After Heaven's Path descended to reality, gods quickly entered the world through their God's Stream Cameras and went around watching their favorites. Some even went as far as sponsoring their chosen players with items and skills through stream donations.
In the end, though, all but one player—me—remained standing.
By that point, only twelve anonymous gods were still watching over Earth as I struggled to clear the game alone. Their presence had been so constant, so ingrained in me, that there was no way I'd ever forget their names.
"Anon00010101!" I gasped, reading the name again and again.
There was no mistaking it.
She was that annoying god who always teased me whenever things went south!
Though the way she'd phrased the message was bothering me. It sounded like she'd been searching for me. Could it be that the gods weren't affected by my jump back in time?!
[Anon00010101: It took great effort to find you across countless timelines, you know~? Now entertain me again, Whitey! 😎]
"..."
The pet name sealed it. There was almost no doubt left—gods weren't affected by my time slip. Still, I needed to confirm it with a direct question first.
"Wait, Tee." I whispered toward the camera. "You said you found me, but... does that mean...?"
[Anon00010101: Nope! Only I have found you so far! The other eleven are probably still searching!]
"Is that so..."
I held there for a moment, watching the fight ahead while thinking it through.
Tee's presence alone—a nickname I'd given her out of spite—inside Heaven's Path's game stream was confirmation enough. The game itself had to be some kind of god's sandbox. Otherwise, a goddess like Tee couldn't just slip in like an ordinary viewer.
I'd suspected as much after being left alone in the world the first time around. Now that theory was gaining real weight.
Whether the company behind the game was operating under a god's instruction or simply acting as a front to make it all look less suspicious—that I still wasn't sure about.
I'd asked the twelve before, but they hadn't answered. Or maybe... couldn't answer was more accurate.
"WhiteGod!"
"Master?"
"Huh?"
Two voices snapped me back to reality at once.
Miyabi and Ram had both returned from clearing the Goblin Soldiers we'd just run into. Both their HP bars were still full, so it clearly hadn't been much of a challenge for either of them.
"What are you doing, zoning out in the middle of a hunt?" Miyabi sighed, shaking her head. "What would you do if a goblin slipped past us and came for you instead? Focus!"
[Anon00010101: What's with this girl? She's so stuck-up...]
Tee's bubble was visible to everyone, Miyabi included. She raised a quiet brow at the jab.
"Oh—you have a viewer now too? That's great!" She cheered, almost convincingly pretending she hadn't read it. "Now we both have audiences~! The more the merrier~!"
[Anon00010101: ...Whitey, you should go solo like before. I hate this girl.]
"Wait, wait, wait." Seeing the tension between them climb, I grabbed Tee's camera and brought it close, whispering. "She's not just anyone. This is Miyabi. You know her, right?"
There was no way a god wouldn't remember.
Miyabi had been present even before the twelve nameless gods started watching over me—back when she was still going by her real name, not her current, in-game one.
[Anon00010101: Oh... That...]
"Huh?"
Tee's whole atmosphere shifted the moment I said it. The hostility drained away—but what replaced it was something closer to dread. I had no idea why.
"A-Anyway," I said, clearing my throat and moving on. "Let's keep going! We need to take out the boss before it fully matures!"
Right.
To defeat the Goblin King, we had to reach it within one hour of its roar—the moment it spawned. Miss that window, and every goblin in the cave, including the King itself, would receive a 100% boost to all stats. Twice as powerful, instantly.
That was the main reason players had failed to clear it on their first try in the previous timeline.
Right now the Goblin King was sitting around level 15. After maturation, it would jump straight to level 30. In its current state, a proper raid party of level 10s should be able to handle it.
The problem was that we were a party of two.
Taking on a raid boss with just two people was, by any reasonable standard, suicidal.
Well—normally, it would be.
As the last player standing in the previous timeline, I'd cleared countless raid bosses alone. Even the ones with gimmicks that seemed physically impossible to solve solo, I'd found a way through. There was no way I'd let the Goblin King stop me just because we were short on members.
