The Worthless Goddess and the Summoner

Since ancient times, people had prayed to the wind.

The Faith Power of countless ancestors gathered and took form, giving birth to a Storm Spirit named Janna.

Janna had once been immensely powerful. But as the years passed and history changed, people gradually abandoned their faith in the Storm Spirit.

They still cried, "Janna above," but that was no different from modern people occasionally saying, "Mazu bless us." It was merely a folk saying. Few people truly believed Janna still existed.

Faith without believers was a tree without roots, and so Janna gradually lost her power.

She could not even maintain her divine form for long under normal circumstances and could only descend into the world in the form of a Blue Bird.

And just a few hours ago...

Janna had transformed into a Blue Bird and rested on a tree outside this apartment building when she happened to spot Li Wei's corpse through the window—

Having returned after pulling an all-nighter at work, he had long since died suddenly in his rented room.

Janna had been preparing to pray for the poor Zaunite.

Yet not long afterward, she saw the dead young man suddenly sit up again, full of life!

But this resurrected Li Wei was clearly no longer the original Li Wei.

If that had been all, Janna would not have found it particularly surprising.

As a goddess with thousands of years of experience, Janna, who knew nearly everything, naturally knew that this world contained many evil spells capable of taking over the bodies of the dead.

Possessing a corpse and being reborn might sound bizarre enough to mortals, but it was hardly anything new to her.

The problem was that the abilities Li Wei displayed went far beyond merely possessing a dead body.

At the very instant Li Wei "possessed and resurrected," Janna discovered that she had uncontrollably crossed space and teleported directly in front of him!

Terrified and enraged, she exhausted all her remaining strength in an attempt to resist, but the result was—

The powerful divine force she unleashed at Li Wei vanished into thin air as though mud had sunk into the sea, without even causing a ripple.

Thus, not only had Janna failed to break free from that "enslavement curse," she had also drained her final scrap of divine power and exhausted every last bit of strength, reduced to a useless bird that could barely fly.

Then, to her horror, she discovered that she had somehow lost her freedom without even noticing and had completely become this terrifying being's slave!

Whatever Li Wei told her to do, she had to do. Even fleeing was a distant dream.

Janna was deeply wary of this mysterious person who could easily enslave even a god.

After struggling several times to no avail, she could only helplessly accept her fate of being controlled and cautiously probe him.

"Who exactly are you?"

"A wandering god from the cosmos, an emperor resurrected from the underworld, or a celestial spirit descended from the heavens?"

In Janna's eyes, Li Wei had to be at least a demigod-level powerhouse.

Yet Li Wei answered:

"I'm nothing. I'm just an LOL player."

"I was playing games perfectly well at home, then I picked you while selecting champions in a match, and somehow I got transported here—"

"Transported here as your Summoner."

As he spoke, he even sighed. "Sigh, if I'd known this would happen, I should've picked the Star Forger."

Naturally, Janna could not understand such bizarre words.

Yet Li Wei's casual tone, in which he mentioned her, a goddess, and even the Star Forger as if they were merely pieces on a board, still secretly alarmed her.

Janna became even more wary of him.

So she quietly observed Li Wei's every move, hoping to uncover this terrifying being's true purpose for descending here.

Yet Li Wei's actions only made her understand him less.

He first had a serious talk with her. After learning that her faith had collapsed, her divine power was gone, and she was now just a useless bird that ran out of strength after flying a few meters—

Li Wei's expression turned somewhat grim.

He did not speak to Janna again. He simply stood quietly in the cramped rented room and thought alone for a very, very long time.

Just as Janna was wondering whether this evil god was planning some new horrifying conspiracy, Li Wei's gaze suddenly darkened, as if he had made up his mind.

Then he rummaged through the book box belonging to the original owner's younger sister—now his younger sister as well—and pulled out an old copy of A Brief History of Piltover and Zaun.

Then Li Wei quietly began reading and studying history.

Not only did he study by reading, he also ordered Janna, this living history textbook thousands of years old, to stay by his side and provide one-on-one answers and tutoring throughout.

He studied for several hours, going from ancient times all the way to the modern era and asking countless detailed questions along the way. He was even more diligent than a history student at Piltover University.

This left Janna even more bewildered.

Unable to hold back, she asked:

"Mr. Summoner." Li Wei called himself a Summoner, so Janna called him that as well. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

"Did you possess a dead man and enslave a goddess just to learn history from me?"

"Of course not." Li Wei explained, "Janna, I'm thinking of a way to help you regain your strength. Only if you become stronger can I become stronger with you."

That explanation only confused Janna further.

What did studying history have to do with helping her recover her divine power?

She was a god shaped by Faith Power.

There was only one way to help her regain divine power: spread faith in her, develop believers, make more devout followers believe in Janna once again, and provide her with a constant stream of Faith Power.

But could believers and divine power really be found by reading history books?

"This is why you don't understand what a 'god' is, Janna."

"?" Janna was speechless. She was a god herself. How could she not understand what a god was?

"Janna, let me ask you. What do you think you are to your believers?"

"Of course I am their god."

"Wrong!" Li Wei's answer was unexpected. "To your believers, you are actually just a story—a story someone else told them."

"Only because they are willing to believe that story does a goddess like you exist."

Janna fell silent for a while, but eventually nodded in agreement.

