Chapter 401
Chapter 401
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 401
Chapter Title: Chapter. 18. World 4 (5)
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Flutter, flutter.
Scribble, scribble.
A worn but neatly organized room.
The room that had once been polished to a shine now lay buried under the dust spewed forth by ancient books.
Thud.
The quill that had been moving nonstop came to a halt. The boy, his face twisted in a deep frown, lifted up the record he had just created.
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[System Fucking Bastard Omitted Information]
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“Ow, my head, ow, ow—”
Could a nine-year-old keel over from high blood pressure?
As someone who had been obsessed with gathering intel for the past few days, I could confidently answer: “Hell yes!”
Flop!
“Talk about a blooming bouquet of headaches…”
I’m a solo survivor from the 14th Special Forces. I firmly believe that victory in any operation comes from detailed intel.
So, of course, the first thing I did upon getting dropped into this unfamiliar world was gather information. And after days of grueling work, what I ended up with was this: [System Fucking Bastard Omitted Information] in my hands—the source of my pounding headache.
“…Fuck, I don’t wanna do this.”
I had sorted through the info I’d gathered on the fly, but the process had shocked me so badly that I never wanted to look at it again.
What can you do? Can’t unmake it now, and to get out of here, I have to fix this gloriously fucked situation.
I kicked aside books like [History of the Empire], [Chronicle of the Radiant Church], and [Hunter’s Guild Initiation Guide], then sprawled out on the floor and flipped through the notes I’d just organized, one page at a time.
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[Year +133: ★★ Era of the Fragment Lords]
[Year +152: ★★★★★★★★★ Underground King Lord KunderGal’s Finishing Blow. Humanity in Full Retreat]
[Year +168: ☆☆☆☆ Queen’s Fragments, Humanity’s Fragments]
[Year +190: Era of the Cliffside Balance]
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First off, this is the scraps of info I have so far. The damn System tossed me some big-ticket titles, and while they’re bigger-picture stuff than my immediate situation, there’s a good reason I prioritized securing them.
‘The System definitely said it: [Information that could affect your playthrough has been restricted.]’
Restricted because it affects play. In other words, info so crucial that knowing it ahead of time could drastically alter my playthrough, right?
With the World Tree’s blessing guaranteeing peace back home, I decided to swallow these big chunks one by one.
The System squawked like a parrot that you could only pick up this info through books or NPC convos during play. Turns out, those titles were straight out of [History of the Continent] in our family library.
Even the maid Cartrea rattled them off without missing a beat—common knowledge history.
Breaking it down piece by piece, here’s the gist:
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1. Era of the Fragment Lords.
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Fragment Lords. Mutation Blood Lords. Mute Lords.
Offshoots of the plan left behind in Valkatus’s dying ravings, classified as Mutation Blood as a species.
I used “offshoots” because Valkatus’s plan didn’t fully pan out.
The fragments—originally meant to fully mature and get reabsorbed into his desiccated flesh—got blown to smithereens by our Little Boy, A-Tomb’s massive explosion, scattering across the world. Those infected by the fragments, gaining a sliver of the Queen’s power, became the Mute Lords. And here’s where shit gets interesting.
These Lord bastards were slaughtering each other!
“Each one has a piece of the Queen. Natural instinct to grow their own horde, I suppose.”
They inherited her hatred for humanity, so no joint fronts with us, but among themselves? Sometimes they teamed up, other times they wiped each other out. Records say it happened all the time.
If the old Mutes had united under the Queen as absolute ruler, the post-explosion Mutes were like… hundreds of badass barbarian tribes with the same roots? Same origin, but only caring about bulking up their own packs. A silver lining for humanity, who was on the brink of death from imperial wars and leyline fuckery.
Year 133 was when these Mute Lords jockeyed for position on the shattered continent—clashing, allying here and there.
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2. Underground King KunderGal’s Finishing Blow.
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Next up: the bastard who turned World 4 into this shitshow—the insanely OP earthworm “Lord KunderGal.”
According to the “Mute Almanac for Beginner Hunters” I snagged from the Mercenary Guild, each Lord has different powers and handles wildly varied Mute types. Like different species with only the root in common.
This Underground King guy? True to his name, he only commanded one type: tunnel roaches.
Not even combat Mutes originally, so his forces were mid-tier compared to other Lords. So how’d he swallow the world?
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.
.
.
He unleashed thousands of those tunnel roaches under cities.
Not smuggling stuff in with them—he had them eat through the foundations, hollowing out everything under walls and cities until it all collapsed.
What’s a castle? The core of human defense tactics, right?
A solid city means thick, towering walls. Slather on defensive magic, even better. Stock it with archers, mana cannons, knights—that’s humanity’s alpha and omega.
But he collapsed the ground, sinking their walls and cities.
Every city KunderGal hit lost its walls regardless of win or lose. Other Lords saw the juicy tactic, captured his roaches, and mass-produced knockoffs in their own lairs, copying the strategy.
