Chapter 407: Adding a "Tiny" Bit of Difficulty to Their Game
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 407: Adding a "Tiny" Bit of Difficulty to Their Game
"What 'Calamity Witch'? Where did you read that?"
As soon as that person blurted out the information, looks of realization dawned on many faces, though plenty of others remained confused about what was happening.
After all, a strange and chuunibyou title like "Calamity Witch" didn't seem to fit at all with the plant-technology world of Sin Star.
"What are you guys talking about? Why haven't I heard of this?"
Someone asked out of curiosity, but no kind soul was willing to give away information for free.
Of course, the main reason was that the strategy guide post—the one that required paying like a sucker to read—hadn't revealed much more either. Everyone’s knowledge was limited.
At that moment, I wasn't just standing there to be gawked at like a monkey. As evidenced by my earlier aggro-drawing comment, my original plan was to take all of them out.
Judging simply by the equipment on the one who had spoken up first, their methods were actually quite limited. Their offense relied entirely on external gear, which meant there was a hard ceiling on their individual strength.
I was holding my ground for now just to overhear their conversation. Blindly engaging them in battle served no purpose; my goal was to gather information.
Although I was some distance away, I could hear bits and pieces thanks to my Body Cultivation Five Senses and spell-based enhancements. However, to my immense frustration, their speech was occasionally censored by some kind of silencing effect.
But that didn't mean I hadn't picked up other useful tidbits. Keywords like "Calamity Witch," "post," and "play" stood out...
If I still hadn't realized the gravity of the situation, I would have lived two lives in the information-saturated modern age for nothing!
Perhaps... I should call these Secret Diggers by a different name. Perhaps... "Players" would be more appropriate?
If that was the truth, then I was faced with two difficult choices! Either I had to accept that I was merely a low-dimensional game character—an NPC in the eyes of these players—or I had to prove... that they were simply a powerful civilization that referred to the act of invading other worlds as "gaming"!
Between the two hypotheses, I naturally leaned toward the latter. Only the latter would prevent me from falling into a despairing pit of self-doubt.
In an instant, I regained my composure. All fear stems from one's own imagination!
How could these guys possibly be beings of a higher level than me?
Was the Main World theory a lie?
Was the Void a lie?
Were the brilliant Witch civilization, the Wizard civilization, and the Transcendent Elves all just "settings"?
I didn't believe it. Even if I hadn't witnessed it all with my own eyes, I remained steadfast in my conviction.
However, there was one point I needed to clarify: the connection between their individual consciousness and the tangible concept of Luck.
To put it another way, if I were a game character, I shouldn't have any means of making an opponent "log out" other than killing them.
But the guy who had been willing to communicate with me earlier had proven with his life that the threads of Luck seemed to be their "network cables."
If we replaced these Secret Diggers with Transcendent Witches, wouldn't they be the masterminds behind the scenes, manipulating scripts and toying with the world?
The only difference was that the Witches let us play amongst ourselves, while these people entered the field personally.
Regardless, the fact that these "players" were linked to Luck meant only one thing: they possessed the "script" of this world.
Moreover, they possessed and utilized this script in a way I couldn't comprehend—something entirely different from the Transcendent Academies of the Main World.
These conjectures seemed reasonable at first glance, without any major loopholes, but I knew they were currently nothing more than castles in the air. I needed to test them personally to find the remaining evidence.
As for how to test them... naturally, I would use absolute force to make them talk!
With that thought, a flying broom silently appeared in my hand. So, these Secret Diggers could all fly, could they?
What a coincidence. So could I. I didn't mind engaging them in a bit of aerial combat; I welcomed the chance for some rare real-world flight experience.
As for... death?
Was I afraid?
Setting aside my defensive and escape measures, the reconstructed Resurrection Spell I had figured out back in Ninglan New City was enough for me to cast Resurrection on myself without needing a second party's help.
Of course, every battle carried risks; that was unavoidable. But I couldn't let fear stop me from crushing these Secret Diggers, could I?
If I did, I'd be laughing at my own cowardice for a whole year!
Once my decision was made, I didn't hesitate. I mounted my broom and charged toward the nearest person at a speed their eyes could barely track.
"You'll do!"
I reached out and grabbed the person's head. Before he could react, I slammed him into the building behind him at high speed.
