“Our adventure is more valuable than yours! So, we will move forward!”

“…I lost?”

Dorothy was greatly wounded by the divine power.

Although she immediately returned to her original state with the devil’s unique regenerative ability, it was the first time she had lost a fight, which made her flustered.

“Yeah. Normally, we wouldn’t have won. But you lost because you didn’t try. You didn’t dodge attacks, and since victory was in sight, you didn’t even strategize.”

“…”

“You might want to believe it’s a game, but to us, it’s a precious reality. So we tried. Because we want to win and move forward!”

That was right.

The children had proven that their attitude of striving in reality was stronger than Dorothy’s attitude of dismissing the world as an illusion.

Proof of value.

It was a complete denial of Dorothy’s thoughts.

“Stop the massacre now and accept reality, Dorothy! Let’s set things right!”

“…Don’t make me laugh. Reality? Did you just say reality?”

Dorothy’s voice rose.

And the anger contained within her burst out fiercely.

With defeat as the trigger, she’s now pouring out her “true feelings”.

“The phenomenon of people turning into illusions… I know. But so what? Does it make sense for people to turn into monsters? Do you think something like that can happen in reality?”

Swoosh!

What Dorothy said was a very common-sensical thing.

Stories that don’t happen in reality, stories that don’t fit causality.

In fact, as she said, it was absurd for people to turn into monsters.

However, it just happened nonchalantly in this world.

An explosively powerful energy erupted from Dorothy.

As her anger stretched out as if to break the world, the Red Queen’s scales tried to suppress it.

However, cracks began to form on the Red Queen’s scales instead.

“If this place is real reality, then such absurd phenomena shouldn’t happen…!”

Crack!!!

In the end, the Queen’s scales were completely shattered.

Red fragments scattered, and Dorothy’s power was unleashed again!

[Dorothy Level 1 ㅡ 998]

A fierce storm surged.

Dorothy was completely free from the Red Queen’s control.

Alice immediately evacuated the children.

Now, only Alice and Dorothy remained in this place.

“This world is nothing but an illusion!!!”

Dorothy’s storm-infused blade stretched towards Alice.

The transcendent power, close to that of a god, contained the force that had slaughtered all of humanity.

To receive it.

An equally transcendent power was needed.

Clang—!

Dorothy’s blade was parried.

Dorothy’s eyes widened.

Alice quietly muttered.

“Fifth stage.”

A being freed from the Red Queen’s suppression no longer belongs to the Queen’s world.

The Queen acknowledges that being’s power and accepts them as an enemy.

That was the final condition for releasing the Red Queen’s power.

The Red Queen’s final stage.

Alice, in this final confrontation.

“Becoming the Red Queen.”

The Red Queen is stronger than anything else.

Therefore, if Dorothy is strong, the Red Queen will inevitably be stronger than her.

Dorothy of level 998.

Alice, who became the Red Queen.

The waves of power from two entirely different natures clashed.

Dorothy also sensed it.

That she couldn’t determine the outcome of the fight with Alice.

Dorothy was once again enraged by that fact.

Until now, Dorothy had used her powerful strength to place everything beneath her, standing loftily above like an angel.

However, the formidable enemy named Alice was enough to drag her down again.

A bloody battle of life and death.

The fear of life hanging in the balance.

All of those things dropped Dorothy from illusion to reality!

“…!”

Dorothy’s knife and Alice’s sword exchanged hundreds of blows in less than 10 seconds.

Hundreds of slashes made a thunderous noise as if the sky was falling, reducing the stage of the two transcendent beings to nothing.

Meanwhile, Dorothy was being pushed back.

Dorothy clearly had less experience fighting strong enemies.

The fear of death crept up on her.

Alice shouted.

“Face reality, Dorothy! This place is reality now!”

“Shut up! This place is just a game! It’s nothing but an illusion!”

“What changes if you deny it’s not reality…! What can you do by denying the value of this place! Don’t deny reality!!”

“…!”

Alice’s shout reached her from an equal position.

…

During a counseling session, the doctor told Dorothy’s parents.

“Your daughter is different from other children. She is extremely innocent, and emotionally underdeveloped. How should I put it, she seems to have many stray thoughts and easily believes in imaginary things that haven’t happened? There is a concern that she might become trapped in her own world. I recommend keeping horror movies or stimulating media as far away from this child as possible.”

Young Dorothy didn’t understand the doctor’s words and asked her parents.

“Mom. Am I sick somewhere?”

“No. No, Dorothy. We’ll do better.”

“Why? Then did I do well?”

“…That’s right. Is there anything you wish for?”

“Hmm~ I want to go to an amusement park and ride the Ferris wheel. I want to buy games too.”

“If it’s an all-ages game. It should be fine. Okay. But you have to listen well.”

…

Clang—! Clang—!

Hundreds of blows were exchanged, and sparks of metal flew.

Meanwhile, Dorothy muttered, filled with anger.

“Reality…”

…

Dorothy was playing a game.

The hero in the game brandished a sword, and said, let’s defeat the evil monsters for everyone.

Dorothy looked at the knife placed beside her and thought.

If she too, held a knife and stabbed bad things, could she become a hero?

And not long after, screams were heard.

Dorothy’s parents were killed by a monster that invaded their home.

It was a monster that appeared suddenly, without any warning.

The shock was too great for young Dorothy.

Dorothy thought.

The fact that there are monsters means this world is a game!

That’s right. Monsters are things that only appear in fantasies or games.

Then, virtual levels and statuses seemed to become visible to her eyes.

Dorothy stabbed and killed the evil monster that had killed her parents with a knife.

Dorothy was a child who lived in fantasy.

Instead of denying such a cruel reality, she didn’t lose her smile.

