Chapter 386 The old god is dead, and a new god must be established!
"The ancient god is dead."
"Call me Colin."
That majestic yet calm voice was like an invisible hammer, smashing the statue of "Merk" in Jon's heart.
He first felt a sense of loss and disorientation, as if the exploration of the past year had lost its meaning.
However, this loss did not last long and was soon replaced by a frenzy that swept through the whole body.
The Ancient God is dead—
A new god shall be established!
The boundless void did not abandon the Grays, but instead completed the alternation between the old and the new during the dark years and condensed a new legend.
How lucky I am!
I am the only witness of this great moment!
Just when he was too excited to control himself, the whisper from the unknown once again clearly echoed in his mind.
"May I have your name."
"Jon! My name is Jon."
Jon called out in his heart, his voice full of joy, like a lost child who had found his home.
"My Lord! Please forgive my negligence! I am just... too excited! We haven't heard your voice for too long!"
The mysterious voice responded to him again, with a hint of relief and approval.
"Jon, it's a great name. You don't have to feel guilty. Getting lost is a setback that all toddlers have to go through. I'm glad that you were able to find your way home instead of getting lost in the bustling material world."
Jon's face was flushed with excitement, and he didn't know what to say for a moment. At this moment, the whisper in the dark continued to sound in his mind.
"That's enough of the greetings. Now... let me see where you guys have been."
"As you command, my lord!" Jon nodded excitedly, but soon rubbed his hands in embarrassment and continued, "Forgive your servant's stupidity, how can I guide you and let your eyes touch this lost land?"
"It's easy." Colin's voice came again, with a hint of guidance, "Let the power of the void rely on a holy object that hosts your powerful telekinesis. Remember, this thing must be your most precious thing."
The most precious thing?
Jon subconsciously looked around his abandoned and dilapidated room. There was nothing here except garbage on the floor and a musty mattress.
He scratched his head for a long time, and finally stretched out his trembling hand and gently grasped the metal pendant tied with a leather rope on his chest.
That was the only thing left of his father.
In this cold world, he no longer has any relatives.
In comparison, the prophet Kyle who once caused a huge wave was much luckier than him. At least he had a younger brother who he needed to protect with his life.
"What should I do?" Jon took a deep breath, prepared to sacrifice everything, and responded to the voice from the void with unprecedented perseverance.
The newborn god looked at him, and his voice was as light as a feather falling from the sky.
"It's simple. Place it in the center of the ritual circle. Then call my name, pray to me, and ask for my will to come upon this land."
Is that all?
Jon was surprised, but he didn't hesitate.
He gently untied the metal pendant tied with a leather rope on his chest and placed it solemnly in the center of the simple magic circle on the ground.
He knelt on the ground and prayed devoutly, calling the name of the god over and over again in that clumsy but extremely sincere way.
Pure source power began to gather.
As the prayers continued, a wisp of light purple mist actually floated out of thin air from the simple magic circle he drew.
The mist seemed to have life, slowly and gently merging into the metal pendant left by his father.
At this moment, the mysterious voice sounded in his mind again with a hint of curiosity.
"By the way, what is this thing of yours?"
Jon was slightly stunned, then answered respectfully.
"This is the amulet my father gave me."
"Where is he?"
At this question, Jon's head dropped slightly, a hint of sadness in his voice.
"He...died, just ten years ago, at the age of fifty, from an incurable gill disease."
The god fell into a long silence, as if mourning for this tiny soul.
After a long time, the voice was heard again, a sigh with a hint of pity for the world.
"…Poor child."
In that long silence, the purple mist finally completely infused into the pendant. And the ordinary metal object also underwent a slight mutation, and the surface began to emit a faint glow, like a vivid eye.
"The ceremony is complete. Let us put aside the painful past and continue our great cause."
The mysterious voice regained its previous majesty, as if the warmth at that moment was just an illusion of Jon bathing in God's grace.
"Now, open the door, go outside, and let me see what this world has become since my ancestors left."
"Yes! My Lord."
Jon obeyed respectfully.
He slowly stood up, stretched out his thin but powerful hand, and pushed open the shabby door made of rusty iron sheets.
