[Shitty God's POV]
Asher Lee.
That was the human I chose.
He thinks he's being punished for the comments and reviews that he left on my novel.
Well, to some extent, yes that did have an impact on why I chose him out of everyone on Earth but that wasn't the main reason why.
I chose him not because of any talent or skill he may have. I didn't choose him because he was a genius that came around once every million years.
No.
He was chosen by me based on two things.
One is his ability to adapt to uncomfortable situations.
Two, because of my fondness for him.
Just because I'm a god, it doesn't mean I'm omnipresent or omnipotent or omniscient. I'm simply better than you, smarter than you, and stronger than the rest of you; excluding the other deities of course.
I actively went out of my way to follow Asher and his life on Earth whenever I had free time.
He may think that I discovered him when he left a negative review of my novel that definitely did not hurt my feelings whatsoever. It didn't. I mean it.
No, I've known about this kid a long time ago. I've been following him around before he even had a single strand of hair on his chest.
I can still vividly remember the day that I first discovered this human.
I'm not usually one to get so caught up in the lives of mere mortals but oddly, he captured my eyes and grabbed my attention.
With a bandana on his forehead, a spiked bat in one hand, and a cigarette in the other, one would assume that he was a delinquent.
Well, Asher was a delinquent but that wasn't the full picture.
He was shorter than the other boys. He was younger. He was weaker physically and yet; he was stronger than the rest of the troublemakers.
As I watched him swing his bat against the body of a student from a rival school, I could see in his eyes that he didn't want to do this.
Confused about why this little kid was hanging out with the big bad boys, I observed as he went home to this apartment complex that looked like it should've been demolished for the sake of the city's wellbeing.
As Bell entered, even though his father was drunk in the living room yelling at his mother with an empty glass bottle, he didn't show any signs of reaction.
Even as his father drunkenly picked him up off the ground and began yelling at him for being a shitty son, he didn't cry, didn't shiver, didn't whimper — he didn't make a sound.
He just waited for his father to finish whatever nonsense it was he had to say before dropping him down to the ground.
When his father left to go abuse his mother who was clearly a drug addict some more, Asher took the opportunity to sneak into his room where he lay down and began whispering to himself.
As I listened to him speak, I began to wonder if these "true feelings" of his were even true.
The longer I followed him the more I understood how fake of a human he was.
Not in the sense that he was a snake that would backstab you. No, he wasn't that kind of fake.
He was fake in that his own internal thoughts, his own internal feelings, were all lies.
If acting was a mask you wear, then he was wearing a thousand layers of masks. His own thoughts were a mask and he convinced himself that they were real.
In the instances where he felt apologetic for Diana who Bell Agnus had previously assaulted (a mistake on my part as a writer) his feelings were disingenuous.
He thinks that he feels sorry for what she is going through, but I know him enough by now to know that he's pretending to feel sorry for her.
No.
This man isn't evil but he's by no means a good person.
If empty was a cup void of any liquid, he didn't even have a cup.
That is a terrible trait for a human to have and yet, it's why I'm so fond of him. In some way, I can relate to him and how disconnected he is from the rest of the people around him.
Why can I relate you ask?
Well, it's definitely not because I'm a misfit compared to the other gods and I'm definitely not an outcast who is bullied whenever we meet up at the center of the multiverse.
I'm not!
But I do relate to Asher for reasons you don't need to know.
And that's why I chose him to come to this universe that I have "created".
Why is "created" in quotations?
Because no gods have the power to create their own universe out of their own free will.
No, it's like the universe creates itself and it imprints itself onto a god, impacting the way that the universe unfolds and develops.
The universe that chose me was heavily impacted the story that I wrote and initially, I was extremely excited to finally have one all to myself.
But as I looked around and watched as the timeline in this world play out the same way it did in my novel, I was reminded of Asher's comments.
"This is the worst novel I've ever fucking read in my life."
"Why the fuck did she fall in love with the main character just because he fed her some instant ramen? Imagine eating high-quality steak in the best restaurants your whole life but you fall in love with a stranger because he gave you cheap ass food? I love ramen but goddamn! This is terrible writing!"
"Out of five stars, I would rate this novel six for six feet under. This novel deserves to be buried and be banned from ever seeing the light of day ever again."
"I read this novel every update hoping for something to change. I must be insane because this is the definition of insanity. I'm doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result."
No, his comments did not hurt me.
No, I did not almost cry just because my favorite human is making fun of what I thought was a great novel.
No, I did not feel terrible when I brought him over to my universe and he began cursing at me every chance that he got.
No.
I definitely, honestly, a hundred percent, without a doubt did not do any of those things.
What I did do however was bring him over to this universe as I now had permission to interfere with souls under the emergency laws written by the primordial gods that came before my generation.
Why were the emergency laws activated?
Because there's a danger beyond the demon king of my universe that is lurking around the corner.
I can't say what it is because just mentioning it puts everyone at risk of being wiped out.
But this did give me an excuse to transfer Asher Lee into my universe.
I didn't want to steal away the fates of any powerful humans because they would be necessary to defend this world from the demon king and potentially the other danger I was speaking about.
Then I thought about putting him in the body of this prisoner that was arrested for having intercourse with animals.
I really wanted to punish him, not because he hurt my feelings when he insulted my story.
That definitely wasn't the case!
No!
It was because — because of something. Don't worry about it.
Anyway, I decided against it and recalled a comment he made a few years ago during one of the first arcs I had written in my novel.
It was one of his most genuine comments that felt out of character.
Rather than insulting him, he was showing sympathy for a side villain that barely appeared in the story.
He left what felt like an essay about why his actions were out of character, why he deserved better than the fate that I had given him, and questioned if it was necessary to give a side character such positive qualities if I was planning to ruin him in his first appearance.
"It feels like in another world, Bell Agnus could've been the main character even if you may consider him too much of a Mary Sue because of his status and talent."
Remembering what it was that I was bringing him to this world for, the danger I needed him to assist me with, I chose to transfer his soul into the one character that he, unknowingly and subconsciously, had felt the most emotions for.
I watched him open his eyes and as expected, he wasn't surprised.
He just said "Fuck" a few times and began processing his situation.
When he addressed me suddenly as "shitty god", I wasn't insulted by any means. I wasn't so hurt by it that I ignored him for a while until he threatened to derail my plans by transferring to another city, away from all the action that was going to happen.
That was most definitely not the case.
Using the excuse of what Asher had said about Bell, I had given him this fake quest to redeem this character, this body that he had now possessed.
I couldn't tell him outright that I needed him to get stronger in order to deal with the danger.
Why can't I deal with it myself?
I already told you; gods have their own laws and restrictions.
Even as powerful as I am, I'm only allowed to do certain things, including addressing you readers.
I hope you understand that what you are reading, it is costing me a lot to get it out there, but I felt like I needed to tell you because I understand that a few of you are confused and or being tricked.
I hope this exposition helps explain the situation a little more.
It was a little long but as Asher always reminds me, I'm a "shitty god" and a "shitty writer" so what did you expect?
Remember, do not trust Asher and what he's thinking.
Do not believe everything he's feeling because those feelings are about as real as Bigfoot.
Never forget this warning.
Never—