Chapter 117
Chapter 117
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 117
Chapter Title: Chapter 9 Star Fall (2)
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***
Fwooooosh—!
A burst of light so blinding it could sear the eyes, even if just for a moment. A sensation of the body floating weightlessly. And then...
Thwack!
“Groooar. Big little human. Sleeps well.”
“Notum...”
“You’re so sharp during a fight, but when you’re asleep, you wouldn’t notice if I carried you off. How do you sleep through all this chaos? With senses as keen as a werewolf’s?”
“Borca...”
“Even if it looks safe, it’s still mutant territory. Most 9th-grade mutants are slime-based, right? Low-grade slimes hide underground during the day since most of their body is water, but their cores suffer from hypothermia 24/7. Total garbage!”
Thwack!
“Designed creatures, that’s what they are!”
“Good morning, Professor. Sorry to wake you when you must be tired. The slime-type 9th-grade mutants were prowling all night, so we stood watch without you. They look weak, but they’re still mutants—touch them and you’re infected. Some are acidic or rock slimes, physically dangerous too.”
“Aldridge, Ottoman mage...!”
“Hm? What’s wrong, Professor?”
“Ahem, uh, nothing! The morning air’s so refreshing! Ah, feels great!”
Seeing GG’s companions, whom I’d completely forgotten about for a while, made my nose tingle unexpectedly. I’d been causing such a ruckus outside that I’d blacked out on how dicey things were here too when I logged out.
Those impact sounds I heard waking up at camp? That was our ‘Professor Hero Party’ kicking away the slimes that had swarmed all night. The 9th-grade slime-type mutants the mutants had scattered for resource gathering moved through the soil or groundwater in a half-liquid state, drawn to heat sources. That’s why they’d gathered around camp.
“...Still some black magic lingering in his head? Why’s he acting weird?”
“Just... realizing how precious a body with all four limbs intact is? Ah, so comfy! Hands are definitely best in pairs!”
The Professor scooped a bowl of soup boiling over the campfire, drank it with one hand while kicking and stomping slimes next to the group with the other. Jerky in one hand, soup in the other, kicking slimes in the fresh forest air—it felt downright therapeutic, like a vacation.
- Take a Look: Pro tip / Wanna enjoy the ultimate glass cannon character? Mix a Type 3 variant into your real body. Glass body’ll look like a fairy by comparison.
- professor: Shut up.
- Deer Drug Please: Pro tip / If you can solo Dome’s enforcers outside, smash Raptor tanks, and take down named Type 3 variants like Old Picture, you can handle GG realistic random chars too.
- professor: Damn right. Keep messing around and I’ll merge the rooms again.
- Take a Look: Got it.
- Deer Drug Please: I’ve committed a mortal sin.
- Number Three: Holding the peaceful chatroom hostage to pressure viewers. You’ve grown as a streamer, bro!
Before logging in, I’d tried sorting traffic but ended up splitting into two rooms. From today, a new influx-only room for about 14 days, and the original 47th District chatroom for residents. Obviously, GG viewers are in the residents’ room. The other’s pinned in a corner of my view...
======
- 암바사악: Look here! Please!
- novemv: Thought it was a joke, but he’s actually streaming the game.
- 티코리타: Right? At BDSM leader level, he’s gotta be loaded. Why stream?
- D.Asset3315: Park Professor streamer is playing GG due to personal circumstances. He’s officially contracted with Dome—spam, defamation, or aggressive chatting will be sanctioned, and severe cases may result in Dome tracking the user.
- 티코리타: Lmao they’ll track you? What’ll they do? Hack Gedroits Company? Who you calling dumbass lol find me bitch! Find me!
- D.Asset3315: Player ‘티코리타’. Confirmed via posts from 7 days ago [Holy shit lightning can strike upwards apparently. Dome’s insane.], 34 days ago [Sandstorm elsewhere but clear skies here. Hung laundry outside.], 68 days ago [Why no decent psycho gangs around here. All psychos are just killers.]—estimated 15 stable shelter spots in 46th District high-crime zones as your location. Continue?
+ Player ‘티코리타’ has left.
- 율리시스모아: Lmaoooo he bounced lololol
- 느개비우스: Guess Professor ain’t normal. Dome even spinning up their intel team for him personally. Thought that was ranker-only.
- aiosi32: He is ranker-tier. One of the hottest streams right now. 4th World rankers who bombed are coming back to clear 3rd World properly. Unique playstyle too.
