Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 148: The Winner Takes All

“Ah—!!!”

The moment the illusion was dispelled, Billy let out a scream. He covered his eyes, and the sound of protective magic cracking could be heard from several parts of his body. Golden Sword reacted quickly, immediately dropping to the ground and tightly closing his eyes.

Mortals must not gaze upon it.

This represented the power of a false god or greater.

The body stood quietly in the center of the cave, its chest still faintly rising and falling. Instead of flesh and blood, the severed neck revealed swirling, dull matter. It appeared dead gray-black, like worms swirling in rotten brain matter.

Numerous fine, strange limbs extended from the severed area, gently floating, with dim and bright white lights at their tips, as if searching for something.

To say this was the body of a headless giant… would be less accurate than saying it was a mass of unsettling flesh dressed in human skin, forcibly disguised as a humanoid form.

A monster.

Not belonging to Tahe. A complete and utter monster.

Perhaps it was because only the body remained, but when Nol looked directly at it, he didn’t feel the discomfort he did when gazing at a Demon King or the moon. On the night in the novice village, they could only see its rough outline through the mist.

Now Nol saw clearly that what was on its body wasn’t a gauze skirt, but layers upon layers of black runes that writhed ceaselessly.

He attempted to decipher the runes, but as soon as his fingertips neared the body, countless blue-black sparks exploded. His probing was ruthlessly blocked.

Whether it was the rune seals or the bizarre “creature” in front of them, they had no hint of the system’s aura.

Nol’s heart sank.

Facing the ancient Demon King from the old world, he felt this same sense of powerlessness—a foe full of unknowns, far surpassing ordinary beings, a dangerous foreign object on the Tahe continent.

Aside from improvising, it was difficult to prepare any effective strategies.

How many were there now?

A Demon King from a destroyed world. The inexplicable four moons in the sky. The old Pope with near-false god level power. The strange headless body in the oracle cave…

Aside from Teest and himself, he had directly encountered four “false god and above” beings. The Demon King had passed, the Pope was dead, and what Nol couldn’t comprehend were only the four moons and the headless body in front of him.

He hoped the Eternal Son and the Goddess of Life were among them; otherwise, what kind of world were they really facing?

Golden Sword Billy moaned in pain. Teest, on the other hand, raised his head to look at the bizarre headless body.

“Old bag, what is this thing?” he asked the pope bluntly.

The Pope’s cloudy eyes didn’t move. “The statue of my God; His divine form embracing the world.”

It seemed the old Pope wasn’t aware of the secrets of this room. Right, the room’s illusion was meant to deceive the Pope, and he might have other bindings.

Teest curled his lips downward, deciding to ask something more practical. “Then where does your power come from?”

“My God favored my talent and bestowed me with blessings,” the old Pope murmured. “My god… Ahhhhhhhhh!!!”

He suddenly let out an indescribable weird scream, as if someone was choking his throat, or like a mechanical error in the audio. The sound wasn’t human, nor was it something any animal could produce, making one’s scalp tingle.

Teest was startled, and Nol, sensing the abnormal fluctuation, immediately cast a memory erasure spell.

With Teest’s question erased from memory, the old Pope immediately calmed down. He stood stiffly in his original position, as if nothing had happened—provided one ignored the foul-smelling black blood flowing from his nose and mouth.

“This guy’s memory was booby-trapped.” Nol retracted his hand, sweating coldly.

The old Pope’s memory trap was like a suicide pill hidden in a molar. Asking sensitive questions would trigger self-destruction, possibly dragging them down with him.

Teest stared at the old Pope warily. “Does the Eternal Church have this trick up its sleeve? This is the first I’ve seen of it.”

The principle wasn’t hard to understand, Nol thought bitterly.

A specific character involved in a specific conversation triggers a bad end, a common occurrence in games. But to manipulate someone in the real world—especially a powerful individual like the old Pope—the caster must be very powerful.

The magic fluctuation was sinisterly identical, likely the same entity behind the statue’s illusion.

The fact that someone specifically hid the old Pope’s memories and knowledge about “God”… Could it be the Eternal Son, Anstis, Himself?

“Let him ask for the oracle.” Nol clenched his teeth.

“How about we prepare a bit more?” Teest looked at the old Pope with unusual distrust.

