Chapter 383: God's Not Dead, Because… (2)
—
Back when Neji was talking with the Goddess of Death, Jashin, Lady Luck had chimed in to let him know about something called [Tales].
["Basically, each of the "Tales" is the personification of the achievements of a divine being. A person can have multiple Tales if their achievement is great enough. Even Abstract Entities such as I have Tales. There are beings in this Omniverse whose tales surpass yours, given you are so young, however, those beings are few. After all, whom you killed were 300 Prime Gods, with one of them being the daughter of the Primordial. The fun part is,"] Lady Luck had trailed off. ["When I said "those beings are very few", I meant divine beings or abstract entities as strong as or stronger than myself. As a mortal, no other person but you have earned such an achievement. In fact, the only being who even comes close to your mortal achievement is the guy whom you may know as the Biblical God."]
It was clear that she meant the Biblical God's achievements were more than his, but he was close enough. He was confused about how that worked though – after all, how was the Biblical God once a "mortal" if he's a Class-0 "Abstract Entity"?
Whatever the case, Lady Luck was talking about the Omniversal Biblical God. If he were to compare him to the Biblical God of this world, who had "died", meaning he was in no way Omnipotent before, Neji should have a purer "Tale" than that being.
Neji wasn't a God specific to something, one might notice. Despite being so strong as a Dragon, he wasn't a God of Dragons. He wasn't a God of Darkness or Light either. It's not a bad thing, however, it just meant his domain wasn't limited to these things. He was an all-rounder, with the potential to match the Omniversal Biblical God – meaning he had the potential to be Omnipotence.
So when he released a wave of his Divinity, limited to this park only, the trees glowed, some leaves turned golden, fruits became those that grant immortality, and the atmosphere turned into one of pure peace and dominance.
As his hair elongated, his form gleamed like a divine pillar. From the burst of his divinity, his nerdy glasses vanished, and his stupid formal dress turned like that of royalty, Neji stared at the nun.
"A-ah…"
The priestess, the nun, Asia Argento stared at the spectacle in awe. She broke out of her daze half a minute later, still awed, and slipped to her knees. Her head touched the ground and she wept.
"M-my lord! My creator, my guardian, my lone master! This foolish child of yours begs forgiveness for not recognizing you at a glance!"
With tears flowering on the ground like a fountain, the girl bowed to the God she had believed in all her life, as her soul felt as if it was cleansed of all its impurity. Even if in reality, she had no impurity.
As Neji registered her faith that was directed at him, notifications filled his retina.
* * *
Sitting inside a café, with the little girl who was crying her eyes out earlier sitting ahead of him, Neji was checking his notifications.
[Ding! You are on your path to scavenge the legacy of a late God. It is not at all impossible, even if you're against billions of populations. In fact, this game is easier with the help of the System. Your progress on taking over a dead God's legacy is at its starting stage, but at least you have taken your first step.]
===
Progress Bar: | | | | | | | | | | 100%
On Progress: | 0.01%
===
[There will be noticeable changes to your Divinity every 10% rise – a permanent increase in Divinity, that doesn't rely on Faith Points generated from people. Over time, your name will be paralleling with this particular God, and the prayers shot at him will be yours alone. When you have 100% progress, you'd have all the powers and authorities that God once owned.]
So the progress not only showed how far he was in his self-assigned mission, but it also gave him power for every 10% he crossed. That was good to know. On that note, he wondered why he didn't have a quest yet.
[A Quest has been generated!]
"Oh."
===
Description: Though once a mortal, you are now a God. However, you are far from satisfied with your powers. You want more, and finally, you have an opportunity for your growth.
Quest: Establish yourself as the brand new Biblical God of this world.
Reward: ????
Failures: ????
Time limit: None.
===
So it was this sort of quest, with no reward or failure clear for himself. At least he knew his goal this time, unlike the blunder with his recent "Survive" quest that appeared when the Creator Goddess came to hunt him.
