Chapter 920: A Genius from Another World?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 920: A Genius from Another World?
Terminal of Myriad Worlds Headquarters.
The world-level emergency alarm, triggered by the Supreme Council, had not yet ceased.
However, the monitors displaying the players' primary perspectives had fallen silent.
Busy Game Architects hurried through various debugging procedures, finally confirming that the vanguard team sent to contact the "Calamity Witch" had been completely wiped out.
They hadn't even gathered any useful information. Before they could even react to what was happening, they had lost all player vision.
Only by replaying the footage over and over in slow motion were they able to see exactly how the opponent had made her move.
Their final conclusion: this Calamity Witch was even stronger than she had been during their last encounter!
Of course, some Game Architects suspected that this might not be the same "Calamity Witch" they had met before, given that her appearance was different. However, others countered that this Calamity Witch possessed a special Disguise Spell that allowed her to alter her looks.
Regardless, they needed to organize all the data and report it to the Supreme Council.
As for what the twelve Great Figures would decide, that was beyond their station to worry about.
"Restart the system. I have a missing account message here. Can someone check what's going on?"
"Isn't it normal for data to be lost? Didn't that last guy choose to self-destruct?"
"Self-destruct? But the self-destruction sequence was interrupted before it could even execute. Are you sure?"
"Then it must be the Calamity Witch's unique method of 'cutting the network cable.'"
With a few brief exchanges, a complex process was summarized and defined.
Just as they thought the matter was settling, another piece of news arrived.
"There’s been an explosion in the Vanguard Players' villa district. Someone is already pushing for an application to unbind and close a player account."
"Why is this being sent to our department?"
"Uh... the Vanguard Player caught in the explosion is the same player involved in this incident. Now the account can't be found, and the person is dead..."
"What?"
Hearing this, the Game Architects on-site were stunned.
The game account and the player went up in smoke together?!
After a few seconds of brief silence, the Game Architect in charge of the incident immediately realized the gravity of the situation!
"How did that player die? The security in the villa district couldn't possibly be that lax! How many died? Who did it? The Real Protection Association, or someone else...?"
"Neither... it was an unknown explosion. Only his villa exploded, though it caused fires in the surrounding area. It wasn't the resistance forces. The cause of the explosion hasn't been determined yet. It might have been illegally stored hazardous explosives..."
After all, players were individuals who had contact with the fundamental power of this world. Even if headquarters forbade the possession of dangerous items, such things were actually quite rampant in private.
It was generally a "don't ask, don't tell" situation; if they actually started investigating, a massive number of people would be implicated.
"Hazardous explosives? What was he hiding in that villa? Or was that idiot looking for a thrill and used an Infinite Pressure Bomb as a drinking cup?"
"That... we really don't know. We only have a brief message so far. The fire might not even be out yet."
But regardless of what the messenger said, the Game Architect was no longer in the mood to listen.
As Game Architects on the front lines of contact with the world beyond, they were rarely blinded by established perceptions.
At this moment, he was more inclined to believe that the one responsible for all of this was the Calamity Witch!
The methods of a Witch involved powerful and unknowable spells.
Even the Wizards they had encountered possessed bizarre and dangerous witchcraft.
This issue was far too serious!
He had to report this possibility to the Supreme Council and ensure those Great Figures took it seriously.
The Calamity Witch might very well have mastered a method to target the players behind the characters!
And this method was physical elimination!
There was no way to defend against it.
"You! Make absolutely sure this matter is investigated thoroughly! No speculative leads or misjudgments allowed. Report everything exactly as it happened in reality, and do it fast!"
After the task was assigned, the other Game Architects looked at their superior with surprise, while some had already guessed what was happening.
"Immediately apply to revoke the Supreme Orders for the other vanguard teams. Have them return to standby. They are not to have any form of contact with that Calamity Witch."
"Then what about Igesuo Surface City? If it falls..."
