The being called Balancer told me they were an AI.
Well, that probably wasn't entirely accurate, but sometimes a less accurate explanation was easier to understand. I decided to just leave it at that.
There was already a location for me to listen to them with Senpai.
It was a stone hut.
I had just had my life's first flirting event with Senpai, but that had not occurred on top of the lava like before. Instead, we had been on top of some hardened…volcanic rock, do you call it? Well, a cooled and hardened shelf of rock. And there was also a small hut made of rock.
I call it a hut, but it only had that general shape.
It had walls, window-like holes, and an entrance without a door. I thought it was pretty well made what with the roof and all, but it looked like someone had made it all at once. Y'know, like they had gotten excited and just gone for it.
The walls were nice and smooth, but…
"There aren't any lights."
A window - apparently called a Revelation Board - appeared in the center of the ceiling. This one had a display saying it was for light. It was just like magic. Then we sat in the stone chairs built into the stone hut.
…Oh? This chair's kinda warm.
Was it geothermal heat? I also belatedly realized Senpai was wearing a new style uniform.
Fantastic…
While I basked in the wonder of it, Balancer spun around and spoke.
"An explanation of what? This game?"
"Confusion?"
…I don't remember anything confusing about it.
Balancer then explained.
…Hmm!?
The AI just said something weird.
I glanced over at Senpai and found her looking at me with her fingers intertwined in front of her chest.
She seemed to be waiting for me to make a decision, so…
"Hold on. Hey. You just said something weird, didn't you?"
I hit Balancer with a forehead flick and the screen shot forcefully away from me.
"Hey."
I asked the first question I had.
"What do you mean everyone but me is a god?"
"But by gods…you mean those legendary beings?"
"Wait."
I didn't understand.
All the gods in the world - or on earth at least - really did exist? And they were gathered here?
But why would they do that?
And why was I the only human?
"Um."
I asked Senpai a question.
"Does that mean you're a god?"
"Eh? Oh, yes."
She readily admitted it. Was this for real? But wait, something didn't quite add up here. But her shoulders shrank down as she continued.
"Like I said before, um, I'm low level and an outsider…"
"But, uh, what can you do as a god?"
Her face lit up a bit when I asked that.
"I can show you that! Watch carefully, okay?"
"Sure thing."
When I agreed, she placed her hand on the stone wall. And…
"There."
The wall was clearly made of smooth, hardened volcanic rock, yet it transformed.
It was like she was kneading it or shaping it. She looked really good doing it, but just add an apron and it would've looked even, uh, gooder. My vocabulary had died. But while I watched, a part of the wall swelled out and formed a large heart shape.
…Eh?
She gestured me over, so I touched the 30cm heart on the wall. And…
"It's solid…"
It was the same as the wall now. This was hardened lava, but that meant you would need a lot of heat to reshape it. Also, getting a heart shape to swell out from the wall would require "shrinking" the rest of the wall. But it didn't look like the material for the heart had come from anywhere else on the wall. In that case…
"This makes no sense?"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait."
I couldn't accept this, so I turned to face the smug AI.
"You can do stuff like this with special effects or a magic trick, right? Like smashing the wall into sand and mixing it with a quick-dry material or something."
Balancer gestured to the side with their face.
Senpai's shoulders were clearly slumping.
"Ahhhhhhhhh! I was wrong! You're definitely a god! I'd even call you a goddess! Which only makes sense, now that I think about it! I only doubted you because this idiot here was acting so smug!"
Shut up. But…
"Listen up, you fraud of an AI! I'll accept that Senpai is a god. But I refuse to believe it about the others!"
"Shut up. And why are they gods? Why am I the only human? Also, what do you mean this is reality? Then what was that summer break I was living before coming here? Give it back! Give back my summer break!"
"A certain era?"
I spun Balancer around with another forehead flick.
"Hey! You! Don't just assume I'll fall for all your crazy lies."
"Then what's this place?"
Balancer explained.
…Waiiiit.
