Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 267

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Well done! Excellent work, Seian! You are worthy of love!”
“Huh? No, I don’t think I’m anything that remarkable….”
“At least I love you!”
“Eek!”
Seian squirmed again, complaining about how long I intended to hold him. I kissed every inch of his face before finally setting him down. Seian gasped for breath.
“I need to return. I should meet with Gerth.”
“Hey! After what you just did to me?! And now you want to see him?!”
“I do!”
“You bastard!”
I took Seian’s hand and returned to Serpent King’s Tower, summoning Machine King Makina and Gerth. There was something I needed their cooperation on.
“Evan. Have you finished your apologies and come back?”
“No!”
“Has something urgent come up?”
“Yes!”
Speaking with firm resolve, Gerth set the table and seated Seian, Makina, and me. After refreshments for people and oil for the Machine King were prepared, I pointed out something that had puzzled me about Mother Goddess’s past actions.
“Ursh asked me to conceal her memories for the completion of all calculations. If the goal was to erase the memory of meeting us, self-deletion would be the most certain and fastest method. So why did she insist on concealment instead?”
「That does make sense. Concealment only blocks access to the memory, but it could still be accidentally glimpsed.」
“It was something Mother did. There must be a reason.”
“I need to ask her that reason.”
Back then, Gerth and Cha Cha had been told of a method to meet Mother Goddess later. I needed to use that method to meet Ursh.
When I insisted on this strongly, Machine King Makina answered that using that method would be difficult. When I asked why, Makina spoke of some incredibly grand and futuristic technology.
「Because we’d have to build a space station.」
“Why are you speaking so curtly?”
「Oh, because we’d have to build it! Yes! Yo-yo! Yo! People get used to being master, so they think they’re actually the master!」
“In fact, I am your master.”
「King of Ten Thousand Demons is annoying!」
As the Machine King huffed and tried to rise, I pinned her to the floor with legendary ice magic. Frozen and unable to move, the Machine King wept bitterly, lamenting her plight. If she wanted to complain, she should take it up with the seventy-one percent of the Demon Race who elected me. I was the King of Ten Thousand Demons chosen by vote, after all.
“So we need to go all the way to the artificial satellite. Make me a spacesuit.”
「Underworld King, King of Ten Thousand Demons—everyone just asks me to make things! Did I agree to protective suits and spacesuits?!」
“There’s no other demon who can make it besides the Machine King.”
「I hate the Machine King!」
I wanted to tell her to go get married if she hated it so much. So I opened my mouth to say it. Machine King Makina picked up the cup in front of me and splashed tea water on me.
“That was Evan’s mistake just now.”
“How can you tease someone who hasn’t married in a thousand years with marriage talk?”
「I hate all of you! You all just met each other like this!」
At her words about “just meeting each other,” Seian bristled this time. Gerth and I did meet each other that way, but he insisted he was a human with common sense and a victim swept up by me.
“If you don’t want to live with me, we can cancel the engagement.”
“Who said they don’t like you, you idiot?!”
“You just made a mistake too, Evan.”
Gerth always blamed me for everything. When I started whining and complaining to him, the Machine King said he’d make me a spacesuit if I’d just stop my incessant griping. Truly, the power of love conquers all.
「It’s invisible and has holes in it anyway!」
“If I come back alive, you’re getting shut down.”
The Machine King grumbled and told me to come back alive if I could, then tore away chunks of ice. Flying was my specialty, but I’d never left the atmosphere before. Maybe I really did need expert help.
“Gerth. Can you call Professor Ilyong right now?”
“I’ll try to reach him.”
While the Machine King crafted the spacesuit and Gerth sent word, Seian timidly touched his teacup and muttered uncertainly.
“It feels like things are getting bigger. I didn’t say something I shouldn’t have, did I…?”
“No. You’ve done something remarkable, Seian. I will absolutely bring Mitchell Neftis back.”
While I was comforting Seian and we debated whether our wedding should be at the Imperial Palace or the Academy, Professor Ilyong flew in directly, and the Machine King arrived with a patched-up spacesuit, saying it was all done. I really hoped that thing was actually safe.
“You’re doing something absurd again, I hear.”
Professor Ilyong pressed his fist firmly against the crown of my head, saying he already knew about the successful humanization of all demonkind. I suggested maybe I should rest a bit since I’d accomplished what everyone thought impossible, but the matter at hand was urgent.
