Chapter 27: The True Beginning
The goddess suddenly felt a headache. That's when she realized something bad: since Zero wasn't a God, her descension would be punished by the laws of the universe!
She wouldn't bother coming down here at all if she knew it would end this anti-climatic anyway!
She looked at the man in front of her with confusion, she still hadn't processed all that happened in such a short amount of time.
And more shocking was the fact that the dog she killed was alive! And it turns out to be that man's pet. Did it learn to destroy her statues from him?
She was irritated and furious, why does this puny human create so much trouble for her?
Although puny wasn't the right word. He was stronger than her in certain aspects... like understanding of celestial bodies. This guy had great potential, he might even become a true god!
It's the first time the goddess encountered a human so interesting yet so irritating at the same time. She had to retreat now. There is no way she can win against him while facing the punishment of the universe.
Zero entered his battle stance. The newly acquired system was whispering something into his mind but he completely ignored it. He was facing off against the goddess, the real one this time.
He couldn't let his guard down at all! He raised his scythe and lunged at her. The goddess saw his move and teleported a couple of hundred meters away from him.
At that moment Zero understood that he couldn't be certain of victory, or hope for it. If the goddess were to teleport behind him she could probably kill him in one strike.
The goddess spoke up, "Very interesting human you are! Are you one of the heroes I summoned? I didn't see anyone particularly strong at that time."
She decided to find out anything she could before the punishment fell on her. The reason she summoned otherworlders, is that they are not affected by her power. They can become much stronger than the people from her world. The people that reside in this world are bound to her power. When they formed the alliance they made these rules.
A human should not grow powerful enough to oppose them and disturb their perfect peace. After all, the world would crumble if they tore it apart any more than they already did.
She saw a future where all the divided worlds were on fire, crumbling piece by piece. She wanted to avoid that future. Much work was put into this world, to rip it apart and divide it amongst themselves.
If it would be destroyed just like that, then all her work would be pointless! Suddenly the headache became way worse... "Already? It didn't even give me any time to finish my business!"
She felt her very soul burning. She had to get out of here, quickly! If the punishment was too strong, she might faint here right in front of the enemy.
She ripped open a portal and went into it. "See you again, mortal. Next time you won't be so lucky!"
Zero sighed with relief. It was great that the goddess decided to let go.
He didn't know at that time, she left only because of the punishment.
He threw a glance at Coal. He was fine, even better than before. This was surprising but also good.
Suddenly a screen popped up before Zeros face. It was a black merely translucent window. Is this the Universe System that he got?
Suddenly a voice spoke up, clear and cold.
"Host completely assimilated with the System."
"Processing... Complete."
The voice of this system was identical to the voice that granted it to him. Voice of the Universe..? That's what the goddess called it right?
"Universe System initialized."
Host: Zero
Level: 1 (Mortal Realm)
Celestial Art: None
Combat Strenght: 12
Pets: Coal (Midnight Wolf) - Lv. 1 (Mortal Realm)
Equipment: Devourer [SSR], Protection of Earth [Rare]
Celestial Map: [Currently no celestial objects owned]
Stardust: 0
Perks: Inventory [E], Fire Immunity
He looked at the screen... where did his level go? And where did the dog's level go? The system just reset his level!
This system was definitely more advanced than the status screen, but it reset all his progress! Ugh... Zero was speechless. Not only was this system not a thing in the game, but also it just made him a weakling. How would he level up more if he already cleared the first four layers of the cave?
He tapped a button that was on the screen, [Shop].
There were 5 categories.
Shop
[Perks] [Items] [Celestial Arts] [Multipliers] [Celestial Bodies Creation Arts]
The one that piqued his interest the most was the [Multipliers] category.
3 Cards fell into his sight. All three of them were 2x Multipliers, but they multiplied different things. 2x EXP and 2x Mastery both cost 2000 SD, and the ten times more expensive one was 2x Stardust with 20000 SD.
Coal was looking at Zero confused. He didn't understand why he was staring into space this intently.
A faint smile crept up on Zero's face. The smile held an eerie quality as if it were a quiet acknowledgment of the power that lay before him, waiting to be unleashed. At first, he didn't understand what the system was... but after inspecting it for a bit, it was one of those fancy Cheat Systems wasn't it??
He thought the game couldn't become any more interesting, but it did. He wanted to buy the EXP modifier but he had no Stardust.
He was wondering how to gain it... he wouldn't need to condense another star, would he?
His scythe was drained of all power. In the original game, to complete the Sun Creation quest, one had to acquire all the elements and sacrifice a thousand lives. But with divine power that wasn't necessary.
He didn't understand exactly why that was the case, but it was.
He glanced at his scythe and a system windows popped up.