NOVEL NEXT Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Ah, to die like this is truly pathetic.
I sighed as I watched the pixelated words pop up in front of my eyes.
‘Guess I must be really dead.’
I glanced around. The space was so vast it felt endless, and everything was completely white. The floor seemed super soft, like it was made of clouds.
I knew this place all too well.
‘It’s like the afterlife.’
“The afterlife? More like heaven!”
The being that eavesdropped on my thoughts and reacted with a meow was something like a… god?
“You’re being too harsh, meow!”
I lifted my head from where I had been lying to see the mewing deity. She had long black hair, wore a short maid outfit, and had oversized cat paw gloves. Cat ears just like her hair color perked up on top of her head. She had a harness strapped to her thigh, with items like a dagger or a gun—probably BB guns or rubber knives—strapped outside.
“So—am I dead again?”
“You could say that, or maybe not, meow!”
“What does that even mean?”
“Simply put, I’m going to resurrect you, meow!”
“Can you please stop saying ‘meow’?”
“Cannot do that! Meow!”
As she winked and waved her giant cat paw in the air, I felt the urge to punch something. Why did this deity make me want to throw punches every time I saw her?
“Hehe, have you fallen for me, meow? Sorry, but getting close to a deity is pretty tricky, meow! A hidden heroine, perhaps?”
Just looking at her tone, outfit, and actions made it clear. The deity in front of me was the legit thing.
‘If that’s what a god looks like, it’s definitely the end times, end times indeed.’
Sighing, I recalled our first encounter.
“Hmm, it seems like you have a lot of questions!”
“I haven’t asked anything yet?”
“You must be wondering how you suddenly became the villain in ‘Possessed by a Dreadful Villain’!”
“You could’ve said that without the ‘meow’!”
“Oh, oops, meow!”
She blinked, looking surprised, then twisted around and winked again, making my fist tighten again. I wasn’t punching her; she probably would’ve enjoyed that too much.
“Look into the abyss, and the abyss also looks into you.”
I didn’t want to face a god like the abyss.
“Just say what you want to say already.”
Since she’d likely ignore my words and do her own thing anyway, I waved my hand for her to continue, and the ‘deity’ giggled while reaching into her tiny maid apron pocket.
Even though the pocket was tiny, her big cat paw glove slipped right in.
Pop.
It sounded like uncorking a bottle as she pulled out a round object the size of a grown man’s head from the pocket. It looked kind of squishy, like slime, and I tilted my head at it.
“Tada—This is… no, this little one is the deity of the world you possessed! Meow!”
“Ah..?”
A cry that resembled a child’s abruptly erupted from the white blob, accompanied by clear liquid dripping down—presumably tears.
“Meow! That’s disgusting, meow!”
“Ugh!”
The deity tossed the round thing onto the floor like it was a ball. The other… deity from another world? slumped down, sobbing.
“Waaah, waaah…”
“This little one kidnapped you because it wanted to save its world, meow!”
“Kidnapped…?”
I replied with a blank stare, and the blobby thing that had been squished flat on the floor wriggled before slowly lifting itself up, or rather, rolling up.
“Sniff… hello?”
Eyes resembling chocolate drops were stuck onto the white blob, with a tiny bird’s beak on it. A creature that looked like a giant baby bird cautiously greeted me.
“Uh… hi…”
When I reluctantly returned the greeting, the little bird creature stood upright. Its legs were long and thin like chopsticks, but oh, it was definitely standing.
Tip, tip, tip.
The baby bird approached me, peering curiously around. Ignoring the creature, I spoke to the deity who was now engrossed in a game on her phone.
“So what do you mean by I’ve been abducted?”
“The little one’s world was collapsing and being invaded by outsiders, meow. It was losing for sure and sought help everywhere, but no one came, meow. So it snatched someone from another dimension! And that someone is you, meow!”
The deity showed me her screen with “VICTORY” flashing on it. She seemed like she wanted to brag.
“If it had been someone else, they wouldn’t have been kidnapped… but you, since you’ve crossed dimensions before, got snatched up just like that, meow!”
