A God’s Outer Palace is very much like his or her house.

It can be renovated, filled with furniture or completely torn down and rebuilt at will. The design is up to each god’s personal taste.

In Greek Mythology, the Lord of Gods, Zeus, would live in a splendid palace on Mount Olympus, in front of which was a large courtyard surrounded by covered passages.

His brother, Poseidon, would live in a mansion made of gems and coral, located on the ocean floor, while their eldest brother, Hades, had several magnificent halls made entirely of pure gold and silver.

It’s a matter of style.

Of course, to decorate an Outer Palace costs power points.

Naturally, as the owner of the house, you can invite people over for a cup of tea and have a nice little chat. That’s what I had been doing the past few days.

Abductin- I mean, inviting various talented people from Earth over as part of my [Maldea Saga] development campaign.

For mortals, they would not remember anything about this little excursion, unless I want them too.

As in the case of Mr.CEO from Octopus. That was an intentional move.

Time flew differently between the two universes, so as long as my pool of power points can still handle the cost, people I invited over could stay here indefinitely and when they returned to their realm, it would be only the length of a night’s sleep. They could wake up, brush their teeth, eat a hearty breakfast, watch the news, catch a metro to their company and work for my project all over again.

It was similar to the classic tale about a guy who met fairies and was invited to their place.

When he had done goofing around and making merry with the beautiful spirits, he came back to his hometown.

But one year in the fairy realm was equal to eighty years in the mortal realm.

So everybody he knew, including his family was already dead.

And he was only in his twenties.

The man became more and more estranged from his environment. He fell into a deep pit of depression, and finally died in loneliness not long after.

The story might have some moral values per textbook, but I always liked to think that its author was just high.

Fairies?

Ancient people got good taste.

As a benevolent god, I would never allow my precious slav- I mean, dutiful workers to be caught in such a situation.

As a result, I spent extra power points to ensure each of their timelines stayed the same.

Could that be one of the reasons why my power points plummeted so much…?

Anyway, back to the Outer Palace.

Aside from its obvious function as a dwelling place for gods, it could also be a medium for exchanging information.

A God’s Inner Palace, however, is much more intimate than his or her Outer’s one. Think of it as your brain, no, the deep neurons inside your brain.

It stored information about your followers, how many they are, and the status for each of them. Health, fate, devoutness, things like that.

It could be used in many specific ways, as when I connected with Earth’s internet.

The Outer Palace, however, is where the more exciting visuals happened.

Programming is a good simile.

The Outer Palace is the UI with cute buttons and sliders, while the Inner Palace is the back-end system choked full of long, boring, spaghetti codes.

Doing things in the Outer Palace is more intuitive. It’s also a place to get and receive information from Maldea. Rina-chan had done that for many years.

Watching the world of Maldea from her little telescope.

But she said no one from Maldea knew about me.

For better or worse, I’m still the Mother God of this world, even if my power points are low. I have superior administrative ranks compared to my god-children.

Coupled with the fact that my identity is still unknown, Maldea’s creatures should not be able to trace back my Outer Palace.

Then what’s this intruder doing here?

It was a little orb with yellow color.

It floated around my god space, as if looking for a place to rest.

The glow around it was bright.

“Huh, that’s rare.”

Rina-chan lazily said.

“Ehhh, Rina-chan, you knew what this is?”

“Sure I do. I’m even more surprised that you are clueless about it, considering that you’re a god or something.”

“Tell me what it is then. I’m curious.”

Rina yawned.

“It’s a god’s soul.”

“Ahhh, I see it’s a go-what!?”

“I said, it’s a god’s soul. It’s the soul left after a god has been devoured. Usually that would be eaten along with their main body, but sometimes it escaped and went back to their mother’s place, which in this case, here.”

“EHHH!?”

That’s the soul of a god?!

Isn’t that technically my child?!

An unknown feeling arose in me.

I did not expect to see a god-child of mine so soon.

Even more so in this kind of situation.

But if its soul floated back here, doesn’t that mean…?

“Yes, that god is already dead. Eaten by some other god or something. I don’t know.”

“No way...”

It’s really a god-eat-god world out there.

Rina-chan had warned me about this, but I always downplayed its seriousness.

God eating other gods?

In Greek Mythology, Cronus did eat his children, but they were still alive, at least in his stomach.

And Greek Myth is supposed to be brutal.

What’s wrong with this world I created?

Did I make a mistake?

Was 2,000,000 power points not enough?

Should I make a world with 5,000,000 power points next time?

Bigger number might lead to better results.

“This one floated up here when you were awake, so I would leave that to your jurisdiction.”

Ehhh?

“So this kind of thing did happen when I was asleep, then …. what did you do with the previous ones, Rina-chan?”

Rina stared at me. 

Her doll’s face was still expressionless, but I could feel her mouth curving up.

“You don't want to know, stupid goddess.”

“Ehhh!?”