I wrestled with the sword, gritting my teeth by the amount of energy that was being forced through my arm. Stumbling backwards, I could feel my grip on the hilt beginning to slip, and the red eye darted all around the room as if taking in the sights for the very first time.

“Peijin!” Wei immediately reached out to try and help steady the hilt, but it suddenly zapped him with a violent spark of yellow electricity. He reeled back in pain, clutching his completely seared hand.

My eyes matched the panic of the red one embedded into the dao. “Don’t come near me!” I shouted, taking a few stumbling steps back in a futile attempt to distance myself.

Observer 'Socrates': Jia Li! Let go!

Divinity 'Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is warning you to let go!

A sudden burst of electricity shot out from my arm, sending beams of sparks and streams of lightning out and across the room. I let out a surprised shout, curling up to try and avoid the sporadic bursts. Lightning? Was this... karma?

Amelia let out a horrified scream and barely dodged a massive bolt before Wei quickly picked her up with his non-injured arm and shielded her.

An ominous burgundy began to creep up my arm before shooting up to my shoulder with alarming speed, a deep black following suit. In fact, it was such a deep shade it looked as if my arm had simply vanished entirely. The blue screens around me flashed with that familiar bright red, but the sparks suddenly froze.

Scathing Reviewer activated!

At once, the flying sparks immediately calmed down, and all the screens returned to their familiar blue color. The growing red and black patches on my arm were suddenly stamped out; my regular skin returned in large patches as if it were being slapped on. My arm was glitching back to its original appearance chunk by chunk.

I let out a loud sigh of relief as I felt the energy sizzle out, but my eyes quickly widened at the image remaining on my arm. Now, just above my wrist and stretching partway up my forearm was a black ink tattoo; it depicted a crashing and inflamed building as a female goddess and demon were tearing it down. Lightning and fire erupted, the two parties raining heaven and hell down upon the structure. Just below the piece, Chinese characters marked my skin in blurry writing: the Tower.

With a blinding flash, Chang appeared while the background of the dungeon slowly shifted back into the moving train, the posters once more plastered onto the wall.

[My system reported that there was an unusual amount of spiritual energy here.]

Chang spoke nervously, a massive array of blue screens in front of him. He was anxiously swiping them away, yet more continued to pop up like he had a system virus. The eye in the dao continued to stare at me before blinking once.

Immediately, the entire train came to a crashing halt. Amelia let out a scream, but Yue quickly calmed her while Chang panicked more.

[Peijin! You’re emitting too much spiritual energy—you’re going to destroy the arc!]

“I'm not emitting any spiritual energy!"

The lights in the train burned out with a frightening, “pop!” that shot the train into complete darkness except for the blue screens lighting up before Chang.

Chang turned to me, gripping my ears with his pointy claws and violently shaking my head.

[I mean it, Peijin, so stop fooling around! If you take advantage of this much spiritual energy so early on, you’re going to summon a calamity. I don't care if you're a god of fortune and fate!]

Divinity 'Supreme Commander of Heavenly Hosts' is deeply disturbed by the spiritual power you’re emitting.

At Chang's words, my entire party froze behind me. I let out an awkward laugh, grabbing Chang and removing his hands from my ears. I could feel the eyes of my entire party on me.

Observer 'Socrates': God of fortune and fate? Hahaha is that what you told them?

Observer 'Hedgehog1938': Peijin is a god??? No fucking way

Observer 'Rei10': This must have been what they talked about when Chang turned off the broadcast!

Yue's voice rang out first. "You're a god? That's how you've known everything?"

With hurt and bewildered eyes, Yang silently stared at me, his lips tilted downward in a small frown. If anyone knew I was lying, it would be him—and I refused to meet his eyes.

The metro began to tremble violently, the entire train rumbling before lurching into the air, bouncing on the metal tracks. It creaked and groaned, seeming to cry out in pain as loud bangs were heard around the metal.

This wasn’t right—really, this wasn't right at all. It was impossible for a mere disciple to emit spiritual energy unless they themselves were a god, and even so, the sheer amount present around me would throw the arc into complete chaos. If I potentially received this spiritual energy from another force, they were indescribably powerful to have bypassed all of the system controls and karma.

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I grasped my head, quickly panicking as my breaths became shallow and rapid. If a calamity spawned here, at this very moment… all of us would die. Absolutely nothing could save us. God or not, I wouldn't be able to save them.

With my unmarked hand, I immediately dug my nails into the tattoo, desperately trying to tear it off. “Dammit…” I grumbled, my voice a desperate whisper bordering on a plea. “Dammit!”

Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ is pleading with you to stop!

Yang stumbled towards me, grabbing my tattooed arm and quickly pulling it back. His eyes peered into mine, and his expression seemed to demand that I calm down.

I let out a shaky breath as my arms fell to my side, slowly taking in one breath at a time to try and calm down. The presence of the other party members slowly grew around me, and I could feel their reassuring presence.

