I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 72: Collaboration is necessary

Carol was watching the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion bloom beyond the screen.

Then, holding her head, she muttered:

"Haah... That was too much, Alice."

In more ways than one.

Deep down, she had hoped Alice would escape.

Of course, knowing Alice’s personality, she would never abandon her comrades and run.

Telling her that it was okay to flee if the situation became unmanageable wasn’t a suggestion—it was advice. But Alice didn’t take it that way.

Even the command orders hadn’t explicitly detailed anything about the Machine God, which had left her uncertain.

And in the end, it came to this.

The fact that the higher-ups had been utterly shocked by the nuclear missile strike and that Alice’s threat level had skyrocketed was understandable.

But there was something far more important.

Carol gathered a few of her subordinates and walked toward a certain location.

A room being used as a temporary office by one of the other research directors.

Standing in front of it, Carol made up her mind.

If her suspicions were correct, if this man—one of the research directors who had witnessed the clash between Alice and the Machine God—was truly involved, then she would have to kill him with her own hands.

"This is such a nuisance... Really, I hope I’m wrong."

Ant.

That was the name of the research director she would meet upon opening the door.

According to the investigation, he had no religious affiliation and was a diligent man who consistently produced results.

There was nothing outwardly suspicious about him. And yet, something was off.

His reports contained subtle wording and phrasing that eerily resembled those of a believer.

And he had, on more than one occasion, shown an excessively aggressive stance toward demonic entities, outright eradicating them without hesitation.

"...Though, none of that is solid proof on its own."

Carol swiped her security card and completed her identity verification, then requested an audience with the research director.

A matter of utmost urgency.

With her hands clasped behind her back, she waited with a friendly smile.

Carol, though not intentionally, was known among the other research directors as a rather eccentric figure.

Persistent and sharp—someone you wouldn't want as an enemy. That was her reputation.

Ant, knowing this, assumed that behind her ever-cheerful expression was a viper waiting to strike, and he had no desire to stir up trouble unnecessarily.

And so, Ant opened the door.

Carol greeted him with a bright voice.

"Director Ant, how have you been?"

"Oh, I’m always well. And you, Director Carol?"

"Well, of course, I’m doing just fine! After all, Alice just brilliantly took down a major headache."

As she spoke, Carol subtly scanned his office with her sharp analytical eyes.

Then, noticing Ant’s broken coffee cup, she let the corners of her lips drop slightly.

Ant clearly didn’t appreciate the pride Carol took in Alice, her assigned subject.

"Impressive, certainly. But too dangerous. Can she really be left unchecked?"

"Well, maybe she could be restrained if we really wanted to, but without taking risks, there would be no progress. Has there ever been an effective attack against that Machine God?"

Ant had no rebuttal.

Carol scanned the room again.

A special ink bottle had been tipped over.

And traces of the same ink stained his fingers.

Carol narrowed her eyes.

She remembered seeing that ink among the documents that had been smuggled out before.

"That may be true, but..."

"Oh, have you heard this rumor?"

"...What?"

Carol suddenly shifted the topic to a rumor.

Ant, caught off guard, asked her to clarify, but Carol made no effort to retract her statement.

"There’s a rumor that one of the research directors is a spy for another organization. It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?"

Blunt.

Saying that to his face was as good as directly accusing him.

Ant was visibly shaken.

"...That’s something the higher-ups should be informed about. Where exactly did you hear such a rumor?"

"Before that..."

Carol took a slow, deliberate step toward him.

Ant stiffened but relaxed slightly when Carol merely sat down in the chair beside him.

She crossed her legs in a manner that disregarded any sense of propriety.

And then, she smiled—an unrelenting pressure hidden behind it.

"You still use these, huh?"

In her hand was a fountain pen.

A very old model, long out of use.

Even time itself had lent the pen an air of mystique.

"Sometimes, the old ways are the best."

"Ahaha... The old ways, huh? That’s fair. So... what were you writing with this pen?"

"Nothing of significance."

Ant tried to hide the paper, but Carol snatched it from him.

The contents read:

The king lined up the sinners.

The king, with his boundless benevolence, forgave their sins one by one.

The king asked,

“You, little child, what sin have you committed?”

The child replied, “I was hungry, so I killed and ate my pet.”

Seeing that the child felt remorse, the king forgave them.

The king then asked the next sinner,

“You, the one who weeps—what sin have you committed?”

The sinner replied, “I was consumed by pleasure and murdered people.”

Seeing that he repented, the king forgave him.

Then the king came to the final sinner.

“You, the golden-haired girl—what sin have you committed?”

