Chapter 43: Reimbursement
Inside the Dawn Paradise.
Everything here was composed of black, white, and gray. The falling flocculent matter made the place appear desolate and dilapidated, lacking any of the strong, unique sense of security one felt within a paradise.
Su Xiao didn't know how other paradise factions felt, but upon returning to Reincarnation Paradise, there was an overwhelmingly strong sense of shelter.
No matter how perilous, horrifying, or terrifying the experiences in a primordial world were, as long as one returned to Reincarnation Paradise, there was a feeling of, finally, safety. This wasn't just a personal feeling; all contractors felt the same.
Now, stepping through the breach in the black shell into the Dawn Paradise, Su Xiao didn't have that feeling. Besides ruin, there was nothing else here.
Through a large amount of mission information, Su Xiao had learned many things. If one were to describe the characteristics of contractors from each paradise, they would be:
The madmen of Reincarnation, the miners of Apocalypse, the rangers (barcode-bald assassins) of Death, the divine sticks of Sanctuary, the soft girls of Holy Light, the tanks of Watchful, and... the violators of Dawn.
Dawn Paradise was once indeed a big daddy, but it was most famous for its numerous violators. At its peak, the ratio of contractors to violators within Dawn Paradise could reach 1:1.
Those violators were exceptionally united. They rarely harmed the primordial worlds belonging to Dawn Paradise itself, instead specializing in harming worlds belonging to other paradises. Their most common activity was world invasion, causing heavy losses for Apocalypse Paradise, Holy Light Paradise, and Watchful Paradise.
Back then, the relationships between contractors of the seven paradise factions were particularly interesting. The madmen of Reincarnation, the rangers of Death, and the violators of Dawn were all exceptionally troublesome. When world wars broke out, the situation was as follows:
The contractors of Reincarnation, Death, and Dawn would fight fiercely, blood spraying everywhere, each strike aimed at vital points. Meanwhile, the divine sticks of Sanctuary Paradise would nervously watch the excitement. A common scenario was: the excitement was watched in the morning, the people were dead by noon, and Sanctuary Paradise withdrew in the evening.
Watchful Paradise would act according to the situation. If their lineup was tough, they would go up and spar with the three powerhouses for a bit, then declare GG amidst laughter and joy.
As for the Apocalypse Paradise and Holy Light Paradise factions, while the madmen, rangers, and violators were spraying blood everywhere, the people from Apocalypse and Holy Light would be tightly hugging each other in a corner, wearing expressions of "This is truly frightening."
Su Xiao had known for a long time that the current six paradise factions had different attitudes towards violators. For example, Holy Light Paradise and Apocalypse Paradise had relatively lenient attitudes towards violators.
The Battle Angels of Apocalypse Paradise dealt with violators by first trying to talk them down, using persuasion before force, and only resorting to violence if absolutely necessary. Aido'er had previously been a violator on the Apocalypse Paradise side, which showed how lenient the punishment was.
Before committing any major offenses, after being defeated by a Battle Angel, an Apocalypse Paradise violator only needed to mine for a few months as atonement to be considered reformed.
Holy Light Paradise was similar. After being caught, violators would receive various rewardless missions. Someone as strong as Xian Ji was an extreme exception within Holy Light Paradise.
Watchful Paradise and Sanctuary Paradise had moderate punishment mechanisms for violators, while Death Paradise was relatively strict.
As for Reincarnation Paradise, becoming a violator and then trying to reform without saving a few worlds? That was wishful thinking.
Reincarnation Paradise had the harshest punishments for violators. In contrast, their own violators were more ferocious and cunning. Those violators with insufficient ability had long since died in the hunts of the Hunters. The stricter the elimination mechanism, the stronger the surviving individuals—this was a law.
Furthermore, under the notarization of the Void Tree, violators, contractors, Hunters, Battle Angels, etc., were all treated equally, because being a violator was also an identity rank notarized by a certain paradise. That paradise was Dawn Paradise.
Without this identity rank, violators would be unable to use the Void Tree's "Public Stops" to enhance their strength, trade with each other, or even enter random primordial worlds of the same rank.
After learning this, Su Xiao thought of a very important question: If he couldn't eliminate Grey Gentleman this time, it would be difficult to destroy him later.
Once Grey Gentleman's plan succeeded and allowed Dawn Paradise to recuperate in the Treeborn World, this paradise faction might gradually recover.
