Chapter 11: The Time of Departure, Part One, Black (8000)
There are connections between lives.
Family, friends, rivals, enemies... The relationships between people are diverse, and their depth varies, but there is no doubt that the essence of every life is independent, and countless 'connections' link these isolated islands together.
Of course, generally speaking, this kind of connection usually occurs between members of the same race, such as human to human, dragon to dragon, horse to horse... But for some reason, there are always some strange individuals who develop deep 'connections' with many different races.
Year 849 of the Falling Stars Era, January 1st, 5:43 PM, Northern Lands, Nissier Snow Mountain, Winterfell Academy.
Black, dazed and confused, opened her eyes, woke up from the bottom of Palmprint Lake in front of Winterfell Academy, and spat out a mouthful of stale air from her body.
High-temperature geothermal heat mixed with dragonflame stimulated the rich mana crystals at the bottom of the lake, causing them to emit a bizarre, iridescent light while also heating half the lake, sending surging bubbles erupting from below.
It was now the time when classes at Winterfell ended. Many students strolling at the foot of the mountain, relaxing, or even secretly holding hands with their crushes witnessed this scene—milky white steam mixed with rainbow-like light rising into the sky like a colossal pillar supporting heaven and earth.
However, not many were surprised. Because they were too familiar with it, some students even laughed and joked with their friends while enduring the hot, humid wind: "Miss Black is a bit late getting up today—it's been over ten minutes since class ended."
"Indeed, that's quite rare, haha."
As a half-ancient dragon who had lived in the waters around Winterfell Academy in the Northern Lands for years, Black naturally knew that the commotion she made after waking from her afternoon nap had become synonymous with the school bell. She never cared about such trivial matters.
"So boring... Sigh, no troublesome magical beasts, no troublesome criminals. Why is this world so peaceful?"
Yawning, she initially wanted to leave the lake, but after thinking it over, Black realized she had nothing to do today. So, halfway through rising, she rolled over, transformed into human form, and continued lying on the warm lakebed. Half-closing her eyes, she opened her Psychic Terminal: "Let's see what news there is today."
With this thought, vast amounts of information appeared before Black's eyes.
—This was the best of times.
With the Radiant technology recovered over the past few decades and the surge of Transcendent Beings brought by the Great Magic Tide, Winterfell Academy not only had no worries about student enrollment but even needed to open over a dozen branch schools to ensure that no highly talented genius went untrained. The nearly completely public cultivation materials, obtainable without any cost, not only made the older generation of experts who had hit bottlenecks stronger but also spawned countless new traditions and materials, accelerating the pace of generational change.
In an era of 'rapid peaceful development' brought about by the fierce battles of certain experts, Mycroft Civilization had achieved a leap from the 'pre-industrial era' to the 'void era' in just two generations. This was certainly due to the legacy of the Radiant Civilization, but also to the superiority of a transcendent civilization... After all, for ordinary civilians who considered teleportation magic common sense and often saw experts entering and leaving worlds, or even fighting outside them, the so-called void was just a larger sea, and other worlds were just other continents floating in that sea.
Because of this thick-skinned tolerance, Mycroft People could easily accept any novel creation, bizarre species, or even strange civilizations and turn them into common sense.
And the Psychic Terminal was perhaps the one that integrated the fastest.
"Oh! 'Continent of Strife' and 'Grand Arena' both have updates today!"
Suddenly, Black, who was browsing the Psychic Terminal, let out a delighted cheer. She quickly scrolled down to see the latest update information fully displayed before her.
[Grand Arena Version 6.64]
- Added a kill streak system. In 1v1 battles, consecutive victories will grant temporary titles, providing experience bonuses and cool appearances. Currently supports up to a ten-win streak.
- Added new arena maps: 'Aether Abyss', 'Shattered World', and 'Void Great Maelstrom'. Not recommended for players below the Ultimate-rank.
