Instance game: I signed a pact with the gods, and the gods accused me of cheating

“Aba, Ababa…”

The infant ghost's painful wails rang out from behind Qin Shang. Qin Shang, the father, sighed. Although the battle was taking place within the [Black Tower], which was practically Qin Shang's domain, the negative consequences of using various divine path items couldn't be avoided simply because he was the master of the [Black Tower]. Each item had its own characteristics, unrelated to the usage scenario. It's like smoking in a public place where it's prohibited; if you insist on smoking, you might be fined. Open spaces or private places may not prohibit smoking, but the harm to your health is the same regardless of where you smoke…

Smoking in permitted areas does not reduce the impact on one's cardiopulmonary function, nor does smoking in non-smoking areas increase the impact. It simply means that secondhand smoke affects not only the smoker but also the health of others.

The question that the persuasive professional Lu Ban was most surprised by was how Qin Shang was able to use all sorts of divine path items one after another without paying any price. The reason for this was the pair of embroidered shoes Qin Shang was wearing...

Yes, from the start of the battle until now, Qin Shang has almost always used [Transfer] to transfer the negative status to the little ghost baby or Shen Xiuxiu. The latter is fine, she knows that if she can't win this battle, she will have to go to the Yellow Springs with Zekai in her eyes, so the infatuated singer did not raise any objections. But the little ghost baby is different. His age is what it is. What does a child's resentment-built vengeful infant know?

All he knew was that at this age when his shoulders were at their most vulnerable and he felt as if a gust of wind could blow him away, he was bearing a burden far heavier than his age should be.

"It's okay, this battle will be over soon. I'll buy you the latest game console and let you watch the latest movies. No, oh no, I'll use my points to exchange for RMB to buy you the latest TV, the super big screen kind, so you can binge-watch your favorite shows to your heart's content!"

Upon hearing this, the little ghost baby immediately stopped crying. Although the features on its little face were still contorted in pain, it was likely still suffering from the various negative effects and the cost of the props. However, with this pie in front of it, it managed to divert some of its attention and temporarily forget the pain caused by these negative consequences. What does a little baby know about drawing a pie? Its thinking is so simple that it can't even process too much complex information. When it can only think about one thing, the pie drawn by its irresponsible father makes it happier than the pain in front of it. As a human instinct, even a baby, when its brain can only focus on one thing, will naturally choose the thing that makes it happier and won't think about the thing that will make it painful and sad.

And so, the crying gradually subsided in an instant.

The next moment, a loud crash was heard from the other side.

Qin Shang had just used his [Position Swap] again, and the timing was so perfect that even he couldn't help but slap his thigh in admiration. The assassin player, still charging with power, directly confronted his own teammate, the swordsman player. Qin Shang and the enraged swordsman player had been almost touching, and the instant the assassin left the Ghost Coffin, Qin Shang activated his position swap. The person now facing the swordsman at such close range was naturally the assassin player who had just escaped from the Ghost Coffin during [Night Walk]!

Rumble!

The clash between two players at the Divine Path Realm, both possessing terrifying output, and both unleashing their ultimate abilities, created an exceptionally powerful and impactful force. Even Qin Shang, a non-combatant, sensed a terrifyingly vast wave of energy spreading outwards.

dusty.

Qin Shang glanced sideways at the professional player who had used a divine item to fake his death and escape not far away; "Tell me, which of the two of them will die?"

Upon hearing this, the young Lu Ban glared fiercely at Qin Shang with a livid expression.

"Seriously, are you avoiding me so much because you're afraid I'll feed you shit?"

The other person's face darkened again.

The core abilities of a professional talker are almost entirely concentrated in his mouth. And usually, people who rely on their words to deal damage fit the Chinese proverb, "A dog that bites doesn't bark; the ones that bark are dogs that don't dare to bite." By the same token, he indeed didn't have the ability to bite Qin Shang.

Just then, something in Qin Shang's inventory flickered with light.

He raised an eyebrow, and before he could speak, he noticed a 'computer' in front of a man with big waves of hair not far behind Little Luban. The computer had a big butt and looked like a computer from the 90s.

Upon seeing this, Qin Shang was greatly shocked.

"Damn it, I forgot there were seven enemies..."

He quickly checked the depths of his inventory, only to find that the core authority 'Computer' was still there, lying quietly in the inventory slot, but its color had dimmed. Generally, if an item's icon was still in Qin Shang's inventory, it meant that the item still belonged to Qin Shang, while the dimming color, changing from color to black, white, and gray, meant that the item had been removed from the player's inventory...

Qin Shang was completely baffled.

So, what is this thing doing?

Could you please retrieve the props that I can no longer use myself?

He wasn't worried about the 'computer' being taken away. If it were that easy, Mother Goddess Qin Yuyan wouldn't have bothered with all the trouble she went through to mess with him...

"【Pledge!】, a player of the broker profession forcibly takes the items they want from the other party's inventory. The ownership still belongs to you, but you can't use them now. That's enough. You just used those skills that come with the core authority of the second region, right? Now I've taken the core authority that you hid deep in your inventory. I'd like to see what else you can do!"

The next moment, the professional gamer who was acting as a lobbyist sneered, patted the shoulder of the long-haired man behind him, and when he heard his explanation, Qin Shang suddenly understood, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.

I told you, if you can really take this thing away, I'll be impressed. It's not just a single core authority, it's almost the complete core authority of the second region. Do you think you can just take it away like that?

Oh, right? Players with the "broker" profession are basically middlemen, aren't they?

...So this is like a middleman taking a liking to my property, but because another client wants to make a deal, they take my property out first. However, I still retain ownership of the item, so I can't use it while it's in the middleman's hands. This is similar to wanting to rent out my house, so I hand over the keys to an agent. The agent can take clients to see the house, but whether the deal will be closed depends on the client and me negotiating the price.

However, his skill seems more like a slightly illegal operation, which is to take a house that the landlord clearly didn't intend to rent out and put up a "Shop for Rent" sign as if it were a prime location...

Ha ha!

Laugh to death.

A core authority that even the Mother Goddess couldn't forcibly reclaim could only be manipulated by me to make me willingly hand it over. And this core authority that I couldn't take away could be taken out by a single skill from a professional player.

To put it bluntly, even now, even Qin Shang, who has absorbed the experience points from the now-dead professional hacker who just died in that dungeon and jumped to the Rule Realm, doesn't have the ability to easily take this item out of his inventory, let alone use it.

Then Qin Shang glanced at the long-haired man and Little Luban with a playful look.

Then I immediately understood the drawbacks of this skill...

While inwardly marveling at the wonder of the Divine Path, which could give birth to so many diverse special abilities, he couldn't help but sneer to himself, wondering if the long-haired man was now incapable of moving.

This must be the side effect of activating [staking], right?

Otherwise, they could just reach into my inventory and take something without paying any price...

Ah!

That's pretty damn bad.

"He can't move, but I can. And I happen to have a hacker's tool called 'Intrusion Key'. By activating the [Intrusion] skill, I can forcibly acquire your identity as the owner of this tool, which means I can use you as my tool!"

"How about that? Didn't expect that, did you?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Shang looked at him with the same gaze one would give an idiot, his lips trembling as he tried to suppress his laughter, but he managed to hold it back.

Then, he watched as the professional lobbyist player suddenly produced something. It was hard to see clearly from dozens of meters away, but the moment the player placed the item on the computer, a terrifying gust of wind swept through. Then, under Qin Shang's smiling gaze, a dark shadow began to condense behind the professional lobbyist player.

Today's weather can be described as a clear blue sky, or more poetically, the sun is gentle and the breeze is just right. So when the Black Tower barrier enveloped this area, forming this small world within the source of pollution, it perfectly replicated everything in reality. The sun hung high overhead, and its rays shone through the dense branches of the trees onto everyone in the area, casting their shadows on the ground, highlighting the fact that the Divine Path had to be almost identical to reality.

and so……

They also have shadows!

