novelburst
Chapter 655
Chapter 655
"Ah, right. Have you heard that Gaia's appearance has more or less been revealed recently? You know, the one Eugene’s been dropping hints about since two weeks ago? It turns out people have been able to get various decoration parts from it."
"Really? I haven’t been looking at the internet lately, so I only had a vague idea of how much had been revealed… Hmm, it’s actually more detailed than I expected. Quite a bit has been revealed."
"You already know what she looks like, right?"
"Of course. The inspiration is based on me."
- Ah, that, hahahahaha
- Honestly, getting the horn decoration part is like winning the lottery, hahahahahaha
- I’ve gone to the expo five times but still haven't caught anything. This is ridiculous!!!
- You're not getting it, haha
- But compared to the existing Mecha juniors, Gaia actually looks pretty different, haha
5:00 PM.
It was a rather spacious theme park, but because the content consumption rate was carefully regulated, in about five hours, you could see and experience almost everything. So, by the time the tour was almost wrapping up, an issue I had anticipated finally came up.
That said, I didn’t have the authority to decide when to insert the decoration parts. It was entirely left to a random algorithm, so I didn’t know exactly how much of Gaia’s appearance had been revealed yet...
However, by simply googling the keyword "Gaia appearance," I could immediately see just how much had been revealed about the fifth iteration.
Let’s see.
"So, what do you think? Does it look much different from what you knew?"
"...I’m not falling for that basic kind of leading question. But if you want a simple answer, yeah, it’s been revealed enough that we can roughly guess the overall shape."
"Still, no one has gotten the tail part yet. So far, only the upper body has been revealed..."
"That’s not wrong."
As he said, I had divided the expo, which was going on for four weeks, into two halves—first half and second half—and I had placed the key parts, the horns and tail, into each half respectively.
What I set was just that. Exactly when and how to place them was entirely up to the random algorithm... but.
These overly sharp-eyed friends succeeded in picking up on something behind the scenes.
"People must still be going around the expo trying to catch Gaia. Is there nothing like that here?"
"..."
"Huh? Why so quiet? Could it be... are you decorating something!?"
"Of course, I’ve been trusting only you, Eugene. So, what do we do now? Just walk around?"
"...It’s a bit awkward to say it like this, but I can’t just let you all get fooled by me any longer."
- You raised these kids, now make them tough, hahahahaha
- He’s the one who modified those baby Biyams in every way, and now he’s acting innocent, hahahahaha
- I had a feeling something like this would happen, hahahahaha
- Those who have figured it out! Soon, Lorentina’s Shark Bongo will arrive, and it will knock on your doors! Give up all hope!
- Was this a trap to lead them in, hahahahaha
As he said.
I’d raised them so well that they could pick up even the smallest clue in no time. Every time this happened, I felt both proud and a little creeped out.
Meanwhile, Lorentina and Olivia were both looking at me with satisfied expressions. I wondered if they’d felt this way when I was growing.
Anyway, leaving that aside, if I said one more word, I felt like they’d immediately rush out to find Gaia’s remnants. So, today, I actually had something prepared.
There was no point in hiding it anymore, so I opened my mouth and added:
"As you might have guessed, yes. It’s happening. We’ll also be holding something similar at Tail Park. Both the expo and the theme park will have it, but... today, I’ve prepared something even more special for you all."
"Wow, really? Yes!"
"Today, I’m definitely getting the Gaia tail...!"
"Since so many are looking forward to it, let’s get straight to the point. It’s pretty much the same as what’s happening over there. However..."
I slightly turned my eyes.
At the same time, something started beeping – alarms were going off from everyone’s wearable tails and phones, except for Lorentina, Olivia, and me.
Before I knew it, my lips had split into a sly grin, and I added:
"Today, you all are going to have to run away."
"No, what? Wait a minute!?"
"Ugh, I can’t run!"
"That might happen. But I’m not sure if that friend will let you escape."
- What? Hahahahahaha
- I knew it, they’ve already set up a double trap, hahahahaha
- So a baby Biyam is going to fly around while everyone runs, hahahaha
- Wow, did Gaia just see them back there? Hahahahahaha
- Dome crown, hahahaha
Whip!
In an instant, everyone except a few turned their heads, and from the back of the fountain, green eyes and a silver body with a distorted, torn silhouette slowly swayed.
I don’t know how the others felt, but it looked like a tiger targeting its prey.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with that.
"Didn’t see that coming, huh?"
"...Before you said that, didn’t everyone already run away?"
"Yeah, hahaha, it’s refreshing to see the juniors taking charge of the new juniors."
- You psychos, hahahahaha
- Truthfully, Lorentina’s just as crazy as any Biyam
- Fact: All of them
- Logan and Olivia probably had to take anti-camouflage pills because of these two, hahahahaha
- How on earth did these insane people come together?
Clang!
At that moment, a sound like machine gun fire echoed. Gaia had slammed into the ground. If the material on the floor hadn’t been some special durable material, it would’ve already shattered.
Anyway, no one knew this, but today’s Gaia was the 'real' one. By simply adjusting the appearance and increasing the blur on the drone cam, it was ready to be broadcast without any issues.
Today’s catch order... Harmony, Dice, Hoddeok, and Iris are first. Kato and Limit are second, and the Class 3 students are last. If we start with the easy ones, it won’t be fun.
Of course, I didn’t say it out loud. If I had, my already fragile image would’ve...
As I thought about it, I turned to the itching acquaintances.
"If you two go out, you’ll probably catch Gaia as a whole, so you can’t go."
"Huh, isn’t that a hologram made by drones?"
"Just to quickly let you all and the viewers know... Gaia has already rolled out, like Marv before. You’ll probably be able to see it soon."
