As the master of this world,
Li Li had access to great powers such as Build Town, Map Editor, Divine Legion, Divine Miracle, and Game Data.
The first thing he chose was Exit Game.
A mirror adorned with golden trim appeared in Li Li's hand.
"Not going back?" Li Li was a little disappointed.
He extended his power into it, trying to analyze the mirror in his hand.
"..."
"The brand-new expansion, 'Cauldron of Cooking Gods,' is about to launch! Come feast on the gods!"
"Forbidden spatial magic! A mysterious new advanced class is about to arrive!"
"The tenth Global Expedition Cup returns! Prepare for the Divine Realm Arena!"
"Update Announcement: Server maintenance on May 28, 2050, at 01:30."
"Announcement Regarding the First Recharge Reward Reset."
"..."
The information coming from the mirror left Li Li stunned for a long while before he finally came back to his senses.
—This was the official website of a game called "Despair Expedition OL."
He could sense that this website came from an unknown world.
But the Chinese filling the screen had already revealed the origin of that world.
Blue Star!
And Blue Star in the year 2050!
What was the principle behind this? Li Li couldn't figure it out.
The instant he touched the mirror, he understood that different worlds were like two parallel lines—they could never intersect.
Even if another higher-dimensional being obtained this "mirror," they would be unable to see anything within it.
"And since my soul came from Blue Star, it is like a branch extending from those parallel lines, building a bridge between the two worlds."
Li Li analyzed the matter seriously.
He tried projecting his power into the world within the mirror and discovered that he could alter the content of the game website however he wished.
Yet he could not break through the website's "membrane" and reach anywhere else on the internet.
It was like standing before the glass display of a cake shop. No matter what he did, he could not touch the pastries behind the window.
Then what use is this mirror to me?
Maybe I could turn it into a chat room and talk with my fellow townspeople when I had nothing to do?
Li Li felt that the mirror had considerable potential, but he could not think of how to make use of it for the moment. He could only put it away and look back at his own world.
Apart from the territory of the Thirteen City Alliance, there were no longer any civilizations of significant scale across the world's five continents.
Among the survivors living in the wastelands, even the largest settlements had no more than a thousand people.
Meanwhile, the corrupted gods had carved up most of the world.
They had completely lost their sanity and descended into madness, infecting nearby creatures and turning them into divine aberrations.
They had not even left behind any "clean" human traitors who could attack the alliance.
The gods had been corrupted?
What Mod effect was this supposed to be?
While puzzling over it, Li Li found the world's last remaining mortal faction.
The Thirteen City Alliance's God Banning Barrier did not merely surround the cities. It covered the vast plains between them as well.
Fertile farmland, busy mines, and dense railway networks...
These facilities scattered across the plains provided the cities with a solid foundation.
Li Li opened Game Data and pulled up the information on the Thirteen City Alliance.
"Population: 35,110,231"
"Unbelievers: 87%"
"..."
Then he looked at the pile of flesh plastered against the God Banning Barrier—that thing was the red eye hanging over Iron Wall City.
Twisted Apophis.
He opened the Divine Miracle menu, glanced at the twelve-digit Faith Points total, and decisively chose Divine Declaration, the most expensive option at one hundred thousand points. He fired three in succession at the pile of flesh.
The instant divine power flooded into his body, Li Li discovered in horror that his right arm was covered in festering sores!
And that was not all!
His left arm had grown foul-smelling scales, his left leg was covered in blood blisters like molten lava, countless worms gnawed at his right leg, and a vicious curse brewed in his abdomen... Before he could even think, indescribable pain consumed his mind!
It hurt, it itched, it ached, it tingled, it reeked of blood, it stank, it tasted bitter... The sudden agony nearly drove him insane!
At that moment, Li Li recalled something he had heard at a convention.
"This happens to correspond to the Li in mythology transforming his own body into the earth."
That was it!
When he had created this world, he had maxed out the resources on every map.
This place should have been a god-gifted land so abundant that milk and honey flowed through it.
Yet now, it had become a breeding ground for death, decay, and curses!
So the one most deeply corrupted—
Was my own body!
"Not an unfamiliar ceiling."
Li Li opened his eyes and tried to sit up, only to find that both his hands were tightly bound.
He vaguely recalled what had happened.
When his soul had been tortured to the brink of madness by the pain fed back from the world,
this body had apparently convulsed, gone berserk, and repeatedly smashed its head against the wall.
If not for his own saintess stopping his body by brute force, he might have already lost the flesh capable of carrying his soul.
Thinking of this, Li Li turned his head slightly and, sure enough, saw a young girl with furry ears sitting blankly by the bed, staring at him without moving.
"Um..." Li Li blinked. "Could you untie me?"
