Chapter 42: Deus (3)
Hyun Suho, startled by the voice, instinctively stepped back, bumping into someone behind him.
But something felt strange.
It didn't feel like a person; it felt like he had collided with a hard rock.
When he turned around, the man he had bumped into was standing still, like a paused video, not even blinking.
It wasn't just him.
Jin Seo-yeon and Eun Hwi-gwang, who were nearby, also seemed frozen in place, as if they had been instantly turned to ice.
'What's going on?'
Hyun Suho instinctively looked for Nova, but strangely, he couldn't hear anything from her.
'Nova? Can’t you hear me?'
As he desperately called out to Nova, Lakshmi's voice rang out again, this time right beside him.
"There's no need to be surprised."
When did she move?
There had been no sign of it, yet somehow, Lakshmi was now standing right next to Hyun Suho.
Although she was still hunched over, an immense dignity radiated from her small frame.
Hyun Suho's heart almost stopped in shock, but he quickly calmed himself and carefully asked,
"Do you have business with me?"
He didn’t ask foolish questions like whether Lakshmi was the one who had created this situation.
It was too obvious.
Lakshmi then smiled warmly, like a kind grandmother.
"Hoh hoh hoh! I came to this country to find you."
The reason Lakshmi, who had not been active for a while, suddenly visited Korea.
Many believed it was because of the Silver Knight, but in truth, it was to meet Hyun Suho.
"Why? Is it because I'm of EX rank?"
He had no intention of lying about his rank to Lakshmi.
She seemed to already see right through him, so there was no need to beat around the bush.
"But if it's because of the EX rank, then Eun Hwi-gwang is also..."
As he pointed at Eun Hwi-gwang, Lakshmi shook her head with a bitter smile.
"Of course, that child is also incredibly talented. But unfortunately, his nature is lacking."
Lazy, arrogant, and overly fond of women.
Even though Lakshmi had never met Eun Hwi-gwang, she already knew everything.
"I am a guide. I've spent my life helping those who, like you, are lost along the way. But even I cannot raise those who are content with their present circumstances. Though, I can certainly offer insight, as if giving alms."
Lakshmi was a signpost.
Someone who could assist those like Hyun Suho, who longed for guidance.
But even she could not push someone who had already given up.
Lakshmi clicked her tongue in regret.
"Tsk tsk! Two divine beings have emerged in this small country, yet how can they be so different..."
Regardless, Lakshmi was friendly toward him.
Realizing this, Hyun Suho asked her for help.
"I’ve hit a wall. Can you teach me?"
Lakshmi responded as if she had been waiting for him to ask.
"The wall you speak of is a kind of growing pain. A crouching before a leap. Being blocked gives you the chance to explore truth and yourself. But your case is different."
With that, Lakshmi reached out and lightly touched Hyun Suho's wrist.
The energy within him began to stir uncontrollably.
It wasn't mana.
It was divine power, with a mere stat of 1.
Yet it started to surge wildly with Lakshmi's touch.
"Do you know what the power you've obtained is?"
"...I’m not sure."
"It is defined with grand terms, but it is the primordial power that existed even before time and the universe. It is a power that is everywhere, yet goes unnoticed. Just as humans did not realize mana existed before the Great Cataclysm."
"Is it like mana?"
"It's not the same. Mana, isn't it similar to matter? It's already well-crafted and used as a useful tool. Like household electricity, for instance."
"...Then what is divine power?"
"It is the sum of infinite possibilities and potential, something that cannot be categorized or defined."
As Lakshmi extended her hand, an unknown force flowed out, and the world began to turn upside down.
Rumble!
This was Lakshmi's divine power.
It shared the same name as the power Hyun Suho had acquired, but its nature was entirely different.
Hyun Suho could feel it.
The world Lakshmi had created with the primordial energy that could become anything and create anything.
Before he knew it, Hyun Suho realized he was standing in the middle of the universe.
But this universe was neither cold nor empty.
Because it was filled with a benevolent force that enveloped everything.
"A light?"
No, it was more than just a light.
A bright light illuminated the dark night sky, guiding the lost stars.
As the stars gathered, they formed a Milky Way that spanned across the universe.
