CH 3

“…But mom, how did you end up becoming a Guardian Deity?”

After eating the toast tearfully and neatly piling up my blanket,

I asked my mom with a voice that no longer quavered. 

There were a lot of things I wanted to talk about, but decided to get cleared up on that first.

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ is proud and says “I was qualified to become a Guardian Deity after being recognized as a hero by the ‘Hall of Fame’!”]

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ says “That was a great question” and sends sponsorship package to ‘My Son ♡’!]

[Package list: Vitamin pill filled with love (1 pill)]

…Suddenly a sponsorship package?

No, I mean what did I do?

While I was being speechless because I was surprised, a pill dropped on the table. 

“…Is this really a vitamin pill?”

The pill looked so black as if someone dipped it in ink. 

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ says disappointedly “Do you think any mother would give their child something harmful?”]

“No I mean, you sent me a sponsorship out of nowhere while we were talking so I was just a bit flustered…”

When Joong-won Sword Deity was my Guardian Deity, no matter what sort of crazy things I did, I never received something useful. 

Ugh, it makes me mad thinking about it again. 

“What is the Hall of Fame? Is it like a social organization or something made by all the Guardian Deities?”

While I was fidgeting with the mysterious pill in my hand, a translucent hologram popped up in front of me. 

If humans who have been awakened as players have the will to learn more about a ‘skill ball’ or ‘item’ sponsored by the Guardian Deity then, an information box will be created. 

Just like this,

=====

<Item info>

Name: Vitamin pill filled with love

Classification: Consumption

Description: [Information cannot be viewed because of the intervention of the sponsor.]

Effect: [Information cannot be viewed because of the intervention of the sponsor.]

=====

What the. 

She said it wasn’t anything harmful then why is she hiding the most important information like that. I don’t want to be suspicious but if she does this then it makes me uneasy for no reason. 

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ suggestively smiles and says “You’ll come to know its effect once you eat it!”]

…Ah, I see. This isn’t a vitamin pill. Right? If it was a regular vitamin pill then there would be no reason for her to smile so suspiciously. 

Anyway, I don’t feel good about this so I’ll leave eating it for later. I pushed the pill with my finger and came back to the main topic.

Mom answered my question of whether the Hall of Fame is a social organization made by the Guardian Deities.

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ says “You can say it’s kind of similar.”]

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ adds “Only heroes who are reputed in their respective field or have great achievement can climb the Hall of Fame.”]

“Heroes who have great achievements…”

In short, it meant that those who were called heroes during their lifetime would be able to become Guardian Deities after they die.

If that’s the condition then there’s no reason for mom and dad to not become a Guardian Deity. 

My parents sacrificed their lives to protect not only Korea, but the whole world from Germadon.

Thanks to that I became an orphan. 

‘…Suddenly this is depressing.’

Forget it, stop thinking about it. 

Yeah, this is the time I should be proud that my parents are such great beings. 

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ cautiously asks “Do you resent us?”]

Gasp, that surprised me. 

“B-by any chance can a Guardian Deity read the minds of the representative they are in charge of? I don’t think I’ve heard of it though…”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ smiles bitterly and says “It’s not like that, but I can tell what you’re thinking just by looking at your face.”]

That’s a relief. 

I know she’s my mom but I wouldn’t want her to be able to read my mind. 

Maybe because I was having useless thoughts, it showed up on my face. 

I quickly pulled my lips up in a smile. 

“I don’t resent you. Of course when I was immature, I hated you for leaving me all alone….But when I became older and a bit more intelligent, I could understand it.”

I know about my parent’s situation so well, why would I need to resent them?

Also, if it wasn’t for mom and dad then the whole of Korea would have disappeared because of Germadon back then. 

[Guardian Deity ‘Sung Hyun-sook’ is relieved.]

She must have been holding it in. 

In order to distract her, I asked her the next question without erasing the smile on my mouth as much as possible. 

“What about dad?”

I fully understand that mom became a Guardian Deity after being accepted as a hero by the Hall of Fame or whatever. 

….But then where did dad go?

