52. Cosmic Romance (1)
Jin-woo moved right away.
He first transported the soldiers he rescued to the Holy Union’s planet, manipulating their memories using Lilith’s power before waking them up.
Surprisingly enough, Latica was among them.
With the help of the Holy Union, he created a narrative where they all escaped from the battle.
Since they were in a deep sleep state due to the cockroach fluids in their bodies, it would take a while before they’d wake up.
Leaving Lilith with Latica and the soldiers, he then moved to Dark Eye, integrating the Dark Star into its orbit and turning it into a satellite. Since they had already done the calculations, it quickly and smoothly settled into its planetary system.
“Is that an update?”
“Oh, that’s pretty cool.”
“It suits the Dark Empire.”
The players’ reactions weren’t bad. The Dark Star had a bizarre shape, but it looked fine from a distance.
It looked especially beautiful at night when it was receiving the light of stars. Its glow romanticized Dark Eye’s city, but the Dark Empire players couldn’t care less.
For some reason, none of them had any relationship with the opposite sex and thought of girlfriends and boyfriends as something out of legends.
“Huh!”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. We all have nice individualistic qualities.”
“Thank you!”
“Even the world lives alone. Unless there’s a good reason to date, then you shouldn’t! Keep that in mind.”
“Yes, master! I won’t let temptations sway me!”
The Two-Handed Swordsman taught Serra multiple things.
It wasn’t just him. Other players also generously looked after her. To them, her existence was akin to that of an idol.
The sight amazed Faro.
“They’re indeed powerful warriors.”
“What do you mean?”
“They overcame their desire for the opposite sex with destruction and faith!”
“How do you know that?”
“I can tell by their scent. They smell of extremely intense solitude.”
“Hmmm…”
Jin-woo nodded.
The Dark Empire players might have been lonely, and their radical acts were simply to garner attention.
‘I heard there’s been a lot of battles these days.’
Due to the constant pillages, the Dark Empire and the Holy Union were in a state of endless war. That was what Jin-woo intended, but these days, it went beyond what he desired and had become intense enough to interfere with their development.
Putting it aside, for now, he introduced Faro and her subordinates to the Golden Women’s Association members since she was already in Dark Eye anyway. Everyone looked at her with admiration. Based on her looks alone, she was definitely beautiful.
Since she modified her appearance to her liking, she was unique compared to the others.
“Are you a fairy?”
“Wow! You’re like a goddess!”
Yoo-na and Luna looked at her with admiration.
Unlike them, however, Arcana tilted her head in shock. She sensed a creepy figure hidden inside her. Fellow emperors could easily detect each other, after all.
Faro bowed to greet her when their eyes met, then pressed a finger against her lips and laughed, gesturing her to be quiet.
“Oh! Hi!”
“It’s been a while, Maze. How are you?”
“Can I ride you again?”
“Sorry. I’m under the Great Emperor’s orders right now…”
“I understand!”
She particularly liked Maze. The two had played in the canyon where they had met for the first time before. Meanwhile, seemingly finding the matter irrelevant, Yeo-young just glanced at her then kept drinking.
At some point, The Heavenly Demon Supreme arrived.
“You’re at the level of emperors, aren’t you? I’m your senior. Nice to meet you…”
The moment she looked at him and smiled, his face turned blue, seemingly having seen a ghost. As his pupils shook wildly, Faro greeted him politely.
“I’ll be in your care, senior.”
“Oh, s-sure.”
“If I make any mistakes or have any shortcomings, please correct me.”
“Oh, no. It’s okay, it’s okay. I don’t have time for that. Hahaha!”
He disappeared in an instant.
If Faro competed with him, he knew he’d receive an overwhelming defeat. He was far too weak to overcome their racial differences.
The Cockroach Queen easily got along with the rest of Jin-woo’s subordinates due to her great personality.
“Wow! Fairies! Awesome. I didn’t think we’d find you in the Sci-Fi World!”
Se-yeon was as brimming with excitement as always. Hee-yeon, watching from the sidelines, seemed a little dazed by her overwhelming appearance as well.
Except for her fellow emperors, they all saw her as a fairy. She didn’t even need to convince them.
