Chapter 26

So... the God of Bandasia?

The gray wolf warrior Volberley and the golden lion Belliman looked at each other at this very moment.

High up on the column platform, the tiny cub had no idea what was happening. After the giant, colorful spider spat out its silk, this cub—who could trip over his own feet on flat ground—actually dared to step onto the swaying silk bridge.

System 001 felt its nerves tighten once again. But before it could warn its host to be careful, the giant spider on the platform was already startled by the cub's inherent talent for tripping over nothing—during the short walk toward the swaying silk bridge, the daring little cub had nearly performed another "flat-ground tumble."

System 001: [...]

The giant colorful spider: "..."

And so, just as the cub was tentatively trying to step onto the silk bridge, the giant spider’s eight large eyes widened sharply. It silently spat out silk, wrapping the cub into a large cocoon with only his head poking out.

The little one, just intending to cross the bridge, was suddenly bound by silk. He didn't show any sign of panic; instead, he curiously poked the cocoon that had encased him and said to the system with a serious face, "Tongtong, I have a new blanket!"

System 001: [...Alright, Youyou is amazing!]

Although System 001 couldn't quite figure out what was so amazing about the cub at that moment, at least there was no need to worry about its host losing his balance and falling off the 200-meter-high pillar.

Not far away, outside the plaza of the Bandasia Shrine, the soldier-king system 098 silently watched the main-god-level soldier-king system 001. After much contemplation, having previously thought that its own bound half-beast host was already troublesome enough, System 098 found a subtle sense of balance in the scene before it.

See? At least... it’s better than being bound to a cub host like that, right?

Amidst the subtle silence of the onlookers, the giant colorful spider moved its eight hairy, long, jointed legs and, with the cocooned cub in tow, resolutely stepped onto the next pillar platform.

As the tiny cub was suspended and carried across the silk bridge, he widened his eyes and looked at the gray wolf warrior and his group outside the Bandasia Shrine plaza. He immediately struggled to stretch one hand out of the cocoon and waved at the gray wolf, the golden lion, the half-beast, and the "chocolate ball" 098.

The powerful gray wolf and golden lion warriors looked at the cub dangling in mid-air, both falling into a subtle silence.

The holy beasts on these twelve pillar platforms before them had always held a lofty status among the Bandasian beast-kin, being the most powerful existences in all of Bandasia.

But now, watching the Bandasian spider god, Tassiman—always known as a "nightmare" for its "lethal and invisible" silk—using that terrifying thread as a hammock for a cub...

Any sense of mystery vanished.

For a moment, the gray wolf Volberley and the golden lion Belliman felt a strange sense of their "idols collapsing."

And clearly, this "idol collapse" was not limited to these few cases—from the initial giant eagle to the giant python, the black panther, and the spider god, the cub was subsequently passed around by every god-beast in the eyes of the Bandasian beast-kin on the pillar platforms. These twelve holy beasts, who possessed countless terrifying legends, were now acting exactly like the friendliest, fluffiest creatures in an amusement park, taking turns playing with the cub on one pillar platform after another.

It was only after a long, silent observation that the gray wolf Volberley and the others suddenly remembered—from the moment they arrived at the Bandasia Shrine, the constant, echoing roars of the beasts had vanished.

At this moment, the gray wolf Volberley and the golden lion Belliman could truly be certain—the shrine summoning that had alarmed the entire Bandasian beast herd was not aimed at anyone else, but precisely at this cub who seemed to know only how to play.

So... what was the purpose of the shrine summoning the cub?

Was it really... a god?

The two S-rank high-level fierce beasts once again recalled the scene shortly before, where the cub had consumed the faith power offered by the half-beast warrior to sate his hunger.

In that instant, they finally dared to confirm that the power erupting from the cub at that moment truly originated from the Beast God... or, at the very least, had a profound connection to the God of Bandasia.

...

Finally, after the tiny cub had made a full round across all twelve pillar platforms, the giant eagle that had first brought the cub onto the platform grabbed him once more and soared high, delivering him to the highest point of Bandasia—the legendary birthplace of the Beast God.

At this moment, a tremendous roar echoed from the direction of the Bandasia Shrine. The originally impenetrable shrine suddenly opened wide. In the center of the shrine, the platform enshrining the giant statue of the Beast God broke through everything and appeared before all the beast-kin... carrying a warm, benevolent, and solemn aura that, centered on the giant statue, rippled across the entire Bandasian continent.

