Kaya opened her eyes and stared at the scenery in front of her. She was still sitting on the chair. Around her the platform drifted in thin space, a vast night sky etched around her.
Fear crawled up her throat as the feeling of isolation hit her hard.
“Hello?” she yelled. “Is anyone here?”
There was no reply.
Kaya leaned back on the seat, breathing heavily. Of course, I’m alone. Now I just need to understand what the hell I heard before…
“Hello goddess!”
“What the fuck?” Kaya screamed and nearly stumbled out of her chair.
A voice rang inside her head.
[Profanity uttered. 2 Evil Points. 7 Evil Speech Points in Total.]
Kaya looked around to see a shadow of a floating man materializing beside her. No, it wasn’t a man. The creature had no legs, just a thin cloak draping down with a hood. His face was just bare bones and his head had turned upside down. In his hand was a staff.
“Who are you?” Kaya slid to the corner of her seat. If worst comes to worst she could try jumping off the platform.
“I am Place. Goddess Persephone told me that you will be the new goddess. Is there anything you need Goddess Kaya?”
“C-can I have a glass of water?”
“No.”
Then the ghost kept staring at her. Kaya’s fear turned to anger.
“What do you mean no?”
“Lady Kaya, you goddesses are more pure than filthy human scum….ahem,” he cleared his throat. “I mean…human beings. You don’t need to eat, drink, sleep or excrete.”
Now that he mentioned it, Tara rolled her tongue around her mouth. Despite being afraid she didn’t have a dry mouth.
“Good then. At least I won’t be pissing when I'm afraid.”
[Profanity uttered. 1 Evil Points. 8 Evil Speech Points in Total.]
“What the hell is that?”
Place’s fingers danced on the staff. “That’s the Behavance System Lady Kaya. Goddesses are meant to be pure beings. And your behavior should prove who you are. The prevent from goddesses becoming impure creatures the Great Mother imposed this system.”
“Okay, so how can I see that system?”
“Concentrate on it Lady Kaya, and it shall appear in front of you.”
“I wish you could be more detailed,” but Kaya closed her eyes, and tried to get a sense of the same feeling as before. She felt something unlock, like the moment the key turns and padlock unlocks, and when she opened her eyes she saw a holographic image the size of a TV screen. On the left was the same menu she had seen before, but with Speech’s Evil points raised to 8.
To it’s right there was a new screen.
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Level
1
Worlds
15
Chaos
3500
“What is this?” Kaya asked, tapping on it. But nothing happened.
“That’s the your Level goddess. Each time you do something Holy or increase your Holy Points by a certain amount your level rises. Below it is the number of worlds you manage. And below it is the total chaos level of your World Line.”
“Worlds?” Kaya looked down at the interface where there were small holographic images of what looked like world maps. “Wait, I thought I was some reincarnation-managing goddess, someone who had to just send people to fantasy worlds.”
“No.”
He had paused again.
Kaya glared at him. “Can you elaborate?”
“Just sending a hero to a fantasy world doesn’t ensure it’s safety Lady Kaya. Therefore goddesses are supposed to guide the heroes until they defeat the demon king, the apocalypse, or whatever impending doom that awaits it.”
“So, all of these are my worlds?” Kaya browsed through the list of maps. Each was a different size, some were bigger, some were smaller, and some had big black spots on them.
Place cleared his throat again. “Those were Lady Persephone’s worlds Lady Kaya, but now that you are the goddess of this worldline they naturally belong to you.”
“What are these black lines and spots?”
“That’s areas that have been destroyed or conquered by some evil demon king or other entity. The more places evil entities conquer the more your Chaos level rises. Goddess Persephone’s chaos points were rising steadily. Most of the time she sat on the chair feeling bored. I assume she switched duties at the exact right time.”
“In other words she trapped me,” the truth slowly started to dawn on Kaya, and her anger arose. “Pushed the duties right onto me and escaped into nowhere. That cunning bitch!”
[Goddess insulted. 5 Evil Points. 15 Evil Manner Points in Total.]
[Profanity uttered. 1 Evil Points. 9 Evil Speech Points in Total.]
“Oh come on, this isn’t fair!” Kara almost pulled the hair out of her head.
“I’d watch my mouth if I were you goddess Kaya. Each time you break a principle your evil points increase. But each time you act good or do something wholesome your Holy Points increase.”
“That sucks,” Kaya grumbled. “What’s the worst that could happen if my evil points rise?”
“Then the Holy Mother will send you to hell.”
Judging by the way Place's tone deepened when he said it, Kaya assumed hell looked exactly like the hell she envisioned.
She stared at the entire screen in front of her, rethinking the mess she had fallen into. This was exactly like her previous life. She was thrown into a role that has to manage everything. At least there were no bullies in this world.
Guess I’ll have to just follow the orders just like before.
“AAARGH!,” she slapped her face twice then focused. “Place, tell me where to start. What’s the most messed up world in our world line?”
“Your world line. But I get your point Lady Kaya, I’d say that’s World Number 13 - Talion. It has almost been conquered by the demon king, and there are only two large cities standing in its defense.”
Kaya scrolled until she reached the world thirteen. And there was the black shading like a big mole. She tapped on it, and it stretched out and enlarged to showed images of a world with burning kingdoms, dead corpses piled on top of each other, and an army of what looked like orcs marching towards giant walls.
“Haha,” Kaya nervously shoved it down and scrolled to the other worlds. “Perhaps we should approach it the other way. What’s the world with the least damage?”
“That would be world number 7. A minotaur recently attacked the town of Celenos, and the prophecies predict that unless this monster is slayed it will pave its way to the heart of the town and murder the Council of Elders. This in turn will lead to a political warfare which will lead to a civil war.”
“So if we kill the minotaur the job is done?”
“No.”
Kaya wanted to strange the ghost. “Can you explain?”
“Goddesses cannot directly interact with the world Lady Kaya. Instead, we should directly communicate and advise the heroes we’ve sent to those worlds.”
“Fine then, where’s the hero?”
“He hasn’t responded to our summonings for some time. Eventually Lady Persephone gave up on the world because she was too bored.”
“Alright, then that’s our first job. We need to find him. Is there way I can physically reach him?”
“You can using telepathy or astral teleportation.”
“How do I do that?”
“Ah, that’s my job Lady Kaya. Do you want me to send you to meet the hero?”
“Yes,” Kaya leaned back on the seat and closed her eyes. “Let’s start building this messed up place from there.”