Chapter 80: Ch 80 : Subordinates

"I guess I know why we delivery men didn’t get as much money as we deserved," Sunny muttered to himself, watching the digits of his faith points tick up at a snail’s pace.It was a joke, a tired analogy he often used to describe his current predicament.

He was the source, the wellspring of all demigodly power, but he was also the one constantly footing the bill.

His faith points, once a rapidly multiplying cascade, were now increasing with frustrating slowness.

The reason was simple: he had too many mouths to feed.

The merits system, while an incredible tool that made his demigods self-sufficient, was a curse for Sunny.

For every bit of merit his demigods earned, it consumed a piece of his divine faith.

And since Thea’s Manifestation talent was designed to consume merit instead of faith for demigods , all of his demigods were currently feasting on his cosmic reserves.

He wasn’t too worried about it, though.

The more faith they consumed, the stronger they and the lifeforms under his influence would become.

It was the 14th hour of the 9th day, two hours had passed since Sunny had aided the struggling God named Apolo.

Apolo, in a moment of utter desperation and profound relief, had offered to come under Sunny’s leadership.

His reasoning was sound: once Shenlong left, his city in the Realm of Advancement would once again be vulnerable.

If he could come under Sunny’s banner, his creations—the lifeforms he so deeply cherished—could survive this harsh, unforgiving world.

Sunny had no reason to refuse a God who was submitting to him so readily.

He immediately gave the order to Nova.

Through the dragon-born people who had received her blessings, an S-Grade teleportation array was swiftly constructed.

This array was a marvel of cosmic engineering, capable of transporting beings across the entire Realm of Advancement, but it required a corresponding portal at both ends to function and a huge amount of mana stones.

The dragon-born, utilizing their rare Space and Time blessings, completed the task with a speed that defied logic.

The connection of the two realms didn’t provide Sunny with any immediate, tangible power, but it did make his sphere of influence a bit larger, which was a small victory in itself.

The only remaining concern was the loyalty of this new God. But Sunny didn’t have to worry about that.

Thea, with her all-seeing eye, had been keeping a close watch on the behavior of every God in the God Chat, from their reactions towards their creations to the private conversations they had with other Gods.

Her analysis of Apolo was nothing short of a divine report.

Apolo was a very kind and hard-working God, who was always worried about his lifeforms.

He even blamed himself for the thousands of lives he had lost.

From his words and actions alone, Thea didn’t even need to use her more advanced analytical talents; anyone could tell the nature of Apolo. He was a good soul.

Apart from this alliance, Sunny had also brought back the soul of Shax after the battle and gave it to Cerberus, a powerful soul to be judged.

Cerberus was currently the only demigod without any apostles or a race of his own.

It wasn’t because he lacked merits to do so.

In fact, he held more than two billion merits, more than enough to bless many lifeforms.

The only reason he wasn’t doing this was that there was simply no work for him to do.

As the lifeforms had learned about heaven and hell from the holy book, ’The Genesis’, they knew nobody would want to go to hell, especially since it was portrayed as even more torturous than it really was.

And since they were already under the watchful eyes of Thea, the crime rate was effectively zero.

Cerberus was, in essence, a divine anachronism, a god of punishment with nothing to punish.

"Two hours left, then I can acquire a new talent," Sunny said, looking at the time on his system panel.

He wasn’t worried about the talent he would acquire this time.

He had already chosen it, a talent that would perfectly complement his grand plans.

He was currently thinking of his next moves regarding the other Gods who wished to be under his leadership.

Every day, countless Gods talked about this in the God Chat.

There wasn’t even a single God who wished to be on the bad side of Sunny.

Many of them even wished for Sunny to take them as his subordinates, but Sunny politely declined them all.

He had nothing to gain from them.

But Gods like Apolo were the Gods he could truly benefit from.

By making these Gods his subordinates, Sunny could begin to spread his faith far and wide, without having to do the work himself.

Still, he needed to create a formal position for these Gods, something he would think about later.

"I should play some games. It’s been a while since I played games with Nyx, Zir and Reflection," Sunny said, a wave of his innate laziness washing over him.

Sometimes Sunny would get hyped up for things, but in the end, his real nature was that of pure, unadulterated idleness.

This innate laziness was not only corrupting him but also his demigods.

Apart from Thea, Shenlong, and Nova, all the other demigods were currently enjoying their leisurely lives.

We shouldn’t talk about Cerberus, as he was already unemployed.

Uranus and Gaia, the demigods of life, were currently only thinking about how to perfect the way to the heavens for the souls of the dead.

All their other duties were left to their many apostles, the Angels and Valkyries, who handled the day-to-day affairs.

Isiah, the demigod of knowledge, was only responsible for finding worthy lifeforms to be his apostles.

All his other tasks were done by the apostles themselves.

For example, all the knowledge Isiah gained was directly divided among his hundreds of apostles.

These apostles then created multiple light orbs and stored this knowledge in the Divine Library.

The souls of the lifeforms to be called to the library were decided by other apostles.

Thus, it created a beautiful, well-oiled structure in the Divine Library, where every apostle had their own work to do, freeing up the demigod for more important, and less strenuous, work.

Mammon was currently back from his long mission and was currently resting, while his apostles were causing a ruckus in the demonic realm.

He was a demigod who had truly embraced the life of leisure.

Umbra, though now having her own race, still worked everywhere at once through her multiple clones.

She was a silent predator, present in all the continents and even in the Realm of Advancement at the same time, always watching, always waiting.

But her main body always rested in the shadow of the statue of God Cosmos, in the center of the capital city in the Realm of Advancement, a paradox of divine vigilance and profound stillness.

In stark contrast, the demigods of the races that were used to competition, worked hard on making their race stand out.

They were even currying favors from the other demigods for blessings for their lifeforms.

The universe was a battlefield of divine ambition, but for Sunny, it was a long game of cosmic chess, and he was ready to take a break.