“I’m retiring.”

  Dominic stared at his master blankly. “You’re retiring?”

  “Yep.” Atwater nodded, his white beard bobbing along with the movement of his head. His face formed quite the odd contrast—a long white beard on a youthful, unwrinkled face. Though, his eyes, hair and even his clothes were white too, so it was more like a general theme his master followed than a choice made to look old.

  “Retire where? And what are you going to do, when you retire? Tend to a farm or something?”

  “That’s exactly what I’ll do.”

  Dominic felt his eyebrow twitch. This geezer is messing with me now, isn’t he?

  “No, I actually am not kidding,” the old man continued, as if reading Dominic’s mind. His expression turned melancholy, like he was thinking of something he had lost. “My dream was always to be a farmer, you know? But then, things sort of just happened one after another, and I became a god.”

  “How do you become a god accidentally?” Dominic asked incredulously.

  “Would you believe it started with a chicken egg and a missing cloud?”

  “How does that—” Dominic stopped and took a deep breath. He was getting caught up in his master’s tangent. “You know what, not right now. Some other time, when I have more energy to deal with your grand tales. But what about our duties? We do have to keep reinforcing the boundaries of the universe.”

  His master’s expression turned serious at that. “We’ve driven out the current wave of the Soul Eaters and killed their leader, so it should take them at least a few hundred eons to regroup and attack us again. Till then, I can maintain the barrier passively as long as I’m in this universe. As for you… Wanna farm with me?”

  “No way.” Dominic was all for the chill life, but farming indefinitely was not part of his ideal future—no offense to farmers, they were a major part of keeping the universe and life itself running, right after the administrators.

  His master chuckled, a hearty, boisterous laugh that revealed his white, pearly teeth. “I’m not surprised by that. So, go become a god.”

  “Eh, I don’t need to rush into that just yet.”

  “You’ve been procrastinating for a long, long time. By all means of measurement, you’re long qualified to become a god. Just by sheer strength, even I—with all modesty, one of the strongest existences across all universes—would find it hard to defeat you if you put your mind to it.”

  Dominic coughed and cleared his throat. “I’ve been very occupied with fighting the Soul Eaters.”

  “You’ve been procrastinating.”

  “Hard to want to go off and accumulate karma in some unknown, unprotected universe, bond myself to it, when the universe I live and thrive in, the universe my beloved master is responsible for, is being viciously attacked by existences feared by even the most fearsome gods. It’d be neglectful of my duty!”

  “Or, you could go enjoy life for once, instead of being stuck in strategy meetings day after day. Now that the threat is pushed back, you can do all the things you’ve never had time to pursue before. Like becoming a god.”

  “True.” Dominic nodded. “It’s probably time for me to recruit a disciple too, now that I think about it.”

  His master’s eyes twinkled at Dominic’s statement, and he leaped forward, making Dominic back up a few steps. The old man’s eyes were practically glowing, bright enough that even the darkness of the void they were in—their secret seclusion spot in between a few of the worlds—could not dim it.

  “I’m going to be a grandfather?!” Atwater asked, cooing. “Oh, god, I can’t wait! All those adorable kids you’ll recruit, showing them the universe, teaching them the ways and pampering them when you discipline them occasionally—”

  “Technically, you’ll be a grandmaster.” Dominic corrected, a smile spreading over his face at his master’s excitement.

  “Oh, then you plan to have kids too?! Make me a grandfather?!”

  Dominic stroked his chin, smooth unlike his master’s bearded visage. He preferred a clean shave. “Maybe not in this excursion, but after I become a god… There are quite a few goddesses looking for partners right now…”

  His master looked like he would faint out of sheer excitement. “Oh, goodness! Thank goodness you’ve mellowed out! I never thought this day would arrive—”

  “Maybe.” Dominic emphasized. “I might not like any of the goddesses. I might decide not to marry at all just because. Hell, my trip for accumulating karma might take too long, and they might all find matches. Calm down, Atwater.”

  His master humphed, but did stop cooing. “Fine, fine. Go meet the administration department, then. They’ll yeet you into some random, ungodified universe.”

  “You want to become a god, Demigod Dominic?” The girl turned her head towards Dominic like a sloth, practically creaking. She sported deep, dark bags below her eyes and her hair resembled a bird’s nest.

  “That’s why I’m here, yes.”

  She nodded wearily, the sheer lack of energy obvious in her neutral tone. “Alright. I can check the new universes that have been born—perhaps those with only a few billion years of development—and throw you in one of them.”

  “Couldn’t you drink some elixir?” Dominic asked in concern, looking at her state. She looked like she would keel over any second. Most of the administrators looked similar, but none of them this bad.

  “Oh, appraisal is coming soon…” The girl murmured, turning back to the holographic device in front of her and tapping very, very slowly. “The more tired I look, the more providence I’ll be given as a bonus. It’s a surprisingly effective strategy.”

  Dominic blinked. That… was not all that out of character for the admin department employees, now that he thought about it. No wonder they were all maintaining such appearances. The woman running the admin department was a bit of a nutcase. He couldn’t help but ponder whether he should report her to his master—but then he thought about Atwater’s lackadaisical demeanor and shook his head internally. Besides, she’s a very productive nutcase.

  “I’ll be hoping you get a good appraisal,” Dominic cheered her on, but then couldn’t help but be curious. “Aren’t all of you given life stocks, though? With the Soul Eaters defeated, you should have gotten a huge amount of providence from the stocks.”

  “Oh… It’s about squeezing every last bit from our boss. A matter of personal pride.” The girl sighed, her eyes finally gaining a tiny spark of vitality at that statement. “She tries to reduce our salaries as much as possible, and we try to increase it as much as possible. You could think of it as a game.”

  “...right,” was the only thing Dominic could say. Of course the nutcase wouldn’t hire anyone fully normal.

  “And there. Universe-B-E-U83 seems to be suitable. Then, get ready for transport, Demigod Dominic. You’ll wake up in one of the random worlds. I wish you a safe and fruitful journey.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Dominic nodded, and his next blink, his surroundings had completely changed.

  No longer was he in the cold, sterile light blue room, filled with endless holographic devices and a large comfortable black beanbag in the middle, for the worker operating the devices. Instead, he was in a forest.

  A surprisingly plain forest, but perhaps that was only to be expected from a universe with only a few billion years of history.

  God Candidate detected.

  Welcome, Demigod Dominic.

  Linking to current system of the universe… ERROR. Complete link impossible. Partial link performed. Tutorial: Say “Status Screen” to check your stats. Any other doubts can be cleared by the administrator of this world.

  Karma System Activated.

  Say “Karma” to check the amount of Karma you have.

  Dominic smiled at the light black letters blinking at the forefront of his vision. “Karma,” he said first, mildly curious about whatever system this universe had prepared to keep its people thriving.

  Demigod Dominic

  Current Good Karma:

  0/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

  Any acts of true ‘evil’ shall deduct from the good karma gained.

  Good luck on your journey to godhood, Demigod Dominic.

  Dominic dismissed the white screen with a wave of his hand, and pondered about what his next step should be. He did have to interact with the natives of this world and do some good deeds, if he wanted to gain some karma. Though, he was honestly more interested in taking in a disciple first.

  Maybe he could be more passive for once, deal with situations as they come and gain karma while focusing more on his disciple instead of grinding for good karma?

  Yeah, that sounds appealing, Dominic nodded to himself. He then thought about the other message he’d gotten. Right, this world had a system. It’d not be a bad idea to get used to the system of this world—even if for his to-be-disciple, it was a good idea to train them naturally on the system they are used to at least till they became a demigod—and talk to the natural administrator of the world.

  “Status Screen,” he said, and a light blue screen popped up in front of him.

  Demigod Dominic’s Status Screen

  Level: Undefined

  Specializations:

  Divine Power [LvL Undefined]

  The Authority of Nullification [LvL Undefined]

  The Authority of Destruction [LvL Undefined]

  The Authority of Creation [LvL Undefined]

  The Aura of the Supreme [LvL Undefined]

  [EXPAND?]

  Titles:

  The One Who Scoured The Universe [Unique, EX-Grade]

  The One Who Can See Beyond [Unique, EX-Grade]

  [Error undefined, unable to process other titles. Kindly contact the administrator for a swift fixing of any errored titles. Thank you.]

  [Press Here to initiate a meeting with the Administrator of World RenBIY876]

  Dominic didn’t bother expanding any of his specialisations and instead pressed on the glowing yellow button that would initiate the meeting with the administrator. A few seconds passed with nothing happening, and just when Dominic was beginning to doubt whether the button worked at all, his surroundings changed again.

  He was in a soothingly peaceful grassland, a table in front of him—

  No, that wasn't true. A Soul Eater's illusion?

  Dominic clicked his finger and the world around him tore, like he was ripping off the wallpaper attached to a wall.

  It wasn't a Soul Eater.

  The grassland disappeared, being replaced by a small room with two bookshelves and posters littering the wall. The bookshelves were lined with books with titles such as ‘How to be a good administrator’, ‘The Basics of World++’, ‘I can barely keep my world alive, what do I do? A guide’, clearly showing just how inexperienced this administrator was. World++, really? His universe had already moved on to using the latest World+x89!

  A blue-haired girl sat on the floor in front of him, her hand hovering over a translucent blue screen, bright blue eyes wide as she stared at him blankly. Even her dress was trimmed in blue—just what was up with those in the upper tiers and their bland, singular color palettes? At least the hue was slightly different, but really. Style these days sure wasn't what it used to be.

  “You must be the administrator,” Dominic greeted calmly.

  He'd clearly caught her very off guard. She hiccuped, but she quickly caught herself and began, “I’m so sorry if I offended you in some manner, Your Demigodness! I simply wanted to create a pleasant place for us to meet! A—As you can see, my room is very dirty! T—Then, what have you come here for, Your Demigodness?”

  Dominic blinked as he realized what he’d done. Removing the illusions Soul Eaters spawned was so reflexive that he'd removed this admin’s illusion without really thinking. Well, no harm no foul, so he continued, “I wanted to ask you where the village nearest to me is.”

  The girl blinked. “A—About ten miles away from you, Your Demigodness.” She raised a hand to point. "That direction from your previous orientation."

  “Good, good.” Dominic nodded. “That’s all I came to ask. Also, it’d be easier to have some voice call or chat function, meeting you every time I have a query would be inconvenient.”

  The girl stared at him blankly, as if not fully processing his words. Dominic stared back at her—it’d be rude to break eye contact.

  A few seconds later did the girl nod, hesitantly. Opening and closing her mouth multiple times, she finally asked, “Forgive me for my petulance, Your Demigodness, but couldn’t you just find a village on your own with a basic scan of this world with your holy power?”

  Dominic nodded. “That is a very good question. I certainly could.” He then smiled, a toothy, wide grin, lifting his hands to make finger guns at the girl, “But why try when I have you?”

  The girl blinked. “Me?”

  “Yes, you. You see, I have no time limits on this journey of karma," Dominic explained. "I could take eons, if not even longer to become the god of this universe. My master is going into retirement too, so I thought I could take some inspiration from him and take a semi-retirement too. Not be so uptight and chill a bit in this journey. See the sights. Enjoy the trip.”

  The girl nodded along.

  He nodded back as he continued explaining. “Hence, I want you to be my assistant, if you could. Do all the small chores for me while I completely relax. Maybe map out some ways I could get karma, show me the nearby terrain and locations, help me recruit a good disciple… Only if you don’t mind, of course.”

  The girl’s nodding intensified. “Of course, I don’t mind! Anything for you, Your Demigodness!”

  Dominic grinned. “Thanks a ton. I don’t expect you to do this for free, obviously. Is there anything you want in return? Providence, perhaps? Or maybe you’re a tiny bit too low level to use it properly.” He stroked his chin, pondering just what he could give her to make this a fair deal.

  The girl spoke shyly, “But providence is used in this universe too, Your Demigodness! It’d help me a lot, too! Books and resources are sold for cheaper currencies, but any proper tutor always asks me for providence… I don’t have much of it, though, making me have to rely on books and not being able to learn effectively!”

  “That works, then.” Dominic nodded. He had a lot of providence. “Tell me whenever you need some providence to buy something, consider it me sponsoring your education fully in return for your assistance. Or you could ask for an hourly rate, if you want to spend it in general.”

  “I’d like to be sponsored!” The girl said unhesitatingly.

  Dominic reached out into the air and waved his hand, opening a purple rift. He took out a small black wallet from within, taking out a stack of translucent blue bills with the words ‘DISTILLED PROVIDENCE’ on them.

  The sheer quantity made the girl gape, her jaw practically on the floor.

  He handed her a bill and said, “Tell me when you need more, then. What’s your name, by the way?”

  “Gabrielle, Your Demigodness!” Gabrielle said, her eyes sparkling like a chicken that had found grain on the floor as she all but drooled over the blue bill in her hands.

  “Don’t call me Your Demigodness, call me Dominic instead.” Dominic said before continuing, "Also, I'll need you to sort out my system migration, your local version isn't playing nice. Maybe get it updated while you're at it."

  "Y-yes, Demi–er, Mister Dominic!"

  “Then, I’ll be leaving.” With a wave of his hand, he was back in the forest, surrounded by the plain old trees once more.

  Time to see what this new universe had to offer.

  He turned in the direction Gabrielle had indicated the town would be and set off at a leisurely stroll. He had so many questions about his new potential universe. Would there be monsters, and if so would they know enough to avoid him, or try to eat him? What was the tech level like? Would they need a lot of divine intervention, or was this one of those worlds that could pretty much run itself with minimal interference?

  But for now it was a lovely walk in peaceful woods. Three or four different kinds of trees, white birch and dark oak and blueish stellin formed a natural medley of soothing color. They may be mundane by universal standards, but the more he walked among them the more he grew to appreciate their subtle beauty.

  A quiet breeze wafted the scent of distant grain and the sharp tang of sour berries. Birds sang to one another and butterflies flitted by on their way between flowers.

  No need to rush into things. He’d spent enough time on the front lines of the Soul Eater war, he’d definitely earned a casual vacation.