Chapter 1 Moon, Jinghai Cloud Palace

On the moon, in the Jinghai Cloud Palace, the gentleman penguin, Achille, dressed in a spacesuit, had somehow moved a large, gray-brown television with a bulbous screen onto a relatively flat piece of lunar rock.

The television had two signal receivers on top, and its power cord, dangling from the back, was not plugged in. Yet, the screen projected an ultra-high-definition image that was completely different from the style of the device itself.

The image displayed none other than Hoenheim, Tai Hao, Li Ang, and others engaged in fierce combat with otherworldly demons in the Doorway Battle.

Penguin Achille leaned on his cane.

The Professor and Hanba stood some distance apart, watching,

while the Shenlong, with its head held high, overlooked the television screen from above. It seemed to be squinting its eyes because it was too far away to see clearly. If an uninformed person were present, they might, in addition to being awestruck and respectful, believe that this posture was full of the majesty and holiness of a mythological creature.

"The ritual is almost complete,"

Achille muttered to himself, tapping his cane with the tip of his short wing, "Ten more minutes..."

"To be precise, eight minutes and fifteen seconds,"

the Professor said softly, "This ritual is part of a special apotheosis ceremony. I witnessed it firsthand and even attempted it in another world."

Achille and Hanba turned their gazes to the Professor.

The latter smiled wryly and said, "Back then, I was young and reckless, fearless because of my ignorance...

In short, the purpose of this ritual is to completely disassemble and divide one's flesh, soul, true name, and so on,

and merge them with a quasi-god who is willing, or who is bound and imprisoned, mentally unstable, or on the verge of death."

Quasi-gods were existences incredibly close to becoming gods. As long as they had enough worshipers, they could ignite the divine fire, possess a godhead, and ascend to godhood through some symbolic mystical rituals that were either simple or complex.

There were three subcategories of quasi-gods: demigods, titans, and Qi spirits.

Demigods referred to earthly beings born from the union of gods and mortal life, primitive totem gods, or mortal lives with divinity and other extraordinary powers but without a godhead;

Titans were the sacred creations of gods, or beings born from miracles of the same level as gods. For example, Ymir, the ancestor of the giants in Norse mythology, who was born from the rivers of the Hvergelmir spring, was on par with or even more powerful than some gods;

Qi spirits referred to gods or demigods who had lost their kingdom of God and worshipers and were infinitely close to death. Divine abominations (products of divine power that should not have been born) were sometimes included in the ranks of Qi spirits.

"Gods are great beings with infinite power, but also pathetic prisoners in the crystal wall system—of course, this is in relation to us traversers.

If ordinary people could become gods, it would still be a meteoric rise, very tempting."

The Professor explained, "Generally speaking, if a mortal life wants to become a god, they must have divinity, believers, and land, consolidating their foundation step by step to become a demigod.

Then, based on the demigod, they can make further plans.

The total amount of mystical origins in each crystal wall system is limited, and it cannot accommodate too many gods.

If every god position is occupied, then mortals who want to become gods must wait for gods to fall, or plot to kill them.

Currently, in Earth's Slaughter Game, some players have discovered that it is extremely difficult to advance from mortal to demigod.

Even with divinity, believers, land, and a full bar of divine power, they cannot complete the demigod advancement ritual. To this end, they even want to hunt down demigods or divine creatures of the same attribute,

merge their bodies, and advance to demigod..."

"Theoretically, this is possible, right?"

Achille interjected, "Demigods aren't exactly rare existences."

"That might have been the case in other worlds, or even on Earth before."

The Professor said calmly, "However, when I came to Earth, I discovered that something had been done to this planet.

Now, any life contaminated with Earth's 'origin' will find it incredibly difficult to advance to demigod.

I'm not sure if this is due to the punishment from the previous Slaughter Game,

or if it was deliberately set up collectively by the players of a previous Slaughter Game—I remember a term called 'Juedi Tiantong,' prohibiting mortal lives from attempting to walk the path of the gods."

The Professor glanced at Hanba, who snorted coldly, "I've been sleeping all these years, I don't know what's been happening on the ground."

"Is that so..."

The Professor coughed slightly, "So far, the Earth players in this session don't know this yet, they are still working hard on the investigation, including one of my disciples, he is a very clever child...

In any case, in other worlds, the difficulty of mortal lives advancing to demigod is much lower, but it is not without it,

especially in those low-level worlds with insufficient 'mystical origins.'

The people of the planet I traveled to invented this ritual for this purpose.

It allows mortal lives to resist the high mystical contamination of demigods, titans, and Qi spirits during the fusion of 'origins,' preventing themselves from being assimilated.

They can even turn the tables, swallowing the elephant like a snake,

completely devouring the divinity of demigods, titans, and Qi spirits,

and advance directly to quasi-god in one step.

As long as they possess the 'origin' of a quasi-god, they can bypass various restrictions,

and are only one step away from igniting the divine fire, obtaining a godhead, and becoming an official god.

Huangshi and his companions hold this idea—they want Huangshi to fuse with and replace the existence at the bottom of the Lost World,

allowing Huangshi to advance to quasi-god."

The Professor paused and said softly, "Huangshi's world may have performed well in the previous Slaughter Game, receiving preferential treatment from the system,

or their world's traversers are sacrificing enough to obtain intelligence on the Lost World.

Allowing them to prepare all the apotheosis preparations in advance.

Their world should also have detection equipment that can broadcast the Lost World competition in full—if that's the case, then Huangshi may not even need to remain a quasi-god for long,

he can use the worship and belief of billions of intelligent beings in their world,

skip the quasi-god stage,

and advance to godhood in one step..."

"And he would still be the only god in their world, exclusively possessing the 'origin.'"

Achille said softly, "Weak divine power? Intermediate divine power? Or even powerful divine power?

If their world is the first to produce a god with powerful divine power in this session of the Slaughter Game,

then the other worlds connected by the door will have no room to fight back..."

"Including Earth."

The Professor added, "Twenty privately controllable doors are just the beginning.

The myriad worlds will gradually connect, and whoever gains a head start will be able to leave everyone else in the dust...

This is a winner-takes-all competition..."

"..."

Hanba listened to the Professor's analysis indifferently, glanced at him, and said coldly, "But you don't seem very nervous."

"I believe we will win."

The Professor's expression was solemn, "Definitely."