"Mister Xi Wei, I saw a skill called 'Raise the Dead' in the skill tree. Could it be …"
Elena looked at Xi Wei expectantly after leveling up.
Xi Wei understood what she meant. She wanted to resurrect the dead villagers.
"Unfortunately, that's impossible." He mercilessly shattered the girl's fantasy. "Raise the Dead can only resurrect believers of the God of Games, and it would cost the resurrected one's EXP … It's cruel, but it's a rule between the gods that we can't interfere with."
In fact, Xi Wei had taken advantage of Lord Hades's loophole to create such a half-baked resurrection.
The God of Games didn't interfere with death in the first place, but it was common knowledge for Xi Wei that characters in the game could be resurrected. That was why he tried to create a resurrection mechanism according to his own ideas, and found that it really worked.
If a believer still worshipped him after death, the resurrection mechanism would be triggered, and their soul would be stored in Xi Wei's Divine Kingdom through the passage of faith. This state wasn't true death, which was why Lord Hades, who ruled over the netherworld and death, wouldn't notice that the soul of the dead had been intercepted.
If someone used a resurrection spell on a believer (a corpse) in this state, they would be resurrected at the cost of 10% of their current level's EXP (in other words, divine energy). If no one resurrected them, their soul would be sent back after 72 hours, but at the cost of 30% of their current level's EXP.
If the resurrection didn't have enough EXP, they would drop a level, and if they didn't have 10% EXP at Level 1, they really wouldn't be able to resurrect. On the other hand, as long as they had more than 20% EXP at Level 1, they wouldn't really die.
Aside from Lord Hades, it would be useless even if the other gods tried to copy him. Even if it was just stepping on the line, it definitely involved the Divine Concept of Death.
And as a god who ruled over death, the faith of living beings was meaningless to Lord Hades, and he wouldn't do something like resurrection just for his believers. In fact, resurrecting the dead would greatly reduce the fear of death and lower Lord Hades's authority. He wouldn't do something like that if he was still sane.
The revival mechanism's successful establishment gave Xi Wei a better understanding that he should be able to interfere with any 'common sense' in games in his previous life to a certain extent, and was clearly a better jack of all trades than the God of Games before.
The girl who had just seen a glimmer of hope began to sob softly.
But even so, she didn't run away from reality. Instead, she added her new skill point to the healing skill, [Soothe]. Sobbing, she quickly walked over to the few survivors who were treated as toys by the Dragonfang.
She extended her hand, pure white holy light shining from her palm. If anyone else were to see this, no one would suspect that she was a senior nun of the Brilliant White Church — that is, if not for the green '+ 1's appearing over the heads of those who were lying on the ground …
These villagers didn't suffer any serious injuries. They were just a little tired from being played around by the Dragonfang. On top of that, those who were chosen by the Dragonfang as toys were all young and energetic villagers. Therefore, the green '+ 1' didn't take long before they recovered.
Originally, these people had repeated the process of being dragged back by the Dragonfang several times after running a certain distance. They were already in despair and on the verge of a mental breakdown. Unexpectedly, the Dragonfang, which had been showing off its strength, was killed in an instant.
Even though it was Eleena who had become a Saintess-in-training who gave them the final blow, they knew very well that the one who saved them from the brink of despair was that mysterious outsider.
"Esteemed Saintess-in-training!"
There were four survivors, three boys and one girl, all of whom were around twelve to fifteen years old. The one who appeared to be the leader of the group was the first to kneel before Xi Wei, sobbing and begging with all his might. "The village is completely destroyed, there's no way we can survive if we stay here. Even if we don't starve to death, we would be eaten by wild beasts. Please have mercy and save us!"
Xi Wei rubbed his chin. He thought that they probably thought he was a wandering mage from the Holy Church, and hoped that he would take them in.
But he couldn't stay in the mortal realm for too long. Taking in servants was out of the question.
"I'm sorry, I can't take you in. But if you're willing to believe in the great God of Games, I can show you a way. "
Xi Wei said sternly with a straight face.
The boy looked a little disappointed, but he still bowed down obediently. "We're willing to believe in the God of Games!"
The rest of the survivors followed suit and bowed to Xi Wei, but because they had never been taught such etiquette, their posture looked more like a giant toad lying on the ground.
Eleena looked at Xi Wei expectantly. Xi Wei waited for a moment, then frowned.
He didn't feel any divine energy from these boys and girls at all.
They were just saying it. They didn't believe in the God of Games from the bottom of their hearts like Eleena did.
Xi Wei wanted to expose their pretense, but in the end, he controlled his emotions.
As an atheist from Earth, Xi Wei could more or less understand the mentality of these boys and girls. No one would open up their hearts to believe in something they've never heard of just because a stranger said something out of the blue. Even multi-level marketing wouldn't be that powerful …
After all, even Eleena, who was the closest to Xi Wei, had decisively refused when Xi Wei first hoped that she could become a Saintess. Not to mention these little brats that he hadn't really met before.
Hence, after a moment of silence, he spoke.
"I know that you've just experienced the tragedy of losing your loved ones and watching them die in the jaws of beasts. You escaped from death, feeling helpless and grief-stricken. And at such a time, the gods you usually believe in didn't show you any mercy. Even if you go to the church in the city, and tell all these to the priests with big bellies, the answer you will get is cold words like 'it's all fate' or 'it's their destiny'. "
The youths all had bitter expressions on their faces. Apart from Eleena, the only girl who was still alive was crying.
Eleena came to her side and gently patted her on the back.
"But is it true? Obviously not! In the eyes of the high and mighty gods, you are nothing more than insignificant existences like dust and ants. You've been abandoned by those gods. Just like how humans never show mercy to ants eaten by anteaters, those gods don't care about you at all! Your pious faith is now a joke! Since those gods don't care about you, why do you still beg for their charity? " Xi Wei continued in a persuasive tone. "Instead of waiting for the blessings that the gods will never befall upon you, why not fight for it with your own hands? There's no such thing as fair competition in this world … and yet, the God of Games is a god who bestows this' fairness' as a gift of faith to every believer! Don't you want to try? Use your own hands and your own efforts to change the so-called fate those bastards speak of! "