"Then let those guys fight it out! We're already overwhelmed. Why should we care about one high-profile Calamity Witch? Leave it for the Supreme Council to decide; it's not our concern."
* * *
At this moment, after a brief conversation with this "Temporary Vice President of the Real Protection Association Branch," I had a general understanding of the situation.
They had made a big move. After a long period of preparation, they had completely declared "Igesuo Surface City" independent.
The city-wide riot was merely a landmark event for this independence; the city had long since been infiltrated by the Real Protection Association.
The important thing was to use this opportunity to thoroughly purge any dissenting voices.
However... even so, I still had many unanswered questions.
If that was the case, what did the Real Protection Association have to back their independence?
They couldn't even resist the members of the vanguard teams.
Were they relying on miracles?
Or were they betting everything on me?
If I "lost," wouldn't they lose everything?
Many questions seemed to go unanswered.
This Vice President with the excessively long title couldn't provide a satisfactory answer.
After all, the real Vice President was dead, and he was only temporary, so he wasn't privy to many things.
But regardless, their desire to cooperate with me was sincere.
As for the specifics of the cooperation, they would need to be negotiated, but the preliminary agreement was clear: I would provide enough combat power to ensure the independence of Igesuo Surface City, and they would be responsible for the city's operations afterward.
No matter how resourceful I was, it was impossible for one person to keep a massive surface city running.
Though there were still many loopholes—such as why I should ensure a city's independence or why I should help them—there was one point I valued.
The Real Protection Association wanted to overthrow this old world and establish a new order.
Destroying the life of a world is easy, but making the life of a world follow you is very difficult.
I knew exactly what the role of this Game World was.
It was "material" to repair the Main World's Expansion Realm.
The Game World harvested far too much Soul Essence through its unique methods. For the Main World, this Soul Essence was a vital foundation for future biological reproduction.
Then there were the social structures, the development of civilization, and so on.
When the Expansion Realm was repaired previously, the process had been somewhat crude, forcing the people of an entire small world to experience a "wilderness survival" scenario.
But the Game World was a medium-sized world transitioning toward a large-scale world. If it were handled that way again, they really would be left to fend for themselves in the wild.
Therefore, the integration of this world had to be gentle and orderly.
"I accept the preliminary cooperation. I will allow my power to serve as the pillar for your foothold," I gave my promise.
In any case, my goal was never any specific city. If the Real Protection Association eventually became an obstacle, I would simply kick them aside.
In a cooperation based on interests, even betrayal is common. There was no need to speak of hypocritical things like trust and friendship.
"You should leave now. I will uphold my promise to protect this city, but you'll have to handle the minor squabbles yourselves. I need some quiet here," I said, dismissing them.
"Of course, of course!" The Vice President, named Tang En, nodded repeatedly.
Just moments ago, he had received news that the vanguard teams approaching Igesuo Surface City had terminated their operations for some special reason and retreated. This meant they wouldn't have to face those players again for the time being.
Although they believed in the Calamity Witch's combat power, if they weren't careful against so many players, they might have been subjected to a decapitation strike.
That was the vanguard teams' favorite method: using individual combatants to quickly eliminate leaders and suppress riots. This tactic had proven effective time and again, even in chaotic regions.
This was the Game World's most brutal form of governance: linking life to the game. As long as people weren't starving, no one would rebel. Combined with the lightning-fast execution of leaders, the rest were just a disorganized mob!
Games, architecture, housing—everything used special methods to cut off communication between neighbors. It reached a point where a person couldn't even name the people living to their left or right, and in extreme cases, might not even know their gender.
Their only friends were those in the game, and under the arrangements of the Terminal of Myriad Worlds, those friends lived worlds apart.
Unable to unite, unable to gather, and without a leader... there would always be those who compromised for the sake of the barest subsistence, repeatedly dampening the flames of resistance.
It was clear just how much the Real Protection Association had sacrificed to spark a city's independence. Perhaps they had tried many methods before finally establishing such an association and a spiritual leader.
