[One day before current events]
"Argh, what do I do now?!" The Flügel in the sky was shouting angrily, holding her head. She just made a horrible mistake. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't think of a way to explain her monumental failure, nor how to salvage the situation. The Old Deus was gone this time, and she couldn't track it anymore. Running into it twice was already a slim probability, yet she still managed to fail! Granted, she managed to talk to it, but even then, the Old Deus seemed to ignore her most of the time, excluding when he asked where the toilet was.
"I guess I have no choice but to explain the situation to my masters. I hope they forgive me... the one I had to follow was an Old Deus, after all." With an expression of sadness on her face, she flew towards the palace, almost hanging from her wings.
[The palace...]
"WHAT?!" Sora jumped. "AN OLD DEUS!?" Sora started wandering around, covering his mouth with his hand. The situation was way more serious than he thought. What was the meaning of this? Why the Old Deus? Why now?
"No! Calm down, me! Don't panic!" Sora thought, recomposing himself. Panic was the enemy, second only to callousness.
"What did he look like? We need to issue an order for everyone in the kingdom to search for him. We have to communicate with him as quickly as we can."
Jibril slowly shook her head. "The Old Deus can take any form they want. It's obvious that he doesn't want to be seen or known. We can't find him that way, as it is likely that he has already changed his form."
"I see... So what do you suggest we do?" Rarely, Sora wouldn't know what to do, and this was one of those cases. In his- well, Blank's whole game-plan, this development was never expected in any way, shape, or form. They expected to need to deal with the Old Deus eventually, but now? That was too soon! And the uncertainty of the Old Deus' intentions complicated things even more.
Jibril was thinking while standing upside down in the air. As far as she knew, the Old Deus had no defining features aside from their mighty powers and their concepts. They did indeed have their favorite forms whenever they did take physical form, but that bald Old Deus didn't resemble any of the forms taken by the Old Deus she knew. At least; none of the famous ones.
"Masters! I believe there is one way to find him. The Old Deus' powers depend on their concepts and people's belief in them." Jibril said cheerfully, finding a way to lessen the fault of failing her masters' tasks.
"Hmm? What do you mean, Jibril?" Shiro slightly leaned her head sideways.
"An Old Deus's power depends heavily on belief. An example would be during the Great War, due to the bloodlust and hatred accumulated by all living beings, Artosh became the mightiest member of the Old Deus. And currently, Tet is the strongest due to his possession of the Astral Grail, as well as the prevalence of using games to settle disputes."
"You mean if we can find out how strong he is, we can narrow down the possible sources of his power and therefore which Old Deus he is." Sora made a quick conclusion.
"Unfortunately, even us Flügels have limited knowledge about the Old Deus. So it is highly possible that I do not know who he is, as I cannot recall that particular form among the other Old Deus. But estimating his power will help us uncover his identity, as well as his possible intentions. The Old Deus act upon their concepts, after all."
Sora sighed softly. "Well, that's better than nothing, I guess. What can you say about that Old Deus' general characteristics and power?"
"Hmm, let me think... Actually, I could not distinguish him from a human when I first met him. Apart from his bald head, the only distinguishing feature I could remember was that he was running faster than a normal person. At the time, he was disturbing the populace, so I tried to warn him about it. When he came to a stop, he had a worried expression on his face. But in the next moment, he was walking towards me with a dead expression. When he grabbed my shoulder, everything started to change. I couldn't even move an inch... and I felt something I had never felt before..." Jibril paused a little, before continuing her sentence.
"...Fear."
She had a strange facial expression on her face at the moment. "Even during my expeditions to fight against Gigants, Dragonia, and Phantasma, I've never felt that kind of oppressive power before. Even when compared to my creator, Artosh, he gave off a more tremendous pressure."
Sora and Shiro were getting more and more worried because of Jibril's expression and explanation. If what she said was true, then this Old Deus was possibly one of the most powerful ones, aside from Tet himself. But after a few seconds, Jibril returned to her normal cheerful state. "Anyway, that isn't important. Then he asked if there was a toilet nearby."
"...huh? A toilet?" Both Sora and Shiro thought of the same thing. That is, they were utterly dumbfounded. Of all the things they expected, that was not one of them.
"Yes, I was just as shocked as you. Then, I gave him directions to the nearby forest."
"Wait a minute. You mean to say you already made contact with him, and he was even asking you a question? Did you just... let him go?" Sora was staring at Jibril with narrow eyes.
Jibril's body shook for a moment and stiffened.
"...Y-yes. I apologize for my blunder, masters." Jibril looked downwards in embarrassment, playing with her fingers.
"...With his speed, getting to the palace and using the toilet was probably nothing to the Old Deus. You could've brought him directly to the palace... but you gave him directions to the... forest?" Sora asked again, his face darkening.
"...Y-yes."
"Sigh... I see. Continue your story." Sora sighed coolly. There was no point in being mad right now.
Jibril's body leaned forward in shame. "Yes. After he left, I realized the mistake I made and started looking for him. Luckily, I caught him running in my direction just a few minutes later. He looked angry at something. I caught up to him in a short time, but he didn't seem to care or notice me. After I tried to ask him a few questions, he just brushed me off before disappearing."
