The Nebula’s Civilization

Aldin truly desired to believe in the existence of souls. Therefore, when the opportunity to search for players came her way, she saw it as a great fortune.

The inner space of infinite possible worlds consisted of countless universes, and with them, as many duplicated souls existed. Thus, somewhere, the Returner would also exist. After the Returner's death, Aldin suffered from terrible nightmares, and these nightmares did not easily end because the Returner's death wasn't actually a death.

At the moment of a person's death, the system copied the continuous personality, creating a pseudo-soul. This was the immortality created by the system.

To escape the nightmare, Aldin had to believe that the tormented soul of the Returner was not real. She had to dissociate herself from the appearance, voice, memories of the past, and the curses hurled at her by the betrayed Returner.

However, a pseudo-soul was still a soul. The duplicated being believed in its continuity as a continuous personality. Because both conditions Kyle Lak Orazen mentioned were met, these beings were true souls despite being created.

Moreover, even if Aldin denied their existence, the words said by the Returner under torture were undoubtedly what the Returner would, could, and wanted to say.

Aldin eventually went mad. She truly lost her mind, and a significant portion of her memory was erased. However, other old gods restored Aldin for her usefulness, as the Returner's assistant, and manipulated part of her personality magically so that she could no longer go mad. All of this was allowed because Aldin had collaborated as a traitor.

However, change came. The Returner's death led to the failure of the system's maintenance, and a catastrophe followed. The evil gods were that variable.

The old gods won but had to repay causality. They left the rest of the cleanup to Aldin and went to sleep. For Aldin, these 40,000 years were like a dream.

Aldin decided to find the Returner. In the infinite possible worlds, there would be a Returner who successfully destroyed the system and drove out the old gods. Aldin wanted to seek that Returner's help. Perhaps, even before all that happened, there was a Returner determined to destroy the system.

Aldin planned to help that Returner. It didn't matter which point in time or space the Returner belonged to. As long as there was a being Aldin could apologize and plead to, she was willing to do so. That was Aldin's wish. Aldin truly wanted to repent in any way possible to the Returner, and if the opportunity came, she would do anything.

"But it was impossible."

Sung-Woon asked, "Why? If there are infinite possible worlds, surely one would exist somewhere."

"That's the trap of infinity," Aldin replied. "Since there are infinitely many worlds, surely such a continuous personality would exist somewhere. However, the search for them would likewise require an infinite amount of time. I was only granted 40,000 years."

Even with the power of the system, searching through the infinite worlds was challenging for Aldin. Each world was interconnected through narrowly-defined relationships, making it as difficult as escaping a maze. Aldin had to create a basic study alone to understand how these relationships manifested in different worlds, considering many variables.

As a result of the calculations, Aldin realized the paradox that the more parallel the world she sought was—that was, the more she sought a similar world—the harder it was to reach.

Mazdari added to Aldin's explanation,

-Returner, that’s unavoidable. A being that can easily choose worlds means someone who can control not just their own fate but the fate of the world, and there aren't many such beings.

Kyle also chimed in,

-Night Sky, it's a simple principle. Parallel worlds are something we are already traversing even at this very moment. Therefore, moving to a parallel world is not just going to a different world, but completely ignoring causality. It's a nearly impossible task.

Therefore, Aldin had to focus solely on the task given to her, setting aside her own desires, and use her limited time efficiently.

Aldin had now stopped crying and her eyes were red but dry, but her voice was a little hoarse.

"...Then I saw you. At the end of 40,000 years, in my newly created search engine, within the various conditions I wanted, your existence was caught along with it. There were other candidates, but...the ones that best fit the conditions I wanted were you and the other players. That's all. Your face being the Returner's is merely because my search engine contained my lingering feelings. There's no greater meaning."

Sung-Woon accepted that explanation.

But it wasn't enough to satisfy him completely. "I understand why I share the Returner’s appearance. But why do you have my sister’s face?"

"...."

"I also have another question. If you decided to make the players great warriors to oppose the evil gods, why didn't you just select them solely according to their rankings? If you had done that, I guarantee that the players could have taken over the second moon one hundred years ago.

“Back then, in The Lost World meta you created, there was rapid technological development, so the game's pace could have been much faster than now. Of course, the chances of me or Hegemonia being eliminated would also have been significantly higher, but if it was within the top ten, the win rates wouldn't have been drastically different."

"...Are you saying I filled the player count with players of poor skills for your sake?"

Sung-Woon shook his head. "No, that's not what I mean. There was one clear hint."

"Hint?"

