Chapter 385: Reunion
Just as Sarah left the Potions classroom, on the second floor of Corin Tower, in the newly opened Virtual Realm Experiment Area No. 178, an experiment on virtual realm exploration was being prepared in full swing.
The migration of the virtual world is finally completed.
Merck stood nervously and stiffly in a corner of the hall, feeling out of place in the surrounding atmosphere, but he still stood there with a stern face.
Under the orders of Professor Ariste, he came here to observe Colin's experimental process, to learn and record every detail of His Highness's interference in the virtual world.
However, deep in Merck's heart, he felt a little ashamed and apologetic for Colin's generosity in allowing a "loser" like him to come and watch.
Perhaps His Highness Colin actually knew that his motives were not pure, but he still accepted me generously and kindly.
Is this the mind of the Imperial Prince...
Merck muttered to himself.
In sharp contrast to Merck's nervousness, Luo Yan's assistants, led by Miller, were immersed in the excitement of exploring the unknown world.
A dozen assistants in wizard robes were moving methodically between the huge magic circles, each performing their respective duties and completing their tasks.
The entire lobby on the second floor of the Corinthian Tower has become an efficient and sophisticated "command center".
Unlike the researchers under Merck, these equally young teaching assistants did not show any tension or fear on their faces. Instead, they were filled with a positive mood.
It was as if they were about to sail to not unfamiliar waters, but a new world full of gold, with endless treasures waiting for them to pick.
What is incredible is that although they have never been there, they seem to have seen the end of this "expedition".
"Mr. Miller," an assistant in charge of energy supply reported loudly, "The magic output of node No. 7 has been calibrated, and the fluctuation rate is less than 0.3%, which meets the startup standard!"
"Very good!" Miller, who was standing at the main casting position, responded loudly. While quickly recording the parameters on the notepad in his hand, he gave an order to another group of people without looking up, "Rune circuit inspection team, confirm it one last time to ensure there is no risk of energy overflow!"
"Circuit check completed! Everything is normal!"
The voices of those exchanges were brief and professional, and full of a passion for exploration.
Merck watched from the side, feeling mixed emotions.
He could feel that these people truly believed in their mentor and believed that His Highness Colin could lead them to success.
Far from having any fear of the unknown, they are full of anticipation for the upcoming exploration... just like devout believers looking forward to witnessing the next "miracle".
This positive atmosphere made Merck feel a little jealous from the bottom of his heart.
But he couldn't tell whether he was jealous of His Highness Colin for having such motivated assistants, or regretted that he didn't belong here.
"Teacher Merck, what is the current situation in Virtual Realm No. 178?" Luo Yan, whose eyes were on the magic circle, suddenly shifted his gaze and looked at Teacher Merck who was standing beside him.
Hearing this sudden question, Merck was slightly stunned, then a wry smile appeared on his face and he spoke with a sigh.
"It's terrible, Your Highness. The entire virtual passage is like a wisp of ethereal wandering soul, which may be lost in the boundless void at any time. All we can do is keep observing and... pray that the moment of separation will come later."
Merck thought that the prince would have a serious expression on his face, and was even prepared to be laughed at or ridiculed by him.
However, what he did not expect was that after hearing it, the prince not only did not blame him, but spoke with a smile.
"That's good, isn't it? We can still receive information from behind the virtual world, which means the situation is not the worst."
Merck was stunned and looked at the young prince in confusion, not understanding the meaning of this sentence at all: "...Is there anything worse than this?"
"certainly."
Luo Yan said without hesitation.
"And that's when you gave the authority of God to the gray man named Kyle."
Merck's breathing stagnated slightly, and it took a long time before he squeezed out a difficult word from his mouth.
"I don't understand what went wrong—"
"Of course something went wrong from the beginning."
Seeing the thirst for truth behind those eyes, Luo Yan didn't give him any face and spoke directly.
"You placed a mouse on the king's throne. The fate of this chess piece was doomed from the beginning."
This incisive criticism made Merck's face turn pale and blue. He opened his mouth, but found that he could not find any words to refute.
Kyle is indeed a rat, and he picked him up from the garbage dump himself...but the problem is, he didn't have a choice, right?
That was the only Gray who could hear them at the time.
Of course, he did not deny that perhaps what His Highness said was right...
Merck took a deep breath, forced himself to suppress the resentment in his heart, forced a stiff smile on his face, and abruptly changed the subject.
"So...what should we do now?"
Luo Yan smiled and said, "It's very simple. Since the virtual realm channel has not completely collapsed, it means that on the other party's timeline, there is still a trace of 'longing' for us."
"Admiration?"
Merck frowned in confusion and whispered.
"This is impossible! Their faith in us is already very weak. They nailed us to the pillar of shame in history, calling us the scourge of the void, evil spirits from outside the domain, and even purging those who have awakened extraordinary powers."
