Chapter 424 – Cathulhu Makes Solomon Stronger?
Next to a river, the elderly fisherman sat on a boulder, holding his fishing rod. However, the fishing line and bait weren't in the river but inside a dimensional crack.
A catopus kitten sat on his lap, dozing off as he was bored. The elder secretly injected his Qi and nourished Mu-Nyang as usual.
It had been six months since Mu-Nyang had been living with him. This catopus became a quasi-sage, and he created so many catopuses like him in his dantian universe. His future was promising.
Still, Mu-Nyang lacked worldly experience. Even though he managed to survive all ordeals, his common sense was warped. The elder sighed as he was concerned about the future struggle.
"Should I capture a mortal somewhere from someone's dantian universe and give it to him?"
While pondering, the fishing line shook. The elder lightly yanked the rod and pulled a massive kraken squid from the other dimension.
BOOM
As soon as the squid crossed dimensions, its soul shattered, and the body ceased functioning. The elder tossed the corpse to the river bank.
Its body was massive. From a rough estimation, its tentacles alone were over 10 kilometers long. Because of its size, the elder chopped the large tentacles and stored them in a wooden spatial chest in front of his cabin. Then, he recalled the fishing hook.
SWUA
The golden hook pulled out two large orbs from the squid's gigantic body. Each was as larger as a modern truck. They landed in front of the elder's cabin and emitted a brilliant light.
Because of the commotion, Mu-Nyang woke up and found the massive head of the kraken squid and two mysterious orbs.
"M-Master, what are those, munya?"
The elder admired the orbs. He touched one of them to inspect the content inside. A second later, he deeply frowned.
"An Entity Fate Crystal."
"Entity Fate Crystal, munya?"
"Remember the storybooks in the cabin that I used to read for you?" He referred to the bedtime stories that he used to read for Mu-Nyang to expand his horizon and imagination.
"Oh, the fantasy stories about cultivators, hunters, and magicians, munya?"
"What do you think of the main characters in those stories?"
"All of them are stupidly lucky, munya. Is it a trend these days that all main characters in the story are so dumb, but they are always lucky, munya?"
The elder bitterly laughed, "What if I tell you that the main characters in those stories existed in the past?"
"No way, munya! That would be so lame! You can't simply get a lucky streak in cultivation and encounter, munya. A weak insignificant mortal can't possibly get lucky after getting hit by a truck and get reincarnated with super abilities and unreasonable systems! They don't deserve those powers, munya. Everything defies the law of karma. They didn't even deserve those power, munya."
Mu-Nyang got worked up after his mentor mentioned the bedtime stories. The elder was also in a bad mood, but it was because of another reason.
"What if I tell you that once you possess this Entity Fate Crystal, you can be as lucky as those main characters in the stories?"
"Hah?" Mu-Nyang was curious. He hopped toward the massive orb in front of the elder. "For real, munya?"
"Yes."
"Then, what are we waiting for, munya? Let's assimilate it to our dantian universes, munya!"
The elder glanced at his disciple and fell into deep thought. He sighed several times as he tried to make a tough decision.
"It comes with consequences, Mu-Nyang. Do you remember how miserable those main characters' lives were?"
"Didn't they win in the end, munya? They became the strongest god in their world and defeated all their enemies. Some of them even got bitches, munya."
"But things could have gone wrong so many times during their journey."
"Yeah, but didn't they have one of those "Plot Armors", munya?"
The elder shook his head. He sat down in front of Mu-Nyang and gave him a meaningful look. He taught him an important lesson, hoping that Mu-Nyang could take it to heart.
"Remember this, Mu-Nyang. Plot Armor doesn't exist outside the books. No matter how lucky you are, when you're in front of another main character with greater luck, you can easily perish. Destiny is just one of countless futures you can achieve with your strength. Fate is a mysterious external power that SLIGHTLY influences your journey, but in the end, you make that final decision. No miracle can bless someone with a happy ending if that person doesn't put an effort into it."
Mu-Nyang pouted. He disliked it when his mentor spoke in a cryptic tone.
"I don't understand a thing, munya."
"Did you forget about what karma is?"
"I still remember, munya. But does that have anything to do with luck and plot armor?"
The elder shook his head and sighed. He gave up on trying to teach Mu-Nyang about the complexity of karma and luck. Thus, he punched the Entity Fate Crystal.
BOOM
The orb shattered, but the fragments self-repaired and transformed into small orbs. All of them flowed into the elder's dantian universe.
"Why did you do that, munya?!" Mu-Nyang was stunned. He thought that the elder would have given it to him.
"Fate Crystals are cursed artifacts. They will bring you either misfortune or great fortune. Remember my teaching, Mu-Nyang? Yesterday's hard work is today's success."
"How is it related to that, munya?"
"When you have this thing in your soul, you will be cursed and blessed at the same time. You will go through a trial of a protagonist. If you survive the ordeals, you will be blessed with great luck. If you fail, you will be forever cursed by misfortune."
The elder moved to the dantian crystal of the squid. He touched it and erased all entities, deities, and immortals in the universe inside the orb. Then, he pulled a million mortal creatures from the universe and transferred them to Mu-Nyang's universe.
