A conversation, by definition, requires both parties to be awake. So, as the Kaslana sisters drifted off to sleep, the artificial lights in Fuli's room, just a corridor away from the Massive Electric Corp lab, remained on.
The young man was propped up against pillows on his bed, his legs crossed. First, he laid the praise on thick for the big shot supporter, [White Moon Knight], who had been donating to him ever since he started his life as a wage-slave author. Seeing no reply, he opened another chat window.
"Teacher Fufu! Teacher Fufu!"
A group member with the ID [Cairahcs] sent a message: "I've got a new idea, can you see if you think it'll be popular?"
Like the White Moon Knight who had just donated ten golden treasure chests, this girl named Cairahcs had also known Fuli for a long time.
Even longer, in fact—going on two and a half years now.
Back then, Fuli hadn't gone mainstream yet and would occasionally post some... interesting short stories on a certain blue-logo app that wouldn't pass the censors on normal websites.
His writing wasn't great; it was mostly for his own entertainment and... well, for a teenage boy's personal use.
Until one day, a figure appeared in the comments section. That commenter was Cairahcs.
She was the type of girl who was usually quiet and obedient but secretly read some strange things on the side. They were both at that age of budding curiosity, and the veil of the internet allowed them to be quite open with each other.
Occasionally, they would share and complain about things they couldn't talk about in real life. After all, telling a netizen was a great way to relieve stress without worrying about people you knew finding out.
Unfortunately, this platonic friendship didn't last long.
Anyone with experience knows that online friends are extremely fickle.
One day they might be chatting enthusiastically with you, and the next, they're offline for reasons unknown.
Cairahcs was no exception. About a year ago, she posted a "quitting the internet" announcement on her social media feed, and her account went silent.
The reason she gave was that she had finally passed her graduation assessment and joined the combat squad she had always dreamed of, ready to "fight for all that is beautiful in the world."
Until Fuli from the previous timeline experienced the Theater of Domination incident and started over, the girl's avatar had remained gray.
But unexpectedly, after his rebirth...
One day in May, as Fuli was scrolling through a social media app for recipes, he suddenly saw a familiar pixelated snowman avatar flashing on his screen.
"Teacher Fufu! I'm back!"
Along with the message was an adorable, simple-looking panda smiley face.
After asking around, it seemed Cairahcs had been laid off from her combat squad and was now working in a completely safe rear-echelon position.
The probability of her ever returning to the battlefield was almost zero. With no other choice, she had returned to the internet to find some fun in her spare time.
Fuli thought this was a good thing.
He hadn't paid much attention to her declaration when she left the internet in the previous loop. Thinking back now, "fight for all that is beautiful in the world"—wasn't that Schicksal's motto?
And to be able to say it without shame meant she was a front-line Valkyrie.
In the previous loop, she never came back online. Considering the insane casualty rate of Valkyries, Cairahcs had likely met with an accident in some battle.
Now, although she was far from the front lines she yearned for, she was also far from the fires of war and the terror of death.
However, this girl was also the restless type.
Listening to her complaints, her current job was like getting an early taste of retirement: attend a meeting every now and then, cast a vote, and spend the rest of the time acting as a mascot and bonding with her colleagues.
The salary was considerable, but it was undeniably boring.
And when people get bored, they look for things to do.
Like right now—
"Teacher Fufu, Teacher Fufu, I wanted to ask, what if I have a setting where the protagonist can temporarily boost his strength by killing enemies and stealing a portion of their remaining lifespan, but there's a cap on how much lifespan he can store?"
"The protagonist is about to explore a secret realm and is afraid of getting trapped and running out of lifespan. So, he compresses a dozen people into pellet-sized balls, leaves them barely alive, and brings them into the realm with him."
"Whenever he runs out of lifespan, he crushes one like a health potion. Do you think a setting like that could still be popular today?"
In the Schariac mansion at Schicksal HQ, Ana, lying on her bed, finished typing and stared at her phone screen with her rose-pink eyes shining.
Literary Girl[Ana Schariac], making her grand entrance!
The girl, who had become the fifth councilor of the Elder Council at such a young age, was indeed bored out of her mind lately, to the point where she wanted to embark on the thankless path of writing novels.
