The Cost of Repentance
The Dimensional Lord found the reactions of ordinary humans living in the city strangely off-putting. Is it really that odd to say that if they repent and become good people, the god will forgive their sin of challenging him and spare their lives? The first condition for becoming a follower of the God of Light was to repent past wrongs and become a good person. Yet the humans reacted as though they had misheard.
He briefly summoned the Recruitment Guidelines for Beginner Main Gods Creating Divine Realms distributed by the Main Divine Realm. Even I received it for free the moment I became a Main God. The Main Divine Realm would never do something like that. Nothing free could be trusted. He had only skimmed the beginning before tucking it away because of the war with the Substitute Gods.
The first followers of the God of Light must be good people. Therefore, they must first repent even the smallest past wrongs, receive the god’s forgiveness, swear to live righteously from now on, and offer positive emotions as faith. These will be converted into the god’s divine power and vitality. Remember that followers must be good people. Evil people only hinder divine power, so discard them without hesitation.
Some gods try to increase their follower count quickly by forcing even the wicked to repent, but that is a waste of divine power. A person’s fundamental nature does not change so easily. Use such displays only to demonstrate divine majesty through occasional heavenly punishment. After accepting someone as a follower, waiting for them to commit a wrong and then punishing them severely as an example is also effective. Most Main Gods prefer lightning and spontaneous combustion for their clear audiovisual impact.
The content was quite extreme. Hmm. Something feels off. Is this really how it’s supposed to start? He had never recruited followers from humans who were blank slates before, so he lacked any intuition for it. The War God’s divine nation had originally consisted of devout believers, so all he needed to do was display greater authority than the previous War God. But these humans did not even know what a god was, so they had no idea what they should even hope for.
I don’t know what I should give them in exchange for their faith. He had never faced such weak beings who did not even know of the existence of transcendent beings called gods, so he could not understand their thinking.
Until I reached the 7th Circle, I fought the High Elf Empire to the death. Then I met someone who was nothing compared to a god and reached the 10th Circle. After that, I fought Granzoa, a Main God-level being who surpassed me, and later clashed with the entire God Realm. How would someone like me know what to do to gain faith from humans who don’t even know what a god is? I’m a combat god, not an administrative god.
In response to the Dimensional Lord’s frustration, additional text appeared in the guidelines.
Considering the will of the Main God of the Divine Realm who cries out that he is a combat god, not an administrative god, the Main Divine Realm offers rental operation of specialized administrative Machine Gods. We will handle delegated management until the newly emerged sentient beings reach a certain level of faith. The rental fee for Machine Gods, which are professional and require almost no vitality supply unlike ordinary gods, is extremely low—only a 1% additional tax on the Main Divine Realm’s taxes. If you apply for permanent rental, long-term installment payments of the lump sum are also possible…
Riiip—! He tore it apart without even reading further.
So the booklet was sent for free just to advertise Machine Gods. The Main Divine Realm must be completely obsessed with securing vitality. Even after extorting the highest-ranking Main Gods, they were apparently trying to sell or rent Machine Gods to ordinary Main Gods of the combat realm who had barely obtained a divine realm after endless battles and training.
Well, Machine Gods that consume almost no vitality are certainly more useful than ordinary gods who don’t listen and consume a lot of vitality. But the limitations of Machine Gods are clear.
Machine Gods only followed given procedures, so they were insensitive to environmental changes and lacked flexibility. They were useful in the early stages, but after the mid-stage, countless lives and followers on planets often died or went extinct.
Machine Gods prioritize efficiency over potential, so they mostly cull species and raise only the most useful races. There were far too many cases where Machine Gods left only the most excellent species and caused extinctions due to environmental changes on planets.
Main Gods of the Divine Realm who grow accustomed to the absolute obedience of Machine Gods stop recruiting ordinary gods who are talkative and troublesome. They gradually become lazy and their authorities weaken as they grow used to the absolute obedience of Machine Gods.
Diversity of species and fair competition were precisely what drove development, and the same applied to the divine race.
The bigger problem is that a divine realm with only Machine Gods remains in an infantile state, unable to support any strengthening or development of authorities. The support and blessings of the divine realm are too weak.
Divine realms grew through the various divine powers and authorities emitted by gods and the vitality of the Middle World. Yet they were trying to sell these problematic Machine Gods to Main Gods of the Divine Realm who were just starting out.
In the future, the more Machine Gods there are, the more taxes paid to the Main Divine Realm will increase exponentially. If one Machine God adds 1% tax to the Main Divine Realm, then one hundred would add 100%, doubling the taxes. Since an ordinary divine realm requires one thousand gods, filling it almost entirely with Machine Gods would mean paying nearly all the vitality of the divine realm except the Main God’s share as taxes. It’s a complete scam.
Using Machine Gods just because they were convenient would lead to a quagmire if one was not careful. It would be worse than a divine realm directly managed by the Main Divine Realm. So the Dimensional Lord spat out with irritation mixed in his emotions.