I wasn't alone this time, either.
Miyabi, Ram, and I pressed forward.
Along the way we ran into more goblin variants—Goblin Soldiers, Goblin Generals, Goblin Shamans, and Goblin Archers. We cleared them all, but the ranged variants gave the two vanguards a harder time than expected.
Both of them ended up eating hits before they could close the gap and finish the targets.
Miyabi recovered with each level-up. Ram had to rely on the flag's passive regen to gradually claw her HP back—no potions, and no level-up recovery for an Android.
Twenty minutes in, we'd both reached level 15.
We didn't spare our free stats and added it immediately. Same distribution as always—STR and AGI split for me, pure STR for Miyabi. The variants were still dropping in one hit each, so it was definitely working well.
We had spent quite some time walking. Given the one-hour window and the time the boss fight itself would eat up, we were cutting it close.
"We've finally reached the boss room!"
Miyabi cheered, wiping the virtual sweat from her forehead.
Before us was the boss room. No grand double-doors or dramatic threshold—just a wide open cavern, dimly lit by scattered torches.
In the center of it stood a single goblin the size of an elephant, head tilted downward, as if staring at its own feet—or its massive gut, more accurately. In its right hand it gripped a sword roughly my height. Heavy, and obviously deadly.
Floating above its head, in red text with a black skull at the end:
[Raid Boss: Goblin King Lv. 15 💀]
Even at the same level as us, the name still appeared in red. Completely different from the white and orange of every goblin we'd passed on the way here.
"FleetingCloud—you remember the strategy?" I turned to Miyabi.
Just charging in and swinging wouldn't cut it against a boss like this. We'd likely die before we even properly engaged if we went in without thinking. We need a secured path, a perfect plan that would lead us to victory.
"Yep!" Miyabi nodded with a wide smile. "I haven't forgotten about it yet, don't worry!"
"Good."
I turned to Ram next and nodded. "Then, Ram—you go in first. Keep your attention on everything except the boss."
The silver-haired android gave a short nod, eyes fixed on the cavern ahead.
"Yes, Master."
Shield raised, sword ready, Ram moved in at a steady pace.
The moment she crossed the threshold of the entrance—
WHOOSH!
—arrows flew at her from both sides simultaneously.
Right. The boss room had a trap wired into the entrance. The instant anyone stepped inside, Goblin Archers stationed along the walls would fire a volley without warning.
I've heard of this information from Kiki before. How this gimmick alone actually made the conquering of the Goblin King fail five times in a row.
Against an unsuspecting party, that surprise volley alone could wipe their HP before they'd even processed what was happening. But Ram—
"Hap!"
—swung her sword through the arrows coming from the front, and raised her shield to cover her back. That alone blocked 85% of the volley. The remaining arrows landed, but the damage barely chipped 25% of her HP.
"Nice!" I moved in immediately. "Then let's begin!"
I ran past the entrance, past Ram, and drove the flag into the cave's rocky floor. It was harder than expected, but not impossible with my current STR. The moment it stood upright, the zone activated—attack and defense buffs spreading out across both girls.
"MEEEN!"
Without delay, Miyabi swept right to handle the archers on that side while Ram took the left. With their damage output and the flag's boost, each goblin folded in a single hit just like before.
Both archer teams were gone in thirty seconds flat. Right on schedule.
"GRRRR...!"
Of course, the Goblin King hadn't been standing idle.
It stepped forward, the ground shuddering faintly beneath its weight. The massive sword rose high—then came crashing straight down at my head.
But—
"You call that an attack?"
I didn't even need to let go of the flag.
I just shifted from the right side of it to the left.
The blade slammed into the exact spot I'd been standing, sending dust, rock fragments, and shockwaves scattering in every direction.
"RAAAAGH!"
That seemed to do it. Enraged, it swung horizontally this time—a wide, sweeping arc that caught both the flag and me squarely in range.
There was no room to dodge.