The Awakened One, Lee Shin (3)
Eve clasped her hands tightly and said that before he left, she had wished he would at least say something. She had thought he had suddenly disappeared, just like the dwarves' god in the past. She'd been so worried that she simply couldn't stop crying.
It was the first time anyone had ever waited for him so desperately, and Lee Shin found himself a little flustered. Seeing her eyes swollen and red from crying made him feel inexplicably guilty as well.
So Lee Shin started by taking out the gift he had prepared.
"You have used [World Interference]."
Judging from the status window, Eve hadn't had anything to eat for a long time. He'd let her drink her fill of water last time, but no one could live on water alone. If she was a person, she needed food.
"…Is she even human?"
Thinking that way made him hesitate for a moment. When dogs or cats ate human food, their health often took a turn for the worse. Surely that wouldn't happen here, right?
TIP: Dwarves are 99.9% human!TIP: Please treat your believers as humans!TIP: (0'-'0)
Thud!With a heavy sound, the contents of the lunchbox spilled out.
"Huh…?"
Standing there blankly, Eve looked at what had fallen from the sky. A dark cylindrical bundle—inside it, white grains were densely packed together.
At first, Eve eyed it warily, wondering if it might be a monster. Without realizing it, she sniffed the air.
It smelled like rice.The scent of food she had longed for so desperately.
"W–wow… wow… waaah!"
As if she had never been cautious at all, Eve dashed over in a flash, her starry pupils sparkling. It was gimbap—made by Lee Shin himself.
Drool practically pouring from her mouth, Eve almost tried to stuff the entire roll into her mouth at once, but with superhuman willpower, she stopped herself.
"G–God… O God. May I… may I eat it?"
He'd brought it for her to eat, of course she could.For someone who cooked with care, the greatest reward was seeing the food eaten happily, without leftovers.
Of course, if she ate everything without restraint, her stomach might burst, so he added that she should just enjoy it.
"Th–thank you for giving me my daily bread!"
After offering a vigorous prayer before the meal, Eve immediately began stuffing her mouth with seaweed, rice, pickled radish, and ham, chomping away enthusiastically. As she felt the warmth spreading through her mouth and into her belly, Eve suddenly burst into tears without realizing it.
Now that her hunger was satisfied, all the sorrow she had endured until now came rushing back at once. At the work site, she had always been fed nothing but mud cookies.
"Hic… h-hic… no matter what happens, this Eve will live up to the expectations you have for me, O God… hic… sob..."
Sobbing, Eve kept forcing down the gimbap. Watching her eat the tear-soaked rolls, Lee Shin tossed her a banana milk and another bottle of water.
Each time, Eve would scatter grains of rice everywhere as she prayed at the top of her lungs. She only stopped after Lee Shin told her she didn't have to pray while eating.
"O God, O God! I have a question!"
Eve's star-shaped pupils sparkled brightly.
"What is this supreme food? The slightly salty black thing, the warm rice grains, and the filling that appears when you part the rice! Everything is so delicious and perfectly harmonized! If you permit it, this lowly Eve wishes to know the name of the food you have allowed me to partake in! Is it nectar? Ambrosia?!"
What were nectar and ambrosia, anyway? They sounded like hangover cures. Lee Shin answered honestly.
"Ah… that's called gimbap..."
"G–gimbap! By consuming this heavenly food, gimbap, this lowly Eve has cast off her mortality and taken one step closer to the side of the divine!!"
Eating gimbap, munching on cherry tomatoes as big as her torso—it was a delightful picnic. Of course, there was no need for a picnic mat. If they tried to picnic under the blazing sun of the wasteland, Eve would literally cook and turn into roasted Eve.
"The place I'm heading to now—nom nom—is somewhere with lots of believers—nom nom—called the Silver Mountain Range."
According to Eve, many of her people were gathered in the Silver Mountain Range. Those who had escaped from the work sites, or who had hidden themselves to avoid being captured, had built a city there.
Its name was the Red City, Jephet.
"Originally, dwarves didn't live in plains like this. We all lived in the mountains. We were born in the mountains, and we're a race blessed by the mountains."
Mountain dwarves—Lee Shin had heard of such a race in fantasy stories before.
"They used to call us dwarves."
Eve was a dwarf.
"They say that in the past, even women had thick beards, and our bodies were larger than they are now. But after fighting for a long time to stop the rifts, we gradually changed into what we are today."
Still munching on cherry tomatoes, Eve continued her explanation.
"God, O God. When we arrive at Jephet, I will rebuild the fallen order. Not the order of the one who abandoned us, but the order of a new one—the one who loves us more than anyone else and will never abandon us, the most merciful being in all the universe!"
A religion…
If so, believers would surely increase quickly. Eve wore an expression filled with resolve, but contrary to her dignified gaze, her cheeks were puffed out with cherry tomatoes. No matter what she did, Eve just didn't look very imposing.
"But from here on, we need to move carefully."
She said that while striding forward with a face that showed absolutely no caution.
"That's because..."
At that moment—
"An unbeliever has appeared."
Vroooom!
From far away came the roar of a motorcycle engine.
Unbeliever?
As Eve's face drained pale, a status window unfurled before them.
"Unbelievers refer to impure beings who do not believe in you, the one and only god of this world and the greatest creator."
"To deny you within a world you own is the gravest of sins."
"Unbelievers are dangerous entities."
The engine noise drew closer. Eve swallowed the tomato she had been chewing and began trembling all over.
