I Am the God of Games

Xi Wei suddenly got it after aching his head about it over most of the day.

The Church of Games’ present influence was just a small part of the Silver Eagle Duchy, to the north of the Valla Empire.

And given that the enemy this time was using the ancient, little-known fact of the First Eight as their chess pieces, it was likely that they were not merely eyeing a small piece of land up in the north of the Valla Empire.

It was merely fact: The North wasn’t all that vast, and the news of zombie dragons and zombie orks could reach the Silver Eagle castle in just three days. And soon, they might receive word about zombie angels, zombie giants, zombie elves, and whatnot.

If Xi Wei’s hunch was right, there was a huge chance that zombies of the other First Eight wouldn’t show up in the North, but in other locations of the Western Continent.

Xi Wei relaxed a little when he understood that—but only a little.

“It seems that the zombie orks that keep spreading like it’s Resident Evil wouldn’t be a threat for the Players.”

After all, zombies and whatnot wouldn’t win against the Fourth Calamity from a certain point of view.

As one of the evergreen themes for gaming, has there been any player back on earth who hadn’t killed over tens of thousands of zombies? The number of zombies they killed in various days might fill the world over… in fact, zombies had surpassed goblins as the friend of newbie players.

“The real problem is the zombie dragon.”

Dragons are basically creatures of unmatched power in any world that exist, standing atop every food chain.

It was no exception for this world.

While dragons would never win against the gods, their fighting ability alone placed them on top of the power rankings in the Prime Material Plane. They were the indisputable leaders even against supernatural races from other planes!

But even as Xi Wei felt his head spin, he suddenly sensed that something was knocking on the walls of his divine kingdom.

Indeed, it wasn’t a violent hit but a friendly knock like knocking on the door, telling Xi Wei that “someone is here”.

Xi Wei looked out with his Divine Eye and realized then he should adjust—it was not ‘someone’, but ‘a god’.

“Who are you?”

Even though the visitor wasn’t being hostile, Xi Wei didn’t immediately allow him into his divine kingdom.

He wasn’t just being cautious, but there are just a lot of things in his divine kingdom that must not be seen.

It was fine with the Great Lion who had become closely acquainted with himself since Aslan knew that the messy piles of stuff were offerings from Xi Wei’s believers. Though unique, it didn’t actually violate the Great Lion’s principles or be considered evil.

On the other hand, any other deity on the side of the angels unfamiliar with Xi Wei would immediately assume that they had stumbled into the old lair of some evil god when they saw the piles of corpses, rolling up their sleeves and getting ready to go a few rounds with Xi Wei…

***

The visitor had the appearance of a rather ragged middle-aged, black-haired man with a scraggly beard. However, it was unlike the dwarven style of Stoff the God of Craftmanship and Fine Wine, but resembled a fluffy mountain goat instead.

His clothing was unlike most humanoid gods as well—he only had a crude brown loincloth on, with most of his rather tanned skin exposed. In fact, Xi Wei could see that certain lower parts that needed holy light censorship wasn’t hidden, merely kept out of sight with the loincloth from front and behind, giving the impression of unrestrained casualness.

And then there was that rather tiny but eye-catching fireball hovering beside him.

Even if Xi Wei couldn’t tell who the visitor was, he didn’t recklessly reach out to feel the fireball.

But he could still feel the terrible power hidden within it.

Could he be Emporio, God of the Sun? Could that thing over his shoulder be this world’s sun?

That thought was refuted by Xi Wei as soon as he thought it.

It was impossible—while Emporio was no match for the Seven Divine Fathers, he was far more powerful as a greater god in stature than the god standing in front of Xi Wei right now.

The other evidence was that the memories of the Aquatic Lord’s divinity showed encounters with Emporio himself. He had been wearing a rather grand set of golden armor in the Third Divine War, and while his face was hidden behind a mask and couldn’t be seen even with Divine Eye, he was definitely not the extremely poor thing standing before Xi Wei…

Moreover, the God of the Sun was affiliated with the Court of Nature. He had no connection with Xi Wei, the God of Games, and certainly wouldn’t come looking for him in a place like this.

“Hello!” Unlike the other gods, the visitor wasn’t surprised that Xi Wei was a ball but greeted him instead. “It’s a pity we couldn’t meet in the gathering a while ago. Anyway, I’m Flintman, another member of the Invisible Pantheon.”

“Flintman… the Fire Thief!” Xi Wei did a double-take, but he soon recovered.

Even though Flintman was an intermediate god in ability, he was very famous in the divine realm.

After all, he was an anti-god.

Anti-gods were so named because they were originally individuals from the mortal realm that reached supernatural level despite their mortality, surpassing it to reach legendary by understanding a miracle that they individually possessed. Eventually, they would ascend as a divine existence by defeating a god and taking their divinity, or by using their miracle to steal a portion of a god’s authority.

Interestingly, most good gods weren’t hostile against anti-gods despite their names. Instead, they were respectful towards these beings who reached the domain of the divine despite their mortal bodies…

…except gods whose authority were stolen, that is.

It had been over five hundred years since Flintman became a god, but he never had a fixed divine kingdom.

And the main reason for that was that the God of Flames had been chasing after him over those five hundred years, leaving him adrift amidst the divine realm…

Still, both the fact that Flintman had been running for over five hundred years and how the God of Flames still couldn’t catch him after so long were great entertainment for the other rather bored gods, which made sense that Flintman’s name would circulate amongst the gods.

“So, you’re here to meet me?” Xi Wei stretched out a tentacle to shake his hand.

“Not quite. The truth is I’ve been chased ragged over the last few days, and I’m hoping I could hide here at your divine kingdom.” Flintman said seriously. “The God of Flames shouldn’t notice a remote and miniature one such as yours…”

‘I’m sorry that my divine kingdom is too remote and too small for you!’ Xi Wei retorted inwardly, his ball form frowning.

“Relax, I won’t freeload here.” Flintman then added, misunderstanding the reason for Xi Wei’s silence. “When that fellow leaves, I will give you something good. And I promise you won’t be disappointed!”