What's that? Her monthly salary could buy a mansion in downtown New York?
Could the rich kids please not compete with us poor schmucks on the struggling-author track while they're just 'experiencing life' (pointing fingers)?
As for the setting not matching Ana's kind personality—a novel is a novel, and life is life. A harem author doesn't necessarily have a harem in real life, and you don't have to literally refine living people to write a story about it.
Ana waited with bated breath for a long while before the terminal in her hands buzzed.
She first glanced around warily, a half-beat slow to realize she was no longer the assault trooper of the Snow Lotus squad, constantly being disciplined by her captain.
A little disappointed, the girl swiped her screen open and read Teacher Fufu's reply:
"My critique: it would be better to have the protagonist provide these people with food and water and have them voluntarily offer their lifespan."
"Since you're not asking them to earn money, you don't need to pay them a salary."
"They're providing their lifespan voluntarily, their personal freedom is intact, and you're even giving them a way to realize the remaining value of their lives. They should be grateful to you."
"So you can do it like that!"
Ana's eyes lit up. On her nightstand, the double-headed eagle emblem symbolizing the power of the Elder Council glittered.
Meanwhile, on Fuli's end, a small white head suddenly popped up next to him.
After quickly scanning the chat on the screen, Kallen exclaimed, "Whoa, a future lamppost decoration!"
"Your knowledge has gotten a bit eclectic lately. Also, stop popping out of my blankets."
Fuli tried to push the shameless Holy Maiden's head away, but his hand passed right through as expected.
Kallen just giggled and disappeared through the ceiling.
After handling various matters, Fuli saw that it was almost 3 AM.
The boy turned off the lamp, lay down, and closed his eyes, wondering where he was going to get a budget from. Before he knew it, he slowly drifted off to sleep.
Moonlight pierced through the clouds, shining on his bare chest. The Stigmata of the Void, which he had just replicated that day, seemed to sense something and emitted a faint, silvery glow.
...
"Someone..."
"Someone come keep this Queen company..."
"As long as someone comes to keep this Queen company, I'll even let them be my master!"
"Is anyone there? Sob..."
Chaotic, piercing static accompanied by a girl's sobs echoed in Fuli's mind. Lying on the ground, he let out a low "Mmm," frowning and tossing and turning for a long time before his crimson eyes, shining in the darkness, snapped open.
He looked around. It was pure chaos.
Strangely shaped purple substances filled a bizarre space that seemed to stretch on forever, making it impossible to distinguish up from down, left from right.
The only thing he could be sure of was that this place was definitely not the Hyperion.
A dream?
The word entered Fuli's thoughts, and he instinctively recalled that previous "miserable" dream where no amount of resistance worked, and he was exploited from beginning to end.
He gritted his teeth and stood up. He tried and found that he couldn't open the faint Finality system panel, but he could walk, and his abilities were still there.
"Alright, let's see what's going on here."
Drawing the cold, gleaming Shadow Trailing Sword from the void, the boy cautiously lightened his steps. He activated Presence Concealment and slowly advanced toward the only source of light—and sound—in the endless void.
Little did he know that inside the house that was his destination, the lone Queen was on the verge of a complete breakdown.
Five hundred years had passed since she was sealed in this mental space by Mei's super-soldier serum.
For the first hundred years, the Queen's heart was filled with rage.
She swore over and over again that if anyone entered this place, she would torture them to death! She would make them taste despair and madness!
Unfortunately, from beginning to end, not a single person entered...
Another hundred years passed. After binge-watching every anime and reading every novel, the Queen's mentality began to soften.
She felt that indiscriminate violence against all of humanity was perhaps a bit too unsportsmanlike. If she were let out now, she might be willing to negotiate targeting only those insects in Schicksal...
But that Raiden Mei was absolutely unforgivable! To think her other half would betray her! This Queen will definitely blast you to smithereens!
Regrettably, there was still no sign of a living soul...
By the time the third hundred years had passed, after enduring another century of loneliness and helplessness, the Queen actually began to reflect on her past actions.
Having played every game to death, she now only hoped that if someone entered this place—even that naively childish pipsqueak Theresa—as long as she was willing to chat with her, she would join her St. Freya after getting out and help her achieve everything she wanted!
