"So... am I really going to do this?"
Lin Ke stood silently, staring blankly at the woods before him.
He was from Blue Star. During a fishing trip, he had closed his eyes, opened them again, and somehow found himself transported to another world.
Accompanied by the words "It's a young master" in another world's language, he had officially been born as an exceptionally adorable noble baby.
And now, he had grown older.
He had thought he would spend his entire life enjoying the simple existence of a Western-style noble: scheming, fighting over territory, climbing the technology tree, teasing maids, and so on.
But then... a system appeared.
The worldview he had only just established was shattered.
"This isn't scientific."
Standing at the edge of the woods, Lin Ke took a deep breath and blinked again.
Several lines of text immediately appeared before his eyes.
[Mission: Go to the woods three kilometers southeast of the castle. Under cover of your outstanding verbal skills, exhaust the King of the Gods' last shred of life force.] [Reward: Unknown, tremendous benefits.] [Hint: Mission failure will result in the destruction of your family.]
Looks like this really isn't some simple, magic-free world... and that punishment-isn't that just the death penalty for failure in infinite-loop stories...?
Also, why verbal skills instead of punches, kicks, or headbutts?
Lin Ke mulled over the system's words.
And another thing...
This system is so domineering!
After thinking for a while, he waved to the servants behind him. "Wait here. I have something to take care of. I'll be right back."
His voice was childish, but carried an unmistakable air of authority.
Amid the servants' respectful replies, Lin Ke slipped into the little patch of woods.
If death is the punishment, I might as well be decisive about killing.
Better someone else dies than me.
Right at the start, I'm off to kill a god!
Upon leaving the woods, Lin Ke did not even need to search. The scenery around him shifted, becoming shrouded in mist.
"Young man, I have awaited you for a long time."
A lofty, majestic voice rang out.
Lin Ke looked up and saw an old man with white hair and a white beard floating in the air, his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a robe patterned with pale gold.
"Who are you?" Lin Ke asked in a clear voice.
The old man smiled faintly, and a chant-like aria resounded through the air:
"I am Zernital, lord of all gods... wielder of the authority over life and destruction... founder of the Divine Court, object of the gods' faith, master of their thrones, herald of the dawn of the gods, the human God-King who stands against countless races..."
As the old man spoke, his body actually began to glow, and beams of white light a foot long shot from his eyes.
Stars suddenly filled the sky, endless radiance glittered, and voices chanting praises slowly rose...
The earth trembled slightly, and insects crawled out of the ground, scurrying about in agitation...
At that moment, the laws of the heavens, the sky, and the earth all seemed to echo the old man's words.
Even though he had expected something like this, Lin Ke was still somewhat shocked.
Of course, these manifestations had no real impact on the world. They seemed to affect only Lin Ke's immediate surroundings.
"May I ask what you want with me?"
Despite his shock, Lin Ke remained wary.
His experience reading webnovels on Qidian in his previous life had taught him that dying big shots were particularly fond of possessing other people's bodies.
And this King of the Gods was about to die!
"Do not be nervous, young man. I am the human King of the Gods, incomparably mighty, resisting the attacks of the Star Realm's countless races. I have come to see you because your talent is truly extraordinary!"
The King of the Gods waved a hand with a smile, his face full of kindness.
"Me? Extraordinary talent?" Lin Ke pointed at himself.
The King of the Gods nodded slightly. "Yes, young man. I was locked in fierce combat with a colossal beast of the Star Realm, but I sensed your talent and came to see you... would you become my believer?"
"A believer? The really powerful kind?" Lin Ke considered this for two seconds.
The King of the Gods smiled. "Yes, young noble."
Lin Ke thought for another two seconds, then tightened his little face and slowly shook his head.
"Good, so long as you're willing. Great as I am... wait, wait, what?" The smiling King of the Gods faltered. "Why aren't you willing?"
"Mom told me not to believe strangers," Lin Ke said in a young but firm voice.
Well, damn.
"I am the King of the Gods. How could I be a stranger?" The King of the Gods raised his eyebrows. He wanted to slap the young noble dead, but restrained himself.
He considered the matter. Young boys were vain and prone to grandiose fantasies.
His smile grew even kinder. "Young man, we humans suffer terribly on this continent! Every other race is constantly trying to encroach on our living space. Would you be willing to..."
"Right, right, then hurry and help them, Grandpa! Aren't you really powerful?" Lin Ke immediately interrupted.
This little brat is troublesome... The King of the Gods grumbled inwardly, thought for three seconds, then spoke again. "Young man, what do you desire? Strength to rival dragons? Wealth to rival nations? Beautiful women utterly loyal to you?"
