Chapter 64
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: The Difference
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Lilith.
The progenitor of the dream demons and the master of the Paradise of Revelry.
...That's what I'd heard, but honestly, it didn't quite hit home for me.
And that made sense,
'Because I'm an atheist!'
I enjoyed playing Reader's Chronicle, a game full of ghost stories and yokai,
but myths and legends felt distant from me.
'For one, those stories are ridiculously long.'
Even legends are packed with a character's birth, growth, and path to heroism.
Myths are even worse, starting from creation myths and dragging on forever.
It was a field full of barriers for an orphan like me to geek out over.
After all, to survive, I had to follow the miraculous routine of work, labor, home, sleep, repeat.
Weekends, my only days off?
Why dig into something I had zero interest in? I'd rather game.
'Reader's Chronicle was all about 'ghost stories' and 'yokai' anyway.'
Napoli ghost stories or the Backrooms aren't legends or myths, right?
Besides, in Reader's Chronicle, they weren't exactly as I remembered.
They'd been adapted repeatedly, tweaked into game-friendly bits.
Of course I wouldn't know.
'Still, I know the big ones vaguely.'
Zeus, Odin, Sun Wukong, Jade Emperor... Tsk. Maybe skip the last one since I learned it from Journey to the West?
I'd heard of Lilith—Lilith exactly—but in fiction, she wasn't portrayed as anything special.
'Just a naked succubus.'
Anyway.
Seeing the system's proof that she had forged a myth, my reaction was closer to bewilderment than shock.
'Why?'
Why was a yokai who had forged a myth here?
'Shouldn't she be up in the heavens, like the beings I met in the pact?'
That was one reason I hadn't thought she had forged a myth, despite her similar stature and title as progenitor of dream demons.
I'd already faced celestial beings who had forged myths.
They breathed in different realms, saw from different perspectives.
They treated me naturally, but their presence alone made me feel diminished.
The woman before me had none of that.
So, I couldn't help but wonder.
Reading my expression, Lilith burst into a girlish laugh.
"It seems you've met those who have completed their myths."
"...Yeah."
"Who was it?"
"Sun Wukong. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven."
"Heh. And you're still in one piece? You're no ordinary one yourself."
"?"
No?
He seemed cheerful and decent enough... for a yokai?
...Oh. Come to think of it, didn't he go on a rampage?'
That explained her reaction.
"Well, having met such a being explains your reaction to me."
Lilith's lips curved into a smile, her eyes bending like crescent moons.
It felt decidedly lascivious.
"But my current power is too meager to call a full myth. It grows with the galaxy's level. Right now... think of it as the same level as yours."
"Ah, so that's why."
"However, since you've clearly recognized me and can learn my legend, your level will rise sharply."
There was no bravado in her words.
Just stating plain fact.
Exuding the leisure of one who had forged a myth.
I stared at her for a moment, then voiced a sudden question.
"By the way. I got a segment of the Great Sage's legend too."
"...What?"
"But most of it says I'm unqualified to read it. How did you get strong so fast...?"
As my question spilled out,
"What!?"
Lilith suddenly widened her eyes and shouted.
"Th-that monkey... bestowed part of his legend on you!?"
The lascivious, bewitching air from moments ago vanished.
Pure shock filled her face.
"Yeah. He gave it to me?"
"Wh-which part...?"
"The Bagua. Well, I'm guessing since I don't know myths well, but probably right."
"...When he fully awakened his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils."
Lilith's pupils trembled faintly.
Her voice shook a bit faster.
"...One of the core segments of his myth. Passing on enlightenment there means... are you a monkey too?"
"...You picking a fight?"
"How else? That monkey wouldn't give a core part of his myth to you!"
"I get it's impressive, but you forged a myth too. Is it that shocking?"
"...I'm shocked because I can't understand it."
Lilith steadied her breath, calming her shock, and looked at me.
"Listen well. To forge a myth, your legend must form the 'framework' first. That framework is..."
"Like introduction, rise, climax, fall?"
"...How did you know? Did the heavenly gods tell you?"
"'Introduction' started appearing just now."
"...What?"
Lilith stared in disbelief, but I wasn't lying.
'Introduction. Night Parade of One Hundred Yokai integrated.'
My first unique story.
It seemed fitting for the 'introduction' signaling the tale's start.
"It's not fully written yet, but it's starting."
"...Heh. I'm too stunned to be surprised. Already forming the framework at your rank."
A strange fervor swirled in Lilith's eyes.
