March was walking out of the teleporter when a flash of light was triggered right behind him, revealing an unconscious Ector on the teleporting platform.
"EH?????"
Feeling quite confused, March carefully approached Ector and sensed his pulse by touching his neck.
"Hey mom, call in the medical team. We got an unexpected visitor here who arrived on his own..."
"I'm not your- fuck man, whatever! The team is on their way. Can you tell me his ID for the report?"
"ID number 762, Ector Messias, male, around twenty years old, maybe younger... DNA blueprints Fire type, score... 3077!?"
"Oh! The Oni guy!"
"Oni guy?"
"Yeah, this guy is a pervert for muscles. He designed his servants to look like muscle builders but because of the DNA blueprints' native feature, the horn, he ended up with an Oni."
"What the hell is an Oni??"
"You know, the ones from videogames. Giants with horns in their heads and bodies made of muscles."
"Ugh! Sounds creepy!"
"Hahahaha! We live in a free society. Let him like whatever he wants!"
"Sure, but keep his fetishes away from me! Anyway, why did this guy appear here?"
"Oh! It's an emergency feature of the Player's bracers. If the Player takes damage in any vital area like head or organs, and the system deems them unable to continue, they are teleported back here for treatment."
"...Doesn't this feature makes my job redundant?"
"Of course not. The bracer only teleport the Player after the damage is made. If the player suffer fatal damage at once, it's completely useless. Imagine if we ignored the guy exploding his own base last time. Both players there would have died before any of them could be teleported back here. Also, if the bracer is damaged, it may not teleport the Player successfully. Anyway, there are plenty of reasons for you to do your job."
"Couldn't you just remotely activate the teleport instead of sending me out?"
"Technically we could, but this feature is not available due to security reasons."
"Security?"
"Yeah. There are plenty of limitations imposed to us by you know who."
"You mean, the mi-"
"YEAH! EXACTLY THEM!"
"Man, chill out. It's not like they are tapping our communications."
"You never know. I got enough reasons to believe otherwise."
"...Are you serious? Don't they have better things to do? I mean, no matter what we say, we are as isolated as we can be. No word will ever get out before this is over."
"Can we stop talking about this now? Please..."
"Sure, whatever. So, how did this guy got taken out? He got the highest score I ever saw."
"Hahaha. You won't believe this! Do you want to hear?"
"Stop teasing me and say it already!"
"He got an egg thrown on his face!"
"...What?"
"An egg! A boar egg! He got an egg thrown on his face!"
"Since when boars lay egg!?"
"Every servant lays eggs, no matter their model or supposed gender."
"What!?"
"Yeah..."
"Men and women!?"
"Yeah."
"How!?"
"Yeah!"
"Fuck. I knew the people on the science department were crazy but this goes way beyond anything I imagined!"
"Yeah, I also got surprised a few days ago when I first heard about it."
"...This world is crazy."
"I completely agree with you."
At this moment the door opens and a team of 4 medics arrive with a floating bed.
""Thanks for your hard work.""
Answering to their greeting with just a nod, March gives them some space and observes as they move the body to the floating bed, leaving as quick as they arrived.
"What happens to the guy now?"
"Hmm. I'm not sure. We have already reduced the number of players by a good margin, so it's possible they will give a second chance for high scorers like him."
"Sigh... I wish they didn't..."
"Why?"
"That's more work for me, right?"
"Hahahaha! True! But the next phase should be a little less chaotic."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. Some guys from other team leaked a few images of the new Planet undergoing terraforming."
"They are terraforming a whole planet just for this!?"
"Yeah, well, did you know that weapon experimentation is prohibited on habitable planets?"
"No idea."
"So, this is what a senior told me. You know who wants live tests, but the law doesn't allow it, so, to avoid the law, what they do is: they get permission for weapon tests in inhabitable planets, then they terraform the planet, and finally they have a habitable planet where they can shoot whatever they want!"
"...So you are scared of saying their name but you aren't scared about talking about this?"
"Oh God! You are right! Forget what I said! Delete the logs! Don't spread the word!"
"Hahahaha!... Hey, isn't that the sound of them knocking on your door?"
"Very funny! I'm in the office now! They don't need to knock on the door to come-Wah!!!"
"...? Mom? Are you there?... Hey! Say, something!"
"Sorry, mister March. Your previous operator will have to attend to an emergency meeting, so I will be taking over for him. Is there anything you need?"
(...Are you kidding me?)
"N-no. Not really. Contact me when another rescue is required. I will be going now."
"Of course! Have a good rest, Mr. March."
"Y-yeah. You as well."
-/-
Back in the Planet, Apollo slowly jumped down as Bacon reverted to her humanoid form, allowing the silver colored mask on her face to fall flat on the floor.
"...They..."
"They are sleeping, Master."
"Hmm..."
As he observed the unconscious Oni, suddenly a plant girl in maid clothes teleported to the place right in front of him, she went down to her knees and bowed down her head while talking in a crying voice and holding a cracked egg in her hands.
"M-M-M-M-Master! I'm extremely sorry!"
"Hime!?"
"You ordered Hime to break the egg on that guy's head, but even though Hime threw the egg on his face, the egg failed to break! Please punish Hime as you see fit!"
Saying so, she extended her hands, showing the cracked egg.
"Hmm... what happened to him?"
"I-I-I don't know! After I threw the egg on his face, he fell backward, but then he suddenly started to shine and after releasing a flash, he disappeared at the same time as all Oni fell to the ground!"
(Flash? Disappeared? You mean he teleported?? Hmm... That's probably it. Then, this means, he is out of the game! Which also means this battle is over!)
Slowly a smile of relief sprouted on Apollo's lips as tears started falling from his eyes. Apollo grabbed Hime by her waist and lifted her up in the air, throwing her up in the air, catching her back, and spinning her around.
"We won! We won!!! Victory is ours! Well done Hime! Well done!!!! Hahahahahahah!"
"Gyaaahh!! M-master! Calm down! Master! Help! Stop! Put me down! Somebody help meeeee!!!!!"
After a short celebration over the unexpected victory, Apollo and the girls started the clean up operation.... well, the girls did. As for Apollo, he couldn't handle the smell and the sight, so he was sent back to the base as he was getting in the way, instead of helping out.
As night arrived, all survivors gathered in front of Apollo's Palace.
Apollo praised their efforts and prepared a vegetarian barbecue for them, which was warmly welcome as nobody was in the mood to eat meat after being bathed in blood all day.
Apollo wished he had some alcohol but was forced to content himself with lemonade, but even so the mood alone got him drunk as they continued to party all night long and as the sun raised again in the horizon, the party come to an end and everybody could be found asleep all over the place.
Then, several hours later, as Apollo woke up below a table while having his arms hugged by Rose and Hime, he noticed an army of Oni arriving in front of him at the same time as an army of notifications started beeping in his bracer non stop.
"Ugh! My work never ends..."
Merry Christmas everyone.
No matter your religion or beliefs I wish you health and peace through this year's end and the following years as well.
PS.: I think it's pretty obvious but March calls his operator "mom" due to how naggy he is sometimes. The operator is a man, so maybe it would be best to call him father, but March's father was not naggy, so he calls him "mom" anyway XD