Chapter 13

The Second World (1)

If there was no answer in this world, then he could simply find one in another.

The message from the status window offered quite a novel approach.

‘How do I unlock the second world?’

Ding.

An answer soon came.

「TIP: Abandoned worlds without masters are always yearning for a new Lord to come to them.」
「TIP: If you are willing to accept them, the yearning of a pitiful believer will reach you.」

It was the same process through which he had first heard Eve’s prayer and become the god of the small world.

Looking at Santiago’s eyes as he desperately gazed toward the heavens, Lee Shin finally spoke.

『I shall find the answer.』

“Ahh…”

『None shall harm you.』

Overcome with emotion, Santiago prostrated himself, and Eve, who had been making a fuss beside him, quickly followed suit.

Listening to their earnest prayers, Lee Shin returned to his original world for the time being.

While he was in the small world, he could hear only their prayers. If he wanted to hear and sense the voices of more people, he needed to be here, in his original world.

‘If I’m willing to accept them…’

As Lee Shin lay on his bed, countless voices reached his ears.

Ever since childhood, Lee Shin had been able to hear things others could not and see things invisible to everyone else.

Focusing on those other voices for the first time in a while, Lee Shin realized that this ability of his was no longer limited to the people of Earth.

Its reach had expanded much farther.

Into the infinitely vast world of the stars.

—…me… please.

Among the voices echoing around him, Lee Shin caught hold of one particularly desperate plea.

The moment he focused on it, he felt his body become weightless.

—Hold me… please…

It felt exactly like when he had first met Eve.

「The yearning of the loneliest believer, trembling from loneliness and craving affection in an abandoned world, has reached you.」

「A new believer of yours has been born.」
「The world in which this believer resides has no master. Ownership of that world shall therefore pass to you, the greatest, noblest, and most absolute existence.」

2:44 a.m.

It was still far too late to be going anywhere.

「Second World.」
「Transferring to Earth No. 1,004, [The Creepy but Lonely World].」

「TIP: You can do it ♥♥」
「TIP: {(n>V<n)7」

***

“Uh…”

When Lee Shin opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was blackened earth.

And that wasn’t a figure of speech.

Everything here was literally black and dead.

The sky, the land, the sea…

Everything.

The scenery of [The Small but Deadly World] had been miserable as well, but it couldn’t even compare to this place.

With nothing but ash drifting through the air, this was truly a land of death.

“Uh, uh… uhh!”

Amid this landscape of death, something buried in the black mud began rushing toward Lee Shin the instant he appeared.

A loud clattering noise echoed through the surroundings.

“U-Uh, hehe, y-you really came!”

Apparently, it tripped while running toward him.

Crash!

The thing’s body broke apart and scattered everywhere.

They were pieces of bone.

“Ah! Ahh! Wait. Please wait just a moment.”

『……』

“I-I’ll be there soon. I’ll be right there, sob…”

There was a pure-white skeleton atop the pitch-black land of death.

The skeleton gathered up its scattered bones, reassembled its legs, and came running again.

Once it reached Lee Shin, the skeleton awkwardly dropped to its knees, looked up at the sky through its empty eye sockets, and clattered its teeth.

“Hold me!”

It was the same voice Lee Shin had heard.

「A pitiful believer who continued yearning for affection and trembling from loneliness until the very end, even in an abandoned world.」
「Name: Jude」
「Class: Necromancer (Undead)」
「Overall Assessment: Very, very happy.」

「TIP: Please embrace this pitiful believer who has spent an unimaginably long time trembling from loneliness in a destroyed world. That alone will make this creepy creature willing to give everything for you. Truly everything.」

「TIP: (3)」

The sight of a skeleton standing there with both arms spread wide and its teeth clattering was grotesque, yet somehow it tugged at Lee Shin’s heart.

So Lee Shin used Descent and personally approached the skeleton, Jude.

Then he tightly embraced Jude, who kept repeating nothing but, “Hold me.”

The skeleton’s fleshless body was cold and hard.

“Uh…”

Had Jude not actually expected him to do it?

The skeleton froze for a moment, jaw hanging wide open.

Then Jude slowly turned to look at Lee Shin before very carefully moving his arms and hugging him even tighter.

“…I love you.”

Ding.

A notification rang out.

「You have bestowed grace upon Jude.」
「Your hearts have connected.」
「Jude has become an official believer.」
「Jude’s status will be reorganized.」

「A believer who will give everything for you.」
「Name: Jude」
「Class: Necromancer (Undead)」
「Believer Rank: Low」
「Soul Rank: Legendary (Damaged)」
「Overall Assessment: So happy that he could die right now without a single regret.」

Lee Shin’s new skeleton friend was certainly unique.

「Faith has reached the maximum value.」
「WARNING: Divine power cannot be harvested from [Undead].」
「WARNING: No god takes an undead being as a believer. It is recommended that you abandon this world and this believer and seek a new world.」

Lee Shin looked at the skeleton burying its face against his chest.

He couldn’t bring himself to follow the status window’s recommendation.

How could he abandon someone this lonely?

