I am the God of Games

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Arrival

Having read a lot of isekai web novels1 before he had transmigrated, Xi Wei found that those that had supernatural abilities all had clear stages and ranks, for example: Bronze, Silver, and Gold or Sword Scholar, Sword Emperor, and Sword Sage.

But coming to this world, he realized that the same could not be said for this world.

Of course, it was a given that there would be a difference in prowess between different people. But in a world filled with deities, martial prowess could not completely correspond to reputation and social standing.

In the Brilliant White Church which worshipped one of the Seven Heavenly Fathers-God of Light Lyante, there was a seemingly complete ranking system for paladins going from Revered Knight→ Honorable Knight→Glorious Knight→Divine Knight.

However, a vast majority of people ranked as Honorable Knights were aristocrats who had bought their way up to that position by buying Divine Grace Tickets. The same could be said for Glorious Knights too-many of them had achieved that rank without being qualified for it. Speaking purely in terms of ability, these people could not even hold a candle to a soldier who had earned their title as a Praised Knight through military merit. The only ones which still held some degree of authority were the Divine Knights-as that rank could only be appointed by a deity.

So in 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 everyday life-to the point where a year's worth of prayer might not even amount to an aristocrat's daily offering of Illuminating Crystals.

Even in this world full of deities, there would only be a few lucky ones who could grab the attention of a deity at birth and become Chosen Ones or Saints (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 deity.

This was reality after all, and deities were not powerful and all-knowing. It was understood that this sort of situation would happen in a society completely controlled by humans.

However, this granted Xi Wei an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. 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!

Perhaps it was because he was a transmigrator that Xi Wei realized that aside from the abilities the original God of Games had, he discovered that he could freely transverse the barriers between the different realms. Even though it was somewhat restricting, he had a pretty large advantage when compared to other deities.

Normally, a deity would be bound by the natural laws of the world, and could only descend to the mortal realm in three ways:

The first way would be through an oracle, where the deity would attach wisps of their consciousness to an item blessed by them or on an idol created in their image, or by directly entering the dreams of a devout believer1. Most prophecies and divine proclamations were passed to the mortal realm through this method.

The second way would be through possession, where the deity would possess one of their Chosen Ones as their temporary vessel. The amount of power a deity would be able to utilize in this state would depend directly on the capacity of the vessel, and how much they would be able to withstand. That being said, the capacity of a Chosen One favored by a deity would not be low in the first place.

The final way would be through astral projection, where the deity would temporarily project an astral shadow of themselves to the mortal realm, damaging their divinity in the process. This would be the strongest form a deity would be able to take without violating the natural laws, holding around 80% of their original power. Even a random third-grade deity's astral shadow would be able to rival a legendary warrior, let alone deities of even higher power.