Chapter 1448: 1448: Invitation from Starsea Prisoner: Start the Game
The moment BS Rita awakened, the Adjudicator game called Game Invasion came to an end.
And when she finished the eye exchange and looked toward Rust Monument, this war was declared close to its final curtain.
Rust Monument was strong.
The upper limits of its level and abilities were far above every Starsea player present. It possessed an enormous number of skills, and that was the confidence and capital that had allowed it to withstand three divine players until now.
However, a player who sat high above and enjoyed the harvest without paying the price could never compare to Starsea players who had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Skill chaining.
Cooldown calculation.
The extreme use of mana and soul power.
In Starsea, these things were enough to become divine coursework.
Rust Monument had so many powerful skills, yet still failed to kill the divine players.
And the moment the divine players’ health bars were linked to all players, Rust Monument no longer had any chance of victory against divine players who were each practically a boss.
Most importantly, every player standing before it had no fear in their hearts.
Only towering rage and unwillingness.
Even when their health reached the execution threshold, the Vineborne, Candlebeast, and Landscale showed no retreat or cowardice.
After Rita transferred all fatal weaknesses onto Rust Monument, its mistakes became even more frequent.
It feared loss.
It feared death.
That was why, after descending into this exile zone, it had granted the players divine punishment that stripped away power and inflicted permanent death.
It had tried to make them afraid.
Yet it had failed.
Even the players escorted to Quiet Mountain, unable to continue fighting, refused to hide.
They all stood on Quiet Mountain’s shore, staring toward this battlefield.
Waiting for their leaders to summon them.
What if?
What if they were still needed?
At this moment, Rust Monument’s maximum health was only ten percent.
It possessed the best defensive skills and healing skills.
But it had no method to deal with fatal weaknesses.
If it was struck in a fatal weakness even once more, it would die permanently.
It had once let that legendary Prisoner break free from Divine Bestowal in order to obtain a defensive skill related to fatal weaknesses.
It had even mercifully allowed her to live for a while longer.
Unfortunately, the skill she finally awakened had nothing to do with defense or survival.
Rust Monument could no longer care about dignity or composure.
It could not do what these Prisoners did, refusing to yield even in death.
Nearly a hundred Ash Inspectors were teleported to its side by its skill, shielding it in the center.
It intended to leave.
Rita’s right eye had completely turned deep blue.
Starlight shimmered within it.
Just meeting her gaze was enough to sense danger.
She said to Deceitful Bloom, Foolishness, and the others who were preparing to force their way through the Ash Inspectors’ attacks and kill Rust Monument,
"It has to stay alive!"
The flower whip, bullets, and waves instantly changed direction, turning toward the Ash Inspectors instead.
The cube spun rapidly in the sky.
The almost blank World Sigh consumed its last trace of strength to turn its pages.
At last, it stopped at the epilogue.
After losing its stories, illustrations, and the beings buried within it, this World Sigh could still maintain form only because it still had a [Prologue] and an [Epilogue].
And now, on this battlefield of the past, this story would begin from the [Epilogue].
"Before the final bell rings, I want Starsea to deviate from its destined course."
The pages began flipping forward from the final page.
Each time a page turned, that blank sheet detached from the spine of World Sigh.
An invisible wind swept it into the night sky of Starsea and sent it flying toward Rust Monument.
"Order."
The moment the cube was restored, BS Rita issued a new codex.
She wanted Rust Monument to become one of the Prisoners.
She wanted the authority to Start the Game to remain in this exile zone.
The hands within the clock eye hanging high in the sky began spinning rapidly.
The moment the hour hand pointed to [3], a bell rang.
The pages of World Sigh scattered completely.
Together with the remaining Sigh Bridges still present in this exile zone, sheet after sheet of white-gold paper linked together in the air.
They became chains and flew toward Rust Monument.
Only the [Prologue] moved against the wind, flying toward BS Rita.
Black petals scattered.
In the blink of an eye, Rust Monument was completely wrapped by the pages that had once written World Sigh.
The centaur became the pendulum bob.
The linked pages became the pendulum rod, connecting it to the clock in the sky.
Binding.
Sealing.
Suspension.
And when it was incorporated into Order Clock, it also became part of this exile zone.
The centaur, along with its companion item, Rusted Divine Stele, was sealed together.
From this day forward, it would be controlled by Order Clock.
All Ash Inspectors stopped moving.
Weapons still raised, they stared blankly into the sky.
At the pendulum.
[Rusted Divine Stele] [Authority]: You may invite any living being to join the Abyss Game, but that living being will only obtain temporary game qualification. The Abyss Will shall periodically clean the mottled rust upon the stele. Only those who fully ignite their soul fire before the cleaning moment arrives and leave a mark upon the stele can officially obtain game qualification. Current remaining invitations: 11124531. Countdown to next cleaning: 56 minutes 24 seconds.
The key information of [Rusted Divine Stele] touched upon the game rules of the higher-dimensional world.
Even with control over [Prisoner Codex], there was little she could modify.
She could not completely erase the side effect of this invitation.
For example, the line, "The Abyss Will shall periodically clean the mottled rust upon the stele."
