Chapter 160 - Ruphas Awakened
Raw link: (2017/02/18)
Translator: twomorefreethoughts / TpstT (2020/04/29)
Editor 1: Hand of Vecna (2020/05/04)
Editor 2: Keii (2020/05/12)
Translation link:
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Notice 1: Previously in chapter 99, I wrote Ruphas's HP at level 3000 as 18 050 000. I made a mistake, it was 1 805 000. It has now been corrected.
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(Author note)
[Summary of last time]
Q: So the Goddess's avatar, Dina, turned out to be actually petent… then, could it be that the Goddess herself is also…
A: Please don't worry. The real Goddess is inpetent.
(Author note end)
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(TLN: Reminder that I/My/Me denoted by "ORE" is used by the Japanese MC because "ore" is used by a male person.
I/My/Me denoted by "YO" is a haughty form, typically used by the "real" Ruphas in her position as the Supreme Ruler/King, but is unmon in real life.
I/My/Me denoted by "WATASHI" is monly used by a female person and in a gender-neutral/polite context.)
Even while Dina published a game in Japan and continued to send information to Ruphas's avatar, she frequently went back to Midgard.
The reason behind this was to observe the Demon King, Orm.
Originally, he was supposed to leave the stage once Ruphas was overthrown. However, for some strange reason, he acted out the farce of beating back the heroes.
As a result, it was only natural for the Goddess to have some misgivings about him. In the end, Dina was given the order to observe the Demon King.
For Dina, who was undertaking activities in Japan, this order turned out to be a miscalculation that she could not feel joyful about.
Even more annoying was the fact that the Sun Ouroboros's avatar developed an ego of its own and started acting as a subordinate of the Goddess.
By this point, Pollux, Parthenos, Taurus and Aquarius had already menced with the act of sealing the ouroboroses. Nevertheless, it was not as if they could pletely keep everything under control.
There were chances that the ouroboroses would whimsically create avatars, and there were also chances that those avatars would have egos of their own.
It was just that the worst-case scenario had e to pass.
In other words, on one hand, Dina had to show that she was properly observing the Demon King, whilst on the other, she needed to hide the fact that she had betrayed the Goddess.
Calling her a double agent… would have been an understatement.
When she was amongst the demons, she had to pletely act as a faithful servant of the Goddess. At the same time, she had to e and go between Japan and Midgard.
Yet there was also a positive side of this miscalculation. Because of it, she was able to meet with the Demon King, who was also rebelling against the Goddess, and establish a cooperative relationship with him so that they could use each other as covers.
Exactly… the Demon King was already aware of Dina's new identity. He was already aware of it, yet he allowed her to continue playing around.
After all, he knew it would profit him more this way.
And on that fateful day…
It was the Goddess's suggestion to implant an alternate ego into Ruphas.
By implanting a random person from Japan, who would have been living in placency due to a long period of peace, Ruphas would bee an entity who would be easier for her to control, turning her into a chess piece for the Goddess.
Yet not even the Goddess could have guessed that Ruphas had long integrated into Japan and hidden herself using a clone.
Ruphas and Dina used this opportunity to their advantage and blatantly copied the memories and ego of Ruphas's avatar, retrieved the fragment of her soul and returned it to Ruphas before bringing her back to Midgard, successfully summoning her back.
In other words, the true identity behind Ruphas at that point was… the real Ruphas herself, who was playing the role of "someone else who was possessing Ruphas".
That was why she showed no hesitation when she needed to fight other people. That was why she did not feel agitated even after taking the lives of others.
It was only natural that she felt no sexual urges towards other women, and the way she spoke was only fixed to how it was because, subconsciously, she did not want to lose sight of herself.
And in the end, roleplaying was roleplaying… as long as there was some external stimulus, the actor would wake up.
For example, I'm sure you've experienced dreams before. In those dreams, have you ever found yourself in a setting which was otherworldly and could not have existed in reality? Or, alternatively, a dream where you became a character in your favourite game or fictional work?
And at that time, did you notice that you were playing the role of that character without feeling out of place?
