“I said it before, just one aspect!” Kelly’s expression looked a bit helpless as she continued to explain, “Shattered Starry Sky really needed more Apostles to carry out Otherworld Missions, and it didn’t want them to have pointless internal conflicts, but… there were exceptions!”
When she said this, Kelly’s expression became a bit strange, and she glanced back at Didi. The little goblin curled his lips, picked up his rice bowl, voluntarily left the table, and went to his own room to eat. He wasn’t an Apostle, and with him present, Kelly couldn’t discuss Star Void intelligence with Qin Lun.
“Your little servant is really smart and cute. Give him to me!” Kelly said with a grin as she picked up her bowl and started shoveling food into her mouth again.
Apostles themselves had very low needs for food, but before Kelly became an Apostle, she was a martial artist with a huge appetite. She always ate like she was in a battle, and this habit didn’t change after she became an Apostle.
Qin Lun automatically filtered out this remark from Kelly again, smiling as he put a large piece of pork knuckle into the female martial artist’s bowl. “Please advise further!”
“I can keep talking, but first, you have to honestly tell me, how many Quest Worlds have you actually experienced? Count the Metropolis Domination War and this Toril World as two ordinary Quest Worlds each!” Kelly pouted and asked teasingly.
“Counting it that way…” Qin Lun lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said with a smile, “About nine times!”
“Nine times? Even if we count the Metropolis Domination War and Toril World together as four times, it’s only nine?” Kelly’s motion of scooping rice paused. She looked up at Qin Lun, and after getting confirmation from the young man’s unwavering gaze, her expression turned peculiar.
“I heard from Milleras earlier that you seemed to have obtained the Ancient Inheritance of an Elven Hunter! Connecting that with your Hunter Profession, you should have a Martial Heart, right? Not even ten missions, and you’re almost advancing to Second Order…”
Before Qin Lun could respond, Kelly sighed to herself, “Other Apostles at your stage have just successfully completed their Class Change! I don’t know why, but every time I meet guys like you whose promotion speed feels like cheating, I just want to bite you to death!”
“Haha, you’re known as the Golden Jackal, a high-rank powerhouse. Could it be that even you feel jealousy?” Qin Lun said with a light laugh.
“Before I even entered Shattered Starry Sky, I was a highly trained martial artist, stronger than a novice Apostle. Even so, it took me twelve Quest Worlds to advance to Second Order. The only time I got a Gold Evaluation was during my novice stage.” Kelly puffed out her cheeks and glared at Qin Lun, then took a fierce bite of the pork knuckle. “Do you think a Gold Evaluation is like cabbage lying all over the street?!”
“This… you still haven’t told me about the Chaos Team!” Qin Lun watched the pork knuckle quickly disappear under Kelly’s white teeth, swallowed hard, and awkwardly changed the subject.
“I told you before that small teams encounter irresistible bottlenecks at certain stages, forcing them to disband. Survivors then join larger teams, right?” Kelly said, her tone deep, as if remembering something.
“Yes, through the Fortress Team’s experience in Toril World, I understood some of that,” Qin Lun pondered for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
“The fall of Fortress is indeed a typical example, but that’s only part of the situation.” Kelly’s gaze became profound as she slowly said, “Executing Otherworld Missions for Shattered Starry Sky is just one of the Apostles’ responsibilities. Besides that, the Star Void sometimes dispatches Apostles to participate in external wars…”
“External wars?” A piece of information flashed through Qin Lun’s mind, and he couldn’t help blurting out, “Reincarnators? Superstring Space?”
“You’ve encountered them?” Kelly raised her delicate eyebrows in surprise, then nodded. “Since you’ve already undertaken a Death Hunt mission once, then I don’t need to explain much more.”
“No, the Reincarnators I encountered were very weak, mostly newcomers. It was a newly developed Low Magic World!” Recalling the Oni Warrior and Phantom Demon World from back then, figures like Yoshida Junko, Matthew, Jonathan, and Xiao Dao passed through Qin Lun’s mind. “That was my second time carrying out an Otherworld Mission.”
“A new alternate space-time world?” A strange light flickered in Kelly’s eyes, but this time she didn’t say more, just nodded slowly. “Shattered Starry Sky and Superstring Space, Reincarnators and us Apostles, are in some ways very similar. But in essence, they are opposites and fundamentally cannot coexist.”
As Kelly narrated, Qin Lun came to understand the deeper secrets behind the so-called “Death Hunt” mission in the Phantom Demon World back then.
Shattered Starry Sky existed by plundering the World Origin of other alternate space-time worlds, while Superstring Space was the Space-Time Manager. You could say one was a robber, the other the police, natural enemies.
Due to certain rule restrictions, the overall strength of Reincarnators and Apostles entering the same alternate space-time world would be at the same level. For example: each side might have one high-rank, two mid-rank, three low-rank members, and so on.
However, whether it was Shattered Starry Sky or Superstring Space, when they assessed personnel strength, they could only calculate surface data, not true combat power. Therefore, a problem existed here, because even at the same high, mid, or low rank, the strength of Apostles and Reincarnators could vary.
