While receiving recruit training at the center, a fact had dawned on me.
Recruits were originally in a position where they couldn’t even properly make eye contact with a Captain.
That wasn’t all. There was a seven-year age gap between the Captains and me.
In the "Land of Eastern Courtesy," for a recruit seven years younger to pat a Captain on the head and actually call them a "good kin."
’Aaaagh!’
I screamed, but it didn’t sound at all to the outside world.
My hands were still busy stroking their heads,
Rub rub.
I had once flicked the Young God’s forehead, and now the tables had turned.
I wouldn’t even have the right to complain if I were hit with an infinite barrage of forehead flicks via prayer beads.
No, this didn’t seem like a level of insubordination that could be resolved by a few hits with prayer beads.
The moment I regained control of my body, I felt I would have to prostrate myself immediately.
Kwak Han-mook and Mo Hae-in glanced at each other while being patted by me.
It was just as the hand stroking their heads finally pulled away.
Kwak Han-mook grabbed my hand.
Then, he plopped it back on top of his own head.
He asked with a smirk,
"Master, I’m fuckin’ good, right?"
I screamed inside once again.
Regardless, my mouth was moving on its own again.
"Yup. Want a present?"
I pulled out a Supernova Pang Pang from my inventory.
Kwak Han-mook raised an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of popping candy.
I gave the popping candy as a gift to my cute subordinate who loved snacks.
’I’m going crazy.’
The stream of consciousness that led me to think Captain Kwak was cute was alarmingly natural.
Kwak Han-mook took the popping candy and replied nonchalantly.
"Hey, Master. Nothing for Captain Mo?"
"Nope..."
"Eh. I’ll share."
He was playing along with this absurd game of house.
Meanwhile, I was feeling sorry for the fact that only Mo Hae-in didn’t get a gift.
Beside Kwak Han-mook, who was rustling as he opened the popping candy, I locked eyes with Mo Hae-in, who was watching.
"What do you want? I’ll give you a present."
Mo Hae-in blinked rapidly a couple of times.
Holding a few pieces of candy handed over by Kwak Han-mook, she replied somewhat awkwardly.
"Um... there’s nothing I want... but are you okay? Physically, I mean."
It was admirable how she prioritized her master’s well-being over her own desires.
I reached out and cupped Mo Hae-in’s cheek.
"My pretty subordinate."
At that moment, I finally regained control.
"I’lI adore you even more from—I’m sorry!"
However, it wasn’t a hundred percent. My hand was still fiddling with Mo Hae-in’s cheek.
With her face cupped in my hand, she looked at me with surprised eyes, her lips slightly parted.
"Ca-Captain, this is because my condition!"
As I spoke while breaking into a cold sweat, Kwak Han-mook asked while eating the popping candy,
"Are you a kkul-bam?"
"Yes, I am a kkul-bam right now."
Only after answering did I realize that, in my panic, I had referred to myself as part of the "chestnut series" (a play on the Korean term for a flick to the forehead).
Without a word, Kwak Han-mook pulled my hand away from Mo Hae-in.
Just when I thought it was somehow resolved.
"Were you sad? I’ll touch you too."
My tongue spat out more strange nonsense, and this time, it tried to touch Kwak Han-mook’s face.
I pushed the Young God out from within me with all my might.
However, I couldn’t stop the action of kneading Kwak Han-mook’s cheek.
"I’m sorry, Captain Kwak... I’m trying right now, but, uh, I can’t quite control my body yet.."
"’Yeah, yeah. Take your time."
Kwak Han-mook entrusted his face to me as if giving a toy to a child. Licking the popping candy crumbs from his lips, he said, "I should at least do this much for the Master."
"I am truly sorry.."
After that, I continued to show the Captains the sight of my ego and the Young God splitting and clashing.
After a fierce battle, I managed to secure a dominant position.
During that time, Kwak Han-mook quietly played the role of the Young Gods victim by my side.
After kneading Kwak Han-mook for a long while, I finally pushed the Young God back, but I didn’t know when he would surge forward again.
My eyes were still gold, and I could feel the Young God grumbling discontentedly inside.
"What exactly happened?"
Once the chaos subsided into a lull, Mo Hae-in asked.
"I think it happened because of the power I possess."
Since I had already gone through a round of this at the arcade, I could explain it a bit more easily.
While explaining to the Captains, I thought about the cause of this situation.
’I think this is all because of Dominic.’
He had forcibly merged the separated me and the Young God.
But it seemed he merged us in a strange ratio.
Originally, I held the primary control over the body and mind, and the Young God’s proportion only increased when using power.
But now, it felt like we existed in a balanced 5-to-5 split.
I thought for a moment about the Young God residing within me.
Until now, I had vaguely imagined the Young God to look like a little kid.
However, the Young God I encountered was completely different from my imagination.
He had the exact same appearance as me.
With my face, he spoke and acted like a child.
It didn’t feel strange. It was just naturally accepted.
It was simply unbelievable that I had to become one with such a social misfit.
Now that I had faced him separately, it felt even more surreal how I was supposed to coexist with that child.
"I haven’t completely returned, so I think I’ll be doing a lot of strange things for a while.
Mo Hae-in and Kwak Han-mook readily told me it was fine.
Mo Hae-in even gave permission to touch her face if necessary.
"You’re a recruit anyway, so no matter what you do, it’ll be strange. I’ll just think of it as a child touching me."
She didn’t seem to properly know the danger of the Young God yet.
I asked Kwak Han-mook to please stop me if I did anything crazy.
The silver lining was that the Captains didn’t feel a strong aversion to my condition.
I thought this might also be possible because they were my subordinates.
’Everyone likes me more anyway.’
It was just as I finished explaining to the Captains, recalling the Young God’s remark.
"By the way, where’s your pet slime? I haven’t seen him around."
At Kwak Han-mook’s question, I only then realized Dominic’s absence.
I hurriedly looked around, but the sparkling slime was nowhere to be seen.
"..Ah. He went for a short walk."
I made a vague excuse, but my heart felt cold.
Where had he disappeared to?
Whenever he disappeared and reappeared, it had never been particularly good.
Moreover, I was even more anxious because every time Dominic disappeared, there was some... change in him.
The timing was particularly cruel.
He disappeared after merging me as he pleased. I was left unable to hear any explanation from him.
But as always, the relationship between Dominic and me was one-sided.
He could always watch me and find me, but I could only wait quietly.
For a moment, numerous pupils that had peered into me rushed back like a hallucination.
I gripped the blanket with my hand for a moment and then spoke to the Captains.
"...Lieutenant Colonel is in the Tower."
Before losing consciousness, I had scanned the entirety of Hyper-Eden and confirmed that my subordinate was in the Tower.
"I have to enter the Tower."
Mo Hae-in and Kwak Han-mook’s faces stiffened slightly. Mo Hae-in asked cautiously.
"Is that possible?"
"Right now, it’s impossible."
In this Trial, the Tower was originally a restricted area.
Even in the game, no matter which ending you saw, the doors of the Tower never opened.
It was safe to say there was no way to enter from the outside.
"I have to make the owner of the Tower open the door himself."
However, if the door were to be opened easily, the Black Block wouldn’t have told me to come and see for myself.
’Stringer activities alone aren’t enough.’
Even if I diligently progressed through quests to close it with a True Ending, the Tower’s door would not open.
I had to do something besides Stringer activities.
As I was racking my brain, an interstellar communication video screen suddenly appeared before me.
An alien with long hair flying in all directions shouted.
- Kid-what-did-you-do-just-now-!
It was the manager of the Galactic Trading Post.
Before I could even be surprised by the sudden communication, I checked on the Captains first.
"What is this now."
Facing an alien encounter without any mental preparation, Kwak Han-mook muttered in bewilderment.
Mo Hae-in also narrowed her eyes sharply, observing the manager.
The Captains had already identified the key NPCs during the Trial’s briefing.
Thus, they immediately recognized that the manager was a stranger.
The manager saw the Captains through the screen and acknowledged them.
- Those are the subordinates owned by the kid?
But after one comment, he immediately lost interest.
It might be an exaggerated thought, but it felt as if he didn’t view them as persons.
The manager scolded me.
- Do you know you were even on a live stream on Day News?
I was completely frazzled because I had to keep the Young God from popping out.
While sending a secret message to the Captains saying that he was an alien I knew well, I replied belatedly in surprise.
"Huh?"
- Sigh... As expected, the kid didn’t consent to this. Again, just as they please...
The manager showed me the atrocities committed by Day News.
I couldn’t close my mouth as I watched the video playing on the screen.
The video was broadcasting my appearance as I tackled the event quest in the arcade.
Throughout the broadcast, the chat was scrolling up crazily, and it felt somewhat familiar.
It was the kind of chat that reminded me of my days as a pro gamer.
However, the streaming wasn’t smooth. Noise occurred intermittently, and the feed repeatedly cut off and resumed.
The moments the broadcast stopped had a precise regularity.
It was when Dominic stepped out of the arcade machine. And when I used the power of a god.
’The pudding slime wasn’t filmed at all.’
The scenes where I put my hand inside the arcade machine to exert influence were all cut, and only the gaming parts were broadcast.
Something caught my eye while watching the live broadcast.
’M-Tube?’
The name of the most famous video platform on Earth was also M-Tube.
Of course, it could be a coincidence that the names overlapped with a cosmic video platform.
But considering what the Day News’s accomplice had been doing on Earth, it was hard to view it as a coincidence.
Having finished playing the video, the manager spoke with eyes that seemed to be boiling.
- Because of this, there’s practically no one in Akasha who doesn’t know about the Young God...
It seemed he had contacted me immediately out of concern.
Thinking he was a kind alien after all, I stealthily asked what I was curious about.
"Who are the people sending chats here? I’m also curious why they are so interested in me."
It wasn’t at a level that could be explained simply by enthusiasm over the birth of a Young God after a long time.
Perhaps the question was wrong, as the manager looked at me with very pitiful eyes.
It was a gaze as if looking at a child who didn’t even know basic common sense.
- ...Right. You said there are no adults around the kid. I should start by telling you what Akasha is.
The manager explained it to me very simply.
In short, Akasha was the cosmic society where aliens lived.
And ’Gods’, to use an Earth-style analogy, were like nobles or royalty.
They ruled as masters, possessing their own domains within the universe.
They could be described as beings like stars, possessing unfathomable time, whom ordinary aliens wouldn’t even dare to approach.
- But not a Young God.
A Young God could be ’touched...’!
Because they were immature, beings who were not gods could approach them, just as the Infernum had in the past.
Moreover, since I was outside the protection regulations, I was a very suitable target for the aliens of Akasha, who were already very interested in gods, to go wild over.
’So that’s why the aliens are buying newspapers from Day News and watching live broadcasts.’
If gods were like celebrities, it seemed the fuss was even greater because I was in a position where I could be easily encountered.
Thinking that way, I roughly understood why the aliens sent chats in that manner during the broadcast.
- Kid. Why did you go to Hyper-Eden?
"Ah. That is..."
Lost in thought, I answered awkwardly, anticipating the reaction.
"I came to do Stringer activities."
The manager covered his mouth with his crystal hand.
It wasn’t hard to imagine the thoughts passing through his head.
Probably something like a pitiful child who jumped into various part-time jobs to earn star fragments.
The manager’s hair slumped down and then slowly rose again.
- Let’s go back immediately. Return to the kid’s planet right now. And it would be best to establish a defense system on the planet first.
Since he even offered to help however he could, I spoke honestly.
"I can’t return yet. I’ve lost my subordinate."
At that, the manager scolded me seriously.
- Kid. I know toys are precious at your age, but now is not the time. You can get as many new subordinates as you want. If you happen to run into the owner of Hyper-Eden at this rate...
I hadn’t "run into" him, but I had communicated and shaken hands.
Even if it was a verbal agreement, I had even signed a portrait rights contract.
But even if I told the truth, the manager would only shout with his hair flying.
I replied to him, pretending not to know.
"There are things I need to resolve besides my subordinate. Thank you for your concern."
- You kid...
Then, before the manager could scold me, I quickly asked another question.
"By any chance, did high-ranking gods also see my broadcast?"
The manager, though displeased, answered for now.
- Ancient gods? They definitely saw it. Though they probably didn’t mix in with the viewers.
At that moment, a great idea occurred to me.
An idea that would make the Black Block unable to resist opening the door.
"Manager. Could you possibly help me a bit?"
[Young God’s First Broadcast!]
[First broadcast starting on M-Tube!]
[There’s also a major announcement, so everyone come in!]
Suddenly, a broadcast channel for the Young God appeared on M-Tube.
Because the broadcast title was similar to Day News, viewers entered first, but while waiting for the broadcast to start, they fought fiercely over its authenticity.
- Huh crazy is it really a Young God??
- No no it’s a fake imitating the Day News title who’s falling for this
- Reported for impersonation
- Just wait for now
- Ridiculous lol who does he think he is to have a major announcement lol
- Whats the major announcement
- I would be grateful if you could provide the coordinates of your home planet. I’m not trying to visit, I just want to send gifts.
- Child God★Child God★Child God★Child God★Child God★
Those who had been fighting in the chat until just before the broadcast started fell silent instantly as soon as the camera turned on.
It was because of the Young God’s hand filling the screen.
The lens was completely covered so nothing could be seen, but as soon as the hand was removed, bright golden eyes were revealed.
Eyes containing a vivid light stared straight into the screen.
- It’s real
- Gasp
- Young God!!
- Child God★Cute★My Planet★Take it all★Child God★Adorable★
- It’s a manipulation. There are quite a few cases these days where videos are manipulated using existing gods. This is a big deal.
- Isn’t it real? Looks real. God’s eyes are hard to manipulate. The radiance can’t be expressed. It’s even harder if the pupil color is different like that.
- Major announcement major announcement major announcement major announcement major announcement
- Turn off the broadcast immediately.
A cheerful greeting was heard.
"Hi!"
The Young God looked at the camera. Arrogant golden eyes, tinged with a smile, spoke as if commanding.
"Who wants to be my sponsor?"

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