Chapter 367 – G.o.d of Victory (1)
“Yong-Yong did a good job.”
I could recognize it at a glance.
Barriers were spread across the globe.
Like lines drawn on a checkerboard, lines were drawn on the earth at regular intervals.
It was simply a barrier for dividing areas, but the effect was clear.
Enemies in one area were completely eradicated, and humans were evacuated to safe areas.
Not only was it easy to wipe out the enemies, but it was also possible to minimize the damage to humans.
It was the cleanest and most perfect response under the a.s.sumption that there would be no additional enemies summoned.
[What should I do?]
Grandmother asked.
She was not really asking for advice from me because she didn’t know what to do, but rather to get directions.
I answered without a long pause.
“Take care of each area.”
No further instructions were needed.
The difference in power was overwhelming.
There must have been fierce battles on Earth as well, but the direction of the war was irrelevant to Earth.
The minions of the Pantheon G.o.ds that were summoned to Earth were only a force meant to drain our power.
Our side was similar.
Yong-yong, Hochi, and the challengers of the Tutorial were left behind, but they were only defensive forces to protect the humans of Earth.
The main force was me and the giants who went directly to attack the Pantheon G.o.ds.
The war was already over when the giants, who had gone out to attack the Pantheon G.o.ds away from Earth, appeared in the air above Earth.
Among the minions of the Pantheon G.o.ds, there was a rare mix of powerful men who could be called superhuman, but most were cleared up by Hochi.
There were some who were the apostles of the Pantheon G.o.ds, but now that their G.o.ds, the source of their power, are extinct, they will not be able to use much power.
When the giants were put into ranks, there were no enemies on Earth who could resist them.
The giants that were filling the sky began to descend.
* * *
As expected, the giants easily cleaned up the remaining forces on Earth.
Enemies who encountered divine authority in front of them froze as they were, and managed to move the remaining pieces of their reason to surrender to the giants and save their lives.
Sometimes those who tried to resist were lightly burned or crushed.
The ones who surrendered were locked in a subs.p.a.ce as soon as possible.
When I came back to the temple after taking care of the remnants of the Pantheon forces on Earth with the giants, Yong-yong ran and greeted me.
“It was difficult! I had a hard time!”
Yong-yong shouted in my arms.
He whined that he was tired while protecting Earth.
This didn’t happen often.
Yong-yong, who had been following my training without much difficulty, whined like this, so I thought that the work on Earth must have been fierce.
“Yes, Yong-yong, you had a hard time.”
Yong-yong, who was hugging me and telling me about his hardships, fell asleep shortly afterward.
Although Yong-yong was outside the general category of life, he still sleeps regularly.
It was not known whether Yong-yong’s characteristic was unique to him, or whether it was a trait peculiar to the dragon race.
While holding Yong-yong, I also relaxed. When I returned to the temple building and laid down on the sofa, my body regained comfort, but my heart couldn’t.
“Homen! Homen! Homen!”
The sound of that Homen that people were shouting from all over Earth stimulated my nerves.
This was something I couldn’t stop listening to even though I didn’t want to hear it.
The voices of the believers crying out with intense devotion flowed directly into my mind.
“They’re just trying to embarra.s.s me now.”
Every time I heard it, my face was burning.
My G.o.d, Homen.
As time pa.s.sed, it became embarra.s.sing.
“Hold it. I think you will hear it all your life.”
Hochi said, giggling.
All my life.
It was terrible.
I might have to listen to that forever.
Fortunately, Earth’s believers were not hit hard in the midst of the invasion of the Pantheon.
It was a relief that there was not much damage. It was acceptable to the people on Earth, as they got used to misfortune since the creation of the gates
Lee Ho-jae Faith’s system also played a big part in reducing the damage to the believers.
In the meantime, believers collected points with public merits and faith points. When the Pantheon’s invasion arrived, the believers began to purchase abilities or items.
Depending on how it is used, it was possible to avoid dangerous situations by using rewards with powerful effects.