- Added a single-player mode. Players can now challenge ten levels of AI enemies. Defeating each level of AI opponent grants a new title, which provides experience bonuses and purchase permissions for new cosmetic boxes.
- The first Multiverse Star River Civilization Invitational Tournament is about to begin. The solo and team categories of the Civilization Invitational Tournament are open for qualifiers simultaneously. You can go alone or find teammates to fight together. Ultimately, thirty-two teams will enter the main tournament, enjoying high prize money and rich rewards.
Tip: The standard team size is five people. Starting from Gold-rank, the invitational tournament will group players by strength into three major groups: 'Gold Glory', 'Soul's Ultimate Essence', and 'Heavenly Mandate Legendary', each with independent invited teams and champions. You cannot select teammates whose level is more than one major realm higher than yours.
- Tickets for the first Multiverse Star River Civilization Invitational Tournament, 'Silver Invitation', are now available for purchase. You can upgrade your invitation's level to obtain new cosmetic boxes and exclusive limited-time maps and related rewards.
[Continent of Strife Version 7.22]
- Added a late-game calamity to the game flow: 'Chaos Evil God'. Added new wandering crises: 'Darkness Shrouding the Sky', 'Annihilation Tide', and 'Internal Birth of Evil Demons'. From now on, hidden professions like 'Mad Cultist' and 'Chaos Caller' will randomly appear among civilization individuals. These individuals will accelerate propagation at low stability levels and disrupt your construction.
- Added the 'Pioneer Legacy' system, which includes new event chains and exploration chains. VIP users at Ultimate-rank and above can choose a 'Pioneer Start'. Currently, only 'Primordial Spirit', 'Radiant Radiance', and 'Lonely Shadow' are supported.
Friendly reminder: Pioneer starts are extremely difficult and each has independent challenge levels.
- Swarm-like civilizations will now randomly produce 'Mutants'. Mutants do not obey the Hive Mother's call but can connect to it. Mutant aptitudes are random, but they will always possess 'High-level Psychic Abilities'.
- Adjusted AI plan weights and improved AI intelligence.
Warning! In 'Abyss-level Difficulty' on the Continent of Strife, all hostile civilization AIs now possess at least Level 7 Strong Artificial Intelligence. Do not underestimate your opponents. Fully utilize your intelligence and wit to find a way to break through hell.
"Wuwuwu, so touching!"
There was much more update content, but just reading the beginnings of each, Black was moved to tears. She rolled around on the lakebed, venting her joy: "With so many updates, this is practically a new game—and this Multiverse Star River Civilization Invitational Tournament, it seems you just need to buy a ticket to participate in the qualifiers?"
"Then later, I'll invite Ying and Lin, and Miss 3... Oh, Miss 3 seems to want to join the 'Heavenly Mandate Legendary Group'... Then I'll call Chu Hao, Lisa, and Syndicate? That makes exactly five people!"
Thinking happily, Black didn't consider that besides herself, everyone else might be very busy—but regardless, she, who had been drowsy and barely suppressing her bloodline instinct to fall into a deep slumber, was for the first time so energized. Black felt her bloodline burning.
"I'm a top expert who achieved 27 consecutive wins in Ultimate-rank random challenges! Even if I can't win the championship, getting into the main tournament should be a breeze, right?"
With this confident thought, Black opened the Grand Arena forum, ready to share in others' joy and the forum veterans' boasting. Compared to the boring real world, everyone in the Psychic Terminal forum was talented, spoke well, and she loved it here!
But Black did not see in the forum what she wanted: 'Buy, buy, buy! Who wouldn't buy such a generous invitation?' or 'Live unboxing, if I get an extremely rare item, I'll roll for an immortal cosmetic' and other such entertaining content.
Instead, there was a overwhelming wave of lamentation.
[Free Discussion]: Seriously, what's up with this AI?!
[Game System]: How can a high-level AI just attack relentlessly from start to finish? No time to even catch a breath! This design is completely unreasonable!