After a pause, he continued in a difficult tone.
"As you can see right now... the passage to the virtual world is already very weak. This is the most direct proof."
This situation was caused by him alone.
That is why, when he said this, Merck felt his face getting hot and he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
However, Luo Yan didn't care, and even looked at him with a hint of approval. Although this guy was not smart, he had a plan in mind.
At least he can see his own problem clearly.
"That's the problem. The gray people behind the 178th virtual world don't have a correct understanding of us, nor do they have a correct examination of themselves. Instead, they are trying to distort or even erase their past."
"Merck, let me ask you, did we appear out of thin air? Don't forget the premise of the existence of the virtual realm channel. Only the resonance of souls can allow the souls of people from two different universes to intersect."
Merck stared at the prince in front of him, unable to answer for a moment.
really--
The resonance of souls is the prerequisite for the existence of the virtual world.
Although the collapse of the channel seems inevitable, at least on the current timelines of both parties, they still have a trace of "reluctance" to part with each other.
"It's true that Kyle was the rat you hand-picked, and you personally put him on the throne, but he didn't appear out of thin air. This includes the followers behind him, and the wasteland that twisted their souls... They are all part of the Grays, no matter how their compatriots resist."
Luo Yan's smile became more meaningful, and Merck couldn't help but hold his breath.
"Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, as are fear and courage. When we reach the extreme on one path, we will inevitably come to the other side of the coin... and now, all we have to do is toss their coin again."
The last thing the Gray Man should have done was to kill Kyle at the moment of victory.
Although they gained temporary relief, they also lost the opportunity to settle their mistakes and buried the danger in the dark curtain of history.
A living Kyle is just a sinner or clown covered in mud, but a dead Kyle will become an immortal "prophet".
They'd better never make mistakes.
Otherwise, just a small mistake would make those dissatisfied Grays miss the murderous messenger of God again.
No matter how evil he had done.
"…In the short time that Kyle was alive, those pragmatic materialists were the specters that haunted the ancient god, 'Merck.' Now, they are gods on earth, and the memories they tried to bury are the specters that haunt them."
"This is also why the connection between the two worlds has not been completely severed."
"Because they are still trapped in the cycle of the past and have never really come out of it."
This sentence was like a heavy hammer that hit Merck's heart, waking him up suddenly as he was wandering in the fog and couldn't find a way out.
"Flip the coin again..."
Merck chewed over this sentence again and again, and for the first time, a light like the sun shining through the clouds appeared in his cloudy pupils.
He looked at Colin, his eyes full of shock and awe, as if he had gained a new insight into His Highness's theory.
At this moment, Miller, who had finally completed his preparations for casting the spell, left his position, walked to the side of His Highness Colin and respectfully reported.
"Your Highness, everything is ready and can be started at any time!"
His eyes were filled with admiration and eagerness to begin a great attempt.
Luo Yan withdrew his gaze from Merck's face and nodded at Miller.
“Let’s get started!”
"yes!"
Miller nodded excitedly.
Following His Highness Colin's order, the entire research team immediately took action like a clockwork gear!
They injected surging magic power into the magic circle, urging the source power to accelerate the time behind the virtual world, dragging the heavy and stagnant progress bar of the times backwards.
Time flies, the sun and the moon rotate, and I don’t know how many years have passed.
Perhaps it was ten years, or perhaps it was a century, the hazy picture quickly flipped backwards like a kaleidoscope.
The narrowing of the passage seems to dilute the sense of the passage of time for people in both worlds.
Merck's heartbeat quickened, and he prayed silently in his heart, praying that the fragile channel would not suddenly break at this moment.
He wanted to see what Colin called "another possibility of history", and this was his last and only chance to understand the world of the Grays.
Just as the passage as thin as black hair was getting weaker and weaker and was about to be cut by the scissors of time, a sudden change occurred!
Suddenly, a hazy figure appeared in the blurry light and shadow, and the picture gradually became clearer.
It was a dark and closed room, perhaps in a basement or a garbage dump, and the environment was not much better than Kyle's home.
A hunched gray man stood beside the dirty bed, with a circle drawn in bloody paint below his skinny ankles.
He got a bunch of "ancient books" from somewhere and found the ancient god "Merck" and His whispers hidden in the fragments of history.
In the Gray Federation where materialism prevails, digging into history is a taboo among taboos, especially exploring the mysteries about the ancient god Merck and the "Ark of Redemption" sect.
But he no longer cared after being forced into a desperate situation.
His company terminated his employment contract the moment he was diagnosed with "rust disease", leaving him with no money to treat the disease or replace his faulty prosthesis. While he was worrying about treatment and his next job, a bank bill for loan repayment was sent to his home.
A hemp rope always breaks at the thinnest part, and misfortune always strikes upon the poor.
The federal parliament seemed to always be strict with him like a father, but when it came to problems with banks and companies, it began to turn a blind eye.
