Chapter 195
Gaia.
The sole deity of this land, and, well, an incredibly great being.
The One often delivered oracles to the Mortals of this land. It was this Goddess who would immediately issue an oracle to warn of threats when a Demon appeared.
Furthermore, since the *Otherworlder*s appeared, she frequently delivered minor oracles. One could say she was quite the chatty *Goddess*, often communicating with her *Follower*s.
In short, it wasn't particularly rare for her to speak with someone.
However, these oracles were usually delivered only to the *Priest*s within the *Temple*. It was extremely rare for her to suddenly request a conversation with an *Outsider*. Since I happened to be that rare case, I couldn't help but be very flustered.
“Huh, me?”
*Why, though? Did I do something wrong?* *Could it be that a Manifestor setting foot in her Temple displeased her?* *Is that why she's using this conversation as an excuse to lure me further inside?*
And finally, when I reached the interior of the *Building*, *Paladin*s wielding *Morning Star*s clanked, blocking my path.
‘I foolishly came all this way, not even realizing it was a trap. Today's your death day!’ they'd shout, showering me with Divine Spells.
And then, helplessly *subdued*, I'd suffer all sorts of things at the hands of the female-only *paladins*...
*“...Seriously.”*
Perhaps because it was such a bewildering proposition, my thoughts scattered in all directions.
Hanbyeol Shin next to me seemed just as surprised, her violet eyes wide.
“That person··· no, why would *Goddess* Gaia suddenly call for me?”
“That, I’m not sure either···”
At my question, the *Male Priest* who had acted as the *Herald* looked flustered. Seeing his expression, I sighed and said, “Alright, let’s go.”
I had many questions to ask anyway. Originally, I'd planned to ask the *priest* at the *reception desk*, but if *Goddess* Gaia herself was looking for me, it would be better to ask her directly.
And frankly, I couldn't just flat-out refuse. If I refused, the *Priest* in front of me might shout, *“This insolent wretch!”* and try to crack my skull, mightn't he?
While *Priest*s made me a little uncomfortable, I still wanted to get along with them.
So, I slowly followed the *Male Priest*.
I gave a casual farewell to Hanbyeol, who was beside me.
“Things are a bit sudden, but··· I guess we have to part ways here today. See ya.”
“Ah, yeah··· I’ll come visit again after I finish my quest.”
Similar to the *Building*'s exterior, the path leading inside was also pristine. Pure white marble and colorful light streamed in through large windows. Such sights naturally inspired a sense of devotion.
I walked behind the *priest*, feeling a moderate sense of tension and curiosity.
“How exactly does she plan to meet me?”
Surely she won't manifest directly like in some fantastical tale, right? Will a voice just echo from the air? Or will she possess someone else's body?
Why meet me suddenly? Could she really be giving me a Hero Title too? Nah, no way. I'm definitely not a Hero.
*Inside, numerous questions bubbled up and burst like foam.*
“We’ve arrived.”
In the meantime, I had arrived at my *Destination*. The *Place* where I was to meet the *Goddess* wasn't particularly special. It looked like a small, single room, a *Confessional* enclosed on all sides by wood.
“The *Archbishop* will be waiting inside. I’ll take my leave now···”
After the *Priest*'s guidance ended, I entered the *Confessional*.
The *Confessional Booth* I usually imagined had its front covered by a curtain, but this didn't seem to be the case in *Reality*. Or perhaps it had been temporarily removed for the conversation. In any case, the front was wide open.
Just a thin plank awkwardly divided the space. And beyond that plank sat a kindly-faced middle-aged *woman*... the *Archbishop*.
However, the atmosphere emanating from her surroundings was not merely that of an *Archbishop*. It felt as if something warm was pressing down on me. The power was undoubtedly gentle, yet its magnitude was immeasurably vast.
I knew it *intuitively*. The one before me was the esteemed *Goddess* herself, borrowing the *Archbishop*'s body.
Soon, the *Goddess* before me, who had been smiling warmly, opened her mouth to speak.
“It is you, the child who fell from the *Otherworld*.”
“······!!!”
For a moment, I couldn't help but be startled. The first thing she said upon meeting was “Otherworld”? No, wait, which *Otherworld* was she talking about? My eyes widened, and I immediately asked her.
“No, wait··· what do you mean?” “You seem surprised. Do not worry. This is not an invitation to interrogate you.” “No, it’s not that··· how did you know?”
I had never mentioned it to anyone. Even if I did, no one would believe me, and I myself had tried to forget about it since there was no way to return to *Reality*.
But now, it had suddenly come right before me from the *Goddess*. As I looked at her with unease, she smiled kindly and replied.
