It's normal for an evil god to raise an Abyss.

Rick is no longer able to do this, he has reached his limit. ——Kron warned himself and made up his mind.

I can no longer rely on my brother and let him carry such a heavy burden.

"Rick, just take a rest, okay? I'll take over from now on..."

"Hubby, did you hear the verbal agreement?"

"Not a single word... left out..."

Rick raised his head cheerfully, with a cunning smile instead of a sad expression on his face.

"Hey, I say...Brother Rick?"

Perhaps it was a woman's intuition, but Kelong seemed to realize that she had fallen into a trap and subconsciously took a step back.

But Rick would not let her escape so easily. He held Kron's hand tightly, causing her to let out a cute cry of "Ah~!"

"So, from today on, you will be the leader of the settlement. I'm counting on you~"

"Ah?...Huh?...Eh?" Kelong seemed to have not recovered from his shock yet.

With a smile on his face, Rick handed the map to Kron, straightened his back and stood up.

"That's the location of the new settlement. As long as we go through the acupuncture points there, we'll be safe. Although it's a bit messy, we can live there immediately after a little cleaning. It was with this in mind that I decided what to take with me when I escaped."

Rick said this and exchanged glances with Hubie beside him.

Seeing Rick and Hubie walking in the opposite direction with a frivolous look on their faces, Kron, who had finally recovered from his brain crash, shouted:

“Wait a minute, Riku! Without you, neither I nor the village will be able to survive—!”

Kron believed that without Rick, no one in the settlement could replace him.

"No, there won't be any problem if Kelong is here."

"……what?"

"Don't worry, I will contact you at the right time. If it is Kelong, I can leave everyone to you without any worries."

"Rick—what on earth do you want to do—?"

Looking at the figure gradually moving away, Kelong asked loudly.

The one who turned around and looked at her was Riku from their [first encounter] — the boy with unfathomable heat in his eyes.

The [Lock] of his soul had disappeared at some point.

The answer that Kron received was something that the original Riku, who was both innocent and bold, and full of endless fiery will, could say:

"It's just a game. What I'm going to do next is a game like a child's."

-------------------------------------

The conflict between the Dragon and Dwarf fleets ended, but there were no winners in this war, or rather, there were only losers.

"A bunch of rubbish! Not only did you suffer such a severe defeat, but you don't even know the identity of the enemy! What do you do for a living?"

A goblin commander read the battle report and threw it aside, thinking it was too absurd and unnecessary to read, and cursed his subordinates in the goblin language.

"I'm sorry, sir. With the equipment we carry, we are completely unable to detect the other party's race."

The goblin subordinate spoke in a humble tone, trembling slightly to express his fear.

"What a bunch of good-for-nothings, get out of here." The goblin leader waved his hand impatiently.

"Yes...!" The subordinates answered repeatedly and left the room as if they had been pardoned.

The most incredible part of the casually discarded battle report appeared at the end.

When the battle between the Dwarf fleet and the Dragon fleet reached a white-hot stage, a "shadow" directly joined the battlefield.

"Shadow", yes, that's right, this is the only way to describe "Him". No matter the instruments on the Dragon or Goblin fleets, they are unable to identify the other's race. The information they can get is always unknown, and that humanoid figure is like darkness that can absorb all light.

The "shadow" seemed to be holding a "knife", but we could only guess so from the outline because it was also pure black and only the outline looked like a sword.

Then, the most frightening thing happened. The figure refused all communication and just waved his weapon. The crystallization of countless goblin craftsmen - a goblin warship was cut into several pieces like butter.

Before the panic of the goblins subsided, the blade of disaster slashed towards the next battleship.

In just one minute, an entire fleet of Dwarvens was destroyed by this [Shadow].

The Dwarfs didn't even have time to come up with an effective response before they fell from the sky to the ground.

Next is the dragon spirit species. The dragon spirit species has always been proud of its strength. Although its number is small, its dragon spirit language which can be called the "Spirit of Words" and its body related to time and space are enough to make it invincible against most enemies.

The [Shadow] defeated the Dragon Spirit with only six strikes, one minute, six strikes. The Dragon Spirit's ability to interfere with time and space seemed to be ineffective in front of Him. With just one strike, a Dragon Spirit was seriously injured. After six strikes, no Dragon Spirit was flying in the sky anymore.

That [Shadow] defeated both sides of the battle by himself, and just disappeared without a single blow. If it weren't for the mess on the battlefield, one would even doubt whether he had been there.

It seemed that He did not want to kill, but rather that He was a warning to wage war here from some mysterious force whose peace had been disturbed.

Death God, I don't know when or where this name came from. A tangible power that can communicate can only make people fear, not dread; but what He showed, without any communication, without knowing any information about Him, without knowing any of His purpose, and even without knowing His limit, is like the materialization of a natural disaster, which is enough to make people fear. His mercy is like the mercy of Death God.

Of course, all races would naturally not believe in the so-called mysterious power, and would rather believe that this is a test of a new weapon by a certain race.

It only takes one strike to seriously injure a dragon-type creature and easily destroy an entire goblin fleet. If it were a weapon from another race, it would be a considerable threat.

Especially the injured Dragon and Dwarf species, they could not swallow this humiliation and vowed to make this [Shadow] pay the price in blood.

But it was obvious that no race knew what it was, and thus a new round of suspicion between races began.

