Chapter 879: A Larger Stage?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 879: A Larger Stage?
"A larger stage?"
I have to admit, Sheryl’s phrasing caught my eye.
However... my anticipation for a larger stage wasn't born from a desire for a better opportunity to show myself off, but rather to filter out the people around me.
It was like how people of a certain level preferred to stay within their own circles.
"I see a hint of expectation in your eyes. I suspect that deep down, you actually hope for it, don't you?"
"So, what exactly do you mean by a 'larger stage'? The Void outside the Main World?"
"That’s one way to put it. You really should go and see the worlds beyond the Main World. Out there, there are many geniuses like yourself, and opportunities beyond your wildest imagination. At the end of the day, the Main World is just a world that has been occupied, developed, and exploited. Most things here have already been digested, leaving the only remaining resource as... population."
"So the Transcendent Academy model is just a way to squeeze the last bit of value out of the Main World?" I asked casually.
"At least based on current developments, that’s exactly what it is. After all, Spirit Vision... is a very precious Talent. Once you promote to Transcendent, your Spirit Vision level is directly inherited by your True Vision."
"That sounds rather underwhelming..." I remarked.
"Perhaps because you’ve never experienced life without Spirit Vision? In the Main World, Spirit Vision is the ticket granted by the World Consciousness to cross into the extraordinary. Ordinary people in other worlds spend their entire lives unable to even see the flow of so-called transcendent energy. The gap is like a person born with sight trying to understand the hardships of someone born blind."
"Fine... I think I get it."
Actually, if we were talking about an ordinary life without Spirit Vision, I had experienced that in my previous life. Forget transcendence—there wasn't even a shadow of it in that entire world. They developed technology; they researched how to boil water and throw rocks.
Social development was nothing more than finding more advanced ways to boil water faster and throw rocks further...
"Then I’ll take it that you understand~ Though I must say, I’m surprised. Your sense of belonging to this Main World is so low it shocks even me. When I mentioned that the final value was the population, your resonance was entirely from a Witch's perspective."
"Well... I am a Little Witch now, after all." I gave a light chuckle, offering no deeper explanation.
Rather than analyzing such a complex issue, it was better to categorize the answer into a simpler statement.
"Is that how you think? How interesting~" Sheryl said, her tone relaxed. She felt her conversation with Xiao Han was finally on the right track. "We’re getting a bit off-topic. Let’s go back to the previous point. Xiao Han, what do you think is the resistance stopping you from heading toward that larger stage?"
"It’s... my Life Level, I suppose," I replied offhandedly.
In truth, it wouldn't be long before I could solve the issue of raising my soul's essential Life Level, provided I deepened my mastery of Soul Depiction.
It was just that I didn't have much time to experiment with it right now.
"Do you like looking for problems within yourself? I thought you would say it was Dean Mei Lind."
"Why would you think it’s her?" I asked, frowning. I didn't think the Dean would stop me from seeking a larger stage.
Did she want to keep me here and leave the position of Dean to me?
That seemed highly unlikely. Besides, I wouldn't be a Dean even if asked. If I actually took the job, I’m afraid I’d just become Bev Alanna No. 2.
I wasn't good at managing people. My only attempt at it traced back to my time as the Class 14 Monitor, and even during that brief stint, the actual management was handled by the Vice Monitor.
I’d almost forgotten her name.
It was... Tu Xingyue, I think?
But those things didn't matter anymore.
As I was thinking, Sheryl spoke again.
"As the Dean, I heard Mei Lind took notice of you very early on. After you showed your talent, she gave you a lot of help, but that help also became your shackles. Think back—whenever you want to do something now, don't you subconsciously consider the Dean's thoughts?"
"Isn't that normal? I don't like actively causing trouble for others. I believe I mentioned that earlier?"
"That’s exactly why I’m telling you not to care about what others think~ What’s the point? Do you remember the promise Mei Lind gave you? She was going to let you harvest that Game World... but she went back on her word. Honestly, that world was a perfect place for someone like you to gain experience at the time."
"There, you would have learned many things you can't learn in the Main World. You would no longer view the world from an individual's perspective, nor would you wait to be managed like a student. You would learn how to become a rule-maker, how to grasp your own fate, how to dominate the fates of others, and even see just how many ways a person who overestimates themselves can end up... The Main World you live in has too many rules and regulations binding your thoughts. It keeps you from understanding the true darkness and ruthlessness of the Void. In the Void, if you dislike someone weaker than you, then that person should die. That is the cruel reality of the Void..."
"...There’s no need for that, surely..." I said instinctively.
"The moment you say 'no need,' you have already succumbed to the comfortable rules someone else set for you. It’s equivalent to handing your fate over to the Witch who makes the rules—in this case, Mei Lind."
"If she thinks you shouldn't do something, you won't do it. Don't think the little troubles you cause her mean you've broken her rules; in reality, those are all things she has tacitly accepted. Mei Lind used her own methods, and borrowed the power of Transcendents from other academies, to skillfully draw a red line for you."
"She believes you shouldn't die, nor should you take risks. So you’ve been well-behaved—so well-behaved that you only stay within the Witch Academy, or at most, the Expansion Realm. But the Expansion Realm is also the Witch Academy's territory. She describes the Expansion Realm as dangerous... Is it really? In an Expansion Realm without the Great Weakening Spell, no matter which Transcendent tries to cause trouble, plenty of Witches would kill those nuisances before she even had to lift a finger."
"The place she’s afraid of you going... is the Game World."
Sheryl stopped there, seemingly giving me time to digest and understand.
Her words did indeed provide a lot of inspiration. It was a description of the world from an entirely different perspective.
Was I... really someone who wouldn't take risks?
Thinking back on everything I’d done, I did seem to approach every situation with a focus on self-preservation. Even my attempt at the Resurrection Spell through death was built on the confidence that I wouldn't actually die.
Everyone thought I had done something insane, but from my perspective, it was just an experiment where nothing could go wrong.
"Regarding that Game World, Mei Lind told you the coordinates were hidden by those guys, right? Guess... after all this time, what’s happened to that world?"
"They probably haven't found it yet."
"No, they’ve actually found it. It’s just that the world has become much more complicated now."
"More complicated? It... wait, how do you know this?" I asked, frowning in confusion.
"It’s just a world. Even if the objective Void coordinates are hidden, how long can they stay hidden? If those Transcendent Academies can establish contact with such a world, why can't I?"
"But... if it’s been found, why hasn't the Witch Academy taken it..."
"Have you forgotten the Witch Contract regarding the non-interference of Transcendents? If a Witch violates the Witch Contract, she becomes a Betrayer Rebel Witch."
"The Contract... right." I quickly recalled that fact, but another doubt surfaced. "I actually wanted to ask, do you know the specific details of that contract?"
"I do~ It is a Witch Contract, after all. There are always ways to learn the contents of an open-type contract. Do you want to know the specifics?"
"Yes. Can you tell me the scope of this 'non-interference of Transcendents'? If it means all Transcendents in the Void cannot interfere... a Witch Contract couldn't possibly achieve that, right?" I asked, then took a sip of my Fool's Dream drink to moisten my throat.
"I can tell you~ But before I do, I need to correct one of your assumptions: a Witch Contract can indeed restrict all Transcendents in the Void from interfering."
"What? That... how is that possible?" My eyes widened in disbelief.
"It is 'possible,' naturally. A typical Witch Contract uses the power of the contract to enforce execution. If the Witch race truly forced a restrictive contract on all Transcendents, then the ones enforcing that contract would be the entire Transcendent Witch race and every individual Transcendent Witch. Such a contract would only have two outcomes."
Sheryl held up two fingers.
"One: the Witch race successfully establishes the contract's order. Two... the Witch race is completely wiped out from the Void. After all, if the Witch race is gone, the Witch Contract naturally loses its meaning. But as you know, under normal circumstances, the Witch race isn't stupid enough to sign a contract with no benefits."
"So it’s that kind of enforcement? I see..." I nodded, not offering a rebuttal.
This kind of enforcement wasn't meaningless. A Witch Contract that staked the entire Witch race represented their resolve to fight any Transcendent power down to the last Witch.
"Anyway~ back to the topic. You wanted to know the scope of that contract. I’ll be blunt: the restricted scope is, naturally, all Transcendents of the Main World."
"And what about Transcendents from outside the Main World?" Having received the expected answer, I followed up.
"Xiao Han, you have to understand. Just because Transcendents aren't 'interfering' with that world doesn't mean Witches won't beat the life out of any outside Transcendents who try to interfere."
"Oh~"
I understood. In the end, power determined the right to speak. Even if someone found a loophole in the Witch Contract signed by Dean Mei and the others, it didn't stop the Deans from using their own strength to achieve their goals.
"Well? Anything else you want to know?" Sheryl rested her cheek on one hand, looking as if she were eagerly anticipating my next question.
"Then... what is the 'trouble' with that Game World?" I continued. I had to admit, this Rebel Witch across from me had suddenly pivoted to a topic I cared about deeply.
Perhaps... all the analysis she gave earlier was just a setup for this.
"The people below the Transcendent level, of course. Right now, that world is teeming with outsiders. The situation is quite chaotic~"
"Below Transcendent? Outsiders? Are there many?" I recalled what the Dean had told me when she laid her cards on the table—that many people were meddling in the Game World, mostly apprentices from Wizard Academies.
"Yes, quite a few. If you want detailed specifics, I can't give you an exact number right now."
"Are there... really that many outsiders below the Transcendent level? Are their Ley Line Shackles different from ours?" I asked, puzzled.
As far as I knew, I was the only person in the Main World who had severed their Ley Line Shackles while still below the Transcendent level. There might be others, but certainly not many.
After all... the price I paid to sever my Ley Line Shackles was the heart of a Demon Lord!
To "sacrifice" a Transcendent just so a non-Transcendent could sever their shackles early and leave their home world—that didn't seem worth it at all.
Were there really so many geniuses outside the Void worth such a price?
"Mm-hmm~ You guessed right! The concept of Ley Line Shackles actually varies between different worlds. For instance, the Main World is the extremely overprotective type. Because the World Consciousness knows we’re 'kidnapping' her children, the shackles are very hard to sever. Even if you have the intent, it involves a lot of trouble."
"Then there are worlds like the Wizard World, which focuses on world invasion. Wizard apprentices there can bypass Ley Line Shackles to descend upon another world under certain conditions. The method is a 'declaration of war' on a world-wide scale. Transcendent Wizards are also known as the pirates of the Void; they use their worlds as ships, throwing down boarding planks to reach the opponent's world and engaging in the most primitive and violent boarding actions."
"Of course~ without severing the Ley Line Shackles, no matter how much the World Consciousness cooperates, there are still many restrictions. Therefore, most non-Transcendents wandering the Void are actually those whose home worlds were forced into extinction. When their original world is destroyed, the Ley Line Shackles naturally cease to exist."
"So that’s how it is?"
This was the first time I’d heard about the differences in Ley Line Shackles. However... I knew of another way to leave a world without severing the shackles: being a Child of Destiny.
But that method clearly couldn't be popularized on a large scale.
As for the method involving the destruction of one's own world, I had heard of it before. Back in the Expansion Realm, Fu Xinglan and the others had told me about it, using that information to trade for a favor from me.
"People who survive the destruction of their world might, if they’re lucky, inherit the will of that world. That is the foundation of an entire world. Thus, it’s very easy for blockbuster geniuses to emerge from among those whose worlds were destroyed, leaving their mark upon the Void."
"And such people are the talents that various Void powers strive to recruit. Right now, that Game World is likely a gathering place for a bunch of guys like that."
"But... why would they come to this Game World? It makes no sense. It can't be that those Transcendent races sent them specifically to annoy the Witch Academy, right?" I remained confused.
"That’s naturally because... there’s something there attracting them~"