======
Still total chaos. Luckily, Dome sent some ‘streamer support team’ at the right time to manage it, letting me chat with originals like this. Without it, I’d be buried in questions all day.
Anyway, key thing: back to enjoying the game.
“Hmm... This won’t do. [Cold Shadow!]”
Splash!
While I roughly ate breakfast and handled game-external stuff, Ottoman finally snapped and cast a spell. The ground around his feet grew damp, and with the campfire snuffing out, cold water pooled ankle-deep around camp.
“At this rate, no end in sight. They hate cold water—pack up while they’re stalled.”
“Good idea. Let’s move!”
While the mutant slimes hesitated in the cold water, the group swiftly packed.
“You seem extra cheerful today.”
“Heh heh heh, just your imagination!”
The Professor, huge bag slung over his shoulder, grinned and took point.
Honestly, after that mess outside, the game felt so peaceful and fun.
***
Plop— plop— plop— plop!
“That’s it! Remember that sensation! Water seems weak to formless things but has massive repulsive force, enough to lift giant ships! Use that!”
Five days since leaving the village with the black mage.
Despite the tension, we’d only met mutant slimes and infected wild dogs, badgers—8th-grade mutants.
“This... is too peaceful. Leader, doesn’t it feel off? After that terrifying black mage at the entrance, no real mutants or black magic traces in five days?”
“Exactly.”
“Enemy trap...?”
“Nope! 95% sure, not 100%. Rest while you can, Borca.”
The Professor, following Ottoman mage’s guidance, skipped stones on bare ground and muttered.
“With so few numbers and infighting with mutants, black mages couldn’t grow much. Few high-rank mages naturally. And with most combat mutants pulled to the western front, black mages have prime spots for gathering sacrifices all picked out.”
“Gathering sacrifices... prime spots?”
“Yeah. What do resentful black mages left behind think? Can’t get premium Lordric main force corpses and grudges, so gather cheap refugees instead. Obvious.”
The Professor scowled at the water blob bouncing six times before scattering, roughly sketching Lordric North on the damp training ground with a stick.
“No way they’re crossing the eastern great desert, so that’s out. Refugees don’t know mutants are swarming west—some might cross Blue Line west to other countries. But as a refugee, unknown foreign land or our capital ‘knight’s country’—which feels safer, easier?”
“Obviously... the latter.”
“Right. So most refugees fled south from northern mutants toward capital Kingsland. Tobrune’s on the way to Kingsland, and blocking that pass—was that black mage. Probably prime spot outside direct city raiders.”
Speculation, but black mages divvied up spots like merit rewards. Some hit Turan hard, so they rest; highest rank gets prime here, etc. Our demon lich-level guy snagged a village on Tobrune path—prime real estate.
Point: high black mages at refugee hotspots. Far from mutant-held cities we’re heading to. Moment we left first village into slime-filled roads, I thought, ‘We can coast there.’
“So we can slack like this. Mutants to western front. Black mages blocking nearby city entrances. Enemy territory interiors empty of threats.”
Of course, other seeds would have 7th-, 6th-grade mutants packed like rush-hour subways on our path. But my seed’s mutants are GG’s poorest ever.
Plop— plop— plop— plop— plop— splat!
Explaining to Borca while making water orbs on his hand, the Professor sighed at another exploding blob mid-stride.
Actually got [Water Magic - 2nd Hierarchy: Repulse] two days ago. Ottoman’s water disc from demon lich fight still fresh—enlightenment came easier than drowning drills.
Ottoman measured the stone’s skip distance, sighing like the Professor.
“Water school’s 1st hierarchy tough, but 2nd-3rd easy after. Lead Flow school has few mages but way more mid-tier 4th hierarchy than others. Above that’s different story.”
“Then why can’t I cast with enlightenment?”
Professor eyed the obedient bouncy water ball on his hand. Wanted full power before Pellas, but spells half-form then poof.
“Several factors. Your target ‘Water Shield’ is tough, and... Professor, you refuse incantations even on deathbed.”
“Hand seals skip incantations, right?”
“Like thinking of me before basics. Incantations express the spell’s creator’s imagery in words. Like poetry. You hate it so much, I won’t push... but incantations build familiarity way easier.”
Professor scratched head at Ottoman’s regretful tone. Felt bad. Like throwing tantrum against sincere teacher’s orthodox method.
But...
- Deer Drug Please: Ignore us here, do it. We don’t care what you do at all.
