AI had actually found a way forward for him.
The altar before him was a downward-sloping expanse of ground, with a raised platform piled up in the middle.
It was as if another area had been excavated beneath the underground space where Shari was, forming an enormous hollow surrounded by canal-like structures that encircled the altar at its center.
But there was no water in those canals, only a glaring crimson expanse.
The area around the altar was not made of stone platforms either, but countless skeletons piled together like stairs leading to a throne.
At that moment, a figure stood at every point around the canals.
And in the center of the altar stood a blood-red greatsword embedded in stone.
They were conducting a ritual.
That said, it was clearly not an ordinary ritual like the one at Black Ding Street No. 228.
[You heard Echoes of War.] [Mad killing intent gradually consumed your reason. To avoid losing yourself, you slowly took several steps back.]
Only after the altar disappeared from the character's field of vision did the prompts vanish.
Ryan had clearly seen the blood around the canals continuously climbing along the patterns carved into the altar.
It seemed to be flowing into that greatsword.
"They're worshipping that sword?"
Sword of Ares.
Ryan was certain that thing was a Class-Change Relic from the game.
However, in the game, the sword only dropped after defeating a powerful boss.
Judging by its strength, that boss had to be at least Tier 4, a servant through which the Blood God descended into the human world.
Otherwise, why would it only open after the Main Storyline began? Going there without enough strength would mean a total party wipe.
Of course, players could choose not to fight it. It was only a Hidden Profession quest, after all, and would not affect the course of the game.
But Ryan definitely did not want to miss it, because this profession was one of the game's top Hidden Professions.
It would never be inferior to Silent Nun.
"Let's wait and see."
There was still time anyway, so Ryan was in no hurry.
He made himself a cup of coffee and, after finishing it, continued waiting with renewed energy.
"Back to staying up late and grinding games. I really miss this."
Even though staring at it was not particularly useful, Ryan kept watching until the wall clock chimed twice and the time reached midnight.
The faint red glow that had been flickering around the Character Interface suddenly vanished.
Shari pressed herself against the wall and slowly edged over, seeing the figures who had been conducting the ritual begin to retreat.
Every position had an exit leading away from it.
Only after everyone had left did Shari emerge and follow one of the paths to the canal.
She dipped a little into the "bloody water" inside.
[Blood]
The system's appraisal was always reliable.
As for whether it was human blood or cow and horse blood... it was probably all the same?
The skeletons were definitely human skeletons. Judging by the situation, the Blood Cult had been preparing this place for a long time.
It was hard to imagine those lunatics possessing such patience.
[You heard Echoes of War.]
When Shari crossed the blood pool and stepped onto the skeleton-covered altar, the system message appeared again.
This time, Shari did not retreat and instead continued up the stairway of bones.
Since he had come this far, Ryan was naturally unwilling to leave just like that. Though it was somewhat different from the game, the Class-Change Relic was right in front of him.
However, he quickly noticed that as Shari climbed upward, crimson gradually filled the interface.
Her HP Bar also began dropping bit by bit.
"A domain?"
[You have accepted the trial.]
"So this is where it was waiting for me."
Ryan did not hesitate and quickly had Shari gnaw on Roasted Chicken.
Over the past few days, Shari had been leveled up to Level 11, and her HP was substantial.
Otherwise, she would have died after taking only a few steps.
The closer she got to the top of the altar, the faster her health dropped.
Seeing that her recovery speed was starting to fall behind the damage, Ryan hesitated for a moment before taking out the Magic Scroll of Physique from the Backpack and using it on Shari.
Constitution was tied to HP, and after the Magic Scroll increased her Constitution by 20%, her HP rose accordingly.
"Still not enough..."
Shari pulled another small bottle from the Backpack.
[Thousand Day Brew]
Ryan felt a little pained, but as Shari's HP slowly neared its limit, he timed it carefully and had her drink it.