"He disappeared? What do you mean by that? Did he teleport with magic?"
"No. I didn't feel any magical aura from him when he disappeared. He used only the physical strength of his avatar."
"Hm? Faster than Jibril? Now that's something. Flügels are massively hypersonic based on what I've read since I came here." Shiro interrupted.
"Yes, we can fly hundreds of times faster than sound!" Jibril said in a proud voice.
"But even then, you lost to the Old Deus while you were chasing him with magic, and he managed to run away from you without using magic," Shiro said, which dumped a bucket of metaphorical water over Jibril. "Overly proud Jibril." Shiro poked at Jibril.
"What is it, Shiro? Did you find something out?"
"To be faster than what a Flügel's eyesight can track, one has to be able to travel at sub-relativistic speeds. This is strange. Even the fastest beings in this world don't come close to that speed, excluding the Old Deus."
Sora rubbed his nose.
"Well, if he's that strong, the concept he's based on should be widespread. But now, it's impossible to reach this kind of strength unless you're Tet himself. Then let me put this together. Bald? Worried? Angry? Deadpan? Where are the correlations? Also, the other races are stronger and ranked higher due to their affinity to magic, aren't they? So, how did he run that fast without magic?! All of this just doesn't make any sense!" Sora shouted exasperatedly. He was truly at his wits' end.
"Wait! What did you just say?" Shiro noticed something.
"It doesn't make any sense?" Sora didn't seem to understand what Shiro was saying at first, but after a few seconds, everything was clear to him.
"The concept of Irrationality? Is this even possible?" After all, in this fantasy world, this was the only answer that made sense. Sora facepalmed. "What am I saying? This IS a fantasy world. Almost everything about magic goes against the laws of physics. Things that were irrational back home would be the norm in this world. If we take his power into account this is the most believable conclusion."
"The concept of Irrationality? I've never heard of such an Old Deus with that concept before. But even if an Old Deus like that existed, what would he want from us, anyway?" Jibril asked curiously.
"I have no idea, I really have no idea!" Sora said something he thought he would never say. For once, his state of mind reached blankness. Despite Blank literally being their namesake, this was the last state of mind he needed to be in. "First, exploding mountains, then, an Old Deus running around the kingdom! Gah! This can't possibly get any worse! What next, total bankruptcy of the human kingdom?!" Imanity's king spoke sarcastically.
But life responded to his jest with a downpour of harsh reality.
"Sora! Shiro!" Sora's eyes started twitching when he heard Steph's voice. Was this cliche really happening?!
The princess of the Elkia kingdom, Stephanie Dola had just entered the room, almost passing out from fatigue. "There's a new player in town that has almost bankrupted the entire population of the city!"
"And what does that have to do with us? Why even bother us with that!? What good are you if you can't even handle this, you Steph?!" Sora started taking his anger out on Stephanie. Not that he would do this on most days, he was just really stressed at the moment.
"Hey, stop using my name as an insult! Also, didn't you hear what I said? He's bankrupted almost the entire kingdom's population! I'm not kidding when I say that he probably owns about 40% of the entirety of the kingdom right now! It's obvious that he isn't actually Imanity. What can I do about it!?"
"You're really are useless when it comes to matters of other races, Dola." Jibril sighed. "I think I'll go and punish that guy for breaking into masters' territory."
"Hey, my name isn't just Dola! It's Stephanie Dola! Steph-A-Nie-Do-La!" Steph waved her hands in protest to her nickname as she yelled at Jibril. " Also, you don't understand at all! Despite only being here for a few days, people have been saying that his skill is even equal to Blank!" She said, pointing in the general direction of the city.
"Oh? Now this is interesting..." Sora seemed to completely forget about the Old Deus disguising himself in the kingdom. It wasn't as though he actually forgot, but rather; he didn't want to trouble himself with things he couldn't change right now. No matter how much effort they were to expend into finding him, they wouldn't uncover the Old Deus, unless he himself wanted to reveal himself. It was better to deal with something they could solve right now. "Who exactly is this player?"
"Nobody knows who exactly he is. Rumors say that he came to the city just a few days ago. He hasn't had a single defeat since then." Steph said hurriedly. If they waited any longer, then that person would truly have owned more than half of the kingdom by now! The hundreds of nobles didn't just bet their entire fortune, they bet their titles, their land, their properties, almost everything! It wasn't an exaggeration to say that almost a third of all the nobles in the kingdom were former nobles by now! Some of her old friends even fell prey to this man!
"Hm? is he just like us?" Shiro was curious.
"I doubt it. You and Sora win with your skills at games, he's probably just using magic while he disguises himself as a human! Even so, what are you going to do now?" Steph asked.
"Ah, I was bored sitting on that throne for so long, anyway. Let's go, Shiro. I want to see if this new guy can challenge us." Sora headed towards the exit confidently. When it came to games, he forgot everything else. "I also want to know if this has something to do with that Old Deus." He internally thought after stopping for a moment. Then again, what were the chances that they were related?
...He felt as though he jinxed himself, but he didn't want to continue that line of thought.
"You seem excited about this. Do you think you can defeat him?" Shiro asked while chasing after her brother.
"You already asked a question like that the last time when we encountered Chlammy." Sora patted his sister's head. "You already know the answer." He smiled at his sister.
