Infinite Competition
Kim Jihun had no idea what the scene replaying in his mind was supposed to be. A battle? Or maybe an accident?
'Hmm...'
One thing was clear, at least. Asrie was no ordinary god among the divine race. Who could call someone normal when they flashed such a bright smile amid dozens, hundreds of low-level gods sprawled across the ground?
Turning his gaze to Asrie, Kim Jihun said, “School life must not have been easy for you.”
“Hmph, just keep watching for now.”
At her nonchalant reply, Kim Jihun refocused his mind on the vivid imagery playing in his head. The scene began to move.
Mid-level God Promotion Battle!
Asrie Achieves Final Victory!
Bestow mid-level god divinity upon the victor.
A few gods in adult forms approached, placing a white orb into her hand. It radiated an intensely sacred aura.
This is the essence of divine power. Absorb it, Asrie.
Congratulations on your early promotion to mid-level god.
Asrie gripped the essence of divinity handed to her by the adult gods. The orb began to glow, releasing compressed divine power. The liberated energy slowly flowed from her hand into her body. Light emanated from her form as her divinity began to rise.
Her body, which looked about fifteen years old, gradually grew and rapidly evolved. She got taller, her face matured toward adulthood, and her chest swelled dramatically. The entire growth process finished in an instant—maybe just ten seconds? But the changes were monumental, belying the short time.
Asrie, who had appeared fifteen, transformed in a flash into someone around eighteen, like a high school student on Earth. Her divinity had surged, and her body had advanced accordingly. She checked her new appearance and smiled brightly.
With her beaming smile, the video in Kim Jihun's mind began to fade...
“...This is.”
“Right. You probably guessed it already.”
From the footage Asrie had shown him, Kim Jihun could piece it together. The low-level gods scattered on the ground, the term mid-level god promotion battle, the essence of divine power, and the evolution of divinity. It was just like...
“Infinite competition.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
Asrie nodded. The divine race's schools were nothing like Earth's. Well, fundamentally, they shared the essence of competition, but the gods' version was far more ruthless.
“In each class of about a hundred low-level gods, only the single one who claims the top spot can advance to the next stage.”
Yes, infinite competition. Winner takes all. The divine education system was brutally savage. Only the victor of the competition could move forward; all the losers were held back to fight in the next promotion battle.
Kim Jihun shuddered at the cutthroat system. “What the hell is this?! It's a total battle royale!”
“It's harsh, sure, but the results are incredible. I love it.”
Asrie withdrew her hand from atop Kim Jihun's head. The lingering afterimages in his mind vanished cleanly. He pressed her further. “Then how long would it even take to graduate? I want to grow as fast as possible! Can't I just keep doing quests like before?”
The brutal vibe from Asrie's memory made him reluctant to attend school. He was backpedaling, hoping to stick with quests for growth.
But Asrie just snorted. “Want to grow? Don't worry. You'll advance way faster in school than with those quests.”
“What do you mean?”
Kim Jihun frowned in confusion, but Asrie ignored him, reaching out. The Creator God Manual on his desk floated up into her hand on its own. She held it out for him to see.
“Those quests were just a crude little game I made to kickstart your early growth. School education is far more efficient.”
She opened the manual. The geometric patterns Kim Jihun couldn't decipher glowed faintly with creation force. Stroking them, she explained, “This book, the Creator God Manual, is originally a textbook given to low-level gods with Creation Talent in school. I still don't get how it ended up with you.”
She gazed at it nostalgically for a moment before continuing. “School is a sanctuary where all divine realms concentrate their support to accelerate lower gods' growth. No amount of quests on Earth could touch its efficiency.”
School was the mandatory training ground every god passed through to nurture future divine talents. Naturally, the divine race spared no resources on it. Thus, it received more growth support than any individual realm.
“So, you have to go to school.”
Asrie returned the manual to the desk. Kim Jihun pondered her words.
'Amplified growth speed.'
