Chapter: 159
Baal was struggling and going through all sorts of troubles as he dealt with the problems of the gods popping up all over the world.
Sometimes using brute force, sometimes making threats, and sometimes actually splitting gods apart—Baal was busy going around like that… Hmm. I couldn’t help but think, if I were in his shoes, I’d be utterly exhausted.
So, having dumped the responsibility of being the King of the Gods onto Baal, I was enjoying some leisurely time while continuing my personal research.
The main focus of my research was… creating an automated prayer response device that would respond to prayers without any manual intervention.
Responding to the prayers of those who worship the Goddess of Life is really a minor task, but it was definitely the one with the highest volume, you see.
The amount was ridiculously high, and the tasks usually boiled down to keeping the families of the praying folks healthy or to ensure they don’t get sick—extending their lifespan… well, actually, I can’t do that. Nope, extending lifespans is off the table.
Most of what I was supposed to do was answer prayers for the sick, so it mostly revolved around keeping them from suffering too much.
Besides, I only tended to the really desperate prayers or those from people with rock-solid faith… Yet still, due to the sheer number of humans, I was totally overwhelmed every day.
But not anymore! Today marks the end of that!
Finally! I did it! I’ve completed an artificial intelligence that processes human prayers automatically! The so-called automated prayer processing system!!!
Wow, I really had to fight against a lot of odds to make this happen. Creating an entity capable of processing prayers on my behalf when there was nothing like artificial intelligence around was no small feat, you know.
I leveraged the faith in the Goddess of Life—which doesn’t really hold much value to me—to create a virtual Goddess of Life to do my bidding, operating thanks to that faith.
Of course, it doesn’t really exist, but it’s like a diligent AI secretary working away in the corner of my mind!
The functionality is simple. When it detects someone praying, it first identifies who prayed, checks the prayer’s content, and if it deems it worthy, it processes it automatically.
Even a feature this straightforward is totally enough to handle countless prayers!
With that, I was able to offload some of the burdens that had piled high on my plate!
“What are you thinking about over there? Get back to work already!”
“Oh, uh, right.”
Of course, just because I created this automated prayer processing system doesn’t mean my workload has entirely vanished.
At the moment, I was in the Afterlife… helping sort out the deceased.
“Seriously, the number of humans has become a huge problem, but lately, there have been even more humans dying. And most of the recent casualties aren’t due to natural causes but are victims of fights between the gods. It’s a mess. A total mess, I tell you.”
Listening to Keres whining, I could only respond with an awkward smile.
I knew that Keres was subtly hinting at me, questioning why I wasn’t handling things directly and instead offloading the work onto Baal, the sky god, and creating these issues.
But what can I say? Baal is still a young god, and it takes time to get skilled at this kind of work.
And if I had been doing the King of the Gods’ duties, I wouldn’t have had the time to come here and lend a hand in the Afterlife.
I certainly wouldn’t have been able to find the time to create this automated prayer processing system for the Goddess of Life’s prayers. Hmm.
So, I’m not in the wrong here!
“What are you babbling about? Hurry up and get back to work. Your hands are just sitting there.”
“Ugh…”
“What’s with the ‘ugh’? You think that makes you adorable or something?”
“But hey, I came here to help you guys! Can’t you be a bit kinder with your words?”
“I won’t be nice until the Goddess of Life fulfills her promise to me. You promised that as a trade-off for becoming the administrator of the Afterlife, you’d prepare a place for the dragons to live after they bite the dust, right?”
Oh, that.
I had put that off for a while since we didn’t have any dragons kicking the bucket from old age yet.
“Don’t worry, that won’t take long to sort out.”
“Really?”
“Would I lie to you?”
Well, I might if it came to that, but not now!
And creating an afterlife for the dragons isn’t that hard, either.
“Well then, I’ll just trust the Goddess of Life. And if it’s possible, I’d appreciate it if you could add more administrators to the Afterlife…”
“Oh, that’s not happening.”
“Huh?”
At my words, Keres’ face fell. A huge wave of despair washed over.
