Although currency in Surviving My First Run was technically based on stars, there was one thing far more valuable: worshipers. Every worshiper meant the chance your story was passed down increased, more temples were constructed, and more sacrifices were conducted. This popularity manifested into a god’s spiritual energy.
Nothing in this world was immortal, not even the divinities, and once someone died, they could only live through the stories people passed down. Every experience or life event was a story, and the more well-known you were, the more widespread your existence became.
Of course, stars and worshippers still went hand in hand—a positive feedback loop of sorts. The richer you were, the more famous. The more famous, the richer. More entities would be willing to make sacrifices for you.
Gods—which included divinities, ghosts, and demons—all rose to their powerful status because their many believers heard their stories and worshiped them.
Which was why choosing a good sponsor was critical. Not only would they be able to support their disciples materially but through skills as well. A disciple and their sponsor were bound for life—this was undeniably one of the most important decisions that could be made. A bad sponsor could ruin even the best disciples.
Although any disciple could sign a contract with a god the way Yue and the Goblin King had, you could only ever have one sponsor, and you would rely on them for every aspect of the system. A contract was a temporary transaction, lacking a bond that typically defined the relationship between disciple and sponsor.
Now that I’d become part of this system, I wanted to craft the perfect story for myself—one devoid of unnecessary sacrifice or loss. One of success and fame.
[CHAPTER #3 — SPONSOR SELECTION]
Difficulty: F
Task: Select a sponsorship from any of the gods that have made offers. Once you have picked a sponsorship, declined gods may offer to other members in your party.
Time: 15 minutes
Reward: Sponsor
As expected, my list of sponsors was pretty impressive—though I was disappointed to see no ghost offers. None of the gods used their true names, but I could determine who they were based on their pseudo titles.
POTENTIAL SPONSORS LIST
Great Sage Equaling Heaven
Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven
The One Who Fights in Front
Abyssal Kraken of Black Seas
Eternal Wish
Great Sage Equaling Heaven… Sun Wukong was here? Sun Wukong as my sponsor—that was the dream.
I let out a nervous laugh, itching the side of my head once I finished rereading the list. This might have been a bad list. I was doing pretty good in terms of the number of offers, considering that Chang’s channel was tiny and new, but this list was… contradictory to say the least.
There was no failure scenario for this arc, which meant that if I didn’t pick a sponsor, nothing would really happen; however, I’d miss out on a lot of buffs. Feiyu never picked a sponsor to rebel against the gods, but I didn’t have the luck of the protagonist.
I opened the Azure Dragon store before buying ten prayer candles with decadent designs carved onto the wax, laying them out across the dashboard of the car.
“Yue, light them.”
Yue snickered in the back seat. “Ha, why would I do that?”
It was her first time talking since our earlier skirmish. Her bitterness was apparent, but she made no idiotic attempts to overpower me.
“It’ll help you, too. Don’t pick a fight when you’ve already lost one,” I said.
Yue let out a loud huff before using demonic fire to ignite all the candles—although I supposed it was a bit offensive to use a demon’s power to worship divinities, I didn’t want to spend extra money on a lighter.
I whispered the names of all my divinities under my breath, and five of the candles turned into a crimson red. Now, my sponsors would be allowed to easily communicate; the candles served as a gift of worship and helped manifest their spiritual powers into early rounds without drawbacks of karma.
Yang looked at me curiously. “Are you praying?”
“Say the epithet of your sponsors. This serves as a prayer gift and will let you have minimal communication.”
The first of my sponsors was Sun Wukong from the iconic Journey to the West, and he was arguably the strongest Chinese God who I was dead set on selecting at first. His epithet was “Great Sage Equaling Heaven,” and despite being arrogant and snobby, the only entity who’d ever been able to overpower him was Buddha.
The second was Sun Wukong’s main enemy, the Bull Demon King. He virtually matched the Bull Demon King’s level. I never really considered him much of a villain in Journey to the West. Picking Sun Wukong as my sponsor would turn the Bull Demon King directly against me unless I found a way to keep them both.
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The Bull Demon King’s epithet was similar to Sun Wukong’s, but he cockily made it “Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven,” to appear superior to Sun Wukong.
Demon Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven sponsors 1,000 stars.
Divinity Great Sage Equaling Heaven expresses contempt toward ‘Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven.’
Divinity Great Sage Equaling Heaven sponsors 1,001 stars.
I placed my hands on my hips and faced the wide sky. “Don’t bother bribing me with stars. I already know who I plan on picking,” I shouted up at the stars in the sky.
Divinity Great Sage Equaling Heaven says not to make stupid considerations.
“Your third sponsor is Athena, right?” Yang chimed in, peeking over at my screen. “That’s one of her epithets. It’s how the Greeks referred to her.”
Since this chapter was involved the entire party, we could see one another’s choices.
I shifted away, awkwardly leaning over to try and block my screen.
“Stop being nosey.”
Yang sarcastically placed a hand to his chest, moving his hands around for dramatic effect. “Sorry CEO Liu, but this requires teamwork and talking. Yue also got a Greek goddess sponsor.”
“Who the hell would sponsor Yue?” I grumbled, turning to the back of the car. Yue was slumped in the back seat, her arms crossed and her lips forming a slight pout shape. She looked far smaller and less… unhinged than earlier. The scrapes and cuts on her legs were already healing thanks to the kraken mucus.
I gawked when I read her screen. She had only gotten two offers, a far cry from the original novel, but I hadn’t expected such a good divinity after her embarrassing loss.
POTENTIAL SPONSORS LIST
King of Resourceful Goblins
Far Shooting Queen of Beasts
I looked back and forth between the blue screen and Yue. “You got Artemis? You didn’t even do anything in the Prerequisite chapter!” I exclaimed, slightly jealous and fully ignoring the Goblin King’s offer.
