Chapter 264: Chapter 262: Highest Authority
"Why do you have the highest authority? Shouldn’t it have been lost long ago?"
A disbelieving voice came through the school channel.
The ancient Fishman seemed to find this fact hard to accept, relentlessly questioning Mo Ling on the channel.
"Who exactly are you? Why don’t I know you?"
Mo Ling didn’t answer him.
So, the ancient Fishman anxiously began trying various methods to remove the lock, while also attempting to look up Mo Ling’s information.
Soon, he found Mo Ling’s account.
’Guest 500?’
The voice in the channel trembled even more.
"Why can’t I find your identity? What does ’Guest 500’ mean?"
The ancient Fishman was stunned when he saw Mo Ling’s "account name."
While continuing to search for Mo Ling’s information, he also struggled, trying to disable the armor’s lock function. But the runic lock wouldn’t open, remaining firmly fixed to the armor.
"How is my authority still not enough? I want to file an appeal!" he shouted anxiously at the management system.
"Appeal received. We will provide you with a response within thirty Fishman working days. Please wait patiently..."
After a system notification tone, nothing happened.
The ancient Fishman remained frozen in mid-air; the surrounding parts and the armor on his body were completely still.
But at that moment, a notification window popped up in front of Mo Ling:
"Greetings, Highest Authority. The following is a new appeal. Please review it."
"Appealing Account: Fishman 465."
"Purpose of Appeal: Remove account lock."
"Reason for Automatic Lock: Attempted to attack the Highest Authority."
"Reason for Appeal: I didn’t do anything. Why was I locked?"
"..."
At the bottom of the window were several conspicuous action buttons.
Mo Ling took a careful look and chose to reject it directly.
As Mo Ling made his choice, the action box disappeared.
However, the ancient Fishman wouldn’t give up. He continuously sent unlock appeals to the school’s system, and rows of notification boxes popped up in front of Mo Ling.
One of the notification boxes was particularly noticeable, its edges glowing red. Mo Ling’s attention was immediately drawn to it.
"Fishman 465 account is abnormal. You can adjust this account’s permissions through the account management interface and handle the violation."
In the fine print below the notification box, the method to open the account management interface was also carefully noted.
’So user-friendly?’
Mo Ling hurriedly followed the prompt’s instructions and found the account management interface.
As soon as he opened it, densely packed rows of accounts refreshed on the screen.
Most of these accounts were simply named "Fishman" plus a number.
The moment he entered this interface, Mo Ling discovered something troubling:
The account list was constantly refreshing, and with every refresh, new accounts would appear.
’The school is constantly expanding?’
Mo Ling quickly understood what this meant.
The number of ancient Fishmen was still increasing, which seemed to indicate they were racing against time to seize bodies.
Every time an ancient Fishman successfully seized a body and created armor, a new account would be added to the list.
Watching the ceaseless appearance of new accounts, Mo Ling began to feel anxious.
The situation in Fishman Village was likely not good.
Soon, Mo Ling found a red-flagged account in the list—Fishman 465.
This was the very ancient Fishman who was locked before him.
After a moment’s thought, Mo Ling selected the account and quickly found one of the options.
"Do you agree to delete this account?"
"Agree."
Mo Ling chose "Agree" without hesitation.
The moment he made his selection, the interface automatically returned to the previous screen.
The red-flagged account had already disappeared from the list.
’It actually worked?’
Mo Ling hadn’t expected that he could actually delete an account.
’But what’s going to happen now?’
He quickly looked toward the ancient Fishman locked in the air and noticed a deep red light faintly flashing from the gaps between the armor’s parts.
Before long, the gaps at the component joints began to widen, and they slowly started to break apart and detach.
The ancient Fishman inside the armor went still, as if suddenly falling silent. No more sounds came from the school channel.
Immediately after, under Mo Ling’s shocked gaze, the red-glowing parts suddenly exploded, disintegrated, scattered, and flew into the air.
After circling a few times, they flew toward Mo Ling, converging into a dense, dark mass that hovered above his head.
The unsupported Fishman suddenly plummeted from the sky, crashing into the mud.
For a moment, everyone around focused their gazes on the mass of parts above Mo Ling’s head and instinctively took a few steps back.
Only Li Luo remained standing by Mo Ling’s side, staring at the parts with a mixture of curiosity and astonishment.
"Save him first!" Jeff shouted. Only then did the crowd turn their attention to the Fishman who had fallen to the ground.
After crashing into the mud, the Fishman seemed dazed from the fall. He sat up with a blank stare, looking confusedly at the crowd gathering around him.
Several Fake Fishmen quickly surrounded him, binding him tightly with tentacles of flowing water.
Jeff walked up to him and demanded, "What were you just doing? Were you trying to attack us?"
The Fishman sat on the ground, still looking completely baffled.
"What?"
He stared blankly at Jeff, seemingly unaware of what had just happened.
Jeff stared at him grimly for a long time before speaking again.
"You don’t know?"
The Fishman dazedly turned his fish-like head, looked at the tentacles binding him, then at the crowd nearby, and shook his head at Jeff in confusion.
Suddenly, his gaze landed on Mo Ling in the distance, who was now surrounded by the floating parts.
"It’s those things! They were chasing us!"
Because he was bound, he could only make frantic faces, trying to signal to the others around him.
Jeff glanced at Mo Ling, then turned back to reassure the Fishman. "Don’t worry. That’s a human friend. He won’t hurt us. Now tell us exactly what happened."
The Fishman stared at Mo Ling for a long time. Seeing that the parts were just hovering quietly above Mo Ling’s head, he finally relaxed and began to earnestly tell Jeff the whole story.
"Those parts suddenly shot out of the ground and hovered over the village, a dense, dark cloud of them. After a while, they swooped down, burrowed into our bodies, and turned us into armor..."
As he spoke, he froze again.
"Was I just caught by them?"
"Yes," Jeff said, pointing to the parts above Mo Ling’s head. "Those are the parts that attacked you."
Staring at the hovering parts, a look of fear returned to the Fishman’s face.
He looked at Jeff anxiously. "Did I just attack you? It wasn’t me! It was the armor! I wasn’t conscious at all."
"That armor turns me into someone else!"