- Take a Look: I’m deaf actually. Haven’t heard shit for 30 secs.
- Heung An Mandu: You too? Hey, me too!
‘...How can I chant embarrassing spells with these assholes watching!’
Not just embarrassing. Magic needs ironclad imagery to bend world laws—chanting triggers shame, rejecting the spell. Alone in room, fine—game, whatever.
But now, ridiculously, 47th District’s ‘hero’ superstar. Unwanted fame. Chanting ‘My heart is a lake, mirror calm before waves, no mighty spear pierces its stillness!’? Community’d haunt with ‘Mage Professor’ clips like grudges. Kills the spell on imagine.
That’s why Ottoman and I struggled. Incantation-less mage. Hand seals and imagery too shallow still.
“Hm... Can’t chant? What about spells—no aversion?”
“Ah, yeah, sorta...”
“Good. Try this?”
“Like...?”
“Bit of a hack, but knight-style.”
Ottoman swung hand—small round water shield shimmered before him.
“What’s that?”
“Water... Shield.”
“Yeah. Water Shield. Now... [Water Shield].”
Splash!
Bigger, sturdier shield beside the small one.
“Same mana exact. No special imagery, no seals or chants. And...”
Clack, crack, snap!
[Though cracked and shattered, you’ll never cleave the ocean. Ottoman Baudelaire’s, Water Shield]
Ting!
Now a shield twice my height, smooth hard blue crystal, yet soft-looking. Beautiful inlay perfectly ‘water shield’. Felt Ottoman’s high mage status anew.
“My take on Water Shield. Seals, chants, spells—all tools to reinforce imagery. Skip chants if details strong enough. Water mages don’t use much, unfamiliar to me... but. Noisy, don’t freak.”
Huuuuh—
Ottoman deep-breathed, then bellowed forest-shaking spell.
“WA—! TER—! SHIEL—! D!!!!”
Fwoooooosh!
Opposite his clean casts: massive violent vortex. Nearly double prior size—looked offensive, not defensive.
“Cough, cough! Whew, drains every time. Last one’s knight or fire mage style usually.”
“...Yelling?”
“Hate to admit, but yeah, no better way. Squeeze will into imagery. Messy as seen, but power solid. Seen knight battles? Life-or-death or similar?”
“Yes.”
Professor recalled Turan siege.
“High knights clash dozens times in blink. Pre-swing: check shoulder, gaze, bait misread, terrain calc... Thoughts pile before blades meet. But knights, in instinct-speed exchanges, waste precious breath shouting technique names.”
Ottoman picked twig, tossed at formal Water Shield and final big unstable one. One pinged off, the other...
Krrrrunch!
Shredded in hovering vortex.
“Not dumb. Knights wield power opposite mages. They isolate from world.”
“Isolate...?”
“Yeah. Mage twists surrounding laws with will; knight becomes detached entity. Endless training, self-reflection, honing. Expands ‘self’ concept, grows beyond world laws.”
“Prime example: ‘aura’. Same mana as mages, but knights make world-rejecting destroy-slice form. Mages twist providence but craft from this world, right?”
“Aura...”
Sunset glow on Charlotte’s blade. Cuts anything by level. Alien matter nowhere in nature.
“Knights say growing aura is ‘forging sword in heart’. One with blade, etc. Honestly... dunno.”
“Extracting... personal will to wield.”
Ottoman’s knight aura tales tied to GG’s core: NPC personal will.
‘One life gets one share GG control. Dragons wield millions via vast souls with dragon words. This world’s knights, warriors extract allotted GG control/will/soul via ‘isolation’ into blade/body! Wild!’
Ottoman’s words explained aura’s destructiveness. Must be! That blade surge isn’t energy—GG world’s bedrock! Aura isn’t cut/destroy—it slips between, separates! Shove isolated personal will into world laws!
Professor’s struck-dumb face made Ottoman nod belatedly.
“Right, you’re mage but fight physical more. You get it better. Anyway, last spell’s that style. Words hold power. Solidify vague thoughts. Stronger will in word, stronger effect. Knights spit decades-honed memory/experience/motion in one word, swing. Instant lips part, polished past self channels through word into blade. Techniques or ‘skills’ born thus.”
Splash!
Ottoman grinned at crumbling rear shields.
“No hacks or orthodox here. Think warrior charging death’s edge, not mage. All-in on this spell! Die without it! Pour that will into seals/imagery. Warning: efficiency sucks.”
***