Chapter 208

Suddenly, I had this thought.

‘God is dead.’

There’s no need to borrow the philosopher’s words. On the Star Continent, that’s simply fact. We must survive by our own strength.

The problem is this.

‘So how do we restore a dead god?’

When god died, humans learned magic. Magic imitates the dead god. Looking back now, the fact that the Magic Emperor reached the 8th Step and that I reached the 9th Step through the power of a magical exoskeleton was already a miracle.

There was no path from the beginning.

The situation is different from the 1st Circle and 2nd Circle, which merely imitated mouths and lips. Now we have to imitate their brains, don’t we?

Can I become a god?

Can I design a god greater than myself?

I’ve woven 130 magical powers and achieved some results, but my fear keeps growing.

‘Will this work?’

A tower built with cards collapses the moment you add one more card. Won’t my neural network, woven with thinly drawn magical power, be the same? Will this really work?

If I fail… what will happen to this world?

I felt hopeless facing the 74 magical powers before me.

[Are you the same?]

The question delivered by Saíl’s magical power rang in my ears. It sounded like it was mocking me.

Are you asking if I can do that? If I won’t break like you? If I can become the same kind of god as you?

There’s no way I could!

Just kill me. Let me bow my head and grovel to the Outer God. If I act presumptuously without knowing my place, I’ll crumple even the last escape ticket…

Such miserable thoughts are all that come to mind.

So I thought quietly.

‘God is dead.’

Just thinking that makes my teeth clench automatically.

That’s why I might have been mistaken.

[Are you the same?]

Despite being dead. Despite being scattered like dust.

Despite being so insignificant… Saíl’s magical power spoke so arrogantly and presumptuously.

My heart gradually grew cold. My cooled head looked at the situation objectively. One realization swept down my spine.

‘What was I thinking?’

My tense shoulders sagged.

‘There’s no way I could become a god, right? There’s no way I could restore it with my own hands, right?’

How could a lowly being like me deal with such a great existence?

The moment I acknowledged reality, my heart became comfortable.

The thought that since god is dead, I must take that place.

It was arrogance.

The human limit is the 8th Step. No matter how much I unite with spirits, I cannot stand at that center.

“Even if only a speck remains, you won’t break? You’ll pierce anything and bring down anything?”

I cannot make such declarations. I don’t have the capability.

But…

“That’s exactly the attitude. I’m counting on you.”

Right. Please, I’m counting on you.

I opened my eyes wide. The answer lay within Earth’s knowledge.

Artificial intelligence.

When ancient Greece’s Plato established the ‘Theory of Ideas,’ he set one premise.

‘Copies are inferior to the original. Inferior things gathering together cannot create something greater.’

That’s why the world of Ideas was hierarchical.

Greater things derive inferior things from the most magnificent world. But no matter how many inferior things you gather, you cannot completely restore something great. So we inferior beings must ceaselessly strive to cultivate greater intelligence rather than inferior reality, to emulate even a little of the great Ideas…

In contrast, the modern era was based on the opposite premise.

‘Copies can be greater than the original.’

Some poet said that life was not even worth a single line of poetry he had written. Celebrities can be more beautiful in photos and videos than in real life.

Squirming microbial offspring can gradually evolve to create complex beings like humans.

And!

Artificial intelligence created by humans can surpass humans. Even though the humans who created that artificial intelligence cannot explain why it makes such judgments or why it moves that way! Still, they were able to give birth to it. A being greater than themselves.

I must do the same.

The idea that I had to control and design everything was doomed from the start.

I can’t control it! I can’t guarantee what will emerge!

Gods aren’t made—they’re born.

I merely prepare. My mission is to design algorithms that allow a god to be born and maintain those conditions. The god will be born on its own, and that’s why it will be more arrogant than anyone.

I decided to stop worrying about collapse.

[Mutation]

I used Tris’s gift. The power to redefine the possibilities of all things in the world. It will accelerate the rewiring and adaptation speed of the magical power neural network.

[Wish]

“Please… may a new god be born who can defeat the Outer God. May the god born this way be benevolent to humans and love this world.”

I manifested Erina’s gift. An incantation that amplifies language-spirit to gain the cooperation of the entire world to make what is spoken come true. It probably won’t have much influence on the god’s birth, but still, it would be more helpful than nothing.

“Cube.”

-Yes, administrator.

“From now on, I’m going to become very unstable. If it seems like I’m finding stability… throw me into the Primordial Fire.”

-That’s dangerous. The Primordial Fire is the key that can open creation. Even for you, administrator, enduring within it would be difficult.

