Crossing the World
XLIII - Underworld (Karens)

Year 1328 human world calendar after the Week of the Fall, in the region that is part of the Prussian Empire.

It is said that about three hundred years ago, space distortions were everywhere, and from within those distortions, there were incredibly formidable monsters. Under a crisis that threatens the survival of humanity, the entire kingdom is forced to sign a peace treaty and unite against an enemy from another world. However, all the effort was in vain.

In the midst of his despair, King Elucia formed a group called the Group of Survivors. They are sent into underground ruins to retrieve the legendary heritage left behind by human civilization before the Week of Collapse.

In the end, when the Ancient Dragon King appeared and destroyed the countries of the world, the Survivors Group managed to take the inheritance and use it to summon the masterpieces of the invincible gods, he said, a robot of a size capable of breaking through the limits of the seventh sky, the Artificial God - ex-Machina, Deus.

Deus defeated the Ancient Dragon King like killing an insect and decided to protect the remaining human race. Using his own body sitting on a giant metal chair as the centerpiece, Deus formed a giant dome-shaped shield with a radius of two thousand kilometers that protected humans from the ferocity of the monsters out there.

Rumors about Deus spread around the world quickly, leaving everyone who still survived flocking to the place. Within a year, world civilization was centered in only one place, the only region untouched by monsters, the Holy Land.

Such is the legend circulating in the community in the virtual world that I have succeeded in creating. They held the almost accurate legend for generations, making it a tool to burn the spirits of warriors determined to take back the outside world from the invaders. However, although three hundred years have passed since the first appearance of Deus, humanity still hides behind the giant barrier created by him.

To put it simply, there was no progress at all because humans were too unconfident to fight monsters.

Once upon a time, during a clear and peaceful day as usual, a fairly disturbing alarm sound was suddenly echoed from the hundreds of thousands of signal-emitting towers scattered over a land area of two thousand kilometers. His voice continued to echo for more than five minutes, making everyone stop from their every activity and exit the sturdy buildings they occupied.

The millions of security guard robots that were walking in every corner of the city suddenly stopped their steps, taking a standing posture of sculpting with railgun rifles facing the sky.

From behind a dark and seedy corner of the street, I looked at the anomaly that occurred. My brown hair was long until the waist clumped in parts and mixed with the dried mud. My clothes are just a thin piece of fabric that stinks and is no longer fit to wear.

My hands were very thin and many had scars, almost like the hands of a girl who was a victim of violence. Not only my hands, even my skinny-skinned body was also full of dried up scars that were a little painful.

'The avatar you use is the hidden raid boss avatar of the first "Evil God of Destruction" event". The event line has been set since twelve years ago.'

A familiar voice flowed directly into my brain. It is not the voice of AI that previously governed this world, but the voice of Aura that now governs all the virtual projects that we have prepared.

Today is the first time I have done fulldive using VR which will be mass produced. Although I knew that my real body was now floating in a magnetic cage, my footing in the virtual world was not disturbed at all. I felt like I was really standing on the ground. The hovering sensation I was supposed to feel was completely erased because all the senses I had - including the balance center - were now manipulated in such a way by the VR device.

All virtual projects have been successfully sent to the artificial island and now Aura is responsible for all server maintenance. Therefore, the one who accompanied me now was not AI, but Aura.

Based on what he said just now, I came to the conclusion that this avatar would later play a plot twist role in the first event. I don't know the details of the groove that Aura has built, but I don't want to ask either.

Well, to be honest, I don't really like spoilers.

Let's put aside this hidden raid boss avatar first and ask what's really going on in this world right now.

I asked with a slight whisper, hoping that no one else would hear my voice.

Before I didn't have to bother talking because once I did the fulldive, the VR capsule would read my brainwaves in realtime so that the AI could read my mind without any constraints. However, this time, since I was doing fulldive using an ancient VR device, Aura could not read my mind easily. It takes tremendous energy and uses almost all the RAM capacity in a VR chipset to do so. Therefore, whispering is the simplest way to talk to him.

'The "Other World Heroes" mainline is about to begin. Now we will do the opening event, which is an announcement about Deus' energy is dwindling.'

Aura gave a little explanation about the details of this opening event.

The plot begins with the fact that the giant barrier that has continued to guard this region for the past three hundred years is absorbing almost all of the power that Deus has. Therefore, the power that was continuously drained started to reach its limit so that the barrier would weaken and in the end the slightly stronger monsters would start to be able to enter this region.

Of course, all of that was just a lie. Both Deus and barrier, both are created through the program and technically have unlimited power as long as the power supply for our artificial island can be met.

The alarm that had previously interfered suddenly went silent for a moment.

I who realized the sudden change immediately realized from my thinking while waiting for what would happen next. Then, from the clear sky that was so silent, a heavy vibration echoed throughout the entire world, vibrations that formed up and down, muttering each other to form a sound that carried an uncomfortable sensation. The voice then formed a series of words above the sky.

[O living cowardly man curled up in a small dome of pseudo-peace, the divine power that moves this body and nourishes the holy land has reached its limit]

As soon as that terrible sound shook the ground and brought in very bad information, the people around me fell into despair.

At first they were shocked when they heard a voice from Deus who had never made another sound since the announcement of his arrival three hundred years ago. However, after they realized who was speaking and digested Deus' words completely, the people immediately knelt down with faces full of worry.

To be honest I was also surprised by Deus' voice which carried a strong and terrible impression. When I used Deus' avatar a while ago, the words that came out of my mouth sounded ordinary. However, this time, when I heard his voice through another avatar, the impression that appeared in my head was only one.

[I am only an artificial god, a masterpiece from the gods passed down to mankind. The power I have is infinite]

Aura played the role of a god amazingly. The choice of words he took did not particularly describe arrogance, but also did not symbolize cowardice. He carried a good impression, but it was also like sneering at some parts. However, I was a bit troubled by his opening remarks that seemed a bit rude.

[From now on, divine protection is weakening. But my responsibility never changed. From within the same pit of destruction, where all these nightmares began, I will use most of the remaining divine power to summon warriors from other worlds. Rise up the cowardly warriors who yearn for freedom, join the warriors of another world and conquer the sinners before the divine protection that protects the Holy Land can no longer obey your cowardice]

The speech begins with a sneer and ends with a sneer as well. Isn't Aura a bit exaggerated? What if these people end up upset with Deus instead?

The atmosphere was instantly silent as soon as Deus ended his speech. The sound that was first heard was only the sound of metal clangs clashing with stone streets, coming from the robots that are now starting to operate as before.

Then, amidst everyone's silence, who had started it, an excited shout started to spring from all directions. Everyone stood with determined faces, saying words of praise to Deus interspersed with strong cheers as a call to war. A sign that the virtual world is ready to accept the players.