Chapter 955: The Transformation of Igesuo Surface City
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 955: The Transformation of Igesuo Surface City
The game world.
"We interrupt our regular programming for an emergency news bulletin. In the early hours of this morning, Igesuo Surface City suffered a premeditated terrorist attack by Outsiders. A total of twenty-one Outsider assailants utilized specialized means to launch a coordinated surprise strike on the city center, resulting in significant casualties and property damage. The attackers acted with speed and organization, suggesting long-term planning..."
"Amidst the chaos, the Calamity Witch took decisive action. Coordinating with members of the Real Protection Association, she swiftly suppressed all assailants, preventing further destruction by the Outsiders..."
"The Association has currently launched an investigation. High-level officials state that this attack is highly likely linked to traitors who have violated the organization's spirit for personal gain. Based on relevant leads, the Association has preliminarily identified corrupt personnel, and the investigation is ongoing..."
"We urge all citizens to remain vigilant, follow the Association's guidance, and prioritize their personal safety..."
In an inconspicuous corner, this news report played across the news channels of Igesuo Surface City.
For players chasing the thrills of the game, boring news reports were the last thing they cared about; only peak gameplay experiences and a constant stream of fresh stimulation could hold their attention.
However, while the news seemed unremarkable to the masses, those with status and influence within the city could not afford to ignore it.
After watching, they understood one thing: the very sky over Igesuo Surface City had changed completely.
More news followed in rapid succession.
Under the Association's intervention, the city's Order Keepers were reorganized into the World Security and Order Maintenance Organization, an entity now wielding transcendent power.
The name remained largely the same, but its function had fundamentally shifted.
Furthermore, the public struggled to grasp what "possessing transcendent power" actually meant.
Was it like the power players possessed?
Their first thought was a breakthrough in invasion arts related to Banned Accounts.
However, the Terminal of Myriad Worlds headquarters would never allow such a thing to happen.
Then came the internal restructuring of the Real Protection Association.
Personnel changes across various departments, the purging of traitors, the reconstruction of the armed forces, the authorization protocols for accessing transcendent power, and... the change of the Association's President.
Everything was moving so fast it left people breathless.
Subsequently, the Calamity Witch's status shifted from an ally of the Real Protection Association to its Guardian.
Originally, the Calamity Witch was a collaborator summoned by the organization. That status was reasonable, but it had previously been limited to that of a partner or ally.
Now, assuming the role of Association Guardian meant the Calamity Witch had relinquished her independent status to join the Association, becoming a force dedicated to its protection.
This represented a significant deepening of the cooperation between the Association and the Calamity Witch, further increasing her influence over both the organization and Igesuo Surface City.
According to official statements from the Real Protection Association, the Witch, as the organization's Guardian, would protect the Association from external threats. Her power and wisdom made her the Association's final line of defense.
Judging by the public announcements, useful information was scarce. But as the saying goes: the less information provided, the more significant the matter.
No one dared to overlook the Calamity Witch's influence on Igesuo Surface City. No one could.
In addition to these changes, the Association announced plans to build production facilities on the city's outskirts to address the real world's production capacity issues.
Based on current disclosures, they would provide support for transportation, clothing, food, and more.
Transportation: ensuring that the roads of Igesuo Surface City saw more than just garbage trucks every day.
Clothing: ensuring that people in reality no longer wore identical, monotonous outfits.
Food: allowing those who had lived on energy protein blocks and nutrient solutions to finally taste real delicacies.
These were all based on the foundational industries related to the Plant Technology found in the storage cards Tang En had acquired. It was clearly a long-term project.
Its significance to the "Real Protection" mission was even greater!
For instance, the production of vehicles broke the barriers to regional communication within the game world. In the future, there would be more options for raids, support, and evacuations.
In this game world, the will of the upper echelons was to keep everyone safely tucked away at home, doing nothing but playing the game.
To that end, civilian transportation was extremely scarce and expensive.
But with the groundwork laid by Plant Technology, they saw firsthand just how cheap the costs actually were for things they usually paid astronomical prices for!
