I Have a God Simulator

Luh Yao held a steaming cup of warm tea, observing every move within the simulator.

The Wishing Star was slowly rising.

As the wielder of this Epic Artifact, Isabel had been temporarily absorbed into the blue sphere. However, her status display was still visible, floating just above the blue sun.

After seeing it in action, Luh Yao was beginning to understand how it worked.

The Wishing Star could be considered a satellite with special powers, and the Apostle was its pilot and operator.

An Apostle could pilot the Wishing Star, enabling it to rise high into the sky. Without a pilot, the star was just a huge mud ball that could float on water—the original prototype for the Water Nest.

Once activated, the Wishing Star was shrouded in a hazy blue halo. Like a miniature sun, it slowly rotated in the air.

A status bar appeared above it: [Prayer Moment 67/100000]

The number on the left was climbing rapidly.

107

221

399

557

...

After about three minutes, the Prayer Moment indicator showed it was full. The Wishing Star stopped rotating, floating silently, no longer accepting new prayers.

Luh Yao clicked on the number.

The view suddenly zoomed in, entering the interior of the Wishing Star.

Inside was a miniature cosmos. Countless stars twinkled in the pitch-black space, their light shining as they floated silently in the darkness.

Luh Yao casually clicked on one of the stars.

A dialogue box immediately popped up. Next to the box was a pair of parentheses containing a flame symbol followed by the number 2.

"Lord God, please bless me so I can pass my Divinity School exams and graduate successfully... Please, I'm begging you. If I don't graduate, I'll be kicked out and will have to go home to raise pigs... (Flame 2)"

Clicking on the text, the view zoomed in on a small figure's head.

The one who prayed was an apprentice at the Divinity School, facing the Divine Hall to ask for good luck.

Luh Yao understood the sentiment. 'But for things like exams, it's best to rely on your own abilities. Your God will be cheering for you from a distance.'

He then clicked on another star.

"Lord Yao God, it hasn't rained for a month and a half. If this goes on, all the Sour Tree Raspberries and other berries will be ruined... Our entire harvest for the year depends on this land. I beg you, please have mercy and grant us rain. (Flame 3)"

The one who prayed was a Farmer living by the sea.

The Farmer had planted an orchard, lived in a humble thatched cottage, and was raising three children.

Although the three cities of the Yao Race were growing in renown, not everyone could live in them. Every little pixel person had their own choices and plights.

Luh Yao opened the Miracle menu, selected an area, and made it rain around the orchard.

An exclamation mark lit up above the Farmer's head, which then turned into a wide, smiling face. "It's raining! The Lord God heard our pleas... This is wonderful, just wonderful! The berries are saved, they're saved!"

"Thank you, thank you! Thank you for your kindness and compassion!"

He knelt on the ground, bowing his head repeatedly.

His three children copied their father's actions.

Luh Yao noticed a [+3 Faith] notification appear in the top-right corner.

'So that's how it is,' Luh Yao thought. 'The Flame next to each prayer represents the Fire of Faith, and the number is the amount of extra Faith generated if the wish comes true.'

This made him wonder about something.

'Could the Star Sea God really have gained a large amount of Faith from creating an Artifact like this?'

'Ordinary Believers might offer some Fire of Faith, but the amount is tiny. Fulfilling their wishes, however, usually requires expending at least one Miracle.'

'From a purely numerical standpoint, it was a losing proposition.'

Luh Yao shifted his view back to the inside of the[Wishing Star].

He soon noticed two stars inside that were far brighter than all the rest.

Luh Yao clicked on the largest and brightest of the two.

A long, scrollable dialogue box popped up.

"Lord God, please grant us rain."

"The farms of Yao City are in desperate need of rain."

"The orchards in Yao City need rainwater..."

...

Everyone in Yao City was praying for rain. The total value of these overlapping wishes was listed at the end: 4,211 Faith.

The second-largest wishing star was composed entirely of people from Yan City praying for rain, which could generate a total of 2,047 Faith.

Luh Yao was starting to understand.

'The Believers' wishes overlap,' he realized. 'Identical wishes gather together, forming bigger, brighter wishing stars. By fulfilling the wish with the largest overlap, I can satisfy the earnest desires of many people at once and gain a significant amount of Fire of Faith.'

On a related note, Luh Yao noticed that the water level of the East River had dropped drastically, exposing a large stretch of the riverbed.

