I Have a God Simulator

The Clockwork Monkeys waved their arms and hammered away at the Abyssal Key.

Then, light bulbs lit up above the six monkeys' heads.

The key then disappeared without a trace.

The simulator prompted.

[The Clockwork Monkeys have completed their dismantling and analysis, obtaining the hidden coordinates of the Black Abyss.]

[New Anchor World Found: Black Abyss]

[Connect this world to the Silvanus Tree?]

[Estimated cost: 0 Faith]

Luh Yao finally officially connected the Black Abyss to the tree.

As this process was completed, a fourth orb of light appeared on the tree. This orb was pitch-black, with a faint white glow radiating from its periphery, somewhat resembling a miniature solar eclipse.

Luh Yao clicked on [Black Abyss] and entered [Rule Repair].

The backend of this mysterious world was finally opened.

...

[Black Abyss]—[Silvanus Tree]

[Description]: A special world created by the Dark God using the Silvanus Tree, used to imprison captives and enemies.

[History]: Originally the roots of the Silvanus Tree, it was hollowed out by Curse Insects, forming a dimensional passage that connected to the Curse Insect Nest in the Flying District.

The Dark God transformed it into an independent world, placing Gods and various monsters within to contend with the Curse Insects and continuously harvest the Fire of Faith.

...

The Black Abyss's orb had three options: [Deploy], [Extract], and [Faith Extraction].

The last option, [Faith Extraction], was displayed in gold.

Luh Yao tried them one by one.

"Deploy" and "Extract" were for sending individuals in or bringing them out.

Luh Yao found a test subject.

Sinners' Sea Breaker.

He was imprisoned in a special cell (Ghost Armor) beneath the Ghost Lighthouse in Yan City, his Ghost Form still serving its sentence.

'He's serving a sentence anyway, what does it matter where?'

Luh Yao deployed him, Ghost, armor and all, to the first level of the Abyss.

He figured that with a hundred-strong Clay Race on the first level of the Abyss, a single shackled Ghost like Hai Zhe shouldn't pose much of a threat. It was also a small experiment to see if life from the outside world would change after entering the Abyss.

Then Luh Yao extracted a little clay person named Biangu.

It worked.

Biangu stood in a patch of jungle, an exclamation mark lighting up above his head. "Where is this place?"

Luh Yao sent him back to the first level.

No problem there either.

A question mark appeared over Biangu's head. "...Seems I was dreaming."

Luh Yao discovered that he could now easily open a passage into the Abyss, just like the connections between his other worlds.

He then clicked [Faith Extraction].

The Silvanus Tree began to tremble slightly. Its entire canopy swayed nonstop, and its dense leaves rustled and shook.

[Faith Extraction in progress...]

As the prompt appeared, the giant tree began to emit a faint golden glow. Plump clusters of flame sprouted on its branches, like bountiful fruit.

[Extraction complete. Total Faith collected: 16,431,804.]

Luh Yao used his mouse to count the digits one by one.

'Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands...'

16.43 million Fire of Faith.

Even after his initial earnings of millions in Faith, Luh Yao had seen his share of grand spectacles, so he remained relatively calm.

What he was thinking now was, 'Finally, I have a chance to put the pedal to the metal!'

This massive amount of Faith was instantly added to the top-right corner. Luh Yao's Faith Reserve now reached 20.78 million, placing him in the ranks of Gods with assets in the tens of millions of Faith.

He suddenly realized something.

'So this is the true purpose of the Black Abyss.'

This world, by holding many Gods and Curse Insects in opposition, could continuously generate the Fire of Faith. Both the Dark God and the later Forest God could periodically extract the Power of Faith.

'I just don't know if this extraction is a brute-force pull directly from the Gods and Curse Insects, or if it uses some other mechanism to bleed them dry with a soft knife.'

Luh Yao began to check the backend entries for the Black Abyss.

...

[Faith Extraction]: Collects the dispersed Fire of Faith generated in the [Black Abyss] via the roots of the Silvanus Tree, solidifying and gathering it for extraction through the canopy. The longer the collection time, the better the extraction results.

...

'So that's how it is. It extracts the dispersed Faith from the Abyss.'

Luh Yao had some understanding of this concept.

In his previous Divine Wars, he had used Miracles to bombard Divine Statues. All sorts of animals frequented the old Divine War sites, where they grew very quickly and occasionally even gave birth to Extraordinary Species.

