CH. 1 THERE ARE THREE GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES
The drizzle tapped on the iron bars of the prison cell, dripping incessantly.
Arlen opened his eyes in a daze.
He lowered his head and looked at the reflection of a young face in the puddle, stunned.
That was not his face.
The youthful face was very delicate, looking no more than fourteen years old, with pale blue eyes that reflected a cold light, and skin so pale that it was almost transparent.
He was dressed in luxurious noble clothes, with a robe dragging along the soil with his gray-white hair wrapping his bare feet.
The sickly noble boy and the dark and damp environment around him were in two completely different styles.
“Hiss.”
Arlen felt a sharp pain in his head.
The memories of his previous life flooded in like a tide.
He was the most famous speedrun streamer in the world, and he was doing a speedrun challenge of a western fantasy game called “Abyss”.
This was his seventeenth round, and he was going to challenge the fastest clearance record in the world. By the way, the current world record was Arlen’s sixteenth round.
He was staying up late to play, when suddenly everything went black, and the world changed.
He was reborn into the world of Abyss.
As the memories merged, Arlen’s face became uglier and uglier.
– He seemed to be doomed from the start.
He was reborn into a role that was sacrificed at the beginning.
Literally sacrificed by cultists.
His name was Arlen Morningstar, the heir of one of the richest families, the Morningstar family. While his family was rich, Arlen was not destined to be the protagonist.
First, he had a dark attribute that appeared once in a hundred years, and a light attribute that was so low that it was appalling. He was called the ‘cursed child’ from birth, and if it weren’t for his father’s open-mindedness, he would have been drowned in a pig cage.
Second, he was born into a noble family, but had a personality that was more like a book burner. He was lonely and weird since he was a child, and his best skill was running away from home.
These two characteristics were the main reasons why Arlen was kidnapped by cultists.
The cursed child with a high dark attribute was one of the best offerings to the evil god.
The Mother of Life liked these two dishes the most: children with high dark attributes and high light attributes, which tasted salty and bland, fat but not greasy.
And children who loved to run away from home were the easiest targets for cultists.
According to Arlen’s previous life’s memory, this should be the opening stage of the “Abyss” plot.
This time, the cultists kidnapped two children.
One was him, and the other was one of the female protagonists of the story, the future saint of the church, the pride of heaven who hated evil – Loka Faine.
As everyone knows, the opening of the game is always to pave the way for the protagonist’s appearance, and Arlen was unfortunately the stepping stone for the protagonist’s appearance.
According to the original plot, the cultists sacrificed the two people one after another, and Arlen died on the spot and was taken away by the evil god.
And because of Arlen’s death, it stimulated the female protagonist Loka, and the female protagonist awakened the potential of the saint because of the disaster, and killed the cultists.
In this way, it seemed that he had to please the little saint, hold the protagonist’s thigh, use the previous life’s strategy experience, and find a way to activate Loka’s saint physique to save his life.
Hold the protagonist’s thigh.
– This was the conventional and correct solution.
In this situation, that’s what normal people would’ve done.
There was nothing wrong with it.
Arlen thought, and he found that his thoughts were unusually clear at this time, and also unreasonably calm.
He stood up and walked to the next cell, looking at the girl in the next cell.
She was only a year older than Arlen.
Loka lowered her eyes, her silver eyelashes were like covered with a layer of frost, and the golden eyes under the frost reflected a cold light.
She wore a nun’s dress that had been washed white, her white hands hugged her knees, and she sat in the other corner of the room.
The dim torch swayed on her cheeks, her shoulders trembled slightly, like a restless kitten.
Perhaps she sensed that Arlen was looking at her, she raised her head, paused, and then lowered her head again, turning her face to the other side.
“The Lord will bless us.”
Loka suddenly said.
Who knew if she was comforting Arlen, or comforting herself?
“My name is Arlen, what about you?” Arlen asked politely.
“Loka.”
“Loka, listen.”
Arlen called her name, and said solemnly, “I have a way to save our lives, and you are the most critical and important piece in the plan.”
The most critical and important?
Loka raised her head and met Arlen’s eyes.
For some reason, she inexplicably felt a sense of trust in the noble boy in front of her.
Maybe it was because his smile was very sunny.
After all, he was handsome.
Loka said, “What do I have to do?”
