Lord of Prayer

Zhou Chen calmed down and quickly found a reasonable explanation:

—Perhaps he had died young in his past life, not even living long enough to see the Divine War.

From Jemma Cunningham’s memories, he learned that the "Heaven-Sent Authority" event occurred around May 20, 3023. After this, the number of Transcendents worldwide exploded, leading to what was called the Extraordinary Boom. However, it was important to note that Transcendents had existed even before then. Several major international incidents caused by Transcendents had already occurred, leading to countless deaths.

At the time, various countries had suppressed the news, so not a whisper of it appeared online. Jemma Cunningham only found out later that those major incidents were mostly caused by Transcendents acting recklessly. The most tragic of these events resulted in over six thousand deaths and directly caused a small nation to change hands.

This showed that the real World had long been fraught with hidden dangers and undercurrents.

Without any restraints, Transcendents were the greatest threat to ordinary people.

After obtaining Power great enough to ignore law and order, the desires and darkness in people’s hearts would rapidly swell. Few would choose to become a "Superman." Instead, the vast majority would become "Ancestors" who did whatever they pleased, acting with impunity, Lawless and Heavenless.

If someone already had an antisocial personality, they were even more dangerous—a walking time bomb, ready to kill and burn at the slightest displeasure.

Zhou Chen figured he had likely died that night at the hands of a berserk Transcendent, caught in the blast of a large-scale, destructive Extraordinary Ability.

If that theory held true, he had been incredibly unlucky.

A thousand thoughts raced through Zhou Chen’s mind. ’Hmm... I remember that day was May 20th. My social media feed was full of people showing off their relationships... Factoring in the time difference, it would be morning in America and evening here in the Eastern Continent. The timing of the Heaven-Sent Authority matches up. The Wish Bottle must be one of them.

In other words, I was hit by the Wish Bottle in my sleep, then accidentally killed by a passing berserk Transcendent, and then my Soul was reincarnated by the Wish Bottle’s unknown Ability... Hiss... It all feels a bit far-fetched.

Getting hit by a Heaven-Sent Authority and being killed by a passing berserk Transcendent are both extremely low-probability events. The chance of them happening simultaneously is even smaller. It’s like ’winning the lottery to become a billionaire’ while also ’being bitten to death by a shark in the sky.’ The probability is so small it’s statistically negligible.

But if the latter didn’t happen, then why don’t I have any memories after May 20th?’

Zhou Chen was caught in a brainstorm, feeling like his CPU was about to fry.

Nearby, the Prophet emerged from his deep thoughts and looked up at the person in charge. "Prepare the dream-entry procedure. I’m going to Enter Jemma Cunningham’s memories."

"Of course." The person in charge immediately hurried off to make the arrangements.

Entering the Dream was a common method of intelligence gathering. The practitioner would see the subject’s life memories and extract useful information. With enough support, they could even experience the subject’s entire life, but this carried great risks and could easily lead to a conflict of self-identity.

The Prophet then turned to Zhou Chen and said with a smile, "You did a good job in North Carolina. It was a great help to us. I originally wanted to give you that Demigod’s Authority of Flame, but on second thought, you probably can’t use it. Your Realm has a different focus, and there’s no benefit in forcibly absorbing it. So, I’ve prepared some other compensation for you instead. I think you’ll like it.

Also, I’ll have to trouble you with Tang Ling from now on."

Zhou Chen knew what the Prophet meant and nodded seriously. "It’s no trouble. It’s what I should do."

"Are you interested in joining the Relic Investigation Team? With you around, I feel our exploration and development of the Divine War Ruins could be sped up significantly," the Prophet asked again.

"Er, I’ll pass on that." Zhou Chen wasn’t keen on constantly courting death.

The Prophet nodded, not pressing the issue, and changed the subject. "Zone 009 will open in a month. You should make some preparations. It would be best to play more games from the old era."

Zhou Chen was taken aback. "Huh?"

The Prophet said, "Zone 009 is a gamified Restricted Area. Its style is a mix of many games from the old era. Playing them will help you clear it. Many of the Players who enter each time are professional gamers. Most of them are ordinary people, yet they end up performing better than Ascenders."

Zhou Chen scratched his head. "Alright..."

"And Ms. Li, your reward for being summoned won’t be small. But for now, you should hurry and get your injuries treated," the Prophet said, looking at Li Xiye, whose wounds were still bleeding freely.