Wei’s voice was a deep hum in the sound of screeching metal. “Peijin, please, calm down. If there’s a calamity, we’ll deal with it as always.”

What stupid, childish naivety.

I would have thought the same, too, except that this was all wrong. None of this could exist in the world I created.

Yue said nothing, but I could feel her hair gently brush my shoulder, signaling to me that she was nearby as well. Amelia clung onto the loose fabric of my pants tightly, and I could feel her straining the cotton material.

A deep breath and subsequent sigh helped me loosen my tense shoulders, and the spiritual energy ceased immediately. Before my identity as a pest control worker, before my identity as Wu Peijin, before my identity as a god, I was a writer. I wasn’t limited by the confines of my own work.

“It’s probably my sponsor that’s providing the spiritual power,” I declare resolutely, any hint of panic vanishing from my voice. “I’m still convinced they influenced the sponsorship selection, which means they’d be powerful enough to allow me to wield this weapon.”

I continued to inspect the sword before me. It was undoubtedly a spiritual weapon—therefore, similar to my purple coat, it had a consciousness of its own, yet it was forever bound to its creator. Some were deeply sentimental items that had ascended with the god; others were forged by the most talented and skilled blacksmiths. However, a very select few required the sacrifice of a loved or sacred life.

My eyes flitted over to Wei.

I looked down at the sword and smiled, petting the hilt. “Aren’t you cute!” I cooed, running my hand over the blade. “What should I name you? You don’t have an engraving.”

Yue’s face twisted into one of complete distaste and embarrassment. “Peijin, have you seriously lost it? Yang and Wei, you need to stop enabling her.”

The sword 's eye pressed into a small crescent as if it were smiling before it vibrated and grew larger.

The train immediately calmed down, the banging stopped, and the lights flickered back on, revealing my disgruntled party and a very stressed Chang.

[Wha-?]

My hands clapped together, and I was truly overjoyed in such a seemingly odd moment. Spiritual weapons were only attune to a few people—people they had an immediate bond or soul connection with. “Aw, you’re just like a puppy,” I laughed, continuing to pet the sword. “Should I name you?”

“Peijin, the next set of dungeon rooms are going to start soon,” Yang whispered into my ear, trying not to bother me. "Or should I call you a god?

I froze at his words. That's right, he absolutely knew.

“Then go inspect the posters,” I retorted. “Let me play around with this sword.”

The red eye blinked at me joyously now, and I decided to run my fingers directly down the sharpened edge; however, it immediately dulled itself upon sensing my intentions before sharpening after I removed my hand.

“What was your past name?” I whisper quietly to the sword.

It jumped out of my hands, floating in the air before carving it into the metal walls of the metro.

“Appalling Horror of Bloody Fangs, but my owner called me ‘haimo.’”

“... that’s not a very fitting or pretty name.”

My brows furrowed, my expression deep in thought, before I came up with a response. “What about ‘zhige?’ ‘Zhi’ for infantile, and ‘ge’ for dove.”

Zhige moved to etch a response on the wall, but blue sparks appeared before Zhige clanged on the ground, having fallen. Well, he wasn't fully immune to karma then.

I leaned down, picking up the blade and staring at the wide snake eye. “Zhige it is, unless you’d rather go back to being haimo."

Yang’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “Peijin, is your poster depicting a-”

“Yang, don’t try and change the subject!” Yue shouted. “What the hell is your poster? Are you some pervert?!”

“W-what?” Yang exclaimed, flinching back from her, his hands hovering in front of him as if he was trying to slowly back away from a predator.

Yue took more steps forward, her hands on her hips. “I’m going to be so pissed off if I ended up in a party with a dirty pervert! I’ll kill you myself!”

Observer 'Hedgehog1939': OH MY GOD NO WAY

Divinity ‘Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts’ stares awkwardly at the poster.

Wei was attempting to distract Amelia with his own poster, pointing out the beautiful details. Out of all of the ones displayed, Wei’s was the most gorgeous. Stunning, pastel colors, lavish red temples with dark cyan tiled ceilings, and a man dressed in all white in the center with ribbons of gold and red swirling around him.

“I swear! I’m not a pervert! Why the hell would I be into plants?”

“Then explain your poster, you creep!”

Yang covered his flushed cheeks with his hands, clearly deeply embarrassed and flustered. Taking another step forward, Yue was about to hoist him up by his collar, but the train suddenly opened up to a vast bridge.

The party quickly exited to find themselves beside white pest control. Looking down, beautiful ripples of water were formed from the razor sharp spikes of a sea serpent slicing through the black waves.

Amelia let out a violent shriek as she noticed the dead, deformed puppy in her arms, and with a deafening explosion, the serpent leapt out of the water and toward the freeway.

Custom rooms now commencing!

Tailored to: Disciple Amelia Silva.