After you woke up and regained your rationality, you might have asked yourself, "What was that dream? As if something like that is possible." However, even if such a massive turnaround happened afterwards, during the time you were experiencing the dream, you would not have considered the whole situation to be strange in any way. However weird it is, when you are within a dream, you would think of yourself as yourself.
Of course, there are times where you may notice that you are dreaming even while you are within a dream.
Nevertheless, in most cases, you wouldn't recognise that you were inside a dream.
Even if what was happening was such a ridiculous situation that you would instantly know it was a dream if you were awake, you probably wouldn't question it until you actually woke up.
In that case, would you say that the you inside the dream is not yourself?
The answer to that was, again, no. Although you had to unconditionally accept the setting and act all throughout the dream without questioning the situation, you were still yourself.[1]
Ruphas could be said to have been in such a state. Long story short, Ruphas had been dreaming of "someone who took possession of Ruphas".
But in the end, what had happened was analogous to being half-asleep or daydreaming. As a result, by fighting against strong opponents such as Benetnash, she could not help but gradually open her eyes.
At that time, she momentarily woke up fully, but noticing that it was not yet the right time, she forcibly went back to sleep and continued roleplaying.
Yet her sleep had definitely bee lighter, thus, she was returning back to her real self.
All of that was in accordance with Ruphas and Dina's plans. It was in place to deceive the eyes of the Goddess.
For example, if Ruphas had resurrected back on Midgard in her plete state from the beginning, the Goddess would have moved the ouroboroses without even giving her time to gather her allies.
To prevent that from happening, Ruphas needed to purposefully act like a clown.
But that was now over. Now, the Twelve Heavenly Stars had all been gathered and her preparations were plete.
All that remained was for her to remove the obstacles and gain the right to challenge the Goddess.
As such… Dina pletely removed all effects caused by the memory perception skill that she had cast on Ruphas.
*
I woke up from my dreams.
Although it turned out to be quite cliché, the way I (ore) - no, I suppose there isn't any reason for me to continue roleplaying.
The way that I (watashi) am right now feels just right.
I don't have the sensation of having roleplayed as someone else nor do I feel like I’ve bee someone else.
My memories didn't get cut off midway but continued seamlessly. Whether it be before I was sealed, while I was daydreaming or in my current state, all of them are me myself. I had never bee someone else.
I went to sleep at night, had a dream, and in that dream, I played out the role of myself in a slightly different setting without any questions, then I was woken up by someone because it was morning. I suppose it's something like that.
Until now, I was worried that I might be taken over by Ruphas and I would stop being myself, but all of that feels so stupid now.
Now that everything has been unveiled, it turns out that it was all a one-man show that I had been playing by myself. I was roleplaying myself while being terrified of myself.
If I may say so myself, how laughable I was. Truly ical.
"- Ahh… yep. I had a good sleep. It's not every day that I get to experience being so invigorated."
"I'm sure it was. After all, you were sleeping for over two hundred years."
The way that I spoke was no longer fixed as it previously was. Now that I had pletely registered myself as myself, if it was something as measly as the way I spoke, I could change it however I wanted on a whim.
Besides, the way I spoke was like this from the beginning. If I had to pick a point to fix, then it would just be about the first-person pronoun that I used.
"Thanks for everything that you've done until now, Ophiuchus. You did well in fooling everyone and pleting your task in its entirety. I doubt anyone else could have done what you did… Let me express my gratitude."
"Your words are wasted on me."
You did well… Those were the only three words that I had in mind.
Dina had successfully deceived me, successfully deceived the world, successfully deceived the humanoids, successfully deceived the demons and successfully deceived even the Goddess herself.
She managed to feed me information little by little and guided me to the truth by making me doubt her. She managed to prevent the annihilation of the humanoids by manipulating the demon race, and while she was at it, she even managed to evade the supervision of the Sun Ouroboros.
By carefully timing her actions and moving around ostensibly, she was able to make Terra suspicious of her, allowing her to run away from the demon race. This must have been to get away from the watchful eyes of the Sun Ouroboros.
She then matched Pollux's movements and ran away without anyone else suspecting that she would do so at the time, and whilst pretending to lay low, she moved herself to a world where the Goddess was not looking. Finally, after directing me to where she went, she successfully managed to wake me up.
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