Having experienced such a major upheaval, the Association was left with a mountain of follow-up tasks.
From pacifying members within the organization to updating security protocols and confidentiality agreements, they needed to adjust quickly.
This time, the Igesuo Surface City branch of the Real Protection Association also sent a clear signal to the outside world: they would no longer welcome the intervention of Outsider forces.
In fact, they had pushed the Outsider forces completely onto the opposing side.
Following such a major incident, the Association's internal strength was hollowed out. The security of Igesuo Surface City could only be entrusted to the Calamity Witch and several defected Outsiders (clones).
At this moment, the sky above Igesuo Surface City looked like a sea of fire. Glowing, crimson clouds churned at the horizon, and a terrifying pressure blanketed every corner of the city.
It served as a deterrent to those factions that were beginning to stir.
In this instant, the "Calamity" prefix seemed to manifest physically. Igesuo Surface City had become a city under the protection of a literal calamity.
Any Vanguard Players who dared to harass the city would be ruthlessly struck down.
After the flaming meteors streaking from the fire clouds dispatched the characters, they followed the path of the Luck Summoning Spell to launch a strike at the players' source.
However, according to my perception, the source of these player characters didn't seem to point to the previous player residential areas. Cross-referencing the data, they seemed to match certain chaotic areas or the Ground Fissure Settlement Zones.
But it didn't matter where they were. No matter how wretchedly they lived, it had nothing to do with me.
I only knew that these people deserved to die, and that I had already killed them.
I had already shown enough mercy. If I were to use the Luck Summoning Spell to drop something truly massive on them, half the territory and population of a chaotic area might end up buried alongside them.
* * *
Now, having killed until the players dared not take a single step forward, and with the firelight reflecting in the eyes of Outsiders who dared not look directly at me, I finally came to a halt.
This so-called farce had reached its intermission.
There might be further developments later, but for me, it was essentially over.
The trivial matters that followed were no longer my concern.
What I needed to do now was accept the legacy left behind by those Outsiders.
The most bountiful harvest came from their storage equipment.
As for the legacy of their worlds, they weren't like the elves, who possessed actual physical remains of hope. Their legacies were more like individual blessings or simple inheritances of power.
If only my main body were here...
I would have more ways to deal with these unknown situations. If I could strip their powers away, that would be even better.
But that didn't mean there were no gains.
I found... World Fragments on them!
Of course, they weren't like my dungeon worlds. Their internal ley lines were severed, and they had become ordinary material spaces devoid of life.
It seemed that many factions in the void were still quite primitive in their utilization of World Fragments, lagging far behind the dungeon worlds refined by Stellar Alchemists.
As for other gains, they were numerous: transcendent systems from various worlds in the void, advancement systems, power theories, data legacies, and world-specific resources.
To me, these things were like "chicken ribs"—of little use, yet a waste to discard.
But looking at it from another perspective, these things were perfect as resources. In the Main World, they would be absolute rarities!
Especially in the Expansion Realm, where transcendent arts were still in their infancy. Absorbing arts from other worlds would prevent them from being confined within the framework of the Main World.
Moreover... I felt that if I gave these precious resources and other items to Millian, she could make the most of them in the Expansion Realm!
I would find an opportunity to reverse-summon all these things back to the Main World.
Perhaps because the distance between the two was too great, and due to the nature of the Reverse Summoning Spell, it would be quite troublesome to teleport from the clone's side to the Main World.
This might be related to the "propagation of Transcendent Knowledge" characteristics Sheryl had mentioned.
But as long as it was possible, any difficulties could eventually be overcome.
Now, in this game world, a unified resistance force had begun to emerge. Under the order of the Omni-Link Main Network Tree, its root network, and its power network, Igesuo Surface City would develop rapidly.
As real-world industries expanded, the dependency on the game would plummet. Of the basic necessities—clothing, food, housing, and transport—everything except housing would undergo a fundamental change.
This was the foundation for the game world to adapt to a brand-new reality. Eventually, I would dismantle the Terminal of Myriad Worlds entirely.