It was tempting. Why go to a PC bang for RPGs? For the experience bonuses, right? Same principle. If school offered growth buffs, he had to go.
Having decided, he told her, “...Alright. Let's do it. It's not like it'll kill me, right?”
As he committed, Asrie grinned wickedly. “Good choice. You won't regret it. I've already handled the enrollment.”
Was that smile a bit sinister? Nah, probably just his imagination.
...
“It's really completely cured?”
The doctor said so, staring at the middle-aged woman before him. Kim Jihun's mother met his astonished gaze with a beaming face. “Doctor, is it truly cured?!”
“Yes. I can't explain how, but it's a miracle. Congratulations on your full recovery.”
“Aigoo, thank you! Thank you so much!”
She was overjoyed at her herniated disc being cured. Ten years of intense pain from the disc and inflammation had been agonizing. And now, cured—without even surgery!
As Kim Jihun's mother rejoiced, the doctor alternated between the CT and MRI on the monitor, eyeing her in genuine bewilderment.
'How did it heal so perfectly?'
Her back was flawlessly normal. Another doctor might believe it belonged to someone in their twenties. The skeletal imbalances were corrected, the ruptured intervertebral disc perfectly regenerated in place. Even the inflammation from the nucleus pulposus was gone without a trace.
Curious how it happened, the doctor asked, “If it's not too rude, could you tell me how your back improved? As a doctor, I'm really intrigued.”
“Well... My son gave me a massage that's supposed to be good for the back, and it got better after that.”
“A massage?”
The doctor tilted his head, glancing back at the monitor. The disc's restoration, inflammation removal, and skeletal realignment—none of that could come from a simple massage.
'Not the massage. Regenerating a ruptured fibrous ring is a true miracle. No way a massage could do that.'
Intervertebral discs were joints between vertebrae, encased in a fibrous ring containing jelly-like nucleus pulposus to cushion movement. Rupture let the nucleus leak, pressing nerves—herniated disc, or lumbar disc disease. Hers was severe: ruptured ring, leaked nucleus compressing nerves, plus inflammation.
Yet it vanished without a trace? Like a shredded tire magically becoming brand new.
Unable to pinpoint the cause, a whimsical thought struck the doctor.
'A real miracle?'
He'd seen TV stories of faith healing cancer or incurables. He'd chalked it up to positive mindset and placebo, but this transcended natural recovery.
Half-jokingly, he asked, “Do you follow any religion?”
“Yes, I'm a Christian.”
“Christianity, huh.”
He nodded. Restoring a ruptured fibrous ring was miraculous. Rather than agonize, he opted for the easy explanation: divine intervention via faith.
'A real act of God? Maybe I should try religion myself.'
Escorting her out, he bid farewell. His hasty guess wasn't far off—her son, a low-level god, had healed her with his powers. Though not the omnipotent mythic god the doctor imagined.
...
“Ah, Mom's back?”
Kim Jihun greeted his mother returning from the hospital while at home. He hadn't gone with her this time. No need to escort a recovered patient. Plus, 'What if the doctor pries? What do I say?'
If the massage story came up, explaining would be tricky. Bad luck might drag him into trouble. So he'd stayed home.
“What did the tests say?”
“Yeah, they said it's cured. Jihun, was it really thanks to your massage?”
“No way. It was just a massage. Anyway, congrats on the full recovery.”
Though his mother probed about the massage's efficacy, Kim Jihun played dumb. He planned to hide his abilities from her as much as possible. She was a devout Christian.
'No need to stir up trouble.'
He knew she'd endured hard times leaning on faith. She still attended church weekly, read the Bible often thanks to her piety. Telling her “I'm actually a low-level god” would shatter her lifelong pillar.
'Hide it as long as I can.'
He had no intention of revealing his powers to family.
In fact, there was planned content where the family discovers Jihun's abilities and struggles between religion and family... but I scrapped it all. It was way too frustrating. About 5 chapters' worth... all deleted... Aigoo, such a waste of my backlog