"What? What is this madman talking about?"

  The members' eyes were contemptuous and amused. Amused by the clown in front of them, contemptuous of a madman who was pretending to be God in this world where God had abandoned them.

  Glenn continued to smile at the group in front of him.

  "Well... Whether you believe me or not, I am. I'm what? You're going to cry because I abandoned you for so long. Why would I do that to a species that destroyed my creation, eh? You tell me."

  The crazed look on Glenn's face made the humans in front of him shiver; it had been so long since he'd had the opportunity to enjoy himself in any way. So he waited patiently for some humans to surface.

  The man in the middle, the leader, looked at Glenn incredulously, then frowned.

  "How do you intend to prove your words?"

  Glenn lingered for a second before toning down his smile so that it appeared shy. Then he scratched the back of his head.

  "Well, I'm pretty tired since I put the earth back in its optimal state, so..."

  A rather high-pitched voice cut Glenn off.

  "That's it! I knew it—the man was lying! So tell us, how have you survived all this time here?"

  The other cohort members laughed as if they'd had some epiphany. Only the leader seemed to remain lucid, calm, and cautious.

  'Humph! There's at least one useful one here!'

  Glenn remained calm in the face of the men's and women's obvious mockery. Instead, he smiled broadly and turned around. Ignoring the even louder mockery behind him, he turned further back and spread his arms.

  "You! The one in the middle! What's your name?"

  The leader in the middle, who had been keeping an eye on Glenn and wearing a confused look at the self-proclaimed god, However, he remained wary of Glenn, unlike the others.

  "Er, Gregory." The man answered without waiting, trying to understand what the false god was doing.

  Glenn, who was already smiling widely, intensified his smile. Spreading his arms even wider, he stared at the leader of the cohort.

  "So, Gregory, is your weapon functional?"

  Gregory glanced at his weapon before nodding slowly, not understanding the false god's intentions. He had many questions on his mind: who was he really? Where did he come from? Perhaps there was another human civilization somewhere.

  As Gregory asked himself even more questions, Glenn pointed to the weapon.

  "Then use it."

  Gregory looked at Glenn with confusion. The others behind him had stopped their mocking to listen to what the two were saying and were looking at Glenn with as much confusion as their leader.

  Glenn watched them for a second before speaking once more.

  "What? Have I not made myself clear? I said, "Shoot me. Shoot me."

  The members of the cohort opened their eyes wide before bursting out laughing. One of them in particular, the one who had first laughed at Glenn's behaviour, was laughing particularly hard.

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  Glenn watched him for a moment, and for the first time, he decided to look closely at him. He was tall but thin, very thin; he didn't seem to have the physique to carry the heavy weapon behind his back.

  'Well, let's not judge too quickly; I look rather puny myself, haha'.

  Glenn watched him for a few seconds longer before laughing with them.

  Soon enough, they all stopped laughing except Glenn, who continued to laugh alone. The puny man gave him a disdainful look before swearing.

  "You fool! Not only do you pretend to be gods, but you demand to be shot at, you lunatic!"

  Glenn sighed before replying calmly.

  "Isn't that what it's like to be a human, crazy?"

  Gregory, who hadn't spoken for some time, spoke up.

  "A human? Didn't you say you were a god?"

  The cohort behind him reacted to the remark, laughing at the mistake the madman had made.

  "What's the difference? As a god, I am what I create, and you humans are mad; even in the most terrible moments, you've found a way to kill each other; you're all just fools attracted by a strange thirst for power, which I don't understand."

  Glenn smiled once more.

  "So, crazy humans, shoot me; that'll be more than enough evidence to prove my legitimacy, won't it?"

  Gregory, who was still hesitating, was urged on by his comrades, who were only too eager to unmask the false god.

  "Shoot him in the leg! We can still save him afterwards!"

  Gregory drew his weapon and pointed it at Glenn's leg, which was not resisting. A long second passed, then a second, then a third, and after about ten seconds, a powerful gunshot echoed across the surface of the desert planet.

  Glenn was hit in the leg, and, as usual, the wound healed instantly, but not without pain. However, he resisted, wanting to get on with his game.

  "What?!"

  All the members of the cohort were in shock; the wound had completely disappeared. Glenn opened his mouth to give an epic retort and make the people in front of him understand that he was God—a lie, of course. However, he was quickly cut off by the sound of another gunshot.

  This time it was the puny man who had fired right into Glenn's heart. His eyes were distraught, and his skin was pale and sweaty. Glenn didn't really understand this radical change in his behaviour. Instead, he felt an enormous pain in his chest.

  As he tried as hard as he could to resist the pain, a brilliant smile appeared on his face.

  "Well, I'll be damned! It's not really cool to shoot without warning like that!"

  As the pain quickly faded, the man fired again, this time in the head.

  'Aargh!'

  For Glenn, the pain was at least ten times greater than the previous shot, yet he managed to hide it under a calm, smiling facial expression.

  As quickly as ever, the pain was gone. Glenn quickly approached the man who had shot him; on his way, he met resistance from the whole team. Receiving dozens of shots every second while continually regenerating, he came to within a meter of the pale man.

  "Come with me."

  Everyone had stopped shooting at his words; they had all understood one thing.

  They couldn't kill him.

  Despite that, he didn't seem hostile towards them, so they decided to follow him on Gregory's orders and without question from anyone. With great caution, however,

  After about two hours of walking, they came to the entrance of a very large cavern.

  As they entered, they could see a structure resembling a small house. But without having time to marvel at it, they noticed that every nook and cranny of the cavern—the floor, walls, and ceiling—were streaked with millions of tiny stripes.

  One of the members of the cohort was a woman with silky black hair. raised her finger to one of the walls before asking.

  "What's that?"

  Glenn followed the direction of the finger and realized what the woman was talking about. "Smile gently, he replied.

  "Oh, this? It's the number of days since humanity disappeared under the bunkers. Why?"

  Her answer shocked the cohort, and they stopped.

  "Days? All of them? How many years has it been?"

  Glenn thought for a second before answering honestly.

  "Exactly 688,557 years ago."

  A dead silence pervaded the cavern, with all the members of the cohort too shocked to react. After a moment, Gregory, the supposed group leader, spoke up.

  "600,000 years; have you been waiting that long?"

  Glenn reduced his smile for a moment, and Gregory suddenly understood the significance of this movement and knelt on the floor.

  "I beg your pardon for doubting you, O God!"

  Glenn looked at him in confusion. His plan seemed to have worked better than expected. But without showing his confusion, he smiled.

  "Haha! Don't worry, it's normal; I created you after all, didn't I? Come on in!"

  At his words, everyone entered the small house built in the middle of the cave.

  When everyone had disappeared inside, Glenn took a serious look at the back of the cavern. In one corner, there was a stone slab with a whole bunch of complex mathematical formulas written on it.

  Above it was a kind of engraving in the rock: a huge ball of fire.

  Glenn looked at the slab for a few seconds.

  'There's not much time left; I'll have to hurry.'

  It wouldn't be long before he wouldn't be able to enjoy himself for an indefinite time; this was his last chance to lead an exciting life here.