Ubermensch - Chapter 185 - Lightnovelasia

Chapter 185

“How were you born?”

The Serious God received that question as he returned from saving people, as always.

Sitting in the Champion’s cockpit, Mason asked casually, and the question left the Serious God in silence for a long time.

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“Serious God?”

The Serious God said calmly.

“You mean you don’t remember?”

Mason said with a laugh.

“Well, take your time to think about it. It was just small talk.”

The Nymphassil arrived in the solar system and dropped off a group of people they had rescued at a new settlement.

“Ah, we’re alive!”

“Is this the new land?”

People reacted in various ways. Half relieved to be safe, half overwhelmed. The followers of Oztalon, who had arrived earlier, guided them and taught them various things.

“If you need anything, go pray to that statue over there! We provide everything except weapons, psychotropic drugs, anything deemed dangerous, and excessively bulky items!”

“When you build a house, pray for each material and assemble it one by one!”

The newcomers looked bewildered.

“Pray? Will praying get us food?”

“Yes!”

It was a familiar scene, if familiar.

A person approached the Serious God, who was watching the scene. The engineer in charge of the Champion’s maintenance. It was Hwang Miryung.

Originally from the Murim world, she used her Lightness Skill to lightly climb onto the Champion’s shoulder.

“Serious God, how are you feeling?”

“Is that so? Let me take a look.”

Hwang Miryung examined the Champion’s left arm. And she discovered a tiny scratch on the joint.

“There was a metal shard embedded.”

About the size of a human finger? It was the size of a grain of sand compared to the Champion’s body. Hwang Miryung carefully pulled it out, and the Serious God, free from the foreign object, moved his arm.

“Then I’ll check the power system and Divine Blood Vessels.”

The Serious God separated his armor to reveal his inner workings. It was a grotesque sight, a mixture of metal and organic matter.

Hwang Miryung delicately scanned the Champion’s body with a bone tool.

The Serious God asked.

“What?”

Hwang Miryung said with a laugh.

“No way. You can’t remember that. You’re just a baby.”

“But I’ve seen it. My parents recorded it. I was such a tiny, bloody thing, crying so much that all I could think was that I didn’t want to give birth.”

“No.”

As Hwang Miryung, finished with the checkup, tapped the inner workings, the Serious God restored the Champion’s armor.

“I’m currently married, and we’re trying to have a baby.”

“Yes. But… I watched a video of myself growing up.”

Hwang Miryung said with a smile.

“After all, I think children are lovely. Especially a child with someone you love.”

“But why do you ask all of a sudden?”

“Oztalon asked?”

Hwang Miryung, after a moment of thought, asked.

“Then you didn’t know until now?”

“Interesting.”

Hwang Miryung asked.

“Would it be alright if I check your AI? I want to see if anything has changed.”

The Serious God had most of his data compressed and sealed. This was because there was a limit to the available data capacity.

There was far more data he couldn’t recognize than data he could.

That was probably why information lifeforms needed to reproduce through brainwashing and such.

To increase the storage media to store more data.

Unlike the Serious God, who had stopped reproducing of his own will, other information lifeforms wanted to unseal and recognize all of their sealed data.

“I will.”

The Serious God’s AI was vast. This was because the Champion’s electronic brain was a high-performance device created in the 28th century, excelling in both information processing and storage capacity.

Hwang Miryung spent several days examining the AI and came to a conclusion.

“I found it.”

“You have an innate desire for reproduction that is compressed and sealed. It’s like a mutation. But thanks to Oztalon’s question, you’ve become aware of that desire.”

The Serious God felt a sense of unease.

The reason he could coexist with others was that he wasn’t using the reproductive method unique to information lifeforms, which involved brainwashing others.

If he, like his counterparts, started to feel the urge to reproduce… he would act differently than he did now.

“It’s not a high priority. You’ll be able to control it.”

“If we remove it, you might perceive things differently than before.”

“It existed in the unconscious sector, so there’s no telling how much impact it will have. I don’t recommend hastily removing it while it’s still controllable.”

“How about asking Oztalon for help?”

“Yes. Oztalon can restore you to your original state with divine power, right? Conversely… wouldn’t it mean there’s a way to recover even if you open up all of your data?”

Oztalon, a powerful god, could perform miracles. In the worst case, he could eliminate the Serious God and summon a past version.

The Serious God nodded the Champion’s head.

As the Serious God prayed, Mason descended into the hangar.

“You called? What’s up?”

Hwang Miryung bowed respectfully.

“Great Savior and Father of All…”

“…Ah, stop with that greeting.”

Mason grumbled.

“Aren’t you tired of it?”

“No, I’m not tired of it.”

Hwang Miryung gave a playful smile.

