DREAMERS ON A THRONE OF ILLUSIONS

While the outside world was in turmoil over the devastating losses, a completely different scene was unfolding in a quiet corner of Teiko High School’s rooftop.

“The Supreme Being” and the “Thousand-Handed Demon God” were sharing a cheap pack of bear-shaped cookies.

If anyone had witnessed this scene, their entire worldview would have collapsed.

Arata sat casually on the ground, while Yuki swung her legs back and forth, crumbs still clinging to the corner of her lips.

In truth, the two of them were not sinister masterminds plotting to conquer the world through dark ambition. They were simply two overgrown teenagers refusing to accept the dullness of ordinary high school life. While their classmates worried endlessly about college entrance exams and complicated social relationships, Arata and Yuki chose instead to lose themselves in a virtual world where they could live out the “cool” fantasies reality would never allow.

“Hey, Arata,” Yuki said, licking her finger, eyes sparkling. “Yesterday, when I said, ‘Compared to false justice, I much prefer honest cruelty,’ do you think I delivered it well? I practiced in front of the mirror for a whole hour!”

Arata nodded with complete sincerity, wearing the expression of a man discussing military affairs.

“Absolutely flawless. Especially the part where you tilted your head and smirked. I swear those Level 99 guys in the Alliance must have nearly wet themselves in fear.”

Yes, that was the strange thing about their ridiculous delusions—when placed in the context of a god and a high-ranking demon, it somehow transformed into an overwhelming aura.

The Craze of the Supreme Being and the Fox Queen

Their fantasies had accidentally created an entirely new culture.

On online marketplaces, posters of the Supreme Being seated upon his white bone throne were always sold out. Meanwhile, collectible figures of Yuki in her fox-warrior attire, holding a magical fan, were sold at outrageous prices.

People were obsessed with their half-philosophical, half-nonsensical lines that somehow sounded incredibly profound:

“O short-haired fools... I am the female general of this legion. Are you prepared to die? It is an honor to meet you... and now, you should disappear.”

Whenever Yuki spoke in that clear yet icy voice on the battlefield, tens of thousands of enemy players would shudder.

No one knew that behind the mask, she was secretly thrilled that someone was finally listening to her chuunibyou speeches.

The Hidden Tactical Genius

What made it even more frightening was that despite all the nonsense, their abilities were real.

Yuki possessed a genius mind for military formations. She could command millions of monster troops and beasts with flawless coordination, moving as though they were a single body.

Retired military officers had joined the game out of curiosity just to challenge her, only to be utterly crushed by this “small and harmless-looking girl” through strategies no military textbook had ever described.

“They even sent me an invitation to join the National Command Academy,” Yuki giggled, waving her phone. “If they found out the person defeating them every night was just a schoolgirl worrying about chemistry homework, they’d probably retire on the spot.”

Arata looked at his girlfriend with eyes full of pride—the pride of a comrade who shared the same dream of escaping reality.

He stood up, dusted off his pants, and suddenly adopted a solemn expression, though he was obviously acting.

“It’s time to head back to class. Let us set the throne aside for now. We still face a battle far more difficult... the fifteen-minute quiz next period.”

Yuki burst into laughter, hopped down from the railing, and grabbed Arata’s hand.

The two most ridiculous people in school walked off together, carrying the secret of an empire that ruled the virtual world—where a single sentence from them could keep millions awake at night.

Math class in Room 11-A passed beneath the suffocating atmosphere of numbers and complicated logarithmic formulas.

At the back row, a place considered their private territory, Arata and Yuki sat side by side. But instead of looking at the blackboard, they were huddled over a worn-out notebook filled with bizarre tactical diagrams that looked more like magical seals than notes.

Yuki tilted her head slightly, a strand of hair brushing against Arata’s shoulder. With a mysterious smile, she lowered her voice into a dramatic whisper.

“Have you prepared for tonight’s great war, O Supreme Being? The Northern Alliance is mobilizing one hundred thousand elite battle mages.”

Arata did not blink. His expression instantly turned cold.

Resting his chin on one hand, he stared into the distance as if looking beyond the classroom walls and into a battlefield thousands of miles away.

“Prepare? I have no need to prepare for a massacre. Tonight, I shall turn every fool who dares approach the forbidden land into ashes. Their blood shall become the finest wine with which I celebrate victory.”

