Dina wanted to start an award ceremony, but before she could congratulate Finn, he fainted on the spot.
He was then quickly teleported back to the waiting room, where, even though his body recovered, his mind was so tired that he fell asleep on a chair.
"It looks like the player Chained Trickster is too tired to hold an award ceremony, so we will instead do a ceremony for the second place!"
WhiteTiger, who was preparing to log out because of his loss, was suddenly forcefully teleported back into the arena.
The audience was disappointed to see WhiteTiger instead of Finn, but they still clapped since his transformation was really cool.
"Now! Sir White Tiger, congratulations on your seco-"
"No thanks. Send the reward into my inventory. Bye."
Before Dina could congratulate him, WhiteTiger had logged off, leaving the arena empty with a stunned Dina flying in the air and some gasps from the audience.
"…Well then, the tournament is now over, and, in an hour, Second Life will be playable again!"
She quickly recovered and smiled while shouting, but the audience could see her eyebrows twitching from being so blatantly ignored.
The audience then quickly logged off, but seeing Finn's skills made them want to play the game even more, so they couldn't wait to log back in and do their best to uncover the secrets of Second Life.
---
'F…'
'…in…'
'…inn!'
'Finn, wake up!'
"Huh?!"
Finn quickly jumped up after hearing Loki's shouts in his head, and to his surprise, he was no longer in the waiting room.
He was now in the same dreamlike room where he had met Themis.
Under him was a water surface that was lightly rippling from where he was sitting, and above his head was a cloudless blue sky.
There was also a round table made out of white and gold stone in front of him. The stone it was made of looked like marble, but it didn't have the usual black veins that marble has.
Around it were six chairs, but only three of them were taken.
An old man with gray hair and a long gray beard sat on one of those chairs.
He was wearing a golden robe over one of his shoulders, which made his torso partially visible.
Even though he looked at least one hundred years old, looking at his wrinkled face. His body was packed with muscles and vitality.
He also had a golden ring on his index finger with the picture of an hourglass on it, and he kept spinning it with his thumb.
On his right was a man with entirely black clothes. Shoes, pants, shirt, coat, and even the hood that he covered his face with were black.
The hood he was wearing didn't hide his face entirely, so Finn could see a black goatee and an expressionless face underneath it.
But he didn't want to look more than he should, lest he be punished for being disrespectful, so he quickly looked down.
The last person sitting at the table was a woman with a black dress that sparkled like diamonds.
Finn thought that the dress must have been covered with some kind of gem dust to sparkle like that.
Her hair looked like the starry sky. It was mainly black, but it also had white and red dots that Finn could swear he saw moving around.
The woman's face was breathtaking, and if she were to smile, it would make everyone do what she would order them to do.
The only thing that bothered Finn were her reversed eyes. Her scleras, which should normally be white, were fully black, and her irises and pupils were both white.
'Who are these people?'
'Not people, gods. Three of the Heavenly Five gods to be exact.'
Loki answered Finn's question, but before Finn could even register the crazy information he had just heard, the female god opened her mouth.
"Sit."
A melodious voice like the birds chirping on a spring morning came out of her mouth.
Finn quickly ran to the table and took one of the seats that wasn't taken as he nervously looked at the three gods in front of him.
The old man with a golden robe was smiling while the other two were expressionlessly staring at Finn.
They kept staring at him as if expecting him to speak, but Finn didn't know why he was there or what he was supposed to say, so he just scratched the back of his head and smiled at the three gods in front of him.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Finn."
"Mmm, Asteria."
The black-haired goddess opened her mouth, and Finn guessed that she was telling him her name.
'Hah! She likes you!'
Suddenly he heard Loki's voice.
'Likes me? It's the first time I am seeing her...'
'Yes, but she is known to be a goddess of few words and prefers to nod or shake her head instead of answering. It is rare to hear her speak, and she had already said two words, so she must like you.'
"My name is Anubis, also known as the God of Death. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
An old voice from the god wearing black clothes interrupted Finn as he tried to ask about Asteria's identity.
This voice sounded so deep that Finn couldn't even believe someone's voice could reach such a low pitch.
"And I am the God of Time, Chronos, but you can call me grandpa if you want!"
The old man with the golden robe was the last to introduce himself, and even though his personality seemed playful, Finn was shellshocked to hear which elements those gods commanded.
'No wonder they are called the Heavenly Five. Time and death… I can only wonder what kind of goddess Asteria is.'
'The Goddess of Stars.'
Loki didn't leave him curious, and he quickly answered.
Finn was finally starting to see the reason he was called, but he remained silent and waited for the gods to speak.
Asteria and Anubis looked like they didn't want to speak, so the energetic Chronos decided to explain everything.
He first explained to Finn the true meaning of Second Life and the Champions' game.
Chronos also explained that the gods the humans know are actually all real, and all of them command their own element or universal law.
This was something Finn had already known, but he still acted surprised to not raise suspicion.
"…and the reason you are here is because we have watched you compete in the tournament, and the mysterious reward is being the first to become a god's champion. You have caught the attention of many gods that wanted to make you their champion immediately, but we had set a rule that forced the gods to wait until the end of the tournament."
He smiled at Finn and started stroking his gray beard.
"Now that the tournament is over, you can choose one of the gods sitting around this table because choosing us will be much more beneficial to you than choosing other gods. We are a part of the five most powerful gods, and you should feel honored that you caught the attention of the three of us."
