The World after the Fall

Jaehwan looked at his muscles.

‘I feel like I’ve gotten stronger.’

His muscles seemed to be at least 10 times more powerful than he remembered what he was like back in <Chaos>. He knew that such power existed through Mulack’s memory, but seeing it in front of his eyes was a different thing.

‘…It’s as he said. There’s no more Spirit Power,’ Jaehwan thought as he realized the Spirit Power that permeated the air around <Chaos> was no more. The <Depth> was an entirely different place from <Chaos>. Unlike <Chaos> where Spirit Power allowed one to use skills and powers, <Depth> had very limited resources. It was only through the ‘unique world’ that borrowed the world’s power that one was able to use a skill.

That was <Depth>.

Jaehwan looked at his body again. After using [Suspicion], he realized the world power was forming a complicated formula. This power was called [Setting] in <Depth>. It was through [Setting] that the world power was allowed to form.

‘Increased muscle strength… so is this the [Nakedness] something Setting?’

Then, a noisy voice came to him.

[It’s called ‘Naked’!]

Jaehwan remembered it was Andersen’s voice.

[You should get the name right!]

Jaehwan ignored what she said but she continued shouting.

[Listen to me! Are you listening?!]

‘….’

He felt like he was getting a headache. This girl who was hell-bent on accusing him of eating her or something didn’t seem to want to leave his head. But there was another problem.

“God! God!”

Jaehwan had to peel the boy off him by grabbing his head as he kept trying to hang on to him.

“God! Why are you refusing me?!”

“I told you, I’m not your God.”

“You are now!”

Jaehwan was confused.

‘Ugh, what have I been put into now?’

Jaehwan sighed as he glanced at Runald.

Runald was astonished by the new God’s grandeur posture.

‘Big and beautiful!’

Powerful world power was coming from the naked body, and he had the power to wipe out the mid-ranking god’s [Followers] with one strike! As far as he knew, that power was beyond the Andersen’s limit.

The new God said his name was Jaehwan. So Runald decided how to call this new God with the name.

“God Jaehwan!”

“…I said, I’m not a God.”

“Please let me be your [Follower]!”

Jaehwan became frustrated and a voice came from his head.

[Runald… I’m disappointed. He just said he wouldn’t betray me and look at him now!]

“The Goddess will agree on me being your Vicegerent!”

[I will NEVER do that!]

“I’m sure of it! God Jaehwan, you are one with Goddess Andersen now! I can see it since you can use the [Naked] Setting! So it’s not betraying my Goddess to follow you!”

[…Hey, never take him as your [Follower], you hear?]

Jaehwan was frustrated by Runald on the outside and Andersen from the inside.

“Hey you two, cut it out.”

Runald and Andersen became silent as strong world power swept over them. Runald began to hiccup as he was surprised. Jaehwan spoke.

“Let’s start from the basics.”

If the <Great Lands> were owned by Lords, the <Depth> was owned by Gods. The only difference was that Gods were more detailed in their control over their regions.

These regions were called ‘sites’. The size differed from very large ones to those small ones that were usually equaled the size of a small village. There was a total of 8 large sites each with different names. The ones that owned these sites were top-ranking Gods. Medium sites were controlled by high-ranking Gods, and small sites by mid-ranking gods. Low-ranking gods had their own sites, but they were too small to be even considered as sites.

Jaehwan then stopped hearing things and asked, “So, the site is like the land?”

“A land? No! It’s different!”

“Different?”

“…Uh, do you not know much about <Depth>?”

“I heard some, but I don’t know much.”

Jaehwan’s knowledge of <Depth> was from Mulack’s memory, so there were a lot of missing pieces. But he couldn’t explain everything to this boy.

“Sites aren’t just divided up by regions. It’s like a… Divine Region or…”

“Divine Region?”

“Like you said, sites are kind of like land for the Gods. But it becomes something else for the high-ranking Gods. They can materialize their ‘unique worlds’ onto the ‘sites’. The site is like the weapon itself for them.”

Jaehwan then remembered Catastrophe from that description.

‘I see. So <Chaos> was his site.’

It was clear to him that Catastrophe using almighty power within the <Chaos>.

‘But that means there are some who can use power like him in this place.’

Jaehwan’s question was quickly answered by Runald’s explanation.

“However, using world power throughout the entire site is a bit hassle even for high-ranking Gods so they use [Setting] instead. ‘Naked’, the one you used, is one of those Settings.”

‘Burdening? Then I guess there aren’t much that’re like Catastrophe.’

Jaehwan was now re-evaluating this boy who was thinking of him as a king.

‘He’s useful.’

At first, he thought the kid was a coward, but he was very knowledgeable and knew how to talk. He used the right words to explain <Depth> to Jaehwan, who didn’t know much about it. Jaehwan still couldn’t decide if he should take Runald with him. He had experience of getting into trouble for making a company in <Chaos>.

‘I don’t want to make things more complicated.’

As his thoughts grew complicated, Runald stopped and asked, “Uh, God Jaehwan?”

“Take out the God part.”

“Uh… Mister Jaehwan?”

“What.”

“Is… Goddess Andersen okay?”

As Jaehwan looked at his eyes, he felt a weird sensation grabbing him. He realized that this boy wasn’t just a cowardly innocent boy.

“You hear her voice, right?”

“Yeah.”

“T-then…”

“What.”

“…You’re not going to kill her or anything like that, right?”

Jaehwan then realized his guess was correct. This boy had been saying that he decided to serve him, but all he did was actually for his goddess, Andersen.

Runald was afraid of losing his Goddess, but Jaehwan knew the outcome. This boy would lose her.

[…You will kill me, right?]

Andersen spoke. Jaehwan tried to reply, but he decided not to. Besides, Andersen knew what Jaehwan was thinking even if Jaehwan didn’t say anything.

[Yeah, I expected as much. I felt it when I came into you. To think you were the infamous ‘Generalslayer’…]

Jaehwan now shared part of his memory with Andersen. Andersen saw Jaehwan’s memory and so did he. That was how he found out some things. And few of them were some things that he couldn’t let go.

Thousands, or maybe tens of thousands of years of memories. Through that, Jaehwan had read part of it clearly.

‘You were a Cultivator.’