Chapter 377: Pursuit of Godhood

At that moment, X realized that he was standing at the crossroad of fate. He was the last and most important puzzle piece, and he would determine if the cogs of fate would start turning.

Thus, X asked for a volleyball match to make the decision.

It might sound like an absurd joke, as frivolous as determining the future of the world with a coin toss.

But to X, that was exactly the beauty of it.

I’ve been lost for so long without coming to an answer. Now that it’s time to make a decision, why don’t I leave it all to fate?

In the end, the awakeners won the volleyball game and made the decision for X.

He was the kind of person who didn’t look back once he had made up his mind.

At that moment, he officially became Sir Zuo’s partner in crime. He lied to the awakeners that there was a Rune Cave, and that thirteen people were required to get the Poison Rune Circuit.

That, however, was only bait.

X’s Pestilence had long reached level 7, and Sir Zuo hadn’t kept the Rune Circuit from him.

Finally, everyone agreed to enter Sir Zuo’s pride realm.

The game is on. The contract is made. There is no end until there are victors.

The thirteen of them started a game of Werewolf, believing it to determine their survival.

The game itself wasn’t the important part. What mattered was that the players had willingly entered a contract with X, ready to give their lives.

As the alpha, every victim his fellow werewolves claimed had effectively signed the contract.

That was the hidden aspect of Sir Zuo’s Pride Realm. Within the realm, he was able to quietly transfer the power of contracts to X’s Poison of Hell, making the awakeners willing sacrifices with them none the wiser.

The game ended. The contract is done. The victors are decided. All is fate.

Ronnie, Electric Mouse, Joker, and White Tiger were the players killed by the werewolves, and thus they had all entered a contract with X.

They would be the perfect sacrifices. When they died during a certain period of time, their bodies and souls would be offered to summon Poison of Hell, spread through the red fog to claim all living organisms that belonged to the same species as the sacrifices. None would be exempt.

Yes, not even X, who had activated the poison.

That was why he allowed a special freerider to enter his body. No longer a pure awakener, he wouldn’t be a target of Poison of Hell.

The four pillars of blood were merely set up for a fake evil ritual to draw the awakeners out, making sure that the pride monsters could kill the contracted sacrifices.

Only three sacrifices had to be killed to activate Poison of Hell, but the poison would be less potent and come into effect slower. While awakeners would be given some time to put up the last struggle, though, the only ending awaiting them was death.

To X’s surprise, the pride monsters had successfully killed all four sacrifices.

At that moment, he knew that the path to godhood Sir Zuo had paved for him was coming together.

“I will be God.”

That was the only thing X said to Qilin.

Qilin shuddered, having guessed what X was planning: he would kill all awakeners and claim all Talents for himself to become infinitely close to godhood.

“So you’d go so far as to work with the pride monsters?”

“Epilogue’s answer is to kill all humans and awakeners, while my goal is to kill all awakeners. We’re merely using each other.”

“You’ve betrayed humanity, while the monsters will never welcome you with open arms,” Qilin said coldly.

“That’s why I said,” X enunciated every word deliberately, “I. Will. Be. God.”

The energy of the Poison Rune Circuit left X’s body, returning to his hand in concrete form.

He played with the Rune Circuit with his long fingers. “Sir Zuo, the old man, had picked a path of great loneliness for me.”

“Haha, hahaha, hahahaha...”

He suddenly tipped his head up and howled with laughter until he was shuddering all over, tears of joy streaking down his face. “No, no, no no no no...”

X entered a state of hysteria. “That’s wrong. That’s not the case. It wasn’t the old man’s choice, but my own!”

“Only now do I realize that I’ve always wanted to walk this path! I simply didn’t dare to admit it, didn’t dare to admit that I’m a freak who doesn’t need family, friends, or fellow humans...”

“Yes, only now, when I’m going to make the step,” X turned to Qilin, his mad smile fading and his eyes turning fierce. “Only now do I realize that this is what I’ve always wanted! I want to become a god and kill God!”

Then the light gray orb, Dragon’s realm, shattered.

When X damaged the realm of Overlord with his poisonous wind from the outside, Dragon had sensed the realm shake and crumble. He tried his best to keep it together, at least for a little longer, until he executed Lilia.

And he should’ve been able to do it.

However, through the cracks, the blood fog burrowed in, and X wasted no time to activate Poison of Hell, which spread to every single awakener quickly without discrimination. Even Dragon, the overlord of his realm, couldn’t escape the same fate.

He immediately sensed a strange thing greedily eating away the energy in his body.

Finally, Dragon lost the ability to maintain his realm, and Lilia avoided death.

Once the realm crumbled, Dragon and Lilia appeared on the plaza at the same time. Two seconds later, Dragon threw up a mouthful of blood and lost consciousness.

To judge a life as the overlord, he had to endure the mantle of the overlord himself, which was incredibly taxing to Dragon.

Then he tried to keep the realm intact and was later inflicted with Poison of Hell. There was no longer any energy left in him.

Lilia dropped to one knee, face pale and breathing hurried. While she didn’t have any external injury, her vitality had taken a great blow.

It was a narrow escape. Not even she knew for how long the judgment would last and how much more she could endure.

Without X, she would’ve died.

It seemed that working with him had been the right choice.

Pride monsters recovered quickly. In a minute, Lilia would recover sixty to seventy percent of her power. Then it would be easy for her to deal with the enemies—well, there were no other enemies to deal with. X’s poison was going to kill every single one of the awakeners.

They had won.

It was then Qilin toppled to the ground quietly, no longer able to hold on. Poison of Hell had already spread to all parts of his body.

With a hand in his pocket, X looked down at Qilin, who had lost consciousness on the ground. “It seems that we’ve been a little better at our job than they were.”

Lilia picked herself up. “All my companions are dead.”

Pride monsters could sense each other’s presence, and she could tell that all five shadowstalkers had died.

“And my former companions are going to die soon.” X smiled without it reaching his eyes. “We’re the same.”

Lilia turned around. “Now, it’s time to kill all humans.”

X chuckled and shrugged carelessly. “Be my guest...”

Thud.

A shortsword stabbed into X’s back, coming out from his chest.

It was Gao Yang!

His voice trembled with uncontainable rage. “What the fuck have you done?!”

X slowly turned around with a look of confusion on his face. “Why are you up and running, Seven Shadow?”

After a pause, he broke into a smile. “Ah, I get it now. You’re not a pure awakener anymore either, are you?”

Gao Yang was shocked. How could X speak so smoothly when his heart had been pierced? He didn’t seem like a dying man at all.

Having just arrived at the scene, Gao Yang didn’t know that there was a freerider inside X, and that his heart could now be shifted at will.

Suddenly, he felt a strange black wind closing in on him quietly. With Teleportation, he quickly moved away.

Splat.

The shortsword was spat out from X’s back. Then his chest and back bulged and writhed before recovering anew, as if a living bug was hiding inside and had been disturbed for a moment.

X turned to look at Gao Yang, his eyes flashing with killing intent. “An existence like me must be erased.”

Or there would be a competitor in his pursuit of godhood