The first to surround him were naturally the agents from the Special Accidents Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They consciously formed a circle, preventing irrelevant personnel from peeking inside.

The medical specialists from the logistics department, all extraordinary individuals, quickly and carefully examined David's injuries.

David's injuries were quite severe. Large areas of skin on his body were split open, revealing bone.

The wounds were charred black, and the exposed muscle tissue shimmered faintly with the residual red-hot glow of high-temperature burning.

These wounds were all inflicted by his opponent using lightning strikes.

The life essence of first-tier players is far stronger than that of ordinary creatures, especially martial arts cultivators like David. Even without any armor,

ordinary energy attacks couldn't leave marks on his body, which had been tempered thousands of times.

Not to mention that David's uniform was a perfect-quality piece of protective gear produced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, capable of greatly reducing external energy damage.

The severity of his injuries was enough to imagine the intense battle that had erupted on the storm-shrouded island.

David waved off his companions who were trying to cast healing spells. He took a glass bottle filled with high-concentration holy water from his inventory, opened the cap, and sprinkled the holy water on his wounds.

As the strongest member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the holder of the Stargate, David naturally receives the organization's full support.

This bottle of high-concentration holy water from the Roman Catholic Church had a much better healing effect than the expensive medium healing potions in the game store.

It could even revive the dead and regrow limbs when used on ordinary people.

But when the holy water was sprinkled on the wounds, wisps of blue smoke immediately rose. Instead of healing immediately, it entered a stalemate with the wounds.

The torn muscle tissue was created and destroyed, over and over, still charred black, emitting a meaty aroma, and unable to heal for a long time.

The onlookers outside the human wall were clueless,

but David himself, several high-level officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and many first-tier players in the Sky Arena, all changed color.

The fact that it could weaken or even negate the healing effect of holy water proved that the level of power contained in the wound was definitely no lower than the power of faith accumulated by the Roman Catholic Church for thousands of years.

“…”

David stared at his wound, remained silent for a few seconds, exchanged glances with the high-level officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and teleported out of the Sky Arena with tacit understanding, obviously to go to a base in the real world for secret talks.

Their departure only confirmed the ominous premonition in everyone's heart, and soon another group of players hesitated and teleported away.

“What exactly is this…”

The Plague Doctor was confused and dumbfounded. Out of the corner of his eye, he subconsciously glanced at the people next to him and noticed that the Whale Song Four were looking solemn, while Li Ang had a thoughtful expression.

What had just appeared in the Sky Arena did indeed look like Thor, the God of Thunder. Although Li Ang wasn't there and couldn't feel the other party's aura,

the way divine power was used in the scene was exactly the same as his swamp divine power.

Buzz—

Soon, the friend communication list vibrated, and more than a dozen short messages were sent at the same time.

They were from Xing Hechou, Hohenheim, Side of Truth, David, Fuxiao, and others.

Opening the short messages, the general idea was to ask him to go to a conference room in the Global Supernatural Alliance Building on the game plaza, as there was something important to discuss.

Something that could alarm so many organizations and top-level extraordinary individuals at once was naturally no small matter.

Li Ang scanned the entire Sky Arena. Those familiar faces nodded to him, and they teleported away one after another. The Black Wooden Horse next to him also hesitated and said, "Brother Li..."

"I know."

Li Ang nodded to the Black Wooden Horse and the others, teleported out of the Sky Arena, and headed to the game plaza.

————

Dozens of people gathered in the conference room of the Global Supernatural Alliance, either the heads of various organizations and guilds, or representatives of political entities.

Basically, it could encompass the top forces of the current Earth, or rather, human civilization on Earth (some organizations had already started trans-Stargate colonization).

"Is Michael there too?"

As an individual player not affiliated with any force, and also one of the few Cataclysm-level existences, Li Ang had the right to sit alone in the conference room without being disturbed. He coldly observed the familiar faces in the conference room.

As the conference room gradually filled up, slight discussions could be heard around him.

"What exactly is going on? Why did the Global Supernatural Alliance summon us? What's about to happen?"

"It might be about David's matter? It's said that he was attacked by thunder in the Sky Arena?"

"Have the gods really awakened... Then won't the Vatican..."

"Shh, keep your voice down. The meeting is starting."

Arina of the Global Supernatural Alliance walked to the middle seat of the conference room. On the left was the virtual projection of the nominal leader of the Global Supernatural Alliance, and on the right was Michael, completely hidden in silver armor.

