Becoming a god in a low-key way in the supernatural world

Doing more or less is better than doing nothing and just worrying in place.

The group of friends nodded in agreement, feeling reassured that they had someone to rely on.

After finishing their business, while the girls were chatting idly, Kotegawa called the little priestess aside, his expression somewhat serious.

The young priest looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"There are a few things you have to promise me first," Kotegawa said softly. "There are quite a few special employees at Amemiya, so you have to curb your curiosity and just do your job well."

The junior priest paused for a moment, then said, "Of course."

Kotegawa hummed in agreement: "There's a second thing. Besides Ayaka Haruka, there are other staff members in the shop. You have to promise me you won't harass them."

The junior priest frowned: "If I wanted to find a girlfriend, I could find one in a minute."

"I'm just giving you a heads-up," Kotegawa said earnestly. "You have to promise me this."

The junior priest took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, saying, "You can rest assured! If I harass any employee, I'm fired!"

"That's good..." Kotekawa patted him on the shoulder, thinking that although his little brother was not very strong and was stubborn, he did a pretty good job in keeping his word.

He had already spoken to Miss Ling at noon, telling her to go to work at the coffee shop on Saturday afternoon.

The little ghosts spent the entire winter break in the basement of the old school building, and they were all a bit bored.

They used to live in the basement until they were almost broken and disintegrated, but they never dared to hope that they could live like they do now.

In the evening, after dinner, Kotegawa went up to the second-floor quiet room, first sitting cross-legged to calm his mind, then getting up to change his clothes and carrying his sword bag and backpack.

I originally planned to do the divine mission tomorrow, but plans can't keep up with changes, so I have to set off earlier.

We'll set off tonight for Gifu and return before noon tomorrow.

He stepped downstairs, and Qingkong, who was playing with the cat in the living room, got up and went over to him, giving him a gentle hug: "Be careful."

She naturally knew that they were going to Gifu.

Kotegawa reached out and pinched her cheek: "Don't worry, it's just a normal little job."

The big white cat on the sofa seemed a little confused.

Qingkong saw him to the door, and only after watching the car leave did she lock the front door and the entryway door, then returned to the living room and continued to hold the big white cat on her lap.

The kitten, who had been watching TV nearby, turned around and asked curiously, "What is he going to do?"

Qingkong snapped out of her daze and replied, "It's to do a bounty mission for the Special Division."

"Wow, so cool!" The kitten's eyes widened slightly in an exaggerated way: "Is it to get rid of ghosts?"

"I'm not quite sure either," Qingkong said softly. "It seems to be about getting rid of a monster called 'Viper'."

Kotegawa mentioned this casually during a meal, seemingly just about doing a very ordinary bounty mission.

"Viper? Is it a snake?" The kitten asked instinctively a question she had asked before.

"Maybe..." Qingkong was slightly lost in thought.

If she also puts in some effort in her spiritual practice, could she be of some help in a few years?

Kotegawa went straight to the station, took the nighttime Shinkansen, and headed west towards Gifu.

Gifu is located in western Nagano Prefecture. It is an inland prefecture with forests covering 80% of its area. Along with Nagano and Yamanashi, it has always been among the top three "most dangerous tourist destinations". Although the area around Ina in Nagano is now safe due to the Kotegawa River, it is only a small part of the area. The safety of the entire Nagano Prefecture remains a problem.

However, perhaps due to the harsh natural environment, the local people are quite fierce, almost every household has a knife, and the forging industry is particularly developed. Many famous swordsmiths came from Gifu.

Sitting in the special section's private train car, Kotegawa looked out the window at the scenery and took some photos to send to Seishun.

We haven't even left Tokyo yet, but the neon signs on both sides have already illuminated the night, and there are more patrol cars from the Special Division.

He took a sip of water and looked at the group chat.

Yu-Chia is quite looking forward to the store opening tomorrow afternoon; she's a little excited but also a little nervous.

Without the store manager as the true backbone, it felt as if the heavy burden of running the store had suddenly fallen on their shoulders.

If they don't do a good job, or even lose a lot of money, will the store manager want to kill them when he comes back?

Qingkong was definitely next to her, so she spoke directly to her.

Others, like Takanashi Kurumi and the others, weren't familiar with Amamiya Sachiko and couldn't offer their opinions.

But killing them is definitely not realistic; at most, I'd just lose money and my job...

Kotegawa typed: "Do your best to prevent such a future from happening, Yuka-san."

Jia immediately sent a head-tapping emoji.

Chapter Eighty-Three: Searching for the Viper (Part Two)

At nine o'clock in the evening, as soon as you stepped out of the station in Kotegawa, the fresh scent of grass and trees wafted towards you.

He looked around; the streets on both sides were straight and clean, and the houses stretched into the distance, seemingly without end.

The cold winter wind brought with it the scorching smell of burning metal.

However, the smell wasn't too strong, probably because it was already night and the blacksmith was resting.

There are special officers' duty rooms at the station entrance. They saw him standing alone with a sword bag on his back, and for a moment they were unsure of his identity. They were looking him up and down through the glass window.

He ignored it, checked the direction, and walked directly along the empty street, taking out his face mask and putting it on.

Having this thing at work is quite useful.