‘That’s not important.’
She had a great personality, and that was all that mattered!
At least, Jin-woo thought so. In hindsight, he was the worst being to ever exist, after all.
Slur!
What looked like black blood spewed out of Faro’s feet, seeping through the cracks in the floor and spreading to every corner of the building. The Dark Eye housed many creatures, including mice and lizards, and they often entered this place as well.
Squeak!
From the floor emerged a thorn, striking down a mouse and absorbing it into the ground.
Much to Arcana’s surprise, it turned into a small insect then permeated into the dark.
Faro was still smiling.
The atmosphere was better than ever. Only The Heavenly Demon Supreme was trembling in the corner.
* * *
When Jin-woo told Se-yeon about the Dark Star, she instantly liked it. She even immediately chatted with Darky to download information. The other professors were almost ecstatic as well, spending day and night analyzing the Delox Empire’s technology.
With Darky’s technical support, G&P’s technology began to develop by leaps and bounds.
‘The Sci-Fi World is pretty safe now.’
The Machine Emperor’s remnants were annoying, but the Cockroach clans kept a close eye on it, so it should be fine.
After its existence disappeared, the Dark Empire filled in its place. After all, if their common enemy suddenly disappeared, another war might occur.
Judging from the universe’s history, it was an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. However, it was actually rather peaceful.
The small-scale conflicts in the Lainez Kingdom and Space Federation’s realms also died down because of the Dark Empire and their common enemy: the cockroaches.
“We bring forth destruction!”
“Behind obliteration, a beautiful green regeneration awaits!”
“To the purification of the galaxy!”
The Dark Empire players became more and more intense day by day.
They even entered the Holy Union’s territory and plundered them. They didn’t even loot them. They just destroyed everything in their path, including battleships and buildings.
“Those disgusting elves stole from us again.”
“The Guild Union says it’s going to be an all-out war.”
“They really need to be wiped out.”
Even the Holy Union players’ opinions were leaning towards strife. It was bound to happen, but it shouldn’t be this soon.
Neither factions were ready for large-scale bloodshed yet. In their current state, their losses would outweigh their gains.
‘But I can’t force them to stop…’
Subjecting people’s freedom under force didn’t suit the New World. On the contrary, doing so would more likely just worsen the situation.
Deep in thought, Faro approached him.
“Great Emperor. I have something to tell you.”
He turned to look at her.
“Our clan’s reproduction rate is too fast. It needs to be controlled.”
“Can’t you control it?”
“It’s not something that can be structurally manipulated.”
Jin-woo understood. With his power of domination, he instilled in them the will to eat and reproduce when creating cockroaches. Since they were born that way, they couldn’t arbitrarily suppress reproduction.
The Cockroach clan was capable of self-reproduction through eating. It didn’t even matter what their gender was.
It was fine for now, but the entire galaxy would be filled with their kind eventually.
‘There’s always something to worry about.’
He already had the Machine Emperor problem to deal with, and now another one had popped up.
He blamed it all on his karma.
However, he couldn’t just kill off the Cockroach clan.
All of them were intelligent life forms. And above all, they were his subordinates.
“I had a conversation with Darky and found a solution.”
“What?”
“We came up with a reproduction suppression method using evolution and a large amount of biometric information. The most optimal target for it would be humans.”
As she said, evolving all the cockroaches required a large amount of human biometric information and the most effective way to extract it was to eat its source. However, he couldn’t even consider that option since Faro was reluctant to do it.
“It might be possible to collect enough by sticking to them for a long time, absorbing their dead skin cells or hair. Maybe even saliva, which would be even better.”
“It can’t be avatars, can it?”
“Probably not, since they’re basically just dolls…”
“Hmm…”
“Sorry.”
He shook his head.
It wasn’t her fault. Jin-woo fell in thought for a moment.
‘War… Naturally suppressing players… Biometric information… Wouldn’t it be great if I could solve all of them at once?’
Laughing bitterly, he remembered something.
“New World: Romance…”
It was just a plan he came up with because he thought it would be fun.
Having their own lover!
That would cause players’ attention to divert to the New World Universe’s new features, and it would also make it possible to obtain a large amount of biometric information. In such a situation, there were many ways to plausibly deceive them.