Lin Ke scratched his head and said sheepishly, "Um... can you make me a god right now? If you can... how about I become your believer?"
Make him a god right now?
The King of the Gods nearly unleashed a torrent of curses.
If I still had enough power to make you a god, why the hell would I be wasting my breath here?
Sensing the divine power draining from his body ever faster, a trace of anxiety appeared in the King of the Gods' eyes.
Yet his tone grew even more easygoing. "Young man, what must I do for you to become my believer?"
Lin Ke keenly noticed that flicker of anxiety, and his heart steadied a little.
Clasping his little hands behind his back, he paced back and forth like a child trying hard to imitate an adult. He spoke slowly. "You're... the King of the Gods, right?"
Watching Lin Ke pace like a grown-up, the King of the Gods said nothing about it, merely nodding slightly. "Yes, young man."
"Then can you solve math problems? Will you solve one for me?" Lin Ke looked at the King of the Gods with a hint of anticipation.
"My father gave me a problem, and I can't solve it! If you can solve it within five minutes, then you're really amazing! I'll believe in you!"
Math?
The King of the Gods frowned.
The group who had defeated him and wanted him dead had created something called mathematics. Many nobles were now studying it.
As the King of the Gods, he had naturally learned something about it too. Although he was not necessarily proficient, solving one problem ought to be easy.
Instinctively, however, he still hesitated for a second.
So Lin Ke sweetened the deal. "I'll tell you a way to gain believers quickly. My father told me about it."
"Oh?" The King of the Gods smiled outwardly, but inwardly sneered.
Nobles? Those people don't know shit about faith.
Still, he said kindly, "Tell me, my child."
My child, huh... Lin Ke inwardly scoffed. If someone had claimed to be his dad in his previous life, he would have beaten the living daylights out of them.
"Okay." Lin Ke smiled sweetly, looking every bit the adorable child. Yet his next words made the King of the Gods' expression change.
"You can have your believers recruit new people." Lin Ke smiled and continued:
"If a new person believes in you, give them an egg. If that person recruits someone else to believe in you, give each of them another egg.
That way, one spreads it to ten, and ten spread it to a hundred. Those farmers short on food will soon all become your believers."
Lin Ke knew that the upper classes here lived very well. Although the lower classes were not starving across vast stretches of land like in ancient times in his previous world, their lives were still hard.
So he continued, "Beyond that, you can arrange group deals. If someone recruits a hundred believers for you, you can give them a better reward.
I once saw someone recruit sixty thousand people into a group deal just for a hundred gold coins!"
The method Lin Ke described was, in fact, precisely PinPin's method!
It had proven that humanity's innate love of freebies could make this kind of marketing enormously successful!
Faith? The gods of this world don't know shit about faith.
Lin Ke still wore a smile that said "innocent, guileless childhood, with a touch of adorably clueless cuteness" as he looked at the King of the Gods.
"So there are some finer details to this method, but you promised to help me solve my math problem! If you solve it, I'll become your believer and tell you all the important details for spreading your faith!"
At first, the King of the Gods had thought little of it, but as he listened to Lin Ke, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Holy shit.
What kind of miraculous method is this?!
What kind of morons were all my old popes? Their brains weren't even as useful as a noble child's!
Looks like this child has to be my next pope!
Yes, first I'll torture him a little, make him terrified, confused, afraid... then show him mercy at the right moment, and he'll be mine!
Then I'll solve this brat's math problem!
"Hmm, a decent method. It gives you one-billionth of the qualifications needed to become my believer... very well, I shall solve your math problem!" The King of the Gods smiled. "So, young man, if I solve your problem within five minutes, you will become my believer, correct?"
Lin Ke smiled and nodded. "Yes, yes!"
The instant Lin Ke nodded, an unseen force descended and linked him to the King of the Gods.
Upon sensing that force, the King of the Gods inwardly sighed in relief.
At last! Although it used up my final shred of power, I, once adrift without an anchor, finally have a believer again!
As long as this believer begins generating the power of faith for me, even the tiniest trace will let me rise again!
When that happens, I'll burn this troublesome brat's soul for a thousand years to punish his casual attitude before the mighty King of the Gods!
After torturing him, I'll take him as my new pope!
And all humanity will tremble under my rule as King of the Gods!
Humanity betrayed me and chose Andrew. Then all humanity will die with me!
And...
"Hey! Grandpa, you still haven't solved my math problem!"
While the King of the Gods indulged in endless fantasies, Lin Ke spoke up before him.
The King of the Gods immediately pulled his thoughts back and smiled at the boy. "Go ahead, young man."
"Okay." Lin Ke nodded, then began. "Some numbers have the special property that they cannot be expressed as the product of two smaller integers, such as 2, 3, 5, 7, and so on. These numbers are called primes..."
