Chapter 22 (2/2): “Observer”

Hah, I thought gods were all-knowing and all-powerful.

So you have your limits, huh?

“…You are indeed interesting, human.”

Even after being openly mocked by Allen, the girl’s expression and voice remained unchanged, as if stating an objective fact.

“But I’m tired of you humans. You bore me.”

“Do you really think that forcibly halting civilization’s progress can let you escape the ‘test’?”

Allen’s pupils shrank sharply!

Damn!

My theory about the Church was right?!

The Church locked down technology to avoid disaster?!

But judging by this girl’s tone…

She planned to abandon the ecological bottle housing human civilization?!

He suddenly remembered the Church storyline’s ending—

“Her gaze finally fell on this planet, and humanity was destroyed.”

So “She” was this very being!

Humanity was truly doomed!

Allen’s mind buzzed, and he felt dumbfounded.

Are you kidding me?!

How could you expect me to be some damn savior?!

Do I look like the protagonist who can go toe-to-toe with Evil Gods?

I’m just a minor villain—what right do I have to carry the lives of hundreds of millions on this planet?

No wonder in Cthulhu Mythos, the more you know, the crazier you go.

Facing “ancient gods” head-on, Allen’s sanity points were about to hit zero!

“Fine, fine, I get it.”

Allen gritted his teeth, his soul trembling.

“You mean I won’t get any cheat power, and I have to save humanity by myself? What happens if I get lucky and actually chase those pests away?”

“I will postpone my ‘test,’” the girl said lightly.

“Of course, for me, that’s only a fleeting moment.”

“How long is your fleeting moment?”

Allen didn’t care about her riddles—he needed concrete numbers!

“By your human reckoning, about 50 Earth years.”

Earth years?!

Allen was struck like lightning!

Earth?!

She knew Earth?!

Wasn’t Starshine Serenade set in a fictional world?!

Didn’t I transmigrate into a game world…?

Or did I transmigrate into the far future?

Could Earth be the paradise destroyed in the Scripture?!

What kind of interstellar joke was this?!

“You plan to do something interesting, that’s good,” the girl ignored Allen’s collapsing expression and added, “But I dislike your humans’ past apathy. So I just deleted your database, so you can understand that the meaning of life is exploration.”

“Huh?!!!”

Allen was utterly desperate, his voice breaking, “You only give us half a century, and you want us to start from the Middle Ages and climb the technology tree all over again?!”

It’s over!

All over!

Allen was about to hitch a ride on the Church’s black tech for salvation, and now you tell me the tech tree is gone?!

What’s the point?!

How am I supposed to fight the Evil Gods?

With my head?

Livia can kill me with one sword!

Damn it, just destroy everything already.

If anyone wants to play savior, go ahead—this young master quits!

A salted fish has dignity too!

“I’m leaving now.”

The girl seemed to feel she had said all she needed.

“Eh? Wait!”

Allen panicked.

Please don’t go, great one! I still have questions!

“I expect a surprise from you humans when I return.”

The girl’s figure began to blur.

“Who are you? You can at least tell me that, right?”

Allen shouted.

“Observer.”

For the first time, a faint smile appeared on the girl’s face.

“That is what the Galactic Civilization calls me.”

Galactic Civilization?!

Before Allen could recover from the shock, the starry sea in front of him shattered like a mirror!

“…”

A sickly sweet voice with a disturbing twisted undertone hissed like a serpent’s tongue beside Allen’s ear.

“Master…how can you be chatting so happily with other women?”

The owner of the voice wore a sickly sweet smile, almost pathological.

“Bad master…needs to be punished…”

Allen whipped his head around!

Marianne, his Personal Maid, was kneeling beside him without him noticing.

The morning light outlined her delicate profile.

What should have been an innocent, pure beauty now showed a twisted expression, and in her slender hand, she tightly gripped a dagger!

“Chatting happily? You mean I almost pissed myself out of fear! Where’s the happy?!”

