Chapter 1: Outer God

Transformed into Cosmic Horror in a Sci-Fi Universe –

EP.1 Outer God

Suddenly, I died.

I was an ordinary man in my late twenties living in South Korea, and in a rather classic manner, I was hit by an 8-ton truck with a broken handle and died.

Just when I thought it was the end, surprisingly, I opened my eyes again.

What is this? Did I come back to life?

Or did I perhaps come to the afterlife after dying?

Everything around me is incredibly dark, and I can't move my body at will.

Judging by that, it seems like it could be the afterlife.

While I was thinking that,

'Universe, Universal Treaty, Space Society's beginning, foreign news, absolute being, my identity…'

Suddenly, an enormous amount of information started pouring into my mind.

An amount so vast that if I were still human, my brain would have exploded instantly.

But I was able to accept that information without any pain or change, as if it were nothing.

No, what is this?

I can't understand what is happening right now.

Information about the galaxies of the universe, their locations… and even ways to get there are flooding in…

Universe? Galaxies? What is all this?

The information entering my mind is something I've never seen before.

Obviously, this is not the world I lived in, and I have not been reincarnated as a human.

This place is a world set in a space opera like "Star Wars" or "StarCraft."

And I… seem to have been reincarnated as something called an 'Outer God.'

An absolute being close to a god… commonly referred to as a 'Cosmic Horror' or 'Cthulhu.'

With a body as massive as a decent-sized planet, writhing tentacles, and an indiscernible form, I had become something indescribably horrific.

[Shit…]

A curse slipped out of my mouth without me realizing it.

Hmm, at least I have a mouth to speak with.

No, wait.

It's a strange feeling of being able to speak without having a mouth?

Moreover, the words feel like they are being directly transmitted into my mind, like some kind of system language or world language from a novel.

…I don't even know what I'm saying, damn it.

Anyway, I could tell that I was in a seriously messed-up situation.

To put it simply, I am now an Outer God like Cthulhu, right?

Hahaha, this is insane.

The information about what I can do now is flooding into my mind, and just skimming through it makes me feel like I'm going insane.

Is this the mental collapse attack of an Outer God…?

Yeah, just being near me makes most life forms dizzy and mentally unstable.

The moment they see, hear, or perceive 'me' in any way, they either die or become insane unless they have mental defense measures in place.

It's an ability truly worthy of being called an Outer God.

But is that all? Of course not.

There's all sorts of stuff.

Creating life, destroying planets, creating planets, creating stars, creating black holes, tearing dimensions, crossing dimensions… it's almost omnipotent, isn't it?

In fact, among the information that just entered my mind, there was information about the entire universe.

But if crossing dimensions is possible, does that mean I can return to the Earth where I originally died?

[...]

Hmm… no, let's not do that.

Even if I were to return, what would I do in this form?

It would be the end of Earth in an instant…

What can I do?

Since I've been reincarnated like this, I might as well live this way.

…But what do these Outer Gods do with their lives?

They don't die or disappear forever anyway.

It seems like it would be incredibly boring.

Just floating around in the universe like this would be too dull.

Is this why gods create worlds, create life forms… and go around threatening and tormenting them?

Because they have nothing else to do.

Isn't there something fun to do?

It's been less than 10 minutes since I reincarnated, and I'm already bored.

[Oh.]

At that moment, I sensed the presence of some life form nearby, and I inadvertently made a sound.

…I need to be careful.

Just hearing my voice would drive most life forms insane.

I should try to keep my thoughts to myself and avoid speaking as much as possible.

Anyway, about 200,000 km away, something like a spaceship suddenly appeared.

Did it warp here through a wormhole?

It seems to be one of the intelligent life forms living in this universe's space society.

Hmm… it looks like a tourist ship of the Terra race?

The Terra race is the most similar to humans from my previous life.

To shake off this boredom, I want to meet them.

Anyway, whatever they do, they can't threaten me, so there's no worry about being attacked or hurt.

Hmm, but just by getting close to them, their minds might collapse and all…

Oh, I found a useful ability.

'Clone Creation'

It allows me to create a clone that shares my senses.

