Villain Retirement

"Hm…"

Riley's sense of distance seemed to be failing him in this domain. When he was in the Book Keeper's room, although the buildings he saw seemed far, it still should have taken Riley no time at all to reach them.

And yet, he found himself still flying toward the city he decided to check out. He turned around to look at the building of the Book Keeper, and to his surprise, he could still see it. By all means, Riley was not even using a percent of his speed as he wanted to take in the sights of this new place he would be living in for a while, but still.

This place, it was weird even for him.

"..." Riley stopped flying as he just looked at the Book Keeper's tower and the city, before finally just deciding to descend to the ground and walk the rest of the way. After all, despite being called Domain of the Gods, Riley has not actually seen even a single person or god flying across the horizon. Perhaps there… was some sort of mystical something that was going on here.

And so, Riley just started walking on the ground, even taking off his shoes to feel the field of grass beneath his feet.

And once again, it was weird. The grass did not feel like grass at all and instead felt like the fur of a Samoyed. Riley crouched down to try and pluck a piece of grass, only to be met with resistance. Granted, he wasn't using strength at all. But as he increased his strength bit by bit, the ground started to tremble, and yet the blade of grass he was holding remained completely strong.

"Hm," Riley then breathed out as he gave one healthy tug, causing a violent snap to ripple across the mysterious sea of grass. He would have probably shot toward the sky if he did not catch himself with an invisible wall,

"...Interesting," Riley then looked at the blade of grass in his hand, inspecting it thoroughly to see what made it so different and durable — but it was literally just grass. He then started looking around, before sneakily hiding the grass in one of his many pockets.

And once he seemed content, he continued his journey toward the city that did not seem to get closer no matter how many steps he took.

"Do I need to say a magic word to get to the city?" Riley placed his hand on his chin as he stared at the city in the distance. And not even a second later, the scenery around him streaked and all of a sudden, the gates of the city were in front of him,

"Hm… weird."

The gates seemed to be made of glass, or perhaps there was no glass at all and the air itself was just locked in by the gold ornaments that adorned it. And as he stood directly in front of it, he could finally see people casually walking around inside. And of course, in turn, they all could see them too.

And like moths attracted to even a still flame, they all started to gather on the other side of the gate; their eyes, all curiously looking at Riley. He already expected it ever since a dragon welcomed him in this world, but the people here looked somewhat weird. All of them looked human, but like the primordials, there was something incredibly odd about them that Riley couldn't quite explain.

Riley was about to step forward to get a closer look at them, but the crowd of gods was suddenly clumsily pushed away one by one as a small person stepped out of the crowd.

"You… you're new!?" The small person said; his two frontal teeth, obnoxiously large and shiny that they almost reflected Riley.

"I have only arrived here a couple of hours ago, Big Teeth," Riley casually answered.

"Ah!" The rat-like person did not seem to mind. He did, however, suddenly raise both his fists in the air, causing Riley to slightly put on his guard — nothing happened to him, but the crowd of gods on the other side of the transparent gate started to dissipate as they walked to the sides one by one; their eyes, still curiously fixated at Riley,

"This here place is the Guiding Light city. Has the Book Keeper already oriented you about the geography of the entire domain?"

"No. I am afraid he did not get the chance to," Riley shook his head.

"Figures," the rat-like person nodded, "The last god that arrived before you was around five thousand years ago, although it is not a long time, the Book Keeper probably just fell asleep while on the job."

"Hm," Riley shrugged as he started to step forward. As soon as he did so, however, the rat-like person started waving his hand and screaming.

"Wait! Wait!" The rat-like person said, "To enter this city, you must first prove yourself by opening the gates!"

"Yes… I was about to do that, Big Teeth," Riley blinked a couple of times as he once again casually stepped forward.

"No! No! You don't understand," Big Teeth waved his hands, "You are not supposed to be here, only gods that have sufficient power prowess could open this here gates — you do not seem that strong, no offense. But you are beautiful, perhaps you belong to the other city?"

"Am I supposed to just push this open?" Riley did not heed Big Teeth's words as he just planted one of his palms on the transparent gate.

"Well, you already put your hand on it, you might as well try," Big Teeth could really only let out a sigh as he looked at the other gods who were watching from the side. None of them were jeering, laughing, or whispering — they all were just curious about Riley since it had been quite a bit since they last saw a new god. As for Big Teeth, he did not move from his spot, seemingly confident that Riley would not be able to move the gate.

Riley started observing the gate again, and his initial thoughts were true. The transparent gate was not really made of glass, but something else entirely — a material he had never truly seen before even on the other planets, much like the weird grass. And so, thinking about the weird grass, Riley did not really hesitate to put strength on his arms and legs.

After all, if a single grass was already that hard to pull, the gate in front of him should prove to be even more difficult to budge. Riley started taking in a deep breath as he even used his telekinetic abilities to support himself.

And with a small, "Ho." A ripple blasted on the surface of the gate. And it seemed like nothing happened for the first couple of milliseconds. But then, all of a sudden, the door just swung open at a speed that would be impossible for a normal creature to even see.

"!!!" A crying howl of wind wailed in the air, followed by a deafening thunder as the transparent gate bounced from the walls and back toward Riley. Riley, however, did not move from his spot; his palm still stretched forward and casually catching the gate — and with it now not offering any form of resistance, he just softly pushed it forward as he stepped into the city.

"..." Riley then started looking for Big Teeth through the crowd… only to see his entire body planted on the inner walls of the city; twitching like a squashed rat,

"Are you alright, Big Teeth?" Riley blinked a couple of times as his head tilted to the side. He did not really need to wait for his answer, however, as Big Teeth's body very slowly slid from the crevice he created on the wall,

"..."

Riley looked at the crowd of gods as Big Teeth's body continued to slide down; all of them, however, were just staring at Big Teeth with blank expressions on their faces. Riley was somewhat alarmed since he might have accidentally killed someone on his first day — but when he remembered there weren't any rules here, he let out a sigh of relief.

He soon found that his worries were unfounded, however, as Big Teeth's body just started convulsing and rising up from the marbled ground.

"Ah!" And as soon as he fully recovered, he pointed his finger at Riley, "You should have told me you were our kind of god."

"I… do not really know what kind of god I am, Big Teeth," Riley shrugged as Big Teeth approached him.

"That will change," Big Teeth also just casually shrugged, as if he wasn't just squashed just moments ago, "Since you have called me Big Teeth, then you can just continue calling me that — I am the Guiding Lights' Gate Keeper. I don't really have authority, so you just treat me like everybody else here."

"Hm…" Riley nodded as he once again started looking around; the gods watching him, still seemingly curious as their heads all lifted up upon meeting eyes with Riley — everyone seemed to be waiting to talk to him, "...What exactly do I need to do here?"

"Everything and nothing," Big Teeth said as he started pushing the gate; slightly struggling to do so, "But my advice, you should attend Grea's teachings."

"Grea? Is she some sort of lecturer in this place, Big Teeth?"

"Sort of. We do not really have titles other than our names, but—wait, do you really not know Grea? Why… am I smelling her from you?" And all of a sudden, Big Teeth's rat-like nose started to move uncontrollably as he approached Riley; placing his face near his… crotch and beside the area, "What's in this pocket here!?"

"Oh…" Riley quickly grabbed the blade of grass he plucked earlier outside from his pocket.

"!!!" And as soon as he did so, Big Teeth and the other gods immediately let out a collective gasp.

"It's…

...just grass."