“Zhi...
The surroundings were dead silent, even the mice, whose bodies were densely covered with ticks and as noisy as sparrows, all very tacitly closed their mouths.
“Heh.”
It wasn’t until the one standing outside the giant rat’s encirclement, surrounded by golden attacking vines, let out a light, unclear laugh that everyone snapped back to reality in shock.
[Crazy?]
[Probably a new player, doesn’t recognize Jiang Yan?]
[Right now Jiang Yan is in the ‘Divine Descent’ state! ‘Divine Descent’!]
[Now Jiang Yan was no longer Jiang Yan, but the "God" of this instance! Their judge! How could anyone sue the judge in court?!]
“You... you’re crazy? That’s...”
The voice of the girl with glasses trembled.
The moment her gaze met those deep, lake-like green eyes, the short-haired body trembled violently.
Primitive fear turned into a chill that spread from his spine to his entire body, reminding him of how foolish his decision had been, but his hand still didn’t lower.
He pretended to stay calm and forced a smile, the pain and fear making his finger, pointing towards Jiang Yan, tremble uncontrollably.
“I don’t care who he is! Isn’t this the rule of your game?”
“Since everyone who enters this town is guilty! Then why... shouldn’t he participate?!”
“This nonsensical, random game pulling us in, and then randomly wanting to judge our crimes... I....”
It was as if a nerve had suddenly been touched, and the crew cut boy’s pain and anger caused his expression to become fierce. He shouted "I’m not guilty!!”
“I don’t care who you are! I don’t care what your purpose is! Anyway, I’m not guilty!!”
“The police and the judges didn’t convict me, what right do you have to say I’m guilty!!”
After saying this, the crew cut boy once again looked in the direction his finger was pointing.
In the distance, surrounded by golden rose vines, the boy who had been openly favored by the god gave him a gentle smile, his green eyes slightly narrowing.
“Damn it!! You...”
The crew cut boy’s furious roar suddenly stopped, and his expression gradually turned to one of fear.
He saw Jiang Yan’s clear, indifferent face suddenly shift to that of an unfamiliar young man, with a delicate face marked with a little dirt, his dark, empty eyes staring straight at him, tilting his head with a smile.
The crew cut boy’s pupils contracted violently!
“Heh--!!!”
He screamed in terror, grabbing the girl with glasses next to him, pulling her clothes, and continually hiding behind her, as if he had seen something more terrifying than the huge rats in front of them.
His eyes widened in shock as he pointed at “Jiang Yan” repeatedly, saying,
“Th- th- th...”
The players present looked at each other in confusion, unsure of what was going on.
[What’s wrong? What happened?]
[It seems like he saw something?]
[What could there be? There’s only Jiang Yan there?]
[To be precise, it’s Jiang Yan who has been descended by the god. Did the god do something just now?? The main system should have broadcasted it!]
Trapped within his own body, constantly fighting against the god’s tentacles, Jiang Yan slightly froze: “Just now… who was that?”
Apart from the crew cut boy and the one controlling his body, Yu Xiu, only he clearly remembered everything that had just happened.
“Who was he?” Jiang Yan asked curiously.
That young man.
The face of that Yu Xiu once again appeared in Jiang Yan’s mind, but this time, there was dirt on his face, and in the sunlight, he revealed a clean and radiant smile unique to a young man.
Jiang Yan was momentarily stunned.
In the crowd, the cries of the giant rats grew even more heart-wrenching.
“Ah--!!!”
He tightly gripped the arm of the girl with glasses next to him, his nails digging into her skin.
“What are you doing?! Let go of me!” The girl cried out in pain, tears welling up in her eyes.
The crew cut boy was in a state of deep terror and struggled "Th- th- th... It’s him!! It’s him!!”
The others looked at each other in confusion:
“Who is it??”
The crew cut boy didn’t answer, as he was now consumed by overwhelming fear. In the distance, where the golden rose vines grew, “he” was still smiling at him.
“Ah--!!!!!”
The crew cut boy screamed in horror, clutching his head "He’s dead!! He’s already dead!! This is fake!! Fake!!”
Upon hearing this, the girl with glasses froze, her expression darkening "Y- you… what did you see?”