“I learned recently that while I was observing the *World* as I always do, you suddenly caught my eye.”
Your impure bloodline, yet your steadfast humanity, and even the *Alien Soul* residing within you.
“It was fascinating. Your body clearly seems to have been created in *This Place*, yet the *Soul* within it appears to have originated elsewhere.”
She said that as the *Administrator of the World*, she could see *Soul*s. More precisely, she could see the *Soul Color*. The *Gaian*s' *Soul*s all had similar tones of color, but I alone possessed a unique tone.
*“What the...”*
Of course, to me, it just sounded like she was talking nonsense. As if reading my expression, Gaia added.
“Do not think too hard on it. To put it more simply··· well, it’s easier to think of it as looking into the mind. Just as my children cannot easily grasp the *Concept of Computer*, which they have never seen, the very presence or absence of such concepts is expressed as a color.”
But I knew such concepts. Of course. I came from a modern era filled with computers, cars, and cell phones.
Right before my head was crushed and I died, I was playing a game on a computer. Though its form was different, it was that damned game called [Demon's Saga].
As I pondered this alone, Gaia spoke again.
“It is a wondrous thing. Even for me, it is unprecedented. So, I investigated what had happened. There was a trace of a hole torn in the thinned dimension. Though it has healed now···”
After that, Gaia's lengthy explanation continued, a long, drawn-out explanation that an *Ordinary Person* like me would find difficult to understand.
Dimensions this, *Soul*s that··· it was quite long, but the conclusion was simpler than I expected. Somehow, a hole had opened in the *Wall Between Worlds*, and I happened to die at that moment and fell through. In a word, my reincarnation here was purely by chance.
*“Seriously···”*
At her words, I frowned. More than anger, it was disbelief. Wasn't it that I ended up struggling in this *Savage World* purely because of that coincidence?
It was a more anticlimactic truth than I'd imagined. Yet, it didn't lead to anger.
After all, if not for that coincidence, I would have simply died with my head crushed on the day the *Building* collapsed.
“In any case, there is no grand reason I called you. I merely called you out of curiosity, having seen a *Soul* unlike any other···”
But there were still questions remaining. No, rather, I had even more questions, having heard such things. Had my complicated mental state shown on my face? Gaia looked at me again and asked kindly.
“You seem to have many questions.”
I nodded and immediately spoke.
“You said you’ve been watching me. Then do you also know that I can see the *System Window*s of *Otherworlder*s?” “Indeed.” “Why do I have that *Skill*?” “That is because your *Soul Color* is different, as you mentioned earlier.”
Simply put, it is a concept.
“Curiously, there is *Game Knowledge* within your mind that *Otherworlder*s speak of. Thanks to that, you gained what they call a “skill”. Unfortunately, your body is from *This Place*, so it seems to be a *Half-baked Skill*.”
In short, a *System Window* naturally appeared because I had *Game Knowledge*. It was a strange thing to think that endlessly playing games in my room would come back to me like this.
After that, I tried to ask several more questions. But Gaia spoke before I could.
“Though I wish to speak more, alas, I do not have much time. If you have any more questions, I will answer but one.”
After all this time of questions piling up, I had only one more. Because of this, I had no choice but to ponder for a moment. What exactly should I ask?
Fortunately, my deliberation wasn't long. There was one thing I'd been curious about since earlier.
“What’s the reason it’s so uniquely favorable to me?” “More specifically, what do you mean?” “I mean the quests. When I think back, it seems they often helped me when I was in trouble.”
At my words, Gaia smiled. As she sat before me, the corners of the middle-aged woman's lips turned up. It was the same kindly feeling as before, but this time, it seemed to hold a touch more amusement. Soon, she opened her mouth.
“You are mistaken about something.”
“?”
I tilted my head in confusion.
“I have not done anything directly for you.”
She continued.
“No, not just for you, but for all my children. I am busy enough just in this battle of wills with the *Demon*s beyond that wall.”
“Then the quests···”
“I am not *omnipotent and omniscient* enough to oversee every single one of those, unlike what my children expect. Rather, the quests are merely a contingency I have prepared···”
So this is what they mean by a chatty goddess. This time, her explanation continued at length as well.
“On the day the *Demon*s decided to summon the *Otherworlder*s to my *World*, I made a decision. If they were *Intruder*s I could not stop, then I would rather treat them favorably.
Thus, what they call the “system” was created, and the “quests” are merely what guide them.”
Come to think of it, the *Otherworlder*s did say something about quests. Quests appear everywhere, but some quests are related to the *Main Stream*.