This was a paradise faction. Even though it had been mostly devoured by Reincarnation Paradise back then, it was still a paradise faction.
Each person could only come to the Treeborn World once in their lifetime, and only Eighth Rank contractors could enter. This was practically the best stop for Dawn Paradise at this stage. Earlier, when Reincarnation Paradise interfered with the situation in the Treeborn World, due to the initial regulations and the notarization of the Void Tree, over 50,000 ounces of Space-Time Power had almost gone down the drain.
The cost of this reinforcement was so high that it meant, even if friendly contractors or Hunters wanted to come to Su Xiao's aid now, how would they be teleported in?
Solomon, Gulu, and other friendly contractors couldn't enter the Death Domain. Whether Kaisa could enter was unclear.
Moreover, time was running out. Once Grey Gentleman's plan was fully successful, it would become a situation where those who could defeat him couldn't enter, and those who could enter were no match for him—an unsolvable problem.
There was no way to resolve it through a Paradise War either. Not to mention whether Dawn Paradise would pass the participation notarization, just the issue of participating contractors couldn't be settled.
At least 80% of the participating contractors had to vote in favor for the war to start. Currently, Dawn Paradise should only have two contractors: Grey Gentleman and Bee. As long as Grey Gentleman himself refused, it would become 50% of participants opposing, giving him veto power.
A centipede dies but never stiffens. If Dawn Paradise really got to recuperate and recover, then Grey Gentleman, who propped up the collapsing building and saved the day, would have what level of authority within Dawn Paradise? Saying he could control Dawn Paradise was nonsense, but he would definitely be treated like a favored son.
Based on Su Xiao's understanding of Grey Gentleman, once that guy had this kind of treatment, he would definitely disappear for a long time. When he reappeared, he would surely have the chips for an overwhelming victory.
Su Xiao had encountered Grey Gentleman in several primordial worlds before. Although they had always been hostile or semi-hostile, Grey Gentleman never came to confront Su Xiao head-on. It was always a covert struggle. At the slightest sign of defeat, Grey Gentleman would immediately use his backup plan to withdraw, abandoning tempting gains to make a clean getaway.
Only this time, Grey Gentleman didn't retreat.
However, saying Grey Gentleman's plan this time had no risks was also wrong. That risk was Bee. Logically, Grey Gentleman should have made Bee hide. But the actual situation was that Bee was practically a master of courting death.
At the beginning of this world, she participated in the siege against Su Xiao. Then she joined Xian Ji's team, heading north to pursue Su Xiao, and later went south to Bay City.
Grey Gentleman must have prepared a large number of life-saving measures for Bee. The most likely possibility was that it wasn't him letting Bee wander around the world, but that Bee had to do so, like opening up a map, wandering around the world, indirectly participating in various major events of this world.
For example, participating in the siege of the Overlord unit, Su Xiao. Later, when Su Xiao killed the Queen, Bee was secretly hiding in the deepest corner of the big tree hole, eating potato chips.
During the subsequent "Sun Rising Incident," Bee secretly hid behind and praised the sun. Later, during the Bay City Catastrophe, Bee fell asleep sunbathing on the palace roof.
It seemed Bee didn't directly participate in these events, but to some extent, she indirectly participated. At the very least, she was a bystander. This should be to achieve some goal or accumulate something.
None of this mattered now. Su Xiao was hesitating whether to continue exploring forward. Based on his understanding of Grey Gentleman, that guy would definitely have prepared a backup plan. Rushing in head-on now would most likely result in a bloody mess.
Actually, the current situation was simple. In Su Xiao's view, Grey Gentleman had probably set up some kind of coordinate. Dawn Paradise locked onto this coordinate, thus arriving here to recuperate.
According to the law of "risk equals reward" for paradise factions, Grey Gentleman's current actions would definitely receive assistance from Dawn Paradise.
Su Xiao, on the other hand, received assistance from Reincarnation Paradise. The main problem was that distant water couldn't quench a near thirst. One of the three temporary assistances, [Ⅶ Combat Support Device], was intercepted by the Void Tree. This was actually normal. If Su Xiao piloted that thing, within at most 4 hours, he could level the entire Treeborn World.
Apart from [Ⅶ Combat Support Device], Su Xiao also received the following two temporary assistances: