Chapter 348

The world was facing its destruction. 

Earth-chan, also known as Mother Earth, or Mother Nature was created to stop that. 

Her image would adapt depending on how people imagined her to be. At first, she was a naked woman who had plants around her. However, as of right now, because of the artists on Reddit and Twitter, her image was that of a small girl who had green and blue hair, wearing a white t-shirt that had the logo of the earth. Quite quirky.

Her life was dependent on the people who believed in her, and of course, she was the mind of this planet. 

At first, Earth-chan's job was to bring disaster to the people. After all, her job was to protect the earth, and humanity was the species that was slowly killing the earth. She was responsible for Super Typhoon Haiyan and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and so on and so forth. She was the Protector and her job was to protect the planet, duh. Of course she won't kill all of the people, just enough so that the world would live.

However, everything started to change.

The Protector realized the impending doom, a disaster that was more dangerous than humanity. The Demons. She found that the planet won't last long if those pests dared to step on the planet. The planet, her home, her very existence, would be destroyed. 

She detected the mindless creatures on other planets were creating rifts to enter the planet first. They were the monsters. 

So the Protector did her best to change it. The world should never have any supernatural aspects and everything should be explained by science, yet the Protector destroyed that rule. 

Using the idea she got from the people, which was to give powers using game-like systems such as leveling, Item looting, and monster killing. She successfully created the concepts of the power system of the Hunters. The Protector created these systems using the brain of humanity.

After all, humanity had the greatest imagination of all, and the Protector used their imagination to give them power. 

The concept of leveling and Skill evolution came from them. Because it was the easiest method to gain power. 

She created the Awakening and gathered the monsters that first entered their world. Then, she gave the Awakeners random Skills and it all depends on them on how they would improve their Skills.

Everything was history after that. 

To be honest, she was surprised at how her program went. She didn't know that the random Skills would bring forth massive changes. She didn't expect that there would be a person who could see everything or a person who could stop time, it was out of her expectations. She was just trying her best for the planet to survive. She created the Awakening and Hunters to give the world a chance to fight against the invaders. 

She didn't expect that she would find hidden gems, such as Kim Soo-Woon and Mikael Tibano. Their talents were one in a million, or perhaps much more. 

………  

……  

…

"Answer me."

Mikael's weapon was touching her neck but Earth-chan was not afraid. 

"I will not die, in the first place, I am a creation made by humanity. In the truest sense, I'm not real."

"Heh, but based on the injury that you're suffering, it seems like you can feel pain."

"…"

"I guess I'm right."

He shrugged. Then, he slowly pushed the tip of her Spear onto her throat. 

"Tell me, are you responsible for the death of my parents. Did you unleash the Giant Ants to Cavite intentionally?"

"…"

"Answer me!"

He roared and pigments of lightning crackled around him. 

"… I need energy."

"What?"

"To keep this whole procedure working, I need energy."

"I don't understand you."

Mikael was gritting his teeth. His hair slowly turned white, he was ready to release his God mode.

"You know that Earth has around 7.50 billion years to live, I sacrifice half of that to survive. It's better than dying early. I used that energy to create the Awakening and Punishment... And I used that to control where the monsters will appear. I will contain them for 100 days, to give the people time to react and prepare. Yes, I control where the Portals will appear, I categorized them into different colors. But I didn't create any monsters, none at all. You know that the planets that the Beastmen and Elves lived in had monsters, so you should've already expected this."

Her eyes didn't falter. It all depends on Mikael if he would see her as his parents' murderer or not. But Earth-chan did it to protect the Earth. In the first place, she already knew that a lot of people would die. Portals would appear one way or another and she was just doing her best to keep the world safe. 

"So you indeed released the monsters--"

"No, I didn't release them. As I said, I contained them for hundred days. I'm waiting for the Hunters that will exterminate them within that period..."

"But no one came."

Mikael smiled grimly. He took a deep breath and unsummoned his weapon. He lost his power to fight her. He knew that the Protector was not the one to blame, because the Ants were the real culprits who killed his parents. But it was still painful, whenever he thought about it, his heart clutched. 

"Now I understand what Kim Soo-Woon is talking about... There's no enemy... We are just dust in the wind. We are nothing but creatures that will do our best to survive. Even this planet has natural instinct to survive."

He swallowed the saliva stuck in his throat. He brushed his hair up. Demons, monsters, and even humans, everything is an enemy of their own. 

Earth-chan knew that Mikael was suffering but he had to do his best. 

"Mikael, right now your family is facing a tough problem. Demons invaded our planet and they will gradually corrupt this world if we failed to protect it. I want to help but as you can see, I'm recuperating from the battle against Queen Lilith. That's why I need you. I already talked to Kim Soo-Woon, but one God is not enough. We need you."