Allen, already full of rage and despair, couldn’t help but laugh bitterly when he saw Marianne’s yandere look!

“Although I guessed you were probably the Marianne from my dreams, don’t pull this crap on me!”

Allen yelled irritably.

“If you want to be yandere, go be yandere in Livia’s dream! I’m about to lose all my sanity—can you let me have some peace?!”

“Eh?”

Marianne tilted her head, her hollow gaze fixed on his face, her smile growing brighter yet utterly cold.

“I don’t understand your words, Master.”

She slowly raised the dagger, its sharp tip aimed at Allen’s heart, and whispered tenderly as if to a lover: “I want to carve my name into your heart!”

Here it comes!

Allen’s vision went black as he was dragged into a sticky, bloodstained darkness!

He could clearly “feel” cold metal piercing under his ribs, then a second, a third stab…sharp pain mixed with suffocation flooded over him.

“Hey hey hey! Didn’t you learn from the Church how to take out hearts properly? Come here! Fourth intercostal space on the left chest, got it? You have to be quick and precise!”

Allen absurdly shouted in his dream, even beginning to “guide” Marianne hand-in-hand on how to carve his heart efficiently.

“Hehe…”

Marianne’s deranged laughter echoed in the darkness.

“If you die, we can be together forever…”

“Alright, alright, together then.”

Allen gave up completely, too lazy to resist.

“Anyway, we’re all going to die. That ‘Observer’ who treats humans like ants is going to destroy the world, and I’m powerless. Why should I save these damned humans…”

The nightmare vanished.

Allen suddenly opened his eyes, drenched in cold sweat, a heavy stone pressing on his chest.

He gasped for air, his heart pounding as if about to burst from his ribcage.

He could understand the Observer’s communication in his dream.

As a fragile human, just seeing her true form would probably drive him insane.

But what about Marianne?

Why did I dream of her as a yandere?

Although in the original Starshine Serenade work, she was indeed that kind of character.

But I don’t ship that!

What would Freud and Lacan say about this symptom?

Is it my guilt toward Marianne manifesting twistedly in my subconscious, or has my XP system crashed from stress?

Just as Allen was trying to sort out this mess, a clear and heavy fact pressed on his senses—

There really was weight on his chest!

And he was struggling to breathe!

Allen stiffened and slowly lowered his head.

The culprit was right before his eyes!

Marianne, his Personal Maid, was sitting right on his chest with no shame!

The small figure of the black-haired beauty perfectly explained the suffocating sensation in his dream and the real difficulty breathing!

She lowered her head slightly, the soft morning light streaming through the curtain cracks outlining her focused profile and long eyelashes, as if admiring something interesting.

“So that’s what’s going on!!!”

Allen’s roar shattered the morning silence, hoarse with disbelief and relief.

“Marianne! Get off me! Are you trying to murder this young master?!”

Marianne was startled by the roar, trembling slightly as she raised her head.

When her gaze met Allen’s eyes burning with anger and shock, she instinctively covered her chest with both hands, then her face bloomed into an incredibly bright yet shy smile: “Good morning, brother.”

Brother?!

Allen had maintained his rationality throughout his confrontation with the exalted “Observer.”

Only this word—“brother”—made his reason instantly shatter.

Tears poured down Allen’s face.

What the hell is this…

What “Observer,” what Evil God, what human extinction countdown…

Now there’s a sudden inexplicable “little sister maid”?!

Come on!

This world I’m in isn’t some otome game where a little romance can save the world!

This is an absurd, bizarre, dark, cosmic horror show!

Please, can you take this seriously?

Why do I have to face this terrifying darkness alone?

Just because I’m the ultimate villain?

“Waaaahhh!!”

Allen collapsed, howling in despair.

“I can’t take it anymore! Really can’t! Why is my life so unlucky?! Lord! What kind of hell is this?! I want to go back to Earth, my hometown! Please, let me go home!”

“Leave the responsibility of saving humanity to Livia, the overpowered phoenix, okay?!”