Qin Shang couldn't help but want to mourn for him.

Whoosh!

The next moment, the shadow solidified completely.

Qin Shang didn't look over there anymore, since the fate of those two people was probably already sealed. Instead, he turned his bloodshot eyes and focused his gaze in another direction. The aftershocks were destroying several large trees in the raging storm, and then a figure appeared. To Qin Shang's slight surprise, it was the man covered in armor who had gained the upper hand and managed to escape alive from the storm.

"The core authority of the First Region..."

His gaze fell upon the silver-white armor.

He raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

Previously, Qin Shang wasn't sure, but now, seeing how a fragile assassin player managed to survive a head-on clash with a swordsman player from the overseas version, whose offense and defense were both maxed out, he gained a much deeper understanding of that item. If it weren't for the core authority of the first region, he would have chopped off his head and given it to the little ghost baby to play with.

Thinking of this, a wildly imaginative hypothesis suddenly popped into Qin Shang's mind.

"So, when you put it that way, the core power of the First Region, when pieced together, seems to be more like..."

"Oh no, a set of equipment worn by ancient soldiers during marches and battles?"

"There was armor, a cloak, a belt, and a feng shui wheel. The ancients were superstitious, especially in the turbulent times of war when the future was uncertain. It was reasonable for them to carry a feng shui wheel. After all, no one knew what the future or tomorrow would bring. What supported each of them was not only their dissatisfaction with their own insignificance, but also the shackles of various feudal superstitions and mystical elements."

"However, that professional hacker's watch..."

The next moment, Qin Shang frowned, then smiled with relief.

"That's ordinary authority, not core authority!"

"There is no evidence to suggest that ordinary authority is a complete set that can be assembled like a 'computer', just like the core authority."

If you explain it this way, everything makes sense.

The styles of the core authorities of the first and second regions are just pieced together, so why are they so different?

The core authority of their number one region, when pieced together, forms a complete suit of armor.

The core authority of the second region, when pieced together, turned out to be a product of modern industrialization. Although the old-fashioned CRT computer could still be considered obsolete decades ago in 2024, it had a monitor, running programs, and required electricity to start and function, making it a product of the energy-driven or electrified era.

However, the core authority of the First Region was merely a set of ancient military armor, a complete set of armor...

This clearly still belongs to the era of cold weapons!

If we're talking about commonalities, are they all man-made?

Armor is man-made... so are computers.

So that's what they have in common?

"You idiot swordsman..."

Just then, the dust settled completely on the battlefield. The assassin player's cold gaze swept over Qin Shang like a sharp sword. Where he had been standing, a swordsman player lay on the ground, covered in blood, barely breathing and seemingly about to die...

"Actually, I originally thought that the last one to come out would be a professional hacker!"

"After all, you're an assassin, lacking the ability to analyze data and coordinate the combat strength of both sides. Dealing with a troublesome guy like me requires extreme caution. However, with a data analysis master hacker by your side, none of this becomes a problem. After experiencing [Night Walk] and witnessing me reveal my trump cards and chips, it's highly likely that his data analysis and sources will be more accurate. For example, who was the previous controller of this 'Ghost Coffin'? How did I obtain this item? Using this information, he can analyze other trump cards I might still have, and then make full use of other characters in terms of troop deployment to completely take me down!"

"But it's obvious..."

"You don't want to sacrifice yourself for the sake of maximizing the team's interests!"

"You're quite selfish, aren't you? What if your selfish actions today lead to the complete annihilation of your entire team? After all, one more assassin might not necessarily kill me, but one more hacker, after thoroughly understanding all my secrets, could very well use data analysis to save me. In other words... for you, it doesn't matter if everyone dies. You never consider the team's situation; you only care about whether you can survive in the present moment, right?"

Murder and kill!