I, an Angel, Dismantle Humans to Level Up
More than one hundred million people were trapped inside the VRMMO Gnosis Online, and a death game began.
A skill was granted by the administrators to the six-year-old duke’s daughter, Alice
(whose true self is Mirai, a former world rank #1 hardcore gamer).
That skill was…
“If you don’t kill humans, you won’t gain even a single millimeter of experience points.”
… the worst curse imaginable!?
“Beating monsters doesn’t raise my level? Then I guess I’ve got no choice but to hunt humans, right?”
To efficiently raise her level, the strongest gamer decides to become a “killer,” hunting the heads of villains in back alleys.
But the biggest problem was…
Her daily life was being live-streamed to the real world, 24 hours a day.
“Waaaah! Alice-chan got lost! I’m worried!”
“She managed to shop safely! So precious! She’s seriously an angel!”
In the blind spots of the cameras, while viewers were being soothed by her “first errand,”
she was instantly dismantling villains and achieving blood-soaked level-ups.
This is the tale of a forbidden hero:
A young girl worshipped by all humanity as a “lovely angel,” who secretly piles up mountains of corpses and ascends to ultimate strength without anyone ever finding out.
---
A Perfectly Unnatural Daily Life
——Ping!
——Ping!
——Ping!
——Ping!
Inside my head, the level-up fanfare was ringing like it had gone mad.
“Phew… If I’ve hunted this many, my level’s probably shot way up, right?”
I perched lightly atop the piled-up “mountain of flesh,” swinging my legs back and forth with an excited air, like I might start humming at any moment.
Spread out below me was a hellscape.
Ten people? Twenty?
So many armed men’s corpses that it wasn’t even worth counting, forming a small hill that covered the floor.
Heads, hearts, carotid arteries, former humans who had been precisely “processed” by my small hands.
As the iron-rust stench of blood filled the air, I briskly brushed off the red stains clinging to my frilly skirt.
Right now, I was like a tiny grim reaper descending upon a mountain of corpses.
Beneath my mask, my lips curled up into a grin.
My name is Alice.
More precisely, Alice von Kleinert.
A perfect six-year-old duke’s daughter, loved more than anyone else in this country.
And… forced to level up by killing my own kind in order to save humanity… a pitiful former strongest gamer.
How did things end up this messed up?
The story goes back a little, to my birthday.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
My sixth birthday.
I am convinced that I am the happiest girl in the world, and the most “perfect.”
“Happy birthday, Alice!”
“Our precious treasure. Just seeing you smile makes Mama happy.”
Under the glittering chandelier, Father and Mother hug me with melting smiles.
The maids around us gaze at me, completely entranced.
Yeah, I know.
I’m cute, after all.
This is the scene where I’m supposed to “rejoice innocently.”
I tilted my head slightly and smiled shyly.
“… Thank you, Otousama, Okaasama. I’m the happiest in the world.”
The angle is calculated. The tone of voice is calculated.
See? The corners of Father’s eyes drooped in utter adoration.
Easy.
I’m a genius at playing the “ideal daughter” of the House of Kleinert.
I know that I’m unnaturally quick on the uptake.
Even without being taught, I understand what kind of expression makes adults happy. Even with difficult studies, once I hear them, I somehow grasp the “trick.”
It’s almost like I’ve practiced all this somewhere before.
But, well, whatever.
Everyone’s kind and warm and loves me, after all.
There was no room for doubt in this happy time…
◆◇◆
One afternoon.
I overheard Father and the Knight Commander talking in the garden.
“… Recently, high-level orcs have been appearing frequently. It’s getting dangerous.”
“Yes. We’ll need to raise our Strength stats even more.”
Father and the Knight Commander nodded seriously at each other.
But something pricked at my chest.
Level? Stats?
Everyone talks about it like it’s perfectly natural.
I smiled and pretend to listen along.
But in a corner of my mind, a cool voice whispered…
—This feels kind of like a game.
Huh!?
Noise ran through the sea of my thoughts.
What did I just think?
“A game”?
What’s that?
A tasty snack? A new dress brand?
No, that’s not it. Something more… artificial. For play, or something like that.
Why do I know a word like that?
I’m Alice. Born and raised in this mansion, a purebred duke’s daughter… or at least, I should be.
Sometimes, things like this happen.