Since then, the damage was far better than expected because of the safe evacuation by Yong-yong and Hochi’s quick response.
There were also believers who gained more faith points through this incident.
It was possible because I had already verified my abilities to the people of Earth.
Even in the midst of this crisis, there were believers who believed that I (someone seen as dead) would appear (again) to help them.
Such a belief was a meaningful faith to me.
Believing in my victory was more than just worshiping me as a G.o.d.
Just as the G.o.d of Hope wanted to have strong hope for the believers, I also wanted the believers to have faith in my victory.
As they believed, I appeared with the giants.
Faith soared accordingly with Yong-yong’s and Hochi’s leadership in response to the invasion of the Pantheon G.o.ds.
“Just looking at the results alone, the denomination itself has grown significantly. To the point where we can’t grow anymore on Earth. Now, not quant.i.tative growth, but qualitative growth remains.”
Hochi said.
“I think it will not be long before we can make Earth your holy land.”
It wasn’t very pleasant.
I didn’t even need it much.
If Earth becomes my holy land, it will surely be a great power.
The basis of my divinity is the actual force of me and the giants.
The power through human faith was not desperately needed.
I made a decision.
“Let’s change the name of our denomination. I will also announce my G.o.dhood.”
Until I couldn’t hear the prayers of ‘Homen’ ‘Homen’ and it was not called Lee Ho-jae Faith.
Not only was it embarra.s.sing to hear, but it wasn’t the right expression.
When my denomination grew up and entered another world, I was worried about how the others would respond to the denomination’s name.
It was easy to make a decision because I gave up the idea of forcing my divinity on the believers.
My divinity was absolutely indispensable to overcome the obstacles that seemed impossible to defeat and to achieve my ultimate goal, as it fits best with my ideals.
Sadly, however, it didn’t mean that it had common sense and was a normal ideology.
It wasn’t something that could be easily accepted by others.
I couldn’t ask all believers to challenge themselves and march toward grand goals, like the giants and me.
Of course, that will be my greatest faith.
The extreme nature of divinity was only poison to the lives of mortals who had to walk many paths.
Of course, I couldn’t tell the believers to live completely independent of my divinity.
However, if the believers believe and trust in my victory.
So, even when something like this happened again, I could be satisfied with that faith if they believed that in the end I would be victorious and overcome the crises with them.
“G.o.dhood?”
“Yes, my G.o.dhood.”
I’ve been thinking for a long time.
I’m afraid it feels like too much to reveal my divinity to others and enforce the doctrines that follow.
Like the days when I was a challenger in the past tutorials when no one could sympathize with my steps.
However, when I gave up the idea of imposing my divinity and decided on an appropriate compromise, I was able to confidently announce my t.i.tle.
“G.o.d of Victory.”
* * *
It took quite some time to return their lives back to before the Pantheon’s invasion.
First of all, it was not easy to return the people who had been moved from place to place for evacuation, one by one.
Buildings and facilities that collapsed in the middle of the invasion were restored as much as possible, and in the case of human casualties, the families were compensated for the damage.
It was a minimal action, but even that took more time and labor than expected.
After taking care of the earthly believers, there are now the remnant people of the invasion.
Among them, those who gave up resistance and surrendered became a problem.
Few of those who had been put onto Earth could be called warriors.
Most of them surrendered as soon as they encountered giants.
Thanks to that, we were able to secure a number of survivors that easily surpa.s.sed Earth’s population.
“It’s much more than I thought.”
An unexpected problem has arisen.
Even if there were many survivors, there were too many.
There was no s.p.a.ce to collect them.
At least on Earth.
Most of the survivors were ordinary mortals, and they needed a minimum of food, clothing, and shelter to sustain their lives.
There was no way to provide them both living s.p.a.ce and a living base.
“Let’s put them in the subs.p.a.ce.”
Hochi said.
Just as he said.
I had put the survivors in a subs.p.a.ce.
But that didn’t solve all the problems.
“They won’t endure it long.
A subs.p.a.ce is not a s.p.a.ce where humans can live.
