Chapter 98

End-of-Month Settlement for the Mediocre Path to Godhood

High above in the distant void, in the stark white Fish Bone Hall.

A giant skull sat upon the bone throne, watching the respectful little skull before it, saying nothing.

The little skull's mouth opened and closed rhythmically, repeating the message Cheng Shi had brought without missing a word.

The voice was robust and powerful, completely out of place in the deathly silent atmosphere.

The giant skull listened quietly until the little skull finished repeating the message, then allowed it to return beneath the throne, where it became a cornerstone of the base.

"Employee...... interesting......"

When the giant skull uttered these words, the entire Fish Bone Hall, along with the bone throne, emitted a sharp, mournful wail.

"He is coming back! Stop! He is coming back! Don't run!"

"Run? Who would run?"

The tone of the skull on the throne suddenly became lively; He turned His head to look at the gate of the Fish Bone Hall and laughed happily.

"Hee, old bones, why is this seat of yours still so uncomfortable!"

As the voice fell, another giant skull appeared outside the hall's gate, only the aura of 【Death】 around this skull was denser and more solid.

The moment He appeared, the Fish Bone Hall and the bone throne seemed to come alive again; they scattered noisily across the floor, then surged like a torrent toward the second skull, reforming into a throne beneath Him.

In just an instant, the positions of the two skulls were swapped.

The newcomer became the master of the seat, and the former became the guest outside the gate.

"You, why, have you come?"

"Old bones, how do you have the face to say such things? You stole my things, so naturally, I have to come to settle the score with you!

Oh~

Sorry, I forgot, you really don't have a face."

"......"

"I, snatched, His, authority.

Your, authority, was, sent, by yourself.

I, did not, trouble, you.

You, have, therefore, come?"

"Ya, don't say it out loud; it's no fun if you say it."

The skull outside the gate hopped with its mouth open, trying to climb up, but the bone stairs kept extending, refusing to let Him jump near the throne.

"I hate climbing stairs."

"You, may, leave."

"I haven't troubled you yet."

"......"

"What, feeling guilty?"

The skull on the throne was silent for a moment, then a green light flashed in His eyes, and a bone—inverted inside and out, with marrow as the wall and bone as the marrow—rose from beneath the throne and was slowly delivered before the eyes of the skull outside the gate.

"Take, your, authority, and leave."

"That won't do; if 【Memory】 finds out I didn't lose anything, won't He hate me to the core?"

"Has nothing, to do, with me."

"It has everything to do with you. You abducted my follower, then were inspired by my follower to steal His authority. Now that my lovely follower is being troubled by 【Memory】, aren't you going to offer some compensation?"

"I, have exempted, the offerings, he owed."

"Not enough."

"......"

The light in the eyes of the skull on the throne flickered, and shortly after, He spoke helplessly:

"What, do you, want?"

"Hee~ I was waiting for those words. I've been annoyed by Him for a long time; why don't we join forces and kill Him, how about that?"

"......"

The two skulls looked at each other, and the Fish Bone Hall, along with the bone throne, collapsed with a roar without warning, vanishing instantly.

The remaining skull floated in the void, opening and closing its mouth to itself, somewhat disappointed:

"Tsk, coward."

Cheng Shi waited for two days before finally receiving a reply from "that lord."

When he woke up one morning, he suddenly discovered that the status on his body had changed.

It had changed from "Fleeting Resurgence" to "Resurgence Fleeting."

Resurgence Fleeting: The corpse that drank the potion will turn into white bones within five days, and after five days, it will be resurrected as a human. Time remaining: 2 days.

Huh? What?

Before Cheng Shi could react to what this meant, his vision went black.

He was dead.

Not even his clothes remained; a skeleton had appeared abruptly on the rooftop terrace.

When his consciousness returned, two more days had passed, and the buff on his body had disappeared.

It looked like it had been resolved.

But why did this method of resolution feel like venting anger?

Xie Yang, next door, saw Cheng Shi appear and waved excitedly.

"Hey, buddy, I thought you were dead; I haven't seen you for two days, where did you go?"

Cheng Shi scratched his head, bewildered.

How was he supposed to say this?

Your guess was really accurate?

"I got lost in my research on techniques and didn't manage to come out."

"What did you research?"

"Death is very terrifying."

"?" Xie Yang blinked, thinking he had misheard.

You spent two days cooped up in your room just for this?

"Heh, buddy, you're pretty funny."

"You're not bad yourself."

Cheng Shi cupped his hands, stopped wasting time with his neighbor, and began preparing for the next upcoming trial.

And just at this moment, the end-of-month settlement for the 【Path to Godhood】 began.

According to the rules of the 【Faith Game】, at the end of every month, the 【Path to Godhood】 would conduct an additional settlement.

Players in different brackets would receive different rewards.

For Cheng Shi's 2100 points, the reward bracket generated was 2000-2400, which meant S-rank talents and items existed, but not many.

Because the closer one got to 2400, the higher the probability.

However, the settlement could still yield quite a few good things, which was one of the few things players looked forward to.

After all, these rewards didn't require risking one's life to obtain.

Cheng Shi felt a blur before his eyes and saw several lines of large text appear in his vision.

【Periodic settlement of the Path to Godhood has begun】

【Current global number of believers: 5,197,421,853】

【Calculating bracket and generating rewards......】

【Cheng Shi, male, 22 years old】

【Path: Void】

【Faith: Deception】

【Path to Godhood: 2141, Global Ranking: 452,007】

【Ladder of Audience: 164, Path Ranking: 60】

【Reward Talent: Expression Observer (A), Deception Faith Talent; in your field of vision, all changes in expression cannot escape your notice, even if they only appear in your peripheral vision】

【Reward Talent: Heal Others, Heal Self (A), Priest Career Talent; when the healing you cast takes effect, you enjoy an additional 100% of the healing effect yourself】

【Reward Item: Toe of the Glacier Rift Lizard (A), flavorful food, texture is on the harder side, rich flavor, has refreshing effects, can be used in medicine. X100】

【Reward Item: Faith Dropper (A), Truth Faith Item; can extract the target's faith and inject it into another target; the injected faith will overwrite the original faith, lasting for 2 hours】

【Please choose your reward......】

Clearly, the settlement didn't give all the rewards, but rather a choice of one from several.

Looking at these mediocre rewards, Cheng Shi sighed and casually chose the toes.

He had been lucky enough to eat this stuff before; the taste wasn't bad, it had a pickled vegetable flavor, very good with rice.

As for the talent, forget it.

Talent slots were limited; before rolling an SS talent, he probably wouldn't change it.

Just as Cheng Shi was feeling dejected about wasting another month, the space behind the rooftop warehouse suddenly twisted.

An exquisite skull fell from mid-air, landing at his feet, its jaw falling off.

Whatever the skull had been biting was also flung onto the ground.

Cheng Shi looked at everything before him and blinked in incomprehension.

"Delivered! Delivered! I want to go back! He is waiting for me! Goodbye! Goodbye!"

After saying this, the skull and its jaw slowly disappeared.

"......"

No, wait, your jaw fell off, how did you speak?

Eh?

I actually didn't question why a skull could speak, but instead questioned why a skull could speak without a jaw......

That's really fucking weird.

Cheng Shi scratched his head and picked up the item the skull had delivered.

It looked like a brooch.

He picked up the small object, which was two fingers long, and found it was indeed a brooch.

A brooch made from two slender finger bones.

Brooch of the Departed's Finger Bones (S): Holy Artifact, a brooch personally forged by 【Death】, containing His great understanding of certain authorities of 【Memory】.

Special Effect 【Memory of the Departed】: You can converse with a corpse that has been dead for no more than 12 hours; it will truthfully answer your first question according to its memories in life.

Special Effect 【This is not a gift, but a transaction】: Every time you use 【Memory of the Departed】, you must offer a sacrifice to that noble lord on the throne.

"......"

How should I put this......

I really want to jump ship.

Question:

How can I jump ship to another company with better benefits without the boss finding out? Is there any legal and compliant way?

Waiting online, it's quite urgent.