Chapter 12 — Seeing Someone Act All High and Mighty Makes You Want to Force Them to See Their Own Weakness
“Mmmm. I feel quite refreshed.”
The UEG awoke, sitting up slowly. Though she had no need for food or sleep, since she had taken on human form, she was still slow to wake up, felt thirsty, and even needed to relieve herself.
Getting out of bed, she made use of the bathroom before getting a glass of water and helping herself to the snacks laid out on the table. She was in Touichirou’s house. She had come here in search of someone powerful, happened across Touichirou, and after defeating him, taken a nap in his house.
“Hmm...these snacks are quite good. Oh, they are already all gone?”
As a god, she could easily create something similar with her powers, but whether it would taste good or not was a different story. The time, passion, and skill that went into creating food like this gave it its flavor in her mind. Even if she recreated the food she had just eaten exactly as it was, she doubted it would taste as good.
“Perhaps I have made a mistake here. Reviving Touichirou would be easy, but...”
The moment she had destroyed him, she had recorded the information that made up his existence. She could use that information to reconstruct him fairly easily.
“But I have already decided to wipe out all life in this world. Returning him to life will just mean I have to kill him again...and it appears this village is made up of similar people anyway. I suppose I should go try one of the others.”
She could feel the presence of powerful beings besides Touichirou nearby, so she could force them to make the snacks she was looking for. She would kill them in the end, but she could put that off if they proved useful to her.
“That seems to be enough of a break. I suppose I should take out everyone in this area before leaving.”
Stepping out of Touichirou’s house, she was greeted with a peaceful rural landscape. The cultivated fields were dotted here and there with buildings. She knew that this was the home base of the organization known as the Slow Life League. She had figured that out by analyzing the barrier that separated this area from the rest of the world.
She was on an island floating in the sky, connected for some reason to countless other islands through teleportation devices to make a single continent out of them. The few powerful members of the Slow Life League lived in this home base.
“Hmm. There seem to be a fair number of powerful individuals here.” The UEG adjusted her own strength to match that of her opponents, but if it dropped too low, things would get boring for her, so she left the weakest beings to her subordinates.
The UEG walked casually between the fields. She could teleport instantly if she wanted to, but there was no reason for her to hurry. As she continued down the road, she came across a worker harvesting wheat. Normally such work would be left to simple peasants, but this seemed to be something of a hobby for the members of the Slow Life League. The League members themselves were taking part in the work. She could tell this individual had some level of power.
“Once I have witnessed you, there is nothing left but for me to fight.”
The UEG stepped off the road and into the field. A lone man was harvesting the wheat by hand. As she approached casually, the man eventually noticed her and turned around.
“Who are you?” He was young and looked fairly well put together. The difference between him and Touichirou’s shabby look was quite stark.
“I am the UEG, the god who will wipe out all life in this world.”
“What? Are you the one we drafted a while ago?” The man sighed. “I guess we get people like you from time to time. But hey, if you’re here, that must mean you’re pretty strong.” He already seemed quite fed up with her. “I’m not really good at teaching the newbies. You should go see Touichirou. He hates being bothered, but he’s better than I am. He’ll take care of you no matter how much he complains.”
“I have already erased Touichirou.”
“What? Oh, he’s really not here. Where did he go?” A doubtful look passed over the man’s face as he looked for Touichirou. He realized Touichirou wasn’t in the area but didn’t yet believe that he was dead.
“Come now, you can just believe what I told you. On my dignity as a god, I would not lie. I have erased him.”
“So what do you want? As you can see, I’m kind of busy here.”
“Hmm. Allow me to ask, then, why busy yourself with such work as this? Surely you could leave it to your subordinates, or use your powers to finish the work in an instant.”
“It’s a hobby. Tilling the fields, planting the seeds, growing the wheat, harvesting it, milling it, and then making bread out of it. The process is what’s fun, so what’s the point of skipping it?”
“As I thought. You are not so different from me. I understand how you feel.”
“I’m not sure you do. I asked what you wanted. If that’s all, can I go back to my work?”
“That is all I wished to ask, but I still need to take your life. It pains me somewhat to kill someone I understand so well, but it is something I have already decided upon, so I cannot avoid it.”
The man sighed again. “I don’t know what you did to Touichirou, but he’s way too soft-hearted...”
“Indeed, he did produce such an aura.”
“So what’s your motive? If you’re going to be a serial killer, you need a motive, right?”
“There are plenty of serial killers who lack such a thing. But in short, revenge. I was sealed away in this world for quite some time. All living things in this world are complicit in that crime. As such, I am punishing them for that sin.”
“So you’re just throwing a fit?”
“That is what it means to be a god. Regret your failing as you die.”
“I’m sure Touichirou ran off after playing around with you for a bit, but I’m not as nice as he is. I’m warning you, if you attack me, I will counterattack automatically. If you don’t want to die, then you better not do something stupid.”