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ laughs in vain and says “He is currently in the process of registration screening of a Guardian Deity.”]

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ proudly raises shoulders and says “I was able to pass the screening much earlier because I had more achievements than your dad.”]

“I see…”

For some reason, I can imagine mom’s face filled with confidence after she beat dad.

But it’s true, compared to my dad, my mom worked way harder. 

To be precise, it was more like mom saying “Geez, rather than trusting your dad with it, it’s better I do it myself!” and taking on the whole mission by going in front of dad.

Thanks to that the head of the family was always able to maintain her pride. 

“Anyway, that means I’ll be able to meet dad soon too right?”

This is a secret but…

I actually like dad more than mom. 

Of course, you shouldn’t be favouring someone more over the other between your beloved parents, but you know there’s always that question.

‘Do you like mom more or do you like dad more?’

I like dad more. 

Why because, he’s less strict than mom. 

[Guardian Deity ‘Sung Hyun-sook’s expression suddenly darkens.]

Gasp, what the hell?

D-don’t tell me she was able to figure it out from my face this time too?

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ finds it a pity and says “When you’re a trial Guardian Deity you can only have one representative before you get promoted, so you’ll still have to wait to see your dad.”]

Phew. I thought she read my mind- wait, what did she say?

Now, what does that mean? 

“What do you mean by trial, even Guardian Deities have levels or what?”

[Guardian Deity ‘Sung Hyun-sook’ agrees.]

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ adds “After the ‘Trial’ level, if you’re promoted to ‘Official’ then you will be able to make a contract with five representatives.”]

“Sigh…”

I thought it was a place where Deities are freely united, but there seems to be a systematic class system. 

So that means until dad gets promoted to the ‘Official Guardian Deity’ position, there won’t be any contact point between us in the meantime. 

…Huh? wait a minute. 

“But mom you’ve already made a contract with me right? Then doesn’t that mean even after dad becomes an ‘Official Guardian Deity’ and is able to make a deal with five representatives, in the end he won’t be able to make a deal with me?”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ dismisses your worries “If the Guardian Deities agree to cooperate then it’s possible to look after the same representative!”]

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ shakes her said and says “However, it’s impossible for trial Guardian deities to be able to co-foster a representative.”]

Hm…so that means it’s possible for two people to raise one game character together. 

And there needs to be a mutual agreement between both the parties who will be sharing the character. 

I thought as a representative, I was only allowed to have one Guardian Deity. 

‘I was clearly wrong though.’

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ adds “It’s rare to find Guardian Deities co-fostering a representative though.”]

As I thought. Who would like to share their game character with someone else? 

Anyhow, even though it’s in the far future, my heart fluttered at the fact that I could reunite with dad someday. 

For that to happen, both my parents need to become ‘Official Guardian Deities’.

“So how do you get promoted?”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ explains “You need to earn enough achievements in the present time to meet the ‘standard for promotion’ set by the representatives.”]

To put it simply don’t you just need to be good at fostering your game character?

If the success of the representative is the condition for promotion then…

“Isn’t the problem solved if the Guardian Deity keeps sponsoring the representative so that they can have it easy?”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ frowns and says “Do you think it’s that easy to raise someone in the ‘low level?”]

“…What do you mean raise someone of the low level. It’s not even a tamagotchi or something…”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ adds “To sponsor skills and items, the Guardian Deity needs to pay ‘God coins’”]

[Guardian Deity ‘Sung Hyun-sook shares ‘Keyword’ with ‘My Son ♡’]

[God coin: The common currency used by the Guardian Deities living at the ‘Hall of Fame’.]

“….Ah, I get it.”

In other words, ‘God coin’ is not just game money used by Guardian Deities to sponsor their representatives. 

It’s like ‘cash’ that is necessary to enjoy a normal life. 

“So basically, whenever you give items and skills to a game character, you have to pay for it right?”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ is amazed that ‘My Son ♡’ is so smart!]

To think you need cash instead of game money to play the game.

So there was a reason why Guardian Deities are so stingy with the sponsorships. I thought it was an RPG game but it turned out to be a betting site. 

