Chapter 1: The Dying Evil God and the Global Livestream Incident
"Mortal, in this endless Void Realm, only the abyss is the eternal destination..."
"Tremble, fear, and offer up your Souls..."
Inside a massive, dark, and dilapidated temple riddled with drafts, a low and majestic voice echoed. This voice seemed to come from the primordial chaos, carrying a Soul-shaking pressure enough to make any living being who stepped here kneel and beg for mercy.
However.
Li Wei, sitting on that ten-meter-high obsidian throne, was currently clutching his stomach with a look of utter despair. His eyes, which shimmered with a purple-gold divine light, were filled with weakness.
"...I can't do this anymore, I can't keep making this up."
"I'm so hungry. If I don't eat something soon, I might become the first Evil God in history to starve to death."
Li Wei sighed, and that suffocating "Divine Might" from a moment ago instantly dissipated like a deflated balloon.
Three days ago, he was still a senior lead planner at a well-known game company on Earth. To keep up with a project schedule, he worked 48 hours straight until his vision went dark and he died suddenly at his workstation.
When he opened his eyes again, he had become a soon-to-fall... Evil God in this otherworldly place called the "Land of the Forsaken Gods."
To be precise, he was a destitute Evil God whose max-level account had been wiped, gear all looted, and guild base (the temple) utterly trashed.
There was no "ding" of a System notification, nor any beginner's gift pack. Li Wei could only sense the withered "Godhead" inside his body letting out a wail as it neared the point of shattering.
"To survive, I must replenish Power Of Faith. But in this godforsaken place, where am I going to find believers?"
Li Wei closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into that damaged Godhead.
As a planner who had dealt with code and logic his entire previous life, he didn't pray blindly like a native. Instead, he quickly calmed down and began to analyze the Godhead as if he were parsing code.
"Authorities: [Deception], [Mental Link], [Illusion Manifestation]..." Li Wei muttered to himself. "They're all auxiliary skills geared toward mind control. No wonder he was beaten to death by the righteous gods."
Suddenly, in the deepest part of the Godhead, he caught a flicker of a strange fluctuation.
It was an extremely faint "line" that crossed dimensional boundaries.
"This is..." Li Wei's heart jolted.
He remembered. Three days ago, his Soul had followed this invisible trajectory to undergo Transmigration from Earth. This trajectory was like the wake left by a ship in the deep sea; although it was slowly dissipating, it still existed!
A crazy plan formed in his mind.
"Since my Soul could follow this path here, can I use the power of the Godhead to follow this path... and pull 'them' over?"
"The fourth calamity... players!"
As long as he could summon Earth players and make them think this was a holographic game, then players killing monsters, exploring, or even just producing emotional fluctuations could be converted into a steady stream of Power Of Faith!
"This isn't just self-preservation; this is a dimensional strike!"
The purple-gold light in Li Wei's eyes flared. But he knew very well that the current Godhead was dry; he needed a little bit of "startup capital" to activate that cross-realm link.
Just then.
*Crack.*
A very faint snap came from the empty entrance of the temple. It was the sound of a bare foot crushing a withered bone.
Li Wei's expression changed instantly.
Someone! Living!
Enduring the dizziness from hunger, he quickly adjusted his sitting posture. Crossing his left leg over his right and resting his chin on one hand, he gathered the last trace of Divine Power in his body around him, barely condensing a layer of black mist that looked deep and terrifying but was actually easily punctured.
He had to fake it! A god can die, but his prestige must not drop!
At the entrance, a petite figure was sneakily peeking out with half a head.
It was a girl who looked to be about 1.5 or 1.6 meters tall. She had messy flaxen short hair, and a pair of fluffy cat ears on top of her head were twitching alertly. She wore a tattered robe that was clearly stripped from a dead person, her feet were bare, and a thin tail was nervously tucked between her legs.
A cat-girl?
Li Wei's eyes lit up. Although this little thing looked filthy, in the eyes of an Evil God, this was a walking "power bank"!
