Infinite Gods Reign Supreme

Chapter 40, World Three, Curse

"God is a position, and divine power is a tool. That's how I see it."

Si Ming, holding his teacup, answered casually. "Life worships gods because of prayers, and gods appear in the world to fulfill life's prayers. In other words, if this god in the world truly fulfills the prayer that allowed it to be born, then it is worthy of worship. This can be seen as a simple exchange, and the power of the god is naturally the tool it uses to fulfill its duties."

Do you think gods should be worshipped?

"If it fulfills the corresponding wishes of those who expect it to fulfill its duties. Yes, I think those who worship it should worship it—who told them they can't do what they want to do themselves and can only rely on God? Worship is the salary, miracles are the result, it's a perfectly legitimate exchange, is there a problem?"

"Don't you think that God was born because of people's worship, which is a great favor from people, and that God should take the initiative to do something to repay this favor?"

"You're defining a tool using human morality?" Si Ming chuckled. "Or do you think God is the child and humans are the parents? Then who is it that's praying to the other during the process of being born?"

“It seems there are some disagreements between us.” Jacob poured himself a glass of water.

However, Si Ming simply waved his hand.

"Is there really a disagreement?" He poured himself a glass. "You stand in the position of usurping divine power, justifying your reasons for doing so. And I stand in the position of inheriting divine power, finding a reason to absolve myself of responsibility. Aren't you and I both more inclined towards practicality?"

Jacob laughed too, raised his water glass, and touched it to Simin's through the air.

"The power of death?" He could sense the special properties of Siming's power.

“Yes, death.” Si Ming did not deny it, but he did not directly mention the divinity of death. “Deep beneath the ruins of the first Alien vs. Predator movie, in the depths of that ancient pyramid, lies the ancient civilization’s worship of death itself. I gained the qualification to activate it by exchanging for the Necromancer Enhancement, and after a series of trials, I obtained it.”

He paused.

"[Reverence for death, pursuit of death, for we will all eventually return to death]—this is the doctrine born from the guidance of the Predator in that ancient civilization. And if I am to inherit this power, I must also inherit the 'great grace of birth'."

He put down his water glass: "Does that mean I have to find a place to go on a killing spree every day?"

“When have we reincarnators not been slaughtering people every day…” Yu Zhiwei muttered softly from the side, his voice just soft enough for everyone to hear.

“A peaceful resolution is certainly better than resorting to violence and killing…” On the other side, Valentina nodded in agreement with Simin’s statement.

The sounds from both sides stopped abruptly. Yu Zhiwei was doing it on purpose, while Valentina was genuinely stuck. The former then smiled sweetly, while the latter turned her head away as if she'd seen something disgusting.

“It’s always better to avoid a fight,” Jacob said, glancing at the two ladies. “I think I’m better at reasoning with people.”

Unfortunately, he was unable to reason with the reincarnators of the Sandbar team.

“Unless you encounter things that are completely illogical.” Si Ming nodded. “For example, in the last world, the world I went to was ‘I Am Legend.’ Apart from a very few survivors, all the night demons I encountered were unreasonable. So I had to spend some effort explaining physics to them.”

“There’s really no reasoning with non-human creatures.” Song Tian, ​​who had been silent all along, finally spoke up. “In the last world I went through, there was the Dark Invasion, and before that, the Zombie Outbreak and the Night of the Living Dead. All I could do was wield my sword.”

"You've fought zombies from three worlds, huh? That must have been tough for you, Song Tian."

"The Dark Invasion isn't about fighting zombies, is it..." Valentina, being rather serious, subconsciously corrected herself, then quickly added, "But those cave-dwelling monsters really aren't much different from zombies."

She paused for a moment, then began to recount her experiences.

"My first world was True Lies, the second was Mission: Impossible, both of which involved dealing with people and required very little combat to complete. The third was Kingdom of Heaven, where I helped the blacksmith Balian defend the Holy City, which was even more difficult to defend than the original, but the rest of the Senzhou team thought they could betray Balian to get side quests... That's where I parted ways with the others."

I see, no wonder she likes to reason so much. All three worlds are set in civilized worlds, and all are types where sticking to one's path leads to smooth passage.

So……

Everyone's attention was focused on Yu Zhiwei, who was lazily lying on the table.

