The Outer God Needs Warmth

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While the storm ravaged the Fourth World, rain also fell in the Third World.

Of course, it wasn’t as rough as the winds and rain in the Fourth World.

It was a spring rain.

Still, it’s not the gentle drizzle that comes to mind when I think of spring rain—rather, it was more of a steady downpour.

But when it rains like this, someone comes back to life.

It seems she’s completely forgotten about our earlier conversation before lunch and is even humming a little tune.

Victoria.

Ever since she gained the ability to manipulate water, it feels like she’s become one with the element itself.

“Do you like the rain?”

“Yeah! The world looks clearer.”

I understand what she means. I’ve mentioned before how I experience the world through water. When there’s more water, it’s not that it becomes harder to perceive—it actually becomes clearer.

What exactly is this psychic ability?

“I see.”

“Isn’t Bell able to do it too?”

But at that, Victoria looks back at me with a puzzled expression.

“Me? How?”

“From that reaction, it seems like you really can’t. No, this is power you got from me, right?”

Just like I can read other people’s expressions well, it seems they can tell what I’m thinking too.

Hmm…

Even if I’m caught, I’m fine with it. I might be doing a variety of bad things, but just because that comes to light doesn’t mean it leads to the truth.

Honestly, I don’t really know it myself.

But does it happen that way?

Certainly, I do create harvesting machines, and some of them obtain psychic abilities.

And they mistakenly think that I’m the one granting these powers.

“Victoria. Listen carefully. People can’t originally control water.”

Victoria looks at me in disbelief. She raises a finger and creates a droplet of water above it.

“What am I then?”

“I don’t know either. It’s actually the ones who gain psychic abilities that are strange. No, if you transferred your abilities to me, why would you still heal?”

Victoria blinks several times at my question, her face still filled with confusion.

“You didn’t do that without knowing what it was?”

“I’ve done it to nearly hundreds of millions of people, and not a single one has failed.”

“Yeah. That makes sense.”

Almost all of that took place in the First World.

“So what’s the contract about?”

“That was the very first contract. It healed all the wounds people had. After that, I kept using the same one. It would be a bit of an issue if I slipped in other words and it didn’t heal, wouldn’t it?”

At my words, Victoria nodded in agreement. However, the reason I keep writing contract documents isn’t that there might be failures in healing. It’s because the offspring of the harvesting machines hold onto the contracts themselves, which is why I don’t change them.

There’s no need to say that much here.

“Then is Bell unable to use psychic abilities?”

“I can’t use magic either. I’m more curious about what kind of sensation you feel. What does water feel like, and how does magic power feel? It’s an unknown experience to me.”

Of course, I do have memories of feeling magic power as a harvesting machine.

I know how it was used as well.

But to put that feeling in a metaphor, it’s like the sensation of a third arm and the feeling of moving that arm. No, if it really were a third arm, I’d compare it to my two arms beside it.

It’s a sensation entirely foreign to me.

Due to that, I’ve ultimately given up on magic power.

And according to my memories of the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign, who is at least speculating about my powers, it seems I am the opposite of magic power. So it’s only natural that I can’t use it, they say.

“What about that time you turned a stone into a shining object?”

For some reason, Victoria lowered her voice and said something strange in that state.

A shining thing?

Ah. Gold.

“It’s because it’s a common substance.”

“What about it?”

“Yeah. Of course, when you calculate by ratio, it’s a very rare item. But there’s an uncountable amount, right? It’s just like turning a piece of ice into a stone.”

In reality, ice is also a type of rock.

Many people think of water and rock as separate substances, but on a cosmic scale, rock occupies some part of the earth’s surface.

“Isn’t that a psychic ability?”

Does it look like that?

No, it probably does seem that way. Using a strange ability without using magic power.

“Certainly. There’s a possibility that it’s similar.”

Even if the other side uses it recklessly without breaking the world, it’s because of differences in volume and mass, right?

For some reason, there’s a completely different feeling in terms of sensation, but…

“You don’t even understand yourself, huh.”

At Victoria’s question, I hesitated for a moment before trying to respond.

That hit very close to home.

I’m gathering information little by little, but I still don’t know about myself. And it’s not that urgent.

“That’s right. The world is filled with the unknown.”

“Then you must be at the end of it.”