"Ahem,"

Arina pressed the microphone button and cleared her throat. As the representative of the Global Supernatural Alliance, she began to speak, "Everyone present is a representative of various forces. Some of you have already received the news privately, so I'll make it short.

Just now, David of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who is also our Earth's first-tier player, encountered someone who resembled Thor, the God of Thunder from Norse mythology, in the seventh battle of the Si Ming Battle's rematch.

The two sides engaged in a fierce battle, which ultimately ended with David's defeat. And after the experts dispatched by various guild organizations determined, the injuries on David's body did indeed come from high-level divine power erosion..."

"What?!"

Slight exclamations rang out in the conference room, but everyone present was a representative of various forces, and they quickly and consciously lowered their voices.

Arina merely glanced in the direction of the sound, was not affected, and continued, "However, there is no more evidence to prove that it was 'the Earth's' and 'the real' Thor, the God of Thunder.

Today, the Global Supernatural Alliance, together with the Special Affairs Bureau, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, European Heavy Industries, and other organizations, is jointly holding this meeting to reveal to you the follow-up processing situation of the King Shibi incident a few months ago."

With that said, Arina pressed a button on the table and pulled up several holographic projection patterns, all of which were religious relics such as Deer Park and St. Peter's Basilica... ruins.

"After King Shibi sent a warning, several of our organizations jointly formulated a plan to

demolish or relocate some religious relics,

seal or destroy some ancient books related to religion and mythology,

and spread controllable memetic weapons in the network and reality,

gradually weakening or even erasing the faith in gods in ordinary people's minds.

As of now, we have solved 80% of the religious buildings and 70% of the religious mythological works (including ancient books and modern books, as well as artistic forms such as movies, TV series, and video games).

According to the average value of the 'World Faith Index Assessment' given by various expert teams, we have successfully reduced the 'total output value of mind power' of the Earth's people to 37% of the original."

"World Faith Index" and "Total Output Value of Mind Power" are internal terms of the Global Supernatural Alliance, but their literal meaning is easy to understand.

Moreover, the actions of the Global Supernatural Alliance and other organizations to weaken the influence of the gods were basically public—there were no religious buildings such as temples, Taoist temples, and churches in the buildings of various cities.

Even the door gods and gods of wealth images pasted by ordinary people at home were considered contraband.

However, religious mythology is an important part of modern culture after all, and it is difficult to completely eradicate it all at once. Even a behemoth like the Roman Catholic Church can only weaken its influence, but cannot be directly wiped out.

"After completing the reduction of the global total output of mind power,

due to some well-known reasons, including organizations such as the Special Affairs Bureau, trans-Stargate colonization was started, further reducing the global population and incidentally weakening the source of the gods' power of faith.

According to the common sense of mysticism, these measures should be able to successfully slow down the awakening speed of the gods of various pantheons, but the observation results show anomalies."

Arina continued to call up the holographic projection. In religious buildings such as the Sistine Chapel, the light of faith power similar to that of King Shibi was still shining.

"Representatives of some organizations may have learned about the essence of the Earth's gods through their respective channels.

The prototypes of most of the images of gods passed down through myths and legends are basically extraordinary people with special powers, that is, the summoners selected by the Killing Game in ancient times."

Arina said, "They may have extraordinary powers stronger than the current Killing Game players, but all the evidence shows that the natural lifespan of each individual is still within the human theoretical lifespan.

When they live to be over a hundred years old, they will die for some reason—most likely the punishment of the Killing Game.

These gods are trying to let ordinary people remember them by leaving behind myths and legends, and continue to exist in the form of worshiping gods.

According to this theory, the way the ancient gods wake up should be to draw on the power of faith from humans in the real world on Earth to be reborn.

But after we weakened the total output of global mind power,

the awakening speed of those pantheons only decreased a little,

and even some pantheons that have long since lost their true believers, and only a small number of experts and scholars are still studying them intently, and suffered the most damage in the action.

Such as Norse mythology, Sumerian mythology, and South American mythology.

The theory contradicts the phenomenon. The only explanation is that Earth is not the only base for the gods."

Li Ang's eyes narrowed.

As the creator and controller of the Zerg Nest, he also had his own eyes and ears in every corner of the Earth. The amount of information he obtained was no less than that of ordinary guild organizations. He could understand the deep meaning behind Arina's words.

Someone in the conference room couldn't help but ask, "Earth... is not the gods' base? What does this mean?"

"It's very simple. The gods exist, but they don't really exist on Earth."