Speaking of which, he earned nothing from that quest. Just "surviving" was his reward for that quest. Kind of crazy to think about.
Neji sighed. Oh well. Now he had time, he supposed. Kimi had to be here, and he didn't mind taking a bit of time searching for her while doing a side quest.
"Uhm, sir,"
"Hmm?"
Neji was broken out of his trance by a sweet voice. Turning to the side, as his long hair fell to the side, he found a waitress smiling anxiously at him. She wore a blush and was carrying a cup of coffee.
He frowned a little. He had his drink on the table already. On the side, Asia was drinking her chocolate milk, with her gaze dazed; she was thinking about so many things that she didn't pay any attention to her surroundings.
"Um… this is on the house."
The waitress put the cup on his table. Then she turned around and walked away.
"Huh. Right."
Neji opened his status window and put his CHA down once again.
In the last hour, he had done this three times. He needed to find the perfect number where he wouldn't seem too ordinary, but not catch a dozen wild flirts an hour either – like it had happened by now.
Frankly, he wasn't in the mood. He wasn't in the mood to get laid, to flirt, or anything that he usually did. After the things that had happened recently, he found himself a little messy inside. He needed some alone time, and getting too close to new girls wasn't going to help either of them.
His expression was usually relaxed with a small smile on the corner of his lips, but after the incident with Celestine, he hadn't smiled once. He had a few times, but none were genuine. Excluding the 12 hours he spent in Ozymandias' Temple, where he did feel a bit relaxed, nowhere near usual though.
Right now, happiness didn't exist within him, everything just felt more frustrating than usual.
Neji heard the waitress rush behind the counter and tell her friend that she did it; he buzzed out their conversation after a second. He wasn't interested in any of that.
"So, Asia,"
Grabbing his coffee and taking a sip, he called. Asia jolted out of her daze and gave him a look, one that a loyal dog would give its owner after meeting him years later.
"Yes, lord?"
"I told you, just Neji is fine."
"I cannot commit heresy, my lord."
Neji would have sighed, but he rather took a sip of his coffee. Internally shaking his head, he looked at her.
"God is dead," he said, watching her blink. "I am not exactly the person you have been praying to all your life. However, I'm the heir to his throne. I am sure you know there are devils in this world, and a lot of other supernatural stuff; they're trying to take over the world, to ruin it all. My appearance is a bit late already as they have been making moves for centuries now, but now that I am here, the planet should be safe."
"...."
Asia fell silent.
God was dead, that was not a piece of news she was expecting to hear from a being she has been seeing as God for the last few hours.
"I am not Jesus Christ before you ask. I am just an heir to the throne just as he is. Though he isn't interested in the throne, if he was, the world wouldn't be in the state it is right now. Then again, I am sure you have no idea what this 'state' is that I am talking about."
Asia was growing more concerned and confused, by her facial expression. His words were growing like a cloggy in her head. She couldn't comprehend his words.
She was sure he was divine, somehow. He for sure was. Yet, he said God was dead, and so he wasn't God. He wasn't Jesus Christ either. In that case, what the hell was he? Had she committed heresy by bowing to him?
Jesus was real in this world, Neji knew. Now, he said he wasn't God, and neither was he Jesus, so obviously the nun grew confused about what was going on. But he had to clear that up to her from the start before a misunderstanding could be born. Though this had the potential to become something problematic, given he claimed God was dead, but his son Jesus Christ, was alive.
Before she could label him something negative, Neji hummed and then spoke in a clear voice.
"The best way to put it would be… I am his reincarnation? The closest thing to it for a deity, anyway."
Since his existence would be overlapping with that of God as the percentage would go up, he was technically right. Even if it was also a blatant lie, from an outside view.
Asia's facial expression relaxed at that. The concept of reincarnation should be limited to mortals, but if God could die – which she believed since it was said by Neji – it's not weird that he could reincarnate too.
"If you are God, you are God. Technicalities don't matter, my lord."
"I suppose."