"You're right. It was a stupid question." Shiro smiled back.
[30 minutes later...]
Two suspicious-looking people were walking on the streets of the city. They were looking around as if they were trying to find someone.
Upon closer inspection, you could tell that these two were the king and queen of Imanity dressed in cloaks. It was almost as if they didn't make an attempt at disguising themselves in the first place. Anyone who took a second glance would immediately be able to tell who they were.
"Sora, this guy could be trouble, even for us. If the rumors about him are true..."
"Do you really believe in all those rumors? Over 10,000 wins in less than 3 days, never losing a single game, beating a hundred players all at once by himself, and some more illogical nonsense. It seems more like an urban legend than his actual feats."
"Over 10,000 wins? He would have to win every 25 seconds constantly without sleeping to achieve that many wins in just three days. If winning against multiple people at once counts as multiple wins, then it could be done. Never losing a single game? Not that hard, considering the usual skill level of humans in this world. But a hundred at once? What would they be playing, anyway?"
"It's true that he currently has a great impact on the public. Some people even believe that he was the one who destroyed the mountain. It wouldn't be in the realm of impossibility, since we know that some non-human is in the city. But the rumors also added that he did it with a single stone throw. Throwing a stone weighing a hundred grams with enough energy to destroy a mountain would require the stone to travel faster than light, which is physically impossible anyway. This concludes that most of these are fabrications of the city dwellers. But still, to think that such a person would appear from nowhere... Something isn't normal. Everything about this man seems..."
"Irrational." Musing into his monologue, Sora suddenly felt the hem of his cloak being pulled.
"Brother, we've arrived," Shiro said calmly.
Sora looked at the inn in front of him. It happened to be the inn which Shiro and he stayed in first when they were summoned to this world.
"According to some people, 'King' is currently staying here. Alright, let's see which one of us is better 'King'." Sora entered the inn. According to some citizens, despite his undefeatable status growing day by day, there were still some idiots who thought that they could defeat him and quickly get rich. Thus many people gathered here on a daily basis, and it is said that their numbers were decreasing day by day. Well, that was obvious. There were only a finite number of nobles in the kingdom, after all, and people would eventually wise up, no matter how gullible.
After entering the inn, Sora saw some nobles around the table in the middle of the room, watching something anxiously. Wondering why they were here, Sora moved towards the crowd of nobles, and he immediately got his answer.
There were two players playing poker with each other.
Even if they didn't take into account their looks and general demeanor, it was obvious that the one who sat on left with a mountain of chips was the legendary 'King', whereas the panicking middle-aged man with barely any chips left was a poor noble who was about to lose everything he had.
The situation was way too obvious. There were nobles who wanted to gain respect and power over other nobles by defeating the infamous 'King' that defeated all of his opponents. It was also partially to regain some pride and confidence which were shattered by the numerous losses against Blank. Not even needing to mention the great wealth that they would gain from defeating King. He had almost 40% of the entire kingdom's lands just based on the titles that he won from the other nobles.
"So... this guy is King, huh?" Sora looked at King while murmuring to himself.
Sora expected someone who was a lot more... NEET looking, a bit like they were (Blank). A part of him thought that he was also another gamer brought here by Tet.
But contrary to his expectations... the man in front of him was a tall, lean man with lightly tanned skin, blue eyes, and shoulder-length, slicked-back blonde hair combed down to the nape of his neck. He had a long face with sunken cheeks and a defined jawline.
He was an ordinary guy in many other aspects... At least, he would be like that, if not for his incredibly intimidating face and his one most obvious feature Sora realized before all other things.
Sora's body then tensed up as he noticed something about King.
There were three scars over his left eye! What was the meaning of this?!
But he regained his calm in a matter of seconds. It seems like rumors were affecting him, as well. Those scars could be explained in many ways.
For example, he could have across a wild animal and was injured by it, or it could also be caused by some work accident. After seeing Stephanie heavily injuring herself in denial many times over, someone who had scars over his left eye shouldn't be anything extraordinary; excluding his gaming prowess, that is.
Though that was his first thought, Sora realized there were a few loopholes in his reasoning, as well. Firstly, there weren't a lot of wild animals anywhere nearby because of the humans in the city. Even if he assumed that he went deep into the forest, how did he survive an attack from a wild animal with just those scars alone? Just judging from the size of scars alone, it could be said that the animal was at least as big as a bear, or something even bigger. Unless he was the luckiest man on Earth- well, Disboard, there was no way a human would just survive an attack like that with just those scars. Thus, it meant that Steph's judgment about him not being human was correct.
Wait, no, that wasn't right.
Sora started to think about the various possibilities.
The Rank 15, Sirens couldn't live anywhere besides seas and oceans, or anywhere that has water. Not to mention, Sirens were an all-female race that devoured the souls of their mates to reproduce.
Beings from Rank 14 to Rank 6 weren't a possibility, either. Though the likes of War Beast, Dhampir, and War Machine were able to change their looks, they couldn't be hurt by animals, anyway. Also, there wasn't any being among them that could live for longer than 6000 years old. So, those scars being real war wounds were out.
