01. Meeting with a God

There's a saying in life that sometimes reality is often stranger than fiction, and right now, Marcus was experiencing this statement to the fullest extent.

Marcus, a poor, regular university student, was currently standing in an endless white space with a stupefied expression on his face. Rubbing his brows in disbelief, Marcus stared at the shockingly handsome man in front of him and asked his question once again for confirmation.

"So you're telling me I died?" asked Marcus.

"Well, to be more specific, it would be acute heart failure due to high blood pressure, but yes, that's the gist of it," replied the handsome man nonchalantly.

"And you're telling me that you are also a God?"

"Correctomundo!" Laughed the God. "Wow, you're taking this much better than I expected," he added in an amused manner.

After hearing this joke, Marcus couldn't take it anymore and his calm demeanor snapped.

"Fuck! How else am I supposed to take it!" roared Marcus. "You just brought me here from nowhere as if it was some sort of joke, just to laugh at me, and I have no clue as to what's going on."

As the God heard this, he frowned in displeasure. "Well, if you have so much of a problem with it, why don't you take better care of your health next time? I wouldn't be able to randomly drag you somewhere if you were still alive."

Hearing this, Marcus's mouth twitched. He wanted to say something in protest, but no words managed to leave his mouth. The god had got him! He had no response to counter that, but even if he knew all this, there was no way he could just simply accept this situation.

"If I died, so be it, but even if my death wasn't the most honorable, I don't think I sinned enough to be brought here."

As the God heard this, an incredulous expression appeared on his face as he tilted his head to the side in disbelief. "Don't tell me that you actually think you're innocent? Have you already forgotten?"

As soon as Marcus heard this, his heart sank as he tried to ponder all of his possible misdeeds. 'Shit, did I truly fuck up this time?' thought Marcus nervously. 'What could it be? My search history? No, although it's questionable, it's still not illegal.'

The lack of possible clues didn't put Marcus's heart at ease but instead only made him even more nervous. 'If it's not my search history, then what could it possibly be? Other than a few fights in high school, I can't even remember the last time I physically harmed someone.'

Seeing Marcus pondering for such a long time, the God eventually grew impatient. "Don't tell me that you've truly forgotten your greatest sin! The book, Light of Heroes, you've read it, remember?"

Hearing this, Marcus's memory was quickly refreshed. It was a book he had been keeping up with that finished just a few days ago. It was a typical fantasy book with demon kings and heroes, but instead of the heroes being chosen by the gods, powerful noble families descending from the original five heroes made a contract with the gods of light to inherit the power of heroes for their own but have secretly deceived the gods, stealing the power and passing it down from generation to generation. With the uninhibited use of hero power and talents, nobility in the world had long since become uncontrollable and corrupt.

The protagonist is the saint of light, the true chosen one of the gods, and must become stronger, strengthening the weakened church, overthrowing the corrupt empire, and eventually becoming king and leading humanity into a new golden age. Whilst the premise of the story was unique enough, the execution was questionable, quickly devolving into a simple power fantasy that left much to be desired in its conclusion.

Mediocre at best.

That was the evaluation that Marcus had left the book with, but he just couldn't understand why the book was being brought up here.

"Now do you know you know the sin you have incurred for insulting the work of a god?"

Hearing this, Marcus's legs shook, not out of fear, but out of disbelief! What kind of bored god goes around writing novels?!

"Hey, hold on!" cried Marcus. "I didn't insult your work, I only called your work average. I even gave it a three-star review."

"What would you know?" scowled the God. "Do you know the shame of having your work criticized by mortals?"

After hearing this, Marcus could barely even stand straight. 'J…just for that reason? How… How petty.'

If the God he was facing was so petty, Marcus didn't have much hope.

Just as he was about to wallow in despair, he suddenly remembered something.

"Why pick me? There were tens of other harsh and one-star reviews. How could you take me but let them go?"

As soon as Marcus said this, he instantly regretted it, as he felt the air around him freeze.

"You think I didn't want to bring them here?" said the God, his expression twisting into something that made Marcus hold his breath. An unbelievable aura radiated from his body that nearly knocked Marcus out just by being in its presence. It was at that moment that Marcus truly realized what level of entity he was dealing with.

Based on his understanding, it wouldn't be at all wrong to call such a being a god.

But after the initial shock, there was only one thought left in his mind. 'Why! Why was this god so fucking god damn petty!'

The pressure released grew stronger and stronger, so much so that Marcus's vision blurred for a few seconds. Fortunately, the God seemed to realize his blunder and now slightly embarrassed, snapped his fingers, bringing Marcus's mind from the brink of collapse in an instant.

"Cough! As you said, there were others I really wanted to bring here ahead of you to teach a lesson, but who made the world truly an unjust place? Why is it that all the evil and wretched people must live a long life?" said the God, almost sighing at the injustice of the world. "Remember when I said I couldn't do anything if you were still alive, well, I wasn't joking. No matter how powerful I am, stealing a living soul from another world is not something that could be done lightly. My desire was always to bring those bastards who dared leave a one-star on my work and leave them here to suffer, but since none of them were dead, I was forced to move up to two stars and then up to three stars, which at least gave me you and your soul after your pathetic death."