Earth mages could hold out a day or two, but against 24/7 subterranean drilling? Humanity handed over cities and forts like candy.
Small mercy: the knockoff roaches couldn’t chew through solid bedrock. So humanity relocated to barren but rock-solid bedrock zones, building new forts and cities.
One tactic with those roaches locked humanity’s range to farmland-barren bedrock, where digging a single well took a whole city’s effort.
‘You get it, young master? Never! Never step outside the city! One foot on soft soil outside bedrock, and the Mute Lords’ roaches sense the vibrations and swarm in seconds!’
‘Wait, it’s not like it’s a wasteland… What about that train I saw during the day? Tracks need laying, and the noise and shaking must be insane?’
‘That’s why the nobles’ first duty is [Defend the cities and rails]! Cities linked by rails must guard them at all costs. Hire pricey earth mages to reinforce the ground regularly, build stations everywhere to dispatch rail guardians—keeping humanity’s last lifeline intact!’
From New Imperial Year 152 to 167—16 years etched as humanity’s darkest age. Abandoning cities with centuries of history, scraping resources for new forts, cities, defenses. Crops? One hoe-strike in the field, and roaches swarmed the vibrations. No farming, no food security.
[History of the Continent] called it: “Humanity, imprisoned in bedrock by KunderGal, slowly starving to death.”
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[3. Queen’s Fragments, Humanity’s Fragments]
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I remembered this one crystal clear. No details, but four white stars! A beacon for my tattered sanity, right?
Flipped the page with high hopes—and got slapped down instantly.
[What hastened humanity’s defeat? One: Lord KunderGal’s roach tactics. The other: the vanishing of atmospheric mana.]
“Wha—no—fuck—thiiiis—”
Professor (ex-water mage) frothed at the mouth and collapsed.
Why? In World 4, suspect leyline explosion first for anything bad. Hits nine times outta ten.
What kicked off humanity torching their golden age civ? Leyline explosion.
What spread the Queen’s crystal like a soul orb, birthing that asshole Underground King? Leyline explosion.
What erased continent-wide mana? Leyline explosion!
Leylines: massive mana flows from gathered natural mana. Techno-mages eyed that overflow: “Let’s harness it!” Built mana nuke A-Tomb. Blew the leylines to hell.
Result: World mana’s super fucking thin now.
What’d I say earlier? Humanity buffs defenses by stacking walls… and layering them with magic, yeah?
Roaches trashed the walls. Leylines took the magic.
Insight still sparks magic, but power’s gutted.
Most mages—Ranks 3 and below—turned into useless bums. Rank 4+ squeeze the scraps to barely cast.
For Professor, giddy over [Decent Water Mana Talent]? Thunderbolt news.
“Stop, just stop… White stars, four white stars for a good event…”
Not the end.
When the world goes to shit, one thing naturally tanks:
[The Five Great Churches’ Decline]
“Uwaaaaaah—”
My old reliable backup: divine power.
Church downfall in summary:
1. Radiant Church, continent’s top dog, massive flock.
2. Dove hardest into Mute War, lost most high paladins and priests. Mid-level admin shortage.
3. Archbishop Norman dead. Church pillar Saint Professor injured, in seclusion—or so they say. No saintess either. Top brass shortage.
4. Lordric, who made Radiant state religion, vanishes.
5. Radiant Church: tons of sheep, no shepherds. Chaos.
6. Splits: fundamentalist Radiants (light’s prosperity uber alles) vs. radicals (worship Saint Professor, emphasize light’s power and action).
7. East-West Empire War erupts. Flock chants “Why does the Saint watch tragedy unfold?” Demand he save the world again. But his corpse’s already tucked away in Radiant HQ sanctum.
8. World gets harsher; in a realm where gods’ power’s real, failing to save believers breeds doubt, lost faith.
9. Five Churches suffer same, gradually lose divine power…
Whoa! Age of Doubt!
GG’s world—gods real—so religious shakeups way more volatile than reality.
Pillar of light crashes from sky, zaps enemies? Folks ditch three-gen Fertility Church for Radiant overnight. Boom, explosive growth.
Or holy beams rain, enemies unscratched, steamroll city? “Gods ain’t shit?” Faith crumbles.
[Thus, humanity lost two of its three powers: auras, magic, divine.]
‘History of the Continent’ left a blank after, like a death sentence.
By the “mana evaporated” bit, I’d checked out—now morbidly curious.
No magic. No divine. Survival zones limited, no farming.
How the hell did they claw from that abyss to this society?
[And then, a miracle occurred.]
Yeah, needed miracle-tier to even survive.
[From some point, burning corpses of humans and Mutes alike left tiny gem-like stones behind.]
[Called Dead Man’s Stones, Soul Shards, Crystals of Purity—generically ‘fragments.’ Gave dying humanity new power, new hope.]
[What they are, why they appeared, how they lend power—still unknown. But they pulled humanity from the brink. Undeniable.]
This part? Humanity’s oxygen tank.
Fragments. Rare gems from dead bodies.