"Then we won’t disturb you any longer."

Li Xiye took her leave, grabbing Zhou Chen’s wrist and pulling him outside. After leaving the lab, she headed straight for the medical department.

"Ow, ow, ow... Xiye, be gentle..." As they passed through an empty corridor, Zhou Chen couldn’t take it anymore. His face was pale, and he felt like his wrist was about to be crushed.

Li Xiye shoved him against the wall, forcefully pinning one of his hands, her eyes sharp as she stared at him. "First, you’re going to explain what ’you did a good job in North Carolina’ means, what ’you probably can’t use the Demigod’s Authority’ means, and what ’I’ll have to trouble you with Tang Ling’ means... I knew something was off with you lately. So you’ve been doing things behind my back!"

"I can explain all of it, really!"

Zhou Chen leaned against the wall, raising his free hand in surrender. He looked at her earnestly. "Get your wounds treated first, then I’ll explain everything slowly. It’s a complicated matter."

Li Xiye narrowed her eyes, staring at him. Suddenly, footsteps echoed in the corridor. A few approaching female nurses stumbled upon the scene, gasped, and then broke into uncontrollable grins. They hurried past as if they hadn’t seen a thing.

"..."

"..."

Zhou Chen and Li Xiye stared at each other in silence.

"I can already imagine today’s top trending topic in the entertainment section."

"It’s a good thing. At least it’ll help solidify your fanbase."

Sure enough, in less than five minutes, the news shot to the top of the international news entertainment section’s trending topics, hitting number one within half an hour.

Gossip and scandals were always juicy. As the champion of the recent Sword Forging Competition, Zhou Chen naturally had a lot of eyes on him. The moment the news broke, it became a topic of avid discussion among countless onlookers, causing a huge stir online and drumming up a wave of attention.

Meanwhile, the man in question, Zhou Chen, was in a hospital room explaining the whole story to Li Xiye, who was resting in bed.

He blamed everything he did with the Wish Bottle on the Book of the Dead, selectively recounting the main points of what had happened. He also changed the reason for secretly sending his Clone to North Carolina to "receiving a mission from the Prophet to go to North Carolina and stop Fallen Paradise’s plan." Using the Prophet as a scapegoat made his story much more believable.

At the same time, he also told Li Xiye about the existence of the Hammer of Forging. This was hardly a secret among some members of the Star Association, and Li Xiye was someone he could trust, so it was fine to tell her. Besides, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to explain his relationship with Tang Ling.

"So that’s how it is..."

Li Xiye’s expression gradually softened. She raised her bandaged arm and patted Zhou Chen on the shoulder. "And here I thought you’d awakened a new fetish for mecha-girls."

"Ah..." Zhou Chen’s expression turned strange. "Although my relationship with Tang Ling is purely platonic, is it possible that I actually..."

Li Xiye’s gaze sharpened once more.

"...don’t have that kind of fetish."

"Right. You’re just a plain old pervert." Li Xiye rolled her eyes at him, closed them, and couldn’t be bothered with him anymore.

Zhou Chen gave a dry laugh. "You get some rest. I’ll go get you some fruit and pick up my compensation while I’m at it."

"Mm."

·

Zhou Chen went to the finance department to collect his mission compensation. The moment the staff there saw him, they couldn’t help but share knowing smiles and frantically look him up and down, as if searching for something called a "lipstick mark."

Unfortunately for them, there was none.

Keeping a straight face, Zhou Chen expressionlessly followed a staff member into a small room. A safe sat on a long table.

"The Prophet had someone put this here. No one but him knows what’s inside," the staff member explained.

Zhou Chen examined the safe. It had an Essence Lock, which could only be opened by infusing it with a pre-set, specific Essence.

This wasn’t the place to open a Treasure Chest, so Zhou Chen stored the safe in his Storage Waist Bag.

After leaving the finance department, he went to the cafeteria, bought some fresh fruit to take back to Li Xiye, and then took out the safe in her hospital room. He infused it with Essence and opened it.

Inside were three items: a smithing hammer rich with "Forging Secret Power," a neat stack of unknown files, and a small, delicate USB drive.

"What is this..."

Puzzled, Zhou Chen pulled out the files and opened them. His eyes widened abruptly when he saw the text on top.

—*Personal Profile and Criminal Record of Grand Councilor "Dupe"!*