The clone can hardly use any of the abilities my main body possesses and instead has the appropriate abilities of the species it mimics, so it won't be much of a threat to those fragile beings.

Srrrk─

As I created the clone, something that would be smaller than a speck of dust from my perspective was formed.

After all, my main body is about the size of a decent-sized planet.

Anyway, I completed the clone by recalling my previous appearance.

Hmm, this is a bit lacking.

It didn't perfectly replicate my appearance.

Let's just tweak the body to be a bit more muscular, enlarge the eyes a bit…

Oh, and maybe raise the nose bridge just a tad?

Hehe, it's done.

Terra Race Clone!

Alright, then I'll use material creation to make a suitable personal spaceship and put my clone in it.

Now! Let's go!

#

Pzzzt─

Using the wormhole, a massive spaceship appeared in the middle of space in an instant.

"Thank you for visiting Galaxy B-02345, commonly known as the 'Skull Nebula.' We at 'Lacstol Tours' sincerely appreciate your patronage…"

"Wow~ Dad, look over there."

"That's the Skull Nebula. It really does look like a skull up close, doesn't it?"

"We're going inside, right?"

"Yeah. There's a development-prohibited planet managed by the Lubaran race, and they've turned it into a space safari for tourism purposes. You can see some very rare creatures there."

"Oh… is that the guidebook? I want to read it too."

The tourism company 'Lacstol Tours,' created by the Terra businessman 'Hank Yu,' is a colossal enterprise that owns a staggering 500 tourist ships, each capable of carrying 1,000 passengers by Terra standards.

Today, they are transporting hundreds of tourists from various species to a place known as the 'Skull Nebula,' a massive nebula named for its skull-like shape formed by interstellar matter when viewed from afar.

Within this nebula are several development-prohibited planets managed by the 'Lubaran Race,' one of the highest-ranking nations in space society.

These planets remain in their pristine, undeveloped state, making them extremely popular as tourist destinations.

The tourist ship was heading smoothly towards this destination without any issues.

Although space pirates occasionally attack tourist ships, Lacstol Tours is a very large company, so their ships are well-armed.

Additionally, this area is under the surveillance of the Lubaran Race, with their patrol ships frequently flying around.

In other words, it's generally a safe journey.

Everyone, both crew and passengers, was at ease until that moment.

[Oh.]

A very short and concise phrase suddenly entered their minds.

"?!"

"Ugh!! Argh!!"

"Aaaah!"

"Kyah! Aah!"

And at that moment, Terra race members and several other species with low mental immunity began to suffer from severe headaches due to that single word etched into their minds.

Some even vomited or collapsed with nosebleeds.

"Ugh…! What is this?"

"What's going on here…!"

Even the species with high mental immunity were barely holding on, clutching their throbbing heads to avoid collapsing.

Just one word.

The scene was caused by a single word, "Oh."

"What are you doing! Quickly deploy the Mind Barrier!"

A young man from the Meias race, who was relatively unscathed, shouted at the crew.

However, most of the crew were Terra race members, who had low mental immunity and were in chaos.

"Damn it… Where's the emergency control panel! I'll do it myself."

The Meias man stood up.

Although he looked almost identical to the Terra race, the amount of energy he possessed was on a different level.

He belonged to a race that used energy technology commonly referred to as 'magic.'

But then, an elderly Meias man next to him stopped him.

"Stop… This isn't something that can be handled with a Mind Barrier…"

The old man seemed to understand what was happening.

He was trembling and sweating profusely.

"Master, do you know what's going on right now?"

The young Meias man asked his master with a serious expression.

The old man, who was called master, nodded with a resigned look.

"…A god, a god has come. Something that should never be encountered in this universe. Something we should live without even knowing it exists… that has come…!"

He then started muttering that they were all going to die.

There was no way to survive.

Running away was futile; they would all meet their end here.

If he had known this would happen, he would never have ventured into space…

"Damn it…"

The young Meias man began to gather the energy, or 'mana,' within his body, intending to cast a protective spell.

But at that moment.

"…What the hell, this is crazy. What's going on?"

Suddenly, a young Terra man in casual clothes appeared out of nowhere.