[Ask me about your plan.]
I take a long and gentle breath.
I donât want to be perturbed.
Even if the God has been reading my mind.
I didnât expect the God of Hope to know about the conversation I had with the God of Slow in her temple.
I thought that God could only read my superficial thoughts at best and would not know what occurred at other temples.
I finally understand why the God of Slow didnât want to answer my questions.
The God of Hopeâs laughter tickles my ears again.
He gave a soft smile after his chuckle.
The gentle and ambiguous murmur draws all my attention away.
[You didnât want me to ask me about your plans? My apologies.]
[Yes, I am. So why donât you ask me about your plan?]
No God would be sad for such a thing.
First of all, there is no need to obtain the answer from other Gods if Iâve already gotten it from one God.
âI donât think you will like my plan.â
âThe hope you understand is stronger than anything else in the world. Therefore youâd actually like the Systemâs constraints and wouldnât be bothered by it.â
Iâve been able to distinguish the Gods to some extent with my recent experiences.
Laughter echoes in my ears again.
[Itâs rude to say so. I am hope.]
Thatâs just a personal interpretation of it by the God in front of me.
[Your thoughts are unimportant, ignorant, and foolish, human.]
âNo, the only thing that matters are my thoughts. Just as you judge hope by what you believe.â
The laughter around my ears stops.
Even the sound I didnât recognize disappears, what remains is a silent world that spread endlessly.
[I have something to tell you.]
âIâve heard all I wanted to hear. Now I wish to proceed to the next stage. Please send me away.â
A portal appears by my feet as soon as I finish my words.
I didnât expect the portal to appear by my will regardless if the God permitted it.
I hurry to the portal and to move onwards, but the God of Hope murmurs.
[Are you going to run away?]
I keep silent by the portal for a while.
The laughter of the God of Hope, which had disappeared, echoes again.
[Interesting. But it is inevitable. Your judgemental abilities are too bizarre to be human.]
[Now you dare to even command a God.]
The God of Hopeâs presence began changing.
His presence that had felt like a small, frail insect in an open space became overwhelming and oppressive.
I canât stop the force from pressuring my body.
I dare not even think about it.
Because I am still in this space.
Now I am the fruit fly standing before a God.
[Yes, I wanted to treat you like a disposable toy just as you worried. When the time is right, I will drop a fishing line for you who continues to swim deeper and deeper into despair. But it seems that you wonât bite my hook even if you died. Itâs incredible to be in despair and refuse the hope. This helped me understand you better than any other God.]
The God of Hope is sending out ferocious power.
The voice of the buzzing little insect has been replaced by that of a giant monster with tusks exposed roaring around my ears.
[How does it feel to be oppressed by my power? Are you not happy? Arenât you excited about the height of the wall you are going to climb? ]
The roaring God of Hope continues.
[Of course, I know about your ambitions. All the gods of the Hundred Gods Temple know of it. I only ask you one question. Is this goal truly for that Lizardman? Be honest, perhaps itâs just for your self-satisfaction. If you really want to save that lizardman, it is not too late to become an apostle of the God of Slow. You should accumulate enough contribution points to trade with the Hundred Gods Temple. Itâll only take 300 years. ]
Hearing what the God of Hope said, I understand his intentions now.
â⌠So this is what you wanted to tell me.â
[Yes. You are accustomed to fighting in despair, so Iâm going to give you a little hope. There is nothing more harmful to a deep-sea fish than light. ]
The Godâs goal is clear.
It doesnât matter if Iâm unpersuaded right now.
What the God wants is to leave a scar in my heart.
When the day where I tire and give up comes, this scar will whisper to me and tempt me to take a shortcut more comfortable than the current one.
[I used to think so too before. But now that I see you, you wonât waver so easily. The God of Slow spoke of your essence, a moth that wants to be a fire. For you, despair is not the darkness, but the light.]
The Godâs vicious presence becomes as warm as the sun.
Then the God of Hope whispers with heat that wouldâve melted my body.
[Iâll tell you what the God of Slow didnât mention.]
[As you thought, the poor souls who are locked in the system are not only goblins and lizardmen, but also Gods.]
[There is certainly a God among us who wants to be released from that bondage. You should also know who that is.]
[You donât have to feel anxious, go ahead. The most powerful God of the Hundred Gods Temples will support you. ]
I pondered about it for a while.
