Chapter 931: One Contract to Screw Over Two Groups?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 931: One Contract to Screw Over Two Groups?
After letting Tang En digest this joy and settle his emotions, there were indeed some matters that needed to be made clear to him.
For instance... the issue with the Power Network. Its core reliance was actually the Omni-Link Main Network Tree. The only reason he could use the Power Network in my presence was because of this clone of mine.
The clone was a derivation of my own Domain Order. If the Omni-Link Main Network Tree was compared to a Wi-Fi signal with an ever-expanding range, then this clone of mine acted like a temporary mobile hotspot.
"...The Omni-Link Main Network Tree is the foundation upon which the Power Network and the Root Network are spread. It is also the source of the power you will be able to master later. At this stage, the Omni-Link Main Network Tree is still in its growth phase. No matter how fast that process is, it still takes time to slowly branch out."
"In other words, the Omni-Link Main Network Tree cannot be destroyed under any circumstances, correct?" After my explanation, Tang En quickly grasped the core issue.
"Yes. Once destroyed, the Root Network will gradually wither, and the Power Network will instantly lose its order. This would manifest as the power you control rapidly diminishing until it vanishes entirely. However, this won't affect the Knowledge Seeds or the regular Great Knowledge Seeds. After all, the Power Network is merely a functional module of the Great Knowledge Seed."
"I understand." Tang En nodded, quickly accepting this explanation.
After all, even games had a Terminal of Myriad Worlds; he could understand that this kind of power came with limitations.
Moreover, he had never seen those Outsiders share this kind of extraordinary power.
One had to realize that the strength or weakness of this power depended entirely on permission. As long as the permissions were open, even an ordinary person like him could instantly become a powerhouse wielding transcendent might!
"Tang En, do you think the Association will accept this kind of power as... charity?" I continued to ask.
"The Real Protection Association undoubtedly has a desperate need for this power. But based on my understanding of them, they care more about whose hands that power is in than the power itself."
"They won't be foolish enough to hand the handle of their own power over to you. If they did, the entire Real Protection Association would, in fact, become your absolute autocracy."
"So they really do care about that... What if, in the end, they have no other choice?"
"So, Lady Witch, you intend to eliminate those Outsiders and push the Association branch completely to your side?" Tang En quickly connected this to my previous mention of eliminating the Outsiders and immediately formulated a complete line of reasoning.
If all the Outsiders were slaughtered right in front of the Real Protection Association, then no one would ever dare to negotiate with the branch again!
In that situation, facing a powerful external enemy, they would have only one choice to rely on!
As for those within the Association who opposed it—the tough nuts, the stubborn traditionalists, the elders, the advisory board...
"Yes. Do you think that will be troublesome?"
"This... how could that be trouble! It is an honor for the Association to serve you! As for those stubborn fools, I will remove them for you with my own hands!"
"It's good that you have that resolve." I was quite satisfied with his reaction; his mind worked fast. Thus, I intended to reduce the difficulty for him. "If you need anything, you can tell me directly."
The various effects of transcendent items were limited only by one's imagination; there was nothing you couldn't use, and that was the convenience I was providing him.
In this world of ordinary people, using transcendent means to break through an organization's defenses was simply too easy.
Hypnosis, suggestion, enslavement, curses, cognitive replacement, memory modification... these were simple to achieve at the transcendent level.
The reason these methods weren't common among transcendents was that they also had counter-measures.
But for ordinary people who had nothing—who couldn't even use mental strength to interfere with energy—these methods were a guaranteed hit every time.
This was also one of the reasons that Fallen Elf had boasted that it was an honor for the Real Protection Association to serve him; transcendents truly looked down on ordinary people.
The methods of a transcendent were far beyond what an average person could imagine.
Those Outsiders were mostly limited by their own power systems and couldn't master these techniques.
But if one mastered certain special methods, making an organization serve them was truly simple.
Furthermore, I had learned from the intelligence Tang En provided that many regions in this world had already been directly or indirectly "independentized" by those Outsiders.
In reality, they had been completely taken over to serve them.
The place with the most "independence" was the Chaos Area.
As the name suggested, it was a region where even the headquarters of the Terminal of Myriad Worlds struggled to intervene. Due to various geographical reasons, the Order Keepers lacked sufficient control over this area.
Vanguard Players could only force these people into temporary submission; the moment they left, chaos would break out again.
And the headquarters couldn't possibly station a squad of Vanguard Players there just for one Chaos Area; it was far too wasteful.
To completely change the place, one would need to overhaul the personnel structure and social form. However, due to the large population and other special reasons, the Terminal of Myriad Worlds headquarters had no good solution.
Since they couldn't settle these "refugees" in a better way, they simply ignored them.
They weren't going to waste massive human and material resources to build infrastructure tailored to these "low-lifes"; it was better to let them stay as they were.
Ideally, they would just live and die on their own!
To put it nicely, such places were called "autonomous."
But in essence, the authorities just didn't want to fund poverty alleviation.
The money of those lords at the top wasn't going to be spent on places like that.
Consequently, these areas became excellent breeding grounds for Outsiders to develop their initial forces.
Whether through military rule, death threats, the spread of faith, or even large-scale brainwashing, a capable Outsider would always find a way to gather a group of people to do their bidding.
But a Chaos Area was still a Chaos Area—a place the Terminal of Myriad Worlds didn't even deign to look at—and it ultimately had significant limitations.
This was why the Real Protection Association's occupation of a surface city was so eye-catching. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that in a very short time, this place had been hailed as the "First Beacon of the Resistance."
Thus, the Igesuo surface city was currently the largest thorn in the side of the Terminal of Myriad Worlds headquarters, making their hearts ache.
And on top of that thorn sat a Calamity Witch who could reach through the network to give them a massive slap across the face. They wanted to pull it out, but they had no way to do so.
After finishing the instructions and requirements with Tang En, he felt that he was now... terrifyingly strong!
He couldn't wait to rush to the front lines and sweep away all obstacles for Lady Calamity Witch!
But despite his excitement, he remembered the Lady Calamity Witch's instruction to be steady and not get startled by every little thing. So, he began attempting to control his emotions.
At that moment, he noticed the Calamity Witch reaching out to hand him something that looked like a card.
"This is?" Tang En took it without hesitation. He didn't believe the Lady Calamity Witch would harm him at a time like this.
"This is my business card. It has my Summoning Rune on it. In the future, there's no need to make such a huge scene to summon me like you did before. Of course, don't use this unless it's something important," I explained.
The massive spectacle the Real Protection Association had used to summon me earlier had certainly been an eye-opener.
But I also knew it was because they were unfamiliar with the system of Rune Rituals, leading to a deviation in the Summoning Rune they obtained. However, those deviations were ultimately forcibly corrected by the massive amount of energy used.
"Understood!"
After briefly going over the specific details with Tang En, the meeting ended in an extremely efficient manner.
As for the secretary who was still dreaming on the side... he was currently trapped in a dream hallucination I had woven.
"The method for cognitive tampering after hypnosis... try it out on this secretary yourself," I said, tossing an alchemical pocket watch used for hypnosis to Tang En. "Your visit this time was primarily due to my dissatisfaction and questioning regarding your Association contacting those Outsiders behind my back. Once you succeed in your attempt, you may leave."
* * *
Witch Academy.
After Ming Xueming obtained the coordinates for the secret realm's location from Tan Han, they immediately sought out the Witch Secret Realm Club.
Even though the two were allied clubs, even sisters keep clear accounts.
This time, Ming Xueming had set aside her status to negotiate with Tan Han, but the Jack-of-all-trades Club was still the one taking the loss.
They had to give Tan Han a Heart of the Cold Wave, as well as a Child of Destiny, Lucianne!
Naturally, they couldn't let the Witch Secret Realm Club take advantage of them, but their cooperation couldn't end because of this.
After all, if the Jack-of-all-trades Club tried to withstand such immense pressure alone, they wouldn't make it.
Isolating their partner in this situation would mean having to guard against a sister's sneak attack while simultaneously facing external pressure.
As for compensation... that could be discussed slowly later. But for now, this plan had to proceed quickly; time was money.
Poor Ian Garland. The four of them likely didn't know that their value had completely vanished the moment the Witch Academy's side began to act.
If they had returned with important intelligence before, it might have made up for their losses, but now, they were nothing.
Especially Ian Garland—she would even lose her status as a wizard apprentice because of this!
Wizards would not accept a "Witchified" version of her.
The process of Witchification was almost irreversible.
Therefore, she could only pray that the Witch Academy would take her in. If they didn't, she would completely lose her status as a transcendent student. Without that, no matter how much transcendent knowledge she possessed, it would be useless.
Although many at the Witch Academy had proven through countless cases that even if a person underwent Witchification, they wouldn't necessarily identify mentally with the Witch race, other academies would absolutely never accept a student who had been Witchified.
It was like a mental purity complex; even if there was only a tiny possibility of betrayal, they didn't want to train someone who might turn at any moment.