[Bug Collection]: Killed instantly at the same level. I can clearly see the AI's moves but can't dodge them at all. Is this a bug?
And there were also highly upvoted replies under each post.
"Seriously, why do you say 'seriously'?" "Seriously, what's wrong with you?!"
"I think it's fine, same feeling as being killed instantly by a random expert on the road (small feeling)." "Hello, this update fixed the bug where you could defeat the AI."
"I started, got killed instantly, what's there to say." "Hello, it's not a bug, dear. It's just that you're too weak."
Almost all the content was frantically complaining about the AI's strength in this Grand Arena update. As for the huge matter of the Multiverse Civilization Invitational Tournament, hardly anyone was talking about it. Filled with doubt, Black muttered, "What's going on?" while clicking on a manually pinned super-long post.
This was a post by a very well-known team on the Grand Arena forum, 'New Frontier Lab'. This team usually analyzed the impact and pros and cons of various arena maps on different professions and races, proposing interesting map combat methods and strategies against specific dominant tactics. So every time they appeared, many people would shout 'Master' and go to leave their names.
And this time, with the new AI's appearance, it seemed no different—at a glance, Black saw many IDs she recognized in the post, presumably all like her, seeing the team's post and rushing over to see if there were any strategies or tips to learn.
But this time, New Frontier Lab did not provide corresponding strategies as usual, but instead a complaint that clearly showed a sense of collapse.
[What kind of AI is this? It's completely cheating, right? Tested on all maps, it perfectly adapts and executes perfect first strikes. I don't think such a creature exists in the multiverse. No, is it even a creature?]
"Didn't expect... even the professional strategy group failed." — New Captain.
"Ah, New Frontier Lab has collapsed too." — This ID cannot be disclosed due to relevant laws.
"They're working hard too. Captain, maybe next time we should team up with them and try to tackle it together?" — I Love Tentacles, replying to 'This ID cannot be disclosed due to relevant laws'.
"I knew there was no reason they could clear it and I couldn't... Sure enough, no one can clear it." — Home Demon.
Densely packed over thousands of pages, all were complaints and discussions about it. Some even shared videos of themselves being killed instantly by high-level AIs, or being overwhelmed after resisting for a while. Those who could resist for over twenty seconds were already elite players in the Multiverse Star River forum. The current best recorded performance was a mysterious ID, 'Shepherd of Stars', who fought a Level 9 AI for five minutes and narrowly lost by one move. That seemed to be a Void-level expert with an extremely massive true body. Even on the Multiverse Magic Net forum, experts of this level were extremely rare. Many players had come specifically for this expert's video.
One could see a white Void Behemoth and a blurry Level 9 AI battling fiercely in the void for five minutes. The fight was white-hot from the start. In the video, chaotic energy surged, and the very Dao was obliterated. Many spectators, due to insufficient personal strength, were overwhelmed by the endless information contained in the video and disconnected.
"Not bad." The holder of this ID commented on his performance at the end of the video: "At least better than last time."
The ten levels were Mortal, Black Iron, Silver, Gold, Early Ultimate, High Ultimate, Early Legendary, Mid Legendary, High Legendary, and Legendary Limit. The so-called Level 9 AI possessed High Legendary strength. Although Black's strength hadn't reached Legendary, she wasn't so weak as to be overwhelmed by watching a High Legendary battle. But even she couldn't see the specific details of the fight.
"A High Legendary who gets defeated by an AI? That's too weak. I bet they just grinded their way up with time and aren't a real combat expert."
Clicking her tongue in amazement at the videos of players getting stomped, Black felt no fear in her heart, but rather a bit of eagerness: "They say it's so hard, but I think it's just that. These people just weren't prepared and got defeated. Worst case, I'll just focus from the start and fight with my strongest power!"
"Maybe I'll be the first dragon to defeat a same-level AI!"
