Editing On a Godless Planet:Volume1B Chapter 29

	
==Chapter 29: Blockout 01==

[[Image:Godless_1B_151.jpg|thumb]]

''Is she okay?

''Hmm

Hatoko liked the ginger ale she tried.

[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]

…''I need to buy some more before I leave.
Back home during the mythological age, there had been no ginger. Same with sugar.
There had been beer, but it had not used hops and lacked any bitterness. It had been more like a sweet drink and had actually been a little like this ginger ale, but…

[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]

…''This ginger stuff gives the drink a nice sharp flavor!
Unlike ancient times, her home had received some imported herbs during her virtual manifestation. Ginger had been one of them and they had received sugar too, so she was pretty sure they could make this.
''But that would be risky.'' The sugar was especially risky. Sugar had been too powerful for her back when the only sweetness she had known came from honey, fruits, or glucose syrup made from fermented wheat. The rapid importation of sugar had led to most people having more bountiful weights.
''In other words, I need to lose some weight.
''Oh, but it’s best to have a little extra weight, right? This can work. Or maybe not.
But back to the ginger ale. The balance between sweet and sharp was nice. ''Canada, huh? Where’s that?'' She looked it up and found it was a long way from her home. It probably belonged to the 8th generation mythologies or later, so she wondered if her mythology could surround it and take control of all the ginger ale.
On the other hand, the convenience stores seemed good enough. She hoped one of those Seven Elevens would open in the Mesopotamian virtual manifestation world.
[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]
“Balancer, when do these convenience stores reach the Middle East? Around 1500 BC by any chance?”
[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]
<Unfortunately, Seven Eleven only opens stores within the UAE starting in 2015.>
[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]
“How awful. How am I supposed to last another 25 years?”
[[Image:godless_shinobu.png|50px]]
“Defect! You can defect! Go for it!”
The Norse goddess made it sound so simple, but she was planning to stay here a while longer on a whim. However, she had not requested to defect. The upcoming political dealings would probably influence their decision on this. So…
[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]
“Eshtar, are you ready to do your inspector job?”
●
Eshtar liked the Karamucho she had tried.
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
…''I can see why that human said she would eat these for every meal!
''What are these even made of? The back of the bag says potatoes, but…potatoes? What’re potatoes? My Revelation Board says that’s a crop from America, but…America? Where the hell is America? My Revelation Board says that’s a new continent, but…a new continent?
[[Image:godless_eshita_awate.png|50px]]
…''How am I supposed to know what happened 3000 years after my time!?
Karamucho seemed to come around 500 years after that, but that was a separate issue.
''Oh, but you don’t really have to pay attention to the outside world during your virtual manifestation. So it isn’t my fault I didn’t know about potatoes! Of course I didn’t know!
''Still, these things are good. And there’s still a big bag of them, so this might just be the best day ever.
[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]
“Um, Eshtar?”
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“What!? Do I get another bag!?”
Hatoko gave her a bottle, so she chugged it.
[[Image:godless_eshita_warai.png|50px]]
“It’s so good! What is this!? Ginger!?”
[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]
“Yes, well, it was from Omokane over there.”
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“A gift!? At least someone knows how to treat me! Now, what else!?”
[[Image:godless_senpai.png|50px]]
“Oh, we have a big bag of Karamucho. And some napkins.”
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“How thoughtful! What mythology are you from!?”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“You have to ask!? This is Senpai we’re talking about! Just look at those boobs and try again!”
Eshita had no idea what that was about, but the girl who gave her the Karamucho answered the question.
[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]
“U-um, I am Shinto.”
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“Shinto!? Then you’re the one’s I’m inspecting! So what’s this!? Trying to bribe me with Karamucho!?”
[[Image:godless_senpai_awate.png|50px]]
“Um, will it work?”
[[Image:godless_eshita_warai.png|50px]]
“Wow! '''These are so good!''' I could get hooked on them!”
''Bribing an official? For shame.
[[Image:godless_eshita_warai.png|50px]]
“Man! If you were some random spirit instead of a Shinto god, I would’ve ranked you up to a ‘god of giving Karamucho’!”
●
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“…”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“Is Mesopotamian mythology really that casual about this stuff?”
[[Image:godless_gil.png|50px]]
“I am so sorry.”
[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]
