “giving” us the EXP?
“Care to tell us what’s going on, Mr. Mikagami?”
“The Recommended Level for Floor 2 is 120, you know? Miss Alice here just passed through a boss rush at level 29, so it’s no wonder she’s leveling up a ton.”
“She ‘passed through’...?”
“Yup. This last one followed me all the way to Shibuya, but the rest are all littered across Floor 2. I hope you forgive me for erasing them along with the whole Floor. They would have just gotten in the way of our conversation.”
“I see. You’re the person behind the Ancient Flower event too, aren’t you?”
His face lit up in surprise, and he began clapping his hands together. “I’ve seen you do this several times, but you really are quick on the uptake. Good job!”
“I saw the words ‘OBSERVER: TM’ during that event. You just called yourself an Observer, Tatsuya Mikagami. And considering you were able to transfer EXP to us, an obvious alteration to the game system, wouldn’t it be weirder if I didn’t assume you were associated with the devs?”
“Right, exactly! I intervened in the Ancient Flower event and took away all your Recovery Orbs.”
“So that really was your goal. I would’ve died as a result...and wouldn’t the world have ended?”
“No, no. That city and the surrounding areas were the only active spaces for the event. Remember the wall? Had the Ancient Flower expanded, it would’ve pressed against the wall so hard the flower would’ve destroyed itself.”
His words and way of speaking were so light they reminded me of bubbles. “I made it so that you’d level up just enough to win, and even arranged things so that no one else would get hurt.”
“But...what if I’d made a mistake during battle? Had I missed even a single one...”
“Well, the whole place would’ve been destroyed.”
I clenched my fist and ground my teeth.
“Stop fucking around.”
“Fucking around? I’m being very serious here.”
“I’m fine with you targeting me alone for whatever reason, but that city had tons of people in it!”
My intestines wouldn’t stop churning as I remembered Ms. Isabella and her team.
This guy was the same as the rest of them. He didn’t have goodwill toward the people living in this world. He seemed to consider them nothing more than game data.
I’d only spent a little bit of time with Gabriel and the others, but to me, I couldn’t see them as anything other than human beings with blood flowing through them.
“Doesn’t seem like you and I are going to get along,” I spat.
“Heh heh, I don’t care about your feelings. I just can’t overlook cheating.”
“Cheating?”
“I honestly can’t believe your love for Megumi Iijima is so strong that it got you all the way here. I didn’t think your irregular log-in would take you through the tutorial either. It was pretty bothersome for me that you received Recovery Orbs after the tutorial, even though I’d made sure to delete them from existence. The game becomes thoroughly unbalanced because of them.”
“Megumi...?” I couldn’t hear anything else. “What do you know?”
Right. Ms. Kaori had told me this guy was the one who gave her that photo of Megumi too.
“What do I know? I know everything. I’m an ‘Observer’ and an ‘Executor’ who exists to keep this game fun, fair, and square.”
“Sorry, but I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”
Mikagami smiled. “In other words, from my position, because you’re able to head to Agartha due to a bug in the system, I have to kill you.”
Gabriel didn’t hesitate to launch herself toward him.
A crystal sword appeared in Mikagami’s hand with a snap of his fingers. He dodged Gabriel’s onslaught with a twirl, then swung his sword at her.
She had to evade with several flaps of her wings after taking the attack.
The next moment, Cerberus fell to the ground. He’d taken the hit for Gabriel through Substitute.
Oooh boy...
Mikagami had completely depleted my tank’s HP in one hit, even with Release of God’s Might. At least the Ancient Flower was nice enough to leave half of it!