A grand procession of stars linking the ends of the cosmos.
This was the world Lakshmi had created and the path she had walked up to now.
As Hyun Suho marveled at this magnificent world, Lakshmi spoke again.
"A child like you would have eventually mastered divine power on your own, but gaining it too early has turned it into a poison."
The divine power stat he had gained through the hidden epic quest.
Even without Lakshmi mentioning it, Hyun Suho had sensed the immense potential within it.
Yet Lakshmi was calling it a poison.
"A quest reward... but it was a mistake?"
"That quest is a sort of shortcut, a backdoor. It’s the last resort given to those who could never reach divine power no matter how hard they tried. Yes, it was likely the only hope for someone like Akula."
This was why Akula had been so obsessed with the hidden epic quest.
Without its reward, he would have never been able to obtain divine power.
Lakshmi was saying that Hyun Suho was different.
"It's a power you obtained without following the proper steps. If you're not careful, it could lead you down the wrong path."
Indeed, Hyun Suho was currently standing at the threshold of Level 5.
Had he not acquired divine power, he might have leveled up by now.
But knowing too much too soon had only caused him to wander.
"So, others can obtain divine power without a hidden quest?"
In response to Hyun Suho's question, Lakshmi answered with another question.
"What do you think it means to level up?"
"Well... it means getting stronger, right?"
You defeat monsters, you level up.
Then, all your stats increase, and you gain new skills, making you many times stronger.
That was the concept of leveling up as Hyun Suho and others understood it.
But Lakshmi explained it differently.
"Leveling up means getting closer to your true self. It’s the ideal state that all living beings ultimately strive to reach. The ultimate goal of evolution..."
With each word Lakshmi spoke, it felt as though the power within him was stirring.
Divine power.
It was something he had within him even before he cleared the hidden epic quest.
Even before Lakshmi finished her sentence, he already knew what she was going to say next.
"It means becoming closer to a god."
Hyun Suho involuntarily swallowed hard.
"A god... That’s a heavy word to bear."
"Hoh hoh! What have you been listening to all this time? Being a god isn't as grand a concept as you think. It's just a term for those who can wield divine power. You, too, are now a god."
"I'm a god?"
"Yes. Though, you are a low-level deity."
With just one stat point in divine power, what could he possibly do?
Even calling him a low-level deity seemed generous—it was more like the lowest of the low.
"The minimum requirement to reach Level 8 is becoming a low-level deity. By the time you reach Level 9, you could be considered a lower god."
"And Level 10?"
"That would make you a mid-level god. And then..."
Lakshmi's next words contained a term that was hard to believe.
"The Death Star... is a high-level god."
The Death Star, which would descend upon them ten years later.
Out of nowhere, Lakshmi mentioned that name.
"The Death Star is a high-level god... Wait a minute?! You said 'he'? Does that mean... the Death Star is a person?"
"Hoh hoh! Did you really think the Death Star was just a star? He is someone who has attained a level of enlightenment that not even I can reach. Unfortunately, he became a god of destruction."
The idea that the Death Star was actually a person...
Hyun Suho found it hard to believe, especially after witnessing how it had annihilated Eos planet's powerful warships in an instant.
"He’s not from Earth, right? Is he an alien? Maybe from Eos?"
"Hoh hoh! That doesn’t matter. Isn’t there a more pressing question you have?"
At her words, Hyun Suho finally asked the question he had been delaying.
"How... how strong is the Death Star? I mean, compared to you, Lakshmi..."
He asked, his heart pounding.
It would be a relief if the top-ranked individuals could band together and defeat him...
Unfortunately, Lakshmi's answer was so despairing that it might have been better not to know.
"Even if a thousand top rankers like me were to gather, I couldn't guarantee we’d win."
"A thousand...?"
The power he sensed from Lakshmi now felt overwhelming.
The idea that even a thousand of such top-ranked individuals might not be enough was staggering...
"Damn it!"
Hyun Suho cursed and frowned, but to his surprise, Lakshmi laughed.
"Hoh hoh. You really are a curious child."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"Even after hearing about the Death Star’s power, you’re still thinking about fighting, aren't you?"
