I Became an Outer God (3)

"Huh?"

The moment I posted about having blown the planet's surface clean off, even TheMender (109.50) — who had been so kindly and patiently teaching me just moments before — dismissed my words as sheer fabrication and refused to believe a word of it.

So the other gods can't do this sort of thing?

What?! Then why won't you believe me?!

'Aha.'

In other words, accidentally blasting the ground to pieces because you couldn't control your own power was something only a being of divine rank equal to the God of the Universe — the one they called the Main Mod — could manage?

Which meant this much, at least, was now perfectly clear.

Me. Strong. Very.

Probably stronger than anyone else browsing this gallery.

And right then, a thought sparked to life in my five-thousand-years-matured, genius of a brain.

This divine rank, this power — the kind that might well surpass even a God of the Universe.

If I could just announce to the gallery how strong I was, and back it up with proof...

Maybe I could even make it to the trending page?!!

"Heheheh…."

That dazzling little star badge shining beside my posts!

Lost in a happy daydream at the mere thought of it, I uploaded a heads-up post to the gallery.

Hah. Let them babble all they like.

I'd learned how to take verification shots from the pinned notice. All I had to do was aim the Construct's retinas at whatever I wanted in view and think "snap."

Right, let's upload a picture of this scorched wasteland righ—

- KRAK!!!

"?"

A sudden wet burst of sound, and my view lurched straight down toward the ground. When I groped at my head to trace the source of the noise, I found the Construct's skull half-shattered.

Thank goodness I'd disabled the pain receptors when building this body — otherwise I'd have been rolling across the dirt, writhing in agony.

I brushed the dust off my knees, stood, and restored the ruined skull.

Brain first, then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the cranial case, blood vessels, muscles, all the way down. Mm. There we go.

Then I turned around to face the ones who had blown half my head off.

Two men were staring at me with utterly dumbfounded faces.

"№ ㏇!! ○● #*=+!!!!"

"##! №+_$$!!!!"

'?'

All I could do was tilt my head at their words — after all, it was the first language I'd ever heard in my life.

'Well, this is a completely different galaxy from the one I lived in during my past life, so I suppose it's only natural the languages don't match.'

Still, why on earth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did they shoot at me? What was the plan if I really had been just an ordinary little girl?!

Determined not to repeat my earlier mistake of terraforming the planet with every footstep, I began creeping toward the men on careful tiptoe.

...Whereupon their faces drained chalk-white, and they once again opened fire on me with wild abandon!!

- Vwee! Vwee!

Oh. Not bullets — energy rounds? Laser guns are so cool.

I'd recreated them any number of times in the worlds of my daydreams, but seeing the real thing, the level of detail was on another tier entirely.

Getting shot at by a gun that awesome? Honestly, that was a reward in itself.

I strolled toward the men even as the shots struck home. It wasn't as though any of it posed the slightest threat to me — every new hole patched itself over the instant it was made.

"F... fucking hell, what IS that thing!!!!"

"Shoot! SHOOT! Keep blasting!!!"

The girl.

No — the being they had believed to be a girl kept advancing through the baptism of fire as though it were nothing at all, and so they had no choice but to scream and unload everything they had.

But the more energy rounds they poured into her, the deeper the despair and terror carved themselves into their faces.

Because the shots they emptied into her amounted to nothing, and from every hole the energy blasts tore open, strange tendrils sprouted forth and stitched the girl's body back together on the spot.

"Gahk... hah... huff…."

"What are you doing! SHOOT!!"

"AAAAAAGH!!!!"

"Th-that freak!!"

In the end, one of them broke beneath the fear.

The man hurled his rifle aside, spun on his heel, and bolted.

And soon, at his ear —

a sound he could not possibly comprehend began to ring.

"……."

The instant that voice slipped into his ear —

his heart went still.

Calmer than it had ever been. Like the night sea on a windless day, utterly without ripple.

The man turned his gaze toward the one who had brought him this peace.

A child.

A little girl.

...No. Perhaps not?

And what did it matter, anyway?

It was the Void.

This world was Void.

Everything was meaningless; everything was worthless.

Gender? Age? Nothing but hollow concepts dreamed up by the benighted fools too blind to grasp that one simple truth.

So what if that being was a little girl or anything else?

- Vwee!!

At the sound of a shot, he turned toward the comrade who had come with him. That one, too, seemed to have grasped the truth upon hearing the voice — for he had shoved the muzzle of his rifle into his own mouth and pulled the trigger.

Ah, how he envied him. He shouldn't have thrown his own gun away.

Well, no matter. It wasn't as though a bullet was the only way out of this world.

