Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The scouts’ deaths led to some small victories. Alex managed to find some of the armies and killed them all while losing some of his own men. He fell back with those men, putting the healers around them to get ready for more battles.

The War God said nothing, focusing solely on the war at hand.

Alex wondered how good of an idea it was to continue doing what he had been doing—to send more scouts to find the pieces of the enemy army so the scouts could gather him some information while dying.

It worked previously, so he tried it again. The scouts began searching for more people, and Alex took his army to kill more.

The War God caught onto the trick very quickly, though, and before long, he had a counter for it. He had archers go out alone to kill any scout before they got too close. After that, Alex stopped getting any information from his scouts despite sending them to their deaths.

Before long, his groups began getting ambushed one by one.

It began raining then—a part of the game to keep things difficult—and soon visibility dropped even further. It was an opportunity for one of them, and the War God took it.

Alex’s forces were chipped off one after another, and soon there was no chance of victory left. The War God, as his name suggested, was far too good when it came to war and quickly defeated the rest of Alex’s army.

He had lost once more.

“You did quite well for a first-timer,” the War God said. “Do you want to try again? I will fight with a disadvantage this time.”

Alex thought for a moment. “Could I ask you not to give any advantage to yourself, War God? I don’t think I will learn a lot if you go easy on me.”

The War God smiled. “That’s what I like to hear.”

* * * * * *

The Storm God sat in his VIP room, watching the interview unfold down below. He held no expression on his face, just a simple vacant look.

His eyes flashed a little, and he turned around right as the door opened. The Winter God walked in right then, and winter walked in along with her.

The stair froze with a layer of frost with each step the Winter God took.

“Is there a reason why you are visiting me?” the Storm God asked.

The Winter God walked right up to the front and sat on a seat close to the Storm God. “I believe you know the reason,” she said cryptically.

The Storm God smiled a little. “You’re worried he’s going to do it?” he asked.

“Can he?”

The Storm God fell silent for a while and looked back at the fake battle going on atop the stage, with millions of people focused on it every second.

“He’s certainly found a stage for himself. How many people will watch this game? Trillions?”

“It’s bound to spread throughout every realm,” the Winter God said. “I’m not really worried about what he’s doing. I’m just curious if it will work or not.”

The Storm God thought for a moment. “It didn’t work for the Fiend when he named his world after himself, nor did it work when the Blood God tried to do the same. It didn’t work for the Sword God when he carved a rift in the sky above his world either.”

“His predecessors called themselves Battle Gods, and while Hell Emperor didn’t use that title, none succeeded. So the likelihood of him succeeding is very low too. It goes against all of my understanding regarding this matter, but suffice to say, whether or not it does work, we’ll need to have a talk with him afterward.”

The Winter God sat back, lost in her thoughts.

Could the War God really succeed in what he set out to do?

* * * * * * *

Alex fought the War God three more times and lost all three times. He did improve quite drastically, which made it not as boring to watch or play as anyone would imagine. The game had now taken over an hour to play. Normally, it would be the time to start wrapping up the interviews, but the War God wasn’t done yet.

In fact, he was only getting started.

“You were close the last time, but not that close,” the War God said. “Do you think you have room yet to improve?”

“I do think I can do better next time,” Alex said. “I do not know how much better I can do, though. I do not believe I can come up with some mind-blowing strategy just one hour into playing this. Not against you, at least.”

The War God chuckled. “If you think your strategies are becoming stagnant at the moment, then it is because your soldiers can’t do much more than a few things. They can run, they can fight, they can defend, they can heal. But people aren’t like that. A war isn’t like that.”

“A war is much more complex, with each person doing their best, each person coming up with their own strategies mid-battle. Not only that, a war is not such a simple thing that you can stand over and look down on everything.”

“Usually, the battle master stays in the back, controlling the war with his invisible strings without really seeing what is happening. You send out scouts and get back some information to learn things from time to time. Sometimes, you don’t even know you have lost until the enemy has killed all of your people and they are right at your doorstep.”

“A war is a lot more complex than the childish game we’ve been playing. And while it cannot replicate war at its core, it can very much try. So, let us try out this more complex version, shall we?”

With the War God’s words, the world changed once again. The land expanded bigger and bigger right until he was right in the middle of it, looking at the expanse of forest beside him. To his left, he could see the rolling hills and the silhouettes of hundreds of people gathered around him.

He knew but a few dozen people here based on the information provided to him.

“This time, you are one of the people fighting in the war. You may choose to leave with them if you wish to, or you can sit back and manage everything, for you are the battle master here.”

Alex looked toward the War God with a curious look. “I can go out and fight? By myself?” he asked.

“Merely the illusion you are controlling. You simply think what it needs to do, and it will do it,” the War God explained. “Whatever you want to do, you can do it. But I suggest you stay around and manage everything, because without you… things will start getting disorganized.”

Alex slowly nodded.

“This rendition of the game is the most complex because it is closer to being real, so ask me whenever you find yourself confused about why something is the way it is,” the War God said. “Oh, and in this variant of the game, the war ends when you die. So, defend yourself the best you can.”