What was going on?
Yazuki frowned. He remembered being attacked by Eriri—no, no, not Eriri. It was someone even smaller than Eriri, also blonde, and strangely familiar. Wasn't she... naked when she kicked him?
Unfortunately, because the human body was too slow to react, he couldn't get a clear look before losing consciousness.
So, was he waking up now?
No, after his human body lost consciousness from that kick, some mysterious force had pulled a fragment of his soul into something.
In the blink of an eye, he found himself in a somewhat surreal space, seated in a chair.
Upon closer inspection, he confirmed that he was in soul form, but still maintaining a human-like appearance. However, only a minuscule portion of his soul had been drawn into this space—he could return at any moment.
Likewise, he could fully enter this space with his entire soul, but that would mean abandoning his physical body. Still, this place seemed interesting. He wanted to see what was going on.
He could smell the stench of a so-called god!
Speaking of which, since he was in his human form, his soul's essence was also infinitely close to that of a human's, which was why this divine space didn't reject him.
His pupils narrowed slightly as a door suddenly appeared in the air without warning, and then a figure stepped out.
She had beauty beyond human comprehension, with pure, watery blue hair that gave off an ethereal, gentle vibe. Her perfectly proportioned figure was neither too full nor too lacking, wrapped in a light purple gauzy garment known as a celestial robe, with a sky-blue dress underneath.
This was an undeniably beautiful goddess—or at least, that was the first impression any normal person would have. But for Yazuki, the thick stench of divinity completely overshadowed her beauty, filling him with nothing but disgust.
The woman walked straight to the chair in front of him without sparing him a glance. Instead, she casually picked up a manga and started reading while munching on snacks from a small table beside her.
As expected of a god—how arrogant!
At that moment, Yazuki's lips curled into a cruel smile. If one were to magnify his pupils countless times, they would see a shadowy figure—his Demon King form—staring at the goddess with unfathomable magic eyes.
"Hmm? Trash-tier combat power."
As the name suggested, his magic eye had determined her threat level—trash-tier.
Wait, no, not just trash-tier—negative trash-tier?!
What the hell?
Was she some kind of evil god?
But she didn't look like one. Besides, an evil god wouldn't register as having negative combat power.
That disgusting divine stench proved she wasn't an evil god.
Could his Demon Eye be malfunctioning? No, no way.
This Eye had never failed him across multiple worlds, always providing accurate assessments. So what was going on?
At that moment, the goddess finally looked at him with those same watery blue eyes, blinking in mild confusion, as if she had just heard his scoffing.
"Oh, sorry, sorry! I forgot about work."
She said sorry, but there wasn't a trace of sincerity in her voice. Instead, she lazily stretched before picking up a thick book from the small table and flipping through it.
This goddess had no idea she was already in grave danger.
"Hmm—found it! Your name is... Nagumo Tsukiyo, right?"
Nagumo Tsukiyo? Yazuki raised an eyebrow.
This idiot of a goddess wasn't even doing her job properly—she had gotten the wrong person! Was she just carelessly playing with people's lives?!
The next second, the dumb goddess seemed to have read something surprising in the book, her body freezing up.
"Pfft—!"
She burst into laughter—one of those loud, exaggerated fits of laughter—as she fell backward onto the ground.
"Ahahahaha—what kind of death is this?! Pfft, you were watching hentai anime, and when the edited scene suddenly turned into a horror movie, you got so scared that you passed out?!"
The goddess was now rolling around on the floor, laughing hysterically, tears streaming from her eyes as she pounded the ground, looking like she might pass out from laughter.
"Ahahahaha pfft! No way, in all my years on the job, I've never seen a death like this! Ahahaha, I can't stop laughing!"
"Don't make it sound so ridiculous, okay? It was so embarrassing that even my parents didn't know whether to take me to the hospital..."
"And when you got to the hospital, the doctors—after hearing what happened—couldn't stop laughing either! Ahahahaha, they were laughing so hard they couldn't even work!"
"And in the end, you died of cardiac arrest while the doctors and nurses laughed, saying, 'Wow, this guy is so weak! Even ten-year-old kids handle horror better than this!' Pfft—ahahahaha!"
The goddess, still laughing, circled around Yazuki, constantly mocking him.
Finally, after seeing him lower his head in supposed shame, she let out a smug chuckle and walked back to her chair.
"Alright, I guess I'm done relieving my stress for now."
She had taken someone's trauma and used it for her own amusement—what a truly vile goddess.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Nagumo Tsukiyo—pfft, no, I can't, just hearing your name makes me think of your hilarious death again!"
"Haa—hoo—haa—hoo—"
The goddess took deep breaths, trying to calm herself.
"My name is Aqua. I am one of the gods responsible for guiding young deceased souls in this country. Now then, you have two choices. One, you can be reincarnated as a human and start a new life. Or two, you can go to a heaven-like place and live peacefully like an elderly person."
It seemed like she had finally gotten into work mode. But wait, people who died like that could go to heaven?!
"If I were you, I wouldn't choose heaven, though. Actually, heaven isn't as great as you might think. Since you're dead, you don't need to eat, so naturally, no food gets produced. And since there's no need for materials, nothing is ever made—so no games, no manga, nothing!"
Since Yazuki wasn't responding, the goddess continued her biased explanation, clearly trying to manipulate him. Seriously, she didn't even bother making up a convincing lie—wasn't she just reading a manga earlier?
"In heaven, because you don't have a body, there's nothing to do. No, ahem, fun activities either (tries not to laugh). You just sit around chatting with other dead people or sunbathe all day... So yeah, heaven is super boring. But if you reincarnate, you'll have to spend years growing up again, and your memories will be wiped, so your current self will basically cease to exist. Pretty meaningless, don't you think?"
At this point, the goddess leaned close to him, her breath tickling his ear.
"So, I have a third option for you—"
Hearing this, Yazuki already knew where this was going. This goddess was nothing more than a shady salesperson.
So, having prepared in advance, Yazuki subtly exerted his power, temporarily blocking off this space. Then, without hesitation, his fist shot toward the goddess's face.
"BAM—!"
His punch practically caved in her entire face.
"GAGH—!"
The goddess let out a bizarre scream.