---Viktor's POV---
The northwest part of the Great Oak Forest.
It was a colossal mountain range stretching thousands of miles.
Legend had it that this was the place where the God of Snow, Wolcen Wintrian, ascended to godhood, and thus it was named the Wolcen Mountains.
The long mountain range halted the northern expansion of the forest, and the melting snow formed the Duskwind River, which flowed straight to the ocean.
I vaguely remembered.
Six hundred years ago, the Wolcen Mountains did not have such thick snow. Among the mountains was a dormant volcano of considerable size.
Because of this, the sulfur content in the Great Oak Forest should not be low.
But this was just a theory.
I handed the addresses of a few underground caves discovered during exploratory missions to the players, saying there might be something worthwhile inside.
The other party happily left with the approximate locations, saying they would set off tomorrow.
Recording the events in my journal, I gazed into the pitch-black night and marveled at the players' efficiency.
"So full of energy..."
They got things done right away, without procrastination.
Unlike me, an old-timer who had been buried several times already, whose energy could no longer keep up with theirs.
At midnight, Honeyvale Town paused all NPC services.
Except for two players on shift to monitor the charcoal kiln, most places in the town became very quiet.
The silver arc in the sky streaked across the horizon on time.
Luminaris flew out from a church window, hesitantly approaching me.
"Undead..."
"Hmm? You're not asleep yet?" I looked up in surprise.
Wasn't this usually the time he sleeps?
To be precise, apart from the mornings when players logged in en masse, he was almost always asleep.
Yet today, he had actively come to me. Could he have changed his ways?
I scrutinized Luminaris' glowing form but didn't see any divine skirts forming from an increase in divine power.
"Do you need something?"
He stammered for a long time.
I eventually grew impatient.
I folded up my lounge chair and stowed it back into my storage space, ready to leave.
"If there's nothing, I'll head back."
The sky looked like it was about to rain. I thought I'd better go home to take care of the remaining tasks.
"Wait, I need divine power!"
Prodded by my indifference, Luminaris finally blurted out what it had been holding back.
I was taken aback. "That's it?"
What had I been expecting?
Was there any need to act so guilty?
Godly beings need divine power to maintain their consciousness and actions; this was an unassailable truth.
Since all the divine power was in my hands now, coming to me was the most normal thing to do.
I casually opened the system panel.
"How much do you need?"
"1... 100 divine power..."
Luminaris shyly hid his face in his light strands, not daring to look up.
I glanced oddly at the downcast him.
Why did I sense a feeling of despair and resentment from him?
Could it be that he still hadn't accepted his current status?
A thought suddenly struck me.
"Wait, if you need to consume 100 divine power every month, wouldn't you have already..."
"..."
Luminaris lowered his head even further.
I was left speechless.
Just moments ago, I had worried about him having rebellious thoughts and was prepared to guard against his retaliating.
What a ridiculous notion...
A creature that almost destroyed himself could never pose a real threat, not even if the Divine Realm itself collapsed.
I operated the system panel to allocate divine power.
[Divine Power: 2814]
Recent tasks had kept me so busy that I hadn't noticed how much the divine power had accumulated.
Unknowingly, it had surpassed three digits, mostly due to the contributions of new players on their first day.
Allocating 100 points was a piece of cake.
I thought for a moment and gave him access to 200 points instead.
"Take these. Come back next month if you need more."
"!!!"
Luminaris was stunned, caressing the divine power he could now control.
"All of this... for me?"
"Yes. You've been behaving well lately, so this is your reward. Treat the extra as... pocket money."
He froze mid-air for several seconds before realizing I wasn't joking.
"Ahhh! Undead, you're such a kind person!"
Overwhelmed with gratitude, he tearfully said, "I... I haven't had extra divine power since... Thank you. Thank you!"
He floated closer to me, hesitant
"I should confess something. I may have... exaggerated. I don't need quite so much each month."
I smiled.
"You mean the fact that 100 points divided by thirty days doesn't make any sense?" I tapped my fingers against the system panel. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
Luminaris shrunk back.
