Seoul (14)

“Appear!” Kirikiri cheerfully explained.

What do you mean by ‘appear’?

I looked at Kirikiri, who had just appeared in the room, turn to her side as I lay in bed. Perhaps because of my unsurprised demeanor, Kirikiri pouted her lips. Then, she pushed my body away and laid on the side of the bed.

“Inconvenient.”

“Get up if you’re uncomfortable,” she said and made me move.

Kirikiri was not a stranger, but she wouldn’t be happy if I was doing anything else while she was explaining. At the very least, I had to feign attention in front of her.

Because I got up from my bed, Kirikiri brought a chair from the corner of the room, put it in front of the bed, sat down, and smiled at me.

It was unexpected. I thought she’d continue laying on the bed or sit on the floor. Kirikiri, who was sitting on a chair felt strange, out of place even.

Was the reason she rolled around on the ground, not because she didn’t have any manners but because she was on the fields?

Once again, it was unexpected. At that moment, I heard footsteps from outside the room.

In a few seconds, Yong-yong opened the door and ran in.

He clung to Kirikiri.

“Hi!”

“Hello!”

Are you gonna do that again?

It took a long while for Yong-yong and Kirikiri to finish twirling with their hands crossed and expressing their happiness before we could start conversing.

* * *

“You’re not surprised at all. Heng.”

“There’s nothing for me to be surprised about,” I said to Kirikiri, who had Yong-yong in her lap.

In the first place, I was the one who thought Kirikiri should be summoned, so why would it be surprising?

“How’s the Tutorial?”

“A total mess, haha.”

I didn’t think she should have laughed and talked so carelessly.

That being said, the situation was bound to be a mess. From the challengers’ point of view, the Tutorial was suddenly brought to a halt and locked up.

“It was too dangerous to keep the challengers in the waiting room. They’re planning to move all of them to a nearby residential area.”

That would be better. The longer people were trapped together, the more stable they would be. Above all, the waiting room on the Korean server was quite a good place to live.

When Kim Min-hyuk was there, the first goal of the Order of Vigilance was not to clear the Tutorial but to create a better environment. Of course, it was a few years ago, but the foundation they built at that time was not going anywhere.

The Order of Vigilance, who played the role of a manager, was still there, so it would run well.

“Do other servers have problems?”

“Yes, I don’t think the Day of Great Harmony can solve them.

The Day of Great Harmony gathered challengers and forced them to solve their own problems. Due to the nature of the Tutorial, there were certain problems that could only be solved when challengers met and discussed together. However, if the party causing the problem became a majority, the Day of Great Harmony would no longer be meaningful.

“We’re discussing whether to put apostles in.”

“Apostles?”

There have been several occasions of apostles entering the Tutorial—all of which were on the Hell difficulty level’s stage.

“You remember the Dragon we met on the 50th floor? Maybe it’ll be let in.”

“Oh, that coward dragon.”

I remembered the dragon from the second half of the Tutorial. The dragon said it belonged to the Hundred Gods Temple and was not an apostle of any god. I could trust that it would do well on its own.

I remember the first impression it made was terrible. He was weak and terrified, but the dragon faithfully did its job. The dragon chose stages that were of great help to me. I gained a lot back then, but the experience became more useful after being trapped on the 60th floor.

If I had passed the 50th floor meaninglessly, I might not have made it to where I am now.

“Give me Yong-yong.”

“Yes.”

Yong-yong dozed off while sitting on Kirikiri’s knee. I thought that it may be because it was time to sleep.

Because of last night, he must be exhausted. He couldn’t sleep because he went to catch the mantis and sobbed the entire time. I took Yong-yong from Kirikiri and hugged him tightly.

“Ehem ehem,” Kirikiri awkwardly coughed.

Having deliberately cleared her throat, Kirikiri spoke in a feigned serious voice. “According to your performance on Earth, the Hundred Gods Temple has decided to hand you the planet’s jurisdiction. The Earth is no longer under the Hundred Gods Temple’s joint jurisdiction, and all the gods have decided to give up their rights to the Earth.”

That was what I had heard from Kirikiri before coming out of the Tutorial. The Hundred Gods Temple wasn’t very interested in the Earth, so they could give me the rights to Earth. But I didn’t think they would hand it over to me for nothing.

Of course, I didn’t mean to refuse it.

“If you accept the transfer of jurisdiction, it will be dealt with immediately.”

“Of course, I accept.”

It was almost free. As soon as I said I would accept it, the eyes of the gods quickly disappeared.

Now the unpleasant glances were gone. Even though they were gods from the Hundred Gods Temple, they couldn’t directly watch me, but they could see how the Earth was moving and trace my movements.

The eyes of many gods, who were already fixed on the Earth, had made me feel very uncomfortable.

“I think there’s still one god watching the Earth.”

It was a familiar gaze. The God of Light. He was still looking at the earth, exuding off an aura of regret.

“Earth is no longer a zone of the Hundred Gods Temple, so it’s free for other gods to watch.”

“But now it’s my zone. I’d like them to stop looking into other people’s territory without permission.”

“The God of Light is always rude.”

After a while, the last remaining god’s gaze on Earth, the God of Light, disappeared. He left behind a few words before his presence disappeared entirely.

[Disappointed…]

[I’m so, so… disappointed.]

I knew what the God of Light had expected because it was obvious. He thought something would explode as soon as I got to Earth, but it was unexpectedly quiet, so I guess it was disappointing.

“Can’t you just hand over the Tutorial like this?”

“Of course not,” replied Kirikiri with a mischievous smile. “The Tutorial is extremely important. There are many reasons for that, but the biggest one is that you proved the Tutorial is handy. Above all, the need to foster apostles and provide means of self-defense on planets remains important.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “And in the case of Earth, it was easy to hand over the planet because not all of them were interested.”

It seemed like the Earth was almost like a nuisance. I asked about that.

“Earth is not a good planet to nurture faith in. When the Hundred Gods Temple first got interested, indigenous religions were already firmly established. Above all, the planet was highly developed and excessively polluted. No one was willing to take the loss and make it their territory, so it remained a common zone until the end.”

That’s true.

Faith didn’t require a high level of science. The existing religions on the planet were also slowly losing their effects as science and knowledge developed rapidly. In the meantime, it wouldn’t have been profitable to build a new religion and seek faith.

Even if one tried to show up in person and make changes, there would have been restrictions as it was a common area of the Hundred Gods Temple.

I thought that this wasn’t much different from a while ago.

“Of course, it had a large population, a long history of civilization, a diverse source, so it would have been a great place to extract the source from. Enough to risk invading the common zone of the Hundred Gods Temple.”

“Yes, I understand. It’s worth it.”

It was worth handing it over to me in just two days. I nodded absentmindedly.

Kirikiri said while nodding her head just like me, “Yes, yes, even more worth it, since it’s now a planet that’s on it’s last legs.”

“…Huh?”

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