"Well... isn't that obvious? If I want to survive, I have no choice."
If I don't fight, I'll die, so I might as well struggle.
Though he thought it was the obvious thing to do, Lakshmi shook her head.
"That's not the case. An inevitable apocalypse is approaching, and those who know it are divided."
"Divided? How?"
"Some have given up, some have fled, and others have surrendered."
Although she didn’t specify who, Hyun Suho instinctively knew she was referring to the top rankers.
The nine top rankers, excluding Lakshmi.
Transcendent beings who possessed the power of lower gods.
None of them were thinking of fighting the Death Star.
Perhaps it was natural.
If they didn't know, they might at least try to confront it, but they had already witnessed the overwhelming power of the Death Star before.
"Then what about you, Lakshmi? Which side are you on?"
If even Lakshmi had given up, his own resolve might waver.
To this, Lakshmi, still smiling kindly, said:
"I am merely a sower of seeds."
"Seeds...?"
"Against the overwhelming god of destruction, who can say whose approach is correct? So, I simply plant seeds and prune them. I do not interfere with what kind of fruit will bear."
Thus, she was a guide.
Lakshmi, who had nurtured many hunters, including the current top rankers.
Her seemingly eccentric actions held this kind of meaning.
As she looked at Hyun Suho, Lakshmi smiled contentedly.
"I made a mistake."
"Huh? What do you mean...?"
"It was just an old woman's anxiety. Even if I hadn’t met you, you wouldn’t have lost your way. A mother bird doesn’t peel the shell for the baby bird..."
"Oh, no. Your advice has been a great help, Lakshmi."
"Hoh hoh! I see. You are already a being that has fully emerged."
Lakshmi smiled peacefully.
It felt as though she was smiling not at Hyun Suho, but at herself.
"Thank you. Because of you, my final journey wasn’t in vain."
At that moment:
Crack!
A sound like shattering glass echoed, and the time that had been stopped began to flow again.
"...Huh?"
When Hyun Suho regained his senses, he saw that Lakshmi, who had just been in front of him, was now calmly standing on the platform.
Could it have all been a dream?
"Of course not."
It was definitely not a dream.
Lakshmi had secretly guided Hyun Suho.
Because it had all happened in the frozen time, no one else noticed what had occurred between Lakshmi and Hyun Suho.
Not even Nova.
[Your heart rate has risen abnormally. Are you alright, Master?]
'I'm fine. I’m completely fine.'
One day, he would explain it to Nova, but right now, there was something more important.
The insight he had been grasping at for days now.
It seemed he had finally captured it through his conversation with Lakshmi.
'You showed me, didn’t you? The battle between the Eos fleet and the Death Star.'
There was a video Nova had shown him when she first explained the Death Star.
The scenes of the hundreds of invincible ships from the planet Eos being utterly destroyed by the Death Star.
At that time, he had thought to himself:
No matter how advanced science and technology become, they will never be able to defeat the Death Star.
And it made sense, considering that the planet Eos was at least several hundred years more advanced in scientific civilization than Earth.
But now his thinking had changed.
He would do what he did best.
To fight the Death Star, he had to advance in the direction that only he could take.
'If they couldn't defeat it with 7th generation spaceships, then I'll just need to build 8th, or even 9th generation ones with even greater power.'
This was Hyun Suho's declaration.
He would build a force stronger than the warships that the planet Eos had once constructed, using his skills and Nova's.
Strong enough to defeat the Death Star.
To this, Nova responded.
[The scientists of planet Eos said something. They said that humanity has reached the limits of what can be achieved through scientific technology.]
The planet Eos, which had conquered entire galaxies.
They believed they had reached the pinnacle of what scientific civilization could achieve.
[If there is anyone who can advance scientific technology beyond this point...]
'If there is?'
[It would be the incarnation of a machine god.]
"Haha!"
Hyun Suho burst out laughing without realizing it.
Although he was still in Lakshmi’s presence, and others glanced at him, he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.
'That was exactly what I was thinking...'
Hyun Suho finally determined the path he needed to take.
'The God of Machines.'
At that moment, as if celebrating his realization, the system notification chimed.
[Your level has increased.]
