Chapter 623: The Dilemma of the Main World Families
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 623: The Dilemma of the Main World Families
After a period of negotiation, and with Teaching Assistant Winnie acting as a co-witness, a partnership was established to construct the second shelter.
No one knew exactly what had been discussed between the two parties in that short span of time, but the onlookers only cared about the final message being conveyed.
People weren't stupid; they didn't pry into the details openly. Any gossip would be reserved for private conversations.
Now, with everyone’s assistance, the Space Labyrinth incident had reached a temporary conclusion.
Those whose consciousness and bodies had been lost in different locations were quickly aided. Since the space had already decentralized and was no longer interfered with by the flow of the ley lines, finding them was naturally much easier.
This was especially true since I had shared the ley line information. Even though the mana thread network they had built had collapsed, they could still pinpoint clues with precision.
Once the incident concluded, the various exploration teams packed up to head back. This event had served as a stark demonstration of the dangers within this Expansion Realm; even with powerful forces at their command, they could not simply do as they pleased.
The trip to the Seed Vault had truly taught them a lesson.
On the way back:
"Sister Winnie, are we really just going back like this?"
"What else? Keep butting heads with that girl? I can't beat her," Winnie huffed.
"Wait, isn't that my line?"
"Is there a problem? I'm just stating facts. We lost this round," Winnie said nonchalantly, showing none of the emotional volatility she had displayed earlier.
"So we just take the loss? Sister Winnie, I’ve never seen you back down before."
"Never seen it? Then you haven't seen enough of the world. Besides, it’s not like we came away empty-handed."
"Huh? We actually gained something from this?"
"At the very least, we know she’s playing dumb and is willing to play along. We also learned just how much weight she carries among the mentors, and that she isn't entirely unreachable. We’ve figured out what interests her, tested her bottom line, and caught a glimpse of her personality—she hates trouble, and... she has a lot of internal monologue."
"Are those really 'gains'?"
"Aren't they? She is an unstable factor. We can't keep wishing she didn't exist; instead, we have to accept the unchangeable fact that she is here. By lowering our expectations, any gain becomes something to be happy about."
"Then... why did we agree to help her build a shelter here? Something this big just happened; trying to build infrastructure here will be a nightmare. Transporting materials will be just as bad. Not to mention the Dream Overlap—with those dream creatures popping in and out, who could actually live here?"
There was one more thing she didn't say: she was the only one representing the Jack-of-all-trades Club who had agreed to this. The other clubs didn't want anything to do with it.
"In our later conversation, didn't she say she would handle it?"
"And you believed her?"
"Rationally, no. But what if? Besides, she doesn't have to do it herself, does she? The mentors could do it."
"So it’s a gamble? What if we lose?"
"If we win, the Jack-of-all-trades Club hitches a ride on a fast track. Can you imagine the convenience of having a shelter there for exploring deeper into the Expansion Realm? As for losing... we didn't sign a Witch Contract. Our lower limit is much lower than hers," Winnie said dismissively. "Let's stop talking about that and worry about the outside world instead."
"The outside world? What do you mean?"
"Haven't you noticed? The mentors of the Witch Academy treat our world and the Expansion Realm with the same attitude. They never care about how society develops outside the academy."
"Just like now—the mentors open the gates to the Expansion Realm and let us run wild. Doesn't that look exactly like the current power structure of our own world? But don't forget, our foundation is in the Main World, not here," Winnie said. Her full name was Winnie Baker, and the family she belonged to was far from obscure.
The Baker family was a pro-Academy family; their support and reliance naturally stemmed from the Witch Academy. Although the Transcendent Academy did not interfere with the outside world, nor did it grant such families power or even officially recognize their existence, silence was a form of tacit consent.
Even if no formal power was granted, the authority brought by Transcendent power was invisible and permeated every aspect of life.
Because of the unique nature of the Witch Academy—where becoming a witch meant losing the ability to reproduce—her family naturally had more than just her as an heir.
In fact, there were many children, forming a massive lineage. Many of them were excellent but lacked the qualifications to enter the Witch Academy, as someone had to carry on the family line, after all.
