The Little Prince in the Ossuary

「A specter is haunting the Internet—the specter of cancer. All the users of the virtual realities have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Streamers, viewers and every other gamer.」

「The history of all hitherto virtual reality is the history of cancer inducers.」

「Let the cancerous tremble at a DLC revolution! The viewers have nothing to lose but their money. They have all the fun in the world to win!」

「Zuschauer aller Länder, vereinigt euch!」

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…

Do I really have to explain this? Look, the name is self-explanatory.

…Okay, I guess I’ll have to do it if I want to get paid.

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# Executive Order 9066 (3), Camp Roberts

The man who earlier proposed 「Winter Alliance」 raised his hand.

“There’s something I want to tell all our faction,” said the man as he threw a look at Gyeoul, asking for permission.

Judging from his earlier remarks, Gyeoul doubted he’d say something stupid, thus, he gave him a nod. The man stood up and made a simple yet polite bow to the people around him. His refined action full of intellect gave him a solemn and grave look.

“First of all, I’d like to thank our little boss for his patience. I’m sure he was aware. Aware of the fact that there were quite a few people who didn’t acknowledge his leadership, and to my shame, I was one of them. And truth be told, there seems to be some who still don’t trust our leader.”

The man then swept a look around with a gentle smile on his face.

“But even so, our little boss didn’t abandon us. Rather, he waited for us until we could grow to trust him. And now, thanks to his mercy, we stand together back in our safe and comfortable lives. If it weren’t for him, we’d be just a group of nobodies, no better than those out in the gutter. Isn’t that right?”

A considerable number of people responded with cheers. Yeonchul, however, looked somewhat uneasy at the situation.

‘He must have been securing his position before I even came here,’ thought Gyeoul. If he decided Gyeoul was inadequate as a leader, he would have stayed hidden, looking for a chance to overthrow him.

“Now, as I’ve said earlier, we have made an error, which was underestimating the little boss, judging him by his young age and trying to utilize him for our own good. So, here is what I want to ask of you all.”

The smile the man had been keeping on his face was replaced with a grave expression. The eyes of all the audience naturally turned to his lips.

“Let us make a promise with ourselves that we will never repeat the same error. Our leader gave us his trust, now it’s our time to reciprocate. We need to abandon any distrust and antagonism we held against our leader and each other.”

The crowd gave him a standing ovation. Having achieved his goal, the man finished his speech.

“That’s all I want to say. But before we finish this off, would you share with us your thoughts about the future course of our alliance, if I may ask? Because today is the day you’ve officially become the leader of our faction. We’d like to hear your ‘inauguration speech’.”

Gyeoul gave a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head as the crowd’s eyes were centered on him. He didn’t have anything else prepared. He already had enough acting for today.

But he didn’t turn down the request. If he did, the assembly would only end anticlimactically.

“I’ll make it quick.”

The boy desperately scanned for things to say while keeping his kind smile on the surface.

“Our first objective is to survive. But instead of simply surviving, I want us to walk a little more difficult path. To live like a human. Because we’re different from those beasts out there.”

Gyeoul concluded with a smile.

“That’s about it. Thank you for attending the assembly.”

A few days have passed since the establishment of 「Winter Alliance」. Now that the faction had a name, the only thing they lacked was managerial positions.

For a community to run stably, there had to be middle managers and executives. This was a lesson Gyeoul had learned the hard way. Something unexpected had once happened in a mission that prevented him from returning. When he came back, his community had already vanished into thin air. Order and responsibilities must be clear to handle a crisis in the leader’s absence.

Given the atmosphere in the faction, there would be no backlash even if Gyeoul arbitrarily appointed people positions. But the problem with that method was that if the people he appointed performed poorly, it would be hard for him to avoid the criticism. For better stability, splitting the responsibility was necessary. So the candidates were registered by referral and elected through an anonymous vote.

“First is Jang Yeonchul-ssi and Min Wangi-ssi second. Both of you, please come forward.”

The former was the one brought Gyeoul here and the latter was the one who proposed Winter Alliance.

“I need you two to take turns and take charge of running our faction when I’m away. Always discuss no matter how big the problem is, but you will have the final say on each matter on shift. Do you understand?”

Corporate responsibility. That was why Gyeoul called both of them together. He didn’t want a second-in-command with a strong foothold yet. He didn’t know them well enough to trust them, so Gyeoul chose this method where they would keep each other in check.

Yeonchul seemed a little disappointed, which he tried to hide, making it even clearer. He must have had high hopes when he saw the results of the vote. Wangi, on the other hand, gave the boy a meaningful smile. He was a very serious person and a very hard nut to crack.

“As for your title… let’s call you deputy leaders for now. Of course, we can change it if we have any better ideas. Now, shake hands and express your gratitude to those who voted for you.”

Gyeoul then stepped aside, giving them space to speak.

Their speeches clearly showed the difference in their personalities. Jang Yeonchul was a bit clumsy and naive, he blushed and stuttered while giving his speech. But the fact that a lot of people trusted him proved that he was a scrupulously honest person.

On the contrary, Min Wangi’s speech was fluent. He was full of confidence, yet he wasn’t arrogant. The prudence and self-control he had seemed fit for a negotiator.

Once the election was over, Wangi quietly said a word to Gyeoul.

“You’re very good at this. I’m honestly surprised.”

Yeonchul, watching this from the side, also came to praise him. Gyeoul answered with a faint smile.

After a moment of break, Gyeoul called up the two of them to a corner of the tent.

“Deputy leaders, could you two come here for a second?”

Jang Yeonchul and Min Wangi seemed to wonder what Gyeoul would want to talk about without other people listening. The other people looked curious but gave them space knowing that Gyeoul wanted to talk in private.

“As you already know, our alliance is still too small. If I take a platoon out for missions there won’t be enough manpower left at the camp.”

“You want to recruit some new people.”

“Right. It’s inevitable. We need a certain number of people to meet the U.S. military’s criteria and our alliance doesn’t have enough people to handle that. And I’m sure the other factions are aware of that.”

“And that means…”

“They will try to plant a mole among us.”

While Yeonchul took a big gulp at his statement, Wangi was rather composed. In fact, this was obvious to him.

‘His favor would have gotten a downward revision if I hadn’t figured it out.’

The relatively more cowardly of the two asked cautiously, “Then what should we do?”

Gyeoul answered lightly, “Well, there’s actually not much we can do other than to let them in.”

“What?!”

Yeonchul accidentally shouted out loud before clasping his mouth. His eyes were filled with shock and dismay.

“What do you mean we let them in? Why would you take a spy into our alliance?”

“What else can we do? We can’t tell if the new people are spies or not.”

“B-but…”

Being at a loss for words, Yeonchul sighed deeply. Gyeoul chuckled at his response.

“Don’t worry too much. It’s actually nothing to be afraid of.”

“Hmm, you sound like you have a plan. Could you tell us what it is?” Said Wangi with his usual smile.

Yeonchul, realizing that he wasn’t following, had a bewildered expression. A look of dismay rose on his face as he still couldn’t understand.

“I’m not going to let anyone in our alliance starve. I don’t intend to set up classes, so they don’t have to worry about walking on eggshells. I guarantee… that living under our alliance’s protection will be better in every way than in any of the other factions.”

Gyeoul took a breath before finishing his words.

“So they wouldn’t want to screw it up. They’ll strive to maintain their lives here.”

“Oh…”

His words were full of conviction as if he knew it for a fact.

“But there’s something else I’m worried about.”

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