The maid squad is too strong, what use is there for me, the Demon King?

Gray's hypothesis was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, instantly creating huge ripples in the conference room.

"If I actively seek death,"

Gray's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears, carrying a calm that was almost cruelly rational: "Do you think there's any possibility that the Holy Light Goddess, who maintains the cycle between humans and demons and seems unwilling to see the demon race completely wiped out, will have to intervene and pull me back from the brink of death?"

In the process, in order to 'deal with' me, the root of the trouble, or for 'punishment,' He might... inadvertently pull those involved, such as Philippa who 'killed' me, and myself, back into the [Heavenly Realm]?

"This...!" Taric gasped, his eyes wide with shock. To deliberately seek death to lure the gods? This idea was too insane, far beyond the comprehension of a warrior like himself.

Sophia's expression changed as well. She opened her mouth to retort, but seeing Gray's serious expression, she swallowed her words back, her brows furrowing even more tightly.

Phoenix stopped stroking his beard, his aged eyes gleaming as he rapidly considered the feasibility of the plan and the enormous risks involved.

Just as everyone was utterly shocked by this audacious, almost absurd, idea, Gray suddenly changed the subject, his tone becoming calm and meticulous:

"Of course, I don't really mean to die."

He explained that breaking the suffocating atmosphere was crucial. "The feeling of suicide is too deliberate and the purpose is too obvious. It is very likely that the omnipresent 'listening' in the sky will detect the abnormality, thus failing to achieve the desired effect, or even leading to more unpredictable consequences."

He looked around at everyone, finally fixing his gaze on Philippa, his eyes filled with questioning, but also with an indescribable trust.

“So, I need to put on a show,” Gray said slowly. “A show that’s realistic enough to fool His eyes and make Him think that my ‘death’ is reasonable, an ‘accident’ or ‘inevitable’ in the trajectory of fate.”

His gaze was fixed on Philippa, whose eyes were slightly wide open.

"And the helper I need..."

Philippa felt his gaze, and instinctively sat up straight, her heart pounding uncontrollably.

She met Gray's gaze and saw determination and entrustment in his deep eyes. Almost without hesitation, she spoke immediately, her voice tinged with nervousness yet exceptionally firm:

"What do you need me to do?"

Seeing her quickly get into the zone, a hint of approval flashed in Gray's eyes. He nodded slightly and began to explain his idea in detail:

“Let’s work together to come up with a plausible script,” he said. “And then we’ll act according to that script. The core requirement for the script is only one thing: it must be highly plausible.”

It should look as if some irreconcilable conflict, some kind of fateful impetus, or... some tragic outburst of emotion ultimately led you to stab me in a state of 'unavoidable' or 'emotional breakdown,' and I was thus brought to the brink of death."

He described the final scene in a calm tone, as if he were discussing someone else's story.

"We need to embed this 'plot' into the right scenes and situations to make everything seem natural. Then, it's just a matter of waiting."

"To test whether the Goddess of Light will intervene when she believes the cycle is about to collapse due to my death."

Gray paused, then outlined the worst-case scenario, demonstrating the flexibility of his plan:

“If He doesn’t react to our ‘performance’ and lets me ‘die’... then we can only consider ourselves unlucky, immediately stop the plan, and I will recover on my own and then find another way to ascend to the ‘heaven’.”

He handed over the final decision-making power and the most crucial execution aspect of the plan to Philippa.

This requires not only her acting skills, but also her to overcome enormous inner obstacles and personally (even if it's just acting) hurt the people she cares about.

The meeting room fell silent again. Everyone realized that what Gray had proposed was not just a plan, but a huge gamble. It was a gamble on the Holy Goddess's obsession with the "cycle rules," on their ability to perform, and on that elusive glimmer of a "miracle."

After Gray proposed the audacious plan of "acting to induce the Goddess of Light to intervene," the primary challenge became designing a plausible "script."

The initial concept was a more traditional and action-packed battle scenario: the hero team (Philippa, Sophia, and Taric), along with the experienced Lord Phoenix, went through a series of hardships and dangers, and finally, in a tragic final battle, they successfully defeated and "killed" the Demon King Gray through courage, wisdom, and sacrifice.

However, this plan quickly revealed fatal flaws during simulations.

First, there's the issue of personnel. To prevent the plan from being leaked and to avoid involving too many uncontrollable factors, only the hero team and Phoenix, who know the inside story and are "opposed" to the Demon King, can participate in the "killing" operation.

Although the ten Shadow Attendants under Gray's command are all powerful, their loyalty to Gray is beyond question. It is highly unlikely that they would "betray" him and help the hero kill their lord. It would be almost impossible to deceive the Holy Light Goddess who may be listening in.

However, the bigger problem is that the gap in strength is too large to be logically consistent.

Even in subsequent "rehearsals" and simulations, everyone helplessly discovered that even if Gray held back and released so much water, the three members of the Hero Squad (even with Phoenix and the Ten Shadow Attendants) could not possibly defeat him; to be precise, they would be completely outmatched.

Gray's strength level has far exceeded that of a regular tenth-tier angel; he is capable of crushing angels of the same level and forcibly resisting attribute advantages.

To stage a "bitter battle and narrow victory" performance, Gray would need to go beyond simply "letting the opponent win"; he would need to weaken himself to the point of "self-imposed limitations."

Doing so carries extremely high risks.

With such a clear difference in strength, the Goddess of Holy Light could not help but be suspicious if she paid even a little attention—how could a demon king who could easily defeat a tenth-level angel suddenly become so difficult to defeat, and even be "killed" by the hero's team?

The deliberate attempt was too obvious and could very well lead to the plan being exposed.

Therefore, the script for that intense battle that required fierce confrontation and ultimately ended in "dying from exhaustion" was reluctantly abandoned.

After repeated discussions and deliberations, everyone's attention finally focused on the complex and delicate relationship between Gray and Philippa.

A script based on emotional conflict and tragic choices is gradually taking shape:

The story revolves around a seemingly friendly "date" between the Demon King Gray and the Hero Philippa. During the date, the atmosphere is harmonious, and even some genuine feelings are revealed. However, in the end, driven by some inner struggle (stemming from the responsibility of being a hero, the worry for the future of her people, and perhaps a hint of "despair" that she has been guided to), Philippa chooses to betray Gray and launches a fatal backstab at the unsuspecting Gray.

Finally, they played the emotional card, getting Gray to "voluntarily die"...