Sadly, the space still contained only the Queen herself...
Another two hundred years went by. Now, having drunk so much happy-otaku-soda that she'd thrown up, the Queen's mentality had changed again.
Simply put, as long as it was alive and could move, whoever came in would be her dad.
And as luck would have it, the Queen had just made that vow.
After five hundred years, as she sat on the bed crying her eyes out, a familiar, clear male voice reached her ears.
"Um, hello?"
"...?"
A snotty, tear-streaked mess, she turned her head to look.
A handsome, black-haired young man holding the Shadow Weaver Sword entered her blurry golden vision.
The Queen froze, blinking.
She confirmed that there was a real person standing there, not another phantom born of her loneliness and cold.
The girl leaped up and, like a certain character from that space-train game using her ultimate, launched herself forward headfirst.
"DAD!!!"
She wailed, tears streaming down her face like they were free.
"Whoa, hold on, lady! What's the deal with you?"
This startling scene of being called "Dad" right off the bat left Fuli completely dumbfounded.
To be honest, when he first saw the nameless white-haired girl sitting on the bed, he had been tempted.
The Herrscher of the Void was, by any measure, a supreme beauty. A slender upper body, delicate collarbones, a strand of silver hair resting on her exposed shoulder. A large white T-shirt with the word[STRONGEST]written on it clung tightly, perfectly showcasing the proud, firm peaks of her chest.
But what really made one's eyes burn were those long, well-proportioned, firm, and fair legs. Not only were they perfectly proportioned, but they were also flawless, especially when accentuated by the girl's tight, short denim hot pants, making her rear look impossibly perky and round.
Fuli's first reaction to this was:
A white-haired, golden-eyed beauty appearing in a dream? Isn't this the heavens taking pity on my pent-up frustration and sending a gift to the fam?
In reality, those two Finality system AIs are reading my data 24/7, but surely you can't see what I get up to in my dreams!
It's just a dream!
In a dream, one should be uninhibited!
With that mindset, the boy was about to transform into a shirt-ripper and ascend Mount Wu with the Queen.
And then he was disgusted.
Generally speaking, anyone who has seen the anime version of KonoSuba, no matter how divinely beautiful Aqua is described in the light novels, no normal person could get off to her fan works.
The Queen was now in that state.
Look! Just look! The snot flying everywhere! The drool dribbling down!
Oh my god, what a way to ruin the image!
The girl's wailing continued for a full three hours. During this time, Fuli's expression went from speechless to disgusted to completely unfazed, his initial excitement long gone.
The Queen, having calmed down, was oblivious to this. She left the boy's embrace, cleared her throat pretentiously, and spouted nonsense with a straight face: "This Queen is the great Spirit of Dreams! Human, you must serve me well!"
Call him Dad? That was the condition when I was alone in this space!
No one else knows besides this Queen. I must establish my authority in front of this human first!
This was not only inheriting Sirin's power of the Void but also inheriting Sirin's inflated ego.
"Queen? It feels like you're taking advantage of me when I call you that."
Fuli shot a sidelong glance at the strange girl who called herself the Spirit of Dreams. "From now on, I'll call you[Quan]."
"Why?"
"Because you were crying like a fountain just now." [T/N: "Quan" (泉) means spring or fountain.]
"Damn you! No!"
The girl's rage trumped everything. The Queen, her dark history brought up, snapped, "This Queen has her own name!"
"What is it? The Spirit of Fountains?"
"It's—"
The Queen froze. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
The name "Sirin" belonged to the Second Herrscher. She and Kiana had only inherited her power, memories, and desire for different possibilities.
K423? That obviously couldn't be used as a proper name.
The Herrscher of the Void?
Even worse. The current Fuli didn't know the specific details of the Queen's seal. In fact, he had no idea that he could enter this place because of the resonance between his Stigmata of the Void and the Queen, the genuine Herrscher of the Void.
If she revealed that, he would 100% run for the hills, and that was something the Queen absolutely could not allow.
"So in the end, this Queen really has to be called Quan?"
The girl, newly christened, murmured to herself.
...