Still, a reward was a reward, so Alba casually slipped it onto her finger. In the next moment, she did feel a bit more alert, and when she opened her hand, Holy Light appeared. Whether the light was stronger than before was hard to tell.
"Wait, I'm using Holy Light?" Alba slapped her forehead, and cold sweat poured out again. She suddenly realized that if she was being watched by Evil God, why could she still use Holy Light? Were these two not opposed?
"Wait… Holy Light? God?" She frowned and suddenly noticed something she had completely overlooked before. Elvin had explained that Holy Light was essentially the power of the God of Light, which mortals borrowed through faith, so why could she use it almost without restriction?
Because she used it so often, she had taken it for granted. But after glimpsing even a fraction of what gods were like, she felt things were not that simple. Faith in the God of Light was something she did not have at all, and no matter how devout someone was, they should not be able to use it so freely.
That left only one possibility. From the moment she got the first reward from Simulator, she had already been noticed by the God of Light. Did that mean she had been under watch from the very start? She had thought Simulator was just powerful enough, or that it created a similar ability to Holy Light, but now that Simulator could not even handle Evil God, how could it possibly affect the God of Light of equal or higher rank?
"What virtue do I have, to be watched by so many gods? I'm just an ordinary person!" And that was not even the worst part. What made her even more uneasy was that she was being watched by both an unknown Evil God and the God of Light, yet nothing had happened to her.
She could still use Holy Light as usual, and the holy relic of Evil God was sitting right beside her. Believing in either side alone would be normal, horns or halos were both fine, but both at the same time? According to doctrine and scriptures, were these two not supposed to be enemies?
Feeling that everything was getting darker and more dangerous, Alba felt that life was unbearably hard. "This is really over. If someone sees that I'm hiding a holy relic of Evil God, being burned alive would be a good outcome."
She did not try to throw the book away, since that would clearly be useless and might even anger it. Alba sighed helplessly again and opened it casually, since she had just seen text inside. But after seeing the content, her head started to hurt even more.
She thought she could calmly read anything written there, but this was something else. "Task list: Find the hiding place or summoning site of any Abyss Evil God true body: 0/x. Reward: unknown."
"Auxiliary functions: Prayer, effect unknown, can be used under certain conditions to call Belial, xxxx, xxxx and other divine units. Spellcasting, effect unknown, randomly draw one spell from xxxx library at the cost of mental energy. Others not yet unlocked."
That was right. Aside from Simulator, what was written in this book was another System task panel, and Alba even noticed that the font matched perfectly, except the second one lacked a logo. As for the task requirement, finding the true body hiding place of a Abyss Evil God? Her?
"Haha." She tossed the book aside. "Screw this."
Alba kept turning the book over and studying it, and soon noticed the paper was no different from normal sheets. The only problem was that no matter how hard she tried, she could not tear even a single page. Aside from the information on the first page, the rest of the book was completely blank.
The tasks and records written there were things Alba had no hope of completing, and in the skill list, the only usable option was Prayer. Just thinking about it made her nervous, and she did not dare use it at all. She did not even dare to activate the Simulator.
After thinking for a long time, she still had no idea how to deal with the book. Leaving it in the room felt unsafe, because if some powerful figure passed by and sensed the aura of this Elder God Relic, she would be finished. In the end, after weighing everything, Alba decided to carry it with her despite the danger, removed the cover from the Radiant Holy Scripture, and used it as a disguise since the sizes were close enough.
She put the disguised book into her small bag, and that was that. There was nothing else she could do, since she was just an ordinary person who did not know why she had become so reckless. If she could, she would have loved to get rid of all these things she was never meant to carry.
However, she did not dare ask anyone for help. When the time came to clean things up, no one could say whether they would be removing powerful marks from her body or removing her instead. Just as she was about to start another simulation, a new message suddenly popped up in the top right corner of the Simulator interface.
It announced that due to detecting minor influences, the Simulator had updated itself to the latest version. The update listed several changes, including fixed simulation times, more realistic simulations, and adjustments to the task list, replacing the original the Lord main tasks with side tasks and updating the the Lord task line. The message ended with a polite wish for enjoyable use.
Alba stared at the screen in silence. Her eyes looked lifeless as she muttered to herself, realizing that being watched by two powerful beings was already bad enough, but now even her last lifeline, the Simulator, had joined them. The idea of being sent to look for a Elder God True Body made her want to laugh and cry at the same time.
Then she noticed something else. The tasks did not seem to have any listed failure penalties. After checking the content, she understood why, because failing meant dying anyway, so there was no need for extra punishment.
She took a moment to calm down in the room, flipping the book back and forth, even trying to use it to crack a nut. That was when a sudden noise at the door startled her. Her heart jumped as she looked up.
"It's me, Elvin."
The voice outside was familiar enough, and once again this was not something shown in the Simulator. With no other choice, Alba hurriedly shoved the book under her pillow and went to open the door.
"Elvin? You're here. Did you need something from me?"
Elvin froze slightly when she saw Alba. For a brief moment, it felt like some kind of light flashed before her eyes, but she did not dwell on it. She frowned, paused for a couple of seconds, and then asked, "Did you go out to buy anything recently, or were you already wearing colored lenses before?"
"Colored lenses?"
The familiar term left Alba completely confused. She had no idea how such a thing even existed here. Elvin explained that it was a special decoration released by Paraten Empire years ago, then hesitated as she looked closer.
If she remembered correctly, Alba's eyes used to be dark, somewhere between black and brown. Now they were gold and glowing. Even at night, they would look like small lamps.
More than the glow, there was something unsettling about them. The gradient gold carried a strange pressure, like looking up at something vast and sacred, with edges resembling the corona of the sun. Deep inside was a trace of brilliant red, far beyond anything Magic or Battle Aura should be able to do.
"Is there any way to make your eyes less noticeable?" Elvin asked carefully.
She was thinking not only about how eye-catching it would be outside, but also how such a glow would look like a rare golden mark to the Abyss Cultists. And judging by Alba's expression, she probably had not even realized what had happened to herself yet.
"My eyes?" Alba blinked, then rushed into the bathroom to check the mirror.
The light from her eyes almost stunned her for a moment. When she looked closely, she could not believe it, because such elegant and striking eyes were somehow on her face. If she had gone outside like this without noticing, she would have been dead for sure.
After a burst of anger, she quickly backed down when she thought about who could have done this. Staring at her reflection, she had never examined herself so carefully before. The eyes were indeed extraordinary, but she really did not want them.
"Is there some way to turn this effect off? I can't even go outside like this."
As soon as she said it, the mysterious light in her pupils slowly faded. They were still gold, but no longer dazzling. Curious, she blinked again, and the light returned, then faded once more at her will.
She came out of the bathroom smiling, though cold sweat ran down her back. Elvin had already wandered near the bed, close to the pillow, and Alba's pupils shrank as her heart raced. She silently prayed over and over, hoping nothing would be found.