Chapter 167: Your Faith is Severely Lacking Balance

"That doesn't follow the rules! Wasn't it agreed that once I reached the required level, I could change classes?" Chen Fan protested.

Darkuru gave a couple of dry coughs, a hint of awkwardness in his tone. "Well, look, the rules can't be broken, but from today onward, you are officially a member of my discarded Thief faction."

Chen Fan spread his hands, completely feeling no signs of any primordial energy surging within his body. Logically speaking, transitioning from a novice adventurer to a Thief should have brought about some physical changes.

"Just like that? So perfunctorily? Just a sentence and it's done?"

Chen Fan wore a puzzled expression. Whenever he played games in the past, crossing a milestone would always leave his character surrounded by a golden light of maple leaves. But looking at himself now, there was nothing at all.

"Forgot, forgot. I've been hanging upside down for too long, my brain is a bit congested." Darkuru uncrossed his arms and, much like a master bestowing initiation scars upon a novice monk, gave Chen Fan's glabella a light tap.

"And then?" Chen Fan pressed his temples. No extra memories seemed to have appeared in his mind. He placed a hand over his heart; it was still beating at the exact same pace.

"No more 'then'. These are the gauntlets. Take them and put them on; they will accompany you for the rest of your life."

Darkuru fished a pair of battered gauntlets out from behind his back and solemnly handed them over to Chen Fan. They looked identical to the ones in the game, with a few protruding rivets embedded across the knuckles.

Chen Fan took the gauntlets and carefully slipped them onto his hands. Though they felt a bit clumsy, they had the virtue of being real, which at least fulfilled his dream of faith.

"What about the throwing stars?"

"Throwing stars aren't freebies. Do you have money?" Darkuru countered.

"Are you kidding me? A Thief who has to rely on bare-fisted close combat is even more useless than a Mage who attacks with a staff."

Darkuru offered some well-intentioned advice. "That's why I warned you beforehand that faith requires a top-up, but you refused to listen. Now that you've suffered a loss, who can you blame?"

"Can I re-class? I don't want to be a Thief anymore," Chen Fan protested.

"Of course you can, you just need to pay a certain processing fee. Don't worry, my rates here are very reasonable."

Chen Fan: "......"

Suppressing a surge of stifled rage, Chen Fan channeled his witchery to transform a glass of plain tap water on the bar counter into vintage 1982 plain tap water, and gulped it all down in one breath.

"That'll be thirty gold coins, please."

"What? Just this single glass of water costs that much? Do you think you're selling water from the River Ganges? Drinking it lets you use cheats?" Just as he finished wiping his mouth, Chen Fan spat out the water he hadn't yet managed to swallow.

"Look around you, this is a bar. So naturally... you know how it is, small business," Darkuru said shamelessly.

"Rip-off joint!" Chen Fan cursed bitterly before turning on his heel and leaving.

...

"Don't all look at me like that. Let's discuss tactics and who to eliminate first."

Chen Fan straightened his messy bangs, dumped a pouch full of gold coins out from his backpack onto the table, and said, "If you see anything nice on the road, go ahead and buy it."

"Wow, where did a guy like you get so much money?" Mage Kang Jixuan scooped up a handful of coins into her palm. Chen Fan's net worth right now was greater than the three of them combined.

"Sigh, it's a long story. Let's not talk about it."

Chen Fan secretly beat his chest in frustration, then bent down to rub his sore, swollen knees. Darkuru was truly toxic; the man had actually forced him to do *that* kind of work.

He had washed a whole week's worth of bar dishes in one go, but the guy had even demanded that he dress in women's clothing and dance the pole dance. It was truly infuriating.

"Fellow wolves, what is there to hesitate about? Let's first eliminate the two who haven't voted yet. Let's go with number 8. We still have the White Wolf King on our side, so this game should be in the bag."

Xiao Yuhe had a very clear grasp of the situation. With one civilian already out and a prisoner in custody, there was truly no need to waste a wolf's night kill on a god.

Chen Fan pointed at himself and asked, "Should I continue playing the double-agent then?"

