Chapter 640: Showdown and Negotiation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Like removing a hammered nail, Chen Chen’s worries scattered like clouds giving away to the radiant sun after absorbing the Consciousness Stealer.
From here on, dominating this world would be an easy task.
If Chen Chen wanted, he could swoop in and reign over this world all by himself, but this was not his current plan. Currently, there were ten million players in this and the average number of active users at any given time reached up to a million. It was only a matter of time before the total player base reached a hundred million.
That being the case, it was necessary that a common enemy existed to extend the lifespan of the game.
This was where the Holy Fusion Empire played a vital role. However, even without the Consciousness Stealer, the people of the Holy Fusion Empire still retained their psionic gifts. This alone would cause the war between the Holy Fusion Empire and the Joint Resistance Army. The battle between technology and psionic powers could drag on forever.
There was only one solution...
With this in mind, Chen Chen slowly shut his eyes. When he opened them again, they emitted a dazzling glow!
The moment he opened his eyes, a shining golden ray illuminated everything in sight!
“Zoom!”
Both eyes became miniature suns within their sockets. They cast their divine glow over the vast ocean and basked everything in the world in their divine ray!
Everything only lasted for an instant. Their light extinguished within a second and Chen Chen’s eyes could be seen reverting to their ordinary state.
“I’ve uprooted all of the ‘psionic seeds’ existing in this world. From here on, psionic abilities no longer exist in this world.”
Chen Chen breathed the cold air, sensing the subtle change in the atmosphere. “Now, the players can do whatever they please...”
After that, Chen Chen’s figure vanished with a mighty boom that resounded across the ocean, leaving behind a gigantic column of water sprout in his original location.
Chen Chen traveled at a speed thirty times the speed of sound and returned to the Blacklight City within fifteen minutes. Then, he left the end dimension using the time machine...
When Chen Chen uprooted the “psionic”‘ seeds earlier, something unimaginable and utterly nightmarish happened in the Holy Fusion Empire of the end dimension...
“Praise the Almighty Father, Lord Alosorthoth...”
In the capital of the Holy Fusion Empire, there was a monumental church that occupied more than half of the city center of the city. An old priest whose corrupted skin was almost peeling off his bones kissed the ground and repeated cultish chants with burning fanaticism, “You’re the lord over our destiny. You hold the essence of death and life. You’re the song of life, the river of time. We come before you as your loyal servants, may you give us limitless strength...”
Behind the old priest was an entire congregation of worshippers kneeling with their heads on the ground. Judging by the fabric of the robes they wore, this gathering of worshippers was not any ordinary crowd. Each of them was the great priests of the empire that traveled to the capital from their respective cities. Each one of them was honored priests and bishops befitting the symbolic black robe.
Their faces were covered in ulcers that made them look like victims of radiation exposure. Despite their appearance, one could distinctly tell that there was powerful psionic energy surging within their bodies.
In the real world, their psionic level would at least be tiered at Gamma- or Beta-level, some of them perhaps grazing Alpha-level.
Each and every one of them knelt on the ground like peasants. Positioned at the center of this formation was a giant bronze statue of the Consciousness Stealer resting on an elevated platform.
“Lord, you grant us the blessing of the fusion, we worship you at your throne, here we are, here we are...”
The elderly priest at the head of the congregation led the hymn. When he sang the words “here we are”, he suddenly felt the words caught in his throat and was hit with a sense of impending doom. He could not find the words to describe this sensation, but he could feel the vitality of his life draining away. He looked back at the other worshippers and wanted to call for help, but immediately noticed that they were making the same horrified expression as he did.
“Could it be that our God...”
A possibility came to the elderly priest. Only a second later, blood drained from his face and the last of his strength escaped his body. Then, life went out of his eyes...
“Thump!”
The elderly priest collapsed on the ground. Although his heart continued beating and blood continued flowing in his veins, the breath of life was gone...
The archbishop of the Holy Fusion Empire, who stood at the pinnacle of power, was dead.
All of the powerful priests of the Holy See accompanied the archbishop in death. It seemed as if they were struck by an instantaneous plague that wiped them all out. By the time the common servants who were charged with redundant tasks like oiling the lamps and cleaning the temple tiles regained their senses, they were met with this horrific scene.
