Chapter 1337: Meeting
In the heavenly realms of Olympus.
There is one particular realm housing only one large expanse of land and the whole realm is covered with clouds that are crackling with lightning constantly.
There are large expanses of gardens with many mythical beasts residing there ignoring the lightning completely. In the middle of it all, there is a mountain present.
There is a small area which looked like a royal courthouse on top of the mountain surrounded by the clouds, instead of being under a room and enveloped with majestic walls, it is completely out in the open and the only one person is sitting on the throne all by himself as a group of beautiful women that could create wars with just their looks are scantly clad as they danced.
But the person on the throne who they are trying to please is not exactly enjoying the efforts of the women, he currently had his eyes closed as if he was thinking something.
He is none other than the god Zeus.
He opened his eyes after a while and gestured for the dancers to stop. They immediately left and they disappeared as soon as they were out of the court area.
"Nike."
He spoke out loud and the Goddess Nike flew over like a flash before landing in front him on her knees.
"Send a message to the rest of the gods who are in the game. I need to talk to them."
"As you wish My Lord."
He gestured his hand and an invisible force made her come face to face with him. But she didn't dare to meet his eyes and closed hers.
"Now, you are coming to the meeting this time. Are you ready for what you are training in this realm for?"
"Ye… Yes, My Lord."
"You should know Nike, I don't like losing, and if you lose then that means I lose too. What do you think would happen if you lose?"
"I won't dare to lose my lord."
"You better not. After all, the challenge thrown by that vermin was ages ago and you were not confident about the battle even though he just ascended. You do remember why you are in my realm don't you?"
"Yes, My Lord."
"Why is that?"
"It… It is because I was scared, my lord. I was scared of losing my life, so I came here to seek refuge and increase my strength and technique to fight."
"That is right. There were already whispers among the gods that I am housing a coward and defending the coward. You better tell them that I am not.
If you lose, even if the other party spared you…"
"I won't lose my lord. For your sake, I won't lose." Nike interrupted his words and spoke. Zeus didn't get angry and instead smiled.
"Now, go and arrange the meeting. Tell them to meet at the Olympus directly. I don't want to go to another stupid meeting of illusory images."
"Yes, My lord."
Nike bowed before she disappeared from that spot.
A few hours later, one god after another who participated in the game, came to the Olympus and it caused an uproar. After all, none of the gods are small fries in any circle and the one that surprised the most is the presence of Gambler.
They remembered him when he came here because of Ling Tian and Nike fought. Even though it is not much of a fight and Nike won because of her goddess status, they were shocked by Ling Tian's defiance against someone so powerful.
And now in front of them, Ling Tian accompanied Gambler and he is also a god. He broke through long ago and before he left the previous time, he challenged Nike for a duel which should have taken place as soon as he broke through.
But Nike simply went into hiding in Zeus' realm in the name of some duty which everyone knows to be a cover to escape the duel when she found out how powerful Ling Tian really is.
Now, it seems like Zeus' patience has reached its limit and she has to go through the duel.
Many of the gods who has high enough status to visit Zeus directly are looking forward for this duel. After all, Nike is a seasoned god and Ling Tian is a newbie through and through. For her to hide from him is a surprise in itself.
The gods gathered together in an open area with a large round table in the middle.
Except for the twelve gods, only Ling Tian and Nike are present.
Gambler placed his legs on the table and asked casually.
"So, why did you call us here? It is better to be important if you asked us to come in person."
"I am sick of the illusory meetings. I am not going to attend another one of those. If you want to meet in the future, make sure it is in person."
"We can see about that. First, tell us why we are here."
Sun Wukong asked impatiently as he took a swig from his gourd.
"It is about the dismissal of a player from the game. I propose to dismiss Sam from the game, effective immediately."
Everyone frowned. Of course, some of them frowned in confusion and some of them frowned in annoyance, but everyone has one thing in common, curiosity. They don't know why Zeus arranged a meeting, just to go after a player. After all, Sam never did anything to Zeus, at least not like he did with Hou Yi, Hel and Indra.
This came as a surprise.
But Gambler as the person who is essentially the concerned party just replied casually.
"Why should we dismiss Sam from the game exactly?"
"Because he lost the body we have given him."
"So, what? He is still alive, essentially and he is even thriving from what I saw last time. Why should we dismiss him exactly?" Karthikeya asked.
"He is not worthy of this game since he couldn't even keep the body we gifted to him. I don't want him in the game anymore."
Gambler chuckled and looked at him.
"Is that so Zeus? I don't quite know what is the gift we have given to him? And what do you mean 'we'? 'I' am the one who captured his soul from the forgotten realm and made him enter a body, out of all through which he doesn't have any choice.
We are essentially forcing these players to play for our entertainment. Don't make it sound like it is a blessing."
"We are Gods, everything we give shall be taken as a blessing. Whether it is a curse or even death."
"This is not a discussion about your ego, Zeus. We can talk about that latter, the thing is, we don't have any rules stating that the players should only continue with the body we have given him. Essentially the souls are the one playing the game."
"I agree with that. It is not the part of the rules we established before the game started. We cannot take him out like that. It is not fair."
Many voices raised in support of Gambler, which didn't really sit well with Zeus. His gaze turned cold as he replied.
"We also didn't establish that it is okay to leave the body. If your argument has merit so does mine and whatever I say is fair, is fair."
"Really? Sounds like you are so desperate to let your candidate win and just want to take out the best of the lot with this chance."
Sun Wukong said directly and Zeus looked at him sharply.
"What? Do you want a piece of me? Why don't we have a go right here, right now?" Sun Wukong provoked as he raised his aura.
*Tap* *Tap*
Gambler tapped on the stone table, making the two gods who could shake the realms turn towards him.
"Zeus, I have not patience to go through with your petty tricks and we can just argue like this for years, so let's do it this way.
Today, we are obviously here for two reasons and Sam's dismissal is only one of them. The other reason is the duel between two of our subordinates. Why don't we link them together?
I will propose an idea that I consider a middle ground and you can propose an idea that you consider as the middle ground. After that let our subordinates battle and whoever wins the argument too.
Are you up for that arrangement?"
"Sure. But say what you want first."
"Okay. Even though there are no rules explicitly stating that anyone shouldn't leave their bodies behind, the wrist screen is only accessible through their original bodies, to be precise, it is accessible only when the bodies and the souls match.
So, if Sam cannot return to the body before the current round of the game which involves them destroying the organizations is over and still stays in his current body, we can eliminate him."
The rest of the gods just shrugged and didn't say anything.
"My middle ground is that we dismiss him without killing his soul," Zeus said coldly.