Thinking this, Black excitedly left the forum, clicked on the Grand Arena icon, smiled, and confidently selected 'Single Player Mode', then 'Level 6 AI', and made the relevant settings.
Map! Aether Abyss! Scene Destruction! Allowed! Random Disaster! Enabled!
Game, start!
Three seconds later.
Black looked up blankly, staring at the bubbles rising from the bottom of Palmprint Lake. There was still a faint phantom pain at her neck, as if it had been cut off: "What happened?"
How was I killed instantly?
"No! I wasn't focused enough earlier!"
Gritting her teeth, Black clicked 'Challenge Again': "I don't believe it—"
Five seconds later.
Feeling like her head had been crushed, and with a bit of pain in her chest, Black frowned deeply: "No, no, something must be wrong... I should have activated the Solar Shield from the start."
Clicked again!
Ten seconds later: "Seriously, why can't I see him?! How was I killed?!"
Clicked again!
One second: "No, no, I can't force myself to find the target. The opening is too big!"
Clicked again!
Fourteen seconds: "Waaaaaah!!!! How can he kill me like a chicken?! We're both Ultimate-rank, I don't accept this!!!!"
Clicked again!
...
"Who am I? Where am I? Why am I torturing myself?"
"How many times have I died?"
Four hours later, a dazed black dragon spread her wings, lying in an 'X' shape on the lakebed. The tip of her tail, at the bottom of the 'X', swayed gently, stirring the water currents: "Forget it. At this point, I can't even count anymore."
During the long battle process, Black had unconsciously canceled her human transformation and reverted to her original form to fight—but even so, she couldn't last more than a minute and a half.
"But wait, this AI's fighting style... it feels kind of familiar..."
Coming to her senses from the feverish challenge, Black thought for a moment and realized something—this AI's fighting style wasn't unfamiliar to her; in fact, it felt deeply ingrained in her bones!
She quickly pulled up her previous battle videos, switched to a spectator's perspective, slowed them down, and examined them frame by frame...
"Wait, this, isn't this exactly how Master fought when he was at Ultimate-rank?! Back when we fought the Ultimate-rank Black Dragon Man Da Jia Er in the Bloodmoon Abyss!"
"It's slightly modified... but this AI is basically treating me like Man Da Jia Er! No wonder it's so good at killing dragons. It's modeled after Master!"
"No, no, wait a minute. Does that mean this newly added AI is entirely based on Master's template?! No wonder! How can anyone fight that?!"
At this moment, Black looked back at the complaining posts on the forum and felt no contempt, only full admiration: "My god, that 'Shepherd of Stars' actually lasted five minutes against a High Legendary Master and only narrowly lost by one move without serious injury... That's really impressive!"
Her best record was just under two minutes. The black dragon girl, who hadn't experienced too many ultra-intense battles, was indeed very unaccustomed to this fighting style, always exposing countless openings for the AI to find and kill her in one blow.
"But then, that Level 10 AI... could it be...?"
Being defeated by an AI modeled after her Master wasn't shameful. Black was thoroughly intrigued and prepared to strengthen her combat abilities in this area, planning to challenge and train systematically. But then she suddenly thought, even that 'Shepherd of Stars' had only challenged the 'Level 9 AI', and that 'Level 10 AI'...
"Damn it!"
Far away, in the abyss of some World Star River, an enraged will rippled through the void. The Great Emperor's voice, suppressing anger and doubt, echoed: "This Level 10 AI is basically Radcliffe himself fighting, isn't it?!"
"Or has he improved another step in such a short time, that even a simulated AI can defeat us?"
Doubts arose, lamentations continued. This Grand Arena update, while bringing countless joys, also let everyone who had lost contact with that person know that he was still doing well, still had the energy to update, and even had the spare strength to strike from afar, proving his strength to everyone.
