The gods are dead.

Gao Wen stared at the words engraved in the stone for a long time, and seemed unwavering because he didn't know how to react for a moment, and behind him, Yuri and the other three also leaned over, and those distorted dark red nicks met everyone's eyes.

“…… All the ancestors of my family......" Magnum's eyes widened, "what does that mean?" ”

Gawain finally reacted from his initial shock, and although he was stunned for a moment when he saw such a blasphemous word at the temple gate, he still remembered the rule that nothing should be easily believed or drawn in sandbox No. 1, and the first thing to do was to ask Selena for more information: "Didn't the last group of explorers see this sentence in this city?" ”

"No, I'm sure," Selena said immediately, "the last group of explorers haven't had time to explore the inside of the buildings in the city, but they've already found the entrance to this temple, and if they do see this, it's impossible not to report it." ”

"The gods are dead," Yuri muttered...... "This sandbox world was empty the last time we explored, who left that behind?" ”

"Think Phantom Town," Magnum muttered, "empty...... Maybe it's just that we can't see them. ”

"We should search this temple, don't you think?" Selena said, turning her gaze to Gawain - although she and the other two archbishops were "professionals" in Sandbox One, their specific actions had to be at Gawain's disposal, after all, they might be dealing with gods, and the "Extraterritorial Wanderers" were the real experts in this regard.

Gawain knew what the Eternal Sleepers thought of him, but he didn't consider himself a professional against the gods - after all, this field was too high-end, and he really couldn't think of any kind of character who could give guidance on killing gods, but after all, he had been in contact with many gods, and he had also participated in the encirclement and suppression of the gods of nature (a high imitation of the folk version) and cooking operations, at least in terms of self-confidence, he was much stronger than ordinary people.

Of course, if you add the theoretical knowledge he gained from communicating with Veronica and Carmel on weekdays, plus the experience he has accumulated after studying ancient texts and the collection of books of the Holy Light Sect, he can indeed be regarded as an expert in the field of theology and anti-god.

"Search the temple," he said, nodding, "Religious sites are 'conduits' through which the gods influence the present world, and they often reveal the nature and state of the corresponding gods in turn.

"But remember to be vigilant, say it as soon as you see something unusual or hear something suspicious, and don't trust your mind too much here."

The three archbishops nodded, and then walked with Gawain towards the interior of the temple building, which had a strong desert atmosphere.

I don't know how long the temple has been abandoned, and the inside looks ancient, full of traces of time.

After a short corridor is the hall used for religious activities, the lights that were originally used to illuminate the hall have long been extinguished, the huge columns and the curtain hanging from the air interweave layers of shadows in the hall, and the sunlight from the narrow high windows shines into the room, cutting a bright "road" between the shadows.

Gawain casually turned his head to take a look, and saw the sun in the sky through the narrow high window, which was also a giant sun, and the glorious corona faintly appeared with wood-grain-like lines, which was the same as the "sun" in the real world.

Living on a moon orbiting a gas giant, the Eternal Sleepers can't imagine what the sun looks like on other planets, and in this sandbox, they also set up a sun that is indistinguishable from the real world.

"It's been abandoned for at least a few decades...... It could be a century, but not longer," Yuri bent over a collapsing stone platform, his fingers rubbing a severely weathered piece of cloth that had fallen from the stone platform, "otherwise these things would not have survived." ”

"But the words on the door look like they have just been engraved." Magnum frowned and muttered.

Gawain watched Yuri's movements and casually asked, "Will the things in the sandbox world also be weathered and decayed like the real world?" ”

"Yes," Yuri stood up, "and it's about the same as the weathering of the real world, and at about the same speed. These details are a reality that we refer to directly, after all, it is almost impossible for a mortal to rewrite the full set of details. ”

"Alas," Gawain couldn't help but shake his head and sigh helplessly, "The real world can give birth to gods, how can such a world that is highly similar to the real world not give birth to similar religious phenomena." ”

Selena, who was walking beside her, shook her head: "Before that, who knew that the gods were 'born' and not 'self-existent'?" ”

The three archbishops were speechless, and could only remain silent and continue to examine the clues in the temple.

Magnum walked to the front of the hall, where there was a special round window, from which the light shone on the platform that looked like a pulpit, and the faint particles of dust flew in the light, disturbing the original trajectory of the uninvited visitors.

Yuri approached Magnum and casually asked, "Are you sure you've removed the psychic storm from your subconscious?" ”

"Damn, how many times do you have to confirm - of course I removed it!" Magnum glared, "Have I injured you many times with psychic storming?" Are you holding such a grudge? ”

“…… I've even developed an exclusive resistance to Psychic Storm, you say? ”

“…… I'm - sure - removed! Absolutely, removed! Magnum repeated it word by word, as he surveyed the pulpit-like platform as he suddenly swept his gaze to a corner of the ground, "...... There are also here. ”

Yuri followed the other party's line of sight, only to see a line of crude notches deeply imprinted on the stone slab, which was exactly the same handwriting as the temple door—

The gods are dead.