Victoria dispersed the droplets of water hovering in the air into vapor and leaned back in her seat. Meanwhile, her eyes scanned the classroom.

Break time between classes.

Based on my faded memories, the break between classes was originally about 10 minutes, but it’s not that tight here.

In fact, it lasts about an hour.

However, the time between classes is long, and there’s quite a bit of homework.

It’s rare for anyone to complete all their assignments, but they still manage to do enough not to be labeled a fool.

The system itself is different.

Victoria completes all her work. Polaris gets around 60 to 80 percent done. Kanna started out doing all her work but began to settle for 80 percent in the second half of second grade.

Well. I do everything, but for assignments requiring personal opinions, I either submit a blank sheet or just copy exactly what’s in the textbook.

I even throw in typos from the original on purpose. How dumb, right?

That’s to maintain my position.

Imagine if a useful object developed a sense of self. How annoying would that be?

Sure, if it’s a useful living being, the smarter they are, the happier it is, but for an object, that can’t happen.

Imagine if a computer suddenly leaked its internet search history to a friend.

Who would use such a thing?

So I act a bit slow-witted or as I am.

I write down what I’ve absorbed as it is.

It shows my true self, so there’s a chance I won’t make mistakes later.

Well, if I were a human with a lifespan, physical wounds, and a social position, I couldn’t act like that.

Then I’d be truly incapacitated.

But I appear to have no lifespan, wounds have no substance, and my social position is worthless.

So as a human, I can live rather freely.

And if I look a bit foolish, people will empathize easily.

If they see someone they can trample, they let their guard down or trample them cruelly. Why? Because they know I won’t harm them.

Then I keep giving that person benefits foolishly.

Until they become entangled one day.

There’s a saying.

If goodwill continues, people start to think it’s their right.

And when people have their rights taken away, they explode. Unless they’ve never had rights from the beginning, if they’ve experienced it even once, they go wild like an injured animal.

Then rights finally turn into dependency.

There’s an easy example.

Addiction.

For instance, gambling. For instance, drugs.

No one starts from the beginning, but once they have, they would do anything to feel that pleasure.

At the beginning, it’s something they do because they want to. It’s a right.

But once that fleeting pleasure passes, they can’t find it in their everyday life. It’s a deficiency.

And to fill that deficiency, people do the same thing. They become dependent.

At that time, I can grasp that person in dependency.

I’ve done that so far. The most successful example would be Yasle.

And this phenomenon can really be found surprisingly easily around me.

Right now, even the students Victoria is observing closely are showing similar symptoms.

But it’s not gambling or drugs, it’s power.

How painful must those who thought they were in the middle of the social hierarchy feel when their ranking drops?

The ones they could look down upon have suddenly shrunk away.

It would be easier if they were enemies. If they’re commoners who can be read as special tools, they wouldn’t care since they’re not seen as people.

But how about foreigners?

Sudden heresy. Yet they’re beings you shouldn’t just handle carelessly. There’s no guarantee that a second Rabo Pasilie won’t arise.

It seems Victoria is wary of that as well.

Victoria is smart.

That’s right.

That’s a valid caution. Although there hasn’t been a clash yet, everyone is hanging in a precarious balance. Even examining the memories of Rabo Pasilie shows the same.

Compared to last year, the homework has increased, but the daily life hasn’t changed.

Specifically, their parents haven’t told them to treat him well, nor have they been ostracized from the group they hang out with.

It’s just…

From the outside, it looks that way. But the intangible pressures faced personally have only grown stronger as days go by. Particularly at an age when energies are overflowing, this has manifested as sexual desire but can also materialize as aggression.

Well, if warmth is a possibility, Rabo indeed had a lot of warmth. Considering that, he might have welcomed a good future if he worked hard.

But he gave that up for eternal pleasure, right?

He must be quite happy.

Anyway.

“Victoria.”

“What?”

“Make some friends. It’s just you and Polaris meeting up.”

Victoria makes an incredibly aggrieved face.

“You’ve got no one else but me!”

She doesn’t seem to understand reality.

“I have people who visited me occasionally at the accommodation and took care of me. Isn’t that called friends?”

Victoria stared at me with the most shocked expression ever.

Hehe.

I spend the day in the Third World while expanding Victoria’s possibilities.

So…

If possibilities increase, how much will warmth increase?