God Said

[You have actively disconnected. Please select whether to reconnect.]

"Thanks, but I don't need to right now~"

[Execute wake-up program?]

"Please do~"

[Acknowledged. The current time is 22:15 on January 2nd, 2049. You will awaken in one minute.]

After leaving the game pod, Mo Tan took about two minutes to adjust to the sudden arrival of night. After all, when he logged off, it was still sunny in the game. This kind of experience was already commonplace in this era of prevalent mental simulation devices, but each experience could still bring him a hazy sense of illusion.

It was as if he were in the gap between mind and reality, novel and intoxicating.

"Too bad time is precious~" Mo Tan dispelled that wonderful sense of disharmony in a very short time, and sighed with some regret: "And since two days ago, the time under the night has become even more precious to me..."

He made himself a cup of coffee with sugar but no milk, but didn't immediately rush to drink it. Instead, he placed it on the table beside him and flopped straight back onto the soft sofa.

He closed his eyes and began to think~

[Who am I? Do I really exist?]

[I can control my actions, like gently raising a finger like this...]

[But does this process really exist in 'reality'?]

[Do my joys, sorrows, and angers come from my 'true heart'?]

[What does 'true heart' even mean? How can a person prove their existence?]

[Is all of life a predetermined script, or a pure product of chance and necessity without a neutral stance?]

[Do I really exist? Why am I me?]

[……]

This seemingly slightly foolish thought process wasn't Mo Tan suddenly acting crazy, but a subconscious self-hypnosis process. This focused and meaningless thinking of his had only one purpose: to actively perform a personality switch.

And this method was the only transformation method he could guarantee a sufficient success rate with so far, and it didn't cause too much damage to himself.

The mind is wonderful, and humans are wonderful. We often enter a wonderful 'transcendental' state in certain situations, as if observing ourselves from an Emperor's perspective that no one knows where is.

This isn't a lie. At least some people (the one tapping away at the keyboard in front of the monitor right now) have had similar experiences, and during a bout of insomnia, the bizarre attempt to 'question and deny one's own existence' sprouted.

In short, it was about finding various pieces of evidence that could prove one's existence, such as wanting to move a finger, then commanding oneself to perform the action of 'moving a finger', and then using another angle to question it, from action, thought, dimension, fate, all the way to existence.

And at some point in this process, a confusing feeling would descend, as if a layer of water film had been placed between oneself and the outside world, isolating thoughts and actions. Although one could still control one's body, there would be a brief delay...

It was a somewhat frightening, but also very interesting state.

I call it 'Layered Thinking', and I have successfully entered this state a few more times in subsequent deliberate experiments. To be honest, the experience isn't very good, as if I've isolated myself from everything around me, and I can't even be sure if I exist.

[Note: This is the author's personal experience, and I don't know if it has widespread applicability. Interested friends can try it a little, but please don't take it too seriously. Maybe I really am a little mentally unstable, but you might not be.]

So, the detour is over, let's get back to the main topic.

After years of experimentation, Mo Tan discovered that this state he accidentally discovered could help him perform 'transformations' very well. Although this process would consume a large or even huge amount of energy, it was still his best choice so far. He was most skilled at transforming his personality into the [Absolute Neutral] state.

After all, it was his most normal personality on weekdays, and his personality was relatively mediocre (not mediocre), at least not as extreme as the other two, so switching wouldn't be too troublesome...

So after a while, when Mo Tan broke away from that somewhat wonderful feeling, the chaotic and always smiling look in his eyes had faded, replaced by a gentle and slightly lazy temperament.

"Coffee..." He walked to the cup of coffee at the corner of the table, hesitated slightly, and still took out a small bag of instant sweet milk from the drawer and poured it in, sighing: "It's more appropriate to add a little milk."

Mo Tan immediately perked up after drinking the entire cup of coffee in one gulp. After stretching, he lay back in the game pod, noted the current time, and logged into the game.

[Mental connection detected. Synchronizing personal information...]