A deafening crash echoed as the glass curtain wall shattered.
Protected by defensive spells on both myself and my alchemical broom, I was fine, but the guy in my grip was having a much worse time.
After smashing through the glass, I pinned him to the floor by his throat.
Because of the sheer speed, the shattered glass shards only rained down beside him after he finally realized what had happened. The crisp sound of breaking glass and the massive physical impact left him dazed and disoriented.
Meanwhile, among the other Secret Diggers, this sudden upheaval set off alarm bells. That Calamity Witch had actually initiated an attack!
That speed just now—ramming someone directly into a skyscraper on a broom... if it had been them, they probably wouldn't have been able to react either!
A chill of impending danger ran down their spines until one of them shouted, snapping everyone out of it.
"Open fire! Kill that Witch!"
"Are you f*cking stupid?! That's a hidden quest! If you kill her, how are we supposed to continue? Capture her alive!"
In an instant, the Secret Diggers split into two factions. One side advocated for eliminating the unknown Witch immediately to neutralize the threat, while the other greedily thought about the follow-up to the hidden quest.
The guy who had first screamed for her death didn't care about any of that. He launched his assault immediately. His armor flared with special effect lighting, and a series of floating objects—resembling floating cannons—emerged to support a massive firepower platform. Countless tiny black dots formed these weapons as they hovered around him. A holographic auxiliary aiming reticle and control interface flickered into existence before him, with data loading like streaming light, causing pixel-like blocks to coalesce into heavy artillery turrets.
Seeing this display, anyone with eyes could tell: this guy was a Pay-to-Win Big Shot!
He was not someone to be trifled with. Realizing this, the others quickly backed away to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
Just as the "Pay-to-Win Big Shot" finished charging his weapons, a massive, thunderous strike—trailing a brilliant ballistic effect—slammed directly into his floating platform.
BOOM!
Following the explosion and the big shot's furious cursing, his charging sequence was forcibly interrupted.
"Which one of you is looking for a death wish?! Step forward!"
As the flashy smoke cleared, an energy shield flickered over his body, but his firepower platform had been blasted into junk.
These weapons cost real money! Even the repairs would be astronomical.
But he had no time to worry about that now. His eyes were fixed on his attackers.
"You lot! People from the Real Protection Association?!"
"You have some eyes on you. Glad we aren't too late. This Calamity Witch is under the protection of the Real Protection Association!" The arrival of this new group caused the expressions of everyone present to shift.
Along with them, Shu Dao's slightly disheveled figure also approached. These were the very people who had been hunted by the crowd earlier.
"I think you're the ones with the death wish! Who was it that we were just chasing all over the place? You think just because a few reinforcements showed up, we'll be scared?"
"Then come and try us, you trash who only know how to kill," the person claiming to be from the Real Protection Association retorted, refusing to back down.
* * *
Meanwhile, after subduing the guy in front of me, I bound him with a Restraint Spell. After confirming no one was taking the opportunity to sneak up on me, I immediately began my interrogation, racing against time.
"I'm asking you: you're players, right?"
"Uh... what?" The guy, finally coming to his senses, struggled to resist only to find he couldn't move a muscle.
"I'll ask you one more time," I said, my voice dropping to a low, menacing tone. "You're players, right?"
"Play... you! How can you—%#!"
"What are you using to invade this world?"
Though he didn't give a clear answer, I could read it in his expression. I immediately followed up with another question.
However, the man clearly hadn't recovered from his shock.
"I... how should I know?! Let me go! I really don't know anything!"
After his struggles proved futile, he simply gave up. To every question I asked, his answer was "I don't know," no matter how much I pressured him.
It wasn't that I didn't believe him; his expression genuinely suggested he was clueless. He wasn't lying.
This meant that even if they were players, this guy was likely a bottom-layer player. They might not even realize that their so-called "gaming" was actually a form of invasion into another world.
I proceeded to ask other questions, such as where their world was, what it was like, what their daily lives were like, and the nature of their society.
Unfortunately, he didn't last long enough to answer. He "logged out" right then and there.
Looking at the corpse-like figure on the ground, I snatched the thread of Luck.
Earlier, I had left a thread of Luck alone to observe what happened after its connection was severed. I discovered that after a short while, the thread would twitch as if being pulled, attempting to vanish into the Void. I grabbed it just in time.