Unfortunately, I don't know what that *Main Stream* means. But if it's a contingency prepared by Gaia··· it would naturally become something to counter the *Demon*s.
The *Hero Quest* that appeared this time would also be one of them.
Of course, this wasn't omnipotent either. She said she secured power through quests, a power she called “causality”.
“We are gathering various results to create a process. Through that process, we are changing the results. We are listing various events that flowed *causally*, bestowing qualifications.”
To be honest, I half-listened. From *Soul Color* to dimensions to *causality*, I was half-knocked out by all those esoteric words.
The only thing I could grasp was that the quests themselves, not she, had helped me. And the reason for that was to counter the *Demon*s.
After finishing her explanation once more, Gaia finally asked me.
“Did you say the quests were strangely favorable to you?”
“Uh··· yes, probably.”
“Then that must be it. Who knows. Perhaps it will give you another gift···”
Saying that, Gaia chuckled.
“Then I shall take my leave. I wish you good fortune.”
With those words, she smoothly slipped out of the *Archbishop*'s body.
The warm energy that had filled the space completely vanished, and in its place, the sleeping *Archbishop* slammed her head onto the desk quite hard, too.
*Thud!*
“······.”
For a goddess, she could at least be a bit more considerate of the believer she possessed. Anyway, having had a mystical experience, I simply left the Confessional.
Afterwards, I gave a casual farewell to the *Female Priest* at the *Reception Desk* and left the *Temple*.
On the way back *home*,
Before I knew it, the setting sun painted the *sky* with twilight hues.
If I didn't hurry, I'd probably only reach the *forest* by evening, but I didn't bother to speed up.
My mind was in a whirl because of how much I'd heard today.
To summarize. Ultimately, my falling here was a product of chance, and similarly, the appearance of strange *Skill*s like the “Player”s Eye’ was also a matter of luck.
Even a *Half-baked System Window* appeared simply because I had *Game Knowledge*.
At one point, I'd wondered if there was some grand reason. Hearing it like this, I felt that it was almost anticlimactic.
*At the same time, thoughts of the modern era I once lived in flickered in my mind for the first time in a long while.*
“······.”
Suddenly, *Ancient Building*s came into view beneath the world bathed in red.
Carriages passing over stone roads, farmers returning home with hoes, even guards patrolling the city with cold weapons—it was a scene I had grown quite accustomed to.
But sometimes, these scenes would overlap with those of my past life.
Ah, in the modern world, there would be smooth Asphalt Roads instead of bumpy stone paths. Cars would zoom past instead of carriages. And tall Apartments and Commercial Buildings would stand next to them instead of those small Buildings. And I would probably be playing games leisurely in my room.
“······.”
Thinking like this often made me nostalgic, but also brought on a sense of melancholy.
As if I would never be able to see those scenes again.
Of course, such melancholy was not good for my mind, so I forced myself out of it. Pushing aside my memories for a moment, I forcibly pulled out the questions in my head.
My conversation with the *Goddess* was informative, but it also left me with many questions.
Among them, there was one piece of information Gaia had mentioned in passing.
“The Otherworlders were summoned by Demons...?”
This was also new information to me. Of course, I knew the *Goddess* hadn't summoned them. She had even stated openly in an oracle, “Though you are unwelcome guests, I nonetheless welcome you···”
But even so, I honestly hadn't considered that the *Demon*s were the ones who summoned the *Otherworlder*s. That's because there didn't seem to be any particular benefit for them.
From the *Demon*s' perspective, wouldn't the *Otherworlder*s just be an obstacle? After all, if they descended, the *Otherworlder*s would rush to exterminate them.
*“Ugh, I don”t know.’*
I thought about it for a long time. My head slowly began to throb, and I eventually stopped thinking.
The day my berserk state would trigger was approaching, and I didn't want things to get unnecessarily complicated. Still, perhaps because I'd been racking my brain, the melancholy had subsided quite a bit.
So, I walked for a long time and arrived at my *cave*.
And I couldn't help but be surprised.
“Oh, you’re here.”
“···Huh?”
Surprisingly, there was an *Early Arrival* late at night. And it was quite a rare guest at that.
“Where have you been? I had a terrible time waiting.”
She has short curly blonde hair and a firm physique. She is a woman with a leopard-like impression, forged by her work as a mercenary.
Nikki Tanesia. The last time I saw her, she had fled with *Sephiroth*, and she suddenly appeared before me.
“Hey.”
Soon, she spotted me and gave a shy smile, as if she were a bit awkward.
“Why?”
As I tilted my head, she made a request.
“Can I crash here for a few days?”