[Connection complete. Reading character information.]

[Welcome back, Absolute Neutral Hei Fan. Loading Innocent World. Good night.]

"As expected, no one noticed~" After Hei Fan regained consciousness, he found himself sitting on a long chair on the central avenue of Rockpile City. There were quite a few pedestrians around at this time, but none of them noticed that a living person had appeared out of thin air, which made him sigh: "What kind of tricks did the system play with these NPCs' perception? Or is my own sense of existence really too weak?"

In fact, this was of course the influence of the system...

The reason Mo Tan thought so was actually because he knew how flamboyant or righteous he could be at times, but if he were with other people, Hei Fan in the [Absolute Neutral] state was still very normal.

He slowly got up and continued walking towards the city's church (he had originally planned to go to the church before he disconnected yesterday), enjoying himself among the crowd of people with different skin tones, professions, and even races.

Although he had already experienced the bustling Anka Market and the large, vibrant Pato City, Mo Tan didn't have any dissatisfaction with the relatively quiet Rockpile City at this moment. He could always easily blend into his surroundings, and he could keep up with the rhythm like a local small-town resident no matter where he went. This wasn't any extraordinary talent, just enough peace of mind...

If Mo Tan's personality at this time were singled out and thrown into a reality show about rural life, he would probably say "It smells so good!" during his first meal in the village.

He is the neighbor who smiles at you when you go out for a walk in the morning~

He is the rubbernecker who laughs along with you when he hears an interesting joke~

He likes to play games, read comics, read novels, and doesn't like to eat green vegetables just like you~

He will be guilty, afraid, sympathetic, compassionate, hesitant, and indecisive~

He usually doesn't talk too much or too little, but he will chat with you enthusiastically for a long time when he encounters a topic he is interested in~

He won't put reflectors on the back of his shoes or secretly take pictures under people's skirts with his mobile phone, but he will unconsciously take a few more glances when he sees long legs on the street~

He is such a guy, a 'normal person' who is everywhere in this era of population explosion and is not rare at all.

However, given that he's reasonably intelligent, and also possesses two personality traits that are constantly getting him into trouble, no matter how 'ordinary' or how much of an

[Absolute Neutral]

he is, it's impossible for him to be truly mediocre.

Even the most fuel-efficient lamp will guzzle gas like crazy if it's constantly dealing with all sorts of messed-up stuff...

"Why aren't you online today?"

"I might play for 12 hours every day!"

"That magic emission technique you mentioned is pretty useful, huh!"

"Speaking of which, even if we don't have to assemble, let's still show our faces at the barracks."

"Yinna's been giving me weird looks. What did you say to her?"

Probably out of boredom, the fuel-guzzling female hacker started sending Tan Mo harassing messages even when she didn't get a response...

Mo Tan carefully replied to her, saying something along the lines of 'I often work part-time at night, so my online time might be a bit irregular. If you have plenty of time, hurry up and level up so you can carry me later,' the kind of meaningless stuff.

Afterward, he left an email address for Shuangye, with a pretty basic level of encryption. With this Sun's skills, as long as she does a little investigating, she should be able to confirm his real identity, and then further separate 'Hei Fan' from 'Mo Tan', making that other identity of 'Black Tank' and 'Tan Mo' even safer.

As for the similarity between his real name and his game nickname, in this day and age of massive populations, it can almost be completely attributed to coincidence. Even if Shuangye becomes suspicious, at most it will just confuse her even more. So what?

As a result, shortly after he replied to Shuangye's message, before he even reached his destination, a message box popped up in the corner of his vision.

[Player: Yu Chen (Absolute Neutral) has requested to add you as a friend]

He didn't need to think hard to remember that this was the girl named Yu Chen who was with Yi Dong at the gathering before. Very introverted, seemed a bit shy.

Um, it seemed like he told everyone at the time that they'd add each other as friends later, but in the end, no one added anyone. On one hand, 'Hei Fan' was rarely online, and on the other hand, everyone was pretty excited about the game at the beginning, so they were probably too busy to deal with many things. Even Yi Dong hadn't bothered him much after Mo Tan stood him up...

