《……Got, you!》
The Conductor of Flesh ignored the sword embedded in its heart and seized my arm.
‘Can it not feel pain?!’
I had to let go of the sword. I knew that, but the Conductor gave me no opportunity to do so.
Dark-red tentacles burst from its arm like weapons, and it drove them into my captive arm as though grafting them onto it.
“Aaargh!!”
……A scream tore itself from my throat.
It felt as though something was being injected into me through the tentacles. A bizarre sensation spread throughout my body, forcing me to experience the process through which the Conductor of Flesh had degenerated into that form and fallen into such chaos.
《How beautiful…… A young and powerful body, unlike the decrepit flesh of the slums! A body and soul perfectly suited to punishing sinners!!》
The creature burst into delighted laughter.
Even amid the confusion, I continued thinking about its ability.
‘Flesh Alteration…… Is it an ability that switches bodies? Could that be it?!’
The area around my arm pierced by the tentacles writhed unnaturally, and my skin churned as though it were boiling.
My senses were steadily consumed, as though some alien organism were devouring my internal organs.
I could feel it instinctively.
“Clever boy! Are you all right?!”
Ravenwood’s concerned shout sounded as though it were coming from far away. She was dealing with the countless lesser creatures around her, but she appeared to be reaching her limit as well.
We were on the verge of collapse.
If I gave it any more time, I had a feeling that Immunity or not, I would lose my sanity and even have control of my body stolen from me.
It was only a matter of time before I suffered not physical death, but death of the mind in the most literal sense.
《Lawbreaker, do not feel too wronged…… We are trying to save you.》
《Will you not cast aside your paltry humanity?!》
My consciousness began to fade.
Its voices traveled through the air and tore through the deepest parts of my mind.
It was unmistakably alien. Was this what it felt like to cling to a single mast aboard a yacht while enduring towering waves and a raging storm?
Vomit threatened to surge from my throat.
“Damn…… it.”
Giving up would make everything easier. Even if I did not clear this, someone else eventually would.
That thought crossed my mind.
“To…… hell with that.”
……How could I possibly accept a situation like this?
I could barely form the words.
My life was at stake, but even so…….
I could not suppress the humiliation I felt as a gamer. My pride as a streamer refused to accept it.
Losing consciousness and surrendering here would violate every conviction I had lived by.
How many bitter defeats had I endured while exploring countless Trash Games?
‘Giving up like this is simply……!’
My heart would never permit it.
That was why I had to overcome this, even if it was something I had never experienced before.
‘Think. Find an answer.’
《Kahahahaha!!!》
《Surrender and entrust your body to us. We shall control it for you! We shall grant you the power and Authority to judge and dispose of every new piece of lawbreaking filth that is born!》
The Conductor’s mad laughter pierced directly into my brain.
The dark-red tentacles had already connected themselves deep inside my body, leaving it unresponsive.
True to the name Conductor of Flesh, it was relentlessly wresting control of my body away from me.
Its voice still sounded distant, but even my hearing was now falling into its hands.
‘Damn…… My conscious…… ness……!’
My consciousness seemed to separate from the prison called the body and drift toward an unknown place.
A bottomless abyss.
I was descending toward its depths.
‘I cannot let it steal…… me!’
The instant I barely managed to regain my senses—
[Warning! The unapproved entity, ‘Conductor of Flesh,’ is attempting to seize the body of ‘The Absolved,’ Ash Gray!]
[The Temporary Court, ‘Authority Trial,’ opens!]
SWISH.
A stage curtain drew back, and my vision briefly went dark. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in another world.
The cavern that had once been made of walls of flesh was now painted over with a place deeply familiar to me.
‘A courtroom……?’
It was a familiar courtroom where polished wood blended with golden light. This time, however, there was neither a defendant’s stand nor a judge’s bench.
There were only the two places where the Conductor and I faced each other――the defense bench and the prosecution bench.
The creature appeared equally bewildered. It shouted as it stared down at its translucent hands.
《Where…… is this?! Where are we!!》
My body was translucent as well.
Only then did I understand.