Moments when I feel like this world might be fake. Moments when I know unfamiliar words, like noise cutting in.
“Game.”
“Log out”…?
The instant that last word surfaced, a chill ran down my spine.
Log out. Leaving this place.
If I leave… what happens?
Do I stop being Alice?
Do my kind parents and Sarah, all disappear?
That’s… kind of scary.
But no one else feels any sense of wrongness.
Even though such strange words are flying around, everyone’s completely calm.
In this world, it feels like I’m the only “foreign object.”
A sudden loneliness crashed over me, as if I’ve been cut off from the world.
That night.
While changing into my nightclothes, I asked Sarah, my personal maid.
“Is this world… really here?”
Sarah’s hands stop.
In the mirror, she looked puzzled.
“My, young lady. Did you have a dream? This is reality, you know. The feel of your hair, the wind from the window, even these hands of mine, everything is real. Did something happen?”
She cupped my cheeks with her warm hands.
There’s warmth. I can feel her heartbeat.
Sarah is alive. Human. There’s no doubt about that.
“… No, it’s nothing.”
I put my usual “perfect Alice” mask back on and smiled.
In the end, it really is just me.
Maybe this sense of wrongness, this loneliness, maybe it’s all just because there’s something wrong with my head.
Sarah left the room, and silence settled in.
I sat down on the bed and sighed.
——Bzzzt.
Suddenly, the air in the room warped.
A strange shrieking sound resounded in my ears, like tinnitus.
I jumped up and looked around.
No one’s there.
But something is.
From the corner of the room, where the darkness is thickest, came an unfamiliar “smell.”
Like ozone. Like burnt circuitry.
(… Oh? Looks like you noticed me.)
A voice echoed directly in my head, flippant, yet chilling to the bone.
The darkness rippled.
What emerged wasn’t a ghost or a monster.
It was a small girl-shaped… thing… with strange, rainbow-glowing wings.
(Pin-po~n! Nice to meet you, Player Number 5,811,192. Or perhaps I should say… Alice-sama?)
The voice was adorably bell-like, yet carried an artificial coldness and a tone of exaggerated politeness bordering on rudeness.
I held my breath.
Floating before me was a girl with hair glowing in seven colors.
Her very existence stood out blatantly in this heavy, aristocratic bedroom.
A clear sense of wrongness, different from the resolution of this world itself.
“… What are you? A fairy…?”
I asked in a trembling voice.
The act of a six-year-old frightened by the unknown.
But inside, my heart is pounding wildly.
I knew it.
I wasn’t crazy. This world is.
(A fairy? Hmm, that’s not too far off, I suppose. I am the assist AI known as Pyupure! A pleasure to make your acquaintance!)
The girl of light calling herself Pyupure spinned once in midair.
Sparkling particles of light scatter with her movement.
(Allow me to be blunt! Alice-sama, that ‘sense of wrongness’ you felt was absolutely, positively correct! Because this isn’t reality at all. This place is…)
Pyupure brings her face right up to my nose and grins mockingly.
(The virtual space of the full-dive VRMMORPG Gnosis Online!)
“… V-R… M-M… O…?”
Unfamiliar words.
And yet, something deep in my brain reacted violently.
I know them. That concept, I feel like I know it.
(Exactly! A fabricated world! A game world! Your Father, Mother, that kind-looking maid, everyone is a player whose memories have been sealed! Yes, without exception.)
So that’s it.
The true nature of that “too-perfect happiness” I felt was a scripted performance and roleplay between strangers who’d had their memories erased.
Father’s smile. Mother’s warmth. All of it… game settings.
A chill spread through my chest.
As I stood there in a daze, Pyupure twisted her lips into a crescent and whispered like a devil.
(Oh my? It’s still too early to despair. I am, after all, on your side!)
She spinned once more in the air and gave a wink.
(If you’ll listen to me until the very end… I’ll give you a special present!)
“… A present?”
(Yes! An admin-approved cheat to overturn this impossible game! A one-of-a-kind, unrivaled strongest skill granted to only a single player out of everyone!)
The strongest skill.
At that sweet phrase, my gamer instincts twitched sharply.
Playing the tragic heroine can wait.
“… Tell me everything.”
I wiped away my tears and flashed a fearless grin, without knowing that this so-called “strongest” was a landmine of the worst kind.
What do you think about this chapter?