Hearing it explained like this, Marcus's mouth twitched. For some reason, even though this wasn't a reward by any means, the fact he wasn't even the first or second choice, nor even backup, left him feeling somewhat defeated.

"But don't worry! Since you are not a complete sinner, I will still offer you a chance at redemption by helping me complete my next great masterpiece!" exclaimed the strange god.

Looking at the haughty look in the God's eyes, almost as if he was doing him some sort of favor, Marcus was left speechless.

Since when was leaving a three-star review a sin in the first place? This wasn't a favor; it was just blatant bullying!

But as a mere mortal, even if the gods were shamelessly bullying him, it wasn't his place to complain. Despite his strange situation, Marcus was still wise enough to stomach his dissatisfaction and let the God continue speaking.

"After doing some self-review, I've decided to create a masterpiece more exciting than before, and what do people like more than novels? It's games, of course! I will not be creating a novel but a gal game, and you will be the one to complete it for me!"

"Using my near-perfect story from my novel, you will be the one completing the game, bringing it to the next-level story. But it won't be as the protagonist either. For some reason, he could never get higher in the fan favorite rankings, so I'd like to see my world from a different perspective," explained the strange god.

"Instead of our protagonist, you will be taking on the role of Humanity's greatest traitor, Lucius!"

Hearing this, Marcus went pale. "H-Hey there, shouldn't we think things through before..."

But unfortunately for Marcus, he was brutally shut down before he could even finish.

"Nope, I've already decided that this would be the most interesting route."

This god was like a petulant child, not listening to even a word Marcus said.

Hearing this, Marcus nearly coughed up blood in frustration. Lucius had been a fan favorite since he had been introduced into the novel, but he had eventually turned into one of the most controversial and hated characters in the novel. A best friend of the protagonist, he was initially a close ally sharing similar goals. But not the same objectives. Like the protagonist, he was against the monarchy and noble families, but Lucius was a complete radical! He was a revolutionary that sought not just a change in social structure but the complete abolishment of the feudal system! You have to know that even the protagonist, the darling of this world, wasn't so crazy! He merely wanted reform. In a world where the inheritance of not just the monarchy but noble families bordered on the divine, such thoughts were nothing short of utter lunacy.

Of course, the ambitions of such a lunatic would end up in failure. But besides all this, Lucius's greatest sin would have to be eying one of the protagonists' women.

He kidnapped her and took her to one of his dungeons.

The whole arc was so borderline NTR, I almost dropped the novel right then and there.

It was clear that the author wanted to make Lucius into a big villain, but the whole NTR ordeal was nothing other than complete character assassination!

His fan rankings dropped to the dirt, and no one dared look at it again.

Besides, there was one glaring problem he hadn't addressed.

"You know this is a harem novel, right? How am I supposed to capture the hearts of heroines when they all end up falling for the MC for no good reason! No, wait, even if I do that, won't I just end up getting killed by the MC?"

The MC of this novel was no pushover. While he may be naive and innocent at the start, he may be a bit naive, but in the end, daring to covet his women or even worse, stealing them would land you a death sentence from that utter munchkin character.

But despite hearing these well-founded concerns, the God tilted his head and looked at him like he was looking at an idiot. "If the protagonist already has these girls, then all you have to do is steal them, you know NTR."

The second he heard those cursed three letters, Marcus nearly threw up in disgust.

As a man of culture, there were no three words he hated more on this planet.

He didn't just hate reading NTR, even if the protagonist was the one doing the NTR, it would still leave a queasy feeling in his stomach.

Call him weak, call him pathetic, but deep down in his heart, Marcus was a wholesome vanilla kind of guy.

Staring straight at the God, unwilling to break his convictions, Marcus proudly said, "I'm sorry, but I can't do NTR. It's against my bottom line."

Hearing this, it was the God's turn to be surprised. "Eh? But if you don't succeed in capturing enough heroines, you will die."

"P-pardon?" stuttered Marcus, doubting his ears for a second.

"You heard me," replied the God. "If you don't capture the hearts of enough girls, you will die a gruesome and wretched death."

Hearing his ruthless sentence, Marcus's heart went cold, his fragile resolve to reject NTR crumbling.

"Hey! How am I just hearing this now!?" exclaimed Marcus. "You can't just decide things like this on a whim. How am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to survive?"

The amused words of the God echoed in Marcus's ears. "Not. My. Problem."

Hearing this, Marcus was outraged! In just a second, a mountain of curses and swears were building up in his heart, ready to pour out at a moment's notice, but right before Marcus could unleash them, a black swirl appeared at his feet, slowly sucking him inside.

Marcus quickly realized the true severity of his situation.

In desperation, Marcus could only stretch out his hands and cry out, "HEY.. wait .., fuck!"

Eventually, his vision turned dark and his angry curses turned into desperate pleas. "Somebody help! I don't want to NTR the protagonist!"