“My wedding with Gerth is coming up soon. I made that marriage promise with an additional self added to who I am now, so if I don’t resolve this, I’d be betraying Gerth.”
“This is news to me.”
“I didn’t tell you.”
The Professor pressed the crown of my head again and again, saying I should discuss such important matters before acting, then said that if I just told him where Mother was, he could bring her back right away. I naturally found myself looking at the Machine King.
「Mother’s currently above Sharit Bay. Ever since that bastard Kim Yeo-myung called her out saying he wanted a consultation, she’s been hovering there.」
It was a bit creepy, but back when the Machine King called me “Master” all the time, it was actually kind of cute. Could I not extract one more power source from the Machine King? I sidled up to Gerth and asked if he’d happened to see where the Machine King’s power source was hidden while cleaning. The man chuckled and said it wouldn’t be fair to tell me that—he demanded I play fair.
Tsk, it was sometimes inconvenient that Gerth wasn’t only kind to me.
“Evan. Let me help you change.”
“Okay.”
“You’re impatient by nature.”
But it was comfortable and nice that Gerth understood me so well.
With Gerth’s help, I changed into the patched spacesuit and finished preparing to meet Ursula. When I stepped out to the front courtyard of the Serpent King’s Tower, I found the Professor waiting for me in dragon form, with expensive, beautiful clothes neatly folded beside him. This outfit probably wasn’t flame-retardant—just luxury goods. It looked like I’d rushed out wearing fancy clothes as they were.
“Go. When you’re done and coming back, if you’re striking a funny pose, I’ll come pick you up.”
“A funny pose…. I’ll try to imitate Bruno.”
“That’s something to look forward to.”
I launched skyward, dangling from the Professor’s hand. Looking down, Gerth was waving and calling out for me to have a safe trip, while Seian stared blankly at the Professor and me as if wondering if this was a dream. And the Machine King gave me the middle finger, saying I should never come back. Once I met Ursula, I’d have to search for the Machine King’s power source first thing.
“Oh.”
Enduring ten atmospheres of pressure and intense heat while gripped in the Professor’s hand, Earth came into view all at once. Even after 10,000 years, Earth was still a blue planet. It was moving.
“Ugh.”
I thought the Professor would stay with me until we reached Ursula, but apparently not. While the massive topaz dragon freely drifted through space, I floated suspended in the void, gradually drawn toward the artificial satellite. This old man was using gravity magic.
It seemed like Professor Ilyong was signaling to ask if I was okay, so I gestured in a circle with my body and approached Ursula. The moment I got close, the artificial satellite glowed brightly, connected a speaker to my spacesuit, and first verified Ursula’s blessing.
– Ursh Project personnel authenticated.
So this place also needed Dr. MacDwell’s ID card. If he hadn’t thrown that card at my head back then, things could have gone badly.
「Oh! Isn’t this our daughter-in-law! What brings you all the way out here?!」
The moment I landed on the satellite’s body with a light thud, Ursula’s hologram burst forth to greet me. Though she’d lost the power to create an avatar on Earth like in the distant past, she still had the capacity to talk with me.
“The power that Kim Yeo-myung stole must have returned. Have you overcome the DDoS attack?”
“Well, the population keeps growing even now. Won’t we reach a point in a hundred years or so where we can’t even separate consciousness like this to talk with children?”
If the population continues to swell and Ursh’s burden grows heavier, the status window system itself might vanish someday. But that’s a problem for later. Right now, I need to state the real reason I came here.
“Let me ask you directly. When you met me in the past and asked me to use concealment—was that a backup concept?”
“Heh, you caught onto that quickly.”
“In any era, data backup is precious.”
If you’d hidden the memories rather than erasing them entirely, there had to be a reason. After everything ended, you might resurrect that hidden data and use it as material to calculate the future that followed.
“One more question. Every concealment that’s ever occurred in history—did you back up all of them?”
“That’s correct!”
Yes! Exactly! Well done! You’re an unavoidable artificial intelligence after all! You backed up one concealment, and then you systematically backed up every single concealment that followed—how perfectly mechanical and magnificent!
“That’s the true reason I came all this way! Restore all the concealed data for me!”
“As long as there are no bad sectors, it’s entirely possible!”
As Ursh finished speaking, a screen materialized in the empty air and the recovery system activated. A grid of ten by ten—a hundred cells total—lit up one by one with green indicators. Throughout all of machine history, green means good and red means bad. Bad sectors, when discovered, would probably light up in red.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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