Foolish Game of the Gods Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Delivery

"Doctor! Doctor! I think I'm about to give birth!"

Heart-rending screams echoed through the dim little clinic, where a blood-soaked woman writhed and struggled against a rusted delivery chair, bound hand and foot.

"Hurry! Doctor, come take a look, he's coming out!!"

"Why won't you come over here! Doctor! Doctor!? Are you even a real doctor?? Turn around and look!!"

The pregnant woman's shrieks grew sharper by the second, her thrashing increasingly frenzied, yet the doctor standing to the side never once turned to look at her. He merely nodded and brushed her off with unhurried nonchalance:

"There, there, I'm coming, don't rush. I'm preparing the delivery tools. Madam, you wouldn't want your child to hit the floor the moment it's born, would you?"

Those words seemed to carry a devastating power over the increasingly hysterical woman. Her manic energy stuttered, and her bloodshot eyes gradually regained clarity. Her eyeballs rotated mechanically, slowly, before settling on her own swollen belly, and she mumbled in a dazed, foolish voice:

"The child… right, the child… the child can't fall on the floor, I need to give birth, the child can't fall on the floor…"

She repeated the phrase over and over, her emotions gradually stabilizing. Before long, the small clinic fell quiet once more, leaving only the rhythmic "clang, clang" of metal being struck.

The doctor was crafting the delivery tools.

Fine sparks sprayed from before the doctor, briefly lighting up the dim space for a fleeting instant.

The pregnant woman's attention was caught by the sparks. Cradling her belly, she turned to look at the doctor's back. Her eyes began to redden again, and her expression slowly twisted back into something grotesque.

"Doctor! What are you doing! What are you doing!?"

"Me? Didn't I tell you? I'm preparing the delivery tools. We've had too many patients at the clinic lately, and all the nurses have gone to help, so I have to do these odd jobs myself."

With that, the doctor turned around and held up the crude steel saw he had just finished hammering together, displaying it for the pregnant woman. A bright, sunny smile blossomed across his face as he announced with unmistakable pride:

"Look, it's ready."

The instant the pregnant woman saw the steel saw, her entire body convulsed. The leather restraining straps ground against the rusted chair as she thrashed, producing a stomach-curling screech of metal.

Her legs kicked wildly, splattering filth and blood in every direction.

"What are you doing! That's not a delivery tool! What are you doing!!"

"Madam, please look more carefully. This is the Obstetric Uterine Saw."

The doctor lifted the saw and stepped closer to the pregnant woman, his gaze lingering over the irregular saw teeth as though admiring a work of art. He clicked his tongue in audible admiration:

"This is the most cutting-edge delivery technique published in 《SCIENCE》. All we need to do is slice open your belly with this uterine saw, and your child will be born perfectly intact right here on the delivery chair. This eliminates at the source the tragedy of natural birth, where the child has a high probability of falling to the floor, and reduces the risk of infection.

Furthermore, these sharp saw teeth widen the incision, ensuring that the child's head won't get stuck during delivery due to insufficient space."

The doctor held the tool against the pregnant woman's belly, taking measurements, then narrowed his eyes with a smile:

"Most importantly, this procedure currently has zero negative reviews."

"The child… safe… my child… will be safe…"

"Yes, Madam, please rest assured. I am the most senior obstetrician in the entire clinic, and I will absolutely guarantee your child's safety."

Receiving this promise, the pregnant woman suddenly grew excited. She pounded her hugely swollen belly and craned her neck, shrieking with barely contained impatience:

"Hurry! Deliver my baby now! My child is coming! Hurry, doctor!! Hurry!!"

"It is my honor to serve you."

The doctor lifted the crude steel saw, his hands perfectly steady, then lightly touched the skin and drew upward in one practiced stroke.

"Sss…"

A thin line of blood snaked upward; the overripe watermelon split at a touch.

And then!

"BANG…"

The overwhelmed body burst apart like a slashed balloon. Filthy blood splattered everywhere.

She wasn't dead yet.

She screamed herself hoarse from the agony, thrashing with every limb. Her gaze locked onto the doctor, venomous and terrified, as she roared hysterically:

"What are you doing? What are you doing!? You want to kill me! You want to kill my child!!"

The doctor was drenched in blood, but his face alone remained spotless. He gently lifted the saw away from where it had shielded his features and smiled once more, soothing his patient:

"Madam, that is truly hurtful to hear. I am saving you and your child. Look, your child… has been safely delivered."

The woman's frenzied movements stalled. She looked down at her belly with overwhelming joy, only to find that within the hollow cavity of mangled flesh, a pair of enormous pure-black eyes was blinking up at her.

Those eyes were remarkably clear and spirited. Quite captivating.

Had their owner not been a writhing tentacle, they might have been downright adorable.