Arlen looked into her eyes and slowly opened his mouth,
“First, swear to the Goddess of Contract, that you won’t report me after you get out.”
“?”
Loka was confused, tilted her head, and her silver hair hung on one shoulder: “What?”
“Also,” the boy added, “don’t hit me in the future.”
Years later, Loka, who had become the saint of the church, looked at her pope, and always remembered the dark and damp autumn afternoon, the innocent smile of the boy who forced her to swear to the Goddess of Contract – and felt sincere regret.
—-
Time slowly passed, and the drizzle outside the window stopped.
Arlen never revealed his plan to Loka from beginning to end, he just leaned against the wall and waited quietly.
The cultists’ ceremony was ready.
A priest wearing a golden sun mask opened the cage, first took off the shackles on Arlen’s hands, and then pushed him out.
The golden mask.
It was the characteristic of the cultists of the Mother of Life, the same as the setting in the game.
“Abyss” was a game with a high degree of freedom, and the Mother of Life was one of the eight cults that players could choose to join. They worshiped the original mother – the Mother of Life.
To win the pleasure of the mother they liked to sacrifice life or the believers of the true god, and finally receive the blessing.
As the most senior player, Arlen was very familiar with the various sacrifice ceremonies of the Mother of Life.
After all, he chose the pope route of the Mother of Life in his sixteenth round, and held countless sacrifice ceremonies.
He walked out of the cage and came to the altar.
The summoning runes had been drawn with mercury and blood.
The altar was surrounded by twisted arms, rampant flesh and blood, and piles of bones.
Arlen recognized every material here: [Twisted Flesh], [Dead Man’s Bed], [Bone Cradle]. Every material was impossible to get from regular channels, and money couldn’t buy them.
It seemed that the cultists attached great importance to this sacrifice, Arlen thought.
One was the cursed child, and the other was the prospective saint.
There were twenty figures wearing golden masks crawling on the altar. They were the believers who received the blessing of the Mother this time.
They were all talents.
According to the process, they would bring the children with dark talents or the nuns of the church to the altar one after another, and the bishop would recite the blessing, establish the anchor point, and call the name of the Mother.
The more detailed and clear the blessing, the more the Mother could hear the call.
The Mother would take away the offerings, and finally bestow blessings on the believers.
In the sacrifice ceremony, the more pleased the Mother was, the more generous the blessing was.
The first one to be sacrificed was Arlen.
Loka stood below the altar. She was already scared pale by the bones around her. Her lips trembled slightly, but even so, she did not succumb. Her eyes coldly stared at those cultists, lightly biting her white teeth.
She also looked at Arlen on the stage, with a certain expectation, even though she knew it was just a fantasy.
The half-grown boy on the altar stepped on the blood with his bare feet. His pale blue eyes were dim and dull, like a timid deer.
How could a simple child possibly defeat the evil cultists?
She wanted to save Arlen more than herself.
Something seemed to tremble in her heart.
Arlen also looked at Loka. He knew that the saint was only one step away from awakening.
The conventional solution was to hold the protagonist’s thigh.
But he was a wicked player.
Arlen only believed in one point: it’s better to rely on yourself than others!
The priest next to him had already begun to recite the blessing. His voice was low, hoarse, like a painful roar.
‘Desire’s Mother’ ‘Great Mother of Life’ ‘Your believers call to you, offer a dark child on the altar to you.’
Sure enough.
As a senior player, Arlen could find at least three grammatical errors in this blessing.
After all, this was the opening plot of the game, and when Arlen played to the seventh round, the game had been updated to 3.0. The setting of the Mother of Life had also been patched a lot, and the blessing had also been upgraded.
For example, the Mother of Life had to be changed to the Mother of Fertility. And so on.
This blessing, although it could summon the evil god, was barely audible.
It had to be called repeatedly, consuming a lot of time.
And one summoning could only sacrifice one offering.
The next one had to be summoned again.
Wasting time was meaningless in the starting scene, and they couldn’t skip it. This was the most criticized by the players, so the officials were rushed by the players.
The 3.0 blessing unlocked in the later stage, added more and more accurate anchor words. One key could summon the evil god, and could sacrifice multiple offerings at once.
The priest finished a section, and was about to recite again.
At this time, Arlen spoke.
