Chapter 245: Ch 245 : Don’t Get too Excited

"Do not get too excited just yet," Sunny said, a playful glint in his eyes as he watched the Gods stare hungrily at the projection of the Skill Stone."The cost of such instant mastery is... enormous. Astronomical, really. Perhaps you would prefer to learn the old-fashioned way, with sweat and tears, rather than emptying your treasuries for a single moment of enlightenment."

It was a joke, but it was also a challenge. And to the wealthiest Gods in the Pantheon, it was an invitation.

Joker threw his head back and laughed, a delightful sound that echoed through the garden.

His coffers were overflowing. His recent string of jests, roasting the ugliness of the Void Beast, mocking the cowardice of the gods who hid in their worlds, and live-commentating the execution of Edgar had earned him trillions in faith.

He was the wealthiest God under the Emperor, and he was ready to spend.

He looked at the Skill Stone not as a luxury, but as a necessity. ’I’ll take ten,’ he thought, his grin widening.

Similarly, the other SS-Grade talent holders, the elite subordinates of Sunny, leaned forward. Their eyes burned with a fierce, competitive fire. If money could buy power, they would buy it all.

"Now," Sunny said, waving his hand to banish the image of the stone, "let us move to the next wonder of the Northern District." The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the N0veI.Fiɾe.net

The projection shifted. A new building materialized, but it was unstable. It flickered in and out of existence, shimmering like a mirage, its walls composed of shifting, ethereal mists.

The sign above the door read: The Workshop of Manifestation.

"This facility," Sunny explained, "is designed for the dreamers, the scientists, and the mad geniuses among you. You can, of course, experiment in your own God spaces. But there is a flaw. Your spaces are built upon Adam’s laws, and Adam... had no affinity for Manifestation. His reality is rigid. It resists change, that’s why you need to focus while manifesting something in your God space"

Adam, sitting nearby, nodded in agreement, accepting the critique with a graceful smile.

"This Workshop is different," Sunny continued. "Here, the Laws of Manifestation are absolute and free. Inside these walls, the cost to manifest matter, energy, or complex machinery is zero. You can build a starship engine, brew a volatile potion, or weave a catastrophic spell without spending a single point of faith."

He paused, a serious tone entering his voice. "However, nothing physical can leave the building. It is a sandbox. A place to fail without cost, so you can succeed when it matters."

The Gods of technology and alchemy nodded vigorously. This was their playground. A place where the cost of failure was removed was the greatest gift a researcher could ask for.

"Next," Sunny announced, his expression hardening, the playful merchant vanishing to be replaced by the stern Emperor. "The Mind Forge."

The projection changed again. This time, it showed a stark, imposing fortress of black iron, devoid of windows or ornamentation.

Even as a hologram, the building seemed to radiate a dark, suffocating pressure.

"You all know the history," Sunny said, his voice low and grave. "The Old Gods fell not because they lacked power, but because they lacked will. Their minds were weak. They could not withstand the discord, the despair, the corruption whispered by the Demon Lords. They crumbled from the inside out."

He looked out at his subjects, his gaze piercing. "We cannot make the same mistake. We must be harder. Stronger. And for that, you must face your nightmares."

The projection zoomed inside the Mind Forge. The Gods gasped. The air within was thick, heavy, and visible. It swirled with dark, terrifying colors.

"These chambers," Sunny explained, "are filled with the auras and killing intent of the current Demon Gods and even the demon gods of past. It contains the pressure of the Old Gods. It even holds... pressure of the Demon Lords themselves."

The mere sight of it made the Gods souls churn. Even through the safety of the projection, they felt a weight pressing down on their chests.

It was a suffocating reminder of their own helplessness against the true apex predators of the cosmos. They wanted to applaud the brilliance of the training tool, but fear held them frozen.

"I must say, Your Majesty," Adam spoke up, breaking the terrified silence. He clapped his hands slowly, a look of genuine awe on his face. "This is the greatest gift you could have given them. A shield for the mind is worth more than any armor."

But then, a frown creased Adam’s brow. "But, Cosmos... how? I am not asking about the artifact that can store a wisp of aura and killing intent and radiate it infinitely"

"I am asking about the source. How do you know the auras of the Old Gods? They have been dead for a million years. How do you know the specific pressure of the Demon Lords, beings you have never met in person?"

The question hung in the air.

"Time," Sunny replied casually, as if discussing the weather. "Time Affinity..... The River of Time."

Adam’s eyes went wide. His jaw dropped. "You... you entered the River of Time?"

"You really are the chosen one," Adam whispered, his voice trembling with shock.

"You should know... even among the Old Gods, those with Time Affinity were rare. And even they could not enter the River. It is a forbidden domain. I... I forced my way in once, at the cost that nearly killed me. But no one else ever dared. And you... you speak of it as a casual resource."

The shock on Adam’s face slowly melted into a sense of relief. "Perhaps," the ancient God murmured, looking at Sunny with a new reverence, "you were created just for this. To clear the path that we could not walk."

"Maybe," Sunny chuckled, dismissing the destiny with a shrug. "Let’s not waste time. Next area."

He waved his hand. And a majestic mausoleum of white stone appeared. The Tomb of Legacy.

"A library not of books, but of lives," Sunny said softly. "This is where the memories of the Old Gods, the fallen demons, and the great warriors of the past will be stored. Their fighting techniques, their spells, their very experiences. Those who resonate with a specific legacy will be able to inherit their memories, and perhaps... a talent or two."

The Gods, already numb from the previous revelations, simply nodded. It was too much. The generosity, the power, the scale of it all was overwhelming.

"However," Sunny added, a mischievous glint returning to his eyes, "this building is not yet fully operational. A crucial component is missing. It will be added in a few hours. So, you will have to wait."

He enjoyed their groans of impatience before moving on.

"Next, The Divination Spire." A tall, needle-like tower pulsing with blue light appeared.

"A tower of simulation. If you want to introduce a new regulations or order into your world, Thea will run millions of simulations here. She will tell you if your plan leads to a golden age... or an apocalypse."

Sunny smiled. He had wanted to do this for ages, but predicting the future was a messy business, especially with variables like Demon Lords involved.

But now, with Thea’s particles spread across the entire multiverse and the Realm of Advancement, her computational power was essentially infinite.

She could calculate fate through brute force data analysis.

"And finally," Sunny said, his voice taking on a grand, sweeping tone. "The Celestial Shipyard."

The projection shifted to the outer rim of the Northern District.

There, suspended in the void, were ships. But not the wooden vessels of their past, or the crude rockets of Earth. These were predatory leviathans of void-metal and magic.

"To grow, we must expand," Sunny declared. "We must claim this entire multiverse, and then the others beyond it. We must learn their power systems and conquer their worlds. But to do that, we need wings."

"This shipyard contains three SSS-Grade Void-Dreadnoughts," Sunny announced, pointing to three colossal ships that looked like sleeping gods. "And one thousand SS-Grade Star-Cruisers."

The Gods erupted in excitement. Space travel. Adventure. Conquest. It was the ultimate dream.

But then, a cold thought intruded. The Demon Gods. The hunters in the multiverse. The excitement curdled into fear.

"There is no need to fear," Sunny’s voice cut through their fear, firm and absolute. "You will not go out there today. You will train. You will use the Mind Forge. You will use the God-Maker realm. You will become strong."

He looked out at them, his gaze intense.

"And when you are ready... when you step onto those ships... any planet you find, any world you conquer... will be yours to take."

The fear vanished, replaced by a burning ambition. They had their orders. They had their tools. Now, all they needed was to become worthy of them.