BJ Villainess Chapter 302

37. Sand Saintess

 

As the dungeon disappeared, those inside were scattered to different places. Normally, they should have all appeared where the dungeon gate had been. However, Ozworld was reverse summoned to the middle of Pantheon, filled with skyscrapers and billboards, instead of being in < God’s Play>. He realized that Theresa had deliberately separated herself and the male leads from him when she connected with the dungeon.

 

How could she do that? That place wasn’t just a simple dungeon; it was a world made up of a core. Even though she had created it from her abyss, the owner was still him. She controlled such a place with the body of a weak, mortal human. She even fused with it.

 

Ozworld painfully gripped his face as he recalled the moment she disappeared. It hurt… so much. The gaze of Theresa, who had regained all her memories, was etched into his mind, refusing to leave. Even until the moment she decided to disappear on her own.

 

“Why?”

 

Why could she be so cruel to him alone? How could she do this even while loving him? It was truly hard to understand.

 

As long as she was there, nothing else mattered to Ozworld. She was the only one he loved and cherished. That made it all the more frustrating.

 

Ozworld was born incapable of cherishing or loving anything. He had wondered in passing about such emotions but never desired them. Until he saw Theresa, who loved all the male leads in < God’s Play>, which seemed to have been filled with the negative aspects of himself.

 

Ozworld was born as the villain in a hastily written novel by the creator and lived as such. So, he continued to experiment, testing and retesting to see how others would perceive his thoughts. So, what was the result?

 

“I wasn’t wrong.”

 

In the end, he even overcame his innate limitations and achieved love. He loved Theresa. She became the only thing he loved, and he was certain it would never change. But what about her?

 

Theresa loved too many things. Uselessly. That’s why she discarded him so easily. If he had been the only one to her, she would never have discarded him.

 

That’s why Damian failed. Damian, who foolishly believed he was the only one, ended up dead. Ozworld could understand how he felt.

 

Ozworld took out a pocket watch from his inner pocket. The watch was rusted and broken beyond use. It was the result of someone else using the pocket watch, breaking the ‘conditions of use.’ It was also clear evidence that Theresa had used the pocket watch to turn back the time.

 

As he gripped the pocket watch so tightly that it seemed like he would crush it, it turned into a handful of sand and spilled down. The grains slipping through his fingers reminded him of the lover who disappeared as tiny particles, making him angry.

 

“Isn’t that Ozworld?”

 

“It looks like him! He looks just like the one we saw on the broadcast!”

 

The murmuring around him turned into certainty, and the commotion grew louder.

 

“Ozworld is here—!”

 

With a hostile accusation, the constellations swarmed in. Antis wearing red hoods, the police sent by the Channel Management Bureau to arrest him, and even the constellations who liked the [BJ Villainess] channel.

 

“Kill the vicious channel manager who corrupts Pantheon!”

 

“Ozworld has finally crossed the line! Arrest him immediately and destroy his core!”

 

“How did he turn back time?! Identify yourself!”

 

There was a time when they worshiped him like a god, but now they turned against him just because he turned back time.

 

Ozworld’s gaze reached the ranking billboard.

 

[BJ Villainess 1st place-]

 

His broadcast still held its unshakable first place. He understood this phenomenon. They must be curious. They wanted to see what happened to satisfy their primal pleasure, ignoring the issues others might see. Those constellations might believe that seizing all his coins would restore justice.

 

The constellations were always beings who pursued irresponsible pleasure. The few constellations that preached morality, social responsibility, and order were ruthlessly crushed by the irresponsible and low morality of the majority. That’s why the constellations had been enthusiastic about Ozworld’s bold and harmful actions up until now. So many channel managers had sprung up, copying his immoral behavior as their concept. But now, to treat him as a traitor, wasn’t that a bit much?

 

Ozworld closed his eyes, feeling fatigued. Despite those rushing toward him to tear him apart, he remained indifferent.