Finn immediately realized that they used their power to force the other gods to wait while they met up with him to convince him into picking one of them.
"Of course, we won't force you to choose from the three of us. Because of your potential and tenacity to strive for victory, you have caught the eye of many gods, so if you have someone in mind, you can say so, and that god will immediately make you their champion."
His smile slowly withdrew after saying that.
"I don't recommend it though... Why pick one of those weaklings when you can have one of us as your god?"
Finn quickly realized that Chronos was hiding behind a façade, and his kind old man image was just an act.
He told him that he wasn't forced to choose them, but from the looks of it, they would not be happy if he were to choose one of the weaker gods.
"Umm… Can I actually pick any god I want?"
Finn hesitantly asked, and all three gods nodded their heads.
"Of course! ...Well, other than the two that are also part of the Heavenly Five and some minor gods that aren't interested in you, those are an extreme minority, though!"
Chronos's smile quickly returned when he heard that Finn had already picked a god.
"Then there is one god I would like to choose."
Loki wanted to scold Finn for wanting to cheat on him, but after reading his thoughts, he decided to sit back and watch the show.
"That is great to hear, so who will it be?"
Chronos smiled at Finn, waiting to hear his answer, and even Astaria and Anubis looked expectantly at him, hoping that he would choose them since they both believed that they were the ones who could make him the strongest.
"Yes, well, the god I wanted to choose is… the God of Mischief, Loki."
"…"
The atmosphere suddenly turned silent.
All three gods furrowed their eyebrows as they looked at Finn. Hoping that they had heard wrong.
After a long while, Chronos opened his mouth.
"…Can you repeat that?"
"Yes! I want to be the champion of Loki!"
Finn answered a little scared but excited at the same time.
"No! That's definitely a no!"
"That is not possible."
"…No."
The gods quickly rejected Finn, and even the silent Asteria said "no" as she shook her head.
"But you said I can choose any god I want, so why not him? Does he not want me as his champion?"
Finn looked at Chronos with puppy eyes, and Chronos didn't know if he should reveal Loki's situation.
After a few minutes of thinking, he decided to keep it a secret since it didn't concern Finn.
"That's… It's complicated. Anyway, a no is a no."
Chronos firmly shook his head, as if telling a child he was not allowed to go play outside.
"There are so many other gods that are a lot better than him, though! I can teach you how to control time, and you can learn to take a glimpse into the future, making your battles easier because you will know where your opponents will strike."
He then pointed at Asteria.
"Asteria is the Goddess of Stars, and she can teach you how to use the stars to your advantage! With your ability to be stronger from the moonlight, you will be invincible during the night!"
Asteria nodded and slightly raised the corners of her mouth.
She probably wanted to smile, but it looked really awkward to Finn instead.
"Anubis is the God of Death, and he saw how you didn't hesitate to kill other players during the tournament! He would teach you an ability that could enable you to throw away useless emotions and become solely focused on your goal!"
Asteria and Anubis kept nodding, not minding the fact that Chronos was speaking for them.
"That's not all the skills we could teach you if you picked one of us! ...You can even choose other gods, and they will also give you useful skills and powers, but... Loki is well…"
Chronos finally stopped talking and after frowning for a bit and looking at the ground he raised his head and looked at Finn.
"Loki is really weak! If you choose him, he can't teach you anything, and you will just throw your potential away!"
He then smiled, hoping that by putting Loki down, he would make Finn change his mind.
'Weak my ass! If I wasn't imprisoned, I would have beaten you black and blue!'
Loki kept shouting in Finn's consciousness, but he didn't dare reveal himself because he would get immediately destroyed by the three powerful gods that had their bodies right there while he only had a small portion of his consciousness.
Hearing about all those offers that he was presented with, Finn was a little tempted, but all these gods, who now cared about him, wouldn't even look at him if Loki hadn't turned back the time and given him his parents back, so he decided to ignore his greedy thoughts and firmly reject the three gods.
But he couldn't just simply say no because that would incur their wrath, so instead, he had to play it smart.
"I see… but I really want to choose Loki. Growing up, I always looked up to him, and he was my favorite god."
Finn closed his eyes to make it seem like he was reminiscing about his nostalgic past.
"Now that I have a chance to actually meet the real him, I don't want to give it up!"
'I didn't know you felt about me like that, Finn, but I know where you are coming from. If I wasn't Loki, I would look up to Loki too.'
Finn's eyes shot open, and his eyebrows started to twitch as he cursed under his breath.
'This shameless…'
Before Finn could finish cursing Loki, Chronos's face suddenly brightened up as if he had gotten an idea.
"Then how about this! We will give you some time to think about who you want to choose, and once you are ready, you can tell us. As long as it is not that basta- Ehm! As long as it is not Loki, any god will be happy to accept you as their champion!"
Chronos opened his arms with a smile while expectingly looking at Finn.
'You fucker! You think I didn't hear you?! You just tried to call me a bastard! If only my body was here, I would have whooped your old wrinkly ass!'
Finn ignored the shouts from Loki in his head and tried his best to look disappointed.
"Okay then… I would have loved to become a champion, but if I really have no other choice, then I will just remain without a god for a while."
"Great!"
The three gods were happy to hear that because it meant that they still had a chance to turn Finn into their champion.
Meanwhile, Finn was inwardly smiling about the fact that they themselves gave him time to think without him needing to ask for it.
'If only they knew…'