âI donât understand.â
âI donât understand why you told me this.â
The God of Hopeâs presence returned to that equal to an insect. Then he chuckles again as if itâs very interesting.
[In that case, youâd want to grasp the essence of it through a phenomenon. Itâs a great method because you tend to focus on results. Very well, Iâll tell you. Since your curiosity hasnât been aroused, your contribution points were not used.]
[You know, the number of Gods who are interested in you are decreasing. Weâve determined that your core essence is struggle. We know that youâve set an unrealistic, dangerous, and difficult goal for yourself with no intentions of giving in. Thatâs why they abandoned you. ]
Because they think Iâm just a moth that will burn down.
[Your analysis isnât wrong. In fact, you also know that your goal is impossible to achieve, right? Thatâs why you would make it your objective. If it was a goal you can achieve in a few years, you wouldnât have targeted it in the first place because life will become meaningless after it is achieved. This means that life before achieving that goal is also meaningless.]
[The Gods think your goal is as absurd as your idea. The truth is, a mortal man who is fated for death will never accomplish such a task. But the problem isâŚ]
[Youâve been trying to carry out that impossible goal the whole time.]
[I know humans very well. Iâve seen how fragile they are and what theyâve craved for. So I know how many obstacles you have to overcome and the height of the mountains you have to climb in the future.]
[The gods donât value you greatly because there are other Hell Difficulty challengers in other dimensions. Even the God who supports you doesnât think youâll achieve your goals. In my eyes, you are very likely to fail, but I think about you more sincerely. Although the hope is slim, there is still a possibility for you.]
After a long explanation, the God of Hope announces in a low voice.
The next moment, my body is moved from the Temple of Hope to Kirikiriâs field.
Before I could adjust to the sudden light, Kirikiri came running and screaming.
Kirikiri is especially annoying today so I buy her a cake to stop her pestering me and send her away to sort out my thoughts.
Iâm not yet certain of what the God of Hope truly desires.
But I still need to organize the information he gave me.
First, the God of Hope revealed that there are several Gods who are disgusted with the systemâs control and sincerely support me.
From his performance, he hopes I can optimistically accept the Godsâ assistance.
Optimism will be a stumbling block to my future obstacles.
She is eating cake while staring at me.
I canât tell whether the cake is being eaten from the mouth or the nose.
The dialogue with the God of Hope made it clear that the Gods were also restrained by the system.
Kirikiriâs attention is no longer on the cake, she stares at me.
Most of the Gods think that I will one day renounce my goal or finally compromise with reality.
But there are also Gods who continue responding to and support my actions.
As the God of Hope said, they also want to be freed from the systemâs constraints.
They must hope that I can create some variables in their favor.
Kirikiri giggles, then picks up the plate of cake as if nothing had happened.
The next one is information about the Holy Land.
But I donât need to ask Kirikiri about it right now nor is it available or useful at the moment.
I just recall what the God of Hope had mentioned.
Next, I speculate how the Gods read my mind.
First of all, the God of Hope knows about the conversation between the God of Slow and me.
âThatâs because Houjae is not an apostle of a God. As a challenger without any affiliations, your actions can be observed by all the gods in the Hundred God Temples.â
âYes, I know that. I just think itâs a little strange for him to be able to observe what happened in other temples.â
âGods donât observe challengers by viewing the spaces in the tutorial. They observe by sharing challengersâ views and ideas through challengersâ point of view.
There was an error in my speculation.
I thought the Gods watched the challengers with something akin to CCTV, but in reality, their observation method is actually closer to peeping at the challengersâ thoughts through the first-person point of view.
There is one last clue left.
I know Gods can read my mind.
Because they will feel lost, happy, and sometimes angry because of my ideas.
And what they can read is limited to the surface of my deepest thoughts.
But I had misunderstood the extent that they could read.
Through many conversations with Gods, I realize that what they can read is just the surface content of my mind.
The reason for my illusion is Kirikiri.
I always regarded her as the standard for these Gods, which led me astray.
Compared to the Gods, Kirikiri can read my deepest thoughts.
The difference is obvious.
âThis is not a compliment.â
It is not yet known whether she is just a manager or something else.
Anyway, even if I wanted to ask, I canât pay the information fee.
Regardless, I am sure now.
There is no way for these Gods to accurately read the thoughts that I deliberately hide.
I know that the goal I am challenging is an endless abyss.
But Iâm no lunatic who dedicates themselves to meaningless challenges.
I started the challenge in order to achieve my goal.
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