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Because of his frequent use of the Time Acceleration skill, Matthew had become a Male God who had held authority for a long time and possessed rich combat experience.
However, in actuality, the number of times he had led a Hero Team to defeat a Demon King could be counted on one hand.
A second-tier Authority God could only challenge B-rank Demon Kings, as well as trash-tier A-rank Demon Kings.
They were too weak, so Matthew always ended the fights quickly.
Over time, he grew less and less interested in combat, since it was too simple and too boring, wasting his precious leisure time.
"Pass."
"Bomb, triple with a single, I win, pay up!"
Kevin of the Male God Ramen Shop went behind the counter to grab a can of cola, and tossed it to Matthew, expressionless.
Over the years, Kevin had been his only friend—Mother Goddess Hera didn't count, that old lady was far too calculating.
Toward his friend, Matthew had always been generous, even willing to bring out his treasured Goddess Photo Albums to share.
Of course, he knew perfectly well that Kevin would never dare look, which was exactly why he used the photo albums as a weapon.
No matter how these photo albums had been obtained, once they landed on Matthew's bookshelf, they became his personal property. Giving away a Figure or two wasn't much of a heartache, but giving away a photo album that could double as a full CG document always felt awkward, somehow.
"I'm not playing with you anymore, I've finally figured it out, Matthew—you're scamming me, you want to empty out my fridge!"
Fight the Landlord for two was a game of luck—could a Max-Level Boss's luck attribute possibly be bad? And even if it were, couldn't Matthew simply raise his own luck attribute or lower his opponent's?
So Kevin, having lost eight rounds in a row, grew angry and flatly ordered him to leave.
The Male God Ramen Shop belonged to God Matthew... though it just so happened Matthew was planning to leave anyway.
"There's no fun in playing cards with someone who doesn't know how to play. Miya, let's go!"
Matthew waved his hand grandly, just as Little Maid Miya, who had gone home and come back, arrived at the door.
The two of them turned and vanished instantly.
Kevin's shout came a beat too late.
"That bastard Matthew, he promised to hire me a waiter and instead she became his personal maid!"
"Miya's still just a child, how could he bring himself to do that?"
..
Water Blue World, the inland town of Twin Palm Town—the place where, many days ago, the Goddess of War and the Hero Gangze had "been born."
Matthew, carrying the little maid, slowly descended, an inexplicable sense of weakness welling up within him.
"Ding"~
Notice: Account Logged In, Loading Module, please wait.
Notice: Since your True Level has exceeded the upper limit of the strongest creature this Dungeon can accommodate, the system module is auto-correcting.
Player Matthew, level LV1→LV100→LV200→LV150→LV120, locked in place.
The maximum level in Water Blue World was 99.
"Ding"~
Notice: The system is working hard to load, please wait.
Level was like a broad framework, one that could only restrict a general range—the detailed data was far more complex.
Shifting numbers, massive calculations, the system endlessly correcting, adjusting just how much of Matthew's Attributes could be allowed while still keeping this world intact.
"Tap, tap," the two of them landed.
Miya, keenly perceptive, seemed to sense Lord Matthew's weakened state, her expression turning puzzled.
Matthew hated waiting, so he spoke up first: "1%?"
"0.5%?"
"0.1%?"
Finally, the game system stabilized.
The system referred to the Different World as a Dungeon.
Indeed, when Matthew played the game, each Human Realm represented one of the many servers of Goddess Invincible OL, while the God Realm was the place where he and the goddesses grouped up to prepare for dungeon runs, or simply took a temporary rest.
A Different World was a Dungeon—Players cleared dungeons, defeated Demon Kings, leveled up, and earned rewards, all while weakening the forces of evil and chaos.
The Demon Realm, meanwhile, was the final battlefield.
Once the forces of justice and order gained an absolute advantage, the gate to the Demon Realm would automatically open, and players from every server could still team up with a goddess—only this time, their goal became defeating the Lord of Demon Gods.
"Defeating a Demon Lord isn't really meaningful—kill the old one, and a new one will just be born. To truly solve the problem, you need Extermination."
Matthew muttered the words as if to himself.
"Lord Matthew, what did you just say?" Little Maid Miya asked.
As for the matter of the Lord's weakness, it seemed to have resolved itself.
Later on, Miya would come to realize that what Lord Matthew displayed wasn't a weakening of power at all, but rather him suppressing his own Strength.
She had heard of this before.
For instance, when an S-rank Demon King descended into a B-rank world, their Strength would be suppressed down to B-rank by that world's laws.
Perhaps because Lord Matthew was simply too powerful, Water Blue World couldn't fully suppress him, so a moment ago the Lord had suppressed himself instead—1%, 0.5%, 0.1%... Miya had heard every word clearly.
"Even just 0.1% of Lord Matthew's power feels terrifying to me. Demon King Hages is surely doomed."
The pain in her eyes struck again, and the Young Girl Miya hurriedly closed off her ability.
Matthew said, "Come on, let's go, I'll take you to play cards!"
Miya replied, "Yes, Lord Matthew."
And so, one big and one small made their way to the Tavern.
Twin Palm Town had only a tavern, no Casino.
Gambling wasn't forbidden inside the tavern—fine wine plus Gold Coins, and ideally a beautiful woman on top of that, was the very pinnacle of nightlife for the men of Twin Palm.
"Oh-ho, a pretty boy just walked in."
Not far from the entrance, a burly, bearded man was the first to spot Matthew.
The man draped an arm over Matthew's shoulder, bottle of wine in hand, and said drunkenly, "Come on, little friend, drink with your old man here!"
Following local custom, Matthew had already changed into a linen outfit, dark blue on top and black below, with a clean pair of cloth shoes on his feet.
Seeing this, Matthew showed no reaction at all, only because he was afraid he might accidentally beat this drunk fool to death.
Crossing into an S-rank Different World had greatly affected his Strength, but Matthew's current Attack Power still stood at 9999—even a light puff of breath from him would outmatch Gangze, Dragon Slaying Holy Sword in hand, several times over.
Just then, ever-loyal Miya stepped forward without hesitation.
"Get your filthy hand off our Young Master's shoulder!"
Little Miya planted both hands on her hips—if she weren't so short, it would have looked rather imposing.
As it was, she could only be described as fiercely adorable, which drew a burst of laughter from the tavern patrons.
"Hahaha, I'm dying laughing, that boy really is just a kid, letting a woman handle things for him!"
"Ha, you're wrong there—if it were a woman, that'd be fine too, at least it'd let old Jack have some fun."
"Yeah, yeah, old Jack's older than her own dad, though—doubt he could even manage it."
Then came—"Boom, boom!" two sounds in quick succession!
The first was the sound of drunk old Jack flying through the air and smashing into the door; the second was the sound of old Jack landing on the ground along with the door.
Inside the tavern, no one was laughing anymore.
Miya—the one they'd claimed barely counted as a woman—walked up to the now-unconscious old Jack, raised her right foot, and stomped down again and again, each stomp drawing blood, seven stomps in total.
After she finished stomping, Miya rifled through his coin pouch, pulled out some Copper Coins, set them on the counter, and said, "This is for fixing the door."
The rest naturally went to Matthew—they'd only just arrived in town and happened to be short on gambling funds.
Little Maid Miya put her hands on her hips once more and declared, "Whoever else was laughing just now, one Silver Coin each, or nobody's leaving through that door today!"
Utterly commanding.
Having said her piece, little Miya quietly leaned over and asked, "Lord Matthew, is one Silver Coin too little?"
Matthew said, "It's plenty. Even if you demanded Gold Coins from them, they couldn't come up with it, not even if you beat every one of them senseless."
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