Season 4: Chapter 176. The World’s Secret (1)

Almond always logged off at night and back on in the morning. Most streamers, though, kept grinding until dawn. The Paprika streamers were no different. They were all night owls, but this time was... different.

“Uh, I, I’m gonna head out...”

“Yeah.”

“

Ugh...

m-me too.”

As night fell, a surprising number of them logged off for a painfully obvious reason.

“Yeah, getting stomped like that will break anyone’s spirit,” Black Pepper muttered.

The Knights had utterly crushed them. For now, their will to fight had disappeared.

“What do we do now, Shrimp?”

“...”

As the one in charge, Shrimp had no answer. Even if Team Rocket started as a joke, being humiliated like that killed the fun.

“Did we at least salvage the Adamantium?”

“J-Just a few pieces.”

Black Pepper sighed and flopped onto her back. “What do we do? What do

I

do?”

“Why?”

“Once this hits YouTube, the hate is going to be insane.”

— Hahahahaha

— Facts...

— You’ll be okay...

— You’ll catch some heat tho lol

— Troll-Black Pepper~

“I tied Almond down and got complacent. In the end, I couldn’t even do anything.”

“That’s because the Avenger is a busted class! Dammit! Call the devs!” Even Shrimp bristled with anger after hearing about the Avenger issue.

“No, I could hurt Almond, though.” Black Pepper hated that she’d failed to finish him when she could.

“No, sis.” Orange stepped in. “If your skills had worked on other Cheese villagers too, it would have been far easier. Radish Servant wouldn’t have been able to hold you up, and Almond wouldn’t have gotten free.”

His point was simple. If the Avenger’s skills applied to everyone, no one except Almond could have stood in Black Pepper’s way. That would have made pinning Almond down easier.

“Th-That’s true, but still...” Black Pepper accepted it, but only partly.

‘You say that because you’ve never fought Almond when he has a bow.’

Fighting Almond when he had a bow was like fighting a brick wall. No tricks or gimmicks worked.

“Orange, good call. Let’s drag those damn devs in here, yeah?”

Whip!

Shrimp suddenly sat up. He’d decided that they couldn’t move on without fixing this Avenger bug.

— Shrimp lmao

— Why is he so mad?

— He is the Volcano

— Losing because you played badly hurts the most

“This is ridiculous! Why are

we

the only ones suffering like this?! No food, no people, and now a bug on top of it! We’re just asking for normal!”

— True true

— Preach~

— He’s not wrong lol

— It’s too much

He wasn’t wrong. Sure, Almond’s early raid on Paprika had led to this, but Shrimp’s points all currently made sense.

Poof!

White smoke spread out, and one of the operators appeared in a slick, tailored suit.

“

Berrr-berr-beeeer!

”

It was Camebert.

“W-What?”

“

Gasp.

”

“An admin!?”

Camebert bowed with theatrical flair. “Correct. I’m Camebert from Operations.”

He’d come to Paprika Village after hearing the reports.

“Black Pepper’s Avenger class is the problem, yes?”

Were they here to fix the bug?

Shrimp fired back right away. “Yeah, why can’t she attack Cheese villagers? What kind of nonsense is that!?”

However, Camebert wasn’t to be pushed around. “Because that class is lore-bound. In the original design, Paprika was supposed to conquer Cheese Village and colonize it. An Avenger is a Cheese villager who has been killed by you ten or more times and returns to exact revenge... That sort of thing.”

“Excuse me...?”

“Not ‘excuse me.’ The truth is, you already

had

the power to turn Cheese into a colony long ago.

Berr-berr-berrr!

”

In short, he was telling them, ‘You’re losing because you played poorly.’

Black Pepper, Shrimp, and Orange flushed red.

— HAHAHAHAHA

— Wait, so that’s how it was supposed to be??

— Where was that power, then?

— They were closet OP all along lol

“But a certain...

variable

appeared, and your whole operation fell apart. In RTS terms like

StarCraft

, you missed your timing push by a beat.”

— Say it in StarCraft terms and everyone gets it

— Oof

— Late timing push Zerg? That’s a loss

“You’re all good gamers. You know how important that is. To summarize, this isn’t a bug. It’s just an unflattering mirror of your play.

Berr-berr-beeeer!

”

— Bruh that’s savage

— Admin with the fatality

— LOL back to skill issue

— Chef’s kiss

“D-Dammit!” Shrimp sagged.

He thought they’d have a chance if the Avenger class was fixed.

‘It’s not a bug. It’s not a bug!?’

“Sir Operator! What’s that supposed to mean!”

“But!”

Click.

Camebert raised an index finger. He wasn’t finished. “You can’t patch a person, but you

can

patch a class.”

“...?”

“There is, somewhere in this land, a specialist who can alter such mysterious powers.”

Gulp.

