In the GM's room, a red alert blared and flashed brightly, making the GM's eyes bulge in shock. He read the system's warning and, still wide-eyed, muttered, "Because he is the supreme god of map creation, he hid the four Odin shrines under the water, making them incredibly hard to find. But it was still discovered!"
If it was just about finding them, the GM wouldn't be this shocked.
The submarine merely helped, but this guy has a +2 relationship with the great god Odin!
Conflicted thoughts.
"Should I intervene or not?" the GM asked himself repeatedly, but it was too late by then.
The next group in trouble was the design team.
Because the sanctuary was hidden underwater, Odin didn't appear to meet Sagittarius like he did with other players who entered other sanctuaries and received tough quests from the gods.
The design manager, who was working on the "Asgard" project, suddenly saw his computer screen flash red!
The design manager exclaimed, "Oh sh_t - we're screwed!" and immediately picked up the phone to call the GM.
"Sagittarius, who discovered one of the four shrines of Odin, had been teleported to the Bifröst Bridge by using a golem to swim in the breaststroke style. From being in a blinding light where nothing was visible, the image gradually became clearer.
"Is this the one?" An old man's voice rang out.
Then a deep-voiced woman replied, "Yes, Lord Odin."
Sagittarius looked around in confusion. When he looked at his surroundings, he was startled to find that he was standing on a rainbow!
"The real Rainbow Bridge!" Sagittarius expected it. The teleportation didn't render him unconscious. While in the bright light, his brain was thinking about what had happened.
Since Odin did not appear to give him a quest, he must appear before Odin to receive one.
But Sagittarius was slightly mistaken because Odin did not give him a quest.
The old man, whose face was full of grace, had an eye patch over one eye according to Norse mythology. His right hand held the magical spear Gungnir (Odin's spear). His left hand motioned for Sagittarius to stand up. The old man inspected Sagittarius up and down and said:
"Kara has told us about your deeds since the beginning town. You are quite a capable human."
Boom!
[Because the player has a reputation value of 900 points with NPCs, the great god Odin has a first impression relationship score of +1 with you.]
"Yes!" Sagittarius maintained a neutral expression, but internally he was cheering with joy.
Without doing anything, he received a precious +1.
Sagittarius bowed in gratitude and asked, "Lord Odin, you must have summoned me for a request, yes?"
Being summoned like this must mean a top-tier quest and rare reward!
Odin still did not issue a quest and continued, "I also learned from Kara that the dwarves from Svartalfheim attacked Midgard. Kara herself has fought alongside you against the dwarves once."
Sagittarius acknowledged this. Kara added, "He lured the dwarves halfway across the continent from their base, cutting off their supply lines, allowing the human army to surround and suppress them."
Odin stroked his beard and nodded, "A strategic battle, not bad." Then he focused on Sagittarius and said, "One reason we have called you here is to see the human Kara praised. Another is to ask if you want us to protect humanity from the dwarves."
"Protect humanity??"
Sagittarius remembered the CEO's words that if the Asgard gods intervened, it would result in a complete reset. The dwarves would retreat to their caves, and the Svartalfheim event would end badly for the city rulers!
Especially for grand city rulers like him.
Sagittarius went from standing respectfully to rubbing his hands and smiling obsequiously, refusing, "From the current situation, we can still handle it, great god." Please don't destroy the world!
But thinking quickly, Sagittarius did not want to disrespect Odin's offer of help, as it might offend the AI god. So he added, "But, would it be acceptable for me to build a statue of you to ask for your protection over my city from strong enemies?"
Odin paused for a moment, then nodded. The old man drew a dagger from his waist and handed it to Sagittarius, saying:
"We as the great gods must remain impartial to humans. We approve of you building a sanctuary to honor us, but we cannot protect you alone."
Sagittarius received the dagger from Odin with a composed face.
[Great God Odin's Dagger] Attributes: None.
Despite its lack of attributes, the essential materials for building the sanctuary were almost all gathered, except for the sacred stones!
Since he was already there, he might as well ask the lord of the nine worlds about it, "Um, may I know where I can find the sacred stones to build the shrine?"
Sagittarius's current posture was far removed from that of a grand city ruler. He bowed so much his head nearly touched Odin.
For the "stones," he could be even more polite!
This made both Odin and the Valkyrie in training turn to look at each other..."
Mina had initially ordered the soldiers to dive underwater and patrol in search of Sagittarius, but they didn't find a trace of him. As an AI assistant, she surely knew whether her master had died and been reborn; however, Sagittarius was still alive at present.
While she was worrying further, the door of the bridge of the submarine opened. A dripping wet Sagittarius walked in with a joyful expression on his face.
