In a certain cave where a new superhero was about to be born.
"Hey! Isamu, we need to talk. About your mental state."
Tony Stark looked at Isamu with unusual seriousness.
Tony Stark did not have many friends. The man who had shared life and death with him right here absolutely counted as one, which was exactly why Tony felt he had to have a real talk.
It had been almost a week since the terrorists dragged them into this cursed cave.
When he first met Isamu, Tony thought the guy seemed normal, even sharper than normal.
Two doctorates, fluent in several languages. A talent like that was elite among elites.
But after a week, Tony realized something was off.
His friend Isamu, a scientist with two PhDs, turned out to be a cult follower.
Why think so?
Just listen to the prayers.
"Great Desert Emperor Azir, I am your loyal subject and a supporter of the Shuriman Empire. May the Shuriman Empire endure. May the great Emperor Azir be eternal and undying. Please send down your thunderous wrath to cleanse this desert world steeped in war."
After his daily prayer, Isamu explained with a straight face to the equally serious Tony Stark at his side. "According to ancient legend, the great Desert Emperor Azir is willing to accept anyone who joins the Shuriman Empire. As long as you are within this desert, your prayers will reach him. Then he will dispatch undying sand soldiers to guide his people."
Tony pulled a face. "Where did you even hear this legend? That nonsense is even more far-fetched than stories in the Bible."
"From a herdsman. He said he was already guided to Shurima and now lives far from war and suffering," Isamu replied, dead earnest.
Hearing that, the staunch materialist Tony was speechless. "That sounds like heaven to me."
"No. It is a pure land belonging to the desert, not heaven. And that pure land is here in the human world, not some airy void."
When it came to his faith, Isamu grew solemn.
To bolster his credibility, he swore up and down. "I have seen those undying sand soldiers. I watched with my own eyes as they faded into the dunes. This is not an empty legend. That pure land really exists. The end of science is theology, is it not?"
Tony, of course, did not believe a word.
"Then this region is doomed. If top-tier talent like you is this superstitious, what hope is there for the herdsmen."
Isamu bristled, ready to argue, but Tony, well prepared, cut him off.
"Instead of praying to some vaporous emperor of yours, get to work. Once I finish building this big guy, I can get you and your family somewhere more peaceful."
With no choice, Isamu dropped the faith debate and returned to work.
Meanwhile, in a folded space deep within the desert.
It was an empire of sand and rock. At its heart rose a dazzling palace, and above the palace hung a vast disc.
It was called the Sun Disc, the nation's sacred relic. The empire was called Shurima.
Under the Sun Disc's radiance, there was no sickness, no hunger, not even death.
Of course, that depended on how one defined death.
Inside the palace beneath the disc, upon a throne of awe, sat an emperor clad in gold armor, a golden falcon helm crowning his head, the scepter of supremacy in his hand.
He was master of this desert, the Desert Emperor Azir.
A figure who should not have existed in this world.
"Another steadfast believer appears. My choice back then was right. In a region wracked by war and famine, it is easiest to harvest faith."
Seated on the throne, Riku watched his Legend Value tick upward with delight.
As a transmigrant, he had been in this world for almost five years.
With the aid of his golden finger and tireless effort, he had brought the Shuriman Empire, once confined to a fictional world, into reality.
He had even secured the template of the Desert Emperor Azir.
The golden finger was called the League of Legends Universe System.
As the name suggested, it encompassed every universe from League of Legends.
As long as he accrued enough Legend Value, he could even bring all those universes into this world.
Unfortunately, limited by Legend Value, he had only unlocked Valoran, the origin plane.
That meant he could summon things from the continent of Valoran, but not living beings.
That was why he wore the template of Azir and sat upon Shurima's throne.
Legend Value could be obtained in two ways.
First was through Valoran's living beings, who generated a fixed amount daily. The problem was that this wretched golden finger could not convert living beings, which made that path practically useless.
But as a transmigrant, he found a workaround. He would make the natives become Valoran beings.
This was where a nation became useful.
Shurima was a nation of Valoran. Shurima's citizens counted as Valoran life, right? At the very least, they should be under Valoran's jurisdiction.
Round it up, and the natives became life belonging to Valoran.
With that operation, the golden finger got bamboozled.
Lacking any real intelligence, it never expected a human to game it like this. A bit of a loophole, yes, but the path still ran through.
After giving himself a mental thumbs-up, Riku recalled the second way to gain Legend Value.
That was to convert people's faith or emotions into Legend Value. Any emotion worked: reverence, awe, fear.
This was his main source for now.
By wearing a mask and preaching everywhere... strike that.
By wearing a mask and extolling Shurima's might far and wide, he brought in Legend Value by the handful every day.