“I think Eshtar is especially special in this case.”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“To add to that, Mesopotamian mythology is a polytheistic religion with more than 2100 gods over the entire area and time period it was followed. So it seems fine to me for one of those to be a ‘god of giving Karamucho’ or a ‘god of giving Ethnican’.”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“Oh! Ethnican! You like Calbee, don’t you!?”
[[Image:godless_ki.png|50px]]
“To add more to that, the stories in Mesopotamian mythology get more and more casual as time goes on. 
With Bil and me, it reaches a point where fanfiction would be taking it more seriously.”
[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]
<To add even more to that, Karamucho came out in ’84, Ethnican came out in ’86, and ‘super spicy’ won the new word award in ’86. That should be enough to introduce these gods to this era.>
●
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
…''Ethnican!? You mean there’s more!?
''What was I doing here again?'' wondered Eshtar while accepting an opened bag labeled “grilled beef”.
She paused to help her remember. And then…
[[Image:godless_eshita_awate.png|50px]]
“Hey! You’re trying to win me over with food, aren’t you!? Well, it won’t work!”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“What if we threw in this Polinky that just came out the other day?”
[[Image:godless_eshita_warai.png|50px]]
“Wow! '''These are so good!''' The combination of sweet and salty is- wait, no!”
She noticed someone in the other group had their hand raised.
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“What is it!? You have your hand up, so speak your mind!”
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“Um, I’m supposed to be the negotiator, so when are we going to hold the actual negotiation?”
Everyone fell silent.
They all glared at Eshtar, so she knew exactly what to say.
[[Image:godless_eshita_awate.png|50px]]
“It’s not my fault!”
●
''Anyway,'' thought Eshtar while taking a breath and wiping off her hands with the wet wipes she had someone open for her.
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“Then let’s get down to business. I would like to keep this short.”
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“Understood.”
Then…
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“First of all, explain the delays in the terraforming.”
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“Very well,” replied the negotiator. “Shinto’s terraforming of this planet is in fact progressing on schedule. You could even say we are ahead of schedule. If you heard of any delays, there must have been some kind of miscommunication.”
●
Eshtar lightly tilted her head at that sudden counterattack.
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
…''What kind of claim is that?
But that was fine. These differences of opinion were the entire reason for sending an inspector, so she knew what she had to say here.
[[Image:godless_eshita_shinken.png|50px]]
“What? You’re saying there are no delays?”
And the claim of being ahead of schedule was utterly absurd.
[[Image:godless_eshita_shinken.png|50px]]
“You are clearly behind schedule. Four months have passed in this divine world, but you have only created a 300 square meter patch of land.”
She opened a Revelation Board that showed the terraforming records of the other planets.
She checked the timeline for the first four months and displayed the models of the planets at that time.
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“The planet done by Yomoji over there was almost entirely complete at the four month mark. And the planets done by those Norse gods and by the other forces had the surface almost entirely complete by four months. This is the only planet that has not done that. Care to explain?”
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“There is nothing to explain. But if I must, I would say that this is normal.”
The negotiator made a bold claim.
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“Terraforming is a time-consuming process.”
●
Tenma thought this should be viewed as a problem to be solved.
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
…''When you encounter a problem, you must determine what it is and work toward a solution.
It was inefficient to start throwing around accusations when you encountered a problem.
After all, personnel and time were limited resources.
So even if this inspector was far above her rank, she had to say this.
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“First of all, the Shinto group sent to this planet is primarily made up of Earthly Gods. We do have three Heavenly Gods, but the other sixteen, including me, are either Earthly Gods or humans made into gods. There is a large difference in the number of gods and the overall divine rank of the gods sent here when compared to the other planets.”
●
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“What even is divine rank?”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“Well,” said Raidou-senpai in response to my question. “It generally refers to the extent of your sovereignty, your number of worshipers, and the historical rank associated with that.”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“Sovereignty? Historical rank?”
[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]