"Unbelievers do not offer glory to you. They do not pray to you, nor do they give you praise, caring only about satisfying their own selfish desires."
To be honest, Lee Shin didn't particularly want glory or prayers. More than anything, he had no desire to receive endless prayers—he already heard plenty of those, both here and back in reality.
TIP: A great god embraces even unbelievers and turns them into believers.
TIP: However, unbelievers threaten your believers.
Threaten—just as the word implied, Eve was trembling violently, staring only at Lee Shin.
Like a rabbit facing a lion.
"O God, O God… I am afraid, yet I will never flee. When I did not know you were with me, I ran away like a wandering lamb. But now that I am with you, nothing frightens me. So please grant me the strength to overcome this trial..."
Though she tried to appear brave, Eve was clearly terrified.
Soon, beyond the hazy cloud of sand, the source of the engine noise appeared—
a group of biker thugs riding motorcycles.
TIP: The small but lethal world was once the world of dwarves, renowned even among the worlds of the stars for their advanced technology. Unbelievers and interdimensional invaders are armed with powerful tools crafted by the dwarves themselves.
In that instant—
Smack!
With a sharp sound, a motorcycle charged past at lightning speed and struck Eve head-on.
A hit-and-run.
Eve's body lifted helplessly into the air, spinning several times before slamming violently into the wasteland.
"You have been attacked! Your believer is under assault!"
"Ugh… ughhh…"
Eve lay sprawled on the ground, letting out a pained groan. With a deafening roar of engines, the biker gang surrounded her.
"Damn, she ran pretty far. That tiny bitch!"
The man who looked like the leader of the biker gang took off his helmet, revealing a vicious-looking face. The moment their eyes met, Eve's complexion turned deathly pale.
"You really screwed up the whole worksite because of you. Seriously—just because of one tiny runt like you, the higher-ups have been breathing down our necks nonstop!"
The man pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Fitting his small stature, the cigarette itself was small as well.
"Don't think you're going to die easily. Got it?"
"Boss, mind if we have a little fun before we take her back?"
"Do whatever you want! Just don't kill her! That bitch is going to be executed as an example in front of all the slaves. Slowly—painfully."
At his words, the other bikers snickered. Even as she lay sprawled on the ground, Eve glared at them with eyes brimming with moisture, as if she wanted to kill them.
"What are you staring at? Don't look—makes me feel weird!"
Unlike Eve, these were creatures who inspired no affection whatsoever.
What should he do in this situation?
Pour water down on them? Drop the lunchbox lid from the sky?
TIP: Try using the [Action] tab under [World Interference].
The status window provided the answer.
"Damn, she's still got some color in her. Thought we'd shaken her off for good."
Smack!
The men laughed as they kicked Eve's head where she lay on the ground.
They were the managers of Worksite No. 99—
the very place where Eve had been enslaved.
"Scum not even worth as much as people!"
Eve snarled the words through clenched teeth.
The managers of Worksite No. 99.
They weren't interdimensional invaders. They were dwarves themselves—traitors who had betrayed their own kind, sided with the invaders, and taken up managerial positions. Betrayers who sold out their kin in exchange for power, hunting down fellow dwarves who tried to escape slavery.
"Creatures worse than animals! Traitors!"
"Pwahaha—what's she yapping about?"
"Calling it betrayal is wrong—it's called being smart! Going up against that terrifying legion to the bitter end, talking about fighting back and gaining independence—does that even make sense? You should keep your head down and at least scrape up some leftovers!"
No matter how much Eve shouted, they only laughed at her.
"It works out great for us! Thanks to idiots like you, we've secured ourselves cushy positions!"
Overcome with bitterness and resentment, Eve shed tears like falling beads. Biting her lip tightly, she muttered,
"God won't let you get away with this."
"God? Don't make me laugh. There's no such thing as a god in this world."
"Shut up! Blasphemy!"
"Look at her having a fit—pwahahaha!"
"How dare you! How dare you speak of God like that!"
"What god? Some cripple? Some idiot?"
"You…!"
When even her god was insulted, the sorrow Eve had been holding back finally exploded. She spat out the words,
"You… will be struck down by divine punishment."
At the mention of divine punishment, they all burst out laughing.
"Yeah? Everyone who's said crap like that has alrea—"
At that moment—
"Huh?"
Crunch!
The man who had been sneering nonstop was suddenly crushed flat, as if an invisible boulder had slammed down on him.
"Wha…?"
On the sand lay the mangled, flattened shape of flesh—like a bug that had been stepped on. For a brief moment, the men's thoughts froze. What had just happened?
Then—
"Little sinners."
A voice that shook heaven and earth boomed across the wasteland. They felt as though lightning had struck directly above their heads.
"Your sins are known to you."
Under the deafening roar that felt as if it would tear their eardrums apart, they realized who the owner of that voice was. There was no need for speculation—they knew instinctively.
A god.
The greatest being was gazing upon this place.
The men looked up at the sky and froze where they stood. The moment they perceived His presence, any thought of resistance or escape vanished cleanly away.
Without anger, without resentment, without fear, they felt only awe before this judgment. Even as death drew near, they felt an intoxicating ecstasy well up from the depths of their souls, simply from being able to glimpse—even for a moment—the existence of that great being...
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
Thus, divine punishment descended.
[The faith of low-rank believer [Eve] has increased.]
[Faith value is extremely high.]
"You have judged 3 unbelievers."
"You have exerted influence."
"Interference power has increased by 15."
[Current interference power: 115]