After a full-fledged battle, both he and Nol were somewhat weakened and could hardly withstand another false god attack.

“Just asking for the oracle should be fine.” Nol bit his lip. Since they were here, they might as well see the whole thing through.

The old Pope’s body staggered to the front of the headless body, knelt down, and began chanting obscure spells. Despite Nol’s player’s proficiency in languages, he couldn’t understand what was being chanted. However, in the latter part of the prayer, the old Pope finally used ancient common tongue.

The essence of the prayer was simpler than Nol expected.

The old Pope only made one request: he asked Anstis the Eternal Son to grant a new oracle, to direct and replenish the strength of His faithful followers.

As soon as the old Pope finished speaking, the tendrils on the neck of the body froze in mid-air.

The slowly flowing black runes seemed awakened, pulling like puppet strings, causing the headless body to twitch as if being twisted in all directions by a brute force.

Numerous twisted golden characters flashed around the body, forming various strange patterns. Centered on the body, they danced wildly like a swarm of bees, spinning more and more frantically.

Finally, the golden lights gathered above the severed neck, forming a walnut-sized golden sphere.

Black runes moved along the skin of the body, surging crazily towards the sphere, wrapping it tightly. After a long half-minute wait, the runes slowly receded—the participating golden light sphere was forcibly split into two by the runes.

Most of it was wrapped by the runes, placed in front of the headless body’s neck and chest, with only a few strands of golden light visible through the cracks.

The remaining smaller part was lifted into the air and exploded above the headless body. Golden light flakes fell like snowflakes, disappearing into the dim air.

The dead old Pope smiled; his head buried even lower among the golden light flakes… It was unknown what the world looked like in his eyes at that moment.

“I have received the oracle. Would you like me to write down the content?” A few minutes later, the old Pope stood up.

“That’s it?” Teest’s voice was slightly higher, obviously disappointed by the truth.

The two gods did not appear. The entire process was like machinery in operation: posing a question, calculating the answer, providing a solution.

Beside him, Nol also frowned.

According to Painter’s statement, the Chosen Ones were originally masterless. The light orb was akin to an “oracle talent pool”, with the runes receiving instructions to manually split it, distributing it between two churches.

Mostly, the Chosen Ones were allocated to the Goddess of Life, with a smaller portion to the Eternal Son, somewhat like dividing a cake.

At face value, the simplest and most straightforward possibility—

The Goddess of Life and the Eternal Son jointly control this “headless false god”, using its power to obtain a list of Tahe’s strongest beings. Then, each god takes a portion for their own church to collect.

That is, to suppress this barely alive, headless false god, they compromised with each other and jointly guarded the headless body?

No, something was wrong. It was too complicated; the relationships between these “gods” were too entangled. Nol’s magical power wasn’t depleted, but his mental energy was nearing its limit.

[Not long ago, there were two very strong beings fighting each other, and then one became weaker…]

[I have not seen them. They are not my compatriots. I do not like them…]

The ancient Demon King’s words suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Right, that was it.

Nol grabbed Teest’s arm, his heart pounding, feeling a nauseating tightness in his chest.

[There was indeed a battle between the two gods.] Nol’s thoughts were somewhat sluggish.

“The old Demon King did say that. What about it?]

[If we go by the narratives in the sacred texts of both sides, in the battle of the two gods, the Goddess of Life gravely wounded the Eternal Son… They had no need to set aside their differences and collaborate to suppress this dying false god.]

[After all, this thing wasn’t even qualified to participate in the divine war, right?]

Teest turned his head sharply. True to his reputation as his Mad Monk, his reaction was as fast as ever.

[Assuming the ‘battle of the two gods really happened, and the Demon King didn’t participate’ as a premise.]

Nol let his thoughts flow, voicing his most instinctive speculation. [I guess, the parties in the battle of the two gods weren’t necessarily the Goddess of Life and the Eternal Son.]

[There were once two powerful gods in conflict; one gravely wounded the other. The victor dominated the loser, taking the loser’s powers for itself. What we see in front of us might just be that unlucky loser.]

Teest’s smile faded. [I guess that’s what you’re implying.]

Nol hummed in agreement inwardly.

There could be many speculations, but compared to those complex, absurd tangles, he preferred the simplest assumption.