Immediately after, the Institution appeared, erased Dorothy’s memories, and arranged for adoptive parents.

However, perhaps due to her unique constitution, the memory eraser did not work on Dorothy.

…

Clang—!

After one major clash, Dorothy was pushed back.

However, without caring, she immediately rushed at Alice again.

Looking almost desperate, she muttered once more.

“Reality…!”

…

Dorothy couldn’t get along with children since long ago.

The reason was that she was always smiling, so they didn’t know what she was thinking.

There was even a child who bullied her.

However, perhaps due to the warmth of the world,

An opportunity for Dorothy to make friends arose.

It was the next day.

Without warning, a monster appeared and killed everyone.

This time too, Dorothy killed the monster with her own knife.

…

Creak—!

Their strength is nearly equal.

Even in a state of fighting Alice for life and death under such conditions, only the word reality lingered in Dorothy’s mind.

“Reality!!!”

…

A giant monster emerged from the city, killing everyone.

While screams filled the air, Dorothy alone smiled as if looking at a game screen, watching it.

And then she thought.

After all, this world is a game!

So there’s no need to be afraid or sad.

Even if people are cruelly murdered by monsters, it’s no longer sad.

It’s just a game, nothing more than a fleeting illusion.

But now I want to go home.

I’m tired of playing games now.

Then one day, Mephistopheles appeared, handed over a devil’s seed, and told Dorothy there was a way to go home.

Only devils can descend to hell.

So I followed him down through the gates of hell.

However, even in the world she descended to, following him, there were plenty of monsters.

The Marvelous Land of Oz.

In the land of fantasy, anything is possible.

…

Dorothy screamed in rage, her voice nearly tearing her throat.

“If this is reality…! Then anything shouldn’t be possible!!!”

Dorothy denied from the start that monsters could appear in reality.

Dorothy denies all phenomena that deviate from the rules occurring in the world.

Dorothy’s sorrow and anger resonated with Alice as they clashed.

“It’s okay to die in an accident! It’s okay to die from illness! It’s okay for bad people to exist! But why do such monsters exist?! Why can this world be so cruel! Monsters are things that only appear in books, games, novels, or dreams!”

It was common sense.

That monsters do not exist in reality.

To you, who are reading this novel.

And to Dorothy, too.

However, in the world Dorothy was in and now, in this world, monsters existed.

Things that someone might have brushed off as “it could happen” were an unacceptable reality for Dorothy.

It couldn’t be possible unless it was a game.

Dorothy was a child who easily fell into fantasy, but precisely because of that, she was a child who denied fantasy more than anyone else.

“I will kill all the worthless fakes and summon Oz to make a wish…! To send me home! Hundreds, thousands of times!!!”

The home Dorothy speaks of… Alice understood its meaning.

“I understand your sorrow well. But we must move forward. Being trapped in repetition is not the only answer. Now, the final blow. Come at me with everything you have!”

Dorothy and Alice both prepared for their final blow.

The fantasy denied because evil monsters cannot exist in reality, and the value that shines when facing fear.

Opposite concepts were imbued in their respective swords, emitting momentum.

“Turn around, Ferris wheel. Turn around like a storm! Let all cruelty scatter into fantasy…!”

“We will face cruelty and find value! This is our reality!”

Finally, the attacks of the two transcendents clashed, and a great light erupted, dyeing the world white.

When Alice opened her eyes, a completely different scene unfolded.

Rattle. Rattle.

Alice was on a Ferris wheel.

And looking out the window, neither smiling, nor angry, nor sad.

A dry Dorothy was visible.

Such a Dorothy spoke to Alice.

Her gaze still fixed outside the Ferris wheel.

“I couldn’t face sorrow, pain, or fear… anything. It was easier to deny reality than to face evil. So I saw the world as an illusion, and from the Ferris wheel, I only watched as if only beauty had value.”

“…”

Alice listened to Dorothy’s words.

Dorothy looked so exhausted.

And she needed advice.

“The wish I made to Oz was always the same. I begged him to please take me home, over and over again… You know? Alice. This world must greatly resemble the world before you entered the game. And it was the same for me. My parents were alive here. But those parents weren’t my real parents. It’s natural. My parents are dead.”

Dorothy said she came down to this world through the gates of hell.

Just like Alice and other tale devils were possessed into games.

That means this world is a lower world, and once Dorothy descended here.

She is in a state where she cannot return to the upper world.

Even if she makes a wish through Oz to be sent home.

She cannot return to the time when her truly desired, real parents were alive.

Still, she summoned Oz several times and made the same wish, and due to the unfulfilled wish, time turned back, and it has continued like an eternally spinning Ferris wheel until now.

“What value should I pursue in this fake world? The heart that believes fakes are real? The sense of accomplishment from saving the world from destruction by not letting it reach the singularity through my repetition? Well, I don’t know.”

Dorothy had become worn out after long repetition.

What is certain is that she wants to break the repetition, with Alice as the catalyst.

That is Dorothy’s true feeling… To such a her, the only words Alice could offer were painful ones.

“As you said, this place might not be real. That’s a scary thing for both you and me. But value is born when you face fear. I’ll be honest, Dorothy. Your wish cannot be fulfilled. So accept it, and find even a small value. That is the fear you will face, your own reality.”

Alice had shattered this child’s illusion called lingering attachment.

Dorothy listened to Alice’s words and smiled bitterly.

Her vision distanced from the Ferris wheel, returning to normal.

“…Yes. For so long.”

“I’ve only been a child.”

Kyaaak… Too many illustrations!!!!

I can’t do this again!!!!

As always, if you spot any mistakes, feel free to let me know—and I hope you enjoyed the read!

—Chi