As the most outstanding child, her entry into the Witch Academy and her daily study schedule had been planned long ago. Did people really think she became a Teaching Assistant solely because she was brilliant?
No, she was merely the best in her family, but she wasn't a top-tier genius. Her success came more from hard work, thorough preparation, and cultivating relationships with mentors early on.
Students who didn't even know the process for applying to be a Teaching Assistant had likely missed many opportunities from the very beginning.
Setting that aside, the current power structure of the Main World had been established in a similar fashion.
The Transcendent Academy didn't interfere with external development; it only required that society run smoothly, that a sufficient number of elite students entered the academy each year, and that another group entered the workforce to maintain social progress.
Thus, the initial state of society wasn't much different from the current pioneering of the Expansion Realm, though the Expansion Realm was more primitive, allowing for more violent methods.
The prerequisite for them to develop the Expansion Realm was... maintaining the stability of the Main World's social operations.
Currently, many mainstream great families even suspected that the Transcendent Academy was planning something big. Some even thought the arrival of these "Players" might be a scripted play orchestrated by the united Transcendent Academies.
The goal would be to prevent the families from completely solidifying the social strata of the Main World.
What was the purpose of the Transcendent Academy training students?
To have them ascend to the Transcendent level.
However, most students chose to graduate and seek more benefits for their families instead of becoming Transcendents and joining that specific race.
Therefore, they had ample reason to suspect that the Transcendent Academy was specifically targeting the existence of their families.
But they didn't dare voice this opinion too clearly, let alone question the mentors. That would be a blatant act of insubordination.
However, there was indeed a pressing problem they had to solve: the invasion of the Players.
They had to resolve this!
If they didn't, they wouldn't be able to sleep or eat in peace.
Furthermore... as so many people flooded into the Expansion Realm, the Main World lost the deterrence of direct force. Those Players had already infiltrated every level of society!
It was as if the entire world was playing a game of Werewolf, and no one knew who the wolves were.
The fact that public opinion in the Main World was currently so unfavorable also proved one thing: Players had even infiltrated the high-ranking circles of the families!
Not just the families, but the high-ranking figures in every industry under the branch families, people with social influence...
They didn't dare think further.
"So... we need to reduce our investment in the Expansion Realm?"
"No, we need to increase it. But we can't let our energy be tied up by these matters. Find some proxies to help."
"But that will decrease our control over the Expansion Realm."
"That's why we need to change our thinking. We need to get on the good side of that Teaching Assistant Yang Yuehan. She is an unstable factor, but it depends on how she's used," Winnie explained. "I've already played the villain, but on the matter of this second shelter, our Jack-of-all-trades Club is the only one standing by her side. Find someone else to play the 'good cop' and suck up to her. While you're at it, test whether she responds better to the carrot or the stick... actually, stick to the carrot. I'm afraid of what might happen if we try the stick."
"So... this isn't just about profit anymore, is it?"
"What do you think? This is a matter of survival."
* * *
At the Omni-Link Main Network Tree.
After seeing those people off, I finally had some space to myself.
No one else stayed behind. After all, of the proposal I made to build a shelter, only that Teaching Assistant from the Jack-of-all-trades Club had agreed.
Until a residential scale was established here, this place remained a danger zone for most.
The spatial anomalies scattered everywhere, even when pushed back by the Omni-Link Main Network Tree, still posed risks in many areas. Moreover, with the Dream Overlap environment, most people would avoid this place if they could.
I hadn't expected the Teaching Assistant from the Jack-of-all-trades Club to agree, though.
But... seeing how fast they left, I started to wonder if they just gave a verbal agreement to get away.
Still, it was better that they left.
I had a lot to do, and I didn't want to be watched by a crowd like I was some monkey in a zoo.
The most important task right now was... completing the testing of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree.
The primary function of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree now was to produce fruits that allowed ordinary people to obtain "game qualifications."
This was a very aggressive way to let ordinary people gain power quickly.
The threshold was also very low; having basic Mental Power was enough.
As the Class Transfer system was perfected, the Mental Power threshold required for Players to change classes might even disappear, relying entirely on subconscious interface operations.
The fastest way to test the effectiveness of this new Omni-Link Main Network Tree was to... grab some guys to try it out and have them build the shelter here while they were at it.
But these procedures were still too tedious for me. It seemed I needed to optimize a systematic set of operations so those people could quickly set up a shelter.
Otherwise, at this rate, when would I ever finish planting Omni-Link Main Network Trees across the entire Expansion Realm?
However, I did have some ideas.
And that was... establishing new professions!
Then I could open up new skill trees, with skills consisting entirely of spells for rapid house building—such as Soil Shaping, Soil Hardening, Plant Reinforcement, and so on.
But... would anyone actually choose such a profession?
Or rather, would such a profession have any future prospects?
This did seem to be a problem that needed solving. After thinking for a while, I came up with a solution: opening the secondary profession system!
Implementing this idea wasn't actually difficult; it was just a matter of merging profession systems. After all, I was the developer of these functions.
But I still had one problem to face: there wasn't a soul in the vicinity of this Omni-Link Main Network Tree.
The reason was simple: this was a Dream Overlap zone!
Ordinary people didn't know Dream Magic. If their consciousness got trapped in a dream by those dream creatures, they'd be finished. Naturally, no one dared to come.
In these chaotic times, one's own life always came first.
Therefore... this Dream Overlap area definitely had to be dealt with.
This wasn't a matter of whether I wanted to step in and smooth it out; it was a necessity based on the current state between reality and dreams in the Expansion Realm.
Currently, most areas of the Expansion Realm were still in a state where the Primitive Dream Realm had not yet arrived.
Those areas only had the appearance of the Expansion Realm; only when the dream and reality overlapped would there be an intersection, and only then could I step in to smooth it over.
The Primitive Dream Realm would eventually swallow the entire Expansion Realm, and the dream would once again return to a state of non-interference with reality. I was merely stepping in to accelerate that process.
With that thought, I quickly expanded my Heart State Domain.
Everything around me was encompassed, and it continued to spread outward. The coverage of the Heart State Domain was vast, and I only slowed the progress once I began to feel the strain.
The current range of my domain roughly covered the entire Dream Overlap area that radiated from the center where the ley lines converged.
Although I knew this Dream Overlap area would continue to spread outward, for now, this was enough.
As my domain expanded, I suddenly noticed many dream creatures appearing around me in terror, flying about restlessly.
"I almost forgot about you. But sorry, your presence is a hindrance to me," I sighed softly. It was a pity they couldn't understand me.
I wouldn't develop any special affection for these creatures, even if that large dream creature had helped me complete the perfection of the primitive runes. That was merely a successful transaction.
As for them, they should just go back to staying in the dream.
As order flowed within my domain, countless powers of knowledge deduced a special rune ritual, forming a resonance at a specific frequency.
This commotion sent the dream creatures scurrying in all directions.
This was my first time attempting such a large-scale dream resonance; many techniques were still in the experimental stage.
Just like now, I was experimenting. Experimenting with what?
Experimenting with smoothing out the Dream Overlap?
No, I was testing what kind of results this frequency of resonance would bring—whether it would intensify the overlap of dream and reality or neutralize their intersection.
Everything naturally had to be put into practice to yield the most truthful answer.
At this moment, after the initial disturbance, the dream creatures realized nothing was happening and became active again, until they playfully slammed headfirst into the thick trunk of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree.
"Something seems wrong. This seems to be intensifying the overlap..." I watched with slight embarrassment as a "Dream Omni-Link Main Network Tree" manifested within the dream. The data of this tree had already entered the dream, forming a concrete dream creation!
"As expected, this frequency intensifies it... Let's try another resonance frequency... Maybe I should do more experimental comparisons to find the peak value..." I muttered to myself.
But maintaining such a large-scale Heart State Domain while trying to conduct multiple comparative experiments was too much of a strain.
Perhaps expanding the domain so far all at once really was a mistake.