The inexplicable four moons in the sky was the victor.

The strange, headless body was the loser.

For some reason, the victor didn’t wish to personally eliminate the Demon King. Thus, it utilized the loser’s abilities to find the top talents from the land of Tahe. Then, to some extent, it controlled the system, making players its agents.

This could explain everything most simply—Nol had always found it odd that there was no design related to oracles in his system. It turns out that this matter had nothing to do with the system from the beginning.

However, following this line of thought leads to two startling conclusions, one good and one bad.

[The good news is that the victor isn’t confident in defeating the Demon King. It’s not that strong.]

Teest seemed to be reading his thoughts. [But it’s hard to use as a reference. After all, the old Demon King didn’t give his all when fighting us.]

He even sounded somewhat wronged when mentioning this.

[The bad news…] Nol took over the conversation.

[The Goddess of Life and the Eternal Son might very well be the same god.]

…That meant all of Tahe’s native powerhouses were under its command. The dirty and tiring tasks on the ground were either done by believers and players or by the hapless headless loser in front of them.

They knew nothing about the god hidden behind the scenes—not its form and powers, not even its name.

The pitch-dark cave was eerily silent, except for Billy’s intermittent groans.

[…Well, that does explain why ‘the gods didn’t care about Eugene’s oracle being tampered with’. It’s just passing from one hand to the other.] Finally, Teest spoke up. [Let me think. It seems the evil powerhouses were sent to the Eternal, and the good ones to the Temple, the religious style also makes it easy to unify.]

[The reason for Painter’s situation… ‘Prophecy’ is not its own power. It can’t fully interpret it, right?]

The so-called “oracle prophecies” were merely “fate predictions” for others’ lives. The victor tossing them onto a red and black roulette was just a part of their fate.

…That made sense.

But if so, the references to “god” and “false god” in the prophecies…

“This world has not yet seen the birth of a true god.” A peculiar voice suddenly spoke up. “I presume you’re troubled by this.”

At some point, Kando, who had been sitting on the staff, opened its eyes. It looked at the tightly bound headless body with a particularly complex gaze—so complex that Nol couldn’t interpret it at first.

“There has not yet been the birth of a true god? What do you mean?” Teest raised his eyebrows, leaning in close to Kando, blocking its view.

Faced with the innocent looking “Teesti”, the candle’s gaze was purely disdainful.

“Didn’t I say it before? The system is absolute. The current ‘God’ has to bow before it… How could a true god be so useless!”

Kando muttered.

“From that guy who has been controlling Tahe all along, to you two useless ones, to the idiot without a head, and the dead goat brain… False gods—all of them.”

“You’ve been hiding this from me all this time?” Nol gritted his teeth. “You think I’d be scared by this?”

Kando looked at Nol, its disdain gradually fading, replaced again by that complex emotion.

“Not just that. It has known about your existence all along. Every second you’ve stepped on this land, it has been looking for you.”

It sighed. “That guy might use the goat brain and the headless one, might domesticate your cunning knight… but it will absolutely, absolutely not let you go, Nol.”

Teest and Nol were both stunned.

Hearing the word “domesticate”, Teest’s face tensed for a moment. Nol stared dead straight at the candle’s single eye, waiting for its next words.

“Nol, you’ve always forgotten to ask me a very important question. You’re always curious about the gods, but never about the mystery right in front of you—what exactly is the ‘system’.”

“Now I can tell you.”

What is the system?

At moments, Nol indeed had doubts. But this world was so mysterious, so he followed the truth of the world, focusing his investigation on “gods” and the Demon King that “shouldn’t exist”.

To him, the system was too familiar.

The system had always existed—the system was supposed to exist. It became like a drop of dew sliding off a lotus leaf, a minor link to other questions.

“I can control the system to some extent, and the so-called ‘God’ seems to be able to do so as well,” Nol said softly. “Is it because of this that it won’t let me go?”

“Haha!” Kando chuckled dryly. “What do you think they are fighting for in the battle between the two gods and the Demon King’s subjugation?”

“In ‘God’ terms, the ‘system’ you speak of is the supreme authority of this world.”

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The author has something to say:

There are still many mysteries, gradually wrapping up. Fighting monsters all along the way—

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