I Am the God of Games

“Why are they having a feast at a dazzling hall while we hide in such a place to eat dry bread and corn biscuits?!”

“This quest is stuck…”

“At least let us see what a noble banquet is like even if we don’t get to eat! I can’t even get a forum livestream going like this!”

“You’re still actually doing that, Gou Dan?”

The players who were basically locked inside one of the rooms at the adjacent buildings of the Silver Eagle Castle were all voicing their discontent.

Even Eleena, the little Saintess-in-training was puffing her cheeks. Shrinking herself on the couch, she was quietly voicing her dissatisfaction. “Milk pudding…”

“Edward, aren’t you going to say something?”

After half a day’s worth of grumbling, Gou Dan had suddenly noticed that Edward hadn’t said a word from the start—he had only been frowning as he sat on his chair thoughtfully.

“I’ve actually felt that things were weird in the very beginning.”

Edward did not keep quiet since Gou Dan asked, and began to reveal all his suspicions. “This is His Lordship’s old home, correct? Reasonably speaking, this would be a safe place for His Lordship even if his father is not a believer of the God of Games.”

“Are you asking why His Lordship would hire players as escorts?” The pudgy Terrosche who had slipped himself into the same quest replied cheekily. “It’s definitely so that he won’t be ambushed by bandits. In my experience, those criminals love groups of carriages with weak defenses—just look at our journey this time: with us as escorts, no bandits dared to attack us!”

“Impressive! As expected of you, Brother Terrosche!” The skinny Silva promptly licked Terrosche’s boots.

“No. What I want to ask is why is everyone here ‘neutral units’? Shouldn’t they be allies?”

Edward impassively put out the suspicions he was holding back. “Remember, the frogmen were neutral units even though they surrounded us the instant they found us and could have attacked at any moment.”

Through his reveal, the players finally reflected on it and realized that unusual things were happening.

With every creature and stranger that weren’t attacking them deliberately would be marked in yellow as neutral units so frequently, everyone had gotten so used to it that they didn’t think of things that way.

On the other hand, it was definitely bizarre if the soldiers at the lord’s own home were marked as potential foes by the System, and the hostility wasn’t low either…

“Doesn’t that mean those people have bad things in mind for His Lordship?” Vela asked nervously. “Shouldn’t we think of some way to inform him about this?”

“Stay calm. He must know that himself, or he wouldn’t have enlisted us in a hurry. Moreover, that girl is present at the banquet and it shouldn’t be a problem.” Edward calmed them.

“By the way, who is that girl?” Gou Dan could not help asking in curiosity. “It feels like even the lord’s father respects her, even though she looked so young…”

“I found out from the other guards before coming in.” Edward said, having been readied for it. “Her father was Count Ainsworth, a former friend of the Silver Eagle Duke. However, the count had passed away without a male heir, which is why his lands are reclaimed by the Empire. That’s not the main point, of course, because the main point is that Kinley Ainsworth is taken in as an apprentice by the best alchemist of the continent.

“The best alchemist of the continent…” Gou Dan salivated, stunned by the title. “How did you find out so much? I only remember her glaring jealously at Joe’s chest.”

Joe made a bodybuilder’s pose at that, but was ignored by everyone in taciturn.

“That’s not all. There’s also another gossip.” Edward continued, seemingly insistent on stunning everyone before he finished. “Lady Ainsworth was our lord’s former fiancée, but that alchemist completely disregarded the Faust family’s dignity and called off the wedding when she was chosen as an apprentice.”

Xi Wei almost spat out the watermelon he was happily eating in his Divine Kingdom when he heard that tidbit.

What on earth? So not only Angora was belittled by his own family, a noble son who had attempts on his life before becoming a lord, and even had an engagement called off? What character background is that, hello?!

Who knows? If Xi Wei didn’t reach out in time to save him, Angora might have become a Transmigrator after the bandits killed him, reincarnated as the most powerful being of a world who slayed gods and divine beings alike.

It’s a pity that Angora wasn’t a God of Games believer in the past, which was why Xi Wei couldn’t have known his circumstances before even if he checked the memories in his divinity—drastically reducing the fun.