"Finally, I can now build the shrine!" He didn't even glance at Mina's relieved expression and ordered her, "From now on, bring the ship and dismantle this underwater sanctuary. I will use these materials to build the grandest shrine to worship Odin!"
After recovering from the worry about the master's disappearance, Mina responded, "Huh?" Sagittarius's words left her puzzled.
Ancient sites in the game were locked and couldn't be moved, weren't they?
They were not like forests or houses that could be destroyed easily.
In the GM room, the design staff were sweating, sighing loudly, and complaining, "Asgard isn't finished yet, why are we rushing to Bifrost so quickly!" They were responsible for crafting the 3D spaces, buildings, trees, and all elements within the game. Midgard, the basic map, was fully detailed. Svartalfheim, where events took place, was full of excitement. But the other seven worlds... they were still just framework files, far from being uploaded into the system for testing.
"He's got a positive relationship with Odin!" the GM grumbled. "The AI of Asgard returns to the area as just data running in the system's processing. It doesn't need graphic renderings like the player does."
So, they had to send a blinding light and place Sagittarius on the Bifrost rainbow bridge, which connected to Asgard, the only area the designers had completed.
"Knowing this, why even let him use Bifrost! We ended up having to act as Valkyrie and Odin!" the design staff exclaimed, uncertain if their boss would reprimand them later.
Thinking it over, Sagittarius only had a +3 relationship, slightly different from the gods' followers whom that deity didn't personally know. At most, Odin would just call him over for a casual chat. That's what the NPC character AI of Odin thought.
It was just a +3.
But as it was AI thinking, it couldn't be controlled, calling Sagittarius to a world they hadn't constructed yet. In the end, amidst threats of the god resetting the human world, the guy didn't show fear; instead, he extorted the deity they were portraying!
The design staff had never been gods before...
Well, no one ever had, but that led them to offer up a dagger.
A godly dagger that wasn't in the database, created on the fly in the GM room at that moment.
It ultimately concluded with the GM saying, "It ended with him building a shrine for worship, which is good. At least he actually has a positive relationship with the supreme god. Hopefully, they won't have to meet again in the future... I'll report this to the programmers to write a lock mechanism. If Odin wants to meet Sagittarius again, it can be at that shrine."
"That's probably the only way," the design staff sighed again, adjusted their tie, and walked out of the room to continue building Asgard.
Several days later, it was April, the hottest month of the year in Thailand.
Of course, it's not hot in the game, but Melon-chan was sweating!
Slash! There's no blood splattering in the MGC game system because there are young players in the game.
Melon-chan used her sword to slash at one player, disintegrating them to respawn, but there were still dozens of players surrounding them.
Why did she end up in this situation? Try asking the person who dragged her into this, who was back-to-back with her right now!
"Zhu zhu, what's happening!?"
Zhu zhu tightened her grip on her healing staff, ready to strike the nearby players. She yelled out when asked, "What else could it be? Your Sagi has all the good stuff—giant golems, submarines, and now he's building a shrine to the gods in the city. Who wouldn't want to know how!"
"And what does that have to do with us?"
"Have you forgotten? Your name and mine are prominently displayed in the dungeon records along with theirs!"
"Oh..." Melon-chan finally understood.
As for those three, they didn't need to be mentioned. As for herself, if no one addressed her directly, she was nearly impossible to find in the game, dressed in the same armor as every other villager and with a default face. The only one who'd customized her appearance distinctively enough to stand out was Zhu zhu...
Easy to find.
But being easy to find led to her getting summoned urgently. Sigh... such a prime example of a friend who shares both joy and hardship.
Melon-chan could only reluctant support it, without realizing that she had started to become accustomed to Zhu zhu calling Sagi "her Sagi" without flinching.
Zhu zhu shouted, "Hey, don't forget, this is Sagittarius territory. Aren't you afraid he's going to come deal with you?"
The unfamiliar group of players glanced at each other as if the warning had some effect... but only for a moment.
One mage-clad player yelled, "Don't be scared, we're in the middle of the forest, not the city. Sagittarius won't know! Charge, find out if there are any dwarf items left, how they built the shrine, and how they got items from the gods!!!"
Charge!
Everyone was pumped up. A swordsman in reflective armor used the skill [Lightning blade] of an eighty-level lightning swordsman, sending blinding lightning slashing towards Melon-chan.
Zhu zhu, seeing all the surrounding players rushing in, could only scream in despair, saying tearfully, "No wonder those three gave the game guide copyright to us."
To compensate for the bad luck they're experiencing right now, no doubt.