Insanely-Talented Player

Episode 178:

God tries to eliminate evil, but is he unable to do so? Then he is not omnipotent.

Do we have the ability to eliminate evil, but do not do it? If so, he has malicious intent.

Are we capable of eliminating evil or even trying to eliminate it? So why does evil exist?

Are we unable to eliminate evil and do we not want to eliminate it? So why should we call him God?

- Epicurus The Problem of Evil

A young witch was curled up in a hut made of cookies.

The girl with the most innocent soul in the world and the worst witch who will bring about Walpurgis Night.

“Lily.”

And to Yoosung and Maria, their lovely daughter is irreplaceable.

“You were here.”

“I heard you skipped school.”

At Yooseong’s words, Lily flinched like a frightened girl. Like a daughter whose father caught her wrongdoing.

Seeing that sight, Yoosung inadvertently let out a bitter smile.

“Well, I was always like that when I was in school.” After laughing, Yoosung shrugged his shoulders as if it was no big deal. Lily blinked for a moment, but Yoosung paid her no mind and stroked her hair.

“Sorry.”

Yoosung said after stroking it. It wasn't a reprimand or anything directed at Lily. In the first place, Yoosung was not a good enough father to severely scold his daughter for her mistakes.

“You forced Lily to do something she didn’t want to do.”

Lily didn't answer. Yoosung also didn't expect any more answers.

That's why Yoosung silently sat down next to Lily and glanced at the house of cookies she had built.

When I inadvertently reach out and tear off the wallpaper, a cookie piece breaks off, spilling cookie crumbs.

It was magic built up by the young witch's childlike mind.

“It’s a pretty house.”

Yoosung said, biting into a piece of cookie.

“Is this Lily’s magic?”

“huh.”

“But why do you look so depressed?”

“Because magic... is not good.”

Lily answered.

“Why do you think that?”

Yoosung asked back, and Lily did not answer right away. There was a short silence again.

“Humans...

Lily answered after silence.

“Because I’m afraid of magic.”

“Dad and Mom... praised my magic and said it was pretty.”

Lily said. Thinking back to the world of invulnerability that I showed as a Walpurgis witch that day.

A world where bullets filled with human malice explode as fireworks and soldiers meant to slaughter enemies are reborn as comical toy soldiers.

In it, I remember the image of a young witch decked out in a beautiful dress and jewels like Cinderella.

“So I thought that if I showed her magic... I could become friends with humans.”

Yoosung couldn't answer Lily's words. I was just caught in a daze, as if I had been hit on the head with a hammer.

Still by Yoosung's side was the young witch.

A girl who is immature, doesn't know the world and humans, and doesn't understand the abyss of human malice.

Magic is not good.

She may not have known the consequences that her actions would bring to her pure and innocent good intentions.

“They were afraid of Lily.”

Lily didn't answer. But that didn't even need to be answered.

them. Humans and Witches and Humans and Yeong-eung.

Even adults must have been afraid of her.

I immediately thought of the faces of adults who bowed down in front of Yooseong and didn't know what to do. They were simply afraid of the King of Heroes.

The player is the weapon, and the King of Heroes is the one who stands at the pinnacle of those weapons.

And when the daughter of the King of Heroes showed ‘magic', to them it was nothing more than a weapon that could explode at any time.

It didn't matter how beautifully the magic shined, how brilliant or sparkling it was.

The only thing that mattered was that the child there was different from himself.

Why didn't I realize that fact?

“Did someone harass Lily?”

Doridori.

Lily answered, shaking her head.

“I was scared.”

Like humans trapped in a cage with wild beasts.

“Both children and adults...

they were afraid of witches. And that would be a very familiar scene to Lily.

“Find the worst witch!”

“Find the girls and kill them all! Cut out all seeds of evil!”

“Burn them all! The God of Fire will sort out their people!”

Because she remembers the fear and hatred people had towards witches in the world where Lily was born.

Human fear and hatred towards monsters and witches. That madness was by no means the exclusive property of the ‘Flame Church' in Lily's hometown.

It is a madness shared by all humans in all worlds.

“I was foolish.”

It wasn't Lily who messed things up from the beginning with immature and naive good intentions.

It was Yoosung himself.

Humans are afraid of witches and monsters. The world of humans is not a world for witches and wizards.

Moreover, for a young witch who cannot even properly understand its meaning, the world of humans would be no different from hell.

Why didn't I know?

