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It was sudden, but I decided to try and review what I had been doing until now and reorganise my goal from now on.

I believed it was important to conduct a review like this once in a while.

If I did not do so, what we were doing might not correspond to our aim. It was also very possible that by the time we noticed things, we were already completely off-track.

Firstly, my original goal was to look around and explore this world. Nevertheless, with the situation as it was, there was no longer any room for me to say things like that. Furthermore, as I was already on a journey, it could be said that this goal was already being fulfilled.

Next, to retrieve the 12 Heavenly Stars and to meet with the 7 Heroes.

Up to this point, I had retrieved Aries, Libra, Aigokeros, Parthenos… stayed back in the forest and was replaced by Virgo, totalling up to 4 of them.

Dina originally said that she was aware of the locations of six of them, thus using the information that she possessed, it was only possible to find two more of them. Furthermore, she had also stated that “two out of those six are under the Demon King”.

There was no doubt, those two was referring to Aigokeros and the [Scorpion]. In other words, information for five out of those six was already ascertained.

Which meant there were only one left that could be found using her information as the basis.

However, due to the information given by Parthenos, we now knew the location of the [Twins], the [Water Bearer] and the [Bull].

Out of what was remaining, I was also informed that [Lion] was stuck in a war with Benetnash.

In summary, four stars were under my hands and the location of the five stars were already determined.

Retrieval completed: Ram, Scales, Goat, Maiden.

Known locations: Twins, Water Bearer, Bull, Scorpion, Lion.

Unknown locations: Archer, Fish, Crab.

If I were to write it in the way that was easy to understand, it would be something like this.

What was to come was a little concerning.

As for the reunion with the 7 Heroes, I have met with Megrez and Merak. All that was remaining was Benetnash.

Notwithstanding, this Benetnash was pretty troublesome.

Apparently, she still retained her power from her peak, and that she did not participate in the battle against the Demon King.

Furthermore, it seemed that she was completely hostile to me, thus she was a very dangerous existence.

Having said that, it was not as if I could not predict something like this would happen.

To begin with, the 7 Heroes had the history of defeating me in the past, as such, there was already some form of hostility in our relationship.

If anything, acting friendly with me would be considered strange.

The two that I had previously met was acting so friendly towards me that I had let my guard down, however, in a way, Benetnash’s reaction was what would be considered a normal and correct response.

At the very least, it was far better than seeing regret from the people after they had defeated me.

It was easy to understand… however, it was bad. She was probably the most troublesome and scary opponent to date.

Having retained her power from her prime meant that she was level 1000. Furthermore, the 7 Heroes’ level 1000 was not the same as the level 1000 you would see elsewhere.

They were the no-lifers who had perfected themselves to the pinnacle of their specialisation by consuming the meat (doping) of the countless monsters they had slaughtered.

Back in the game, Benetnash had the second highest total stats and sat in the position right behind mine. Additionally, with her latent Vampire race bonus, she was especially a terrifying opponent.

If the time of face-off was during the morning or the afternoon, I was slightly stronger than her, however, if it was during the night, she most likely would win.

Also considering from the fact that she was aiming for my head…. It was unlikely that a player was inside her.

Although this was a provisional assessment, this account established that all of the 7 Heroes were people of this world.

In other words, Dina and I were the only people to come from the “other side”.

And then there was [Lion], the strongest of the 12 Heavenly Stars who was currently at war with Benetnash.

The worst thing was that both of them were showing hostility towards me.

Which was to say, if I accidentally or casually got close to them, I would have to face both the Vampire Princess and the Lion at the same time.

Even for me, that was too much. It was not something to joke about.

…. I think… I’ve decided not to go near Benetnash for a while.

Next was the Hero.

Previously, I determined there was a real and foreseeable possibility that the Hero was going to be killed, thus I returned all the way to Laevateinn.

But in reality, I was in for a surprise as the Demon King’s aim was me. Furthermore, the existence of the Hero was not even significant in his eyes.

This meant that even if I left the Hero alone for a while, it was likely that there would be no problem.

There was still a possibility that the 7 Luminaries would aim for him, but… close to the Hero was a tiger over level 100, as well as two other decently strong people.

Furthermore, there were few rangers blending in with the shadows, thus they should somehow manage things unless the 7 Luminaries plotted against them.