Lin Ke explained slowly, then stated his entire mathematical problem.
At first, the King of the Gods listened carelessly, still thinking about how he would torment this irritating boy once his power recovered.
But the more he listened, the more something seemed wrong.
Gradually, he descended from the air, his brows tightly knitted as he listened carefully to Lin Ke's problem.
The problem seemed simple at first, but the deeper he thought about it, the harder it became to understand.
After a while, Lin Ke finally finished. "So... please tell me the answer."
The King of the Gods frowned in thought. His head, which would not suffer so much as a scratch in a collision with the King of Star Beasts, now felt ready to explode.
Meanwhile, Lin Ke watched him with a smile composed of five parts anticipation, three parts admiration, and two parts doubt.
The problem he had just posed was the Riemann Hypothesis, one of the Millennium Prize Problems that had troubled countless mathematicians in his previous life.
There was no way this King of the Gods could answer it within five minutes.
Lin Ke had previously made discreet inquiries into this world's level of scientific development. It was essentially at a pre-Christian-era level, similar to the Xia dynasty in his previous world.
As for mathematics, he had asked many, many people. They could not even handle addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division properly.
To solve the Riemann Hypothesis, this King of the Gods would either need to have studied a proof already developed in this world, or be capable of solving it himself.
And judging by things now...
Lin Ke retreated a few small steps.
Time passed, and the five minutes were soon almost up.
The King of the Gods before him was no longer frowning in thought. Instead, he had raised his head and was staring at Lin Ke, staring fixedly.
"I..." The King of the Gods raised a hand and pointed at Lin Ke, his eyes filled with venom. "You are toying with me! How could such a problem possibly exist?!"
Sensing the King of the Gods' bluster concealed weakness, Lin Ke no longer sounded quite so childish. "How could I be? This is simply one of the difficult problems that's always troubled me! O great god!"
Feeling his life force exhausted, the King of the Gods' expression grew increasingly vicious, his voice nearly a furious shriek. "You! Little brat! Believe in me immediately! Otherwise, I'll kill you!"
Lin Ke stood motionless and said nothing.
Seeing this, despair gradually filled the King of the Gods' eyes.
He, Zernital, King of the Gods, had ultimately been worn down to death by this boy!
The King of the Gods looked at Lin Ke again, as though trying to see through him.
This boy! He's no ordinary child!
He bore neither the aura of his sworn enemy nor that of a god. He seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary human.
But what human child could remain so calm before the King of the Gods?!
And that damned math problem!
Didn't math problems just involve calculating that two cows plus two cows equals five... no, four cows?!
At last, the despairing King of the Gods uttered what he considered the most vicious curse:
"In the name of Zernital, King of the Gods... I invoke the law of the cornerstone... and curse you!"
"You shall become my heir, walking the earth as my incarnation..."
"You shall possess the final afterglow of the gods, engraved upon your soul, never forgotten for all eternity..."
"You shall become a rising star!"
"Go forth, as the descendant of the gods, to resist, to overthrow, to destroy!"
When he finished, no strange phenomena appeared in the world. It seemed to be nothing more than a simple spoken curse.
Yet, for some reason, Lin Ke's heart clenched.
Inherit the King of the Gods' legacy? Wouldn't that mean inheriting all his sworn enemies too?!
It was like inheriting someone's assets-wouldn't their buy-now-pay-later debt come with them?!
Oh, hell no!
"...Hahaha, Andrew, let this math problem find you someday!"
"This world... this world... this fucked-up world... world... boohoo, what a wonderful world..."
In an instant, the King of the Gods became utterly deranged, nothing like the kindly figure he had been at the start.
Then his entire body staggered, and he abruptly collapsed into a sitting position on the ground. His body gradually faded, devoid of life.
"Thank you, Riemann, thank you, Derson, thank you, Kong Nie... thank you, internet, thank you, chat... I finally wore this God King down to death..."
Lin Ke looked at the fading King of the Gods, but his mind was still on those curses from moments ago.
Now, all he could do was hope the King of the Gods' enemies wouldn't notice him.
"Pop!!"
Just then, a soft sound came from in front of him.
The King of the Gods, the Lord of Life and Destruction-Zernital-was about to vanish.
After his death, however, his body abruptly transformed into a ball of light, bobbing in midair.
Lin Ke blinked, and several lines of text appeared in his field of vision:
[Mission successful] [You have talked the King of the Gods to death with your outstanding verbal skills] [Reward: awaiting collection] [Note: the King of the Gods' curse will take effect in one year]
P.S. The book is still new, so please, please send recommendation votes and monthly votes. Pretty please (｡•́︿•̀｡)
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