Chapter 3:
The Waves of Information and My Drowning
“GOD?” Carol asked. “You mean the God of Fate?”
“That’s right. This man with the spiky hair was a servant of a corrupted god. That god told him to come and take the holy book.” I didn’t mention that he was after Carol, too. It would only scare her. “We’re gonna go ask the God of Fate for help. He might even help us get you home quicker.”
“Really?! Yay! Let’s go!” Carol’s face lit up, and she jumped up and down. She seemed to be having fun in this world, but I couldn’t blame her for wanting to go home.
My idea sounded crazy, but I knew I was right. There was a high risk of other players showing up to take the book and Carol. I couldn’t just hang out at home and ignore the threat.
I had two options.
The first was to hand over the book without complaint. After that, I should be left alone…except for the problem of Carol. A greedy opponent would go after her, too. On top of that, the book was my connection to the village. Without it, I couldn’t perform miracles or send prophecies. I wouldn’t be able to play The Village of Fate at all.
My second option was to keep the book and Carol to myself. That meant I would, for all intents and purposes, be at war with the corrupted gods. I didn’t know how many there were or what sort of miracles they could use. And my team was just a small girl, a former NEET, and a yellow lizard.
Destiny was my strongest fighter. Its petrifying gaze and poison breath were invaluable, but not invincible. Its breath could blow back in my face if the wind was coming from the wrong direction or if we were in an enclosed space. The petrifying gaze required the target to be in Destiny’s line of sight. If the opponent attacked from afar, or snuck up from behind, we were dead. And I still didn’t know everything about Destiny’s powers. I needed to experiment with them.
“Where is the Lord, Yoshio?”
I’d been waiting for her to ask that.
“He lives in a cold place to the north.”
I didn’t make that up. I didn’t know if this game was created by actual gods, but I had a general idea of where they were based. They sent packages to my house, and the return address was always right there on the label: Hokkaido. It might be a fake address, but right now it was my only lead. If I wanted to find out more about the game and get Carol home, I had to speak to the developers. I also wanted to thank them for sending me the game…and make a few complaints.
“Shall we head home, Carol?”
It was too dangerous to stay here. Leaving the unconscious punk behind, I took Carol by the hand, and we started home.