I waved my hand dismissively. "Consider it an investment. Those who show loyalty get rewarded. Perhaps one day, you'll even manage others beneath you."
"Really? You'd trust me with—"
"We'll see," I interrupted. "For now, enjoy your bonus."
Luminaris bobbed up and down in the air excitedly before zipping away.
---
The clearing was silent once again, leaving me alone.
I glanced at the 200 divine power I had just spent and muttered to myself.
"Hopefully, this investment will be worth it..."
The gifts of fate always came with a price tag.
The extra divine power I gave wasn't just a reward.
As a divine essence, Luminaris' divine abilities and privileges were limited.
The 200 points would mostly be spent maintaining his operation, leaving little room for waste.
The most likely use was for his sole connection to the players—granting blessings.
For example, I suspected that the reason the Lucky Stars Team managed to trap a great goblin using a simple trap was thanks to Luminaris' blessings.
Moreover, his unique rewards could improve his relationship with the players.
I, with my admin privileges, had access to all game data.
One glaring issue stood out: Luminaris' overwhelmingly negative favorability toward the players.
His average favorability toward them was almost in the negative triple digits!
This couldn't continue.
But resolving the issue was simple.
Once he had enough resources to offer, players would naturally start sucking up to him, outdoing even the best salespeople.
Controlling a newborn divine essence? Easy as pie!
Of course, this was just my theory.
I would use the 200 points as a test.
How things would play out depended on Luminaris' future interactions with the players.
"In any case, a divine essence with self-awareness is rare. It's worth pulling to our side," I mused.
He could play a crucial role...
Luminaris' plea had reminded me of my own growing divine power pool.
It was time to open the game console and indulge in some well-deserved spending!
---
[Game Development Features:]
[Character Design: Costs 1 Divine Power]
[Realistic Game Panel: Costs 50 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Name: Costs 50 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Race: Costs 100 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Level: Costs 100 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Experience: Costs 100 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Sanity: Costs 10,000,000 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Skills: Costs 100 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Inventory: Costs 500 Divine Power]
[Customization: Unlimited Divine Power]
[...]
---
It had been quite a while.
Because players believed in the existence of the game panel, the cost of realizing display-related data had dropped significantly.
Most dropped by half.
"Truly, the earlier you buy, the earlier you enjoy it; the later you buy, the bigger the discount!" I couldn't help but sigh.
Among all the items on the price list, only the price for Sanity remained unchanged.
Probably because realizing SAN value was too difficult, and players had no idea what SAN value even meant.
I was doing quite well financially now.
So, I decided to go all out and realize every piece of realistic data display except for Sanity.
The number of purchasable options on the panel was instantly cut by more than half.
---
[Game Development Features:]
[Character Design: Costs 1 Divine Power]
[Realistic Game Panel: Costs 50 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Display – Sanity: Costs 10,000,000 Divine Power]
[Customization: Unlimited Divine Power]
[Other Functions – Customization: Unlimited Divine Power]
---
"Ahhh—"
I let out a long breath.
It felt even more satisfying than using divine power to heal wounds.
"Finally, I don't have to live a life of splitting my focus into dozens of parts to monitor things anymore!"
I no longer had to monitor everyone at all times or constantly modify several players' panel data simultaneously.
Calculating each player's experience points every day had nearly driven me crazy!
Before I could finish exhaling in relief, the panel changed again.
---
[Game Development Features:]
[Realistic Data Display – Sanity: Costs 10,000,000 Divine Power]
[...]
[Realistic Data Upgrade – Appraisal: Costs 100,000 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Upgrade – Health Points: Costs 30,000 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Upgrade – Constitution: Costs 30,000 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Upgrade – Attack Power: Costs 30,000 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Upgrade – Defense Power: Costs 30,000 Divine Power]
[Realistic Data Upgrade – Mana: Costs 10,000 Divine Power]
[Game Panel Data Upgrade—Elemental Affinity:
Water Elemental Affinity: Costs 20,000 Divine Power
Fire Elemental Affinity: Costs 20,000 Divine Power
Earth Elemental Affinity: Costs 20,000 Divine Power
Wind Elemental Affinity: Costs 20,000 Divine Power
Customization: Unlimited Divine Power]
[...]
