Chapter 35: An Imposter?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 35: An Imposter?
The Void Insect Hive.
Inside the palace, Xie Bai lay sprawled across her bed, scrolling through the latest posts on the player forum.
This was currently one of her few ways to access the "internet."
There were exactly 2,823 posts on the forum, every single one of them a prediction about the game’s content. The basis for these predictions varied wildly, but they almost all revolved around the traditional nine classes.
They were: Warrior, Mage, Archer, Assassin, Guard, Priest, Traveler, Druid, and Alchemist.
Among them, the most discussed was the Warrior.
As the class with the largest player base in every generation of games—and also the most "reliable" yet "stagnant" one—the Warrior had two main characteristics.
First, it was simple.
Second, it was really simple.
In the early game, their stats were relatively high, they didn't require much mechanical skill, and their performance floor was decent. However, that simplicity inevitably brought a problem: a lack of mechanics.
By the late game, the raw stats a Warrior provided often failed to keep up with the version updates. Simultaneously, issues like a lack of skill variety and long ultimate cooldowns began to surface. Their lack of growth potential meant that the further a Warrior progressed, the more of a slog the gameplay became.
Still, because the class was so straightforward, a massive number of players chose it every year.
Warrior players generally only needed to remember one rule: If you find you can't beat the opponent, it's because your stats aren't high enough—so keep stacking them until they are!
The polar opposite of this was the Druid.
Their core mechanic revolved around summons. The only "prison sentence" for this class in the early game was that summons had to be captured manually. Furthermore, these summons were often fragile; if they died, the player had to spend their own money to resurrect them. This made early-game progression an absolute nightmare.
But if you could endure the early stages and reach the class advancement...
You would witness a "super-amalgamation" that carried the combined power of every single summon. At that point, the Druid had both the mechanics and the stats. In the late game, you might even see the ridiculous sight of a single Druid followed by over a dozen BOSS-level summons.
After catching up on the players' love-hate relationships with the classes, Xie Bai suddenly realized something.
"If the performance of a Child of Fate is a major benchmark for players choosing a class..."
"Then wouldn't Julius be..."
"Gulp..."
Xie Bai could already envision the scene: the moment Julius made his debut, countless players would once again mindlessly lock in the Warrior class.
Among the Children of Fate Xie Bai knew of, Julius was undeniably in a league of his own. Although she hadn't met the other six yet, she was certain none of them could stand on the same level as him.
After all, Thanatos was effectively half a demigod, and his strength below the demigod rank was unquestionable. Yet, he had still been beaten like a dog by Julius.
Even now, with Thanatos having reclaimed the power of his Authority, Xie Bai estimated it would still be a toss-up at best.
"Mmm-gh...!"
Tired of scrolling through the forum, Xie Bai rolled over with a cat-like stretch and reached for a sandwich cookie on the nightstand.
Just as she was about to pop it into her mouth, the door to the room swung open.
Click.
"My Master, Melos reports—"
Thanatos froze as he entered the room.
Xie Bai was currently hanging upside down off the edge of the bed, her snow-white hair piled in a heap on the floor, the sandwich cookie still clamped between her teeth.
"Mmph?"
As their eyes met, Thanatos took a step back and promptly closed the door.
Thud.
Before Xie Bai could even process what happened, she was alone in the room again.
"Mmm... gulp... weird..."
After successfully swallowing the cookie while upside down, Xie Bai flipped herself off the bed.
"Hup..."
Landing on her bare feet, she walked over and pulled the door open.
"Hey! Why did you just walk out in the middle of a sentence?"
Thanatos looked down at Xie Bai, who was nearly half a head shorter than him, and spoke with a deadpan expression.
"My apologies, Master. I failed to notice and accidentally disturbed your rest."
Tsk...
Xie Bai felt an inexplicable sense of exasperation toward Thanatos. She always felt there was a certain "denseness" to him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Fine, fine. If you have something to say, say it."
Thanatos glanced at Xie Bai.
"Master, there is a bit of jam residue on the left corner of your mou—"
BAM!
Xie Bai cut him off with a sharp punch to the gut.
"I didn't ask you to talk about that...!"
As she spoke, she reflexively licked away the residue.
"Tsk... get to the point."
After taking Xie Bai's full-force punch without so much as a change in expression, Thanatos spoke calmly.
"Master, Melos reports that he has successfully recruited Roland into the Wheel of Fate. He also asked me to bring you a letter."
With that, Thanatos produced an envelope.
Xie Bai opened it to find a paragraph written in glaringly bright ink.
[My Lord, you are simply incredible. It just so happens that Roland also knew of an organization called the 'Wheel of Fate.' He said it was some group related to the Children of Fate. Anyway, I didn't even have to waste much breath; he accepted the invitation on his own. Consider the recruitment a success! — Melos]
"That opening... I feel slightly insulted."
Xie Bai tucked the letter back into the envelope and handed it to Thanatos.
"Alright, I got it. Oh, and remember to tell him not to use this gold-glittering ink next time. It hurts my eyes, and it's a bit tacky."
"Understood."
After taking the note, Thanatos followed up with a question.
"By the way, Master, now that Roland has been recruited, how should we arrange things?"
Xie Bai pondered for a moment.
"Hmm... that old geezer actually could be recruited. Well, it's for the best. If he and the Emperor teamed up, many plotlines wouldn't be able to progress unless I personally intervened."
"Though they're temporarily separated now, the pressure from the Insect Race means they won't start a conflict immediately. They'll likely end up protecting the city in their own respective ways."
"That makes things easier to manipulate."
As she spoke, Xie Bai handed a blueprint to Thanatos.
"This is a variation of the Ritual: Void Proliferation I tinkered with—the Hive Replacement Ritual."
"It can swap the Void Insect Hive with other types of insect hives. However, I've reversed part of the ritual's content so that the replaced Void Insect Hive won't disappear. Instead, it will be transferred into the Void, where it can still be accessed via the Poem of the Void."
"This way, we not only have hostile insect races for the players to farm, but we've also tucked the Void Insect Hive into a safe space."
Xie Bai stood on her tiptoes and patted Thanatos on the shoulder as he instinctively crouched down.
"Give this to Roland to handle. For them, any other insect race is much easier to fight than the Void Insect Race, which stacks damage reduction. He won't refuse."
Having received his instructions, Thanatos stood up.
"Yes, Master."
He tucked the blueprint away.
"If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave."
Just as Xie Bai was about to head back to bed, Thanatos spoke again.
"One more thing, Master. Edward and Cecilia have returned to the city. How should they be handled?"
Xie Bai’s footsteps faltered.
Right... those two key characters. I almost forgot about them.
Xie Bai turned and instructed Thanatos, "Have Roland trick the Two Little Ones into staying with the Wheel of Fate for now. We'll arrange for them to take the stage when the time comes."
With that, Xie Bai closed her door.
Only after confirming that Thanatos had left did Xie Bai seriously consider the contents of the letter.
"Hmm... wait, isn't 'Wheel of Fate' just the name of the game? I only copied the name. How did an actual organization called the Wheel of Fate suddenly pop up...?"
Xie Bai felt a headache coming on.
"I don't even need to think to know that that is the official organization the game is supposed to promote. Does this mean I'm technically an imposter...?"
Then, Xie Bai thought of the three Children of Fate under her command.
"Well... maybe not necessarily. According to Melos, the Wheel of Fate is an organization related to the Children of Fate. I already have three out of the nine. When the time comes, it's hard to say who the real imposter will be."
At that thought, Xie Bai flopped onto a nearby body pillow.
"Forget it. Thinking about this is too much work. I'd rather take a nap first."