I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 495: Why Do You Play the Game Like That 5

After defeating the floor 60 boss and collecting the loot, we resupplied and rested at the mansion in the Harpy Archipelago before returning outside the tower.

Though the rest stops changed as we climbed higher in the tower, the routine of hunting bosses and heading outside remained the same. But this time felt different. Just looking at the hundreds of people trailing behind us as we casually walked down chatting made that clear.

Trainee commanders, mercenaries, adventurers, priests, temple knights, and arrested scammers... While I understood why they insisted on following us, it was still uncomfortable.

"Is this because of the Heavenly King?"

"Must be. It's the first time someone directly connected to the Demon Lord has appeared."

This commotion was naturally due to the Heavenly King.

About half the crowd following us consisted of priests, nuns, and temple knights. While it made sense for the contracted trainee commanders and mercenaries whose contracts had expired, seeing priests rushing out of the tower en masse was clearly unusual.

Then again, it would be stranger if religious folks didn't make a fuss after witnessing an actual demon.

The Goddess of Life bestowed holy power upon the land and occasionally watched over humanity through prophecies and visions. No one could deny her existence given the miracles - healing severed limbs and preventing plagues and famines based on faith. But the Demon Lord was different.

When asked "What exactly is the Demon Lord? And where are they?", even the religious officials had no answer.

The tower's existence remained a mystery that neither the Goddess Faith nor Magic Tower could clearly explain, and humanity had yet to fully explore its interior. They could only guess that non-living things wearing monster disguises attacking humans must be the Demon Lord's doing.

"But this time, someone claiming to be a Heavenly King appeared and committed atrocities against humanity. They'll be talking about directly confronting real evil for a while."

"Ah, I see. But what is there to discuss?"

"They may need to change interpretations of doctrine and scripture, along with temple policies. For example... regarding support for the hero's party? They won't make direct demands of us, but there will be busy internal discussions."

When Irene explained this, I thought the temple already provided unlimited support whenever we requested it. But she shook her head as if reading my thoughts.

She quickly explained what she meant.

"Well, this is embarrassing to say, but it's because I became a Saint."

"Why does that matter?"

"Yeah, isn't it better that you became the hero party's Saint?"

When Irene mentioned becoming a Saint with flushed cheeks, people immediately started murmuring. Even as we rested and chatted at the Harpy Archipelago, the priests hovering nearby shifted excitedly. They seemed eager to jump in and explain if given permission.

But Irene didn't notice this as she gently accepted Katie and Grace's embraces from both sides, shuddering with embarrassment at drawing attention to herself.

Eventually Grace and Katie dragged the embarrassed Irene to a cafe, where they forced her to replenish with sugar and caffeine while she explained. This caused a surge of customers following us into the cafe near the mansion, but setting aside such minor details-

"Well, it's exactly because I became a Saint. As I mentioned before, priests and nuns entering the tower is a form of ascetic training and pilgrimage."

"Um... I don't really understand what you mean."

"Oh! You mean ascetic training should be done alone?"

"Something like that."

Essentially, the temple was debating how much they should assist with the Saint's ascetic training.

Ascetic training literally meant enduring hardship (苦) while moving forward (行) - physically undertaking difficult acts as spiritual practice. In Buddhism, monks living celibate lives and practicing wall-gazing meditation was ascetic training. In Christianity, fasting and prayer was ascetic training. ȓÄꞐỔＢËŞ

But in the Goddess Faith I'd observed for 11 years, given the fantasy medieval setting, ascetic training was rougher and more life-risking.

From wandering priests spreading the Goddess's teachings by healing people in rural villages with nothing but their bodies while risking bandit threats, to forming parties with adventurers and risking their lives in the tower, or supporting armies fighting monster waves in the Empire's north - these were considered ascetic training.

So when Irene was a Saint Candidate, openly providing military support could be framed as the temple backing the hero's grand mission rather than interfering with a nun's training. But her officially becoming a Saint changed that.