It was a bottle of wine that restored 60% of current HP and came with a 10% damage increase.
It was the only bottle Lin Qi had obtained from grinding levels these past few days.
Its enormous 60% recovery effect was practically a life-saving miracle, and using it on an Alt Account like Shari was truly wasteful.
Besides, the added damage boost would be useless here.
But having reached this point, giving up would only mean watching Shari die.
They might as well gamble on it.
After her HP instantly recovered by more than half, Shari continued eating Roasted Chicken and finally stepped onto the altar before her health ran out, reaching the Sword of Ares.
Boom~
At that moment.
Crimson suddenly flooded the entire Character Interface.
The ground beneath her feet, the ceiling, and the air were all stained blood-red.
The bones that had been lying around the altar had somehow turned into evil ghost-like beings, scrambling to crawl toward the center of the altar!
The shadow of an invisible great demon lingered above the Sword of Ares, as though it were about to tear through the rift between illusion and reality and descend.
[The flames of war have been lit, burning from the Old Days to the present, never once extinguished. The authority of the Old Days hangs high in the sky. You glimpse supreme greatness. From the throne of blood and bones, glory shall belong to the final victor.]
The crimson interface reached its peak, but at that moment, Shari's HP was locked in place.
Only a final drop remained, yet she did not fall.
"Did that trigger the Class Transfer Mission?"
Ryan raised an eyebrow, but the expression on his face was soon replaced by astonishment.
[To obtain the power of the Old Days' God's Chosen, please achieve the following objectives--] [1: Step forward and pull the sword from the stone.] [2: Blood Sacrifice eight thousand, eight hundred, and eighty-eight lives.]
"What the hell, what kind of God of Slaughter profession is this???"
Thoughts on Going Premium
This newbie was finally going premium!
This book had really been through a lot. Given the original fiction environment on Ciweimao, I had been hesitating over whether to write an original story.
After thinking about it for a long time, I finally decided to give it a shot.
Things were fine for a while after I started the book, but then I pushed for the click rankings this week, and all kinds of problems started showing up.
Because the protagonist's Golden Finger revolves around raising game alt accounts, gender naturally became an issue.
I had actually made it very clear in the synopsis. Beneath the protagonist's throne stood two rows of "loyal" and "capable" people, and I used "they" in the feminine sense, obviously referring to female character accounts.
I also mentioned below the synopsis that the protagonist played female character accounts.
I don't know whether some people failed to see it or saw it and deliberately started stirring things up, but they kept posting nonsense in the chapter comments about "gay men," "lesbians," and "getting married off."
If I had written even the slightest bit of that kind of plot, I could understand you saying those things, but where did I write it?
Recently, some people even started randomly adding tags like "yuri" and "getting married off."
It felt like a bunch of people were just stirring things up to get attention. I had not wanted to explain myself, but I saw that some readers in the comments had genuinely been misled, so I made a separate pinned comment to clarify.
So I will say it again here: this book raises female character accounts. There are no gay men, no lesbians, no getting married off, and there definitely will not be any giving girls away.
All right, explanation over. If anyone brings this up again, all I can do is serve them a mute package.
Sigh, sometimes writing really feels like a dead end. The environment keeps getting worse.
All kinds of people with extreme ideas start flaming the moment anything displeases them, and then they easily affect the people who just want to read normally, ruining the atmosphere of a perfectly good book.
People are so impatient. They do not even read carefully before rushing in to complain.
Everyone is impatient, impatient, impatient, impatient, impatient. I am the King of Impatience too.
Well, it is fine to relax online once in a while.
Having written full-time for seven or eight years, that is something I have felt firsthand.
I am saying all this only because I want everyone to know that I really do not want to deal with all that messy nonsense.
Just let me be a quiet, handsome man who writes!
I would rather stay handsome my whole life, have a wife who stays young and beautiful her whole life, and be rich my whole life, as long as I can write happily!
