THE GOD EATER

Meanwhile, the Gemini was thinking, ’What a letdown. I was hoping it would take the bait and attack me. It would have been nice to see the so-called first Mountain Lord struck down before me.’

Loki, in the spirit of magnanimity, didn’t take offense at its thoughts. He glossed over its thoughts and asked, ”Do you know how to speed up the conversion efficiency of Supreme Metacs and their god heads?”

”Listen here, bumpkin. If you’re not going to attack me, make way for me,” the fish man said as it turned around to leave.

’He doesn’t even know about the black and white universal virtual reality. What an ignorant bumpkin!’

’I guess it is to be expected from someone who has never left their Domain. Then again, even if he knew about it, it would be of no use to him. Only Gemini people can use it for training.’

’I wonder when I can use the universal virtual reality again. I will need to do well on the leaderboard for that. But it is too risky.’

’On the one hand, I want performance credits. So I need to invade and take over the worlds of other Geminis.’

’But on the other hand, if I invade another world, I won’t be able to defend myself if someone invades me. My resources would be in another world invading it. This is really a hassle,’ it sighed and thought.

As it walked away from Loki, it was thinking about a lot of things. Loki didn’t interfere with its thoughts and let them flow naturally.

He was following along as he listened to the Gemini think, soaking up the knowledge earnestly. But he had to interfere when the thoughts reached an area he didn’t care about.

He said, ”Do you know about raising our ranks?”

The answer was a snort followed by, ”To think someone as ignorant as you could become a Dao Lord. Have the standards for qualifying to become a Dao Lord fallen?”

’He really is ignorant. If there was ever any doubt before, now I am certain that he is ignorant. As for whether he is foolish, that is yet to be seen, but I won’t count him out.’

Since he didn’t get what he wanted, Loki said, ”You’re just saying that because you don’t know.”

The Gemini, upon hearing his words, immediately burst out laughing and said, ”You’re trying to goad me into telling you. You must think you’re a sly fox, but you’re just a joker making a fool of yourself.’

’Can you imagine it? He actually thinks I don’t know how to raise my rank? It is one of the first things they taught us in the black and white universal virtual reality.’

’I remember that lesson as clear as day. I need two things to rank up. The first is divinity, and the second is the size of a Divine Court.’

’I will gain an increase to my rank of 10 for every additional 300 divinity and 300 members in a Divine Court. So to gain the maximum rank for a Dao Lord, I need to have 3,000 divinity and be a member of a Divine Court with 3,000 people.’

When he heard this, Loki became enlightened and thought, ’I see. So that’s why Black Chain couldn’t advance beyond rank 20. He needed to be a member of a Divine Court.’

Just as he had this thought, the Gemini turned to him and asked suspiciously, ”Why are you following me?”

”And you’re asking me many questions. If you weren’t so weak and didn’t have any Supreme Metac to tamper with minds, I would suspect that you’re asking me questions so that you can read the answers from my mind.

”I was following and asking questions so that I could learn more about Gemini and see if we can work together,” Loki replied without blinking.

’Is he telling the truth or is he lying?’ Gemini thought suspiciously.

To curb the matter before it could become uncontrollable, Loki said, ”You see, I already know how to increase my rank.”

”I know that it is by having a lot of divinity and being a part of a large Divine Court. But I am not sure that’s how Gemini increases their rank.”

”I want to be sure to see if we can work together. As long as our goals align, we can work together.”

Still skeptical, the Gemini asked, ”How do you propose we work together?”

Inwardly, it was thinking, ’As long as it is working together to invade worlds in the lower realm, I will agree.’

Loki heard this, but he still said, ”It is up to you.”

He was also thinking, ’I don’t know much about Gemini, which is why I was asking so many questions. If I knew how best to work together, would I bother you with questions? Instead, I would bother you with a proposal.’

When Gemini heard what he said, it thought, ’It seems he really doesn’t know what I’m thinking. Was I being overly paranoid?’

Then when it heard what Loki was thinking, it couldn’t help but chuckle and say inwardly, ’Of course, I was overthinking things and being paranoid.’

’Why would I think a one-star celestial bumpkin whose thoughts I can read can read my thoughts? It is absurd now that I think about it.’

The thought it had about how it would work with Loki if their cooperation was about invading worlds in the lower realm was a test. If Loki had made that exact suggestion, it would have been proof that there was a high possibility that Loki could read its thoughts.

Now that it had confirmed that Loki couldn’t read its thoughts, it let go of its suspicions and became smug again. Its smugness was written all over its face as it said, ”You’re right. It should be me who gets to decide how we work together.”

Then it snapped its slippery fingers and said, ”Come to think of it, I have an area where we can work together well.”