He had a fourteen-year-old boy’s appearance. His pupils trembled constantly. His voice was trembling, as if he was going to cry the next second. He said fearfully and childishly:
“Uncle, can I leave a last word?”
His pale blue eyes reflected a faint tear.
According to the setting, the offering leaving a last word could please the Mother more.
This was also part of the ceremony.
The more miserable and desperate the last words, the more pleased the Mother was.
So they couldn’t refuse.
The priest nodded contemptuously.
What could a spoiled noble child do?
Nothing but cry a few words.
Below the altar,
Looking at the boy’s frightened appearance, Loka’s heart sank to the bottom.
Arlen stood in the center of the altar. Maybe because he was afraid and couldn’t stand steady, he crawled on the ground, facing the same twenty cultists who were crawling.
“Mother of Desire and Moon, Great Mother of Fertility.”
“Eternal Motherhood above the Spirit Realm.”
The high priest noticed something was wrong. The boy’s tone became more and more weird, like he was straining his throat, and his last words were even more bizarre.
‘Why does it look like your last words are clearly my words?’
No, they were even more absurd than the priest’s blessing.
The boy sneered. He raised his eyes. There was no fear on his face. His eyes were full of calmness. This was not the appearance of a fourteen-year-old child at all.
“This is the praise of the sincere, this is the feast of the spirit and soul.”
Arlen said, smiling very cleanly and sunny. “This is the delicacy of blood and flesh!”
“Your faithful believer Arlen Morningstar offers a gift.”
“Offer the twenty-one dark heretics on the altar to you.”
“Invite you to dine with me!”
As soon as these words came out, the whole scene was in an uproar.
Loka’s eyes widened even more.
Until this moment, she finally understood what the so-called don’t report meant.
What the hell.
The priest also widened his eyes.
What kind of operation was this?
It was simply reversing the sky.
For the first time in more than thirty years of presiding over the sacrifice, he was sacrificed by his own offering, and on the altar he carefully laid out.
This was like being a chef for thirty years, and today when cooking, he was cooked by the food, and with his cutting board.
He was so angry that he wanted to laugh.
This kid, he thought he could summon the Mother by reciting some words?
It had to be recited for at least four hours.
And he also recited the anchor words wrong.
In the end, who could sacrifice twenty-one people at once?
Summoning the evil god with the wrong anchor words would anger the evil god and bring divine punishment.
But the next second, he couldn’t laugh anymore.
A great horror descended.
He saw the cultists who were crawling on the ground start to twist and twitch. Their greasy fat began to swell like water, swelling to the limit, and then exploded. Blood and limbs splashed. Some of the blood even splashed on Arlen’s sunny smile.
How could this guy be even more extreme than himself when he sacrificed?
The priest’s body also began to mutate, screaming.
For the first time, he doubted his own faith.
He was here dancing and playing music, calling the goddess ten or twenty times before she would reply with an ‘oh’. This noble kid casually shouted a few words, and then the goddess came running.
This was crazy.
In Arlen’s previous life, this situation was called being a clown.
“You can’t do this.” He howled in pain. “You can’t.”
“You are the heretic of the cult. The more the heretics oppose me,” Arlen looked at him and said seriously and solemnly, “the more it proves that I am right.”
“Who the hell is the cultist here?” This was the last thought of the high priest. “You are not even of age yet!”
He was swallowed by the flesh and blood. His skin exploded, and his organs and bones splashed in the air.
According to the rules of the Mother of Life, the blessed believers and the living offerings had to stand on the altar at the same time. So theoretically, whoever completed the ceremony first, the other would be sacrificed first.
The Mother of Life was an evil god. The evil god didn’t care who summoned whom. Even if the one who was sacrificed was Her believer, She would still eat them.
She would take them all, as long as they had a life with dark or holy elements, and then give out rewards.
So, who had a higher dark element in their body than the cultists?
No one.
“There really is this bug.”
Arlen nodded, showing a joyful smile like a harvest. He looked at Loka, who was shocked and speechless, and thought to himself,
“Sacrificing twenty-one cultists at once, I made a fortune.”
Hold the protagonist’s thigh?
Risk being killed, be the stepping stone for the protagonists, lick them crazily, and get nothing in the end?
No.
– Wicked players have plenty of ways to speedrun.
