Chapter 366: Chapter 363: ’Noel.
"I swear! Everything I’m saying is true—we players have a public chat, and he has allies! I can lead you to him—" The burly man saw that the princess seemed to waver, and immediately continued shouting.
After a moment of distraction, the princess laughed, "Unfortunately, whether or not he is the former Su Rin is irrelevant to me—because my net has already been cast, and he will surely die.
As for you—all the disgusting foreign invaders, being metamorphosed and thus becoming nourishment for Pulaya, will be your honor."
Behind her, the transparent spiritual body suddenly enlarged.
The prostrate players began to exude white vapors from their bodies; they could not control the things that were floating away from within them and could only watch helplessly as their consciousness grew more and more blurred.
"...Just kill me..." One of the players, whose face was gradually aging, screamed in agony.
For them, even death now equated to a form of redemption. After all, they didn’t know whether the princess’s words were true or false—whether those who had been metamorphosed could never return to the Main God World again.
To them, it was no different from actual death.
The next moment, the male Player suddenly heard a strange buzzing sound.
From the corner of his eye, he vaguely saw a hand extend from the slightly ajar cabinet door, the air violently vibrating between the outstretched fingers as if boiling.
He saw a pair of extremely calm eyes.
"Boom—!"
"—Su Rin!"
The princess let out a shriek.
Su Ming’an leaped out of the cabinet abruptly, as a pitch-black chain pierced through the spot where he had been hiding.
"Bang!"
The wooden cabinet shattered into pieces, and wood shavings scraped past his arm. A succession of system notifications chimed in his ear.
[You have obtained a prop (Liu Changqing’s Wallet).]
[You have obtained a prop (Large Life Recovery Potion).]
[You have obtained equipment (Sack’s Golden Staff).]
[You have obtained equipment...]
...
Su Ming’an’s spatial vibration killed all players except for a few NPCs, but few pieces of equipment and props dropped. The gap between his strength and that of the other players was too great, leading to a very low drop rate.
He glanced over these items casually; they were mostly White and Green Level items that no longer kept pace with his rhythm.
However, his action was meant more for rescuing than killing, and it didn’t affect the outcome.
Now, killing these people was actually a form of rescuing them.
"Blackie, seize him—" The princess suddenly stepped back several paces.
A figure known as "Blackie" reached out to the SS level monster Soul Hunt, the chains climbing his hand like serpents.
Su Ming’an heard the system notification.
[Combat situation detected, entering boss battle mode.]
[Current boss (Black Pike), combat power: 3500]
[Win rate comparison: 7.5%]
...
Su Ming’an glanced at the enemy’s combat power, then decisively stood still.
"Click"
The pitch-black chains made a crisp sound like a mechanism, winding towards him from the center. He stood still, gripping his hand tight, allowing the chains to wrap around.
"... So you’ve actually made it here."
Seeing Su Ming’an bound, Tulip Princess’s facial emotions barely stabilized. Even she, who was usually calm, was startled by Su Ming’an’s sudden move from within the cabinet.
"... I didn’t expect you to come to me on your own," she said through gritted teeth.
"Is that so?" Su Ming’an said, "If I’m not mistaken, you let me develop my forces and then waited for the Maritime Banquet wave?"
He had been somewhat puzzled, but now he understood why the Princess was helping him build up his strength.
It was because of the so-called "principle of equality".
Sevya had once said that within the Maritime Banquet, if one party’s strength became too overwhelming and the balance could not be maintained, it would easily attract even more powerful enemies.
——The Tulip Princess was deliberately letting him grow his power, watching as he became more and more formidable, then waiting for him to bring about his own destruction.
She had wanted him dead from the start.
As for why she hadn’t taken action directly, he guessed that it might have to do with the rules of the Maritime Banquet, or with the instructions of a deity.
"You’re very clever, and you feel very familiar to me. Your expressions, your behavior... even the way you speak are all very similar to Su Rin from sixty years ago." The Princess looked at him with cold eyes, "If those self-proclaimed Players hadn’t sold you out, I would never have guessed that Su Rin is no longer the Su Rin of before."
"In my view, Tulip Princess isn’t the same princess either," Su Ming’an chuckled.
He recalled from Su Rin’s memories the sight of the girl before him breaking down and crying in an alleyway.
...A world away from the madwoman before him who used people’s lives for experiments.
"Su Rin, you shouldn’t have come back," the Princess stared at him.
