A week later, the overlords had finished the Outerverse fleet, and they were ready to leave. Laia grabbed her graduation diploma, stuffed it in her bag, and packed a dozen cheese sandwiches for the road. "Alright, let's go! I can't wait to see those new refugees!"
Kane nodded, grinning, opening the huge, glowing Outerverse portal. "Don't worry! We'll clear all those Outerverse monsters before you even finish your sandwich!"
They stepped through the portal, and arrived in the Outerverse, a huge, glowing place, with stars of every color, and the entire Outerverse army waiting there on the border.
Laia blinked, staring at them. Wow, that was a lot of people. She was ready for a big fight, to get that huge bonus she'd been promised.
But before the overlords could even order the starships to open fire, all the Outerverse gods bowed deeply, yelling in unison. "LONG LIVE THE OVERGOD! WE SURRENDER! WE WANT TO JOIN YOU!"
Laia froze.
Wait.
They surrendered? Before we even fought?
Wow. That was even faster than all the others!
She nodded, grinning so wide her cheeks hurt. "Sure! Welcome to the realm!" The Outerverse gods let out a huge sigh of relief. They'd heard the stories spreading across everything, they didn't want to fight her. They just wanted to join, to be safe under her protection.
Then, the leader of the Outerverse, the Outer God, the creator of the whole place, stepped out, bowing so deep his head touched the ground. "Laia Hayes. I have heard of your deeds. You cleared the Chaos Sea, defeated the Void Emperor, united the whole multiverse. I want to join you. I will pay you half of all the resources of this Outerverse, every year, as tax. Just let me join your realm. I don't want to be on the wrong side of you."
Laia's eyes went so wide they almost popped out. Half of all the resources? Every year? That was so much money! She nodded immediately. "Sure! That sounds great! Welcome!"
The overlords stared, then perked up, their eyes going bright. "Wait, what about those Outerverse monsters? The ones that have been attacking your border for millions of years? We can go clear them! Bring all the refugees there! Protect the Overgod forever!"
The Outer God nodded, grinning. "Oh right! They're over there! We've been trying to clear them for millions of years! If you can do that, that would be amazing!"
The overlords cheered, and headed off to clear the monsters, already charging toward the edge of the Outerverse, their starships following them.
Laia sat down on a floating rock, eating her cheese sandwich, staring at her realm panel. It was pinging nonstop, new population, new land, new tax, the numbers jumping so fast she could barely read them. She grinned, doing the math in her head. More money. More everything.
Just then, a little servant ran over, holding a huge tray of cheese sandwiches. "Miss Hayes! We heard you like cheese sandwiches! We made a whole bunch! The whole Outerverse is making them now! They're selling so well! The tax from the cheese sandwich industry alone is already a billion gold a month!"
Laia blinked.
Wait.
Her favorite food, was making her a billion gold a month?
Wow. That was the best thing ever. She'd never thought her favorite snack could make her so much money.
She was just daydreaming about that, when the overlords teleported back in, grinning, covered in a little Outerverse dust. "We're back! Cleared the monsters! Brought 20 billion more refugees! They all want to join, said they heard we have the best god around!"
Laia's eyes went wide. 20 billion more? That meant 20 billion more people paying tax every month!
Just then, her comms pinged. It was the Outer God. "Hey, Laia? I just heard from the Higher Gods, there's the Omniverse outside the Outerverse! They have even more refugees! And more monsters! If you go there, you can get even more tax! Even more money!"
Laia blinked, then grinned.
More refugees? More tax?
She'd been planning to retire after this one, finally eat cheese sandwiches all day. But... that was a lot of money.
She nodded. "Sure! We can do that! Just one more mission!"
The overlords cheered, already preparing the new Omniverse portal, their starships getting even bigger.
Laia stared at her cheese sandwich, then at her diploma, then at her bank account, which was now so big she couldn't even read all the zeros.
She'd started this, just wanting enough money to pay her academy tuition, so she could stop scrubbing mugs at the tavern.
Now she was gonna be the god of the entire Omniverse.
And she was gonna be so, so rich.