And he was the Game Producer of the DGP.
"Lord Nilam!"
Seeing Nilam appear, Tsumuri finally let out a sigh of relief, as though she had found someone to rely on.
"Still no news of Girori?"
Nodding to Tsumuri, Nilam elegantly took a seat on the nearby sofa and looked at her as he asked.
The female assistant beside him immediately brought over premium red wine and a wineglass, then poured him a drink.
Nilam enjoyed all of it—the fine food, the fine wine. Even at a time like this, he did not forget such pleasures.
Unless necessary, Nilam generally would not come here.
Compared to those things, what he enjoyed more—or rather, pursued—was reality.
In the world of the Future People, everyone had their lives planned out from the moment they were born.
Their appearance, lifespan, life...
It could be said that their lives had been customized from the very beginning.
For that reason, the Future People lacked many of the emotions and pursuits that made them human.
So they began to crave such things...
Many Future People obsessively pursued something they wanted—"being moved," "happiness," "sorrow"...
What Nilam pursued was "reality."
Of course, he had not been like this at first. After meeting Milu, the previous Game Navigator, he experienced a sense of reality for the first time, and his mindset gradually changed.
Later, in order to rescue Milu, who had been taken hostage by the Chariot Jyamato, he fought Nemero, the former producer who had been removed from office.
However, he was initially no match for him. After personally witnessing Milu being eaten by the Jyamato, he successfully defeated Nemero with Gene's assistance.
After that, Nilam became obsessed with "reality."
"No. Ever since Lord Girori chased after that Stellaron Hunter Sam, there has been no information about him at all."
Tsumuri hurriedly answered Nilam. So much time had passed, yet there had not been a single word about Girori.
Normally, Lord Nilam rarely involved himself with the DGP. Girori handled everything.
If Girori was gone, what would happen to the DGP next?
Perhaps...
"Lord Nilam, could Girori have been taken care of by that Stellaron Hunter...?"
If nothing had happened to Girori, there should not have been absolutely no news of him by now. The DGP Grand Prix schedule still depended on him.
Tsumuri could not help suspecting that something had happened to Girori.
"..."
Nilam raised a hand, stopping Tsumuri from continuing.
"That is unlikely. Girori has the Vision Driver. Even if he was no match for his opponent, escaping would not be difficult for him."
Clearly, Nilam did not believe Girori had died at Sam's hands.
And he was not wrong. With the Vision Driver, Girori could freely travel between reality and dimensional data.
He could use Creation Power to instantly alter portions of physical reality.
Though there were many limitations.
In Nilam's understanding, unless someone possessed even higher authority, almost no one could forcibly keep him there.
"B-But without Girori, the Desire Grand Prix cannot proceed smoothly. The audience will have major objections."
After hesitating for a few seconds, Tsumuri reported on the audience's situation. The current DGP took the audience's wishes into consideration to a great extent.
"You do not need to concern yourself with that for now. Just do your job."
Nilam understood that, but he showed not the slightest hint of panic or worry. He remained utterly calm.
He merely shifted his gaze to the assistant beside him.
"Samas, investigate it personally."
This assistant had been with him for centuries. She had already been his assistant since Japan's Warring States period, so Nilam trusted her greatly.
"Yes."
Samas nodded and accepted the order.
But the instant she lowered her head, something flickered in her eyes.
Then, under Tsumuri's bewildered gaze, Samas gave her a meaningful look before leaving the room.
Clearly, she was not as simple as she appeared.
"You should leave as well."
After Samas departed, Nilam waved Tsumuri away too.
"Yes, Lord Nilam."
Tsumuri withdrew after hearing that.
Only after everyone around him had left did Nilam furrow his brow.
Clearly, he still attached great importance to this matter. Although he normally did not interfere much with the Desire Grand Prix, he had never stopped watching it from the shadows while pursuing reality.
Otherwise, he would not have remained in this position for so many years.
Nilam did not care at all whether Girori was dead or alive. The DGP had plenty of people who could take over its operations.
But the Vision Driver on him was a different matter.
Without the Vision Driver, wishes could not be granted. That meant the Desire Grand Prix could not continue, and the DGP program would be suspended.
More importantly, if the Vision Driver fell into someone else's hands, they could even use it to set the rules of the game in reverse.
What a headache.
As someone specifically designed and created to be the producer of the Desire Grand Prix, he had begun his first Grand Prix back in Japan's Warring States period. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation.
