Chapter 230: Outsmarted

Meteora could still not forget it. That moment when he handed over the authority of what he called as the "Library of the End". At that time, she could feel the embodiment of wisdom from him. She could feel his confidence as well as his bottomless pit of knowledge.

He existed not in the past, present, future, but the end of everything. Every single knowledge gathered itself inside his library, making the books in that place infinite.

For her, the one who seeks new knowledge, she felt something new and novel: excitement. She had read everything from her library as countless times had passed. Now that she found something "new" aside from this world, her curiosity was ignited once more.

"That man erased the memories of everyone in the world. Only the officials aware of our existence was spared."

"He did that... to the entire world?"

Instantly, Kikuchihara who is sitting besides Meteora thought of the repercussions if ever that cloaked man went against the world. Just the military girl's power is terrifying enough. She does not want another enemy of that caliber to go against them.

"He won't bring harm to this world. He is protecting it. If he wanted to, he could have given the military girl the advantage and let her become stronger."

"I understand. Do you have any plans on how to proceed from now on?" Kikuchihara asked.

"Mn. We need to gather the creations in our side and prepare for a big operation against her. The creator's power to revise their stories will be our chance of succeeding. But before that, we need to pour our manpower to find out the military girl's identity."

While Meteora has the preliminary plan to enact against her, they would still need to find out her true identity. Everything would be useless if they lack the necessary information. This way, the amount of variables would also be decreased.

"I will inform the creators about this. They are the best when it comes to finding such information."

Beep-!

Kikuchiara felt her phone vibrate. She took it out and saw that it is Fukushiro.

Beep-!

"Good evening."

"Good evening Kikuchihara-san. I-I have something important to tell you." He swiftly said. "I think I found out the military girl's identity."

"Can you come over here?"

"I already am. Madoka went home and told me about what happened, too."

On the other side, Shiro let out muffled breaths while feeling the cold air sweep his neck. While he has the windbreaker to shield his arms, his neck is still being swept by the cold wind as he jogged to the government office in Tokyo. Surprisingly, it is a ten-minute walk away from his house.

"I will hang up first and contact the others."

"Alright."

Beep-!

After ending the call, he dialed Kuroneko's phone. He did not use the chat group panel for communicating since they might check at their call logs. If they lose the perception of being a "creator", they might get outright rejected by the world. Coupled by Altair's interference, the best thing that they could do is to retreat to their worlds.

Suddenly, he received a message from the panel.

Kuroneko: "Shiro. The snake girl's here."

"Shit..!"

*****

"Oh? It looks like you know this was coming."

Instinctively, Kuroneko held a kitchen knife like her usual daggers. She held it without fear of being cut by it and pointed it in the snake-like girl in front of her. From what she knew, this is the girl that fought against Kal'tsit. The formidable girl who almost caused their mission failure with her whims.

"That's blood in your hands."

She pointed out Magane's black gloves which are stained with drops of blood.

"Ah, this? It came from my so-called "creator". To be honest, I did not like him." She said. "Such a scaredy cat. He wetted his pants just by seeing me."

"You... killed him?"

"That's right~!"

Hearing this, Kuroneko has a grasp on how terrifying this girl is. If her power is the only reason why they need to be vigilant before, now it's her intelligence—her cunningness. With her experiences over the past year, Kuroneko immediately guessed her purpose behind killing her creator.

Knowing that creators can revise their stories, the first thing that Magane did in this world is to kill hers. This prevented her chances for revisions. She could not be nerfed by her character descriptions nor her tiniest details could be known. Of course, this is but one of her deductions.

"You came to kill me next?"

"Again, that's right! You now have two points~"

Looking at Magane, Kuroneko could barely restrain her impulse to summon her loyal shadows. In normal circumstances, she would've already fought against her. Only, her [Creator] role serves both as a shield and a restriction on her. The moment she reveals her power, she would be ejected out of this world.

Though, she remained her calm. If she buys enough time...

"[Ichor Eos]!"

Boom-!

A ray of red light passed through her house. It is only a few meters away from hitting Kuroneko, but all it aimed for is Magane. By the time the light died down, a blue light flickered before returning into its rightful owner.

"Are you alright?" The boy, Shinji, asked.

In accordance to their script, she played along with him.

"Ah. I am."

"I see."

Swooosh-!

Shinji disappeared from his place and reappeared in front of Magane who escaped his blow. She is unscathed as she resisted it thanks to the lie that she set up earlier. It is her lie to her creator, which is her being 'immortal'. Her creator, who made her to not be like that, instantly bit her bait and allowed her to set up that bait. He could have noticed this under normal circumstances, but it is his creation who appeared in front of him. She is the one who massacred hundreds of students just for her own enjoyment.

If he is unfazed by that, then he would not have stayed as a light novel author for his life. That level of confidence is already very high in this world.

At first, Magane was planning to play around in this world. Though, who thought that she would encounter an opponent who would not react to her lies. Thus, she took everything seriously and ensured her safety first and foremost.

With it, she has the mood to play around again.

"That hurt. You did not hold back in that one, kid." She said while hugging herself.

"I would not hold back as long as they are my enemy."

He took another stance as he emptied his mind. His training of the spear allowed him to do this, invalidating Magane's greatest advantage. Since they already know the mechanism behind her power, they could effectively deal with it.

Still, Shinji took notice on how Magane sustained no damage whatsoever.

Shinji: "Aniki, she did not get damaged by my attack."

Shiro: "This is bad. She must've used her ability already. Shinji-kun, assume that she is now invulnerable to damages."

Shinji: "I understand."

Suddenly, he disappeared from his spot. This gained Magane's interest as she could not sense his presence. It's as if he truly disappeared in this world.

"Hide-and-seek? This is getting interesting!"

She looked at Kuroneko's previous spot, only to see no one there. She waited for a few more moments, but Shinji did not attack anymore. Then, she laughed.

"Ah~! I've been outsmarted, te~he!"

*****

A/N: Kek. Two weeks in and we already have a total of three projects to deal with. I got too busy on the past two days that I didn't have the time nor the inspiration to write a chapter. Though, the regular schedule will, hopefully, be back. I'm expecting a break from all of those projects.

PS: Wish me luck...