Chapter 25: Time to strike

"So, you're saying that those Gods will notice my existence sooner or later?" I asked.

"Yea, after all, you seem adamant about shaking this entire world to its core!" Goldy replied.

"Goddamn it! That was never my intention and you know that better than anyone." I wasn't kidding. I just wanted to live. Once you experience death once like I did, you won't like to experience it yet again. Rather than it being simply painful, it's dark. It leaves a hollow feeling. I guess that's why the cycle of rebirth was introduced. Because no one who remembers their death can peacefully live their next life. It sucks.

Anyway, if what Goldy said was the truth, that means soon enough it's not just the Gods in this world that I've gotta be afraid of, but also the one beyond them as well… That sucks! But, I wonder what would have happened if I was reborn without all those memories from my past life. I was just a replacement, right? Just to cover for the death. That means within a span of a month, I would've died twice. I was supposed to be a temporary fix that the Gods didn't particularly care about. So, if they didn't care about me back then, I don't want them to care about me when I'm wrecking the world either.

Ha… It's really hard to process. It doesn't help that Goldy doesn't know how to explain stuff. He just ended up dumping all the info onto me and now I have to think about it… But now that I think about it, how does he know such information?

"It's all theories that I came up on the spot." Goldy replied, yet again jumping into my train of thoughts without my permission.

"As if! It's too detailed for it to be just a theory!" I retorted.

"What? Don't all theories work that way? Isn't that how you should present to people for them to believe? And I just gave you some comparisons for fun… So, you had the feeling that my explanation is detailed. I'm pretty good, aren't I?" Goldy gave out a cheeky laugh. Although he gave out an explanation, I had no reason to believe it. I feel like he's hiding something way too important, but that might just be my imagination. Even if he hides something though, it's not like we're gonna get separated any time soon.

"Wait a minute! You gave out a computer analogy, didn't ya? If I'm the bug in the game that Gods created, wouldn't I be destroyed the first thing they get?" I asked. It's not my fault that I became a bug though, so why do I have to suffer?

"Hmm… Well, let's just hope that they like bugs that create interesting situations!" He shrugged. So, in the end, I got to rely on their benevolence to just keep on living. Well, since I'm a bug to be eliminated anyway, let's see how far I can crumble this story line.... Wait, isn't that against my original idea though? But yea, several things changed from when I thought up my initial idea, so I've gotta change it up accordingly as well! However, I'm gonna continue in the shadows though. At least gotta keep some of the main story line intact, right?

"You're weird and selfish, I guess! You wanna mess up the entire story line and yet hide in the shadows. That's peak level selfishness. And don't you dare think that I can't see your actual thoughts as well!" Goldy spoke of my inner thoughts of which even I wasn't aware of.

"What are you talking about?" Naturally, I asked him about it.

"The reason why you're so conflicted… You want to hide in the shadows until people hear your lore and then you want to reveal yourself, don't you?" He asked.

That's when I seriously thought about it once again. Do I really want to live like a random mob character? Do I really hope to become someone integrated in the shadows? Why was I adamant about a normal life then? Why do I have to think about it too much? Now that I think about it, I've been acting the same as some of the leads of manhwas I read; totally oblivious of the opportunity in their hands. Hmm, I should probably change my thought process. It's shite at times.

"You're right! I'm conflicted about it. However, now that I think about it, that's a completely idiotic way to go with it, isn't it? Like, I'm not powerful at all currently. If someone really wants to assassinate me, if you were not around me, I would be easily killed. And even then, all that I'm thinking about is what would happen when I actually gain all those powers, even when I have nothing in my hand currently. It's stupid!" I sighed before continuing. "So, I won't worry anymore. I am not going to think about the strong people around me or the Gods of this world or the Gods above them all or even my future self. It's just gonna mess it all up. For now, we'll confine ourselves with the presence. And about me revealing the reality of the situation or hiding in the shadows… even that decision should only be taken far in the future. So, I will take it easy." I replied. For a hot moment, I felt like everything that came out of my mouth was hot garbage. Anyway, as he told me, this future has truly become uncertain. Maybe I should try to enjoy it now that it actually became normal for once.

"By normal, you mean robbing a sect off their sacred pills." Goldy spoke with no chill. I know what's going on. Just give me a moment to make myself believe that half of the things I said just made sense even though it didn't.

"Yes." I replied.

"So, did we take a decision on which sect we're gonna rob this time?" Goldy asked.

Now that I think about it, we were about to decide on it, when the other conversation sprung up for some reason. "I don't think so, if my memory serves right." I replied.

"Hmm, so which one is it?" Goldy asked.

I looked into the notebook that I wrote the sect names. I pondered over it for a while, before taking a decision. "Well, we will go after a small sect for now. It would be relatively easier. It's not that I doubt your abilities or anything, it's just the current me is lacking. If we are gonna rob the big ones, we'll do it once I gain sufficient confidence." I replied.

"I see. Makes sense. So, I'm gonna ask again. Which one?" He asked yet again.

I coarse my fingers through the names of minor sects which have the sacred pills. "The beggar sect has sacred pills?" I was kinda surprised. I didn't remember recording that sect's name on the notebook. Well, I heard that they don't have an actual sect base, so there's no point in recording their name, right?

"Well, if someone of that sect has sacred pills, they probably got it from doing work for some major sects." Goldy chimed in his opinion.

"Yea, I guess so. Anyway, they're out of contention. So, what about this one?" I pointed at the Raging Thunder sect. The reason? Because the name felt a bit weird and eighth grade syndromish. And I knew that they weren't that strong because the previous owner's memories are saying so. Goldy agreed with my choice as well… But he would have agreed with literally any choice I pick. So, that wasn't a big surprise or anything.

Now, all I had to do was to wait until night falls and then escape my house. Originally, I didn't look up the distance because I was pretty confident that I will return before the sun rises even if the sect is like ten thousand kilometers away from us. However, I know overconfidence screws things over, so I decided to scout the sect before the event begins. I got hold of some books that recorded the information of each sect. Although the information might be a bit outdated, things like distance and stuff were surely the same… That is if they didn't make a major change in recent years, which is impossible, because I would have an idea about it. As far as I remember, the Raging Thunder sect only had a really minor contribution in the war against the Blood Moon Sect in the end phase, where they were treated like the bunch of extras that they were. It's sad to think of it like that, but it was the truth. The entire game showed us cut-scenes of Zhangsun Shan and co recruiting the more prominent sects and as of the minor ones like Raging Thunder, the devs just threw them onto a single list.

Anyway, nightfall came up pretty quickly that night. I was dwelling through all those thoughts when Goldy finally woke me up from my trance. Finally,it was time to strike.