At this point, the crew cut boy had completely lost his sanity. He knelt in the direction of Jiang Yan, alternately cursing and begging for mercy, his face smeared with sweat, tears, blood, and uncontrollable saliva, looking incredibly frantic and terrifying.
It even made some players wonder if he had already died.
[What the hell?? Who saw what Jiang Yan… no! What the one inside Jiang Yan’s body just did??]
[No way?? The crew cut boy just pointed at him for a moment…]
[Is this… is this what god descent means??]
[Holy shit!! Holy shit!! What does the effect of god descent do?! Can any senior player explain this??]
[Why is Jiang Yan so powerful after being descended by the god??]
[....]
“Ah--!!! Let me go!!”
“Please, it’s not my fault!!”
Facing the crew cut boy, who was kneeling on the ground and screaming in madness, everyone was at a loss for what to do.
The girl with glasses, who had been gripped tightly by the crew cut boy just now, had already hidden behind the burly cook.
Her expression was one of fear, her gaze darting between the crew cut boy in front of her and the distant “Jiang Yan.”
Then, she tugged at the cook’s sleeve, trembling as she pointed in Jiang Yan’s direction and said "He… he seems to have seen something. Over there… it seems like there’s something.”
“That’s the thing inside Jiang Yan causing this mess.” Lu Sha said, crossing his arms.
“Inside…”
The boy with the colorful braids couldn’t help but shudder. The image of the dark, flower-shaped mouth of the evil god emerging from under Jiang Yan’s skirt and lunging at him flashed briefly in his mind. He felt the hand that had been bitten off earlier begin to ache again.
“What... what exactly is that?” The boy with the colorful braids gritted his teeth and said.
“What exactly is that?!”
Trapped within his own body, Jiang Yan asked the same question.
But he was asking about the silent scene that had mysteriously appeared before his eyes.
Just now, with that unfamiliar young man as the protagonist, a silent movie had unfolded before him.
“What is that??”
Jiang Yan asked. He was bound by soft black tentacles, and for the rare moment, there was a hint of sorrow in his aquamarine eyes.
It was sadness.
“It is the power of the gods.” The god answered.
“What?” Jiang Yan asked in confusion.
“Ah--!!!!”
The crew cut boy’s tragic scream once again drew Jiang Yan’s attention.
At this moment, the crew cut boy’s head was completely smashed in, and even one of his teeth had been knocked out. His mouth and face were covered in blood.
He let out a hoarse, desperate laugh in Jiang Yan’s direction “No one knows! Hahaha! No one knows!!”
Then, he collapsed to the ground.
“Thud!”
In that instant, Jiang Yan found that he had regained control of his own body, but the sensation of the tentacles did not disappear. It was as if they were still invisibly wrapping around his body beneath the black robe.
In the distance, the players surrounded the unconscious crew cut boy, their expressions varied.
Jiekhe opened his mouth, filled with sharp teeth, and laughed "How great! Sacrificing yourself for your comrades!”
Everyone fell silent.
The crew cut boy in front of them was covered in blood, his chest still faintly rising and falling, and his mouth letting out a faint “wheeze” sound. If it weren’t for that, they would probably think he was already dead.
“Criminals, do you have any objections?” Jiekhe asked with a twisted smile.
The crowd remained silent.
“Heh! Now, who dares to object?”Lu Sha crossed his arms, looking at Jiang Yan in the distance with sarcasm.
Jiekhe kicked the nearly lifeless crew cut boy on the ground and laughed "That’s him.”
After saying that, Jiekhe gave a bow to Jiang Yan in the distance and chanted "Please allow your faithful to report the guilty, praise our god!”
Immediately, the giant rats began chanting as well.
“Please allow your faithful to report the guilty, praise our god!”
“Please allow your faithful to report the guilty, praise our god!”
“...”
The tentacles wrapped around Jiang Yan’s body became even wetter and stickier, and the golden rose vines around him began to grow wildly, spreading forward and paving a golden path through the giant rat crowd.
“Let’s go, Yan Yan.”
It felt as if a warm breath had brushed past his ear. Jiang Yan shivered and involuntarily took a step forward.
