Chapter 999: Wizard Apprentices in the Game World: ?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 999: Wizard Apprentices in the Game World: ?
"W-What?!"
"An abnormal collapse in the Underground District on the side of the Beriounis Rift Settlement?"
When this news spread among the branches of the Real Protection Association, the members in Igesuo Surface City were utterly shocked!
The Real Protection Association had branches scattered across various regions. Simple intelligence from different areas would be exchanged over the game network, breaking through information cocoons via encrypted communication.
In the peripheral area of Gantango Ground City, adjacent to the Beriounis Rift Settlement, a massive sinkhole had appeared, even causing aftershocks in the surrounding terrain.
How could such intelligence not be taken seriously?
However, the fact that such news required special means to break through information cocoons just to be transmitted was a testament to how strictly the Terminal of Myriad Worlds headquarters blockaded the flow of information.
The association branches that received the news could no longer remain calm!
If they remembered correctly, their Calamity Witch had said she was going to meet Monroe, the spiritual leader of the Real Protection Association. The meeting place was supposed to be right there!
Just making that connection sent a shiver down everyone's spine.
They couldn't even imagine how long Igesuo Surface City could hold out without the Calamity Witch.
"Wait... we should report this to the President immediately!"
"Where is the President?"
"He... he went out," Tang En’s secretary stammered, looking lost.
"Where did he go?"
"I... I heard he received an order from the Witch herself to go to the Witch Building to retrieve something..."
Upon hearing this, everyone’s brains stalled for a second before they instantly realized the truth!
Tang En had likely learned the news even earlier than they had! And the fact that he had run off... meant he had gone immediately to claim the Calamity Witch's legacy!
* * *
The turmoil within the Association lasted an entire day.
For the citizens still in Igesuo Surface City, the Calamity Witch who protected them still sat high atop the Witch Building, looking down upon the city.
But for the high-ranking members of the Real Protection Association, the sky had fallen!
The news of the Calamity Witch's death hit them like a thunderbolt. Tang En took the opportunity to inherit her legacy, officially gaining the highest authority over the Omni-Link Main Network Tree.
Furthermore, he had turned the outsiders within the Association—those who had been leaning toward the Calamity Witch—to side with him.
The highest authority over all the Real Protection Association's Beyonder Armaments was now in Tang En's hands.
It felt as if the world was ending.
If there was anyone who least wanted the Calamity Witch dead, it wasn't Tang En, but the other high-ranking members of the Association!
At least when the Calamity Witch was around, she controlled all authority and power but didn't interfere with the Association's internal operations. Even when she made big moves, they were usually related to supporting industries for plant technology and the like.
Now, the ultimate authority rested with Tang En, and he was the President of the Association!
If the Association managed to maintain stability in Igesuo Surface City moving forward, it would essentially become Tang En's personal fiefdom.
The current high-ranking members didn't dare inform the public of the Calamity Witch's death.
If they did, the entirety of Igesuo Surface City would fall apart.
As things stood, Tang En was eating the meat while they got the soup. If they exposed the truth, they’d be smashing their own bowls; they wouldn't even get a drop of soup.
In just one day, the heavens had truly changed over Igesuo Surface City.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
At the Beriounis Rift Settlement, the expressions of the Wizard apprentices were equally grim.
A whole day had passed, and they still hadn't found the little Witch's body!
Even though the collapsed area was an Underground District comparable to a small town, with their Wizardly methods, finding a corpse in such a vast space should have been easy.
They had repeatedly confirmed the various measures they had set up. Even with the Underground District's collapse, their Space Locking Witch Array remained perfectly intact.
They had been watching from above the entire time; it was impossible for her to have just vanished.
"Doesn't that little Witch possess a terrifying teleportation spell? It was mentioned in the files!"
"Impossible! That spell has massive restrictions. Someone else has to cooperate by summoning her for it to work!"
"Who in this world would help her?"
"Didn't she take over Igesuo Surface City? It's full of her followers. She probably had a teleportation backup plan from the very beginning."
"Damn it! Did we really let her get away?!"
