I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 788

In her second life, the woman lived as a recluse.

She couldn’t reconcile the stark contrast between her first life and her current one. She was utterly broken.

However, her husband and son cared for her with unwavering devotion.

Thanks to their dedication and tireless efforts, the woman gradually recovered, and in her later years, she was able to once again find peace.

She breathed her last again, surrounded by her loved ones.

“Thank you, dear. Thank you, my son. Because of you both, I truly lived a blessed life……”

Click. Click. Click.

And another regression occurred.

“……”

Again, it was that day.

One summer. The hut where her father had committed suicide by slitting his wrist.

The woman looked into the hut with trembling eyes. She stared at the mountain of records and notes her father had left behind, not averting her gaze.

She realized.

That the task passed down from her ancestors, from her father… was as inescapable as this curse.

Time was endless anyway. Life was infinite.

She left her father’s corpse and slowly walked into the hut.

And she confronted the task of her ancestors that came with the curse.

***

The woman was not exceptionally brilliant, and the research was unforgiving.

She had to spend her entire third life just organizing and understanding the research left by her father and ancestors.

However, there were clear gains. At least, she could now comprehend the research up to this point.

“The Outer Gods forcibly opened the boundaries between life and death, this world and the other, and began to interfere with this world through the gaps in between……”

The gap created in this way was the midpoint between life and death. The other side of the shore.

The ‘Spirit Realm’ [a plane of existence between the living world and the afterlife].

The Outer Gods planted the trees of their chosen races in this artificial space and allowed them to take root.

“This tree has its roots in the Spirit Realm and its trunk in this world, and it transmits the external power received from the Spirit Realm to this world……”

This was the principle of magic.

And the reason why only certain races could use magic.

At this point, the woman had a question.

“Then why did the Outer Gods give the race trees… the guardian trees, only to specific races?”

The answer came from behind.

《Because they are in the middle of a ‘Race War,’ a game of destruction.》

“……?!”

The woman, startled, turned around and saw the Demon King standing there. As always, he wore a sly sneer.

《Congratulations on making it this far. You managed to catch up quite well with that dull brain of yours.》

The Demon King mocked her, but instead of retorting, the woman asked what she was curious about.

“Race War? Game of destruction? What are those?”

《This world was chosen as a playground for the Outer Gods.》

The Demon King readily explained.

《So they created a space called the Spirit Realm and began to interfere with this world based on that space. They started playing with this world in various ways, and one form of that game is the ‘Race War.’》

“……”

《The Outer Gods give power, blessings, and the grace of magic to the races they each favor… and then they watch those chosen races fight, kill, and destroy each other.》

The woman asked, feeling dubious.

“Is that… fun?”

《It is fun. Think about it. Let’s say there’s a hill full of ants here. There are several ant armies in conflict, and you chose one ant army.》

“……”

《You can vividly watch that ant army you support and empower seize control of the hill after a fierce battle. There are few games as fun as this.》

In the face of the games of transcendental beings, the beings of this world were literally no different from ants.

The woman, who was unknowingly trembling, asked.

“Is making my life repeat also one of those games?”

《It seems your brain is finally working. That’s correct.》

The Demon King nodded.

《There is certainly fun in watching tragedies on a race, national, or world scale, but the true taste of tragedy comes from watching the destruction of an individual up close.》

“……”

《You are also one of those targets of tragedy. Your ancestors sold your fate for generations.》

The woman carefully examined the Demon King’s shadowy figure, who was chuckling, and cautiously asked.

“What exactly… are you?”

《I am a ‘Mediator.’》

Unexpectedly, the Demon King answered readily.

《I was once a ‘Spectator’ like those Outer Gods, but this stage full of tragedy was so good that I jumped directly onto the stage myself.》

“……”

《An idle evil that mediates all these tragedies outside the stage.》

She couldn’t understand everything, but the woman vaguely felt it.

《So, please show me an interesting tragedy. A novel and desperate tragedy of your own.》

Powerful, evil, and transcendental.

But for some reason, the being in front of her seemed pitiful.

Those who could only find pleasure in such tragedies…….

For some reason, they seemed pathetic and pitiable.

***

After her fourth life passed, and in her fifth life, the woman was able to master all of her ancestors’ research.

And she was able to theoretically establish the research results that her father had derived at the end.

“If you steal branches from the trees of the four major races, the guardian trees, and graft them together……”

From the writing of her father, stained with madness, to the clear and neat writing of the woman.

She read aloud the conclusion drawn from the completely organized magic theory.

“You can create a guardian tree that is not biased towards any side. And if we register the owner of this guardian tree as our human race……”

This was what the ancestor who first received the ‘curse of regression’ had tried to do.

The only way for the human race, a race too small and insignificant to be chosen by the Outer Gods, to escape their current state of slavery was to steal the flame of magic.

《Do you think that’s possible?》

A sarcastic remark came from behind.

The Demon King, who had appeared unnoticed, was looking over her research from behind her shoulder.

《Each race’s guardian tree is protected under strict guard. They are national treasures that carry the fate of their races, and they are also the core artifacts of the Race War that all the Outer Gods visiting this playground are watching.》

“……”

《How on earth is an ordinary human like you going to steal the branches of such trees?》

The woman smiled bitterly and got up from her desk.

“I can do it. I have endless time.”

《You will surely be broken and defeated. Well, that’s also a pleasure to watch…….》

“And, above all.”

