On the Divine Sin Continent, in the Ladder Battlefield.
“Now only three people remain. They form one team. Once we deal with them, we secure victory in this battle,” Resa said after completing her sensing.
She was the [Connector] and could detect the survival status of enemies across the battlefield.
“Where are they? The battlefield world has already begun [Dark Devouring]. Why have they not appeared yet?” Debbie said with some impatience. The little girl sat on a collapsed wall, carefully wiping her Gatling gun.
“This battlefield contest had thirty-seven teams in total. In the end, only three dared to face us. The rest surrendered a large portion right at the start, and the remaining few raised their hands and quit the moment they encountered us. Boring!” Green said with a sigh, carrying his frying pan over his shoulder.
“With our current reputation, who would dare clash with us head-on?” Ye Chui sighed. A helpless look crossed his own face. “This must be the loneliness of invincibility. Golden City was previously the top-ranked fragment world on the Divine Sin Continent, yet even if they entered the battlefield, other participants would not feel fear and withdraw immediately. We are different.”
Indeed, the Stan World differed from fragment worlds like Golden City. In little more than a month, it had risen forcefully, conquering the stubborn foreign races of the Green Forest World, the Plains World, and the Mines World. When the top-ranked Golden City attempted invasion, the Stan World had crushed them decisively and rolled them into a ball.
In terms of terror, the Stan World now far surpassed Golden City.
“Hm? Someone is coming. It is the last remaining team,” Salome called out urgently to the others. She lay prone on the roof of a nearby ruined house, her sniper rifle already set up.
“Salome, do not fire this time. Let us handle it,” Debbie warned quickly.
In the previous battles, almost everything had ended with the sound of Salome’s shot. They found it too dull. This time they wanted to fight personally. As she spoke, Debbie lifted the heavy Gatling with one hand and licked her lips in excitement.
Debbie’s strength was now immense.
In fact, not only Debbie, but Green, Ye Chui, Resa, and the others all possessed enormous strength and extraordinary speed. This came from the divine domain bonus.
Every resident of Golden City had agility comparable to elves and the robust physique of orcs, all because of the divine artefact.
The artefact transformed a fragment world into a divine domain. The people within, called divine citizens, received the artefact’s blessing. Their bodies changed, and every aspect of their qualities rose dramatically.
Debbie’s power had increased at least threefold. She could easily wield two Gatlings and slaughter in all directions.
At the same time, Debbie had awakened the inheritance of the Goddess of Wealth, gaining control over gold and golden sword qi. Her strength had soared countless times. Thinking back, the reason Gilga had once easily formed a low-tier contract with Debbie was probably her unclear connection to the Goddess of Wealth.
These past few days, Ye Chui had constantly speculated that Debbie might truly be the reincarnation of the Goddess of Wealth.
While he pondered, the distant trio finally appeared before Ye Chui’s group. After entering the battlefield world, Ye Chui and his team had gone straight to the central ladder light pillar. When dark devouring began, everyone had to converge here. Ye Chui’s group simply waited like hunters at the rabbit’s burrow.
“This time, let me do it.” Debbie hugged her Gatling, leapt forward eagerly, and strode towards the three.
The trio wore expressions of resolve to fight to the death. Unlike other teams, they had not chosen surrender and withdrawal. They had persisted until now because they wished to challenge Ye Chui’s group. Win or lose, it would honour their name as warriors.
When Debbie stepped out, a man wielding a battle axe among the three roared madly and advanced, axe raised.
He said nothing, but his eyes blazed with passion. He swung the axe forcefully, preparing to charge.
Debbie aimed her Gatling at him.
Battle seemed imminent.
“Aaaaaah!”
The axe warrior bellowed repeatedly. His body shot forward like a leopard pouncing, then, with a thud, he dropped to his knees before Debbie. “I cannot do it. As expected, we cannot beat you. I surrender.”
The other two men, though outwardly resolute, had trembling legs that betrayed their nerves. Seeing their companion yield so directly, they gave up the pretence and also thudded to their knees. “We surrender…”
Debbie: “…”
The others: “…”
Thus, the battlefield contest finally ended.
This was the third battlefield contest Ye Chui’s group had experienced.
After winning three contests, the Stan World gained qualification to enter the middle-layer world.
When Ye Chui and his team returned to the Stan World, night had fallen. A huge moon hung high in the sky. That moon was in fact the Mines World. From below, its mottled textures were faintly visible. It cast a gentle glow, lending a poetic atmosphere to the Stan World’s night.
“Mr Ye Chui, our worshipped god, you have returned at last. We already know of your victory. Now our world can finally ascend to the upper layer,” the elf Kuba said. His handsome form appeared before Ye Chui’s group. He spoke with refined courtesy, a faint holy aura surrounding him.
“This is a day worth celebrating, our god,” the dwarf Milas added as he approached, holding a delicate wine cup. The once rough dwarf now bathed in holy light.
In truth, not only the elf Kuba and dwarf Milas, but every person in the Stan World now looked this way. They carried their own holy glow. Their personalities had become gentle and refined. Their speech was courteous.
Dwarves no longer drank in huge gulps or ate meat in chunks. They switched to elegant cups and cutlery.
Elves had become completely ethereal, as if they no longer partook of mortal food.
Humans all resembled gracious nobles. Even in cramped rooms, they wore perfume and luxurious clothes.
Ye Chui’s group looked at Kuba, Milas, and the crowd gathering around them. Everyone felt their scalps tingle.
“Though it has been like this for days, I still cannot get used to it,” Debbie whispered to Ye Chui.
“Yes, President. It is really a bit… nauseating,” Green said. He glanced at Milas, who delicately held his cup with a raised pinky while sipping wine. Dwarves had enormous capacity. The sight of them sipping from tiny cups felt deeply discordant.
“Nothing we can do. This place is now a divine domain. Under the divine artefact’s blessing, everyone changes,” Ye Chui said helplessly. After receiving the blessing, divine citizens altered not only physically but also in personality. Just as Golden City residents considered themselves flawless, the theme Ye Chui’s artefact applied gave his world’s citizens a “holy aura theme”.
Of course, perhaps because Ye Chui’s close companions were all rather unique, the holy aura theme package had failed to alter their temperament much. Not even the holy aura could overcome their comedic nature.
“Can we not switch to something else?” Xiles suggested. “The old lady next door now acts like a saint all day. Yesterday a man glanced at her a little longer, and she nearly fought him to the death. This cannot continue. I will break down.”
“I will think of a solution,” Ye Chui said, sweating slightly.
He dealt briefly with the others, asking everyone to prepare for world ascension, then hurried to the Green Forest World’s central square.
A grand structure had been built there: a temple surrounding the ladder light pillar.
Trusted warriors such as Los, Matt, and Gayton stood guard. Inside the temple, four divine beasts appointed by Ye Chui watched over it: Elf Baby, Dragon Baby, Turtle Baby, and Celty’s head. Well, Celty was mostly for numbers.
When Ye Chui entered the temple, the three bizarre creatures and one head were crouched on the floor playing cards.
Seeing Ye Chui return, Baby happily leapt into his arms and boasted about how she had beaten Dragon Baby and Turtle Baby.
Ye Chui smiled and humoured her. Baby’s current intelligence could not handle complex games. In cards, everyone let her win. She played however she liked. Tearing an eight in half to make two bombs showed real creativity.
Holding Baby, he approached the divine artefact’s light curtain.
Ye Chui’s pad magibook remained linked to the artefact.
He had stationed the four divine beasts and trusted warriors to guard the temple precisely because the pad was too important.
Standing before the curtain, he began manipulating the Divine Order within the artefact, the system that ran it, to see if he could change the theme package.
To his surprise, he found exactly that.
“There really are other theme packages, and quite a few. Doomsday Zombie theme? Snow World theme? Dark Walker theme? Bloody hell, there is even an Oily Senior Sister theme package!”
Ye Chui could not help swallowing. “Decided. We will choose this one!”
With that, Ye Chui operated the curtain and confirmed loading the Oily World theme package.
The ladder light pillar instantly burst with dazzling multicoloured light that spread rapidly across the entire Stan World.
Ye Chui felt his body being remodelled, becoming somehow different.
He quickly picked up the nearby pad, cast a mirror spell, and conjured a mirror before him to examine himself: long legs, his already handsome features now radiant, skin gleaming with smooth lustre.
“Ah, Baby’s appearance has changed,” Baby exclaimed strangely, looking at her reflection.
Only then did Ye Chui study Baby, Dragon Baby, and Turtle Baby. Their appearances had altered to some degree. Their skin texture was completely different. Their looks seemed far more attractive. Even the chubby Dragon Baby now carried a touch of heroic air.
Only Celty remained exactly the same. Her existence was special. No theme package would likely change her at all.
Ye Chui excitedly left the temple and headed to other parts of the Stan World to check everyone’s transformations.
The former noble, captivating, or rather pretentious aura had vanished completely. Everyone seemed to revert to their original personalities. Holiness was gone, replaced by bold, straightforward demeanour. Even their clothing appeared altered, becoming, well, somewhat indescribable. Everywhere one looked were long legs and oily senior sisters and handsome brothers.
“This Oily World theme package is truly awful. How can we appear decent like this? Hmph, I must change it back to something else soon,” Ye Chui said indignantly, wiping saliva from the corner of his mouth. “But we only just switched themes. Frequent changes might crash the artefact, so caution is best. We will modify it again in a few days. I wonder what Resa and Xiles look like now?”
At that thought, Ye Chui hurried impatiently towards the mercenary guild.
The place where Ye Chui and Debbie had first met no longer served its original purpose. It had become the gathering spot where Ye Chui and his companions discussed matters.
When Ye Chui arrived, he immediately spotted Resa and Xiles standing in the square. The two girls, already curvaceous, now appeared excessively alluring. Combined with that oily sheen on their skin and the indescribable style of dress, it made one involuntarily want to drool again.
“Little brother, why have we all turned out like this? What did you do?” Resa asked Ye Chui, seeming slightly annoyed.
“But speaking of which, my skin feels much better than before, and these clothes are really simple yet beautiful,” Xiles said, clearly enjoying it. She even twirled lightly in front of Ye Chui.
“I changed the divine domain’s theme package. I will switch it back to something else later,” Ye Chui said, lifting his gaze and sneaking a downward peek. He addressed this to Resa.
“Switch back? Oh, no need. Actually, I think it is quite nice like this,” Resa refused. Though she appeared a little displeased on the surface, she genuinely liked it inside.
“Oh, is that so?” Ye Chui chuckled, then asked curiously, “Where is Debbie? What does she look like now?”
“Big sister…” A complicated expression suddenly crossed Resa’s face.
“What happened to Debbie?” Ye Chui blinked.
At that moment, Debbie spotted Ye Chui. She stormed out of the guild hall, planted herself before him, thrust out her chest, and demanded angrily, “Ye Chui, what did you do? Why has Resa’s become even bigger than before, while mine, mine…”
Debbie looked down at her own chest in embarrassment.
“It seems even flatter than before…”
“Eh!?”
Ye Chui was instantly stunned. He had hoped that under the Oily Senior Sister theme package, Debbie might finally gain some spectacle. Yet…
It seemed even the Oily Senior Sister could not remedy Debbie’s flat chest.