At the same time, on the other side of the virtual world, in Corin Tower, the picture in the virtual world lens changed dramatically with Jon's movements.
The originally dark and narrow room was replaced by a vast sky, and the ensuing light almost hurt the eyes of those who looked directly at it.
Through the pendant on Jon's chest, Luo Yan, Merck, Miller and all the assistants present truly saw for the first time the world behind Virtual Realm No. 178.
Soon, everyone was shocked by the scene before them!
It was a bizarre world, with towering buildings like shining lighthouses, and colorful rainbows overlapping each other, cutting the sky into narrow gaps and dividing the ground into bottomless canyons and abysses.
The gray mist seemed like it would never dissipate, scattering the flashing neon lights on the giant billboards in the sky into blurry spots of light.
Gray men in raincoats moved in the shadows behind the bright lights, like raindrops falling into puddles in the alley.
The raindrops are busy and numb, like ants foraging for food.
"Saint Sith is above..." Miller muttered subconsciously, deeply shocked by the scene before him.
From the perspective of visual impact alone, the miracle of Virtual Realm No. 440 is simply not worth mentioning compared to here!
Merck was so shocked that he widened his eyes and said in a lost voice: "How many wizard towers did they build?"
Luo Yan smiled in his heart.
That is not a wizard's tower, and what it studies is not the mysteries of the source of law, but something else that is equally profound.
However, he did not explain much, but just turned his gaze back to Jon behind the virtual world, signaling Miller to continue conveying his will.
“I didn’t expect the world to change so much.”
As the mages chanted, the mysterious voice turned into spiritual ripples that passed through the virtual world and resounded in Jon's mind again.
"Tell me, my child...how long have we been apart?"
After hearing this, Jon immediately responded respectfully, with a hint of melancholy about the changes of time in his voice.
"Ninety-nine years, my Lord... Only one year away, and we will have been separated for a century."
"Ninety-nine years. That's a long time."
From somewhere, that majestic yet calm voice was heard again, and in the melancholy voice there was a hint of approval from an elder to a younger generation.
"It seems that you have not wasted this century. You have used this time to create such a beautiful work."
beauty?
Hearing this word, Jon's expression instantly twisted with anger and jealousy. He lowered his head, trying to hide the expression that had nowhere to hide.
"My Lord, I beg your pardon for not agreeing with your point of view..." He almost squeezed out these words from between his teeth, full of resentment towards this world, "There is probably no work uglier than this in this universe!"
As soon as he said this, he immediately regretted it. Then, a fear that penetrated deep into his bones gripped him... How dare he disobey the gods in the void? !
However, to his surprise, the expected divine punishment did not come.
The great being simply looked at him lovingly and responded to his "naughtiness" in a fatherly tone.
"Really? It seems you are not satisfied with this work."
This gentle response touched the softest part of Jon's heart.
Perhaps because he lost his father at an early age, he particularly longed for the feeling of being cared for, even though he came from endless darkness.
"No one will like it, my Lord..." His voice trembled, and his attitude became humble again, even more humble than before, "Except those who really own them, or think they own them!"
The voice in the void was silent.
He swallowed his bitter saliva, looked at the tall buildings in the distance, and muttered to himself.
"When I was still an employee of the company, I was very proud to be able to sit in that glowing tower that soared into the sky. My job was to design door opening advertisements for refrigerator doors. Although people didn't know me, they would see my work when they opened the door. Every day when I woke up, I felt that my life was meaningful. And... this job brought me a lot of money, allowing me to live a decent life and use better prosthetics."
"Until one day, I fell ill and was ruthlessly driven out of there. Then I realized how foolish I had thought. That tower did not belong to me for a single second. Even my prosthetic body was not mine. And the work I was once proud of was not liked by people. It was not until recently that I used my own product... That damn thing actually required staring at it for 30 seconds before it could be unlocked, and I had to pay for the electricity!"
He put aside all his disguises and strength, and poured out all his grievances and unwillingness to the only god who was willing to listen to him.
No one wanted to listen to his complaints because they were also struggling in this dirty gray fog, and only by adding insult to injury to another poor person could they get a respite.
