I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 218

Chapter 218

The True Purpose of the God of Gag

***

The world ignored Lian.

It neither hated nor loved him. It simply disregarded him.

Though he was chosen as a ‘Saint’ by the gods, when the god who selected him vanished for some unknown reason, Lian became a bug—an error that should not exist.

Rejected by the world, Lian wished, prayed, and begged to survive.

“Please let me blend into the world and live like ordinary people.”

The power that was born from his desperate plea sought to ‘adapt’ to the world, striving to survive amidst all the hatred and indifference.

Thanks to that power, Lian was able to survive even as humanity faced extinction due to the monstrosities, and even as the world crumbled—he caught the attention of the God of Gag and managed to stay alive.

To Lian, the ‘Power of Adaptation’ was as natural and essential as his heart or lungs.

The Lians of the past, who had desperately wished for that power, embraced it with an affection so deep it was unfathomable, smiling softly.

“It’s okay.”

He could be hurt by someone’s words. He could despair at the cruel reality. But it was okay.

“Because you’re not alone anymore.”

Voices of a child, a voice just going through puberty, and a mature voice all blended together and echoed.

In that moment, Lian realized.

“You were lonely.”

He had been so lonely, feeling as if he were the only one living in a different world, that he had closed his eyes and blocked his ears.

Just like how the Iris of the past had shut her heart, how Noah had turned away from the cruel reality, how Jess had avoided the miserable reality of being a slave with her charm, and how Elensia had succumbed to overwhelming power and wept in a dark room.

He had reached out to so many, not just because of the original story—but because he saw his past self, shedding tears in loneliness, and couldn’t leave them be.

And so, his hand of salvation circled back to embrace the past version of himself, who couldn’t even voice his loneliness and merely shouted that he was fine.

As Noah’s warmth shielded him, as Jess’s affection always stood by his side, and as Iris’s breath whispered endless love, overwhelming emotions surged forth, and his true feelings revealed themselves.

“It wasn’t okay. I was lonely because I was alone.”

The truth he had thought would bring divine punishment if spoken aloud spilled out. His loneliness and pain were enveloped by a distant warmth.

In that serene warmth, Lian whispered once more to his bloodied heart.

“It’s okay now.”

Because he was no longer alone.

The solid ‘Power of Adaptation’ that had protected Lian like an eggshell began to crumble.

***

Crack.

Lian’s body, which had barely maintained its form thanks to the power infused by the God of Gag, started to fracture even more severely.

‘Lian’ and the ‘Power of Adaptation’ were intertwined like two trees growing together. Now that the power was withering, Lian’s body, which had been tightly bound to it, naturally began to wither as well.

“This is troublesome.”

In this state, even if she poured power into him, it would be of no use. Worse, his soul could shatter. Just as she murmured playfully with a mischievous smile, “What should I do?”

Crack, clang! Smash!

A crack appeared in the endless white space, and with a sound like shattering glass, part of the space broke apart, as if a glass cup had fallen to the floor. Through the widening gap, a grotesque entity emerged.

[ Fou…nd…you…grrk! ]

The voice, a mix of a child, an adult, and an old person, echoed in the space, unpleasantly jarring. The wind from the crack blew through her hair roughly.

Without a change in her expression, she tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear.

Crunch, crack!

Something resembling claws or wings from the monster that had emerged from the gap grabbed at the edges of the fissure, widening it further. With a sound like glass breaking underfoot, the space continued to shatter.

As the gap widened, a massive being, too large to take in at a glance, began to force its way into the white space.

“Wow… It’s mixed even better than I thought.”

She clapped her hands lightly, as if admiring some strange animal. With that, the grotesque entity—a fusion of the Outsider and the Dark Fantasy World God—revealed itself.

She calmly patted Lian’s shoulder, carefully protecting his crumbling body with an unseen force.

[ H-how dare you…make me…like this…grrk! ]

The entity’s voice was so horrifying that if a human had heard it, they would have bled from every orifice and died. Its voice filled the white space.

Though the God of Gag’s power and Lian’s ‘Power of Adaptation’ had both tried to dig into Lian’s mind, the two gods were so vast in scale that they didn’t devour each other but instead became horribly intertwined.

