Chapter 1029: Abyssal Demons and the Hundred Academy Alliance
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1029: Abyssal Demons and the Hundred Academy Alliance
"Wait! You’re not—"
By the time Number 05 realized Number 12’s words were off, it was already too late.
Before he could finish his sentence, his character suddenly froze, as if it had entered a total standby mode.
At the same time, Monroe, who had been brought along by Number 11, vanished from the spot where the two councilors had met.
"Those in high positions cannot afford even a single moment of error," Number 11 muttered under her breath.
In the past, using a character to represent a Supreme Councilor indeed guaranteed everyone’s safety. But ever since a Calamity Witch arrived in this world, that was no longer the case.
Meanwhile, in another location.
"For a Supreme Councilor, your sense of crisis is woefully inadequate," a cold voice rang out.
A figure then reached out and hoisted the withered, elderly man from a massive life-support device.
This movement failed to trigger a single alarm.
"You... You! It’s Monroe... No... The Calamity Wit—"
"Correct! I am the Calamity Witch." I gave the figure an appreciative look before shifting from Monroe’s appearance back to my original form.
Upon seeing my true face, his pupils constricted. His fear became almost tangible, causing his already frail body to tremble violently.
"You’ve certainly lived a long life. The average lifespan in your world is fifty-eight, yet you’ve managed to live for five hundred and twelve years. Haven't you had enough?" I asked, looking down at the old man.
In the Game World, an average age of fifty-eight sounded decent, but averages rarely told the whole story.
With the technical support of the Terminal of Myriad Worlds, top-tier players in this world could live to nearly two hundred. While not everyone achieved this, crossing the hundred-year mark was relatively easy for them.
However, the ones dragging the average down were those left to fend for themselves in reality.
The people of the Game World didn't conduct censuses, but the information gathering from my Ley Line Identification Art could do it for them.
In any world that had stepped into modern civilization, humans could easily live to seventy or eighty, even without life-extending technology.
This old man before me had lived for five centuries—a truly staggering age.
That said, not everyone in the Supreme Council was like him. Number 02 and Number 11, for instance, were "middle-aged" individuals who hadn't even reached a hundred yet.
"Sorry~ I forgot I was choking you, making it hard to speak," I chuckled, acting as if my actions were of no consequence.
"I know exactly what your trump card is, but... you won't get the chance to use it." I looked at the five-hundred-year-old man I had tossed onto the floor. Code woven from virtual pixels began to shimmer on my hand.
This was the manifestation of the power of Order—specifically, the portion belonging to the Supreme Authority of the Terminal of Myriad Worlds.
But it didn't belong to Councilor Number 05.
Councilors 01 through 12 of the Supreme Council represented the twelve divided portions of the Terminal’s Supreme Authority.
These sequences were always just positions, never tied to a specific person.
However, replacing one of them silently was a hassle.
The replacement of any Supreme Councilor was never a quiet affair. While other councilors couldn't forcibly interfere with who took the seat, they would certainly know that a change had occurred.
Therefore, the best method was to become him.
Regardless, the ultimate goal had been achieved.
Infiltrate the Supreme Council, analyze the Supreme Authority, and seize control of the Terminal of Myriad Worlds.
If the Terminal were a power held by a single individual, I could never have pulled this off. But the Terminal was merely an external tool governed by twelve ordinary humans through permissions.
I would show them the meaning of a dimensional strike!
Admittedly, by using an entire world to fuel the Terminal of Myriad Worlds, the Game World could achieve nearly infinite troop production, making players undying and indestructible.
But they had left a flaw, and they had to be prepared to be dismantled from within.
A short while later.
Number 05 climbed up from the floor. Whether it was an illusion or not, his withered frame seemed a tiny bit sturdier. I watched as he climbed back into his game pod.
"Hehe... all done. As expected, the simpler the method, the harder it is to detect. I wonder when the Supreme Council will discover this secret. I just hope they don't turn this into a game of Werewolf..."
"Now, it’s time to meet those wizard apprentices."
* * *
In the Game World, unless some other external force intervened, the final outcome was already set.
The Supreme Council governing the world would be infiltrated. The interest groups represented by the twelve councilors would be gradually replaced. The resistance forces, centered around the Igesuo Surface City, would progressively promote and spread the Omni-Link Main Network Tree, bringing hope for survival to the Chaos Areas and the Ground Fissure Settlement Zones.
