A brutal battle had ended. Of course, brutal applied to those seven who wrongly thought they held victory in their grasp as veterans. Not one of them managed to get within one metre of Ye Dui and the others.
Among the seven, besides swordsmen, there were also a mage (in this world, no longer called a magus), a summoner, and one who seemed like a believer.
The mage used a magic staff that could release spells, but the electric arcs emerging from the staff tip seemed less effective than the sword in a swordsman’s hand.
The summoner used cards to summon a savage beast that looked like a mix of monkey and gorilla. It took a full burst from Debbie’s Gatling before collapsing to the ground. For some reason, Debbie had a special fondness for Gatling machine guns.
As for the believer, she was only suspected to be one because after the fight started, the woman never joined the battle. She stood far away the whole time, giving a bizarre live commentary. She spoke into the void like this: “These few newcomers are about to be taken down by us. Our Mighty Bull World’s team will surely rise to new heights. Please support us, believe in us…”
It seemed someone was watching the battlefield through this suspected believer.
Finally, after Ye Dui sprayed the dark-skinned bald man to the ground, the suspected believer woman saw the situation turn bad and immediately tried to flee. But Grimm chased her from behind and smacked her on the head with a frying pan, knocking her out.
“Impossible. The weapons in your hands are magic constructs. This cannot be. After entering the Divine Sin Continent, all magic constructs and weapons should be sealed. How can you possibly still have such powerful weapons!” The bald man gasped on the ground, shouting in disbelief.
“Magic constructs get sealed? No wonder Guni and Shalome’s weapons vanished. But it seems weapons placed in the storage space do not disappear.” Ye Dui judged, squatting in front of the bald man.
“That is true, they will not disappear, but… but…” The bald man’s eyes swept over the modified guns that everyone in Ye Dui’s group held. Such terrifying weapons were very powerful. Even in the magic-rich world outside, they should be rare. How could Ye Dui’s storage space possibly have so many spare weapons?
Ye Dui seemed to understand the bald man’s meaning. He smiled and patted the submachine gun in his hand. “These are weapons we phased out from outside. While they chop you lot like vegetables, their power is not enough for the outside world. My storage space still has at least a few thousand more. If I want, I can produce even more.”
“No, impossible…” The bald man opened his eyes wide in terror.
Their seven-person team counted as strong in the lower layers of the Divine Sin Continent. They had been a bit unwilling to join this initial battlefield at first, feeling it was like shooting fish in a barrel. But now this outcome was something he could not accept.
At that moment, the dark-skinned Guni suddenly walked over. “Ye Dui, I am injured.”
“Injured?” Ye Dui was startled. He hurriedly looked over with concern. The bald man showed a trace of relief. Though they had lost completely, at least they had wounded one of these newcomers. That gave him some small comfort.
Then he saw Guni extending a finger. There was a thin small cut on it, with a drop of blood flowing out. No one knew how it got cut.
“How are you so careless? Here, take a healing scroll and treat it quickly.” Ye Dui casually tossed Guni a low-level healing scroll.
The bald man: “…”
A precious healing scroll used to treat a tiny finger cut? Under the heavy mental blow, the bald man’s head tilted to one side and he passed out dead.
“Eh? Dead? Hey, don’t die…” Ye Dui patted the bald man’s face, but unfortunately he could no longer wake him. Fortunately, Grimm had already dragged the suspected believer woman back. Ye Dui could get some information from her.
“This woman is a believer.” Lesa had already walked to the woman to check. The woman was quite beautiful. Her clothes were not luxurious but very neat and clean. In comparison, the other two women in this team looked almost like wild women.
Lesa pulled out a worn church bible from the woman’s arms. She said to Ye Dui, “There are traces of faith power on this woman, but they are fading rapidly. Does this world have faith power?”
Ye Dui, Grimm, and Siles were magi who could release magic via magic scrolls. Guni and Shalome were swordsmen who could gain sword qi via magic scrolls. Debbie was a summoner who could summon heroic spirits via magic scrolls. Longbao and Guibao as magic beasts could also briefly gain some beast powers via magic scrolls. But from start to now, even when Lesa used magic scrolls, she could not produce faith power.
The problem was simple. This world simply had no faith power.
Yet this woman seemed to possess faith power. Strangely, she had shown no intention to fight at all just now.
“What did she mean by those words earlier? It was as if someone was watching her.” Grimm was studying the mage’s staff at that moment and spoke up.
“Believer… Could believers in this world connect with other fragment worlds?” Ye Dui thought of a certain profession from his previous life. His face showed great interest as he said, “So-called faith power is actually mental power from being believed in and loved. This world probably has no systematic religious faith system. But believers can gain favour from observers and obtain something similar to faith power from those observers…”
Holy crap, isn’t this just streaming?
The Divine Sin Continent imprisoned large numbers of believers from various gods’ faiths, as well as fallen church believers exiled here. These believers had no source of power here, but they could gain a strange form of faith power by changing class to streamers!
