By the time I returned to the dorm, night had already fallen. ‘So, even the God Realm has night,’ I mused aloud.
Xilinka, who was still seated by the window, overheard my remark. She explained, ‘Actually, the God Realm originally had no night. However, to differentiate days, His Majesty the God King introduced the concepts of day and night from the human world.’
‘Oh, I see,’ I acknowledged, just as the bag in my hand suddenly lightened. Had it been snatched? I turned to find Lavishly Karafar, clad only in a bath towel, rummaging through my bag.
‘How boring. I thought there’d be a gift from that guy.’ Lavishly Karafar tossed the bag aside.
Watching her rummage through the bag with both hands, I felt a pang of fear that her towel might slip. I cautioned, ‘Won’t your bath towel fall off if you do that?’
‘How could it? I’m a deity! A simple levitation spell would—’ Before she could finish her sentence, with a ‘swish’, her bath towel dramatically embraced Mother Earth.
My face flushed crimson. ‘Could you please stop jinxing yourself?’ I thought, chanting inwardly, ‘See no evil, see no evil.’ I desperately tried to avert my gaze, but alas, my eyes felt glued in place, utterly unable to look away.
‘Oh, dear!’ she exclaimed. Yet, her surprise stemmed not from modesty, but from the mere fact that something had dropped unexpectedly. ‘This time, I seem to have forgotten because of my carelessness…’
This, I mused, was precisely why jinxing oneself as a young lady inevitably led to such predicaments.
‘Wh-what are you doing?!’ I shrieked. Lavishly Karafar had just set fire to the trousers I’d obtained from the principal. ‘Regardless, using open flames indoors is incredibly dangerous. And why are you burning my school uniform?’
She tilted her head, feigning a thoughtful expression. ‘Why wear trousers when there are such cute little skirts?’
‘What kind of divine logic is that?’ I wondered. However, before I could ponder it further, she dropped a bombshell.
With a slight curve to her brows, she declared, ‘Actually, I signed you up for the official individual combat tournament. I didn’t expect a match to be found so quickly, but it’s scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.’
I stared, dumbfounded. ‘Could you please not sign people up for such important events so casually?’ I thought, exasperated. ‘Um, can it be canceled?’ I asked. ‘No way! It’s only been a few days, and I haven’t even attended a single class. There’s no way I’m fighting against those utterly unscientific individuals. That’s absolutely impossible!’
‘No, you can’t cancel it,’ she replied. ‘But don’t worry, your opponents are all Illusion Gods, and they’re very low-ranked. It won’t be like fighting against the senior or Xilinka today.’ Noticing my apprehension, she added, ‘And while Linguistic Illusion Gods aren’t considered the strongest divine lineage, for an Illusion God, it’s a very potent lineage in combat.’
I cast a hesitant glance at her. Seeing that she didn’t seem to be joking, I decided to trust her this once. Turning away, I declared, ‘I’m going back to my room.’
Immediately, I retreated to my room and powered on my computer. This time, however, I didn’t stream. I was simply too exhausted, and the stream wouldn’t have been engaging anyway.
Instead, I just recorded my screen while playing a game for a while, providing some commentary. It was an FPS game, as always. Despite my lack of skill in FPS games, I harbored a natural obsession with them; I felt an undeniable urge to master them.
Talent, it seemed, was undeniably crucial.
I took a shower quickly—truly quickly, not exceeding an hour.
Settling onto my bed, I began to meticulously ponder the ‘keyboard’ I’d conceived that morning. I summoned all 132 characters into the air before me.
Next, I retrieved the so-called ‘Moe God Grimoire’. Since I didn’t know its true name, I was still calling it that for now.
I began to search within it for offensive divine spells, then considered the optimal sequence for assembling this ‘keyboard’. Simultaneously, I started working on compressing the characters. Gazing at this monumental task, with that inexplicable arena battle looming tomorrow, I surmised I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight either.
However, for a streamer like me, accustomed to ‘cultivating immortality’ by consistently staying up late, a lack of sleep was hardly anything new.
The next day, it was Xilinka who roused me. Apparently, I had been busy until around four in the morning. Yet, I had only completed a rudimentary version of the keyboard, barely usable, and still requiring numerous improvements.
‘We have classes this morning,’ she informed me. ‘As a new student, you only need to familiarize yourself with the campus for the first three days, so you don’t have any classes. I’m off to class, feel free to explore.’
With that, Xilinka turned and left my room. Moments later, the sound of the main door closing echoed through the hall.
‘Did she specifically stay behind just to wake me?’ I wondered. ‘I have to admit, Xilinka truly is an incredibly thoughtful and adorable young woman.’
However, exploring the campus this morning was out of the question. While I had somewhat arranged the ‘keyboard’, the divine spells I could actually recall were quite limited. I couldn’t possibly be in the middle of a battle, suddenly forget a spell, then ask my opponent to wait while I looked up how to cast it.
Still, the memory of a deity was truly impressive. In less than an hour, I had memorized most of the commonly used divine spells. To say I had photographic memory was no exaggeration.
Seeing that it was still early, and being someone who habitually skipped breakfast, I chose to ignore the meal laid out on the table. I returned to my room and powered on my computer. ‘Indeed, gaming is my true romance,’ I thought.
‘It’s not that I’m just playing around or anything like that,’ I rationalized. After all, I had a fight this afternoon, and I was still quite nervous. Gaming could help me relax, and it was also part of my job, so why not indulge? Therefore, I wasn’t playing simply because I liked games.