For instance, although Qin Lun hadn’t yet reached Second Order, ordinary Second-Order Apostles couldn’t handle him. If he set a trap, a high-rank Apostle might die by his hand if they weren’t careful.
Given this situation, Shattered Starry Sky had no choice but to use a ‘raise the strongest’ method to select particularly excellent and outstanding Apostles. Then they would send them into new worlds to compete with Superstring Space.
The small team bottlenecks Kelly mentioned before weren’t just about increasingly difficult ordinary worlds, but also about Quest Worlds where Shattered Starry Sky, aiming to ‘raise the strongest,’ dispatched Apostles to compete and kill each other.
In these worlds, Apostles couldn’t share missions; instead, they carried out completely opposing Otherworld Missions. The losing side usually suffered heavy casualties. In fact, Fortress Team’s first failure back then happened in such a competitive mission.
In contrast, for high-rank Apostles like those in large teams, such as Kelly, their bottlenecks were High-Magic Worlds and external wars with Superstring Space. Countless high-rank Apostles, even Legendary Apostles, died in the wars between Shattered Starry Sky and Superstring Space.
“Shattered Starry Sky needed teams like Chaos. In worlds with only Apostles, Chaos served as a touchstone for other Apostle teams. Because sometimes they would even abandon the Main Plotline to hunt other Apostles, seeking better equipment and items than mission rewards.”
A bitter smile appeared on Kelly’s face as she said helplessly, “And in external wars with Superstring Space, teams like Chaos became Shattered Starry Sky’s spearhead. Although reluctant to admit it, having fought and strategized against other Apostles, Chaos Team was more adapted to external wars with Reincarnators. In this aspect, they truly were the strongest team in Devil’s Horn.”
Qin Lun nodded silently. No wonder Chaos didn’t mind his actions in Atlantis. So Chaos Team itself often set up other Apostle teams.
As for whether Chaos Team was internally united, Qin Lun didn’t ask Kelly further. In fact, after experiencing so many Quest Worlds, he was starting to understand.
Just like the Phantom Troupe he encountered in Hunter World, the troupe members committed all sorts of evil deeds, but the bonds between companions were deeper than ordinary people’s. Sometimes, friendships forged between life and death were stronger than any emotion. The Phantom Troupe was like that, and the old members of Chaos Team were probably the same.
So, would the Murderer Team one day share life and death?
A strange thought crossed Qin Lun’s mind, but he immediately dismissed it. On the surface, the serial killers seemed harmonious, but in reality, their hearts were more closed and indifferent. They were more alert and wary of each other, making trust harder to achieve.
Who knew how long it would take to form life-and-death bonds. By that time, perhaps only one or two of the five serial killers would remain.
“Alright, thanks for the meal. I should head back to the team base now!” Kelly gave a satisfied burp, stood up, and said, “Also, thank that little guy for me. His cooking isn’t bad!”
“Wait, Lady Kelly, one last question: how can one safely turn a native of Shattered Starry Sky into an Apostle?” Qin Lun suddenly remembered a question that had troubled him for a long time and blurted it out immediately.
“You want to bring your servant into a Quest World?” Kelly looked at Qin Lun in surprise, then shook her head with a smile. “I advise you to give up that idea.”
“Why?” Qin Lun frowned.
“You participated in the Metropolis Domination War. You should know about the history of the Atlantis Sacred City, right?” Kelly asked, her eyes glinting.
“I know a little! I also got an item that could temporarily allow a Star Void native to simulate being a visitor from another time and space. But… the success rate was too low!” Qin Lun said with a bitter smile.
Besides the Space-Time Converter from Atlantis, Qin Lun had also obtained two bottles of Void Beast Serum back then. He gave one to the Elf Elder Mafa, and the other to Didi. But Didi never used it and returned it to Qin Lun; it was still in his Storage Space.
“Hmm, I’ve heard of this invention from Atlantis. But actually, there’s a simpler way for Apostles to bring Star Void natives into Quest Worlds.”
A hint of a smile appeared in Kelly’s eyes. “That’s the Servant Contract. As long as you sign a Servant Contract and share a certain amount of your Soul Life Limit with the native, you can turn the Star Void native into a Servant Apostle.”
“Just that simple?” Qin Lun was slightly stunned, then immediately remembered the scene of Frank’s revival. He originally thought Frank could become an Apostle because his soul must be special somehow. He didn’t expect it was still the effect of that 50 points of Soul Life Limit.
“Simple? If it were really that simple, why didn’t the besieged Atlantis use it back when facing attacks from multiple Apostle Cities?” Kelly shook her head wryly. “To turn an ordinary native into an Apostle, the master needs to share 50 points of Soul Life Limit, and the master cannot have less than 50 points remaining. If the Star Void determines that the native possesses the strength of a Novice Apostle after Class Change, then it’s 100 points, and the master similarly cannot have less than 100 points. Second Order is 200 points… and so on!”
Qin Lun also wore a bitter smile. Even if he added back the Soul Life Limit he allocated to Frank, he only had 197 points of Soul Life Limit so far. He couldn’t even transform a native servant with Novice Apostle strength, no wonder you almost never hear about Star Void natives becoming Apostles.