"Okay." The girl nodded slightly.
She gently squeezed with one hand, crushing the ropes around Li Li's wrists, then returned to the bedside and continued staring blankly at him.
Li Li thanked her and shook his aching wrists before asking shamelessly,
"Although it's kind of awful to ask now, what's your name?"
The girl's ears twitched.
"El Yunis."
"Then can I call you Aer from now on?"
"Mm."
"Aer, I'm a little hungry." Li Li sat up in bed. "Could you get me something to eat?"
The girl immediately stood up. "There is some. Self-heating hot pot. It's delicious. It's an offering."
As she spoke, she quickly headed toward the kitchen.
Watching her retreating figure, Li Li suddenly felt a trace of guilt.
He had originally planned to be nothing more than a passerby and avoid disturbing the girl's life as much as possible.
However, after learning about the state of this world, he changed his mind.
The mortals had already been forced into a desperate situation, while the gods, who should have been the victors, had gone mad for unknown reasons.
If this continued, the entire world would be destroyed.
When that happened, Li Li, as the Creator, would perish along with the world.
He had only one path left: purify the world.
This was a war.
Every living being in this world was unable to stay out of it.
Aer, as his saintess, was even more so.
Fortunately, Li Li had already found a way to purify the world.
Before fleeing back into the God Banning Barrier in a sorry state, he had used the last of his sanity to take away two crucial abilities.
—Divine Army and Exit Game.
Divine Army was a new gameplay feature unlocked in the Creator Simulator DLC, "Divine Soldiers Descend."
Players could create an army out of thin air according to their preferences.
This army had no restrictions whatsoever and obeyed the player's commands completely.
They could attack any unit, and the units they killed would be converted into Faith Points and returned to the player, giving players another way to obtain Faith Points besides "collecting taxes."
Spend Faith Points to create an army → send the army to attack other factions → use the plundered Faith Points to upgrade the army.
That was how "Divine Soldiers Descend" worked.
After trying it out briefly, Li Li learned that creating the body of an ordinary soldier consumed one unit of Faith.
Even a hero unit with maxed-out potential cost only ten units of Faith.
The price was cheap, but unfortunately, he could currently only use his own Faith to create an army.
Faith Points were "taxes" players collected from all prayers. Once the early stage of the game had passed, players would never lack them.
Faith, on the other hand, was the god's own income.
The idol Aer had given him contained people's prayers to the "gods," allowing Li Li to gather one hundred and twenty thousand units of Faith.
Unfortunately, in order to flee back into the God Banning Barrier before falling into madness, he had already used up more than half of it.
Theoretically, Li Li could return to being the Creator at any time and use the twelve-digit Faith Points total to create an army.
But he did not dare do so.
This world was too deeply corrupted. If he returned to the Creator interface, he would most likely go mad just like the other gods.
He did not even dare leave the God Banning Barrier!
The remaining 1,821 points of Faith were Li Li's final resource.
"In other words, setting souls aside, it's only enough to create 182 bodies?" Li Li murmured.
The moment souls were mentioned, Li Li's head began to ache.
Creating a complete soul required at least 10,000 points of Faith.
How was that price even acceptable?
At that thought, Li Li activated Exit Game, and a mirror appeared in his hand.
The fact that he could alter the website in the mirror at will meant he had left a projection in the other world, one capable of producing "immaterial" effects.
Used properly, it could even create large-scale chaos.
Like a monkey trying to scoop up the moon, even though the moon's reflection on the water had no substance, it could still send false information and guide creatures into action.
Then conversely, could he make souls from the other world leave "immaterial" effects in this world?
For example, he could project a Blue Star soul and package it inside a soulless body, then modify that body so it could react accordingly to the projection's subtle changes.
Just like an optical sensor!
That was it!
Li Li planned to recruit heroes from Blue Star and have them "pilot" the Divine Army, helping him purify this world.
Because they were projections from another world, no harm could touch their souls. As long as he had enough Faith in reserve, the heroes from Blue Star could resurrect endlessly.
These heroes would accumulate experience through death after death, becoming stronger and stronger.
And he would gain an immortal army!
The cost-effectiveness was incredibly high!
Most importantly, even if some blind Blue Star native chose to betray him, Li Li could cut off the projection at any time.
He could also create a loyal soul for the body that had lost its projection.
Unfortunately, whether it was creating bodies that could respond to projections and be remotely "piloted" by Otherworlders, or guiding Blue Star natives to leave projections in this world,
both required extensive experimentation and refinement before they could be perfected.
There was no way to accomplish it all in one simple step.
"Anyway, I'll just get started."
Li Li was filled with motivation.
He picked up the mirror and wrote a recruitment letter on the website.
New author, new book. Please support me!
Before you continue