Fired Characters from an Idle Game

14. Smurfing in Sub-Characters is Basic for Dying Games – (5)

Arriving on the scene, Jo Geon-wook frowned at the blood-soaked landing.

Having seen many murder scenes as a former police officer, he was accustomed to corpses, but he’d rarely encountered anything as grotesque as this.

“Did they intend to create some kind of artwork?”

“…I don’t know.”

Kang Do-young, the management bureau employee assigned to monitor Nam Joo-yeon, was dead.

That alone would be bad enough, but the perpetrator had suspended his corpse in mid-air. The sight evoked Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

At first glance, it appeared as if they’d fashioned a hexagram, a magic circle, out of the human body.

The artist’s signature for this gruesome artwork was there as well.

The word scrawled in blood on one side of the wall.

“Actor…”

Jo Geon-wook felt a wave of dizziness.

Actor. A name that no one living in this world could forget.

Famous as the owner of the Scortched Saintess Celine, one facet of the worst calamity.

“…This is the worst.”

Jo Geon-wook summoned a Moss Hunter and used its detection skill, but it yielded nothing.

Either this wasn’t the work of a Calamity, or it was the work of a Calamity so advanced that even the Moss Hunter’s detection skill couldn’t discern it.

He decided that the latter possibility was more likely.

“…What should we do? Assign more guards?”

“No… I don’t think that’s a good idea. Let’s just keep an eye on their movements for now. We’ll be meeting them again soon enough.”

The sudden disappearance of the Cheonan Nest.

Tempest Dragon, Tempestra.

And Actor, Master of the Abyss.

“…Strange.”

A man named Joo-yeon Nam was tied to everything.

*

[Actor, Master of the Abyss, Commits Another Murder?]

[Victim is Administration Bureau Employee, Bureau Remains Silent…]

Unsurprisingly, news outlets were racing to cover the story.

They wouldn’t touch stories about people dying in disasters, or the devastating damage to local residents, but they were unusually quick with this kind of topic.

I suppose those two syllables, “Actor,” carried significant weight.

=

– Who the heck is Actor to be killing people and summoning five-star calamities?

– I heard the person who died this time was a Bureau employee. Isn’t that a warning?

ㄴ A warning?

ㄴ Yeah, you know. Like how a psychopath serial killer throws messages at the police. Like, “Don’t get involved in this anymore,” that kind of thing.

– Isn’t it just a copycat? I know a schizophrenic patient who worships Actor and smears poop on the walls.

=

The internet was embroiled in heated debates about it.

Two hypotheses were most prominent.

Either Actor, Master of the Abyss, was sending a warning to the Awakened Administration Bureau, or it was the work of a lunatic who thought he was Actor.

It couldn’t possibly be the former.

Because that Actor was right here, racking his brain.

“…Damn it.”

It was me.

Suddenly painted as the puppet master of the world, I was framed for a murder I didn’t commit.

The fact that it happened in front of my house, and that the deceased was a Bureau employee, made it even more critical.

I still hadn’t forgotten the meaningful look Jo Geon-wook gave me at the Bureau building a few days ago.

“Selene.”

“Yes.”

“Do you think Mirien is behind this?”

“Without confirming the scene myself, I cannot offer a definitive answer, but Mirienne is certainly capable of such an act.”

Selene offered, uncharacteristically, a rational reply.

“However, Mirienne would not kill without reason. Unless the deceased harbored ill intentions towards you, my Lord.”

“…Easy for you to say…”

A corpse on my doorstep, and the perpetrator a subordinate I dismissed. And this subordinate, still fixated on me, went so far as to inscribe my name at the murder scene, a maddening act.

I felt more unsettled than when Selene plunged her knife into the gut of that civil servant not too long ago.

Noticing my troubled expression, Selene’s face hardened. Her hand rested on the Hellfire Wedge sheathed at her hip.

“It seems that magic-peddling witch has overstepped. My Lord, give the order, and I’ll bring you her head this instant.”

“No, it’s alright.”

That damn head, always the head.

Why she was so eager to kill, I couldn’t fathom.

Is it so hard to just get along?

“Right now, we have no definite proof that Mirienne is responsible.”

Selene reluctantly nodded at my words.

It could be a copycat, impersonating Actor, as the theories online suggested. A plausible scenario.

Apparently, there were cultists who worshipped Actor, the Lord of the Abyss.

Rumor had it, they were even calling him the Second Coming or something like that.

“Selene, for the time being, I think I’ll be staying here at the house instead of the Abyss.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I don’t want to invite unnecessary suspicion.”

Jo Geon-wook was clearly suspicious of me.

Given the situation, with a Management Bureau employee turning up dead on my doorstep, that suspicion would soon become certainty.

The Abyss was a separate dimension, accessible only through Selene. Therefore, it was better to remain at home and establish an alibi.

“Just bear with it until we participate in the Storm Dragon subjugation next week.”

“…What should I do then?”

“Go to the Abyss.”

“What if someone tries to harm you while I am away?”

“Don’t worry. I’m not easily taken down.”

