“In other words, this group of Fourth Calamity players I summoned are essentially my followers.
“Their power comes from the Ash Divine Power I bestowed upon them.
As they fight monsters and level up, I can take a cut and use it to recover my own strength.
“We can be considered mutually dependent.
We prosper together and suffer together.”
Lynn pondered silently.
This wasn’t just a survival game.
It was a fucking tower-defense management game!
Having figured this out, Lynn immediately summoned the system and began exploring the various functions of his golden finger.
Two extremely minimalist main panels appeared before him.
The first was the [Statue Upgrade Panel].
When he opened it, it clearly displayed the current state of his territory:
[Current Region: Dilapidated Church on the Edge of the Black Forest]
[Faith Barrier Radius: 50 Meters]
[Surviving Followers: 1]
[Upgrade Requirement: 10,000 Faith Points]
[Upgrade Effect: Significantly expands the barrier’s range, repairs the statue, and unlocks advanced system functions such as territory construction.]
Looking at the requirement of 10,000 Faith Points, Lynn silently closed the panel.
Excuse me.
Farewell.
Even if all five players were chopped up and sold, they wouldn’t be worth this much.
For now, that goal was simply too far away.
He instead opened the adjacent [Player Console].
It displayed:
[Closed Beta Quota: 5/5]
[Currently Online: 0]
In this interface, Lynn could enjoy the absolute authority of being a “dog planner.”
As long as he wished, he could [Mute] or [Ban] players at any time.
He could even spend 1 Faith Point to transmit his voice directly to a player!
Beneath the panel was another button:
[Recruit New Player: 100 Faith Points]
Lynn glanced at the balance displayed in the upper-right corner.
176 points.
Originally, he had been so poor that he had only 60 points left.
Just now, he had tearfully taken a cut of 90 points, while the remaining 26 points had come entirely from the fanatical faith generated by the little nun Sivier as she frantically kowtowed while imagining the existence of the “Supreme Overlord.”
This little girl really is a stable passive money printer…
Looking at his 176-point balance, Lynn hesitated for a moment before ultimately suppressing his impulse to summon more players.
His savings were simply too small, leaving absolutely no room for error.
It would be better to keep this bit of money as “Ash Coins” for the five existing players.
However, the moment Ash Coins crossed his mind, Lynn suddenly frowned.
Driven by desperation earlier, he’d lied to the players to prevent them from recklessly throwing their lives away, claiming that they only had two resurrection opportunities.
But this kind of resurrection mechanism was fundamentally unreasonable for a game.
If players had too few lives, they wouldn’t dare recklessly charge into battle.
And if they didn’t dare fight, where would he get his cut?
How was he supposed to siphon Faith Points from them?
They had to be given the ability to resurrect continuously!
But if resurrection were completely free, who knew what kind of outrageous behavior these players would develop?
The little bit of Faith Points he’d painstakingly accumulated could be squandered in minutes!
“If we want sustainable development, we need a perfect currency exploitation… No, currency circulation system!”
Lynn rapidly calculated in his head.
Suppose a player killed a monster worth 100 Faith Points.
Ten Faith Points would be distributed to the player as Experience Points, but Experience Points couldn’t be spent as currency.
After thinking for a while, Lynn suddenly had an idea.
From now on, in addition to Experience Points, the system would generate five [Ash Coins] out of thin air and distribute them to the player.
And then came the crucial part.
If a player died because of their recklessness and wanted to resurrect, they would have to pay a service fee of 10 [Ash Coins].
In order to gather those ten coins, the player would have to venture into the wilderness and desperately fight monsters.
After killing two monsters, Lynn’s system backend would have extracted a total of 200 Faith Points.
Ten points would go toward Experience Points each time, leaving him with 180 Faith Points in profit.
And once the player died, Lynn would only need to spend ten Faith Points to reconstruct their body.
You work your ass off to earn ten coins for your resurrection, while I’ve already made 180 Faith Points from you.
