Fragment worlds are usually very small, but they can expand their territory by annexing other fragment worlds. If the master of one fragment world chooses to submit to the master of another, the two fragment worlds will fuse together under the will of the heavenly ladder light pillar, forming a new fragment world. Conversely, if civil war breaks out in a fragment world and two masters emerge, that fragment world will split apart.
Many fragment worlds on the Divine Sin Continent have gone through countless cycles of fusion and division.
To annex a fragment world, you must kill its master and anyone else qualified to inherit the position. Then you automatically become the new master. The lord of Windless City was directly shot dead by Debbie. Debbie herself had no awareness of this, she completely did not remember killing the man, yet the master of Windless City had indeed become Debbie.
The lord of Windless City had many sons, but he was an extremely selfish man who never considered passing the master position to any of them. With no one else qualified to inherit, the consciousness of the heavenly ladder selected Debbie as the new master.
Debbie then immediately chose to submit to Cass, master of Stan Town. As a result, Windless City fused with Stan Town, completing the annexation. This propelled a former trash world ranked outside the top thousand straight into 112th place, making it a hegemon world.
Debbie had also killed the lord of Kane City. However, Kane City had three vice lords besides its lord. One vice lord, Messi, was slain by Ye Chui. The remaining two vice lords were both qualified to inherit the position. When they learned that Windless City had been annexed, they readily chose to submit to Stan Town. This further expanded Stan Town’s territory, lifting it to 93rd place and turning it into a king world.
In addition, the current master of Moon Bay world tried to submit to Stan Town. To prove their sincerity, they even executed Taran and the others. Ye Chui refused them. Moon Bay was already weak, adding them would only be a burden, and Ye Chui simply did not like that fragment world.
If one looked down from the void at that moment, Windless City and Kane City would appear stuck to either side of Stan Town world. Since both were far larger than Stan Town, the new fragment world had a dumbbell-like shape.
After everyone discussed it, the new world was named Stan World.
In the fused world, the original small heavenly ladder light pillars of each component world also merged into one, forming a single new pillar. The size of this new light pillar was determined by the population, overall strength, and accumulated heavenly ladder points of the fragment world. Rankings between fragment worlds were decided purely by the size of each world’s heavenly ladder light pillar.
…
The Divine Sin Continent has no sun or moon, and therefore no day or night. Yet the lightning flashing in the dim sky changes in a regular pattern, faintly corresponding to day and night on the Castro Continent. People judge time by the direction of the active lightning. Lightning groups begin in the east, and when they shift to the west, one full day has passed.
On the third day after Stan World formed, Ye Chui and the others finally completed their battle preparations. They were about to begin their first proper trial.
(The initial trial and regular trials are different things.)
This trial team consisted of seven people. Ye Chui was captain, with Debbie, Glin, Lesha, Celis, Guni, and Shalomei as members.
Cass, the Dragon Turtle Three Treasures, and Selti remained in Stan World.
In the original mercenary square, the statue of Sword Saint Solon had been removed. In its place stood a statue of a beautiful woman. It did not look very much like her, but the majestic chest made it easy to recognise the statue as Lesha.
Lesha was a believer.
Believers do not play a particularly important role in trials or battlefields. On the Divine Sin Continent, however, believers are also called [Liaisons]. Of course, Ye Chui preferred to call them streamers. They are not essential, they do not belong to the four main professions of the continent, but strong fragment worlds usually include one believer in their trial or battlefield teams. This allows residents of the fragment world to watch the team’s experiences. That is the primary function of a [Liaison].
Believers gather faith power (popularity) from their admirers. With enough faith power, a believer can unleash terrifying combat strength.
For Lesha to gain the power of a [Liaison] as a believer, she first had to establish her own altar.
The altar is the foundation for collecting faith power from believers.
Building an altar turned out to be easier than expected. The central city sold ready-made altars. A believer simply needed to sign a contract with one to start gathering faith power from admirers. For fifty blank scrolls, they could even have a statue of the believer carved. It was very cost-effective. The only problem was the carving quality, which left Ye Chui quite depressed. Apart from the chest, which captured the essence perfectly, everything else was far off the mark.
Even so, the altar began operating successfully.
Lesha sensed faint strands of faith power beginning to gather on her body. Now, through light-screen devices, people could search for Lesha’s “broadcast channel”.
The view showed everything around Lesha’s body. She could adjust the angle herself, as if an invisible camera floated around her.
At the same time, becoming a [Liaison] subjected Lesha to a harsh rule: she now had to rely on the support of admirers to survive. If her admirer count ever reached zero, the faith power within her would be drained, and she would die.
During their initial trial, Ye Chui’s group had seen believers die horribly because their attention dropped to zero.
Despite understanding the risk, Lesha resolutely chose the path of a streamer. As a believer at Ye Chui’s side, she could use modified firearms, but she could not wield her believer powers. She knew that if they wanted to leave the Divine Sin Continent, they would face far stronger and more terrifying enemies. At that point, modified firearms would become less and less effective. To regain her original strength, she had to take this path.
Crowds surrounded the heavenly ladder light pillar of Stan World. After Ye Chui said goodbye to Cass, Baby, and Longbao, he turned to his team members and said, “Well then, we can begin.”
“President, I’m ready,” Glin replied at once.
Lesha adjusted her pretty and sexy skirt and said, “Little brother, I have no problems.”
“Hm. Lesha, do you remember all the key points I explained over the last few days about being a streamer?” Ye Chui asked. In his previous life, Ye Chui had not particularly liked watching streamers, but he had followed a few and knew the general tricks. Over the past few days he had organised his thoughts and passed them on to Lesha as reference.
“Don’t worry, little brother. I’ll become an excellent streamer,” Lesha promised with a smile.
Ye Chui nodded. Lesha had a cute face but a fiery figure, the classic childlike face with massive assets. Add her bold personality and habitual flirtatiousness, and she had a unique charm. In his previous life, if she had been a real streamer, she would certainly have been extremely popular. He just did not know whether the people of the Divine Sin Continent would fall for this style.
“Let’s enter the trial!” Seeing Lesha’s confidence, Ye Chui took the lead and walked toward the heavenly light pillar. His companions followed close behind.
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Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Ye Chui’s team stepped into the heavenly ladder light pillar and vanished amid flashing light.
The trial had begun.
Accompanied by a dizzy, blurred sensation, Ye Chui and his companions appeared in a field of ruins. Trial and battlefield venues were always abandoned fragment worlds. There were countless such worlds, so no hunter would ever encounter the exact same venue twice in their lifetime. Past experience was useless, but resource-searching techniques could still prove extremely valuable.
Ye Chui confirmed that all his companions had arrived safely, then immediately issued orders. “Start searching for resources exactly as we practised!”
At this point they were all ordinary people with no access to any powers. Resources were the most important thing. The top priority was to find enough magic scrolls. Before the trial, Ye Chui had already trained his companions in resource gathering.
Debbie, Glin, Guni, Shalomei, and Celis acknowledged at once and scattered to search.
Ye Chui turned to Lesha and asked, “Are you ready?”
Lesha nodded. She looked toward a spot in the void, gave a sweet smile, then spoke in a sugary voice. “Hello everyone. This is the Casual Name Team from Stan World. I’m your [Liaison] Lesha. From now on I’ll be bringing you through this trial. I hope you’ll come to like me and our team…”
…
The first proper trial of the team led by Ye Chui of Stan World had begun.
Moreover, Ye Chui’s team included a believer, meaning anyone could watch their performance through light screens.
The news spread rapidly throughout the central city. In many taverns, the light-screen devices switched simultaneously to Ye Chui’s team channel.
People were eager to see what kind of shock this recently sensational team would deliver.
“Excellent. They’ve finally entered a trial,” Niga said with a cold smile, watching the light screen on the wall of Lane’s Home tavern. Petals drifted around him. He wore luxurious clothes, his hair floated dramatically, and his appearance was cold yet strikingly beautiful.
Mad Beast Yagan and Satan’er sat at the same table. A pretty girl sat beside Satan’er, though of course she was not the same girl as last time.
After Ye Chui and the Blood Dragon Flower Alliance declared war on each other, the alliance members were furious but also curious about what gave Ye Chui such confidence. Trials started almost constantly. Once enough participants gathered, one would begin, much like certain games from Ye Chui’s previous life. Over the past few days the alliance members had stayed together, waiting for Ye Chui’s first trial.
Only now had they finally reached this moment.
“Pity no one from the Blood Dragon Flower Alliance is in this trial,” Mad Beast Yagan said, gnawing on a piece of roast meat. He seemed to be eating constantly.
“No matter. With our bounty out, there are a hundred teams in this trial, more than three hundred people in total. They’ll all hunt them desperately,” Satan’er said coldly, groping the girl beside him freely. “They’re about to face the most terrifying crisis.”
These words brought a triumphant cold smile to Niga’s face. He turned to the tavern owner and said, “Locate Ye Chui’s team. I want to see what they’re doing right now.”
“Right away, Lord Niga,” the owner of Lane’s Home replied quickly and began adjusting the light-screen device to search for Ye Chui’s team.
In the process they saw the activities of other teams. Two teams had found detection scrolls and used them to locate Ye Chui’s group. Those two teams had spawned not far from Ye Chui. On their way toward him they encountered each other, but instead of fighting they formed a temporary alliance to deal with Ye Chui together.
This combined force of thirteen people was about to run into Ye Chui’s group.
Then the light screen switched and settled on Ye Chui’s team.
Niga and the others, who had been expecting to see Ye Chui’s team in panic, suddenly froze. Their expressions locked in place.
Melodious music was coming from the light screen. It was music the Divine Sin Continent had never heard before, full of rhythm, sung in a language no one understood, yet indescribably pleasant. You did not need to understand the lyrics to feel its cheerful energy.
Accompanied by this music, a pretty and sexy girl was dancing on the screen.
Dancing.
Damn it, the believer of their trial team was not gathering resources or watching for other hunters. She was singing and dancing.
The music on the light screen came from Ye Chui’s pad.
Many functions of the pad were sealed, including its buffs, but previously unlocked buff songs could still play, just without the buff effects. The sound now playing was one of the buff songs Ye Chui had unlocked earlier.
The pretty girl, Lesha, finished one dance and caught her breath. She deliberately struck a very sexy pose, breathing slightly fast toward the screen direction, and said, “Did everyone like the Blissful Pure Land just now? Remember to follow me. There’ll be many more wonderful performances in the future. Next, please enjoy Love Circulation…”
Ye Chui, standing nearby, fiddled with the strange device in his hands. A cute and energetic tune began to play, and Lesha slowly resumed dancing to it.
At that moment, every face in Lane’s tavern, at least, wore a look of complete bewilderment.
In every other tavern showing Ye Chui’s team, people wore the same “what the hell is this” expression. Of course, after the initial shock came a new look: “but it’s actually pretty interesting…”
An otaku dance paired with Lesha’s perfect figure truly had devastating appeal.