Her tongue licked her lips lasciviously, like a snake eyeing prey.
"How about it? If you want, I'll give you the position of my 'western consort,' never offered to any."
But that desire didn't last.
"No need."
At my firm refusal, her face fell noticeably.
"...I see. Treating me like a caught fish already—you're worse than I thought."
"No, what..."
I'd never thought that, never would.
How did her mind twist to that conclusion?
"...First, fix that look in your eyes before proposing. Anyone can see you're dying to devour me."
"Ah. Busted."
Her sulky expression vanished instantly, back to its earlier allure.
"Hmm... Still a shame. With you, I'd gladly take your seed..."
"...Enough teasing. Answer my question?"
"Right. You're wondering how a low-rank galaxy like you grows through my myth?"
"Yes."
"Simple. You'll start learning my legend from the beginning. Unlike you, interpreting the Great Sage's mid-myth."
Lilith gave a faint smile.
"Don't feel cheated. If it's truly the Bagua, that monkey saw your 'qualification' and gave it to guide you."
"Qualification?"
"To forge a myth."
In other words,
"The way to become a god."
Lilith's lips curved higher.
"You must complete a myth to become a god, but there's one more thing."
"...What?"
"Transcendence."
In other words, shedding.
"You must transcend your race's limits. Otherwise... you can't reach the perfect state of godhood."
"Race's limits?"
A thought flashed at her words.
'Transcending racial limits... the cap?'
Races have ranks from F to SSS.
In hierarchy terms, F is 1st rank, SSS is 9th.
Transcending that sounded exactly like the 'cap release' I got when summoned here.
'EX is definitely above SSS. So, 10th rank or higher.'
Did that mean I'd already transcended?
Not fully sure yet, I listened calmly to Lilith.
Her hands gently swept the air.
"Humans and yokai have innate differences."
Yokai are born with yin nature.
Humans live infused with yang energy.
"That's the innate difference between the races."
I tilted my head at her explanation.
"...Weird? Humans aren't without yin energy."
Characters I remembered had yin-related bloodlines,
some even the story 'Nine Yin Blocked Meridians.'
"Some do, so why say that definitively?"
Lilith spread her hands wide, drawing up energy.
"True. Humans are the race closest to 'completion.' Your question isn't strange."
However,
"How much do you know about yin energy?"
"It's... like the energy yokai emit, cold and deathly..."
"Exactly. Yin energy embodies death."
Energy gathered in her palm, forming a sphere.
"Call this human lifespan."
Innate True Energy. Or Vital Energy.
The name doesn't matter.
"People consume their innate lifespan gradually through life. Like this."
The sphere in her palm darkened gradually, like a total solar eclipse.
"Emptiness forms in the lifespan vessel. What accumulates there is yin energy."
In other words, the end of life. Death.
"When yin fills the vessel, that's death."
That's why high-rank beings outlive normals.
"They minimize lifespan use with acquired energy, slowing yin accumulation."
"......"
"Humans who handle yin? Trace their origins, and you'll find yokai contracts or stolen power. That's the 'rule.'"
Yokai have yin energy.
Humans have yang energy.
"That's the difference in innate energy."
The racial divide, the limit.
Hearing that, I was speechless for a moment.
'...A setting not in the game.'
In other words, this world's rules.
I felt like I'd stepped closer to the grand framework.
"Then... yokai born with yin..."
"Right. They're born 'dead' in a sense. So they rarely die again."
Unless their yin vessel shatters,
yokai don't die from lifespan exhaustion.
"Humans accumulate yin postnatally, but yokai don't gain yang just sitting."
Thus, humans dream of yin-yang harmony, yokai crave absent yang.
"Myth-forgers possess both yin and yang fully, wielding them. That's shedding racial limits—the reason it's called transcendence."
With that, Lilith placed a hand on her waist, brimming with confidence.
This was a myth-forged yokai, progenitor of dream demons.
Treat her accordingly.
Such silent pressure.
But I,
"...Then."
Got curious instead.
"I've already transcended, it seems. So, stack myths and become a god?"
Her explanation confirmed it.
I, handling both yin and yang as an EX-rank dokkaebi, had already transcended.
Hearing me, Lilith blinked as if mishearing.
"...What?"
"No. I've already transcended."
"...No, impossible. Transcendence starts beyond 9th rank. You, at 4th rank—how..."
Seeing is believing.
I wrapped yin-formed flames and yang-ignited blaze around my hands.
"......Huh?"
The myth-forged yokai Lilith fell silent.