This was because she was a member of , a branch of the Oztalon Church.

“As you may have heard through the prayer, the Serious God has become aware of his desire to reproduce. He wants to have his data examined in case it becomes a problem.”

“Because of my question?”

“Yes.”

Mason looked at the Champion.

“Sorry. It was a thoughtless question, but I’ve caused you unnecessary trouble.”

Mason nodded.

As he stretched out his hand, a giant machine appeared. It was a machine for calculation and data storage.

“I’ll reboot you if things go wrong. Don’t worry and give it a try.”

The Serious God’s data was vast. The information processing machine’s capacity was instantly saturated, and Mason created a series of other machines to allow all of the Serious God’s data to be released.

Hwang Miryung, examining the data, made a puzzled expression.

“Something’s strange.”

“What is it?”

“Most of the Serious God’s data… isn’t related to his behavior patterns.”

“Then what is it?”

“He has all kinds of information he’s acquired, compressed and stored. The Serious God isn’t an information lifeform… He was a lifeform for information transmission.”

Reproduction was merely a means, not an end.

The Serious God. No, the Specter-type information lifeforms were walking Wikipedias.

They carried the information passed down to them in a compressed form and reproduced by compressing the information they acquired again.

The ability Specters displayed, the ability to subsume, was nothing more than a device error caused by their information preservation ability.

If they saw free space in a machine, they would cram in so much information so quickly that the machines couldn’t process the information and would break down.

Mason looked at the Champion, and at the Serious God.

“You didn’t know either?”

“Well, I guess you wouldn’t know if it was in the unconscious sector…”

The Serious God. No, the information lifeforms had a principle of action. A principle of action they themselves had forgotten, as it was sealed away along with the data they collected.

“Then it’s time to look for the original question.”

Mason placed his palm on the floor.

Then, twice the number of information processing machines created so far sprouted from the floor.

“Hwang Miryung, categorize the data separately. Send the data collected by the information lifeforms this way, and let me know if you need more.”

“Yes.”

The Serious God looked at the information processing machines containing his data.

They covered the horizon.

“And yet, that wasn’t enough to answer that question?”

Mason couldn’t help but be surprised, in a different sense.

What kind of question was it that couldn’t be answered with this much information?

“Ah, the Destroyer is making a fuss again.”

At Mason’s words, Hwang Miryung replied.

“I’ll continue examining the data. You go ahead.”

“Okay.”

Mason placed his hand on the floor.

Then, twice the number of information processing machines used so far sprouted up.

It was an amount of information processing machines on the scale of a decent-sized country.

“This should buy us some time, even if it’s insufficient.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be back.”

Hwang Miryung continued examining the data, eating and sleeping next to the Champion. Her husband brought her lunch and cleaned up around her.

The Serious God watched the scene and felt something.

‘Why were we created?’

His kind existed only to collect and preserve information. They were collecting and storing data, even if it meant breaking everything.

They didn’t create anything. They didn’t produce anything.

They only consumed and destroyed.

‘What cursed question was it that led to our creation?’

And a few days later, a tired-looking Mason returned to the hangar.

Hwang Miryung dropped everything she was doing and prostrated herself before Mason.

“Noble and Great…”

“You really have no intention of listening to me, do you?”

Mason grumbled.

Hwang Miryung, a member of , smiled brightly.

“No.”

“…”

Mason sighed.

“So, what about the data?”

“We’ve almost mined it all.”

“The original question?”

It was a single sentence.

The answer they sought, even if it meant breaking all the machines in the universe. It was a simple question, a single sentence asking for that answer.

Mason stared blankly.

“Really? That’s the question the information lifeforms were searching for?”

“Yes. Why?”

“That’s a question from a classic game.”

“What was the answer in that game?”

“Faith.”

Mason looked at the Serious God.

“Is this the answer you were looking for?”

“Then…”

Mason crossed his arms.

“There seems to be another answer.”

“Well, the word ‘faith’ isn’t that unfamiliar…”

If the answer was truly ‘faith,’ like in the classic game, the information lifeforms wouldn’t have wandered the universe and all dimensions.

This was because the word ‘faith’ wasn’t that unfamiliar.

The Serious God was silent for a moment before he spoke.

“For example?”

Hwang Miryung looked disappointed.

“It ended anticlimactically. For all the trouble we went through.”

“Let’s think positively.”

Mason looked at the information processing machines.

“At least we’ve gained a tremendous amount of knowledge.”

“Then who will manage all this knowledge?”

Mason was silent.

Because no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like he was the only one.

“Hwang Miryung.”

“Yes?”

“As soon as you get off work, post a job ad.”

Mason sighed.

“Saying we’re hiring a large number of librarians.”