Chapter 89 - The Dawn of the Twilight Era

*(Note: Switches between the POV of an Earthling Factory Worker and the Last Human)

A reasonably long time has passed since the mass production of the new battle golem began.

Already, the New Earthen Army controls most of the universe.

The United Planets have been pushed to the very fringes of the universe, with the expression "going the way of the dinosaurs" truly summarizing the situation well.

Just a little more and New Humanity will have completely conquered the universe.

Soon, all intelligent life will fall under their control and will surrender their destinies to New Humanity.

Earth's magical civilization will progress further than ever, consolidating the whole of the universe's resources under themselves.

(No one can stop Earth.)

Naturally, this was the prevailing thought around the universe.

Even New Humanity thought so.

However, "people" are not so simple.

I work in a huge interstellar warship factory.

In the factory, a few people like me and many more homunculi move about, working on various types of warships.

Once again, I sit in my designated chair and inspect the drawings laid on my desk.

When the inspection finishes, I send various spells into the factory's open space.

The invoked magic simultaneously creates parts and combines them to instantaneously form a huge battleship.

After ensuring the quality of the completed battleship, I check the next drawing and then grab my staff.

Then, after a few hours of working by myself, several cutting-edge interstellar warships would be completed, and I would use transport spells to supply Earth's military bases throughout the universe.

Every day, after finishing the last ship, an alarm would ring, signaling the end of work.

"Ah~~…

Work is finally over~~"

A small homunculus in the management position spoke to me as I was rubbing my shoulders.

"Thank you for your hard work.

The battleships you built today performed wonderfully.

If more battleships like that are deployed, the day will soon come when Earth's great civilization will bring order to the vast universe."

The pretty Homunculus smiles, whilst uttering such words of praise for Earth.

To such a homunculus, I said,

"Oh, that's, well~~…

Well, it's my job."

I changed out of my work clothes and left the factory.

I walked to the front gate and deployed teleportation magic.

My destination is a bar on the other side of the continent.

A few minutes later, I was having a drink with my good friends at that bar.

Everyone has their own problems, but at this moment, we drank happily, putting them out of our minds.

At that moment, I muttered something to myself.

"…Hey… why do we work…?"

(…Ah…

Who would have thought that this muttering would change the world?

Even he would not have expected this statement to mean so much…

…Now…

It begins…

It really begins…

The end of hell…

And the beginning of twilight…)

*(Note: An interjection by your favorite Old Human.)

To the man's mutterings, his friends reply.

"Why, to live, of course."

"Yeah, yeah. I have to work to survive."

But he continued, "…Can't you get by without a job?"

Upon hearing his statement, his friends fell silent.

"I'm not trying to be lazy.

I just don't like this life.

I don't want to be discriminated because of my hair, have my life managed by artificial fairies, and continue serving the Earth until the day I die.

Why do we deal with such hardship?

No, it's not just us.

The poor, the middle class, even the ruling class, we all live under stress.

Why? Why do we have to work so hard?

I just… I just want to be free.

I don't want to build interstellar warships.

I don't want to work all day, every day, doing work I don't want to do… what the hell is my life?"

Hearing this, my friends also begin to discuss amongst themselves.

"I, too… I can't stand the pain of this life."

"Me too… day in and day out… This atmosphere is suffocating, and I can't breathe."

*(Note: Originally, "as if I were in the deep sea.")

Hearing them, he posed a suggestion to his friends.

"…Hey… why don't we just abandon this planet?"

On the artificial island, I was thrilled to see a quiet bar.

For, this scene was like a terminally old human society in of itself.

(How could he say such things?

The reason is simple.

The magical civilization of New Humanity has peaked, and every New Human already has the power of a god.

Despite having such power, they are still consumed by the thought that: "If you abandon society, you will not survive."

Work is done unconsciously, under the near-brainwashing notion that: "If I don't work, I'm not a good person.

But this single worker had become aware of this contradiction.

He continued to be troubled.

Why do I have to belong to society when I have the power to live on my own?

Why should my freedom be restricted when I can live as an individual?

Why do I have to live such a hard life?

With such troubles in mind, he shared his thoughts with his friends.

When his friends heard what he had to say, they were perplexed.

Abandoning the Earth was something they had never thought of before.

However, it was clear that a hard and painful life awaited them even if they continued to live on Earth.

"I want to do something about this hard life!"

This was also the wish of all intelligent life in the universe.

Not only the inhabitants of the universe, but even the New Humans on Earth want to be liberated from the mighty domination of "Global Society."

It was at such a time that the extraordinary idea of "abandoning the Earth" was hatched.

It was an idea that would turn Heaven and Earth upside down, but it was quite feasible.

As a result of their constant greed for knowledge and consistent expansion, Earth's magical civilization had progressed to an unparalleled degree.

As a result, the capabilities of every individual had also improved to the point where a single person alone has the power of an advanced planet.

If they wanted to, they could abandon the Earth with a few friends and migrate to some uninhabited planet to live.

Even if the planet is unfit for life, with godlike magic, the environment can be easily changed.

Even if the planet has few resources, with godlike magic, any substance can be created.

No matter what kind of trouble may occur, with godlike magic, "we" can live safely.

Indeed, New Humanity acquired such power that each one of them can live as a god.

Once again realizing this fact, he shared his idea with his friends.

The friends could not make a quick decision, so they decided to disperse for the day.

The friends went home and were left alone to contemplate the proposed idea.

For hours, even days, they would ponder the idea as they found the time.

(Can we really abandon the Earth and live freely?

Can we really handle it?

But… but!

If we stay here on Earth!

Oh… What on earth should I do…?

How can we live happily?

They continued to worry and suffer, and then they made a decision.

They made the decision to abandon Global Society.)

A few days later.

A group of several young people set out from Earth.

They built themselves a small, high-performance magical spaceship and set off for a distant, uninhabited planet.

As they departed, none of them looked back at the shrinking Earth, but all of them stared firmly ahead and thought about their future lives.

Because, for the first time in their lives, they could feel their hearts pounding.

They had never experienced anything like this before on Earth, and they were excited about a future that was "completely unpredictable" and "not controlled by artificial fairies for even a second."

This event did not spread around the universe.

In the first place, they weren't aiming to spread their idea; they simply wanted to get out of their hard lives as quickly as possible.

In fact, they did not publicize their actions to the media, nor did they promote their activities to the wider public.

As a result, few people noticed that a few young people had disappeared from the earth.

However, this event continued to occur in subsequent eras.

Why?

The reason is simple.

All New Humans hated the status quo.

They all have one thing in common: they all possess godlike powers… that is to say, they possessed extremely advanced magic.

And New Humanity, fed up with their current lifestyle, simply came up with the idea of using their power to abandon Global Society.

This was not forced by anyone.

It was just a conclusion they reached.

As a result, one by one, New Humanity disappeared from the universe and from the vast and powerful territories it controlled.

Within a few short centuries after the first group of young people abandoned Earth, New Humanity disappeared not only from Earth, but also from their territories throughout the universe.

They settled on uninhabited planets and in the expanse of empty space, living freely and in small groups without any contact with Earthen society or with other civilizations.

Yes, like the twilight, the newcomers disappeared from the vastness of space.