Chapter 279: [Bonus Chapter] Patience's anguish

"This is terrible, simply terrible..."

A young rabbit-faced woman was walking back and forth inside the giant transparent sphere at the very top of the tower of sloth.

With no more confusing fog covering the area below, she had a perfect view for basically all of her territory, but she was in no mood for enjoing the scenery.

"What is that girl doing...why has she began ignoring all the quests I've been giving her? Has she realized that I'm influencing the system...? No, impossible... She might have known this world from the game that my creator based it on, but she surely realized that it's not exactly like it... right...?"

The voice who spoke those words was undoubtedly the voice of Almond - Shank's cousin that the Cranberry and the others passed on their way down, but judging from the meaning of said words, her body was completely taken over by Patience by that point.

Her eyes were glowing with white light as she was using the miracle lense skill to peek at the group gathered by the savior her creator brought into this world.

Each of them was amongst the strongest character in the game, literally the best possible composition - but at the same time, they all were like that because the bugs and glitches in the system!

It wasn't like that was forbidden or anything, since Patience's creator recreated the game he liked down to the tiniest detail, but it certainly wasn't something that would be good for the world as a whole in the long run.

Especially problematic was the angel-class king rank monster, Radiance - the Will of the World.

When paired with Justice's Wrath, Radiance had access to a game-breaking attack that could prove actually dangerous to the balance of the system...

"...what is she doing...?"

The avatar of sloth murmured again, looking with concern towards the Wraths' territory.

Everything would be so much easier if only her creator had talked with her at least once after he moved on from this world he created on a whim...

The creation of a brand new world isn't something that should be done without a purpose, but her creator completely disregarded the rule made by the other gods and fooled around anyway...

Once he realized that his design was flawed, he wanted to scrap the whole thing but got stopped and scolded by the higher-ranked gods - if he would destroy the new world, his rank amongst the others would reach rock-bottom.

The destruction of the world that they govern over is absolutely disgraceful for the respective higher beings known as gods and hence once they realize that something wrong is going on with even one of those, they reach out for the help of the saviors from the base world - Earth.

"...why did you have to choose someone like her... the failsafe you have sent right after her would be so much better..."

The mouse-faced woman sighed deeply, putting her hand on the translucent surface and looking at her faint reflection.

What she saw was a pitiful, miserable girl unable to cope with the amount of work her neglective father has left her with.

"It shouldn't be like that... but it's my fault too..."

She sighed again and lowered her head while clenching her hand into a fist.

"...I knew that my creator doesn't think things through... I should have known that the savior that he will find won't be trustworthy at all, but I put my trust in them anyway... am I a faulty creation too, after all...?"

She let out a self-mocking laugh and shook her head with disgust.

Then she turned away and walked over to another spot and focused onto something at the Greeds' territory, the main area of the Fruit Salad kingdom.

"...they got so strong... is it my fault too? I should have just let the system chose different magic for that crazy girl to awaken to. My own first and worst mistake was to force the system to use the master of the eternal servant magic... I even worded it as if it was created just for her, ridiculous... as if something new could be created in this failing world with a failed overseer such as myself..."

Patience continued to insult themselves while her physical face was smiling softly.

*WHAM*

"NO! That's not my fault! It's their own fault for killing all the essential characters that could have been used to push the story towards a different ending! It's all their fault that I had to overwrite the game set in the middle to try and salvage what was left!"

Suddenly the smile disappeared and got replaced with a furious grimace as the woman slammed her hand against the transparent wall.

"I was just fulfilling my duty! Why couldn't YOU do even one thing properly! YOU USELESS FAILURE - ah...!"

She roared and cried and fury and desperation were mixed in her voice - but as she glared towards the Greeds' territory, she once again looked at her own reflection.

"...I am not the failure here...! I definitely don't see an image of myself in that failed replacement-villainess either!"

Patience pushed themselves away from the wall and turned around as if to escape the look in the eyes of the body they took over.

"Why can't someone save me... why does some failed replacement-villainess got herself someone who will always stay by her side while I am stuck in here all alone... If only I just...!"

Patience clenched their fists and glared at their feet.

"...what am I even talking about...? My creator left me in charge so I have to continue the playthrough he started... If I decided on restarting everything from the scratch, I would have betrayed him... I'll prove myself that I am worthy only by leading whatever is left of this scenario to completion... the world won't be destroyed, the hard reset won't be necessary... I am not a failure... I will show father that...!"

They flinched and shook their head as if they caught themselves saying something that they shouldn't have.

"I will show my creator that creating me wasn't a mistake...!"

They declared with a determined expression.

"...eh...?"

Suddenly they stiffened and slowly turned back towards the Wraths' territory, with their glowing eyes wide open in disbelief...

The thing was, not only their eyes were glowing, their ears did too.

Miracle lense was an amazing vision-based detection skill - and as such, it had an equivalent when it came to hearing too - the spy's ear, and it just so happened that the body that Patience was inhabiting happened to possess both.

"...shape the world to your liking...? Your liking...? As if an outsider like yourself has any right to decide the fate of the world that I govern, you...!"

Patience gritted their teeth in a sudden burst of fury.

"..."

But just as fast as they got angry, Patience suddenly calmed down, or rather lost all will to rage and instead got on top of the podium in the middle of the sphere, where they laid down on their back and stared at the clear blue sky.

"...that should not affect me as much, who do I think I am, a god...? As long as the story reaches one of the correct endings, the world will stabilize... That should be enough for me... maybe even my creator will praise me..."

Patience smiled to themselves and raised their hands towards the sky.

"...who am I kidding...?"

But their smile didn't last long and in turn changed into a tearful expression and they had their face in his hands.

"Please... somebody force me to restart everything and make me correct the mistakes of my father... I'm too scared of disappointing him to do that by myself...!"

They whimpered weakly, but only silence responded to them.