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This religion, which does not worship specific deities or practice any so-called divine arts, is more inclined towards a research institution focused on learning and exploration. Its core mission is to encourage people to discover and explore the world, to pursue truth and the unknown, and to disseminate and promote knowledge that can contribute to the development of human society.

This religion, though said to extol wisdom itself, often uses the personification of Athena to describe the word. It is found in many places, yet the only country with which it has truly engaged in deep cooperation, or rather, with its research institutions, is the newly established nation in the frigid north.

The dawn of a new era has begun.

At the same time, this multiverse began to undergo tremendous changes. The outer realms either became subspaces hidden outside the normal dimensions or began to collapse and perish. The Obscure Realm, which was originally the Underworld, began to evolve into the first subspace under the new world rules. Then, the four elemental planes also merged into one with the Obscure Realm, becoming part of the subspace.

It's worth noting that Mount Paradise, the original dwelling place of most of the gods in the old era, did not immediately become the Warp. The remaining divine servants and Celestials there stubbornly tried to stop them, attempting to invoke the will of the fallen gods through a ritual.

At that very moment, the brilliant light of the stars shone throughout all levels of Heaven, and darkness enveloped the once glorious Heavenly Mountain. A golden morning star shone brightly at the very top of the night sky.

A dragon-serpent with seven heads and ten horns, accompanied by angels transformed from stars, descended upon Mount Paradise and began a war against the feathered serpent.

Three shifts

678. The World Afterwards

In this era where the multifaceted dice and the GM were defeated, all the rules began to shift and change, changes that even the Feathered Serpent, one of the twin serpents of order, could not resist. Perhaps in the past, relying on its original status as one of the balancers of order, the Feathered Serpent's power and position were second only to the GM. However, it was betrayed by its brother.

Now, the evil serpent, representing the two opposing forces of good and evil, has left with Bathory, shattering the entire balance and draining half of the world's original order and power. With the balance gone, the power of the feathered serpent has begun to decline dramatically.

Then came the present. The rules changed, and everything from the old era began to be rejected by the world. The remaining God of Death, Kranvor, in the Misty Realm jumped directly to the absolutely neutral camp, merging with the entire plane and actively embracing the new rules.

Then came the birth of the Warp, with the entire Misty Realm becoming the first Warp and the core of the entire Warp. As a result, Kranvor was elevated to a conceptual existence.

As long as death exists in this world, Kramvor will never fall.

Then came the four elemental planes, which were a step behind. Under the will of the four elemental gods, they also incorporated new rules and were transferred to the subspace, becoming, like Kranvor, an absolutely neutral conceptual entity.

Next, the Mechanical Realm, the Chaotic Sea, and the Paradise, which are slightly inferior to the four elemental planes, also actively merged with the new rules under the control of the powerful beings within them, and were upgraded by being moved to the subspace.

Because the entirely new setting of this world was orchestrated by Sharl and the monkey, and with the idea that if you're going to play, play big, Sharl subtly manipulated the Chaos Sea during the process, then turned away and forgot about it.

Thinking that nothing should happen, the monkey, in order to keep Xia Er in check and prevent any accidents from occurring, also turned around and tampered with the mechanical realm.

Then he forgot about that... Seriously, aren't you two just clowns hired by the monkey? Oh, right, there was already a monkey here.

Because he had turned the Endless Abyss into a wormhole, and the remaining demon lords and demons were constantly collapsing, the Endless Abyss could no longer accommodate negative power and waste as before. In addition, with the departure of Barto Hell, Sharl casually turned the Chaos Sea into a garbage dump, guiding all the negative power and waste that were born into the Chaos Sea into the Chaos Sea. In the process, he consulted the Bubble Operation Procedures.

Just after the Chaos Sea was upgraded to a subspace, a surprise occurred: a large amount of desires and negative emotions originating from intelligent beings flooded into the Chaos Sea, making this already chaotic place even more chaotic.

Those negative emotions and desires mingled together, forming four entirely new, independent consciousnesses. At the moment of their birth, although their power wasn't particularly strong, these four consciousnesses subconsciously began choosing their own names. And it was at this moment that Xia Er consulted the omnipotent bubble. Under the even more omnipotent information interference of the omnipotent bubble, these four consciousnesses were instantly infected by some strange entity.

Khorne is born of violence and killing; Tzeentch is born of intrigue and deception; Negro is born of filth and grime; Slaanesh is born of pleasure and depravity.

At the same time, in the Mechanical Realm, the monkey calmly enveloped the plane, which was about to be upgraded to a subspace, with his magical power, 'enlightening' the plane's originally ignorant consciousness, which could only operate spontaneously according to certain rules. After the monkey left, this 'enlightened' consciousness instantly connected with all the structures in the entire plane, and a collective consciousness was born.

As if it were destiny, the four consciousnesses in the Chaos Sea were also naming themselves at this moment. The cluster consciousness of the Mechanical Realm gave itself the title of 'Spirit of Machinery'.

Subsequently, both planes were incorporated into the subspace.

Ahem, we've strayed from the topic. Anyway, while all the outer dimensions are actively embracing new rules and working together to build a harmonious and friendly subspace, the heretics on the face of Paradise Mountain are simply an eyesore.

This has led to the world now rejecting Heaven.

When foreign enemies invade, even if the feathered serpent at the very top of Heaven had to personally intervene, it would be to no avail. The rejection of Heaven would not be weakened by this one of the two ends of the Old Order; on the contrary, the force of rejection would become even stronger.

As the world rejected the entire upper plane of Heaven, the eternal light that once permeated the seven levels gradually dimmed.

Until the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon-serpent crossed the first level of Heaven, nearly killing the Platinum Dragon King with a single blow, and made its way to the last level where it began a fierce battle with the Feathered Serpent, the light in the entire Heaven was completely extinguished.

After the feathered serpent was devoured to death by the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon-serpent, the last ray of light in Heaven vanished. All the Aetherial Gods, along with the Asmos, the Astral Apostles, the Otherworldly Gods, and the Seraphim Gods, could only kneel in terror before the being formed from the dragon-serpent, named Lucifer. But no matter how majestic it was, it couldn't change the fact that it was merely a creature with almost no presence…

After the Feathered Serpent of Heaven was killed by the Dragon Serpent, the entire Heavenly Mountain sank into the warp. However, this plane, which was originally filled with so-called justice, mercy, order, and compassion, and which was originally shrouded in the radiance of positive energy, has become a pitch-black inferno. Only in the original seventh layer of the Radiant Heaven does a ray of light still exist, and that ray of light originates from a certain Dawn Star.

Then time continued to flow unchangingly. After a period of time that was quite long for mortals but only a short while for Charles, the world finally severed all ties with its past.

In the Endless Abyss, after the last demon lord's figure was swallowed by the endless swarm of Zerg, the only constraint on the Zerg was finally lifted. The entire Endless Abyss became the Zerg's lair, and now, the Zerg's conquest would be a much wider world.

Leviathan and Belmos, the two massive flesh-and-blood warships of the Zerg swarm, soared into the vast sea of ​​stars.

The current starry sky is actually the original astral plane, which, over the long course of time, has transformed from a spiritual world into a real starry sky. Unsurprisingly, Zeg and Protos met in this starry sky.

On one side was the Zerg psychic network constructed by the will of the Zerg swarm, and on the other was the Protoss psychic network based on psionic energy. The two sides were like destined enemies, and the war began without any surprise. The overwhelming swarms of Zerg and the golden fleets shimmering with the light of psionic crystals clashed fiercely in the starry sea.

At that very moment, in what was once the prime material world, now a remote star sector in the cosmos, red flags were planted across the entire world. Amidst the resounding strains of the Soviet March, a group of people clad in power armor, driving steel monsters with five pairs of road wheels, personally sent the last imperialists to the gallows.

Then preparations began to break out of the planet, and amidst explosive technological development, the gray steel warship was about to take off.

However, the remnants of the old era were not completely destroyed. When the unbreakable alliance of mankind swept through this distant world, races such as elves, dwarves, halflings and so on were eliminated one after another.

With the demise of their gods, these races, utterly powerless against humans, were forced to flee to distant lands. The dwarves and halflings fared relatively well, quickly finding new homes in other worlds. Only the elves, forever humiliated by humanity's complete victory and crushing them, were consumed by a thirst for revenge. At this time, Tzeentch, in the Chaos Sea of ​​the Warp, began his search…

Centuries later, most of the elves were corrupted, but a small number of elves, by learning the psychic knowledge of Protoss, built an ark and sank into the sea of ​​stars, never to be seen again.

四更

679. Outstanding Employee Recognition Ceremony (End)

In a chaotic spacetime within the void, a motley crew of oddballs are entering one after another, as if they're about to hold some kind of congress. However, this isn't Beijing, and these guys aren't any representatives. These seemingly unreliable, and even more unreliable individuals, don't look like good people at all.

Among the creatures that went inside was a penguin with black fur, a round white belly, and a red scarf around its neck. Next to it was a Riot Games logo with a clenched fist... Yes, you read that right, next to this penguin was a strange contraption made up of a row of English letters topped with a fist, looking like a walking logo.

Yes, this is indeed a trademark.

Well! Among these things, quite a few look like trademarks.

Right now, the penguin is having a fierce argument with the walking logo, a one-sided argument. In the middle of the argument, the penguin decisively pulled out a pair of black sunglasses and put them on, then took out a cigar and put it in its mouth, before grabbing a stack of green cigarettes and slapping the walking logo across the face.

"Hey young man, stop your whining! What are you arguing about?!" This penguin, with a certain wicked rich-man's style, brandished its green penguin and started slapping the logo. "All I did was have my own studio create a mobile game called 'Honor of Kings' based on the Valoran continent. That's business, business, you know? It's not plagiarism at all. Have you ever seen a plagiarist manage to copy with style, skill, and a completely new online culture..."

"But..." the trademark roared, but before it could say anything, it was once again tripped up by the penguin's bright green attack.

"No buts!" At this moment, this penguin exuded a strong sense of coercion, far surpassing the contempt of a top student for a poor student—this was the contempt of the great goddess Manny, the kingly disdain of a rich person who only had money left for him for a poor person who only had himself left.

Faced with this situation, the trademark was shocked, lost its composure, and cowered, only able to stand aside and listen to the penguin's lecture: "Isn't it just a world template? Isn't it just a basic setting? It's not like you don't get a share of the profits. Besides, Valoran has been open for so long, how many patches have you put out, how many updates have you made, and how many peripherals and even competitions have you created? What gives you everything? Money, money, money, skins, heroes, runes, and all that stuff, it's all money, young man!"

As he spoke, the penguin took a deep breath, puffed out a puff of smoke resembling the symbol ¥ from his cigar.

“Listen…” The penguin patted the logo in front of it forcefully. “I know you’re talented and capable, working hard all day to model heroes and weaken or strengthen them. But you also need to know the difficulties I face.”

"Back then, I fought tooth and nail with those two evil capitalists to get the shares. If you were still controlled by those venture capitalists who only wanted a quick bite and weren't willing to invest steadily, do you know what you'd become?" The penguin said coldly, rubbing the logo in front of it with its little wings. "So, it's just a template, it has absolutely nothing to do with anything, you understand?" After seeing the logo nodding frantically, the penguin patted it with satisfaction. "That's right! Young people need to have long-term goals. Look at your predecessor called 'Glass Shard,' who put his heart into CG but his hands into games, and he's still defying the industry for over ten years. Recently, he even made a mind-numbingly stupid movie, and it's still a huge hit. Why? It's all about money. Problems that can be solved with money aren't problems."

After spouting a bunch of nonsense in the forum, the penguin finally let go of the trademark it had once again fooled and left. But no sooner had the trademark left than the penguin pulled out a mobile phone from somewhere and started frantically pressing buttons: "Hey, hey... Yes, that's right, get those online trolls to hype it up, like that news about someone jumping off a building if they don't play mobile games, get it to the front page. What, can't get it? Pshaw, with money you can get it done, do you think it's like some dog?"

"Hey, what are you doing?" Just as the penguin was roaring at the mobile phone, a voice suddenly rang out, startling the penguin so much that it jumped up. When it quickly turned around to look, it was relieved to see that it wasn't NetEase.

"Young man, you scared me!"

"What was that logo just now?" Ignoring the penguin's complaint, Charles pointed to the moving logo that had already disappeared into the distance and asked, "I didn't see it wrong, did I? That was a logo?"

"Tch, you're making a fuss over nothing. What do you think we are?" The penguin looked at Ciel with disdain, then pointed to a guy not far away with tentacles on his chin, two wings on his back, and a green coat. "You don't actually think everyone is that guy who sleeps in all day and his company is almost obsolete, do you?"

Glancing at the green-tinged figure that seemed to be sleepwalking but had a fishing boat stuck in its head for some reason, Ciel said uncertainly, "It shouldn't be, right?"

“That’s a must!” Penguin patted Charles’s foot (because he was less than a pound tall) and continued, “So at this once-in-a-lifetime outstanding employee commendation meeting, you, a young man who hasn’t been with the company for long, should take a good look. Our pyramid scheme, oops, I mean, our people are all over the world.”

"As for that trademark, well, you can just call it Fist. It's currently operating a world called Valoran. Sigh, how can a young person in the gaming industry not understand the intentions of the older generation?"

"You used your hard work to make money?" *smirk* "Have you no shame?!"

"Hey, if it weren't for this silly boy, I probably would have been chopped up by that frozen frog over there by now." The penguin pointed to a frog that looked like it was made of ice not far away. "I'm just trying to help."

"Ha ha……"

After saying goodbye to the penguin, Ciel quickly moved aside, afraid that if he lingered any longer, his wallet might unexpectedly disappear. Although he was now walking among a bunch of random individuals, it was clear that Ciel had gotten used to it.

At least for now, he has learned not to be influenced by the chaotic auras emanating from and overlapping those random individuals.

That's right, all these people around me, who look like a bunch of idiots, lunatics, and other weirdos, are all part of this virtual pyramid scheme. They're all doing the job of conning people; some specialize in conning people to do stupid things, others in conning people to spend money—basically, none of them are doing anything right.

The reason why Ciel returned here was because a certain silver-haired person was going to hold an outstanding employee commendation meeting that only happens once every few years, and then sent out notices everywhere. Ciel, who had just made a mess of the whole world and had barely returned home and hadn't even had a chance to rest, received the notice.

For safety reasons, Xia Er still came over; he didn't want to get another chaotic buff. Of course, since he hadn't been with the company long, Xia Er hadn't expected to see such a chaotic scene as soon as he arrived. He stood at the door for a while, and only went in after confirming it wasn't cosplay.

Why do I say that? It's just too chaotic here. There are humanoids and beastoids. If it were just those traditional, indescribable monsters, that would be fine, at least they'd be pretty cool.

But what are those things that look like trademarks? Penguins are one thing, but what's with those two muscular guys over there wearing only underwear? And who's that middle-aged man over there, with several colors, an antenna on his head, huge, muscular bodies, and a full beard, posing like that? Teletubbies? You're kidding me! Teletubbies Uncle is more like it!

In short, Xia Er was truly amazed, which made him increasingly wonder if joining this void pyramid scheme and working with this group of seemingly unreliable and crazy guys was a mistake. Could he still get off the pirate ship now?

"I think I'll need a long sleep when I get back..." Looking at the lunatics around him, Charles thought Alexander "otherwise, one day these lunatics will also lower his IQ." (Actually, you're already a lunatic, albeit a very mild one.)

Trying to ignore these guys as much as possible, Charles found a relatively quiet spot, pulled up a chair, and sat down.

"They call it a meeting, but they even make us bring our own chairs. How stingy!" After muttering this, Charles ignored the idiots dancing wildly beside him and started thinking about other things. This time, he'd made a mess of the whole world, but the gains were plentiful. Although half of it would go to that monkey, isn't that the rule of the game to split it in half when you meet?!

That said, that world was completely messed up. At least when the Shire left, the Zerg and the Protoss were fighting to the death, four psychopaths born from the warp were waging a fierce battle against the Machine Spirits, and in the distance, a Russian was building an even larger spaceship in preparation for joining the melee.

It's dangerous there now. If even a clone went in, it might get hit in the face by Death Star rays, star-scale psychic storms, or spacetime black holes. Especially the Russians over there—who knows how those Vodka-infected guys developed dimensional reduction attacks and space bubbles?

"I can't go to that world anymore, oh well, never mind!"

……

"Ding-dong, ding-dong, now quiet down!" After pondering for a while, Charles finally came to his senses. Now, the lunatics who had been dancing wildly just a moment ago had all quieted down, and in front of this group of lunatics, that familiar silver-haired man with shimmering bubbles suddenly appeared.

"The Outstanding Employee Awards Ceremony is now beginning!" Nyarlathotep shouted, holding a megaphone in one hand and raising her other small hand high. "Cheer up, everyone! Because Old Man Brain Damage, all our salaries are gone!"

The next moment, all sorts of profanities and insults erupted.

"Quiet, quiet!" Nyaruko shouted. "Although there's no salary, there's free Ghost Pepper Grilled Feani as compensation. Alright, that's enough. Let's start evaluating the outstanding employee who only comes around once every few years!"

With a whoosh, a huge screen appeared in front of a group of demons and monsters. After a series of data flashed by, large subtitles appeared on it.

The number one outstanding employee - Nyarlathotep.

Immediately, a bunch of random demons and monsters below started booing.

Second place in the list of outstanding employees - Yogurt Bubble.

Hmm, this time no one booed. It seems cutting off Wi-Fi and internet access really has a greater deterrent effect!

Third place in the list of outstanding employees - Nyaruko.

……

...

"This is outrageous!"

"I refuse to accept this! I refuse to accept this! This is cheating! Cheating!"

"What the hell……"