‘Would it be okay?’
The problem was the Cockroach clan’s will.
Jin-woo informed Faro of the plan he had envisioned. Luckily, she immediately agreed to it.
“Alright. I have information on 173 million dating simulation games. I’ve converted it all into bio information with Darky’s help.”
“That many?”
“Yes, it has various genres. Pure love, depravity, science fiction, horror, weak maturity, strong maturity, severe and violent maturity…”
“I see.”
Wondering what the others were, he decided to explore them secretly next time.
“Then let’s do that.”
“Alright. Thank you.”
If all went according to plan, the Dark Empire players would grow quiet for a while since their loneliness would be comforted.
By cockroaches, of course.
“Well, they wouldn’t even know.”
“That’s really nice to hear.”
It didn’t seem like it would matter.
* * *
Jin-woo thought about how he’d implement it until he finally decided to use the concept of a new expansion for the New World Universe.
With it, they would be able to date and act with NPCs like real lovers, and from there, he’d extend its reach to reality.
That was important.
He thought of adding a setting in both The New World and reality where fairies could visit a player’s residence through hologram devices. Since they were small, such a concept should be fine. G&P had already introduced a hologram for it that simulated the sense of touch, too.
‘They’re already used to NPCs, so they should accept it fairly well.’
Their company had done so many incredible things that had gone beyond common sense. Hologram TV, virtual reality indistinguishable from reality, and batteries that didn’t need to be replaced for three years, and more. They had given the world a lot of surprises. If it were marketed as their latest technology, Nobody would find it strange.
As soon as they heard Jin-woo’s plan, all the researchers gathered and began its creation and development. Se-yeon was the most active among them, but Prof. Kim Dae-jin and the others also worked enthusiastically.
When they found out about the Cockroach clan, they became even more enthusiastic. It was an utterly evil conspiracy, after all!
Faro and Darky stayed in the lab to help as well, contributing greatly to its progress. In doing so, it didn’t take long for the results to come out. When Jin-woo came to the Dark Eye’s lab, Se-yeon and Prof. Kim Dae-jin immediately ran to him.
The two were still wearing the uniforms of the Dark Empire.
“Your Majesty! You’ve finally arrived!”
“He’ll show you what we’ve made so far.”
Prof. Dae-jin, already well-known among the Dark Empire, brought forth a round device that functioned so well it wouldn’t be strange to release it right away.
He began his presentation.
“This is an incubator with a fairy connector.”
“Incubator?”
“Yes. Hehehehe. It’s also how people would first meet the cockroach fairies.”
Faro approached them, bowed politely, and took an egg from her bosom.
He looked at it in ecstasy.
“She compressed a gigantic and beautiful creature into an egg like this! Oh! Look at how majestic its appearance is!” Prof. Kim Dae-jin had already become one with the concept of the Dark Empire’s Mad Scientist.
Receiving the egg from Faro, he hastily placed it in the incubator.
“For a week, it’ll fully grasp the user’s tendencies and personality, allowing them to hatch in their most optimal form! Combining that knowledge with 173 million pieces of information, the perfect lover for the player is born!”
“I see. But does it really need to take a week?”
Se-yeon, standing next to Jin-woo, nodded strongly.
“Can you imagine how eagerly they’d wait?! I want to see people suffering from anxiety for an entire week!”
“… Okay.”
When they activated the hatching device, the cockroach egg, no, the fairy egg broke, and a beautiful fairy appeared.
Since fairies were fixed-term rentals, anyone that would try to break or disassemble them would be charged with a huge penalty. Even if they did, considering not even particle beams could damage the cockroaches, there was no need to worry about damages.
The cockroach fairy greeted him with a broad smile, falling as she attempted to reach his desk.
It was set up to be a little clumsy. When she got up again and climbed onto the incubator, she disappeared inside.
Whenever players went into The New World, the cockroaches could also appear in the game for as long as they entered through the connector attached to the incubator.
A self-destruct feature was also installed in case of tampering or damage.
“We need your help on this part.”
“Well, we have Darky, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Jin-woo had to help with dimension-related matters. Still, with the power of domination, the Magic Eye of Information, the Dark Star, and the Sanctuary, he knew he wouldn’t have trouble with it.
It might take some time, but that wouldn’t be a problem.
Prof. Kim Dae-jin showed them the holographic device.
“If you install this in your home or anywhere you prefer and activate it…”
It emitted a beam of light when he pressed its connector. Soon enough, with a halo, the fairy appeared in perfect human form.
She seemed a bit translucent, like a hologram.
“It can actually be better, but that’s because we need to make them look holographic. With the Demon Realm’s technology, you won’t have to worry about being found out.”
It was a hologram, but not an ordinary one. Rather, it was tactile and made of artifacts! It did have plenty of restrictions, though.
“For Another Earth’s version, we’re only going to use the holographic form. Of course, it’s still possible to clone heroines in cartoons and games.”
“That’s great to hear.”
“One cockroach per person! That’s our noble goal!”
Hearing Prof Kim Dae-jin’s words, Faro nodded.
“I think we can become quite good partners with humans. Our species loves your kind quite a lot.”
“… Right.”
They could finally come out to Earth and meet in person after living in the form of a fairy in The New World with the players, which was why it would’ve been stranger if the two races’ affection didn’t build up. Under certain conditions, they could even become human as well.
‘This is amazing, considering it was made in a hurry.’
Everyone looked at Jin-woo, who simply nodded.
“Alright. Let’s test it.”
That was the only way to determine its shortcomings, after all.
The cockroach attack on Earth had begun.
And they had already identified some good testers.
* * *
The Two-Handed Swordsman was single.
Deceived by his friend, he no longer thought about finding a lover since he had lost hope. He lived with that notion until he reached 40 years old.
He was now a celebrity thanks to The New World, allowing him to live in comfort. Since he started playing it, his quality of life gradually improved, but the more it did, the lonelier he felt.
The New World was all he had. Outside of it, he had no family or friends.
He wasn’t alone when playing it, which was why he felt euphoric whenever he broke the weak Holy Union bastards. Still, logging out and returning to reality immediately reminded him of his largest problem.
Locking himself in a dark room filled with terrifying silence, he never even changed the curtains on his windows. His daily routine only consisted of eating cold rice and going back into the game. Broadcasting elevated a bit of his loneliness, but it never did go away completely.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he went out.
After ordering food to be delivered, he sat down on the bed. He stayed in that state for a while until he received a text. He thought it was just an , which caused him an even greater surprise when he found out it was from G&P.
[Two-Handed Swordsman,
New World: Romance has been released, and you are invited to its beta test. Would you like to participate?]
It didn’t matter what it was. For as long as it was related to New World, he knew he needed to partake in it no matter what.
Was it a new expansion?
Pondering about it, he replied to tell them he’d join in.
Ding Dong!
‘Did the food delivery already arrive?’
Opening the door, he found a man in a suit standing beyond it, carrying a large box.
“How are you, Two-Handed Swordsman? I am Kim Woon-jong, the team leader of New World: Romance. Thank you so much for participating in the beta test.”
“Ah… Yes.”
“The user manual is enclosed inside. All you have to do is follow its instructions. I hope you have a great time.”
Kim Woon-jong passed the box he was carrying and disappeared.
Tilting his head, Two-Handed Swordsman opened the box, finding a large egg and a round object in it.
At first, he thought it was just a speaker, but its design was so sophisticated it could even be used as a luxury decoration.
He read through the manual.
‘Put the egg in the incubator, and a fairy will come out after a week?’
It didn’t make any sense.
[Please talk to the fairy egg kindly! It will remember how you treat it.]
That line was also included in the instructions.
He shook his head with a grin. Still, since it was from G&P, he set up the incubator and inserted the egg in it.
As soon as he turned it on, it emitted a soft and cozy light that felt magnetizing to look at.
“Even if it’s G&P…”
Hatching fairies should be impossible.
Smiling once more, he connected back to The New World, the egg squirming as he accessed it. At that moment, the cockroaches in his house began to disappear.
A week passed.
“Huh?”
The Two-Handed Swordsman came out of the bathroom and looked at his egg, only to find it starting to crack!
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