Because her origin really had been a story—

An ancient sailor had gotten drunk and bragged to others that he had seen a gust of wind turn into a Blue Bird at sea. The Blue Bird had cried out to warn them and helped them avoid a terrible storm.

The story spread farther and farther, becoming more and more fantastical. As it spread, more people claimed to see the Blue Bird. Some sailors even claimed to see the Blue Bird transform into a stunningly beautiful, pointy-eared girl holding a staff capable of commanding storms, who used magic to drive away the wind and waves for them.

Janna, the Storm's Fury, had been born from that story.

"But afterward, why did they stop believing in that story?" Li Wei asked again.

Janna herself had summarized quite a few reasons.

First, during the era when ancient Shurima ruled, Shuriman rulers who worshipped the Celestial Titans did not allow commoners to worship her, a "false idol." As a result, her statues, temples, and religious orders in the mortal world were nearly wiped out, cutting off the inheritance of her faith.

Second, during the great canal explosion more than two hundred years ago, she had nearly exhausted all her power to protect disaster victims from the massive earthquake and tsunami triggered by the chain reaction of the explosion.

After that, Janna rarely had the spare strength to manifest before people and continue helping her followers.

The less often she manifested, the less people believed Janna truly existed.

And the more people stopped believing in Janna, the less divine power she naturally had to manifest before them.

Under this vicious cycle, the inheritance of Janna's faith had completely declined into extinction.

"Those are all secondary reasons. The most important reason is—the times have changed!"

"Miss Janna, your doctrine is long outdated!"

"Doctrine?" Janna fell into thought.

Her doctrine...

She had no doctrine at all!

In fact, whether it was the Celestial Titans of ancient Shurima or the demigods of Freljord, none of them really had any doctrine.

Because the gods of this world were all real.

True gods could not be bothered to make up stories for their followers.

The real deity did not have any grand truths to teach you either. They just said whatever they had to say. Believe it or not.

"That approach is too primitive and crude."

"You haven't identified the users' pain points, haven't formed a closed loop in your business logic, haven't built a stable user ecosystem, and that's not even mentioning maintaining the product life cycle. No wonder a god who truly exists like you still ended up being eliminated by the market."

"???" Janna filled her mind with question marks.

And Li Wei continued spouting that strange jargon that was difficult to understand.

"Miss Janna, your story is far too simple."

"Nature worship, fire worship, moon worship, wind worship—those were things that existed as early as the Neolithic Age. At the end of the day, they were merely ancient humanity's primitive worship of natural elements."

"Piltover and Zaun have gone through the Industrial Revolution now. They're practically cyberpunk. They can even build robots, and every one of them is better at math and physics than I am—"

"If you tell them to pray to the wind again, they'll write you a whole paper on 'Fluid Mechanics Calculations for Wind Effects' on the spot."

"Even though gods really do exist in this world, to people of the Twin Cities who are already accustomed to understanding the world through science, gods are nothing more than 'powerful magical creatures.'"

"Tell me, can your story still fool anyone?"

Janna had nothing to say.

After being lectured by Li Wei so bluntly, she discovered that, as a goddess, she really seemed to understand being a god less than Li Wei did.

"So, what do you plan to do?"

"Simple. Since the doctrine is completely outdated, we'll tear it down and start over, creating a new theory of faith better suited to this era."

"You!" Janna could not help wanting to condemn Li Wei for blasphemy again.

Could a theory of faith really be made up so casually?

Would that not mean making her, a goddess, cooperate in telling lies?

But angry as she was, Janna quickly understood Li Wei's series of actions. "I see."

"You studied the history of Piltover and Zaun so seriously because you wanted to understand the historical background here, making it easier for you to make up a story?"

"You could put it that way."

"Then what kind of story do you plan to tell for me?" Janna was quite worried that Li Wei would recklessly distort her doctrine and turn her into an evil god like The Loathsome Maw.

Yet in response to her question, Li Wei merely muttered to himself:

"What kind of story should I tell?"

"That really is a problem..."

Zaun and Piltover had already entered the age of industrial revolution, even carrying a bit of a 2077 flavor.

From Li Wei's knowledge and experience, there were roughly two kinds of faith that still possessed vigorous vitality in this era.

The first was, naturally, to continue going deeper down the path of mysticism.

Abandon primitive nature worship, paint hell for the believers, promise them heaven, describe reincarnation, and promise them an afterlife.

In short, give those in pain a thread of hope. Even if that hope came after death, in the next life.

As for the second kind—

"Janna." Rather than answer directly, Li Wei asked meaningfully, "Suppose someone is sick, very sick. And I have two kinds of medicine in my hands."

"One is an anesthetic that lets them die without pain."

"The other is a powerful medicine that can cure the illness, but the process of curing it will be extremely painful—even more painful than the illness itself. Many people will not endure until they are cured and will die from the pain."

"Janna, which medicine do you think is better?"

"I choose the second." Janna did not hesitate at all. "If it cannot save people, what use is medicine?"

"Well said, Janna."

Li Wei had actually made his decision long ago.

Before being transported here, he might have chosen the first option. If that path succeeded, it could bring him endless wealth and endless pleasure.

But after being transported here, he had inherited all the memories of this body.

He had personally experienced what life was like for Zaunites.

What that young man who had died suddenly in this narrow bed wanted was certainly not anesthesia.

"I choose the second as well."

Li Wei picked up paper and pen and wrote a line of dedication before his newly created "story":

"For you, Mr. Li Wei."