---Viktor's POV---
My expression beca serious as I studied the orb more carefully. The golden light pulsed weakly under my scrutiny, like a dying flashlight trying to convince soone it still had battery life.
"So you're not just a sentient fragnt of divine essence, but a fragnt that beca sentient?"
That was like finding a self-aware USB stick in a world that hadn't invented electricity yet.
For a divine essence, a tool with such an instruntal and functional nature, to give birth to consciousness was already incredible. And yet, this light orb wasn't even a complete divine essence?
What kind of ridiculous luck was this?
The light orb looked up at in confusion. "What is 'sentient'?"
"You don't need to know." Sothing you claim to be but clearly aren't.
"Oh." The light orb sulked and fell silent.
I watched as the orb dimd and brightened rhythmically, like a nervous pulse. From its submissive posture and flickering light, I could guess it was probably trying to convince itself to behave.
While watching its pathetic display, I turned my attention to examining what I'd actually gained.
My head throbbed as I assessed my authorities.
It was comparable to scraps left behind by the God of Life. The authority of Life Revival and Life Purification sounded decent, but the skills that could be developed from it were nowhere near the God of Life's level of creating life.
At most, it could speed up the growth of a target or heal serious injuries.
For example, the Light Technique learned by every follower of the God of Light, which both healed wounds and damaged monsters, originated from these two authorities.
But that was it.
The authority had extrely low potential. The God of Life could create existence itself, and I got what amounted to a magical band-aid.
Wonderful.
I didn't know whether to cry or laugh. Forget it, no point in expecting too much at once. It's good enough to have sothing usable.
Looking at the next line that displayed [Divine Power: 99], my ntal avatar in my inner sanctum stroked its chin.
"Ninety-nine divine power... I wonder how much that can heal..." As I spoke, my thought moved, and the number on the panel for divine power began to slowly decrease.
The light orb, watching the number change on the panel, was suddenly filled with panic. "Stop!" it shouted loudly. "Wait! You can't just—"
"I can't just what? Use what's mine now? Funny how that works."
I suddenly felt a warm current flow through my body. The pain, which had clung to like bone cancer, eased slightly.
Even the panel data changed.
---
[Na: Viktor]
[...]
[Divine Power: 89]
[Followers: None]
[Special Items: Int??dim??Net??Spirit??, Divine Contract (Reversed)]
[Status: Severely Injured, Weakness, Frostbite, Burns, Poisoning, Inner Sanctum Collapse, ...]
[Summary: Dying Undead]
[Remaining survival ti: 5 days 23 hours 14 minutes]
---
On the status bar, one negative buff, Bone Fracture, disappeared, and my survival ti increased by two days.
When the divine power stopped at 89 points, the light orb's glow suddenly stabilized, and it let out what sounded suspiciously like a relieved sigh.
"Oh thank the heavens," it muttered. "I thought... I thought you were going to..."
"You should be grateful it worked at all!" the orb added defensively.
I chuckled. "Oh, I'm grateful. Grateful I didn't trust you. You weren't afraid when you tricked into signing a contract. Are you scared now?"
The current predicant of the light orb was exactly what it had initially tried to do to . Of course, I wasn't foolish enough to use all the divine power at once.
The first ti was just a test.
Looking at my three full rows of negative buffs, I clicked my tongue. "It's sowhat useful, but not much."
It had only removed a single fracture buff.
Leaving my inner sanctum briefly, I checked my body lying lifelessly in the dirt. At a glance, I could see the bones that had been broken by the magical backlash explosion had reconnected. I had even grown two rib-like new bones.
If I were to use the Osseous Vitae to treat this, it would probably require 500 grams. So, 10 points of divine power was equivalent to 500 grams of Osseous Vitae. On the magic trade market, its estimated price was around 5,000 gold coins.
Considering that Osseous Vitae was extrely difficult to create and also a forbidden material, this price could go even higher. Even so, the effect of 10 points of divine power was a bit... underwhelming.
In other words, the 99 points of divine power were only worth 5 kilos of Osseous Vitae?
When in doubt, ask the source.
I stared suspiciously at the light orb. "Why do you only have this little divine power?"
This limited amount of power was going to make my next plans very difficult...
The light orb's body glowed faintly pink, as though blushing in sha. "It's not my fault. Earlier, you were turning into a system and inspecting your body, or else I'd still have triple digits of divine power!"
"What triple digits?"
"100."
I was speechless.
"So turning you into a system only consud 1 point of divine power..." I paused, finally realizing sothing. "Wait, turning you into sothing equivalent to a data panel used up 1 point of divine power?!"
"One point of divine power for a system interface? That's like using a diamond to scratch an itch!"
My voice involuntarily rose. The purchasing power, no, the value of divine power, was even lower than I imagined. 1 point of divine power was equivalent to a third-level Life Sigil spell...
The reality hit hard, almost driving crazy. "And before that? Even for a niche god, this amount of divine power is laughable. What, did you have like three followers worshipping you over the millennia?"
"Of course not!" the light orb hastily retorted. "I had to find soone worthy!"
"And you spent all your divine power window shopping? Brilliant strategy."
"The search for a successor is a sacred duty!" the orb defended.
"A sacred duty that left you with pocket change for power. How inspirational."
"Divine power needs to be channeled to where it is most likely to revive the God of Creativity. I'm just a fragnt of the God of Creativity's divine essence, not complete, so I didn't get the main share of the divine power. After that, I used up most of my divine power to search for a mage with the potential to beco a god…"
The orb's light flickered erratically. "Do you have any idea how long I wandered across this wretched continent? Years! Years of using precious divine power just to find soone, anyone, with a spark of godly potential!"
I watched with mild amusent as the orb's glow pulsed with each word, like a malfunctioning lantern.
"And then..." The orb's light dimd to almost nothing. "Then I finally find soone worthy, and it's... it's..."
"A half-dead undead who turned the tables on you?" I offered helpfully.
The orb flared briefly in frustration. "If only the God of Ti would give another chance! I should have stayed in the divine realm. Even fading into nothing would be better than... than this!"
Watching a divine essence throw a tantrum is certainly a new one.
I looked wordlessly at the light orb, which was growing increasingly distraught, and said, "So, in short, you spent all your divine power on yourself?"
Your economic sense is worse than a drunk rchant at a fire sale. No wonder I could so easily turn the tables on it.
The rest of the attributes on the panel didn't need much scrutiny. With the fragnt of the God of Creativity's divine essence, I was effectively a pseudo-god, albeit below the god-level in strength.
Naturally, I could attract followers.
The special items were: a glowing orb connected to Earth's network and a reverse contract between and the golden light orb.
Nothing else could help repair my body or complete my virtual reality ga project.
Putting the panel aside, I looked at the glowing blue orb. While speaking, I hadn't stopped channeling mana into the orb. Now, my access to Earth's network had expanded slightly.
Though most secure systems still blocked out, I could finally browse the regular internet.
I thought. From what I see online, Earth already has the technology to create virtual reality gas, and there's even one being promoted right now...
If I ride this wave of hype, I should be able to attract quite a few leeks, ah no, players!
Let's do it.
Before my transmigration, I had learned a bit about web design as a hobby, and I still rembered so of the skills. Now was the perfect ti to use them to create the official ga website. Once the website was ready, I could promote the ga and recruit players.
At least I won't have to worry about mobile optimization. Small rcies.
I briefly left my inner sanctum to check my surroundings.
The monks from the Radiant Church were still at it, unwilling to give up as they returned for another search.
I had to suppress a chuckle watching them ticulously scan the area, completely oblivious to what lay right beneath their feet. So things never change, their persistence was matched only by their cluelessness.
Finding nothing, they began removing their exploration equipnt from around the stone altar. Keep looking, gentlen.
I smirked to myself before returning to my inner sanctum, where I could focus on my work with proper enthusiasm. Their fruitless search would make excellent background noise for my project.
---Third POV: On Earth---
If there was one hot topic in the gaming world recently, it had to be the ga Netherworld Revolution that Skyrain Company was promoting heavily. This ga was said to be a 100% realistic virtual reality ga.
"Skyrain's Latest Venture: Innovation or Illusion?" blared the headlines across gaming news sites.
However, the only materials released so far were a ten-minute concept video and a bunch of marketing claims like "I heard", "My friend works at Skyrain", or "Soone who participated in internal testing said..."
The authenticity was entirely questionable.
"Another day, another Skyrain scam. Who's surprised?" A typical forum post summarized the general sentint.
Still, as a major internet company, Skyrain's greatest skill was viral marketing. Even if this was just a concept video for attracting investors, whether the ga itself even existed was uncertain, Skyrain's announcent of developing Netherworld Revolution had reached 80% of gaming enthusiasts.
On YouTube, the concept video hit 20 million views in just three days. This kind of attention had only been seen with "Elven Ring" three years ago.
However, unlike the comnt section for "Elven Ring," which was filled with hopeful anticipation, Netherworld Revolution's comnt section was much more complicated:
"How do I get this video off my hopage?"
"Skyrain is laundering money again!"
"Oh look, Skyrain made another CG ga?"
"Virtual reality gas? That's such a tired gimmick. Why bring it back?"
"If this ga is real, I'll eat ten pounds!"
Due to Skyrain Company's "reputation", no one believed the ga was real. Everyone assud it was just another cash grab.
Virtual reality gas? Ha! What a joke!
"Current brainwave technology is simply inadequate for true VR gaming," declared a prominent tech analyst in their latest industry report.
Although brainwave-reading technology had erged several years ago, it could only read basic brainwave signals from the brain's surface. The technology was more often used in chanical operations, such as controlling drones without remote controls, but it was far from what gars imagined for developing virtual reality gas.
Ga companies had tried to use this technology to create virtual reality gas, but every attempt was a huge failure. Because brainwaves varied in strength between individuals, few players could even enter the ga, let alone live in a ga world like real life.
Most couldn't even issue simple movent commands like walking up, down, left, or right.
The technology was impossible to popularize.
Moreover, the graphics couldn't simulate reality and were inferior even to VR gas from over a decade ago. The rough, uncanny character models were enough to scare off players with weak constitutions.
Low realism, but 100% fright factor!
In summary, for this kind of "scam" ga promoted through shady marketing tactics, players were in an uproar. But Skyrain Company's goal was still achieved.
Netherworld Revolution had gone viral.
On every platform, any content even remotely related to Netherworld Revolution was being criticized. The level of discussion skyrocketed. Whether fans or haters, next ti Netherworld Revolution released news, it would surely get plenty of attention.
That's the benefit of "bad publicity."
The ga gained popularity, players vented their anger at Skyrain, and ga strears got traffic, a win-win-win. It even reignited discussions about the feasibility of virtual reality gas.
Logan was one of those riding the wave of Netherworld Revolution's popularity.
"Hey everyone, NeverShowOff here with another honest gaming review," Logan's voice rang out clear and confident through his stream setup.
"Logan always tells it like it is!" scrolled a viewer comnt.
Thanks guys, though honesty doesn't pay the bills...
His fans affectionately called him "Show Master."
He was a veteran ga strear on Twitch.
While he wasn't the absolute best, he was definitely among the top tiers of the gaming world.
He had decent gaming and video editing skills.
Yet, he wasn't famous.
After four to five years as a content creator, he still only had a pitiful 100,000 followers. The money he earned barely covered his living expenses.
The reason? He was just too unlucky.
Every ti there was a hot topic in the gaming world, Logan sohow managed to miss it. And without riding trends, how could he grow his audience, let alone "break into other platforms," cough, ahem.
Never mind.
But this ti, Netherworld Revolution's explosion in popularity had finally given him a chance.
Despite his struggles, Logan never considered switching careers.
He had held on because of his deep love for gaming. Before becoming a strear, he was a hardcore gaming enthusiast.
A virtual reality gaming fanatic.
From the first ti he encountered the concept of virtual reality gas as a child, he was hooked on the idea of such a ga world.
A second life, a utopia indistinguishable from reality, and skills that truly ca from within himself.
Who wouldn't want that?
He was incredibly knowledgeable about the progress of virtual reality gas from every major gaming company. When brainwave-reading technology appeared years ago, he checked for updates daily.
But in the end, it only brought endless disappointnt.
Yet Logan never gave up.
He firmly believed that in his lifeti, he would get to play a virtual reality ga. And if he couldn't, his children or grandchildren would have to burn him a gaming pod in the afterlife.
Because he knew so much about the virtual reality field, when he first saw Netherworld Revolution's concept video, he imdiately criticized it.
"Look at these rendering artifacts. Classic CG tells," he pointed out to his viewers. "They're not even trying to hide the pre-rendered scenes."
"Finally soone speaking truth about this scam!" his chat erupted.
Fake!
Fake beyond fake!
The whole thing was CG with no signs of virtual reality technology. And they dared to call this a virtual reality ga?
It wasn't even good enough to be an investor pitch; it was just another scam ga. But Logan couldn't stand that they were trying to deceive people in the na of virtual reality.
The developnt of holographic technology was already incredibly difficult. If Skyrain muddied the waters now, when a real virtual reality ga eventually appeared, players wouldn't trust it.
Virtual reality ga developnt costs were massive. Failing to recoup costs quickly was essentially a death sentence.
By doing this, Skyrain was crushing the future potential of virtual reality gas.
Fueled by anger, he spent two hours creating a rant video about Netherworld Revolution's concept trailer. He had only intended to vent his frustration and warn players not to be fooled.
Unexpectedly, Netherworld Revolution blew up.
Because Logan uploaded his video early, its stats soared as well.
In the comnt section, a group of like-minded gaming enthusiasts gathered to join him in cursing Skyrain. The video's views, comnts, likes, and shares were ten tis higher than usual.
Logan had initially posted the video on impulse.
When he checked the stats, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
After so many years...
Finally, it was his turn to catch the trend. He was going to be famous!
He imdiately started working on the second and third episodes of his Netherworld Revolution rant series.
Whether he ate canned food or steak next month would depend on these videos. He had to ride the wave while everyone was still fired up about Netherworld Revolution.
More content ant more views, more followers, and more success!
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