"Why are you looking at me? Oh... I'm the only one missing." She tilted her head, giving an expression that seemed to indicate she had just realized something.

"Nothing special. My first world was The Thing, a nonsensical American horror movie. The second world was Surface of a Black Hole, a nonsensical British horror movie. The third world was One Missed Call, a nonsensical Japanese horror movie. I survived the first two, but I couldn't make it through the third. However, before I died, the guide paused time, so I became the captain and ended up with the Celestials."

"...This film sounds a bit difficult." Si Ming had heard of these three movies and could imagine their difficulty level at the lowest setting. Even without any added elements, the original version was still a level that ordinary people couldn't easily pass.

"Who knows? Maybe the main god saw that I killed too many Indian team rookies, so he's busy sending me on my way?" Yu Zhiwei remained as languid as ever. "No one is trustworthy. Everyone can suddenly turn into a monster or be possessed by a ghost. The person who was laughing one second might suddenly open their eight-lobed mouth and bite you down the next. The rookie or character you finally managed to save might suddenly disintegrate into a pool of poisonous blood right in front of you..."

"After much deliberation, it seems that killing them all would be the most convenient option. The living, the dead, the corpses, the ones still breathing, the smiling ones, the ones with terrified faces—only the Supreme God's deduction and scoring announcements are valid... Ah, but sometimes even the Supreme God's announcements can be wrong. After all, ghosts and monsters are one thing, but nerve gas can cause auditory hallucinations."

“…Maybe it’s not your problem,” Valentina said, frowning. “There might be other reasons as well.”

"Maybe." Yu Zhiwei stretched. "Maybe it was just a random combination of numbers, or maybe the Indian team was just unlucky. Maybe these three matches weren't actually that difficult, and I made things so bad because I used the wrong strategy. But now, it's all in the past."

Perhaps it's all in the past.

Si Ming looked this guy over and suddenly remembered a setting that he didn't know if it existed.

“The Mystic Eyes of Dots and Lines,” he said. “I… heard about a concept back in the real world. The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception cause one’s luck to plummet when used. The more you use them, the worse your luck becomes. Only a sufficiently large entity can suppress its own luck and escape that unbearable fate.”

"The real world? Where did you hear about this kind of setting?" Yu Zhiwei frowned slightly.

"Some kind of derivative work, fan fiction, or something similar. I can't remember exactly."

So one of the guys who had taken an interest curled his lip.

I don't usually read novels.

"But I'll give it a try... Anyway, if I can't do it, I won't live much longer."

The atmosphere became a little awkward. So Jacob reached out his hand again and exchanged it for a glass of grape juice and a glass of wine.

"Want a drink?" he invited the others.

..............................

The first afternoon meeting of the Celestial Team concluded. The team atmosphere achieved a breakthrough, going from nothing to something, and the reincarnators gained a better understanding of each other. Although it was unknown how many people had achieved their goals, this was a good start for Si Ming, who had orchestrated everything. All he needed was for the meeting to exist and not end.

The first day was like this.

And so it continued every day thereafter.

However, compared to the in-depth discussions on the first day, starting from the second day, the conversations among the reincarnators shifted towards topics that didn't involve personal matters. Song Tian finally found another time to spar with Si Ming. Unfortunately, even this time he couldn't force Si Ming to reveal his close-combat abilities. On the other hand, Valentina fought Yu Zhiwei several more times and actually stabbed her several times.

Women are indeed hard to understand. After being stabbed a few times, Valentina's attitude towards Yu Zhiwei was no longer as hostile as before. Of course, this could also be because Yu Zhiwei's earlier attempt to gain sympathy had worked.

Si Ming was willing to bet five cents that she was just playing the victim at the time.

However, this is not a big problem.

The Celestial Team gradually transformed from a disorganized group into a cohesive unit. Although it was far from being an alliance, let alone a complete team, at least the five reincarnators who were previously strangers no longer hindered each other.

This is enough.

Soon, during the seventh afternoon meeting, everyone was running out of things to say, resorting to trivial topics like "the weather is nice" to pass the time. At that moment, the privileges belonging to the captain's authority finally came into play.

"Let me see what the next world is like..."

All five people were watching, but Yu Zhiwei was the first to speak.

"The Curse? What kind of movie is that? Another supernatural horror film?"

(End of this chapter)