A fine rain tapped against the iron bars of the cell, pattering softly.
Ansu opened his eyes in a daze.
He lowered his head and stared blankly at the young face reflected in the puddle.
That was not his face.
The boy's features were exquisite. He looked no older than fourteen, with pale blue-green eyes reflecting a cold light and skin so pale it was nearly translucent.
He wore luxurious noble attire, his robe and ash-white hair trailing across the dirt and wrapping around his bare feet.
The sickly noble boy was completely out of place amid the dark, damp surroundings.
"Hiss."
A violent pain surged through Ansu's head.
The massive amount of memories from his previous life flooded in like a tide.
He had once been the world's most famous speedrun streamer, in the middle of a speedrun challenge for a Western fantasy game called "Narak."
This was his Seventeenth Cycle. He had been about to challenge the world's fastest completion record. Incidentally, the current world record was his Sixteenth Cycle.
He had been grinding through the night when his vision suddenly went black, and the world changed.
He had been reincarnated into the world of Narak.
As more and more memories fused together, Ansu's expression grew more and more unpleasant.
—It seemed he was about to die right from the start.
It seemed he had reincarnated into a character who got sacrificed at the very beginning.
Sacrificed by Esoteric Cultists, in the literal sense.
His name was Ansu Morningstar, heir to the Morningstar Family, one of the wealthiest families around. His family was filthy rich, but Ansu simply did not have the fate of a protagonist.
First, his Dark Attribute was exceptionally good, something unseen in a hundred years, while his light attribute was pitifully scarce. From birth, he had been called the Child of Curse. If not for his Father's open-minded household, he might have been stuffed into a pig cage and drowned.
Second, he had been born into an aristocratic family, yet his personality was practically bent on burning books and burying scholars. He had been lonely and strange since childhood, and the skill he excelled at most was running away from home.
Those two traits were the main reasons Ansu had been kidnapped by Esoteric Cultists.
A Child of Curse with a high Dark Attribute was one of the best sacrifices for evil gods.
The Mother Goddess of Life loved such fare most: children with high Dark Attributes and high holy light attributes, one salty and one mild, rich but not greasy.
And children who loved running away from home were the easiest targets for Esoteric Cultists to kidnap.
According to Ansu's memories from his previous life, this should have been the opening CG phase of Narak's story.
The Esoteric Cultists had kidnapped two children this time.
One was him. The other was one of this game's heroines, the future Holy See Saintess, a Chosen Son who hated evil with a vengeance—Luojia Faste.
As everyone knew, a game's opening always laid the groundwork for the protagonist's entrance, and Ansu was unfortunately the stepping stone for that entrance.
According to the original plot, the Esoteric Cultists would sacrifice them one after the other. Ansu would die on the spot and be taken away by the evil god.
Then Ansu's death would stimulate the heroine Luojia, awakening her Saintess potential through misfortune, allowing her to kill the Esoteric Cultists in return.
Looking at it that way, he should first win over the Little Saintess, cling tightly to the protagonist's thigh, and use his past-life strategy knowledge to find a way to activate Luojia's Saintess physique. That would let him keep his life.
Cling to the protagonist's thigh.
—That was the conventional and correct solution.
In this situation, normal people knew what they should do.
There was nothing wrong with it.
As Ansu thought, he realized that his mind was unusually clear, and he was inexplicably calm.
He stood and walked to the neighboring cell, looking at the girl imprisoned next door.
She was only a year older than Ansu.
Luojia lowered her eyes. Her silvery white lashes looked as though they were covered in frost, and beneath them, her brilliant gold eyes reflected a cold light.
She wore a faded nun's robe, her pale hands wrapped around her knees as she sat in the far corner of the room.
The dim torchlight swayed across her cheeks. Her shoulders trembled gently, like an uneasy little cat.
Perhaps she perceived Ansu looking at her. She looked up, paused, then lowered her head again and turned her face away.
"The Lord will protect us."
Luojia suddenly said.
It was unclear whether she was comforting Ansu or herself.
"My name is Ansu. What about you?" Ansu asked politely.
"Luojia."
"Luojia, listen."
Ansu called her name and said solemnly, "I have a way to save our lives, and you are the most crucial, most important part of the plan."
The most crucial and important?
Luojia looked up and met Ansu's gaze.
For some reason, she felt a faint sense of trust toward the noble boy in front of her.
Perhaps it was because his smile was so sunny.
After all, he was handsome.
"What do I need to do?" Luojia asked.
Ansu gazed into her eyes and slowly spoke.
"That is, swear to the Goddess of Contracts that once we get out, you are not allowed to report me."
