Apotheosis

Zen sat on the metal plate, feeling uncharacteristically helpless. He tried to keep a poker face but he knew his expression showed his anxiety.

The little monster in his hand was now making strange wheezing sounds, almost like laughter. To Zen, it was as though the monster was laughing at him for falling into their trap.

It turned out that this metal plate had originally been a cage.

There was nothing in the debris that could be used to block the blue light. But no matter who was attacked by these little monsters, they would try to find an object to use as a shield.

Those little monsters had released a blue light which struck the metal plate, reminding Zen that it could deflect the blue light.

So he jumped to the metal plate, and found himself locked in a cage.

Zen stretched out a finger and tapped lightly on the metal plate. That small tap released eight hundred divine megatons of force.

A deep sound burst out, like the striking of an enormous gong.

The metal plate remained motionless. It had not even been dented.

Zen realized that the metal plate was more solid than he had imagined. It would be impossible for him to break it.

His eyes darted around him, searching for a way out. Then his gaze landed on the blue lights around the metal plate.

He took out a khaki shield from his space ring. Someone from an alien race had accidentally dropped the shield in the Chaotic Source World, and Zen had grabbed it up. It was a valuable treasure. Taking a firm grip on the shield, he brushed it lightly against the fences of blue lights.

To his disappointment, instead of deflecting the blue lights, the edge of the shield was cleanly sliced off.

Zen was confident in his own toughness, but he didn't dare try to breach the blue light barrier with his own body. He had a feeling he wouldn't be able to withstand it.

"Maybe spatial transference..." he murmured to himself, thinking rapidly.

He closed his eyes and focused, trying to launch the Grand Teleportation technique so he could leave the metal plate.

However, he failed to construct a space channel through which he could travel. His Space Law didn't work here.

Spatial transference was prohibited in the Chaotic Source World. The space had been confined by some mighty warriors, leading to ordinary space channel unable to break through the space imprisonment.

However, it seemed that there was no Space Law in this place. It was impossible for him to carry out spatial transference.

Zen racked his brain, but he couldn't think of anything else he could try. Having exhausted all his options, he sighed and sat quietly on the metal plate, waiting to see what would happen next.

The little monster in his grip was still making that strange laughing sound. Zen scow

e cave had been looking for the bodies of small animals. It seemed fair to assume that the little monsters lived by eating meat.

No. 9527 sensed his anxiety and turned serious. "Look at their expressions. You're very important to them. It's not likely that they'll just slaughter and eat you, but they definitely have plans for you."

Zen nodded absently, narrowing his eyes at the little monsters.

He was just a human that had been deleted from the Source World. What possible value could he have for these little monsters that grew up in this abandoned space?

Zen wondered what had happened after he was removed. He suspected he was the first person ever to be removed by deletion.

He was tense and imprisoned, anticipating the different things that the little monsters could do to him. But for hours, nothing happened. Half a day passed in this manner. Then, all of a sudden, Zen was alerted to a commotion in the distance. The door to one of the city's bigger structures was opening, and dozens of little monsters crawled out.

These little monsters were actually not as little as the ones that had brought him to this city. The one in the center of the group wore a large and exquisite golden ring. It had an air of authority. It seemed to be the most powerful of the little monsters.

The little monsters approached Zen's cage.

In a moment, they had leaped forward and surrounded Zen entirely, staring at him. He stared back.

They began leaping up and down, especially the little monster with a golden ring. It looked at Zen intensely, but spoke in a gentle voice, as though it was trying not to make him frightened.

Zen paid close attention to every sound and gesture, but it was useless. He couldn't make out even a single word of what any of the little monsters were saying. He was unable to communicate with them at all.