The situation became oddly reversed - rather than trying to avoid helping by saying "The hero, Saint and holy sword owner seem fine handling things safely without temple support, so how much should we help?", they worried about interfering too much with the Saint's religious journey by helping too much.

To put it bluntly, if external help was unlimited for ascetic training, wouldn't some rich noble go "I'm embarking on an amazing ascetic journey~" while leading knights and riding in luxury carriages on a "flex" pilgrimage? While that could be considered good deeds, the temple couldn't recognize it as proper ascetic training.

People obsessed with material wealth and flexing were criticized in any religion.

"...Wait, they're limiting support because we did too well? No wonder the support felt excessive - what a way to balance things. They'll still send knights for large-scale armies though, right?"

-LOL they must have cheesed so hard the game's breaking

-Maybe the story's getting messed up from too much cheese? Even the King's reaction was weird

-Since it's a VR game, seems like the temple, kingdom, empire and Demon Lord army are all adapting as the hero acts strangely?

-Temple would've kept supporting if kingdom/empire got invaded by Four Kings, but since that didn't happen they're setting boundaries lol

-So they're pulling back military support to guarantee last hit rights since we're doing too well?

Of course, this was nothing but an annoyance for players.

※

The next day after resting at the mansion and seeing off the Ice Cross Knights whose contracts had expired - with Olek nearly prostrating himself in tears before Alisa dragged him away - we headed to the Magic Tower.

We needed to process both the mid-boss byproducts we'd forgotten to handle while breaching the fortress, and the Heavenly King's byproducts from this time.

Come to think of it, if we'd sold and researched the dark mage's crystal heart before attacking the fortress, we might have learned how to open the gate. We'd forgotten to process it in our rush to dig tunnels with the vibration stone.

"Hmm, is it because Irene became a Saint? People keep following us."

"When we left today, that cafe from yesterday was packed too. Maybe people are starting to make pilgrimages to places Irene visited?"

"That's... a bit overwhelming..."

As we took a gate from the mansion to the city and headed toward the Magic Tower, it felt strange having gray priest robes and white armor constantly visible around us like celebrities followed by crowds.

Though no one directly approached to avoid interfering with our party's movements, they watched our every action intently. Well, in a world without human rights, could you expect privacy?

Come to think of it, they were being quite proper compared to people who used to rush forward just to touch Jesus's robes. Of course, if any man tried rushing at us, I planned to immediately smash his jaw.

"Ah! Welcome! Shall I contact Lady Charlotte's research lab?!"

"Ah, please do."

"Byproducts? Here for byproduct processing, correct?"

Read lat𝙚st chapters at fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓ Only.

"Yeah. Both mid-boss and boss monster byproducts."

As we entered the Magic Tower, instead of the burdensome religious gazes, an excessively fawning mage rushed out.

Though we could have easily found our way from the counter, he came running with his plump belly jiggling as if unwilling to wait even that short distance. He seemed to be a mid-to-low rank mage under Charlotte's influence. Not wanting to hear middle-aged flattery, I spoke firmly like giving orders, leaving no room for conversation.

Even so, the middle-aged mage bowed deeply showing his crown as if grateful, then scurried back to the counter. Whether it was the misery of an aged mage who hadn't advanced in rank, or a researcher doing field sales, his palm-rubbing and bowing was artful.

Charlotte rushed over in less than 3 minutes after being contacted, either because he was part of her faction or because they'd only thought about the mid-boss loot after receiving the ogre mana stones.

Her maid Mari frantically chased after calling "My lady! My lady!" but Charlotte ran over with her robe fluttering, completely disheveled unlike her usual self, and delivered shocking news.

"Roland, huff, the gate, it's blocked again-!"

"...Oh, for fuck's sake."

As she reported that the path to floor 61 was blocked.

That bastard, no wonder he died so peacefully.

Enjoy the chappy!