Chapter 179: Cherubim: Estasia (2)

When I opened my eyes in the morning, the first thing I saw was Estasia’s face, sleeping soundly.

She was holding a stuffed animal in her arms, drooling on it.

I didn’t know how the toy came along with us, but it suited her better than I expected.

I left Estasia alone and got out of the bed.

“…”

As I got out of the bed, avoiding Estasia, I saw some feathers on the floor.

The white feathers that were rolling on the floor belonged to Estasia, without a doubt.

I remembered hearing that if you have a dog, you’ll find dog hair all over the house.

It seemed that if you have an angel, you’ll find feathers flying around the house.

I quietly looked at Estasia’s feathers and then picked one up.

“Feathers, huh…”

I examined the feather in my hand closely.

But there was nothing special about it, even though it was an angel’s feather.

It looked no different from the ordinary feathers I had seen before.

I picked up a cigarette and a smartphone that were lying in the corner, along with Estasia’s feather.

The cigarette was something I had kept to give to the leader of the group who was now dead.

I took everything and carefully opened the door and went outside.

A cold wind brushed past my cheek as I stepped into the hallway.

“It’s still quiet.”

The scenery I faced in the hallway was the opposite of what I saw in the room.

Unlike the temple that was wrapped in dreams and illusions, everything that met my eyes was faded and rusty.

This world was already ruined beyond repair.

I looked at the ruined cityscape as I put a cigarette in my mouth.

It was something I didn’t smoke often.

But for some reason, I felt like smoking right now.

Click.

I lit it with a lighter and then saw the leader who liked cigarettes flash through my mind.

“I couldn’t give him anything after all.”

The alcohol and cigarettes that I had kept to repay him for the chocolate were still in my hands.

I looked at the cityscape with a hollow feeling.

It didn’t take long for a lively city to fall apart.

It was over as soon as an unidentified virus swept through the city.

“Hoo…”

The gray smoke drifted away with the wind.

Even though the fog that hid the truth had disappeared, my mind didn’t feel any easier.

Rather, there were things that I couldn’t avoid anymore because I knew the truth.

My own mistakes too.

And even my future that was given to me.

They were things that I couldn’t turn away from or pretend not to see anymore.

“Whether or not I get along with Estelle, I’ll have to keep you with me for a while. That won’t change.”

That’s why I spoke to the smartphone in my hand.

But there was no answer from the screen that was turned off.

I urged him as if to hurry him up, and called his name again.

The name of the familiar existence who had delivered my voice instead of me for a long time.

“Right? [Miracle: Smartphone].”

New translator.

No, [Miracle: Smartphone].

The name of the guy who was always erased from the warning message about causality correction.

I said his name out loud for once.

Then, light flowed from the screen and his voice reached my ears.

-“You already had a hunch about me.”

“Estelle wouldn’t do something like that herself, so there must have been someone who acted on her behalf and conveyed my intentions.”

-“…”

“It’s a reasonable deduction, isn’t it?”

There was someone who pretended to be God instead of me.

That was what I thought when I heard from Estelle that a smartphone was a miracle.

In this world where there seemed to be no living humans, there was only one thing that could act on my behalf.

-“I see.”

The smartphone accepted my deduction without any hesitation.

He probably had no reason to deny it.

He kept silent for a while, then blinked his screen and spoke to me again.

-“So, why did you call me?”

The reason why I called him.

That was because there was something I wanted to ask him right now.

I tilted the smartphone slightly and looked at the screen full of noise.

And then I spoke to him who would be staring at me from this small device.

“There’s something I want to hear from you.”

-“What are you curious about?”

“Do you think I look like a god too?”

Estelle said that everything that had happened so far was a work to make me a god.

And that this small space behind this old door was a temple made for me.

If what Estelle said was true, then I would be something different from an ordinary human.

For example, I might have some hidden divine power that I didn’t know about.

The question I asked the smartphone was to check that.

-“Yes.”

The smartphone answered my question without a hint of hesitation.

