Chapter 198: Do Not Ask What the Supreme Lord Can Give You, Ask What You Can Bring to the Supreme Lord
Upon hearing Rast’s words, the cultist named Aize could not help but tremble in his pupils.
“You mean… the Supreme Lord?”
“You learned all this from the Supreme Lord?”
“Of course.”
Rast’s words were like the evening breeze over the Mitro River—serene and drawn-out, yet seemingly imbued with a magic that reached deep into the heart.
“Since you are also a believer of the Supreme Lord, then you must have heard of divine revelations and the Chosen.”
“The Supreme Lord selects suitable individuals in the mortal world and bestows blessings and oracles upon them through ‘divine revelations’.”
He looked at the cultist outside the iron bars.
Though he himself was inside the cage, Rast’s expression held a faint compassion, as if he were the one outside the bars, looking down upon the prisoner within. No words were needed, yet his presence was commanding.
“And those fortunate enough to be chosen and blessed by the Supreme Lord are called the Chosen… They are the ones who carry out the will of the Supreme Lord in the mortal realm, acting as the Supreme Lord’s executors.”
“Otherwise, how else could I so easily speak your name and past…? You should know better than anyone that those secrets are ones you’ve never told a single soul.”
“I…”
The cultist opened his mouth but said nothing.
The words spoken by Rast were too shocking, prompting him to instinctively want to deny them—but soon he realized he had no grounds to refute them.
Everything the other had said, including the reasons he had joined the Holy Cult… were indeed his deepest secrets. Secrets he had never shared even with his closest friends—yet the other had laid them bare, as if reading his heart.
With all his life’s experiences, the only possible explanation he could conceive was that it truly was a divine revelation from the Supreme Lord. That the all-knowing and all-powerful Supreme Lord had, through revelation, informed the man before him of everything about him.
And as for the so-called Chosen, he was not unfamiliar with them either—
The leader of the Holy Cult, his current superior, also claimed to be a Chosen who had received the Supreme Lord’s revelation—an executor of the Supreme Lord’s will on earth.
“You… you’re really also one of the Supreme Lord’s Chosen?”
The cultist changed his wording halfway through, and after glancing at Rast inside the cell, suddenly seemed hesitant to continue. “But if you really are an apostle of the Supreme Lord… then why are you here…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear enough.
If you are truly one of the Supreme Lord’s Chosen, then how could you have ended up imprisoned like this, in such a pitiful state, a sacrificial offering locked away in a dungeon?
“That is, of course, because of the mission the Supreme Lord entrusted to me.”
Rast’s expression suddenly became solemn and devout. “According to the divine revelation, within this city there is a heretic who profanes the glory of the Supreme Lord.”
“This person, by chance, stole a sacred item of the Supreme Lord and declared himself one of the Supreme Lord’s Chosen, establishing his own cult—he borrowed the glory and name of the Supreme Lord, but in truth, it was all to deceive and exploit others for his own selfish gain. He is nothing but a heretic.”
“Someone who stole the sacred item of the Supreme Lord, pretending to be a Chosen…”
The cultist guarding the dungeon repeated Rast’s words, then a look of shock appeared in his eyes. “You mean… the leader of the Holy Cult, my superior?”
“Not a leader.”
“From beginning to end, it was all a charade built upon the sacred item of the Supreme Lord he had stolen. He is nothing more than a thief and a fraud through and through.”
Rast’s tone remained calm. “If it weren’t so, do you think that, given the Supreme Lord’s status and power, He would care about the faith in this tiny city?”
“Don’t speak of a few dozen cultists—even if it were an entire city, or even a whole nation of believers—they are but ants in the eyes of the Supreme Lord, unworthy of His attention.”
“To the Supreme Lord, everything in this world is merely a gameboard that can be manipulated at will. Only when He is in the mood does He lower His gaze and casually make a few moves.”
“But—”
His expression suddenly grew awe-inspiring. “The Supreme Lord may not care for these petty mortal gains.”