As long as there are enough players, the profit margin I can earn from the difference is simply terrifying!
The more Lynn thought about it, the more feasible this currency system seemed.
“System, immediately create this [Ash Coin] trading system for me!”
[Ding!
10 Faith Points have been consumed.
The Ash Coin data module has been installed into the player backend.]
Hearing the system notification, Lynn was in an excellent mood.
Spending ten Faith Points on the “system development fee” had been absolutely worth it.
This would be his ultimate money-making sickle in the future!
Having solved the most crucial part of the game’s economic loop, Lynn didn’t immediately put away the system.
Since he was going to harvest leeks, he had to make the whole operation convincing.
“Although this group of players is completely shameless, at least they’re here to help me build my empire.
“Having them run around half-naked like bald monks all the time really damages the dignity of me, the Lord of Ashes.
It could even cause visual fatigue.”
Lynn decided to give the game’s appearance and worldbuilding a major upgrade.
“System, activate the basic character-creation system.
Help me make a slightly more impressive game-loading cutscene!”
“Modify the worldview according to the actual background of this world…”
“Twilight of the gods.
Darkness invades.
The ancient sanctuary temples have fallen into ruin.”
“And they are sacred pioneers reborn from the ashes, shouldering the glorious mission of purifying the wasteland and rebuilding the divine kingdom!”
[Ding!
30 Faith Points have been consumed.
Game login module updated.]
[“Awakening of the Ancient Gods” opening CG loaded.]
[Basic character creation and appearance system installed.]
“All set.”
Looking at his remaining balance of 136 Faith Points, Lynn felt an unprecedented sense of security.
Everything was ready.
All he had to do was wait for his group of leeks to log on tomorrow and continue moving bricks.
After finishing everything, Lynn’s tense soul finally felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion.
Although gods did not need to enter the mortal world physically, when their divine power was nearly exhausted, even their wills required deep sleep to slowly recover.
Lynn slowly closed the system panel.
On the altar, the majestic blue light in the stone statue’s eyes gradually dimmed, returning to its original ancient, mottled gray.
Within the dark and dilapidated church, only the little nun slept peacefully in a corner, while the ancient statue stood silently in the darkness.
Waiting to astonish the world once again.
…
Meanwhile.
On Blue Star, it was already 1:00 a.m.
Lu Ziye abruptly sat up in bed, tore off the second-hand VR helmet from his head, and began panting heavily.
He touched his arm and pinched his thigh.
“Holy shit… Is this really reality?”
His mind was still filled with images of the foul-smelling Aberrant Corrupted Corpse from earlier, as well as the tangible, rough texture of those stone pillars.
“A masterpiece!”
“This fucking thing is absolutely a nuclear-bomb-level masterpiece in the history of human gaming!”
Lu Ziye was so excited that he jumped straight down from the top bunk.
He didn’t even bother putting on his shoes before rushing to his computer and opening the largest hardcore gaming forum in the country.
At this hour, the forum was still bustling with activity.
Countless night owls were frantically making posts and complaining about the endless reskinned games released by major game companies.
Lu Ziye’s fingers moved so quickly across the keyboard that they seemed to leave afterimages.
He immediately posted a large, bold thread:
[Stop Sleeping, Everyone!
Today I Played a Truly 100% Holographic VR MMORPG!
“Awakening of the Ancient Gods” Is Absolutely Insane!!]
In the post, he used an extremely exaggerated tone to describe his experience of tearing apart monsters with his bare hands inside the dilapidated church.
“Brothers, would you believe me if I told you the monster’s saliva splashed onto my face and I could actually feel its temperature and sticky texture?!”
“The physics engine is absolutely maxed out!
I picked up a door panel and smashed the monster with it, and the recoil made the web between my thumb and index finger go numb!”
“But the most insane thing is that the entire installation package is only 1 KB!”
“This is definitely alien technology!”