"...Right, setting that aside. What exactly are you making right now?"
"Huh? Didn’t I explain when we gathered everyone?"
"No, I just came when I heard it’d be fun..."
"Ah..."
So he’d joined us without even knowing what we were doing.
Seeing his confused expression, the girl sighed.
Well, I was the same. So were the others.
Transcendents only cared about one thing—if it was fun, they’d dive in headfirst without a second thought.
He must’ve shown up the second he heard the rumor about something interesting going on.
"We’re making a world."
"...What? You’re making a *world*?"
"Yep."
"Can you even do that?"
"It’s a little tough... but we’ve seen results. You saw it too, right?"
"No, I just thought you were all having some kind of meetup... I never imagined you’d actually *built* it."
His awe made my shoulders puff up with pride.
Heh, of course.
"It wasn’t as hard as I thought."
"Really?"
After all, everyone here was the best in their own field.
We’d just never tried working together to create a world before.
But once all these Transcendents focused on a single goal, a planet had taken shape before we knew it.
"So does that mean we can interfere with it however we want now?"
"No. Not yet."
"...What? Isn’t that a planet? You said we made it. You’re telling me we can’t even go inside?"
"We made it... but it’s still a prototype. We’re planning to scrap it."
It wasn’t as hard as I thought.
...But that didn’t mean it was *easy*.
If I told you, dear reader, how many worlds we’d shattered and remade in the process, you’d be shocked.
Glancing to the side, I saw the failed experiments piled up in the corner.
A planet where temperature regulation failed, one where the atmospheric composition was wrong, another where we’d given it so much life force that the planet itself became a living entity...
All the worlds we didn’t want were left there, slowly dying in silence.
The guy in front of me must’ve noticed them too, because he voiced his confusion.
"This one looks fine, though?"
"Ah... Well, it *is* almost done."
"Then what’s the problem? It’s good, right?"
"...We had a disagreement. The final work got put on hold."
"A disagreement?"
"Yeah."
The girl sighed.
Just thinking about the argument that had broken out over the nearly finished world made my head throb.
It was frustrating to think we might have to scrap a world we’d almost completed... but I couldn’t blame them.
If I were in their shoes, I’d have done the same.
"We confirmed it’s habitable for humans, and we’ve fixed most of the issues..."
"So what’s the problem?"
"They started fighting over what kind of *setting* to use..."
"...Setting?"
With a heavy heart, I nodded.
Yeah. The *setting*.
Every Transcendent had their own ideal world, and each of them was stubbornly pushing for their own vision.
There was no such compromise.
After all, this was the first world created by Transcendents themselves.
No one would willingly give up the specialness of being the ‘first’ with their own hands.
Since most of the Transcendents had helped create this world, they each staked their claim, insisting it had to be the world *they* wanted, and soon broke into a fierce argument.
A fight that would never end.
“Ah, so that’s why they’re brawling like that?”
“Yeah. Some want a martial world, others fantasy, others urban fantasy…”
Everyone had different tastes, and as Transcendents, none of them were the type to back down easily.
Since their power levels were all similar and they couldn’t kill each other, the fight just dragged on endlessly.
…So this world was scrapped.
Because the vision of it ever being completed properly had vanished.
“I’ll have to mediate between them for a while, but in the meantime, there’s no one to manage this place. By the time the fight ends and we come back, this world will have become one we can’t interfere with anymore.”
“Ah…”
It was like a pet humans had taken in.
If you catch one and then leave it untamed, it’ll just return to the wild.
We had created this world…
But we’d only created it—we hadn’t properly adjusted or controlled it.
Even if those guys got tired of fighting or found common ground and came back to check on this world, it would already be too late.
It would have become a world we couldn’t touch anymore.
Forcing it to be made anyway was impossible.
It required the cooperation of multiple Transcendents.
If even one of them walked out, saying they didn’t like it, the entire plan would collapse.
“…But why are *you* here?”
“Hm?”
“Don’t you have a setting you want? …Honestly, I’m starting to get tempted myself.”
