【With the expansion of your territory and infamy, your Divine Status has risen once more.】
【Low-Tier Deity, Grade II → Low-Tier Deity, Grade III】
【Some restricted functions have been unlocked.】
When someone loses, someone else is bound to gain.
Through the split-screen display, Lin Miao stared blankly as the ant colony rampaged as if through an uninhabited land, completely subduing the entire region. When he saw the notification pop up, his eyes widened in surprise.
“That was faster than I expected.”
The ant colony's life was his life; the ant colony's strength was his strength.
Although Lin Miao had anticipated that his Divine Status would continuously rise as the ant colony expanded, the speed of it was still faster than he had imagined.
【The Queen Ant is highly satisfied with this Predation.】
Lin Miao rose from his seat and walked over to the terrarium.
Only a messy pile of remains was left inside. The ant colony had just hunted down the new insect he had placed inside and brought it before the Queen Ant.
With this, the Queen Ant had once again completed its molting and growth.
This First Generation Queen Ant, at the cost of degrading all future queens into mere egg-laying machines, had become a unique existence within the colony. Now, its body had grown even larger, and its brain had become more developed accordingly.
“The tiger beetle was a success. Should I give them a grasshopper next to let them gain leg strength? Or maybe a dragonfly? Is a dragonfly too big?”
Lin Miao calculated silently in his mind.
Having devoured tiger-head hornets and absorbed bombardier beetles, the ant colony—especially the Queen Ant—had begun to yearn for brand-new growth after obtaining more spoils from their expanded territory.
Lin Miao's role was to match their needs by introducing the appropriate inducements.
He still had plenty of specimens around him that could be used for experiments.
The current ant colony was indeed continuously transforming in the direction Lin Miao was guiding them.
The new prey Lin Miao had bought for them this time was a tiger beetle.
This insect possessed formidable combat power and incredible dynamic vision. Through Predation, the Queen Ant would absorb its unique abilities, self-modify, and breed a brand-new mutated ant species.
【The Queen Ant believes that there must be a brand-new method that is far more efficient and powerful than the existing system.】
However, the ant colony's continuous evolution, especially the Queen Ant's rising intelligence, also brought new worries to Lin Miao.
“Is it really okay to just leave this terrarium... like this?”
Lin Miao's gaze fell once again upon the ordinary-looking terrarium.
An ant colony's intelligence rising to an intermediate level was actually the most dangerous phase.
If the colony, especially the Queen Ant, realized the truth about the terrarium trapping them and began to explore or even try to escape, what would happen then?
As intelligence grew, curiosity would inevitably expand along with it.
This was by no means a groundless worry on Lin Miao's part.
Stories of creations challenging their creators were all too common.
“Hmm...”
Imagining that scene, Lin Miao involuntarily shuddered and let out a low groan.
They wouldn't blindly obey a single order from him, their high-and-mighty deity, with absolute certainty right now. If their intelligence rose even further and they began to ponder various things, trouble would definitely arise.
This matter was officially added to Lin Miao's list of worries.
Although he had not figured out what to do yet, he had to start somewhere.
【Browsing permissions for the Divine Net Forum have been unlocked.】
Looking at the new system notification, Lin Miao was secretly astonished. A forum where deities can communicate with each other? To think such a place actually exists.
This rise in his Divine Status had also opened a door for him to acquire more information.
After confirming the detailed instructions regarding the Divine Net Forum, Lin Miao clicked into it with a trace of nervousness.
【*This is a restricted function.】
Although he could not log in as a fully fledged deity yet, he could at least lurk silently in the background.
Staring at this brand-new world he had never imagined before, Lin Miao was speechless for a long time.
[God of Ten Thousand Machines: Who is the deity guiding human activities in the southern continent of Terra?]
[Imperial Regent: A summary table of planets frequented by Outer Gods and their servants.]
[God of Order: As promised, announcing the list of successful candidates for the Alliance's third round.]
...
The Divine Net Forum, just as its name suggested, was a gathering place for deities who used the Divine Net.
The moment he saw this, Lin Miao froze completely, doing nothing but staring intently at the content.
Lin Miao did not know if they were actually typing out these posts and replies, or if the Divine Net was automatically translating them to fit his comprehension. However, the atmosphere here was exactly like the online forums he was familiar with.
This came as quite a shock to him.
Lin Miao had never imagined that deities, revered as supreme existences in certain worlds, would actually seem so human.
There were serious, high-and-mighty deities putting on airs, as well as those who spoke in lighthearted, crude tones as if they were just surfing the web.
This was even more shocking than the private messages filled with profanity and emotion he had received before.
So this is how they maintain their so-called order.
After sitting and reading for several hours, Lin Miao gained a general concept of this brand-new world.
Deities competed with one another, developing their own territories and servants to raise their Divine Status.
But if they simply engaged in reckless slaughter, the end result would only be mutual destruction.
Through the Divine Net, they had established an orderly system akin to a sports league, conducting their competition within set rules.
Because of this, Lin Miao finally understood why they harbored such intense hatred and disgust toward Outer Gods who did not belong to the Divine Net.
To the Outer Gods, this so-called fair and just competition was nothing but a stumbling block that disrupted order—an obstacle that had to be eliminated.
