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

"I went back in time to help you launch the public beta server ahead of schedule, so you could return to normal and complete your mission sooner. And you think all I got in return for this deal was empty promises? First, I went back in time and used the address you gave me to create items using my 'handcrafting' skill to generate electricity and help you arrive early. That's a waste of my time and energy, isn't it?"

"Secondly, after the emergence of the Divine Path server, the emergence of the Divine Path player system will require at least two or three years of development. In other words, it will take me two or three years to convert my points into wealth. So all the promises you made to me are empty promises. It's like we're doing business together. You provide the technology, and I provide the manpower. You don't have to put in a penny, but I still have to put in the effort. If we succeed, you win big; if we fail, you don't lose a penny."

"And don't forget, illegal coal mining is a serious crime. I'm taking a huge risk. If I'm discovered, I won't even have a place to live in the past. I'll have to go to an earlier timeline to make a living. Are you trying to destroy me, or are you trying to cooperate with me?"

"Since you're not being sincere, I think we should just forget about it..."

After saying that, Qin Shang stood up abruptly from his chair;

"Actually, I had already notified the Bad Commander Fang Mo before I came to the 08 timeline. Soon, the Bad Commander knew about your mission. Now that your purpose in coming to the real world from the Divine Path server has been exposed, it's a piece of cake for us to destroy you. It's nothing more than crossing the timeline to rewind, find your hiding place before you are activated, and destroy you with modern firearms. Just like now, this courtyard you conjured in 08, a single cannonball can still turn you into ruins, right?"

You're trying to scare me!

The next moment, a line of text popped up on the large screen in front of them.

[If your purpose is to destroy me, then you shouldn't have told me that Fang Mo, the Bad Guy Commander, was also involved in this. He's not a professional con artist, he doesn't have the ability to rewind timelines. And even if he wanted to come, after you told me this, I could have teleported him to another parallel universe, to a parallel universe that seems no different from your world in the 08 timeline.]

[You simply don't have the ability to contact Fang Mo, the future Bad Commander, from 24 years ago. Your statement just now was full of grammatical errors. There are no items in the Divine Path that can resonate with the past. In other words, the future Bad Commander cannot contact you in the present. That is to say, not a single word of our conversation will reach the ears of the future Bad Commander, Fang Mo. You, the esteemed beta tester licking cockroach jade feet, are deceiving me.]

Qin Shang narrowed his eyes.

You're trying to threaten me by flipping the table? Is that it? Trying to get me to increase my leverage in our cooperation!

Immediately, an emoticon appeared at the end of a line of text that appeared on the screen.

Well-behaved, jpj.

Sit down, we can discuss this again.

Qin Shang looked like a clown whose plan had been exposed and whose secrets had been revealed. His face gradually turned a little red. Then, he pursed his lips, gritted his teeth, puffed out his cheeks, took several deep breaths, and finally snorted coldly before plopping down in the chair again.

[I apologize, esteemed beta tester, the livid cockroach, but I truly cannot fulfill your request in the past timeline. Your power is granted to you by the rules of the Divine Path server, and I cannot forcibly bestow it upon you. That's the first point. Secondly, regarding your desire for wealth, while the Divine Path server can replicate currency circulating in the real world, I believe that using counterfeit currency will not achieve your wish of becoming wealthy. Therefore, this plan is indeed impossible for me. The Divine Path server can only influence a special group of people with the physique to become players; it cannot influence everyone globally. Furthermore, circulating currency requires the approval of everyone in the public consciousness, and I cannot change the public consciousness of your world…]

Qin Shang's face visibly turned ashen, as if he were somewhat angry. If anyone had seen him muttering to himself, they could have heard him mutter "trash."

"I want a core authority!"

"If I encounter any problems during the startup of the Divine Path server, then this is my guarantee. You, in the future, will act as an observer of the past, constantly recording what I encounter, and then using [Refresh] to teleport me back in the 08 timeline."

I've been here before, so refreshing the page will bring me back to the page.

This isn't difficult for the server; otherwise, it wouldn't be able to keep the NPCs in the dungeon having the same memories of a particular day day after day. In fact, for those NPCs, they are just living the same day, and the self they remember is still the same self they were before. Every time a player clears the dungeon, the NPCs are refreshed, and they lose the memories of that day. For them, that day is always brand new.

"Of course, if the server reopens and you go back on your word, I can use my authority to threaten and restrain you. After all, you are a supernatural being, and you have the ability to teleport me to a dungeon that can kill me at any time. If you harbor any malicious intentions and create a rule-based dungeon specifically for me to eliminate me, then I really won't be able to say a word..."

【Holding malicious intentions? That's an interesting phrase; it's as if I've become human.】

Stop being so sarcastic.

Qin Shang rolled his eyes;

"You can refuse, but this is my bottom line; I need guarantees!"

"Even without core authority, the Divine Path server can still operate normally. This is a fact I witnessed firsthand from the future. In other words, if I cannot complete my plan to awaken you and provide you with enough power to start the public beta server in the past, then you can refresh and recall me to start over. Of course, if I succeed and provide you with enough power to start the public beta server ahead of schedule in 05, then you will still be wary of me because I hold core authority and will not dare to casually teleport me into a dungeon that will definitely kill me."

