Inside the church.
Looking at Malou collapsed on the ground, Lynn finally let out a long sigh of relief and casually wiped the nonexistent cold sweat from his forehead.
“Fortunately, I saved my life—and that saved me another 10 Faith Points!”
Since Malou hadn’t died, Lynn decided to make the most of the situation and turn this thrilling “narrow escape from death” into motivation for the players to keep exploring.
He immediately opened the system console and sent a special prompt exclusively to Malou, who was still foolishly celebrating on the ground.
Ding!
A system notification shimmering with a dark-blue glow instantly appeared in Malou’s field of vision.
[Hidden Explorer Achievement Unlocked!]
[You encountered the Lantern Nightmare’s pursuit in the dead of night and successfully survived!]
[Achievement Title Obtained: Dark Night Survivor.]
[Core Gameplay Information Unlocked:]
[In the world of Awakening of the Ancient Gods, there are numerous spiritual anomalies that are immune to physical damage.]
[Please work hard to level up, complete quests, increase territory prosperity, and unlock more skills for the Ash Apostle to deal with monsters possessing special attributes.]
[Friendly Reminder: Your sanity has been severely contaminated.
Please log off and rest immediately.
The system will perform a deep soul repair for you.]
After reading the notification, Malou froze for a moment.
Then he suddenly jumped to his feet!
“Holy shit!
A hidden achievement!”
“And gameplay information!
So this class actually has corresponding combat skills!”
Malou was so excited that his hands trembled.
This was exclusive, first-hand, top-secret intelligence for the entire server!
“Hahaha!
I really am the Child of Destiny!”
Malou laughed wildly as he opened the system panel and impatiently clicked [Exit Game].
He wanted to log off immediately and head to their “High-Player Top-Secret Combat Conference Room” to show off!
Swish!
A flash of white light passed over him, and Malou instantly turned into ashes and disappeared.
With Malou’s departure, the blue barrier that had been expanding outward slowly receded like a tide.
It shrank back to its original size, just large enough to cover the entire dilapidated church and the small wooden house attached to its outer wall.
Inside the wooden house, Sister Sivier was fast asleep beneath a rough burlap blanket.
She knew nothing about the life-or-death struggle that had taken place outside the barrier.
A faint smile lingered at the corners of her lips as she dreamed, seemingly dreaming of the magnificent spectacle of the gods’ revival.
But Lynn, sitting solemnly upon the altar, had no intention of sleeping yet.
“Hoo…
Tonight’s operation may have saved me a resurrection fee, but it also served as a warning.”
Looking at the empty church, Lynn pondered silently.
Although the five players were currently full of enthusiasm, fearless of death, and bold enough to fight monsters head-on, they were ultimately still only Tier 0.
They couldn’t even truly be considered Ash Apostles yet.
Therefore, from the players’ perspective, the current Awakening of the Ancient Gods was actually more like a hardcore wilderness survival game.
They relied on physical laws and handmade tools to fight monsters directly.
Against something like the physically immune Lantern Nightmare they had encountered tonight, the players had absolutely no countermeasures.
They could only run for their lives—or wait to die.
“Only after they slowly grind monsters for experience and level up will they gradually be able to mobilize more Ash Divine Power and unlock various skills.”
“Only then will they truly experience the supernatural power of becoming believers of a god.”
However, Lynn’s brow soon furrowed.
Even if Ash Apostles could learn skills as they leveled up, the class itself was essentially closer to an “Elemental Mage” in a traditional MMORPG.
And what was the core appeal of an online game?
Diverse class combinations!
Without the Tank-Healer-DPS system, without assassins or archers, and relying entirely on a group of Ash Apostles to bombard monsters, the players would inevitably be helpless whenever they encountered enemies with special mechanics.
As for how to unlock new classes for the players, Lynn had already developed an extremely bold—and perhaps crazy—idea after examining the surviving memories of the original god.
In this world, a god’s authority was not immutable.
Godheads could be devoured and fused!
Lynn was currently the Lord of Ashes.
If he could find another dying wild god somewhere on the fringes of the world—for example, a dying god known as the Lord of Forests—and devour its remaining godhead before it completely dissipated…
Then Lynn could evolve into the Lord of Forests and Ashes!
As long as his authority expanded, the players who believed in him would gain a new class option in the class-change system:
[Forest Apostle]!
They would gain the ability to manipulate plants, heal others, and wield the power of nature.
Furthermore, if he devoured a god who governed metal, the players could potentially change classes into indestructible, heavily armored knights who specialized in defense.
“As long as I devour enough godheads, the class system of these fourth calamities will become larger and more comprehensive.”
A trace of ambition flashed in Lynn’s eyes.
But soon, that light faded.
Lynn glanced at the pitiful Faith Point balance displayed in his system backend and gave a helpless, bitter laugh.
“Forget devouring other gods.
Right now, it would be a blessing if I don’t get devoured by another god first!”
“For now, I’ll just have these players honestly grind in the wilderness and earn resurrection coins for me.”
The twists and turns of the night, combined with the strain of forcibly maintaining the barrier, had left Lynn deeply exhausted.
He slowly closed his eyes.
The deep-blue divine light within the stone statue gradually faded.
The ancient church once again sank into absolute darkness and silence.
Gods needed sleep, too.
…
Blue Star, 2:30 AM.
Inside the boys’ dormitory, Lu Ziye lay sprawled across his bed, limbs spread wide as he snored thunderously.
In his dream, he was wielding a Gatling gun blazing with blue flames, riddling the giant insect that had one-shotted him earlier that day with bullets.
Just as he was about to pull the trigger and deliver the finishing blow, the phone beside his pillow suddenly began vibrating like crazy.
Bzzzz!
Bzzzz!
Immediately afterward, the special alert tone he had assigned to important notifications rang repeatedly, like a life-threatening summons.
“Who the hell is messaging me in the middle of the night?!”
Lu Ziye jolted awake with a pair of dark circles beneath his eyes and grabbed his phone, thoroughly irritated at being disturbed.
He unlocked the screen and took a look.
The WeChat group named “First-Test High-Player Top-Secret Combat Conference Room” had already exploded.
Every new message had been sent by [Malou Also Has Dignity].
Not only had he spammed the group with five or six gorilla chest-beating emojis, but he had also thrown in a game screenshot exported directly through the game capsule’s “Consciousness Capture” function.
[Malou Also Has Dignity]:
“@All Members!
Stop sleeping and get online!
Brothers, look what your big brother got!!”
“Server-first hidden achievement!
I’m asking you—are you convinced?!”
The chat had been completely silent moments earlier.
But the instant these messages appeared, the few people who had just fallen asleep were instantly blasted awake.