A shard of porcelain.
A sharp, gleaming fragment left behind from a shattered coffee cup in the Elf Manor.
No one knew when the crewcut had hidden it on his person, but now, he gripped it tightly in his hand and thrust it directly toward Jiang Yan's throat.
"Yan Yan, watch out!!" Jian Hou shouted.
[What the heck?! Amazing!! This guy actually had a hidden move left?!]
The crewcut moved too fast. The tip of the porcelain shard was already pressed against Jiang Yan's Adam's apple. Crimson blood beaded on the snow-white skin, and with just a little more force, the shard would tear through Jiang Yan’s throat and sever his breath...
[Oh no! He can't dodge this!!]
[What the heck!! Jiang Yan!!]
[It’s over!! It’s completely over!!]
In the split second of danger, Jiang Yan slightly curled the finger connected to the golden thread. The crewcut’s head jerked violently backward as if yanked by an invisible force, and he collapsed with a thud at Jiang Yan’s feet.
Ding.
The porcelain shard fell to the ground by Jiang Yan's feet. The crewcut lay on the ground, convulsing uncontrollably. Blood gushed from his mouth and nose, leaving him without the strength to rise again.
[... Huh???]
[Wha-what just happened?]
[What the heck?! But... but he was about to...]
[Holy crap!! Did you see that?! What did Jiang Yan just do?!!]
[It felt like... the crewcut was yanked back by something? Almost like... puppet strings?]
[Impossible! Jiang Yan hasn’t obtained the Puppet Strings item!]
[...Jiang Yan strikes again.]
Jian Hou stood frozen, his mouth agape.
The rookie players huddled together, too frightened to speak.
This... this Jiang Yan was just too unnerving!
Cao Yufeng’s face darkened.“Boss, did you catch what Jiang Yan just did?”
“No,” Tao Shi frowned, glancing at his own smooth, slender wrist.
Earlier, when the system notified him that he had become one of Jiang Yan’s “followers,” a golden thread as fine as a spider’s silk had appeared there.
Though the system hadn’t explained what it was.
But...
Tao Shi raised his head, gazing at Jiang Yan, who stood before the crewcut. Surrounded by golden rose vines and exuding an indifference that bordered on divine sanctity, Jiang Yan’s expression was unreadable. Tao Shi’s eyes darkened.
Meanwhile, Lu Sha and Yu Jia’s expressions grew even more grim.
“What are you waiting for?!”
Lu Sha gritted his teeth.
Ding!
[Item: Puppet Strings]
The moment Lu Sha’s words fell, Yu Jia swung his arm, and several transparent threads shot straight toward Jiang Yan!
Whoosh!
The threads sliced through the air. Just as they were about to pierce Jiang Yan’s temple
Drip.
The transparent puppet strings halted an inch from Jiang Yan’s temple, as if striking an invisible barrier. The air rippled like water disturbed by a droplet.
Jiang Yan turned his head and smiled at Yu Jia. Beneath the rippling golden light, his blue eyes turned once again into a profound green.
“What?!” Yu Jia’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Jiang Yan slightly exerted his fingertips, and the threads disintegrated into specks of light in an instant.
“I told you,” the god with green eyes hidden within Jiang Yan’s body spoke softly, a smirk playing on his lips.
“Don’t touch my wife.”
Under the stunned gazes of everyone, the god who resided in Jiang Yan chuckled lightly.
[What the heck?!]
[No way! The Divine Descent’s god persona can be autonomously controlled by the player or NPC?!]
[How would we know? Only Jiang Yan has triggered this mechanic so far!]
[Ahhhhh!! This is blatant cheating!!]
Jiang Yan was once again dragged back into the slippery sea of tendrils within his body.
The pitch-black tendrils coated in viscous liquid once again coiled tightly around Jiang Yan’s body, binding his arms and legs. The suction cups beneath the tendrils roamed over every inch of his skin, greedily sucking.
Perhaps it was the excitement of the impending judgment on the offering that made the tendrils unusually fervent. Jiang Yan felt as though they might completely swallow him whole at any moment.
“Pfft! Be glad this is a side instance,” 663’s irritating voice rang out with a smirk, “if this were that other game, the next step would be laying eggs inside you!”
“Shut the hell up!” Jiang Yan snapped, his embarrassment morphing into anger.
