As he clicked on the first square titled "Believer's World: Zerg," the game screen quickly transformed into a pixelated scene.
In this high-tech future world, games with such a simplistic art style were rare.
This game seemed to have cut corners, saving money to the extreme—even skipping 3D models with textures. This was quite an approach.
Ke Su's eyebrows twitched, but he continued playing with suppressed frustration. After all, he'd already started, so he might as well see it through. As a seasoned gamer, known by the nickname "Shennong(1)" for his willingness to try any game, he could endure this level of "poison."
In the pixelated game world, a large continent modeled in pixel art stood at the center.
Some text appeared on the screen.
[For thousands of years, the Zerg on the Misty Continent have been engaged in endless wars, forgotten by the gods. They long for the presence of a god, willing to offer anything to receive the gaze of a deity.]
[Honorable ancient god, will you accept the Zerg's offering? Yes/No]
Ke Su observed the crude pixel model and realized that the game did have some merits. It allowed the same freedom of zoom as the famous sandbox game "Minecraft" from his previous life.
After zooming in several times, Ke Su saw countless, intricately aligned buildings with exotic designs standing on the continent.
Many oddly shaped pixel ants were scurrying about, their clothing varying in color.
Zerg? Aren't these just ants?
Ke Su watched the ants, which clearly had a high degree of freedom as they crawled around the continent, not understanding what they were doing. He also felt indifferent towards the pixelated buildings and quickly grew bored. After clicking "Yes" to accept, he returned to the game desktop.
A bright red progress bar for the offering appeared above the Zerg square. It had just started, at 10%, and was advancing very slowly.
Looking at the progress bar, Ke Su sighed and felt very bored.
This could take forever.
He wanted to check out other pages but was blocked by a system prompt stating that his "awakening level" was insufficient, and he could only accept offerings from one world for now.
Ke Su frowned and looked at the awakening progress bar on the screen.
[Awakening Progress: 0.1%]
According to the game's introduction, he could only unlock a second world after either the offering was completed or the awakening progress reached 0.2%.
Ke Su fell silent. He hadn't encountered many games that were so eager to drive players away. The gameplay was simple, and there were so many restrictions, as if they were afraid you'd play too much.
Feeling somewhat tricked, Ke Su moved his mouse to close the game but hesitated for a moment, curious about what would happen when the progress bar was filled.
In the end, curiosity won out. Ke Su didn’t close the game but instead put his computer in standby mode and went to bed.
By tomorrow morning, the progress bar should be almost full, and then he could decide what to do. If it was still this boring, he'd leave it on his desktop as a mascot—a small reminder.
Thinking this, Ke Su got up from his computer desk, straightened his bed a bit, and then crawled wearily into the covers.
Whether it was because of the recent late nights or some other reason, Ke Su felt particularly exhausted today. It was only midnight, but he could barely keep his eyes open and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
As Ke Su fell asleep, the bedroom became eerily quiet. The thick darkness, like a dense net, swallowed up all the sound and light in the room. Even the city noise from outside couldn't penetrate this not-so-spacious bedroom. Everything was as silent as the primordial chaos.
Had anyone been observing at that moment, they would have noticed that as the darkness spread from the bedroom as the center, the entire building became shrouded in a layer of fog invisible to humans, appearing faint and indistinct. The air rippled like the surface of water, with chaos and madness wrapped in the mist, making the house seem like it was teetering on the edge of hell and earth, sending shivers down one's spine.
At the center of this darkness, inside the bedroom, only the standby computer screen's light flickered.
[Offering Progress: 40%]
[Offering Progress: 50%]
...
[Offering Progress: 100%]
[Zerg Offering Result: Success]
On the computer screen, the red progress bar representing the Zerg world seemed to be moved forward by an invisible hand, advancing at an unbelievable speed, glowing a deep red like fresh blood.
Meanwhile, Ke Su, who was lying on the bed in deep sleep, frowned slightly as a faint noise reached his ears, a sound he didn’t particularly like.
"You are one and also many, the beginning of all things and the end of everything, merciful~"
A high-pitched female voice sang, her tone filled with an incomparably holy meaning.
"All-knowing, omnipresent~"
Pure children echoed, their harmonies soft and pleasant.
"O mighty god with boundless power, grant us your gaze~"
Under the stained glass windows of the church, the ant children, with their delicate, sharp teeth and caramel-colored, matte exoskeletons, sang intently, their antennae trembling slightly in the sunlight.
Today was the annual grand festival of the Curtis Empire. The children were rehearsing hymns for the festival. Listening to the children's innocent and melodious singing, the soldiers passing by outside the church couldn't help but soften their expressions.
People coming and going frequently glanced toward the altar in the center of the capital, their faces full of anticipation. Even the street vendors' shouts became more lively and cheerful.
