I Am the God of Games

Having read a lot of isekai web novels¹ before he had transmigrated, Xi Wei found that those that had supernatural abilities all had clear stages and ranks, for example: Bronze, Silver, and Gold or Sword Scholar, Sword Emperor, and Sword Sage.

But coming to this world, he realized that the same could not be said for this world.

Of course, it was a given that there would be a difference in prowess between different people. But in a world filled with deities, martial prowess could not completely correspond to reputation and social standing.

In the Brilliant White Church which worshipped one of the Seven Heavenly Fathers—God of Light Lyante, there was a seemingly complete ranking system for paladins going from Revered Knight→ Honorable Knight→Glorious Knight→Divine Knight.

However, a vast majority of people ranked as Honorable Knights were aristocrats who had bought their way up to that position by buying Divine Grace Tickets. The same could be said for Glorious Knights too—many of them had achieved that rank without being qualified for it. Speaking purely in terms of ability, these people could not even hold a candle to a soldier who had earned their title as a Praised Knight through military merit. The only ones which still held some degree of authority were the Divine Knights—as that rank could only be appointed by a deity.

So in words, the polarization between the rich and the poor was pretty deeply rooted in the society of this world, as however devout a peasant could be, most of their time would ultimately be consumed by the toil of everyday life—to the point where a year’s worth of prayer might not even amount to an aristocrat’s daily offering of Illuminating Crystals.

Even in this world full of deities, there would only be a few lucky ones who could grab the attention of a deity at birth and become Chosen Ones or Saints (or Saintesses) that would be sought after and revered.

No matter how hardworking a person was, they would have no chance of climbing up the social ladder without the attention of a deity.

This was reality after all, and deities were not powerful and all-knowing. It was understood that this sort of situation would happen in a society completely controlled by humans.

However, this granted Xi Wei an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. The commoners who were exploited and looked down upon by the churches would be the ones that would become the basis for his church to grow exponentially!

Perhaps it was because he was a transmigrator that Xi Wei realized that aside from the abilities the original God of Games had, he discovered that he could freely transverse the barriers between the different realms. Even though it was somewhat restricting, he had a pretty large advantage when compared to other deities.

Normally, a deity would be bound by the natural laws of the world, and could only descend to the mortal realm in three ways:

The first way would be through an oracle, where the deity would attach wisps of their consciousness to an item blessed by them or on an idol created in their image, or by directly entering the dreams of a devout believer¹. Most prophecies and divine proclamations were passed to the mortal realm through this method.

The second way would be through possession, where the deity would possess one of their Chosen Ones as their temporary vessel. The amount of power a deity would be able to utilize in this state would depend directly on the capacity of the vessel, and how much they would be able to withstand. That being said, the capacity of a Chosen One favored by a deity would not be low in the first place.

The final way would be through astral projection, where the deity would temporarily project an astral shadow of themselves to the mortal realm, damaging their divinity in the process. This would be the strongest form a deity would be able to take without violating the natural laws, holding around 80% of their original power. Even a random third-grade deity’s astral shadow would be able to rival a legendary warrior, let alone deities of even higher power.

Putting aside the first way which did not have much battle prowess, possession could last for quite a long time. That being said, one possession would practically render a Chosen One useless. To put it into perspective, even in the churches of the Seven Heavenly Fathers which were some of the strongest churches around, the number of Chosen Ones would not amount to more than thirty!

Astral projection was not only short-lasting; but it also damages the divinity of the deity who does it. To deities, their divinity was equivalent to the significance of the soul to human beings. It was of the utmost importance to a deity. Therefore, a deity would not choose to descend using this method except for as a last resort.

As for directly descending to the mortal realm, it would probably be impossible to accomplish. The natural laws set by the Trinity of Creation were extremely hard to override, so much so that even the Seven Heavenly Fathers would have to pay a hefty price to get through the barriers between realms. In the best situation, their divinity would be extremely damaged, while in the worst-case scenario, they would immediately cease to exist!

And despite all that, Xi Wei could bypass all of these restrictions as a transmigrator, depleting divine energy as compensation to descend his mortal self from his past life into the mortal realm. He could even call upon the power he saved in the divine realm whenever he needed it… It was simply illegal!

…Granted the amount of energy he had in the divine realm now was pitifully low.

“Hmm… I only have seven days’ worth of divine energy left… Alright! Let’s do this!”

☆

Kennington was a small mountain village far away from the city.

Remote and poor, the villagers kept to themselves and rarely strayed or moved away from the village, and no one entered the remote village as well, except for when intermarriage happened between them and the surrounding villages.

There have been some youngsters who had traveled to big cities with big dreams and stars in their eyes. However in this xenophobic society, these youngsters who had no special skills other than hunting had to return miserably to the village, continuing to live in danger and poverty.

That was the case, until a special guest arrived in the village three days ago.

Twelve-year-old Eleena trod through large expanses of barren potato fields, her steps light and sprightly as her silver twintails swayed in tandem with her movements. Arriving at a small stone cottage out of the village, she knocked gently on the door.

After a while, the faulty wooden door creaked open.

Appearing at the door was a thin and lanky young man. He did not seem to be in good health, his cheeks pale and lacking color, making him look weak and sickly.

“Hello, Mister Xi Wei,” the girl greeted, bowing her head politely.

“Ahh if it isn’t Eleena. How is your uncle?”

The young man was naturally Xi Wei who had just descended to the mortal realm.

However since the divine energy he had left was sparse, he couldn’t waste too much on creating an avatar for himself. Finally he decided to use one point of divine energy to create a low budget avatar of himself, using what he looked like in his past life as a blueprint.

He came to this village as a priest, and temporarily lived in this stone cottage through the village elder’s arrangements.

The day before, Eleena’s uncle had been grievously wounded when he went out hunting. Xi Wei was the one who stood out to heal him, bringing him back from the brink of death.

“He’s almost completely healed! Grandpa Elder said that your Sacred Healing Arts are even stronger than the clerics from the Brilliant White Church!” She chirped happily.

‘That goes without saying. I’m a deity after all…’ he thought.

“This is the tiger meat that my uncle hunted for earlier! He especially had me bring it to you—it’s already cooked,” she said, handing the basket in her hands to Xi Wei, gulping quietly.

“My aunt’s technique is superb, please try it!”

Xi Wei accepted the unseemingly hefty basket. It seemed that there was quite a lot of roasted meat inside.

Looking over at Eleena who could hardly hide her hunger, he could not help but smile, but his smile gave people a feeling that he had kidney deficiency¹. “I can’t finish all this by myself, why don’t you help me finish this?”

“Really?!” She asked in surprise—eyes sparkling like a hungry cat. However the next moment she lowers her head and fidgets a little, remembering her how her family had warned against doing so. “Wouldn’t I be bothering you?” She asked tentatively.

“Oh, then I have to finish this by myself then…” Xi Wei sighed, shaking his head.

Eleena let out a downcast whine, lowering her head and pouting cutely.

“Now now, turn that frown upside down and come in. Let’s eat.”

“Yay! …Ah, I mean, thank you Mister Xi Wei!”