That’s exactly why I’m asking you to put me in. To evolve, evolutionary pressure is needed. An environment must be given where you cannot survive unless you adapt, so you can transform into a new form.

If I find stability again after collapse, I will be able to achieve the 10th Step, and if I can adapt within the Primordial Fire after that… I can say that an 11th Step god capable of creating a new world has been born.

There’s no choice. Like everyone else, I too must risk my life.

No… I must throw away my life.

-If… that is your will, then I will do so.

“Hah. Good.”

I examined the magical powers divided individually. The 74 gods’ magical powers not yet woven. The 130 gods’ magical powers I had carefully woven. And at their center, despite being weak, Saíl’s magical power was very arrogantly flaunting its presence.

“You said you could pierce anything and bring down anything, right? Try doing well just once. I’m counting on you.”

I no longer acted cautiously. I drew threads from the 74 magical powers and wove them all at once. My 204 magical powers were completely woven together to form a primitive neural network.

It was more delicate than my previous magical power network. Capable enough to claim the 10th Step. But in terms of stability, it was terrible. The brain is something that causes serious emotional and intellectual adverse effects even with slight imbalance. The neural network of 204 gods woven thinly swelled up as if it would burst at any moment.

‘It’s beginning.’

The very phenomenon I had feared. The collapse of the magical power neural network.

But I drove the magical power neural network even harder.

[Simulation]

With my current capacity approaching the 10th Step, my simulation capacity was 3 billion simuls. Nearly six times greater than before. I poured all those massive resources into simulation.

‘Show me the universe’s destruction.’

I simulated that moment when the Star Continent was destroyed and torn apart. I observed how my unstable magical power neural network reacted in that extreme situation.

‘Come on, even though you’re dead, you were gods, weren’t you? Don’t you want to prevent this destruction?’

The magical powers I had artificially woven began moving on their own. They each began their own calculations to prevent the destruction.

The result? Naturally, failure. The magical power neural network I had woven was indeed terrible. Before they could even calculate solutions to prevent destruction, the threads snapped like breaking strings and the magical powers scattered and collapsed.

I’m not afraid. I expected this.

‘Now for the first attempt. Come on, run wild to your heart’s content. Until you solve this problem. Keep fighting and harmonizing.’

My earnest will moved the magical powers. Saíl’s magical power was the first to act. It moved on its own, piercing and binding surrounding magical powers to create new circuits. At the same time, all 204 gods’ magical powers began taking action. To prevent the world’s destruction, each took whatever form they thought necessary. Magical power clashed with magical power, and concepts collided with concepts. Within the simulation, the universe repeated destruction endlessly.

And my consciousness gradually blurred. The omnipotence that transcended the 9th Step disappeared, and I fell into a distant abyss.

I completely abandoned control of my magical power. Leaving only the great premise that ‘destruction must be prevented,’ I let the magical power move as it wished. I brought about the very collapse I had feared.

Go ahead and collapse to your heart’s content. And please, reorganize yourselves.

The magical power neural network escaping control. My consciousness was pushed further and further to the periphery.

The game I thought was SimCity turns into Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Among them, I’m not Cao Cao, Liu Bei, or Sun Quan—I’m not even Meng Huo, let alone Yan Baihu or Gongsun Zan. I’m nothing more than a puppet emperor captured by Dong Zhuo.

I try to influence the overall flow but have only minimal influence.

To create something greater than myself, I must abandon my stubbornness and control. Because this world, these countless magical powers, must be watched as they create something… and I must work hard at rolling along.

205 wills—no, including me, 205 wills fight and cooperate with each other to create a new universe.

‘What will I become now?’

What will this world become?

No one can know anymore.

But one thing is certain.

‘I will surpass my expectations.’

At this end, I, a mortal human, will far exceed what I’m imagining now.

It has to be that way.

* * *

“Teacher Erina… what do we do now?”

Mage of Peace Erina handed small daggers to the trembling children.

“Don’t worry. If you just do as teacher says, you can easily defeat even orcs. And… even if the Outer God’s apostles come looking, they won’t find you.”

True to her nickname as the Mage of Peace, she had no talent for destructive spells. Instead, she was renowned as the Academy’s finest barrier mage and for her tactical abilities that maximized the use of magical devices.

Literally, without memorizing a single spell herself and despite not even being a Mana User, she was skilled enough to command young children and defeat Night Calamity—orcs.

“Where are our moms and dads…? Are… are they really dead?”

“No. They’re all hiding like us. Don’t worry.”