Innocent World really does have a unique charm.

"Hi~"

After choosing to confirm, Mo Tan casually sent a greeting through the friend interface's mail system, and received a reply in no time.

"Hehe, I finally caught you online o(n_n)o~ What are you doing, Mo Tan? I've added all of our friends now!"

Mo Tan replied simply as he walked, saying that he was a bit busy recently and didn't have much time to play. He had just joined the autonomous army of a certain territory in the game, and had recently been scammed out of 20 copper coins by a priest in the city with a religious book.

"Σ(⊙▽⊙! Really? The Saintess sister on my side told me that religious books are free~ Mo Tan, were you scammed?" Yu Chen replied quickly again. Although sending messages through mental connection didn't require typing, this speed was still a bit shocking, and the cheerfulness and vitality that was about to burst out from her words also surprised Mo Tan a bit.

This girl has a bit of gap moe...

Although Mo Tan doesn't like to interact too much with others in reality (for fear of sudden changes in style causing accidents), the situation is different in the game. Anyway, even if he suddenly splits a hand, at most he'll just disconnect and change accounts. He won't scare anyone or cause trouble, so he doesn't mind chatting a bit more, and replied, "Your Saintess sister is obviously part of the evil exploiting class. As a Divine Chosen, you'll probably soon become part of the church's upper echelon, while the old man I met who's a priest in a small place is obviously at the bottom of the church, and I'm part of the exploited class... So, I have to pay..."

"What you said makes sense, condolences orz~" Yu Chen replied instantly.

Mo Tan had already arrived in front of the church at this time, so he chuckled and sent Yu Chen a dirty-faced emoji before striding inside.

Now he won't cause the clergy to feel disgusted, after all, as long as there's no influence from the Unbeliever talent, it's not easy to be avoided by these believers at first glance...

What's more, the character of Hei Fan is a righteous Dawn Goddess believer, and he's also a priest. The churches of the Dawn Sect are practically his home.

"Oh~ It's so good to see you, my child." Although there were many people in the church, the old priest who had introduced him to the church before still noticed Mo Tan immediately and greeted him with a smile: "You must never forget the grace of the Goddess, no matter where you are."

Mo Tan nodded: "I'm here to pray, and afterward I have something I'd like to discuss with you, Father~"

The other party nodded very readily, not sure if it had anything to do with how readily Mo Tan had paid for the religious book back then...

Afterward, Mo Tan came to the Goddess statue, piously closed his eyes and put his hands together, wanting to quickly go through the formalities and then talk to the priest about skills, but unexpectedly...

[Do you wish to pray to the Dawn Goddess Pokesi?]

???

There's really such a setting in the game?

Then pray, anyway, trying won't get you pregnant, maybe there'll be benefits.

Mo Tan immediately chose to confirm...

Immediately afterward, he felt as if he was in a warm, boundless sea, the omnipresent light enveloping his entire body. In his originally dark (because his eyes were closed) vision, a hazy female figure appeared, gradually approaching him.

"I will protect you." The figure said softly: "May you spread my gospel, and let the places your eyes reach be filled with light and holy radiance."

I'll do my best...

Mo Tan thought in his heart, which wasn't a lie, since he was already a believer, spreading the goddess's gospel was part of his duty.

"Piety." The other party's voice sounded again: "Will be rewarded."

[Your Intelligence +3, Constitution +3, Faith Value Limit +10, Obtained Talent: Piety]

This is a bit awesome!!

Mo Tan was overjoyed, and then he heard the figure's voice sound for the third time...

"Temper your spirit and body, and make your faith and yourself stronger..."

And then?

"Then when you encounter the followers of that madwoman Dilia, the followers of that brain-dead Saviel, the followers of that dead liar Izanar, or any chaotic and evil heretics, beat them up, destroy them!!!"

"???"

Chapter 26: End

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