The two archbishops were silent for a moment before Magnum suddenly spoke: "Yuri, to be honest, do you believe what is said above?" ”

"There is only one 'god' in the sandbox, if this sentence is true, the god is really dead, then we can go back and celebrate," Yuri said with a wry smile, "It's a pity that the people who have been polluted are still polluted, and the runaway sandbox has not shown the slightest sign of recovery, and seeing this god dead here and now, I can only feel doubly weird and terrifying." ”

Magnum nodded in agreement, "Also, whoever left these horrible words here, his sanity doesn't look quite right......"

On the other side, Gawain and Selena were inspecting the rooms connected to the hall.

In a showroom, behind the side of the pulpit, which seemed to be dedicated to important objects, they saw many of the things that the faithful had offered, placed in square openings in the walls, and were safely kept.

Selena frowned slightly, looking at the exquisite gold and silver utensils and jewelry: "The upper narrator is religiously believed in by the locals...... These offerings are probably only a small part. ”

"It's a pity that these mundane things shouldn't mean much to a god." Gawain said casually, and then his eyes were drawn to a solitary, ornate one-handed sword—not in a hole in the wall like an ordinary offering, but on a platform at the end of the room, protected by a sigil, and seemingly with words on the platform, which was particularly distinctive.

Gawain came to the platform and saw a line of text written on it:

The Holy and Great King Balmora is dedicated to my Lord, the year of chamomile, the day of summer.

"It seems to be a king's dedication to the upper ...... narrator," Gawain said casually, looking at the line of text.

"King Balmora ......" Selena also saw the text, and her expression showed a hint of thought, "I seem to have some impressions." ”

"Oh?" Gawain raised his eyebrows, originally thinking that it was an insignificant name, but he felt a hint of strangeness from Selena's expression, "What did this King Balmora do?" ”

"According to the output of the log system, it is a virtual personality automatically generated by the sandbox," Selena said as she pondered, "At the beginning, she was a slave of the city-state of Nim Drow, and then according to the system, she relied on slave gladiatorial battles to gain freedom, became one of the guards of the city-state, and slowly rose to the rank of captain of the guard......"

"A slave-turned-guard?" Gawain couldn't help but be surprised, "Then how did he become a king?" ”

"Let me think about it...... According to the time in the sandbox, it should be about two hundred years before the runaway, the city-state of Nîm Drow was covered by a plague of insects, the water source was polluted, the grain was lost, the locusts and black beetles ate most of the stored grain, the nobles of the city-state fled, and the king also ran to the nearby countries with his cronies and treasures to take refuge, and in a critical situation, the people who were still alive in the city-state decided to elect a new king - the one who could find a way to fight the plague, find a source of food and a new source of water, was the new king.

"As you might imagine, this 'sandbox dweller' called Balmora did these things - he found the root cause of the insect outbreak, led the people of the city-state to find a new source of water, and led his soldiers to catch up with some of the fleeing nobles and reclaim some of the food they had taken with them...... These are all remarkable feats, even beyond our preconceived 'script', and no 'virtual resident' has ever been able to do these great things that move the course of history, and similar things are often done by relying on external input scripts...... So I was impressed about it. ”

"And what happened to this great king?" Gawain couldn't help but ask curiously.

Selena seemed to hesitate for a moment before she whispered, "...... Deleted. ”

"Deleted?"

"The script was so biased that the sandbox thought there was a risk that the system was out of balance, so it automatically corrected it, and Balmoral's sudden death in the prime of life was actually deleted — and of course, he left his own name in the history of Sandbox One, which at least hasn't been reset."

Gawain didn't speak for a while, just quietly looked at the sword placed on the platform, as if looking at a virtual personality born in the dream world and created by the system, watching him change from a slave to a soldier, from a soldier to a general, from a general to a king, from a male master, and finally ...... was deleted.

Suddenly, he had a strange feeling for the beings who had sunk and fallen in the sandbox world.

His attention quickly returned to the temple that belonged to the "upper narrator".

"Then, following the clue here, the king of Balmora offered his sword to the gods," he said to Selena beside him, "that is, the faith of the upper narrator was born during Balmora's active years, and has even become the core belief of the city-state of Nîmes Sanjo." ”

Selena obviously thought of the same thing, and her expression was thoughtful: "Looks like ...... That's right. ”

"The sandbox system wasn't out of control at the time - you outside monitors were ignorant of the temple's presence and existence."

"That's true."

Gawain raised his eyelids: "Why do you think that?" ”

Selena thought for a moment and said slowly, "Or...... It is the upper narrator who distorts time and history after the sandbox gets out of control, weaving a non-existent world process in the sandbox world, or the sandbox system gets out of control earlier than we think, and even the monitoring system has been deceiving us. ”

Gawain fell silent.

Either way, it's not good news.

If the first possibility is the case, it means that the upper narrator has more erosion and control over the sandbox system than expected, and even has the ability to manipulate time and history in the sandbox world, which is beyond simple mental pollution;

If it is the second possibility, it means that his contamination leaked earlier than everyone expected, and it means that it is highly likely that he has left a hidden danger in the real world that has not yet been detected and may explode at any time......

In all fairness, Gawain would rather have the first scenario.