We’ll just have to contain her.
Immediately as Lin thought this, the spectacled man suddenly grabbed his arm from behind, prompting him to turn with a frown.
“Um, sorry, but usually... uh... she might be a goddess or something,” he stammered in a low voice, trying to dissuade him from fighting. Lin, understanding the caution behind his whisper, responded in a much louder voice.
“Goddess?” he repeated, causing the man to flinch at the unexpected reply and hesitantly glance toward the woman before nodding.
“Y-yeah,” he said, averting his gaze as if fearing her disapproval.
Are we really not on Earth? Lin thought, trying to process the reality before him—a reality that felt completely out of place. The concept of the game they’d just completed wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.
Growing up in high society, he’d witnessed a lot of things he wished he never had—the type of things you couldn’t casually report to the authorities because nine times out of ten, the authorities already knew about it. Among such atrocities were “survival games” where the poor were forced to fight for their lives for the amusement of the rich.
But even with all the high-end tech they usually utilized to create these games, Lin had never seen anything like this.
Steam that healed you instantly while erasing pain entirely.
Fire that burned skin without a visible ignition source.
Did they implant microchips in our bodies?
Or maybe they were unconscious, all sharing some kind of dream.
Countless possibilities formed in his mind. However, since he had never heard of these types of technologies, it seemed unlikely that such revolutionary advancements were being used one after the other as if they were publicly available resources.
If it can’t be explained by advanced technology...
“It’s magic,” the woman’s voice reached his ears, snapping him out of his thoughts. His eyes widened as he looked up, meeting her gaze which seemed to see right through him.
Can she read minds?
The thought surfaced in his mind, and unfortunately, it seemed to be the only plausible explanation, considering the fact that she’d brought up a completely unrelated topic out of nowhere—a topic that had been playing in his mind.
“Who the hell are you?” Lin finally asked, having considered all possible explanations and arriving at a conclusion he’d been resisting with all his might.
I don’t know...
As if reading his thoughts, the woman immediately answered.
“As the boy said, I’m what you might call a goddess. Or would you like a demonstration of my powers?” she asked in a straight tone, adding a tempting offer at the end.
Should I stand down? Lin wondered, glancing around the endless white room and letting out a sigh. The others around him seemed to be glancing at him, a hint of anticipation in their eyes as if urging him to agree.
However, demanding proof of her power felt very risky given their current situation.
If she displays something too supernatural to even comprehend—it might completely shatter everyone’s fighting spirit.
It was typical of Lin to analyze the threat this way.
Though leaning toward a new belief in the supernatural, he still assessed the so-called goddess as a potential threat that might need to be taken down, viewing her not as an unknown variable but a dangerous one. As far as he was concerned, her admission of bringing them there was reason enough for Lin to see her as a threat.
“All right. I’ll play along. Where are we, and why did you bring us here?” Lin finally asked, standing down and giving in to her taunt while throwing multiple questions to take as much control of the conversation as possible. The others’ expressions immediately became relieved; although they considered the being in front of them a possibly powerful foe, they couldn’t imagine winning against her at all.
“Good choice,” the woman replied, her tone sounding unsurprised by Lin’s reaction. She turned slightly and extended her hand toward the floor. Instantly, a small cylindrical structure emerged from the ground, capturing everyone’s gaze.
“We are currently at ground zero of the Tower of Heroes, a kind of bridge between worlds,” she explained. Everyone glanced at the tower, which seemed very plain, resembling old medieval towers most had seen in parts of the world. Their faces clouded with confusion, though a few seemed excited at the mention of “hero.”
“You needn’t worry about all those other worlds out there,” she continued. “The twenty of you have been chosen to become the heroes of your world.”
Heroes? Lin frowned, his thoughts still stuck on the sudden revelation of multiple other worlds besides theirs.
Everyone else seemed to share a similarly conflicted expression. The contrast between being chosen as a hero and the ordeal they’d endured in the “Trial” left them struggling to reconcile the two.
“Why us?” the blue-haired man cut in, sounding annoyed at Lin’s prolonged silence. The group gave him a brief glance, noting the dark-haired woman still sprawled in his arms. He ignored their gazes, only glancing at a particular individual.
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Is he still mad? Lin wondered as their eyes met before quickly looking away. After completing the trial, Lin had tried to reconcile with the man by offering to carry the woman himself, but his offer had been bluntly rejected.
‘Can you promise you won’t try to use her for any experiments?’ the blue-haired man had asked. Lin, pausing to consider his response, had only ended up losing the man’s trust entirely as he walked away without waiting for an answer.
I didn’t want to carry her anyway. Lin had already suspected they would meet some kind of gamemaster or host after the trial, and if things turned physical, she could become deadweight and hold him back.
“All of you here currently hold the title of ‘Hero Candidate,’ that is, the greatest potential to become a hero,” the woman’s voice interrupted, starkly contrasting with Lin’s dark thoughts. The contrast wasn’t lost on the others as they all turned toward him, the same thought floating in their minds.
Hero?
There was no doubt he had been the greatest aid throughout the trial, but calling him ‘heroic’ felt misplaced, especially given some of his more questionable actions—particularly against the dark-haired woman, who had been in a vulnerable position. As if sensing their confusion, the goddess continued.
“Even as ‘gods,’ we don’t choose who becomes a Hero Candidate. We didn’t choose you; the system chose you,” she explained.