Well, perhaps it was not a bad idea for me to make a golem that would protect the Hero for the one-in-a-million situation.

And lastly, the real goal.

To find out the goal and the intention of the original “Ruphas” and to create an issue for the Goddess who had selfishly gotten me involved on her whim with her “scenario”.

Whilst I was doing that, I would bring the Goddess out into the open and ask her what her intention was.

I did not know what the Goddess was thinking when she put me inside Ruphas.

It was also unknown what she had wanted me to do.

But… no, that was why I wanted to know. I had to know.

If I did not find out, I would not be able to move forward. I would just be continuing to stomp on my spot.

I had enough with wandering about without being able to have a foothold, without being able to put my feet down, without knowing where the sinkholes or the goal was.

That was why I was going to stop and return to the starting position.

And this was the retaliation against the Goddess.

Right now, I was thankful and appreciative of the progression of my consciousness assimilating into that of Ruphas’s.

If I had remained as “myself”, I doubt I would have even gotten to thinking things this way.

If I had remained as the ever hopeful, dumb and whimsical “self”, even at this moment, I would not have questioned anything and still would have said something stupid like “Yay, the world of the game I loved!”, and be enjoying this world like an idiot.

Even though I had somehow suddenly gotten thrown into the world of MMO, I would be baffled yet be greatly overjoyed.

Although this reaction looked like it was looking at the reality, it was just a sign of escape. One would not even be looking for a way to return to the original world.

The only job I would have would be to think about myself. And the only aim would be to satisfy oneself at the expense of someone else they come across.

Anything troublesome would be complained as troublesome by me, yet I would be joyful of those troublesome things and head in straight towards them whilst calling those troublesome things troublesome, and wishing those troublesome things would continue. I would be gleefully waiting for the stage that I myself would be able to act and look cool.

I wanted to be praised, I wanted to be recognised, I wanted to be revered, I wanted to be worshipped, I wanted to be raised up, I wanted to be respected and I wanted to be drunk in the feeling of knowing that I was a cool existence in this dreamlike world.

Ahhhh, so nonsensical. I was able to live in a peaceful country of Japan and not have to worry about what I would wear or eat and I was even able to peacefully play games without a shred of worry. Yet, even though I was able to live in the world that would truly be considered dreamlike by the people of Midgard, I took it for granted and said “I would rather live in the world inside the game than be stuck living in this boring place” and was unable to appreciate what I already had. I was unable to see what was right in front of me.

Someone strange and deranged like that – was who I was.

Aaahhh, I’ll admit it. For the Goddess, I was someone that was easy to handle and make use of.

In such a way, I might have been a perfect and easy existence to blanket the individual called “Ruphas”.

Well, of course, that was the case.

I was someone that lived in a peaceful country of Japan without a shred of worry as I lived my life whilst being immersed in the game. On the other hand, there was Ruphas who had spent her days in the world of Midgard fighting day in and day out.

It was given that there would be a difference in the willpower and strength between the two of us. It was something so self-explanatory that one did not even have to think hard to reach such a conclusion.

Nevertheless, the lid was already being taken off. I sensed that for myself.

I knew that such a situation would not last long.

…. This was… I should hurry up and meet with the Goddess to get myself returned to my original world. If I failed to do such a thing, next time, it was going to be me that would be sealed into the pot by the lid known as Ruphas.

Even for me… it was something I wanted to avoid.

Anyways, reviewing is done.

Now that I think about it, I’m suuuuuccccch a useless person.

I stood in the position to have finally recognised that I was in a dangerous and precarious situation due to how far the assimilation with Ruphas had progressed.

Notwithstanding, it was truly ironic and comical that I could not help but laugh that something ridiculous like this had to happen for me to finally open my eyes and see what was in front of me.

Or more like, I knew how warped my face was at that moment from the smile that I had.

“…….. Ruphas-sama?”

Aries who was sitting next to me questioned with a slightly tactful tone.

Stop with the upturned eyes already. Even knowing that Aries was male, there was quite a powerful effect.

Whilst thinking that, I turned my line of sight towards him.

“What is it?”

“No, umm. Were you thinking about something?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Umm…. Your face is…”

“Face?”

