Hao Ren sat on the chair, as still as a feather, hands firmly placed on his knees, and a serious look hanging on his face—he realised he had just gotten himself into a situation that far exceeded any logic, and if he had any desire to enjoy what’s left of his life, the wisest choice would be to contain his floppy behaviour and usual childish antics and listen attentively to what the lady, who claimed to be a Goddess, had to say.
"So how does it feels to personally experience Genesis?" smirked Raven 12345.
Hao Ren observed her expressions and confirmed that this woman was indeed capable of working something out, only then did he managed a grin, "If I was to ask you whether this is an illusion, will you conveniently sentence me to death?"
"No, of course not. A lot of people have asked me this, I’m not surprised at all," Raven 12345 shrugged, "I can show you anything and everything, whatever it takes for you to understand and believe all I have told you, but now’s not the time. For now, you’ll just have to take me for my words, and we’ll talk about work."
Hao Ren raised his hand, gesturing her to slow down, for he needed some time to go through what just happened.
He thought what he had just experienced was a rather weird occurrence on Earth, but this woman before him actually mentioned that she came from… another universe? Not Earth, not an alien planet, not an alien galaxy, but an entirely different universe! She claimed that she came from an empire in charge of ruling many universes, and that she worked at a unit called Space Administration, specifically managing the order of this universe, and now this self-proclaimed Goddess said she needed an agent to help with some trivial affairs on selected areas on Earth, and so she set her eyes on none other than him, Hao Ren...
In a nutshell, that was how things went down since he met them. Linguistically the instructions were clear, only that this whole offer challenged all three of his fundamental views: the view of the world, the view of life, and the view of morality.
Hao Ren stole a peek at Raven 12345, who was aware of it but did not indicate anything. Seizing this opportunity, Hao Ren compared this silver-haired lady with the images of gods and goddesses and other immortal beings, imagining a pair of wings extending from behind her back or a halo floating magically above her head… but after much struggle he gave up. He knew it was just a waste of time: from the moment he got to know the ailurophobic werewolf, he should have discarded all myths and legends he knew.
"Are there really other universes?" Hao Ren stammered. "I’ve read about them in books, parallel universes and life, but isn’t that just a theory?"
"It’s much more complicated than that. The real structure of the world is much more complicated than what humans imagined," Raven 12345 curled her lips, as though lazy to explain. "For the moment you won’t have access to the other worlds. That would be after your formal evaluation or after special duties. All that you have to focus on now is dealing with your designated areas."
"Why me?" Hao Ren couldn’t help but interrupt. He felt he had to assert himself slightly in this conversation, even if he couldn’t claim victory in this battle he should try to speak with a little more confidence. "You haven’t sought my agreement, have you?"
"Oh, that reminds me," Raven 12345 gave herself a face palm, which prompted Hao Ren’s first drop of cold sweat. "The Principle of Voluntary Work, there is such a thing… I have been assuming that you have consented. Does this mean you don’t?"
Hao Ren was stunned, he never expected such loose conditions. Her communicative ability did not match up to his initial impression of her godly power: he thought he would meet his doom if he refused the offer. But it was after Raven 12345 stated the conditions that he began to contemplate: What should he do? Should he really refuse? But it would be such a pity... as his new strange life would come to an end even before it begun.
"What will happen if I don’t agree?"
"You’ll be rid of your memories of these past couple of days, and I’ll relief you of the werewolf. Don’t worry, no harm will come to either of you, just that you’ll no longer have anything to do with these issues anymore. Common folks have common lives. For an ordinary fellow to handle extraordinary business, history tells that they usually meet with dreadful ends," Raven 12345 explained unemotionally. "I’ll look for other agents, after all there’re so many people on Earth, and if worst comes to worst I can always apply for an intern to help me."
Hao Ren felt a pull at his heartstrings and was consumed by an unexplainable feeling, then he shook his head, "And what if I agreed? What do you want me to do? I’ll say first that I won’t be doing anything against my morals. I’m a good person."
Raven 12345’s smiled again at that. "Don’t be so nervous, you’re working for God. In other dimensions this position is called ‘the Holy One’ or ‘the Messenger’. It’s just that we work under a different system so we don’t call it that. What are you worried about? We’re not asking you to do anything evil. Your job consists only of two main tasks: The first is to receive guests, like you have always been doing so far. The difference is that these guests are... quite special, and they’ll need assistance, a place to stay, someone to guide them—you have to take care of them, so that they won’t go out and cause destruction to mankind. The second is to help me with other work."
Hao Ren was speechless. He honestly suspected that the second task far outweighed the first one!
"When you say ‘guests’, do you mean the ones like Lily?" Hao Ren wanted to know more, although he might not get it his way, but at least he wouldn’t be exploited. "Strange creatures? May I ask why are you doing this? Just so that they won’t disrupt mankind?"
"Actually the reasons are quite complicated," Raven 12345 was very patient, "Any civilisation, unless faced with imminent catastrophe or other disastrous ordeals that require Gods to intervene, has the right to proceed and grow naturally, undisturbed. I know the myths and legends of the human world, but the real gods are not quite the same with the ones in those stories—we create the world, we manage the world, and we can destroy the world, but all of the above are governed by strict rules and regulations. No one can simply disturb and destroy worlds. Before we switched professions and became Gods we had made quite a few mistakes, so this is now a serious problem. Your world is the same—it should evolve naturally without the intervention of external forces. It’s expected that your kind will face challenges along to way, but if a third power wields the potential to twist the process of evolution, it becomes our responsibility to stop it. As for your job, it is to clean up the ‘aftermath’."
Hao Ren went to great lengths to make sense of what Raven 12345 just said, and thought he had grasped the gist of it. "You said there’s… what? A ‘third party’ with the power to disrupt our progress? Lily... and those I have to receive in the future, are all related to this?"
"Don’t overthink it. That’s ancient history now. The largest threat to humanity was resolved by me. You humans are safe now, as long as they don’t ask for death they’ll live a full life," Raven 12345 looked into Hao Ren’s eyes, "As for the guests you’ll be receiving... it’s true that they’re connected to one of the bigger cases, but it’s still considered confidential information to you, so it’s best not to ask. How is it, do you accept this job? Although it’s just to clean up some mess left behind by the Space Administration, it is considered to be the career of a lifetime in a lot of worlds, more or less it’s considered a privilege for temporary workers in the entrepreneurial sectors..."
"Well, putting it that way makes me more reluctant to agree alright!" Hao Ren responded.
Raven 12345 scoffed, not even one bit bothered.
Hao Ren looked down, seriously contemplating this offer which could change his entire course of life.
He still didn’t dare to believe everything this woman just said, and could not understand what was the deal with this talk of the universes, gods, worlds and the rest. It’s just like what Raven 12345 said, for now he could only trust that everything is as she said, and start considering what he should do next.
If he nodded his head now, he would be straying onto a path completely different from his past, in Raven 12345’s words it meant he would be working for ‘God’. Regardless of whether what she said was true or false, no matter if it was a trap or not, and not knowing whether his future will be bright or bleak, he would be facing an entirely new and extraordinary life. His fate would change, for the better or worse.
If he shook his head now, he would lose nothing but his memories of the past two days, forgetting matters an ordinary person shouldn’t know in the first place, and then return to his honest and simple life as a little landlord, or find a real job just like everyone else, or a wife maybe, who may not be a perfect match but works out just fine in the end, and maybe live together for the remainder of their lives.
There really was nothing to choose from.