At that moment, the pure white space around them suddenly dimmed, revealing a sky scattered with stars as if they were floating in space. Several planets hovered nearby, and to their amazement, some looked very familiar.
Earth.
There were thousands of planets spread throughout the space around them, possibly even an infinite number, as the worlds stretched endlessly in all directions. Their eyes wandered in awe, taking in the aesthetic scene. As the goddess waved her hand again, one of the planets suddenly moved toward her, zooming in to reveal the various locations in it, many of which seemed familiar.
“The Algo-God system allows us to simulate any world and observe how the future might unfold when certain variables are changed. For example, we can see what a world would be like if a particular person was never born, or if a major event never happened. This allows us to monitor potential outcomes and determine when we might need to intervene,” she continued, and everyone nodded, still processing how they might fit into all of this.
“One part of this system is the Hero Selection 1000. To qualify as a Hero Candidate, a person must succeed in at least 700 out of 1,000 simulated timelines of their own world. In other words, if each of you here were born as a completely random person with different upbringings, gender, economic circumstances, among multiple other factors, you would still achieve a level of greatness that the world regards as genius in 70% of those timelines,” she explained, prompting worried gazes from everyone as they tried to make sense of her words.
That’s a bit… unreasonable, Lin thought as he considered the numbers in his head. A large factor of most people’s success was rooted in their upbringing—a motivation to one day change their environment for the better, whether out of love or hatred—or a motivation borne from an environment that promoted growth. Success was an accumulation of that, all falling under one’s unique experiences in life.
A difference in environment would also affect an individual’s personal goal. If the profession you chose was primarily rooted in becoming rich and famous, would you have the same aspirations while growing up in an already wealthy and famous family? If not, then it meant that out of the 1,000 simulated timelines, you were likely to have 1,000 completely different goals and aspirations, and out of all of them, you achieved 700 to the level of genius?
That sounds too farfetched.
Even as someone already possessing potential in a variety of fields, the idea that the same level of greatness could be achieved if he were raised in a completely different environment didn’t sound believable. After all, many of his accomplishments were a product of the magnitude of resources allocated solely to his growth—not primarily a product of innate talent.
“It might sound unbelievable, but that’s the reality,” the woman suddenly interrupted, as if reading his thoughts, prompting him to look up at her. Catching everyone’s attention once again, she continued,
“Whether you were born and raised in an orphanage, a street kid living on the streets, or born in a village that barely shows up on any map, success would await all of you in whatever profession or path you pursued.”
Her words stirred a mixture of emotions in the group. A fleeting sense of superiority flashed across their faces, but it didn’t last long as another thought surfaced.
How do we compare to the rest of humanity?
If they were chosen based on exceptionalism, did that mean the rest of the human population had failed to be chosen? The answer came without the need to voice it.
“You may think little of this, but for the average person, success comes in only 100 to 150 timelines out of 1,000. The twenty of you here are outliers, individuals we refer to as Hero Candidates. Your potential means that you have the power to change the course of a doomed world,” she explained, solidifying the growing feelings of superiority among them.
Being called geniuses was one thing, but possessing potential far above anyone else in the world was something else entirely.
That’s only 10% of the timelines, Lin thought, glancing around at the others, who seemed equally astonished by the numbers. Roughly 1 in 400 million, he calculated, scanning the group of individuals considered to hold potential beyond even the present-day standard of genius.
He understood the concept better than most. Throughout his life, he had encountered numerous individuals celebrated as geniuses in their fields, people whose talents far exceeded the norm. He had seen their abilities firsthand and acknowledged them as worthy of the title. Most importantly, he had been the one to make them hesitate to ever call themselves by that title—an outlier even among outliers.
Is it the same for them? he wondered, hopeful, more so than any of them could imagine.
“Before we begin the Hero Trials, I’m sure you’re curious to know how many timelines each of you succeeded in out of the 1,000 we randomly simulated,” the goddess said.
Although no one spoke, their faces were suddenly filled with anticipation. In the next moment, glowing numbers appeared above each person’s head. Still confused, they quickly looked around, first checking each other’s scores.
Lin glanced around, focusing only on those who had caught his interest. The bald man, standing a few steps away, had a surprisingly high score: 803/1,000.
Noting this, Lin then turned his attention to the blue-haired man, who was staring at him with wide eyes for some reason. Ignoring the expression, Lin checked the scores of both him and the woman he was carrying.
That’s pretty high, Lin thought, surprised by the woman’s score: 891/1,000. The blue-haired man wasn’t far behind, with 830/1,000. Most of the others were in the 700s, except for two more individuals—a man and a woman—who had staggering scores of 905 and 911. From the goddess’s explanation, even a difference of one successful timeline was significant in this context.
Finally, as a few eyes darted between him and a certain individual in the crowd, Lin looked upward, taking note of the number floating above him.
Not what I was expecting.
Strangely enough, seeing his own score dampened his mood slightly. However, what he saw next more than made up for it.
Among the crowd was a man with an unassuming appearance. He had short, dark hair, his tired-looking eyes shadowed by faint dark circles. He fell into the first category of people—wearing a simple white T-shirt and black jeans. His build was neither thin nor particularly fit, but an almost perfect balance of in-between.
A cold sweat trickled down the man’s forehead as he met Lin’s gaze, seemingly just as surprised by the number above his head.
Interesting.
It was the highest score in the room and the highest that could possibly be achieved, period. But more surprising than that, it was the same number floating above Lin’s head.
1,000/1,000.