I had expected a tug-of-war over the Luck thread, but the unknown entity on the other end quickly went silent, and I pulled the thread toward me.
At that moment, the "equipment" on the guy on the floor began to disappear. I moved quickly to grab the firearm that had dropped, but it soon became blurry.
The blurriness wasn't because it was covered in mosaics, but because its very form was becoming irregular.
Under my observation, as its form collapsed, it wasn't composed of matter as I understood it. It consisted of square blocks, constantly shifting—an incredibly unstable existence.
The information feedback my Spirit Vision received from it was also bizarre, something I couldn't comprehend at all.
But looking at this existence, a concept in my mind seemed to fit it perfectly. Perhaps this should be called... a pixel? Or a pixel block?
The moment the concept of "pixel block" replaced the raw data, the information my Spirit Vision received suddenly became clear.
It was as if a confirmed concept had been completed, or a missing piece of a puzzle had been slotted into place, allowing me to glimpse a corner of the truth.
It was a cognitive concept that defied verbal description, yet it still fell within the category of the Transcendent.
I remained lost in thought until the firearm in my hand vanished completely, the pixel blocks breaking down into basic pixel particles before disappearing into pure information.
But in the next moment, I began to tremble with excitement!
For these Secret Diggers to achieve this level, it had to be the result of some unknown Transcendent method!
The reason I had been afraid to face concepts like "games" and "falsehood" was naturally the fear of the unknown. The unknown breeds fear, fear breeds internal friction, and internal friction would have eventually crushed my cognition!
Now that I had confirmed this was a method within the Transcendent category... what was there to be afraid of?
Even if it was a powerful "dimensional strike," it was still a matter of being crushed by a known, superior strength, rather than an unknown, irresistible force.
The former meant there were infinite possibilities for me to reach that level, while the latter meant there was no direction to strive for—that all effort was futile and empty.
So... what could be more exhilarating than uncovering the truth!
At least for me, right now... nothing!
As expected, my previous worries were just me scaring myself.
At this moment, the last shred of hesitation in my heart vanished. I felt my thoughts become crystal clear!
BOOM! BOOM!
Following a series of powerful explosions, several figures reached my floor. Seeing my back turned to them, they launched a fierce attack without hesitation.
The intense blasts caused my defensive spells to show signs of cracking. A moment later, under the continuous barrage, the shield shattered completely.
I reacted instantly, layering new shields for protection.
"What pitiful firepower..."
With a casual wave of my hand, a minor spell instantly dispersed the smoke from the explosions. The Secret Diggers who had attacked were revealed before me. "Allow me to show you why I am called the Calamity Witch!"
As I spoke, several spellbooks were activated simultaneously.
Body Strengthening, Perception Enhancement... combined with my inherent Body Cultivation physical stats, I became something truly terrifying.
Next came the Flame Fairy Transformation. A wreath of fire instantly coiled around me. In this moment, I was a fairy who could command flames at will!
The violent fire erupted into a terrifying spectacle. Flames spewed out from the gap in the building's glass curtain wall. I stood like a Queen of Flames walking through an inferno, the fire I commanded even allowing me to stand suspended in the air.
Feeling the power granted by the transformation, I realized its strength was easily on par with the Fire Element Spirit's Blessing I had used at full power in the past!
Everything around me was incinerated by the flames. Even the glass curtain wall began to melt from the high temperature, molten glass dripping down from above. The fire had already consumed this floor and was spreading to the levels above and below.
My gaze fell upon the battle raging outside. Looking at the gathered Secret Diggers, a flash of realization crossed my eyes. I had wondered why no one else had tried to ambush me; it turned out they were... fighting among themselves?
Before the Secret Diggers could even focus their fire on me, they had already started whittling each other down. I truly hadn't expected that.
But this wasn't enough. The Flame Fairy Transformation was, in the end, a spell with only a double-digit mana cost. While it seemed sufficient to deal with these guys, it wasn't shocking enough.
So, after some thought, I decided to activate the Fire Element Spirit's Blessing as well. I had plenty of Mana Sources anyway—I could afford to be extravagant!
This time, I would make sure to wipe out every single Secret Digger present. I was going to add a "tiny" bit of extra difficulty to their little game!