“But He absolutely does not tolerate ants who act in His name to commit base and despicable deeds. That is a desecration of His divine glory.”
“The reason I posed as a sacrificial offering was precisely to infiltrate this cult that profaned the glory of the Supreme Lord—to purge the heretic who defiled His divine light, and to restore this cult to its rightful path.”
Rast looked at the cultist before him, his eyes filled with compassion. “The reason I am telling you this is because, during our time together, I saw that your faith in the Supreme Lord is relatively devout.”
“Though you and the other members of this cult were deceived and misled by that heretic into joining…”
“But regardless of the cause, since you hold such devout faith in our Supreme Lord, you are, too, a believer of the Supreme Lord—and thus, worthy of receiving His grace.”
“I... I...”
The barrage of information Rast had revealed was far too overwhelming, causing the cultist to stammer uncontrollably.
But upon closer thought, wasn’t it all true?
Given what the cult leader preached—the Supreme Lord’s omniscience, omnipotence, and transcendent status—how could He possibly care about these petty mortal gains within Deep Blue Port?
Moreover, the cult’s ever-sneaky behavior had always felt out of place, completely inconsistent with the Supreme Lord’s majesty that overlooked all mortal beings.
As so-called executors of the Supreme Lord’s glory in the present world, these followers of the Holy Cult lived more like sewer rats, skulking in the dark, unable to act openly.
They even had to play a daily game of cat and mouse with the Deep Blue Port Police, dodging them like rodents before predators—utterly stripping the Holy Cult of any semblance of divine stature.
But if all of this was merely a play orchestrated by the cult leader, with the cultists merely being pawns deceived for his selfish ends, then everything made sense.
The sheer shock sent the cultist into a dazed stupor, and only after a long while did he return to his senses.
And once he did, he found the young man before him had already walked out of the cage and was now standing in front of him.
Yet the man had not taken advantage of the moment when his mind had faltered and all defenses were down—had not tried to flee the dungeon, nor made a move to snatch the firearm holstered at his waist.
He simply gazed down at him lightly. “I understand well that all of this is too much for you to accept easily.”
“So, go ahead and summon your familiar, trusted friends and fellow believers… let them come and verify once more the fact that I am the Chosen of the Supreme Lord.”
Rast’s indifferent tone carried with it a hint of compassion. “This is the mercy granted by the Supreme Lord to His believers.”
...
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In the stream room, lines of bullet comments scrolled wildly across the screen.
Clearly, the rubberneckers who had joined in for the spectacle never expected Little Ferret Gummy to pull off a stunt like this.
Even the viewers who had expectations for Little Ferret Gummy assumed he would, like other professional players and skilled streamers, rely on pure combat prowess to carve a bloody path out of the cult dungeon—the headquarters of the cult—and escape to freedom.
This was, after all, the only viable strategy players had thus far identified for clearing the “Cult Dungeon” starting scenario.
No one imagined that Little Ferret Gummy would abandon martial force altogether and instead rely solely on verbal manipulation.
With a barrage of rhetoric and persuasion, he had actually managed to talk the cultist in front of him into complete confusion, making him half-believe that he was truly a Chosen of the Evil God, while portraying the cult leader as a heretic and a usurper.
【You know what, seriously, every other expert who tried Deep Blue Port just turned it into a full-blown FPS deathmatch against the Iron Cross—testing whose aim was sharper.】
【I never thought someone would play the Deep Blue Port scenario with words instead of fists.】
【Even if it’s just words, to achieve this kind of effect, both acting and pre-gathered intelligence are essential. Clearly, Little Ferret Gummy put a lot of effort into preparation.】
【Too bad the Time-Limited Event is about to end. Even if someone wanted to replicate Little Ferret Gummy’s strategy using his gathered intel, there wouldn’t be enough time left to attempt another run.】
【But think about it—what’s the point of fooling some ordinary cultists?】
Amidst the amazement in the bullet comments, dissenting voices began to surface.