This was not an isolated incident only bound to the capital of the Holy Fusion Empire. Everywhere around the Holy Fusion Empire, psionicists collapsed without warning no matter where they were, who they were, and what they were doing at the hour. The storm arrived unannounced and struck all the psionicists in the empire dead with no hope of saving them.
The psychic abilities manifested by the Consciousness Stealer in them were harvested mercilessly by Chen Chen in a split instant.
These people were the cornerstones of the empire. They were the nobles, generals, and descendants of high lords. They were the ones who oversaw the operation of the Holy Fusion Empire and with their deaths, the empire was brought to ruin!
Without warning, the entire empire was plunged into unsalvageable chaos...
...
When Chen Chen returned to reality, he received a notice from Little X.
“Sir Godfather, the members of the Blacklight Foundation request an audience with you...”
Little X informed, “Several minutes ago, I received the invitation for a Lilith Assembly from them. It seems that they joined forces and are plotting something.”
“I suppose it has something to do with the reality anchor?”
Chen Chen asked with a disinterested tone. It was an undeniable truth that he had employed the help of the players to set up more than three hundred reality anchors. Even if he wanted to conceal this, it was only a matter of time until the Earth Federation found out about it since the player would discuss it on the forums.
“It’s not only about the reality anchors.”
Little X shook her head. “They are beginning to have their suspicions about the Ancient Civilization, to be exact... They have had their suspicions for a long time. It’s only after the recent events that transpired that finally made them decide to confront you about it together.”
“This was going to happen sooner or later.”
Chen Chen chuckled. “Tell them I’ll be there, it just so happens that there are some things I’d like to discuss with them as well.”
After several minutes, Chen Chen sat down at his office. The environmental holographic simulator transformed the appearance of his office into a grandiose conference room decorated with a bright chandelier above.
The office table transformed into a roundtable with four camouflaged figures surrounding the roundtable.
“05, you finally decided to show up...”
The four members of the Lilith Assembly who were occupied with their private conversation immediately stopped their discussion when they saw Chen Chen appearing. They turned to him in unison and 03 was the one who spoke first, “So, enlighten us. What’s Blacklight Biotechnology planning with Ancient Civilization?”
“What are we planning?”
Chen Chen responded with a puzzled look, “It’s just a common product to make some quick money. All of you here are important individuals governing hundreds of millions of people. What’s there to worry about a small side business I’m running?”
“Ahem...”
01 emitted a dry cough and stated, “Chen Chen, I mean...05. Forgive me, I’m new here. This is my first time attending the Lilith Assembly but I’ve had my share of experience with the Blacklight Foundation even before I was appointed to the role of 01 so I’m familiar with your operation. Based on what I know, Blackwatch never embarks on useless business ventures. Just like in the past when you planted your roots in Africa, everyone thought that you were crazy for choosing such a poor location, but you proved everyone wrong by carving a blazing path and surpassed the Earth Federation...”
“You flatter me.”
Chen Chen smiled pleasantly.
“Whether it’s the military industry, space travel or outer space colonization, you have an established, strong vision for everything you involve your company in.”
01 continued. “I know that you’ve done this with the inheritance from your predecessor, but that’s a topic for another day. What we want to talk about today is the game you released. We had our engineers look at the game chamber you recently developed and found that a majority of the parts inside are nothing that we’ve ever seen. We also notice a jarring absence of certain necessary parts in common gaming equipment...
“We don’t know what your plan is, but one thing we know for sure is that this game you call Ancient Civilization is more than it lets on.”
02 chimed in. “I agree with 01. The gameplay provided by the game chamber is indistinguishable from reality. The in-game physics shown are extremely realistic and shouldn’t be achievable by today’s game engine standards. It’d require at least hundreds of millions of lines of code to simulate an in-game physics engine of that kind, which we couldn’t identify anything like that in the game chambers which you developed.”
04 added. “We had our specialized departments research the game thoroughly to figure out its backend structure. Based on the findings reported, it’d seem that the in-game world isn’t a virtual world at all... When our team used microscopes and other similar equipment on samples collected in the world, they reported the discovery of common bacteria and cell structures such as atoms and molecules on surfaces of in-game objects. Are you telling me that you’ve manufactured an in-game system so detailed that you included the cellular structures of all objects in the game?”