Every member of Team Rocket swallowed hard.

‘Th-this...’

‘A hidden quest?’

‘No... a clue.’

This wasn’t just about some mysterious ability that could fix or enhance a class. It meant that a secret was buried within this world itself. The developers had just confirmed it.

“If you can find him,” Camebert said reverently, “his power can not only repair classes, but

strengthen

them.”

“Where is he?” Shrimp asked immediately.

“In a land colder than death.” Camebert’s words echoed like wind through a crypt. “Where two frozen moons hang in the sky. The drifting, icy moon will welcome you.”

Thud.

He tossed a book onto the ground.

“Deep beneath this world sleeps the Archive of Eternity and Ephemera, where all is recorded. If you uncover its secrets, you may yet find your chance.”

The cover read:

The Legendary Mad Occultist, Genzo

. At the bottom corner, barely visible, was a code:

Archive of Eternity and Ephemera — 103-1.

— Whoa

— wait what

— wasn’t this a political deathmatch game??

— Now we’re in a cosmic adventure??

— “Mad Occultist Genzo” sounds like DLC content

Shrimp quickly flipped the book open and began trembling. “It, it’s real! This book came from that archive!”

“I can’t believe this was actually in the game...”

Everyone stared in shock.

Camebert smiled thinly. “Of course, it won’t be easy. The Cheese Knights won’t just let you wander freely. Remember, flowers bloom even in mud. I believe in you.”

Pop!

With that, he vanished into a puff of white smoke.

— How the hell are they supposed to find that?

— Survival Craft’s world map is massive bro

— at least drop a quest marker

— dude gave a riddle and dipped

— ain’t no way anyone’s finding that without Google

***

Meanwhile, back in Cheese Village, everyone had completely forgotten about a certain individual.

“All Black

exists

! Somewhere out there!!” Acorn Jelly was still chasing the mythical dreamland, All Black.

— It’s literally in front of the fortress

— This guy is farming screen time again

— somebody headshot him already pls

— legendary filler character

— he should’ve stayed in the Kingdom arc

Viewers felt exasperated since Cheese Village was already overflowing with Fertile Soil. Why was Acorn Jelly still obsessed over this All Black? Because the All Black he spoke of wasn’t the same black soil around the fortress.

“Why do you think the fertile land keeps expanding? The Lord knows. He’s seen it. The dreamland where infinite black earth wells up like a spring...”

Acorn Jelly believed in a land that produced

endless

Fertile Soil like oil bubbling from the ground.

— bro thinks he’s an oil baron

— someone tell him he’s digging into the server base

— no one plays the game like this

— lowkey respect the commitment tho

Acorn Jelly ignored them all. “The world belongs to dreamers.”

Thunk. Thunk.

He kept digging in silence, convinced that True Fertile soil lay deep below.

“Black things always come from underground.”

— yeah, it’s called coal, genius

— nah, watch him actually find something

— content gold either way

Clang!

Something struck his shovel. He froze and swallowed dryly. Was it just iron? No, it sounded sharper. He switched to a pickaxe.

Clang!

Acorn Jelly hit something solid again. As he scraped away the dirt, a faint silver surface revealed itself. It looked smooth, cold, and futuristic.

“Wh-What the hell is this...?”

— ?

— ??

— Oh, no way

— this better not be what I think it is

He brushed away the remaining soil. Letters emerged, faint but clear.

[Etern... and Ephem...]

He dug faster, breathless. Chunks of dirt flew aside until the full inscription was revealed.

[Archive of Eternity and Ephemera]

Acorn Jelly completely froze. Trembling, he played a song on his stream deck.

“When I was young~ by chance~ I heard an unbelievable story~”

— BRO IS PLAYING HIS OWN OST

— no way this is happening live

— HE FOUND IT?!

— this is the best accidental quest trigger ever

He spread his arms wide, tears glistening under the moonlight.

“Even Bubblegum laughed at my dream. He chased power and gold... but I chased the treasure inside me!”

— fun fact: Bubblegum is literally a board member now

— bro caught the bag, you caught dirt

— poetic contrast lol

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

“Since childhood, I’ve followed the treasure within my heart!”

— bro, that treasure better be a house in Gangnam

— man’s gonna find enlightenment or malware

Acorn Jelly cleared away the remaining dirt.

Rumble... rumble...!

The ground shook as an outline came into view. The metallic structure, smooth and silver, was as vast as a battleship. At its center was a small slit, just barely open.

“A... a door...”

— no shot

— can he go in??

— what is this, Narnia?

— this is insane

It was a door, the entrance to the Archive of Eternity and Ephemera. The resting place of all the world’s secrets. Perhaps even the truth behind the Fertile Soil itself.

Acorn Jelly took a deep breath, stepped forward, and with trembling hands...

Preeeak.

The door opened.