He walked through the giant rat crowd and stopped in front of the crew cut boy who was lying motionless on the ground.
“Yan Yan, you…”
Jian Hou noticed that Jiang Yan’s eye color had returned to normal. He was about to step forward when Tao Shi grabbed his arm.
"[Divine Descension] has not disappeared. He is still not completely Jiang Yan." Tao Shi said.
“What exactly is this Divine Descension. It feels like the main system’s explanation is too vague!” Jian Hou complained.
[Yeah… it seems like the Divine Descension rules are written too vaguely]
[That rule, in simple terms is like performing a shamanistic ritual or summoning; it allows you to summon the God of the instance to possess your body.]
[It also seems to mention something about accumulating followers in the name of the God? The specifics on how to operate it or its effects aren’t clear.]
[That’s still too vague.]
[It’s vague because, before today Divine Descension was just a legend within the game. Who could have thought that someone would actually trigger it?!]
[Jiang Yan—"The Jian" rule tale: everything unreasonable can be explained by the two words “Jiang Yan.”]
[Peak! The main god and main system are obviously giving special treatment! Why?! No wonder Valen Church and Puppet Workshop are trying to kill him! Even with real NPCs, no one has this kind of treatment!!]
“I don’t know.” Tao Shi’s gaze remained fixed on Jiang Yan, his voice heavy. “However, we’ll probably encounter many more things we don’t know about in the future.”
Jian Hou was confused.
“Come! Yan Yan, start judging your followers now!”
“My… followers?”
Jiang Yan was stunned.
At this moment, he noticed a thin golden thread, as delicate as a spider's silk, connecting the index finger of his right hand to the back of the crewcut’s head.
He moved slightly, and one of the golden souls linked to him in his mind also shifted. It had become much dimmer, far darker than the other golden souls around him.
“What’s this?”
Jiang Yan curiously looked at the golden thread on his hand.
663, who had been pretending to be dead in his mind, spoke up "This is the connection between you and your followers, a privilege of the gods. Are you pleased?”
“What use is this?”
Before Jiang Yan could ask further, the god's voice once again echoed in his ears " The trial has begun! Yan Yan!”
Jiang Yan snapped back to attention, and his hand, connected by the golden thread, was raised high by an invisible force.
The chanting of the giant rats grew more excited!
“Begin the judgment of his crimes, my Yan Yan!”
“Tear apart this sinner’s soul, bring forth the terrifying crimes he has committed!”
A vast, universe-like god whispered in his ear "Yan Yan, remember, the gods have never existed to protect humans or their followers. The gods are the embodiment of nature, existing solely for judgment and resolution.”
Judgment?
Once again, the image of the black-haired youth’s bright, radiant smile flashed before Jiang Yan’s eyes, and his water-blue eyes turned cold.
“Why?”
He looked at the crewcut in front of him and spoke.
The surrounding players exchanged confused glances.
“What do you mean by why?”
Jiang Yan moved his fingertip slightly again, causing the golden thread connecting him to the crewcut to flicker. The crewcut, who had been lying on the ground with no breath coming in or out, stirred slightly and opened his eyes.
A furrow appeared between Jiang Yan’s brows: “You should be dead. But before I sentence you to death, I want to know why.”
“Host, have you already decided to sentence him to death?” 663's voice rang out in his ear.
“You should be aware, while in [Divine Descension], every action you take toward your followers is something you complete in the name of the god. The true rewards and consequences are entirely related to you as an individual.”
“You currently have fewer than ten followers. Are you sure you want to sentence this follower to death in the name of the god?”
663's tone was respectful, yet there was an odd, somewhat eerie quality to it.
“Of course, I’m sure.” Jiang Yan said coldly, “But before the judgment formally begins, I want to clarify a few things.”
Jiang Yan fixed his cold gaze on the man in front of him and asked again: “Tell me, why?”
The crewcut smiled, blood filling his mouth. With eyes as red as if they were about to bleed, he weakly looked at Jiang Yan and said: “Cough… because…”
“Because of what?” Jiang Yan asked.
"Because... you were supposed to die!!!"
Suddenly, the crewcut sprang up from the ground, letting out a wild scream as he lunged toward Jiang Yan!