Ch.1 Foreign News
It became an Outer God.
I clearly remember being hit by a car and dying.
The life of an ordinary college student living in the 21st century should have ended there.
“What the…”
Suddenly, my eyes opened, and I found myself floating adrift in outer space.
And in a strangely transformed body, no less.
A humanoid figure composed of dark matter and multicolored starlight.
I donât know why my body has changed like this, but shouldnât it return to normal?
I tried to turn my head to look around, but I quickly realized there was no need.
Even if I stayed perfectly still, everything around me flowed into my mind.
âWhoooosh!
Outer space should be silent, so why could I hear sound?
Countless tiny dots surrounded me. No, upon closer inspection, they werenât dots but dustâglittering dust drifting slowly.
Mesmerized, I reached out toward the nearest speck.
My finger, made of starlight, pierced through space and touched the dust.
Tock.
The moment my finger made contact, I realized something.
What I had touched wasnât dust. It was a cluster of celestial bodiesâan entire galaxy teeming with countless stars.
And, perhaps because I misjudged my strength, it burst apart in an instant, scattering into the void.
Just a careless, slight touch had destroyed a galaxy. Just how enormous was my body?
If all this âdustâ around me was made of galaxies⊠what kind of being had I become?
A disbelieving laugh escaped me, and the shockwave shattered thousands more âdustâ particlesâno, galaxiesâinto fragments.
But then, from one half-destroyed galaxy, I sensed something strange.
Something was trying to speak to me. It felt as minuscule as an ant, but I strained to listen.
[“Please! Please, youâ!“]
It was clearly the voice of a deep, dignified man⊠but it faded into a scream before vanishing entirely.
Did he just die? Honestly, I wasnât sure.
Now, even laughing was dangerous. It felt like the entire worldâexcept for meâhad turned as fragile as tofu.
If even the slightest touch could destroy everything, what was I supposed to do?
Moving recklessly would annihilate everything.
Naturally, I still had the moral compass of a normal person, and guilt weighed heavily on me, freezing me in place.
Especially because⊠the voice of that man from the shattered galaxy kept stabbing at my conscience.
Even if I hadnât known, I was the one who had hurt him.
Though this colossal body, as if containing the universe itself, told me that man wasnât a mortal creature called human, to me, everything still seemed like fragile life.
A long time passed like that.
***
After drifting aimlessly through space for what felt like an eternity, I learned many things.
My transformed body revealed everything to me.
The knowledge wandering the cosmos. The name for beings like me. The fact that there was no way to return to being human.
I was an immortal being untouched by deathâan Outer God from beyond this dimension.
Like the Outer Gods from Lovecraftâs Cthulhu Mythos.
An Outer God.
I had died and come back to life, only to become an absolute being overnight.
Whoâand for what purposeâhad made me this way? There was no way to know.
The strange knowledge flowing into me didnât even fully explain what an Outer God was.
Only that I was born with the innate authority to reign.
Some beings still reached out to me, despite my efforts not to destroy anything.
I kept sensing a presence similar to the screaming man, and when I turned my attention toward them, a pitiful voice reached me.
[“Sniff⊠O Great One, please withdraw your power!”]
A beautiful, melodic voice, like a rolling jade bead.
She wasnât a mortal with a finite lifespan but an immortalâa goddess who ruled over a galaxy.
I donât know how I knew this, but by now, I was used to knowledge flooding my mind.
I simply sent a faint thread of will to communicate with her.
[“…You didnât mean to harm us? Th-thank you.”]
The goddess, who introduced herself as Nyseira, questioned my identity.
She called me an exalted being beyond her comprehension, implying she had never met other Outer Gods besides me.
Annoyed by her questions about my nature and purpose, I sent her another pulse of willâthis time packed with fragments of secrets and miscellaneous knowledge.
The information was sucked into her tiny galaxy like a vortex.
[“O-OhâŠ! You areâŠ!”]