“That’s not all...”
01 said, “Our team managed to find a secret factory inside the game and managed to sneak inside after many attempts. They found countless corpses lying inside the factory which were transported to various spawn points scattered across the in-game world. It seems that after arriving at the spawn point, these corpses would suddenly spur to life. It appears that these are the avatars controlled by the players... If this is just a game, would you explain this unexplainable, intricate system to us?
“There’s more...”
They started to bicker and talk over each other, eager to tell Chen Chen about the problems of Ancient Civilization.
“Your point being?”
After they were all finished with their piece, Chen Chen motioned for a suggestion. “If you think Ancient Civilization isn’t a game, what is it? Dimensional travel?”
“We need you to answer that for us, 05.”
03 sounded calm. “We want to know the inner workings of Ancient Civilization and its true nature as well as... What your goal is.”
Chen Chen shook his head upon hearing of this and produced a sigh. “Well, since you’ve confronted me like this, I shall tell you the truth. What I can tell you is that Ancient Civilization is more than a simple game, just as you suspected. The game world as you call it is a parallel dimension – a world set in a parallel timeline, only with slight deviations from our current timeline!”
Chen Chen paused to allow for a moment to reflect. “I’m sure you’re familiar with what a parallel dimension is. It’s similar to the Rosen Bridge in the Indian Ocean which leads to the world of Resident Evil. Ancient Civilization is another parallel world formed from our encounter with the Consciousness Stealer.”
“I see...”
The mystery was unraveled and the members of the Lilith Assembly seemed relieved to finally uncover the truth. They had considered this possibility once, but could not be certain of it until Chen Chen directly confirmed it himself.
Now that they had verifiable proof from Chen Chen himself, the setting of the game suddenly made sense. The fusion plague that mirrored the fusion plague that once happened in the current world, the four major continents, and the remains of mankind. Suddenly, there was a plausible explanation for everything seen in Ancient Civilization.
“The game chamber is just a device used to transfer the consciousness of the player to another body placed in that dimension. In this sense, the game chamber serves as a transmission point that allows the players to control the body in another dimension remotely.”
Chen Chen explained, “The reason I launched Ancient Civilization as a game is to take advantage of the volunteering players to expand the dimension. This is my true goal.”
“What about the reality anchors?”
03 enquired, “The reality anchor is Blackwatch’s tactical weapon from what I understand. Why did you deploy more than three hundred of them in that dimension?”
“To suppress the planet’s psionic force.”
Chen Chen answered without skipping a beat, “I’m sure you’re familiar with the background of the world. It’s a world conquered by the Consciousness Stealer. In the past when we barely defeated the Consciousness Stealer in our current world, it was only in its infant stage. In that dimension, the Consciousness Stealer has fully matured and has become far more powerful. There’s only one way for us humans to defeat it.”
“To suppress its psionic potential and kill it while it’s weak?”
03 shot up from his seat and seemed astounded by the mere idea.
“That’s right and I’ve already done it.”
Chen Chen shrugged and declared boldly, “This is all I can tell you. There’s no need for you to be cautious of what I do with the game anymore because I’ve already achieved my goal. It doesn’t matter if you want to shut down the game or send more members to reverse-engineer it. It doesn’t bother me at this point.”
The four of them could hardly believe their ears when they heard Chen Chen making such a bold claim.
“I know what you’re going to say next.”
Sensing their reaction, Chen Chen spoke before any of them could, “The game chamber’s most useful feature is its quantum communication technology. This is the technology that enables it to transfer the player’s consciousness without any delay. Although this technology is still in its developmental stages, I wouldn’t mind sharing it with all of you so we can refine it together.”
“What?”
They were dazzled by this offer. Each one of them had committed their resources to research quantum communication technologies, only to no avail as of yet. They could not ask for more if Chen Chen would publicize his research findings.
“This is very unlike you.”
03 hesitated and probed, “We all know there’s no such thing as a free meal. What do you want in return?”
“I believe you’ve seen the urban central management system in Eco Science City and Ares Science City?”
Chen Chen smirked. “My request is very simple. You only need to implement the ‘Skynet system’ and the ‘digital judge’ developed by yours truly into your city structure!”