The Rank 6, Flügels were terrifying beings who were agelessly immortal and had access to a wide multitude of various magic. But this guy didn't have any holy aura or wings on him. Aside from that, as far as he knew all Flügels were females, like the Sirens. Also, Flügels were so prideful that they wouldn't play against any random humans. They also had no need for money or titles, and would rather collect knowledge, anyway.
Beings that were higher than Flügels aren't able to mimic humans with the exception of the Old Deus. But he wasn't an Old Deus. At least, not the one they knew about. Even though there were numerous rumors about him, it wasn't directly connected to irrationality. Also, this man was here since three days ago, and they didn't mention him changing his looks. Thus, they weren't related.
This lead to the second option.
It was the cause of some work accident. This would explain why nobody knew about his origins, either. But this option seemed illogical. Why would he need to work in the first place if he was this good at games?
...There was also still the option where Tet brought him here from another world, but then again; why would he? Was he and Shiro not enough? Or was he just bored while waiting for them to get him? Either way, why choose someone this intimidating? Granted; his skill at games wasn't half bad, either. To the One True God, a scary face may as well be like a pattern on growing moss.
Despite that, he still couldn't accurately pinpoint who this man was!
"So, who's next?" King's deep voice interrupted Sora's thoughts. There was no emotion in his voice. This was something beyond a poker face; it was true apathy! Like a human looking at an ant, there weren't any ripples of anything in his voice. No joy, no excitement, as if it was something to be expected.
Needless to say, King had utterly devastated his opponent.
One of the nobles sitting next to Sora got up and sat in front of King.
"So, what do you want to play?" King asked.
Instead of answering, the man laid down the fancy-looking chessboard he was holding on the table. They then both raised their hands in accordance with the Ten Pledges.
"Aschente!" The noble shouted seriously, while 'King' seemed to have yawned the words out. They then started playing chess with each other.
"So even though they're the ones challenging him, they'll decide what they're gonna play. This guy sure is confident." Sora, watching from a hidden corner in the inn said to Shiro.
Sora also noticed one other thing. They weren't discussing who the next opponent would be, but they didn't seem to be playing in random order, either. Sora assumed that everyone had already agreed on a certain order in which they would play against King. That meant that he and his sister would be the last ones if they wanted to play against him.
Since they were wearing cloaks and no one else bothered to take a closer look at them due to being fully focused on the match with King, nobody could recognize their identities. They could reveal themselves as king and queen and use their authority to cut in line and play with him, but this would cause an unnecessary commotion, as well as some annoying consequences.
Imanity had little trust in their king and queen anyway, despite their recent win against the Werebeasts. If it got out that the Blank, who would usually never leave their castles in the first place, came all the way here just because of this guy, this would attract the attention of all of Imanity. Not to mention, this would put their undefeatable status in doubt. The last thing they needed would be countless people challenging them all day to become the new rulers of Imanity.
...Well, sometimes they would hide out here to hide from Steph to skip out on their royal duties, but the innkeeper already knew about that.
Long story short, they decided to stay there until the end of the day, as they observed King's gaming style.
[A few hours later... (King's POV)]
Sigh... Today was tiring. A few days ago, I got here and opened up a challenge to earn some money. After a day and some merchants and conmen going bankrupt, I thought the challengers would come to an end, but apparently, I was wrong.
What was the nobility's problem with me, anyway? For these last two days, there were mostly nobles coming to play against him. After the first noble came, then the next, then a posse of them, then a whole group... how many nobles were in this kingdom, anyway? Shouldn't I have bankrupted all of the nobles in this kingdom by now? Well, not that I care, anyway. I beat all of them as usual. They were better players compared to commoners, but nothing too special.
There were also slightly more nobles than usual, today. Was their purpose to tire me so they could win through sheer numbers?
I'll admit it. They really tired me... with their weak playing. I would refuse them if it wasn't for my pride as a gamer. I already had more than enough money to spend for the rest of my life here. Heck, I even thought about staying here because of that much money. I could probably splurge a king's ransom daily and still have more than half of my total wealth untouched. With everyone gone home for the day, I could finally get back to my room.
"I think I'll go to sleep, now." I got up and started walking tiredly towards my room. But of course...
"So, you're King, am I right?" Someone's voice called from behind me. What now?!
When I turned around, I saw two people wearing cloaks. Why was this scene not foreign to me? They were probably like those merchants that tried to scam me with a simple trick. Though if I were to take a closer look, their clothes underneath those cloaks seemed a little different from the clothes other people in this world wore.
"Yes, you're right. I'm King. What do you want?" These guys looked suspicious. They were like those characters in those games where if you play with them, they would lead you on some random adventure, triggering a side quest.
"Nothing much, just interested in you. I heard that you're a very strong player. You wanna play with me? I'll make it worth your while." As he said that, he put a sack of gold on the table. There was a small fortune in there, but it wasn't comparable to my current haul.
Also, I was right. This was some kind of secret request like in games. I'm the only one good enough to beat a certain someone, save our fallen noble house, et cetera. Otherwise, nobody would appear from nowhere and bet this much money on a whim. After being here for three days, I know the general value of those gold coins in this world. A gold coin was enough for three days in an inn with a heavy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That sack was probably like the life savings of an honest worker.