Those pretty, sunlight-like locks framed a pair of eyes that now seemed somewhat cold.
"...This land only needs me and our esteemed Deity. Pulaya does not need a second ruler, and you should have understood when you left here that, apart from those empires overseas, you have nowhere to go."
"If I don’t come back, who would take care of the barrier?"
"I will," the Princess replied promptly, "It just means more people will have to die, that’s all. For the future of Pulaya, this is a necessary sacrifice."
"...There’s never been a ’born to be sacrificed’ setting, you know," Su Ming’an sighed, "I don’t know how many times I have to say this."
"Such a familiar feeling, you say the exact same things as Su Rin did." The Princess raised her hand, "Do those so-called Organizers intentionally match us up like this when choosing?"
Su Ming’an watched as she raised her hand.
A transparent fluid flowed at her fingertips, with the Spiritual Body behind her radiating a brilliant light.
"Now that I’ve taken action, there’s no turning back," the Princess said coldly, "I trust that the Deity will forgive my conduct."
Su Ming’an clenched his fist, and the chains on his body made a faint noise.
At that moment, another hand suddenly rested on the Princess’s arm, stopping her from taking action.
"My apologies, Princess," Sherrod finally spoke, "I think we could possibly have a proper discussion. As a Player, Su Rin is not entirely antagonistic towards us, and there is no need to escalate things to this level."
His eyes were very bright.
Perhaps he truly believed that there was no need for the situation to reach such a point, trusting in the goodwill of the world.
The Princess turned her head and glanced at him, her eyes filled with disappointment.
"Black Pike."
She said:
"Subdue him."
Black Pike reacted instantly, grabbing Sherrod by the spine and forcefully pinning him to the ground.
The hand holding the Princess vanished, and the fluid on the Princess’s hand surged forward, suddenly adhering to Su Ming’an’s forehead.
A strong suction force came over him.
As soon as Su Ming’an came into contact with the fluid, he knew for certain — this substance could indeed cause harm to a Player’s spirit.
...This instance plays for keeps.
"Noel,"
he immediately called out the name.
The next moment, he forcefully spewed out a mouthful of blood.
In his tightly clenched hand, a pocket watch dislodged itself, the second hand spinning rapidly, the cover now a piercing shade of bright red.
"Click!"
The heavy restraints on his body were gone.
White light surrounded him, and the scenery around him instantly blurred, leaving only the ticking of the second hand to echo in his ears.
The HP bar in the top left corner was rapidly decreasing, plunging from full health to nearly empty.
This was the negative effect of using the pocket watch to teleport; the rapid loss of blood could not be calculated with an exact equivalency in HP.
He suddenly found himself on the brink of death.
"Thud!"
Before he could take a good look at the scene before him, Su Ming’an collapsed heavily to the ground.
He felt cold all over, and his vision was extremely dizzy, almost unable to see anything clearly.
He had prepared a Strengthener in advance and, lifting his left hand, forcefully injected himself with it. After resting for a moment, he slowly got up.
He should have teleported next to Noel by now. Noel had his collaborator Archilev sent ahead of time and was also a teammate, so his current situation should be relatively safe.
"Noel," he called out, feeling the ground with his hand, and suddenly noticed a certain dampness.
The belated smell of blood rushed to his face; he blinked, and the cold, moist air violently filled his lungs.
A taste of blood was in his mouth, as if he were bleeding internally.
Health points were slowly climbing back up, he moved his hand, and the scene before him gradually came into focus.
...This looked to be an interior.
In his field of vision, something bright caught his eye—a golden hair color, shimmering like a small sun.
Upon hearing the noise from his side, Noel turned his head.
"Noel, I’ve teleported here as an emergency. I now know the princess’s conspiracy—we might need to temporarily switch strategies and gather our strength to strike at her first. She has the power to inflict real mental harm on players," Su Ming’an said.
Noel appeared to stand up.
"So that’s how it is, no wonder. I always felt there was something off about this princess’s character setting. Turns out she’s the ultimate boss," Noel said.
The bundle of golden hair swayed, approaching him, accompanied by the crisp sound of high-heel shoes tapping on the floor.
At this moment, Su Ming’an’s blurry vision finally began to clear.
He looked at the scene before him, and the words he had prepared to say were halted in surprise.
...He had never expected to see a scene that was almost identical to that in the princess’s laboratory before.