<The extent of a god’s sovereignty refers to how much space they can control in relation to their authority. In other words, it refers to the space they have control over using their authority. The authority connection means it is calculated based on a residential space since that will have the most authority links.>
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“It ranks their sphere of control and can be broken out into different levels: '''World, Space, Heaven, Planet, Realm, Region, Country, Metropolis, City, Town, Village, House, Room, Hidden, and Empty'''.”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“You look awfully proud of yourself for rattling of a list of units that make no sense.”
[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]
<Now, now.> Balancer shook their screen downwards. <At Empty, they have a divine rank of 0. They exist as a unique being, but they have only just come into being and are much like a spirit. As they grow, they reach the title of Hidden at a divine rank of 1. The difference between 0 and 1 seems simple, but it is crucially important. It is the difference between being mere ether and having a mind of your own.>
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“Sorry, I still don’t get it. Is it like when you first become aware of the opposite sex?”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“If that’s what it takes for you to understand it, then go with that.”
I decided to go with that.
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“I think I get the ones like room, house, and village. Is it using SimCity rules?”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“Yeah, more or less. It measures the extent of the space you can control. ‘Room’ means a diameter of a meter.”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“So by room, we mean a bathroom.”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“There are other rooms that size. Like a closet. So at 1m, you could say it is more like a closet than a room. At that level, we’re talking about a guardian deity of a closet or something. And once you reach House, you have a diameter of 10m.”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“Woo hoo! That’s like three stories tall. That’s a pretty big house!”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“Anyway, Village is a radius of 100m. Do you notice a pattern yet?”
I thought about the numbers I had just heard. House was 10m and Village was 100m.
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“It’s going up by powers of 10.”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“Yes, so the next one is 1000.”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“Town is 1000m or 1km. City is 10km, Metropolis is 100km, Country is 1000km, Region is 10,000km, Realm is 100,000km, Planet is 1,000,000km, Heaven is 10,000,000km, Space is 100,000,000km, and World is 1,000,000,000km. The numbers don’t really mean all that much on the upper end there.”
I tried imagining it, but…
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“What is all that based on?”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“The World class has a one billion kilometer sphere of control and the shortest distance between Earth and Saturn is more than 1.2 billion, so it’s about that much.”
[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]
<Ancient humans were capable of observing Saturn as the furthest planet from Earth, so that was effectively the extent of the ‘world’ they would have thought of a god as creating.>
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“Then,” I said. “If we had someone with that vast a sphere of control, couldn’t we just get them to do the terraforming?”
[[Image:godless_shinobu.png|50px]]
“When you control that much, you also have to maintain control of it all.”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“Yes. Gods with vast areas of control must maintain those areas and also maintain the other gods living there, so they have trouble staying in the black as it is. Our own authorities are constantly being drained to preserve the laws of this world, so we cannot act at our full power either. Our available power is reduced considerably.”
[[Image:godless_yomoji.png|50px]]
“Thaaaat’s right,” said Yomoji-senpai. “I’ve got a Worrrrld class divine rank, but maintaining eeeeverything eats up a lot of power. I mean, I’ve got to supporrrrt an entire world on my owwwwn. The initial planet was easy, but then I got anotherrrr planet, and now this plaaaace? There will probably be morrrre, so I have to leave some roooom to spare.”
[[Image:godless_balancer.png|50px]]
<Yes, there are some gods like Yomoji who are legit World class, but other mythologies have gods that “feel like” World class because they can act like one over a smaller area but actually have a lower divine rank. And with multiple World class gods, they have to strike a balance between each other, which can use up even more power than just maintaining their world.>
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“That is why the DC chooses who they send to help with the terraforming. Our seemingly World class gods are actually at the Realm level, so we could be in trouble if an actual World class shows up.”
[[Image:godless_omokane.png|50px]]
“Shinto’s World class gods have been sealed away using reserved manifestations, so that’s another way we’re at a disadvantage.”