Mia was currently scared to death. As a wandering member of the Spirit Cat Tribe, she had been hungry for three days. Legend said this temple was a Forbidden Land, but she thought that since it was a temple, maybe there would be offerings?
She sniffed. There was no scent of food, only a Soul-shaking pressure.
"Meow..." Mia instinctively wanted to run.
"Since you have come, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
A low, magnetic voice that seemed to explode directly in her mind suddenly appeared.
"Meow!!!"
Mia was so startled she jumped three feet high, her tail instantly puffing up like a feather duster. She turned her head stiffly, looking at the dispersing black mist deep in the hall.
In the black mist, a pair of purple-gold eyes looked down at her coldly.
That was a god! And the kind of Evil God who looked like he ate children without spitting out the bones!
With a "thud," Mia knelt on the ground, her two dirty little hands clutching her head as she curled into a ball: "Don't, don't eat me! Miadoesn't taste good! I haven't bathed in days! I'm all skin and bones! Waaaah..."
Looking at the shivering little thing below, Li Wei keenly felt a trickle of mental energy called "fear" flowing into his Godhead like a small stream.
Comfortable.
Though it wasn't much, this was a source of living water.
"I do not consume the flesh of Mortals." Li Wei lowered his voice, continuing to maintain his profound persona while also trying to soothe this overly frightened "power bank." "Little one, you have trespassed into my divine domain. What do you seek?"
Hearing that he wouldn't eat her, Mia's courage grew a tiny bit. She pitifully rubbed her flat stomach and looked up, revealing a pair of watery, heterochromatic eyes: "I... I'm looking for food... I'm hungry..."
Li Wei smiled bitterly in his heart: What a coincidence, I'm hungry too.
But he couldn't show weakness. For a long-term meal ticket, he had to invest.
"Our meeting is fated."
Li Wei reached out a pale, slender finger and pointed into the air. He channeled the small amount of "fear energy" he had just absorbed and activated a small trick of [Material Manifestation].
Buzz!
A bag of dried fish emitting a strong, salty, fishy smell (the scent of the deep sea as Li Wei imagined it) appeared out of thin air in front of Mia.
In that instant, for a cat-girl who was starving crazy, this was a miracle!
Mia's ears instantly stood straight up. She could no longer care about her fear; she pounced like a streak of gray lightning, grabbed the dried fish, and stuffed it into her mouth.
"Mmph mmph! Delicious! Meow! So delicious!"
Li Wei watched the wolfing cat-girl and felt the energy fluctuation within the Godhead shift from "fear" to "fanatical worship."
The energy bar began to increase. Although it was only a little, it was enough!
"Very good."
Li Wei stood up abruptly, his black robes fluttering. A fanatical light flashed in his eyes.
"The energy is here. Link... open!"
He closed his eyes and poured all of that precious Divine Power into the Soul link. Following that trajectory, he sent out the first signal toward Earth... Los Angeles, Microsoft Theater.
The annual gaming event—the TGA Awards—was being broadcast live globally. The host was preparing to announce the much-anticipated sentence: "The Game of the Year goes to..."
Suddenly.
The big screen at the venue, as well as the hundreds of millions of computer and mobile screens worldwide watching the livestream, all "glitched" for a moment.
All sound vanished.
The image turned into a dead, pitch-black silence.
Before the audience could react and wonder if the internet had cut out, a line of crimson countdown digits, still dripping with blood and accompanied by ancient and eerie whispers, occupied the screen without warning:
[10]
[9]
This bizarre scene caused an uproar in the audience, and the livestream's comment section instantly exploded.
But below the countdown, a pitch-black, deep, vortex-like link entrance flashed by, accompanied by a line of highly provocative text:
[land of the forsaken gods: redemption]
[This is a real adventure. Those with slow hands will miss the new world.]
In the other world, inside the temple.
Li Wei opened his eyes, a mischievous smirk curling his lips. As a game planner, he understood the weight of the TGA all too well.
"Only ten seconds. Let me see how many single dogs with incredible hand speed can seize this damn fate."