Back at the pavilion, Cyrus had another thought.

  If he couldn't go down as a god because he was just oh so powerful, then why did he have to go down at all? Why couldn't he just stay here and chill out while the Heroes save the world? Most goddesses in Isekai stories didn't actually do anything. Just plug the Otherworldly Hero, or Heroes, into the world, and they will save the world, surely.

  He actually considered telling Moshi that he had changed his mind and no longer wanted to go down just to see what they would say about it. Then he was worried that they would just...let him, and he would somehow end up getting a Bad Ending from the get-go because he was forced into a view-only mode.

  Never mind. They tell me to go down, so down I go.

  Even if it didn't look or feel like it, he was working right now, and so he needed to take his job seriously. No messing around. Plus, he would get anxious just waiting up here with his fate in someone else's hands.

  "Does Master have any other questions?" the Archon's voice came as they settled back in. "If not, allow Moshi to show Master the rest of what Moshi has prepared." The crow-shaped guide landed beside him and hopped forward, waddling side-to-side like a penguin between its three legs. They plucked one of their numbered golden feathers and presented it with all six of their curious eyes glittering in pride.

  "I think I get it for now," Cyrus said with another light tap on the crow's beak before his fingers reached for the golden feather presented to him.

  "Master's brilliance is beyond this plane," Moshi spat out more empty praises, glazing him as always.

  The feather vanished at his fingertip, and a familiar UI screen of a typical game profile appeared, floating in the air before him.

  +++

  Summoned Hero Mo Tian - ? (Edit Name)

  Elemental Core: Water

  Level: 1

  HP (Health): 80/80

  STM (Stamina): 100/100

  Stats

  ATK (Attack): 60

  DEF (Defense): 30

  BLS (Blessing of Heaven): 100

  SOL (Soul Strength): 229

  AGI (Agility): 30

  VIT (Vitality): 7

  CORE PERSONA STATS: Not Applicable

  HEROIC TRAITS (!)

  Select Six Heroic Traits to determine the character of your mortal avatar. Note: Fate reward and other rewards will be calculated according to your character; an Evil-aligned character will be rewarded for actions recognized as Evil and such.

  DIVINITY FRAGMENTS

  Tier 0 Mortal Eyes: The Heroes are your eyes. Project your perception around your summoned Heroes, enabling you to view the area within a 5-meter radius centered around the Hero in a free perspective.

  Crow Eyes: With Moshi’s piercing eyes, you can see through mortal subjects and the essence of their beings. Requires a Bird-typed creature to be present within 5 square kilometers.

  APTITUDE (1/2)

  The Forgotten Face: A face with features pleasant to the eyes, but utterly unremarkable and non-threatening. You swear you've seen their face before, but can't quite place it. This makes them instantly familiar and approachable, while also being incredibly hard to remember or describe later.

  MORTAL SKILLS (2/2)

  Hunting Blade: Sword art of a hunter. Your sword has cut through countless beasts of the forest. Increased efficiency against Beast-typed enemies. (Foundation)

  Poison Immunity: You are immune to most mortal poisons. (Passive)

  +++

  "First of all," Cyrus started as he pressed on the edit button next to his name and typed 'Cyrus', "let's not keep what would soon be my god's name."

  While Mo Tian had been forgotten by the world, one of the main objectives was to spread His glories again. It'd be awkward if His Hero shared the same name as Him. Once he took care of that, Cyrus sank into silence as he read into his mortal character profile from top to bottom.

  Water Elemental Core. So, the Heroes had element-based abilities? Or maybe it was just an affinity, a cultivation root, or a character archetype. He wasn't sure about that, but what he did know from other beta-testers was that players could adjust their character rarity in other difficulty settings, but in Hell mode, it was but a dream. Trash stats of a one-starred Hero were his reality.

  Most of the stats were generic, and he had seen them in almost all games he'd played before. HP was his health, and he would most likely die if the number hit zero. But, wait, what would happen after his mortal body died? Would it be game over, or did he have to be killed as a god to actually die? If it had been the former, things were far more dangerous for him, and if the latter were true, things would be way too safe for what was called Quintessence, AKA Hell difficulty, as he imagined killing a god wouldn't be the easiest thing in the world.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  There was also something about the Second Coming. Was it a respawn mechanic? He was told that death in Hell mode was permanent, but what kind of death exactly?

  He didn't want to keep guessing, so he asked, "Moshi. What do you think will happen if I were to perish in the mortal world?"

  "Physical death will simply return Master's soul to heaven. If Master's soul, however, were to become damaged beyond salvation...Moshi doesn't know."

  So, mortal death would result in a quick trip back to heaven, but soul damage, he had to be careful about that. Moshi didn't know what true death meant, but Cyrus did. It meant Game Over. He would get the 'You died' Bad Ending achievement, and like every Hardcore mode with permadeath, the file would be wiped. Then, he would have to start all over again.

  If he kept dying, who knew until which year he'd still be playing this game?

  That brought his attention to one of the two unusual stats, Soul Strength. It sounded straightforward enough to assume that the stronger his soul was, the less likely it was to get damaged. There was something about Moshi's evaluation of the Lonan man’s soul and the possibility of him turning into an Insanity. He took note to find a way to tank the stat up. The other exception from the normal stats was Blessing of Heaven. Did it also make him less susceptible to soul attack if he was more blessed?