I had a thought about all this.
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“That’s a lotta politics.”
And as usual, what I thought also left my mouth.
●
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“I bet there are a lot of problems with overlapping control areas between gods.”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“That is why we make careful adjustments during the terraforming. Of course, if we don’t try to ‘control’ anything, we don’t use our powers and we don’t have anything to maintain, so we can just exist there without causing any problems other than our passive influence on events.”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“So is it like doing anything at all puts you in the red?”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“No, gods at our rank can shove a lot of the ‘maintaining stuff’ part to the gods with higher ranks, letting us act more freely. …But you know how we created a combat field to fight in earlier? The four of us together only covered about 10km. We’re allowed to go nuts inside there and we’re doing just fine afterwards, but my divine rank is actually at the Region level. Can you see how much the maintenance, buffering, and restraint takes off the top now?”
[[Image:godless_shinobu.png|50px]]
“The buffering is the worst of it all. You end up paying that where you least expect it.”
[[Image:godless_pigeon.png|50px]]
“I know what you mean. I’m at the Village class, but I still get a lot taken away from buffering against local gods and spirits.”
They were now just swapping complaints.
I was hardly one to talk, but it felt like we weren’t making any progress. Oh, does that make me clever? Well, I’d better ask about it to show how clever I am.
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“Anyway, to keep the conversation moving, what was that historical rank you mentioned before?”
[[Image:godless_gil.png|50px]]
“Oh, that.”
The Druaga guy raised his hand.
[[Image:godless_gil.png|50px]]
“I was originally at the Country level, but the things I do in the myths put me at the Region level. That is your historical rank. You can think of it like a correction made between generations. If you take a 5th generation god like me and a 7th generation god like those Norse ones over there, the historical rank correction would make me twice as powerful even if our original rank was the same.”
[[Image:godless_ki.png|50px]]
“In that previous battle, our ranks were bumped up from Country to Region while the Norse couple had to make up for that x2 difference.”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“I am honestly impressed they managed to win.”
[[Image:godless_bokuonna.png|50px]]
“I see. So what about Miss Karamucho over there? What’s her divine rank?”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“Well,” said Kuwajiri. “She is normally ranked at the Region level, but her mythology correction puts her at the Realm class. She of course has a lot of that taken away by maintaining that realm, but in terms of the pure power difference, no one here is capable of beating her. In a physical fight, we would have to rely on compatibility or on strategic use of our authorities. Those two would be in trouble since they just got done fighting a battle.”
[[Image:godless_raidou.png|50px]]
“If you ask us to do it, we’d still win. I’m a war god, so I’ll always fight no matter how outmatched I am and I’ll make sure I find some value in that fight.”
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“I know that and I do trust you, but we have a better option here.”
Namely…
[[Image:godless_kuwajiri.png|50px]]
“The DC’s mythologies are willing to negotiate in order to preserve their pride. We must take advantage of that. If fighting is necessary, it can come later.”
●
Tenma waited for the divine rank lecture to conclude behind her and then bowed toward Eshtar.
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“I do apologize. There is a lot we have yet to reach a consensus on.”
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“That’s fine. I don’t mind it much myself. …But what do you mean your overall divine rank is low?”
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“I have a document on it right here.”
She displayed the level up status of the Shinto gods on a Revelation Board.
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“The gods of the other mythologies start off at a decent level by using their ancestry, but Shinto was not allowed to do that and we must start at a low level.”
[[Image:godless_eshita.png|50px]]
“But you can level up quickly using that human, can’t you?”
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
''There it is,'' thought Tenma. ''Bilgamesh was right. They do want to take the human for themselves, don’t they?
That told her what Eshtar would argue.
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
…''“Shinto is not making full use of the human.”
So they would take the human from Shinto.
Tenma wanted to test this.
[[Image:godless_scare.png|50px]]
“What do you make of what she’s saying, Tenma-kun?” asked Scarecrow on her Revelation Board.
[[Image:godless_tenma.png|50px]]
“I think I will face this head on in order to test her.”
How deep did this go? She threw out some words like throwing a stone into