Instance game: I signed a pact with the gods, and the gods accused me of cheating

"According to what you said, doesn't it mean that after level 3, players of any profession will have at least one skill that is absolutely valid?"

"That's right, but don't overestimate rule-based skills. Some rule-based skills are very powerful. For example, your red skirt. The skill [Void] can change you into a strange form for five seconds. This is almost absolutely true."

"Of course, you have to pay attention to my choice of words. Almost doesn't mean 100% true."

"Rules always restrain each other!"

The Red Leader said half jokingly and half seriously;

"But before this incident, I always thought that you, a level 2 player, would not be able to encounter it, so I simply did not tell you about it. Who would have thought that you would accidentally inherit the shadow's rule-based skill [Copy]. It seems that you must have encountered your own "shadow" again in the dungeon."

"This is actually what you wanted to ask me last week, right?"

Hearing this, Qin Shang exclaimed in his heart, wow, women's hearts are as unpredictable as the sea.

Isn’t the leader’s mind too heavy?

It was just the last time I visited the grave. In the end, I had some worries in my heart, but I didn’t want to drag her into it, so I didn’t tell her. Who knew that the leader was still thinking about it until now.

"As far as I know, if you want to redeem a skill like [Copy] that is born from the God Road server and belongs to the "God", you must at least take out a fourth-tier or even fifth-tier item, and maybe the server will agree."

"And once this skill is redeemed, there will definitely be a time limit on its use."

"So you don't have to worry. There are other trickster players who can use [Copy] as easily as you do."

"And to be honest, in actual combat, the [Copy] skill of the Shadow is actually a bit useless. After all, don't forget that the Shadow only has one life. Each Divine Path player will only be copied once. After solving your own Mimicry, you will definitely never see your Shadow again."

"Unless he's a trickster player. But even if he's a trickster, since Shadow also copied [Fake Death], at most he'll run into it twice. After that, he won't have to worry about being [copied] for the rest of his life."

Qin Shang nodded subconsciously.

Indeed, I have thought about this before...

But the next moment, his pupils widened and he noticed something wrong in the words of the red-robed leader.

"and many more……"

"How do you know about God?!"

He was so engrossed in what he was listening to that his thoughts were being led by the leader the whole time.

To be honest, Qin Shang’s evaluation of the skill [Copy] is that it is amazing, but not amazing enough.

The specific strength actually depends on how it is used, and the key is how to operate it.

Assuming that he wanted Chen Ge Lao to die now, Qin Shang used [Copy] on a player in the Rule Realm, trying to create Chen Ge Lao's shadow to kill him, which would probably be difficult.

After all, anyone who has reached the level of the Five Great Elders has probably already dealt with his own "shadow" in a previous copy. Having reached their level, they must have encountered their own "shadow" in a certain copy.

But when Qin Shang came to his senses and thought about it carefully, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

No, there's something wrong with what Pei Ziqi said...

How does she know about "God" and also know about administrator privileges?

As soon as these words came out, the Red-robed Leader spat in annoyance;

"Good boy, what you said made me feel a little unconfident for a moment. Are you the old player or am I the old player?"

"Sister, what should I say? I have been in the group of "God Road" players for some time. Isn't it normal for me to know this? In the notes and tips of many props, there are occasional mentions that "God" cannot be selected. We all know that there are "Gods" in the God Road."

"Do you still remember the speculation about the origin of the players on the God Road that I told you when we first met?"

"Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper?"

"Correct!"

Qin Shang's CPU was about to smoke. He never thought that the leader actually knew about "God".

The next moment, Pei Ziqi nodded;

"How much do you know about the deeper background of this painting?"

"I don't understand at all!"

The Red-robed Patriarch did not pursue the matter.

"The form of expression in this painting is based on the fact that Jesus threatened his 12 disciples, 'If one of you betrays me,' the 12 people have different expressions, and their expressions and demeanor are portrayed through art."

"The background of this work is based on the Renaissance, when European countries were experiencing a period of cultural and artistic prosperity. The original meaning of the Renaissance refers to a worldview that respects people and is people-oriented based on ideas. What do you think of this?"

Qin Shang's expression changed slightly;

"The balance mechanism of the Shenlu server?"

The red-robed leader nodded slightly.

"That's right. Becoming a Divine Path player will gain the professional abilities granted by the Divine Path character card. Players with high hidden scores will be more likely to be matched with higher-difficulty dungeons, and players with low hidden scores will be matched with some low-level dungeons. In multiplayer dungeons, we will try to match low-score teammates with speedrunners."

