As she expanded the range of her territory in space, she began hearing rumors about the Girls gacha. Girls skilled at astrology had discovered something strange orbiting a gas giant towards the outside of the solar system.
Youko deemed this rumor worthy of investigation. She perfected her nuclear fusion system so she could head for the gas giant and voyaged forth on a lonely journey. It was a long trip, one that would take her several years with her current abilities, but what choice did she have?
On her way, Youko was completely alone. Vayu was long past being able to speak at all. There were no other Girls. She couldn’t bring herself to send any more friend requests. She was afraid she’d end up killing those she cared about again. So she spent her days gazing at the unmoving stars.
The only thing she needed to do during her trip was turn herself 180 degrees and start decelerating. Trajectory calculations were long since performed instinctively by her oversized cerebellum.
When the gas giant finally came into view, she felt saved by it. It was gorgeous. So many shades of red and blue and white. It was a massive storm. Just the sight of it left her awestruck.
She soon found the unnatural rectangle. Darkness cut a swatch out of the planet behind it. She was sure. This was the Girls gacha.
The gacha taxis she’d had since she was an amoeba was stimulated once more.
Youko approached the gacha. That familiar sensation drew near.
As the feeling grew closer, it took physical form. It was beautiful. A beautiful sensation. Youko knew this gacha would require an immense amount of points. It would have the appetite to end all appetites. It would be a bottomless pit. Youko believed she had saved up quite a lot of points. She had converted the flesh and blood of the Girls she ate each day into a hoard of points. Even then, she could only pull from the gacha a few times.
But she had to pull. The gacha was right in front of her. It was Youko’s duty to pull.
The gacha and Youko had a wordless conversation. The gacha did not have a soul the way the Girls did. But she could feel that it wanted her points. And she knew that the prize would allow her to revive Vayu’s Sensei.
She inserted her points and pulled.
Failure.
Failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure.
In no time, all her points were gone.
Youko didn’t hesitate. She immediately whaled. What value did her life hold? Her mind had long since died. Not the day of the accident and her reincarnation, but the day Dyaus and Ganapati died. Death had led to Youko’s rebirth, and death had led to her dying once more. Before coming to this world, in her time spent under the control of the mobile game, Youko had been dead. But meeting Dyaus, Ganapati, and Vayu had brought her back to life. The reincarnation her death brought had given new life to her mind. And then Youko had died once more. The only thought remaining in her mind was to save Vayu. Vayu was the one reason she had left to go on living.
Her health, lifespan, volition, and existence drained away. When she’d first come to this world, Youko had let those drain away without much thought. She’d done the same thing before being reincarnated. But the revival of her mind had made Youko afraid to lose herself like this. Even so, she had to overcome that fear.
Drain, drain, drain. The points her health, lifespan, volition, and existence provided all went right into the gacha.
Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure.
Each time she drained her health, lifespan, volition, and existence, she felt like her body was growing lighter. Something was lost. A hollow feeling, like a tunnel being drilled through her. Little by little, the core of herself grew thinner. She was indistinct. The place and time she existed in were wavering, no longer seeming like they had any real basis. It was like her heart was filling with water, diluting it. Like the atoms within her were vaporizing one by one, and her construction was growing more diffuse. She forgot how to think. She couldn’t even think about what thinking had been like. Drain... Drain... Drain... I’m draining away.
When all of her was drained, the universe began to warp. In the center of it, a light was floating. A warm light. A light of salvation, one accepting of all things. The light went right through Youko. It felt so wonderful. There was nothing but light in her world, now. As long as this light existed, that was enough for Youko. Light, please, just let me stay like this forever. The light had a word carved into it that validated the entirety of Youko’s life.
“Winner.”
Had a trillion years passed? Had it been a single second? She couldn’t tell. Blacks began to seep back into the world. Black holes forming in the light she had thought perfect. The holes expanded, swallowing up the light. Not yet! Just let me be here a little longer! Youko screamed. She had no mouth or tongue or voice box but she screamed anyway. But the blackness kept expanding as if her pleas did not exist. Her time was up. Youko had drained her entire life away. She’d lost the right to live in this world. She couldn’t enjoy the mobile game any longer. It was all over.
Death.
Youko had died.
And in death, she knew the reason for everything. She knew who Vayu’s Sensei was, what the soul was, why she’d been reincarnated. She knew why mobile game addiction occurred, and what mobile games really were.
It all started with the birth of the universe. The instant vibrations occurred in the inflaton field, the universe had a soul.
What was a soul? An extra dimension linked to the 11th dimension.
Consider human consciousness. The most remarkable quality of it is that it lives within the realm of possibilities. Seeing red does not mean merely seeing red in the world that exists before your eyes. You see red. Not blue, not green, not yellow, but red. When this occurs, people compare what they see to other possibilities. But what are those other possibilities? The true nature of possibilities means not being controlled by what exists in the real world. Which makes it simple. Human consciousness makes perception possible by comparing the universe you are in to other universes. This technique is possible because the consciousness incorporates the soul, an extra dimension.
Countless varied universes exist in the 11th dimension. The soul is linked to a network of universes. Each time humans perceive something, their soul searches the conditions of other universes. You’d think it would take time to search so many universes, but don’t worry. In the 11th dimension, light speed, the fastest speed attainable, is ten to the power of thirty times faster. This is the original speed light traveled at. That dawdling 300,000 kilometers a second is only forced upon it because the 11th dimension has been scrunched up inside the third, and light has to deal with all kinds of interference that doesn’t let it take the shortest distance.
By searching other universes via the soul, humans are able to make all sorts of things possible. Perceiving the emotions of another human requires searching universes where that other person is yourself. Perceiving the past and the future involves searching universes where those times are the present.
Additionally, human culture is made possible by the soul. Fiction, science, logic, and religion are all only possible through using the soul to search other universes.
What is fiction? A search of another universe where fictional things actually exist.
What is science? A search of another universe where scientific models actually exist.
What is logic? A search of another universe where an ideal society based on logical principles actually exists.
What is religion? A search of another universe where mystic beings actually exist.