This place was my mind and my heart. My Domain. The place where I existed as myself.
Yes…… It was what one might call a mindscape.
“……This is the inside of my head you wanted so badly, you bastard.”
When I spoke, the creature answered with a vicious smile.
《The inside of your head?》
《Kahahahaha!!》
《Th-Then this is even! Better!》
All three of the Conductor’s heads burst into laughter and looked around before speaking again.
《A courtroom? How utterly ridiculous! An artist needs nothing more than a stage!》
It swung its baton.
The golden courtroom immediately began transforming into an expression of its hideous aesthetic.
The gleaming white marble floor became a mass of human faces screaming to be saved, while the walls were once again lined with agonized, twisted bodies displayed like works of art.
‘Ugh……!’
Perhaps it was because of what the dark-red tentacles had done to me, but had the laws governing this space changed?
I had felt nothing outside, yet after coming here, shiver after shiver began crawling down my spine.
The discordant notes of bizarre instruments drifted through the air, while the despair and agony of countless victims rose like mist.
‘Is this…… its weapon?’
It was a bombardment that appealed directly to emotions and memories, as though smashing apart my mental barriers with brute force.
Along with shrieks that felt as though they would split my head open, the memories of the civilians under its control surged toward me like waves.
The sorrow of losing their families, their pleas to be saved, and the pain of having their entire bodies pierced by tentacles.
《Behold! Emotion is the finest delicacy. Is it not worthy of being called the highest form of art?》
《Go, go. Go-go. Go.》
It spread its arms in delight and spoke as though introducing a grand performance.
I was sure there were people who would adore this sort of thing.
Even in that situation, however, I laughed.
“You call this art?”
It was a mocking sneer.
My mind remained clouded, but I frowned and spoke again.
“Sorry, but to me…… it looks like nothing more than a horror game that I would not even dignify with a B-grade rating.”
All three of its faces twisted at once.
《What…… did you say?》
《You!!》
《Are you! Insulting! Art!!》
Its furious roar shook the surroundings, and both the floor and walls screamed in unison.
“Did that strike a nerve? No matter how I consider it, though, I believe I am right. Even someone like me, who deliberately sought out Trash Games, would recoil from garbage like this.”
I pointed directly at it.
《I refuse to accept that!!》
《Your baseless confidence!!》
《Answer me! What part of this lacks aesthetic beauty?!》
Each of its three heads opened its mouth and attacked my criticism.
“Listen, esteemed artist. Have you ever heard of a jump scare? It is a technique considered synonymous with horror…… First, you have completely ignored its principles.”
《I have no need to know such things! Do not reduce my aesthetic to such a petty emotion!!》
……That had unquestionably struck a nerve.
There was only one reason I was certain.
The control of the dark-red tentacles consuming my body was weakening, and at the same time, I could feel my strength returning.
‘Good. I only have to keep pressing it.’
The fact that it had begun to waver meant that a crack had formed in its mind.
In a battle of minds, strength ultimately came down to how firmly one could hold one’s ground.
“Second, who recognizes and enjoys your art? Do you still not understand? A mere aesthetic sense is not enough to call yourself an artist!”
《Ugh!! That cannot be!》
The precise criticism made all three heads recoil, and the creature stumbled backward.
My counterargument had landed cleanly.
In a Domain where neither of us could exercise physical force, the creature was losing its composure.
‘Yes. This was all I had to do.’
I was The Absolved, a critic, and a streamer.
The instant I thought of myself that way, something suddenly came to mind.
《You are nothing but an insolent lawbreaker, yet you dare…… disparage our art?!》
《We shall never tolerate this!》
《Are you claiming that you possess the qualifications to criticize us?!》
“Of course.”
By then, my mind had cleared completely.
I felt as though I could draw the ‘card’ I had in mind.
After all, this was a world of the mind.
《Fear itself is beauty and art! Lawbreaker, can you not hear it? This sweet symphony beyond all comparison?!》
《Human emotion, frustration and pain laid completely bare! At its end lies despair!! No hymn could ever be more beautiful than this!》
《……Then prove it! Use that arrogant tongue of yours to judge our art!!》
Unable to contain its fury, the creature’s body trembled. The muscles forming its shoulders and torso twisted irregularly.
