Free Web NovelChapter 23: Chapter 18: God Does Not Play Dice
The words "Sacrificial Offering" immediately perked Luh Yao up.
He opened the Divine Hall, and sure enough, a gleaming golden item had appeared in the [Sacrificial Offering] slot.
...
[Golden Dice]: Each roll costs 2 Faith. Rolling a 6 yields a Sacrificial Offering.
Source unknown.
...
Seeing this description, Luh Yao’s excitement instantly evaporated.
The Salt Pool Tribe had offered a piece of gambling equipment as their Sacrificial Offering.
Luh Yao had become very sensitive about his Faith Value, so as soon as he read the Golden Dice’s description, one phrase popped into his head.
’They’re up to no good.’
The core of gambling is the scam.
’Each roll costs 2 Faith, so where does that Faith go?’
Considering the Salt Pool Tribe’s merchant-like ways and how they claimed to worship three gods, Luh Yao suspected that another god was behind this Golden Dice, using the tribe to run scams all over the place.
From another perspective, scamming other gods out of their Faith reserves with the Golden Dice was far more subtle than Lisa’s laborious method of outright robbery.
As for getting a Sacrificial Offering by rolling a 6... the odds were completely uncontrollable. It would land on six when the operator wanted it to, and not when they didn’t. It was a classic case of blatant, behind-the-scenes manipulation.
Einstein said it best: God does not play dice.
Still, since the Salt Pool Tribe had sent a gift, there was no reason not to accept it.
Isabel had once said that if he received an unwanted Sacrificial Offering, he could toss it directly into the Fire of Faith to convert it into fuel, gaining some Faith in the process.
Luh Yao tossed the [Golden Dice] straight into the bonfire in the Divine Hall, and it vanished in an instant.
Faith +10.
’Worthless, just as I thought.’
Luh Yao surveyed the Garlic Tribe’s current geography.
The Garlic Tribe’s main settlement was situated on a basin plain. With plenty of undeveloped land, space wouldn’t be an issue in the short term.
A forest stretched to the north, its eastern edge blocked by a river. To the west lay mountains, and to the south, a desert.
Although the world map continued to expand thanks to the constant exploration of the pixel people, there were no other settlements nearby.
To grow quickly, the best way was through trade, exchange, and even merging with other tribes.
Currently, the Garlic Tribe’s only safe passage to the outside world was through the mountains—or more accurately, through the Salt Pool Tribe on the other side. The Salt Pool Tribe held a firm grip on all access points.
Another potential route was the oasis of the Bedu Tribe to the south, but it would take time for Isabel to forge a path there.
Unlike the Barbarian Tribe, which favored aggressive conquest, the Salt Pool Tribe’s strategy was flexible. They were actively engaged in trade with the Garlic Tribe, and for the moment, there were no conflicts of interest between them.
The situation was relatively stable.
...
After the Garlic Tribe invented its own writing system, several new resource bars appeared on the game interface. There was another significant change as well: the pixel people had all learned how to think for themselves, and the question marks above their heads were no longer exclusive to the Prophet and the Shaman.
Luh Yao clicked on the question marks above different pixel people to read their thoughts.
"I woke up feeling very hungry today. I wasn’t hungry after I ate my fill, but I’ll just be hungry again tomorrow. Since we’re always going to get hungry, is there really any point in eating?"
"The weeds in the wheat fields grow faster than the wheat. No matter how many I pull, I can never get rid of them all. Wouldn’t it be great if wheat could grow like weeds, all by itself, so we’d have an endless supply to eat?"
"Meat is delicious, wheat is delicious, and garlic is delicious, but they’re most delicious when you eat them all together. This is probably a secret only I know, heh heh."
"The Prophet is getting old, and so is the Shaman. Should I succeed the Prophet, or the Shaman? What a headache."
Among the many thought bubbles appearing over the villagers, one from a Farmer caught Luh Yao’s attention.
