Upon receiving the Constellation's contact, I immediately used the power of the Dream to project my mind to the heavens.
It was a dimension that was never meant to be accessed by mortals, but lately, I had visited so often that it felt incredibly easy to ascend.
Upon arriving in the Constellation’s domain, I noticed the Demon God glaring at me.
She stood there, blocking the path, facing several gods.
[The Dreamteller greets you?]
Behind the Demon God, our Constellation stood hidden.
Fortunately, it seemed nothing had happened yet.
"First off, do you all realize how little respect you have? To visit without any notice? If you want to visit, you should make an appointment or at least send a message. If you show up like this, it’s basically a challenge to fight!"
...
Hearing such words coming from the Demon God, it was hard to believe, but she was known as a warrior even in the heavens.
Her past, tainted by the sin of pride, made it clear to the gods standing before her that they were wary of her.
"Or, would you like to fight right now? Forget your Constellation ranks and let's have a real battle?" The Demon God growled and took a step forward.
Her combative stance made the gods quickly recoil in fear.
The powerful divine and magical energy surrounding her was far stronger than when she had attacked our group before.
Given her ability to easily defeat the combined efforts of the Magitech Engineer and Ren, I doubted these gods would fare any better against her.
The atmosphere began to turn worse as a goddess pushed past the other gods and stepped forward.
"I will apologize first for barging in with so many of us without any prior contact."
The goddess, dressed in a black dress, elegantly made a gesture of apology.
"I had intended to visit slowly, but since this was a matter decided in the gods' council, it had to be handled quickly for the sake of the celestial order."
"[The Lady of the Night]... What is your scheme this time?"
The Demon God narrowed her eyes at the goddess.
It was clear she had faced this goddess many times before.
[The Lady of the Night]?
Among the many gods in the heavens, there were some who were particularly revered on the continent.
The Seven Great Heroes, the Three Great Sages, and the Five Great Lords.
Among our investors, [Sacrifice] Ren and [Lust] Gaizerus belonged to the Heroes.
The Magitech Engineer was considered a Sage, and the Demon God belonged to the Lords.
...Looking at this, it seemed our investors weren’t just ordinary—they had quite the impressive specifications.
Of course, each of them had some flaws, but still.
In any case, [The Lady of the Night] was a goddess belonging to the Five Great Lords.
Unlike the Demon God, she paid a lot of attention to managing her followers, and curiously, her followers were spread across many different races.
She was a significant figure, even in the heavens, where gods were not rare.
If [The Lady of the Night] was here, it made sense that the Demon God was cautious.
"Scheme? Why do you say it like I’ve come to plot something evil?"
"You're...?"
The Demon God’s arm trembled with rage.
I had a feeling that if she exploded now, she might cause a bloodbath, so I quickly jumped between them.
"...?"
"Kid... you."
"Nice to meet you, [The Lady of the Night]. I am currently the representative of the God of Dreams and the director of the current [Akashic Archive]."
"...The director?"
Since I hadn’t used the full power of the Dream, she would likely be able to fully see the dream energy surrounding me.
But that was precisely what I wanted.
My mind, which projected my past self, remained unchanged.
Despite the rougher, more aged appearance compared to the Director of [Akashic Archive], my face still resembled that of the Director enough to make me look credible in this form.
"Kid! You right now—!"
I blocked the Demon God's face with my hand.
"Could you step aside for a moment?"
"What?"
It was sudden, but I needed to be cautious.
This wasn’t just some small incident—[The Lady of the Night] was a god who had come here with more than ten gods accompanying her.
Although I didn’t know her purpose, it was clear that she had gained support from many Constellations through the meeting of gods.
Such a massive action of turning so many gods into enemies in this realm, where discord among gods was prohibited, wasn’t good.
Especially with the need to rely on their power to fight against the Abyss in the long term.
For now, I needed to gather information, calmly assess the situation, and buy some time.
The Demon God was an unfavorable partner for this, especially since being near her seemed to diminish my intelligence.
"Hey! Are you telling me to stay behind?" she growled.
"...Alright? If you insist."
Hesitant, the Demon God returned to our Constellation's side.
Finally, I was able to relax and focus on [The Lady of the Night] who was waiting in front of me.
"Quite impressive."
She smiled, as if she had just witnessed an interesting scene.
"Well, it’s only natural since she’s one of our investors. We’ve been partners for a long time."
"Is that so?"
She stepped a little closer to me.
"I’m starting to get curious about this concept of investors."
The god, radiating powerful divine energy, came so close that I could almost feel her presence. Her warm breath brushed against my neck.
She slowly raised her finger and brought it toward my face.
[The Dreamteller yells, "No!" in distress.]
!!
"Please stop for a moment."
I stepped back.
"Could you please explain the situation? I just heard from the Demon God that something was decided in the gods’ meeting."
"Hmm..."
As I created some distance, [The Lady of the Night] froze for a moment.
After a brief pause, she opened her mouth.
"As you know, your game, [Akashic Archive], is incredibly popular. It’s so captivating that all the races and classes on the continent are completely immersed in it."
Suddenly, an unexpected praise for [Akashic Archive?
"I don’t particularly care for games, but I do appreciate new challenges. However, this time, I can’t offer my support. Your game has caused the order of this continent to be disrupted."
"...What? Disrupted order?"
I expected something about the Abyss or similar topics, but suddenly it was about "order"?
Because of our game?
Has someone committed a crime trying to imitate something in the game?
What does this mean?
"A phenomenon has occurred where the divine power, which should have been distributed among the gods, has concentrated on a few. The original system of divine power has been completely shattered."
"...Ah."
The divine power system.
I immediately understood what she was talking about.
No wonder our investors’ faces have been looking so good lately.
It wasn’t because they had overcome sin; it was because the game had allowed them to acquire more divine power.
"So, a meeting was convened to resolve this emergency, and a decision was made in that meeting. I was elected as the executor to carry out that decision."
A decision made in the gods' meeting.
Could there be anything more terrifying?
Are they going to shut down the game?
Shut down the servers?
What if that’s the decision?
Will I not make money anymore?
Will I be kicked out of the academy, and will our Constellation starve again?
How should I deal with the Abyss?
"What exactly was the decision?"
I couldn’t just ignore the meeting of the gods, especially since I couldn’t turn all the other gods into enemies.
No matter what the decision was, I had to follow it to survive.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.
But I was terrified of what might come out of her mouth.
However, thankfully, the decision she revealed was nothing like I had expected.
It was something I never could have imagined.
"The decision is to have all the gods present in the meeting appear as characters in [Akashic Archive]."
She pointed behind her at the other gods who had been watching us.
"...What?"
I questioned whether I had heard correctly. It was so absurd I doubted my ears.
"The imbalance of divine power occurred because of the game. So, why not make the opportunities in the game fair? The investors you speak of have reached their positions because of [Akashic Archive], so now it's about giving those who haven't had that chance an equal opportunity."
"Uh..."
All the gods appearing in the game?
Are they saying that it's unfair that only a few appeared, so they should all be in it?
How did we arrive at this conclusion?
Wait. This is much better than them saying to shut down the servers.
This is a problem we can actually resolve.
So, do I now have to make all the gods here into characters and have them appear in the game?
Forcefully?
I paused for a moment, thinking about how to lead the game from here.
Then, it hit me.
'...This might actually be a goldmine!'
"If the game is disrupting the order of this continent, then I will follow through. But... surely you don’t expect this to be free, right?"
If this goes well...!
.