Chapter 4: Master, Please Love Me
Nairn strode through the crowd with an arrogant gait, returned to his room, and then slammed the door shut.
The moment the door closed, it seemed to switch off all the mechanisms within him.
As soon as he entered this private space, Nairn immediately felt all his strength drain away.
Maintaining the Dread of the demigod persona, thousand faces, was still a bit too much for his current mental and spiritual state.
The feigned composure and majesty of a demigod now receded like a tide, revealing the exhausted core beneath.
"Exciting... too exciting..."
Nairn panted, a wide smile spreading across his face.
In less than an hour, he first tricked a sequence 8 Instigator, and then, without shedding a drop of blood, forced back a demigod King of the Five Seas.
This feeling of dancing on a knife's edge and succeeding was simply exhilarating.
He closed his eyes, savoring everything that had just happened.
From the initial verbal bluff, to the mental assault, and then to the final "begging for a title" and the aura confrontation that scared off the King of the Five Seas... every step was extremely perilous, but every step landed on a crucial point.
Information asymmetry was his greatest weapon.
And the demigod experience card provided by Chaos Theater was all the capital he dared to bet with.
Just then, an indescribable, pure euphoria, like the warmest tide, surged from the deepest part of his soul without warning.
It was the Chaos Theater.
This Sefirah, which feared nothing but peace, fell into immense satisfaction and excitement after fully appreciating this magnificent play, "Mortal Tricks a Demigod," personally directed by Nairn.
This script is thrilling!
This fun is huge!
A vast amount of play value surged forth like a sweet spring, completely washing away Nairn's previous "debts."
Nairn could feel it cheering, leaping, like a child who had received their most beloved toy.
The enormous play value owed for advancing demigod power was instantly paid off completely under this surge of euphoria, and even... a large surplus remained.
A clear concept directly emerged in Nairn's mind.
"play value Cleared"
With the appearance of this prompt, Nairn also received another message.
"Overall performance rating: Perfect! Received an extra reward!"
"The little theater's favorability towards you has increased (os: although the little theater's favorability is already maxed out)"
Immediately after, an incomparably pure energy surged forth from the Chaos Theater, carrying a hint of cautious flattery, and gently poured into Nairn's body.
It seemed to fear that Nairn would hold a grudge because of the previous "no credit" rule, as if to say—
Master, Master, look! Completing tasks really has benefits! I'm not stingy, I'm super useful! Please continue to love me!
This energy seemed to be desperately proving its worth and loyalty in the most clumsy way.
Nairn could almost imagine a pitiful little theater hugging his thigh, frantically rubbing its face against him, while transmitting energy and looking at him with wet eyes.
Nairn was amused by this sudden
"Moe" feeling.
Nairn let out a comfortable sigh, feeling as if he had jumped into a hot spring after running five kilometers, every pore in his body radiating comfort and ease.
Ignoring the little theater's somewhat pitiful attempt to curry favor, Nairn's mood was unprecedentedly cheerful.
He succeeded.
Not just in resolving the two major crises on the alfalfa without shedding a drop of blood.
More importantly, he spent not a single penny, not only officially becoming a Sequence 9 Player, but also creating and activating the infinitely potential character of thousand faces.
Although the demigod power had disappeared with the expiration of the experience card, the thousand faces character card, and the Dread, Insight, and Concealment abilities attached to it, were permanently solidified as a reward for this "perfect performance."
Even if it would take a very, very long time to truly advance to Sequence 4 and regain demigod power.
Even if the effects of these abilities had fallen from demigod level to Sequence 9 level, so weak as to be almost negligible.
But this was like the Black Emperor Blasphemy Slate that Klein later obtained.
This character card could still play an unimaginable role.
Even if Nairn couldn't use all the power of this card as easily as his own arm, he could, at critical moments, skillfully draw upon a portion of its authority and might to bluff, deter enemies, and even leverage certain specific rules.
Moreover, this seed named thousand faces had been planted within him.
In the future, he only needed to continuously "act out" this role and "enrich" its story to make it take root and grow strong.
This not only paved the way for future advancements and acting at higher Sequences but also laid the most solid and unique Anchor of Cognition for himself.
Nairn let out a long sigh, stood up from the ground, feeling light all over, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
It seems the rest of the journey should be very peaceful.
The start of this transmigration was simply perfect.
Nairn stood up from the ground, stretched, pushed open the door, and walked back onto the deck.
He leaned against the railing, squinting his eyes, happily enjoying the slightly salty sea breeze.
With the pirates gone, the atmosphere on the ship recovered from the previous deathly silence and panic. Passengers walked out of their cabins in twos and threes, their faces showing the relief of surviving a disaster, conversing in low voices.
There was even a young man named Joyce on the ship, who, while expressing his longing to reunite with his fiancée, said with the relief of a survivor:
"Luckily, I wasn't robbed of my gold pound by the pirates."
Of course, he wouldn't be robbed of his gold coins by his fiancée either; what a simple love.
Everything seemed to be moving in a good direction.
Everything was so peaceful and serene—
Not really.
Where does unconditional peace and serenity come from?
Nairn's mind was clear as a mirror; he began to assess his current situation and shortcomings.
First, he had officially become a Player.
And the Fun-seeker of another Pathway had accumulated enough "experience points" after that spectacular show and could advance at any time.
But here's the problem: this kind of advancement cannot be rootless.
His ability to directly become a Player before was purely by exploiting a huge loophole.
At that time, he borrowed the demigod power of Identity Planning; for a demigod, creating a Sequence 9 "character" for oneself out of thin air was simply too easy.
Coupled with the fact that the Sefirah itself symbolized Existence and Narrative, with the combined power, he directly skipped the rigid threshold of needing a Beyonder characteristic.
This operation, in simple terms, was "getting on the bus first, then buying the ticket."
Only low Sequences like Sequence 9 could play like this; for a higher Sequence, the backlash of the rules would crush him to dust.
Therefore, even though he was now a Player, Nairn still needed a proper Spectator Beyonder characteristic to stabilize his foundation, so that this identity would no longer be a castle in the air.
Similarly, the advancement of a Fun-seeker also required a Criminal Beyonder characteristic as support.
The good news was that due to his previous actions, whether it was playing the unfathomable thousand faces or stirring up trouble to scare off Nester, both perfectly aligned with the acting philosophies of a Player and a Fun-seeker.
It could be said that he was "pre-acting" or even "naturally acting"; as long as he obtained the characteristic, the digestion speed would definitely be astonishingly fast.
"One Spectator characteristic, one Criminal characteristic..." Nairn calculated in his mind, "This is only for Sequence 9. The Beyonder characteristics for sequence 8 will also need to be prepared in advance."
Hiss... Nairn subconsciously touched his pocket.