“Yes. … You know… I’ve been thinking that recent Ruphas-sama was very calm, serene and easy-going compared to the past, or at least gave off that feeling, but the expression Ruphas-sama just showed somehow reminded me of the old Ruphas-sama.”

“… Is that so?”

Hmm, it seemed even my face was finally showing “Ruphas” now.

This really might be getting quite bad.

My consciousness still remained right now, but at this rate, it really might disappear at any moment.

I did not know how much time I had left, however, there was no doubt that duration decreased by visiting Vanaheim.

And unfortunately, as I continued to regain Ruphas’s memory and recall her intention, my consciousness would continue to fade.

Nevertheless, if I did not try to do so, I would not even be able to grasp a trace of the person who had gotten me involved.

If I continued to do nothing due to the fear of my consciousness disappearing, I would only be walking into the Goddess’s scheme as I was sure that was the reason I was here in the first place.

What the hell was this 𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓽𝓽𝔂 game? The closer I got to the clearing the game, the closer I was to game over.

Although it was possible to extend the duration, I would only be dancing on the palm of the schemer.

It truly was just some 𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓽𝓽𝔂 game.

In any event, for now, I was going to devote myself to retrieving the remaining 12 Heavenly Stars like the [Scorpion].

…. So in summary, what I was going to do was not that different from what I had been doing until this point.

“Aigokeros, do you know the next country Scorpius is going to aim?”

“Yes. Scorpius stated that the next country to fall will be Blutgang.”

Blutgang…. The country founded by Mizar, huh?

As this country did not have the protection of an active 7 Heroes, compared to the countries such as Svalinn or Gjallarhorn it should be easier to topple.

Furthermore, it was the world’s leading industrial country where all the tradesmen resided, thus it was a very important location.

Considering the destruction of the country of Hrotti, it seemed that Scorpius’s intention was to topple the weaker locations first.

“Dina. Who is the final 12 Heavenly Stars that you know the location of?”

“It is Karkinos-sama of the [Crab].”

Karkinos huh. If I recall correctly, out of the 12 Heavenly Stars, he was the one who most excelled in defence.

He had needlessly high endurance and an extremely hard shell. He could protect and shield his allies by using a skill called [Covering], becoming an impeccable wall.

On the other hand, he only possessed a single offensive skill which just happened to be a counter exclusive ability, thus making him a very inefficient and lopsided character.

Nevertheless, his only offensive skill [Acubens] was a fairly strong skill that would deal half of all damage back to the enemy.

For example, if [Acubens] was activated against [Brachium], a value of 50 thousand would be added to the final damage which would be dealt to the enemy.

If you consider the fact that the skill would become stronger as the enemy became stronger, it was indeed a very fearsome skill.

However, his affinity with [Scorpion] was the worst. As the damage suffered from the poison inflicted by the enemy was not added to the counter by the system, his HP would be one-sidedly shaved down.

Furthermore, as the poison-inflicted damage was not affected by the defensive stats, his HP would be shaved down even faster than it should.

For better or worse, he was very easy to counter.

“Where is he located?”

“He is at Blutgang.”

“The destination matches. I suppose I should take this as a good convenience.”

“It might also be an inconvenience, you know.”

Karkinos and Scorpius would be at the same location. No, Scorpius was still aiming to go to that location. In any event, whilst Scorpius was not there yet, it was determined that the location for both of them would be the same.

And for me, it was a good opportunity for me to retrieve two of the stars at the same time and save time on travelling.

However, it was too optimistic to think that nothing would happen when two of the stars met each other.

Even up until now, the only star to not have created any problem was Parthenos. As for Aries and Aigokeros, they went around doing whatever they want without regards to the trouble they might cause, and even worse, when the two of them met, they started fighting with each other on their own.

In other words, even if they were within the same 12 Heavenly Stars, it was reasonable to assume that they might start killing each other instead of saying, “Long time no see! Have you been well?”

No, this time around, even if they hit off with each other, it would be very bad. As one could expect, if the Scorpion and the Crab teamed up, Blutgang would be annihilated in less than a day.

The combination between the perfect defensive capability of the Crab who would not let any enemy pass and the protected Scorpion who could mindlessly spread poison to the heart’s content…. Even imagining that alone would make one realise how horrible of a combination they would be.

With something like that, there was a need for me to reach Blutgang in a hurry.