Chapter 140 - Episode 20. God of Yesterday (4)
Chapter 140: Episode 20. God of Yesterday (4)
──────
Rene asked, her eyes wide.
“A thought you did not have yesterday? What kind of thought is that?”
For some reason, not just Rene but everyone around them seemed to be eagerly awaiting his answer.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ is curious about Jaehwan’s thoughts.]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ is surprised that Jaehwan is capable of thinking.]
[The God of Flash ‘Rayray’ wonders what he was thinking yesterday, then.]
[‘Anonymous God 48’ says it must be a revolution after all.]
Rene, who had spotted perfect material for the broadcast, grinned at the screen.
“Come on, hands up if you think, ‘I do not know what Naked Stab is thinking, but the Seventh Floor is going to get wrecked either way!’”
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ says there is no need to ask.]
The gods’ rowdy messages flooded in from all directions.
Andersen, who had been shooting Rene a sidelong look, spoke.
“So what are you really thinking?”
“I am tired, for one.”
“Huh?”
“I will rest for twelve hours.”
Jaehwan sat cross-legged right there and closed his eyes.
It was understandable. The World Force Jaehwan had overused on the Sixth Floor had not recovered yet. After completing the Entry Task, he had immediately joined the battle to seize the first Plant, so of course he was short on World Force.
Still, this was no time to rest.
“Hey, the message said we would be kicked out if we did not seize a Plant within twelve hours.”
They had struggled all the way up to the Seventh Floor. They could not be forced out here.
Jaehwan gave no reply and focused solely on recovering his World Force.
* * *
For the next twelve hours, Rene’s team worked together to seize a Plant.
[You have failed to liberate the residents.]
[You have failed to seize the Plant.]
“Wow, this really is not working?”
“There is not a single god in their right mind.”
[You have failed to liberate the residents.]
[You have failed to seize the Plant.]
Rene did not give up. She worked tirelessly to shake the Anonymous Gods awake.
Some of the gods Rene awakened were frequent visitors to her broadcasts, which had recently become popular.
“This god! They come to my broadcasts all the time! They always said, ‘We need to crack all the high-grade gods’ skulls open!’ If it is them, then surely…”
Yet every awakened god reacted the same way.
“Aaaaaah! Send me back!”
The awakened gods were pained by the sight of their Vicegerents’ emaciated bodies. They did not hesitate to point accusing fingers at Rene and her Ally group for waking them.
Runald could not understand it at all.
“Why does no one want to wake up? I thought there were plenty of gods opposed to the Alliance.”
He had not expected an answer, but Rayray, who was nearby, unexpectedly replied.
“They have become too used to it.”
The God of Flash, Rayray.
Still awkward about speaking directly to another god, Runald hesitantly asked,
“But it is fake.”
“Whether it is real or fake is not very important.”
Videos of the gods were playing on the Plant’s screen. The gods Rene had just grabbed and awakened were angrily shouting on-screen.
“When you become a god, there are a lot of things to worry about. You have to cultivate your Worldview, recruit Followers, manage those Followers, bring in Parts at the right time, and keep up with trends by closely following 《Little Brother》.”
“Do they all really live that diligently? It did not seem that way…”
At Runald’s words, Andersen cleared her throat beside him.
Rayray smiled.
“Of course, plenty of gods cannot manage all that. That is why so many Followers move between Worldviews. Still, most gods are busy. They compete with other gods on the outside, while taking care of their own Followers on the inside. Everyone lives in a frenzy.”
Rayray paused and looked at the gods on the screen.
Gods rejoicing after drawing a newly released divine Skin, or showing off Parts they had just acquired.
“But if they are connected to this Seventh Floor, they can stop worrying about most of that.”
“What? Why?”
“Because the God of Yesterday manages it for them.”
Rayray gave a brief explanation of how the Seventh Floor worked.
“Gods were not this obsessed with the Seventh Floor from the beginning. They had some pride in their own Worldviews, after all. They would not have crumbled that easily.”
According to Rayray, it had taken quite a long time for the gods of the Seventh Floor to become like this.
“If you stay here, you receive every service needed for maintaining a Worldview. Worldview management, Follower management, Part management, all of it. Just being connected to the Seventh Floor takes care of everything.”
At first, some gods entered the tower simply because they wanted to experience the 〈Metaverse〉. Yet after receiving the Seventh Floor’s services, they no longer wanted to leave the tower.
“Once you get a taste of that convenience, you cannot help becoming addicted little by little. Your Worldview gets managed for you, your Followers get looked after for you. Gods only need to eat, play, and do nothing here. And gods who become famous here gain recognition as an extra benefit.”
“Ah…”
Only then did Runald begin to understand why so many gods were trapped on the Seventh Floor. If all they had to do was connect to receive such conveniences, there was no reason gods would not lose themselves in indulgence.
After hesitating for a moment, Rayray spoke as if making a confession.
“I was originally one of those Anonymous Gods too.”
“What? Really?”
Rayray nodded.
“Almost everyone in Yesterday would know my name. I was there for a very long time.”
“Then why did you come outside?”
“It is hard to explain, but… I felt like I was living wrong.”
Rayray scratched their cheek and looked toward Rene.
Rene still appeared busy shaking the sleeping gods awake.
“Hey! Wake up! We said we would destroy the Alliance together!”
“Uuugh! Aaaaaah!”
Pilgrim, Drake’s Vicegerent, had silently watched the scene from nearby before asking,
“Can we not just kill them all?”