"Sorry, I'm really tired right now. Also, my time's up, that's why they left earlier. Otherwise, they'd never leave. I'll be here, every day and on time, though. You can challenge me tomorrow." That aside, I didn't want to end up joining some weird adventure. I wasn't even fully used to this world yet! Also, like what Saitama said; killing and robbing others was prohibited, but it didn't say anything about pure violence...
"Hey, hey, don't be a spoilsport. I'll even sweeten the deal." These guys looked like they wouldn't give up. But I thought about it for a second. What if this was a way to return back home? But the chances were slim. That Tet kid, or well, god, brought us to this world. It was next to impossible that some random dude would be able to send me- and Saitama back. As much as a coward I am, I at least had standards. I wouldn't abandon Saitama to go back home alone. But still, it was worth a try.
"Hey, you're the one being a nuisance. If you want to play a game with me, come back at the right time, and make a reservation; don't just come when everyone's closing up shop and expect to be served." I then pointed at the reservation list on the table. It was comically long; which reminded me, I need to get new parchment for tomorrow's list. "But tell you what; If you can catch my interest, I'll help you out."
(3rd person POV)
King said this and went upstairs to his room. Sora and Shiro remained silent.
"Brother, do you know what he meant by 'If you can catch my interest'?" Shiro asked. "Also, what did he mean by helping us out?"
"I don't know. But... wait a minute, Did he find out our identities?" Sora murmured. But the bigger question was what did he mean with those words?
"Does he mean he can help us to beat Tet?" That was his conclusion. It was an undeniable fact that King would be a good ally. He casually defeated around a fifth of all the nobles in the country in one day alone. And while doing this, he was able to pay attention to Sora and Shiro and find who they truly were.
Still, this at least proved one thing; he was definitely a human, and he was brought here by Tet.
"What an interesting guy. I wonder how he'll affect our plans. But for now, we should go back home." Sora left the inn with Shiro.
[A few minutes later]
Blank finally reached the palace. Contrary to their expectations, it was Stephanie Dola who first greeted them at the palace gates instead of Jibril.
"You're finally back!" She said happily. Still, the anxiety in her voice could be heard. "I was worried about you when you left so suddenly after saying you wanted to meet the new player bankrupting the kingdom. Why did you come back so late?"
Sora simply ignored Steph and passed by her. For a NEET like him, it wasn't good to stay up all day. He and Shiro woke up early today, and if they did the same thing tomorrow... they would be a step closer to *shudder* a normal sleep cycle. There weren't a lot of things that were more horrifying to a NEET.
He felt as though he could pass out at any moment because of his tiredness. Generating a lot of speculation about King contributed to this too. The guy was just one big question mark, and he had to say; he used a lot of brainpower thinking about that guy; coming up with plausible explanations for his existence.
"Hey, why are ignoring me!? Also, did you manage to beat that player?" Steph quickly approached Sora, wanting to get an answer.
"Huh? No."
...Silence...
...
...
...
"WHAAAAAAT?!" The voice of Imanity's princess shook the entire royal palace. The earthquake a few days ago was like a joke compared to this.
"Sssssssss... What the hell's your problem?!" Sora yelled back at Stephanie Dola, his ears covered as to ensure his eardrums weren't permanently damaged.
"Steph is scary." Shiro commented, her ears ringing.
"B-b-b-but did you really lose to him!?" Steph asked, her voice trembling. Did Blank, the rulers of humanity and the duo that defeated the Eastern Union and made them join the Commonwealth of Elkia lose to this unknown gamer?!
"What? Of course not! I just said 'no'! What part of that meant we lost?!" Imanity's king shouted. Steph really liked jumping to conclusions; how did she run the country without their input most of the time?!
"Steph really is a Steph." Shiro said in blank tone.
"But then... what happened?" Steph asked, still not calming down.
"There were many players that came before us. At the end of the day, he went back to his room before we could play against him." Sora said. "Even this amount of money we took from treasury wasn't enough to tempt him." Sora then took out the small sack of gold.
"Ah, he probably won a lot from the nobles that lost to him already- hey, don't just take things from the treasury without asking!" Stephanie Dola then snatched the bag of gold from Sora.
"I'm the king, remember? Don't tell me even the king of the human kingdom can't take this measly amount from the treasury?"
"Even so, at least run it through me before you just take it!"
Despite being annoyed at Sora simply taking a small fortune from the treasury, Stephanie was visibly more relaxed. At least they didn't lose to this unknown gamer. But within a few seconds, her face morphed to a more a serious one. "Is he really as good as rumors say he is?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that the rumors were completely true, but he did at least live up to his name. Just today alone, he defeated at least 50 nobles, with one round of poker against ten nobles at the same time."
"Ah, I see. Well, I suppose defeating 50 nobles in one day... eh?"
"EHH?!" Stephanie yelled out, much to the chagrin of Sora and Shiro. Their ears hadn't yet recovered from the earlier scream from Stephanie, so the last thing they wanted was to get yelled at again.
"Seriously, what's your problem?! Does your throat ever get hoarse from yelling so much?!" Sora asked, plugging his ears. It was a wonder how his ears weren't bleeding yet.
"Steph shouts too much." Shiro added.