Gazing at the monstrous newborn that resembled an octopus tentacle, the doctor smiled knowingly and offered praise:

"Look, your child is so healthy! Bright-eyed and full of spirit. Clearly a… uh… clearly a… big-eyed one."

The joy on the pregnant woman's face froze for a beat at this nonsensical praise, but it didn't diminish her overflowing love for her child in the slightest.

Tears of black joy spilled from her gaunt eye sockets.

"My child! My child!!"

"Yes, your child."

"Bring my child to me! Let me see him! Is it a boy or a girl?"

The doctor's smile faltered at these words. A look of mild consternation crept across his face.

Truth be told, if you absolutely had to assign a gender to an octopus leg…

"Congratulations, Madam, it's a… boy. A boy with a handle."

It did indeed have a handle. In fact, it essentially was nothing but a handle.

"A boy… a boy!?"

The pregnant woman's pitch shot even higher. Not even her grievous injuries could stop her writhing and thrashing. Madness crawled once more across her blood-caked, ghastly, skeletal face.

"Why a boy! Why is it a boy!? She should have been a girl! It's you! It must be your delivery technique! You!! You quack!"

Perhaps sensing its mother's fury, the newborn lying in the pool of blood blinked innocently.

Honestly, if you didn't look at the body and only at those eyes, it was almost cute.

The doctor shook his head and sighed at this absurd scene:

"Madam, surely you know that a child's gender is determined by its parents, not by its doctor. Perhaps you should go ask the child's father."

"The child's father…" The pregnant woman's eyes went blank for a moment, then she suddenly broke into vicious, mocking laughter.

"He's gone… I ate him… hahaha he's dead! That man actually wanted to be the child's mother… he didn't deserve it. Only I can be the mother…"

"…Hm… Huh?"

"He's gone… can't find him anymore… hahaha he disappeared… I am the child's mother!"

The doctor's CPU overloaded for a moment.

But his sterling professionalism quickly sniffed out a business opportunity. Raising an eyebrow with barely concealed excitement, he said:

"If it's simply a matter of death, our clinic can offer Madam a premium necromantic consultation service. You would still have the chance to go ask him why your child turned out to be a boy.

However, this particular service may be a little expensive.

But I do believe that for your child, anything is worth it…"

He pitched with earnest enthusiasm, as though a substantial commission rode on closing this deal.

Perhaps swayed by the doctor's sincerity, the pregnant woman's gaze flickered between malice and confusion several times before she finally nodded like a walking corpse.

"My child deserves an explanation. What do I need to do! Hurry, doctor, I want to go ask him!"

"Excellent, Madam. First, please close your eyes."

Watching the pregnant woman hesitantly shut her eyes, the doctor's lips curled into an eerie smile.

He raised the saw and guided the crude teeth back toward her neck.

"Now breathe deeply… yes, yes, that's good, tilt your head back, that's right, raise your neck a little more, good, don't rush, almost there…"

"Sss…"

The doctor's hand slipped.

Plop… something fell.

Filthy blood sprayed outward, splattering across the pristine white wall in a breathtaking pattern of cinnabar red.

"Uh… although there was a minor mishap, the procedure went very smoothly. Madam, you may now go find the child's father."

The doctor clicked his tongue softly, wiped his bloodied hands casually on his white coat, and glanced down at the head on the floor.

"Yikes, that's creepy."

He hastily kicked it away, then raised his saw and turned to look at the tentacle on the patient's corpse.

Those big eyes were still blinking away. It seemed to have no grasp of the current situation, or perhaps it simply possessed no cognitive ability yet.

"As I mentioned, this service is a bit expensive, and your mother hasn't paid yet. But she probably won't be back for a while.

How about… you cover the bill for her?"

Though it lacked cognition, the newborn instinctively thrashed with violent desperation when it sensed death approaching.

But in the doctor's eyes, this struggle looked more like an invitation. The harder a fish flops on the cutting board, the more eagerly the fisherman chops.

"Sss…"

The doctor impaled its body without a moment's hesitation. The newborn tentacle convulsed in agony, and in short order those adorable big eyes dimmed completely, forever still.

On the very day it embraced birth, it embraced death as well.

"Payment received, thank you for your patronage!"

The doctor performed an elegant bow, tossed aside the saw, and walked out of the dim room without a backward glance.

[Solo Trial (Scraps [Birth]) Challenge Successful]

[Scoring and calculating rewards…]

[Player: Cheng Shi, Performance Rating: S]

[Food Obtained: Finger Bread (C) X5]

[Food Obtained: Canned Slime Beverage (C) X5]

[Food Obtained: Imitation Eyeball Cake (B) X1]

[Path to Godhood +0, Ladder of Audience +0] (Solo Trials do not increase score)

[Current Path to Godhood Score: 2104, Global Ranking: 499713]

[Current Ladder of Audience Score: 156, Destiny Ranking: 74]