「TIP: Ignore it.」
「TIP: You are not an existence who needs to follow the ways of ordinary gods. Because you are… special…」

『Kekeke. That world is doomed to its predetermined destruction no matter what anyone does.』

『Let’s not concern ourselves with it. We can’t interfere with it right now anyway.』

『Besides, I heard the second world he picked up belongs to that dim-witted skeleton.』

『Tsk, tsk. He’ll lose all his worlds and cease to exist before long.』

『Indeed. No matter how extraordinary a destiny he was born with, a god born as a human cannot survive in the world of the stars. Never.』

『I hear there’s some interesting news from Earth No. 1?』

『Earth No. 1… Ah, that one. The human-born fellow who recently became a god.』

『He’s a [Lowest-Rank God], yet apparently he screwed over a dream demon?』

『Not only that, but despite being a [Lowest-Rank God], he accepted a Heroic-rank soul. Santiago, that old man.』

『How did he possibly win over that cantankerous old hunter from the small world?』

『Probably a fluke. Old folks get confused sometimes, don’t they?』

『The status window administrator of Earth No. 1 must be thrilled. He’s the first human-born god, after all. Two lowly-born creatures getting along splendidly. Kekeke.』

『Shouldn’t we still be wary of him? He’s a human born with [Destiny]. And his soul possesses three destinies at once. If he had been a transcendent instead of a human, he would have become the highest and noblest existence the instant he obtained divinity…』

『But he’s human, isn’t he? Everyone knows that beings who haven’t transcended cannot create worlds of their own and have no choice but to pick up abandoned, masterless worlds. There’s no way to survive in the world of the stars like that.』

『And his first world belongs to dwarves. There’s nothing more to see.』

「Jude’s world was one in which an age of hatred had taken hold, with everyone constantly dividing themselves into opposing sides and fighting one another.

Even when they were faced with the common disaster known as the Rifts, they refused to cooperate and continued fighting.

In the end, Jude’s world was destroyed not by the Rifts, but by the war its inhabitants waged against one another.

Their weapons burned everything on the planet without exception, transforming the entire world into a land of death.

A land where no one could survive.

Neither gods nor even demons visited this ruined world.

There was nothing to gain from a place where only ashes remained.

Everyone turned away from the world, and when even the fact that it had once existed had been forgotten, Jude awakened.

It happened because of a talent he had never known he possessed while alive.

Jude’s talent pulled him back from death and granted him a new power with which to survive in the ruined world.

But what use were brilliant talent and power?

The world Jude had known, the people Jude had known, and the life Jude had known had all been destroyed without leaving so much as a trace.

Jude was alone in a world where everything had vanished.

After wandering the world for an immeasurable length of time, Jude created undead friends to overcome his loneliness.

He created an undead family.

But eventually, he realized that they could never truly become his friends or family.

And so Jude cried out to a god.

Please become my friend.

Please become my family.

Please hold me.

I’m so lonely.」

Eve’s circumstances had been pitiful and heartbreaking, but Jude’s situation was incomparably more miserable.

Lee Shin looked at the skeleton happily clattering his teeth.

“My God. My God. Jude is happy.”

“Jude knows lots of interesting stories. If my God wants, Jude will tell stories without resting for the rest of his life, and Jude will dance for my God too.”

As Jude chattered away, another notification rang out.

Ding.

「TIP: Jude is a Necromancer.」
「TIP: He is also an existence born with an extraordinarily, extraordinarily powerful talent—powerful enough to survive an inevitable apocalypse.」
「TIP: However, Jude’s power has been damaged.」

Damaged.

Lee Shin had read the same thing in Jude’s status.

It was a description he had never seen in the small world, so he asked Jude about it.

“I gave it away as presents.”

『To whom did you give it?』

“To the other gods who came before you, my God. When they saw me, they clicked their tongues and tried to leave for somewhere else. So I broke apart the powers I had and shared them with the gods so they would look at me just a little longer.”

『……』

“Then more gods came to see Jude. And more after them. So Jude shared all the power Jude had with them.”

“But once Jude had no more power left to give away, no gods came to see Jude anymore.”

Jude looked up at the sky.

“I’m sorry. My God probably wants power too, but Jude doesn’t have any left. If Jude gets more power someday, Jude will give it to you. Or Jude can take off a leg and give it to you. If you want, Jude can give you his head too.”

『……』

“So please don’t leave Jude.”

Lee Shin stared at the skeleton pleading with both arms outstretched.

With such a tragic story, this skeleton seemed to be in far too miserable a situation to offer any help to Eve’s world.

‘Then what should I do? Is there another way…?’

At that moment—

Ding.

A notification rang out.

「TIP: That is not the case.」

At the same time, Jude snapped his fingers.

“But Jude still has lots of tricks left.”

Rumble—

The ground began to shake.

The next moment, pure-white skeletons resembling Jude began emerging from beneath the earth all across the surrounding land.

There were too many to even begin counting.

Truly, unimaginably many…

「TIP: Jude the Necromancer possesses a [Legendary]-rank soul.」
「TIP: This soul possesses enough power to change the balance of an entire world merely by existing. Even after being damaged to the very limit, he remains capable of accomplishing a great many things.」
「TIP: This creepy and lonely skeleton has only a paltry amount of power remaining, but that power is still more than sufficient to save the world of the dwarves. Truly, more than sufficient.」

「TIP: The invaders of Earth No. 444 will encounter the calamity of Earth No. 1,004. And they will learn, down to their very bones, that in this vast world of the stars, they were nothing more than frogs in a well.」