Though her galaxy was no bigger than a speck of dust to me, I could tell from the emotion in her voice that she was overwhelmed with ecstatic gratitude.
She seemed to have grown slightly strongerânot in size, but in presence. Like an ordinary ant evolving into a soldier ant.
After some time, she sent another message.
[“To bestow upon me the most secret knowledge of the cosmos⊠I, Nyseira, the Star-Mystic Mother, wish to submit myself to you. Please accept me.”]
Secret knowledge? Submission? More than that, the title Star-Mystic Mother stuck in my mind.
Did her galaxy use Chinese characters? Or was this place inside a novel or movie where such terms existed?
My mind overflowed with bizarre knowledge, but most of it was filled with unfamiliar terms far removed from the 21st century.
Searching the cosmic language system was like browsing a libraryâI hadnât found the right book yet.
Emotions surged within me, and the surrounding space reacted.
Whooooooshâ
The dark matter filling the universe swirled violently in response to my mood, forcing me to suppress my feelings.
I closed my senses. Sealed my mind. Recited truths I had realized by observing the birth and death of galaxies.
All of this was nothing but a fleeting dream.
As the surroundings calmed, I sent another message to Nyseira.
[“You would accept me? This is an honor beyond words.”]
Now, tell me about those Chinese characters.
***
[“This script is used by a rather prosperous race in the realm I govern. Some of the mortal races, whose natural extinction is predetermined, refer to me as the Star-Mystic Mother⊠I-I hope such insolence has not offended you, O Great One⊔]
I see. So thatâs how it was.
To think there was a Chinese-character cultural sphere in that galaxy. The universe truly was unknowable.
But she confirmed that her galaxy had no planet called Earth. In fact, the human race I remembered didnât exist there at all.
So who created those characters there? And who came up with the term âOuter Godâ among the knowledge in my head?
I continued conversing with her. Did she know about nearby galaxies? Other worlds?
I asked eagerly about things even my cosmic knowledge couldnât discern.
[“If you mean other dimensions beyond this one⊠then yes, I know of them.”]
True to her status as a top-tier galactic goddess (excluding Outer Gods like me), she knew an astonishing amount.
Other universesâdifferent dimensionsâexisted beyond this one.
Beings there were aware of this dimension, and even planetary deities within her galaxy knew of other dimensions.
Was it like parallel worlds? New knowledge surfaced in my mind.
Ways to travel to another dimension. Methods to explore them. If I dispersed fragments of myself beyond the boundariesâŠ
I might even find the Earth from my past life.
Staying here, unable to move, was unbearably dull. Half on impulse, I began acting on the knowledge in my mind.
Like flicking sweat off my hands, I scattered pieces of myself into the unseen worlds.
The energy filling my body spread beyond the universe, enveloping the hidden layers of realityâuntil I sensed something.
But something felt⊠off.
I was the one doing the searching, yet the other side was reading my energy and sending information back.
Letâs hear what they have to say.
âThis message is dispatched to the Great Constellated Ones exploring the dimensionsâ
Our universe is a realm where the mortal speciesâHomo sapiens sapiensâholds dominion.
Unfortunately, due to dimensional instability, our universe prohibits the direct projection of divine influence.
Even if you are a naturally occurring galactic spirit of immense power, you should know that breaching dimensional walls with your true form is impossible.
Should you wish to tour our dimension or exert influence (such as establishing followers), please follow the method we have provided.
The Hyper Galactic Imperial Federation welcomes the Great Constellated Ones from beyond our dimension.
âReinhardt Orlim, 57th Leader of the Hyper Galactic Imperial Federationâ
After reading this, I was overcome with an indescribable feeling.
The rules of this world. Conditions for projecting influence. Summoning methods for small devices to observe their dimension and channel power.
It all sounded like something straight out of a constellation-themed novel from my past life.
And the Hyper Galactic Imperial Federation? It felt like a blend of sci-fi and constellation tropes.
If I had to sum it up in one wordâŠ
Is this an advertisement text?