And phrases like 'Unbelievably strong AI' and 'I salute you, three-minute expert', used as jokes among arena players, also became selling points, attracting more civilizations and Star River lifeforms to join the Magic Net and Grand Arena.
Of course, that was all in the future. For now, Black, realizing that the AI might be a model of her Master, silently logged out of the forum and returned to the Psychic Terminal's homepage.
"Master... is already this strong?"
The black dragon girl's expression was a bit forlorn: "I work so hard, but I can't even catch a fraction of his progress..."
Thinking this, she looked up at the icon for the game 'Grand Arena'.
Black was not a clever or diligent dragon. She had patience, but rarely activated it. She had talent, but fully awakening it would plunge her into an ancient dragon's slumber. She wanted to become stronger and could persevere tirelessly, but it was like walking on a shaky cliff edge. One misstep, and she would be pulled down by her overly powerful bloodline, dreaming for a thousand years.
Did she really like playing 'games'? Constant fighting, virtual battles—even as a pastime, wasn't it too boring? After all, not everyone was that warrior, able to laugh indifferently while eternally bathed in blood and battle.
But Black still played, and would keep 'playing'. In this world where hardly anyone could accompany her in battle to grow stronger, this was the only place she could gain real combat experience.
"Because, this is Master's expectation of me."
One could see that the icon for Grand Arena was a slightly strange black dragon's head—the black dragon was roaring, and a ring of arena walls burning with flame surrounded the dragon's head, emitting a golden, sun-like light.
"Black, I'll use your image as the icon for 'Grand Arena'."
Vaguely, she could hear her Master's voice, tinged with laughter, coming from the past: "What do you think? I think it looks pretty cool."
"Great, great! Master is the best to me!"
Vaguely, she could hear her own excited cheers from back then.
"Alright, then it's decided. You, Black, will be the guardian totem, haha."
That was a rare sound of Master laughing joyfully for something other than battle. And it was the first time she had sworn to herself, determined not to disappoint Master's 'expectations', to give her all to catch up with his pace.
"Ding-ling ding-ding-ling?"
Suddenly, a clear wind chime sound rang out. Accompanied by a flash of light, a small light orb suddenly appeared in the lake water and stuck itself between Black's pair of dragon horns.
"Eh, Xiao Guang, why are you here?"
Black asked in surprise—she transformed into human form, allowing the light orb, which was looking for a spot, to smoothly settle between the black dragon girl's horns. It let out a satisfied 'ding-ling'.
Since the Sanctuary World had taken shape, Xiao Guang had rarely accompanied her. Things were very busy over there, and sometimes Xiao Guang was needed, as a rare World Will split body with self-awareness, to assist the Seven Gods in building some extremely secret control center. Anyway, seeing him today was truly rare.
"Ding-ling, ding-ling-ling ding-ding."
The light orb chirped happily, and Black smiled and shook her head: "Sigh, Master won't be back that quickly. He said he'd be away for a long time this time... That's just his AI, not him."
"Ding... ling?"
"Yeah, don't be discouraged. He'll come back eventually. And before he returns, we have to work hard and give him a big surprise, right?"
"Ding-ling ding-ling!"
...It was a very warm feeling.
...It was a very regretful feeling.
As the one who had accompanied Joshua the longest, from the time when he was still a warhorse without intelligence, Black found it hard to describe what she felt in her heart.
"Do I really understand Master?"
She always felt she didn't understand anything, but she also felt she understood him very well. That man who had walked tirelessly for seven days and nights just to return home for revenge had now become a great existence feared even by the Multiverse Star River. It all sounded absurd, but only those who had truly walked alongside him knew that it was all inevitable.
Black could still recall, not long ago, in the Lord's Mansion of Moldavia, several Legendary experts, and even several deities, discussing some extremely confidential matters with Miss 3, and the words they said.
"He... is just like the Sage of old."
"No, there's still a bit of difference from the Sage. People back then thanked the Sage, respected the Sage, but no one feared Him. They just loved Him from the bottom of their hearts."
