Divinity: Against the Godly System

The sticker, which was a one-time item, disappeared as soon as it was removed. 

Ryder watched the stickers disintegrate, with which all the mysterious smoke also went away, leaving Ryder free to spend as much time as he needed here. 

Moreover, Gander also recovered as soon as the sticker was destroyed. 

Ryder glanced towards Gander as he said, "Stand up. You're fine now."

Gander heard Ryder's words and tried moving his hand only to realize that Ryder was right. He actually was able to move. Moreover, he didn't feel any pain. It was as if his body was back to normal now. 

He pushed his body up before he stood up. 

"You got me too. I thought you'd get rid of me as well," Gander said as he brought a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the sweat off his forehead. 

"Why would I? You work for me now. But yeah, you would have been dead if you had betrayed me. So give the credit to yourself for choosing the right side," Ryder told Gander as he gestured for him to sit before him. 

Gander walked towards the chair and sat on it again. 

"What did you do to the body? How did you make it disappear?" He asked. 

"Please enlighten me about something. How does it concern you what I did with the body?" Ryder asked sarcastically. 

Even though he asked in sarcasm, he still answered, "I destroyed the body."

"Y-you destroyed it so fast?" Gander asked Ryder. "Are you a magician?'

Ryder took a deep breath as he sighed. "Moving on, listen to what you have to do next."

He was getting tired of the idle chit-chat. He already knew that he didn't have much time. And the number of people he had to kill was too many. 

"Next in the list is the Seventh King, also known as the Lustful King. Apparently, he is pretty creepy, as you already described. He is interested in boys that he kills before he..."

"Anyway, I want you to lure him out this time. Bring him here as well," Ryder said. 

"Him? You want me to go there? They would kill me if I went there and they found out the truth. They all know that I left with the Thirteenth King. What will I say if they ask where he went?" Gander asked. 

"Just tell them that he left you midway and left, saying he has someone important to meet in the city. If you think that won't work, I'm sure you can come up with some excuse of your own," Ryder said as he closed the topic. 

"I don't care what you do; I want him here," he said. 

"Anyway, he is a fashion tycoon. And with his weakness, I've prepared something." He placed a picture on the table before Gander. 

"This picture? Who is this boy?" Gander asked as he watched the image. 

"I have no idea. Apparently it's from a local model photoshoot here. I prepared this pic to lure the Seventh King out. I had been wondering how to get this pic to him, but you're here. That makes it simple," Ryder said. 

He further added, "Just tell him that you have prepared a boy for him to enjoy while he is in the city. And bring him here. I'm sure you understand the rest. You have three hours to get him here. Be careful and don't make them suspicious as you do it."

"We're really playing with fire here. With your tricks, you might be able to kill the weak Kings, but the strongest ones are really careful. Your plan to kill all Kings... That seems like a dream. Your dream is as hard to fulfill as climbing Mount Everest on foot in three hours and coming back in that time, alive," Gander said as he sighed while he kept the picture in his pocket. 

"Nothing is impossible in this world. After the things I've seen, climbing Mount Everest in three hours seems like a child's play," Ryder replied as he rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about me. Just do as I said and watch how I take care of all the Kings and their leader."

"All the Kings are already tough, but their leader? I heard their leader is no less than a god. He can make anything possible. I wonder if you can actually do it. I wish you luck. Since I have already sided with you, my survival depends on your success," Gander said as he stood up. 

He turned back and started leaving, sighing again and again as if he was regretting his life choices to be caught in the middle of this. 

"Don't forget to close the door behind you," Ryder called out as he watched Gander leave. 

"Yes. After all you've told me to do, this seems like nothing," Gander said as he closed the door after he left. 

Ryder stood up after a few minutes and walked over to the door. He opened the door as he peeked outside.

"He really left. That's good," Ryder muttered as he again went inside the office and closed the door from inside. 

He walked back to the center of the office and brought the body of Renner out of his inventory, leaving it on the ground. 

"Alright, Janus, should I do it like last time, or is the method different with the Kings?" Ryder asked Janus. 

"Do it like last time. Everything will be the same. Be fast," Janus's voice echoed in Ryder's mind. 

Ryder sat on his knees before he did, just as he did last time. Unlike last time, Janus didn't need to explain everything, and the transfer process moved very smoothly.

It was even faster than last time as Ryder absorbed the strength of the Thirteenth King. 

As the strength of Renner was absorbed by Ryder, the body disappeared. 

He was level thousand before when he absorbed Luke. As he absorbed the energy of Renner, he opened his status screen to see what his level and status were now. 

[Name: Ryder]

[Species: Human/Unspecified]

[Level: 1700]

"Level 1700? A boost of seven hundred levels? That's fine, but what's with the species? Of Course, I'm human. Why if in the bracket it's showing unspecified?" Ryder asked Janus. 

"Don't tell me absorbing their energy is changing my species?" 

"Don't worry about such things. It's nothing," Janus answered without explaining much. 

"I'll really be angry if it makes me a monster or something because of this. Be warned," Ryder said as he stood up and walked back to the chair.

Unlike before, he didn't have a hard time controlling his strength either since he already had an assumption of his strength now. Moreover, the boost wasn't as crazy as before. Previously he had jumped from weakest to strong. But now, his jump was from strong to stronger. 

"Looking at this jump, I guess that Luke wasn't much weaker than a King," Ryder said as he placed his forehead on the table before him. 

"That means there are people like these kings in Russia as well. If I'm not wrong, there must be people like these in other countries as well. So people like their leaders also exist in other countries. I can only assume that they are in all the countries of the world."

"The question remains, where did they come from?" He asked himself. "And what their purpose is? They're all so influential and have everything. What is their purpose, then? What do they want?"

Realizing that asking himself was useless, he shifted his target. "Janus, you know the answer to my question, don't you?" 

"Who are these people? And where do they get their powers from? Is this some game? Where each god selects a player from the earth and has them fight? It would make sense. I received all my powers from you. Just like that, these people could only have received their powers from other gods as well," Ryder asked suspiciously. 

He knew that Janus was not a system but a god. He also knew that there were other gods as well. So his assumption made sense to him. 

"You're missing something," Janus answered but didn't explain. 

"What am I missing?" Ryder asked, not realizing that he had missed a possibility. 

He had said that people here could only receive powers from gods. He forgot that the humans here could be gods themselves. 

He asked Janus what he was missing, but Janus didn't answer. 

...

Esmi and Bastion reached the Mansion of Shu Maxwell since Ryder's number was switched off. They wanted to see if he was here. 

As they reached the entrance of the mansion, they were surprised to see that the entrance was completely unguarded. There was not a single person at the entrance which was surprising since the owner of the mansion was so rich. The security shouldn't be this lax.

Opening the doors, Esmi and Bastion stepped out of the car as they walked through the entrance, where the door was missing as well.