At least to him, I was no different from a god.

The important thing was what he said next.

I asked him about his identity.

“So, what kind of god do you think I am? A god of justice? Or a god of slaughter?”

Just like the six goddesses had their own names, if I was a god, I would have a fitting name too.

Then, what was the name given to me?

I asked the smartphone that, but this time he gave me a negative answer.

-“I don’t know what kind of being you are.”

“You don’t know either?”

-“I’m just a mere creation. I can’t answer anything beyond what I know.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t know anything about my identity either.

I had no choice but to look at the smartphone with a sour taste in my mouth.

It was too frustrating to end the question like this.

“…Is that so.”

-“But I can tell you about your fate that I’ve been watching so far.”

But the next thing he said made me listen to the smartphone again.

He seemed to have one more thing to tell me.

Fate.

I didn’t know if it would be helpful for me now.

But it didn’t seem like a bad idea to hear it once.

“Okay, tell me. What is my fate?”

-“You… were born with the fate of destruction.”

“Destruction…?”

And what he said about my fate was not very pleasant.

The fate of destruction.

It was a repulsive story just by hearing it.

I gestured to the smartphone to continue, and he went on.

-“Those who catch your eye will bring death upon themselves, and those who receive your grace will run towards ruin.”

-“That fate eventually drove both himself and the world into destruction.”

As I listened to his story, the characters I had faced beyond the screen of the smartphone flashed through my mind.

Sometimes for me.

Sometimes they brought death upon themselves.

Countless lives had met their futile end.

It was a fitting outcome for those who were watched by the evil god.

“Destruction…”

-“You are destruction.”

In a way, it wasn’t completely wrong.

Everything around me had been falling apart from the beginning to the end.

The people I cherished had all left me, and even myself who remained here was heading towards ruin.

It wouldn’t be strange if it was all a joke of fate.

But that didn’t mean I could accept it completely.

“So, you’re saying I’m going to become a god of destruction?”

-“I don’t know that either.”

“I see. You’re just a useless piece of metal after all.”

-“…”

I chuckled bitterly and stubbed out the cigarette butt on the railing.

The cigarette butt that had lost its heat crumbled.

I threw it towards the empty street, and looked at the smartphone again.

The screen still showed some incomprehensible stuff with noise.

“I didn’t call you just to hear that kind of story… Well, whatever.”

There was nothing that could really help me in the end.

I licked my tongue and put the smartphone on the railing.

And then I grabbed it with both hands and swiped the screen with my finger.

But nothing changed on the screen, no matter how much I swiped it with my finger.

So I had no choice but to give him an order.

“Stop showing me weird stuff and show me the gacha screen.”

War was inevitable.

No matter what decision I made, I had to prepare for war anyway.

The simplest way to do that was gacha.

The gacha of <Paid Currency Shop> was the only way to increase my specs without causality correction.

“I’m going to make the cult stronger with this.”

Of course, the cost for 10 pulls was not small at all.

In the past, I would have trembled and hesitated to pay that amount.

It was an amount that I couldn’t afford with an ordinary salaryman’s monthly income.

But now it was different.

I could use all the money I had saved in my bank account for gacha.

Estelle knew that too, so she asked me to wage war.

“I have about 30 million won left in my account… Maybe I can pull 3,000 times.”

I never thought I would spend this much money on a game.

It was ironic that I could only use money as I pleased after the world was destroyed.

I smiled bitterly and lifted my finger towards the shiny gacha button in front of me.

And then I touched it with my fingertip.

-You can get various items that will help you play the game by using 10 pulls.

Squeak.

As soon as I gave the command, items started to appear on the screen.

It was the same gacha that I always faced.

-You have acquired [Hard Black Bread].

-You have acquired [Hard Black Bread].

-You have acquired [Hard Black Bread].

-You have acquired [Hard Black Bread].

-You have acquired [Hard Black Bread].

.

.

.

-You have acquired [Hard Black Bread].

And the familiar results appeared before my eyes.