THE CURSED GAMER

Chapter 422: Divine Progression (2)

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The two Gods vanished, leaving Neji alone with his followers. He stood in this living room, taking in the serene and minimalist atmosphere with a calculating mind. 

"Oh right, where is Aika Kiryuu?" Neji turned to look at Raynare."

"She is practicing magic in her room. Her concentration and desire for magic are great, she is like an obsessed maniac already. So I didn't disturb her…"

"That's good." Neji nodded, and then the wood floor creaked as he tapped his feet in contemplation, the sound echoed by the bare walls that surrounded him. 

The noon's sunlight filtered through the windows, and despite their beauty, the thin glasses allowed a glimpse of the world outside. 

"Hmm," Looking up, he saw the traditional artwork that graced the walls, appreciating the intricate details and vibrant shades that the artist had applied. The simplicity and beauty would fill anyone with tranquility, and even Neji was charmed. "I'll keep it."

"Huh?" The girls had been looking up at him in silence until then, as Asia blurted out in confusion hearing him.

"Heaven. We need a castle for our heaven, I suppose I should keep the Japanese theme a bit. I'll just make everything bigger." Neji explained to her, and then the tip of his toes rose and descended. 

⟨Creation Divinity: The Heavenly Realm⟩

"Welcome to paradise, girls."

His feet touched the ground, and in a ripple of divinity, the entire place was turned into much more. The divine spell transformed the humble living room into a glorious sanctuary. The stale air was now filled with the fragrance of blooming flowers, the dull wooden walls became vibrant and lush, and the old furniture and utensils became new and sparkling. 

The outside world wasn't visible anymore, the windows only showed a luminous glow, a light divine. It was as if the hand of the gods had suddenly touched down in the mortal world, breathing life and beauty into it. As the outside world became a blur, the girls took in the new surroundings in awe, marveling at the beauty of the place and feeling a sense of peace and tranquility.

"T-this is…" Xenovia got up and ran to the window, looking outside. From close, she could see the outside better. There was a yard that stretched for kilometers, and after that there was just whiteness. Mist.

Around the area where the mansion was located in Japan, there was now a thick mist surrounding the place for dozens of kilometers in diameter. This was now a realm hidden from the average population, and even the supernatural would get lost in the mist.

This was half of a different dimension, yet still connected to Earth via the mist, it had surroundings all different than before.

"Follow me outside," Neji told the girls as he walked out. He stepped out of the gate and into the backyard. It was huge now.

It stretched for kilometers, with walls as tall as the Eiffel Tower in the far. It was a lush mixture of garden surroundings, small pools, and trees that cast a shadow. There was a throne in the middle of the place, with smaller chairs beside it, two on each side.

"Sit down," Neji slumped on the throne and ordered the girls. The girls exchanged glances, wondering what he was going to show them, as they took the seat.

"What about my seat?" Sisty asked with a raised eyebrow, but when Neji didn't bother to answer, she just shrugged. She already knew why she hadn't received a seat.

Neji waved his hand forward. The terrain took an immense change. While the entire yard was a garden before, half of it changed, the half in front of Neji's throne. The garden was burned down, the ground ashen and bare, as the sky on that half went dark with crackles of lighting. The world was bipolar.

'How versatile,' Neji noted. He was still in the testing stage for this Divinity, yet it was so useful. 'I'm really looking forward to the 100% threshold.'

The air until the throne was gentle, the atmosphere calm. But a centimeter ahead, the air was hot, rigid with ash, and lightning struck random spots. 

"Is that… Hell?"

"Yes."

Raynare asked and Neji answered. Neji looked at Sisty. Their eyes met and she nodded, and her eyes entered a calculating mode.

"Hijacking The Internet; connecting a live stream to all the sites possible."

"3,869,578 websites have been hijacked. Live Streaming is possible."

"Starting Live Stream through my eyes."

Sisty said, and her Jogan activated to work like the camera every director wishes they had. A small interface appeared on Neji's left side floating near his left hand that showed the live stream too, along with comments from all sites combined.

The comments were naturally confusing, as it was a cluster of different kinds of sites that shouldn't have a weird video where a man was sitting on a throne half-naked with beautiful girls sitting around him.

