"God-level NPC?! Is the main system crazy?!!" Yu Jia shouted in disbelief.
The new players as if still unable to recover from the reel of events that just transpired with the buzzcut, were now staring blankly at the figure on the ground, their expressions filled with terror.
"Boss..." Cao Youfeng looked at Tao Shi beside him and said, "This... the main system..."
"The main system went a bit too far this time!" Tao Shi gritted his teeth as he looked at the sky, gray and as pale as paper, surrounded by towering spiked rooftops.
On the side, Lu Sha being a real NPC and needing to maintain his character settings, could only suppress his emotions toward the main system. His eyes reddened as he stared intensely at Jiang Yan in the distance.
At this moment, Jiang Yan, who had been dragged out of his own body by the tentacles within him, felt a dizzy spell.
He regained control of his body once more. Simultaneously, a new system interface appeared on his personal system panel:
"Ding!"
[Divinity Upgrade System: Activated]
[Judgment Mission Progress: 10%]
[Faith Accumulation: 6%]
[Divinity Accumulation: 0%]
[Mission Reminder: Please complete the designated tasks to perfect the main god's divinity!]
Perfect the main god's... divinity?!
The main god... is it?
Dazed, Jiang Yan stared at the words on the panel. Meanwhile, the reel of crimes committed by the buzzcut replayed over and over in his mind.
In a trance, Jiang Yan saw a boy in a dirty blue-and-white school uniform standing on his system panel, crying while mouthing words incessantly, as if accusing Jiang Yan of something.
He couldn't hear it.
But Jiang Yan knew the boy was accusing him.
Jiang Yan also knew what he should do now.
"At the convergence of darkness and light, I, in the name of a god, lay your sins bare before the universe woven of stars and thorns..."
The words of judgment seemed to have been engraved in Jiang Yan’s mind long ago. He almost instinctively spoke them out loud.
Golden light surrounded him as noble crimson rose petals swirled around his figure. His delicate yet somewhat plain face, devoid of much expression, suddenly radiated an inexplicable holiness.
His blue eyes, devoid of sorrow or joy, were deep and profound, as if containing the entire universe. When his gaze landed on the buzzcut figure in front of him, it felt as if he were looking at a speck of insignificant dust.
[This... Is this the special effect of a god-level NPC?]
[Help! Clearly, it's the main system going haywire, but why do I suddenly feel that Jiang Yan looks inexplicably divine right now?!]
[I have to admit, Jiang Yan... really fits this kind of role!]
For a moment, the attention of all the players, both inside and outside the dungeon, was drawn to this sacred and majestic judgment.
The buzzcut figure, already on the verge of death, suddenly began to let out cries of pain and regret.
"No... I didn’t mean to... Forgive me... It’s not my fault... It’s not... It’s all his fault... It’s him..."
Jiang Yan’s eyes betrayed little emotion as he chanted an ancient, solemn incantation.
"Darker than darkness, deeper than the dead of night, O emerald god in the void..."
The golden light around him grew more intense, and the swirling rose petals became more frenzied. Driven by a desperate will to survive, the buzzcut figure used all his strength to twist his broken and battered body, crawling to Jiang Yan’s feet.
"Please... I beg you... It wasn’t my fault... It really wasn’t me..." The buzzcut figure spoke as he vomited fresh blood.
[Bullshit!! You damned murderer!]
[A beast!! An utter beast! I’ve only ever reluctantly abandoned companions in survival games! Killing someone in the real world is worse than being a beast!]
[He was just a child! Only a teenager! How could you bring yourself to do that?!]
"A life for a life!"
A girl wearing glasses, hiding behind her team, sobbed with trembling fear as she spoke.
"Yes!! A life for a life!" the chef said angrily.
"A life for a life!" the braided-haired person shouted.
But just as they shouted, they were silently pulled back by their father.
"No, no, no... I beg you... It really wasn’t my fault... Please, I beg you..."
The buzzcut figure tried to reach out and grab Jiang Yan’s robe, but golden vines at Jiang Yan’s feet lashed out with a sharp "snap!" and sent him sprawling to the ground.
Jiang Yan looked indifferently at the person on the ground and spoke the words of judgment.
"I will burn your soul with flames; freeze your heart with ice; bind your feet with thorns and your hands with chains..."
As Jiang Yan chanted one incantation after another, ice and fire, thorns and chains began to torment the buzzcut figure’s already battered body and soul.
"Ah...!"
Amid desperate wails and repeated struggles of agony, the thorns and chains entwining the buzzcut figure tightened further and further—
"Rip... Crack!"
A sound of flesh and bones breaking echoed as the buzzcut figure’s body was instantly torn into several pieces!
Blood and flesh splattered everywhere.
The veteran players, reacting quickly, used their spiritual power to raise a barrier mid-air to block the incoming rain of blood. However, the new players were not so fortunate. Screaming, they were drenched in flesh, blood, and chunks of viscera.
"Ah--!!!"