“W-why? Aren’t a bunch of new gods being born right now? If there are any god related to death in the mix, can’t we bring them into the Afterlife?”
Keres spoke with a hint of fragile hope. But those words wouldn’t see the light of day. They were impossible.
Because no new gods of death are being born anymore.
“You already have the death gods, and everyone knows about them. No new death gods can sprout up.”
Gods are born from humans’ fear and longing for the unknown.
But about the Afterlife… well, it’s somewhat known thanks to the pilgrims who visit the Goddess of Life’s shrine, so there’s no room for a new god to be born naturally.
Even if the fear of death grows, it will only boost the faith in the three administrators of the Afterlife, and a new god of death won’t emerge.
“If you want to create one artificially, that’s a different story…”
Just as I managed to create the automated prayer processing system, if I were to whip up something like an automated Afterlife trial assistance system, it might be beneficial.
But in any case, it’s impossible naturally. Unless humans start dreaming up new gods of death, that’s a no-go.
“Then… what if we bring in another god and make them a death god of the Afterlife?”
Recruiting other gods to become death gods? Hmm. It’s not impossible, but…
“If they aren’t interested… it’ll be tough.”
Gods are all like stubborn little frogs that don’t listen!
“Anyway, I’m working on an AI-like tool for work assistance… If I were to refine it a bit more, it should be performant enough for use in the Afterlife as well. That way, it could ease some of your burdens.”
“I hope so! But what the heck is artificial intelligence?”
Hmm. AI. I’d better start explaining that from scratch.
“It’s like a manufactured intelligence—something that doesn’t naturally occur but is made by human hands.”
“Manufactured artificially? Made by people and not gods? Um… Uh…”
At my response, Keres’ expression morphed as if something clicked for them.
“What’s the difference between that and Talos?”
“Talos?”
Why is Talos popping up all of a sudden?
“Talos was created by the Goddess too, but it has intelligence, right?”
“Talos?”
No way, that can’t be true. Talos is just a golem.
I can’t remember ever giving it any form of intelligence…
“Whenever I take a break and head up to the surface, Talos always looks at me like it’s suffering. Sometimes, I even envy Talos just standing there brainlessly!”
“No, I don’t recall giving Talos any sort of intelligence.”
“Well, maybe it doesn’t have any speech functions. But you can tell by the look in its eyes, can’t you?”
Hmm, did it? I’m honestly not sure.
If it turns out Talos really does have intelligence…
Then all the time I spent trying to create AI was for nothing…
“If that’s the case, I’ve got no time to waste! I’m stepping out for a bit.”
“Huh? Huh?! Wait a minute, Goddess?! Goddess?!?! What am I supposed to do all by myself?! The other two are on holiday today! I’ll be left alone?! There’s too much work for me to handle alone?!?! Gooooooddeeeeessss!!!”
Ignoring Keres’ cries, I headed towards Talos at the entrance of the Afterlife.
If Keres’ words are true… I can definitely boost the automated prayer processing system’s performance.
Maybe I can even turn it into an AI that can think and decide on its own! So…
I rushed towards the entrance of the Afterlife.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
The giant of black rock. The guardian deity of the Underworld. Talos.
The giant deity crafted by the Goddess of Life to safeguard the Afterlife.
The first golem and the first created god.
Among its many achievements, the most renowned would be its defense of the Afterlife against the Demon King’s army.
At that time, while the Afterlife was a rugged place that living creatures struggled to survive in, it also existed as part of this world.
From the Demon King’s perspective, it was a juncture he simply couldn’t allow untamed.
Hence, the Demon King dispatched his trusted subordinates, along with a horde of demons, to invade the Afterlife.
However, that army failed to breach the Afterlife. Though they tried to forcefully twist open the gates and descend, they couldn’t get past the entrance guarded by Talos.
The Demon King’s forces annihilated by Talos were the main troops at the time, and had they been intact, humanity would’ve likely fallen quick—this was the prevailing opinion.
Humanity managed to survive thanks to Talos’s indirect assistance.
– The created god, Talos.
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