YouTube, Twitter, Pornhub, Dark Web, this was being sent to everywhere.

"Master, some people are trying to track us. Do I kill them? I can make their devices explode in their faces." Sisty said.

"No. Just make sure nobody can track us."

Sisty nodded in response as a short silence passed. Neji observed the many confused comments inquiring about what was going on. A moment later, his lips curled up, and he waved his hand forward. 

This time his divinity wasn't the one to work, but his Gate of Babylon instead. A thousand and more golden portals formed in the air of the Hell region as people began to fall to their faces from meters on top. They were devils. Only a few didn't land from the sky but gently appeared on the ground; it was Rias' group and Ingvild.

Neji took a look at the comments.

[--??? What?]

[--This is some kind of movie trailer?]

[--Um, the link said there are milfs in my area though?]

[--Hey, doesn't he kinda look like Gil?]

[--Yooo, that's crazy. Are they making a Fate live-action?]

"Fools." Neji scoffed and focused on the devils again. 

All of them were unconscious, but they'll soon be awake. Before that though, he waved his hand again and a long stone wall rose from the ground behind them in a straight line. There were wooden chains on the wall, and wooden cuffs for hand and ankle, just enough for everyone present.

They were chains made of Wood Release that was booked by Divinity; so its ability to suppress Tailed Beast chakra now expanded to the mana of devils. 

Neji waved his hand one last time, all the commands being done by his willpower, as all the devils who lay on the ground rose up and were struck against the cuffs, their hands and legs spread to form an X.

They were his war prisoners, and he had a show prepared for them. The devils cried, the heat unbearable for them, as lightning struck some – though it didn’t kill them – and their feet were grazed by the molten ground sometimes leaking. It was painful for them, it was hell.

"Everyone," Neji announced, interlocking his hands and leaning back into the throne. "I am not Gilgamesh, as some of you have noted. I am much more than that. You will soon know what, it's more believable if I show you than tell."

'Sisty, the stream shows what your eyes see with [Observe] too, right?' Neji asked in his head.

[Yes, master.]

'Good.' Neji smiled.

"Take a look at the people who are tied," Neji snapped his finger, startling everyone awake as they shook out of their trance. "Look at the text hovering over their heads. It has their names, their race, and their tier. The tier segment isn't important. Their race is. Those are devils. Devils are real."

The comments didn't agree, the text looked like a Game after all, but he didn't expect them to agree right away, anyway. 

Neji ignored the negative comments and continued his speech. "Now, I know this is surprising to some of you, but I want you to realize CGI can't be this realistic while in a live stream. To prove that this is indeed a live stream and the realism isn't fake, I'll do a little display."

Neji raised two fingers and pointed ahead as if it was a gun. "There are 8730 devils here. There is a poll that'll pop up on your screen, and you can choose one number. The one who'll have the highest vote, I'll kill them. Choose any."

Sisty moved according to his words and shot a pole through every viewer's screen. The air shifted as a serial number appeared over the devils, from the one in the most left to the one in the end at the right who were all tied serially against a wall.

"Millions of people were in the stream, so I won't give much time for the vote. Let's do a countdown of ten seconds." Neji spoke while the devils were screaming at him. His voice was booming loudly so they could listen to him from the first to the last devil.

"Time's up," Neji's finger moved to lock at one certain devil. He had the number #69 floating over his head. The Internet was goofy even in this situation, but they'd soon realize the seriousness of the situation. The devil in that number was particularly ugly, fat, and bald. He looked like one of those ugly bastards, so Neji understood why he had the highest votes. "Bang."

A luminous concentration of light shot out of his finger. [Light Bullet] was a simple technique of his Lumomancer class, that shot forward at the speed of light and into the skull of the devil.

[Ding! You have killed a Tier 13 Devil!]

[Experience points earned.]

It wasn't enough for him to level up, sadly. Neji put his finger down, while Sisty did a zoom-in of the devil's corpse. Crimson red blood trickled down his forehead, and for a second the activity in the comments slowed down.

The girls beside Neji gasped, namely just Asia and Irina, while the devils had fallen silent too after a scream earlier.

