Ashur paid special attention to Professor Harley's actions, and once again, Harley recited Ashur's divine name. This allowed Ashur to witness Harley's antics in real time.
"Pixel Art? This old mage is talented."
'Normally, pulling off such a skillful yet show-offy move is the protagonist's role. This mage is also good, using my power to flex, and doing it with style.'
"Those who praise my name in the cycle of reincarnation, I grant you a arcade machine."
"I'm absolutely sure now, this guy will keep surprising me."
Ashur had finally grasped something important.
In many stories or events, there's always some god who takes a special liking to a random passerby, bestowing blessings upon them, while ignoring their own devout followers.
It turns out, the reason is simple: these passersby end up striking a chord with the gods through their actions, even when they're not aware of it. Their unconscious behavior aligns perfectly with the gods' own nature.
Then look at those devout followers in these stories. They're either fanatics constantly shouting about heretic trials, priests and bishops chanting scriptures or engaging in political schemes, greedy landlords exploiting the church's name, or rigid missionaries who adhere so strictly to church laws that they're unable to adapt.
How can you inspire true faith with people like this?
You need flexibility. Preaching through force is the lowest form of conversion. You have to make people understand why they should believe in you and what benefits faith in you brings. That's how the gods of this era operate. Even the God of Sacrifice isn't as extreme as some of these zealots.
Ashur considered giving Harley divine enlightenment, but then remembered that mages come with natural mental shields.
Normal revelations would just bounce off. Gods attempting to contact them would get blacklisted immediately. So, Ashur carefully prepared a letter and asked the lovely Maya to deliver it to the old mage. The original draft read:
"Professor Harley, you're full of potential. Why not become my lapdog?"
After writing this, Ashur realized he needed to tone it down. Mages tend to resist the gods, believing that all value resides in the individual, and they despise handing over their worth to the gods. But there are always outliers, like the old-school tower mages from across the worlds. There are still plenty of those around.
"Esteemed Professor Harley, I sincerely hope you will consider joining our Church of Fiction. Your actions have already brought me tremendous value in faith, and I greatly admire your talents. I look forward to welcoming you into our team. Best regards."
As soon as Ashur finished, he received a faith boost. The old artist was already speeding through the Third City's Sixth District, and after finding the arcade cabinet, he immediately sat down and began his gaming session.
[Faith from the Artist +50]
"Seems like this guy is really obsessed with pixel art." Ashur thought about opening up game reviews in the future. That would definitely attract more creative individuals. Plus, it was about time he updated the games he was recreating.
Aside from Thunderbolt, one of the most beloved early games was undoubtedly the fighting genre.
But simply remaking existing fighting game characters was a bit boring. So, Ashur decided to overhaul the character designs. After all, in those early fighting games, it was pretty straightforward: create a bunch of characters and have them beat the crap out of each other.
"Let's call it Fists of the Gods. Sure, the name sounds a bit corny, like a stitched-together mess, but for the mortals of this Gray World, it should seem pretty fresh."
"Imagine, the lofty gods reduced to playable characters, each with their own unique skills, brawling it out. That's bound to draw in tons of attention."
As for whether the other gods would be pissed off by Ashur's actions, feeling that he was tarnishing their image... If they really cared about their reputation, they wouldn't be running around causing chaos in every corner of the multiverse in the first place.
As always, if you can bring in faith and value, you're my brother from another mother. Gods are just like that. Not only would this game not harm their image, Ashur believed it would spark a massive wave of divine worship.
In the future, conflicts between gods with different followers might no longer result in physical wars. Instead, it could become: "You control your god, I control mine. Let's settle this faith war with a three-round, best-of-three deathmatch. Fists of the Gods, you coward."
As for character balancing? No problem.
Players will test which characters are overpowered.
And creating fictional versions of these gods was another way for Ashur to reaffirm his authority.
"If I can lure the real gods to play this game, I might be able to recreate the event that happened with the God of Death and absorb a massive amount of divine traits."
First, though, Ashur set a small goal: to charge toward the achievement of complete divine immunity.
Plus, the virtual versions of these gods might form strange connections with the real ones. After all, the Enlightenment Rune produces things of real value, meaning that the creations, and even the game world itself, are part of the real world. They're not just abstract projections.
Ashur still didn't know the full limits of the Enlightenment Rune, so he needed to keep learning and unlocking its abilities. Right now, he was only scratching the surface. Using it to make games was like using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken—overkill.
To be fair, though, if not for his divine intellect, understanding this rune would have been even harder than mastering the C language.
'No wonder the original God of Confusion made operational mistakes. That guy was probably winging it the whole time.'
Ashur's gaze drifted beyond his divine realm, watching as the massive star moved silently and steadily.
"Another day survived successfully."
———
At an arcade, a blond boy in a black hat was playing a game when a message suddenly popped up in the top-left corner of the screen: New Game Updated.
"A new game?"
As usual, the arcade cabinet was surrounded by a crowd, all waiting for their turn. So everyone saw the new update.
Most of them hadn't even fully figured out Thunderbolt, and now there was suddenly a new game. Everyone was shocked.
They'd always assumed that the divine artifact, the arcade cabinet, was solely tied to Thunderbolt game.
Who knew it could load new games too.
Someone eagerly pressed the button to open the new game.
The God of Death wasn't one to miss out either. The blond, black-eyed boy pressed the button, launching the new game titled Fists of the Gods.
When the character selection screen appeared, his eyes lit up.