"Do you have any idea where Shinji‑sama is actually taking us? It feels like we're getting further and further off course!"
Tobi put on an exaggerated look of fear and hid behind Hidan.
"That guy's always acting mysterious — how should I know?"
Hidan's tone was thick with envy and resentment. He considered himself the number one most devoted follower of the Evil God, yet he had never once received a divine revelation.
It made him feel like the Cult Leader was nothing more than a fake.
Meanwhile, that bastard Shinji had only given himself the title of Prophet and High Priest, and yet he always seemed to enjoy the Evil God's favor.
It was unfair! It was infuriating!
Every time Hidan carried on like this, Tobi could not help but waver in his own doubts — could this so‑called Evil God actually be real?
There were already too many things happening that defied all logical explanation.
Shinji followed the directions on the treasure map all the way until he arrived at a desolate graveyard.
"Why would something be hidden in a place like this?"
Tamamo Hikaru hugged Crescent Moon tightly and shivered, feeling a cold, eerie wind blowing all around them.
Moxi, meanwhile, had the tiny Three‑Tails resting comfortably on her head and simply yawned.
Thank goodness this isn't a tomb‑raiding novel, Shinji thought to himself with a silent grin.
He tossed the treasure map onto the ground. In an instant, the parchment glowed brightly and transformed into a sealed wooden box.
Without hesitation, Shinji opened it — and a stone statue more than two meters tall sprang out and landed firmly on the earth.
At the same moment, a system notification echoed in Shinji's mind:
[Mini‑Game Activated — Defend Athena]
Defend Athena
Objective: Protect the Statue of Athena from being destroyed while fending off waves of enemies.
Total Waves: 10
Reward: 3,000 Cursed Spirit Souls for each wave successfully defended.
Bonus: Additional reward from Athena for a perfect clear of all 10 waves.
Note: The number of enemies per wave equals ten times the number of initial defenders. Good luck!
---
The moment Shinji finished reading the instructions, the game began.
Dozens of withered, gnarled arms burst out from the ground.
"AHH!"
Tamamo Hikaru screamed as one of them grabbed her ankle.
Crescent Moon leaped down immediately, bit the arm clean off, then spat it out with a look of disgust as if it tasted terrible.
"What the hell are these things?!"
Hidan gripped his Blood Scythe and swung it in wide arcs, slicing the creatures emerging from the earth in half as easily as cutting grass.
Only then did everyone see the horde of corpses crawling out from the surrounding soil — creatures that looked like zombies or reanimated dead.
They were repulsive enough that no further description was needed; anyone could tell at a glance. Once they appeared, they began shuffling slowly toward the Statue of Athena.
Shinji did not strike right away; instead, he stood back and observed carefully. Within moments, he had calculated the situation.
"Counting the ones already cut down, there are roughly seventy of them. That means besides the five of us — me, Hidan, Tobi, Sasuke, and Tamamo — two more among Crescent Moon, Moxi, and the Three‑Tails must be counted as defenders. By that logic, Moxi is not counted separately but linked to me."
"Seventy enemies per wave. So the first wave is just these disposable corpses."
If the difficulty stayed at this level, even increasing through all ten rounds should not pose much of a problem.
He only needed to clear up to the seventh wave to collect enough souls to activate the Six Eyes Scroll, but there was no such thing as having too many Cursed Spirit Souls.
Besides, he was curious about what the final reward might be.
"Listen up! More enemies will keep appearing one wave after another. Don't wander off — focus entirely on protecting this statue!"
Hearing this, Tobi's eyes narrowed slightly. "Shinji‑sama, what exactly is this statue anyway?"
Shinji glanced at him and quickly made up a story. "This is one of the countless incarnations of the Evil God. Protect it well, and whoever contributes the most in the end shall receive a divine blessing from Him."
As soon as he said this, Hidan's eyes lit up as if he had been injected with pure adrenaline.
He charged forward, swinging his scythe wildly and hacking apart every corpse in his path.
Tobi and Sasuke still harbored doubts, but they were willing to try their luck — what if it turned out to be true?
Tamamo Hikaru knew better than to expect any reward for herself no matter how hard she worked.
But if she slacked off now, she risked being cast aside later. After all, aside from her, everyone else here belonged to the Cult of the Evil God.
These corpses were only frightening to ordinary people; they had no special abilities at all. Before long, Shinji and his companions had cleared them all away.
Then the second wave arrived.
Giant, carnivorous flowers burst through the soil and began devouring the fallen corpses.
Every time one swallowed a body, it grew larger, and its petals glowed a deeper, more menacing red.
This time, no reminder was needed — everyone immediately moved to deal with the new threat.
These flowers could swallow a grown man whole and also control thick, thorny vines to attack from a distance.
They were far more dangerous than the previous wave of corpses. However, they were rooted in place and extremely vulnerable to fire.
Tobi unleashed a Fire Release technique and burned down a third of the flowers in one go.
Hidan shot him a glare of pure malice. That bastard is trying to steal the Evil God's blessing from me!
How dare he?!
I should have killed him when I first had the chance!
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
BOOM!
While Hidan was still staring daggers at Tobi, Sasuke unleashed his own fire jutsu and incinerated more than a dozen of the giant plants.
"SA‑SU‑KE! Do you have a death wish too?!"
Hidan gritted his teeth and turned his fury toward Sasuke.
Sasuke simply ignored him, drew his Kusanagi Sword, and began slicing through the remaining vines.
"Fine! Very well! Just you wait!"
The Cult Leader was absolutely furious — every single one of these people was out to compete with him!
Shinji, meanwhile, watched the scene unfold with a grin. Go ahead — fight it out for me!
He had been holding back and letting everyone else do the work because he had noticed something important: killing these creatures did not add a single soul point to his count.
Instead, every time a wave was completely cleared, he instantly received the full 3,000 souls as a reward. That meant everyone else was working for him!
As for the so‑called "divine blessing" at the end… well, the one who contributed the most was not necessarily the one who killed the most monsters.
He had found the location, activated the statue, and set the rules — he could define "contribution" however he pleased.
His intentions were certainly far from noble.
Before long, the second wave of flowers was completely wiped out.
Then came the third wave: giant, mutated serpents. They slithered with terrifying speed and spat clouds of venomous poison.
Even so, they still posed no real threat to this group — they were only slightly more troublesome to deal with.
"Three minutes between each wave."
Shinji had spotted another pattern: no matter whether the previous wave was fully cleared or not, the next wave would begin exactly three minutes later.
So it was not enough to simply fight steadily — they also needed speed. If they let multiple waves pile up at once, the situation could quickly spiral out of control.
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