— — — — — —
Even Ryo hadn't expected that the organization he'd made up on a whim would actually have a chance of succeeding.
After all, every successful venture relied on three things: money, money, and more money. And with the Little Garden system acting as the sponsor, even if he wanted to stay out of it, he couldn't.
The System was offering far too much.
This was enough investment to push Algol into the realm of rule-breaker three-digit status—and judging from the situation, this was only the first round of angel funding.
There would still be Series B, Series C, and beyond.
With a backer this generous, only a fool wouldn't be tempted. After all, even a two-digit powerhouse couldn't compare to having the System itself behind you.
"So how are you planning to structure the organization?" Ryo asked eagerly.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" Algol found his expression amusing. The man was still stuck in an undeveloped outer world, yet he was already obsessing over Little Garden affairs.
"I prefer to prepare everything in advance."
"Yeah, right." Rolling her eyes, Algol shot him a look. "You're obviously drooling over the system's rewards."
"No need to expose me like that." Ryo looked at her helplessly. Some things were better left understood than said aloud.
"Still, if we're being honest, this kind of thing isn't really my specialty. You'll have to handle it." She promptly tossed the problem back at him.
Ryo gave her a strange look. "At least you're self-aware."
Was Algol good at strategy? What a joke.
The woman who had challenged the Buddha, spent her days causing chaos, and once annoyed Athena enough to make her flip a table was supposed to be a strategist?
Ryo trusted his own random ideas more than that.
"To be honest, I'm not particularly good at this stuff either. Guess we've got that in common, Algol."
After Ryo said that, Algol stared at him with an increasingly bizarre expression.
"What?" Ryo frowned.
"A guy who always hides in the shadows, never takes losses, and casually pins entire groups of people with the blame for what he did is saying he's bad at scheming?" Algol's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"That's like telling me lions don't eat meat and survive on fresh air. Who would believe that?"
"..."
Ryo's face darkened.
What did she mean by that?
That wasn't strategy or scheming—that was simply cheating. Without the forum covering his tracks, he'd have been burned alive ages ago.
Wait. The forum...
Ryo fell silent as a thought struck him.
Could he use the forum's functions to recruit a few Little Garden residents remotely, directing them from behind the scenes and building this trickster organization from scratch?
Right now, the Tricksters had no members, no territory, and not even a permanent base.
But those things could be built by other people. Kind of like the Black Organization in Detective Conan.
The more he thought about it, the more viable it seemed.
Of course, he'd have to return to Little Garden and plan it properly. Whether it would actually work was another question.
Still, if he could at least put together a framework, he would finally have some roots of his own.
"Got an idea?" Algol immediately noticed the change in him and grinned. "Go on. Who do you want me to trick this time?"
Ryo rolled his eyes. "Algol, let's deal with your promotion to rule-breaker three-digit status first. What's the point of building an organization if we don't even achieve that?"
"Isn't that easy?" Algol looked completely unimpressed. "All I have to do is lead this world against invasions from other worlds, right? Give me the coordinates and I'll crush that ExE world with one hand."
"And then my observation mission fails and I crawl back to Little Garden empty-handed?" Ryo snorted.
What Algol suggested had zero chance of succeeding.
The key wasn't defeating the ExE world's invasion—it was leading the resistance.
To qualify, he had to become the acknowledged leader of the world's major factions.
If the goal were simply destroying the invaders, Ryo could wipe them out himself.
The reason he was moving so cautiously was because he needed to unify the forces of the DxD world in a way people would actually accept.
"This ugly world's got way too much pointless baggage," Algol muttered.
Then she continued, "Anyway, through the system, I've secretly deployed the modified Cleansing Formula throughout every corner of this star system. The moment your observation begins, I'll use the opportunity to corrupt the gods."
"When that happens, all the gods in this world will fall from their thrones and become demons under my command."
"...Will the newly created demons have defects?" Ryo's expression grew serious.
Even though Algol had spent four or five hundred years in this world, that wasn't nearly enough time to completely solve the fundamental biological issues of a newly created race.
If they ended up creating a species with fatal flaws, the entire plan would backfire spectacularly.
"Relax. I've got experience in this area." A smile appeared on Algol's face.
"As long as you're confident." Ryo sighed softly.
At this point, there was no turning back. The arrow was already on the bowstring.
"Oh, you know about Indra in this world, right? He's unified many pantheons. If we want to unite the world's factions, we can't avoid dealing with him."
"I know." Algol sounded almost gleeful.
The more trouble this world's Indra caused, the worse things would become for Little Garden's Indra.
Given how poor her relationship with him was, she found that prospect highly entertaining.
"I've planted a spy in his camp—"
Before Ryo could finish, Algol interrupted in a strange tone. "What a coincidence. So have I."
Ryo paused. "...Who?"
"Ishtar." Algol used her old name with a playful smile, then added, "Or rather, all of Mesopotamia is working for me."
She proudly lifted her chin.
Planting a spy? She'd infiltrated an entire pantheon.
Beat that.
What Ryo was thinking, however, was something entirely different.
'Why are you so experienced? Exactly how many times have you done this?'
After silently roasting her in his head, he said, "My spy is Loki. Seems like he and Indra have dirt on each other, so they're relatively close."
He then showed Loki's Spirit Rank. There was no need for further explanation—Algol could already guess the rest.
"You have connections with Halloween?" Algol looked surprised.
Most of the divine authorities of the dead Norse and Celtic gods had been absorbed by Queen Halloween, so her suspicion was understandable.
"No," Ryo hesitated briefly, "...It's Athena."
"Heh."
Algol let out a cold laugh. "Still pulling that hero-investment routine, is she?"
"At least the incentives are generous," Ryo replied.
Then he added, "Speaking of which, Indra's been making some major moves lately. Even Loki can't dig up a lot of the classified details."
"Want to merge intelligence networks? That's actually not a bad idea." Algol narrowed her eyes. "The information I've got says Indra is gradually steering his Alliance into conflict with the three factions. At the same time, he's using the opportunity to strengthen himself while weakening his allies in the Indian pantheon."
"When he extended an olive branch to Mesopotamia, he even hinted that we'd get a share of the Indian pantheon's resources."
Ryo added his own findings. "Indra also resurrected ancient dragons and seems to have gathered quite a few Heavenly Dragons as a private army."
"And he's gotten involved with Rizevim too."
"Our useless son~?" Algol laughed dismissively while idly playing with her fingers.
"A joke, really. Still, if we're talking seriously, that Indra probably has connections with ExE world. My people on Mount Meru were gathering experimental materials, and they reported detecting energy signatures unique to another world."
"In other words," Ryo said with a knowing smile, "his visible trump card is a dragon-based elite force, while his real backup plan is powerhouses from another world."
"That makes his next target pretty obvious."
At that moment, Ryo and Algol exchanged a glance.
Then they spoke in unison.
"Samael." ×2
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