47 Chapter 22

Hastur, an Outer God.

Compelled by an excessively intense Nesting Instinct—or so the suspicions went—he downloaded a management game on the recommendation of certain parties shrouded in redaction.

【Cyber Orphanage Simulator】

【Here, machinery and crumbling order run in parallel.

Neon lights pierce the smog, yet they cannot illuminate the futures of the orphans wandering the alleyways.】

【Begin with a plot littered in scrapped machinery. Build your very own cyber orphanage with your own hands!】

【Choose your identity: Unemployed Vagrant / Los Angeles Police Officer / Company Employee】

~~~

Though the game itself was modest in scale, its challenges proved daunting—precisely the distraction Hastur needed.

Surrounded by relentless foes, he multitasked with flawless precision, navigating each impasse with effortless grace.

The smog that perpetually enshrouded the sleepless city dissipated at last. Greenery crept back into the steel-and-iron metropolis. Amid the reviving wasteland, order and morality took root once more—

Company employees and politicians raised their hands in chorus:

"Everything for the Hali Orphanage!"

~~~

Hastur had always treated Cyber Orphanage Simulator as nothing more than a mundane human diversion—a way to vent his overzealous instincts. When the mood struck, he could binge-play through the night. When interest waned, he set it aside without a second thought.

That all changed one day, when fragments of anomalous code lingered in his "dwelling." During what he took for a routine "business trip," he found himself stepping into a familiar alleyway.

A colossal holographic advertisement stirred illusory waves from the void. As the foam subsided, lines of yellow text emerged, infused with a teasing familiarity:

#Welcome to Hali's City, my dear Hastur#