Chapter 179. This Much?
“Haaam~”
I woke up and pushed Modak aside, who had covered me instead of a blanket.
No, seriously, why does he look bigger every time I see him?
It really feels like I’m raising a dog....
At this point, I’d believe you if you told me he was a bear.
“Grrr....”
“You even snore....”
I pushed and shoved until I finally got him off me, changed into clothes for my morning jog, and headed outside.
“Oh.”
“Good morning.”
“...Good morning.”
For some reason, Pie was already awake.
She was even wearing the same kind of tracksuit as me.
Was she planning to come with me?
Uh...
My heart’s beating a little faster.
A girlfriend who works out with you....
Nice.
“Wear a hat.”
Pie stepped right up to me and put one on my head.
Ever since we became lovers, she had started doing this sometimes.
Coming right up close and surprising me.
Was this that old thing?
Acting indifferent and cool while naturally closing the distance?
“You need to cover your horns.”
“...Ah!”
Ever since I merged with Hayangi, it had affected reality quite a bit.
My blood had become thick and black.
Small flame-like horns, just like the ones in the game, had started appearing too.
I could even use a little of the magic Pie had taught me.
Why?
I couldn’t do that in the game.
Did I actually have talent for magic?
Then why couldn’t I use it in the game?!
Was it because of my class?!
“Cover your face too.”
“Why? Did something appear on my face too?!”
“No.... Anyway.”
Pie eventually put a mask on me too, and we left the house together.
Then, in front of the apartment building, we ran into Chang.
After I told him what I was planning to do, he had started acting even friendlier with me.
Honestly, it was getting a little annoying.
This bastard Chang was more serious than anyone about defeating the Chairman.
Even the way he described it was different from me.
I said I wanted to dispose of the Chairman.
Chang said he wanted to defeat him.
That alone made me feel some distance between us.
“Ah! Hyung! And... who are you?”
“Get lost.”
Chang froze.
Then his eyes widened.
“...Ah! Lucy-ssi! Oh my god!”
I stared at him.
“You stalked me and still didn’t know who Lucy was?”
“N-No, I mean, I knew she was connected to the Chairman, but I thought she had nothing to do with us....”
He awkwardly scratched his head.
“So I pretended I didn’t know her.”
Then his eyes sparkled.
“But I didn’t think it would actually be Lucy-ssi....”
His gaze moved between us.
“Do you two... live together?”
Pie shoved the sparkling-eyed Chang aside, grabbed my hand, and started running.
Did she hate it that much?
Of course, that wasn’t enough to make Chang stop following us.
In the end, we ran together while chatting.
I could tell his stamina was gradually improving too.
“Hyung, did you know?”
Chang looked at me.
“You’ve gotten really famous lately.”
“Me? Why?”
“I didn’t know either until I started looking through message boards and communities.”
He pointed at me.
“But even before everything happened, you occasionally appeared on streams, and whenever you got bored, you bragged about your kids.”
“...Uh, yeah.”
I did run into Inbang pretty often.
And since I owned the arena, I met plenty of other streamers too.
Sometimes complete strangers even contacted me asking if performances were allowed there.
I had also made a name for myself gathering Hall fragments.
Then there was the whole Mallyangi incident....
There were more than enough reasons for me to be famous.
But bragging about my kids was basically as natural as breathing, so I barely remembered doing it.
“You were already kind of famous, but this time you became a Demon King and even stole a Demon King’s castle!”
“So?”
...
Wait.
Don’t tell me one of the people spying on me had been a streamer?
I vaguely remembered hearing there were people with the Journalist class....
Damn.
I should have checked things before going to sleep.
I posted the announcement about the country, got tired, and passed out.
So I had no idea what happened afterward.
Tsk.
I’d been so busy lately that I wasn’t paying attention to anything outside.
Now I had no idea what was going on.
“You were already appearing on the news, so I was worried things might get bigger.”
I stopped.
“...News?”
“Why would news cover some guy playing a game?”
Chang stared at me.
“Hyung, what are you talking about?”
“Do you know how huge Super Real is?”
“And how massive World Gate has become?”
His expression turned serious.
“This is already big enough to become a social issue.”
Good lord.
Were the things I imagined during the testing period slowly becoming reality?
Then was the next stage people falling in love with characters inside the game and refusing to return to reality?!
...
Wait.
That sounds familiar.
Who was it?
Me?
“So there’s actually news about the game?”
I turned toward Pie.
“Pie, did you know about this?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s been going on for a few months.”
“A few months???”
I stared.
“Like, they have a completely separate segment just for it?”
“Yeah.”
The world had changed a lot without me realizing it....
Was this what people called a generation gap?
This old man was terrified by the changing world....
“Wait.”
I pulled out my phone.
“Is that news on right now?”
Chang checked the time.
“It starts around seven, doesn’t it?”
“That’s now, then.”
I stopped running and searched on my phone.
A news program called Gate Report had just started.
[Is everyone enjoying World Gate?]
I stared at the screen.
“Super Real must have a ridiculous amount of money.”
“A country whose news is usually hostile toward games is opening with a line like that?”
Chang shrugged.
“The Chairman probably pulled strings here and there.”
“Maybe he’s connected to politics like in the movies.”
I rubbed my chin.
“Maybe he tempted them by offering the secret to eternal youth or immortality.”
“Honestly, that sounds possible.”
[Recently, Demon Kings and Great Demon Kings have been sweeping across the entire continent of World Gate, causing many players quite a bit of distress.]
[Not long ago, I personally watched a place where I had been living peacefully burn under a Demon King’s invasion, and it truly broke my heart.]
...
This wasn’t in the script, right?
That sounded way too personal.
They weren’t deliberately saying this for me to hear, were they?
[And here! A new Demon King has appeared!]
[His name is already famous.]
[The Demon King of Madness...!]
[A famous player who was once widely known as the Indomitable Hero!]
Then footage started playing.
Somehow, they had videos of me fighting the Demon King of Wisdom’s army.
There was even footage of the angelic descent inside the Emperor’s audience chamber.
Good lord.
This was a little embarrassing....
[This player has advanced through content so quickly that rumors have even spread claiming he is an unofficial operator!]
[With this latest incident, players are now speculating whether siege warfare and nation-building content may soon be introduced.]
Me?
Was it because so many people started keeping slimes as pets because of me?
Because specialized Demonic Realm攻略 teams were formed?
Because the path into previously inaccessible Karantlia opened?
Because the arena appeared?
Wow.
I really had been enjoying this game properly.
If only the Chairman came down, I was confident I could enjoy it even more....
[One post, believed to have been written by this user, appeared on the community late last night.]
[The post stated: “I’m planning to create a new country. If you’re interested, come join.”]
[According to the post, the concept will be a nation where various intelligent monster species personally created by the user live together.]
[The community is currently buzzing with speculation that the legendary monster races may finally become available as playable characters.]
“Huh?”
I frowned.
