The World after the Fall

[I-I’m sorry. I forgot my official God authentication expired.]

Andersen quickly said to Jaehwan.

Exactly 30 minutes ago, Jaehwan was forbidden from entering the auction house by the employees.

-I’m sorry, but you will need valid God authentication to enter the auction house.

Jaehwan learned that there was such a thing called official God authentication and a God without it was not allowed to enter public facilities such as the auction house.

The bigger problem was that it would take a month for the authentication to be renewed.

-The law was amended a while ago, so if you can prove that you have 5 or more Followers, we will issue a temporary authentication for you to use.

At least 5 Followers. That was the least number of Followers needed to prove that the God’s ‘world’ was safe to <Depth>.

[Ugh, these top-ranking Gods and their nonsense…]

“Shut up.”

[Sorry.]

So now, Jaehwan, Andersen, and Runald were looking for Followers outside the auction house.

Buttnaked, with a few parts dangling helplessly.

What was relieving was that Runald was actually rather excited. It seemed that he was excited at the thought of getting a new Follower.

-Accepting Followers! We welcome everyone! Partial payment for the penalty given, [Settings] will be at 200% for newcomers!

As Jaehwan looked at Runald holding up a hologram panel with the above written on it, and he was a bit impressed.

‘He’s good.’

“Hey! Lady! Please check our unique world!”

“OH! Mister, mister! Can you please check our Settings? It’s one of a kind! I promise!”

However, even with Runald’s overly enthusiastic recruitment efforts, there weren’t any Followers volunteers. It was obvious why, but it was still disappointing to have no one even take an interest.

“Is it usually this hard to collect Followers?”

“Uh… we used to have some who would have some interest at least… why isn’t there anyone now?” Runald asked as he looked down at Jaehwan and himself.

“…Is it because we’re naked?”

“Probably.”

[What?! NO WAY! My Settings are perfect! I think you’ll be popular among girls.]

It was then that a man approached them.

“Oh, is it a new unique world?”

It was their first customer. He didn’t look special, and he was obviously a Follower of a not particularly strong God. He did look a little suspicious, but he was still a potential customer. Runald quickly ran up to him and brought him to Jaehwan.

“Right! It’s a new world! If you join us as a Follower, you will be high-ranking and various…”

“Hmm. But why is this Vicegerent naked? Is he…”

“That’s not important! We have a cool world! You’ll be impressed when you see it!”

“Really? What is it? Oh, and what [Settings] do you have?”

“Uh… hm. That’s…”

Runald became silent. How should he explain the world? What about the [Setting]? As he looked up to the sky, Runald’s face became pale. He then turned to Jaehwan.

Jaehwan answered first.

“It’s better he sees it for himself.”

And after a moment, the man who was eager to see a new world became terrified. As he pointed toward the sky with trembling hands, his eyes rolled backward and he fell.

“H-hiiiiiiik!”

As Runald explained it, he was so impressed that he passed out.

A few more spirits went by like that.

Their reactions all differed as they witnessed Jaehwan’s world. However, they mostly involved passing out for a brief moment, and then leaving while cursing.

[You know, we’ll never gain any Followers at this rate.]

Andersen mumbled in despair.

[Followers living in the <Depth> have a hard life. They live paycheck to paycheck and your world is too dark and gloomy. Do you think they will want to see that when their own life is already as hard as it is?]

“…”

[How about you change it to something brighter? I can let you borrow my world.]

‘What is your world?’

[It’s called ‘Naked World’. It’s a wonderful place where all Followers are naked. The only downside is that some perverts join just to get a peek but still…]

‘…Didn’t you say your world is like a fairytale?’

[Yeah! But an R-rated type.]

Jaehwan turned to Runald, who was still working hard on recruitment.

‘So, was he an adult?’

He remembered Runald jabbering about Andersen’s fairytale-like world savaging him and all.

[You really don’t want to? I’m not forcing you, but we’ll never gain a Follower in this rate…]

“I’m not changing it.”

[…Are you sure?]

“I’ll wait for a bit and if it doesn’t work, I’m breaking in.”

It was a casual but determined tone. Andersen felt as if she wanted to go meet Minerva, the Goddess of Fortune, for help.

[I-isn’t it better to just put some flowers and trees, so it will look beautiful? If we spice it up, there will be a lot of Followers…]

It was then two women walked towards the auction house. They were beautiful girls, with lavish-looking equipment. Andersen spoke grumpily.

[Give up. I can see that they are Followers of high-ranking God.]