In the Trial Path of the Bandasia jungle, countless S-rank high-level beasts had been in a daze, having lost the guidance of the beast roars. But as this aura from the Beast God washed through their bodies, all the Bandasian beast-kin bowed their heads to the ground, offering their most sincere hearts to their deity.

***

Outside the Bandasia jungle, as a large number of beasts below B-rank stopped outside the forest, afraid to advance further, the 98 soldier-king candidates began to cautiously probe their way into the depths of the jungle.

Among all the soldier-king candidates, the one progressing the fastest was naturally the half-blood winged-kin, Silvalando—this warrior with SS-rank potential was superior to the other candidates in strength, wisdom, and courage.

Of course, such a powerful half-blood winged warrior also possessed a stronger desire to win.

Silvalando wanted to see just how capable the soldier-king candidate numbered 001 was, to be able to confront the beast herd and infiltrate the forest early in such a massive beast tide.

But just as Silvalando cautiously infiltrated the Bandasia jungle, while resisting the inexplicable pressure radiating from the depths of the forest, the beasts within suddenly seemed to lose their way.

Shortly thereafter, these fierce beasts from the forest looked up as if they had received some inexplicable calling and comfort. The beasts prostrated themselves toward the depths of the forest, and then, joyful roars of various kinds rippled from the depths of the forest like a wave toward the outskirts...

Was this... a mysterious ritual belonging to the beast-kin of this plane?

All the soldier-king candidates from the secondary planes felt a strange sense of confusion in their hearts.

***

At the same time, inside the main universe's virtual broadcast sphere, poor green-skinned Maka Maka was still struggling to appease the enraged audience—

"The Black Universe Group has immense power; please trust that our engineers will surely be able to repair the cosmic light-net signal very quickly—although the broadcast feeds for candidates 001 and 098 are temporarily unavailable, we can watch the performance of the powerful winged-kin candidate, 002, Silvalando!"

"Oh, look, the candidates are all advancing into the forest! I believe it won't be long before we can see our dear baby Youyou in the broadcast feed of candidate 002 or others!"

"Maka Maka believes our baby Youyou must have the most patient and loving audience in the entire universe, so... my dears, let us wait quietly for now!"

On the main stage, poor green-skinned Maka Maka wiped away cold sweat while using fake smiles and lines he himself didn't believe to deceive the binary-thinking viewers before him.

There was no help for it; these binary viewers were already threatening—if the light-net signal wasn't repaired, they would collectively explode and cover "Super Soldier Season 2" in a layer of negative review slime that could never be washed off!

Oh, Maka Maka couldn't even imagine if his hosting career could continue if such an accident occurred.

Fortunately, he knew that these viewers who had surged from the 001 sub-space had one massive weakness—and that was their precious baby, Youyou!

—Oh, my dear audience friends, would you really let baby Youyou know that he has such a group of impatient mommies and daddies?

—Think about it, if cute baby Youyou were to look back through the spatial channel at the scene inside the broadcast sphere, what he would see wouldn't be his favorite turquoise ocean and flowers, but a pile of disgusting negative review slime...

—Oh, the poor baby, he would surely cry his heart out.

Perhaps it was because these binary viewers truly loved the cub, Su You, so much that after swearing and cursing for a while, they returned to the 001 sub-space, which was reduced to nothing but static.

There was no choice—this damned green-skinned Maka Maka had truly grasped their Achilles' heel.

If their cute baby Youyou looked back through the spatial channel and they, his mommies and daddies, hadn't provided a perfect turquoise ocean for him...!

Oh! Just thinking about it made the binary viewers feel as if their spiritual bodies were about to shatter!

And while Maka Maka had managed to trick the binary viewers away with his "wit," the audience in the main stage area was not as easily fooled.

Such a long period of static and signal interruption had led clever viewers to glimpse the truth behind it—that it was likely related to the mysterious faith civilization that had accidentally appeared in the program!

Therefore, even though the feeds for 001 and 098 remained in a state of static, the audience did not leave.

These clever viewers knew that the production team of "Super Soldier Season 2" would not dare to truly cut off the signals for all 100 candidates—once all signals were cut, the rumors that the Black Universe Group was going bankrupt would likely become impossible to stop!