“But… I don’t see how me going there would stop the apocalypse? Why me..?”
“I have seen it—a being from another dimension that saves heaps of worlds!”
The baby bird said this with such solemnity, but honestly, it just sounded silly coming from its child-like voice.
“Jumping through dimensions, reincarnation, possession… It’s all thanks to these kinds of novels, meow.”
The deity went back to her phone, fingers flying over the screen—definitely playing some rhythm game. The baby bird sparkled its eyes at me, waiting eagerly.
“Plus, you have a history with traveling dimensions and reincarnation! You’ll totally be able to prevent the world’s destruction and wipe out the outsiders!”
The baby bird flapped its wings, which seemed laughably small compared to its body.
“I’m counting on you from now on… Glurk!”
Before the baby bird could finish, the deity stomped it with her foot.
“Kidnapping someone else’s kid and that’s what you say, meow?”
“Please, save -…”
I was taken aback by the whole thing.
‘She actually gets angry, huh?’
Just when my fondness for the deity was starting to rise…
“Is it okay to take without paying? That’s theft, meow! Instead of begging for your life, the rule here is to say ‘Thanks for the reward!’ meow!”
And suddenly, my fondness dropped back down to negative.
“So what happens to me now?”
The deity answered my question.
“You can choose whatever you want, meow. If you want to go back now, you can, or stick around there as long as you like, meow. If you cross over to that world, you can live until you die naturally, meow. If you kick the bucket there, you’ll come back here, and I’ll put you back in your original body, meow! Ah, you can go back to your old world right now, but then ‘Lian’ over there will straight-up die, meow!”
“…”
“What will you do, meow?”
“Please, please save our world -… Glurk!”
“Shut it, meow!”
I just ignored these seriously unserious deities and began to think.
‘Going back… is probably the right call.’
Why did I treat Iris and the kids well in the first place? It was all about survival.
I wished to find a way back to my original world if possible.
If I said I wanted to return, I could escape the threat and go back home, but…
‘Noah, Jess, Iris -…’
The image of the kids smiling in that cruel world held me back.
‘They said destruction was already in progress.’
Things might not unfold as I knew them. In other words, it wouldn’t be surprising if those kids died at any moment.
“Um… can’t you bring the kids from that world here?”
“That’s impossible, meow!”
Her firm reply left me feeling a bit awkward. After a moment of thinking, I decided to ask another question.
“So if I die over there like I did this time, what happens?”
“You’ll probably come back here, meow? And then you’ll be resurrected again, meow!”
“Hmm… Does that mean I’ll never die?”
“Unless something special happens, you probably won’t die, meow. You only got stabbed through the heart by that peculiar one, meow!”
“Peculiar…? You mean Iris?”
“That’s right, meow. A power that counters gods? She has something like that, meow. That’s what pierced through my divine power, meow!”
Power?
Just as I was pondering, the deity immediately explained.
“This one caused a glitch in the world by kidnapping you on a whim, meow. To fix it, part of my power was needed, and since it coincided with an ample supply of causality—oh, no, I lent it out because I was worried about you being kidnapped, meow!”
“What kind of power are we talking about?”
Power! The word hinted at something grand, and my eyes sparkled. Then the deity rolled her eyes and said.
“The ability to apply the laws of this place, meow!”
“Laws…?”
“If you put it in your terms, it’s like a ‘gag filter’? That’s the power, meow!”
“What’s that…?”
“With that power, you can survive any stabbing and revive, and evade any danger, meow! If something threatening comes near you, the power activates to eliminate the danger, meow! Where else can you find such an overpowered ability?”
Now that I thought about it, that actually sounded like a pretty solid power. I nodded, and the deity let out a little snort before exclaiming, “Oops!”
“Oh, speaking of which, it’s time for ‘Love is a Cat’s Meow at the Family Burger Joint—Am I the family burger restaurant cat? Impossible! Or is it?—meow!’”
After rattling off a dizzying title, the deity darted off, summoning something. A gigantic TV appeared.