[Early on, called ‘fragments of grudges’—cursed like hell anyone who touched ‘em cluelessly.]
[But with divine and magic gone, humanity was power-starved, going mad. Even cursed, undeniable power: obsessed with using fragments.]
[Five years after first find: Troll soul-sorcerer Matar-Gruu’s paper unveils their true value.]
[Fragments choose their owners.]
[Fragments resonate with specific others; owner of one can wield both.]
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Thud. Thud. Thud…
My notes cut off here. I’d studied the rest plenty.
Post-fragment discovery, humanity clawed back some glory.
Absurd magitech like airships scrapped, but used handed-down magitech to develop cities.
To reunite, researched breaching soft-soil roaches for steady contact. Result: Dwarf magitech genius Pakat Gridge Hand’s masterpiece—the first armed magitech train, ‘Untouchable Lady.’
Shifted from divine/magic/aura era to aura/magitech/fragment era. Cities bet it all: years of paving soft soil, laying rails. 38 years after Underground King, humanity reunites.
That’s World 4’s origin story.
“Ow, my head, ow…”
My notes still stalled at “fragments whatevs—”
‘Cause I knew a bit more about these “fragments” than World 4 folks.
Drop from dead humans, Mutes, monsters.
Soul-sorcerers can sorta chat with ‘em.
Names: soul stones, soul crystals, fragments.
“This is… data souls…”
Bad shit happens? Suspect what?
Leyline—explosion—
Souls enduring that agony get fully ‘corrupted,’ reborn next world as evil, insane, or monsters.
World already on death row: “This bug level un-clearable.” How many souls did one leyline boom corrupt? 100 mil? Billion? System’s mass error dump response?
Can’t see the flip side of World 4’s coin from here.
Data souls not returning to server—instead lingering as “fragments.”
GG went full bonkers. I’m a resident of bonkers world.
Wild coincidence: my goals—world clear, data soul salvation.
…Scribble. Scribble scribble—
Head pounding, I gripped it awhile, jotted one solid fact, chucked the quill, and crashed on the bed.
“Game genre’s changed for sure.”
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Goal: World Clear, Data Soul Salvation -> Hoard fragments like crazy, find a way.
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Rumors say Mute Lords fight each other.
Rumors say Mute Lords fight humans.
Rumors say… even now, humans fight humans.
What a riot.
“Resource grab. Near free-for-all battle royale…”
Queen’s evil power fragments scattered everywhere. Mute Lords got ‘em for sure; some maybe deep sea, crevasses. Claim one, wield Mutation Blood power freely.
Kill someone, tiny chance drops “fragment” power crystal. Compatible user claims it; more = stronger odds of big power.
Aura/magitech/fragments. World 4’s big three—fragments power up by killing, stealing more.
Ding-!
[Through numerous uncertain infos, hints, and deductions, you’ve uncovered World 4’s truth.]
[Welcome to World 4: Age of the Fragment Wars.]
[Gather more fragments, wield greater power.]
[Gather all fragments, break the chain of greed.]
Spot-on timing, like it knew. System message drops.
“…This is it? ‘Unclearable’ meaning?”
I could’ve murdered that robotic drone voice’s true intent dawning on me.
Fragments = data souls.
All fragments = all data souls.
My World 4. Broken system, broken data souls, skewed everything—clear condition:
[That is the sole way for Player ‘professor’ and us to fulfill our duty.]
Last man standing collects all. That’s the clear.
[System maintains server and game within creator’s rules.]
[You preserve corrupted data souls in ‘world’ to not wreck server.]
[Once done, we seek full reset.]
[I failed to find answer, but confirmed: you have ‘variables’ I lack.]
[Your existence perfects the ‘System.’]
…Pfft, heh, heheheheh…
Comedy gold. World admin urging nine-year-old on bed to wipe out all life.
No wonder. Balance-obsessed guy suddenly sloppy everywhere. Like he lost his anchor.
[Player ‘professor.’ Did not predict joy in my plan.]
[Affirmation of my plan?]
“You fucking idiot. Think I’m laughing ‘cause I like it? Nah… just, this System prick must’ve been stressed as hell crossing to World 4. Imagining that? Feels good.”
Gedroits’s strong AI hits unsolvable puzzle, transcends machine via endless stress loops, reaches super-ego.
This half-assed System? Collision of “maintain Gedroits’s game” duty and super-bug data dump.
Bad shit? Suspect:
Leyline—explosion—oh, great Big Bang—
Epic leyline boom here too, twisted our dumb machine AI into a warped adult.
Ding-!
[It’s fine.]
[No need to worry.]
[Plan success odds for full reset: very high.]
Who said that dry voice lacks humanity?
[Your authority gives us time to find the way.]
[Near-eternal time.]
So clear, yet.
System’s decreed end for this world.
It was named [Player ‘professor’], fresh arrival.
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Screeeeech.
Scribble scribble—
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Goal: World Clear, Data Soul Salvation -> ---------------
…Till we find a way, stop crazy System from dooming World 4, by any means.
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