God Does Not Play Dice

The words "Sacrificial Offering" immediately perked Lu Yao up.

He opened the Temple, and sure enough, a gleaming golden item had appeared in the [Sacrificial Offering] slot.

[Golden Dice]: Each roll consumes 2 Faith Points. If a 6 is rolled, one Sacrificial Offering is obtained.

Origin unknown.

Seeing this description, Lu Yao's excitement dissipated entirely.

The Salt Pool Tribe had offered up a gambling tool as a Sacrificial Offering.

Now that Lu Yao was highly sensitive to Faith Points, the moment he read the Golden Dice's description, a single phrase popped into his head.

Ill intentions.

The core of gambling is deception.

Each roll consumes 2 Faith Points—where did that Faith go?

Thinking back to the merchant-like behavior of the Salt Pool Tribe and their style of claiming to serve three Gods, Lu Yao suspected that behind the Golden Dice was some God running a scheme, using the Salt Pool Tribe to pull scams everywhere.

From another angle, using the Golden Dice to scam Faith deposits from other Gods was far more clever than Lisa's laborious and forceful method of robbery.

As for rolling a 6 to obtain a Sacrificial Offering.

The probability of this thing was completely uncontrollable; it would hit when it said it would, and miss when it said it wouldn't, flaunting an outright rigged system.

Einstein said it well: God does not play dice.

But since the Salt Pool Tribe had sent a gift, there was no reason not to accept it.

Isabelle had once said that if there was an unwanted Sacrificial Offering, it could be thrown directly into the Flame of Faith to turn it into fuel and gain some Faith.

Lu Yao directly tossed the [Golden Dice] into the Temple's bonfire, and in an instant, it vanished without a trace.

Faith +10.

As expected, worthless.

Lu Yao observed the current geographical environment of the Garlic Tribe.

In the basin plain was the Garlic Tribe's main base, with plenty of undeveloped land, so there was no space issue in the short term.

The forest stretched northward, cut off by a river to the east. To the west were mountains, and to the south, a desert.

Although the world map continued to expand as the Pixelated Villagers explored, there were no other clustered populations nearby.

For rapid development, trade, exchange, and even integration with other tribes was the best way.

Currently, the only safe passage connecting the Garlic Tribe to the outside world was through the mountains—specifically, the Salt Pool Tribe behind them. The entrance and exit were firmly controlled by the Salt Pool Tribe.

Another potential passage was the Bedou Tribe's oasis to the south, but Isabelle would need time to open that route.

Unlike the Barbarian Tribe's aggressive conquest policy, the Salt Pool Tribe's civilizational strategy was very flexible. They were actively trading with the Garlic Tribe, and for the time being, there was no conflict of interest between the two sides.

The situation was still stable.

After the Garlic Tribe invented their own Writing, several new resource bars appeared on the game panel, along with one notable change: the Pixelated Villagers had all learned simple thinking, and the question marks above their heads were no longer a privilege exclusive to the Prophet and Shaman.

Lu Yao clicked on the question marks of different Pixelated Villagers to read their thoughts.

"When I got up today, I felt very hungry. After eating, I wasn't hungry anymore, but the next day, I'd be hungry again. Since I'll always be hungry, does eating even have any meaning?"

"The weeds in the wheat field grow faster than the wheat. No matter how much I pull, they never go away. If wheat could grow like weeds, sprouting on its own and never running out no matter how much I eat, that would be great."

"Meat is delicious, wheat is delicious, and garlic is delicious, but eating them all together is the most delicious. This secret is probably only known to me, hehe."

"The Prophet is old, the Shaman is old too. Should I inherit the Prophet or the Shaman? What a headache."

Among the many thought bubbles produced by the tribe's villagers, one Farmer's idea caught Lu Yao's attention.

"This year, there are especially many weeds and bugs, and we're also facing a drought. The wheat harvest is likely to be poor. The whole tribe is counting on the wheat. If we can't have a good harvest this year, we'll go hungry in winter."

It wasn't just this one Farmer; several other Farmers expressed the same concern.

They were the professionals tending the Farmland, highly sensitive to the environment and food.

Lu Yao opened a web browser and searched for a while. After filtering and verifying, he decided on the next item to remotely support the tribe.

He walked into the kitchen, picked up a large Potato, and placed it on the mouse.

--Would you like to grant your believers [Potato]?

[Yes]

As the Potato entered the Pixel World through the Temple, exclamation marks popped up above the heads of many tribe villagers.

"The God has bestowed another Blessing!"

"Potato, Potato!"

"A Potato that grows when buried in the soil! A drought-resistant Potato!"

"Potatoes that yield more than wheat!"

"A brand new type of grain!"

Especially the farmers in the fields—one by one, smiles appeared above their heads.

"Great, the God truly watches over us!"

"God Yao knew this year's harvest would be poor, so He bestowed the potato!"

"No one will go hungry this winter! No one will starve!"

"Praise God Yao!"

The farmers quickly planted the potatoes in the newly cleared farmland and began a new round of sowing and tending crops.

As the Pixelated Villagers bustled about, the dry season gradually passed. The land regained some vitality, and the sky shed a few rains.

But autumn didn't last long before snow began to fall from the sky, and winter arrived once more.

Just as the farmers had predicted, the wheat harvest in the fields was very poor this year. In the grain inventory list, wheat dropped from its usual 80% share to 40%, potatoes took up 30%, and meat accounted for another 20%. Overall grain reserves flashed a yellow warning light.

Fortunately, the potatoes came in time; otherwise, the food gap this winter would have been huge, possibly even causing population loss.

This was also an advantage brought by the progress of civilization.

People began to think, to worry, and to observe, leading to more exchanges and attempts.

As the God behind the scenes, Lu Yao could also see the subtle changes in the Pixel World through the doubts of the Pixelated Villagers, allowing him to make targeted adjustments and responses.

During this not-so-long winter, two things happened in the Garlic Tribe.

The first was that the Salt Pool Tribe came to purchase a portion of grain at a high price.

According to the villagers of the Salt Pool Tribe, because the drought had lasted so long, most of the other tribes the Salt Pool Tribe had contact with that year had fallen into famine. The Garlic Tribe was already considered a relatively grain-rich area.

The second was that the Salt Pool Tribe sent a group of 22 immigrants.

Among them were two carpenters, two pharmacists, and one salt maker.

For the first time ever, the Garlic Tribe had attracted a group of professionals.

They had voluntarily migrated, partly because they had lived in the Salt Pool Tribe before and knew about the Garlic Tribe and the faith in God Yao, and partly because of that year's drought and famine.

There was no other place with a better chance of getting enough to eat than the Garlic Tribe, the land of grain production.

The carpenters had the skills and experience to fell trees. They entered the forest during winter, began logging, and processed the wood into rough timber. The Garlic Tribe's first wooden house was built by the two carpenters.

The arrival of the pharmacists filled the gap in medical skills, which had previously been covered only by the Shaman. The two pharmacists regularly went into the forest to gather herbs and treated the sick, saving many lives.

The salt maker was a specialist in salt production. He found some rock salt in the mountains to the west. Though the yield was low, it gave the Garlic Tribe another way to obtain salt.

Lu Yao poured himself a glass of Ice Cola and tore open a bag of Cucumber Flavored Potato Chips.

Delicious.

Looking down at the busy little villagers, Lu Yao felt as if he had merged with them, and his body seemed to grow stronger.

Bro doesn't roll dice.

Bro just wants steady happiness.