The man sank to his knees on the ground —

- KRAK! KRAK!!!

— and began smashing his head into the floor.

"Wh-what the—?! Why are they suddenly doing this?!!"

I told them to calm down, just the once, and suddenly one of them killed himself and the other dropped to his knees and started driving his head into the dirt.

"Come on, calm down already!!!"

I hurried over to the man still battering his head against the ground, took his skull in my hands, and tried to stop him.

And whether my words had finally gotten through or not, the man stopped hurting himself and stared at me, dazed and uncomprehending.

Ha! I did i—

"He... hehe... heheheh!!!! HEHEH!!!! A-aAAAAAGH!!!!"

- BOOM!!

The man burst out into wild, unhinged cackling — and then his head exploded!!

"Holy crap!! Ptui! Ptui, ptui!!"

Blood sprayed in every direction, and a fragment of brain landed squarely in my mouth. I was scraping at my tongue, thoroughly grossed out, when —

"?"

The man's memories began to play back inside my head... huh?

His name was Daniel. Born and raised in a noble house of the Galactic Empire, but expelled from the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠family over the delinquencies of his school days.

And after that...

…….

"Huh?"

The playback cut off right there.

"Wait, does that mean..."

Eating someone's brain lets me read their memories?

I looked down at the brain fragments scattered across the ground.

"Hmm…."

It was deeply off-putting, no question — but I needed to know who these men were, and why they'd suddenly killed themselves. And I needed the knowledge of their language, too, so...

'Ugh... still, I can't help feeling a little revolted...'

But there was nothing for it.

If there was one silver lining, it was that having transcended into a higher being, the pieces no longer seemed outright impossible to eat.

One by one, I picked the brain fragments up off the ground and ate them.

Having been human in my past life, the smell alone flooded me with disgust at first — but as I kept eating, it turned out to be surprisingly palatable.

Like eating fresh yukhoe? Raw beef tartare, essentially.

Once every last fragment had been devoured, I held the complete memory of the man called Daniel.

Grasping the language he'd used and the knowledge he'd carried was a bonus.

And here's what I learned:

'This guy's absolute trash, huh?'

A space pirate who had repeated plunder and murder beyond counting — among his victims had been young children and pregnant women alike.

When I realized his head had exploded because of me, I did feel a touch bad about it, but...

Well. I don't exactly owe him any guilt, do I!

Still, now that I knew my voice itself was as good as a lethal weapon to humans, I couldn't just keep blurting things out without thinking. I tore the vocal cords out of my Construct, reduced them to ash, and blew them away on the wind.

'By the way, though...'

I looked up at the sky.

Somewhere up there, hanging in orbit, was the flagship fleet of the 'Fingers' — the massive pirate alliance that ruled the sea of stars — the 'Thumb' strike fleet, gazing down at the planet where my Construct stood.

Their objective: to explore and secure the Galactic Empire's secret experimental sector, hidden somewhere on this planet.

Having grasped all of that, I thought:

'Sucks to be them. Not my problem.'

They'd find it on their own and leave on their own. As long as they didn't touch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me, that was all I cared about.

And besides, right now I had something far more important on my plate.

'The verification post!!'

I still had to prove my divine rank to the gallery — and all that time spent scarfing down brain fragments had eaten up a huge chunk of the day!

I frantically uploaded a photo of the crater I'd created to the gallery!

'Damn it!'

So evidence on this level didn't cut it, after all?

Then... how was I supposed to verify it?

Aboard the flagship of the space pirate fleet 'Thumb.'

The moment they finally played the footage transmitted, too late, from the advance team they'd sent down to survey the planet, everyone on the ship fell silent.

She had clearly been an ordinary girl. A fragile-looking little girl, to all outward appearances.

But that being was nothing of the sort.

A creature that restored half a shattered skull as casually as brushing off dust, and that could shatter a human mind with a single word — then blow the head clean off its owner.

The moment they watched that being greedily devour the scattered fragments of a man's brain, some of them had no choice but to clap a hand over their mouths and retch.

And these were space pirates who had taken countless lives with their own two hands.

Yet there was exactly one man who watched the footage, unblinking, without so much as a flicker.

Captain of the 'Thumb' — Yoichi Takeda.

When the footage ended, he gave the order to his subordinate.

"That thing. Bring it to me."

"Y-... yes?!"

"Feel free to use any means necessary."

Yoichi Takeda looked down at his subordinate with glacial eyes.

"Bring. It. To me."

"... Yes, sir. Understood."

Takeda was thinking.

With that thing in his grasp, claiming the position of Supreme Commander of all the 'Fingers' was by no means out of reach.

A predatory, greedy smile curled across Takeda's lips.