He then raised his eyes toward the heavens, shouting furiously “You bastard, what the hell are you trying to do?!”
The god’s deep, majestic voice echoed in his ear, as if it were breathing right beside him:
“Why, to show you Yan Yan how to judge your own followers.”
The moment the god’s words fell, countless golden threads resembling spider silk and rose-covered vines burst forth from beneath Jiang Yan’s feet. They obliterated Yu Jia’s puppet strings in an instant. On the ground, the barely-alive crewcut let out a low groan.
Dark, blood-red rose petals drifted down from the heavens, enveloping the entire town in the grandeur of an immense, towering divine temple. The giant rats and Jiekhe once again began chanting ethereal, devout hymns.
Lying on the ground, the crewcut’s bloodshot eyes locked onto the rose vines emerging relentlessly from the earth. He gasped for breath, weakly muttering:
“I... am innocent...”
“I’m... innocent...”
“...”
At that moment, the reflection of a sharp giant rat’s claw appeared in his bloodshot eyes.
With a muffled groan, a mouthful of fresh blood spewed from his lips. The claw had pierced through the flesh on his back, suspending him mid-air.
Even so, the crewcut struggled to make a sound.
“I... am innocent!!!”
But as the giant rat tried to lift him by hooking into his flesh, the skin tore apart with a sickening rip. The crewcut fell heavily to the ground, blood and shredded tissue splattering everywhere.
“Ah—!!”
The crewcut let out a guttural scream, his voice filled with agony as he writhed in the growing pool of blood.
[Damn!! That hurts!!]
[So miserable!!]
[Sigh! A new player starting with an S-level dungeon, this is the result...]
[No... this is what happens when a player offends Jiang Yan, isn’t it?]
[Agreed. I think the crewcut was right! If there’s going to be judgment, why doesn’t Jiang Yan participate?]
[The system clearly favors Jiang Yan, directly giving him a cheat. And because the crewcut offended Jiang Yan, it’s using him as an example.]
[Exactly! How could a new player even have any sins?]
The players, watching the scene before them, displayed a variety of expressions.
Countless golden vines burrowed into the crewcut’s body, emitting a light so intense that it nearly engulfed him completely.
Amid the sacred hymn sung by the giant rats and Jiekhe, the god stood before the offering, enveloped in golden light. He gracefully raised his arm, as though conducting a symphony.
“What... what is that?!”
A girl with glasses pointed ahead in shock.
Within the golden light, a silent image began to take shape:
Rain poured down onto a desolate area in the outskirts. A rundown van was parked on the side of the road.
The crewcut stepped out of the van into the rain and pulled a massive object out of the trunk.
It was a person.
A drenched high school boy. His mouth was sealed with black tape, and the rain had soaked his wrinkled blue-and-white school uniform.
The crewcut dragged him out of the trunk, and the back of the boy’s head slammed heavily onto the ground.
The boy twitched slightly but showed no significant reaction.
In an instant, all the players’ expressions turned pale.
“This... what is this?” the girl with glasses asked in horror.
“This should be the divine judgment. What we’re witnessing now must be the crewcut’s crimes.”
Tao Shi adjusted the hat on his head, brushed his bangs aside, and spoke seriously.
“Crimes?! Then... what did he do to this child?!” Jian Hou asked.
No one answered. The players’ faces were all grim.
[What is this?! What’s he trying to do?!]
[Is this a kidnapping? Kidnapping and extortion?!]
[What the hell?! No way!]
[Could... could it be a misunderstanding?]
In the golden light, the crewcut standing beside the boy moved his lips slightly, as if saying something, before viciously kicking the boy.
The boy’s body instinctively trembled.
Then, the crewcut took a shovel from the van and began dragging the boy by his feet, step by step, toward the grassy, bush-covered wilderness.
He didn’t stop until they reached the deep wilderness, far from the sight of the road and surrounded by emptiness.
At this point, the boy’s head and the upper half of his blue-and-white school uniform were already covered in mud.
The crewcut casually tossed the boy aside and began digging.
The torrential rain had softened the soil, and it didn’t take long before the crewcut had dug a two-meter-deep pit.
Then, he turned toward the boy lying next to him, struggling with all his might yet unable to even sway the grass around him...
“What is he trying to do?!”