I wish everyone ten pulls with ten golds in games, winning the jackpot on scratch tickets, men becoming handsome, women becoming beautiful, good health, immortality, and delicious food every day. Thanks!
Oh, and one more thing: the book goes premium tomorrow at noon, and the update will arrive on time. Please subscribe~
Blood Knight and Tier 2 Silent Nun! [5k, Please Subscribe First!]
No matter how Ryan thought about it, he could not remember such an insane blood sacrifice requirement when he had done this quest before.
Kill eight thousand, eight hundred, and eighty-eight lives to change class?
Screw it! This shitty quest was not worth doing!
Hey, I came here to shoot things, not become your butcher!
If this were the game, Ryan would have turned around and left without bothering with it.
But then his gaze fell on the words "God's Chosen" in the prompt.
Normally, changing class through a relic did not count as becoming God's Chosen, but since this prompt had appeared, it clearly held some special meaning.
"Could it be God's Chosen plus a Hidden Profession?"
Come to think of it, with Shari's talent, it would not be strange for her to be chosen by a god.
It was not that Lin Qi was inferior to Shari.
It was simply that gods of different Faith Paths had their own temperaments. Whether someone became God's Chosen depended on the god.
As long as a god was pleased, even a pig could become God's Chosen.
Of course, no god would be that bored. What gods wanted were Believers to spread their faith.
They were born from faith, then grew powerful through it.
If it came with the traits of God's Chosen, then whatever profession she changed into would be incredibly powerful.
"I remember this profession being called Blood Knight."
A Knight, because there was no horse, was also called a Knight without a Horse.
Blood Knights had exceptionally high Constitution and magic growth, as well as lifesteal abilities.
They could kill while recovering health, and their high damage combined with healing carried them from the early game all the way into the late game.
Though they were not as strange and versatile as Silent Nun, their ability in direct combat was in no way inferior.
And if God's Chosen traits were added on top of that...
Ryan had to admit that he was tempted.
But becoming God's Chosen meant being completely tied to this Faith Path, not merely taking on a profession.
Take the League of Fire, for example. According to Jonathan, quite a few members there had been labeled Heretics by the Gate of Janus.
For example, Hand of Darkness and the Blood Cult. Many people in the League of Fire had changed into professions from those two Faith Paths.
But a person's class did not necessarily have an absolute relationship with their stance, because aside from God's Chosen, the Outer Gods did not pay attention to the classes of Chosen Ones.
What mattered most was character.
Some people changed into Hand of Darkness professions yet still did good deeds.
Their hearts and actions were clear as a mirror; everything they did was justice.
Others looked righteous, saying "Praise Janus" one moment and "May the god bless you" the next, only to turn around and prey on children. Their sins were monstrous.
But aside from imperial forces like the League of Fire, for supernatural organizations that regarded the Gate of Janus as a symbol of light and justice, anyone from a Heretic Faith Path could not be trusted.
That was also why the League of Fire and the Gate of Janus did not get along.
Their cooperation in Berman City was purely because they shared common interests. Otherwise, High Priest Lia would never have agreed to let Lin Qi help them.
"Whatever. Shari is the one taking the Heretic Faith Path. What does that have to do with me, Ryan?"
Ryan did not care. Principles and laws meant nothing when fists were what truly mattered.
Come on, shout it with me: Blood Sacrifice to the Blood God!
After the excitement came the problem.
Where was he supposed to get eight thousand, eight hundred, and eighty-eight sacrifices?
Ryan could not obtain that many even if they were pigs!
What if they were eight thousand, eight hundred, and eighty-eight cockroaches?
Rats? Flies?
Bacteria?
Hmm... Ryan felt that if he really did that, the Blood God would immediately slap Shari to death.
Disrespecting a Deity!
"Huh? Wait..."
Ryan looked at the interface. When Shari's hand approached the Sword of Ares, a small box immediately popped up above it.
Before you continue