Only after he had walked until there was no one else around did he suddenly turn into mist and disappear from the spot.

The mountain god only gave him a general location, and it was even an ancient place name.

So much time has passed, and everything has changed beyond recognition. It's still uncertain whether that great monster called "Viper" is still alive.

Gifu Prefecture has vast forests. When viewed from above, the cities where people live are scattered everywhere, but they are all lit up, as if they are connected.

A strange roar rose from beneath the forest, its pitch fluctuating.

Ignoring them, Kotegawa first found the local Special Division, drove his [Nightmare] and sneaked in, slipping into the archives room to search through the Gifu Prefecture Annals and ancient documents.

There are many things in the Special Division that cannot be found on the market. Ishikawa Yasuhiro is only the head of the Bunkyo Special Division branch, so he doesn't have much influence here and can only investigate personally.

The area "north of Meinong" is too vast. If you were to fly in the sky and rely solely on sight, who knows how long it would take to find it?

He spent two hours rummaging through the archives, and after confirming that there were no records of "poisonous swamps and great monsters called vipers" in the area, he quietly left, returned to the station, found a train to the next city in Gifu Prefecture, bought a ticket, and set off again.

There are only a few large cities in the north-central part of Gifu Prefecture. If we check them one by one like this, we should get the answer quickly.

He traveled back and forth between the local special section and the train station, and after searching through most of Gifu, he finally found the relevant record in a special section called "Mino City".

The night outside was as dark as ink. He leaned against the wall, looking down at the records about "viper".

"The Viper God, an evil god from the underground ghost kingdom, one of the Ghost Queen's personal guards, possesses potent poison and fire-breathing abilities. He attempted to blaspheme the gods and was sealed away..."

"Attempting to blaspheme against the gods? Subverting one's superior is truly a traditional skill..." Kotegawa said thoughtfully, "And also a personal guard of the Queen of the Demon Path? Is the evil god's strength comparable to that of the Demon King? But if it has been sealed away for so many years, how much strength does it still possess now?"

He continued looking down, and there was a simple sketch of a "viper"—it looked like a giant python that stretched to the sky, coiled up on the mountain, with houses and humans the size of ants beneath it.

"Wow, this python is huge! It's about the size of the legendary Yamata no Orochi."

"This picture must be an exaggeration, right?" He looked at the size ratio back and forth. If this thing really was this big, then its strength should be infinitely close to that of a god, definitely stronger than the Demon King.

Below the sketch is a topographical map, with a line extending from it pointing to the viper god above, marked with the specific location and a stern warning that it is an extremely dangerous place that must be guarded but must not be approached.

Strangely, the text further down states that because of the Viper God, the surrounding land has been turned into poisonous soil, a paradise for all kinds of poisonous creatures, but at the same time, many precious poisonous fruits and herbs have also emerged.

Below is a list of many valuable poisonous plants.

This danger has become part of the ecosystem. Every year, fearless bounty hunters try to get rich by going in, but they often end up losing their lives instead of the money.

He finished reading the whole thing and felt a slightly complicated feeling.

Is this also a case of seeking fortune through danger?

He noted down the address, put the book back in its original place, and then left, heading directly towards the area marked "extremely dangerous" based on the terrain he remembered.

When he became a True King on the snowy mountains of Hokkaido last time, he obtained a talent called [Poison Resistance] from some monster.

So, he dared to barge in so recklessly, but that was all he dared to do. Once inside, he certainly wouldn't dare to just casually go home.

Only someone with a screw loose would bring back a bunch of poison.

"After this job is done, I'll burn all the clothes except for the people..." He had already made up his mind, and his speed increased once again. Soon he arrived at a cliff that was almost like a primeval forest.

He looked around and saw that the woods here were much sparser than in other places, and the weeds on the ground were mostly withered and yellow.

The air was filled with a sweet, fishy smell; an ordinary person who came here and smelled it might get drunk for three days.

This place has become a veritable land of poison.

Kotegawa, on the other hand, felt no discomfort whatsoever. His passive talent was quite reliable, and he simply followed the narrow path down the cliff.

The cliffs here bear the marks of time, as if carved by an axe, leaving their marks many years ago, and it is unknown how many years it has been since anyone set foot here.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, looked ahead, and his eyes showed surprise.

On the road ahead, a furry, ghostly creature of unknown origin was hanging upside down from a tree, fast asleep, thick yellow drool dripping from its mouth and falling to the ground, directly corroding the soil black.

"Goodness, it's toxic and smells terrible..." He covered his nose, but suddenly felt a sense of relief.

Fortunately, this time the plan was disrupted, so I didn't bring Walnut and the little priest.

otherwise……

This place is really too toxic.

Kotegawa looked up at it, but in the end, not wanting to disturb its sweet dreams, he walked around it.

This monster is quite weak, at most at the level of a "wild samurai," and it has never eaten a human, so there's no need for him to kill every monster he encounters.

That's not right.

The poor monster, unaware that it had almost met with doom, remained fast asleep.

Kotegawa continued downwards, and as he descended the cliff, he encountered several more large monsters like the ones he had encountered before, and even two that were still awake and "doing their business".

His expression quickly turned strange again.

Good heavens, could it be that he has fallen into the lair of these monsters?