"In pursuit of this equality, he even developed a "reputation" value mechanism, where high-level players cannot attack low-level players at will, and low-level players cannot attack ordinary people."

"Otherwise, your reputation will be deducted, and if your reputation is too low, you will be wanted by the server. These are all to abide by the rules of the balance mechanism."

"So many players are researching the origin of the Shenlu server. The scammers who are regarded as public enemies have another deeper meaning..."

"You said, the deceiver, Judas, who betrayed Jesus!"

The red-robed leader nodded.

"But in a balanced and equal order, why should a person be pushed to the opposite side of other players just because of his genes or personality? Or judge him as a cheater? This is actually unfair!"

"Do you think this is indirectly unfair to the "Trickster" players?"

Qin Shang felt his mind was in a mess.

"what do you want to say in the end?"

"I have recently read a lot of documents, starting from the internal testing of Shenlu, including the data from the time when the second largest area was fully opened and the number of players doubled and soared. I even visited the families of several senior Shenlu players who became Shenlu players around 2010."

"I have come to the conclusion that the "Fraudster" players 13 years ago were not public enemies."

Wow!

As soon as these words came out, Qin Shang's breathing became rapid.

13, wasn’t that the time when Qin Shang in the first round completed [Origin of the Mother Goddess]?

Pei Ziqi didn't notice the change in his expression, and said seriously to himself;

"I suspect that when 'Licking Cockroach's Feet' cleared the [Origin of the Mother Goddess] in 15, he did something that destroyed the balance mechanism, so the [God Road Server] added this optional task."

"Whenever you encounter a "Trickster" player in a multiplayer instance, there will be an additional "Optional Task" in the attribute panel of other players. Kill the Trickster and you will be rewarded with 100 points."

"Do you remember that after you cleared [Origin of the Mother Goddess] by 'licking cockroach's feet', the server version was upgraded and the Trickster's second skill was changed from [Trade] to [Fake Death], giving the Trickster player the incredible ability to [Fake Death] and roll back?"

Qin Shang stared blankly at the red-robed leader.

Seeing him nod, the woman continued with her red lips;

"I told you before that some of the abilities of God Road players may come from strange anecdotes that have appeared in the real world."

"But I checked some information. In history, there has never been a person with the superpower of "rewinding" who has been recorded. It may be because the rewinding changes some of the original present world. Without a third party as an observer, there is no way to determine whether a person has traveled back from the future to the past!"

"Even if it's a time traveler who is a certain emperor or a certain minister, as people often say in history, that's just a guess."

"However, there is a tragic character in Greek mythology who seems to be the origin of the ability to rewind!"

"Sisyphus!"

"Son of Aiolos, the god of wind!"

When he said this, the red-robed leader's tone suddenly became serious, and he subconsciously slowed down the speed of his car.

"Originally, Sisyphus was the founder of a Greek city-state. Because he revealed Zeus' secrets, Zeus sent the god of death to punish him. As a result, Sisyphus used a trick to kidnap the god of death, resulting in no one dying in the world for a long time."

"Until Death was rescued, Sisyphus' soul was cast into the underworld."

"Before entering the underworld, he told the god of death that his body had not been buried. A person who had not been buried was not qualified to stay in the underworld, so he asked for three days' leave. Here, he deceived the god of death once again."

"Because he never came back after he left until the end of his life. This behavior completely angered the God of Death."

"So after his real death, the god of death imprisoned his soul at the edge of hell, where he had to push a heavy stone up a very steep hill every day, then take a step toward the edge and watch the stone roll down the hill. Sisyphus had to repeat this meaningless action forever and without any hope. His only choices were the stone and the steep hill."

"To sum it up, Sisyphus was punished for deceiving the god of death by repeating the same meaningless thing over and over again. So I think the ability to [cheat death] may not be a reward, but a punishment."

Wow!

Cheat, repeat, punish...

Qin Shang's Adam's apple rolled unconsciously.

I just felt something flash through my mind like an electric shock, but I didn't catch it.

"If you combine what I just said, Sisyphus deceived the god of death, so he was punished to keep pushing the stone. In the origin of the road to the gods, the scholars in the first district believed that the "trickster" player was Judas who betrayed Jesus in the "Last Supper."

"No matter which of these two, they have one thing in common: betrayal, lies, deception, and punishment!"

“Could it be that the ‘optional quest’ that other players offer when they encounter a fraudster in a multiplayer instance is a disguised way for the server to target the fraudster group, or in other words, Judas, who betrayed Jesus in the story of the Last Supper?”

"If the person who developed the Divine Road, or the high-dimensional creature, really quoted these allusions, then you should understand the deeper background of Judah's death."

"According to the New Testament, after Judas betrayed Jesus to the Roman government, he committed suicide in despair and remorse. The original text records that he rushed out of the courtroom, shouting, 'It's too late, too late.'"

"I checked the files of the Bad Boys organization. After 13 years, the number of "Fraudsters" players who registered to become Bad Boys plummeted. In 2013, there were 271 people who joined the Bad Boys organization. But by 2015, there were only 13 "Fraudsters" players who joined the Bad Boys organization nationwide."

"After that, the number of new 'Fraudster' players dropped sharply..."

"Even now in 2024, according to incomplete statistics in the first half of the year, there are less than three new "Swindler" players in the Bad People organization. This is the national statistics, and this is only three people in total, including you."

"We have reason to suspect that either the "God Road" server deliberately reduced the issuance of "Trickster" character cards, or, somewhere unknown to us, someone is using some special ability to win over those new Trickster players."

"Another thing is that I found that I seemed to be hypnotized!"

Hearing the last sentence, Qin Shang was stunned.

He glanced at Pei Ziqi and almost blurted out, "Are you okay?"

Pei Ziqi, the red-robed leader and boss of Wanbaowu, a level 6 order-realm hypnotist, could be hypnotized?

But the next moment, what the red-robed leader said made Qin Shang dazed for a moment.

"I clearly remember that the ID of the internal test fraudster was 'Licking Cockroach's Jade Feet', but when I was looking up information, I found that some information actually showed that the internal test fraudster was called 'Thunder King'."

"Even recently, when I was looking up information, I had a feeling of self-doubt, as if I had remembered something wrong before..."

"What!?"

After these words were spoken, Qin Shang completely lost his composure.

The body that was originally leaning on the seat suddenly stood up straight, with the word "unbelievable" written all over his face.

The King of Thunder and Lightning! ?

Why is this name written in the information?

No, it's impossible... How could the Red-robed Patriarch know the ID 'Thunder King'?

Qin Shang in the "first week" world is called "Thunder King", but there is no Jiang Qiqi in that world.

For unknown reasons, the 'Thunder King' [faked his death] in the timeline after 2020 and went back to the timeline, causing a butterfly effect. He met a hypnotist player named Jiang Qiqi on the [Death Train] in 05.

This is the beginning of everything in the "Second Round" worldview, isn't it?

This is the world of "Act 2".

Apart from those who had contact with Qin Shang in the "first round" in the early stage, there was no reason for others to know the ID of "Thunder King". Moreover, the documents I had seen before also stated that in 08, the second large area of ​​the Divine Road was opened, the internal test was ended and the Bad People Organization was established. "Licking Cockroach Jade Feet" and "Mother Guarding the Center Line" refused to join the Bad People Organization...

That’s right, the internal beta fraudster at that time was called "licking cockroach’s jade feet fiercely".

That is to say, in the traceable history of development, shouldn't the ID of the internal test fraudster always be "licking cockroach's jade feet fiercely"?

How did the Red Patriarch know the ID 'Thunder King'?

Moreover, this is the world of "Around 2", so there should be few people who know the nickname Qin Shang had before he changed his name in "Around 1"!

"Where did you see the ID 'Thunder King'?"

The next moment, Qin Shang looked at the Red Dress Sect with a look of doubt and surprise.

The woman frowned;

"I can't remember clearly, but it seems that in many official documents, the name of the internal test fraudster has been changed to 'Thunder King'."

"I don't know if someone secretly modified the information, or if I really remembered it wrong before, so I came to find you specially."

The red-robed leader's eyes retreated with confusion, replaced by a hint of weirdness.

"Your name is Cockroach Jade Foot, right? I'm a little unconfident all of a sudden!"

"Yeah, my God Road ID has always been called 'licking cockroach jade fiercely...'"

Qin Shang answered subconsciously, but then he was stunned.

Because he casually opened his property panel.

In front of him, on the fluorescent blue light screen, he saw an incredible scene.

Name: Qin Shang.

Occupation: Fraudster.

Level: 2nd Lawful Realm.

God Road ID: Thunder King!!!

At this moment, Qin Shang felt a chill enveloping his limbs and bones, and he broke out in a cold sweat.