Chapter 32

Governor Johan (2)

「Small but Deadly World once possessed one of the most advanced civilizations in all the Worlds of the Stars. Beneath the God of Small Things, they prospered, supplying high-quality goods and sharing their technology as they developed into a remarkable civilization.

And there was an Evil God who coveted this world of steel, capable of producing powerful weapons.

He believed that if he turned this world into a colony and worked those skilled dwarves like machines, it would serve perfectly in realizing his grand ambitions.

The dwarves fought desperately against the otherworldly invaders crossing between worlds.

Their military strength, backed by limitless production capacity and overwhelming technological superiority, was formidable.

Thanks to the ‘Blessing of Flame and Steel’ bestowed by their god upon his tiny creations who lacked talent for war, they held the advantage against most armies.

After witnessing just how ‘deadly’ the dwarves could be, the Evil God concluded that he could not win through a straightforward fight.

And in the Evil God’s view, war was never something meant to be fought fairly.

First, the Evil God joined forces with demons whose interests aligned with his own and opened countless rifts.

The monsters did not wield weapons, so the dwarves were unable to make proper use of their greatest strength.

With their unbreakable will, the dwarves trained themselves in hunting techniques and managed to resist in their own way.

However, as the cycles repeated, increasingly diverse monsters poured forth.

And when ‘dragons’ finally began soaring through the skies, the dwarves lost their will to fight.

It was a learned terror engraved into their blood, a fear even they themselves had forgotten.

Watching the dwarves flee before their natural predators, the Evil God deployed a promising Dragon Rider named Johan.

The Dragon Rider in black uniform burned their cities.

As the factories that produced their weapons went up in flames, the dwarves’ armies gradually weakened, while their enemies were powerful beings they could not hope to face without weapons.

The helpless dwarves sobbed and begged for their lives.

Watching them, Johan decided that they needed to be taught ‘another fear.’

The next day, the governor’s army appeared and trampled the dwarves’ nations and cities beneath their feet.

Thus began the nightmare of the giants.

Watching the dwarves die pointlessly beneath enormous feet and their brilliant civilization collapse miserably, the God of Small Things could endure no more.

Small but Deadly World was abandoned.

Once the governor realized that the world had lost its owner, he captured every remaining priest, impaled them on stakes, and burned them alive.

The sight of dwarves—friends of flame—burning to death was more shocking than anything else.

Only then did the dwarves truly understand that their god had abandoned them.

They sank into a sense of loss beyond anything words could describe.

Like the primordial dwarves of old, they were shackled once more and reduced to slaves in workshops.

They had nothing left.

But the governor did not know.

One final priest remained.

Very young.

Very small.

And possessing faith more devout than anyone else’s, along with a will that could not be broken.

The dwarves still had something left.

The final ember that would one day bring hope.」

「You have viewed the memories contained within the puzzle piece.」

「You have learned how Small but Deadly World fell, and how the vicious army serving the Evil God wages war.」

「The same mistake must not be repeated.」

「You have learned about ‘Dragons and Dwarves.’」

「Your enemies will make use of this highly effective and efficient method once again. Unless you discover a way to overcome the fear caused by the natural-predator relationship, your small believers will not survive.」

It was an unexpected truth Lee Shin had learned thanks to the world Blue Star had given him.

If he had never received the dinosaur world, he would not have discovered any of this until after actually encountering a dragon.

Now he could understand, at least a little, why everyone in the Community had laughed and said he would never succeed.

There were far too many hidden variables.

“Ugh... Uweeeek!”

“H-Huaaaaaah!”

To see just how severe the natural-predator response was, Lee Shin recruited volunteers from among the dwarves and sent them to Large but Lazy World.

Every single one reacted even more violently than Eve had.

Eve, who had merely trembled and screamed, had actually handled it relatively well.

Some of the other dwarves began foaming at the mouth and convulsing the instant they saw the dinosaurs.

Even after returning to their original world, they suffered nightmares for quite some time and continued trembling in fear.

It was an extremely serious problem.

Even Santiago, who seemed braver than anyone, reacted similarly.

He did not scream, but his entire body went rigid like ice, and he could not take even a single step.

He looked like a man who had seen a ghost.

What would happen if the governor, driven mad by the current situation, brought dragons and attacked the Red City of Gepetto?

The dwarves would panic, fail to respond properly, and be slaughtered.

Lee Shin did not need to see it happen to know.

「[★Blue Star★]: A natural-predator relationship? That’s strange. If they’re divine creations, they shouldn’t have a flaw like that. Those kinds of traits only appear in naturally evolved races. A race created by a god from beginning to end wouldn’t have that sort of fear implanted in them. It causes problems when worlds clash, just like now.」

That was Blue Star’s answer when Lee Shin asked her about it.

A notification soon rang.

「TIP: The dwarves of Small but Deadly World are a naturally evolved race native to this world. A god from the past took a liking to the primordial Dwarves, who crafted things with their small hands, and accepted them as his own children.」

「TIP: Because they were not artificially created, they possess far more explosive potential. But that also means they can develop fatal weaknesses. The god who once ruled this place was unaware of that fact and fled after witnessing the disastrous consequences.」

Ah.

So that was what had happened.

Lee Shin explained everything to Blue Star.

Another response soon arrived.

「[★Blue Star★]: Then wouldn’t it be better to just discard them?」

The answer was far more shocking than Lee Shin had expected.

「[★Blue Star★]: There should be a database of dwarf genetic information, right? Just wait until they’re all wiped out, then create them again somewhere safe. It shouldn’t be difficult once you accumulate enough faith. When you recreate them yourself, you can simply remove the natural-predator trait from their genetic information.」

「[Lee Shin]: I can’t do that. That isn’t right.」

「[★Blue Star★]: Hmm, I don’t really understand. If you preserve the defining traits of their race, then they haven’t truly disappeared, have they? They’d simply be reborn as a superior version of themselves. I’d think they would actually be grateful....」

To Lee Shin, Blue Star’s suggestion was no different from saying that if a child you were raising unexpectedly developed a disability or illness, you should throw that child away and create a new one without the disability, or one incapable of becoming sick.

It was a way of thinking impossibly far removed from the innocent young girl Blue Star had appeared as during their Community conversation.

「[★Blue Star★]: Is this because you’re a human-born god? Your way of thinking is unusual. Do you manage your world by assigning meaning to each individual life? Souls and life are part of a cycle anyway, and as long as they continue moving within the larger framework we’ve designed, wouldn’t they ultimately be the same concept? Why does this bother you so much?」

From the perspective of a god, perhaps Blue Star was right.

The system used to manage this world resembled the civilization simulation game Lee Shin’s father played.

Lee Shin had seen his father reset the game over and over whenever he complained that the starting position was bad or that he did not like how things were unfolding.

Perhaps that was the wise and efficient thing to do.

「[Lee Shin]: Responsibility.」

But Lee Shin could not do that.

「[Lee Shin]: A god has responsibilities, Blue Star.」

Never.

As the overall population increased, the number of scouts grew as well.

Now that the effectiveness of the strategy had been proven, Santiago joined in too, and they began carrying out full-scale guerrilla warfare.

The governor’s army did not remain idle, either, but most of their attempts to reach the Red City of Gepetto ended in failure.

That was partly thanks to the dwarf soldiers strengthened through the newly constructed [Training Ground], as well as the strict surveillance and defenses of the [Fortress].

Unexpectedly, however, the plants played a major role too.

The rapidly multiplying vegetation did more than provide food. Around the great mountain that served as the Red City of Gepetto’s stronghold and the nearby desert, the plants formed a jungle that acted as a natural fortress.

And because they had grown under Eve’s blessings, the plants would not even burn.

The only way to clear the jungle was to cut it down piece by piece, which was an exhausting task even for the giants, who were far larger than dwarves.

On top of that, Jude’s skeletons, completely unaffected by the desert heat, constantly patrolled the surrounding area.

Against the governor’s army, which had no priests, Jude’s skeleton soldiers were practically an immortal army.

Killing each individual giant took a long time, but if the battle continued long enough, the skeleton soldiers always won in the end.

On the surface, everything seemed to be going well.

But the fact remained that the enemy possessed an asymmetrical force called dragons.

Just as Lee Shin had seen in the memories contained within the puzzle piece, the moment the governor personally took the field, the Red City of Gepetto would ultimately lose.

Lee Shin considered having the dwarves continue interacting with the dinosaurs in hopes of dulling their fear.

But once fear had been engraved that deeply, it did not disappear easily.