“Isn’t it your own fault for crawling in yourself? If you intended to harm others, you should’ve been prepared to get hurt too.”

The God of Gag spoke, smiling in satisfaction, placing her thumb and forefinger under her chin.

“That line… was really cool.”

As she muttered those words, seemingly lost in her own grandeur, the grotesque entity grew furious and began to unleash a massive amount of power.

[ Die…grrk…! ]

With the power of ‘Divine Speech’ activated from the fusion of the two gods, an enormous force appeared with a deafening roar, as if a sun had manifested right before their eyes.

In the midst of the ear-splitting noise.

Snap.

A light snapping sound echoed.

Sss.

With that, the tremendous power, the overwhelming force, and the red light of the Divine Speech that had been pouring in vanished like dust.

[ What… is this? ]

She raised her index finger, beckoning the entity to come closer, as if to help it grasp the situation.

Fsssh!

Like a giant balloon with a hole in it, the enormous entity began to deflate, making a feeble sound as it floated aimlessly.

By the time the entity regained its senses, it had shrunk to the size of a baseball and was caught in her hand.

“I told you before. When things seem to be going too smoothly, you should take a good look at the situation.”

Lifting the shrunken entity to meet her gaze, she smiled brightly.

“Because there’s a very high chance it’s a trap.”

[ Kiieeek?! ]

Those were the exact words the Dark Fantasy World God had heard when it fell into the God of Gag’s trap. (The trap the God of Gag had set to send Lian into the buffet of the Dark Fantasy world.)

The now-shrunken god, drenched in cold sweat, quickly darted its eyes around. The dimensional rift they had proudly burst through had already disappeared.

The fragile entrance itself had been bait to trap them.

“This is perfect timing.”

She smiled sweetly and began feeding the now bite-sized god to Lian. The god struggled to survive, but it was futile.

Her hand, holding the shrunken god, passed through Lian’s chest as if penetrating an invisible barrier. The ‘Power of Gluttony,’ which had taken root through the ‘Power of Adaptation,’ greedily devoured the tender god in one gulp.

Sssst!

The divine essence quickly filled the cracks in Lian’s soul, which had been splitting like a withered tree. Along with that, his fractured body returned to its original state.

“Ah… I was worried about what to do if Lian wanted to remain human because of love.”

Lian had been willing to exhaust his power and even tear away his abilities just to live alongside the people he loved, even if it meant dying as a human.

It was as if the God of Gag’s plan to make Lian an equal god had failed. The only light that saved the God of Gag was the nourishing meal (the Outsiders) she had prepared for Lian once he became a god.

As the divine essence seeped into Lian’s cracked soul, he was forcibly turned into a god.

“….”

Just as she had been forced into the position of a god in the past, Lian now also held divine status against his will. She felt a surge of joy at the birth of a ‘real family’ like her, but at the same time, deep within her heart, a flame of discomfort flickered.

Fwoosh…

While she was lost in thought, a visual transformation took place in Lian’s body. Three pairs of white feathered wings burst forth from his back, shining radiantly.

The first pair of wings spread gracefully near his shoulders, the second extended from the middle of his back, and the last pair emerged from his lower back. Silver light shimmered from the wing tips as if stars were dancing upon them.

Above his head floated a radiant halo. The halo had a circular center with elegant lines extending outward. Upon closer inspection, it looked as if a piece of the Milky Way had been cut out, with a mesmerizing flow of light.

The light from the halo gently illuminated Lian’s white hair, making him appear even more divine and hard to look away from.

At last, her family had been born.

“Lian.”

When she called softly, Lian’s eyelids trembled slightly before slowly opening. His eyes shimmered with a brilliant and clear light, like a fragment of the sun, swirling within them. His eyes, more dazzling than any gemstone, met hers.

“….”

But there was nothing inside them. The faint smile of the God of Gag disappeared without a trace. The newly born god was no longer the ‘Lian’ she knew.

Realizing this, she felt a searing pain. A wound from the past, one she thought she had forgotten, was now aching again.

“…Even if you resent me, Lian, I wanted you to become my family.”

End of Chapter