Chapter 64
“Whoa, it’s the real [Walking Alone for Ten Thousand Miles]! I’ve only ever seen him in the papers before.”
“Yeah, it’s really him. And that little girl—that’s [Lucky Star], right?”
“Why didn’t [Arrival of the God of Wealth] show up? I’m such a fan.”
“Lilus and Boss Cynthia don’t really look alike, huh.”
…
Lilus’ eyelids twitched, and he shot a glare at the two players hiding behind Cynthia.
Too noisy! They were making such a racket he couldn’t even hear his sister.
Those two were players who’d drawn bad lots at the start, picked the wrong faction, then stumbled into Cynthia, who dragged them along as errand boys.
Fortunately, the pair had good self-awareness—once they realized how weak they were, they obediently fetched tea, carried water, and never dared disobey orders. Even if Cynthia sent them on dangerous jobs, they accepted it gladly.
Better to be ordered around by a boss than thrown out as cannon fodder.
At least, from all the intel they had, there was no record of [Eye of Rebirth] casually butchering players.
That was good enough!
But even they hadn’t expected that, as more and more players of their faction gathered, they’d be unable to contain their excitement.
My god—this was an all-star lineup.
These were players they’d only ever seen in newspapers and magazines!
Lilus himself had been groomed since childhood, his name widely known. He couldn’t understand their shock. But for those two ordinary players, it was like queueing into a random game only to end up in the world champion squad—every teammate a legend they thought untouchable. No wonder they lost composure.
After Lilus’ glare, the two quickly shut their mouths, only exchanging looks to share their astonishment.
Thank god they’d drawn the opposition faction at the start.
If they’d ended up on the Pro-God faction, they really would’ve needed to start writing their wills.
“The Pro-God faction has 21 players. I’ve eliminated about five, so 16 remain.” Cynthia called a brief meeting the moment she reunited with Lilus and the others.
Aside from Messiah and Lu Chuan, everyone else had assembled.
Given the pace, it was an impressive feat.
“I caught one player with Lilus, but let him go. He’d already been abandoned by the Pro-God faction, and they’ll never trust him again, worried we left something on him. So, let’s count them as 15.” Shen Li said.
Lilus quickly added, “I was the one who found him, I caught him, Shen Li only came to help me.”
“I also went to see Messiah. He said that among the paladins guarding him, two of them are probably players.” Edith supplemented as well. “I’m gradually being trusted by the knight order now, I’ll try to confirm their identities soon.”
“Mhm, you’re mainly in charge of keeping contact with Messiah.” Cynthia nodded. “How’s his mental state? I’m worried he’ll be too entangled by the god’s influence, and in the later stages of the dungeon we may not be able to count him as a fighting force. The Pro-God faction players aren’t worth worrying about—the real problem is the gods. There are too many in this dungeon. We have to prepare for the worst.”
“Messiah looks fine on the surface, but I can tell his Sanity has dropped a lot.” Edith sighed. “Messiah used to be gentle and optimistic, but now all I can sense from him is pessimism. I estimate his Sanity has already fallen below 80.”
“Below 80 still isn’t too bad, right?” Lilus suddenly said.
“I also think below 80 is pretty good.” Shen Li said sincerely. He firmly believed Lu Chuan’s Sanity was definitely nowhere near 80.
Huh?
A Sanity value below 80 was, of course, very dangerous.
Edith was just about to speak when Starry Shasha cut her off.
“Ahem.” Starry Shasha coughed. “Edith, let’s not get into that. Sanity doesn’t represent everything.”
After all, she had cleared dungeons together with Edith before. She had even forgotten to mention that in their past team, it was up to the two of them to drag the team’s Sanity average back up. She decided she’d explain later in private—no rush now.
“Brother Lu said he’s too tied up with church matters to leave, so if we need him to do something, just say it directly. He won’t come here to meet us, but we can go find him.” Starry Shasha dutifully relayed Lu Chuan’s words. “Right now, Brother Lu is decked out in gold and silver—honestly, even the pope of the Omniscient Church probably isn’t as loaded as he is.”
“He’s basically taken control of the Omniscient Church. He really can’t just walk away. Unlike Messiah, he’ll be more useful later on.” Cynthia nodded. “For now, our priorities are two things. First, we must clarify what kind of resurrection is happening with the gods in this dungeon. If a god descends into an avatar and walks the earth, that’s one form of revival. Gods of that type, we can consider resisting head-on. But if their true bodies descend, just meeting their gaze will burn away vast amounts of our Sanity. Conservatively, it’ll at least be avatars descending—so the best way is to shatter their rituals before they come.”
Fortunately, whether avatar or true body, the descent of a god always required a large-scale ritual or ceremony. Some even demanded strict offerings. If they could completely destroy these beforehand, it would greatly weaken the enemy’s strength and ensure their survival rate through the dungeon. But if things dragged on until the true body descended, their only option might be to kill Messiah to end the dungeon.
And as Messiah himself said—even if they had to kill him, it couldn’t be done by ordinary means. Only weapons specifically made to slay gods would work.
“Second, we need to figure out how many gods are actually capable of reviving in this dungeon.” Cynthia looked at everyone solemnly. “For example, Lu Chuan’s Omniscient Church, and the current Church of Light. The dungeon prompt never said which god, exactly. What if the god revival and the divine marriage refer to two different gods?”
“N-no way, two gods?” The two “lucky draw” players who’d been background extras until now finally voiced their doubts. “One god is already a death sentence. Two? How are we supposed to play then?”
“Why not?” Cynthia smiled. “With the players we have here, even in a S-Level dungeon, there’d hardly be many others of this level. If the game system wanted to give us more of a challenge, it wouldn’t be impossible. Besides, in Master Ranking filler dungeons, any kind of twist could happen. Otherwise, the rankings wouldn’t still have so few names after all this time.”
