Chapter 12

Discussion (2)

In short, my ranking itself was not actually perfectly flawless.

It was simply an inference that, based on the descriptions in the novel and the facts confirmed through them, this was how things would be.

I had a certain amount of confidence that it was the closest thing to the truth.

└Oz) So the ranking itself can be an inference, but the evidence can't be based on inference, I'm telling you?

Therefore, there was nothing more I needed to add against the argument of, 'Aren't you just predicting too?'

└Oz) You're seriously saying "Have they actually fought?" You and the Chief God haven't fought under Yacha Rules either, so does that mean we don't know who's stronger?

└Oz) Your premise is wrong from the start. You're insisting that, as evidence for an inference, "Anyway, there must be something more," right? By that logic, Nahalum could've hidden a hyper-scientific civilization's galaxy-destroying weapon inside her womb and then pull it out and fire it.

└Cluster of Light) Where did she put what, crazy hahahahahaha

└Philosopher) A weapon that annihilates life hidden in the space where life is born... How philosophical.

└EatsWheneverBored)? What the hell is this guy saying now

With that, every claim questioning whether the contents and evidence I presented might be wrong sank without a trace.

The same had been true of the tier lists I'd posted on the Lower Realm community before.

The reason they hadn't been trusted at first, but later came to wield this much influence.

Was because the people actually involved in the tier lists could verify what I said.

-Outside the Boundary) I think almost everything Sister Oz wrote is right? There are a few things even I don't know, though.

└Oz) Thanks for verifying it, but why am I your sister?

└Outside the Boundary) Wow, don't tell me you're about to say you might be younger than me? That's a little shameless...

And sure enough, one of the people involved immediately appeared and verified it again this time.

"But what the hell is she fixated on?"

Still, I couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded by that incomprehensible remark.

Apparently, she'd made some sort of inference about my identity, and had very confidently gone barking up the wrong tree.

Her true body was probably Epin of the Void.

Just as her epithet, [The One Who Knocks on the Door], suggested, she possessed the ability to reach every 'entrance' that existed in the world.

Of course, she had various other distinctive traits as well, but if I had to pick out the biggest one, that was it.

Rare among those from the Void, her true body wasn't an anomaly.

In the original story, I remembered her being portrayed as quite the brains, but she was saying some strangely loose-screwed things.

Maybe she'd spent too much time hanging around that snake bastard.

└Oz) Don't hang around Snakehead too much. Stupidity is contagious.

And so, I had no choice but to offer this one piece of advice.

She was a being who had lived tens of millions of times longer than my own life, but I was someone who had gone through this world forty-two times.

You become stained by what surrounds you. I couldn't just stand by and let a perfectly good transcendent get ruined.

____________

-Oz) So I'm telling you, because of Siel's compatibility, if the opponent's true body is physically powerful like Heukjong or Nirvakh, she can't one-shot them. Like I said earlier, if she can't one-shot them, she gets neutralized first, right? If a vegetable fights a half-cripple, the latter wins. They can drag their legs over, crawl up, and stab the other one with a knife, and then they die. Okay?

└Bangak) Impressive. I agree.

└Old Newbie) Oz's analogies really are something hahahahaha

└Great God of Spiders) I acknowledge it. Siel is indeed fourth place.

└Oz) Okay, since you admitted it cleanly, we'll stop here.

"Auuuuugh-"

After defeating that final counterargument, I gave a proper stretch and got to my feet.

My body still wasn't back to normal... but at least I'd recovered enough to move around.

"Has it been five days? Ha."

By the time I came to my senses, I'd somehow spent five entire days messing around on the gallery.

I'd probably have to get used to this going forward, but it genuinely felt like my sense of time was breaking.

Talking with beings who lived a day as though it were a single second made everything feel surreal.

[ 496,109P ]

But the return was undeniable.

I couldn't help but feel pleased as I looked at my points, which had already climbed to nearly five hundred thousand.

"Hm, I'm the best-est."

One transcendent had kept talking in that "-est, -est" style while I was browsing the gallery, and I'd picked up a bit of the habit.

Guuuuung-

I checked the mana inside my body once more.

I was no longer at Four-and-a-Half Stars, but truly close to Five-Star.

It was still unstable, but it should stabilize within a few days.

"Once I enter the Demonic Path, I'll be able to learn the other things too."

Nine-Star.

The end point of conceptual magic that comes after system magic.

Once I reached it and then entered the Demonic Path, I would genuinely be counted among the powerhouses of the Lower Realm.

To begin with, even this planet itself, modeled after Earth, was quite a backwater within its dimension and galaxy.

If I grew just a little more, I'd probably be able to roam freely across this planet without restraint.

"...I should bring him in, right?"

My goal before leaving this planet was to take the protagonist for myself.