I answered the guy staring at the nearly finished world with greedy eyes.
“I don’t care what it is.”
“…No way.”
“I really don’t.”
He looked at me like he didn’t believe me, which was a little frustrating, but I understood.
If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t believe it either.
…Well, nothing I could do about that.
“I just… as long as it’s a happy world, I really don’t care what it is.”
“A happy world?”
“Yeah, a happy world.”
“…?”
He looked like he had no idea what I was talking about.
Well, of course.
A happy world was something we Transcendents struggled to even imagine.
After experiencing countless worlds, Transcendents grew numb to stimulation.
And so, inevitably, they ended up enjoying worlds drenched in blood and gore just to pass the time.
So if I said I wanted to create a happy world, of course it’d sound strange that everyone agreed.
“A world without tragedy, where people don’t kill each other. That’s the kind of world we decided to make.”
“…That sounds boring just hearing about it.”
“It’s fine. It’s already been decided.”
Most of the guys making the world with me were the ones who had observed worlds alongside me.
That’s why they’d agreed to the world I wanted.
Because it was a promise with the Reader.
“Guess you’ve got your reasons. Then I’ll leave you to it. …I’m heading out too.”
"Leaving already?"
"Yeah. ···Hey, you bastards! Obviously we should go to SF—!"
After briefly watching another Transcendent join the fray, I turned my gaze back to the planet before me.
···Still, something feels lacking.
"Hmm, no matter how I look at it, this turned out well…"
The scenery was beautiful.
Thanks to those guys shoving in all sorts of settings, the world’s lore felt a little jumbled… but…
It felt like a waste to just abandon it like this.
I’d never see this world again in the future.
And yet, the fact that it was so well-made stirred a strange attachment in me.
"···Ah, I miss you."
It hadn’t even been that long since I parted ways with you, Reader.
But already, I was bursting to brag to you about how I’d made something like this.
Those guys just don’t react in a fun way.
All they do is look at me like, *Of course you’d say that.*
···Of course, I knew better than anyone that it was impossible.
Even so, I wanted someone—anyone other than you, Reader—to see this world.
To know that a world this well-made existed.
"No one’s watching?"
I glanced around, but there was no one nearby.
Everyone was too busy arguing over which genre their ideal world should be to pay me any mind.
···Fine.
"The era… this should be good enough."
After compressing the world’s information, I scattered fragments of it into one of the existing worlds around me.
Slipping in a tiny piece of data like this was easy.
Surely, someone in that world would take notice of this one.
They could turn it into a game, a movie, or a novel.
Or they could dismiss it as a mere daydream and jot down a single line in their personal notes.
I just didn’t want this world to be forgotten, unremembered by anyone.
"I wonder how they’ll take it…"
Just receiving the information felt a little dull.
Suddenly, a mischievous idea struck me, and I planted a small, prank-like mechanism into the data.
···Yeah, that should do it.
Whoever triggers this little trick will be one lucky bastard.
Not that there’s any guarantee someone actually will.
"Hey! What do *you* think?!"
"Hiiik?! W-what, what is it?!"
"This guy keeps saying fantasy is better than wuxia!"
"W-well, it *is*…?"
"Of course a muscle-for-brains like him would say that! Magic? Never heard of it, huh?!"
"Wuxia has *qi* too! It’s not *just* about brute strength!"
"Ugh, they’re arguing over nonsense again…"
I sighed at the sparks flying between them, but then—
Did they hear me muttering to myself?
The guys who’d been fighting suddenly turned to me and started sneering.
"···Pfft, what would *you* know? You got chased out by your own creations."
"Yeah, seriously. Ugh, so embarrassing."
"Hey, hey, you little—! You done talking?!"
"Yeah, we’re done. Why?"
"Good… I wasn’t planning on fighting, but… if you’re gonna talk like *that*… I can’t just let it slide…!"
Fuming at their words, I jumped into the argument.
Only an idiot would put up with that kind of talk.
A pointless, endless fight with no meaning whatsoever had begun.