Still, even as Xi Wei considered whether he should pay closer attention to Angora, the other players were slowly becoming restless as well.

The fearsome character that was Vela the girl from a fringe village notwithstanding, Edward’s group was not a contented lot, much less the dynamic duo of fat-and-skinny who could continue fooling around under torture.

“The door guards mean nothing to us, but it would be troublesome if things get messy since the Silver Eagle Duke hasn’t really turned against our Lord.” Vela had promptly considered the duke a hostile, perhaps out of concern over Angora. “His Lordship is weak and we shouldn’t compare him to us.”

It was not as if she was understanding the guardsmen either—the ‘Level 5’ text hanging over their heads were just too obvious, which left a feeling that their combat ability was also only that much. On the other hand, Vale was the weakest person amongst them but she was already Level 14, not to mention that she would receive some attribute complement as an NPC and was therefore on par with Level 15 players.

1

“How many guards could there be in Tunaya?” Joe was already excitedly raising the event to a siege.

“With a large city like this? Two to three thousand and with a garrison stationed nearby,” Edward replied. “But the guards aren’t the problem—it’s the Holy Corps in the city. Religion here is split between the Temple of Glory and the Brilliant White Church, which means six hundred Holy Corps soldiers whom we could never win against.”

City guards were normal humans, and fighting in the city was not too different from direct warfare in the planes. Moreover, there were narrow alleyways that limited the number of people entering, and with Eleena’s resurrection they only needed to get the strategy and the handful of Players here would grind down the thousands of guardsmen stationed here.

On the other hand, the Holy Corps protected by Divine Grace were trouble. Swarming them despite the Players’ current ability wouldn’t help matters because the Temple of Glory and the Brilliant White Church were major religions, and there were many champions amongst them who were more powerful than the Rotten Bones Archbishop.

“That is why we have to keep everything contained in the castle since there would just be a few mages at best.” Edward concluded, slightly suppressing the players’ raging intention to start something.

That was when Gou Dan suddenly spoke. “Hold up! His Lordship had just replied to my livestream post! He is telling us to come up with a plan to infiltrate his eldest brother’s castle and see if we could steal some information.”

“Looks like His Lordship had realized something at the banquet…”

Vela turned on her forum as well to start browsing through Gou Dan’s post, ignoring all his text and images and searching along his replies. She reached Angora’s reply eventually, and fell into quiet thought after reading it.

“Infiltration? Leave it to us!”

Having not said much, pudgy Terrosche’s eyes brightened at that. “We had infiltrated Secret Eye’s base before and obtained substantial, solid information as a foundation for the expedition to destroy them!”

“That’s right. We’re professionals!” Skinny Silva added beside him.

“You guys? Forget it…”

Edward’s mouth twitched when he remembered what he heard in that same Secret Eye’s Base. “You two are warriors and not fit for the cloak and dagger stuff. For infiltration, we’ll should have a Shadow Rogue—”

“What would you know!? Don’t underestimate us!” Terrosche’s eyes were round as he glared at Edward and interrupted his retort. “Shadow Rogues are just assassins who could move in stealth! They know jack all about infiltration!”

“That’s right! We are just helping His Lordship in our own way!” Silva shouted, raising his hand as if unwilling to fall behind.

Edward had wanted to say more, but suddenly felt that having the two idiots drawing the enemy’s firepower up front while he slipped in to complete the quest just like last time was fine too.

Hence, he briskly withdrew his retort and stopped the debate, turning to a new topic instead. “That said, the most important question is how to slip out without having the two guards by the door noticing—”

Even before he could finish, Terrosche had already dashed outside the door.

“Dynamic Entry!” He roared the name of his skill at the top of his lungs as he crashed into the door with the force of a tank, knocking the door down.

“It’s here! Brother Terrosche most prided Dynamic Entry, dealing twice the damage of an average player!” Silva excitedly commentated beside him.

The other players quietly glanced at the hands that were shaking and stretching out beneath the fallen doors, feeling sorry for the guards.