The Nebula’s Civilization

Aldin stood momentarily stunned.

"What is, what..."

"Didn't you hear? I said I wouldn’t end the game."

Sung-Woon shrugged and then dramatically lifted his head, adopting an uninterested attitude.

"I'm already a god, so I'll stay here in Avartin, join the other gods in the Pantheon, govern the Empire, and remain here forever."

"Forever...?"

"Seems alright to me. About the real reward, you know..."

"The true god..."

"Yes, a true god. But I'm not sure if that's really a goal worth pursuing. Honestly, I don't even know what that means."

"Once I become one, huh."

Aldin slightly shook their head. "Do you really think you've become a god? No. Until now, you've just been playing a game. Of course, you can say it was very close to reality. Yes, honestly, Avartin is not an illusion. It exists here. But that doesn't mean you're the true owner of Avartin and the rightful ruler of everyone."

"...Still, I am already the supreme god of Avartin, and no one can deny that. No one."

Sung-Woon slightly lowered his head and looked at Aldin.

"Even if it's an old god."

Aldin let out an awkward smile. The word ‘old god’ clearly got a reaction out of them, but Aldin didn't show it. Sung-Woon noticed all of this.

"What's bothering you? Haven't you won?"

"The opposite. I'm pleased because I have won."

"...Oh, is that it?" Aldin said as if suggesting, "Are you worried about the other players?"

Sung-Woon didn't lie. "What happens to the other players?"

"...There's no need to worry." Aldin hesitated for a moment. "What do you hope will happen?"

Sung-Woon sharply caught the implication in Aldin's words. "You haven't thought about it."

"...I am currently the decision-maker of this system. I can do as you wish."

Sung-Woon's attitude remained unchanged. "Now you're making an offer."

"Do you dislike it?"

"It's not about my likes or dislikes. The issue is why you are making the offer."

"For you..."

Sung-Woon interrupted, "No, I think it's like this: if I don't end the game myself, it can't be ended."

Aldin shook their head. "I am the owner of the system. If I want to end it, I can do it right away. I'm just giving you an opportunity. You deserve it."

"Then try to end it."

Nothing happened for a moment. Aldin, in silence, continued to look at Sung-Woon.

Aldin said, "Why are you doing this? I can do anything. If you keep resisting, I can just invalidate your victory and choose someone else. I'm only tolerating this for you, because you are the rightful winner of the game."

"Is this a threat now?"

Sung-Woon rested his chin on his hand. "I'm not trying to trouble you."

"You better not."

Sungw-Woon said, "Did you know about the second moon?"

"...Are you trying to say the game was unfair?"

"Are you going to deny that fact?"

"No."

Aldin waved their hand dismissively. "Were you angry?"

"A little."

"Alright. I admit it. The game was unfair. I didn't foresee that those clever, rat-like enemies from the past would interfere with your game. I apologize for that part."

Sung-Woon pointed out further, "The fourth continent too."

"Oh, yes. Those damned Dragons." Aldin clenched their fists slightly. "Those pretentious bastards, yes. They disrupted the game. They are also my enemies. The Dragons manipulated the base data of what you call the The Lost World. They intended to disrupt the real fight, the second war—well, anyway, the game you played this time. I had no idea. I apologize for that too."

Sung-Woon remembered the Dragons. He recalled the Dragons that had been cursed, determined to prevent any further changes. The Dragons weren’t resisting civilization. They were worried about the future that would come about once civilization grew.

'Fundamentally, they had a similar goal to the evil gods. Only, the evil gods intended to win, while the Dragons wanted to disrupt the game.'

Sung-Woon thought that if the two had collaborated properly, they would have achieved better results. But they did not. The victors were the new gods, the players.

Aldin said, "It seems like the explanation is done, what do you think?"

"I already knew all that, so there was no need to ask for an explanation."

"What about my apology?"

Sung-Woon, wondering what that had to do with him, ignored the question.

Then he said, "The reason you didn't tell me earlier must be because of causality."

"Yes. I cannot intervene once the game starts."

"But you could have informed us beforehand."

"I didn't know."

Sung-Woon didn't believe that.

"The second moon was created by the old gods, and you must have known it was behind the moon. The system’s territory was re-adjusted. You did it on purpose."

Aldin was momentarily speechless.

Sung-Woon considered Aldin an easy entity to understand. As if they had never pondered such a scheme, every reaction of theirs was honest.

'It seems likely. To be naive, one must be in an environment where it’s okay to be naive. Just being in that position makes one immune to disregard from anyone.'

Sung-Woon continued, "If I hadn't found the loophole, I might have been defeated."

Aldin nodded, "Ah, right. The loophole… But I turned a blind eye to that. How about we call it even? You benefited from my goodwill, didn’t you?"

"What if I hadn't found the loophole?" Sung-Woon continued, "The course of the game was clear. The evil gods would appear, then the fourth continent and the Dragons. Somehow, a player would gain an advantage, but later, the second moon would be revealed. The player would be helpless due to the limits of the system’s territory, but the second moon wouldn't easily conquer Avartin either. Eventually, someone would achieve a victory, but only with scars."

Sung-Woon, lost in thought, lightly pressed the tips of his fingers together, "Right. You wanted the final winner to appear devastated. Victorious, but with only ruins left behind. Isn't that the picture you wanted?"