It was when he was in poverty that he heard about the ancient god "Merk" from people who had a similar fate.
The Federation's textbooks simply say that guy is not a good person, and his followers are even more evil, but they are very secretive about how these extremely evil guys came into being. There is no mention of what the Federation's predecessor, the Wastelander Alliance, did during the tribal period before it became the Federation.
Kyle treated the survivors as slaves, but didn’t those tribes treat the survivors as slaves?
No one told him the difference between the two, and perhaps there was no difference at all, just as he had become a slave to debt and was being ridden over by a group of slave owners called shareholders and creditors.
He could only interpret it in the worst possible way - the so-called "evil" was just an excuse for the despicable wastelanders to kill the savior.
It's all a scam!
I guess the reason why the Federal Parliament confiscated their super powers was because they were afraid that those who awakened super powers would recall their past memories!
He gambled his only hope on that one in a billion chance and drew the magic circle that he had seen repeatedly in his dreams on the cold concrete floor.
Although he has no extraordinary powers, I heard that Kyle didn't have it at the beginning. To the ancient gods in the void, piety means more than talent.
As long as they can establish a connection, He will naturally infuse himself with all the mysteries that cannot be explained by physics!
Fortunately, he actually did it!
Over the past two hundred years, countless people have called out the name of the ancient god, but he is the only one who can make the magic circle emit purple mist.
He was shocked and knelt on his knees in ecstasy. He used all his strength to continue calling out the name "Merck" into the void.
Not only did he call out the name, he also offered sincere prayers and confessions, and denounced the heinous crimes of the Gray Federation with tears in his eyes.
Including the lack of social security, the persecution of extraordinary people, etc.
However, since these things do not exist in the continent of Os, the voice transmitted through spiritual resonance cannot always be understood by Merck and others on the other side of the virtual world.
However, even so, the passionate feeling was still conveyed.
Everyone standing in the hall of the Mage Tower felt the negative emotions of the gray man firsthand!
The blurry lens became clearer and clearer.
Merck, who was standing at the edge of the magic circle, was stunned.
He never expected that His Highness Colin did nothing but dragged the progress bar that he dared not drag back, and the shaky virtual realm passage actually stabilized by itself.
In other words…
As long as he and Professor Ariste hold on a little longer, Virtual Realm No. 178 will get better on its own. At most, the specialty "Ghost Charcoal" will be gone!
Realizing what a stupid thing he had done, Merck felt extremely regretful at this moment.
This No. 178 virtual realm was given to me for free!
and--
Professor Alister will definitely put the blame on himself!
However, Luo Yan did not think that this guy had anything to regret. After all, without his guidance, he would get the same result if he tried again.
But next time, you may not be so lucky.
The time behind the virtual world continued to flow, and the voices of the gray men crawling in the magic circle were full of unwillingness, and their accusations and accusations became more and more radical.
“…Equality has not been achieved and is getting further and further away!”
"If sacrificing us could earn their promise and bring about a world without oppression, that would be fine! But what is the result? Our sacrifice did not create great prosperity. Instead, it drove all of us from an old cage into another, more greedy cage! They not only want to sacrifice our flesh and blood, but also our spirit!"
He lifted up his dull metal prosthesis, and through the deep purple mist, he vaguely saw a pair of dark purple eyes.
The ancient god was staring at him!
He is listening!
A hint of fanaticism appeared on his face, and all the enthusiasm of this broken body was poured out in that desperate cry.
"I beg you to open your eyes and lead your loyal people to fight one more round! We are not afraid of sacrifice. After all, mortal bodies will eventually die. We have nothing to lose anyway!"
"We just want to let our useless flesh and blood burn once more for your will before our souls return to your kingdom of God!"
"We want revenge! On those gray men who fooled us! I want them to also taste the horror of living in the abyss!"
Merck stared at him in a daze, feeling that the willpower emanating from this gray man was no less than that of the gray hero who had resisted Kyle's tyranny.
There was even a hint of fanaticism and devotion in his fortitude and persistence that the former hero did not have.
He's like a combination of Kyle and that guy!
Listening to this tearful prayer, Miller's face showed anticipation and excitement. He turned to look at Colin, waiting for his instructions.
Merck was the same, with a complex expression that was half anticipation and half curiosity.
In fact, apart from his enthusiasm and piety, this guy is just a little mouse living at the bottom of society like Kyle.
He wondered what Colin would do.
What else can we do except put this little mouse on the throne?
Are you just going to watch this guy die?
Luo Yan quietly looked at the desperate soul burning with the flames of revenge in the lens, savoring his anger and madness.
A moment later, he gave his first instruction to Virtual Realm No. 178 in a voice without any emotion to Miller and other assistants who were eagerly waiting.
"Tell him that the ancient god is dead."
"Call me Colin."
(End of this chapter)
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