These Wizards were incredibly unwilling to accept this, but having to personally travel to Igesuo Surface City carried its own risks.
"Go find Monroe. As the spiritual leader of the Real Protection Association, he'll have die-hard loyalists in every branch. If that little Witch went back, ask him."
"What's the point of asking! Whether she went back or not, even if she returned to the Main World, so what? If she's not dead, we're the ones in trouble!"
As the Wizard apprentice—whose temper had been made volatile by magical modifications—spoke these resentful words, the other Wizards fell silent.
It was true. If their primary objective wasn't achieved, knowing anything else was useless.
But faced with this situation, they were helpless and could only consult Monroe.
The Wizard apprentice who was currently the only one capable of contacting Monroe pulled out a communicator.
"Tch... the communicators in this world are absolute garbage."
Complaints aside, he still had to make the call.
After a long while, the communicator finally crackled with the other man's intermittent voice.
"Lord Wizards, I wonder why you are contacting me? Is there something you need?"
Monroe spoke with a very humble tone. After all, he worked for the Wizards while also following the orders of the Supreme Council to a certain extent.
In short, he couldn't afford to offend anyone.
"Heh, you sound quite relaxed. Do you really think this is over?"
"I don't understand what you mean. I invited the Calamity Witch as you requested, and she indeed died there. I watched her until the very last moment; she died right before my eyes."
"Are you sure?" The Wizard apprentice frowned.
"Of course! I am absolutely certain!"
"..." The Wizard fell silent for a moment. He didn't directly mention that they hadn't found the Calamity Witch's body under the ruins. Instead, he asked about something else: "It's been nearly a day since it happened. Have you contacted the branch in Igesuo Surface City?"
"Naturally. After losing the Calamity Witch, the Igesuo branch underwent a power transition in less than a day. they've occupied the Calamity Witch's residence, inherited her legacy, and covered up the news of her death to continue governing the city."
The Wizards were somewhat surprised by Monroe's lengthy explanation.
Just moments ago, they had speculated that she might have left a foundation in Igesuo or some backup plan to forcibly bypass the spatial lock.
As it turned out, the moment the Calamity Witch died, her legacy was carved up by others?
In that case... did the little Witch really die there, to the point where not even a complete corpse could be found?
It wasn't as if she had teleported back to the Main World...
Regardless, they surmised that this Calamity Witch wasn't all that impressive after all.
After hanging up with Monroe, the Wizard apprentices discussed it and decided to wait a bit longer.
They wanted to see if they could find any more information about the Calamity Witch, while having Monroe keep a constant eye on the Association.
If nothing turned up, they would assume she was truly dead.
Then they could have Monroe take over Igesuo Surface City. With the support of Wizards, they didn't believe whatever measures that little Witch left behind could stop them!
In the meantime... they would pay a price to contact the Main World and inquire about the little Witch's status.
If there was no movement in the Main World either, they would consider the matter settled!
* * *
The Main World.
"You killed that little Witch?"
The Wizard responsible for handling information on this end heard the news, and his face instantly darkened.
"Yes. We collaborated with the members of the Supreme Council in the game world to design a trap, and that little Witch..."
"I'll kill your damn mothers! Where do you get the balls to try and bullshit me? You killed that little Witch? Did you really kill her?! Where's the body! Did you see a body?!"
The Wizard's sudden explosion of profanity immediately silenced the other party.
They didn't understand why the Academy was so certain they hadn't completed the bounty.
"That little Witch... she's hopping around the Main World happy as can be! Do you understand what that means?!"
"That little bitch never even sent her main body there from start to finish! You killed one of her clones—what the hell are you so smug about?"
"Then... then the Wizard Tower the Academy promised..."
"What Wizard Tower? Do you deserve one? Did you go to the game world for a vacation? A single clone of hers went there and turned that world upside down, and you lot are just useless eaters..."
The Transcendent Academy's mockery and verbal abuse lasted for a long time.
The Wizard apprentices on the other end felt incredibly stifled. The intelligence was fake, and they were being blamed for everything—how was any of this their fault?