What was this? It was all sounding like a lot of trouble. Surely someone was going to hop out with a "Tricked you!" sign soon, right? Come on out! C'mooooooooon!
No one came out.
While I stared blankly at the entrance, Senpai gave me a worried look.
Worrying a busty girl was out of the question, so…
"Hold on."
"No, no, no, no, no. Not at all, idiot."
But I did kind of get the sequence of events Balancer was talking about.
"Let's continue on the assumption that this is fiction."
Anyway, I thought while gesturing from right to left with my right hand.
"So humanity left earth. And they arrived in a habitable star system."
"And even if it's habitable, there are some places or planets that aren't quite suitable. So…"
This had to be it.
"That's where the terraforming comes in."
She heard Balancer speak.
…This really is a difficult problem.
What he had stated was a simple sequence of events. However…
"So how does that, uh, lead to a bunch of gods, me being the only human, and a Divine World? What kind of excellent customer service led to that 1990 world?"
"Um."
That word slipped out and two gazes turned her way. Balancer tilted the Revelation Board to nod and the boy noticed her too.
"G-go ahead, Senpai! Take over for this dumb liar of an AI and tell me the truth!"
"Umm…"
She was extremely unsure whether or not she should do this. But…
"Hey, Sumeragi-kun?"
"Oh, yesh! What is it!? Tell me anything! Anything at all! Just say it!!"
"Calm down, Sumeragi-kun. Stop hopping around and sit down."
He sat down with incredible force. But he was still swaying rapidly side to side, which could be a problem. Still, the "worship" gauge used to increase her divinity rank was rising on her Revelation Board, so she decided it was a good thing.
So she asked a question.
"Do you not think it was the humans who started the terraforming?"
"No, I don't. I mean, leaving earth and settling elsewhere is a hell of a big task. And this here…outside in reality? Anyway, this place seems more like a long-term thing. Something where you'd have to create that sexy uniform you're wearing and go all out with New Cult industry stuff!"
"Se…xy?"
He slapped himself on the cheek. And…
"Sorry! I just try to be true to myself!"
"Well, anyway."
She decided to keep going.
"Humanity did of course prepare to terraform a new planet. They used cold sleep - or phenomenon freezing - to keep themselves safely asleep while AI took care of it, but the AI noticed a problem while approaching this star system. However, the AI still tried to terraform the planet using the standard method prepared for them."
"The standard method?"
"Did it not work?"
She shook her head.
"No. None of the machines worked, not even the biological ones."
"Why not?"
He continued before she could answer.
"Oh, was there something already living in the star system that resisted or started a war?"
"Sort of. There was definitely a power that resisted. The environment itself was a problem, but I am referring to spirits. They are not intelligent, but they are quite powerful and none of the terraforming equipment - not even the combat ones - was any match for them."
"Man, humanity sucks… And what were you AIs doing anyway?"
"Ehhhh? Really? So it wasn't just that you're a bunch of dumb-dumbs? Kya ha ha!"
She intervened to calm Balancer down and the AI sighed.
"Weakened?"
However…
Balancer explained.
"You found something you couldn't believe?"
Balancer explained what had been so difficult to believe.
I tilted my head in confusion.
"That's ridiculous. Prayer made them stronger?"
However…
Meaning…
Balancer still had the records of this. It had been beyond understanding and beyond anything they had expected.
"Did you investigate?"
"Sorry, that's way too many technical terms, so can I ignore that stuff until later?"
This fool, thought Balancer while giving him a sidelong glance, but he ignored it. So they decided to keep going.