“No! If we harm the Anonymous Gods here, the entire Seventh Floor’s forces will converge on us. And if we turn the gods into enemies, we will not be able to win the Election.”
Rene began awakening the Anonymous Gods again.
[Anonymous God 654]
[Anonymous God 655]
[Anonymous God 666]
…
Of course, none of the gods woke up.
But Rene did not give up.
And gods were watching Rene refuse to give up.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ looks at Rene with pity.]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ tells her to stop clinging to those hopeless fools.]
[‘Anonymous God 48’ tells Rene they are sorry.]
Rayray was one of them.
“Watching that one challenge the tower again and again made me want to find a little courage too.”
“Is Rene’s goal to drive the Alliance out of the tower?”
“Probably. She kept running unpopular broadcasts because she wanted to expose the Alliance’s corruption. Now that we have Naked Stab too, taking the Seventh Floor is not completely impossible.”
The Seventh Floor of the 〈Metaverse〉 was the Alliance’s authority and symbol.
It was where most of the income generated by the Metaverse was controlled.
If they could seize this prized territory of the Alliance, bringing down the Alliance would not be impossible.
The problem was this.
[‘Anonymous God 324’ grumbles that they should stop waking them up.]
[‘Anonymous God 475’ declares that they will not let it slide if they are awakened one more time.]
The gods’ fortress was far sturdier than expected.
Runald watched Rene continue persuading the gods, then asked,
“Oh, was there not a kid around my age here? They told me to come here from the Sixth Floor.”
“A kid? Ah. You mean Jin Eunsae of the Rupture.”
“Oh, yes. That one.”
The boy had certainly looked around Runald’s age.
If not for that child, Runald would have died to Galateon’s spear on the Sixth Floor. He had wanted to thank Jin Eunsae when they met again, but after arriving on the Seventh Floor, he had not seen Jin Eunsae even once.
“That one is…”
Before Rayray could continue, a System message echoed through the air.
[Warning! You must seize at least one Plant within ten minutes.]
[If you fail the Task, you will be forcibly removed from the 〈Metaverse〉.]
Runald’s expression darkened.
The promised twelve hours would soon be up, yet they had made no progress in seizing a Plant. There had been no news from Jaehwan, whom they had counted on.
Rayray patted Runald’s shoulder.
“Do not worry too much. There is a way to avoid being removed.”
“What? Really?”
Without a word, Rayray pointed at the message in the air. It was written in tiny letters beside the removal warning.
[Pay 3,000 trust to receive an additional twelve-hour grace period.]
Andersen read the message and muttered in disbelief.
“Do not tell me everyone paid that to stay here?”
Rayray nodded, looking embarrassed.
“There was no other way.”
It might be better to pay trust and hold out than be chased from the tower like this.
[‘Anonymous God 94’ mocks the ‘Terrorists’.]
[‘Anonymous God 88’ tells them to give up already.]
[‘Anonymous God 324’ asks whether they really thought a revolution was possible.]
Still, Runald could not shake the sense that it was pathetic.
At this rate, rather than fight the Alliance, they would only keep handing trust over to them.
In fact, even though three of the Metaverse Six Gods had been defeated, the Alliance did not seem particularly concerned about them.
“Damn bastards…”
Perhaps they thought the group would grow tired and eventually fall apart.
That had been the Alliance’s effective strategy for the past five hundred years.
The Alliance had always used the tower’s System to delay revolutions.
No matter how many gods enraged by the Alliance’s tyranny gathered together, if the decisive stage for a revolution did not emerge, their boiling emotions quickly cooled.
Once the spark of revolution had died down and the gods began saying they were sick of it, the Alliance would begin to move.
“Arteina. Are you using the method that was used against us now?”
Five hundred years had passed since the Great Revolution failed.
Now the tower’s gods had grown even more impatient than they were then.
[‘Anonymous God 58’ says this is starting to get boring.]
[‘Anonymous God 535’ asks whether they still have not liberated a Plant.]
[The God of Speed ‘Velo’ says they do not know what is popular these days.]
Even if they paid 3,000 trust to extend their stay on the Seventh Floor, the number of gods supporting them would inevitably fall in no time at all.
That was when something unexpected happened.
[Someone has succeeded in liberating a Plant!]
“Huh?”
They had no idea what was going on, but a message announcing the successful liberation of a Plant appeared.
Rene came running toward them in a panic from the distance.
Rayray waved and asked,
“Hey, Rene! Did you succeed?”
“Huh? Was it not your side that succeeded?”
Rene looked completely confused too.
“Where is the liberated area? Who did it?”
Pilgrim, who had been carrying out a liberation mission nearby, and Gale, who was farther away, both sent messages saying it was not them.
Then it began.
[Someone has succeeded in liberating a Plant!]
A Plant liberation message began appearing almost once every thirty minutes.
[Someone has succeeded in liberating a Plant!]
Considering how stalled they had been until now, it was an unbelievable pace.
Then, messages flooded Rene’s channel.
[‘Anonymous God 88’ pleads with them to stop!]
[‘Anonymous God 94’ shouts, “Demon! Demon!”]
[‘Anonymous God 324’ asks Rene to stop this demon!]
Rene climbed to higher ground nearby to check the situation.
In the distance, Plants that had been successfully reclaimed were sending up green pillars of light. Most of them were adjacent to one another.
A-57, A-58, A-61…
After checking the numbers, Rene and Runald looked at each other and muttered,
“My god.”
“No way.”
They were all Plants in the area where Jaehwan had been staying.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion