I Am the God of Games - Chapter 288

Chapter 288: Can’t You Read Your Minimaps?

At first, Xi Wei wasn’t concerned with the fate of the other contestants since it wasn’t the same as ordinary logistics—reviving each of them would cost him some divine power.

And that was even with the contestants being inside the fragment of the divine kingdom under his rule, where the souls of the dead wouldn’t be pulled into the underworld directly. As such, he didn’t have to pry the perished souls from the hands of the Prince of Darkness, or the divine power he used would increase by several folds.

Be that as it may, Xi Wei realized that the mortality rate in the competition could prove extremely high when he drafted the rules for the first found. In fact, compared to being killed, it was not very likely for the contestants to be disqualified by factors such as ‘unable to gather 5 marked cards’ or ‘inadvertently being teleported out upon finding and accidentally touching the Lifestone’.

In other words, most contestants were either going to be killed by other contestants or by traps and monsters.

Even in the best-case scenario where half of the disqualified survived, that means over six hundred dead!

As such, while the citizens might not realize it immediately since they would be caught in the passionate atmosphere of the tourney, their sentiment might take a heel-faced turn when the first round was over.

After all, the preachers of most churches were no different from salesmen who depended on word of mouth—they would know how to incite the citizens and direct sentiment as they wanted to.

And when that happens, Lancaster’s mayor image as a steward of justice which was made after much difficulty would crumble instantaneously!

Even if they did make compromises, six hundred was a large number even spread across various churches, especially since those contestants who would participate the tourney would definitely not be weaklings.

If that many people died at once, the Church of Games would be blacklisted so hard that every church would label them cultists, claiming that the Twin City Cup as a measure applied to cull their opponents.

When that happens, it was like having mud dropping into your pants—it was shit regardless.

Hence, Xi Wei realized that it was not necessary to drive a grudge between himself and the other churches, and made it so that any contestant dying in the maze island to be promptly revived at Lancaster Square.

As for why the revived would have body parts missing, that was naturally because the other gods might realize that something wasn’t right if Xi Wei resurrected them perfectly. On the other hand, although the defective revivals would still cause suspicion, they would be less wary—moreover, having decided to promote the Church of Games with the tourney in the first place, Xi Wei was prepared to alert the other gods.

Yes. It definitely wasn’t Xi Wei being stingy, wanting to save some divine power while reshaping the contestants’ bodies…

***

Unlike the Players who had learned through the forums in real-time from the outside world that ‘they are revived outside the maze island after death’, the wyvern knights of the Temple of Glory were caught between a rock and a hard place.

At first, they presumed the Twin City Cup to be a competition of martial prowess, magic, and sacred arts.

In fact, the Temple of Glory would organize such tourneys once every few months.

That certainly kept the wyvern knights brimming with confidence. They didn’t even bring along their lances or their mounts along, and simply arrived at the roll call with one sword and a few gimmicky trinkets.

In their minds, all they had to do was be careful around the sinister monks of the Brilliant White Church. They basically feel no need to be prudent around anyone from other churches, let alone the Players who equipped themselves like a ragtag military force.

Who were they kidding, after all? What could the fools wearing those silly fish heads be capable of? Instakill us?

But all of them were caught off guard the moment the tourney began, falling into a brief panic when they were teleported into the maze island.

Whether it was because Xi Wei had been irritated by their arrogance or simply because they were unlucky, the wyvern-less wyvern knights ran into wandering lizard beasts the moment they reached the maze island.

Then, right after repelling the lizard beasts, they ran into a group of pigheaded men and were forced to beat up over a hundred of them and send them fleeing. By then, they were reduced from thirty to around fifteen and everyone was left fatigued as they dragged themselves onward.

Even so, these elites of the Temple of Glory suffered another terrible setback when they stepped right into the most classic of traps—the rolling boulder and the swinging scythe—and now, only the eight of them left.

When it comes to fighting, the wyvern knights were actually the best of the best. They wouldn’t lose to any veteran Player by much, and on their wyverns, perhaps only first-rate Players could be an equal match.

Still, they were much more inferior when it comes to exploration of unfamiliar grounds and survival in the wild.

For one, despite the path of the maze appearing to be headed in every other direction, they would somehow end up returning to the same spot. That would have been fine since the maze confounds everyone within the first place, and being poor with directions wasn’t actually a lethal weakness for fighters who had awakened their aura.

The problem was that the traps in the maze respawned.

Hence, again and again, they would have to start scampering away to escape from the huge rolling boulder that dropped from on high, or evade the massive scythes that were swinging back and forth as if they were playing a rhythm game.

It was not as if they didn’t try attacking the traps—but their aura slashes which usually would have easily cut boulders in two merely left a faint gash on the boulder in the maze. That also meant missing their chance to run, and the one who tried to cut it apart would end up flattened into miserable mincemeat…

Things were no different with the swinging scythes. Sure, they could hit the scythes on the pivot, but the scythe would promptly explode with the force of a hand grenade. Several wyvern knights who weren’t killed by the scythes previously would only end up as dartboards for the shrapnel of the scythes they destroyed… And what was more frustrating? Any culprit would become the dartboard, so the other survivors don’t have any targets to vent with…

It was absolutely exasperating, but they still had to carry on.

Hence, after running around in circles, the wyvern knights had lost all their composure and confidence, trudging along the maze as if they were refugees sneaking around, while also reaching out to poke at the ground every few steps they take to check for traps.

Hence, when Jom and Terry inadvertently stumbled upon those miserable knights while walking their dog, both the Players were left speechless when they learned what had happened to their group.

Jom, who had been wary that they were powerful foes felt utterly stumped, ‘Why would the likes of you have the gall to call yourself believers of the War God, elites of the Temple of Glory?’

In comparison, Terry’s thought process was much simpler.

‘Can’t any of you read your minimaps?

‘Oh, right, never mind. They don’t have minimaps.’