"Everyone," Neji looked at the devils with a glint in his eyes. "Take your wings and horns out. I know you guys rarely show your horns since it's not useful, but please don't make me repeat myself."

There was a slight hesitation until one of the devils unfurled his wings; two bat-like leather wings spread from behind his back, and then horns grew out of his head. He was the first, and others soon like a domino effect.

A minute later, every devil had their horns and wings out except for only one person. It was a girl trembling with teary eyes.

"U-um," Ingvild Leviathan said, hoping he could hear. "I don't know… how to call my wings and horns…"

Neji's eyelids flinched. A pang of guilt ran through his veins hearing her scared voice, her fearful tone as she looked at him with a plea. She must have been so confused, having sat beside him just moments earlier, and then tied like this after she woke up. 

Neji felt her emotions. She was familiar with this, where she went to sleep, and when she woke up everything had gone down the gutter. Neji felt… bad.

However, he couldn't break the role he was immersed in right now.

"Then I propose an opportunity for you, dear Ingvild," Neji said, he raised a finger at her, and Ingvild squeezed her eyes shut. "I am not going to hurt you, open your eyes."

His finger shot four beams of light that hit the shackles and freed her. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking, and looking around in confusion.

"This whole ordeal isn't just to prove that devils exist and that they should be stoned to death," Neji said. "It's to give them an opportunity to redeem themselves, too. I'm allowing that opportunity to you, first of all, because I like you. I am proposing a racial change."

"Huh?" Ingvild gulped, looking at him with her hands wrapped around herself. "I don't understand…"

"It's simple really, simpler for you," Neji said. "You are a devil right now – half a one but still one – and I'm giving you a chance to change that. There are different types of devils in different myths, and I'm going to transform into one the 'devil race' from the Islamic mythology. In Islam, I recall, the Devil isn't a race. Djinns is the race, and within the ranks of Djinns, there are a lot of evil people who are called Devils. So I am here, proposing to you a chance to change your race from a Devil to Djinn."

He added, "You will lose your wings and horns, but retain other abilities. You'll also fall under a 'Contract' that will force you to not commit evil. Though it's a bit laxer than the Biblical rules; like you can drink wine, you can have sex before marriage if there is consent. So it's not bad."

"Oh…"

"So, Ingvild." Neji looked at her, and a massive luminous scroll opened in the sky. It had the conditions he had just spoken of but in detail. "Would you like to change your race from Devil to Djinn?"

The Contract wasn't a part of Biblical God's Divinity. It was a Divinity he gained after leveling up so many times.

===

Ability: Divinity

Name: Contract

Description: It is a divine power that forms a binding agreement between its user and a target. Those who accept the contract must abide by its terms and conditions, or else face the wrath of reality itself. The nature of the punishment depends on the terms of the agreement, but it could be anything from a minor inconvenience to total annihilation. The power of Contract is limited only by the user's imagination and creativity, as it relies on the manipulation of reality to enforce the terms of the agreement. With great power comes great responsibility, and those who use Contract must be mindful of the consequences that could arise from their actions.

===

Seeing her hesitate, he added, "Remember, you'll be fine if you agree to this."

That line wasn't said as a threat, Neji made sure she understood that. In general, that meant the person who’d agree to the Contract would be selling their belief and devotion to him, they would become his followers. But for her in particular, Neji hoped she understood he meant it in a different manner.

Ingvild was new to this side of the world, but she wasn't dumb. If he killed a man just because of a simple vote but spared her, she knew he at least pretended to care about her. She wanted to trust him given their interactions before.

"I…" Ingvild gulped. "I accept."

A luminous lightshow happened in the sky, the contract scroll glowed like the bright sun. An artistic signature spelling Ingvild's name appeared on one corner, and then the contract vanished in thin air.

A change appeared in Ingvild.

[Ingvild Leviathan – Djinn – High Tier 23]

The Devil became a Djinn, as the comment section broke out in positive activities for once. People got curious, and Neji felt a tinge of increase in his Progress.

It'll increase more. It was just noon, and there were almost a thousand devils left. All of them must go through God’s Judgment.

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