This was especially severe among the Wizards.
Even the Bloodline Body Cultivation Wizards—who were the most inclusive and based their philosophy on integrating other races' bloodlines to seize their power—turned pale at the mere mention of Witchification.
After making the decision, the Witch Academy's side broke into another conflict with the other transcendent academies.
However, the Witch Academy chose to play dead and deny everything to stall for time.
But whether the Witch Academy was hiding information or everyone was following the original plan to find the ruins, their original plans had been disrupted.
The happiest ones were undoubtedly Tan Han and her group; at least this bought them a significant amount of time.
Day One.
The wizard apprentices, joined by the Holy Angels and Elves, pressured the Witch Academy.
The effect was poor, and small-scale conflicts broke out. Under the "mediation" of the Witch Academy's Discipline Squad, they managed to drag it out for an entire day.
Day Two.
The wizard apprentices and students from other transcendent academies negotiated with the Witch Academy to transfer Ian Garland and the other three.
However, the Witch Academy refused on the grounds of being responsible for the injured, which triggered a second riot in the infirmary.
Afterward, dozens of Witch students mobilized, beating the others up under the pretext that they had disturbed their friends' recovery. The situation the Wizard Academy least wanted to see was forced into existence.
Because of the lesson from the Discipline Squad on the first day, the Witch side deliberately provoked them and pinned them down in the Witch Academy Arena for half a day of "exchange and sparring."
One could say that for these two days, the students of the academy felt like they were watching a grand play.
It was as if, for no apparent reason, people from other transcendent academies had started picking fights within the Witch Academy.
But only those in the know understood what they were actually doing, and what the "fun-seekers" on the Academy Network were actually covering up.
Day Three.
The Witch Academy finally relented. Through a series of maneuvers, they signed a Witch Contract for joint development.
The contract stipulated many detailed contents, including but not limited to the sharing of experimental data within the laboratory ruins and the distribution of leftover precious materials.
It even made clear regulations regarding personnel arrangements.
When the other transcendent academies happily prepared for the joint development, only the Witch Academy's faces were dark.
It wasn't because of the joint development contract, but because...
They had already completed the preliminary search of the laboratory over the past two days, and the final result was... the laboratory was worthless.
There were no materials left, no precious items, and even the data had been picked over.
Tan Han and her group had already "scoured" the place!
Therefore, in this joint development contract, the Witch Academy acted as if they were in the wrong.
The contract stipulated that all harvests from the joint development included "prior harvests," which was equivalent to the Witch side indirectly backing down.
But only the Witch side knew that none of this mattered because they had nothing to give anyway.
On the contrary, they used the joint development contract to tie down all the main exploration teams of the other transcendent academies at the ruins.
The contract explicitly stated that until the ruins were declared fully explored, no one was allowed to withdraw midway.
The other transcendent academies thought the Witch Academy had suddenly relented because they found the area where the ruins were located too difficult, so they didn't suspect much.
But no one expected that the Witch Academy's intentions were on a completely different level.
This joint development contract could be said to have screwed these guys over miserably.
But it didn't matter; they also screwed over Tan Han in the process.
After the Jack-of-all-trades Club took the lead by bringing the only remaining Great Spellbook fragment to the joint development of the ruins, the students of the other academies were completely reassured.
They didn't think the Witch Academy would joke around with the fragments.
Furthermore, if they discovered anything in the lab, they could use the fragments for on-site testing.
The Wizard Academy was very skilled when it came to research data.
Thus, the other transcendent academies also gathered their remaining fragments.
They weren't afraid of being wiped out in one go; if it came to a fight, the Witch Academy would definitely be at a disadvantage in terms of numbers and personnel quality.
Moreover, a significant portion of the fragments was in the hands of the Ancient Remnant Ice King. Even if the Witch side designed a way to steal the fragments, they wouldn't be able to collect them all.
But they never imagined that gathering all the fragments here was merely Ming Xueming's way of fulfilling her contract with Tan Han.
Although they couldn't meet, it didn't mean they couldn't sign a Witch Contract. They used a two-part complementary contract, completing the signing of the same contract from different locations.
After all, the binding force of a contract didn't come from the signatures or the witnesses, but from the contractual constraint generated by the ritual of the Witch Contract itself!
In this way... all the fragments were gathered together. They then told Tan Han the location, fulfilling the terms of their contract. Even if Tan Han and her group wanted to snatch them, would they actually be able to?
So, it could be said that they used one contract to screw over two groups, and even Tan Han didn't manage to gain an advantage.