As for the other outsiders and those wizard apprentices?
I never once considered them a threat.
Compared to the chaotic yet steadily progressing Game World, the situation in the Main World was not looking particularly good.
The series of subsequent effects brought about by the Witch Academy's actions had left the ordinary people of the entire world unable to sleep or eat in peace.
Even if the flames of war wouldn't reach the commoners—extending at most to the families—the fear of war was an instinctual human trait.
Even those living in the territories of the Top Academies and the Witch Academy hadn't seen war in a long time. Yet, given such explosive news, there were still countless people looking to profit from the conflict.
Now, faced with the aggressive momentum of the Witch Academy, the various transcendent academies were forced to respond.
But before that could happen, another shocking event occurred.
The Abyss Lesser Demon Academy, which claimed to be the "Fourth Top Academy," had made its move!
The Abyss Lesser Demon Academy was actually located where the former Lesser Demon Academies and Little Demon Academies used to be.
Their territory was smaller than that of many large-scale transcendent academies, let alone the Top Academies.
The Abyss Lesser Demon Academy’s territory was not only small but also fragmented. It was only recently, with the Abyssal Demons officially entering the Main World, that they gained a foothold.
To take root in the Core World, they needed a large, contiguous territory. Forcibly seizing other lands was their only option.
And so, exactly as the Witch Academy had hoped, they entered the fray while the Witches were muddying the waters.
As for how much the Witch Academy had nudged them behind the scenes, that remained unknown.
The Abyssal Demons first struck the areas surrounding them.
Before the Abyssal Demons officially entered the Main World, these Lesser Demon and Little Demon Academies were all considered "wildcat" transcendent academies. Their notorious reputations and terrible public image made recruitment incredibly difficult.
Many small transcendent academies, pushed by nameless forces, had initiated Academy Wars against them.
This had forced these academies to move several times. Rather than "moving," it was more accurate to say they had been driven to the barren corners of the Core World’s continents.
Thus, the Abyss Lesser Demon Academy launched a brutal Academy War against the surrounding regions under the pretext of reclaiming lost lands and restoring past glory.
It was... truly inhumane.
Using the methods of an Abyssal invasion, they steamrolled through everything in their path.
Commoners and transcendent academy students alike were slaughtered without distinction. Their flesh and blood were merged into Abyss Blood Pools, becoming the breeding grounds and nutrients for demon incubation.
Indiscriminate slaughter and bloody occupation!
With just a slight display of power, the Abyssal Demons made the Witch Academy look noble by comparison.
Most of the accusations regarding the Witch Academy starting wars vanished. Instead, everyone turned their rhetorical cannons toward the Abyssal Demons.
If the Witch Academy’s actions were an encroachment on interests, then the Abyssal Demons were insulting their personhood, defiling their perceptions, and trampling over their bottom lines!
Not all life forms could accept the twisted concepts of the Abyssal Demons; it was as if their very existence was a profanity against life.
Who could imagine a person being perfectly fine one second, only for their flesh to peel away from their bones the next, flowing into an underground Abyss Blood Pool ritual? That blood would then coalesce into a fleshy egg, pulsing with a mixture of plasma and pus, which might birth some mutated Lesser Demon that would pounce on you the very next second.
Just thinking about such a scene was enough to ruin one's dinner and cause nightmares.
Now, stimulated by the double threat of the Witch Academy and the Abyssal Demons, the various transcendent academies of the Core World reacted swiftly.
They united several large transcendent academies—such as the Half-Elf Academy and the top-tier Beast Arena Academy—to form the "Hundred Academy Alliance."
The emergence of the Hundred Academy Alliance allowed many small transcendent academies to temporarily set aside their grievances from past Academy Wars and unite.
The shadow of the Top Academies loomed large over this development.
If the Three Top Academies hadn't actively waived their interference, how could such deep-seated conflicts have been set aside?
One had to admire the efficiency of the transcendent academies, bringing over a hundred institutions together to "huddle for warmth" almost instantly.
This move was a direct counter to the Witch Academy’s "Peacekeeping" plan.
However, the Abyssal Demons' surprise attack had only accelerated the birth of the Hundred Academy Alliance.
The alliance’s tenet was to unite and aid the weak. No matter what excuse the Witch Academy used to target a small academy, the other academies would collectively exert pressure. The goal was to shift the conflict from an individual level to the entire group.
