The Founder's POV

Chapter 43: Burying the dead [1]

Killian and I stood off to the side by the fence, watching as Elara and Jin dealt with Asher's siblings. Some of them cried upon seeing his body, while others tried to confront Jin and Elara.

Their older brother had been missing for years. They thought he was dead, only for him to return truly dead. What a shock it must have been. The two of them trembled as they recounted the story to Asher's siblings. I didn't bother to listen in.

The situation was brutal. Asher had been stabbed thirty times with six different kinds of blades. He had been hit by five arrows, ten bullets, and had lost a hand and fingers from the other hand.

When looking at his body, it hardly seemed human. For a moment, I thought that spreading the story of the puppet society might cause some problems, but I quicky changed my mind.

There were two reasons for this.

First, the families of the victims deserved to know what really happened, and second, the news would spread regardless.

Two thousand humans and about a thousand beings of other races escaped, and that was just from Hell Island. If the news didn't spread somehow, I'd be extremely surprised.

Especially with humans, we love to tell stories as a species that relies on social interaction for survival. The puppet society was a lesson not just for the Council of Three Races but for me as well.

It's worth saying one thing: I didn't create anything called the puppet society in the game.

I never did!

And I knew full well that the game's AI had limits on how much it could contribute to world-building. So, I thought of two theories:

1. As I discovered a long time ago, this "game" isn't simple at all, so perhaps the AI rebelled and created things like this before my transfer.

2. The accumulation of many coincidences led to this.

The explanation for the second theory is quite simple. Whenever I mentioned that an important character had disappeared at sea, it was often to the east.

I started with Gilbert, then Elara, and another character named Daristan. All of them were prodigy characters, even if some hadn't fully matured yet. Due to the accumulation of all these coincidences at once, the AI decided there must be a real reason behind it, resulting in the creation of the puppet society.

Maybe I threw other things into the Eastern Sea that I don't remember now, and their accumulation led to this. Like Virile... a character who might rival Jor in accomplishments.

If the first theory is true, it's terrifying. If the second theory is true, it's even more terrifying. Since I was the only one who would see the play anyway, I didn't bother to do much explaining and often used the term coincidence.

If every coincidence is going to bite me like what happened with the puppet society, I might die one day without even realizing it.

Regarding the first theory, it's also dangerous. I can't trust that AI at all. A thought occurred to me at that moment...

If this world is real, what about the worlds I created before? Are they real too? I felt a bit anxious at the thought and decided to change the subject.

"What are your plans after we finish up here?" I leaned on the wooden fence and rubbed the back of my neck as I asked Killian.

"I'll stay with you for a while. the person I brought with me from puppet society needs your help."

I raised an eyebrow, feeling a bit curious. "Do you mean the person you brought from the Upper Island when you were with Jin? is he still unconscious?"

Speaking of which, Killian had asked Jin to bring someone with them. That person was still unconscious on the ship and hadn't woken up yet. After Jin destroyed the puppets facility, he forcibly took the addiction antidote from old Adam and cured all the high-ranking puppets.

By the way, the 2,000 humans I mentioned earlier were only those in the lower floor, or "Hell" as it's also called. As for the people on the upper floor, even Jin didn't know their exact number, but there were many.

As for the addiction antidote with old Adam, I had known he had something like it for a long time. Thinking about it, when the high-ranking puppets collapse and are thrown into Hell, they suddenly lose their addiction to the sacred fruit.

There are only two explanations:

1. Body and mechanical arm transformation.

2. An antidote that removes the addiction and its withdrawal symptoms.

My mind leaned more towards the second explanation, and it turned out to be correct. After distributing the cure to people, Jinn sent them to the mainland through portals, then descended to the lower island and did the same.

"Are you done?" Killian asked the two when they returned, their expressions still dark.

"We'll stay here for the day. We want to attend the funeral." Jin spoke with a heavy voice.

"That's fine," I said, straightening my back and pointing to a spot not far away.

"While they prepare for the burial ceremony, we can grab something to eat."

I caught bits and pieces from the brothers' conversation with the two. They wanted to start the burial ceremony themselves and then invite the rest of the village.

Since it was a small village, everyone here was either acquaintances or relatives, so they enjoyed and mourned together in various circumstances.

"Much better than the main cities..." I muttered as we sat at a table in the corner of the restaurant.

It had been a long time since I had real food. I had mainly survived on sacred fruit for the past few months. Through the window, I could see the Mountain of Fog, now freed from its curse.

The black temple shone like a small black dot; I wouldn't have seen it if not for my greatly enhanced vision and its huge size.

Speaking of which... I still don't know how I ended up on that ship... The last thing I remember is fighting the yeti up there and then losing consciousness.

'How strange...'

***

I truly enjoyed eating the food. The local cuisine here is very good. Interestingly, the further away from the city you get, the more refined the local food becomes. Is there some strange energy that prevents this in the city? Because it happens quite often.

I felt something strange whenever I tasted the food, as if some kind of coldness was interfering with the taste, which bothered me a little, but the pleasure of tasting something new outweighed the annoyance.

I noticed that the others were also very affected, especially Jin.

He mentioned that he used to eat canned food that expired 300 years ago, so it's understandable that he would be moved now. If he wasn't, I would seriously question his humanity. Even I was affected, and my food in there was a tasty fruit.

"By the way, Jin... Jin... Jin!" He was so engrossed in his food that he didn't respond until the third time. What an emotional scene.

"I heard you took a storage ring from one of the guardians. Did you find any sacred fruit there?" I felt a bit hopeful.

"Oh, speaking of which, I collected every fruit I found on the Upper Island and destroyed them, but I forgot about the fruits I had with me and Killian." Jin nodded with the edge of his chin towards Killian, then continued eating.

"I'll get rid of them once I'm done," he said while eating and talking at the same time.

'Do one thing at a time...' I sighed, wanting to strangle him at that moment.

The amount he mentioned... If I ate it, I might have reached the peak of A+ rank or even S...

"Give them to me. I want them for something."

After I finished speaking, not only Jin, but everyone at the table stopped and looked at me.

"Are you stupid?!" Even Elara started scolding me.