"I should be the one asking what's your problem!? How are you two still so calm?! 50 less nobles is a massive hit to the kingdom! The repercussions are tremendous! Also, what you said isn't just impressive, it's downright mind-blowing! Even the weakest noble has greater gaming skills than a professional gamer! There's a reason why they're nobles, you know?!"
"Huh? Do they? I never noticed it. Their playing still downright weak, if you ask me." Sora said, digging his ear unconcernedly.
Stephanie realized that she would get nowhere with this conversation. Blank was prodigious when it came to games. Thus, she decided changing the topic to get somewhere.
"Did you find out which race he was from?"
"Ah, yeah, about that. He's human." Sora replied, yawning.
"Mm, of course. Only humans could... wha?"
"If you yell again, I'll make you strip for the whole day tomorrow." Shiro threatened first, knowing exactly what was going to play out if she didn't strike first. Her ears weren't able to take much more.
Holding back her scream, Steph calmed herself down. As much as she wanted to know what they meant, she also knew for a fact that Blank made do on their threats. She had already acted like a dog for them in public and dressed in clothes that barely covered her skin, the last thing she wanted was to strip naked in front of them.
"W-what do you mean, he's human? This is no time for jokes! No humans could possibly accomplish this success in such a short amount of time- well, except for you two!"
"I'll explain... *yawn* tomorrow..."
*POMPF*
Sora fell face down onto the ground as he finished his sentence.
"Eh? Sora? Sora! What's going on?!"
"We woke up too early today, and we also spent the entire day watching King play..." Shiro wobbled around, five seconds before reaching dreamland. "We're too... tired."
As the last word escaped her lips, Shiro joined her brother in the big videogame in the sky, also known as sleep.
"Hey, you two! Argh, at least explain properly before going to sleep! Sigh... I guess I'll take them to their room..." Steph said, helplessly, dragging both Sora and Shiro's dead-asleep bodies to the bedroom.
[The next day...]
Sora had convened a meeting in the throne room in the center of the castle. He, Shiro, Steph and Jibril all were there. They were also communicating with Chlammy and Miko thanks to the crystal balls given by Jibril.
"...and that's about it." Sora had just finished talking about King.
"Woah, to think that there's another human gamer with this caliber of skill aside from you two..." Chlammy said, slightly worried at the news of such a gamer. "But we don't know his intentions, nor his backing. If they prove to be more powerful than even the Flügels..."
"Well, we don't know who's backing him, or if he even has any. I can't think of any race above the Flügels who are willing to support a human just to control the rest of the humans as puppets. It would be like if a human would support an ant just to control an ant colony." Miko said doubtfully. "As far-fetched as it seems, we can only assume that he's just like Blank, a gamer backed by their skill alone."
"Still, are you really sure that he's just a human?" Stephanie asked. She still couldn't believe that there were humans outside of Blank that could be this good. Two monstrously skillful gamers weren't enough; did there have to be one more?
"Yes. Actually, when you think about it, it's not that wild to assume that he's human. But since you're just a Steph, I didn't expect you would understand that in the first place." Sora said.
"Stop using my name as an insult already!"
He then raised a finger before Steph could continue saying anything. "Firstly, he wasn't overconfident. Normally, when other races play against Imanity, this is usually the case. Why wouldn't they, facing against a race that can't even use magic in the first place?"
He then raised another finger. "Secondly, he didn't use any magic to cheat, either. The superiority of other races are usually due to their usage of magic, so they can easily use cheats. But contrary to what you believe, King hardly used any cheats in the first place, only cheating when he detected the opponent was cheating first. Also, all the cheats he used were explainable ones. Still, those moves were highly professional. Even we barely noticed, if not for the ten-to-one game of poker, which required him to use some more obvious cheats. It's not surprising that some people would mistake it as magic."
And finally, he raised a third finger. "Also, the third and the most important one is that he never played any game that required physical strength. Regardless of their races, all other races are physically stronger than we are. Even the elves are at least on par with humans if not assisted by magic. The games we played against Jibril and Izuna are proof of this. Jibril used her Flügel body to survive in the harsh environment of the Shitori game while Izuna used Blood Destruction to surpass us in the open field. But that guy never used strength in the first place. Why would you choose the hard way while you can do everything easily?"
"But then again, no sane human would play a game of physical strength against someone whom they believe is being assisted by magic." Sora added.
"That makes sense. But how do we prove any of that?" Chlammy asked. "Even if we were to take all of the information and make the most accurate conjecture, it's still conjecture in the end without proof."
"Simple. I already have an idea."
Sora then turned to look at Steph.
"Do you remember the tavern we stayed at when you first met us?"
"H-huh? Yes, why do you ask?"
"Because that's the place where that 'King' is currently staying at. I want you to invite him here."
[Current timeline]
"I-I'm Stephania Dola, from the royal palace. Could you please come with me? Our king and queen would like to meet you."
...
...
...
"Wuh?"
"What is she saying? Don't tell me that the people I met yesterday were the king and queen. This is way more than catching my interest! What's happening here?!" King thought. "I thought the situation seemed sketchy... but to talk to both the king and queen of the country?!"
"And I was talking to them so rudely... I'm not gonna be brought there and executed, right?!"
Due to nervousness, the 'King Engine' started building up.
"Huh? What's that noise?" Stephanie Dola looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. It eventually started getting faster and stronger, before she realized...
