I Have a God Simulator

After being given permission, Harlow was temporarily taken in by the rental apartment, where he took up residence in a cardboard delivery box by the door.

He didn’t seem to mind. While wandering the streets, he hadn’t even had a cardboard box. This place was much warmer and more comfortable than the outdoors, especially in the winter.

At noon on the day he moved in, Harlow trotted over with a bowl in his mouth and formally petitioned Luh Yao. "Mr. Pioneer, I demand to dine at the table!"

"Your Apostles all dine at the table. I am a true Cerberus, and my status in the Netherworld is comparable to that of an Apostle. I demand equal treatment."

Luh Yao was in the middle of eating shredded potatoes and rice. Harlow’s words made him choke, and he quickly took the glass of water Isabel handed him, gulping it down to clear his throat.

When he recovered, he saw the Blood Knight had already grabbed Harlow by the neck and pinned him against the wall.

The Knight said emotionlessly, "You disturbed the Lord’s meal. You deserve death."

The Tyrant sneered from the side. "Know your place. A prisoner of war has no right to make demands."

Harlow struggled to open his mouth, still pleading his case. "Even prisoners have dignity! I demand to receive the treatment I’m due as a prisoner..."

Isabel said to the Three-Headed Hellhound pinned against the wall, "What a prisoner receives depends on the victor’s whim. The Lord God only grants privileges to his own people. Unfortunately for you, you are not one of us."

"..."

Harlow was at a loss for words.

The Blood Knight requested his orders. "My Lord, shall I execute this dog?"

"I am not a dog! I’ll say it again!"

Harlow yelped excitedly, "I am Cerberus! I am the guardian of the Gate of the Netherworld!"

The Blood Knight’s iron fingers shifted, clamping the Three-Headed Dog’s jaws shut and turning its cries into a pathetic whimper.

Luh Yao wiped his mouth with a napkin. "I heard your request. However, rights and responsibilities must be balanced. Respect isn’t given freely; it’s earned."

"I’m allowing you to stay here for now because you helped Cancong."

"But if you want better treatment, you’ll have to demonstrate your value."

Harlow’s eyes darted at this, and he seemed to have something to say.

Luh Yao spoke. "Let him speak."

The Blood Knight released his grip.

Harlow landed on the floor and sneezed several times. "Aren’t you trying to recruit the Ghosts that pass by the Divine Kingdom? While I can’t say I have a solution, I can tell you about the difficulties involved."

"Ghosts are guided from one world to the next by Rule Power, which forms an invisible channel of rules. This channel exists outside the boundaries of any world. In other words, even when a Ghost passes a world, it only pauses briefly on its outer wall. It’s touch-and-go, like a tiny pebble hitting a mountain and instantly ricocheting away."

He opened his mouth. "It’s impossible for you to acquire these Ghosts directly."

"The only possible method is to modify the world’s underlying rules to divert a portion of the external channel through the world’s interior. Only a Pioneer can do that."

"On top of that, there’s a time constraint."

"The Ghosts only linger for a moment in the worlds they pass, and the transit time through the channel cannot be changed. You should consider setting up the channel’s nodes in places that might attract and retain them. That could prove useful."

As the conversation turned to his area of expertise, Harlow’s tone grew confident and steady.

"As a veteran Cerberus who has guarded the gate to the Netherworld for many years, I know that once Ghosts enter the Netherworld channel, they mostly fall into a deep sleep or a hazy, trance-like state."

"Even if they pass through your Divine Kingdom, the vast majority will show no reaction. For even one Ghost to remain behind would be an extremely rare accident."

This information was indeed very helpful.

Luh Yao immediately said, "Get Harlow a chair."

The Blood Knight, who had just been manhandling him, brought over a plastic chair and placed it in a corner of the dining table.

Harlow puffed out his chest, leaped onto the stool with his head held high, and gave the Blood Knight a nod. "Thank you."

Now that he had the privilege of eating at the table, Harlow became rather demure. He licked his paws and glanced from side to side, hesitant about how he should eat.

After getting Luh Yao’s permission, Isabel used the serving chopsticks to serve him a small portion of each dish.

"Go on, try it. Xiaohuo made it."

Harlow looked grateful. "Thank you, Miss Isabelle!"

He then lowered his head to the plate, nibbling and chewing in small bites, extremely mindful of his image.

Luh Yao picked up his chopsticks again as well.

Each of the Apostles had their own distinct style of dining.

The Blood Knight symbolically speared a small piece of each dish with a fork and tucked it under his helmet, which for him signified that the meal was over.

Isabel was now quite skilled with chopsticks. Whenever she saw a dish Luh Yao particularly liked, she would proactively place some on his plate, a truly thoughtful little helper.

Seeing Isabel act this way, the Tyrant’s eyes filled with unconcealed disdain and displeasure.

She removed her white bone helmet, which was adorned with antlers, revealing a doll-like face beneath.

Unlike Isabel’s somewhat dazed and innocent girlish air, Selena’s gaze was sharp, and she exuded a cold, unapproachable aura.

Selena only ever took a small taste of her food. She sat perfectly straight, and her every movement was elegant and restrained. Just as her title suggested, she carried the air of a noble accustomed to the Royal Court.

Luh Yao suddenly recalled something.

"Harlow, you’ve been around here for many years. Have no other Pioneers ever discovered you?"

Harlow nodded. "They have."

"I’ve had brief contact with two Pioneers."

Harlow stared at the dishes, his gaze distant as if lost in a long-forgotten memory. "The first Pioneer was named Liu Gonggan. He was of the Royal Race, though many later came to call him King Huainan."

"King Huainan wanted the entire Han Empire to advance into the Void Cosmos. His plan was to contain the Void Cosmos through the practice of Magic, and he secretly brought many people from the Real Cosmos into his Divine Kingdom by de-dimensioning them... It made me very uneasy, so I left his Prince’s Mansion."

"He eventually failed and was hunted down by other Pioneers."

"I heard Liu Gonggan ultimately escaped, taking his Divine Kingdom with him to Sail into the depths of the Void Cosmos. Before he left, he took many people and all sorts of life forms with him..."

Luh Yao listened with great interest.

’So that’s the real story behind the legend of King Huainan, Liu Anx, where "even his chickens and dogs ascended to heaven."’

"The second Pioneer was in the West. I remember his name was... Henry Moore. I believe that’s how it’s pronounced."

The name was unfamiliar to Luh Yao.

Harlow continued, "Unlike a practitioner like King Huainan, Henry was a more theoretically and academically inclined Pioneer. He spent his entire life researching the unreachable Transcendent Zone and postulating about the Creator behind it."

"He proposed many conjectures, including ’The Creator is invisible,’ ’Space transcends matter,’ ’Space is ubiquitous,’ and ’The Creator has some connection to space to ensure its presence among all things.’... I still remember many of the names of his theories."

"Henry repeatedly made his Divine Kingdom Sail to strike the theoretical boundaries of the Transcendent Zone, trying to obtain more proof for his ideas. This ultimately led to his own decline and destruction."

The Three-Headed Hellhound suddenly recalled something and licked his nose. "Henry was a hermit. He spent most of his time in the 17th century at Cambridge University, but you’ve probably heard of one of his students."

"That student’s name was Isaac Newton."

This time, Luh Yao was genuinely startled.

’Newton’s mentor, of all people.’

"But after Henry, I never encountered another Pioneer. The number of Pioneers in this world has dwindled. I suppose some of them might have gone into hiding, but the total number is definitely shrinking."

Harlow scratched his ear with a paw. "It must be the Binding that comes with the changing of an Era, forcing Pioneers to either leave or go into hiding."

When the meal was over, Harlow hopped off the stool, returned to his cardboard box by the door, and curled up for an afternoon nap.

Xiaohuo began to clear the table and wash the dishes.

Luh Yao, meanwhile, turned his gaze to his monitor.

A new notification had appeared in the simulator.

—A Believer has developed a Wisdom far exceeding its peers. Would you like to transform it into a Prophet?

[Yes] [No]

Luh Yao clicked on the prompt.

The screen immediately jumped to a location beneath Aegir’s Fire on the Western Continent.

Deep beneath the volcano, a mass of black sludge was emitting a faint glow.

Luh Yao sighed to himself.

’Why are the forms of the Yao Race’s Prophets getting so bizarre?’

’This Black Demon, this living crude oil, has not only developed Faith, but also Wisdom...’

’I guess it was just too eager to evolve.’