Yet despite its enraged cries, all three heads wore desperate expressions.
――Their art had been denied.
‘Of course. They have no idea what kind of person I am.’
I could feel their emotions.
Their art had not been acknowledged. They were terrified that everything they had created might be broken by a mere human being like ‘me.’
It was the desperation of denial.
“Very well. Then I will prove it.”
I raised my hand and immediately pictured a familiar scene.
In an instant, the gore-filled horror-film set it had created transformed into my ‘streaming studio,’ its walls covered with countless monitors.
The creature looked around in unconcealed confusion.
This must have been the ‘first’ time it had experienced a world it had already invaded changing against its will.
“Lesson one is proof of qualification.”
The echoes of suffering scattered throughout the space gradually subsided, replaced by the cheerful sound of a donation alert.
[‘Trash-Game Sommelier’s Panty Thief’ has donated 1,000,000 won!]
― Let us take this trash game all the way to the ending, shall we?
“Now, look.”
I left the defense bench, sat in the chair at the center of the studio, and gestured toward the creatures.
Across the cityscape of screens covering the walls, hundreds—no, thousands—of videos showing the Trash Games I had cleared surged forward like a panorama.
“This so-called art of yours? I have spent my life chewing it up, tearing it apart, tasting it, and savoring it.”
――Yes. This was a verdict.
A verdict delivered to an artist who could not even qualify as the director of a B-grade horror film trapped in the past.
Delivered by me, a streamer who had lived while fully enjoying the creations of the modern world.
With all my strength……!
I slammed my hand down upon the desk that had appeared before me.
BANG!
A crisp sound rang from the heavy wooden desk. Without giving the creature even a moment to recover, I pointed at it again and spoke.
“One developer claimed the player had to save the world, then forced them to spend more than a hundred hours harvesting crops. Another wanted to tell a grand and solemn story, so they placed a boss in the very first village and equipped every boss with bugs as a standard feature.”
The creature plainly failed to understand me. Its expression seemed to say, ‘What are you trying to tell us, you wretch?!’
However, the Conductor could not produce a proper counterargument.
I controlled the flow.
“Even amid all that unreasonableness and absurdity, I discovered a single truth. Do you know what it was?”
I slowly rose from the chair and approached the head among the Conductor’s three that appeared to be its true self—the one trembling with a particularly anxious expression.
“No matter what kind of work it is, it contains the ‘intent’ and ‘philosophy’ of the creator who made it.”
Several emotions briefly merged within the Conductor’s eyes.
It was being persuaded by my words, yet it believed that this, at least, could never be acknowledged.
“But your art is missing something essential. It is nothing but a sequence of suffering and repeated stimulation. There is no philosophy you wish to communicate, no message, and not even the barest respect for your audience!”
《Guh!!》
The Conductor finally groaned as its posture collapsed.
It stumbled backward and fell in an almost comical manner.
“That cannot be called art. It is nothing more than a repetitive mass of dopamine!”
《Ah…… Ah, aah……》
My final criticism became a sharp bullet that pierced through its very existence.
The sound of its pride and dignity as a creator shattering like fragments of glass filled the surroundings with a resounding CRASH.
《I am an artist, an artist……! I am the last artist remaining in this dreadful city!!》
It was a final struggle.
An ugly, almost childish plea made solely to protect its own aesthetic.
Its body was slowly collapsing, and it was the head at the center of the three that screamed at me.
“What part of that is art? I have no desire to understand the vulgar dopamine vending machine you created, and I have no intention of trying.”
I had not summoned it aloud, but at some point, I felt a familiar, reassuring weight in my hand.
The Noble Gavel of Judgment.
It was the privilege I could wield as The Absolved.
“The defendant, ‘Conductor of Flesh.’ For using the suffering of others as entertainment and profaning precious lives in the name of art……!”
I swung the weight in my hand with all my strength and brought it down upon the courtroom’s judgment block.
“I pronounce you guilty!!”
BANG―!