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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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Chapter - 3: Delicious trash
The Gigachad will save the world!
What an utterly ridiculous plan.
The fact that this was the only way to prevent the world’s destruction made it seem all the more ridiculous.
“This plan might be the only way to stop the apocalypse. As much as I hate to admit it, living with the Gigachad these past few weeks has helped me mentally. I even got used to those wriggling muscles.”
Even Kanaria didn’t mock how absurd the plan was.
She didn’t try to drag things out by insisting there must be a better alternative.
She was as wise as she was bold.
She clearly understood the difference between what could be changed and what couldn’t.
She asked the question that was necessary to understand this situation—a question about 'me'.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Huh?”
“If what you said is true, then failure means total annihilation but to me it looks like you’re enjoying all of this.”
“Really?”
I guess I was.
I probably looked like some creepy red-masked ghost from a horror story.
There's no way it wouldn't be fun.
“Okay, imagine if you’ve been sentenced to push a boulder to the top of a mountain forever.”
Sisyphus.
The name that came to mind was the sinner from Greek mythology who was punished by having to roll a boulder to the top of a mountain.
I projected an image into Kanaria’s mind via telepathy.
I telepathically projected the image of Gigachad (feat. Sisyphus) rolling a boulder.
A muscular Gigachad was struggling as he pushed a massive boulder uphill.
Despite the grotesquely twitching muscles.
He kept slipping, stumbling, dropping the rock but he always picked it back and kept going.
The scene sped up like a fast-forwarded video.
The moment the boulder reached the top.
It rolled down the other side.
“The moment you reach the top, the rock rolls down again. You feel empty, miserable, hopeless while walking back down and starting over.”
”You push it again and again. Do you know what happens to a person after doing that a few hundred times?”
“…They go insane?”
“Is that why you’re grinning like a lunatic right now?”
I shook my head.
The image of the Gigachad fiercely pushing his boulder in the background gave her the real answer.
“You become indifferent.”
“...Huh?”
“When the boulder rolls back down, he doesn't feel despair or sadness anymore. He just think ‘I pushed it to the right. Maybe I’ll try left this time.’ Even though it’ll fall from the top no matter what direction he push it… “
“He still looks for even the tiniest difference, rolls it up and starts all over again without feeling a thing.
Not because he has hope…”
“It feels like a waste to throw away all the time he has already put in. So he just keeps going.”
I went through hundreds of game overs, searching for any possibility in Endless that didn’t lead to the world’s destruction.
I tried every single choice.
The total playtime surpassed thousands of hours.
After I passed the 1,000-hour mark, fun and endings stopped mattering a long time ago.
I spent dozens of hours on each run, just to see if I could discover even the smallest new route.
“In the end, he even forgot why he started this punishment in the first place.”
Inside the illusion, the Gigachad didn’t stop.
He kept pushing that boulder, over and over again.
He wasn’t even doing it to save the world anymore.
He was just using it as part of his strength training.
It looked really foolish.
“One day, he gave up on going back down and just sat there at the peak and wondered …”
If it was the weight of the huge boulders that kept pushing up.
Once an impossibly sharp peak now started to flatten.
“Now that he looks at it…”
It had been chipped away.
“He was this close to really giving up this time—”
Gigachad who had been endlessly rolling that rock.
He grinned, proudly flexing his grotesquely massive muscles.
"It suddenly became so much fun……!"
Honestly, I didn’t have much attachment to the idea of living on with this world.
What’s the point of surviving long-term in a world without the internet?
I might as well screw around, act like a wild bastard, and live a flashy life.
With the perks of being a transmigrator, they even gave me an S-rank perk.
I could’ve just gone full isekai cheat mode—set up a harem, play king.
If I’d just gone with one of the safe routes, I probably could’ve lived a few decades in comfort.
There was no reason to obsess over some dumbass, low-probability Gigachad Plan.
“But when you see a new possibility take shape. You have no idea how good it feels.”
At least when it came to ‘Endless’.
I just couldn’t walk away.
Endless is honestly a trash game.
A trash game that only masochists would enjoy.
A game I poured my life into.
It's a really great game for me.
This trash is delicious trash for me.
That’s why I couldn’t let it end as just another crappy game.
“I didn’t even mind the whole ‘end of the world’ thing that much.”
“Even without trying to stop the apocalypse, there’s so much content to enjoy. Becoming a hero to conquer dungeons, becoming a demon lord to manage them."
If you can get thousands of hours of playtime out of a 19,800 won game, wasn’t that a solid return on investment?
There was no game more cost-effective than this one.
To play it for that long and still gets more content just makes you a greedy bastard with no shame.
“I wanted to see it. What those damned triggers would be like if they survived.”
I was the kind of bastard who didn’t just bury his conscience,
I nailed the coffin shut.
Those thousands of hours I’d sunk into Endless had made me this way.
“Kanaria.”
“Yes?”
“You were planning to kill Duke Nosferatu then take your own life, right?”
In the future, Duke Nosferatu was assassinated by a maid and died.
His noble house collapsed soon after.
The maid who assassinated him committed suicide.
That was all the game ever told me about a maid named Kanaria.
She didn’t even have a name in the official lore.
“I’ll make a prediction. You would’ve succeeded. You’d kill the Duke then immediately take your own life. Without a leader, House Nosferatu would crumble. That’s the future I knew.”
But now I know her name, her voice and her past too.
I knew that she was a gold-obsessed money-grubber who couldn’t resist a gold coin.
Duke Nosferatu hadn’t been assassinated by a maid.
He’d passed on the title to his degenerate son.
The maid didn’t kill him and then die.
She became a subordinate of that degenerate son.
It was fun.
I was so high on content that I wanted to dance.
This game is such a goddamn masterpiece.
“So… how about now?”
“……”
“You accomplished your mission even if you needed help to do it. Are you still planning to take your own life?”
“……”
The silence hung in the air, thick in my throat like a lump.
Despite all my rambling, Kanaria stayed calm.
She tapped her cheek with her finger quietly.
She thought carefully and then opened her mouth.
“…If it were me back when I’d just infiltrated the mansion…I would’ve done it. I’d already lost my family, my house…All I had left was revenge. I had no attachment to life. But now…”
Kanaria glanced at the Gigachad, who was still rolling his boulder.
For the first time, she gave a real wide grin.
So wide, her teeth showed.
“Gigachad says that settling for simple revenge is some pussy-ass shit. He said to set your goals high. If you’re going to act, act to save the world at least.”
“And I’ve got a rich employer who promised me gold coins for top-tier service. It’d be a damn waste to die and leave all that money behind.”
That wasn’t me using telepathy.
That was her.
Her real voice, her own decision.
“You’ve changed.”
“Yes. The fucking lion inside me woke up. I think Gigachad changed me.”
- “No, that’s not quite right. I’m a part of you. All I did was give you a small push.”
I can’t change the ending of this world.
The only ending Endless offers is destruction.
This world is as fragile as a coffee-flavored cookie.
Even if I can’t change the world’s ending.
- “You changed yourself. My daughter.”
People can change.
Just like a revenge-obsessed maid who once would’ve ended her life after revenge, now chooses to live instead.
Even the Triggers of Destruction can change.
-“From now on, you can keep changing. Because you hold infinite possibilities.”
All I can do is give that small push.
That’s the role of Gigachad.
.
.
.
After the long conversation.
Kanaria tilted her head as if something had just occurred to her.
“Duke, does that magic of yours work regardless of distance?”
“Yeah. I’ll respect your privacy though, don’t worry.”
For the record, Kanaria starts washing from her head when she bathes.
Then she washes her face, and after that with her right hand, she traces down her neck to scrub under her left armpit and beneath her chest.
How do I know that? That’s a secret.
“So in a card game, could you use your powers to quietly check the other player’s hand for me?”
“...Are you not getting paid enough?”
“You can never have too many friends or gold coins.”
“You’re so consistent, Kanaria. I like that about you.”
“Thank you.”
Yeah.
That’s my Kanaria.
I pulled out a gold coin from my coat and tossed it to her.
She caught it midair with her mouth while flipping like a circus seal or maybe a monkey.
It’s kind of funny… dangerously addictive.
“Duke, what are your plans?”
“My ultimate goal is to reform the Triggers of Destruction through Gigachad. But there’s something I need to do first—”
I thought of a few trash characters from the game.
If left alone, they would press the Destruction Triggers for no reason and end the game without warning.
Players called them the Clickers.
“—I need to remove all those bastards who press the Triggers out of pure curiosity.”
It might seem unfair and tragic from their perspective.
Just like how the player got blindsided in-game.
I’ll make sure they get blindsided and booted out of this life without knowing why!
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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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