“Cynthia is right.” Shen Li stayed silent a moment, then agreed. “These are issues we really do need to think carefully about. Since you’ve raised the question, do you also have a proposed solution?”
“First, Edith, you and Starry Shasha stick with Messiah. You two have cooperated before and have some tacit understanding, and Shasha, you can also contact Lu Chuan. That way, Messiah and Lu Chuan can communicate more easily. In this dungeon, each of them has a god backing them. Neither of them can afford to fall.”
“Understood.” Edith and Starry Shasha replied in unison.
“Second, Lilus, you and Shen Li pair up. The two of you will investigate the pathways of god resurrection. You must find out every possible site and ritual in this world that could be used for divine descent. The dungeon won’t withhold the information—it must be hidden in the setting. You need to uncover it. As for manpower and resources, coordinate with Edith and Shasha. Messiah and Lu Chuan should be able to dispatch followers to help cover the gaps.”
Shen Li and Lilus both nodded. This division of labor made sense.
“Finally, I’ll take the remaining two players and infiltrate the Church of Light. From what we know, the god behind Messiah likely devoured the God of Light to complete its resurrection. But gods aren’t so easy to kill. We’ll try to get in contact with the pope of the Church of Light and push them to attempt reviving the God of Light. If the Light God revives, and two gods end up clashing, it may buy us breathing space.” Cynthia’s logic was razor sharp, and as her orders were issued, everyone began to feel the dungeon wasn’t quite as hopeless as before.
Sometimes, a dungeon wasn’t hard because the NPCs were overwhelming, nor because the plot was incomprehensible, but simply because no clear-headed player was around to untangle the mess.
The unknown was the most frightening thing.
But once things became known, even if gods or demons blocked their path, humans could muster the courage to fight them head-on.
“By the way, Mr. Shen Li.” Cynthia turned her gaze back to him. “In the end, this is your Master Ranking filler dungeon. If there’s any crucial detail I’ve missed, then the key must lie with you. Please observe yourself carefully during this time. If anything feels off, or you notice any strange signs, tell us immediately.”
“Alright.” Shen Li smiled, answering amiably. “Actually, since I entered this dungeon, I’ve been keeping a diary every day, in case I forget things or my thoughts get altered. But if it’s something beyond my control, then I can only leave it to you all to make up for it.”
Of course, Shen Li knew that he was the one truly being tested by the game system.
Even with Lu Chuan and Cynthia helping him, the system wouldn’t let him off so easily.
But speaking of which…
Shen Li glanced again at the calm Cynthia, thought of Messiah who was still locked in a mental struggle with a god, and of Lu Chuan who had turned an entire church into his private property. He couldn’t help but sigh.
Honestly, the game system wasn’t very smart.
What was the point of dragging him into the Master Ranking now?
Sooner or later, he’d be shoved off the list by Lu Chuan and Cynthia anyway.
To be born in the same era as such geniuses was an unfortunate thing.
But if those geniuses reached the point where they could change an era, then being their contemporary was a blessing.
It was said that the leaders of the five great game guilds had all once risen out of a golden age of geniuses, and that was how the guilds had been able to stay stable for nearly a hundred years.
Perhaps history was about to repeat itself.
——
After the previous bishop was killed in a scheme, Lu Chuan worked hard to rally other churches into alliances.
But unlike the previous bishop, Lu Chuan never openly formed factions. Instead, he quietly built ties under the guise of “short-term cooperation,” “inter-church exchange,” and “swapping believers.” He deliberately kept a low profile, presenting himself as timid after the last bishop’s death. He rarely ventured out, and when he did, he was always surrounded by paladins—making it hard for anyone to target him.
This approach had obvious benefits.
For example, no matter how much other churches coveted the indulgence trade, they had no way of prying it out of Lu Chuan’s hands.
Meanwhile, Lu Chuan carefully balanced relationships with these smaller churches, conducted business with the Church of Light, gradually whitewashed his own church’s reputation, and rapidly sharpened his management skills.
Oh, and he also trained up his newly recruited paladins.
Lu Chuan had money now—tons of it.
He didn’t even need to act personally. Every day he had his loyal, devoted followers pray to the God of Omniscience, begging for divine power.
And once those believers were blessed, he drafted them into his paladin corps, turning them into his shields.
As for praying personally?
Hah. Since the gods couldn’t descend in person right now anyway, all he had to do was claim he had prayed and received divine revelation. His believers wouldn’t dare contradict him, and the gods certainly wouldn’t bother to expose him either.
The only real effect was that the mark Number 9 had left on him was fading fast. At this rate, within ten days it would be completely eroded by the God of Omniscience’s power.
But even if that mark was wiped out, it wasn’t really a big problem.
Lu Chuan already had a bullet loaded in his pistol. Worst case, he’d just fire a shot at that so-called [God of Omniscience]—testing the gun’s power wasn’t a bad idea either.
“Bishop, now that we’ve grown so powerful, do we really still have to hole up in this little place?” Many in the church were puffed up with confidence, thinking they now had the strength to contend with the [Church of Light]. Some were even suggesting they prepare rituals to welcome the descent of a god.
A bunch of idle fools with nothing better to do.
Give them something to busy themselves with, and they’ll settle down.
“Of course not. My dream has never changed—to spread Father God’s glory across the world.” Lu Chuan put on a pious act. “But Father God has warned me: His ancient enemy is reviving at great speed. We must strengthen ourselves as quickly as possible and prepare to fight in His name!”
“Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll allocate another ten billion to the Paladin Order. Recruit more knights, and replace all the armor and greatswords with new ones!”
Author’s Note:
Shen Li: I feel like even if I make the ranking, I won’t last long there.
