Paradox of Belief

Suburbs, Odin family's summer mansion.

It was a cozy front loan with an array of open gazebos, white decorative chairs, and an artificial pond rich with all kinds of colorful fish.

Bella sat crouched next to the pond, waving her hand through the water with a gentle smile on her face, chasing after the cuttlefish that loves diving.

From behind her, her mother approached with gentle steps, her arms hooked around the thick arm of a tall, handsome man with an air of authority around him.

"Is your friend going to be late?"

Hearing her father's voice, Bella turned around as she stood up, dusting her hands off before wiping them down on her long white skirt.

"He should be here in less than 10 minutes," she answered crisply, having already gotten a message from Hiro on the iMessenger app.

The man nodded his head and said, "Good then, good. I'll instruct the servants to prepare the dining table, then."

After saying that, he lightly patted his wife's small hand and continued, "You can stay here with our daughter, let me handle the boorish stuff."

The woman nodded her head lightly, slowly unwinding her arms from his.

…

Hiro sat in the backseat of the luxury car, his eyes in a daze as he observed the three translucent screens displaying the information of his three characters.

[Daily Life]:

Name: Hiro Sciatis.

Class: Sorcerer.

Manual: Guide to the Sorcerer's Five Elements.

Tier: 9.

Rank: C.

AP: 245.

Gems: 0.

Skills: Immersive Reading, Professional Calligraphy, Analytical Mind, Professional Combat, Professional Soccer, Espionage I, Business Acumen III.

Properties: Sciatis Holdings Limited, 5% Nebula Electronics.

Private Balance: 297,399,859 nexus dollars.

Company Balance: 195.4 million international credits.

…

[Transcendent Taoist]:

Daoist: Hiro.

Sect: Lunar Shift.

Faction: Lunar Serenity.

Realm: Nascent Soul 9/10.

Cultivation Base: 29,200,000/34,000,000.

Spirit Array: +52 per second.

Magic Spells: Divine Sense II, Lunar Descent I,

Advanced Sword Technique III, Advanced Fist Technique III.

…

[Legend of Babylon]:

Seeker: Hiro.

Level: 43.

Gold: 38,432.

Class: Mage.

Job: High Sorcerer.

Spells: Concentration, Inferno Storm, Water Vacuum, Earthquake, Hurricane, Thunderbolt, Enchantment, Sigh of Protection, Meteor Shower, Siphon, Curse, Wood Healing, Water Healing.

…

"Sir, we've entered the Odin family's private property."

Sebastian reported through the built-in microphone, drawing Hiro's attention.

Coming back to his senses, Hiro dismissed the pop-up windows and fixed his posture, waiting for the car to stop.

Soon, Sebastian parked the car by the entrance to the summer mansion, hurriedly alighting to open the rear door for Hiro.

The moment Hiro alighted, the pink-haired Bella was already rushing over with a look of curiosity all over her face.

"You can afford your personal driver now? This is a little unexpected…" Bella knew of Hiro's financial situation, or at least she thought she did.

There was always a chance that he was hiding his abilities and wealth, but she wouldn't blame him for that.

Hiro smiled. "I accidentally got myself a pot of gold, but if I don't find myself some investments soon, all my liquid funds would be spent on nothing."

Bella's eyes flickered. Does he mean he completed a few missions on PARA to earn some money? Well, some people get lucky with easy missions, so it's understandable.

"It's fine, you just need to remember to be careful and pay attention to secrecy and confidentiality when it comes to these things."

Bella warned him because many of the low-level missions in the Tier-9 bracket were well-concealed traps. If Hiro wasn't careful and was baited by high payments, no one would know how he up and disappeared one day.

Their city is a large city with a mountain anchoring its center, a winding river, a great lake, and an industrialized suburban community.

One person going missing among hundreds of millions of people was truly nothing to speak of.

The larger the city, the wider the shadow.

Hiro didn't understand what she was talking about, but he nodded his head nonetheless.

"Sebastian, you can take the car for a spin and come back when I call you later."

Sebastian nodded his head, saluted with a courtesy bow, and then drove the car away. Meanwhile, Bella led Hiro into the house while chatting away.

Soon, the two entered the main hall and ventured into the dining hall.

Bella led Hiro to the guest's seat and spun around to sit directly across from him. When the two sat down and chatted for a minute or two, Bella's parents walked into the room.

"Uncle, Auntie…" Hiro quickly got up to greet them with a nervous smile.

Bella's father waved and laughed. "Brat, you're already calling me uncle, why act so formal with me? Sit down, sit down quickly…"

Hiro didn't dare to act presumptuous since Bella's father was supposedly a powerful Paranormal, even if Hiro didn't know his specific tier and rank.

Hiro also gave the wife a curious glance, since this woman left an impression on him when he rescued the mother-and-daughter pair.

Her temperament was just right, and from the looks of it, Bella took after her father's boisterous and outgoing temperament while inheriting her mother's beauty.

As the four of them sat down, Bella's father didn't directly go to the main topic. Instead, he talked about trivial things.

"I heard that you're from an orphanage that's under the jurisdiction of the Holy Church, are you a pious believer?" Bella's father asked without much thought.

Hiro thought back to how all the workers in the orphanage were females in nun clothing, thinking that it actually made sense.

Still, even if the children of the orphanage had gone through some sort of brainwashing and indoctrination, Hiro didn't have any impression of that.

After all, he was already 16 years old when he transmigrated, so the orphanage didn't have any chances of implanting funny ideas into his head.

"I can't be described as a pious believer, but it's not like I discredit the existence of a creator either. Honestly, it's a paradox of common sense, but it ultimately boils down to one's mentality." Hiro thought for a moment and constructed his answer based on his experience in his past life.

"Knowledge comes in realms, and each realm might subvert your worldview in contradictory ways…" Hiro eventually concluded.

Bella's mother looked at him with a hint of interest in her almond eyes as she asked, "What do you mean by knowledge comes in different realms?"

Bella's father also added, "I'm also curious, I'm usually too busy with business matters to think about such philosophical things."

Noticing that all three of them were looking at him, Hiro cleared his throat and brought an empty plate over.

The decorative design on the plate depicted numerous circles from the center outwards, and Hiro positioned a chopstick at the center point area of the innermost circle.

"Let's say that this chopstick represents mankind's understanding of the world in a certain period of time—for example, the times when man didn't know the cause of natural disasters such as earthquakes, thunderstorms, and tsunamis. Back then, it was believed to be the work of wrathful gods."

Then, he moved the chopstick to the adjacent, larger circle.

"A few centuries later, the knowledge of that era explained these phenomena through scientific means, thus debunking the existence of gods and charting it off as stupidity and ignorance."

A moment later, he moved the chopstick to the third, larger circle.

"A few centuries later, mankind understood the planet they live in, and thus diverted their curiosity elsewhere… The sky. They observed the stars, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the universe in its glory. Once again, science couldn't explain this beauty, and ironically, men of this era circled back to their beliefs in the existence of gods and deities."

At this point, Hiro pushed the chopstick down, causing it to tumble down with a faint clanging noise as he sighed and spread his hands.

"Once they find an explanation through science, they will once again deny the existence of deities… That is until science is no longer sufficient to explain reality as it is, so mankind would circle back to relying on their belief in deities to stabilize the civilization…

"Do you see what I mean by saying that this bit of knowledge is a paradox?"

Hiro waited for a response, but he soon realized that the dining table was a little too quiet.

Did I say something wrong? He wondered.