"There are so many weeds and pests this year, and we’ve had a drought, too. The wheat harvest probably won’t be good. Everyone in the tribe is depending on the wheat. If the harvest is poor this year, we’ll go hungry this winter."
It wasn’t just this one Farmer; several others expressed the same concern.
They were the experts who tended the fields, highly attuned to the environment and the state of their crops.
Luh Yao did a quick search online. After some filtering and verification, he decided on the next item to send to the tribe.
He walked into his kitchen, grabbed a large potato, and placed it on his mouse.
—Do you wish to bestow the [Potato] upon your Believers?
[Yes]
As the potato entered the Pixel World through the Divine Hall, exclamations popped up over the heads of the villagers.
"The God has sent another Blessing!"
"A potato, a potato!"
"A potato that grows when you plant it in the ground! A drought-tolerant potato!"
"A potato that yields more than wheat!"
"A whole new food source!"
Smiley faces appeared above the heads of the Farmers in the fields, especially.
"This is wonderful! The God is truly watching over us!"
"Yao God knew this year’s harvest would be poor, so he sent us a Blessing of potatoes!"
"No one will go hungry this winter! No one will starve to death!"
"Praise Yao God!"
The Farmers quickly planted the potatoes in newly tilled fields, beginning a new cycle of sowing and tending to the crops.
As the pixel people bustled about their work, the dry season gradually passed. The land began to recover its vitality, and a few rains fell from the sky.
But autumn didn’t last long. Soon, snow began to fall, and winter arrived once more.
Just as the Farmers had predicted, the wheat harvest was very poor that year. On the food supply list, wheat’s share dropped from its usual 80% down to 40%. Potatoes made up 30%, and meat accounted for another 20%. The overall food reserves were now in the yellow.
Thankfully, the potatoes had arrived just in time. Otherwise, the food shortage that winter would have been severe, possibly even leading to a population decline.
This was another benefit of civilizational progress.
As people learned to think, to worry, and to observe, it led to greater communication and new attempts at solving problems.
As the God behind the scenes, Luh Yao was able to see the many subtle changes happening in the Pixel World through the villagers’ questions, allowing him to make targeted adjustments and respond accordingly.
Two major things happened in the Garlic Tribe during that relatively short winter.
First, the Salt Pool Tribe came and purchased a portion of their grain at a high price.
According to the people from the Salt Pool Tribe, the prolonged drought had caused most of the other tribes they were in contact with to fall into famine. The Garlic Tribe was now considered a region with a relative abundance of food.
Second, a group of 22 immigrants arrived from the Salt Pool Tribe.
Among them were 2 carpenters, 2 Pharmacists, and 1 Salt Farmer.
For the first time in its history, the Garlic Tribe had attracted a group of specialists.
They had migrated voluntarily. In part, this was because their previous home in the Salt Pool Tribe had given them some familiarity with the Garlic Tribe and the Faith of Yao God. The other reason was the year’s drought and famine.
Nowhere offered a better chance to eat one’s fill than the food-producing lands of the Garlic Tribe.
The carpenters possessed the skills and experience to fell trees. That winter, they entered the forest and began logging, processing the timber into rough lumber. The Garlic Tribe’s first wooden house was soon being built by the hands of these two carpenters.
The arrival of the Pharmacists filled a crucial gap, as the Shaman had previously been the only one in the tribe with healing skills. The two Pharmacists would enter the forest to gather medicinal herbs, treat the sick, and save many lives.
The Salt Farmer was someone who specialized in making salt. He found some rock salt in the western mountains. Although the yield wasn’t high, it provided the Garlic Tribe with another means of obtaining salt.
Luh Yao poured himself a glass of cola with ice and tore open a bag of cucumber-flavored potato chips.
Delicious.
Gazing down at the villagers bustling with work, Luh Yao felt as if he were becoming one with them, his own body growing stronger.
I’m not one to roll the dice.
All I want is steady, reliable progress.