He saw people locked in cages, unconscious, and yellow scrolls sprawled across the table, stained with mottled blood.
Thin streams of blood flowed on the floor, like little creeks, and on the damp walls were large patches of blood, as if they had just been splashed there.
And what approached him, a youth with radiant hair, wearing a long robe that resembled formal attire, was stained with a cascade of bright crimson blood that looked like plum blossoms.
He wore a pair of pristine white gloves, as if he hadn’t had time to take them off.
Su Ming’an’s gaze dropped to the ground, where he saw some iron instruments scattered about, along with several old men who had lost their breath.
This was a laboratory.
Noel’s laboratory.
"..." He looked at the young man coming towards him.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
He had not expected that this sudden teleportation would reveal such a scene to him.
Noel stopped in his tracks, "This is a method to enhance my strength."
"Like what you did to those kids?"
"No, not at all the same, that was just a trade, while this, this is a new experiment," Noel gestured, facing Su Ming’an with a somewhat frantic expression, seemingly in a hurry to explain: "In every new World Replica, I try to find the roots, the origins of the world, the origins of life, the source of the ability system... Those I’ve experimented on are just NPCs, they don’t count as people, they don’t!"
His tone was exceedingly urgent, his eyes bloodshot, and he looked extremely exhausted.
"..." Su Ming’an was silent for a moment, "Noel, the knife you gave me before, what was its name?"
"Amber," Noel answered instantly.
"I thought for a moment that the person standing in front of me wasn’t you," Su Ming’an said.
"Are you blaming me?"
"No, there’s nothing wrong with doing this to enhance your strength. I don’t blame you; it’s your freedom," Su Ming’an said. "It’s just that this scene feels familiar, which makes me somewhat reflective."
"What?"
"Just now, the Tulip Princess said the same to me," Su Ming’an continued. "She said that these players who are about to undergo metamorphosis are merely invaders from other worlds, not real people. What she’s doing, she claims, is just to save those she loves—the native residents of Pulaya."
"..."
"I think I’ve come to understand the opposition between worlds," Su Ming’an laughed. "Actually, no one is in the wrong."
As he spoke, he walked past Archilev. "Let’s go. We need to find Sevya and figure out how to kill the Tulip Princess, or she’ll certainly try to assassinate me. Noel, if your experiment is ready, contact me as soon as you can. I will be waiting."
He pushed the door open to air that was unusually fresh compared to indoors,
and what appeared to be a common residential street.
His step faltered as he came across a body lying on the ground.
It was a farmer clutching a scythe, sheltering a little girl with a purplish face, who was also dead.
"..."
The increasing snow obscured his distant vision.
Through the white snowflakes, he saw the shadow of Cloud City hidden in the blizzard, looming above like a monstrous beast.
...It was said that the deities who protected the residents, kind and merciful, lived there.
He looked upward, snowflakes falling into his eyes.
He wasn’t intent on leaving quickly, as he had indicated he would earlier.
In fact, he was waiting.
"—Su Ming’an."
Sure enough, the sound of a door opening came from behind him.
Without turning around, he faced Noel with his back.
"—Would you like to go up to Yun Shang City and see?" Noel’s voice reached him.
"In three days?" he asked.
"No," Noel lifted his hand. "Now."
The sound of the wind came through.
Jet-black wings swept close to the single-story houses, passing slowly; a giant crow’s silhouette hovered in the sky, like a monster capable of easily knocking down buildings in an animation.
...
Sitting on the crow as dark as storm clouds, Su Ming’an felt like he was on a hot-air balloon.
But a hot-air balloon probably wasn’t this thrilling.
The snow clung to him, refusing to melt due to the extremely cold temperatures surrounding him. He held on to the crow named "Yinke," as the howling wind mixed with piercingly cold ice and snow blew against his head.
Noel lay beside him, his head also covered in unmelted snow.
The crow continued to ascend, its wings spreading like two clouds, momentarily eclipsing the sky canopy.
Below, the players looked up, dumbstruck by the sight.
"Damn... What is that?"
"That’s the crow of the Number Two Player, Noel! What people said was true, Su Ming’an and Noel are really on this server!"
"You didn’t know? The top five ordinary strongholds have already been taken over by them. But it seems like those Soul Hunters have received some order and are preparing to withdraw."
"Number One Player, come down quickly, the Southern District pier... there is..."
The voice faded into the distance.
The crow’s altitude kept rising.