---
Crack!
My grip slipped, and the armrest of the chair broke with a sharp sound.
But I couldn't care less. My teeth were grinding in frustration.
"Which fucker came up with this?!"
This sort of data, similar to MMORPGs, obviously came from players' overactive imaginations and the backlash of their faith.
The divine power required for each option was ridiculously high.
After confirming that the customization option in the control panel was still there and that I could delete these features anytime, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Luckily, the backlash from the players' faith couldn't override my admin privileges.
Only then did I have the energy to examine the new purchasable features that had appeared.
Health points, constitution, attack, defense, elemental affinity—these were all related to the players themselves.
They subdivided the players' physical conditions into various stats for easier viewing.
It was understandable that players wanted and believed the game panel could implement such features.
But the appraisal skill…
"Could it have been extrapolated from the ability to view IDs on the game panel?"
In the real world, you couldn't have an ID floating above everyone's head, so I had been manually typing them in the backend to help players identify others.
Now it seemed players' imagination had turned that into an appraisal skill.
"... Nice one," I muttered to myself.
I almost forgot about this feature.
After some tinkering, I spent 50 divine power to make the ID display realistic data again, leaving me with 664 points.
It looked like a lot, but I couldn't afford any of the new features.
I'd either have to save up or manipulate players to create more faith backlash, which would lower the costs of these features.
Thus, even though the new features were very tempting and could help players train efficiently or choose the right focus for their development, I could only glance at them and indulge in a bit of window shopping.
I had also customized a few other features, but without real-world references, the divine power costs were just as high as the earlier items, forcing me to give up.
Just as I was about to close the window and head home for some rest, a thought struck me.
"During the god-resurrection ritual last time, didn't I use divine power to break through to Great Magus?"
Although things were chaotic at the time, I clearly remembered the sensation of my power surging.
Even though it had probably cost more than 10,000 divine power, the fact that I managed to break through several major levels in a row showed how effective divine power was.
Would 1,000 divine power be enough for something meaningful?
After pondering for a while, I made up my mind.
I wouldn't waste divine power on myself just to heal minor injuries like fractures...
Unless the results were significant, of course.
And now was one of those times.
I quickly returned to my residence, locked all the doors and windows, and sat cross-legged on the bed.
Taking a deep breath, I used my mind to click the system template.
The next moment, 1,000 divine power points vanished from the system panel.
---Third POV---
Inside the house, a blinding golden light erupted.
By the river, two players keeping watch over a charcoal kiln were chatting idly.
"Do you think the mud bricks we made are reliable? I feel like the surface has cracks."
"It's nighttime, how can you even see that? Must be your imagination."
As far as he could tell, there were no cracks on the kiln.
"Maybe... Wait?! Look behind you, the town is glowing!"
The player speaking rubbed his eyes in disbelief as he stared behind them.
"I see it! It seems to be coming from the church area—huh? It's gone now?"
In the blink of an eye, the town was dark again.
"Did we imagine it?"
"Is it a game bug?"
Unable to figure it out, the two players decided to ignore it.
After all, this wasn't a horror game—what was there to fear?
Luminaris, who had just fallen asleep, woke up with a strange premonition.
Yawning, he looked at the starry sky through the high window.
"Still not dawn? Guess I'll go back to sleep..."
Suddenly, his movement froze as if someone had hit pause, and he slowly looked down at an accelerated pace.
When he realized what had happened, he let out a blood-curdling scream.
"Noooo!!! My divine power!"
The four-digit divine power he'd had before closing his eyes had somehow shrunk to three digits overnight!
"Undead!!! What did you do?!"
---
---
50 advance chapters!
[email protected]/Malphegor