But the other party was a Transcendent Wizard, one stationed in the Main World who had established a foundation with a Wizard Tower.
They had already arrived at the Main World territory within the Void. If they offended a Main World Wizard or left a bad impression, they wouldn't even have a place to go!
They didn't want to stay in that game world for the rest of their lives.
The transcendent resources in that world were far too scarce, and it lacked any distinct resource characteristics or environmental features.
Meanwhile, at the Witch Academy.
The conflict in the Qunluosen Wasteland had also come to an end.
The undercurrents behind this incident had been turbulent.
The Witch Academy had used the event to launch an observation experiment for the Qi Observation Art project. The Deans of the Three Top Academies had formed an emergency alliance, and the Staff of World Destruction Plan could have been triggered at any moment.
In the end, the Witch Academy compromised and temporarily halted (having finished the observations) the Qi Observation Art experiment.
Ultimately, the matter was officially characterized as a Wizard Academy Mentor violating regulations by allowing a Transcendent Wizard to intervene in a student dispute.
As for who gained and who lost, only they themselves knew.
In the end, the Wizard Academy paid a sum of compensation to the Witch Academy, finally putting a period on the incident.
As for why the Wizards' compensation included specialty resources from the Holy Angels and Forest Elves, one would have to ask the Wizard Academy what was going on there. However, the Witch Academy was generous enough not to press the issue.
After the Transcendent Mentors left the Qunluosen Wasteland, members of the Witch Academy's Jack-of-all-trades Club arrived with a large amount of mining and collection equipment.
Even before they arrived, news regarding Hexagonal Crystal Amber had already spread.
The properties of Hexagonal Crystal Amber ensured it was worlds apart from its associated materials.
Within the Witch Academy, the group with the highest consumption of transcendent materials wasn't the students, who made up the largest demographic, but the Transcendent Mentors.
The level of a person determined the level of materials they could access; this logic applied everywhere.
Materials classified as "a waste if used by non-transcendents" were essentially regulated materials.
Generally, these only entered circulation through official Academy channels, such as Monthly Exams, Final Joint Exams, internal competitions, external exchange competitions, multi-academy joint competitions, and so on.
Another way was by making contributions to the Academy, like Yi Rui’s team; they were practically guaranteed access.
Then there were those who followed a Mentor, had good private connections, or received them as past investments or gifts.
For students, the value of Hexagonal Crystal Amber carried the additional weight of being "extremely difficult to obtain."
Many students hoped to craft a powerful wand for themselves, or follow the Academy's new trend: Spellbooks, using them as their weapons.
Furthermore, for matching armor, clothing, combat suits, and the like, the amount of materials required was significant. If one wanted a custom-made set tailored to their personal style, price aside, rare materials were the absolute barrier to entry.
Hexagonal Crystal Amber, though a brand-new material that might be difficult to apply initially, was definitely a regulated material.
It was worth hoarding just for the appreciation in value, but more importantly, it enriched a club's foundation.
As the Jack-of-all-trades Club conducted surveys and sampling in the Qunluosen Wasteland, they received news that was a mix of joy and concern.
The joy was that, based on the estimates from the battle site, the total projected amount of Hexagonal Crystal Amber in this area exceeded the combined mass of all regulated materials in their club's entire inventory!
Although the lion's share had to be handed over to Teaching Assistant Xiao Han, the remaining amount couldn't even be described as "getting the soup." Compared to their previous struggling state, this was practically eating the meat and drinking the soup!
But their concern was that news of the Hexagonal Crystal Amber had already spread. Although they knew the relationship between the Families and the Academy meant information would naturally leak, was this efficiency not a bit too fast?
Moreover, the distribution of the Hexagonal Crystal Amber was in a very awkward position. Overall, it sat in a blurred border zone, and a significant portion clearly extended into the territories of other Transcendent Academies.
While surveying, they had already chased away several groups of students from rival academies.
After all, the overall strength and methods of Witch Academy students were an absolute landslide victory over other small Transcendent Academies.