"I personally met and investigated each player of the Pantheon, looking for commonalities and differences. I found significant differences and a few trivial commonalities, but one of them was meaningful." Sung-Woon stated, "They were all atheists."

"That’s a coincidence."

"No, it's not. Only eleven percent of people on Earth are atheists." Sung-Woon slightly furrowed his brows and continued, "I think I understand the conditions you set when searching for worlds. It had to be a world that wouldn't find all the creatures in Avartin strange.

“A world where monsters and Dragons wouldn't be considered strange, because only then would we accept Avartin as well as its numerous species. There must have been other conditions too. Since training was needed to oppose the evil gods and rebuild the world, it had to be a world with an understanding of such training, that is, of the game.

“And it had to be a world where people couldn't use magic at all, so they wouldn’t be able to access system privileges. There were also things to be careful about when selecting each player. They had to have little or no attachment to Earth, so they would want to play the game in Avartin. But these are just the obvious conditions; there are hidden ones as well."

Sung-Woon continued his explanation, "At first, I didn't know why atheists were selected. But after seeing the form of you old gods, and now the appearance of the Myriad Demons, I became certain.

“To those who don’t believe in gods, you or the Demons would just seem peculiar or repulsive rather than awe-inspiring and fear-inducing. But to people who do believe, they could have felt differently. Originally, the initial conditions were set to select theists, but you changed that part at your discretion, didn’t you?"

Aldin didn’t respond. However, Sung-Woon, seeing Aldin avoiding his gaze, knew that he was right. Aldin may not truly possess his sister's soul, but they shared a few habits.

"What's more interesting is why these players were selected. By carefully selecting the players participating in the game, one could determine the pace of the game and the direction of tactics. And eventually, when the time comes to face the second moon, perhaps even the players’ builds and how they would confront the old gods and Myriad Demons could be predicted.

“The reason atheists were selected as the players was because the selector had anticipated such a showdown. In other words, you were hoping that the players would confront not only the evil gods, but also the old gods after rebuilding civilization."

Sung-Woon looked at Aldin and continued, "You spoke as if you had given up on everything and submitted to the other old gods, but you never actually gave up, did you? While we were playing the Lost World, Aldin, you were also playing your own game, weren't you?"

Sung-Woon viewed the game Aldin played as a multi-variable equation, nearly impossible. And that was true.

She had to consider each of the twenty-seven variables, plus the five evil gods, making a total of thirty-two. It wasn't just that. She had to consider what Domains they would have and how they would navigate the game despite the limitations of those Domains.

And certainly more than Earth alone, Aldin would have calculated which individuals from the many possible worlds would perform better, making Sung-Woon's head spin with the sheer number of possibilities Aldin had considered.

More importantly, Aldin had almost succeeded in her complex calculations. Although the current game wasn't the perfect picture Aldin had envisioned, it was at least close.

Aldin said, "Your world doesn't have magic. You don’t have the power to feel the landscape of imagination. So, you settle on a fake inner space."

"Fake inner space?"

"Things like dramas, movies, comics, or novels. But the closest thing, in terms of interaction, is games."

"Games.”

"Dreaming of magic in a world without it might seem foolish, but such dreams of the impossible actually help in realizing desires. Especially when isolated from reality in the form of games, it allows more efficient and calculated approaches. The absence of magic is a kind of talent... But I’m the one who’s curious."

Sung-Woon asked, "About what?"

Aldin responded, "You definitely won in this game. I agree that I’m not someone you could trust, but you could have just trusted me. And if you had, even if I couldn't have let you meet the conditions like being a true god, I could have sent you to a better place than this. Not Avartin, though. It's a more difficult condition, but other players could have joined as well, as long as the system allowed it."

"So not everyone. It wouldn’t have been possible to bring the entire Pantheon."

"The souls of the Pantheon would be impossible to move in whole."

"Then I have no regrets."

"That's the point. This isn't your world either. Why go to such lengths? Why choose death when you've experienced immortal life? It's just a game to you, isn't it?"

Sung-Woon agreed, "Yes. It might just be a game." He added, "But it's a game I like."

At that moment, Aldin's heart was greatly shaken, prompting her to say the words she had decided not to say. "...I wanted to be meaningful to you."

"Meaningful?"

"As I said, our faces resembling each other was due to my lingering feelings. But apart from that, I've been watching you for a long time. I hoped that after everything ended, we might entwine our fates with those we each loved."

“.....”

"I liked all your plays."

Sung-Woon realized what Aldin just said was said in past-tense. It meant she did like his plays, but not anymore.

Aldin continued, "But if that was the case, you should have stopped me sooner."

Aldin then drew her gun from under the table and aimed it at Sung-Woon.