How many steps are there to trapping the God of Steam and Machinery in a sack?
The answer is three steps.
First, prepare a sack in Artisan's favorite color and get Roselle, his favored traitor, to help.
Second, have Roselle act as bait to knock on the doors of Artisan's divine kingdom, then sneak in with him.
Third, beat Artisan senseless, knock him out, and put the sack over him.
This was Lynn's plan to capture Artisan. It was simple, brutal, and, without a doubt, had a high success rate.
Unfortunately, the plan got stuck on the third step. The moment the God of Steam and Machinery saw Lynn following behind Roselle, pretending to be a bystander as they entered the divine kingdom, his expression changed dramatically in the span of three seconds—from shock, to anger, and then to hesitation.
In the end, Artisan didn't hesitate for even a second before dropping to his knees and sliding on the ground. His eyes even welled up with tears, as if he was about to cry from excitement, and shouted. "Master Lynn! I've waited so long for you!"
Roselle: "…"
Lynn: "…"
'What?! So, Lynn was telling the truth. Artisan—no, the God of Steam and Machinery really is his follower?' Roselle found this world more absurd by the second. Of course, he had doubts about Lynn's strength. Even though Lynn completely overpowered him when they first met and easily removed the Corruption of the Mother Goddess of Depravity, Roselle still couldn't fully believe it.
After all, Roselle was only a Sequence 2 Knowledge Magister at the moment. This was powerful among ordinary Beyonders, but when facing the King of Angels or a Sequence 0, it wasn't even close. Being killed in an instant wouldn't be surprising.
Moreover, though Roselle knew about the Outer Gods, he didn't fully understand their power. Because of that, he hadn't grasped how extraordinary it was for Lynn to easily remove the Corruption.
While Roselle's black history made him somewhat believe in Lynn's strength, he remained skeptical about Lynn's claims—especially the one about beating the Eternal Blazing Sun to a pulp.
The reason Roselle agreed so quickly to help Lynn break into the God of Steam and Machinery's divine kingdom was partly to see if Lynn was really as strong as he claimed. After all, Roselle had the pride of a Xianxia protagonist and wouldn't easily submit to anyone, let alone work a 24/7 job for someone.
But no matter how many schemes he had before, seeing the God of Steam and Machinery slide to his knees extinguished all of Roselle's thoughts.
He had clearly seen the changes in Artisan's expression and understood that his situation was probably the same as his own—angry, unwilling to be someone's subordinate, but too weak to fight back, so he had to accept it.
If even the Sequence 0 Paragon acted this way, it was likely that Lynn's claim about beating the Eternal Blazing Sun was true.
Though Roselle, as a transmigrator, was not one to easily accept fate, at that moment, he couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness. He even began to ponder a crucial question—who could he get to cover for him at work?
First, his replacement had to be powerful enough. If they were too weak, they wouldn't be able to keep the Steam Church in line, let alone handle high-level affairs. This world was not one lacking in danger. As the leader of a large church, strength was essential, or they could be killed by a dangerous Beyonder or sealed artifact at any moment.
Alternatively, even if their strength was a bit lower, their status had to be special. They needed to be a God's favored one so that, when things got tough, they could call for backup.
Additionally, they had to be capable enough to manage a church without causing chaos.
Lastly, they had to be loyal. Otherwise, it wouldn't be "covering" but "taking over."
Although Roselle had previously harbored the idea of breaking away from the God of Steam and Machinery's church, especially after the Bonova incident, now that Artisan had surrendered to Lynn and the church would likely be under Lynn's control, Roselle owed Lynn a life debt.
Roselle was very aware that no matter what else Lynn said, the part about the Outer Gods was true. By stopping Roselle from heading to the cosmos, Lynn had saved his life.
In this situation, Roselle knew that for the time being, he couldn't break away from the church. He would have to stay and work under Lynn.
However, there were different levels of work. Roselle didn't mind working for Lynn or even experiencing what it felt like to be a pope, but he definitely didn't want to be completely sidelined by someone he promoted himself. Given Lynn's display of capitalist tendencies, Roselle had no doubt that if the person he promoted lacked loyalty, they might eventually take over, leaving him powerless.
And could Roselle tolerate that? Absolutely not!
"Speaking of which, Berne and the others aren't that young anymore. Maybe you could try grooming them for the role…"
Just as Roselle was pondering potential candidates among his loyal followers, Lynn suddenly spoke, catching him off guard.
Roselle immediately became alert and stared at Lynn, asking, "Are you familiar with Bernadette?" His expression made it clear he thought Lynn might have ulterior motives.
Lynn glanced at him and easily guessed what he was thinking. With a teasing smile, Lynn drew out his response, "Well, I wouldn't say we're close, but her soul does often come into my dreams…"
That wasn't wrong. Bernadette and Roselle indeed met in his dream space every few days.
And not just them—Mr. Door was also in the dream space every day, tutoring Klein.
Though this was all perfectly innocent, Lynn's vague words caused Roselle to widen his eyes, mentally translating Lynn's statement to, "We meet in dreams every day."
As for why they could only meet in dreams and not in reality? Given Lynn's strength, which was at least on par with a Sequence 0, and considering the God of Steam and Machinery couldn't leave his divine kingdom or even issue divine decrees often, Roselle felt like he understood.
This pained him greatly. Not only did he feel like his precious daughter had been stolen, but he also asked in a broken voice, "Lynn... You…You... you... Married her?"
(End of Chapter)
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