He paused for a moment before he pulled out one of many broken entity fate fragments. He threw it into Mu-Nyang's dantian.
"This will be your homework. You will go into seclusion for a month and study the lives of the mortals I gave you. One of them will assimilate with the fragment earlier, and he will go through the trial of protagonist I talked about earlier. Their lives will serve as an example of how protagonists, in reality, can be screwed just by making a false decision in life. They aren't protected by the plot armor halos!"
"…"
Mu-Nyang pouted and inspected his universe. He found the fragment. But when he stared at it, his stomach churned for an unknown reason. His instinct cried that he should kick it out.
"Will it harm me, munya?" Mu-Nyang hesitated.
"That fragment will soon develop into an inferior version of Entity Fate Crystal. You can call it Heavenly Fate Crystal since it has the same effects. Also, if you leave it alone, it will multiply by consuming the host's positive and negative karma. You can say that the crystals and fragments are parasites."
"PARASITES, MUNYA?! Then, why did you give me this?!"
"To make you understand that the main characters' plot armor doesn't exist in the real world. Now, go and study the mortals."
"…"
.
.
The dream ended. Xiaomao reopened his eyes and deeply exhaled, digesting the information and his past memory.
'As I thought. Plot armor is just bullshit writing. It doesn't exist!'
Xiaomao turned his attention to the bait that he had thrown into the crack of dimension. He sent a wisp of his consciousness to see the other side, the same way how the elder fisherman used when he fished a dimensional kraken.
On the other side of the dimension, Xiaomao saw a palace, a throne, and a bunch of dragons. He scanned everything around the bait. Then, he noticed the river of karma strings in the sky.
'Whoa. That's the lot of karma strings.'
Xiaomao ordered the hook to fly toward the river along with the bait. It flew up and pulled a golden karma string from a stray thread. Then, Xiaomao started reading its memory.
The vision was vague, but Xiaomao saw a few keywords in the picture memory. He chanted the words that he kept seeing.
"Samsara River. Samsara God missing. Reincarnation impossible. Meng Clan… Meng Xin? Solomon. Kill Mu-Nyang…?! Dafuq?! Heavenly Fate Crystal… the key to killing Mu-Nyang? PFFT, yeah right."
Xiaomao pursed his lips. After checking over a hundred strings of karma, he put together pieces of the puzzle and got a vague answer.
'Trying to kill my cat, Solomon? Over my dead body, punk!'
Enraged, Xiaomao turned his attention toward the resting quarter of Solomon, which was hidden deep under the palace. He ordered the hook to bring the bait toward Solomon's house.
The long fishing line was invisible, but the golden hook and the fate crystal glittered. They flew past several dragonewt sentries, but they couldn't react to its speed. Some of them tried to grab the fishing line, but the sharp string ended up cutting their fingers and hands instead.
It only took the hook five minutes to navigate through the underground maze. It blasted through the door and hovered in front of Solomon, who was in the middle of meditating.
Xiaomao inwardly laughed. He sensed that Solomon was in the middle of Qi circulation and he couldn't move, so he tried to jeopardize the dragon sage's progress.
The hook jetted toward Solomon!
Solomon didn't open his eyes, but a domain barrier appeared. A shockwave exploded and pushed the string and fishing hook away. Because of the blast, the fate crystal of Caesar slipped off the hook and fell on Solomon's lap.
"Tsk!"
Because of the contact, Solomon's Qi was dispersed, and his recovery failed. He swallowed several mouthfuls of blood that were flushed out from his lungs and stomach before he opened his eyes.
"WHO GOES THERE?!" Bellowed Solomon.
Xiaomao was satisfied. As he had completed his mission, he reeled the hook and the string back.
.
Planning to pursue the mysterious invader, Solomon stood up. The fate crystal rolled from his lap and fell to the ground.
KLUK KLUK KLUK
The sound and the aura of the fate crystal attracted Solomon's attention. When he noticed what it was, he was stunned.
"A fate crystal?!"
Solomon looked back toward the fishing hook. However, it was gone.
Speechless and confused, Solomon frowned. He thought that the crystal was a counterfeit or a fake for a moment. But after he checked it with the game authority system, he discovered that it was real.
"Caesar's heavenly fate crystal… Ha, Hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
Solomon burst into laughter, "WHOEVER THAT WAS, I THANK YOU! Once I find you, I'll make sure that you'll get a quick death!"
After thanking Xiaomao, he immediately consumed it.
The orb sank into his body and became one with his soul orb. Then, he received a game notification message.
DING
<Congratulations! You have assimilated with the Heavenly Fate Crystal!>
<You have obtained the class – Protagonist!>
Solomon's internal injuries were instantly healed. His lost Qi and essence returned. Moreover, his cultivation base and stats increased by two folds!
He couldn't stop laughing. He strode out of his residence and shouted, telling his men of the new changes.
"Men! Change of plans! I will go out there and kill every protagonist myself!"
Solomon turned to the sentry guards outside of his house. He ordered them.
"Go find Belial. Tell him that I want Zhou Yu and James Huntsman dead! Also, kill Explorer and the other players! I don't need them anymore."
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