Chapter 276: Chapter 274: Kill the Fish Swarm
"The conditions have all been met."
"The complete highest authority, and a suitable race..."
Jeff said calmly.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Mo Ling could no longer contain his confusion.
Mo Ling’s original plan was to use the highest authority to delete all of The Swarm’s accounts.
But after this string of riddles from Jeff, Mo Ling no longer dared to do so.
Who knew what other tricks The Swarm had up its sleeve.
But Mo Ling couldn’t tell if Jeff was just running a bluff, betting that he wouldn’t dare delete all of The Swarm’s accounts.
Mo Ling’s head throbbed. ’Why is the Abyss filled with these ancient monsters?’ he wondered. ’They’ve lived for who-knows-how-long, and everything they say is so cryptic and convoluted you can’t tell what’s true and what’s not.’
At this point, he could only continue to ask questions and get everything straight.
Jeff, for his part, seemed to have no intention of hiding anything and began to answer Mo Ling’s questions earnestly.
He flipped the ancient Fishman tome on the table to the last page.
"Look, what is this?"
It was a crooked word in the Fishman language. A pair of crossed strokes sat above a horizontal line, forming an upright triangle.
At the tip of the triangle was a Little Fish, curled into a circle and pressed tightly against the apex.
"This is...?" To his surprise, Mo Ling didn’t recognize it.
"Take a look at that one outside, and you’ll know."
Mo Ling quickly looked at the image on the screen.
The new Jeff’s bright red Santa hat was incredibly conspicuous.
"It’s a Santa hat?" Mo Ling blurted out.
"Correct."
’The new Fishmen actually created a word like this?’
’Has human culture really corrupted them this badly?’
At the same time, Mo Ling had a sudden realization: for The Swarm, the significance of a new word was anything but simple.
"What kind of permission does it grant?" Mo Ling asked, looking at the crooked Santa-hat word with curiosity.
"It has no special permission. Right now, it has only this one meaning: a Santa hat is a Santa hat. Its only function is to let us wear hats."
"That simple?"
"It is that simple. Only if they give this word a new meaning in the future will new permissions be generated."
Hearing Jeff’s explanation, Mo Ling felt like he was starting to understand.
"So, a suitable race... is to create words for you?"
"Correct." Jeff nodded in gratification.
"The Swarm originated from words, so we cannot create new ones. We can only combine them. Only a physical race that uses the Fishman language to communicate can create new words. They are our Creators."
"Right now, these Creators are outside, full of life. After I discovered they weren’t some body-snatching race, I had the entire Swarm cease their attacks on them."
"I originally wanted to have The Swarm return the bodies, but all the parts are locked by you, so they can’t move."
Mo Ling was taken aback by Jeff’s words.
"Then why kill The Swarm?"
"Because we have to go back."
"Go back?"
"Yes. We have to go back and conquer new words."
Jeff pointed to the Little Fish on the tip of the Santa hat and said, "We have to become the fish on this."
"Aren’t you already on it?"
"It’s different. The fish created at the very beginning doesn’t belong to The Swarm. Only after we have completely conquered this word can we truly obtain its permission."
"When the new Fishman Race creates more words, The Swarm can obtain more permissions."
"As long as the new Fishman Race continues to develop and create words, the world of text will become infinitely vast. It will extend forever, with no boundaries. For The Swarm, the Racial Lock will cease to exist."
"As long as the Creators exist, the world can continue to expand, right?"
"Yes..." Mo Ling answered blankly.
He was utterly shocked.
The Swarm had lost their ancient memories. They didn’t know the origin of this new Fishman Race, but Mo Ling remembered.
The new Fishman Race was created by The Swarm itself.
’They created their own Creators?’
It struck Mo Ling as completely absurd.
’Their world was too limited, so they escaped it, created a Creator to make their world infinite, and then planned to return to it?’
Mo Ling felt his metallic brain instantly overload.
"You should understand now, right?"
"I think so..."
He was astonished by The Swarm’s audacity.
"After The Swarm is killed, you’ll go back?"
"Yes. Return to our essence, turn back into words."
"Will you ever return to the real world?"
"If the world is infinite and we can roam freely, why would we return to reality? In that world, there’s no Racial Lock. We wouldn’t have to spend so much effort devising formulas to comprehend the world. Isn’t that far better than reality?"
Jeff’s answer made Mo Ling’s brain crash again.
He suddenly realized that The Swarm’s goal had always been "freedom."
Breaking into the real world was because their world of text was too limited. Invading other places was to find a way to unlock the Racial Lock. They were fighting against everything that restricted their freedom, never forgetting their true purpose.
As copies of Little Fish, everything The Swarm did was to carry out its will. This had never changed.
However, even now that he understood everything, Mo Ling still found it hard to believe.
"That’s it? So you want me to delete all of your accounts?"
"Yes." Jeff nodded. "The Swarm will disappear."
Dubiously, Mo Ling looked at a suit of armor on the screen and initiated the account deletion.
The parts on the armor rapidly burst apart, and the Fishman body inside collapsed.
"Yes, just like that."
Jeff looked at Mo Ling and nodded again.
"You can select all. It’s faster that way."
He even tried to teach Mo Ling a faster way to do it.
Mo Ling continued to delete a few more accounts.
Outside, the suits of armor began to glow red one by one, their parts rapidly breaking away.
It seemed just as Jeff had said. They offered no resistance, took no countermeasures, and simply let Mo Ling delete the accounts one by one.
Jeff also kept nodding silently, signaling Mo Ling to continue.
However, when only a few accounts were left, Mo Ling stopped.
"Why did you stop?" Jeff asked, confused.
"After you’re all gone, what happens to the highest authority?"
"You can keep it. We don’t need it anymore," Jeff said nonchalantly.
So, Mo Ling selected the last few accounts. Jeff seemed to sense something and sat up straight.
"Thank you..."
He gave Mo Ling a meaningful look.
As the "confirm deletion" option was pressed, a part on Jeff’s chest flashed with a faint red light and shot out abruptly.
The Great Clan Leader’s body instantly collapsed, falling unconscious onto the table.
Then, the part flew over to Mo Ling’s head and hovered silently in the air.
The library fell silent, as if nothing had happened at all.
Mo Ling stared at the empty account list, somewhat dazed.
Outside, all the menacing suits of armor had turned into parts floating in the air.
The Fishmen who were originally inside the armor slowly came to, looking around in confusion, not knowing what had happened.
Inside The Swarm’s channel, it was terrifyingly quiet.
The Swarm... was really gone...
