The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 220

"You're a fan of mine?"

As Lee Shin looked at her with a dumbfounded expression, Gaia tilted her head slightly and muttered.

"Hmm, now that you ask, it seems a bit different… Ah! I can say you're my favorite character!"

Gaia nodded her head repeatedly, as if she were very pleased.

"Favorite character?"

"Yes."

Gaia sat cross-legged in the air.

"I've been having a lot of fun watching your actions here. In the long history of mankind, you're the first uniquely crazy guy I've ever seen."

"Is that so? I don't think I was that much."

"No, you can believe me since I'm the one who has watched all of human history. Just look at what you did a little while ago, right?"

Gaia smiled as she looked at Lee Shin.

"Do you think there's anyone else besides you who would risk their life because they don't want to lose the first chance to go to Carnia? If I hadn't caught you, you might have been moved to magma or underground. Then you would have died instantly."

He had nothing to say about that part, as he had already been scolded by Irehgue.

"But how did you know that? Did you read my mind?"

"Because I'm a god. I can read minds, but I didn't. Your mind is too dark, so I'm a little reluctant to read it. I just inferred it through your actions so far."

At Gaia's words, Lee Shin shrugged his shoulders and fell into thought.

'The best lunatic in mankind, guaranteed by a god…'

Tilt-

"Should I be honored by this?"

"I don't know. Can't you just think of it as you please?"

At Gaia's words, Irehgue clicked his tongue and said.

-Tsk, it's annoying how you talk as if you're looking down from above.

"Hmm, I'm not really talking with the thought of looking down from above."

At Irehgue's muttering, Gaia said.

Irehgue's eyes widened slightly, as if he hadn't expected a reply to his own muttering.

At that, Gaia smiled slightly.

"I told you I'm a god. I know who you are, and I can hear what your friend is saying."

"Hmm…"

"What, you're not surprised?"

At Gaia's words, Lee Shin said lightly.

"My younger sister can see him too. So there's no reason to be surprised that a god who reads minds saw this guy. On the contrary, I was more surprised when I saw you sitting in the air."

"Hmm~"

At Lee Shin's words, Gaia looked at him with an intrigued expression.

"For someone like that, your eyes aren't leaving me."

"Well, even if I'm not surprised, it's still strange."

Lee Shin muttered, staring at Gaia.

"Because it's the first time I've seen someone I can't kill no matter what I do."

After receiving a huge amount of killing intent from something, Lee Shin's body and mind had undergone a rapid change.

If before that he was a lion cub suckling on its mother's milk, after receiving the killing intent from the being above, he felt like he had grown into an individual who had become independent and hunted his own prey.

Leviathan, Behemoth, Ziz.

It was thanks to that change that he was able to kill the three, who were like incarnations of natural disasters.

Because he had changed like that, Lee Shin could now know for sure.

'Distant? No, unlike last time, I'm not connected to anything, so I don't feel anything…'

That the being in front of him was a being he couldn't kill no matter what he did now.

At Lee Shin's words, Gaia looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.

"Do you usually say that in front of people?"

"Since you read minds anyway, I thought it would be meaningless to hide it."

"I'm not reading it. I'm the type to value privacy."

Gaia said that in a grumbling voice and looked at Lee Shin.

"Still, now that I've talked to you, I see. You're definitely a little easier to talk to than the future you. Well, you're running wild just as much as the future you, though."

"Since there's no end to the incidents, it's only natural. Ah, I'm not blaming you. For me, now is more fun than before."

"That's a statement that makes me think a lot as the guardian deity of the Earth."

Gaia said that and got up from her seat, walking around Lee Shin lightly and observing him.

"Still, to think that that unruly and self-centered guy would change like this… It wasn't my intention, but it seems I picked a good hero."

"…Don't tell me you chose her as a hero just for that?"

"Huh? That's not it."

Gaia shook her head.

"Of course, I knew her personality, so I knew she would try to control you somehow if she went back to the past. But I didn't know she would succeed in controlling you like this."

Pfft-

"Well, in the first place, if your interests of not wanting to run wild more than a certain amount hadn't been established, this wouldn't have happened."

"Hmm… then why did you choose her as a hero?"

"Because of the potential she had."

"Are you talking about talent?"

"No."

Gaia shook her head.

"What I'm talking about is the possibility of regression."

As Gaia raised one hand, a light appeared on her palm.

"That child, who can turn into the medium of light, only needed me to give her a little power, so the cost of power was the lowest. On top of that, the probability of success of the regression was also the highest for that child. Ah, her heart was also wonderful."

At the word 'cost' in Gaia's words, Lee Shin muttered.

"Hmm, so there's a restriction that gods can't interfere in the affairs of the lower world as they please?"

"Huh? No, there's no such restriction."

"What?"

At Gaia's unexpected answer, Lee Shin's expression twisted slightly.

Gaia, as if finding Lee Shin's expression amusing, said with a slight smile.

