I, the creator of the evil god!

Chapter 17: Rule-Based Anomalies

At the break of dawn, the sun had yet to fully rise, its golden rays slicing through the remnants of the night, illuminating the world below and rousing those who had spent the night steeped in fear.@@novelbin@@

Yet, the streets remained sparsely populated. Only a few hapless office workers trudged to their jobs, steeling themselves against the lingering dread.

Although the twisted spiders had been eradicated by a mysterious entity, and all the webs and damaged structures had been swiftly repaired overnight by military logistics, the terror etched into people’s hearts was far from erased.

Thankfully, the spiders were exterminated before their ritual could fully unfold, confining the disaster to a small section of the northern district of Hang City. The rest of the city remained unscathed.

Even so, hundreds had suffered varying degrees of loss, some watching as their loved ones, friends, or even partners were dragged away by spiders, encased in silk, only to be discovered later as unrecognisable piles of sludge.

A tragedy of unimaginable proportions!

Fortunately, through the Special Department’s relentless efforts, over eighty survivors were rescued from more than a hundred cocoons overnight. Among them, only five sustained serious injuries and were immediately hospitalised for treatment.

While the toll was heavy, it was still the best outcome in a world teetering on chaos, where survival was a privilege earned through humility and resilience.

“A new day begins,” Lu Yu murmured, waking from his slumber. His eyes flicked to the Fear Balloon floating above his ceiling, swaying like a fish swimming through water.

Most people would have fainted in terror at the sight of such a grotesque face hovering over their heads.

After all, the Fear Balloon’s ghastly visage was the source of its Intimidation skill.

But Lu Yu felt nothing. He had achieved the rare feat of encountering an evil god and living to tell the tale.

Though he had only glimpsed the horrific, grand, and unfathomable shadow of that being, the system had shielded him from the corrosive, nameless force, enabling him to emerge unscathed—and even gain a share of its power.

Compared to that evil god’s shadow, the Fear Balloon’s intimidation was like a child’s playful tantrum.

“Maybe I should wear a badge that says ‘The Man Who Milked an Evil God.’”

As the thought crossed his mind, Lu Yu smacked the Fear Balloon away when it tried to nudge closer, deciding instead to maintain his low-key lifestyle.

Though he now had the skill Time’s Sanctuary, shielding him from the evil god’s divination, attracting the attention of its high-ranking priests or followers by being too conspicuous was not a risk he was willing to take.

After freshening up, Lu Yu donned a white shirt and blue shorts. Ordering the Fear Balloon to behave, he headed downstairs for breakfast.

However, his expectations were dashed. Following the twisted spider disaster, the northern district was shrouded in a heavy gloom, and few establishments had reopened.

From passers-by, he learned that the breakfast shop’s owner had been so frightened by the spiders that he narrowly avoided cardiac arrest and was now recovering in the hospital. Thankfully, his condition wasn’t serious.

Left with no choice, Lu Yu hailed a cab to the nearby eastern district, where he found a breakfast shop and ordered a plate of soup dumplings.

Seated in the shop, he listened to the chatter of patrons recounting the previous night’s events, his mind turning to his plans for the future.

As was his habit in his previous life, Lu Yu preferred meticulous planning to avoid last-minute panic or oversight.

The Void Shadow Spider was still in its incubation stage, with twenty-nine days left until it would hatch.

Meanwhile, the Fear Balloon required a substantial amount of life force to evolve, but harvesting human lives would undoubtedly provoke the wrath of powerful human warriors.

Moreover, such actions clashed with Lu Yu’s principles.

Additionally, with Leeching Aura active, draining life energy from ordinary humans yielded minimal returns.

By Lu Yu’s calculations, the life energy harvested from a single twisted spider was equivalent to that of seven or eight ordinary people.

Thus, Leeching Aura was better suited for hunting formidable magical beasts in the wilderness, which could also provide valuable materials.

However, Lu Yu remained unfamiliar with the world of the Awakened. Though he had heard tales of the dangers lurking in the wild, he lacked concrete details.

While his current strength made him confident in direct combat, he was wary of unconventional threats.

He recalled a post he had read about a peculiar anomaly near Sheep City: a mysterious being that appeared on wilderness paths, offering travellers a drink of water.

The catch was that this entity couldn’t be refused. It exerted a strange, coercive force, and those without strong willpower would drink the water, only to have their organs corroded by its poison.

The post detailed how a powerful individual eventually resisted and defeated the anomaly, uncovering over a dozen corpses with hollowed-out torsos nearby. The incident was subsequently recorded in official files.

Though unnerved by such anomalous phenomena, Lu Yu was equally intrigued.

Could such entities yield extractable materials? Could they be combined with venom sacs and mind-corrupting toxins to create a rule-based monster?

If successful, Lu Yu envisioned presenting enemies with a bowl of water before every battle, politely saying:

“Care for a drink, my friend?”

Combining this with lightning could deliver an electrifying plasma cocktail, or with shadows, a bowl of inky darkness to seal their fate.

Ending conflicts without lifting a finger—how truly peaceful of me!

Smiling at his musings, Lu Yu dipped a soup dumpling in vinegar and took a bite, savouring the flavour.

As he enjoyed his breakfast, a voice called from behind:

“What brings you to the eastern district?”