Chapter 84 We Are Ghosts

In a cave far away from the new settlement.

In the simply built secret base, people who were apparently "confirmed" to have died in the previous conflict between the Dragon and Dwarf species, including Riku and Hubie, a total of 179 [ghosts], were gathered around a simple round table.

[Ghost Leader]——Rik looked around at everyone and spoke slowly:

"[The final battle will come one day], I have decided not to wait for this [impossible future]."

Everyone looked at each other in silence. Rick continued speaking in a strong tone:

"How long will we have to run for our lives in this hopeless world? Are we just going to pray for the end of the war? Who are we praying to?!"

Rick took a deep breath and then poured out the words he had always wanted to say but could never get out.

“To those destroyers who claim to be gods?! Or to the heavens who can’t even stop them?! In this damn world, we will live in disgrace until the war is over, and then what?! What after that?!”

Rick waved his hands exaggeratedly, and shouted as if to vent all his emotions:

"I heard that they are fighting for the throne of the only God. So, no matter who wins in the end, can we expect that bastard to bring a better future than the present? Can we?!"

Rick changed his tone, lowered his voice, and said in a cold tone:

"It's about time we admit it. This world is a garbage world. There's no hope in waiting."

The ghosts lowered their heads in response to this fact that they had long been aware of, but which would cause their souls to collapse if they admitted it.

As they all showed sorrowful expressions, Riku spoke again:

“So, the so-called [hope] can only be created by our own hands.”

After hearing Riku's powerful statement, everyone lowered their heads and looked at him again.

"There is one method, which is enough to be called insane and crazy behavior. If we think in common sense, it can be called arrogant talk."

"We are [ghosts] - people that no one cares about and no one will pay attention to."

“We are [ghosts]—even if no one agrees, we are still the ones who inherit the legacy and move forward with our will.”

"It's proof that we're still here, proof that the world hasn't ended."

Rick regained his composure, his face tense.

"Stop being so smart and admit it, we humans are stupid creatures. So, fight!"

The decisive words were not "fight", but "fight".

Feeling the passion in Riku's words, the 177 people all focused their attention on him. Riku smiled slightly.

"Yes, we must fight. No matter who the enemy is that stands in our way, we must make use of our strength - that is, [stupidity]; we are [ghosts], deceiving them all and getting ahead of them; we are the weak, using all kinds of strategies, not hesitating to abandon shame and honor."

"Even if being flattered is mean, praised as scum, and praised as vile, we will - win the final victory!"

"That is the only and final victory that can turn all the [defeats] that have been repeated endlessly until now into meaningful defeats, thereby writing off all the losses."

In silence, Rick was thinking about what others were thinking.

The opponent that Rick wanted to fight against was the one who had destroyed humanity and civilization several times.

If they wish, they can turn mountains into valleys, turn oceans into land, and even shatter planets.

The feeling that enveloped the room was laughter. When everyone was dumbfounded and laughed, Rick also laughed.

"Yes, we have to challenge those monsters and win. This is so stupid and absurd, but it makes people laugh, right?"

Yes, of course I want to laugh, how can this not make people laugh? And this is exactly——

"This is the proof of our existence, the foolish proof, our last chance to exist. The end of the war, that is the only victory we have to win."

End the eternal war of gods as a human.

Seeing Rick speak so confidently, the other 177 people, no, even Hubie next to him, opened their eyes wide.

"As for the victory conditions, even if I were to be conservative, they are still incredibly difficult..."

However, Riku looked at the condition with a smile like a child who had succeeded in a prank, and then he remembered -

When I was a child, I thought the world was simple.

There is no game that cannot be won, hard work will be rewarded, and nothing is impossible.

The thoughts of an ignorant and foolish child who knows nothing and looks at the world with pure and innocent eyes -

[This world is indeed a simple game. ]

The idea at that time was not wrong, it was just that the gods were pursuing the [Star Grail] - the throne of the only God at will, playing a game without any rules.

"In that case, we should create the rules as we like."

Rick played with the chess pieces in his hand and looked at Hubie.

"Hubby said that he wanted to know the answer that the heart would lead to, right?"

Hubie nodded in response.

"Then I will answer you~"

Riku smiled boldly and announced the [Rules of the Game].

[One: No one can kill anyone.]

——The truth is that if you kill someone, you will be killed. The inner thought is that no one wants to kill someone.

【Two: Don’t let anyone die.】

——The truth is that if you let someone die, you will die too. The inner thought is that you don’t want anyone to die.

【Three: Don’t let anyone find out.】

——The reason is that if you are discovered, you will die.

【Four: Any means are not cheating. 】

——My inner thought is that any cheating is not considered cheating as long as it is not discovered.

【Five: Don’t bother with those guys’ rules.】

——The truth is that if we stand on the same stage, we will definitely lose. Those who want to kill each other can go to hell.

【Six: Any violation of the above will be considered a defeat.】

——The truth is that rules that cannot be fully enforced are meaningless. Inwardly, I feel that the victory gained by violating these rules has no value.

As long as you abide by the above rules, you can do whatever you want.

Rick looked around at the one hundred and seventy-seven people around the round table.

"We are [ghosts], all races, including the Old Gods, we will not kill anyone, and we will not even be noticed, we will only [guide this war to the end], so as to end the war."

Chapter 85 Let's Start the Game