Xie Antong: ?

Staring at the lighted gate just a short distance away, she wondered if she had misjudged the distance earlier.

She glanced at the others around her. Every single person wore a solemn expression, some even carrying a kind of resigned, face-death bravery. They stepped forward, walked ahead, and entered the Gate of Life and Death that belonged to them.

This game was different from any before. No one dared to be cocky; everyone only focused on themselves, confronting the fate they were about to face.

Xie Antong shook her head. Now was not the time to be distracted by Lu Ce. From a power standpoint, she should be the more dangerous one.

So she took another step forward. This time, the radiant door in front of her retreated by one whole meter, as clear as day!

Huh?

This door in front of her actually moves!

[Don’t rush, hehehe……]

Before she could think further, the answer arrived at her ear, proactive and seductive, announcing who had appeared.

Pleasure……

It wasn’t much different from her guess. Her opponent was Pleasure, a great god who already shared some Fate Connection with her.

“How… Pleasure, madam?” Xie Antong tested, unsure if a god could be addressed by gendered titles.

[Call me whatever you like, hehe.]

[Don’t rush. Let the others go first. How could our game be so by-the-book and boring?]

Watching the people around her disappear one by one, Xie Antong’s tense body slowly relaxed, a faint smile creeping to her lips.

“Is that so? Could it be that you’re too lazy to design the game?” she said.

[Oh? Hahahaha! Clever, fitting for someone who dared to snatch my power.]

Pleasure hesitated at first hearing Xie Antong’s voice, then burst into hearty, approving laughter.

[Yes! I’m too lazy to design, I’m even too lazy to participate. What’s the point? We should find amusement from others.]

“Spectators bring Pleasure, right?”

[Oh? That’s an interesting line. When you die, I’ll claim it as my original, hehe.]

Xie Antong’s heart tightened. Seeing most people had already gone, she asked, “Then when do we start?”

[Do you think our game hasn’t already started?]

[It already did. This light gate is just the arbitrator’s and the game’s stereotype, hehe. Boring folks.]

When the second-to-last player looked oddly at Xie Antong, who had not moved, then stepped through their own light gate……

The light gate in front of Xie Antong disappeared.

Could this place be the game arena itself? Where was Pleasure?!

Remembering what the god had said, she hurriedly opened her game interface to glean information from the Spectators.

[: What’s going on? Why is Blank’s screen black?]

[: No idea. I remember her name was on it, though.]

[: Never thought even the leader of Divine Punishment would obstruct our national enthusiasm for the game……]

[……]

Reading the scrolling barrage of comments—people’s confusion and complaints—Xie Antong froze.

People can’t see the interface on her side?

[Correct. Our game has begun, a special mode exclusive to us. No one can see what’s happening here.]

[The arbitrator’s rules fixed this from the start. If a god participates in a game, it must be livestreamed and cannot be shut off midstream, supposedly to let everyone perceive the game’s power.]

[What is there to “perceive”? The votes are done. Once you’re all dead, let the world descend—end of story.]

Xie Antong: ……

She didn’t know what to say. Unpredictable beings with inscrutable motives were the most troublesome. This god she had provoked was absolutely the greatest enemy of her “rationality.”

Our game has already begun? What are the rules? What do we play?

[Ah, look at your expression. It’s a bit tedious, acting so serious. Not as fun as your little boyfriend.]

[Don’t pretend. You think I don’t see? Both of you bear the mark of Lust.]

[By the way, this act of feigned hostility is pretty amusing. I wonder which of you came up with it—one called Sin and the other Divine Punishment. Sin and Punishment, huh?]

Pleasure’s voice was full of teasing, paying no mind to the human-god duel. It was pure mischief.

Before Xie Antong could respond, Pleasure continued:

[Do you think your man will die today?]

Xie Antong raised a brow, inwardly irritated that the god kept bringing up Lu Ce in her game,

but this time she did not evade the topic. Instead she said resolutely,

“Of course not!”

[Oh? Why not?]

“Because if a story introduces a gun, it must be fired!” Xie Antong said calmly. “He will not die here.”

“If he dies now, then everything that happened so far will be meaningless.”

“That won’t be the story’s ending.”

Pleasure froze for a moment, then erupted in laughter. The god did not expect Xie Antong to unintentionally mirror what Pleasure had said yesterday.

“Hahahaha! Do you think you’re writing a novel? Do you think he’s the protagonist of this world?”

“I’ve seen countless people like you. Before their lives end abruptly and unfairly, they all feel they are the destined protagonist.”

“Still, a person like you is a bit more interesting to me.”

As Pleasure spoke, the heavens and earth stirred. Violent divine power surged. A humanoid shape began to coalesce before Xie Antong.

Perhaps because only the two of them were present and the outside world couldn’t see, Pleasure manifested a distinct human figure.

It was a woman roughly Xie Antong’s height, an absolutely stunning face with pronounced features. Merely standing there, she carried the sense of chiaroscuro lines appearing automatically in a sketch.

Her overall makeup was deep, shadowy, like a queen in darkness.

Xie Antong felt her soul sucked toward that silhouette, an alien, beguiling sensation. Only after a long moment did she come back to herself.

This was the first time—perhaps the first time a human—had ever seen a god’s true appearance.

Her instinctive first question was: “Do you gods actually have genders?”

Pleasure: ……

A faint smile lifted at Pleasure’s mouth.

[That reaction of yours is amusing, hehe.]

[Do you honestly think fifty-some challengers mean we have fifty gods?]

Xie Antong realized she had never considered that angle.

“So you might use one to handle multiple players?”

[Hehe, of course. We aren’t that numerous. Some don’t want to act, or cannot act.]