Amid the newcomers’ screams, Jiang Yan spoke the final incantation.
"Your name will be forgotten from the mouth of gods, your existence erased from the memory of the world... You shall struggle in eternal pain until the end of time."
"..."
"Ding!"
[Divinity Upgrade System: Activated]
[Judgment Mission Progress: 20%]
[Faith Accumulation: 7%]
[Divinity Accumulation: +2%]
[Mission Reminder: Congratulations, Host! You have completed this side quest and gained a boost in Faith and Divinity values!]
As soon as the system’s voice fell, Jiang Yan felt an immense surge of energy flooding into his body.
"Ugh...!"
The sudden influx of energy caused Jiang Yan to let out a muffled groan. He felt as if someone had thrown him from a great height, delivering a heavy punch from gravity. His entire body seemed like it was about to burst from the soul force abruptly crammed inside!
"Congratulations, Host!" 663 said slyly.
"Ding!"
[Player: Ma Bin eliminated]
[Dungeon: The Bloody Bride of the Giant Clan, Dungeon Progress: 25%]
[Total Players: 10, Current Survivors: 8]
[Real NPCs: 3, Unpolluted NPCs Remaining: 3]
"It... it's over?"
Jian Hou shrank behind Tao Shi, observing the situation ahead.
With a whoosh, the golden light, vines, and roses instantly dissolved into specks of glowing light, disappearing into the air.
All that remained was a black-haired, blue-eyed young man standing in the center, clad in a black robe.
[Holy crap!! So cool!!]
[Ahhh! Yan Yan is so handsome!!]
[Damn! This pose is so envy-inducing, it’s driving me crazy!!]
[Ding! The Jiang Yan Fan Club welcomes your membership!]
"Yan Yan!!"
Jian Hou shouted, rushing toward Jiang Yan.
Just as he attempted to give Jiang Yan a big hug, a black tentacle covered in green eyeballs suddenly shot out from under Jiang Yan’s black robe. It stopped between the two of them, opening its petal-shaped, tooth-filled mouth and growling at him.
"Roar--!"
Jian Hou immediately froze in his tracks.
Raising his hands in a surrender gesture toward the tentacle, Jian Hou nervously asked Jiang Yan, "Are you okay?"
"I’m fine," Jiang Yan said, taking several deep breaths to calm himself.
At this moment, he noticed that the boy on the Divinity Upgrade System panel had not disappeared but was still standing there.
"W-what’s going on?" Jiang Yan asked 663 while panting.
"Because your judgment mission isn’t completed yet, dear!" 663 replied cheerfully.
The [Judgment Mission Progress: 20%] on the Divinity Upgrade System panel flashed faintly.
What kind of cursed side quest is this?! Jiang Yan frowned slightly.
Perfecting the main god’s... divinity.
Suddenly, a thought struck Jiang Yan, and he asked 663, "How many people in this game have access to the Divinity System?"
"How many people?" 663 chuckled. "Host, you must be joking! As far as we know, you’re the only one! You’re also the only god-level NPC!"
"Although, according to game history, there were two others before you, the records contain no details about them. So the entire game treats their existence as mere legends fabricated by the system."
"By the way, let me educate you a bit on what a god-level NPC is.
"A god-level NPC refers to a real NPC in a dungeon who, under the system’s constraints can wield certain divine powers of the dungeon world."
"It’s a built-in Easter egg for divine descent."
"But according to the main system's rules, the chance of triggering this Easter egg is only 10%! And that’s not 10% of the overall game’s Easter eggs, but 10% within the already legendary ‘divine descent’ functionality!"
"Hahaha! My dear host, thank you for contributing to my performance metrics!" 663 said gleefully.
Jiang Yan frowned. "No one has triggered this before?"
"Of course not!!" 663 explained.
"Even the 'Best Actor' has never been a god-level NPC! Although he’s already stronger than most system-generated god-level NPCs, and the main system keeps unlocking more dungeon permissions for him because of his growing power, he’s never achieved god-level status!"
"No wonder both the Puppet Workshop and the Valen Church want to hunt you down! If I were the Shadow Emperor, I’d be pissed too! Hahaha!"
"Of course, it’s also possible that someone has triggered it before, but the main system chose to hide it! Who knows?" 663 added with a sly tone.
"The main system... chose to hide it?"
Jiang Yan reached out to touch the black tentacle stretched between himself and Jian Hou. The previously aggressive tentacle immediately became docile, coiling itself around his arm and affectionately sucking on it.
As Jiang Yan stared at the tentacle, a strange thought suddenly emerged in his mind.
"What will happen if I don’t complete the Divinity Upgrade System tasks?" Jiang Yan asked.
"What?" 663 replied.
"Accumulate the power of faith and perfect the main god’s divinity... isn’t that basically an outsourced task from the main god handed over to the game system?" Jiang Yan said.
"Since it’s a task, there must be scenarios where it can be completed or not completed."
"So, if I fail to complete this outsourced task from the main god... what will happen?"