Asia was greatly shaken, flustered, and embarrassed. From his connection to her due to faith, and just on its own too, he could feel she was ashamed and disgusted at herself for finding herself feeling something closer to 'lust' for her God.
Neji put down his CHA a little, once more.
Taking another sip from his cup, he thought over his next words a little. After a while, he nodded at her and spoke.
"I am going to claim the seat of the old God, and I need your help to accomplish that. It will take me a while, perhaps a few months, but with your help, I will be able to do it. I am saying I need a pope, and I want you to take that position."
Back in the Naruto world, he had kept that position for Rumi. But in this world, such a rank wasn't suitable for Kimi. If he was God, that woman would be his Goddess. So Asia could role-play as a pope for now.
"Are you down for it?"
Asia was stunned speechless at his words. She stared at him for a second, before she began to cry again. Neji waved her tears with his telekinesis and watched her nod.
"I am your servant, my lord, I don't need such lofty titles to serve you. Please use me as you'd see fit."
That made Neji smile gently.
"I understand."
* * *
Neji and Asia were walking the streets. Asia was looking for the church earlier, but now that she had found her God in person, how was a church important? But still, they would need a place to stay.
Neji could simply make a heaven on the spot, or just slip into his Treasure of Babylon, but he wanted to taste the life of a modern world again. It had been a long while since he last tasted it. His visit to his first life still felt like a fever dream, so he didn't count that, more so since he was on a limited time.
So they were looking for a hotel. Money he had was limitless, so he had to choose a nice enough hotel.
Just when he was looking around the entire city with his Jogan to look for which hotel he should stay in, he found a little something teleported in his pocket.
It didn't teleport out of nowhere. It was in his back pocket before, so he hadn't noticed it, but now it was in his front pocket suddenly.
Neji looked up at the sky. At the distant stars… and even beyond that.
It was Mistress Death's work. She wanted him to see the card right now, that's why she didn't wait for him to check his back pocket.
Neji grabbed the card from his pockets and looked at it. A frown appeared on his face.
"Uhm… my lord? Is there anything concerning you?"
"No, it's nothing much."
Reading the card, which was an identity card, he realized why he looked like a nerdy office worker at the beginning of this world. Because that look was that Mistress Death wanted him to see in for a while.
[Name: Neji Hado
Occupation: Teacher at Kuoh High School]
So that's how it was. He could just ignore this and live according to his plans, but that may offend the Abstract Entity, and beyond that, there was no problem with this. Mainly, he was in this world to search for his love, Kimi Sugihara, and going to the place where the main plot takes place should help him with that. According to the theme the last two worlds followed.
"Let's see…"
With a sigh, he shook his head gently, and his long hair vanished, replaced by a shortcut. He guessed he should play out the double-identity game this time. Long hair kept like a deity was too eye-catching, he would keep that look when he would be playing God, but otherwise this current look was less distracting.
[Image Here]
"Huh?"
Asia blinked seeing him change again. This wasn't a nerdy look since he was wearing his clothes stylishly, plus no glasses, and he also had his short hair in a better way than at the beginning.
"It's nothing. Anyway, I found where we will stay."
If he is going to attend Kuoh as a teacher, he needed to stay close.
Grabbing Asia by her hand, causing her body to shiver, a goose bump running through her skin, he teleported away. Right before the gate of a hotel near Kuoh High.
Neji felt a little nervous as the night came to a close. He doubted it, but perhaps he would meet his maid tomorrow. After so long, perhaps that day would come…
Soon, the sun rose, and Neji presented himself to this new world both as a God… and also as a nerd-looking high school teacher.
**
**
**
Author's Note - God's Not Dead, Because He is a High School Teacher Now. Ahem, new month and start of new week --- POWERSTONES where?
Let's play our old game, long forgotten. If we reach [200 Powerstones] in 24h, I will post an extra chapter tomorrow -- along with the usual 3 chapters a week.
If you want to read the next 20 chapters right away, visit my Patreon.
Link: Patreon.com/Master4thWall