Inside his own body, Jiang Yan’s eyes widened in shock!
The crewcut walked up to the boy, ripped the tape from his mouth, and used the boy’s school uniform to haphazardly wipe his face.
As the rain washed away the mud, the boy’s face was revealed to the players.
It was a beautiful face, with jet-black hair, pale skin, and delicate, refined features...
Jiang Yan’s pupils contracted!
This... this was the same child he had just seen from the crewcut’s perspective!
“This is judgment, Yan Yan.”
The god whispered softly in his ear.
“What... is this?” Jiang Yan asked.
“It is the sin of your follower, Yan Yan,” the god said. “To judge the sins of each believer and decide whether they receive punishment or reward is the right and duty of a god.”
Jiang Yan watched the spinning lantern of light emerging from the crewcut’s body within the golden glow.
In the torrential rain, the crewcut lifted the boy and threw him into the freshly dug pit. The boy’s previously wiped clean face was once again stained with wet mud.
The crewcut stood at the edge of the pit, looking at the boy at the bottom with a disdainful sigh, shaking his head, then began to fill the pit with dirt.
“Uncle... please...”
The weak pleading from the boy in the pit made the crewcut, who was filling the hole, pause in his actions. It also stunned the players watching silently. The hymn abruptly stopped, leaving only the faint, weak pleas of the boy in the rain.
“Uncle... please... mom... mom…”
The crewcut paused, holding the shovel, and gazed down at the boy in the pit.
The boy strained to raise his head, using all his remaining strength to plead, but his voice was almost drowned out by the sound of the rain:
“Mom... Mom is waiting for me…”
Suddenly, the image within the golden light began to become chaotic.
An image appeared in the golden glow: a woman, collapsed on the ground, her hair disheveled, crying uncontrollably.
Noisy onlookers, flashing cameras, news reporters, and police cleaning up the scene—all of it flickered in the golden light as if the signal were poor on a television broadcast.
“Reports say the body of the high school boy who went missing before the college entrance exam has been found…”
“According to known sources, this boy came from a poor, single-parent family…”
“Currently, police say the killer is still unidentified…”
Suddenly, the woman’s heart-wrenching wail cut through all the noise, like a sharp dagger piercing everyone’s ears:
“Why my son?! Why!! Why my son!!”
In an instant, the image shifted back to that rainy night. In the wild, muddy silence, only the boy’s weak pleas remained:
“I... I need to take the college entrance exam... Uncle... I need to... take the exam…”
The crewcut closed his eyes and raised the shovel towards the boy’s head...
[Bastard!!]
[Damn it! This punishment is too light!!]
[New player don’t have any crimes? This is just the result of an new player offending Jiang Yan!]
[Haha! How’s that for a slap in the face! Jiang Yan picked out a murderer!]
[Jiang Yan is incredible! He found a murderer out of all these players!]
The boy’s originally clean blue-and-white school uniform became soaked with blood and mud, slowly being consumed by the wet dirt...
Swish!
The screen suddenly froze.
The players fell into an eerie silence, their expressions all different.
Their gazes unintentionally fell on Jiang Yan, whose body was being controlled by the god hidden within the rose vines.
[Judgment, Jiang Yan! Use your divine descent to sentence him to death! Eternal damnation!!]
[Can a divine descender participate in judgment? Isn’t it supposed to be the god inside Jiang Yan who does that?]
“Haha! Let the god use his body to execute his will...” Lu Sha crossed his arms and sneered.
“This round, Jiang Yan’s points are skyrocketing!” Yu Jia laughed darkly. “The main system is clearly biased.”
Ding!
The voice of the main system rang out as expected.
God: Jiang Yan
Mission: Please give judgment to the believer.
Instantly, the entire game went into an uproar:
[What?!?]
[It’s not a divine descender... it’s... a god?!?]
[A god-level real NPC?! Has the main system gone insane?!!]
Short note from me - Hi there! I wanted to give you a quick update. Things are on hold for now because my country got hit with some of the worst flooding we’ve ever seen :/ entire houses are underwater, and the internet’s been completely unreliable. On top of that, my cat’s been sick, and my friend working on this project is dealing with similar struggles.
We’re hoping to get the translation ready by the end of the month or January 2025, as long as things settle down. I really appreciate your understanding it means a lot during a time like this!