Outside this fragment world used for trials, in other fragment worlds, perhaps people were watching Ye Dui’s group through this woman’s wondrous perception ability. The words the woman spoke earlier were exactly for those viewers.
“This world really is interesting.” Grimm said. He tossed the magic staff aside with disgust. The staff had divine script reading “Low-Level Magic Staff”. Like the equipment and weapons they had seen, it was a resource scattered across this world, but probably very rare.
Grimm continued, “This magic staff seems to store some magic power and directly release spells, but the efficiency is too low and impractical. The magic guide book is much better.”
“But magic guide books should not be common in the Divine Sin Continent.” Ye Dui nodded. He had no interest in the magic staff either. This staff seemed to be some kind of magic construct similar to a magic guide book. At that moment, Lesa exclaimed in surprise, “Little brother, she is awake.”
“Perfect, we can get useful information from her.” Ye Dui was pleased. He squatted in front of the woman.
After the woman woke, she subconsciously rubbed her head that still hurt from the frying pan smack. She looked around. Seeing the friendly smiles from Ye Dui and the others encircling her, she immediately showed great fright and struggled to get up.
Ye Dui hurriedly waved his hand. “Do not be afraid. We mean no harm. Though you attacked us just now, if you cooperate obediently, I will consider sparing your life. Are you a believer?”
Ye Dui’s words sounded peaceful, but they carried an undeniable coercive force.
The woman nodded hurriedly. “I, I am a believer. My mother was a believer exiled here from the Castro Continent. I inherited her bible…”
“You seem able to contact someone?” Ye Dui continued asking.
The woman’s face showed shock. She hurriedly shook her head. “No, no…”
Ye Dui aimed the submachine gun barrel at her. “Are you sure?”
Seeing the dark muzzle, the woman shivered instantly. Their powerful team leader had died under this very barrel. She hurriedly said with a pale face, “I will tell, I will tell… Believers are the connectors between fragment worlds in the Divine Sin Continent. Through a believer’s inspirational power, people from other fragment worlds can see everything happening around the believer. Some teams entering battlefields or trials will let a believer join. This way, people from the team’s originating fragment world can follow the team’s movements. If the team performs outstandingly in battle or trial, they can gain supporters and devotees. This will enhance the believer’s own power.”
Lesa’s eyes lit up. “So that is how it works. The Divine Sin Continent has no gods. Faith power is gathered by believers themselves through inspiring devotees. In other words, every believer here is their own god… I am a believer. Can others see what is around me through me?”
“No, you must establish your own altar in a fragment world first.” The woman answered.
Ye Dui’s expression turned somewhat strange. The streamer vibe was getting stronger and stronger. Believers were streamers. They joined teams to enter trials or battlefields. People from other fragment worlds could watch all the team’s activities through the believer. If the team performed well, viewers would support and adore them. Devotees were die-hard fans. Supporters were casual fans. Believers could gain faith power from this.
“You seem to have no power at all?” Debbie asked curiously.
The woman looked like she was about to cry. “This is my first time…” She suddenly showed extreme panic. She spoke into the void, “No, do not. Please do not abandon me. I beg you…”
…
The Divine Sin Continent was not one single continent. It consisted of countless fragment worlds, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Most were fragments from collapsed divine domains. Some were entire external spatial worlds like Stan Town exiled here. Each world was independent yet closely connected to the others.
In this initial trial fragment world, participants formed teams based on their originating fragment worlds. The bald man’s team came from a fragment world that called itself Mighty Bull World.
At this very moment, in a large square in Mighty Bull World, a huge light pillar shot into the sky. That was the core present in every fragment world: the Heavenly Ladder.
On the Heavenly Ladder, screens of light appeared one after another. These screens displayed the scenes of warriors selected from Mighty Bull World participating in trials and entering Heavenly Ladder battlefields.
One of those screens showed exactly the scene from the initial trial: Ye Dui’s group and the believer woman. The view almost included all of them.
At first, when the bald man led his team to surround Ye Dui’s group, the watchers let out cheers. But when the bald man’s team was neatly wiped out in seconds, they fell silent and showed annoyed expressions.
And now, watching the believer woman reveal secrets in extreme fear only made these “viewers” feel disgusted. They quickly turned from fans to passersby, then to haters.
“What a disgrace to our Mighty Bull World!”
The people in front of the screen soon dispersed.
…
In the initial trial world.
“No, no, no…” The woman screamed in terror, but it was useless. Her body suddenly twitched a few times, then collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
Lesa checked and frowned. “She is dead.”
“What happened? Can someone else control her life and death?” Ye Dui asked strangely.
“No, it should be because the faith power in her body was completely drained…” Lesa quickly reached a conclusion. “Believers can gather devotees. But when devotees and supporters no longer adore her, she dies from faith power depletion. This seems to be a restriction rule of the altar…”
Ye Dui sucked in a cold breath. Being a streamer here could literally kill you.