"Hold on... it's coming from this person?!" Steph thought anxiously. "E-err... is that sound..."
"Ignore it. Let me ask you a question." King interrupted Steph. "Is this related to those two I met yesterday?"
"Y-yes! And they'd like to officially invite you to the royal palace!" Steph said, standing ramrod straight. Something about this man seemed.. off. Something deep inside her told her that the last thing she wanted to do... was piss off this man!
"Hold on... she said 'invite', yes? That means I'm not in trouble... yeah! Also, they can't execute me unless they play a game for my life, anyway. Yeah! Remember, they can't kill, rob, or wage war! This means that unless they play a game with me for my life, I'm not in immediate danger!"
As King thought that, he calmed down a little, his 'King Engine' slowing down.
"Fine then. Let me leave a note for my friend." King said, walking towards the table in the room.
"He has a friend? No one ever said that he was accompanied by someone else! Is that person on the same caliber as him, too?" Stephanie thought.
Her curiosity getting the better of her, she craned her neck to see the note left by King.
"E-eh? What language is that?" Stephanie then realized something was wrong. That wasn't Imanitian language at all...
...Yep, he definitely wasn't human. Case closed, jury dismissed.
"W-w-what is he writing? Is it instructions to plan out a hostile takeover of the kingdom?" Stephanie thought to herself in a panic.
"Saitama, I'm going to visit the royal palace for a bit, they invited me there. Don't spend too much on dinner. If I'm not back by tomorrow, then come look for me." After writing out the note, King checked it over. "Yep. I explained where I'll be going, so he won't be too worried. But if they try to keep me there, Saitama should look for me if I don't come back in a day."
After setting down the note, King turned to Stephanie Dola. "Alright, I've left the note. We can... do you need something?" Upon realization that Stephanie was looking at the note, King asked if she needed anything.
"Eh? No! Nothing!" Stephanie came back to her senses in a panic. "B-but if I may ask, I don't recognize this language... what is it?" Stephanie asked, hopeful that he would just say that it was a different dialect of Imanitian or just cursive... yeah! That could be it! As well-learned as she was, not even she learnt all dialects or versions of Imanitian, and cursive was beyond her.
"Ah... it's just a... foreign language." King said, not fully answering the question.
"Crap. I knew that the language here is different from the one in our old world. It's spoken the same way, but the writing is different. Ah well, I'll just pass it off as a foreign language. There's probably still different types of languages... right?" King hoped optimistically, not knowing that he was blissfully wrong; that all humans in this world used a single, unified language, and him saying that it was a foreign language just created a whole new misunderstanding.
"Foreign language... yep. Not human." The last bit of hope for her was extinguished. If it wasn't Imanitian, then he was either a very-well learned human that learned the language of other races for fun... or he wasn't from Imanity in the first place.
"A-anyway, let's get to the palace! There's a carriage waiting outside." Steph then realized she was getting off topic.
"Okay. Let's go." King said, following Stephanie. "Calm down, me... though they're royalty, it doesn't mean that their request would be too big. Maybe they want me to stop taking things from the nobles... yeah, that's probably it." King thought. "I probably took quite a few titles and some property, but nothing too much, I think..."
Unknown to him, he was already the biggest landowner in the kingdom, surpassing even the remaining nobles and royalty combined. He owned half of all land in the kingdom, three-fifths of all the noble titles, and almost every single property of the nobles that bet them.
"Alright then... just get there calmly, and don't attract attention..."
[15 minutes later...]
"I CAN'T CALM DOWN!" The King Engine only beat ever more vigorously, audible even outside of the carriage. "I'm visiting the literal rulers of this kingdom, how should anyone be able to calm down so easily?!" The very strength of his heartbeats made the vibrations permeate through the surroundings, as people in a radius around the carriage could feel the echoes of the King Engine.
"Woah, what's that feeling? Everything's shaking!" Someone asked.
"It seems to be coming from that carriage! Wait, it's King! King's inside the carriage!" Someone then pointed out that the infamous King was in the carriage. "And the carriage is from the royal palace! Looks like not even Blank can ignore him any longer!"
"Yeah! He already took the titles and properties of almost four-fifths of all the nobles in the kingdom! If this goes on any longer, there wouldn't be any nobles left, there'd only be King!"
"I took all of the titles of those nobles? I thought that was just their false claims to hype themselves up! All those pieces of parchment were actually their noble titles and properties?!" Upon learning that he was the biggest landowner and second only to the rulers of humanity itself, the King Engine only grew stronger.
"That sound's getting stronger! He's not human, right? No human can possibly make that sound!"
"Those three weren't lying after all! They said that King shattered a mountain by just throwing a stone, and this sound started echoing after the mountain collapsed!"
"He's not human, he's not human! But what else could he be? He doesn't have the sharp ears of an elf, nor does he look like a dwarf. He doesn't seem to be an Ex-Machina, nor does he look like a Demonia!"
"C-could he be an Old Deus?"
"W-what?!"
"Think about it! What other race can obliterate a mountain so easily? Other races that have enough firepower to destroy the mountain can't mimic human appearances, except the Old Deus! But which one is this one?!"
"I don't know! But that begs the question, why is he heading towards the royal palace?!"