 

At that moment, David appeared in a whirlwind, looking haggard, and whisked Ozworld away. They moved to a place inside an airship.

 

“This place is safe.”

 

Ozworld didn’t react to David’s words, merely sitting down nearby. His slow movements revealed his deep exhaustion. He stared out the window with a blank gaze. On numerous billboards, BJs were frantically spending coins to respond to increasingly painful situations being broadcasted.

 

David, seeing what Ozworld was watching, spoke. “While I was away from Pantheon, more and more top channels started exploiting coins like that.”

 

That was a traditional method used on channels that were being abandoned. It was not something done by channels in the top 100, yet a significant number of broadcasts currently in the top 30 were exploiting coins.

 

Ozworld then spoke. “They’re trying to secure coins to deal with the uncertainty of when they might be killed by the Victim Union.”

 

Pantheon operated fundamentally on the logic of survival of the fittest or survival of the strongest. No other dimension applied such vulgar and brutal capitalism as here.

 

“David.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“You hid something from the dragon twins, didn’t you?”

 

“…”

 

“Victim Union’s member…” Ozworld paused for a moment before correcting his target. “Clyde kidnapped you, yet it was strange that the dragon twins couldn’t find you for this long.”

 

“That’s due to the space-time issue—”

 

“You overexerted yourself hiding something from the dragons, which is why you’ve been unconscious until now. Isn’t that right?” Ozworld wasn’t asking for confirmation. He was merely stating a known fact.

 

David was a nine-tailed fox capable of powerful illusions, a creature comparable to a dragon. If David was prepared to die, it wasn’t impossible to deceive the dragon twins.

 

Ozworld didn’t press the silent David further. He already got the answer he wanted from that silence.

 

“You violated the contract to protect Theresa, David.”

 

The price for violating their agreed contract was the fox’s spirit orb and the core. Absorbing the spirit orb would allow one to use the nine-tailed fox’s abilities. The core could be used in illegal methods to create a new constellation or be merged with one’s own core to gain more power. David prepared to offer up his core and spirit orb without meaningless resistance. But Ozworld shook his head, refusing.

 

“The core and spirit orb are useless to me. You know that I only set them as the price because I needed a life-risking contract, right?” The implication of saying he didn’t need a core, something that would make any other constellation’s eyes turn red with greed, was significant. It meant he possessed so much power that a core wouldn’t make any difference.

 

Before long, the airship arrived at the landing site of Ozworld’s company. The building’s powerful defense system was active, so any unauthorized constellations approaching would be sucked into another dimension. Perhaps that’s why the constellations that had followed him could only hover around the vicinity without getting closer.

 

David and Ozworld disembarked the airship and entered the building without any hindrance. A staff member, who had been waiting only for Ozworld’s arrival, quickly reported the most important fact.

 

“Mr. CEO, we were unable to recover the dungeon’s core energy as it has disappeared. We suspect that Theresa absorbed it when she vanished from the dungeon.”

 

Unless Theresa awakened as a constellation and possessed the core, her fragile body wouldn’t survive. By now, she must be wandering at the [BJ Sand Saintess] channel. However, it was too dangerous for Ozworld to directly enter his own past. Both sides would be annihilated.

 

In fact, the problem could be solved by finding a way to extract her from the outside. The real issue was that he had no idea what choice she would make. Theresa had already chosen to disappear herself once, abandoning him, and there was no guarantee she wouldn’t do it again. He needed a perfect plan to prevent her from making any sudden moves.

 

Looking back, he should have discarded her when she decided to die in place of Clyde in the first dungeon. Theresa had already been a ‘failure’ by then. But Ozworld had resurrected her, believing she was different from other trivial matters. As a channel manager, it was a painful mistake, but he still didn’t think it was the wrong decision. It wasn’t too late to fix things. No, he had to fix them.

 

“Cut off the energy supply to the [BJ Villainess] channel.”

 

The only place she needed to return to was by his side.