Chapter 403: Waters Run Deep With The God of Games
Joey Arbiter was once a believer of Marcolo, the God of Harvest. However, after the Players had rescued him on one occasion, he paid the price of a-third of his blood to leave that religion and convert to the Church of Games (while harboring the ambition of becoming Terry and Jom’s stepdad).
Unlike most of the Players who base their activities on the Eastern Continent, Joey was in a three-man group with Zonyan Grayclaw and Vulcan Cher because of his good relationship with Zonyan. They would always be exploring the Western Continent, and would never be in the Eastern Continent unless the God of Games had started an event.
Still, the quests over at the Eastern Continent could be dull, and the only thing they could work on continuously was to farm reputation amongst the Long Ears.
In fact, Joey and the others had taken part the hill-folk siege event two days ago in order to join in the liveliness, but they did not score well and none of them managed to secure a hidden-class.
Of course, it was not to say they returned empty-handed. With their contribution points, they managed to exchange for some items.
But being the one with the lowers level amongst the trio, Joey naturally had to use the contribution points in the event to redeem more acceptable equipment, so that he could go about quests better.
That was why he was alone at the Unnamed Town after Zonyan and Vulcan had already returned to the Western Continent. Though the Player forums were convenient, it was easier to bargain offline, just as it was both more convenient and encrypted for people to exchange certain second-hand equipment.
And now, Joey was certainly very shocked to find Rangka in the Unnamed Town.
“Mister Rangka, are you a believer of the God of Games?”
But since when would the Rabbitfolk started to convert to the Church of Games?
Rangka, meanwhile, was pleasantly surprised.
He naturally could not avoid feeling nervous and worried in unfamiliar land, even if it appeared wonderful…
In the distance, the man-eating flower was poking its tongue out.
Okay, not all that wonderful.
Either way, Rangka was very relieved to see a familiar face.
Moreover, he got a clue of what was going on thanks to Joey’s words.
Since Joey was so sure that he was now a believer of the God of Games, it meant that this place was open only to the God of Games’ believers, even if it was not his divine kingdom!
Hence, he no longer hesitated to approach Joey and told him about everything that happened to him.
Joey was taken aback.
Still, he got the gist of it—in a nutshell, in a situation where his death was certain, Rangka became a believer of the God of Games, barely surviving the threat and was revived at the lifestone of the Unnamed Town.
In fact, the God of Games had even assigned Rangka a quest so that he had enough EXP to be revived.
“Still, isn’t he supposed to stay in the black hut for three days before being revived?” Joe mused to himself doubtfully.
“I heard that new believers of the God of Games get a revival experience ticket.” A Player passing by answered.
“A revival experience ticket?”
“Yes, and it’s more or less the same like a Resurrection Ankh, although you would be revived at a locked place and not the closest lifestone.” The Player added. “It feels unreliable, however, which is why I’m still planning to get more Resurrection Ankhs.”
Joey nodded then. No wonder Rangka would be revived at an Unnamed Town.
Though strictly speaking, the Sky Horizon was the Players’ base at present, the God of Games had decided that the Players’ default respawn location—whether deliberately or accidentally—was the Unnamed Town.
“What’s going on now?”
Rangka was left utterly confused as he listened on beside them, finding that waters run deep with the God of Games. Resurrection Ankh, revival experience ticket and whatnot, those things were a bunch of random stuff here at the Church of Games when it would be immeasurably profound in other faiths. It even sounded as common as cabbages, and the believers of the Church of Games appear to feel nothing forbidding about it…
That being said, Joey did not have Rangka go on the Player forums directly to check the post of other newbie Players, since the forums was an utter mess of random things with all sorts of different exciting posts. If they allowed a Player who was not mentally prepared to enter, they would leave it not as a dominating Player who understood the System like the back of his hand, but a degenerate…
One ought to mention that Xi Wei would definitely bring his knife to every harmful post, but since he also believed that lewdness was one of the original motivations for humankind, he would let it pass as long as there was no explicitness, voyeurism or nonconsensual elements.
And that was the truth. Although wanting natives of a fantasy world to understand the various functions of a web forums was quite troublesome, newbies began to join the forums quicker with the lewd posts, not to mention that the comments beneath the post were quite peaceful and not violent.
But that was digressing. Either way, Rangka was extremely stunned after understanding that the believers of the God of Games could consume EXP for revivals, with his ears straightening.
Nonetheless, he soon recovered and conveyed his hope for Joey to help him save his nephew. Although he had nothing to offer that Joey would like, his ears had actually straightened.
For his part, Joey did not protest, and both of them promptly teleported to the Long Ears’ village with the Unnamed Town’s lifestone.
The Long Ears had gotten used to the Players emerging from the lifestone out of the blue, with some of the Long-Ears who were close to the players being invited to the Players’ feasts before. Still, some of them were startled this time when Rankga leapt out as well.
Still, Rangka anxiously told the tribal chief about what he encountered on his return journey, and was ready to leave to rescue Laybit.
However, he did not expect that the tribe chief would hesitate for a moment before telling him, “Actually, I think it doesn’t matter whether you go now.”
“What?” Rangka couldn’t help exclaiming in shock. “Don’t you trust me anymore? I am still a member of Long-Ears tribe even if I had joined the Church of Games! And Laybit is your son! He is now in dire straits because of our mistake, why shouldn’t we save him with however we can!?”
“Calm down, Rangka, you’ve misunderstood me.” The Long-Ears’ chief sighed, and waved his hands for Rangka to compose himself. “I mean that Zonyan and Vulcan who were already at our village before had left just a while ago.”
“What… but how could they have known…” Rangka paused in shock—he had paid the price of his life to allow Laybit to escape, but somehow others had learned about it already.
“I don’t know either,” the Long-Ears’ chief answered with a pained smile. “But that’s probably what it means to be Players.”