"Is Blank about to play a game against him? What would King play for, anyway? He already owns half the entire kingdom!"
"W-what if... he wants to bet for the rulership of Imanity? Or worse... Imanity's race piece?"
As the rumors spread like wildfire, King himself wasn't unaffected, either.
"This is just like my old world... with all these misconceptions, my reputation as some super strong person keeps growing... yep. I wanna go home now." Though he did indeed have more wealth than half the entire kingdom in this world, it also put him in the spotlight. Even his reputation as 'The Strongest Man On Earth' was less conspicuous now. After all...
"What Old Deus?! Aren't they basically gods?! I don't know who destroyed that mountain, and I wasn't the one responsible for it! I thought everything would be more simple in this world... why does life hate me this much?!"
In his old world, his reputation as a God-like S-Class hero was well, stressful, to say the least. But in this world, where people now think of him as a God in literal terms...
"...Yep. I wanna go home. No place like home, they say." Any thoughts of staying in this world were now gone. He'd rather go back home and eventually retire as an S-Class hero instead of staying here and worshipped as a god his whole life.
On the other hand, the poor girl sitting in front of King was taking it the worst.
"Sora. Shiro. The both of you are smart, and probably the best gamers I've ever met. But this time, you guys were wrong." Stephanie Dola glanced at King, whose facial expression and aura was quite fitting of an Old Deus. She swore she could see the fires of hell and extreme wrath burning inside this man. He probably took their invitation as a challenge... and he was planning to crush them for their insolence.
Yep, he was no human, nor was he an any Old Deus. He was far worse, and truthfully? She felt like an ant standing against a Phantasma. That was the disparity she felt.
"Sora. Shiro. This man... DEFINITELY ISN'T HUMAN!" Steph screamed inwardly, as she felt invisible tears leaking down her face. If she wasn't worried about her image and possibly displeasing this man... she probably would've peed herself in fear by now.
[The palace balcony...]
"...and that's the live feed." Jibril held up a crystal ball, showing them a real-life view of the inside of the carriage. They had installed it on Steph's dress without her knowing about it, as they feared that he might have shown signs of them being watched.
"...Brother, still think he's human?" Shiro asked, tightly grasping onto Sora's shirt.
"...You know, I was certain he was human yesterday until this morning. Now..." Sora didn't even need the live feed. He could already see the unrest happening in the city. It was worse than when he bet Imanity's race piece... but wherever the carriage King was in passed by, the unrest quelled itself, as if fearing they would annoy King.
If it was yesterday's him, he would've scoffed and said that the citizens were just being stupid and fearful by immediately judging him as an Old Deus for destroying the mountain.
Now? Well... now he wasn't so sure anymore.
"Mm? B-brother! Look!" Shiro then said in a panicked voice, which lead Sora to look back into the crystal ball, to see...
King staring directly at them through the crystal ball.
"What the-?!" Sora barely had time to say anything before Jibril directly shattered the crystal ball.
[Inside the carriage...]
"Hmm? Is it me, or did that gem suddenly dim?" King had just rested his eyes on a small crystal on the bow of the girl that invited her to the palace, before the smaller gem below the larger gem suddenly dimmed and turned dark.
"Chances are that was that king and queen looking at me through her... she seems none the wiser, though." King thought, looking at Stephanie Dola. Then again, he couldn't help but feel pity for her. He wasn't dense- he could see the fear in her eyes, as well as her body's slight trembling. She was reacting the same way he would when he was face-to-face with a Dragon-level threat.
The fact that she was holding up this well already spoke volumes of her courage. If he was in her place, sitting in front of what could possibly be a God-level threat- at least, he assumed the actual gods in this world were like God-level threats back in his old world- he would've just passed out.
"Still... I really hope what they need isn't all that much. With how my 'reputation' grows, the last thing I need is for them to request something impossible for me to do." King thought. If luck was on his side, he could explain that he was a normal human, and not an Old Deus like the general populace assumed he was.
[The castle balcony...]
"My apologies, masters, but I must have leaked too much magic power through the crystal ball! The Old Deus probably detected us through that!" Jibril knelt on one knee and apologized.
Sora didn't respond. Though everyone thought that he was an Old Deus, he knew better. His mannerisms yesterday and the note he left written in Japanese already proved that he was from a world like theirs. Still, the very phenomenon happening around him, like the rumbling vibrations emanating from that man and the aura he exuded... as well as detecting them through the crystal ball...
Was he actually human? He still wasn't sure about that. Also, the other person he was talking to on the note, Saitama was probably someone like him, as in he was from his world. If he was anything like King...
"Hey, Tet..." Sora looked up at the king chess piece in the distance. "What exactly did you bring them here for?"
[The king chess piece, Tet's home...]
"Sheesh~ That King sure is scary..." Tet said to himself, also viewing the live feed of the city. "He just seemed like any ordinary gamer... was he this misunderstood back in his original world? He's a pretty good gamer, but with the events constantly happening around him... I wonder if I did the right thing this time..."
"Still, there's another pressing matter on hand..." Tet then looked away at the feed, and turned around to look at a separate screen, showing...
A very irate Saitama knocking on the large king chess piece's walls.
"Hey, damn brat! I know you're in there, get out here and bring us back home!"