Chapter 37: Ch 37: A Farewell to the System

After watching Loki and Shenlong disappear into the portal, Sunny turned his attention to the God Chat. The moment he opened it, a wave of chaos assaulted his senses. The messages scrolled by in a blur, filled with expressions of grief, outrage, and despair. Gods were openly weeping about the devastating losses their lifeforms had suffered. Initially, Sunny assumed the attacks were from the demons. But as he focused his divine sight and sifted through the panicked messages, a single, terrifying name emerged as the true culprit: Aeron, the demigod leader of the elemental spirits. The posts described a campaign of brutal plunder and massacre, where entire camps of mortal followers were wiped out for their treasures. Sunny's mind raced, analyzing the threat. He knew that these demigods had existed for countless millennia and were likely hardened by an unimaginable number of battles. He couldn't help but assume that unless a god personally intervened, even his own demigods, with their powerful but new talents, would be no match for a being as ancient and formidable as Aeron. He was overestimating his foe, of course. While Aeron was old and powerful, he lacked the cunning and versatility that Sunny had imbued in his creations. Loki's Deception alone, combined with his ability to steal Aeron's skills for even a few minutes, would be enough to defeat the seasoned demigod. But ignorant of Aeron's current location and exact powers, Sunny sent a mental warning to both Shenlong and Loki, cautioning them to be wary of a powerful, hostile demigod. With his demigods on their tasks, Sunny's focus shifted to the next phase of his master plan: the creation of a Heavenly Library. A project of this magnitude, he estimated, would require between 70 to 100 million faith points. His current reserves were nowhere near that, so he resumed trading, intent on accumulating the vast sum. As he worked, the sixth day of his godhood came to an end. The universe seemed to hold its breath, and then, a familiar system notification appeared. [Congratulations to all the Gods for completing the 6th day as Gods.] A chorus of relief and celebration filled the God Chat. The new gods, still shaken by the disappearances, were overjoyed to have survived another day. But their celebration was short-lived. The next line of the notification landed like a cold, hard blow: [Today, the God Chat will merge with servers from other universes, and all Gods can have one final day of communication.] The joy on the chat instantly soured into a collective dread. The words that followed confirmed their fears and sent the chat into a complete frenzy. [At the end of the next day, the System will cease to exist.] The impact of this announcement was catastrophic. The God Chat was the only place for these Gods to vent their worries, share information, and feel a sense of community in the cold, vastness of the cosmos. The loss of the trading platform was even more dire. This marketplace was their only means of acquiring the items and knowledge needed to survive. The worst effect of this news was, without a doubt, on Sunny. He had handled over 90% of all transactions, and the platform's disappearance meant he would lose his primary source of income. A profound sense of dejection washed over him. He was losing his business, and more importantly, he was losing his connection to the allies he had just begun to make. He desperately wanted to find a solution, but his mind felt a blank. In the chat, the gods were in a state of mass panic. Many began to discuss impossible solutions. Some suggested building physical wires and towers, failing to grasp the incomprehensible distances of the universe. But one message caught Sunny's attention: an idea to create a tower with the capacity to transmit a signal across the entire universe. Sunny's mind latched onto this. He knew it was possible. His SS-Grade Navigator Orb could map the whole multiverse, so an SS-Grade signal tower should be able to cover it. By manifesting phones for the other gods, he could solve the communication problem. But communication wasn't his main concern, Trading was. Sunny desperately brainstormed, trying to find an idea that could solve both issues. The notification had also provided a grim statistic: the number of gods in all universes had plummeted to 6 billion from an initial 10 billion. Over 40% of the population had been lost to either the system or demons. In Sunny's home universe, however, only 30,000 gods had vanished—a loss of just 10%. He knew this was largely due to his own business, which had provided many of the gods with the necessary items to increase their chances of survival. Now, with the system gone, that lifeline would be severed. Sunny felt a deep sense of peril. His current faith points were about 80 million, which was a large sum, but nowhere near enough for the monumental tasks ahead. Just then, a sensation he knew well—the rush of faith—hit him, but with a force far greater than before. A staggering 5 million faith points flooded into his reserves. Sunny, mystified, tried to locate the source. He looked through the eyes of his humans and elves but found no special offerings. He then shifted his sight to Shenlong. Through Shenlong's eyes, Sunny saw the answer: an entire pack of fifty thousand werewolves were kneeling before the demigod, offering their heartfelt gratitude and worship. Sunny had experienced this before, where small influxes of faith would come from other races Shenlong had helped, but the amount was never more than 2 million. This immense influx gave Sunny a spark of an idea. He mentally asked Nova, his most powerful lifeform, about the range of his space transmission ability. The answer he received was a bolt of lightning to his brain. "If enough mana is supplied," Nova's mental voice echoed, "the distance is not of much matter." A new flame of hope ignited within Sunny. With enough mana, he could continue his trading. The signal towers and phones could solve the communication issue. His plan was finally taking shape. But when he asked Nova for the amount of mana required to teleport something as large as an item across the vastness of the universe, the response was a devastating blow. Nova's voice, usually calm and composed, was now serious and strained. "Master, the price for such a transmission would be enormous. Even if every drop of mana from Veridia were taken, it would not be enough to transmit something across a single galaxy." Dejected and with his hope extinguished, Sunny's only remaining recourse was to mark the location of his allies. He gave his Navigator Orb to Zir. He instructed Zir to mark his position in the orb, then, in the final day of the System's existence, to trade with the other gods in his alliance and have them mark their own positions. At least he would have the locations of his friends, even if he couldn't find a solution to this profound misfortune.