"I know what you're thinking. Most things are possible as long as they don't go against the position of Gaia, who protects the children of the planet she was born on."

"Then isn't it better to work a little harder?"

"I'm already working as hard as I can within the limits of my ability."

Gaia said that and snapped her fingers lightly.

Then, her body, which looked to be about the size of a middle school student, instantly grew and changed into the form of a glamorous beauty.

"See, I was originally like this, but I used so much power that I changed into the form of a child."

'Certainly, when I heard from Irin before, I heard that she was working much harder than the other guardian deities.'

Lee Shin recalled the past memory and nodded in understanding.

"Well, but what you said is not entirely wrong. In fact, I'm hiding my body like this right now."

Lee Shin said, scratching his cheek with his finger.

"Is it because of the god on the Cardia side?"

"That's right, you're correct."

Gaia said, clapping her hands lightly.

"You remember what I said a little while ago, that most things are possible as long as it's for the sake of protecting mankind, right? To put it another way, it's the same as saying that I can't use any power unless it's for the sake of protecting the beings on my planet."

Gaia said that and pointed at herself with her finger.

"I, that is, a god born with the position of Gaia, have great power, but thanks to that, I'm much more bound by the law of causality than the guys who have risen to the position of a god by accumulating their own karma."

Gaia grumbled in a small voice that thanks to that, even now that the rules have been loosened, she's in this state.

"To put it simply?"

"Hmm… you remember the Pantheon setting where LV. 10 is called a completer and anything above that is called a transcendent, right?"

"I do."

"To put it in those terms, I was born as an LV. 60, an intermediate god, from the moment I was born."

At the sudden, distant number, Lee Shin's expression went blank.

"…Hearing it in numbers, it really hits home."

"Right?"

At Lee Shin's words, Gaia smiled slightly.

"For reference, although everything from LV. 11 onwards was classified as a transcendent, even among transcendents, their ranks are strictly divided. LV. 11~ LV. 30 is lower, LV. 31~ LV. 60 is intermediate, LV. 61~ LV. 90 is upper, and LV. 91~ LV. 100 is highest."

"Is there nothing above LV. 100?"

"No, there is. There are only two in this vast universe, but they certainly exist."

Gaia, who had said that, shook her head.

It meant that they were beings that even she could not dare to approach.

"But intermediate… it's not as great as I thought."

"That's because you don't know."

Gaia said, looking at Lee Shin with the expression of looking at a puppy.

"The number of intermediate gods or transcendents is literally a handful in this vast universe."

"How great are they that there are so few?"

"They are beings who can turn a planet like the sun into dust with a single gesture."

At the scale that surpassed his imagination, Lee Shin's mouth closed.

Gaia, who saw Lee Shin's appearance, said with a light smile.

"Well, I can only use most of that strong power for your protection."

At Gaia's words, Lee Shin nodded his head and then tilted it.

'How did the story get here?'

He knew it was a story that wasn't bad to hear.

But in the current situation, he had a strong feeling that it was a story that didn't particularly matter whether he knew it or not.

As if sensing that, Irehgue turned the subject back to the original.

-But the statement that the probability of success in regression was high, does that mean there was also a possibility of failure?

"That's right, and to add to that, it was a gamble with a pretty low probability of success."

-What would have happened if it had failed?

"I probably would have died as it was."

At Gaia's words, Irehgue sneered.

-You say it so calmly. Is it because you're a great god?

Hearing Irehgue's words, it seemed that Irehgue had no intention of liking Gaia at all.

'Well, considering his pride, it's not unreasonable for him to be like this…'

At Irehgue's blatant sarcasm, Gaia just chuckled as if watching a kitten's hiss.

"You think so? I cherish you guys. It's fun to watch, and sometimes guys like him pop out, which makes it exciting. And it's a misunderstanding that gods can accept humans dying calmly."

Seuk-

"Isn't he the same?"

No, it seemed she was a little offended.

Gaia was looking at Lee Shin with the eyes of looking at the owner of a pet dog that was barking loudly in a park.

"Well, I guess so."

"Oh? You're not denying it?"

Gaia poked Lee Shin's body with the finger she had been pointing at him.

At that, Lee Shin brushed off Gaia's hand and said.

"Since my hand has already been revealed, a power struggle is just tiring."

Lee Shin said that and smiled.

"By the way, I'm jealous. Should I have learned aura instead of martial arts? The experience of rejuvenation is quite enviable."

"Dream on. Even if you had chosen aura, I wouldn't have chosen you."

"Why? Is it because I'm a Heavenly Killing Star?"

Lee Shin opened his mouth as if to test her slightly and rolled his eyes to see how Gaia would react to his words.

But Gaia's reaction was beyond Lee Shin's expectations.

"Huh? What do you mean you're a Heavenly Killing Star? You're not a Heavenly Killing Star."

(End of Chapter)