【Have you all forgotten? The greatest danger within the cult is that contaminated item—】
【You don’t even need to touch it directly. Just staying near it for too long leads to unconscious corruption by the Evil God.】
【No need to wait for the Iron Cross Plague to break out completely. The corruption will hit critical levels and instantly turn one into an Iron Cross. Several players have already tried infiltrating the cult before, but they all had to abandon the run because they couldn’t resist the corruption.】
【There are really only two ways to score high in this challenge: either survive long enough, or drastically alter the existing plotline of Deep Blue Port… But staying within the cult instead of leaving means the survival timer counts in seconds. Once spiritual corruption exceeds the limit, the game forcefully ends.】
【Even if he follows the altered plot route—what does it matter if he convinces some cultists? Even if he stirs up internal strife, the cult leader only has to bring out the contaminated item to restore order and assert control.】
Voices of doubt also began appearing in the stream room.
These were players who had previously tried the cult infiltration route and keenly pointed out its flaws.
Yet regardless of how wildly the bullet comments scrolled, on screen, Rast’s actions never faltered in the slightest.
...
Outside the dungeon, black-robed cultists arrived one after another.
Then, they all underwent the exact same process of mental transformation.
At first, they doubted Rast's claim of being the true Chosen of the Supreme Lord.
Then came shock.
And finally, complete mental collapse and speechlessness.
It couldn’t be helped—who wouldn’t be shaken to the core when this young man in front of them effortlessly revealed their personal histories and the deepest secrets hidden in their hearts?
If it had happened to just one or two, it might have been explained away as coincidence. But when Rast laid bare the hearts of everyone present, there was no way to explain it as mere chance.
Among the dozen or so cultists, there were still inevitably some who could not accept it so easily. One of them couldn’t help but raise a question:
“But… if that’s the case, then by believing in the Supreme Lord and supporting the true cult… what do we get in return?”
“Before you ask what the Supreme Lord can give you, you should first consider what you can bring to the Supreme Lord.”
Rast looked at the iron-headed youth who questioned him, his gaze still full of compassion. “Given the Supreme Lord’s status and power, everything in this mortal world—be it nobles or commoners, kings or generals—are no different from ants in His eyes.”
“Don’t speak of a single town’s believers. Even if all of humanity perished, it would be of no consequence to the Supreme Lord, just as you wouldn’t care if an anthill outside your doorstep was washed away by rain.”
“Yet the Supreme Lord loves mankind and has granted us the opportunity to believe in Him… granting us the chance to walk in His kingdom after death.”
“Our food, clothing, shelter, and daily life in this world are all blessings from the Supreme Lord. Without Him, there would be no civilization, and certainly none of us would have been born.”
“Your words just now were gravely disrespectful toward the Supreme Lord… but He knows your faith is still devout, and so He is willing to forgive your rudeness and transgression—”
“If you still retain the reason of a human being, then you should understand just how immense this grace is.”
“I…”
That cultist’s face flushed red, unable to utter a word, while his companions all glared at him with fury.
The grace of the Supreme Lord was something their entire bloodlines could never hope to repay—how could they ever dare to ask anything in return?
“Honored Chosen… then what should we do next?”
“Should we all rush forward together and shoot that fraud who stole the sacred item of the Supreme Lord and uses His name to deceive the world?”
The cultist named Aize took the initiative to propose.
He was the first to converse with Rast, and now the most devout—he had already wholly accepted Rast as the true Chosen of the Supreme Lord, while viewing the leader of the Holy Cult as a rebellious heretic.
“No, there’s no need for that.”
Rast shook his head. “He carries the sacred item of the Supreme Lord. Killing him is a small matter, but if we were to damage that sacred item in the process and profane the radiance of the Supreme Lord, that would be a sin we could never atone for.”
“Since he claims to be a Chosen of the Supreme Lord, then we shall deal with him in the way that befits a Chosen.”
Rast smiled. “After all—”
“Evil has never prevailed over righteousness.”