The pixel-people had made pilgrimages based on this very principle. By observing and comprehending the relics of Divine Wars, they could achieve various degrees of growth.

The source of all this was the effect of the Power of Faith.

The Fire of Faith itself cannot be touched by non-divine groups, but once Faith is converted into a Miracle by a God, it becomes visible and tangible. Ordinary people can then sense it, and even try to imitate and understand this Extraordinary Power.

Luh Yao couldn't help but wonder again.

'Why didn't the Dark God extract all the Fire of Faith at once?'

'Logically, securing it all would have been much safer.'

He hadn't done that. Instead, He had deliberately built up and strengthened the Abyss, continuously stuffing more Gods into it. Presumably, doing so could generate an even greater return.

Luh Yao suddenly realized he had overlooked the Curse Insects.

The Curse Insect Swarm could be seen as a bestial form of Gods; they too could store the Fire of Faith. Clearly, the focus of [Faith Extraction] was on the Curse Insects.

Since the Abyss connected to the Curse Insect Nest, the Curse Insects and the imprisoned Gods would hunt each other. As they fought, the Curse Insects' Fire of Faith would continuously overflow and be collected by the Silvanus Tree.

The Black Abyss was like a massive savings account. By constantly upping the ante, the Dark God used it to buy into a risky Curse Insect "fund," thereby generating continuous returns.

It was a long-term investment in the Fire of Faith.

Luh Yao sighed. The older ones really were the craftiest.

That old-timer had created an Abyss and could just sit back and rake in tens of millions of Fire of Faith.

'A Main God is a Main God, after all. All they do all day is eat and drink, nothing else! Why work so hard? Why risk your life for anything?'

'It's nothing like the other Gods, who either have to constantly develop their believers' civilizations to increase their population, or go all-in on a Divine War against others. Win, and you soar; lose, and you're out.'

Previously, Luh Yao had pegged this place as a super-dungeon, but that was a misunderstanding caused by a lack of information.

He decided to take a detailed look at the current state of the Abyss.

Visually, the Abyss had transformed into something like a nine-layered trapezoidal structure, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom.

The top-most layer was the same as ever. Ghouls appeared occasionally, but mostly they just lay around like corpses.

Without the Withered Count and the Corpse Hunters to drive them, their aggression had weakened considerably. They didn't even spare a glance for the Clay Race, who were holed up at the other end of the large birdcage.

The second layer was still the Water World, a place of deathly silence. The deep pit on the Central Island, where the Wishing Star had once been placed, now had a passage beneath it leading to the third layer.

For some reason, the passage between the second and third layers wasn't sealed.

Luh Yao looked down.

The scene on the third layer was bizarre. It was filled with translucent green bubbles. These bubbles squeezed together, jostling each other, constantly devouring one another and then replicating new individuals from their bodies. Each one seemed to possess its own life and independent consciousness.

...

[Grid Limb LV2]

Life Value: 2/2

Mana Value: 1/1

Damage: 1

Defense: 0

Speed: 2

...

Besides their innate [Gluttony] trait, they had another ability.

...

[Split]: Can split off new individuals from itself.

...

The cell-like, bubble-shaped Grid Limbs had almost completely filled the third layer, casting a hue over the place that was dreamlike at first glance but bizarre upon closer inspection.

And in an area with fewer Grid Limbs, a fierce battle was underway.

A large, brownish-yellow Mud Monster had crashed into a strange gray insect, and [In Combat] was displayed above their heads.

Luh Yao clicked to enter the combat screen.

The strange insect looked like an upright, footless jellyfish, and was gray all over. Its upper body had a pair of gray arms, while its head was covered in a thick mess of black hair. A long, curved, scarlet tongue lolled from its mouth, dragging on the ground below its abdomen.

The display above its head read: [Curse Insect LV95]Parasite Insect.

The other combatant, the Mud Monster, had a body that was constantly twisting and melting. Its head had no facial features other than a pair of round blue eyes, bulging like bronze bells.

The name that appeared above its head was: [Earth Demon LV87]Master of the Star Sea: Borderer.

They went back and forth, but the Master of the Star Sea was clearly at a disadvantage, its remaining health far lower than the Parasite Insect's.

Luh Yao watched with some confusion.

'Is that the Star Sea God who was supposed to have fallen? How did He come back to life?'

'It looks like He's seeking revenge on the Parasite Insect.'

Luh Yao felt that since he had accepted the Star Sea God's gift, he ought to lend Him a hand.