“Hm. A counterattack, you say?” Curious, the UEG threw a punch at him. It didn’t have any particular power behind it, so was only about as dangerous as a punch from an ordinary human girl.
There was an invisible wall around the man. The moment her fist struck it, power exploded outwards, becoming a torrent of light rushing towards her and incinerating her arm down to her shoulder.
“Aha. So that is what you meant.”
“Dammit, look what you did to my field!” the man exclaimed. The light had fired in a straight line, burning through the crops behind her.
“That is hardly my fault. Your counterattack was too broad. You should have tightened the scope.”
“Tch. I guess that wasn’t enough to kill you, so you must be pretty tough.”
“Indeed. I was a little surprised. That was more power than I expected from you.”
“Whatever. If you really want to fight, let’s go somewhere else. I don’t want any more damage to my field.”
“No, I have had quite enough of that.” She had acquiesced to the same request from Touichirou. Doing it again would be boring. Instead, she reached out with her newly regenerated right arm. As she touched the barrier, she responded with appropriate force of her own. The barrier fired a beam of light at her again, but it didn’t stop her from reaching through and grabbing the man’s neck.
“Good job. You did it,” the man said. “But so what? My automatic defense isn’t the limit of my power.”
“There is no need for more. I have seen the limit of your strength.” The UEG tightened her grip. With a dull sound, the man’s neck snapped. She let him go, and his body fell motionless to the ground.
“What limit is that? Did you think killing me would be enough to get rid of me?”
Turning around, the UEG saw the man she had just killed standing behind her. He seemed pretty proud of himself, which bothered her a little.
“I intentionally left room for you to revive yourself.”
“Now you just sound like a sore loser.”
“Can you say that when that is all you have remaining?”
Not realizing what she meant, the man sneered at her. “What are you talking...about...” As he spoke, he realized something was wrong.
“Your strength stems from connecting to yourself in numerous parallel worlds, does it not? That makes your power next to infinite. Even if you died here, that would be like no more than losing a single hair. I was able to understand that much, so I killed you in all of those parallel worlds as well.”
“No way. How is that even possible?”
“It is something you are capable of, so how hard is it to believe there are others with the ability to operate across dimensions? For a god, such strength is expected. Conflict between gods necessitates the ability to search for your opponent’s backups and erase them all at once.”
A black circle appeared beside the UEG, which she reached into with one hand. Though it would be impossible to tell just from looking at it, the circle was a gateway connecting parallel worlds. The UEG pulled a corpse identical to the man in front of her out of the hole. Over and over she pulled out corpses, making a pile of bodies that all belonged to the same person.
“Now there is no room for doubt, yes? In truth, seeing someone act all high and mighty makes me want to force them to see their own weakness. Hmm...it appears I have gone too far. While this was my intent, it is boring if you react so strongly.”
The man was terrified. His assertive personality had completely crumbled. In the next moment, he vanished. He had run away.
“Are you a fool?” Reaching into the black hole again, she pulled him out and threw him unceremoniously to the ground. “I just pulled your alternate selves out from parallel worlds in front of you. No matter where you run, I can obviously find you.”
“Please, spare me...” The man planted his face in the dirt as he begged. That was the most he could do at this point.
“What a killjoy. What happened to your confidence?”
“Just because I’m strong doesn’t mean I want to fight! I just wanted to live a relaxing life here...”
“And yet, you believed yourself to be quite strong. Do you have no self-respect?”
“But...there’s no value in killing someone like me! Please! I’ll do anything! Anything! Is there nothing I can do?!”
“I told you from the beginning I intended to kill you. All that remained was to see how much of a fight you put up. If you had fought until the end, I would have at least asked your name. Die.”
Having lost interest, she killed the man, erasing his existence. At the same time, the bodies she had pulled from parallel worlds all vanished. This wasn’t a fight anymore. If the difference in their strength was too great, her opponent disappeared at the thought of killing them, vanishing from all worlds at once.
“Touichirou put up a much better fight than he did. Perhaps he was the strongest one here?” Regardless, there was no one who could truly match the UEG, so any difference in their power levels amounted to nothing.
“Hmm...I have been limiting myself to match my opponent’s strength, but if I have to limit myself too much, my motivation will suffer. Let us try this: I shall seek out anyone stronger than Touichirou here, though if no such opponents exist, not much will change.”
If she knew everything beforehand, she would never be surprised. In order to avoid that, she hadn’t searched the area in depth before, but looking for people stronger than Touichirou wouldn’t be too much trouble.
The UEG searched the entire hexagonal area. There were a number of powerful beings there, but the one with the strongest impression was on the southeast edge. She didn’t check precisely how strong they were, but with such a strong presence, they must have been quite powerful.
She began walking to the southeast, having totally forgotten her plan to find someone capable of baking for her.
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