If the Vision Driver had truly fallen into the hands of that Stellaron Hunter Sam, then no matter what, he had to take it back.
But without wish-granting as a reward, would those Riders still participate in the mission to reclaim the Driver?
Most likely not.
"Stellaron Hunter Sam..."
At this moment, the Vision Driver that the DGP operations team so desperately wanted was casually tossed onto a table by Firefly.
This thing required fingerprint authentication, but that was not much of a problem.
Forget Star Rail's technology—even in modern society, fingerprint technology was hardly considered advanced for a nation.
Firefly took out a device containing Girori's fingerprints, stored them, then overlaid them onto her own finger.
"Let's test it first!"
Watching the fingerprint on her right thumb be overlaid, Firefly looked at the Driver on the table, eagerly anticipating the experiment ahead.
Beroba had also copied the fingerprints of the next Game Master, Kilami, to unlock this Driver.
This Driver contained records of every DGP Grand Prix over thousands of years, including even the origins of the Creation Goddess.
At the beginning, the DGP did not have anything called a Desire God.
It was only because Ace Ukiyo's mother—Mitsume, the Game Navigator of the ancient Desire Grand Prix—changed that the DGP evolved into what it was today.
She fell in love with the Desire God of one tournament, but contestants and Game Navigators were forbidden from falling in love, so that Desire God was imprisoned.
Mitsume began to pray because of this. In the end, she awakened the power of miracles and gave birth to the child of miracles, Ace Ukiyo.
Because of that, Suel, the original founder of the DGP, turned her into a Creation Goddess statue, making her a tool for the DGP to grant wishes.
A Creation God could not possess consciousness of their own.
It was also at that time that the Desire Grand Prix's reward changed from gold coins to wish-granting.
Firefly picked up the Driver from the table and fastened it around her waist.
Vision Driver
At that moment, the Rider sound effect rang out from the belt. It automatically adjusted to Firefly's waist and fit perfectly.
Only then did Firefly press her thumb against a specific spot on the Driver.
Unlock Login successful
As the Driver changed, the Vision Driver completely unlocked its contents for Firefly. However, transforming into a Kamen Rider still required a Fate Card.
That was not urgent.
Manipulating the Vision Driver, Firefly began examining its functions. As the core of the Desire Grand Prix, its functions were extraordinarily extensive.
Not only did it contain power far surpassing that of the Desire Driver.
It also possessed a high degree of expandability. By reading the card-type special memory device, the "Providence Card," it could perform high-dimensional customization according to the user's authority, making transformations with all kinds of characteristics possible.
It could also use multiple Upgrade Buckles at the same time.
Furthermore, it could extract dark matter from a balanced simulated black hole maintained in an extremely small state and convert it into clean energy.
This was the privilege of an administrator!
After looking through the Vision Driver's functions, Firefly felt more and more that it was far more formidable than she had imagined. No wonder Girori could use it to withstand that kind of power.
But the Vision Driver's power alone, even though it could indirectly wield some of the Goddess's Creation Power, was still inferior to Sam's strength.
After Firefly retrieved footage of previous DGP Grand Prix events from the Driver's records, she directly removed it.
Some things she had not understood before now had answers.
But targeting the DGP operations team alone might not be enough. She also had to make plans regarding Tsumuri and Geats.
Both of them could become Creation Gods, and both were inheritors of the Creation Goddess.
Under normal circumstances, only one Creation God could exist. If one of them became the new Creation God or Creation Goddess, the other would no longer inherit that fate.
Becoming a Creation Goddess or Creation God was not necessarily entirely a good thing.
Normally, becoming a god came at a price.
But protagonists were exceptions. They could always break fate!
Firefly took out another card. It was the card-type special memory device she had taken from Girori earlier—the Fate Card.
However, Firefly could not use this directly. Its data needed to be altered, or it had to be remade.
It was a little troublesome, but there should not be any problem.
Essentially, it was a memory card. A USB drive.
Just a far more powerful super memory card!
Besides, she already had a sample in hand. Was copying and cobbling one together really that hard?
Phantasmal Sun Shard
"Herta, can you make one?"
Inside the room, the Herta Puppet repeatedly examined the Fate Card, wearing a thoughtful expression.
Seeing the Herta Puppet like this, Firefly felt hopeful. The difficulty should not be that high, after all. And who was Herta's true body?
She was one of the top geniuses in the entire universe.