A week ago, the base where Erina had been stationed was captured by the Outer God’s apostles. It was a bitter surprise attack that occurred while all forces had been sent to support the central headquarters under invasion. Since it was a large base, mages’ children were also staying there, and Erina had frantically rescued the children and escaped.

“…But we’re running out of mana coins. If we run out of mana coins and the protective amulets lose their power… what do we do? Didn’t you say everyone would die if the water transforms without protective amulets?”

A nine-year-old child looked at Erina with black eyes. Though her voice trembled slightly with fear, the child didn’t stutter to the end and conveyed her worry.

Erina found such a child endearing and patted her head.

“Right. That’s why we need to quickly gather magical materials. So we can use them for our protective amulets and prepare supplies to send to the assault force.”

At Erina’s calm explanation, the child made a displeased expression.

“Supplies? We look like we’re about to die ourselves, but we have to send supplies?”

Erina answered firmly.

“We have to send them. We must send even a single mana coin. You know, right? If the assault force is defeated, we all die.”

“But we’re about to die right now!”

The child frowned. Erina looked down at such a child with pity, then suddenly scowled. She pressed her index finger to her lips.

“Shh!”

Whoooong—

Brrrrrrr!

Protective amulets wailed from all directions. Suddenly the sun darkened and shadows began spreading across the ground.

“Of all times, an apostle…”

Erina bit her lips tightly and opened her handbag. Her magical exoskeleton <Penelope> sprang up from the bag and embraced Erina.

Wrapped in green magical power, she made a [Wish].

“Even if a god comes to this place, may they not discover us.”

Along with [Wish], what manifested was Erina’s specialty—concealment barriers.

The children grabbed onto Erina’s pants and trembled while Erina dripped with cold sweat. The apostle wasn’t even visible. The ground merely sank into shadows like melted taffy, becoming soft and malleable, while bizarre jellyfish-like things were born in the sky.

After about ten minutes passed like this, the darkness lifted. Though the ground remained bent like taffy and jellyfish-like things still floated above it, they could no longer sense the apostle’s presence.

“Phew…”

Just as she was finally catching her breath, an ominous sound reached Erina’s ears.

Crack!

When she hurriedly turned around, there was a child with a tearful face. It was the child who had just been sparkling her black eyes and boldly asking why they had to send supplies.

“Teacher… my protective amulet…”

Just because an apostle had passed by… the child’s protective amulet had overloaded and broken.

“Am… am I going to die now? The water inside me…”

Erina’s head was spinning. In the past, people didn’t die just from losing their protective amulets. But after the water transformed, it was different. Now that even the one-year grace period Baek Jun-woo had created had passed, without a protective amulet’s help, the water throughout the body would boil up and cause instant death.

‘Should I give her my protective amulet?’

Even if she did that, Erina, being a high-level mage, wouldn’t die. But could she suppress the boiling water in her body while simultaneously maintaining barriers to hide dozens of children? But then again, could she just watch the child in front of her die in agony?

Though her mind raced through calculations, her hand was already reflexively offering her protective amulet to the child. The child felt sorry but tried to accept the protective amulet. Her small hands trembled with fear. But just before those tiny fingers could touch the protective amulet, she stopped, surprised, and said,

“Huh? But it doesn’t hurt at all?”

Only then did Erina grasp the situation. The child was indeed perfectly fine. If she had been affected by the transformed water, she should have already lost consciousness and been writhing.

She raised her head sharply. She pulled out the stone tablet that Refinement had made from her chest and read the surrounding mana.

“Could it be?”

Erina looked up at the sky. The center of all stars. She looked toward where the Tower of Covenant stood. She checked the stone tablet again. It was certain.

“The water’s record… has been corrected again.”

The water’s curse had disappeared.

Water was recorded on the 90th floor, wasn’t it? That means the assault force succeeded in breaking through the 90th floor!

“The top of the tower is roughly… around the 100th floor?”

They’re almost there. This miserable and detestable war will end somehow soon. And they… will be able to win. Definitely.

Erina clenched her fist.

“Wow! Did the assault force fix the water?”

The children also chattered excitedly.

“Did Divine Wizard do it again this time?”

“Sob… I said I didn’t want to send supplies… sob. I’m sorry Divine Wizard… sob.”

The child who had nearly died felt so sorry she sniffled.

Children laughing with joy, children catching their breath in relief, children crying from guilt—Erina hugged all these children and declared firmly,

“That’s right. Divine Wizard did it. And… our big brother Lytol too.”

At that one remark sneakily including her husband, the children in her arms went ‘Ewwww!’ and pushed her away in disgust.