The best outcome, naturally, would be internal mediation within the alliance. As long as an Academy War wasn't triggered, paying a bit more in compensation would be considered a victory!
The reason they had such confidence was that the academies included in the Hundred Academy Alliance had completely surrounded the Witch Academy geographically.
True, a small transcendent academy was no match for a single combat sequence of the Witch Academy. But how many large-scale combat sequences did the Witch Academy actually have?
Nine, at most!
And that was excluding the No. 0 Special Combat Sequence (which had already been stripped of that little witch) and the disciplinary squads tasked with guarding their home. How could the remaining forces defend against a full-scale offensive from the Hundred Academy Alliance?
Furthermore, the greater strategic significance of the Hundred Academy Alliance was its ability to deploy the combat power of the Top Academies at any time. If the Witch Academy made a strategic miscalculation, it might not be a fatal blow, but it would certainly be painful.
After its formation, the first thing the Hundred Academy Alliance did was loudly declare its protection of the Blood Slave Academy, the Vampire Affiliated Academy, and the Lord Vampire Academy.
They hoped that by doing this, and by cutting off the march routes of the Witch Academy’s combat sequences, they could force the Witches to back down.
After all, the Blood Slave Academy did not border the Witch Academy.
Previously, the Witch Academy had marched through territories as if they were uninhabited, and small academies hadn't dared to interfere. But now, with the Hundred Academy Alliance and the Top Academies backing them in the shadows, that was no longer possible.
The second thing the Hundred Academy Alliance did was attempt to curb the Abyssal Demons' atrocities and their undisguised ambition for expansion!
To the Main World, the Abyssal Demons were like a malignant tumor. The best-case scenario was to lock them away in a barren corner of the continent forever.
Unfortunately, while their plans were grand, no one was willing to follow their script.
Faced with the Hundred Academy Alliance, the Abyssal Demons acted like those with nothing to lose. They had one strategy: reckless aggression!
The Abyssal Demons had fought too many hard battles. To them, the current situation in the Main World was like child's play.
More importantly, the Abyssal Demons had barely managed to gain a foothold in the Main World. They weren't afraid of these so-called threats at all!
They even hoped the Hundred Academy Alliance would send people to kill them quickly. To an Abyssal Demon, life was the cheapest commodity.
Whether it was life force, soul essence, or flesh, it was all just a breeding ground for more demons.
The Hundred Academy Alliance was stunned to see the Abyssal Demons completely ignore their sanctions and even launch counterattacks.
By the time they regained their senses, the Abyssal Demons had already become a formidable force.
Whether it was the castles of flesh built from slaughtered cities or the scorched earth and withered bones that stained the land for thousands of miles, the Abyssal Demons' unique brand of invasion had bared its sharp fangs.
And their first bite was taken out of the Hundred Academy Alliance!
Faced with such mad dogs, even the Three Top Academies frowned. If they wanted to curb this spread, the Witch Academy would surely turn into a madman even more frenzied than the Abyssal Demons to deal them a heavy blow!
However, facts proved that the Witch Academy was even crazier than they had anticipated.
The Abyssal Demon Academy wouldn't follow their plans, and neither would the Witch Academy!
Within the Witch United Club.
With the transcendent technical support of the Spell Research Society and the cooperation of the Blood Slave Peninsula combat sequence, the spatial blockade in the local area was dismantled, and a small, unstable, long-distance spatial channel was opened.
The Hundred Academy Alliance’s so-called supply cuts and regional blockades became a joke in an instant.
The fall of the Blood Slave Peninsula and the Blood Slave Academy into the hands of the Witch Academy was now a virtual certainty.
Once the Witch Academy controlled the Blood Slave Peninsula, the food supply for the Vampire Academy would be in their hands.
Without a source of blood food, vampires could not cultivate. If the supply was cut off severely enough, their strength might even regress!
It wasn't that there were no blood slaves left in the vampire territories, but without the massive supply from the Blood Slave Peninsula, they simply couldn't sustain such a massive Vampire Academy!
In truth, the loss of the Blood Slave Academy was always the greatest concern for low-to-mid-tier vampires. As for the high-level vampires, they mostly raised high-quality blood slaves of their own to satisfy their hunger, their lust, and their spiritual needs.