And Lin Miao, because of this uncontrolled colony of ants, could now openly enter their community. Consequently, he was treated as an Outer God by them.
As Lin Miao scrolled through the forum pages, he suddenly let out a soft exclamation. “Huh?”
A section named 【Earth】 on the page caught his eye.
Although he had long anticipated that deities would intervene on Earth, this was the first time he had seen such clear proof.
Naturally, as if drawn in by some spell, he clicked into the section.
[God of Order: So, has anyone figured out who is behind the interference happening in the Dragon Nation right now?]
[Eye of the Void: No, the scope is too limited.]
[Crimson Dragon Emperor: Because of that guy, how many rifts have already disappeared? This must be counted toward our performance metrics.]
After clicking in, the very first post Lin Miao saw was about the phenomenon of disappearing rifts in the Dragon Nation.
In other words, a post about him.
Lin Miao was secretly surprised. They still don't know it's me?
Beneath the original post, other deities were venting their frustrations one after another.
Judging by their reactions, they clearly had no idea of Lin Miao's existence.
[God of Compassion: It must be someone with a Transcendent Divine Status. Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible to have the power to directly erase a rift opened by that Outer God, Abhoth.]
[God of Order: But if that's really the case, who on earth directly descended? Everyone knows that Earth, a high-tier world with billions of people and a unique civilization, is an unclaimed territory that we agreed to enter together, right?]
After reading through the posts and comments, Lin Miao finally understood the cause of their confusion.
The beginning of the era of global cataclysm about twenty years ago was triggered by those monsters emerging from rifts—the servants of the Outer Gods.
[God of Courage: That won't do. Earth is destined to belong to the victor among us. We absolutely cannot let some unknown spoiler ruin everything.]
To prevent Earth—a juicy piece of meat with countless humans but no deity claiming it as territory—from being snatched away by the Outer Gods, the deities of the Divine Net had agreed to enter together. It was precisely because of this that the Awakened training system was born on Earth.
However, while these deities, who had other worlds as their home bases, could exert indirect influence on Earth, they were unable to directly intervene.
This was an absolute law.
Yet this self-evident common sense was beginning to be shattered by Lin Miao, who had awakened in an abnormal way through the rampaging ants.
...If this were ever made public, it would definitely be the discovery of the century.
Lin Miao suddenly thought of the countless people who, even now, were still endlessly debating the origins and causes of the monsters and the Awakened, and he let out a weak, mocking laugh.
Various religions bickered with one another, each claiming to hold the absolute truth, while scientists published research papers daily to share their findings.
Yet at this very moment, he was the only one in the world who knew the ultimate, hidden truth.
Of course, even if he were to reveal everything exactly as it was, no one would believe him anyway.
“Still, the more I look at these so-called deities, the more ridiculous they seem.”
After that, Lin Miao continued to browse through the numerous posts made by the deities in the Earth section, unable to help but let out a cold laugh.
They claimed to have come to stop the indiscriminately invading Outer Gods.
Yet in the end, weren't they also trying to occupy Earth, claim it as their own territory, and use it as a springboard to conquer other worlds?
[Goddess of the Lake: By the way, isn't it about time for the Awakened system to be updated?]
[God of Compassion: America is just cheating too much, and they have way too many allies.]
[God of Order: Looking at it this way, we'll need to release more high-grade equipment in this update, won't we?]
Only now did Lin Miao understand that their method of competing on Earth was through the Awakened.
After applying the jointly created Awakened system to Earth, the deities took the awakened humans as their servants. The achievements these people made on this land would then be counted as the deities' own performance metrics.
“To think there was such an inside story.”
Lin Miao had once yearned to become an Awakened but was ultimately left unchosen by the system. At this moment, he found it incredibly absurd and couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.
He had never imagined that behind this system, which had been manipulated from the very beginning, stood such a group of onlookers.
Of course, no one believed that this system, including the status windows, had formed naturally, but nobody could have guessed that its purpose was actually this.
At the very top of the forum, an administrator announcement was pinned:
[Announcement: List your items on the Exchange. After the system update, we plan to increase the number of Awakened, so we must dump a large amount of low-grade equipment.]
Looking at this announcement, Lin Miao's heart stirred. The Exchange?
In the process, he discovered something.
And that was the method the deities used to intervene in the Awakened system.
Shockingly, all of this took place right inside this Divine Net Forum.
The deities invested their own wealth into the Awakened system, and the corresponding benefits would fall into the hands of their respective factions on Earth.
Those large Awakened corporations and organizations well-known in various countries.
Incredibly, they were all just like the beastkin and the Church of the Goddess of Light who had fought the ant colony before—nothing more than tools used by the deities to smoothly manage their servants on Earth.
【*This is a restricted function.】
Although he was currently blocked by the notification of the restricted function, Lin Miao's heart began to pound wildly.
Even if he could not directly intervene, just being able to peek at these insider secrets like this meant he could reap no small amount of benefits from it.
He did not even need to rack his brain to come up with any complex methods.
As long as Lin Miao bought stocks in the rising Awakened stars and related corporations that the deities bragged about in their posts, his money would grow like a rolling snowball.
And the more he knew, the more he could do, allowing him to achieve even greater goals.
Rate on N.U.