"...?" Luojia was dumbfounded. She tilted her head, silver hair falling over one shoulder. "What?"
"And," the boy added, "you can't beat me up in the future either."
Many years later, Luojia, who had already become the Holy See Saintess, would look at her Pope and always recall this dark, damp autumn afternoon. She would always remember the innocent smile on the boy's face as he forced her to swear to the Goddess of Contracts—and feel heartfelt regret.
—
Time slowly passed, and the pattering autumn rain outside the window stopped.
From beginning to end, Ansu did not reveal what his plan was to Luojia. He merely leaned against the wall and waited quietly.
The Esoteric Cultists had finished preparing the ritual.
A priest wearing a brilliant gold sun mask opened the cell. He first removed the flail shackles from Ansu's hands, then pushed him Outside.
A brilliant gold mask.
That was the distinguishing trait of Esoteric Cultists from the Mother God of Life Cult, just as it had been in the game's setting.
Narak was a game with a high degree of freedom, and the Mother God of Life Cult was one of the eight Great Heresies players could choose to join. They believed in the primordial Mother Goddess—the Mother Goddess of Life.
They loved sacrificing life, offering dark creatures or followers of righteous gods to win the Mother Goddess's pleasure and ultimately receive her blessings.
As the most experienced player, Ansu knew all kinds of sacrifice rituals used by the Mother God of Life Cult.
After all, in his Sixteenth Cycle, he had chosen the route of becoming the Mother God of Life Cult's Pope and had performed countless Sacrifice Rituals.
Beyond the cell was the altar.
Summoning runes had already been drawn with mercury and blood.
The altar was surrounded by twisted arms, wildly proliferating lumps of flesh, and piles of dry bones.
Ansu recognized every material here: twisted flesh, dead man's womb, Bone cradle. None of these materials could be obtained through legitimate channels, not even with money.
It seemed the Esoteric Cultists took this sacrifice very seriously, Ansu thought.
After all, one was a Child of Curse, and the other was a Reserve Saintess.
Twenty figures wearing golden masks knelt on the altar. They were the believers who would receive the Mother Goddess's blessings from this ritual.
They were all talents.
According to the process, children with dark talents or nuns of the Holy See would be brought to the altar one after another. The bishop would recite the prayer, establish an anchor, and call upon the Mother Goddess's name.
The more detailed and clear the prayer, the more easily the Mother Goddess could hear the call.
The Mother Goddess would take away the sacrifice, then grant blessings to the believers.
During a Sacrifice Ritual, the more pleased the Mother Goddess was, the greater the blessings she bestowed.
Ansu was the first to be sacrificed.
Luojia stood beneath the altar. The surrounding white bones had already frightened her pale, her lips trembling slightly. Even so, she did not yield. Her eyes glared coldly at the Esoteric Cultists, and she gently bit her pearly teeth.
She turned her gaze toward Ansu on the platform, carrying a certain hope, though she knew it was only a fantasy.
The half-grown boy on the altar stood barefoot in the blood, his pale blue-green eyes dim and lifeless, like a timid little deer.
How could a simple child possibly defeat Evil Heresy cultists?
More than saving herself, she wanted to save Ansu.
Something seemed to tremble in her heart.
Ansu also looked at Luojia. He knew this Saintess was only one step away from awakening.
The conventional solution was to cling to the protagonist's thigh.
But he was a Heretical Player.
Ansu only believed in one principle: relying on others was worse than relying on oneself!
The priest beside him had already begun reciting the prayer. His voice was low and hoarse, like a pained howl.
"Mother Goddess of Desire, Great Life Matriarch, Your believers call to You and offer a dark child upon the altar to You."
As expected.
As an experienced player, Ansu could identify at least three grammatical errors in this prayer.
After all, this was the game's very opening plot, and by Ansu's Seventeenth Cycle, the game had already updated to version 3.0. The Mother God of Life Cult's setting had received plenty of patches, so naturally the prayer had been upgraded as well.
For example, Great Life Matriarch had to be changed to Great Mother Goddess of Fertility, among other things.
Although this prayer could summon the evil god, it was only barely audible to her.
It had to be repeated over and over, wasting a great deal of time.
And each summoning could only sacrifice one offering.
To sacrifice the next one, they would have to summon her again.
Players had complained most about wasting time on meaningless CGs that could not be skipped, so they had bombarded the developers with criticism.
The version 3.0 prayer unlocked later added more and more accurate anchoring phrases. It could summon the evil god with a single command and sacrifice multiple offerings at once.
The priest finished one recitation and was about to begin again.
At that moment, Ansu spoke.
He wore the appearance of a fourteen-year-old boy. His pupils trembled constantly, his voice quivered, and he looked as if he might cry at any moment. In a frightened, childish voice, he said:
"Uncle, I... can I leave some last words...?"
A faint glimmer of tears reflected in his pale blue-green eyes.
According to the setting, a sacrifice leaving last words would please the Life Matriarch even more.
That too was part of the ritual.
The more miserable and despairing the final words, the happier the Life Matriarch would be.
So they could not possibly refuse.
The priest nodded disdainfully.
What could a pampered noble child possibly do?
At most, he would cry and make a fuss.
Beneath the altar.
Seeing the boy's frightened appearance, Luojia's heart sank to the bottom.
Ansu stood in the center of the altar. Perhaps because he was too frightened to stand steadily, he crawled onto the ground, directly facing the twenty believers who were likewise kneeling.
"Mother Goddess of Desire and the Moon, Great Mother Goddess of Fertility."
"Eternal Motherhood Above the Spirit Realm."
The High Priest sensed something was wrong. The boy's tone was growing stranger and stranger, as though he were shouting at the top of his lungs, and his final words were even stranger.
Your last words are clearly reciting my prayer.
No, they were even stranger than the priest's prayer.
"Heh."
The boy laughed strangely. He looked up, and there was no fear on his face. His eyes were entirely calm. This was not at all how a fourteen-year-old child should look.
"This is the Hymn of the Utmost Sincerity, this is the Feast of Spirit and Soul."
Ansu said with a clean, sunny smile, "This is the Delicacy of Blood and Flesh!"
"Your devout believer Ansu Morningstar offers You a gift."
"I offer the twenty-one dark heretics upon this altar to You—"
"I invite You to dine with me!"
The moment those words fell, the entire scene erupted in uproar.
Luojia's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
Only at this moment did she finally understand what he had meant by not being allowed to report him.
What the hell?
The priest's eyes also widened.
What kind of move was this?
This was simply outrageous.
For the first time in over thirty years of conducting sacrifices, he was being sacrificed by his own offering—and on the altar he had painstakingly prepared?
It was like a chef who had cooked for thirty years being cooked by the dish while making dinner, using his own chopping board!
He was so furious he nearly laughed aloud.
Did this brat think he could summon the Mother Goddess just by reciting the prayer once?
It would take at least four hours of chanting.
And he had even recited the anchoring phrases incorrectly.
Besides, who could sacrifice twenty-one people at once?
Getting the anchoring phrases wrong while summoning an evil god would anger her and bring down Divine Punishment.
But the next second, he could no longer laugh.
A tremendous terror descended.
He saw the worshippers prostrate on the ground begin to twist and convulse. Their greasy fat swelled like water, expanding to its limit before exploding. Blood and severed limbs splashed everywhere, some of the blood even spattering Ansu's sunny smile.
Why was this guy even more extreme than him when it came to sacrifices?!
The priest's body began to mutate as well, and he let out a miserable scream.
For the first time, he doubted his faith.
Here he was, dancing and playing music, calling the Goddess ten or twenty times before she would answer with an "Oh." Yet this rich little brat called out once, and the Goddess came running right over?
He'd been cucked!
In Ansu's previous life, the professional term for this was being a clown.
"You can't do this." He wailed in agony. "You can't—"
"You are a heretic of the Esoteric Cult. The more heretics oppose me," Ansu said as he watched him with grave seriousness, "the more it proves that I'm doing the right thing."
"Which one of us is actually the Esoteric Cultist?" This was the High Priest's final thought. "You're not even an adult, damn it!"
He was swallowed by flesh and blood. His skin burst apart, and his organs and Bone splashed through the air in rippling arcs.
According to the rules of the Mother Goddess Cult, the blessed worshipper and the living sacrifice had to stand upon the altar at the same time. So, in theory, whoever completed the ritual first would sacrifice the other first!
The Mother Goddess of Life was an evil god. Evil gods did not care who summoned whom. Even if the sacrifice was one of Her worshippers, She would devour them all the same.
As long as it was a lifeform with Dark Element or holy elements, She accepted it all and bestowed a reward.
So who possessed more Dark Element within their body than an Esoteric Cultist?
No one.
"Sure enough, this bug exists."
Ansu nodded, showing a harvest-like smile of delight. He looked toward Luojia, who had been shocked speechless, and thought to himself,
Sacrificing twenty-one Esoteric Cultists at once—I've made a killing.
Cling to the protagonist's thigh?
Risk getting killed just to become stepping stones for the protagonists, groveling and licking their boots like mad, only to end up with nothing?
No.
—Heretical Players had plenty of ways to speedrun.
Before you continue