I summoned the newly acquired Ash Ripple Deer to show her.

Combined with the two-star Calamity Starlight Dust Golem I already possessed, I was unlikely to be in any real danger.

“I’ll call if it gets too dangerous.”

“Then… understood.”

I sighed, manipulating the status window.

Having accumulated a fair amount of experience points through synthesis, I was planning to upgrade the base.

The barracks were sufficient as is, so my current plan was to increase the number of synthesis slots and order Selene to synthesize more Calamities.

[Base Upgrade: Synthesis Lab]

[□□□□□□□□□□]

[Extends the number of available Synthesis Slots by one. Increases the probability of higher-ranked Calamities appearing.]

[Experience Point Requirement: 100 Exp]

Without hesitation, I pressed the upgrade button three times.

*

Disaster Order is, in common parlance, a garbage game.

A garbage game disguised as an idle collection game.

To gather high-grade characters, you had to invest an insane amount of time, and even that wasn’t guaranteed if your luck was bad.

It would be easy to understand if I said it took me three months to get a 4-star Calamity back when I was playing the game intensely.

It took over a year after that to get Selene.

“…Haa.”

So, the reason I’m bothering to say all this is simple.

[5★ Scorched Saintess Selene has completed Calamity Synthesis.]

[Reward: 30Exp / 1★ Leaf Fairy]

[4★ Hellfire Watchdog has completed Calamity Synthesis.]

[Reward: 30Exp / 1★ Leather Lantern Beetle]

[5★ Scorched Saintess Selene has completed Calamity Synthesis.]

[Reward: 30Exp / 1★ Forest Goblin]

[4★ Hellfire Watchdog has completed Calamity Synthesis.]

[Reward: 50Exp / 2★ Ember Fox]

A wholehearted synthesis show that used over thirty Calamities ended in utter failure.

The only thing I got was a single 2-star Calamity.

And even *that* was fire attribute. Meaning it was useless due to the existence of Selene and the Hellfire Watchdog, who were already vastly superior.

“…Can one really be *this* unlucky?”

“I am sorry.”

Célène knelt, hands demurely clasped in her lap.

“It is all my failing. Master, grant me death.”

“…Come now, death seems a bit much.”

I knew Célène’s aptitude for synthesis wasn’t high. Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much. But the result was far too lackluster for the sheer amount of Calamity poured into it.

“…I was hoping to secure at least one three-star before joining the Tempest Dragon subjugation.”

As I clicked my tongue and manipulated the status window, Célène cautiously opened her mouth.

“Master, might I dare to offer a suggestion?”

“What is it?”

“This world is built on the law of the jungle. To slay those insignificant things who presumptuously claim your title, to take their Calamity and…”

“Denied.”

My head throbbed.

Mirienne was the same, and now Célène. Why must they only think in such a way?

No, perhaps it’s my own behavior, forcing conventional ethics onto creatures of Calamity, that’s the greater issue.

“…In any case, I must participate in the Tempest Dragon Tempestura’s subjugation in two days.”

Five days had passed while I diligently synthesized.

I even received a summons from the Administration Bureau.

Awakened B-ranker Nam Juyeon, report to the Administration Bureau building by noon in two days.

Mirienne would be controlling Tempestura, so she wouldn’t harm me, but I was still uneasy.

“I want to strengthen my forces for certain before then.”

Even a single decent two-star Calamity would ease my mind.

Within the Disaster Order, even among the same star rank, there’s a vast difference in performance.

The difference between a Named and an Unnamed.

For example, the Hellfire Hounds and the Tempest Dragon Tempestura are both classified as four-star, but the Hellfire Hounds are considered trash because they’re unnamed Calamities, while the Tempest Dragon Tempestura is considered a solid choice because it’s a Named Calamity.

In that sense, most of the two-star Calamities I currently possess are chaff.

At least if I had a Calamity with its own unique name, operating under my disguise would become a lot easier.

“Then, Master, how about subjugating a Nest? I have heard of a Nest with stronger Calamities to the south.”

“…That would be too conspicuous.”

Jo Geonwook grilled me about the Cheonan Nest at the Administration Bureau building.

I brushed it off somehow, but if another Nest disappears, Jo Geonwook won’t let it slide.

Perhaps understanding my worries, Selene spoke.

“…Wasn’t that only because Master himself made the journey?”

“What?”

“Send me alone. I shall exterminate the nests without being detected by anyone.”

So, she was suggesting an expedition.

It was tempting.

I hadn’t seriously considered it before, not after Selene had turned people into skewers during the Hellhound Expedition.

But in this situation, perhaps it was a worthwhile decision.

I pondered, then nodded.

“…Alright, Selene, but you must not kill anyone.”

“I shall bear it in mind.”

Selene smiled faintly and vanished into motes of light.

The next day, I received the news that five nests in the provinces had all been annihilated overnight.

And that a woman with ash-grey hair was the one who conquered them all.

[Actor, Lord of the Abyss, Is He Actually Humanity’s Savior?]

“…This is really getting out of hand.”

I felt that familiar urge to die again.