Aldin laughed. After a while, Aldin said, "Yes. What if that were the case?"

"That's unfortunate."

"Indeed. But all you have to do is leave the game. It's not too late yet. Just open the window and press Exit."

"No," Sung-Woon said. "I meant it’s unfortunate for you. Civilization has been preserved, the victory was overwhelming, and the damage from the second moon was almost nothing.

Resources were somewhat consumed, but even this will lay the foundation for the next phase of technological development. Meanwhile, the reason you desire a ruined world is clear." Sung-Woon responded, "You must have wished for your enemies to be in a weakened state."

Aldin's center of gravity shifted toward Sung-Woon, and they adopted a more serious demeanor.

"You should just take the promised reward of victory and not worry about what comes after."

"Honestly, even that promise is doubtful," Sung-Woon said. "How can you argue about becoming a true god when you yourself are not one?"

This finally struck a nerve with Aldin. "How dare you!" Aldin, filled with anger, spoke with a trembling voice, "How dare you say I am not a god?"

Aldin stomped their foot.

Though it meant little in the white space of the mental imagery world, the flapping of their robe's hem added to their dramatic presence.

Sung-Woon remained unfazed.

"I am! We are the true gods of Avartin!"

Sung-Woon paid attention to the implications that came with the word ‘we’.

"We, you say?"

"Yes! We! We, the old gods, are the true owners of Avartin."

Sung-Woon considered this another door opened in the conversation. Conversation, too, was a form of hacking. Approach with encrypted information against the opponent's security protocols to exploit vulnerabilities, and following the order and procedure, secrets of the mind were revealed.

Sung-Woon asked, "Why do you think so?"

"What do you mean?"

"What's the difference between you, the old gods, and the evil gods?"

"Evil gods! Why bring up those bastards? We were born here in Avartin from the beginning. We are the original inhabitants of Avartin. The true parents of all beings born in this land."

Sung-Woon inferred, "If born from someone else, then you're not true gods. You too were born as living beings. Merely existing as individual entities."

"At first, yes."

"At first?"

"But we obtained power with our own hands."

"Power."

Aldin said, "Yes, I'm talking about magic."

Sung-Woon was curious, "Was magic always there from the beginning?"

"Yes."

Aldin murmured, "You might not understand it well."

"Why?"

"Because in your world, magic is scarce. It almost lost its power and faded away. In your time, even its traces were hard to find."

"Why is that?"

Aldin replied casually, as if it wasn’t a significant question, "Beyond here, there exists an infinitely vast universe. These possible worlds have countless different characteristics. Yours is just one of them. A land where magic is weak. Such places exist occasionally. Of course, it required more specific conditions. We had to explore countless worlds...but eventually, we found yours."

"You chose us because magic was absent?"

"Not solely for that reason, but yes. In most possible worlds, magic is common. It was hard to find you."

Sung-Woon realized Aldin's intent. "We had to lack understanding of magic, because you use magic as power?"

Aldin no longer denied it. "Yes."

Sung-Woon smirked beneath his mask.

'I thought their confidence was mere bravado, but it seems not. They wouldn’t be so bold otherwise.'

Aldin added, "In case things went wrong, like now, we would have to turn everything around."

Sung-Woon remained wary of Aldin, who did not seem to be in a hurry to act. Aldin was intoxicated with their position and swayed by the power they possessed.

'That's good. It means I have more time. There are still answers I need to hear.'

Sung-Woon said, "But if you have such great power, why create a system and concepts like gods and divinity with magic?"

"Ha, you clearly don't understand magic."

"Explain."

Aldin said, "Do you know? The world is an overlap of two worlds."

"Two worlds?"

"One is the physical world. In your terms, it's external space. The tangible world, the universe, bound by gravity and the speed of light, limping along. Look at the spacecraft you made… To merely go to the moon, all of Avartin had to make an enormous effort."

"And the second moon?"

"It’s the epitome of our technology… But what did it ultimately lose to?"

When Sung-Woon didn't answer, Aldin continued, "The second world is inner space, the world of the mind. Also called the mental imagery world. Visible when you close your eyes, a dream space shared by all conscious beings. Oh, of course, your dreams are just fragmentary, disjointed, and incoherent. That’s unfortunate for you."

"Inner Space?"

Aldin explained slowly, as if struggling to explain something so abstract to a being who could hardly imagine it, "You would find it difficult to picture. Even beings from other possible worlds where magic is common need training to properly enter inner space. There, one finds recurring symbols and mysteries, truths of other worlds, immense chaos and catastrophes, as well as healing and stability.

Just like adventures in external space, adventures in inner space are dangerous, but eventually, someone brings back secrets and reveals them. We call them Wizards, and the power they bring back is known as magic."

Aldin continued, "The power of magic is strong enough to manifest in external space, but it's fragmentary and unstable, making it difficult to maintain. Therefore, the ancient Wizards, namely us, felt the need to stabilize this power in some way.

We created a system and set rules. That's what the system is. Within the system, we finally overcame the fear of instability that magic brings. Yes, it was revolutionary. Beings bound to your external space talk about technological revolutions, but compared to what we created, those are laughably insignificant."