This is because I wanted Lily to grow up as an ordinary girl in an ordinary world like ordinary people.

That wasn't Lily's wish. It was just Yoosung’s greed as a parent that was extremely one-sided. “...This is not a suitable place for Lily.”

That's why Yooseong muttered bitterly.

“Let’s go back.”

Where are you going...

“Where do you want to go?”

Yoosung smiled at Lily.

“You don’t have to go to school anymore.”

“...really?”

In response to Yoosung’s answer, Lily blinked and asked back.

Yoosung nodded and stretched out his arms.

“Because there is a world that suits our daughter better.”

At the same time, to the King of Heroes himself.

When I looked up, I saw a world where stars were shining.

Like the world seen through the transparent glass of a space station, the Milky Way, sprinkled like gold on a river, was embroidering the darkness.

And the meteor there was a gigantic being that could no longer be restrained by human restraints.

The lord of heroes and the lord above monarchs, the artificial god who stands at the pinnacle of the game.

“Pretty...

A young witch was smiling next to the god.

“This is space...?”

“Home, I somehow ended up here.” And the Lord of Heroes, who appeared next to Lily in the form of a ‘strong meteor' that she could understand, spoke.

It was not the throne at the end.

A father and daughter were walking together on the empty darkness of space.

Each time you take a step, the distance that light can reach over tens of thousands of years is narrowed to just one step.

Endless scenes of the universe passed by Lily, and the process of birth and death of countless stars unfolded there.

Just as life is born and dies, stars are born and dies.

The two were wizards.

The majestic and beautiful sight of the universe was projected like a video, free from any constraints and restrictions of time.

“In this universe...

walking in the endless darkness, leaving the stars behind, the shooting star spoke.

“Our world is literally nothing more than a speck of dust.”

If the universe were reduced to the size of the Earth, the Earth in that universe would be nothing more than a particle hundreds of times smaller than an atom.

There is a majesty that overwhelms human common sense and reason, and there is a ‘game' that controls and unifies that majesty.

“Yeah, I see.”

Nevertheless, Lily smiled regardless.

To her, it could not be any nihilistic comment or an opportunity for pessimism.

“Our world is really small...

we just calmly accept reality

.

“This universe is so wide.”

Lily laughed. However, Yoosung could not smile obediently.

Those words just came to me so deeply.

Our world is so small in this wide universe.

And in that very small world, one boy who wanted to become a hero early on...

What meaning does that little boy's existence and that day's resolution have in this huge and vast universe?

Now that I have thrown off the human bondage that has bound me, I have been reborn as a ‘cosmic being' who traverses the dark matter and interstellar space of this vast universe as if it were my home.

Suddenly I couldn't figure out anything.

The distance between himself and humans was gradually increasing, and now even maintaining his human form was extremely uncomfortable.

Game player human lord hero.

All the names that were suffocating me felt so oppressive, like layers of a coat in the middle of summer, that I couldn't bear it.

Stride.

I took another step, a step that even the laws of light could not fathom.

Between stars, between galaxies, beyond the boundaries of dark matter that fills the entire universe.

Toward the end of the ever-expanding universe and the other side of true logic and thought.

Towards the end of childhood that one does not even know (Toward the child)

“Come here, child.

There was a sweet voice calling him from the deepest part of the universe.

Without any doubt or delusion, as sweet and gentle as a mother’s voice. It was the voice that guided him.

It was that very moment.

The warmth of Yoosung's hand pulling him in.

The daughter's hand was pulling her father.

When I looked up, it was a very small and insignificant world in the dust.

Yoo Seong, Maria, and Lily's house.

The vast and gigantic landscape that had captivated Yoo Seong until just before appears as if it were a lie.

“Because our world is really small and this universe is so wide...

And the meteor there . “So, you have to be careful,”

said Lily .

“... “What?”

“Don’t lose your way home in this wide world.”

The young witch said.

From the moment I heard those words, until now. He felt like a fool for thinking about it.

“Yes, she is our daughter, after all.”

So, Yoosung smiled while stroking Lily’s head.

Yoosung still doesn’t know where to go, but the darkness in front of him is filled with uncertainty. Even now that he was reborn as the God of Mankind, he could never eliminate the evil in the world. Nevertheless, he

was still trying to change the world into a ‘better world' in order to fulfill the resolution made by the young boy that day .

The King of Heroes was still there,

not as a cosmic being crossing the vast universe and the stars in a month, but as an insignificant human being as small as an ant and as shabby as a speck of dust

.