Project Godhood

By the time Rikka and Anshera returned home, it was already evening.

Neither of the two girls, who were far from ordinary people to begin with, felt hungry.

Originally, Rikka had planned to continue showing Anshera around Tokyo at night.

However, Anshera, having received a telepathic message from Chen Changsheng, knew he had finished his business and thus pulled Rikka along to head back.

When Rikka got home and opened the door, she saw that Toka had prepared a table full of dishes and was currently sitting by the table, looking at Chen Changsheng with eyes full of love.

The smile on Rikka's face, which had been there because she and her companions had just confirmed their plans to conquer another world together tomorrow, gradually disappeared.

"You're back. Toka made a whole table of food, just waiting for your return."

Chen Changsheng smiled at the two girls. Immediately after, Anshera made a beeline for the dining table.

"Yay! Let's eat, let's eat!"

Rikka felt a sour pang in her heart and had absolutely no appetite, but seeing Anshera already seated and looking at her, she walked over anyway.

Her expression naturally did not escape Toka's eyes.

Knowing her younger sister so well, how could Toka not see through Rikka's almost fully exposed feelings?

She silently exchanged a glance with Chen Changsheng. Seeing him give a slight nod, she couldn't help but shoot him a coquettish glare.

How could she have forgotten that the man she had fallen in love with was the type who never turned anyone away? Furthermore, there was already a pair of beautiful sisters waiting for him back at his home.

Thinking of this, Toka silently sighed in her heart.

Even in this world, is there no way to have him all to myself?

It's just that... it's already impossible to leave him now.

...

After eating and drinking their fill, Chen Changsheng also learned that Anshera was planning to drag Rikka and her friends along to clear SwordArtOnline together.

His expression became a bit strange, because the starting point for his clone's plot to attain godhood was this very game.

For this purpose, his clone had even infiltrated the major pantheons and divine factions of this world, acquiring a great deal of knowledge.

Then, modeling it after the divine artifacts and divine personas of this world, the clone had forged a blank, external divine persona.

He was just waiting for the games in this world to fully enter the era of virtual reality. Then, using the secret technique Universe, he would invade the virtual worlds that emerged one by one in the future, gather the faith of the masses through them, and ascend to godhood.

He had to admit, his clone's idea was indeed quite brilliant.

If he truly succeeded, he might be able to rival the status of God in this world.

After all, while half the people in this world believed in God, the other half almost certainly did not.

However, all living beings in this world could play virtual reality games!

Of course, it was impossible for everyone who played virtual games to believe in a so-called God of Games.

But!

What if those people playing virtual reality games discovered that they could bring their in-game powers out with them after logging off?!

And this was exactly his clone's plan.

The secret technique Universe could not only create a spiritual world, but upon reaching the second layer, it could also consume spiritual energy to manifest things from that spiritual world into reality. Naturally, this included the powers players obtained in the game.

And all Chen Changsheng needed to pay was the spiritual energy that naturally dissipated from the players themselves within the spiritual world.

In fact, as those players spent more and more time playing the game, Chen Changsheng would use a small fraction of their dissipated spiritual energy to strengthen their minds, allowing them to contribute even more spiritual energy.

In this virtuous cycle, when the time came, it wouldn't matter whether Chen Changsheng wanted to completely turn the spiritual world into a real world, or treat it as a welfare benefit for the players by manifesting their in-game powers into the real world.

Because Chen Changsheng didn't really need those things; what he needed was the players' most sincere faith.

Therefore, Chen Changsheng was very supportive of Anshera's idea. When the time came, he would let Anshera take Rikka, Toka, and the others to cause a huge ruckus in SwordArtOnline.

He would also use this opportunity to harvest a continuous stream of the power of faith.

Of course, he wasn't going to become a god himself. Not to mention him, even his clone had actually prepared an external divine persona with the intention of refining it into a magical artifact, letting this artifact bear all the power of faith.

...

In the evening, inside Toka's room, Chen Changsheng held Toka in one arm while holding that blank divine persona in his other hand, silently modifying its internal structure.

Although his clone had already done a very good job, it was, after all, merely a spiritual clone split off during his Soul Formation stage. Its methods were still somewhat lacking compared to his current self.

Thus, he decided to properly modify and enhance this divine persona.

Since it was meant to be the future God of Games, he might as well steer it toward the technological route.

First, he added an artificial intelligence to serve as the artifact's future spirit.

Next, he copied and optimized the supercomputers of various countries around the world to act as its processor, serving as its future core.

Then, he poured his own vast spiritual energy into it, transforming it into a massive spiritual world.

Finally, he solidified a law of creation onto the divine persona in advance to reduce energy consumption.

After working on it for the entire night, Chen Changsheng looked with satisfaction at the blank divine persona in his hand. Its exterior remained unchanged, but its interior had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.

Or rather, at this point, it was no longer as simple as a divine persona.

Instead, it had transformed into a low-grade spirit artifact that was a trinity of technology, the divine path, and the immortal path.

Once it obtained sufficient power of faith, this low-grade spirit artifact would advance simultaneously in all three aspects.

Technology would be fueled by the whimsical ideas of countless future players.

The divine path would be fueled by the endless stream of faith provided by future players.

The immortal path, bolstered by the massive spiritual energy of future players, would possess a law of creation capable of obtaining boundless energy, along with the spiritual world of limitless potential that Chen Changsheng had created within it.

In Chen Changsheng's eyes, the future potential of this low-grade spirit artifact was simply infinite.

"If I casually tossed this spirit artifact to someone, it could probably serve as a pretty powerful cheat item for them, right?"

"Hehe, to think that without realizing it, I've already reached such heights."

Thinking this, Chen Changsheng couldn't help but chuckle foolishly.

Nowadays, in most worlds, he could probably already be considered a top-tier big shot.

In a great mood, he directly pulled Toka into his arms and gave her a kiss.

"Mmm, what's wrong?"

Toka groggily opened her eyes and looked at Chen Changsheng, wondering why he was so happy.

Hearing this, Chen Changsheng smiled and whispered.

"Toka, it's time to get up and play a game."

"Play a game?"

Toka paused for a moment. Then, recalling the gaming helmets that Chen Changsheng's clone had procured earlier, she picked up the watch beside her and checked the time. She noticed it was almost 12:00 noon; it seemed that the game called SwordArtOnline was indeed about to begin its open beta.

"Is there something special about this game?"

Toka looked at Chen Changsheng with some confusion, not understanding why both his true body and his previous clone had kept insisting that she must play this game.

Hearing her question, Chen Changsheng just gave a mysterious smile.

"It will be a secret for now. You will find out once you play this game."

Hearing this, Toka could only playfully thump Chen Changsheng's chest, her face showing a coquettish pout.

"Can't you just tell me first?"

However, the only response she received was Chen Changsheng shaking his head, followed by him unable to resist teasing her in return for her affectionate display.

...