Year 857 of God's Calendar, Divine Kingdom

Assimilating completely with the memories of the God Maugus, countless memories about common knowledge of the other world flooded into his mind. Ahan found out that those that had supernatural abilities in this world all had very clear stages and ranks.

Bronze < Silver < Gold < Supreme < Legendary.

For the mortals of this world, Legendary-ranked power was the peak pursuit of strength in the martial way.

All the different churches of the other gods had at-least one Legendary Champion to prop it up.

Legendary ranked power was enough to establish an Empire on the main continent while Supreme ranked power was enough to establish a Kingdom. Humans achieved evolution through the pain of war. They were a species that thrived on deadly battles. There were many powerhouses on the main continent, who had killed their way to such great power establishing their Empires, Kingdoms and legacies.

But, in this world filled with various Gods, martial prowess could not completely correspond to reputation and social standing.

You’re a scholar and want to advance through ranks in the royal court of your Kingdom?

You can worship the Goddess of Learning, Saris.

You’re a warrior and you want destructive power to kill all your enemies?

You can worship the Destroyer God, Siva.

You’re a merchant and want influence?

You can worship the Goddess of Good Fortune and Wealth, Lakshmi.

In the Creation Church which worshiped one of the Ultimate Gods Trinity -- Creator God Brom, there was a seemingly complete ranking system for paladins going from Bronze Knight -> Revered Silver Knight -> Honorable Gold Knight -> Glorious Supreme Knight -> Legendary Knight(also called Saints). 

However, a vast majority of people in this world who achieved Silver level power were aristocrats, wealthy merchants and civil officials who had bought their way up to that position by sacrificing a portion of their fortunes to the churches and clergy of their respective Gods.

The same could be said for most of the Gold level powerhouses -- many of them had achieved that power without being qualified for it. Speaking purely in terms of ability, these people could not even hold a candle to a warrior who had earned their power through military or other merits.

The only ones which still held some degree of real authority and power were the Supreme and Legendary -- as that level of power could only be cultivated through untold hardships or appointed by a God.

So in other words, the polarization between the rich and the poor was pretty deeply rooted in the society of this world, as however devout a peasant could be, most of their time would ultimately be consumed by the toil of their everyday life -- to the point where a year’s worth of prayer might not even amount to an aristocrat’s daily offering of money to the clergy.

Though in this world full of Gods, there would still be a few lucky ones who could grab the attention of a God at birth and become Chosen Ones or Saintesses that would be sought after and revered. No matter how hardworking a person was, they would have no chance of climbing up the social ladder without the attention of a God.

Maybe as a native of this world, God Maugus would not have noticed such an opportunity in the past. However, this granted Ahan an opportunity to take advantage of this situation now. The commoners who were exploited and looked down upon by the churches would be the ones that would become the basis for his church to grow exponentially once again in this world!

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While Ahan continued to contemplate on his future strategies, a number of messages kept popping up in his mind continuously.  

[Player PandaBubble has registered into the battle server!]

[Player ChitwandeepKaur has registered into the battle server!]

From the messages, there were five or more players in total that had registered into the battle server.

________

With Asjad’s persuasion, all of his teammates waited for his re-spawn time to end while they downloaded the game, put on their headsets and chose the Eve of Gods game icon. Chitwan was fully prepared to prove Asjad wrong and win her free UC and Burger+Chicken Wrap.

What came after was them experiencing the same shock as Asjad when he first entered Maugus World.

The realistic graphics and near perfect simulation had left them astounded.

After choosing the character classes that they favored, all of them received the same quest that Asjad failed at!

Abduleria and Sandy, like Asjad, chose to be Knights, while PandaBubble went with Rogue and Chitwan selected Wizard.

A series of exclamations followed as Asjad smirked at his squad who marveled at the worn-out equipment on their bodies and the scenery that surrounded them, leaving them with absolutely no words.

"Oye Chitwan, why don't you log out now? I will send you your 1000 UC as this game was definitely a sham!" Asjad smirked.

“Shut up, you idiot. Damn! this game is really so cool. Which company came up with such a big move? The Indian gaming industry should be prepared to be swept away by this! But I feel that my 1000 UC are getting further away from me!” Chitwan despaired.

"Come on, you two fools over there or we will leave you behind! We have a quest to do." PandaBubble hollered. 

After their lively discussion, they hurriedly prepared to explore the game. With Asjad leading the way this time with his prior experience of death, they were more careful and killed one ferocious wolf after another in the mountains. 

In the party chat,

AsjadIqbal: “Dear brothers and dumb Chitwan, let me have this one. I’ve already killed nine of them, let me finish my quest and help increase our party’s strength.”

Abduleria: “Get lost, I only have five in my hand. Do you even know how to play by the rules? I demand fairness!”

ChitwandeepKaur: "I don't care about the last kill you guys can take it but can I have the drops, pretty please? #FortifiedByRupees"

All of the others in the squad didn't even look at her way! They were not so easily tempted by the words of a beautiful face. The party started quarreling over the wolf while PandaBubble and Sandy also joined in. 

But in the end, it was Asjad, the first player and strongest of the party, who got the last attack on the wolf. A white light suddenly emerged from the dead ferocious wolf and made its way into his body. His experience bar once again became empty.

[Congratulations! Player has leveled up, gained 2 strength and 1 agility.]

[Congratulations! Player has completed the quest, gained 10 faith coins.]

According to the core algorithm set by Ahan, whenever a player killed a creature, the faith power from the sacrifice would be separated into two portions. 80% of it would be sent to his Divine Kindom as his private income and 20% of it would be added to the player’s experience.

“Woah! What is this sensation? I feel like I am getting stronger.” Asjad was staring at his body in awe, as if he was having a hard time accepting it.

“What are you getting so shocked for? Isn’t it normal for a player to be stronger after leveling up?” Chitwan rolled her eyes.

“This game's developers are really scary geniuses. When you level up in other VR games, only your attributes are increased, but you won’t feel any changes in your body. Instead, you’ll only find that the damages you inflict on your enemies will have increased. But, when you level up in this game, you can feel the sensation of your body growing stronger and faster, this is incredible! I feel like I can reach Shaktiman level power inside the game! Muahaha.” Asjad said excitedly.

“Impossible, bullshit. Are you saying that we can experience having actual superpowers in this game like in anime?” said Sandy.

“I feel that it’s really possible. The power that is impossible to be possessed in reality can be experienced in a VR game. This is absolutely incredible.” Asjad nodded.

“We’ll discus this after I level up, as the next person that’s going to level up is going to be me.” Abdul smirked.

“Screw off!” The rest of them hollered in unison.

In about ten hours, the players had killed a massive number of Ferocious Wolves. All of them had completed their initial quest, and continued to hunt for more Wolves in the mountains, continuously leveling up. They even encountered a massively huge but docile creature which looked like the mixture of an elephant and rhinoceros called Mastoraj by the system whom they killed for fun. But, it gave them massive amounts of experience points. So they searched for Mastoraj everywhere in the mountains, and farmed the creature again and again. 

All of them were now between level seven and eight, when they suddenly got a group quest!

[Hidden conditions met! Initiating side quest!]

[Rescue Quest: Save the Saintess!]

[God Maugus' Saintess is battling the Bronze ranked warriors and rogues sent to finish her at The Last Church.

Follow the map, and save her. The reward is 50 faith coins to each player and one Silver grade equipment!]