But Runald had already went after them. The girls cackled at Runald and spoke.

“Hehe, you’re cute. Are you asking us to transfer our world?”

“Yeah! It’s really amazing! You’ll faint if you see it!”

“Really? I guess taking a look won’t hurt.”

They followed Runald towards Jaehwan. It was the blonde girl who spoke first.

“Oh, you dressed quite… extraordinarily. Like- nothing. Are you a Vicegerent?”

“Right.”

“Can you show me your world, then?”

She smiled as she checked out Jaehwan’s entire body. The short-haired girl standing next to the blonde girl also looked him over thoroughly, and stayed at bottom portion of his body as she spoke.

“That’s disappointing.”

Jaehwan had lived for two thousand years. He didn’t mind sexual harassment, so he didn’t hide his body. He spoke as he stood confidently.

“You can’t just take a look for fun. If you are not interested in joining us, then I won’t show you.”

Andersen had to ask herself if Jaehwan was sane and the blonde girl seemed to be surprised.

“I don’t want to waste my time on someone who’s not interested in joining.”

“Oh, so you knew. Haha.”

The blonde girl grinned, “I can see that you’re a Vicegerent of a low-ranking God. Aren’t you a bit arrogant?’

“…”

“How great of a [Setting] makes you so arrogant?”

Jaehwan could see that the blonde girl was looking down on him. The short-haired girl interrupted, “Hey, aren’t you a bit rude?”

“No I’m not. It’s him who’s being rude if he wants us to buy a product without letting us see it first.”

With that, Andersen, who had been keeping silent, raged.

[A PRODUCT?! Does that girl think that a world is just created like a factory doll or something?!]

Andersen, who had been secretly planting flowers in the world, pulled the flowers out and shouted.

[I CAN’T STAND IT ANYMORE! Hey, show that girl your world. Make her faint.]

It was the first time Andersen had the same opinion as Jaehwan. Jaehwan nodded.

“I’ll show you if you want it so badly.”

And then his world was unleashed. It was even more tainted and distorted than usual. With the sounds of crows and dead bodies mindlessly walking up, the short-haired girl screamed in terror as she looked up to the sky and saw the giant, bloodshot eye.

“KYAAAAAA!”

And with that- she fell to the ground, unconscious. The blonde girl also seemed shocked as she looked up to the sky. However, she did not faint and spoke.

“Hey! Why are you showing such thing to a girl!”

“Didn’t you want to see it?”

“I didn’t ask you to show me this hideous thing!”

Runald then shouted from behind, “Hideous thing?! Apologize!”

“Shut up, kid! You dare to sell this hideous thing and…”

The blonde girl then pulled out a weapon from her waist. It was sharp rapier, pointed at Jaehwan. There was an engraving of a green leaf, a symbol of Goddess Artemis, on the weapon.

“Get it back into you! It feels like I’m going crazy!”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then I’ll make you!”

The world power of Artemis began to concentrate around the blonde girl. It was Artemis’s [One Fatal Strike] Setting that shone brightly from her rapier. Andersen, who didn’t think that a fight would break out, panicked.

[Wait- are you going to fight?!]

They were against the Followers of a high-ranking God.

She wasn’t a Vicegerent, but just by serving a high-ranking God was enough to make her a formidable enemy.

[No! We can’t win just with the [Naked] Setting! Our [Setting] is weak against hers!]

[Settings] between Gods of <Depth> had a power balance that worked like ‘rock, paper, and scissors’. Law Settings were strong against Strength Settings, and Strength Settings were strong against Kinetic Settings, and Kinetic Settings were strong against Law Settings. Andersen’s [Naked] Setting was a Law Setting.

However, even if [Naked] was a Strength type, this fight had to be avoided. High-ranking Gods usually had more than five thousand Followers.

The difference in world power between high and low-ranking Gods was large enough to trump the power balance of [Setting] types. Just as a pair of scissors made out of diamond would cut a rock made out of dirt.

And that’s when Jaehwan took out something from his unique world. Andersen flinched.

It wasn’t the power of [Naked].

Andersen then realized that she never asked what kind of [Settings] Jaehwan had. He was a God after all. He must have had his own [Settings] in place.

And in the next moment, Andersen screamed in panic as she witnessed Jaehwan hold up a sword burning with dark flames.

[W-what is that sword?!]

It was the first power Jaehwan acquired after he opened up ‘Creation’. It was the dark sword that contained everything Jaehwan had.

[Fall]

The sword that could destroy the world was now revealed in <Depth>.