Although the people collected from the holy land of the G.o.d of Hope were placed in a subs.p.a.ce, that was possible because there were only a few of them.
It was possible because the time flow of the subs.p.a.ce was slowed, and the believers of the G.o.d of Hope were so familiar with the situation.
However, if the number of people entering the subs.p.a.ce exceeds billions, the story is different.
Slowing the flow of time for all of them is a heavy burden for me too.
Unless my divine power was infinite, I couldn’t even try recklessly.
And if you can’t delay the time, those who went there won’t last long.
Even if there was enough food, I couldn’t guarantee how much people could survive in a dark, gloomy, and nothing-to-do and nowhere-to-go world.
An ordinary person’s spirit goes crazy after only a week of confinement in a solitary room.
It was said that if a large and overflowing number of people came together they would form a society, but that was not comforting.
Rather, it was more dangerous because it could induce collective madness.
“What about releasing them to the worlds of the G.o.ds of the Pantheon you’ve destroyed?”
Impossible.
It wasn’t practically possible yet.
There were several planets that became empty mountains without an owner after killing the G.o.ds of the Pantheon.
(T/N: Empty mountain without owner is self-explanatory, but it can also mean an ownerless land, or a place that can be easily occupied or settled.
I couldn’t call those planets my territory.
It was literally just blank s.p.a.ce.
And in order to put people under my influence in such a world, it deservedly needed protective measures.
Probably, it would be in the form of sending giants to protect them, but that was impossible.
It wouldn’t be a problem to leave one or two worlds to be managed by the giants which became G.o.ds, but the powers of the giants should not be dispersed yet.
The a.s.sembled giants are one of the most powerful forces I have, and I can’t divide them when I haven’t achieved my goals.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t just throw them out.”
I couldn’t do that.
Even if they were thrown as victims by the G.o.ds of the Pantheon, I didn’t want to do that.
There was a way to solve this problem.
It’s also very neat.
“When I get the Tutorial.”
All the problems will be solved.
Many tutorial stages have been destroyed by monsters or disasters.
Solving the problems there and resettling the survivors, everything will be solved neatly.
Easy, Normal, Hard, h.e.l.l.
There are over 100 worlds each on four difficulty levels.
There will be enough room to distribute and settle billions of survivors.
Taking ownership of the Tutorial was also my ultimate goal.
However,
I sighed without knowing.
It was because of the G.o.d of Order.
I was thinking that if there were any G.o.ds who opposed the transfer of the Tutorial, I was going to forcefully get consent through an armed demonstration.
However, the G.o.d of Order, encountered by chance in the realm of the G.o.d of Sky, shook such thoughts.
In the first place, it was questionable what significance an armed demonstration would be against the existence where a special attack did not even go through.
“The G.o.d of Order?”
Asked Hochi, who was quietly listening to my explanation.
First, I decided to explain the G.o.d of Order to Hochi.
* * *
“Then, you think that the G.o.d of Order will become a transcendent G.o.d?”
Hochi asked.
“Maybe.”
I don’t know if it really will, but the G.o.d of Order will be hoping for it.
[Maybe.]
The G.o.d of Hope has the same opinion as me.
It was inevitable.
To be reborn as a transcendent G.o.d means to paint the whole world with yourself.
And most G.o.ds won’t give up on that opportunity.
Looking at the self and the abnormal abilities displayed by the G.o.d of Order, it seems that the G.o.d of Order is already close to a transcendent G.o.d.
In the meantime, it would be strange if the G.o.d of Order has no intention to be reborn as a perfect transcendent G.o.d, who has the self to gather more power.
“Then.”
Hochi said again.
“What happens when the G.o.d of Order becomes a transcendent G.o.d?”
What will happen?
The whole world becomes a holy land for the G.o.d of Order.
“So what kind of world is that?”
I was speechless at Hochi’s question.
It becomes a holy land for the G.o.d of Order.
I knew that far.
However, I did not think about what the holy land of the G.o.d of Order would look like.