A revolution in social order would spread like a prairie fire. A society maintained by "Transcendent Knowledge" would eventually collapse completely due to the loss of that power.
Players detached from the game would return to reality, gathering their own strength to reclaim their lives!
This was the vision I foresaw, and the outline of the script I had set.
There was no need to consider failure. This was the bare minimum I required of them; I didn't expect them to do better or achieve perfection.
That would be their own "icing on the cake."
If, for whatever reason, they continued to sink into this rotten world, willing to lie in a decaying society and wait for death...
I wouldn't mind using my flames to give them a grand funeral.
Let the fallen soul essence return to the cycle of the ley lines.
I would baptize this world with a calamity, and then let the remaining light of humanity restart this broken world.
Perhaps these were the two choices I gave this world:
The Reform Route or the World-Destruction Reboot Route.
One could say that the game world was going to be quite busy for a while.
* * *
Witch Academy.
Millian had carried out my instructions with great speed.
The number of people who wanted to follow us to the Expansion Realm had reached twenty!
Millian had already compressed the number to its limit. Most of these people were "confidants" she had handpicked herself. Many even looked familiar to me because they were members of the Baking House.
There was also a member of Yi Rui's team, Pei Huan, who had left quite an impression on me.
Through the Ley Line Identification Art, I could see exactly who these people were.
Finally, I stopped in front of a very familiar figure.
"Ming Xueming... what are you doing here?" I looked at Ming Xueming, then at the few students following her. None of them were associated with me, the Baking House, or Millian.
"Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, those words are a bit hurtful, don't you think?~"
At this moment, Ming Xueming's tone was vastly different from before. Even her attitude had shifted from humble to... well, how should I describe it? Sycophantic?
In short, Ming Xueming gave me a strong sense of dissonance compared to before, but based on my Heart Sense... her thoughts were quite pure.
"Sister Xiao Han, they are considered reserve candidates. Due to certain considerations, we brought them along." Millian immediately stepped forward to explain. Her "considerations" were, of course, the cooperation and opportunities I had previously agreed to.
"Since the numbers are a bit hard to control, if you don't want too many people, Sister Xiao Han, you can just kick them out."
"That's a bit cold, Millian!~" Ming Xueming was clearly getting anxious. If they were really kicked out now, it would be game over!
"I suggest you don't show that side of yourself in front of Sister Xiao Han." Millian didn't give Ming Xueming any face at all, even though she was once the President of a top-tier club like the Jack-of-all-trades Club.
"Twenty people... mm, it is indeed a bit much." I reached out, lightly resting my chin between my thumb and forefinger as if deep in thought.
"Wait! I am willing to personally represent my..." At this point, Ming Xueming desperately began to lay out her bargaining chips.
"It's no use telling me this. Talk to Millian about whatever you have to say. After all, Sister Bai and I are going to the Expansion Realm to relax. Bringing twenty people is too much of a spectacle; the Dean will scold me," I said, interrupting Ming Xueming.
Seeing a glimmer of hope, Ming Xueming's eyes lit up!
What lay before her was the chance to enter the Expansion Realm ahead of schedule. That was a ship she had to board, even if it cost her everything!
Even if this early advantage didn't immediately yield massive profits, the significance it represented was far too important.
Seeing Ming Xueming and Millian head off to the side to discuss the "price of admission," I walked over to Pei Huan.
Pei Huan was a member of Yi Rui's team! Their willingness to go to the Expansion Realm with Millian spoke volumes.
"It's been a while, Pei Huan. Is everything going well on your end?"
"Haha! Sister Xiao Han, you're really getting more and more amazing! Everything is going smoothly with our team, of course. It's just a pity... we haven't been able to see you lately."
"I was just delayed by some business."
"We understand! And we've been asking around, you know! Though we still don't know what you've been up to, it must be something very important." Pei Huan's eyes were full of admiration. The gap created by their age difference had been completely bridged in this moment.
In her eyes, this was what an absolute genius looked like.