Cthulhu Gonfalon

When Sui Xiong arrived, it was midwinter. It was cold, the ground was frozen, and the fertile land was covered by a thick blanket of snow.

This year, there was a higher level of snowfall, and the farmers got worried. Although it was a “Ruixue Zhaofeng” year, which meant that the heavy snow was auspicious, once the snow had accumulated, it would be hard to clear the land. The snow would also mean fewer insects in the summer. Overall, they simply had a strange feeling, and to the common folk, strange things were bad things.

Sui Xiong was unaware of this as he only had access to farming news through Crick Keane. However, the Duchy of Thunder was in the South, and there were only one or two small snowstorms in that area all year. Accumulated snow would melt and disappear over a few days, and this did not help him understand the issue of accumulated snow at all. Thus, he remained unaware and even sighed blissfully, commenting that is was “good old snow” as he looked at the thick snow that blew over the land.

After praising the scene, however, Sui Xiong couldn’t help but feel troubled. Where had he heard the idiomatic Chinese phrase “good old snow” before? He felt that the poets of the past couldn’t have written something so shallow, and have it passed down for generations…

Hm, it’s probably because many would mention it while chatting. I remember that on an online forum, people had commented that often, and anyone could be a poet and feel special. The forum had even mentioned some award-winning poetry; maybe it’s from there.

In actuality, he was wrong. The author of the original idiomatic phrase was of a high level, and his writing had been purposefully made to sound less convoluted. Sui Xiong did not know this, just as he did not know why the snow made the farmers worry.

Although the God of Agriculture, Damwade, was directly under him, Sui Xiong did not really consult Damwade on his knowledge before. On one hand, he was not interested. On the other hand, it was not necessary for him to possess such information as well.

As the head, Sui Xiong only needed to be able to push his team in the correct direction. For the smaller and more detailed tasks, well, Sui Xiong remembered a comment from an online forum: “In the past, there was a very capable man named Zhu Ge Liang, and he cared about everything, yet it caused him to overwork and die from the stress.” Was Sui Xiong even at Zhu Ge Liang’s level? He doubted it. At this point, Sui Xiong started questioning whether he was truly fit to be the leader.

In the original horror game he had made, the heavens were warm, civil and free of disease. There were ample resources, everyone lived harmoniously, it was crime-free, and the good people who arrived after their deaths lived blissful lives for eternity. However, some of his disciples did not entirely enjoy this life. For example, some expressed that they enjoyed the cold; others remarked that they wanted enemies to fight with as they felt bored when resting. There were also others who felt like doing work as they were bored of laying around… Sui Xiong continuously made changes to his kingdom and even requested the Goddess of Joy to use magic to eventually appease all his disciples. However, this caused his entire kingdom to become extremely complex, and it looked like a cartoon with layers and layers piled on.

From top to bottom, there were several different environments and atmospheres just to satisfy the different individuals. Not just that, within the layers, some were of specific use. For example, he installed a ceiling for the Desolation God System and the Void Mask God System to use and made it the core of the “game program” for gods to live and train. In every layer, the space was utilized creatively to allow it to seem much bigger than it was. The only exception was the ceiling, as the gods did not care much, and Sui Xiong thus did not care much either.

Using space technology with the gods was a waste of time. As long as there was no main control, even the least powerful gods like Javier could resize the layer to their own liking. Be it elephants, a giant Orc that could polish off five elephants in one go or insects that could hide between leg hairs—it was not a problem to resize them. For powerful beings like Sui Xiong and Yorgaardman, they could even greatly increase the size of the Main Plane layer or decrease it to the size of a cell with ease. However, to create the layer like a fantasy or to make it omnipresent or invisible was beyond them. Even Yorgaardman was stunned by these matters and did not know how to make such drastic changes. In his view, even the Master of Order could not do such a thing.

To reach a fantasy-level layer, it was hard to imagine how one could do so. This was because with the increase in one’s standard of living in reality, one would also increase their visions of a fantasy layer, and there would always be something out of reach. Of course, it had been done before such as in the case of the core of Void Mask Lord’s game, which was a place where one could transform fantasy into reality. There were several games here, and one could choose from the simple “new adventurer” stage to “mercenary legend stage” or the highest level of “unlimited thrill.” Each game was full of waiting users who wanted to try them.

At the entrance of the game center, two clergymen were in charge of the registration list. Those who wanted to play the games had to make reservations three days in advance in order to not be disappointed. They had to line up for three days or more in advance, especially for games like “unlimited thrill.”

On the games’ most popular days, there would be thousands of people who lined up overnight and who scared off others from trying. Of course, there would even be some who lined up for more than a day and who stood in the freezing streets just for a chance to try the game three days later. There was no choice as there were only 20 sets of “unlimited thrill.” If there wasn’t the limit of being able to enter only once every ten days, some people may rejoin the line right after their turn!

Looking at the long line, Sui Xiong couldn’t help but laugh. He felt that he had created people who were game addicts here in this world, a concept previously only familiar on Earth. It would be amusing if a sudden wild Professor Yang appeared in this world and nagged, “Children, you need treatment for your gaming addiction…”