hotmtlnovel Chapter 2
Chapter 2
With a command to her apostle, the goddess Ren received a magical device offered as tribute.
The intangible divine energy in her hand lifted the device effortlessly into her grasp.
“What manner of device is this?”
Ordinarily, she wouldn’t spare a glance at the crude creations of mortals in the lower realm. Yet her irritation—and curiosity—about the game that had so brazenly used her name compelled her to act.
Bang! Bang!
She struck the device with her fist, but it refused to respond.
“...A defective product, perhaps.”
Despite its magically enhanced durability, the screen of the device shattered into shards under her blows.
Hours Later
Having smashed five devices to pieces, Ren begrudgingly accepted a sixth one from her apostle.
After enduring a lecture about its proper use, she finally managed to get it working.
“How dare they bring me such humiliation...”
The game itself wasn’t at fault, nor was the scolding from her apostle. Yet she grumbled at the game before activating the program.
Vrrrmmm!
[Dreamstory presents]
White text flashed across a black screen, followed by a logo, then—
Fwoom!
—Ren felt herself enveloped by the power of dreams.
“This is...?”
Her vision shifted so suddenly that Ren blinked in surprise, glancing around her.
A full 360 degrees.
Her entire field of view was swallowed by an infinite black void.
“Virtual reality...”
The level of immersion was stunning. No illusion magic could deceive even a fraction of her divine senses, yet this program overwhelmed her completely.
The technology clearly bore the touch of divine powers, either from a Constellation or an apostle.
“To think another Constellation dared to use my name without permission...”
Her irritation flared.
Perhaps a good smack on the head would set them straight...
Beyond the dark void, countless points of light began to appear, one by one.
A vast universe stretched out before her, filled with an uncountable number of stars.
Even as a Constellation, she had never witnessed such a breathtaking celestial display.
The mesmerizing sight drew her in.
“Perhaps I’ll watch a little longer.”
Though releasing her divine energy would shatter the illusion instantly, she chose to remain and observe.
[Please enter your name.]
A sudden prompt broke the spell.
Her name?
Ren opened her mouth to speak, then stopped herself.
She couldn’t use her true name in a game.
No matter how widely known she was, a god’s true name carried power and could never be used lightly.
“Wendy.”
She selected a name that came to mind, and the screen shifted.
[Welcome, Wendy.]
[This is the Akashic Archive.]
[The repository of all heroic sagas throughout history.]
“Akashic Archive?”
Ren muttered the name instinctively as white text scrolled by, accompanied by a narration.
[Within this Archive lie the spirits and souls of countless heroes who saved the world.]
[You are a candidate to succeed the previous Archive Administrator.]
Vrrrmmm!
The scenery around her spun.
When her vision returned, she saw a pair of indistinct figures—a man and a woman—floating nude and blurry within the void.
[Are you male or female?]
ChooseMaleFemale
A holographic selection screen appeared.
It seemed this was her chance to create an avatar for the game.
Naturally, Ren reached for the female button.
“Are you alright?”
A voice called out.
Through the gore and chaos, Ren saw her.
A radiant knight clad in brilliant armor, cutting a path through the darkness.
It was the hero who saved a kingdom through sacrifice—
The figure before her was none other than her past self—
The Knight Ren, who had ascended to the position of a Constellation following her death.
***
The second day since the game's release.
The concurrent user count had already surpassed 100,000, as tracked by the system.
Word of mouth seemed to spread like wildfire, with the number of players skyrocketing at an alarming rate.
And along with it, the revenue was shooting straight into the stratosphere.
“I’m still hungry for more.”
In this era, even in a fantasy world, the widespread development of magitech meant that nearly every commoner owned a magical device.
With most of the continent as potential customers, there was still plenty of room to grow.
I scrolled through various community forums on my device to check the public sentiment.
"How is this even possible? This isn’t illusion magic, is it?""Our tower master said it’s beyond anything humans could accomplish!"
ᄂ "What then? Did a dragon make it or something?"
ᄂ "Who knows, maybe a Constellation did?""Why doesn’t my Constellation create something like this?"
Given the nature of the virtual reality game, most responses were filled with awe at the immersive experience.
Interestingly, it wasn’t just the game itself garnering attention. The protagonist of the prologue—Knight Ren—was drawing significant praise.
"ᅲᅲ Ren...""Why did Ren have to die at the end?! Bring her back, you monster!""Regularly scheduled Ren Appreciation Hour.""How do I marry Ren? Please tell me."
Despite being just an in-game NPC, the hyper-realistic experience clearly left players deeply impacted by Knight Ren’s story.
As a result, a substantial number of players were spending their currency to obtain the first limited character, [Knight Ren].
“Well, that’s excellent.”
In character-based gacha games, two things drive players to spend: the character’s performance and their charm.
Performance can’t be easily adjusted due to issues with power creep and maintaining balance, but charm? That’s where you can make people fall in love with the characters.
Using a tiered system, I could easily expand beyond [Knight Ren] to introduce variants like [Swimsuit Ren], [Christmas Ren], [Fallen Ren], and even [Constellation Ren].
Choosing [Hero Ren], a widely celebrated figure on the continent, as the star of the first story arc was clearly the right decision.
Not only was she a beloved heroic figure, but her life story had already been immortalized in history books, making it resonate even more with the audience.
...But why wasn’t anyone talking about the Akashic Archive Administrator?
The player character—the guiding mentor within the story and the previous Archive Administrator.
I’d based his appearance loosely on my previous life, refining the features to be more striking. I wanted to make him look just a bit cooler than I had been.
And yet, there wasn’t a single mention of him anywhere.
Everyone was fixated on Knight Ren.
This stung a little.
Should I increase the Administrator’s screen time?
I hovered over the draft for Chapter 1 of the storyline, debating whether to rewrite it.
But I shook my head.
No.
A developer creating a Mary Sue or self-insert character is one of the fastest ways to ruin a game.
With my life—and my Constellation’s very existence—riding on the success of this game, I couldn’t afford to indulge myself.
Ding!
A message notification popped up from my Constellation.
[Emergency! Emergency! cries the Dreamteller in a panic.]
Emergency?
[The Constellation Ren has invaded! shouts the Dreamteller, frantically.]
!!!!
The real-life version of Knight Ren, the Constellation herself, had shown up?
No way.
The infamous Constellation of Slothful Sacrifice?
The one known by her true name, Ren?
One of the seven great heroes embodying the virtues of the continent, her selfless sacrifice had elevated her to the status of a Constellation after death.
Ren was renowned not only as a major deity introduced to children through their earliest heroic tales but also as one of the least active Constellations in existence.
This was precisely why her story was the perfect choice for the game—compelling, heroic, and seemingly safe from interference.
But now, only two days post-launch, she’d come directly to confront my Constellation?
I might be facing the imminent shutdown of the game.