"Hmm... I'm wondering if I should just self-destruct right now and slaughter all the civilians. The Guard probably won't be able to protect the right target tonight anyway."

After considering it for a moment, Xiao Yuhe decided to play it safe. "You don't need to rush to self-destruct just yet. Wait until the strong god identities of numbers 3 and 9 are confirmed first. Besides, there's still one hidden god out there; it would be bad if we killed the wrong person."

"You should claim to be the Guard first and see if you can flush someone out."

"Then I'll just keep posing as a civilian to muddy the waters," Han Youyi said, assigning herself a task.

Xiao Yuhe nodded. "Tomorrow, the two of you calculate the votes. If we have enough, just step back onto my team and push the real seer out."

"Understood," the two of them agreed readily.

Xiao Yuhe paused. Even though she had said this much, she still felt like she was forgetting something.

"Who was the seer you left in your investigation chain, and how do you plan to reveal their identity?" Kang Jixuan reminded her.

"My investigation chain... wait, let me think..." Xiao Yuhe pondered for a moment, genuinely drawing a blank on who she was supposed to inspect tonight.

Suddenly, Xiao Yuhe slapped her forehead and realized, "With all this effort spent on stirring up sentiment, I seem to have forgotten to leave an investigation chain. Yikes—this is bad. Tomorrow people are definitely going to latch onto this to attack me."

"I reckon number 3 is the Hunter and number 9 is the Witch. I'll just hand out a 'cleared' status to number 2, whose speech was evasive, and see if I can pull in some votes. Besides, the real seer is going to check number 3 tonight anyway, which is also a cleared card. We'll just have to see what the situation looks like in the morning."

Xiao Yuhe cobbled together her fabricated investigation results on the spot, preparing to face the upcoming showdown tomorrow.

Having instructed everyone, Xiao Yuhe placed a hand on Kang Jixuan's shoulder and said, "Barring any accidents, you're going to be poisoned tonight. Once you get to the spectator room, remember to cheer us on."

"Oh, and don't forget to say hello to Prisoner for us. We really didn't mean to target him, hehehe, nor did we do it just to hear his last words." Halfway through speaking, Xiao Yuhe couldn't help laughing out loud.

Kang Jixuan heaved Chen Fan's discarded backpack over her shoulder, smiled, and nodded. "No problem, mission guaranteed! You guys must win, you know. I still want to make it to the finals and get on TV."

"That's a long way off. Even if we win this round, there are still four more rounds to go. What if we run into a master like Shentu JY? We'll be knocked out halfway through."

Han Youyi mercilessly shattered Kang Jixuan's fantasy, while simultaneously comforting her, "Showing your face on the school media is still doable. If we beat Prisoner this time, we can definitely reign supreme in the werewolf-killing circle of Abyss Fish University."

"Why are you three all Mages?"

It was really hard to chime in when the girls were chatting. Chen Fan had stood awkwardly on the sidelines, his mouth moving several times, and only now did he get a chance to speak.

"Tada! Because mage robes look the best, duh." Xiao Yuhe lifted the hem of her loose mage robe and showed off her fairy wand in front of Chen Fan.

"Yeah, out of all the classes, the mage outfits are the most pleasing to the eye," Kang Jixuan agreed. After all, compared to the warrior's plate armor, the archer's cloth garb, and the thief's ninja outfit, the mage's robe was far more ornate.

"That old man Dumbledore even taught us a few basic spells."

Han Youyi waved her staff, muttered an incantation under her breath, and a bluish-purple arc of light shot straight from the tip of the staff, striking a patch of withered grass by the roadside with pinpoint accuracy.

"They taught you all this for free?" Chen Fan was dumbfounded, his tongue tripping over his words.

"Yeah, and it can even turn into a glowstick." Xiao Yuhe showed off a little trick of her own; her originally dim sandalwood staff gradually began to glow, and she could change the color at will.

"It doesn't just do that, it can also..." Kang Jixuan eagerly rolled up her sleeves, preparing to perform as well.

Chen Fan covered his face with a bitter laugh and interrupted, "Stop... please don't say any more..."