The girl answered,

“I impersonated the king and sought to become the true ruler.”

The girl repented.

And so the king said,

"Execute her."

Carol read the contents and put on an exaggerated display.

"...Oh! Now, this is an interesting piece! And the handwriting is adorable, too. Is this some kind of riddle? A poem? I do enjoy a bit of poetry."

"There is no particular meaning to it."

"I see."

"..."

"Then why, I wonder, did you feel the need to send this ‘meaningless’ writing to another organization?"

"...!"

"That ink and that pen. When used together, they form a tool-type anomalous object that allows one to transmit thoughts through writing.

And you really thought I wouldn’t understand the meaning behind this message?

...Traitor?"

"So you knew."

Ant’s face twisted.

How Carol had recognized the anomalous object he had been managing was unclear, but now that she had deciphered the message, that hardly mattered.

"My, my, such a scary glare. What’s troubling you?"

"Do you not see the problem?!"

Ant snapped.

"That Machine—calling itself God...

The power of a ruler is blasphemous, yet it is strong enough to be called divine.

A true dominator’s power—an authority beyond any other anomalous entity.

And the only force that can sever it is the divine power of the true Absolute."

Divine Power. The influence of the Absolute One worshiped in Christianity.

A weakness of demons, but if wielded properly, a force capable of suppressing power itself.

The organization’s alliance with the Cathedral wasn’t just about the increasing need to exterminate demons.

It was about the study of Divine Power.

To wield an unknown force.

Carol pouted mockingly.

"Ohhh, really? Well, then, why didn’t you just cut it off sooner? The Cathedral sure loves to boast."

"Alice severed that power—what do you expect me to do about it?!"

Bang!

Carol shot Ant.

The bullet pierced through him, staining the paper with blood.

She coldly looked down at him and pulled a cross from his pocket.

"Well, thanks for confessing. Immediate execution."

Handing the cross to one of her subordinates, she gave orders.

"Search the room for more evidence of his betrayal. I acted a bit rashly, so I’ll probably be reprimanded for this."

And with that, Carol fell into thought.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"The Cathedral has somewhat figured out Alice’s identity... Hmm... But I don’t know about the higher-ups in the Organization... I can’t predict whether they’ll make contact if they catch on, or just turn a blind eye."

Carol was lost in thought for a while, but soon grew frustrated and started grumbling to herself.

Her black hair became a tangled mess as she ruffled it in irritation.

"Tsk! First, I need to be prepared. Aah, how am I supposed to steal P-702 from the Cathedral? What a headache.

Why am I the only one dealing with all this annoying crap?!

I never should have made a deal with that damned demon.

...Well, except for Alice, of course."

"Director Carol, Alice is looking for you."

At those words, Carol’s face brightened with a wide smile.

She immediately stopped what she was doing, stood up, assigned the rest of her work to her subordinates, and headed toward Alice’s containment chamber.

"Who in their right mind would ignore a call from such a lovely girl? My adorable little one must be brimming with questions."

-----

Inside the containment chamber, I created a mirror and transported Maerson safely through it.

Before the explosion’s shockwave could reach the mirror, I shattered it in advance.

"Are you okay, Maerson?"

I asked, holding him securely in my arms.

"Ah... I’m fine, I suppose..."

"That’s a relief."

Maerson still looked dazed.

He had just experienced far too much in a short span of time.

I waited for him to calm down before finally speaking again.

"I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect you all."

As I spoke with a sorrowful expression,

Maerson tried to put on an act, as if to reassure me that he was completely fine.

"It’s not like we absolutely needed protection. I just... don’t like that it wasn’t in a proper battle, that’s all. But I’m fine."

But his acting was far too obvious.

He would never win an award as an actor.

"Really?"

When I asked that, Maerson’s expression became even sadder than mine.

That was when I realized—his mind had been damaged.

"...So it’s not true after all. No matter what excuse we attach to it, losing comrades to an unknown monster is something that takes time to process."

I pulled Maerson into a hug.

"Alice...?"

"I have a talent for comforting people, so just leave it to me."

...Though, it was a little embarrassing.

"Maerson. When you first encountered that giant mechanical titan, how did you feel?"

Hearing the steady rhythm of my heartbeat, Maerson slowly began to regain his composure.

I asked the question as if guiding him through therapy.

"I was terrified. «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» I couldn’t resist at all. I was weak, just a speck of dust in comparison."

"And yet, you still fought until the end.

Because of your efforts, I—who had been exiled—was able to return.

And in the end, you survived."

"..."

"What happened to your comrades wasn’t your fault, and you are not weak.

In fact, you are strong.

How could someone who dared to resist a colossal monster be nothing more than dust?"