Rather than overcoming it, some dwarves only became more mentally exhausted.

While Lee Shin continued searching for a solution—

“...I want to go too.”

An unexpected answer came from somewhere he had not anticipated.

“Weapons and equipment were created to protect ourselves from countless natural predators. In truth, everything dwarves ever made was like that. We built houses to escape the cold. We made weapons to fight animals larger and stronger than us. We created armor so our fragile flesh would not be exposed.”

『....』

“I want to see a dragon, God. After facing our most terrifying fear, I’ll make a weapon capable of protecting us from our most fundamental predator.”

The Flame Blacksmith, Hephaestus.

「The potential of the ‘Hero Candidate’ stirs.」

「The wishes and souls of dwarves who died futile and unjust deaths in the past feed firewood into the burning ember.」

「The Flame Blacksmith, Hephaestus, has been given an opportunity to become a true Hero in the face of a world crisis.」

***

[Responsibility....]

Blue Star found the idea interesting.

She had never really thought about such a thing.

Under the theme of eternity that she pursued, Blue Star had always sought only the most efficient and perfect worlds.

Worlds superior to all others in the Worlds of the Stars, without a single defect.

If even one flaw appeared, Blue Star would reset all her creations and replace them with new ones, then repeat the process again and again as she rewound the world’s time.

None of her creations ever complained.

[Is that why they were all smiling?]

But Blue Star was not human.

Because of that, she could not understand what Lee Shin meant by responsibility, or what kind of duty a god owed to mere mortal creations.

[I’m curious. Can you make those children smile too?]

Dragons.

One of the most complete races in the Worlds of the Stars, born in the most perfect paradise.

Blue Star had created that world using the finest conditions and the best materials available.

And yet that world had been a failure.

Its inhabitants had willingly discarded their own strengths and sealed their limitless potential inside laziness, doing nothing at all.

No matter how many times Blue Star reset them, the result was always the same.

The reason Large but Lazy World had failed was something even Blue Star could not understand.

Could Lee Shin discover it?

And could he make them happy?

For the first time in a very long while, Blue Star felt genuine curiosity.

[L-Lord of Eternity, why are you doing this to us...?]

In front of the interested Blue Star, several demons were prostrating themselves and trembling.

They were demons who had dared ignore her warning and attempted to interfere with Lee Shin’s world.

Blue Star looked down at the insignificant beings and murmured,

[Why am I doing this...? Hmm. Does that really matter? Has there ever been a time in the Worlds of the Stars when I needed a reason for what I did? That was so long ago I barely remember.]

[P-Please... mercy....]

[Come on, don’t be so scared. I’m not an evil god.]

Her mental voice was bright and cheerful.

Yet it echoed so powerfully that the demons’ entire souls trembled, leaving them barely able to think.

In the endless blue illusory space, beings composed of blue light began appearing behind Blue Star as she floated in the air.

[My descendants will determine your value. They’ll take you apart one by one, remove whatever parts should disappear, and preserve anything that shouldn’t disappear by incorporating it into my descendants. That way you’ll never vanish forever. Isn’t that merciful? A part of you will still be alive!]

“H-Hic... h-hng....”

[P-Please... please....]

Every demon was terrified.

Blue Star tilted her head as if she truly could not understand why.

Then she said,

[This isn’t scary. It’s a good thing!]

In a bright and cheerful tone.

***

Manager Kim Dong-seok, who had now been assigned to Lee Shin in addition to Seong Chan-yang, had recently found his workload piling up like a mountain.

Requests from foreign governments asking Lee Shin to close their country’s rifts.

Requests from media organizations seeking interviews.

And even more than a thousand requests every single day from that damned Lee Shin Salvation Church asking for a meeting....

For the first time in a very long while, Manager Kim Dong-seok had become someone who could no longer function without caffeine.

Then Lee Shin called.

Anything involving Lee Shin was always priority number one.

Kim Dong-seok immediately put his other work aside and answered.

But then—

—I’ve got a lot more things to sell.

“Is that so? I’ll come see you right away—”

—Could I receive something other than money this time?

“Ah, of course. What would you like?”

—I need advice from military experts... and if possible, I’d also like blueprints for weapons used by the military. Things like surface-to-air missiles, stealth bombers, and massive bunker-buster bombs.

“....”

Wait.

What the hell was this now?