Daydream (2)

A commotion arose inside the Foundation’s massive airship, “Humanity’s Step.”

“The Earth is flat! It’s flat!”

“How can you believe the Earth is flat! Looking for other methods would be much faster!”

After Lee Seung-hoon’s solution to the gravity anomaly was revealed.

It was due to the sharp disagreement among people.

“Just believe it! About ten days? If you just keep believing it’s flat, as if being brainwashed! The external special consultant said so, right? He said we’ll be automatically transported to the ground just by believing!”

Let’s believe the Earth is flat as Lee Seung-hoon said.

These people argued that the human brain easily accepts repeated stimuli, so a little suffering would suffice.

“Is that as easy as it sounds!? And what kind of people are our agents? They’re practically mental iron men! Crude brainwashing won’t work on them! It worked because the external special consultant was barely human, but it’s impossible for our agents!”

This method might only work for someone like Lee Seung-hoon.

They argued that instead of wasting time on such methods, they should look for alternatives.

“If it doesn’t work, we should create a drug!”

“What, are you suggesting we brainwash ourselves with drugs!?”

“That’s the only way! The object’s specificity is structured that way, and you’re saying you want to find another method, and you call yourselves agents!?”

The endless debate.

Kim Mi-ri, who was watching this, sighed.

‘This won’t get us anywhere.’

She agreed that simple belief alone couldn’t make her accept the flat Earth theory.

But she didn’t agree with using drugs made here without proper equipment to brainwash their minds.

‘Just getting to the surface doesn’t end our mission. With battles against enemies still ahead, we can’t guarantee victory if we’re under the influence of mind-altering drugs.’

How could she unite everyone?

How could they escape this place?

“…That’s the only method that comes to mind.”

I’ll be teased for a while if I do this.

Kim Mi-ri, sighing, moved to the broadcasting room.

-All agents and researchers, please gather at the assembly point on the ship.

Before heading to the assembly point after the broadcast, she changed into a special agent uniform.

‘The special agent uniform also doubles as a spacesuit that can withstand long hours in space, right?’

Let’s wear it in case of emergency.

After changing, she moved to the ship’s assembly point.

“What’s going on?”

“Why the sudden assembly?”

“Huh? Isn’t that the special agent uniform? We were told not to wear it before combat due to battery issues.”

She didn’t answer the questions.

Instead, she checked if anyone was missing by scanning everyone’s faces.

“Everyone’s here.”

She closed her eyes.

She released the fragment of power, the inner instinct that she usually suppressed.

“!?”

The first person to notice was Kim Go-deuk.

As a martial artist, he sensed his disciple’s change and instinctively took a step back.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, my disciple is now…”

“Wait, don’t tell me!? No way!?”

At that moment, the air on the ship became heavy.

As if they had entered the deep sea, pressure came from all directions.

It wasn’t actual physical damage, but a phenomenon created by the instinct of living beings in front of a predator.

“Now that everyone’s gathered, I’ll begin.”

When Kim Mi-ri opened her eyes again, she was no longer Kim Mi-ri.

“From now on, the Earth is flat.”

She was an absolute master looking down on the world arrogantly.

Kim Mi-ri didn’t know much about martial arts novels.

Even after learning martial arts from Kim Go-deuk, she had only read fast and easy-to-read works.

This superficial learning changed after taking the history exam at Deokcheon High School.

“What is everyone doing?”

Because she had to experience history directly with her body and change the world with her power.

Because among them was the history of unifying China.

She came to believe that the essence of martial arts is power, and becoming strong is the end of martial arts, which led her to apply a specific being from martial arts novels to herself.

“This is Heaven Demon’s command, execute it immediately.”

The being known as the Heaven Demon.

It’s not a split personality. She’s just suppressing her power and character normally; it’s still her.

“You’re not executing it.”

Everyone became dumbstruck.

How do they execute that?

“Can’t be helped. I’ll have to use my power.”

“Disciple! What are you…”

“I am not your disciple.”

She took one big step forward.

“I am the Heaven Demon.”

Then all the agents inexplicably fell to one knee under pressure.

“In martial arts novels, the Heaven Demon is described as physically pressing down on opponents, making them kneel just by walking.”

Kim Mi-ri chuckled.

“Isn’t that too crude?”

She took a second step.

Everyone knelt on both knees.

“Even street thugs can physically subjugate others. To dare call oneself the Heaven Demon while committing such trivial acts grandiosely.”

She took a third step.

Everyone prostrated themselves with their heads to the ground.

“If you truly wish to become an overlord, you must subjugate hearts.”

She took a fourth step.

Everyone sincerely acknowledged her, recognized her, and pledged loyalty.

“That is the true Heaven Demon’s Imperial Walk.”

She took the fifth and final step.

Everyone was prepared to take their own lives at her word.

“So I command, the Earth is flat, believe it so.”

The moment Kim Mi-ri’s words ended.

Everything disappeared except for her.

The airship she had been on.

The agents and researchers prostrating before her.

“So it turns out like this after all.”

Left alone in space, she looked up.

She smiled nobly, thinking of her colleagues who had moved to the flat Earth.

“Even the Heaven Demon is helpless in space.”

At most, she could maintain her position with ki control.

“Hurry and finish to come rescue me.”

Ulysses’ eyes opened with a sudden vibration.

When he connected the phone he had kept in his chest, he heard the urgent voices of his followers.

-Chief! Enemies! A huge airship has appeared!

“Everyone, stay calm.”

It must be the Foundation.

One of the world’s secrets and the shadow government maintaining world peace.

“This is sacred ground; you will never be defeated. So sortie immediately to defeat the enemy.”

-Understood!

“Before you go, could you bring a monitor down to the garden? I want to watch the situation.”

-Yes!

Shortly after, several followers came down to the garden with a large mobile monitor and remote control.

“Thank you all for your hard work. For our brilliant future. I will guard this place.”

“Yes!”

After everyone left, Ulysses closed his eyes again.

He woke up after finishing his tens of minutes of short nap and turned on the monitor.

“It has begun.”

The battlefield unfolded on the screen.

What appeared to be drones, stone-like objects flying around, broadcasting all battlefield situations in real-time.

‘That is the Foundation.’

A tens of kilometers large airship was unleashing all kinds of attacks in all directions.

However, compared to the size of the airship, the firepower was insignificant.

“This is the holy land of conspiracy theorists; even cutting-edge science doesn’t work properly if belief is lacking.”

The fact that it worked even that much was proof of the Foundation’s transcendental technology.

But, the power of the believers was not to be underestimated.

Tanks of several kilometers crossed the ground.

Massive ship cannons spewed fire, and dish-shaped UFOs freely flew through the sky, firing lasers.

“Nazi science, which first conceived the nuclear bomb, created rockets, and applied cutting-edge science to warfare, is the best in the world.”

Reptilian humans clinging to such UFOs jumped onto the Foundation’s airship.

Automatic interception devices hit them, but their scales deflected the attacks, and they tore open the deck with bare hands to infiltrate.

“The reptilians’ mother planet is a harsh place with powerful solar storms constantly raging; reptilian scales can block most physical damage, and their strength is 50 times that of humans. Also, with the lizard’s unique regenerative ability, they recover instantly even if their bodies are cut.”

Stone flying vehicles made kamikaze attacks on the airship.

On the ground, anti-gravity devices constantly tried to crash the airship, and primitive devices made of stone, rock, or wood exhibited mysterious powers surpassing modern science.

“Ultra-ancient civilizations were capable of space travel; their disappearance wasn’t extinction but escape from Earth, and their remnants evolved humanity, which was once apes, but failed to withstand the passage of time and were all buried.”

All were mere delusions, but here they were reality.

“Finally, the flat Earth meeting believers…”

They just prayed.

Their fanaticism poured down like rain onto the garden.

“Are hastening the end of the world.”

It was felt that before this world consumed the original world, there were 24 hours left.

Ulysses closed his eyes again.

“The day I become a god is not far away.”

“I can’t see anything.”

I walked through the darkness.

Actually, the word “walking” wasn’t accurate.

“I’m not even sure if I’m moving right now.”

“You are moving. According to the pedometer app, there’s a regular shaking.”

Where is this place anyway?

I explored but couldn’t find anything.

‘Nothing to touch, no light, no sound, nothing at all.’

And yet a person can breathe and not die.

Though there’s no light, I can clearly see my own body and objects.

It felt as if my existence had been thrown into nothingness.

“Where is this?”

“Matching with FES’s tendencies, this space is also presumed to be born from conspiracy theories or beliefs.”

“If it’s conspiracy theory, it could be the interior of the Earth as described in the hollow Earth theory. If it’s a space born from belief, it would be related to religious hell.”

I’m fortunate to have Sarang with me at least.

While wandering for a long time, I took out the void pocket.

“Let’s use the paper boat.”

“Good idea.”

I put the paper boat on my head.

I limited the target to “beings who can be directly met in the space where I am now.”

“Let’s check who’s here, and if no one is, let’s find out whether this is an isolated dimension or a connected dimension. We can’t cross dimensions, but if there’s a connection between dimensions, it’s possible.”

I didn’t have high expectations.

This place didn’t seem like a place where someone would be.

‘I’ve connected with someone.’

But a connection was made.

‘Who is it?’

But I couldn’t tell who.

Just as an ant cannot learn human language.

I couldn’t understand the thoughts of the connected beings either.

“Ah.”

All connections were cut except for one.

As the connections were cut, their emotions flowed into me.

‘Disgust.’

Anger, hatred, jealousy, contempt.

‘Why these emotions?’

I felt the one remaining connection growing stronger.

And then as I blinked a few times, the world brightened.

“Ah.”

To the point where my eyes hurt.

The brilliant light dyed the world white.

And I saw.

Eyes of fire all around.

Infinite numbers of burning eyes on a band that encircled the world like a wheel and rotated.

“O foolish race who rejects the glory of the holy God and receives the protection of the prodigal who has given up the right to stand tall in all worlds for vain deviation, do you now also follow the anointed rest toward His glory?”

“Who are you?”

The largest.

A massive burning eye, like a planet, turned toward me.

“The servant who serves the holy and holy One, the shepherd of all throne angels, the servant who guards His throne, and the rod that punishes the little worms who covet His land.”

I knew the moment I saw it.

This being’s hatred is not for me.

“He calls me, Raphael.”

It hates humans.