“Damn it! Everywhere I go, there are only bastards trying to fleece me. Humans! If you want to live, swear to me that you will live righteously. Otherwise, die as the price for challenging me.”
The Dimensional Lord ultimately thought this suited him better.
When have I ever negotiated with the weak? I’ve always had to deal with those stronger than me while making unfair contracts. It’s gotten better lately, but it still feels awkward. This doesn’t feel like the God of Light at all—it feels more like a Demon God—but this is actually more comfortable. And it’s effective, too.
Whether human or god, living according to one’s nature was comfortable. Trying to act in ways that didn’t suit you only caused accidents.
Sure enough, oaths of allegiance began arriving from all directions.
“I swear I will live righteously.”
“From now on, I will live righteously.”
“I was already righteous to begin with.”
Since all the machines maintaining their bodies had disappeared and they were on the verge of death, everyone was sincere. Yet the Dimensional Lord was displeased that they treated oaths with gods so lightly.
They don’t know that breaking it means immediate divine punishment. Apostates received no protection from karma, so they could be annihilated or have all their vitality harvested. It reminds me of the moment I claimed I knew nothing and would pay the price, digging my own grave. Still, I’m generous, so I’ll confirm it again. I don’t want to create a life as unfair as mine.
The Dimensional Lord hated the idea of beings holding grudges against him for being deceived. Since they did not even know what a god was, they might not understand, but that was their problem.
“This is a promise with a god. If you do not live righteously, your soul and body will receive heavenly punishment and die, or be harvested and have all vitality extracted before being sent to the Four Realms. Swear carefully.”
“What is a god? What are the Four Realms? Isn’t death the end?”
“Death is the end, so what are you talking about?”
“As expected, they don’t understand at all.”
The Dimensional Lord now found it absurd that he was giving such basic explanations.
They are slaves of the Machine Empire, the pinnacle of material civilization, so they know nothing about souls and believe death is the end. That’s why their suicide rate is high and they have no attachment to life, so they don’t even understand the meaning of a promise with a god.
He began to feel skeptical about whether it was worth teaching them these things from the beginning to make them followers.
It might be better to eliminate all these damned people who challenged me and, even if it takes time, increase the population from scratch. I’ll keep the administrative gods and dispatch them, and persuade them to replace all these planets by wiping out the Machine Empire and filling them with normal humans at a medieval level.
The Dimensional Lord grew angry at the weakness of ordinary humans and their light treatment of promises. Even though five hundred billion followers from ten ordinary planets would be a windfall in the current situation, his patience was gradually wearing thin.
Then the desperate wills of the humans reached him again. Their oaths were far too casual.
“For now, I’ll live righteously. So please spare me.”
“For now, you said? Fine! Let’s see how that goes.”
His irritation had reached the point of near explosion. The machine humans seemed better by comparison.
I really don’t like how lightly they treat both their words and their oaths.
Grinding his teeth, he nevertheless accepted the oaths of the city’s humans toward the god.
Only about a million of them. Their ignorance is not a sin, but the choice is their responsibility. Just as I chose to rashly promise to pay the price for his favor.
The Dimensional Lord manifested the lightest restoration magic with minimal mana.
“Looking Back at Oneself, Past and Present Are the Same.”
⟨ Looking Back at Oneself, Past and Present Are the Same ⟩
- Magic Type: Space-Time Magic, Healing, Manifestation
- Effect: Returns the target to the best state remembered by their consciousness. Regardless of the type of damage to the body, mana, or stamina, it always maintains the optimal state. It is a divine miracle implemented through magic. Its development purpose was for the decisive battle with Granzoa, the elf god specialized in healing and vitality. In the first battle upon their initial meeting, he had been unable to win because he lacked mana against Granzoa’s terrifying recovery ability.
- Limitation: Since restoration is based on the target’s own memories, it cannot activate if the target is unconscious or disoriented.
- The protagonist’s first words after initial manifestation: “Why should only you recover? Now I can too.”
Whooooosh! The great miracle of the 10th-Circle Main God manifested upon them. New bodies grew in place of the mechanical arms and legs that had been forcibly torn away when they were pulled into the air. Those who had lost their artificial eyes grew new ones, and even their vanished internal organs were all replaced anew. Those who had enhanced their abilities and extended their lives with the help of machines received new bodies.
Everywhere, humans moved their new arms and legs in astonishment while those around them watched in shock. Those who had even minor illnesses were also restored to their bodies from their prime.
Of course, I didn’t make them young. Why would I go that far for those who so casually made promises? As repayment for reminding me of the past, I’ll turn them into the most devout followers in history.
The Dimensional Lord once again combined and opened the Recruitment Guidelines for Beginner Main Gods Creating Divine Realms that he had torn apart earlier.
Second, the granting and overcoming of just trials. Good people, if they have no trials, simply live satisfied as they are. You may not believe it, Great Main Gods of the Divine Realm, but there are people who are happy as long as they don’t starve or freeze to death. Sometimes, a person’s only purpose in life is survival.
Damn it! That’s me!