- What?!
- Did Gaia really come out!?!?
- I knew it, hahahahaha
- The Biyams are serious... They’ve already planned to make seven of them, haven’t they?
...Seven? I hope it doesn’t get that far.
Anyway, I didn’t need to keep showing off how we were just talking among ourselves. I raised the drone cam’s altitude to the maximum, and the cam climbed over 40m before starting to track Gaia.
With the screams of "kyyaaak!" echoing behind me, I said to the two:
"I’m getting hungry. Want to check out the snack market nearby?"
"That’s music to my ears. Let’s go enjoy it."
"I’m pretty hungry too. Let’s see how well the juniors have prepared."
So we headed to the snack market.
And-
"...Caught it."
Kwadjik!
A little while later, under Eugene’s command, Gaia, who had 'captured' everyone who entered the theme park with a touch, leaped with immense power, slammed into the wall, and caught the drone cam.
On the drone cam’s screen, a figure resembling a dragon – Mecha Eugene, the junior – opened its mouth.
"We’ll meet again."
Pfff!
The broadcast turned off.
...
"Ugh…"
"Ugh, the effects from yesterday are still lingering. That was really scary."
"...I didn’t expect so many people to gather, though."
"The only one still standing is Iris. What an irony."
- You guys tortured them into this, hahahahaha
- Sometimes, Iris is just as shameless, hahahaha
- Wow, there’s so many people, hahahahaha
- Everywhere I look, it’s just tails, hahahahaha
- The world is ruled by Biyams...
Looking to the left, there were tails everywhere.
Looking to the right, there were tails everywhere.
The colors varied. But at this point, the color of the tail didn’t even matter anymore. The point was that they had designed the tail colors and patterns to be customizable, creating thousands of variations.
And such things numbered in the thousands. From one end to the other, everywhere you looked, it was all tails – and that meant only one thing. The theme park had finally opened.
"...I don’t think there’s a single man around here, Eugene."
"The current gender ratio is about 96:4. Of course, 96% are women, and 4% are men. Of the men, only about 1% visited without avatar overlays."
"This is terrifying, really."
- Extreme female bias, hahaha
- What is this? Hahahahaha
- So, everyone here wants a TS, right??
- Considering the people who couldn’t get in because of the capacity limit, there’s probably ten times as many waiting for Biyam tails, hahahaha
- If we turned everyone into Biyams, maybe the world would be more peaceful?
What should I say?
Seeing all this... it made me feel strangely... at ease. I’m not sure what Harmony, Dice, and Iris think, but maybe this is where I truly belong.
If I think about it another way, it means I’m unique in this world, but...
Suddenly, I muttered out loud:
"Just two or three years ago, no one would have expected anything like this."
"...Who could have possibly expected this?"
"Well, there’s even talk that Eugene is the one leading VR. The Icarus sales have skyrocketed too, right? All thanks to the snake tail."
"...It would’ve been fine if it ended there, but why the heck did you have to get them involved?"
"Ah! Don’t take it away!"
"I didn’t say anything."
- Hahahahaha
- Can’t lose the tail, hahahaha
- Biyams are gods and invincible, hahaha
- What a mess, hahahahahaha
...They’re really treating the tail like it’s their most precious thing.
Anyway, as I said earlier, with everyone getting tails, the rarity of my existence... gradually started to decrease. In other words, it meant I could walk around a bit more freely.
Of course, I couldn’t completely relax. Just because people had tails didn’t mean they were immediately special, and there were still some who couldn’t recognize me or my baby Biyams.
So, as I was being pushed around in the crowd, we eventually ended up in the central plaza, the same place where we had dealt with everything yesterday... where the easels were piled up.
A massive building resembling the World Tree stood in the center, with screens hanging around it. Golden holographic leaves fluttered around it.
It was a scene we hadn’t seen yesterday. A brilliant, majestic sight as if standing in the middle of paradise...
And yet...
"Ugh, ugh… this won’t work!"
"Hey, what are you drawing? You’re making a mess. Come here. I’ll show you."
"No matter how much I try, it doesn’t move the way I want... Ugh! Hey! Eugene’s here!"
"What?"
"Keep drawing. I’ll just watch."
- If you say that, will the people sitting still draw better? Hahahahaha
- Suddenly judging, hahaha
- Seems like the difficulty just went up by 100 times! Hahahaha
- Are they serious? Hahahaha
The plaza became chaotic in an instant.
As I stood next to them, the already stiff movements of those drawing became even stiffer. Well, what could I do? Maybe it was time to pass on some of my own tips.
I started with having them press their fingers onto the easel’s pressure pad and draw lines connecting dots. It wasn’t so much basic practice as it was showing them how to get their drawing finished somehow.
But they were still struggling, so I decided to help further—I grabbed a wearable tail. Since I was wearing tactile gloves, it really did feel like I was touching a real tail.
A Biyam tail with a pink heart pattern flapped wildly.
"KYAAAH!"
"I’m sure there’s no place like this, but a tail is basically a mass of muscle. If you put too much force into it while drawing, you’ll naturally cramp up. Think about how it's connected to your body."
"Th-this feels strange..."
"...Isn’t there withdrawal symptoms when you return to your original body?"
"That can’t be."
- Forced descent transformation, hahahahaha
- What are you doing touching someone else’s tail like that, hahahahaha
- Isn’t that harassment? Hahahaha
- Is that harassment?
- This is just dizzying, hahahahaha
...Would there be withdrawal symptoms?
Well, I’ve never been without a tail since my transformation, so... I don’t know?
Anyway, I taught about 35 people in a short 10 minutes, and they all seemed very satisfied as they walked away. They were so happy that their avatars even had red faces.
It was a success.