After I sent them away, their most pressing task was to figure out how to appease the people. While they certainly didn't represent everyone in the city, they definitely represented the group whose interests had been violated.
Later, the Real Protection Association would paint the ordinary people ruthlessly killed by the vanguard teams as seeds of hatred and spread their stories everywhere.
I moved away from the crowd again, standing at the top of a building. Perhaps only by standing on high, with the night wind blowing, could one truly embody the spirit of a city's guardian.
Of course, I was joking.
The reason I left the crowd and stood at the highest point with the widest field of vision was that I felt a sliver of killing intent directed at me.
It was faint, as if from a great distance, and accompanied by the sensation of being watched.
All of this was instinctively captured by my Heart Sense.
And this was merely my clone. If it were my main body, I could have locked onto the opponent's location directly.
I looked around. The night in this world was filled with light that seemed to cost nothing, yet this was not a technological civilization driven by electricity.
Instead, it was an alternative civilization built from transcendent pixels.
From infrastructure to every aspect of daily life, I could feel the influence of [Transcendent Knowledge] on the fundamental material level of this world.
I pinched a basic unit of the building from the roof—a pixel.
This kind of pixel existed as tangibly as matter, quite different from the transcendent pixels that made up the players and their weapons.
In other words, the concept of those transcendent pixels could directly create "something from nothing," but it could also use matter as a base to create material pixels.
However, these material pixels couldn't simply vanish. Even if crushed, they only became finer pixel blocks.
Even when I crushed it into fine sand with my bare hands, I could still feel the coarse texture of the blocks.
I have to admit, I was becoming interested in these pixel blocks. What if I subdivided them further?
Perhaps I could use Ley Line Identification Art to take a look...
Just as I was thinking of investigating material pixels this way, a silent arrow shot through the night sky.
It was so fast that it left me no time to cast a defensive spell.
Shortly after I discovered it, it pierced straight through my chest.
Using my body to slow it down, I grabbed the arrow that had transfixed me.
It was covered in dense runes. No wonder it could bypass the clone's perception; these runes formed something that looked familiar to me.
Elven magic and blessings.
I used a one-handed Healing Spell on my clone, then turned my gaze toward the direction the arrow had come from.
A mere lethal wound was nothing more than a stumble on flat ground for a clone.
As for this opponent... I was certain they were definitely not from the Game World!
This reminded me of the geniuses Sheryl had mentioned who had come to this world.
Those who could participate in this event were naturally the heavy hitters below the Transcendent level.
And those below the Transcendent level who could cross worlds to descend here were either backed by some major power, had a powerful family heritage, or were, at the very least, ruthless individuals carrying the weight of an entire world on their shoulders.
The Ley Line Shackles were meant to weed out ordinary people. Since we had met in an alien world, who wasn't a genius?
I looked at the figure in the darkness. Although the clone lacked Spirit Vision, the unfolded Great Knowledge Seed shared real-time data of the area.
Once an anomaly was marked, there was no need to hide, because I had already locked onto them.
But the opponent clearly didn't know that.
"You're the first person to wound me since I arrived in this world. You're not from here, are you? Acting so sneaky..." I taunted directly, using the language of the Game World, but there was no reaction.
"Can't understand me, or haven't learned the language of this world yet? To come here and not even learn the language—you call yourself a genius?" I gripped the arrow they had fired and shattered the Elven magic upon it with a single shake.
Then, countless finer and more brilliant annotations of the Power of Knowledge swirled around it.
In the next instant, the arrow shot out at supersonic speed, yet without producing a sonic boom!
Pfft!
The low sound of an arrow piercing flesh rang out.
"I say... you're an Elf, right? Why is your style as lowly as a Lesser Demon's?" My disdainful voice reached the opponent's ears with precision.
A simple sentence, yet it unexpectedly caused the opponent to completely lose their temper.
"You're the Lesser Demon! Your whole family are Lesser Demons! You damned Witch... you're as disgusting as those demons!"