That didn't mean devouring him like some kind of void anomaly.

I meant that because the kid's nature itself was gentle and honest, and his talent was like an uncut gem, I needed to make him one of my people.

He was already a protagonist who grew at an unprecedented speed even in this world.

If my support were added on top of that, he should be able to grow into an overwhelmingly powerful being.

Unlike me, who would have difficulty aiming beyond the level of a middling transcendent even while making use of the gallery.

If I can't become the strongest, then I should at least aim to become the strongest one's foster father.

That would probably turn my life into a comfortable eternity.

"Hup. Uuugh-"

I energetically stepped down from the bed, only for a tingling sensation to shoot through my lower back.

"Fuck."

Only after cursing once was I barely able to move properly.

Right afterward, I used telekinesis to clean up the mess scattered all over the floor.

Of course, delicate control of mana was impossible, so─ I basically just stuffed everything into a sack.

None of it was particularly important anyway, so it didn't matter.

After finishing that round of preparations.

I picked up a ring from the bedside table.

"...This is a little awkward."

The reason this jade ring had suddenly appeared was, once again, related to the gallery.

More precisely, it was because of the nonsense spread through the gallery by 'Nonexistent.'

After I started being called positive-cute-sunshine-sexy... whatever it was.

Anyway, after I ended up saddled with that absurdly long title that was hard even to remember.

An enormous number of DMs really did start flooding in.

Was it possible for beings as exalted as transcendents to be woman-crazy?

...To that question, I could answer, 'Of course it is.'

'There just aren't many female forms to begin with.'

Fundamentally, even by Lower Realm standards, the gender ratio among ability users was somewhat wrecked.

Below Forbidden Realm, below Demonic Path Mage, below Natural Realm... around that line, it was roughly three to one.

The higher the realm climbed, the more the proportion of female forms gradually disappeared, and by the point of transcendence, it was ten to one.

And among officially listed High-Ranking Gods... sadly, it was sixty to one.

There were almost no transcendents who had a 'companion' truly on the same level as themselves.

Of course, there were transcendents who formed bonds with companions who weren't on their level.

But even such cases were rare, and if I quoted something a fairly gentlemanly transcendent had said in the original story, the reality became clear.

─Do you happen to remember when you were young, back before you entered the path?

─Yes, I do remember.

─When you looked at ants or little insects you played with as a child, what did you think?

─...I don't think I thought much of anything.

─Exactly. What else would you think while looking at them? That's how it feels for us as well, when we look at those who have not ascended to the Greater Heaven World. How could one share the affection of husband and wife with mere lesser creatures?

Setting aside the fact that the protagonist had made an extremely disgusted expression after hearing that answer.

With reality being like this, the reaction toward female-form transcendents above a certain level could only be like this.

And one post drove the final nail in.

[ Oz is currently unmarried ] - OnlyReverseFlow

...One crazy woman burned seventy million years' worth of karma just to find out my marital status.

Of course, she herself probably thought it had cost that many resources because I was some incredible transcendent being, but the truth was the exact opposite.

Because I was on a low-civilization planet in the Lower Realm that received the greatest correction from causality, it had taken that much effort just to obtain such a simple answer.

Apparently, she couldn't uncover any truth greater than that.

It seemed she'd been bedridden from the aftereffects of that divination, but in exchange she was elevated to the position of the gallery's third hero.

That status was still ongoing, so you could say she currently held the record for the longest reign.

"...Ahem."

So what did all that have to do with this ring?

[ Oz, I know that this kind of message from me may be burdensome to you, but... ]

There was a DM sent by one transcendent.

Someone famous enough that even I knew of him very well.

The contents began with an extremely cautious preface, but to summarize them, it was simply a love letter.

So at first, I planned to ignore it.

He was a little too important to outright block.

If I simply left most DMs unread across the board, he'd probably just assume that I didn't check DMs at all.

[...Separate from that, this is a gift from me. It possesses little spirituality, but its appearance is exceedingly beautiful. ]

[ Go directly to private Marketplace listing ]

But then there was the sentence written at the end.

And the Marketplace link that appeared afterward.

"Well, I mean. It's not like I can refuse something someone's giving me."

I squeezed my eyes shut and accepted the ring that was displaying its existence there.

It was an item that had appeared several times in the original story as well.

An extremely useful thing that could be used even by Lower Realm standards without any risk.

"..."

Of course, that didn't mean I wasn't ashamed of myself for immediately surrendering to greed.

It pricked my conscience even more when I remembered that the ring's original owner had been something like that transcendent's grandniece.

I felt like one of those guys who pretended to be a girl online and sweet-talked innocent boys in old RPG games.

But what could I do?

Embarrassment only lasts for a moment, while practical benefits can be enjoyed for a long time.

I decided not to go out of my way to deny that I was positive-cute... whatever it was.