“Beast class divinities usually don’t make offerings un—” I awkwardly paused, realizing I let too much slip. “Until they see something more impressive. At least they don’t in video games.”
“Ha, ‘impressive?’ Wait until I gut you,” she threatened, her eyes black holes.
Gut me??
“I’d like to see you try. It’s stupid for anyone to have made you an offer at all,” I said.
Yue snorted at my response. “You jealous?”
“Me? Jealous?!” I grabbed the back of Yang’s seat and leaned over to the back of the cab. “Hey, I didn’t spend the last two rounds blacked out in—” Yang let out an awkward laugh and clasped his hand over my mouth.
My fingertips gripped the front of my blue screen and shifted it in front of Yue’s view, showing her my list of offers.
“Oh,” she said.
[Observers Chat]
Socrates: It’s almost like you’re a cheap cosplay of Feiyu! Did you know observers might be able to sponsor stars after this arc? Better be nice to me :D
Socrates was really pissing me off. Besides, there was no way observers would get access to an abundance of stars when one needed to be a powerful god to have any impact…
I shot a judgmental look at Yue, my brown eyes narrowing to form an exaggerated expression, before I looked back at my own offers. The third was Athena, who was undeniably one of the most well-known mythological figures. If I had her, I’d receive the best war advice and immediate connections to the Greek divinities.
But…
My eyes wandered to the fourth offer. The kraken was by far the most powerful water beast in Surviving My First Run. And, of course, he had indirect anger toward Athena, since the sea serpent, a fellow water beast, was slain thanks to Athena lending Perseus Medusa’s head and a shield.
No one else in my party had any beast offerings or any water skills though, so lacking in those categories could put us at an early disadvantage—a disadvantage that Artemis could bridge. Especially in the fourth arc, which would take place in the middle of the sea with pirates and sirens, a beast or water disciple was crucial.
As for “Eternal Wish,” I had no idea who that was. I’d never even thought about a character with that name when writing Surviving My First Run. Given the rather weak and stupid epithet, I assumed he must have been a pathetic god.
“Wei, Yang, and Amelia, what offers did you get?”
Amelia looked nervous before speaking, brushing her hair behind her ear and looking down at the ground. Her voice was whisper. “I didn’t get any.”
Her expression was incredibly shy, almost ashamed like she was expecting better from herself. It reminded me of someone or something I couldn’t remember.
“It’s alright, that’s why we’re in a party.” I gave her a bright grin before rubbing the top of her head, her blonde hair immediately frizzing.
“Peijin is so understanding,” Wei chimed in from the backseat, turning over to Yue.
Yue rolled her eyes. “Yeah right. All of you are delusional,” she muttered, kicking her feet against the back of my seat to throw me forward into the steering wheel.
I looked up at Yang, who seemed to also be looking at Amelia with a mixture of fondness and protection. “Yang, who do you have?”
“I have Chang’e. She must be good for healing then, right? I can pick her if you think that’ll help the rest of the group.”
Chang’e was an incredibly popular and beloved goddess among Chinese culture, and she was frequently celebrated at the moon festival, but if Yang picked her, he’d be limited to being a healer. Even though that was a crucial role to every group, couldn’t Yang do more?
I looked up at him and inspected his features once more. In the mere time that the world had turned into this devastating apocalypse, he quickly adapted into a supporting role.
“Let me think about it. What about you, Wei?”
“Ah,” he said, seemingly startled, “I got the ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts.’”
My face lit up into a stupid grin as I gave him a massive double thumbs up. Some things remained the same as the web novel. “Pick him, that’s perfect.”
Without any hesitation, Wei selected his sponsor. Despite his almost intimidating appearance, he was an incredibly trusting and kind man, and his nature never changed, not even later into Surviving My First Run.
“I’m sorry Peijin, but I’m not as good at recognizing myths as you or Yang,” Wei said. “Who exactly is my sponsor?”
Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts lets out a booming laugh.
Divinity Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts sponsors 1,500 stars to all members of ‘Peijin’s World Dominion.’
I didn’t get what was so funny, but I appreciated the fat paycheck.
“’The Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is Archangel Michael. He’s one of the strongest divinities from the Abrahamic religions. Don’t worry about it, he’s perfect for you,” I reassured Wei. “He’s a symbol of justice and strength against evil.”
Wei’s face lit up, and he brought both of his hands in front of his face. “Do you really think so highly of me, Peijin?”
I let out an awkward laugh, patting his broad shoulder. I could see why Feiyu liked him—he was like a golden retriever. “Yeah, yeah, but don’t start crying or you’ll change my mind.”
[Time left: 6 minutes 29 seconds]
“Amelia, Yang, and Yue. Don’t pick a sponsor yet. The arc instructions show that there’s no failure, so there must be another time for us to pick a god in the future. I’ll pick first, and we’ll see if any of my gods move to one of you.”
Yue interjected. “Who are you picking?”
I tilted my chin up and narrowed my eyes arrogantly. “Sun Wukong.”
Her nostrils flared. “You can’t pick him!”
“And why not?”
“Do you really think a bitch like you should have a sponsor like him?” Yue snapped back, slight blue sparks at her hands.
Wei promptly covered Amelia’s ears and eyes.
I pulled my lower eyelid down and flipped her off. “What happened to all that big talk about how good your sponsors were? Careful, you might piss off your only good one, and then you’ll really be stuck at rock bottom,” I taunted relentlessly.
I moved to click on the glowing white “X” on the top corner of the blue box, but an invisible force suddenly slammed my hand into a different sponsor option.
[Congratulations! You have selected ‘Eternal Wish’ as your sponsor!]