The woman interrupted the Demon King and declared.

“Now I want to do this.”

She had no complaints about her original life.

She was content with living quietly with her loved ones in a small village.

But as she inherited the research passed down from her ancestors and learned about the true nature of this world…….

She opened her eyes to the truth.

The life in this village, which seemed peaceful and happy, was actually a life managed as slaves by other races.

They had been subjected to exploitation, abuse, and treatment like livestock since birth, so they hadn’t thought it was strange.

Once she woke up, everything looked different.

The grain that was taken away every fall, the young people who were conscripted and dragged away to other countries’ wars, and the atrocities of the rulers who came every season to beat and destroy…….

She decided not to watch it with her eyes open any longer.

“I don’t know the difficult parts well… but this is certain.”

She said, as if making a vow, while packing her things.

“I don’t want to pass on a life of slavery to my child.”

《……!》

“I have to go. If I keep knocking, a path will open, won’t it?”

Not from the task inherited from her ancestors, but from her own will.

The Demon King’s expression changed slightly as he watched the woman’s back as she moved without hesitation.

《…….》

The woman packed her things and left the house.

It was then.

“Mom?”

Her son, who had woken up from his sleep, rubbed his sleepy eyes and followed the woman.

“Where are you going?”

“……”

The woman, looking at her young son with complicated eyes, eventually crouched down in front of her son and stroked his head.

“I’m sorry, son.”

“Huh……?”

“But someday you will understand your mother.”

She pushed all the words she wanted to say inside.

The woman forced a smile.

“I’m sure you will.”

And the woman set out on her journey.

It was a long road to steal the flame of magic.

***

The woman failed countless times.

She was hit by arrows while approaching the trees. She was caught in traps when she touched the branches. She was stabbed with spears, tortured, beheaded, and thrown to be eaten by dogs.

Click. Click. Click.

Hundreds of lives were repeated.

The woman changed her approach. She decided to try to gain the favor of the respective races to approach the guardian trees.

It was not easy for a human, a race that was treated as slaves, but she did not give up.

Click. Click. Click.

Hundreds more lives were repeated.

Now, she had succeeded in getting a branch of each race’s guardian tree at least once.

However, there was a limit to what she could do in one life.

From the moment of regression to the moment her life ended, she optimized the path to bring each branch of the guardian trees of each race one by one.

Moreover, she had to establish a way to avoid being tracked even after bringing them, or to evade the trackers.

The journey was arduous, long, and endlessly delayed.

Click. Click. Click.

Again, hundreds of lives.

No, thousands? Or perhaps, tens of thousands?

She had forgotten to record the journal she had always written, and the woman was now moving according to the experience engraved in her body.

A strange desire she herself could not understand burned within her, allowing her to keep fighting without stopping.

《…….》

The Demon King, who had always mocked her from behind.

As she moved forward little by little with indomitable will, he gradually removed the light of mockery from his face. And he began to watch the woman’s journey seriously.

Thus, with the body of an ordinary human.

After countless attempts…….

She finally succeeded in obtaining all four branches of the guardian trees.

Her hair was completely white, and she was so old that she couldn’t straighten her back properly.

Not only her body, but even her soul was so worn out that it was cracking.

But she finally achieved it.

“……”

The woman looked at the four branches gathered in her hand with emotion-filled eyes.

Evergreen, Everblue, Everred, Evergold…….

The evergreen tree of the fairies, the coral of the mermaids, the maple of the beastmen, and the golden branch of the dwarves.

Now, she returned to the lakeside hut, which had become a ruin, and began to create a new tree by grafting these four branches together.

The theory was all perfectly established. It was something she had endlessly verified in her mind while repeating her life.

And,

Flash……!

She succeeded.

The four grafted branches transformed into a single tree, and the woman stared blankly at the transparent sapling in her hand.

《Congratulations.》

The Demon King, who had appeared unnoticed, spoke in a surprisingly mild voice.

《To think you would actually reach this point… I admit it. You have achieved a great feat.》

“……”

《Now, finish what you have been dreaming of.》

The woman slowly infused her will into this tree, which did not bear the light of any race.

And she wished.

“……May my race also have the light of magic……”

Then, the transparent branch, which had no particular characteristics, began to change.

Black color filled it from the inside, and sharp thorns sprouted. The thorns pierced the woman’s hand and drank her blood.

“Ah……!”

The woman exclaimed as she examined the completed human guardian tree.

This was the first birth of the Blackthorn Tree, Everblack.

Hugging the thorny tree in her arms, the woman burst into tears.

“I did it, I did it, Father……”

She had completed the task passed down from her ancestors.

Now, humanity would have the light of magic. They no longer had to live as slaves.

Standing at the end of her journey, the woman smiled happily.

***

However.

As always, the world did not go as planned.

“Witch!”

“Because of you, we are all dead!”

“Execute that woman! We must show our innocence!”

In the center of the village where she was born and raised.

Tied to the execution platform, the woman looked around in bewilderment.

The pile of firewood stacked beneath her feet, the villagers throwing stones at her.

And…….

“……”

She met the gaze of her old son, who was looking at her with a devastated face in the angry crowd, and the woman trembled.

Why.

Why did it turn out like this……?

《Didn’t I tell you countless times?》

The Demon King, standing behind the woman, murmured quietly.

《Your life is destined to be a tragedy…….》