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ she is ready to sponsor ‘My Son ♡’ with bright eyes!]

“D-don’t overdo it, mom. Didn’t you say that the God coin is like cash in the Hall of Fame? I wouldn’t want your life to go downhill because of me…”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ winks and says the success of ‘My Son ♡’ is like her success!]

…Damn, that was touching. 

It’s even more touching when I think of the days I suffered because of that stingy bastard, Joong-won Sword Deity. 

‘He couldn’t even sponsor such a common Level C skill for me…Go to hell, you stingy bastard.’

But it’s different now that I’ve regressed. 

As long as mom’s my Guardian Deity, then this life’s going to be a piece of cake!

I even came to know about the ‘Hall of Fame’, which other representatives probably don’t know. 

Why don’t the other representatives know you ask?

It’s because even if they ask a related question, they get a message with only filtered information. When Joong-won Sword Deity was my Guardian Deity, I received a message like that too. 

[This message is private!]

‘Annoyingly, I always received such messages.’

So even after going through a disastrous event, humans don’t even know the basics of the world, which has changed into a game. 

…But I just found out because mom told me. 

Come to think of it, I feel like I’ve come to know some really big information. 

“Why don’t the messages you send get filtered, mom?”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ smiles and says “That doesn’t apply if the rate of friendliness between the Guardian Deity and representative is high!”

“Rate of friendliness…it’s usually between 20% to 30%. As far as I know, Liu Kai from China who is known to be close to his Guardian Deity has a rate of 60%…I guess yours and mine must be higher than that?”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ sniffs and says “It’s exactly 89. 01%!”]

“…….”

Oh, hmm. No wonder. 

Because I’m her son, out rate of friendliness obviously has to be high…right?

Suddenly I became curious how much it would be with dad. 

It’s a secret from mom, but with dad, I think it’ll be above 90%….

“Ah.”

I almost totally forgot to ask this.

I asked a question for the last time. 

“How did I regress back?”

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ scratches her cheek and says “I’m not sure about that either.”]

“…Even the reason why I died in the first life?”

In fact, it still remains a mystery. 

I definitely don’t remember seeing, poison fog will suddenly appear in the cave being mentioned anywhere in the investigation team’s report.

But that doesn’t mean I went to another route instead of the assigned one. I just went straight along the path given in the report. 

This can mean two things. 

Either the report was wrong or, 

Someone tricked me intentionally with the intention of killing me.

…or maybe it’s both. 

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ is frustrated and says “How you regressed, your cause of death, etc. is a riddle for me too.”]

You’re frustrated too, mom? I’m frustrated too. 

But if I were to look at the timeframe alone, just a few hours ago I was on the verge of death and my heart felt like it stopped but somehow, I managed to maintain my rationality.

Is it because later the fact that mom came back as my Guardian Deity was more shocking for me? Anyway, 

“Well, it can’t be helped if you don’t know. We can probably start looking for the reason eventually.”

Though, I’ll need to start finding out why I died in the dungeon from now on itself. 

Because there’s no guarantee I won’t suffer through the same thing again. 

“For now, the most important thing is…”

I tightly clenched my fist. 

“That I won’t let this life go downhill like my previous one!”

[Guardian Deity ‘Sung Hyun-sook’ is happy.]

[‘Sung Hyun-sook’ persuades “In that sense, take your vitamin pill and take care of your health!”]

“Ugh…”

She won’t let anything slide. No wonder she’s my mom. 

I put the pill, which I suspect to not be a vitamin at all, in my mouth and drank water. 

Gulp.

…Nothing happened though. 

It was really just an ordinary vitamin pill? 

[Guardian Deity ‘Sung Hyun-sook’ is happy.]

…It’s the same message as a while ago but why does it feel different. 

Well, it’s nice I guess. 

The regress start point is the first day I woke up as a player. 

What else happened on this day?

Baaang-!

Just then. 

Out of nowhere, a rock came flying and destroyed one of the four sides of my house. 

Oh. Right, I remember. 

“Yeah I lost my house the first day I woke up…”

Damn it, it’s already a mess.