"..."

His fractured mind slowly started to piece itself back together.

I spoke warm, soothing words to mend the gaps in his spirit.

"Someday, if you ever face a monster so terrifying that you feel utterly powerless...

As long as you don’t give up, I will return to you."

"..."

"So come on, Maerson. Stand up.

Your journey isn’t over.

There’s no need to make it dramatic or struggle unnecessarily.

Just don’t stop. Walk the path you wish to take."

"I owe you a great deal."

Maerson stood up, finally steady.

Whether he would continue working for the Organization or erase his memories and return to a normal life, that was now his decision to make.

Thud.

"Huh?"

Maerson suddenly collapsed.

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His exhaustion had finally caught up to him, and he had fallen into a deep sleep.

I watched his peaceful sleeping face with satisfaction...

Then—

I jumped onto the bed and buried my burning face into a pillow!

"...I did something embarrassing again...! Uuuugh..."

I rubbed my face against the pillow in frustration.

Had I gone too far again?

Did I seem overly sentimental?

Something about seeing a wounded person always made me want to comfort them.

...But this wasn’t the time for that.

I immediately went to find Carol.

I had a mountain of questions for her.

It wasn’t long before Carol waltzed into the containment chamber, waving at me with a smug grin.

"So, Alice, you were looking for me?

Before we start talking, let me just say—hugging some random guy like that could be misunderstood, you know?

Other than me, all men are beasts. Beasts, I tell you."

"...?"

I tilted my head, wondering if Carol had somehow forgotten her own gender.

But she didn’t seem to realize she had said anything strange.

She did misspeak from time to time, so I let it slide.

"First, I should apologize.

Launching a nuclear missile... Yeah, even I think that was a bit excessive."

I had expected Carol to scold me.

But her response was surprisingly warm.

"Oh, that? The higher-ups were shocked, sure, but you don’t need to apologize to me.

Besides, Alice, you wanted to bring peace to those who had been turned into machines while still alive, didn’t you?

In the most certain way possible."

"That’s right. So you knew."

Carol had understood.

She had completely grasped my reasoning. She really was sharp.

And that, in itself, made her suspicious.

"Of course I knew. You have no idea how interested I am in you, Alice."

Carol shrugged proudly, boasting about how she was the number one person in the world when it came to knowing Alice best.

I looked her in the eye and spoke.

"You know everything, don’t you?"

Carol averted her gaze, somewhat sheepishly.

"...Huh? What’s with this atmosphere? This is seriously creepy. Can I go home now?"

There was no way someone as intelligent as Carol was unaware of what had happened.

All the cryptic things she had said at the start—she might as well have just admitted she was hiding something.

...I should have been more relentless in questioning her earlier.

"You knew everything about what the Organization was doing too, didn’t you, Carol?

Call it a gut feeling.

Something about you smells suspicious.

How much did you already know?"

Carol didn’t answer.

Instead, she looked at me with a bitter expression.

"...Are you disappointed in me, Alice?"

"I always knew the Organization would stop at nothing for the sake of humanity.

I didn’t have high expectations, but...

Actually experiencing it firsthand still leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

Carol looked a bit surprised.

I had only said I was disappointed in the Organization.

I hadn’t said I was disappointed in her.

Carol smirked and continued speaking.

"I see. Well, since I don’t want Alice to hate me, I’ll tell you a few things."

"You really are shameless..."

"Oh, so you are mad this time... First, let’s talk about that Machine God."

"..."

I listened carefully.

But Carol hesitated when she saw my expression.

"Ah, wait! I swear I wasn’t hiding anything on purpose.

I only just found out myself after putting in some serious effort!

I swear! Really! Seriously!"

I tried to focus on the conversation, but my expression must have been off, making it seem like I was doubting Carol’s words.

She probably thought I was thinking, "I knew it. She knew all along but kept it hidden."

Carol must have assumed I was furious.

And honestly, she wasn’t wrong.

But I had no intention of blaming her for everything.

To clear up the misunderstanding, I apologized.

"Alright. Just tell me everything.

I know there are things you couldn’t easily talk about, and I don’t want to be selfish about this.

I’m not doubting you.

I’m just... a little angry, that’s all.

Even if you did keep it from me, the fact that you’re telling me now—I appreciate that."

"...Is that so..."

Carol looked at me with complicated emotions in her eyes.

The ones I could clearly identify were affection, guilt, and bitterness.

I didn’t know exactly why she felt that way.

But she was still human, and humans had their own burdens to carry.

Something told me—maybe just a gut feeling—that Carol wasn’t a bad person.

Carol finally began to lay out everything she knew.

