But then Michael realized it was not that simple to check whether he would gain the soul of those who had died within his world. This was because there was no such thing as deaths by natural causes within his world.
People simply do not die there, and as such, no one would ever be born.
His world was originally a game, and it was designed to be as such. If player's character somehow aged and died of natural causes, it would break the game, not to mention how would he implement such a system in the first place.
How would the flow of time within the game be related to the flow of time in the real world? It cannot be 1 to 1, as that would be asking players to live a second life along with their real life. It cannot really be of any proportion, actually.
Lack of death by natural causes was one of the reasons to why Michael did not speed up time for those five teenagers after doing it once, as being unable to age would break the illusion of reality.
His world was no longer a game even though it had and relied upon gaming mechanics.
Another reason was because there was no point in doing so.
The rate in which Michael could siphon usable energy off of his believers were related to his ability to do so. Speeding up time for his believers within his world would not make his ability to obtain energy from them any faster. Or more efficient.
Of course, it would help if Michael sped time up for himself and only himself, but Michael did not want to spend years after years within his world just to gather enough power. Even though Michael honestly loved the world he had created, he would go insane if he was to live there for years.
Things might be different if there were more people living within his world, however. But for them to do so, more systems needed to be implemented and integrated.
Systems that governed natural deaths for example.
Michael understood his world was lacking, but luckily, he was given the mean to rectify what his world lacked. All he needed was time and the will to do so. He believed he had the latter but not the former, and perhaps once he completed his task here, he would have all the time he needed.
The Abominations were quick to carry out his orders. Within a handful of minutes, they returned with utterly terrified people. People who looked like they had been through much worse than being eaten alive by the undead.
"May… his greatness has mercy… upon our souls," a prayer was heard from one of the people, and it annoyed Michael. Perhaps it was because that person was praying to someone else in his presence.
Michael reached out his hand and gripped the person by the throat. "If you are praying for mercy then you should have prayed to me."
With a snap, the amount of greater mortal soul within his possession increased by one.
Michael dropped the lifeless body on the ground without remorse, and within the next moment, that body twitched and pulled itself upright before growling in ravenous hunger. Just like other undead out there, those who died at his hand would automatically be resurrected as an undead.
It was his undead, however, as Michael could control it without any effort whatsoever. While it didn't take much effort to control other wild undead, there was still some effort to do so. This was absolutely effortless.
"No! Father!" a young girl called out, and from the tearful expression on her face, she truly wanted all of this nightmare to end. She was not the only one, as countless people had never imagined the world would be overrun by the dead.
The summoned heroes were their last hope, and Michael felt that there was no real point in revealing what had happened to the heroes. They might die happier that way. He was not heartless even though he had no physical heart.
Hearing the cries, the new created undead turned towards the young girl. Despite being an undead, it did not take on the grotesque appearance of one. This was simply because it had died a relative clean death, only have its neck snapped by Michael.
Michael found his strength to be quite absurd despite being just a skeleton. He did not use any sort of enchantment or augmentation spells upon himself. If he did, his strength would be even more absurd.
Leaving that aside for now, Michael took control of the newly reanimated corpse. He then made it to lance out and grabbed the young girl, taking her into its tight embrace.
"Father…?" the young girl uttered and hugged the corpse back, refusing to accept that her father was dead even though he was killed right before her eyes. "Father!"
"I am here, Lis," the corpse spoke softly under the control of Michael. "Do you want to be with father forever?"
Thanked to the established mental connection, Michael learned everything that he needed to learn of the corpse and its family. It would come as a surprise to Michael if he hadn't already experienced such thing already.
"Yes, father. Please don't leave me. Please don't leave me," Lis beseeched and planted her tearful face against her father, whose tighten its embrace.
"Then pray. Pray to him," the corpse requested. "If you do, we will be together forever. We will never be apart, Lis. I promise."
The girl immediately did, and Michael noted that he had gained a new believer. He frowned since she was not a worshipper despite praying to him. Perhaps, it was not from her heart. In any case, it was a successful test as she did become a believer.
He now had 7 in total despite having over 50 souls at his disposal. He really needed to convert all those souls into believers or better. Otherwise, they were not that much use to him.
"I shall grant you your wish," Michael stated. The moment he touched them, they turned into colorful pixels before absorbing into his being. He gained two new models and one greater mortal soul.
While Michael could gain souls relatively easy by having his undead creations did all the dirty work, he did not obtain the body to go with those souls, however. It was an oversight, but still, it was not really a huge oversight.
"They are in a much better place now," Michael added before eyeing at the rest of the people, brought here by the Abominations. "You will all be soon."
"No! No! Help me! Help!"
The screams and cries for mercy went unheard, and within the next minute, they were all reduced to countless pixels and absorbed into his being, allowing him to gain their physical forms as well as their souls.
If Michael wished, he could spawn them within his world and allow them to live there.
Michael wondered what a large number of people could achieve in his world, and it would be good to find out later when he had programmed and integrated all the necessary Systems. The Framework he was given provided all the essential Systems, but not all the necessary Systems to fully simulate a real world.
He supposed it was up to him to acquire those Systems.
While waiting for more people to be brought to him, Michael created more Abominations from all the wild undead. After a while, he noticed that some of the Abominations were not returning to him when they supposed to.
Michael reached out and found that they were killed. It seemed that there were stronger prey outside the walls, and it was a good opportunity to acquire more powerful avatars.