  Cyrus rubbed his thumb against his lower lip in thought. "Moshi, do you recall what Blessing stat does?" he asked, somewhat indirectly. He didn't want to seem too clueless since he was, after all, the Master.

  "Moshi doesn't know. Master didn't brief Moshi on that matter. Does Master want to let Moshi know?"

  Great. I don't know either.

  He could only pet their head. "Never mind. You don't need to know."

  Moshi cooed, melting into his palm, not a care in the world about the matter.

  So he moved on. The last stat that stood out was Vitality, for being the only one-digit stat. Vitality stat in most settings usually made the character tougher to kill, often by improving their endurance, health regeneration, and even resistance to status effects like stun or poison. He would find out what a Vitality of merely seven could do once he landed in the mortal world.

  Skipping the Traits for now, Divinity Fragments seemed neat, but neither of them came across to him as grand or powerful as he would expect from the name. But these were starter skills, so he could forgive it.

  Both of his Mortal Skills and one of his Aptitudes had been assigned automatically. He saw some relation to his request of 'distant-but-competent character archetype' and why these skills were given to him in particular.

  But they honestly didn't seem super amazing at a glance, but at least they still sounded somewhat useful to some degree. Especially [Poison Immunity]. It was always good to be immune to poison. [The Forgotten Face], as he interpreted it, was some kind of censoring about him that would come handy if he ever got caught mid-acts-he-shouldn't-be-caught-doing.

  Can't hold me accountable if they don't know what I look like, amirite?

  He would know to the extent of their usefulness once he began testing them out.

  Finally, he got back to the Heroic Traits he'd skipped and quickly found out that the traits fell under six categories, and he was expected to pick one from each. He realized this was the character-building part the guide had told him to think carefully about right before he entered the room. Something about late-game importance.

  The world sang a pleasant song around him, in contrast with the clicks and clacks of the spinning gears inside his skull. There were a lot of Traits, most of them not having any effects on him, and only some that he imagined might have minor effects. Compassionate and Charismatic to give examples for both types.

  With the realm frozen in time, he knew a lot of time had passed only when his back became somewhat stiff, perceivably—apparently, even gods weren't immune to phantom back pain from poor posture—from scrolling through the endless list of Traits, then moving onto Aptitudes and the conditions to earn them.

  Finally, after he'd considered and contemplated for the longest time, he decided how he wanted to play and the Traits that would help.

  As a tester-slash-test subject, he was told to 'just get to the end,' but the guide had interested him in the True Ending and some vague conditions when they were discussing the contract. If he managed to get that ending, he would leave Etercon's test center thirty percent richer than he would be otherwise. And he'd bet on his spine that he was getting that bonus.

  Greed knew no bounds, and that cold, hard cash was already his. He wanted to make very sure that he'd never have to worry about money again, and he planned to do it by looting Etercon as much as possible legally.

  "Moshi," he called to the quirky crow who had settled on his lap at some point. Among the hundreds of Aptitudes he'd scanned through, there was a certain one that had caught his eye—one that might do so literally.

  "Yes, Master."

  "Did I happen to tell you whether I'm using my actual eyes to see with [Tier 0 Mortal Eyes]? I'm not, right?" Cyrus asked, a 'fun' plan brewing inside his head. "That is, even if my avatar is blind, I can still technically 'see' when I'm using it, right?"

  "..." Moshi went silent as if the program inside their brain was reevaluating logic and deciphering what made their Master sound so amused. With a low coo, they finally spoke, "Yes, even if Master's mortal body has lost its sight, [Mortal Eyes] would still allow Master to see Master's limited surroundings when it's active. Moshi wants Master to bethink the fact that at Tier 0, Master can only see through one pair of eyes at a time!"

  "Good."

  Cyrus opened the Traits selection page again, tapped six times, each precisely on a trait, and pressed confirm. He didn't spend any more than ten seconds, from start to end.

  "A god...should be benevolent yet impartial, right?" Cyrus mused as he watched the evaluation of his character's moral alignment from his inputs roll out: Neutral Good.

  Being Evil would make some things easier. Actually, many things came easier to evil in the world of many a bad man. But, of course, morality governing most societies would limit him. Especially as a god, it would take more effort to find the right men to worship an evil god, those who were desperate and/or degenerate enough. Even then, He would always be frowned upon everywhere under the Sun, not just out of contempt but also out of fear that they might be the next victim.

  So, when he was still weak at the start, being recognized as decently Good, man or god, would make things easier for him to obtain worshippers. Once he had become strong enough, he wouldn't need to care about the system reward or the people's forgiveness. Plus, he didn't have to be actually righteous all the time against his own benefits, just adequately good.

  With that, he was mostly done reviewing his mortal character setup. He hadn't even touched on the aforementioned cultivation technique itself yet. The game was a bit overwhelming at the start, for sure, though not very surprisingly, considering its size.

  "But, well, I can do all that later." Cyrus swiped the screen away. It was time to summon his hero.