Arina said, "According to the data collected and summarized by major forces, tens of thousands of players, and hundreds of thousands of script missions,

we found that the influence of the Earth's gods is very great.

In many script missions with backgrounds similar to modern Earth, there are also shadows of gods.

This is not in line with common sense, is it?

If the Earth's gods are local players on Earth, then why would their influence appear on the planets of other script missions?

Could it be that other planets also gave birth to highly similar divine figures?"

"This..."

In the conference room, some lower-level representatives looked at each other. It wasn't that they hadn't thought about this question, but it was more practical to think about how to improve their own strength than to think about those too profound things.

"In order to explain these phenomena, the think tank teams of our major organizations have come up with a conjecture that includes two principles,"

Arina said, "The first principle of the conjecture is called the World Correction Force, that is, the Killing Game will correct the 'reality' on Earth to allow Earth life to adapt to environmental changes.

For example, the dinosaur extinction event.

Before the arrival of the Killing Game, modern scientists discovered a large number of fossils and related evidence in soil and rock layers, proving the theory that 'the dinosaur race died from a meteorite falling from the sky.'

And now we know that the dinosaurs became extinct because of the Killing Game. The so-called evidence that appeared in those rock layers is also the effect of the Killing Game 'correction.'

In addition, this theory can also explain why the extraordinary individuals of previous Killing Games did not interfere too much in the real world—their interference results were also corrected by the Killing Game itself at the end of that Killing Game.

The miracles of the gods are also the same."

The representatives in the conference room showed astonished expressions. They had long suspected that if there had been too many Killing Game players on Earth in the past, then how could they have failed to leave too many traces?

Any high-level extraordinary individual could just wave their hand to enslave tens of thousands of ordinary people and build a human kingdom that belonged exclusively to them, right?

If the theory that Arina said really existed, then wouldn't the "world history" that everyone is familiar with now be the result of the Killing Game forcibly correcting it countless times?

Like a landscape potted plant under the hands of a gardener?

That would be a bit... despairing.

"The second principle is 'Position'."

Arina didn't seem to notice the astonished expressions on the faces of the representatives in the conference room and said to herself, "It is known that the gods of all ages who have existed on Earth were once the strongest extraordinary individuals at that time.

Since they were summoners selected by the Killing Game, they would naturally go to the script world to perform tasks like us.

In this process, they can leave their influence in different worlds, and let the civilizations of those worlds remember the names of the gods..."

Someone in the conference room exclaimed, "Are you saying that we have experienced those script worlds with Earth backgrounds, and there are also legends of gods in them, because the gods on Earth really went to the worlds of script missions before?"

Arina glanced lightly at the Monster Alliance representative who spoke without permission and said, "Not entirely.

The data shows that the Earth pantheon in the script world often appears in clusters, with Hinduism, Christianity, Greek mythology, and so on, all complete.

If a single god teleports over, there is no reason to promote their competitors, right?

Moreover, each god has a limited life span, and it is impossible to spread their influence one by one in hundreds of thousands of worlds.

The only explanation is position.

We can understand position as a status in the entire Killing Game system.

The position of Earth is higher than other worlds provided by the Killing Game,

like many sheets of paper stacked together. Painting on the top sheet, the ink will penetrate through the first sheet and into the sheets below,

affecting other worlds in batches as if 'copying'.

Therefore, Earth players most often go to planets that have a higher similarity to the real world Earth—instead of elemental planes or bizarre planets full of sofa people and gnolls.

At the same time, this is also why, after we greatly reduced the mind power output of Earth,

the awakening speed of those pantheons was only slowed down a little—they still have some believers in other subordinate worlds in the Earth system.

Like a world tree, a main trunk can extend countless branches.

Earth is that main trunk."

"No wonder, no wonder..."

Someone in the conference room couldn't help but mutter to himself, "This can explain why mythological stories exist in many places.

However, if those gods have influence in hundreds of thousands of worlds, then why do they have to be resurrected on Earth?

How strong will their true strength be?

Millions of believers in each world, hundreds of thousands of worlds, wouldn't that be a source of faith power in the billions?

Can humans really fight against such gods?"

"You don't have to worry about this for now."

Arina said in a deep voice, "Like I said, for some reason, Earth has a unique position in the Killing Game system.

Although those deceased gods can be resurrected through widespread influence,

their base is still on Earth.

They can only truly return if they are resurrected on Earth.

In fact, we believe that what the Si Ming Battle is fighting for is such a chance to truly transcend.

A chance to step out of the Earth's scope and spread influence to all dimensions."