Shepherding Humanity

The otherworld’s Gods have torn us to pieces.

While the players may be raising a ruckus, none of them were stupid.

During the several seconds they’ve been disconnected, which they spent cursing Akina’s Speedster, several days have passed in the Magic World. They’ve been unconscious the whole time, and their parts scattered throughout the Magic World.

No matter what happened to them now, they wouldn’t be surprised.

“As expected of the God of Wisdom Hermes who brought the light of truth to mankind in the ancient era. He’s just too strong! To think that he could wipe us out in one move… What kind of unimaginably powerful Divine Art was that?”

“I’m his fan now. He’s so cool! (😻)”

“Quite so. When the Land of the Gods appeared from behind the clouds, and his divine might descended upon the earth, I was reminded of that time when the Lich King wiped out our entire guild with his ultimate move. I’m still in awe!”

“It seems that we’re not well equipped enough yet, and our levels are too low.”

“Do you think that this deity also has a tragic past? The child of an aging king, sacrificing himself to pull out Frostmourne and become a God. He’s the man who will become Hokage and protect this world!”

“This antagonist boss is quite a charismatic character! We should ask for his autograph the next time we meet!”

…

Although they got killed by the God of Wisdom, none of them held a grudge. As they talked in the forum, they were all gushing about how cool he was when he killed them and whether they could get his autograph next time.

Players: “Sir Deity, you were so cool when you killed us last time, can we ask for an autograph?”

Said Deity: ???

Can this creature get any weirder?

Such an incomprehensible being.

“Oh, right. That ultimate move that merced us, don’t you think that it’s just too weird? Guys, did any of you see him chant or show any kind of tell before releasing it?”

“Nope. The screen just went black all of a sudden.”

“So it’s an instant-release kind of skill? Then do you guys think that it has any cool-down time?”

“It must have. There’s no tell before release, which means that it can’t be interrupted, if there’s no CD on top of that, then how are we supposed to beat him?”

…

Now that they’ve gotten serious, they were earnestly reviewing the battle.

They were all experienced MMO gamers and knew that they should be able to gain useful information after each party wipe, like the order in which the Boss uses his techniques, or how much HP the Boss would have to lose before entering his second phase.

The Creator may be out of the question, but that otherworld God should only be a very powerful being. They did not fear him!

He must be the Final boss of this world, and they needed to come up with a strategy to beat him.

They will avenge themselves for this party wipe!

“To think that our colossal Evil God Cthulhu, ruler of the elder days and unifier of all things, would meet such a pitiful end! We’re the f*cking Evil God! How did we end up as pages in a notebook and the chew toy of some wild beast? I can’t accept this!”

“Remember Future Skywhale? And how awesome his entrance was? Now look at us! It’s so shameful! (😭)”

You think that that’s shameful?

When Grantham entered, his subordinate species got turned into X-Rated products. They became pets that were sold for 10 Rose Coins each.

As for you guys, you got disassembled the moment you entered. Some of you are now chew toys, others part of a bird’s nest, or the pages of a book, or a traveler struggling to survive in the middle of a desert…

Xu Zhi was speechless. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. He wasn’t any better off than you lot, really.”

Though they may b*tch and moan, these guys were all super hardcore gamers and had plenty of experience dealing with party wipes. Taking advantage of this opportunity when everyone had logged out to report their status on the forum, they did a quick roll call to see if anyone had died.

“Reporting in.”

“Reporting in.”

…

The good news was that, while everyone was in a difficult situation, none of them had been kicked out of the game.

“Fortunately, the heavenly gods don’t know about our unique make-up, and all 173 ‘Core Cells’ have survived. As long as the King remains, rebuilding the species is only a matter of time.”

Countless players sighed in relief. Their situation may not be the best, but it was still better than dying.

What they did not know was that their survival was never in doubt. Xu Zhi hadn’t actually attacked them after all, and only forced them to disconnect, causing them to fall apart. Which was why they did not suffer any damage before getting blown away by the Witches.

It was at this moment that Akina’s Speedster stepped forward. He had been trembling in a corner of the forums this whole time while everyone cussed, not daring to make a sound. He boldly declared: “Everyone, it’s time to play Dragon Ball! Let’s collect the 173 scattered Dragon Balls, and save the world!”

Before everyone could react, he pushed on:

“Hear me out, guys! It’s time for us to rise up! We’ll gather from all the corners of the world and reassemble ourselves, then we’ll merc the God of Wisdom Mercury. He may be a God, but he will fall before us. Failure is the mother of success! Repeat after me: We, the Evil God group, fear nothing!”

“We, the Evil God group, fear nothing!”

“We, the Evil God group, fear nothing!”

…

Akina’s Speedster’s attempt to change the subject was quite successful. All too quickly, many people fell into his trap and forgot about punishing him. They even began to passionately repeat his slogan.

Many others could not help but scoff at this.

“To the guys above me, are you really gonna go along with Akina’s Speedster’s crap just like that? Guy’s insane! Wake up before it’s too late!”

“There are too many idiots, and not enough scammers in this world. (😂)”

“It’s useless to change the subject. I wanna murder him! (💢)”

The forum was very lively.

As long as they didn’t die, then everything was fine. They were all used to this game’s hardcore difficulty!

At this moment, the forum was even more active than the time that Emperor Grantham ran into trouble in his old age. Much more so. Everyone was super excited about their fantasy adventure.

The Evil God has been dismembered. The players forming its component parts have been scattered throughout the world and were all in a difficult situation… The main quest was clear. They had to assemble and reform its body.

Some started from a bird’s nest.

Some started at the bottom of the sea.

Some started within the pages of a notebook.

Others began in the middle of the desert.

…

After preparing a simple meal in the kitchen, Xu Zhi began to spy on the enemy camp while eating. He couldn’t help but be amused. “To think that these idiots could be having fun even in such a miserable situation. I heartily approve!”

After skimming the forums for a while, Xu Zhi finished his meal, did his dishes, and got to work. He’s decided to ignore the players for now.

“It’s time to get started on the Land of the Gods. I’ll have to figure out how to make a flying island.”

“In the beginning, I’ve set a genetic lock to limit their size… That can be removed to create a normal to large sized bird which will serve as the flying island.”

But, Xu Zhi did not want to deviate from his chosen path of evolving tiny life-forms, and wanted to find a solution that would build on this.

What’s more, those guys had already given him the solution: the synthetic life-form that they came up with could bypass the size limit. As a bonus, it was also much stronger compared to an ordinary creature of the same size.

“They could make a giant fish god, after all. If I imitate them, I should be able to make a continent shaped creature, and evolve wings or even propellers to make it fly.”

“Their basic framework was a wooden boat, so mine should be a flying drone, I guess?”

Xu Zhi considered his DJI Drone for a moment, then shook his head.

Its components were too sophisticated, which would make things very difficult for him.

He was all too aware how lacking he was when it came to evolutionary theory. And also, he couldn’t afford the cost. After his recent shopping spree, where he was willing to spend tens of thousands on an electric fan, he did not have any money left.

For now, he has decided on two possible blueprints for his flying island:

In one, his flying island would be a glorified bird, and fly on two wings.

In the other, he’d imitate the structure of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and make it similar to a helicopter with propellers.