[Most times one god will split into different avatars to handle different people.]

[But there are also 1v1 cases, like that ‘Sin’!]

Pleasure let a strange smile creep across the face.

[A stable True God, concentrating all divine attention to kill him. Do you still think he can surely succeed?]

Xie Antong paid little mind to that. She knew she was facing Pleasure and could not spare attention for Lu Ce.

She only asked in surprise, “A stable True God? What do you mean—unstable among you?”

Pleasure’s dazzlingly beautiful, slightly shocking face furrowed. The god spoke displeasedly:

[Here we go again. You always test me pointlessly. You could just be more cheerful.]

[Due to particular reasons, before that Sin fellow dies, I did not plan to kill you. Just play with me a little.]

Xie Antong raised a brow and blurted almost on instinct,

“Oh? Because of Agony?”

The moment she spoke she knew she’d misspoken.

[Hehe……]

A violent, murderous aura suffused the scene, suffocating the place and making Xie Antong feel breathless.

That voice, threaded with flirtatious charm, replied gently:

[Little miss, I think you really want to die, huh~]

[I’ll give you three minutes to think up a game that amuses me.]

[Otherwise, I won’t bother with rules. I’ll crush you, wear your skin, and then go kill that guy too!]

Clearly Pleasure was extremely emotional right now. Xie Antong wondered if gods really could have hormones and temperaments…

Seeing this smiling elder sister before her, she had no doubt mentioning Agony had driven Pleasure into a frenzy.

At times like this, the god might forget all restraint and game rules. She was certain that if she didn’t say something, Pleasure would devour her.

She came to challenge Pleasure, yet the god was telling her to think up a game?

Frankly, this was grossly upside-down and absurd.

Time seemed to stall in heavy silence. Xie Antong knew Pleasure shouldn’t be treated as normal.

What would he—Pleasure—do?

Finding the balance between madness and reason, she would be contending for divine power, possibly even a divine seat.

Ignoring Pleasure’s threat, Xie Antong slowly closed her eyes.

During those two minutes her smile gradually grew, until finally it matched Pleasure’s curve exactly.

Just as Pleasure prepared to strike, she finally spoke slowly:

“Hehe, Pleasure, right?”

“Let’s do this. I haven’t worked out the details.”

“But… they go play games, how about we play them?”

The oppressive divine force and killing intent slowly dissipated.

Hmm?

……

“You actually came to play?”

A voice came from behind Lu Ce. Divine power condensed and a white-robed figure of ambiguous gender, its face blurred, materialized out of thin air.

Lu Ce did not turn around. He bent to pick up a pebble from the ground and threw it, making it skip across the water.

In truth, he was simply skipping stones!

Since he entered, it was a sprawling white beach, and before him an endless azure sea.

No god, no opponent—nothing—but he wasn’t in a hurry. The stone was perfect for skipping, so he kept at it.

Thus, his livestream’s hundreds of millions of viewers watched him skip stones for over an hour!

He remained completely unflustered, demonstrating remarkable patience in strategic composure.

His demeanor seemed even grander than the gods’. If the corresponding god didn’t show up, he could keep going indefinitely.

But Knowledge couldn’t hold back any longer.

[I am Knowledge.]

[I am the Ender of your life.]

He stepped forward to Lu Ce’s side. The two stared at the boundless sea like friends.

“Oh, never heard of you.” Lu Ce’s tone and expression carried a hint of disappointment, as if asking—why this no-name came to face me?

Knowledge: #

The god found it odd—this fellow was looking down on him?

Is he mad?!

[Aren’t you going to ask me anything?]

Lu Ce’s hand froze; he paused skipping the stone, turned around, and looked earnestly at the blurred white-robed figure.

“Um……”

“Are you male or female?”

—————————

All right everyone, this second volume, “Sin and Punishment,” ends here.

For narrative continuity, I cut straight into the human-god duel, so today’s update is one long post instead of multiple chapters.

Directly stepping into wagering with gods means we are entering the book’s final volume, “Divine Cantata.”

We’ve finally reached the final content. The last volume will be the book’s conclusion.

So far this novel has two complete volumes across the earlier seven hundred-plus chapters.

That means the book has traversed roughly two-thirds of its course, more or less.

The final volume is the hardest to write, but also the easiest.

Easiest because it’s mostly explosive climaxes—very convenient to write. Hardest because it must wrap things up; all the planted plot threads must be resolved simultaneously.

I didn’t dig too many pits. The major ones are Agony’s death mystery and the gods’ lingering survival. Smaller ones include the mask, Pleasure, Despair, Agony’s relationships, and what Nie Jiu Tian heard.

Everyone knows my style is the standard big male-lead focused perspective.

But in the final volume, with closure needed, every character’s spotlight must be gathered.

So my approach will change slightly.

Lu Ce will still be the absolute center, but surrounding figures will receive an almost ensemble treatment.

People touched by him, infected by him, those who love him, hate him, his rivals and admirers—tied together for this life-and-death wager with the gods for various reasons.

These characters are vivid in my mind and must be written. I’m not particularly skilled at ensemble writing, so I’ll organize the outline a bit more.

Updates will continue as usual.

You can tell me which character arcs you hope to see; I’ll check my outline for anyone I might have missed—probably none.

If you’ve followed this far, I hope you’ll stick to the end. I don’t have lofty hopes for this book’s performance—it didn’t beat several contemporaries…

But if readers follow sporadically, some threads may be forgotten. I hope you’ll accompany Camp Leader of the Fallen and this book to the end (this path may not be short).

Also, please consider tipping. Free love-driven updates are nice too. (○｀ 3′○)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep