Chapter 383: Her Belief

The original world, already in chaos, begins to disintegrate even more rapidly on Judgment Day, when the Sun God himself declares that he will judge the world, especially with Celeste at the center of it all.

[All of this, all of this is God’s will.]

Judgment Day.

On that day, Celeste is given a special command by God to become completely corrupted.

Her mind is broken, her heart is broken, her eyes are dead, and she becomes a complete puppet of God’s will.

She became a perfect killing machine whose sole purpose is the destruction of the world, especially since she was able to fully grasp her abilities through the god’s message.

Inheriting the powers of the gods, her ability is to unleash the powers of others, causing them to collapse and die.

In other words, it was the power to control the opponent’s abilities at will because their abilities were also given by the Sun God.

With it, she could manipulate all the villains gathered in Cathedral to her will and bring about the destruction of the world.

Of course, that wasn’t the only instruction Celeste received from the Sun God that day.

Eliminate the Star Child.

The Sun God’s command was to eliminate the one with the power of the Star God.

It was the first concrete command, unlike the metaphorical and abstract way he’d delivered all his words up until now.

‘…Of course.’

There is no way that a person who received abilities from the Sun God could defeat the Sun God.

Naturally, the only person who could be a problem for his plan of destruction would be an incarnation empowered by another god.

…And since Celeste, by then, had already gained some familiarity with the Star Powers from the old books, what happened next was simple.

[Researching most of the talented people with blonde hair…Stardus of Korea. Get rid of her.]

Stardus…and Korea, where she was, would be subjected to an all-out assault by Cathedral.

In the process, most of the major characters from the original story are killed.

[Kuluk. Haha…At least she’s defending the country to the end. I’m a patriot, too… Kuluk]

President Park Joon-ho was killed by the villains’ attack while leading the remaining heroes in the field.

[Stardus. No, it’s Haru…Yeah. You, too, must survive…Okay?]

Icicle was killed in a bombing raid after holding on to the Control Tower until the end.

In addition, Electra, who died when her power ran out of control, and Kim Chae-hyun, a college senior who was kidnapped and then corrupted and died at her hands while confronting Stardus…It’s a plot development that literally kills everyone.

And in the process, how does Stardus survive?

She has the power of the stars to protect her…because she was blessed with a star that would never let her give up.

And so it ends. Celeste herself descends.

[Aaah… Kuluk. Finally, back to the gods…]

Stardus finally succeeds in killing Celeste.

But…can we call it a success?

The country was already destroyed, and there was no one left to stand by her side.

When everything falls apart, the Judgment Day comes and the Sun God descends…

And that’s it, the original story.

“It’s all different now.”

I said, and smiled wryly.

…It was more of a smile than a grin, but it was a smile nonetheless. Phew. Relax, relax.

Because the Sun God’s plan was screwed up from the start.

…Stardus is even stronger than she was in the original.

From the moment Celeste joined my side.

“Sun bastard. Your plan will never work.”

I looked up at the sky, muttering to myself.

Not that God would ever see it anyway. If he did, he’d have fried me with lightning while I was flirting with Celeste.

This world is still protected by the God of the Stars.

“….”

The three gods of the beginning.

The Sun God, the Moon God, and the Star God.

…The Star God is the one who loved this world the most.

The Star God.

A long time ago Star God fought Sun God who destroyed the world and cast him into the far reaches of space.

He created a circle of perception in this world, making it impossible for divine forces to interfere.

…In the process, he exhausted all his power and came closer to death than anyone else.

Star God also brought me to this world.

“…Hah.”

Actually, I don’t have fond memories of the Star God.

A god who kidnapped others to this dying world, threw me two dangerous and weak powers, and disappeared.

…Of course, when I first fell into this world and rolled for three years. I decided to bury my resentment toward her. There’s nothing to be gained by dwelling on the past. You have to live in the present.

Somehow, I managed to change the world, to make it different from the dying original.

“How did I end up here…?”

I muttered under my breath as I said it.

I did all of this for Stardus.

She’s practically the reason I’m still alive.

So, now I’ll protect her to the end.

That’s what I muttered to myself in my room.

-Ziying.

That’s when I got a text.

And, of course, I opened my phone.

[Egotistic…What are you doing?]

…It was Stardus, texting me.

Of course. I guess it’s her instinct to contact me just when I’m thinking about her.

I smirked at the thought and tapped my cell phone.

[I was thinking about Stardus.]

…Just like that, there was no reply from Stardus for a while. What’s going on? Is she busy?

Just when I thought so.

[…Really? What a coincidence. I was thinking about you too.]

[(smiling teddy bear emoji holding a heart)]

I couldn’t help but smile.

‘…?’

I texted her in a panic, feeling an uncanny sense of foreboding.

[Stardus, where are you now?]

She replied, as if it were a given.

[Me? I’m in front of your house, but…]

“What?”

I read it in a flash, jumped up and ran outside.

…Somehow, that weird feeling was never wrong.

***

The evolution of our Egostream base has been quite varied.

It started out in a basement, beneath an empty single-family house in Seoul, connected by a long elevator.

After living there with Seo-eun and Soobin, we moved to our current mansion in the mountains after the arrival of Healer Ha-Yul.

In the process, we used a teleportation device to connect the old basement to the mansion.

This created a three-level connection between the mansion, the basement, and our home in Seoul. It only took one teleportation device to get from the basement to Seoul.

…Anyway, the bottom line is, I gave Stardus my Seoul home address, because she should know where I live. The mansion in the mountains is shielded from intruders by Seo-Eun, and it’s too far away.

So there, in front of my home in Seoul, I was reunited with Stardus after a long time.

…Actually, I had seen her in front of the Yuseong Group building the other day, but it was too brief and she was in a terrifying mood.

“Egostic!”

“Stardus.”

There she was, in the sky in front of my house, dressed in her usual red suit, her blonde hair flowing, smiling as soon as she saw me.

…And just like that, Stardus hugged me.

“I missed you.”

“Haha. Me too.”

She buried her head on my shoulder and said that while breathing lightly….Apparently, she decided to neatly forget about meeting me in front of Yuseong Group before.

Yeah. This reaction is normal.

‘…Wait, normal?’

Is it normal for Stardus to hug me as soon as she sees me?

I’ve finally gotten weird…No. I’m used to it.

Just when I was thinking that she poked her head out of my shoulder holster, her blue eyes meeting mine.

“Egostic. You’re not busy today, by the way? Do you mind if I spend so much time with you?”

She hesitated, looking at me.

…Seeing her like that, I smiled bitterly.

I’ve been pretending to be busy all this time. No…I was busy, but still.

‘Yes.’

It’s only a matter of time before the world is plunged into extreme chaos by God’s declaration of destruction.

Maybe we should meet every so often while there’s still peace.

With that thought, I smiled and opened my mouth to tell her.

“Yes. I’m free today, and if you’re free, I’d like to stay with you.”

“Really?”

Seeing her eyes light up like that, I smiled weakly.

…Yes. And I’ll take this opportunity to let her know that soon the world will be thrown into chaos by a god.

***

We enjoyed our date for a day and at the end I told her, blandly, the truth of what was to come.

“And soon God will declare destruction, and the world will be in chaos.”

Somewhere, on a pier in front of a sunset ocean, gazing out at the scarlet shore, I couldn’t meet Stardus’ eyes as I said it.

I wonder what her reaction will be….when she heard the words of god in the original Stardus had almost lost it. She cursed the world, broke down, and finally shed a single tear.

I wonder if she’ll have the same reaction this time…but Stardus’ reaction was unexpected.

“Really?”

She replied, as if she didn’t care.

Then, with a hint of laughter in her voice, she replied.

“….Then, Egostic. You have other plans, don’t you?”

At the sound of her voice saying that to me.

“…Yes. That’s right.”

I said, a little surprised by the response, and turned my head to study her face.

“Then it’s okay.”

I saw her smile.

She smiles at the ocean, then turns to look at me as she sweeps back her golden hair, reflecting off the water, and smiles back at me.

“Egostic. Since you’re here, I’m sure you have another plan, so I’ll do what you say, because I trust you.”

…Unlike the original, she smiled.

Clearly, she’s relying on me, and that’s not a good thing.

Even though I know it’s not, nevertheless…I was also smiling.

“Yes. Just trust me.”

And with that, we parted ways after watching the ocean for a bit longer.

“…And Egostic.”

“What?”

“I’ve been thinking about it some more….no more than two. No more!”

“…What??”

…With some unintelligible words, we parted ways.

I couldn’t make out what the last words meant…