I Am the God of Games

Like in the first round, Isaac led his squadron toward the designated venue as instructed by their bangles.

If he had underestimated the first stage a little, he was now giving the second round every bit of focus he had following his baptism of fire.

Over the last three days, the magic mirrors at Lancaster Square was not turned off, but instead replayed some of the most exciting moments in the first round. Naturally, the most frequently replayed clips were a compilation of betrayals. Even if the average citizen wouldn’t dare to point their fingers at the unscrupulous behavior of believers from other churches, since clearing the first round meant that those underhanded individuals actually have some extent of ability-it didn’t stop them from spreading the word in secret.

Moreover, the other religious factions who were already at odds with those factions would jump on the chance of making them a laughing stock, and in just a few days, the reputation of several churches fell rock-bottom.

And for Isaac, captain of the wyvern knights squadron, dying in battle didn’t matter—but embarrassing themselves was a big deal.

For better or worse, he was someone with stature in the Temple of Glory, a believer of the God of War who valued honor. If he were to face such outrageous humiliation, he would have committed ritual suicide in public even if he had won.

And that sentiment wasn’t limited to his squadron either. The believers of other churches had more or less felt the terrific power of becoming the topic of conversation, although they weren’t aware of how vital such things were and had no intention of wrestling control of public opinion from Lancaster city or the Church of Games.

In fact, it wouldn’t mean a thing even if they wanted to since not all gods had the free time to make videos for them.

And without anything as proof apart from their word, they were naturally less convincing than the Church of Games. Even in this era without the Internet, the principle of ‘pictures or it didn’t happen’ still applied—with Xi Wei’s exquisite edited video compilation, it didn’t matter if everyone else tried to explain themselves away over three days and nights…

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It appeared that the starting point of the second round wasn’t limited to one: on the way to his destination, Isaac had noticed two other roll-call locations for members of other churches.

He found that others had already gathered at his own designated location when he arrived as well, including two familiar faces: Jom and

Terry.

‘Could it be that we’re grouped according to the time when we cleared the last round?’ Isaac thought while greeting the pair of youths.

“Hey, kiddos. Have you thought about my offer?”

“Our leader has given his approval, although we would have to wait until the match is over before we go into specifics.” Jom relayed Angora’s reply word-for-word. “But of course.” Isaac nodded, knowing then that the leader of the Church of Games wasn’t an unreasonable fool while coming up with some theories on the Church of Games development strategy. Some might feel confused since Isaac’s suggestion was clearly a win-win and benefits the Church of Games to some extent, so why refuse him?

Even so, such offers were actually often refused.

After all, to the decision maker, agreeing to it would benefit the group and not themselves individually—and in some cases hurt them. That was why those people would always make a choice that appeared unbelievable to outsiders.

For example, if Angora were a traitor who was intent on pledging his loyalty to the Brilliant White Church by selling out the Church of Games, he certainly wouldn’t ally his faction with the Temple of Glory, which at once hurts his impression to the Brilliant White Church while making his inevitable betrayal more difficult.

“By the way, are you two joining us for the second round?” Isaac asked then, extending an invitation to Terry and Jom.

Even if the captain of the wyvern knights still didn’t know about the minimap gimmick, he remembered how the pair seemed to have a perfect sense of direction and performed outstandingly. And when he connected that to compilation videos showing the top performances that the other players put in in the last round, Isaac was not that foolish to not recognize that the Church of Games’ believers had grasped something akin to sacred arts in recognizing the way. As long as the map wasn’t so narrow that a single glance was enough to take it all in, such ability would be quite vital.

In addition, the two kids could hold themselves in a fight-meaning that they wouldn’t have to worry about being a burden for the team and that there was value in inviting them.

Be that as it may, Jom had promptly refused Isaac’s invitation, even building on it with an excuse that Isaac couldn’t counter.

After the various backstabbing incidents in the last round, the believers of the God of Games had decided to make their own groups like the other churches in the second round.

As such, Isaac could only feel that it was a pity. And since they weren’t from the Temple of Glory, his squadron was not going to kidnap them by face.

Meanwhile, as the countdown timer to the second round arrived at zero, everyone who had reached their designated locations were teleported away by Xi Wei once again to the venue of the second round: the fishmen island.

To the contestants, the teleportation was no different from last time since they arrived at their destination with a flash of white light. Still, Xi Wei had to use a lot of strength compared to the teleportation maze islandindeed, he deflated like a balloon when he then remembered that he had to teleport the contestants back after this round was over…

Meanwhile, every contestant was informed about the details of the current stage with their bangles, while the Players were assigned a new tourney quest in their quest panel.

[Tourney quest: Dragon-slaying heroes]

(A vile dragon, rising from the depths of the seas is now attacking this peaceful island with its brethren, spurred on by a certain mastermind. Your quest is to reel its brethren and claim the head of the vile dragon who underestimates earth itself right here to warn off the villain who doesn’t belong on land!]

(Quest objective: The killing of each quest target would be rewarded with corresponding points—fishman invader (1 point), elite fishman invader (10 points), fishman invader leader/chief/shaman (50 points), and certain special fishman invaders are rewarded with additional points (please check the following table).

Additionally, the death of the Boss of this stage

– the Night Tide Dragon rewards a total of 100,000 points, with the points being distributed amongst the Players according to the extent of damage they inflicted upon the Boss. Clearing of the second round shall be viewed as quest accomplished, with the opposite being quest failure.]

[Quest reward: one mysterious weapon box (purple), two mysterious weapon box (blue)]

(Quest Failure Penalty: Player name would be mandatorily adjusted to ‘Loser’ after the second stage is over (Not listed in titles, no negative effects).)

[Note: Victory comes first, friendship comes second-The God of Games)