"That Machine God is one of the entities our Organization considers highly dangerous.

In other words, it’s one of the Dominators."

I asked Carol about the term Dominator.

"‘Dominator’ doesn’t mean its literal definition, does it?"

"No. Among the countless anomalous entities, the ones classified as Dominators are those with reality-altering abilities strong enough to single-handedly trigger a human extinction scenario.

We call them Dominators."

I furrowed my brows at the mention of such an overwhelming threat.

Then again, I had suspected something like this existed.

If an organization dedicated to protecting humanity existed, then naturally, there would be monsters strong enough to justify its existence.

"Things just got a whole lot more serious all of a sudden."

"The Organization has identified seven Dominators. The Machine God is one of them.

Its objective is control.

To make that easier, it tried to bring the Organization under its grasp."

"...And how exactly did it attempt that?"

"By manipulating the threads of fate.

The Machine God altered the Organization’s destiny, ensuring that, no matter what, an expedition would be sent to the Factory.

And once the expedition was there, it turned them into its representatives, forcing them to play roles in its grand theater."

"..."

"The script changed each time, but the ending was always the same.

At the end of every scenario, the last surviving human would become its follower, bringing the Organization under its rule.

That was the ultimate fate it was rewriting."

"It could turn a staged performance into reality?"

"Exactly.

The experiences the expedition team went through in that ‘play’ had real-world consequences.

If someone was crushed in the play, someone in the Organization would die in an industrial accident.

If a character committed suicide, the Organization would see a sudden rise in depression cases leading to suicides.

Even with fate being rewritten, completely absorbing the Organization into the Machine God’s control wasn’t an easy task.

The Organization suffered massive casualties but managed to hold out... for 66 iterations.

But as the Organization’s fate continued shifting toward total subjugation, a breaking point was near.

That’s when they sent you, Alice."

66 times... They endured that long...

"..."

"Alice?"

"Haah... Alright. The Organization was desperate, too.

I’ll stop being mad. And... thanks for telling me."

"That’s our Alice!

But you absolutely cannot tell anyone else what I just told you. If word gets out, I’m dead.

If you must say something, at least wait until it becomes an official mission."

"Got it."

I fell into deep thought.

How could I defeat that massive enemy?

Conventional monstrosities wouldn’t work on it.

Even powerful ones, like the Radio-Head Horror, had barely any effect.

Which meant...

I might need the power of special monstrosities.

But summoning them wasn’t easy, even for me.

I had to meet strict conditions, and even then, there was no guarantee they would answer my call.

Carol must have noticed my silence because she tapped my shoulder.

"After all that I just told you, shouldn’t I get some kind of reward...?"

"..."

She fidgeted expectantly.

"Kyaa! So soft!"

"..."

I let her squish my cheek as much as she wanted, while I continued thinking.

The Machine God’s chosen ones—they were probably children.

Just as it couldn’t rewrite the fate where I won, it also couldn’t rewrite mine.

But it must have seen the threads of fate connected to me and realized the existence of the children.

I couldn’t watch over them 24/7.

That would turn into an unwinnable war of attrition.

And I had no clear way of directly defeating the Machine God either.

There were too many restrictions when I acted alone.

...I might need cooperation.

I couldn’t trust the Organization.

They were hiding too much.

By the time missing information led to a mistake, it would be too late.

Losing another comrade could not happen again.

If those kids die, I...

...No. I shouldn’t think negatively.

What about borrowing the strength of another faction?

The Machine God mentioned the Story’s Demons.

And I was supposed to be the seventh among them.

Which meant at least six more existed.

What if I found them?

I asked Carol, but even though she knew of some, that information was highly classified.

She was only able to share details about the Machine God because it was already a confirmed enemy, but the Story’s Demons were just as troublesome.

Carol sometimes threw me bits of crucial information, as if favoring me.

But if I pushed too hard, I might ruin our working relationship.

I’ll have to find them myself.

...Damn it. There was no way meeting beings like that would be easy.

Left with no choice, I checked on the children through the mirror, sent them a message to see if anything unusual had happened, and waited for their responses.

Once I got all their replies, I could finally relax.

And then, the next day—

I ran into one of the Story’s Demons in the most ridiculous way possible.

"...Huh? You... Are you a horror game?"

A green-haired boy.

He introduced himself.

"My name’s Jack! If a fairy tale comes to mind, then yeah, that Jack! What’s your name?"

I had never seen this boy before.

But for some reason, a word surfaced in my mind.

Just like he had called me Horror Game.

"Alice. Just Alice. Nice to meet you, Jack."

Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk.

A plant-growing game.