After all, this was the grand festival of their greatest deity. No one could help but feel joyful about it.
As noon approached, everyone would gather near the capital's altar, praying together for the arrival of their great deity. On this day, there would be no distinction between rich and poor, no difference between men and women; everyone would have only one identity, that of a devoted follower of the great god.
They believed in their god because they were the nation of the god, the children of the god, and the god would protect them forever.
“What a devilish kingdom...”
Looking at the joyful citizens of the Curtis Empire on the streets, the prisoners of war, covered in wounds and locked in cages, sneered with disdain, their eyes filled with resentment.
Not far from the altar, tens of thousands of captured ant soldiers were crammed into narrow cages, with the smell of blood and rotting corpses permeating the entire street.
Yet the passing Curtis citizens seemed oblivious. Some even stepped forward to cut the flesh from the damaged shells of the prisoners, treating them like pigs or sheep to be sold. The buyers chewed on the flesh of prisoners of the same species, smiling with satisfaction, clearly pleased with the taste.
The wounded prisoners had nowhere to escape. Through the bloodstained iron bars, they glared with hatred at this sinful city, this cannibalistic empire.
If there truly is a god, why would they protect such a country and its people?
Or perhaps the god doesn’t care about the slaughter and devouring among the Zerg?
No one knew the answer, and the prisoners could only wait quietly and helplessly for their fate, which had been sealed the moment they lost the war.
They would become sacrifices for the so-called god, their heads displayed as decorations on the high altar, only allowed to be discarded in the wild once they were dried and shriveled by the sun.
Faced with the despair of the prisoners, the people of Curtis merely mocked them, saying that perhaps after death, they could ask the god themselves.
Soon, noon arrived, and the auspicious hour was upon them.
The guards responsible for the ceremony approached with sharp blades, cutting off the heads of the prisoners one by one. Cage after cage was opened, and heads were placed on the altar. The grand festival of unprecedented scale had finally begun!
The blazing sun shone upon the beautiful capital, under a clear blue sky. The blood beneath the altar stained the ground, making the festival participants even more excited. Laughter and joy filled the air above the capital, lingering for a long time.
“Merciful and great god, your humble followers offer you everything...”
On the altar, the high priest, dressed in luxurious robes adorned with gold and silver jewelry, danced a ceremonial dance in praise of the god, opening the festival.
“... All-knowing, omnipresent, with boundless power, O god, grant us your gaze~”
The sacred hymn followed, and the crowd erupted in cheers. They all shed their clothes, returning to the purity of life's beginning, crowding together, making strange gestures, and praying to the god.
They believed that through this prayer, their faith would reach the god, and so they cheered even more fervently, their faces flushed with an unnatural redness.
It all resembled a brainwashing ceremony of a cult.
Looking down at this miniature city from the clouds, Ke Su thought so.
A bit disgusting.
That was Ke Su's second thought.
He didn't know how he ended up here. He had simply opened his eyes to find himself in a strange place, surrounded by groups of ugly ants. Their appearance was so grotesque that it made him feel nauseated, though he could barely tolerate it.
On the altar, the high priest was still engrossed in the ritual dance, just like the crowd, unaware of any anomaly. The sacred hymn continued to call upon the name of the god.
No one noticed Ke Su's arrival.
“You are one, and you are many...”
Ke Su listened to the hymn in his ears, faint and intermittent, catching only fragments.
After a while, he realized that even though it was a language he had never heard before, he could strangely understand its meaning. He thought about it for a moment and concluded that he was probably dreaming.
And perhaps it had something to do with the game he played before going to bed. After looking at that "Believer's World," he had really put himself in the role of a god, now playing the part of a deity summoned by these followers.
Thinking this way, he felt a bit embarrassed. After all, Ke Su had only fantasized about being a god, worshiped by everyone, during his teenage years. Now, at his age, such childish thoughts were long gone.
But since it was a dream, it didn't matter.
Having figured out his current situation, Ke Su looked down again, his gaze sweeping over the area around the altar and the entire capital. The densely packed ants performing strange postures caught his eye.
So these are the summoners, though they're just a bunch of ants.
Ke Su watched the ants' every move, unable to comprehend their actions. However, being summoned as a god for the first time brought him some excitement and curiosity, so he moved closer, instinctively wanting to hear the ants' hymns more clearly.
He could sense that these ants were calling out to him, but it felt as if there was an invisible barrier between him and the ants, making their hymns seem faint and distant.
Ke Su wanted to hear more clearly, so he instinctively moved closer to the miniature city that looked like it was made of building blocks. It seemed that by doing so, the annoying barrier would disappear.
Seems interesting so far. Just wish the website was formatted a bit better to make reading easier.
ReplyDelete