CHAPTER 510: AN ABSOLUTE ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTIONS

My only warning came in the form of a system panel that opened in front of me.

〔Your request has been processed and approved, user. Failure to follow through on your promises will trigger punishment.〕

Then, before I could think about what this could mean...

〔The God of Humanity has a message for you:

"Dick Miller, I have heard your prayers and decided that alliance with the God of Blue Land Usnea is worth sending a message to this recluse. Now they have agreed to negotiate with you. Now, do a good job and show that I didn’t waste my time and influence on nothing!"〕

I didn’t finish reading this message before I was hit with another.

〔The Goddess of Bees has a message for you:

"This was a sweet plan, mortal, and you made it sweeter by making the blue freak afraid. Now make this alliance happen, use them, and we will emerge out of this even better off than when you baited the Goddess of Hornets. And to keep you motivated, I promise to kill one of your closest daughters if you fail. The most useless one. Don’t doubt—I have a full right to if I want."〕

From shock and cautious excitement to terror and anger—this was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions.

The Goddess of Bees was really going for them! For my girls! She was always threatening that, but not since the divine court. I believe that she was too invested in bee dominance to damage the integrity of the Bee Empire so directly.

However, I was too foolish to think that she wouldn’t find a way to scare me without destabilising the Empire itself. Who was the most useless one in her eyes?

Worriesgone, responsible for art? Or Undecided, who could be replaced by any of her students? Not that other Advisers couldn’t be replaced. Or maybe the bee-bitch even meant Helping-Hands, who was "just" a secretary...

These were some of the girls I spent most of my time with. Even among the countless deaths that happened every day in the Bee Empire—this was just statistics—it would’ve hit me hard.

A feeling of helplessness washed over me again. But I wasn’t allowed to wallow in it for long.

A figure manifested out of thin air in front of me and my table. It was dressed in a pure white cloak with a hood that covered its entire face, except for a long beard that was poking out. When I looked at it twice, I realised that the beard wasn’t made of hair—it consisted of tiny branches with blue needles which looked just like the branches of the ice-hole trees!

"Mortal who speaks with gods. Speak, then," the god spoke in a rustling voice with zero intonation whatsoever. "You seek an alliance. Why?"

I put a hand over my chest and took a deep breath just to calm down. I felt like I danced on the edge of a heart attack today... But with a force of will, I focused on the task.

No matter what, even if I will have to plead on my knees, I had to convince this being to become my ally! This was the only way to avoid the Goddess of Bees’ cruelty!

"Greetings! And you must be the God of Blue Land Usnea?" I smiled at the god and tried to make my expression look not too strained. "It’s good that I finally know what your species is called. Of course I would seek an alliance with her—I believe that it’s always better to make friends rather than enemies!"

The God of Blue Land Usnea (what a mouthful!) didn’t move, but I felt the air around them grow colder. Both figuratively and literally.

"You have made a lot of enemies and zero friends, mortal. Your mouth can lie, but your actions can’t."

I shivered. What a creepy guy... person. This god clearly considered itself to be above genders. The last thing I wanted was to offend it by accidentally using the wrong pronouns.

This wasn’t like another day on the Internet; this was a diplomatic matter of life and death!

"Mister God of Blue Land Usnea, you see how this land is! It’s kill or be killed—and when I kill, everybody suddenly gets offended that I play by the rules of the game they made themselves! But you—you’ve agreed to speak with me, so this must mean you are smarter than an average god." Some flattery never hurt anyone. "And you also have a serious enemy. Why don’t we work together against it... and against everybody else?"

The god didn’t move, but I felt their considering gaze on me. It was awfully expressive for someone who literally could be mistaken for a statue.

"The God of Smooth-back Deer. You used floods to diminish the population of both our species at once. You could’ve also sought alliance with them instead of me."

"The deer are too hungry. They would eat bees out if I agreed to work alongside them," I said honestly.

What I didn’t add was that the deer were also winning in the war against trees. Why would their god agree to an alliance with some mortal?

Even the God of Blue Land Usnea clearly only considered this idea because they had been put into dire straits by the deer and the floods I’ve organised!

But for me, this world was all I had. To the God of Blue Land Usnea, it was just one of many where the gods played their Game of Evolution. They wanted to win here, but if they abandoned this world, nothing terrible would happen.

Unlike for me...

So, although the God of Blue Land Usnea was the losing one, I was more desperate right now.

"I can make sure my species’ evolutions don’t harm your people. You can kill the deer with all that your civilisation has. We can be allies until the deer are gone, or until we cleanse all competition from this world. However..."

The God of Blue Land Usnea suddenly leaned forward a little.

"Why should I trust you, when you are making plans with Dalmanrach behind everyone’s back?"