That was the countdown to destruction.
It was also the method by which "one epoch" was timed.
She could only mobilize soul fire to reduce the power of this cleaning.
She could disperse it, turning it into six bell tolls.
Only in that way could living beings survive at the end of each epoch.
And the war between Starsea and Quiet Mountain could not be changed.
Only competition and elimination could force out the potential of living beings.
Only that could make them break their limits and grow rapidly.
This was the price of obtaining game qualification.
It was a gamble.
But some things that did not touch the core rules of the Abyss Game could be adjusted.
For example, this invitation could be a curse.
It could also be an opportunity to change one’s fate.
She took out the unfinished painting.
Then picked up her brush and added the centaur pendulum beneath the clock.
In an instant, the painting lit with a sheen.
This painting was finally complete.
The outline of Order Clock flickered in and out of view in the night sky.
The cube prisons that imprisoned the myriad races either gathered or scattered across Starsea.
Between prison and prison were Sigh Bridges built from pages.
[Start the Game]
[Game Invasion] became Quiet Mountain.
And this [Start the Game] could become an invitation.
She lifted the illustration and threw it toward Order Clock in the sky.
The illustration transformed in midair from soft canvas into a sharp card.
Like a black invitation slicing through space.
At last, it stabbed diagonally into the pendulum’s heart, completely sealing Rust Monument.
The cube was scrambled and restored once more.
Its light had visibly dimmed.
There was a limit to how many codices it could issue each day.
"Bell."
[Start the Game] [Authority]: "From this day onward, every bell toll shall be a grand invitation."
Whenever the bell tolls, members of the same races outside the world will have a chance to receive a game invitation from Starsea Prisoner. When the next epoch begins, living beings who accept the invitation may enter the game. The Abyss Will shall clean the mottled rust upon the stele when the bell tolls. Current remaining invitations: 11124531. Countdown to next cleaning: 22 minutes 21 seconds.
This bell toll could no longer be avoided.
She could bring the players of the Twelfth Epoch back with her.
But the players of the Third Epoch would inevitably be cleaned away as mottled rust.
She would allocate the soul fire of this epoch to save files for all Third Epoch Prisoners.
They would log in again as new accounts in the next epoch.
She would give every player three chances to start over.
The emptied slots would be used to invite new players.
Since Rita had imprisoned Rust Monument in the exile zone, she had to send invitations to those "lowly races" who had been excluded from the game and denied the favor of fate.
She would give those living beings the right to choose whether to come to this region and participate in a death game.
Her gaze fell on the world piers.
Rita looked toward the worlds that had already developed wills from the countless whispers of Prisoners.
Those World Graveyards that appeared after worlds shattered.
Those marks that fell into living beings’ hands and could blow bubbles.
Where had they come from?
Why had they been born?
At this moment, she found the answer.
She issued a command to every world.
She ordered the world wills to condense their own world brands.
When a world shattered, that brand would become a World Graveyard.
And when the bell rang, every invitation sent to living beings outside would carry one brand.
Through that brand, living beings outside could see fragments of the war between Starsea and Quiet Mountain.
They could see what accepting the invitation and becoming a Starsea Prisoner would mean.
Only then would they decide whether to join this brutal tempering.
Three chances.
Either be destroyed.
Or break free from the shackles of fate and escape Divine Bestowal.
The only thing that could not be made truly fair was that some players might not live long enough to see the game descend.
Because the "Divine Talent" abilities stored in the resource library were not endless.
Her right hand swept across the sky.
A screen like a curtain of heaven lit up in the air.
Inside were all the accumulations of these two epochs.
Talents.
Skills.
Items.
Equipment.
Formulas.
There were even dragon eggs that some player had somehow cultivated.
The upper right corner of the screen displayed the soul fire she could allocate.
These resources could not support billions of living beings from myriad races at the same time.
Only a portion of worlds and players could go online first.
They would experience war and elimination.
Then, through war and elimination, the newly created skills of these living beings would be gathered back.
Only then could the cycle continue and train new players.
Players with poor luck might not survive until the game came online.
They could only wait for a second chance.
As for Starsea and Quiet Mountain, the final match at the end of each epoch would decide which side became the PVP zone and which became the PVE zone.
The disorder faction represented endless war.
Living beings would complete evolution in chaos, blood, and pain.
They would be tempered in war.
Reborn in destruction.
Searching for the possibility of breaking free from Divine Bestowal.
And every player entering this exile zone for the first time would inevitably enter the disorder faction.
Only after a player’s first death would they gain one choice.
Whether to revive next time in the PVP zone or the PVE zone.
The price of going to the PVE zone was not only having to queue and wait.
If one died in the PVE zone, they would lose the right to revive forever.
She gave players the right to enjoy Quiet.
She also gave them a retreat if they changed their minds halfway.
But better resources and more opportunities would inevitably be tilted toward those who did not fear challenges.
They would be given to those who chose pain and tempering.
Only the latter could represent Starsea Prisoner.
Only the latter would not be cleaned away as mottled rust when the bell tolled.
And only the latter could survive until everything ended.
Until they reached the higher-dimensional world.