It seemed the Pixel World had recently entered a drought. Both Yan City and Yao City were running short on water and praying for rain.

Luh Yao created two rainstorms over the areas of Yao City and Yan City.

This greatly encouraged the citizens, and smiling faces appeared above all their heads.

"The Lord God saw our prayers! Thank you, great Yao God!"

"Lord Yao God has ended the drought!"

"The omnipotent Lord Yao God! The Wishing Star really works! Piety is the most important thing!"

...

Luh Yao saw green notifications for [+4211] and [+2047] appear in the top-right corner.

The increase in Faith was expected.

He looked at the blue pixel sun floating in the sky and understood the significance of the[Wishing Star].

'This Artifact isn't just for digging deep and cultivating the needs of Believers to gain large amounts of Faith,' he mused. 'It's also an information radar, giving me Insight into the living conditions of my people.'

'As expected of an Epic Artifact.'

There was just one problem.

Luh Yao discovered that while the Wishing Star floated in the sky, the pixel people on the ground would just stare at it and make wishes nonstop. It was easy to understand their reasoning. 'If wishing works, why should I bother working? Isn't this much faster than manual labor?'

'Who cares if I'm the next lucky one? There's no harm in trying my luck at the lottery.'

'If not used carefully, this Artifact could have significant side effects.'

Luh Yao immediately put away the Wishing Star. Isabel flew out from it, a tired expression appearing above her head.

After he asked, Luh Yao learned the reason.

It turned out that being inside the Wishing Star was no easy task for an Apostle.

The Wishing Star Artifact could only collect wishes and vows. It required Isabel to be inside sorting through the complex mess of prayers, categorizing them, and grouping identical ones together. Her role was similar to that of a wish data specialist.

That was why it needed an Apostle to pilot it.

When the Wishing Star disappeared, the pixel people on the ground were initially disappointed and sad. But they soon accepted reality and returned to their work. Life had to go on.

Luh Yao decided for the time being to release the Wishing Star once per day. That way, he could harvest some Faith and also get a real-time update on his Believers' situations.

For the little people, this would be equivalent to making a wish once every ten years. This would prevent them from becoming too reliant on it, which could disrupt the normal Order of their lives.

Luh Yao switched map views and temporarily placed the Wishing Star on the mountain behind the Dragon Nest. The wishes inside the Artifact remained.

He clicked on some of the larger stars and began to read.

These stars represented the shared wishes of many Believers.

Besides the immediate threat of the drought, two other wishes had a great deal of resonance. They shone with particular brightness, making them Second-Class Stars, second only to the prayers for rain.

The first was for wealth.

The second was for peace and safety.

Then, what caught Luh Yao's attention was that the brightest of the Third-Class Stars was, surprisingly, a prayer from the Dwarves.

"Great and ancient Lord Yao God, please turn your benevolent and wise gaze upon us. Huoo Shaoyun sincerely prays to you, hoping you will bless my good friend, our Princess, so she may soon brew the most perfect Honey Wine! I will recite your virtues and compassion day and night, and spread word of your blessings and mercy."

"Please bless us, so that we may drink the Honey Wine brewed by the Princess."

"Honey Wine, Honey Wine... For such a thing, only with a God's blessing can a vintage be born that is truly worthy of being passed down through the ages. Please, bless us! Lord God!"

...

'The 42 Dwarves had actually generated a whopping 862 points worth of Fire of Faith.'

Among those who made the same wish, there was also a human.

Lie Yu.

She was the one the Dwarves called "Princess."

Luh Yao remembered this little person. As a young girl, a Snowman had stolen a treasure chest from her at Elf Lake, which made her cry. Later, she seemed to have been training under Yan Jiu.

'The problem is,' Luh Yao thought, 'I have no idea how to make Honey Wine either.'

Luh Yao double-clicked the prayer's dialogue box, and the view jumped to the Dwarf Fortress in the south.

Lie Yu's personal Attributes panel wasn't much different from the other little people, except that she had one extra special ability.

...

[Brewing LV3]: Proficient in brewing. Has a chance to create new fine wines.

...

Furthermore, under her personal panel, there was another entry.

[Honey Wine Princess] [Chui Wujing's Creation] (Equipped): Immune to intoxication, Morale +1.

She even had a piece of special equipment.

'Wait a second.'

Luh Yao's eyes suddenly lit up.

'In the Pixel World, someone was already capable of forging extraordinary equipment!'