As for her stats, Lufas tried looking at them but quickly realized it was pointless. Her stats screen did come up. It did. However, there was just a continuous string of nines, stretching all the way through this infinite space. Just a single glance was enough for Lufas to realize how useless it was trying to calculate Alovenus’s abilities. For now, it should be enough to just think that she has stats so astronomically high you’d only ever see them in star charts.
“I’m surprised. I never thought you’d be able to come here.”
“I’m sure you didn’t.”
Though Lufas acted calm, internally she was thinking that she was the one who was astounded. I figured she’d be different... I thought I understood that she would be in a whole other dimension, but... Her thoughts stalled momentarily. Now that we’re here, I can only be in awe of how huge she is. So each one of those tiny black things in here—every single last one of them—is a universe? Now this is what you call inflation. Finally, Lufas had reached the highest point.
“Am I right in assuming the reason you’re here is to request a change to the script?”
“If you know that much already, then this will be quick. Even if you say no, we’ll just force you to rewrite it.”
In response, Alovenus asked if her script was really wrong. “Is it really that bad to have a common enemy for all humanity to rally against?”
Of course the world might have seemed harsh to those living in it. Alovenus knew that much, at least. However, that harshness is perfect. The pain is a good thing. Why? Because that’s what humanity actually needs.
“Not even I would make the world like this on a sudden whim. At first, I thought that saving people and giving them everything they needed was the path to happiness.”
Alovenus closed her eyes sadly as she spoke of the past. Yes... I used to believe that continuing to save people, to give them what they desired, would bring about happiness. But I was wrong. If all you do is fulfill people, their sense of happiness and fulfillment will go numb. In a world with nothing but peace, people will be unable to recognize that peace for what it is.
For example, pretend there was a cake that needed to be given to two children who were having a birthday. One was poor, so poor that they had never once celebrated their birthday and struggled to have enough to eat day-to-day. The other was wealthy, able to eat as much cake as they wanted, and for every birthday, that child received an extra large birthday cake. Imagine that both of these children received the same cake. Only one of them would feel great happiness. What a delicious cake, the first child would say. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten a birthday cake! However, the other one would express nothing but anger. Are you kidding me? It’s my birthday! What’s up with this tiny cake?
Isn’t it strange? Though they had been given a cake of the same size and flavor, the poor child would feel lucky while the rich child would feel unlucky.
Why does something like this happen? Because of the average level of happiness. The poor child’s average level is low, so a small cake seems like the gift of a lifetime. Meanwhile, the rich child’s average level is high, and they no longer feel happiness over something like a small cake. For that child, happiness has become such a given thing that they are unable to recognize their good fortune. Yes, the happiness people feel is not on an empirical scale. It varies greatly depending on the surroundings and circumstances.
“It’s no good to simply give people happiness. If all they experience is peace, they’ll just rot.”
Back when Alovenus had done nothing but save people, the world was nothing short of a paradise. There was no starvation and no pain. Everything was dealt with by the Goddess, and not even the concept of a life span existed. Humanity was divorced from sickness and death, and they were able to receive anything they wanted. They were swaddled in the Goddess’s love in a world with no war and no wealth disparity. It truly was a divine Eden, one that idealists dreamt of but was impossible in reality, the picture of a golden age.
Alovenus truly had once managed to realize what most people imagined heaven to be like. However, there was no limit to human greed. They took as much as they could, and the more she gave, the more their average level of happiness went up.
It’s only natural to be given things. It’s only natural to be saved. Once those thoughts took hold of people, their happiness became too commonplace, and they were unable to recognize their fortune. They simply accepted the Goddess’s gifts while being unable to feel joy, and if even the littlest thing did not go their way, they became unhappy. It was a world where no one had to do anything, because even if they didn’t, the Goddess would take care of it. They didn’t walk by themselves, because if they wished for it, the Goddess whisked them anywhere. They didn’t stand, because there was no need to. Neither would they lift things nor even eat on their own. They simply existed in this paradise with no hardship, and because everything was granted to them, they did nothing. Humans could just lie down on some soft patch of grass or even a bed gifted to them by the Goddess.