4: Chapter 4 Research on the Blue Ocean of Faith

Three days later, in a cluttered rental room in an urban village filled with the smell of smoke and instant noodles.

Hu Wei, Lin Yuan's writer classmate, had a head of messy hair like a bird's nest, but his eyes were frighteningly bright. He pointed at the whiteboard covered in arrows, keywords, and eerie symbols, spittle flying everywhere as he spoke.

"...So you see, Old Lin, the traditional major categories—Wealth, Power, Lust, Longevity, and Fame—these tracks have long been monopolized by giants. The barriers to entry are terrifyingly high. Under the God of Wealth alone, there are over a dozen specialized business departments like 'Primary Wealth,' 'Windfall,' 'Side Wealth,' and 'Corporate Wealth.' In the health sector, the 'Medicine King,' the 'Plague God' (who now handles disinfection and epidemic prevention concepts), and the 'God of Fertility' have carved everything up. Even the 'God of Exams' has involuted into 'Liberal Arts Exam God,' 'Science Exam God,' and 'Essay Writing God'! You're a newcomer, and at the 'Decay' level to boot—what are you going to use to compete with them?"

Lin Yuan nodded; this aligned with his preliminary research results. He handed Hu Wei a bottle of water. "Tell me something different. Those... that haven't been officially canonized, but people definitely think about them, or even secretly worship them."

Hu Wei gulped down some water and lowered his voice, sounding a bit excited. "Hey, now you're asking the right questions! 'Grey Faith' or 'Underground Prayers'—that market is huge! I've gathered quite a bit of material, take a look—"

He circled several areas on the whiteboard:

"First, Modern Anxiety Derivatives:

· 'God of Deadlines': The desperate cries of countless corporate drones and students before exams or submission dates. Strong demand, but too temporary and negative.

· 'God of Uncrowded Morning Rush Hour Subways': The humble dream of urban commuters. Widespread, but the power of prayer is too scattered and low-intensity.

· 'God of Full and Stable WiFi Bars': A basic need in the new era. Same as above.

· 'God of One-Take Client Approvals': The blood and tear-filled plea of creative professionals. High frequency, deep resentment.

"Second, Traditional Marginal or Taboo Categories:

· 'Banishing Petty People' and 'Staying Away from Gossip': Eternal needs for workplace politics and neighbor disputes. However, this kind of prayer often involves cursing others, easily classified as 'Evil Worship,' and carries high risk.

· 'Gambling Luck': Huge demand, but strictly regulated, and the power of prayer is extremely unstable with strong backlash.

· 'Shadow Romance' and 'Severing Bad Romance': Special needs in emotional entanglements. A bit of a gray area.

"Third, Niche Skill Categories:

· 'God of Not Blowing Up the Kitchen': A blessing for the kitchen-clumsy.

· 'God of One-Shot Game Completions': The plea of hardcore gamers.

· 'God of Not Being Confused by Trash Sorting': A new type of pain birthed by policy..."

As Hu Wei talked incessantly, Lin Yuan rapidly recorded and analyzed on his tablet (a disguised ordinary tablet). His financial brain was working at high speed, evaluating each direction's 'market size' (potential believer base), 'prayer intensity and sustainability,' 'competitive landscape,' 'policy and moral risk,' and 'monetization difficulty' (efficiency of converting into a stable flow of faith).

He quickly rejected most directions. Either the market was too small, the power of prayer was too scattered and hard to collect, or the risks were uncontrollable.

Until Hu Wei mentioned a word: "'Lying Flat.'"

"...Nowadays, many people, especially the youth, loathe 'Blessings' and 'Involution' to the bone, yet they are powerless to resist. There's a very strong but unstructured emotion—a longing for 'reasonable rest,' 'non-exploitative labor,' 'work-life balance,' or even just 'living with low desires.' But no orthodox god will respond to these pleas. The God of Wealth encourages you to strive, Lord Wenchang forces you to be ambitious, and even the Kitchen God might want to audit your KPIs... This massive, passive power of 'unwillingness to act' is like an undercurrent with nowhere to go."

Lin Yuan's recording finger stopped.

An undercurrent... nowhere to go... a massive base... intense emotion...

A bold, almost absurd thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

What if this 'passive' power of prayer was guided and redefined? Not to oppose 'striving,' but to advocate for 'sustainable striving,' 'efficient rest,' and 'combating meaningless involution'?

This wasn't exactly 'lying flat,' but a kind of... 'Optimization.' Yes, Optimization! Optimizing workflows, optimizing time management, and optimizing energy allocation, so as to achieve goals while preserving personal space and physical and mental health as much as possible.

This divine office could be called...

[God of Involution Termination and Blessing Optimization].

The name was a bit long, but the target was clear, the coverage broad, and it cleverly stood in a moral and policy gray area—it didn't oppose hard work, only ineffective hard work; it didn't oppose blessings, only optimized the cost of obtaining them. It catered to widespread dissatisfaction while wearing a cloak of positivity.

More importantly, this field was currently a blank slate! No orthodox god would actively absorb faith with attributes like 'slacking' and 'complaining'; they were usually dismissed as 'stray thoughts' and allowed to dissipate naturally.

This was an undeveloped blue ocean of faith, full of mud but potentially hiding a gold mine!

Lin Yuan's heart pounded. He felt he had grasped something. Although the idea was still immature, and he had no clue how to specifically collect and convert this special power of prayer, a direction had seemingly emerged.

"Old Hu, thanks! I'll transfer the payment for these materials and research fees to you later." Lin Yuan stood up, his eyes burning bright.

Hu Wei was stunned for a moment. "You... you're really going to do it? Old Lin, this stuff sounds unreliable. Don't go off the deep end! Is the pressure too much lately? Your sister's illness..."

"I'm fine." Lin Yuan interrupted him and patted his shoulder. "I'm just doing a very advanced market research project. Remember to keep it a secret."

Leaving the urban village, Lin Yuan walked along the streets as the lights began to flicker on. Around him were crowds of people in a hurry, their faces full of exhaustion. Their phones flashed with messages from work groups, their ears seemed to ring with their bosses' urgings, and their hearts were likely cursing the endless overtime.

These were the people. Those faint, irritable, and breath-starved thoughts they emitted were his targets, his 'ore deposits.'

He needed to establish a 'shrine' as soon as possible—even if it was just a virtual node existing in the depths of the internet—to try and capture and aggregate these 'Optimization' prayers.

But before that, he needed a bit of 'startup faith' to activate the Godhead's most basic information perception and micro-manipulation abilities. That 0.5 faith reserve couldn't do anything.

Where could he get this bit of initial faith?

His gaze swept across the brightly lit entertainment district by the roadside, finally settling on a trendy milk tea shop that looked like it was doing booming business, with a long queue at the door.

A somewhat nonsensical but perhaps feasible idea popped into his head.