Except Colin.
He lovingly accepted everything about him and listened to him talk about his pain. This feeling... was as if he were really his father.
At this moment, on the other side of the virtual world, Merck listened to the unfamiliar words transmitted through spiritual resonance, with a look of confusion on his face.
refrigerator?
advertise?
What is that?
However, although he was confused, he did not think too deeply about it.
There are always some inexplicable concepts behind the virtual world, which are all "noise" that cannot be correctly understood and translated.
Xuebang's magicians cannot always dig out useful things from behind the virtual world. After all, the premise for exchanging information through the virtual world channel is "resonance".
I just don’t know why…
Listening to the complaints of this alien, Merck always had an inexplicably strong sense of déjà vu.
Suddenly he came back to his senses.
I see--
The refrigerator and advertisements represent the virtual world!
Stare for thirty seconds to unlock the virtual world!
He was shocked by the discovery.
Miller, on the other hand, hurriedly wrote down the two concepts he didn't understand in his notebook, faithfully fulfilling his duties as a teaching assistant.
Among all the people present, only Luo Yan understood all of this.
He had a heart-warming smile on his face, like a true god, looking at the helpless child and whispering with compassion in his voice.
"I see. You want to change everything. Not just your own fate, but the fate of all the Grays."
The whispers that sounded like morning bells and evening drums rang out in the depths of his consciousness. Jon felt like a baby who had just woken up from a dream and opened his ignorant eyes for the first time.
I see--
He was once confused about why he was pursuing the whispers of the ancient gods, but now all the fog had been blown away by the wind blowing from the void.
It's not because of the incurable disease.
Nor was it because of the unpayable loan.
He wants to change the fate of all the Grays!
Only by changing the fate of all the gray men can he save himself!
The flame of life rekindled in those dim pupils. There was no longer the turbidity of nothingness and confusion, nor was there muddleheadedness and compromise.
He clenched his fists and shouted from the depths of his soul with a voice that was hotter and more intense than ever before.
"That's right! I want to change all this!"
However, the flame soon dimmed again, as if extinguished by the coldness of reality.
"But... they are too powerful." Jon's voice was low and hoarse with a hint of despair. "They have rifles, tanks, roaring aircraft and cold prosthetic armor... Moreover, they also control the media. It's not that no one has resisted before, but they were almost wiped out in an instant, both their bodies and their voices."
Inside Corinthian, Merck was increasingly unable to understand what the gray man was saying.
He even began to think that the bizarre world behind the virtual realm was more like an "ancient god" full of forbidden knowledge.
It would be great if we could get that knowledge over here.
Although they didn't have the source power, they seemed to have mastered other powers. Just like he had seen before, they used methods other than the source power to make the flames of the stars fall to the ground.
But what’s interesting is that His Royal Highness Colin doesn’t seem to be bothered by the wisdom of the “ancient gods”.
He had a strange gift for unraveling fragments of information and drawing precise and correct inferences to keep the conversation going.
All the strange things seemed normal to him.
"That's because the time has not come yet."
The god looked at Jon with loving care. He could not see the gaze, but he could clearly feel the care that spanned the endless void.
"When you were young, weren't you part of 'The Company'? You even controlled the ads on the refrigerator. I guess that's also a form of media, although it's just the tip of the iceberg. You have to admit that you didn't really hate it back then. You even loved it."
“You mean… people don’t hate the company?”
Jon couldn't accept this fact, but he couldn't deny it. He could lie to himself, but he couldn't deceive his loving father.
The god said gently.
"Yes. People didn't hate Merck from the beginning. They liked him at first, but they got tired of him later."
Merck glanced at Colin with an awkward expression, but when he found that the latter's expression did not change at all, he could only retract his subtle gaze.
really.
There is actually nothing wrong with what His Royal Highness Colin said.
Kyle didn't defeat "Iron Hand" with just his two fists. The extraordinary power he bestowed on him was just an embellishment on the grand battlefield.
Hearing this, Jon felt a little depressed. He was silent for a long time before asking in a cautious tone.
"So... now, is it time?"
His heart was filled with fear, afraid of getting an answer of "no" from the mouth of the supreme being.
There is no greater tragedy for mortals than this.
He is just a snail on a pendulum, and he can only crawl towards the cold pointer under his feet in his entire life.
In his short life, he cannot wait too long and is destined to be a flying insect in the summer, never waiting for the withering in the winter.
Fortunately——
God loves him.
"certainly."
"The fact that you can hear my voice is the best proof."
Looking at those eyes filled with hope, the voice from the unknown, with unquestionable majesty, brought down the first oracle after His return.
"All mortals have a lifespan, and so do mortal kingdoms. Just as your father's lifespan is fifty years, your kingdom's lifespan is ninety-nine years."
“The reckoning has come.”
"And I will give you the tools to carry out the reckoning."
…
What to do next is already clear.
For the magicians of the school, infusing the basic knowledge of the Source School behind the virtual world is almost as easy as exercises in a textbook.
Luo Yan instructed the "envoy of God" on the other side of the virtual realm to help those poor people who were also struggling in the slums, to accumulate more "source power" for the "holy object" worn on his chest, and to develop them into believers of the "Spirit of the Universe" sect.
The pendant is like the "system" of this messenger of God, except that it does not issue him tasks frequently.
The "source power" accumulated in his chest will serve as his strength. Colin allows him to borrow the authority from the void that belongs to the gods!
On the other side, Luo Yan gave instructions to Miller beside him.
"Use our existing source power to heal our 'God's Messenger'. Then, teach him the basic methods of guiding and using the source power..."
Just like when they were guiding the Pope in Virtual Realm No. 440.
The magicians of Corinta would enter his dreams, and transmit messages from another universe while he was sleeping or meditating...
In the end, Luo Yan, as "Colin", left a final order to the messenger of God who was feeling the new power in his body.
Or guidance.
The sound was like a morning bell, echoing deep in Jon's soul.
"...The collapse of a building often starts from the most inconspicuous corners. You need to unite those poor people like you, find those cleansed extraordinary people, tell them that the old gods are dead and new gods should be established, and establish a close spiritual resonance with them like we do."
"If you want to be saved, you can't just save yourself."
“You have to start with the smallest things, start with helping the people around you, and ignite the torch in their hearts…”
"You also need to tell them that there are saviors in this world. Each of you is a savior."
…
The weak source of power gradually ran out, and the clear image on the virtual lens was once again locked in a gray mist.
If they wanted to re-establish a stable connection, they would have to wait for the seed they had just planted to take root and sprout on the reborn ruins, and wait for the believers of the Cosmic Spirit Sect to use their piety to refill this almost dried-up "holy pool".
Although the subsequent progress remains to be seen, Miller and other assistant coaches all showed joy on their faces at the successful completion of the task.
In their view, their mentors have taken them to take the first step towards success.
If Virtual Realm No. 178 can reproduce the interim results of Virtual Realm No. 440, then the prestige of the "Science" school will undoubtedly reach an unprecedented new height in this Great Sage's Tower!
Merck was filled with emotion.
Looking at the prince who had appeared to be at ease from beginning to end, an expression of conviction appeared on his face for the first time.
He was really convinced!
"Your operation... really opened my eyes." Merck praised sincerely, and then asked the biggest puzzle in his mind, "But I have a question. What is the difference between what you are doing now and what I did at the beginning?"
Although he didn't say it very clearly, the implication was obvious -
Isn't this newly elected Jon just another rat in the gutter? Wouldn't putting this guy on the throne be a repeat of Kyle's mistakes?
Luo Yan smiled faintly, looked at the confused Merck, and revealed the key in one sentence.
"The difference is that I didn't put this piece in the king's place."
Merck was stunned for a moment and asked subconsciously.
"So where are you going to put him?"
Luo Yan said casually.
"To fulfill his wish, of course."
"desire?"
"Didn't you hear it?"
Without appreciating the surprised expression on Merck's face, Luo Yan waved his hand to signal Miller to go home and have dinner, and then spoke slowly.
"He wanted to let his useless flesh and blood burn once more before his soul returned to the Kingdom of God."
"He will die first."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