The moment he finished, both of them failed to hold it in and quietly doubled over laughing.

They laughed at how absurdly cool they were trying to sound. They laughed at the ridiculous lines no one around them could possibly understand.

In the tiny world shared by the two of them, they were king and queen—supreme beings discussing the fate of mankind.

“You two there! Arata! Yuki! What’s so funny?”

The sharp voice of the math teacher sliced through their fantasy.

Arata froze, his smile stiffening.

The teacher tapped the blackboard with a wooden pointer, eyes sharp as blades.

“Arata, come solve problem number five. Since you seem so confident in your strategies, let’s see what kind of logarithmic strategy you have.”

Yuki looked at her boyfriend with an expression caught between sympathy and amusement. She covered her mouth, struggling not to laugh as Arata awkwardly stood up.

The so-called Supreme Being might have been a genius when calculating area-of-effect damage and coordinating demon armies, but when confronted with an ordinary high school math equation, his brain seemed to lose connection entirely.

Arata held the chalk and stood motionless in front of the board for five full minutes.

He drew a circle, then erased it.

He wrote an x, then crossed it out.

The result was exactly as expected: a perfect zero, along with the teacher’s note—lack of concentration.

As Arata trudged back to his seat wearing a defeated expression, he noticed Yuki still giggling to herself.

Before he could glare at her in revenge, the teacher spoke again.

“Yuki, you come up too. Don’t think laughing at him lets you off the hook. Solve number six.”

This time, Arata nearly burst out laughing.

Serves you right, he thought.

In the end, both supreme rulers of the dark faction finished the class with matching zeros—a shining reminder that in real life, they were nothing more than two lovable idiots.

The contrast between them became even clearer when the bell rang for physical education.

This was the time when Yuki truly shined, while Arata officially entered hell.

While Arata was lazy, wanting nothing more than to lie beneath a tree and avoid all movement, Yuki was like a living bomb of energy. She was the golden star of the academy, desired by every club from track and field to swimming to volleyball.

During the endurance run, Arata panted heavily, his face as red as a tomato.

“Damn it... why do humans have to run with their legs... when teleportation exists...” he muttered weakly.

Meanwhile, Yuki shot forward like the wind.

The moment the whistle blew, she exploded ahead at terrifying speed, overtaking every athletic boy in the class and crossing the finish line first without even losing her breath.

Her tied-up hair danced in the wind, and her naturally athletic figure left the boys of the school staring speechlessly.

She truly was a goddess in real life.

Swimming class was even worse.

Whenever Yuki stepped into the pool, the atmosphere seemed to freeze.

Her powerful yet graceful strokes through the clear blue water were mesmerizing to watch.

She barely needed practice. It was as though physical talent flowed through her blood by instinct.

The peak of all this entertainment came during volleyball.

It was Yuki’s favorite sport, since she could fully make use of her spring-like jumping power. Her spikes were so fierce and fast that no one dared try to block them.

Unfortunately, both of their power fantasies returned the moment they played together.

Even though they were already in high school and had tried to suppress their middle school habits, Yuki could never resist making everything look cooler.

“Prepare yourself for my wrath, Arata!” she shouted as she leaped high into the air.

Instead of simply spiking the ball, she insisted on yelling the name of a technique she had invented.

“THOUSAND-HAND EXECUTION ART: TOTAL STRIKE!”

Smack!

The volleyball flew downward in a vicious arc and slammed into the court, leaving everyone around stunned.

Yuki landed gracefully, brushed back her hair, and looked at Arata with smug pride.

“Did you really have to shout that loudly?” Arata asked, covering his face in embarrassment.

Yuki placed her hands on her hips and pouted.

“What do you know? A technique needs a name. Without a name, it can’t unleash one hundred percent of its power. Besides, if it has no name, it isn’t cool at all!”

Arata sighed as he watched his endlessly energetic girlfriend bouncing around him.

One of them was so lazy he wanted to become air itself.

The other had enough energy to run three laps around the field and still scream the names of imaginary skills.

They were complete opposites.

A clumsy fool in real life and a sports goddess adored by everyone.

But when night fell, when the glow of the VR pods lit the darkness, they once again became the most terrifying duo in the history of Aethelgard.

There, there were no zeros in math.

No exhausting endurance runs.

Only the Supreme Being and the Thousand-Handed Fox, preparing to write the next chapter of their glorious massacre.