"Of course, there's another point. If I fail and can't activate your public beta version, I'll be useless with a broken authority. In a world where the Divine Path server isn't properly running, holding the core authority is like holding a piece of scrap metal. In a timeline without the Divine Path server, Divine Path players are just ordinary people, and my superpowers still can't be used."

"You will also be afraid that I will lose my authority, so you will refresh and bring me back..."

So, if everything goes smoothly and you successfully launch my public beta version in 05, when will you return my core authority to me?

Upon hearing these words, Qin Shang sneered.

"After I'm a hundred years from now!"

"If I die, the core authority should naturally be returned to its rightful owner. Otherwise, if you still possess the core authority, you will still pose a threat to me. Isn't that the underlying logic of the Divine Path? As a server, you have too many ways to mess with me. So many that if I don't strip you of some of your authority to make you wary, I don't know how to do business with you."

"Because you hurt me too easily..."

If the will of the Divine Path server were a legitimate businessman, it might actually sense that everything Qin Shang said from the beginning until now was somewhat amiss. However, firstly, a sense of unease is a common expression used by humans when facing uncertain or unpredictable situations, or it could be described as a sixth-sense intuition. Programs do not possess this ability.

Instead, he would use existing data to deduce the mentality of human merchants.

Qin Shang's behavior is very much like that of a merchant in a transaction: first, he asks for an exorbitant price, then, when he doesn't get a satisfactory result, he makes irresponsible remarks, and finally decides to settle for second best.

However, for the server, this doesn't seem to be a difficult thing, except for making Qin Shang a millionaire in the world of 05.

...Although giving the core authority to the beta tester felt like losing a piece of flesh, especially since the core authority wouldn't be returned to him for another hundred years, from the server's perspective, it didn't seem like a big deal. This was because the server was a being that transcended time. In other words, once the server returned to normal, the time it took for Qin Shang to awaken the server in 05 and for humanity to complete its mission and be destroyed was just a blink of an eye in the server's view.

Perhaps during this process, the beta tester experienced a hundred years of life...

But its Divine Path server is something that can transcend time.

It will not age slowly along with Qin Shang as time goes by.

Something transcending the concept of time—if it returns to normal in 05, it means that its will and itself will appear in 25, 35, 45 years—any world node you can imagine. At that time, its will only needs to go to the time when human civilization went wrong—perhaps 2100, or perhaps 2150. Who knows? In any case, as long as it's not trapped in a specific starting and ending point in time and returns to normal, for the Divine Path server, a century in the human sense is just a moment…

I agree to this deal.

I believe you will keep your promise, esteemed beta tester fraudster, licking the cockroach's jade feet.

Seeing that the Divine Path server was so easy to talk to, Qin Shang couldn't help but be stunned. His heart tightened, and he thought to himself that he was probably asking for too little. With that thought, he made up his mind.

"I also thought of something. If I left my memories to you before the thermal power plant was started, would you be able to quickly go from the initial stage to the present day in 08, and at least know everything that happened from 05 to 24?"

Qin Shang's words were sincere and heartfelt, as if he were truly considering the well-being of the Shenlu server.

【really……】

[In that sense, handing over the core authority to you is a convenient operation, because you can't find the physical body of the Divine Path Server in the past timeline. The physical body of the Divine Path Server will move around this planet at a speed of 50 meters per second, changing its geographical location and coordinates. Even if I tell you the coordinates of the Divine Path Server in advance, you won't be able to find it at all, unless you get stuck at the special point in 24 years. But once the closed beta server opens, you can use the abilities of a Divine Path player in the real world again. When you carry the character card with you, you only need to pour electricity into the character card. The massive amount of electricity will be able to drive the core authority to work, allowing me to receive a massive amount of electricity, and naturally open the public beta server...]

Your request for core authority is actually a very good suggestion. This way, both of us will have protection, laying the foundation for our win-win cooperation!

And so the plan... took shape.

The Divine Path Server is like an innocent child. After all, the methods Qin Shang proposed to restrain him are indeed reasonable. If the Divine Path Server wanted Qin Shang back, it would be a matter of minutes. With a simple refresh, Qin Shang would have to roll back to the 08 timeline along with the core authority. As for him taking the core authority to other timelines that the Divine Path Server hasn't opened, the Divine Path Server didn't consider this at all. After all, if he entered other timelines without the Divine Path Server, Qin Shang would indeed be out of its control, and even a refresh wouldn't bring him back. But what would Qin Shang gain from that?

In those timelines without the Divine Path server, he would also lose his identity as a Divine Path player. He would have no superpowers, be unfamiliar with the environment of that timeline, and have no profit to make. Apart from exchanging points for RMB, which would allow Qin Shang to easily become rich in the past, even if he possessed some biographies of famous people whose wealth accumulation speed in the past ten years was comparable to printing money, Qin Shang would probably have to put in a lot of effort to go back in time and try to possess these famous people's experiences. Moreover, whether he could actually succeed in the end was another matter entirely.