Chapter 893: It Feels Like This Game's Design Is Also Letting Me Show Off My Skills?

"Huh?! Has the Shopkeeper finally started streaming again?!"

"Just a passerby who only watches the Shopkeeper's streams."

"Grandpa, the streamer you like is live!"

Upon the bullet screen, all manner of astonishment and celebratory digital confetti instantly erupted.

"Mm—?! Now this is more like it!" Su Tianji peeked on the sly, only to find that Shopkeeper Fang really was streaming, and she hurriedly opened Penguin Live, settling in to watch with relish.

The crowd of players at the Canglan City shop had also gathered together; it was said that since the Olympus pantheon had been thoroughly slaughtered before, this time Kratos had run off to a world called "Norse," causing the crowd of onlookers to hastily drop whatever tasks they held in hand.

Though not every single person had cleared the first three titles of God of War, and not everyone intended to purchase this new God of War 4 immediately, it was still quite wonderful to watch that powerful man who had once slaughtered the entirety of Olympus, and see what kind of sparks would fly upon his return.

Most importantly...

"The Shopkeeper is live again! Can you believe it?!" Inside the Canglan City shop, a few elves appeared quite excited.

"It is merely the Shopkeeper streaming, nothing more."

Kelly Bel felt that as the Queen of the Elves, even leaving her royal status aside, in what way was she inferior to this trashy Shopkeeper?

The Elven Queen Kelly Bel stared at the grand screen, muttering with disdain, "One day, this Queen will make you all watch my stream every single day!"

But for now... "I suppose I will watch the Shopkeeper's stream first!"

...

And at this moment, the Valkyrie Isabella lay within that pool of golden water... having already lain there for an unknown length of time.

Her eyes slowly drifted open, met by a piercing, brilliant sun; she wished to raise her hand to block the glare, only to find...

"??? My hand?!" She discovered that her hand seemed to tremble slightly, and then... it completely refused to obey her.

Moving her feet, she discovered in horror...

"My feet...?!"

"My body?!" She actually found that her entire body felt as though it did not belong to her, devoid of all sensation!

Immediately following this, she realized that her fractured divine soul, wounded by the Blade of Olympus, was fundamentally insufficient to govern her physical form, and even lying here in the birthplace of her godhood, nurtured by the divine spring, it would take... at least several millennia to recover to the point of controlling her body!

Which meant...

"I...?" Am paralyzed!?

How could this be possible?! The moment she grasped this reality, she nearly went mad; her heart roared in fury, yet she could not utter a single sound—the undefeated Valkyrie had actually been beaten into paralysis in the mortal realm?!

No! I must see how that bald man who beat me is doing now.

Fuming with rage, her first order of business was to spectate the bald man!

Her divine soul had already lost the ability to leave her body, but fortunately, she could still summon a fraction of divine power, quickly fashioning a spell of scrying and eavesdropping.

"A stream...?" An invisible pair of eyes followed a few elves into the shop.

"Hiss..." Watching a great crowd of people gathered around the sofas, as well as the various messages flashing across the bullet screen, her intuition told her that she seemed to have discovered a grand secret of the mortal realm!

And this secret seemed to offer a way to trace exactly where this so-called God of War came from; it seemed they were in some place called "Norse"?

She silently committed this place-name to memory, and then, with her spirit thoroughly refreshed, she lay paralyzed in the pool and began watching the stream.

...

And at this moment, it was obvious that all the players were watching as well.

Upon the grand screen, there appeared a heavily built God of War, bearing a thick, dense beard, with a profound exhaustion reflecting within his deep-set eyes.

In worn clothing, his somewhat dirty hands—as though he had just finished hard labor—gripped a rather old axe.

Across his abdomen lay a long scar, left behind from the time he was transfixed by the Blade of Olympus.

This was the God of War of the present.

"What difficulty to choose...? There are actually four difficulties?" Shopkeeper Fang was currently performing the final step, difficulty selection, murmuring to himself as he conducted the stream, "Give me a story, give me a balanced experience, give me a challenge, and give me God of War."

"There is no need to even look at the others! It must be..."

In one swift motion, Shopkeeper Fang selected that blood-red typeface: Give me God of War!

"The Shopkeeper truly is the Shopkeeper!" The elven girl Sera watched with her appetite greatly stimulated, quickly taking a bite of a spicy gluten strip.

"What kind of flashy operation is he going to pull this time?!" Su Tianji was also sitting in the shop at this moment, watching with utmost seriousness.

"Later on, I shall learn from this Shopkeeper, and then I can use these profound techniques to attract my little elves!" The Elven Queen Kelly Bel had come to the shop during her leisure time, watching with rapt attention; as an elven queen, losing her prestige the moment her royal status was set aside had dealt her no small blow.

And at this moment, Kratos on the screen seemed to suddenly come to life.

Everyone seemed to see the shadow of the past God of War upon him, yet he also seemed to have long severed ties with the past, looking exactly like a hunter dwelling deep within the mountains, raising his axe high, striking down the silver birch tree before him blow by blow with great effort.

He roared, as though expending the entirety of his strength just to fell this somewhat thick silver birch tree; upon his form, there seemed to linger the poignant air of a hero in his twilight years.

This scene alone made these players understand that the former God of War, the mighty Kratos, was truly old now.

This place was Midgard, one of the nine realms in Norse mythology.

Different from the previous titles, the beginning of God of War 4 bore none of the former betrayal by the gods or deep-seated hatred; he had escaped that world which was once like a nightmare, and none knew how many years had passed since the war of Olympus, but Kratos had a new life once more, along with his own son, and he was no longer alone.

At this moment, what these players beheld was perhaps no longer a God of War, but a father, leading his son in a heartwarming scene of survival within the snowy forests.

"Ah... has Kratos's wife died again? And he chopped firewood to return for her cremation and burial?"

"These two men, a grown man and a young boy, completely do not know how to communicate; their dialogue is so dry." Shopkeeper Fang offered his critique while watching the cinematic, "But then again, he has never raised a son before; his only daughter has been dead for a very long time."

"Is he going to teach his son how to hunt?" Playing up to this point, Shopkeeper Fang felt a sudden eagerness to try, "This is something this Shopkeeper is quite adept at, right...?"

Originally, Shopkeeper Fang had felt a bit apprehensive; with it being the old God of War and a new mythology, he wondered if some unbeatable monster would appear, since he had been familiar with the patterns before and felt confident, whereas this newly released God of War 4 was entirely unplayed.

But now, hearing that they were going hunting, he naturally felt much more at ease.

What was even less expected was that, midway through teaching his son to hunt, a draugr suddenly came charging out of the forest!

"A few minions have arrived, but a crowd of these lowest-level undead minions can be beaten casually, right." Shopkeeper Fang lifted his axe, "I feel like this is meant to let me show off in front of my son; I'll go up and try it out first."

"Oh?! This is good!" several elves quickly chimed in.

This level of combat difficulty was clearly well within the limits of what they could accept.