Ch.204Oh, right, right, it’s surprising but that’s true.

# Chapter 204: Oh Right, Right, Surprising But It’s True

“So what do you want me to do about it?”

Perhaps he didn’t expect me to curse so openly.

The Emperor, using Riel’s face, showed an expression of surprise at my behavior.

But that expression was one I should have been making.

‘This is ridiculous.’

After all, how long had it been since the Emperor died?

Of course, strictly speaking, while they say it’s been 20 years, in reality it’s probably less than that.

Despite clearly seeing the Emperor burn with my own two eyes, here was Riel speaking to me in that bastard’s manner.

‘No, seriously, how is he not affected by the time pause?’

The most important point was how he could remain active without being affected by the time pause.

But as if seeing through my thoughts, Riel—no, the Emperor—began speaking to me with an insufferably arrogant attitude.

“You must be aware that this is a world inside a game.”

“…”

“How dare you not respond when I am speaking. Truly disrespectful.”

But his next words left me involuntarily expressing my bewilderment.

“However, I shall permit it. After all, I too was once… an ordinary being living a normal life, just like you.”

“…What?”

“Yes, in your terms… I suppose you could say I was ‘possessed.'”

What.

I was absolutely stunned by the bombshell declaration from the Emperor in Riel’s form.

‘Possessed? Does that mean… a player? There’s another player besides me?’

I desperately wanted to activate time pause and spend hours blankly organizing my thoughts, but unfortunately, as the earlier situation showed, my time pause had no effect…

While I was lost in these thoughts, the Emperor borrowing Riel’s body continued speaking.

“In the past… in what now seems like an incredibly distant past, I was originally a developer who created this game you’re now possessing.”

“…!”

“I don’t know why I was possessed either. One day… when I regained consciousness, a completely different world from the one I knew was spread before my eyes.”

“…”

“Of course, you might not believe me, but as immediate proof…”

As he said this, the Emperor raised his hand into the air.

[Time Pause]

[Time Pause Released]

“…As you can see, I too can use what you call the ‘system,’ just like you.”

“Hmm.”

“However, from what I’ve gathered, there seems to be a considerable difference in the timing of our possessions, even by ‘reality’s’ standards.”

Hearing his words, I nodded and replied.

“You mean you and I were possessed in completely different eras…?”

The Emperor nodded at my question and continued speaking.

“To be precise, there seems to be at least a 10-year difference by ‘reality’s’ standards.”

“…Reality’s standards?”

“Indeed. By the standards of this world where you and I exist… there’s probably a gap of at least hundreds of thousands of years, if not more.”

Hundreds of thousands of years.

Perhaps because it sounded so absurdly far-fetched, I found myself unconsciously focusing on the Emperor’s words.

“And as that flow of time proves, unlike you, I was possessed by something that doesn’t have… the limitations of lifespan that all living beings have.”

“…”

“With an immortal body and mind, I’ve been able to attempt countless methods to escape this world over a very long period of time.”

The Emperor said this while gesturing to visualize the vast world.

“And because of that, I’ve been able to contact and travel through various parallel worlds, and in the process, I’ve met beings like you.”

“…?”

“In parallel universes similar to this one, I’ve seen those with player abilities like yours conquering galaxies or managing them.”

Hearing this, I was initially surprised, but thinking about it a bit more, I nodded in agreement, believing it could certainly be possible.

‘Well, I was suddenly possessed out of nowhere, so I guess there would be people getting isekai’d by trucks or randomly flowing in everywhere.’

What the Emperor was talking about might be some kind of “save file” story.

Anyway, as I understood the Emperor’s words this way, he seemed pleased with my attitude and continued with a satisfied expression.

“That’s why I once tried to help players like you and me… or give them trials to grow and guide them to progress toward winning the game… thinking that I too could escape this game that way.”

‘…Once tried?’

As I was about to question the Emperor’s choice of words, he raised Riel’s hand to stop me and continued…

“But there was a profound problem with that approach.”

“?”

“The ‘lifespan’ of the beings that players possessed was the issue.”

———————————–

The Emperor rambled on at length, but I summarized:

“…So you’re saying the vast majority of players didn’t even last 100 years, not even a century?”

“That’s right.”

From his words, I could recall approximately how many years it would take for average users to progress through the game from its starting point.

‘…Without modifications, it would take at least 300 years.’

But as the Emperor said, the characters players possessed couldn’t exceed their initially set lifespan values without obtaining life extension technology and traits through research.

As a result, characters who were already at least 20 years old at the starting point would have a lifespan limit of 120-150 years at best, even with ideal development under vanilla settings.

Of course, things would be different if one transcended physical limitations through so-called “ascension” or became a powerful psionic being.

‘But by the time they attempted and achieved that, the player character would have long since died of old age.’

Moreover, given the characteristics of this cursed game I was possessing, mindlessly expanding from the beginning was also unreasonable (resource supply issues, lack of technology and manpower to maintain excessively large territories).

As a result, the vast majority of players the Emperor had seen so far had hit these limitations, according to his story.

‘Lack of ability is one thing, but regarding lifespan… it really would have been a serious problem.’

As I nodded in agreement with the Emperor’s words, he continued speaking as if venting to me.

“Do you think I did this just once or twice?”

“…”

“I watched players’ actions hundreds, no, thousands of times, but every single outcome was nothing but disappointing!”

Certainly, seeing such failures thousands of times would make anyone furious.

But…

“Because of that, I decided to change my approach.”

“?”

“I began devouring those useless fools or those who had reached their growth limits, absorbing them with my power to use as a means to cross into new worlds.”

“…”

“After crossing to a new universe that way, I would start over from the beginning.”

“I travel through parallel universes and devour players!”

Seeing him proudly declare this, I momentarily thought about pulling out the etiquette injection rod—no, the gun—from my pocket and shooting the Emperor in Riel’s body in the head.

But while I hesitated with these thoughts, the Emperor continued his story.

“And this time too, I thought I would eliminate another incompetent one and cross to a new parallel universe… but I realized something had gone wrong.”

“…What do you mean?”

“As you know, the starting point of this game we’ve possessed is always fixed, isn’t it?”

“…Yes.”

“So when I descended into this universe, I tried to find a player and proceed as usual, but…”

“But?”

Showing a complex expression he had never displayed before, I tensed up as I watched the Emperor, and from his (Riel’s) lips came words that sounded like he was lamenting his fate.

“Unfortunately, the period I descended into wasn’t the game’s starting point.”

“Not the starting point?”

“What you call the ‘Dark Age’—the era when ancient civilizations and precursor empires were still active.”

Hearing the Emperor’s lament, I momentarily felt a small pang of sympathy for the one who had admitted to playing cruel tricks on me.