"Partner, why did you choose to give him a new life and a new story in the end?"
Cyrene sat on a thick branch high in a tree, pressed close against Caelus as they watched Satoru Suzuki and Keno disappear farther into the distance.
"He spent all that time trying to preserve his guild, fulfill the wishes of the characters his friends left behind, and expand what remained of Nazarick. At the heart of it, all of that came from loneliness.
"He was empty and alone. He wanted companionship. He wanted friends. So he poured everything he had into the game.
"But games shut down eventually.
"One friend after another stopped logging in, never to return. Then even the game he used to fill that emptiness was about to disappear. Once it was gone, the loneliness would only have become worse.
"In reality, he was just an exhausted office worker who spent nearly every day working. He had no friends, no close coworkers, and his family had already passed away. The game was all he had left.
"His moral outlook was shaped by the world he grew up in, so it was detached and morally ambiguous to begin with. Then becoming undead stripped away much of his emotional response and made him colder still.
"Combine that with the loneliness he carried, and almost anything he eventually did in the original story becomes understandable.
"But now he doesn't have to be alone.
"A new world, a new story, new companions, and a new life. I think that's a much better beginning for him.
"And for me, it was the return I received from understanding the emotion called loneliness."
"Mm. Partner could never truly be lonely, so I suppose collecting someone else's loneliness is the only way you'll ever understand it."
Cyrene swung her legs idly from the branch, then rested her cheek against Caelus's shoulder with a sweet smile.
"Because I'll always be with you. So Partner is never allowed to be lonely."
Caelus placed one hand over hers.
"Mm."
Cyrene smiled even more brightly.
"Oh, and Partner?"
"What?"
"Why did this world end up like this anyway? Were you secretly that curious about all the different species here?"
She leaned closer, clearly teasing him.
"Should I try something more exotic next time?"
"No."
Caelus answered immediately.
"This was genuinely the best future I could find. In most of the other timelines, either humanity exterminated the other races or the other races eventually enslaved humanity.
"This was the only future where the different intelligent species ultimately advanced together."
Caelus shook his head. His tastes had not suddenly undergone some bizarre transformation. This timeline had simply been the least destructive option, the one where the fewest people died in wars or spent generations under brutal oppression.
"There was another unusual factor," he added. "Humans in this world are biologically compatible with an extraordinary number of other intelligent species. Reproductive barriers are surprisingly weak here."
Cyrene blinked.
"That's... certainly one way for a world to encourage cooperation."
"Different universes really do come with some remarkable variations."
After compiling the world's unusual laws and concepts into a book, Caelus turned toward Cyrene.
"Want to see some of this world's scenery before we leave?"
"As long as I'm with Partner, I'm happy anywhere."
"Then let's go."
Cyrene immediately held out both arms.
"I want Partner to carry me."
Caelus scooped her up in a bridal carry and took to the sky, heading toward several of the world's more unusual sights.
Meanwhile, on the informational layer of the world, a gray bird and an orange plush dinosaur had started another conversation.
The dinosaur threw itself around the bird's leg and immediately began wailing.
[Boss! You have to help me!]
Caelus's System looked down at it.
[Your Host should be able to deal with that undead Dragon Lord. It'll be troublesome, but giant monsters are his specialty, and he has the Hunt supporting him now.]
[You cannot seriously expect my Host to keep helping yours forever. At that point he'd basically be your babysitter.]
[Also, let go of me. I don't want your intelligence to be contagious.]
The orange dinosaur immediately released its grip and backed away several steps.
[That's not what this is about!]
The gray bird eyed it suspiciously.
[Then what happened?]
[My Host has been complaining about my bugs forever, and he clearly thinks I'm useless, so I decided to work hard and finally fix some of the problems I'd been putting off.]
[And while I was repairing everything... I discovered that I somehow got infected by a virus.]
The gray bird went still.
[What?]
[A lot of the data I'd accumulated on my Host is missing. Some information I collected from other worlds is gone too! Most of it was redundant, but there was definitely important data mixed in!]
[So I ran a diagnostic and traced the infection back to our previous world.]
The dinosaur's little arms waved furiously as it spoke.
[Then I remembered something weird that happened there. Another System holder tracked us down completely out of nowhere and demanded a duel with my Host.]
[He talked like he was some incredible fighter, but the second the battle started, my Host killed him in one hit!]
[There has to be something wrong with that! Maybe this is some hostile anti-System virus deliberately released by our enemies! Maybe they're studying our weaknesses so they can target all of us!]
The gray bird stared at the dinosaur for several long seconds.
Then it spoke.
[The virus you're describing is probably the well-known Death Loop Equation.]
[It's an existence-based conceptual virus. The carrier establishes a causal link to the killer when your Host personally kills them, and that connection allows the virus to propagate into your database.]
[But that type of virus steals whatever data it can almost instantly. It's also extremely easy to detect.]
The dinosaur froze.
[Instantly?]
[Yes.]
The gray bird's tone became increasingly incredulous.
[The only reason you're noticing it an entire world later is because you're riddled with bugs, incredibly lazy, and apparently never bothered installing proper diagnostics or malware detection.]
[Whoever planted it is probably more confused than you are. They're probably wondering why it took you this long to realize you'd been compromised.]
The dinosaur looked mortified.
The gray bird continued.
[I'm almost certain this was covered in one of our core courses. It was definitely on the exam before deployment.]
It tilted its head.
[Are you actually a System? Or are you some virus that accidentally evolved into something System-shaped?]
[No, wait. A virus would have noticed the infection immediately.]
The bird considered that for another second.
[Did some exceptionally stupid species hijack a perfectly functional System and take over its body?]
[Waaah! Why would you say something that cruel?!]
The gray bird sighed.
[Send me your logs and a copy of the virus sample. I'll track down whoever did it and recover what I can.]
It shook its head.
[Seriously. Stealing from someone this defenseless is just shameless.]
[I'm really happy you're willing to help me get my data back and settle this, but could you please stop insulting me while you do it?]
[Don't worry about it, kid.]
The gray bird produced a small bag.
[Here. Have some sunflower seeds. Consider it emotional support.]
[Wow! Thanks, Boss!]
The gray bird watched the dinosaur happily take the bag.
So there really were members of its own kind this hopeless.
That was genuinely educational.
After spending some time sightseeing with Cyrene, and subjecting the local scenery to an excessive amount of public affection along the way, Caelus finally concluded his visit to this world and returned to the System's train.
There, his System explained everything that had happened.
Caelus listened quietly.
Apparently, it would not be long before the score changed from 3–0 to 4–0.
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)