Sumeragi raised his hand with a look of utter skepticism. "Hey, where does the settlement ships' Shinto power come from?" Balancer continued explaining. "Whoa, wait, wait, wait." I placed a hand on my forehead and spoke up. I asked the AI to wait. That seemed like a bit of a leap of logic. So I started with "hey". "How does this lead to there being gods?" So… This I understood. I didn't want to get it, but I did. "You just had to create those 'earth gods' and send them to the planets that had nothing but chaotic power instead of gods. That way you could terraform the planets according to the myths of those gods. Gods are a mold for power, so they shape what's already there instead of just adding something new. So…" This is what it meant for them to be molds. "By taking the molds of those earth gods and legends and applying them to the…ley lines? of those planets, you can calm their raging ley lines. In other words, you perform Divine Terraforming." Senpai nodded. "Yes, that is correct." And she spoke. "On a godless planet, gods like us and our stories are reproduced to calm the planet enough for humanity to land there." "Oh, feels like I just had my game account set up." "Umm…" This sounded so phony to me, but at the same time… …This AI always comes up with a new explanation when I point out a problem. It was just like a scam artist's spiel. Once they had everyone believing something that was untrue but internally consistent, everyone would accept it all as long as they didn't see how it was scamming them. But there was one thing I had to ask. "So…you say you created the gods, right?" I didn't understand any of that. If it was all made up, it was an extremely involved lie. But anyway… "In that case, you woke just me up from all the sleeping humans, right? Why?" "Here, look at this." I looked over to see Senpai displaying a Revelation Board. The end of some kind of digital meter was moving around a lot. It was a small value, but… "What is this?" "It's you, Sumeragi-kun. When you are around, it increases the rate at which my divine rank grows." "Huh?" I tilted my head. I wasn't entirely certain, but I felt like I clearly understood something here. "When a human like me worships a god, their rank as a god goes up?" "Yes." She nodded. "It was only us gods before, so our level couldn't increase without advancing the terraforming. But with a human here, your worship can increase our rank as a god. But…" She blushed as she continued. "I'm a little suspicious of what about me you're worshiping or why you're having this much of an effect when I haven't even revealed my name to you. But…yes." Now she smiled. "Thank you for saying we could do this together." …Wow… Was that meter really just a boobs meter right now? It was constantly going up just like a water meter or power meter. This was a lot of responsibility. I couldn't afford to stop worshiping big boobs. However… …Yeah. I really felt bad that she was stuck with a partner like me. And… …As a god, she might not strictly be a "person", but she's still a good person. I had to avoid lying or being dishonest with her. But… "Um, Senpai? I still don't really believe all of this." "Hmm, but I think the only option now is to let you see for yourself." I had to agree with her there. However… "Um, I honestly wouldn't mind being deceived by you. So, uh, I don't care what it is and it can be fake if you want, but is there anything you can use to prove that you're a god?" "Such as?" "Oh, I know! Like letting me feel your boobs and go 'Ahh! They're reeeeal!' I'd be 100% okay with that!" "Eh?" I slapped my own face. In fact, I used both hands, which was pretty dangerous. Balancer gave me a pixel-art glare, but I ignored it. And Senpai thought for a bit. "You know what? I'm not entirely sure this will be enough for you to believe me, but let's try it." "What is it?" "Well," she said with a nod. "Sumeragi-kun, as a human, you shouldn't be able to lie about yourself or hide anything when standing in the presence of a god. …Can you think of anything like that?" I had trouble thinking of anything not like that, so I just collapsed onto the floor. "So it's started." Shifu heard Tooru speak. They had just been discussing whether or not they should leave for a bit, but she agreed with her partner's assessment. "Time for the appearance of the gods and the recreation of their legends. …But there's gonna be some political stuff too, right?" "Of course there is. This star system only has so many planets. And how much of a star system a mythology ultimately controls can depend on whether that mythology is suited for terraforming or not." "It's not just that." Tooru sighed. "The foundational stuff hasn't been dealt with on any of the planets yet and not even we are the most powerful beings. But there's no one better suited to do it than us. The trouble we put up with for humanity, huh?" But… "Some gods might outsmart Balancer and surpass the limits of their legends again. …Having Sumeragi is supposed to help us out, so it's probably best if we work with him on the Shinto legend recreation and our own recreations." Tooru smiled a little and Shifu smiled too. "Y'know." "What is it, Saku?" She nodded. "We might be on a godless planet, but it feels so full of life compared to before. Weird, isn't it?"