"But Joshua, it's not 'mutual love' like the Sage, but 'awe'."
One could hear the voice of the old Pope and the voice of the God of Protection. They weren't hiding anything, and their evaluation was spoken clearly: "I walked with the Sage of old and witnessed His path. I could guess from people's attitudes towards Him, from the intangible influence of information, what path they were going to take."
Saying this, the God of Protection took a puff from his pipe. There was no smoke inside, and the act was meaningless for a deity, but it was one of the few memories he had related to interest. He said calmly: "That guy wants to 'restore everything damaged to its original state'. Holy Light was born for this reason. Therefore, the more severely damaged something is, the more willing it is to approach him. The Abyss is one of them. It is said that 'Shadow' was also born for this reason."
"But Joshua, I don't know what he really wants... 'Eternal battle'? No. Although he is practically the embodiment of battle and the manifestation of destruction, if he only pursued that, we would probably have been destroyed by the Evil God of All-Battle long ago. It's precisely because he is the Joshua of now that 'eternal battle' is not what he pursues."
"Battle is his interest, but it is not his path. No one has ever said that a person can only do what they like. He must have a more fundamental purpose hidden beneath the battle."
"And that is the 'Dao' he has chosen."
Black agreed with the God of Protection's judgment.
Black also disagreed with the God of Protection's judgment.
Because Master was neither an 'embodiment of battle' nor did he hide any 'fundamental purpose'. Master was just Master, Joshua van Radcliffe, a warrior.
"Xiao Guang... Master actually neither expects anything from others nor wants others to expect anything from him."
Lying on the lakebed with Xiao Guang, looking up at the lake surface, which had become very dim as the sun set, Black emitted her own light, illuminating everything around her. She whispered to herself: "When he first retook his territory, he neither believed in the strength of the territory's knights nor the support of the Imperial military. He just advanced alone, walking alone in the heavy snow."
"Everyone says he has weapons but doesn't use them, he has a mount but doesn't ride it... Well, that's not quite right. He uses them, but only when necessary, only when he has to use a weapon."
"He insists on fighting alone, without affecting anyone else. Even weapons and mounts are the same. He doesn't want the weapon to break because of him, or the mount to die because of him."
One-on-one, one-on-many, one-on-a-group, even one-on-infinite—it didn't matter.
What he expected was battle? Rather, it was a challenge. But in the end, whether challenge or battle, it seemed to confirm something.
"Master knows his own 'abnormality'. He knows that others don't necessarily like fighting, don't necessarily like being bathed in blood and death. He knows that others don't necessarily like running around the void all day, traveling through other worlds to save sentient beings, or falling into near-certain death situations."
"So, he won't take anyone with him. He walks the path alone, advances alone. He doesn't expect anything from anyone, and he doesn't want others to change their thoughts because of their expectations of him, to walk a path that shouldn't belong to them."
This 'gentleness' that doesn't even want to impose 'harm' on others, this 'arrogance' that doesn't even want to give 'responsibility' to others—this complex mixture, my Master, how can it be described by the light label of 'embodiment of battle'?
Raising her hand, Black touched Xiao Guang, listening to his 'ding-ling ding-ling' sound, and revealed a faint smile.
"So, I want to catch up with him. After all, I am an ancient dragon. If there are no accidents, it wouldn't be strange for me to live forever. In that case, if the 'path' has an end, I might be able to catch up with Master at the end of eternal time."
"But if it's Master, even if this multiverse really has an end, he would forcefully shatter it and stubbornly carve out a path."
Year 849 of the Falling Stars Era, January 1st, 11:32 PM, Northern Lands, Nissier Snow Mountain, Winterfell Academy, bottom of Palmprint Lake.
Black and Xiao Guang, separated by the thick lake water, looked up at the light of the twin moons in the sky.
"This year is the first year Master left the Mycroft World and went to the Genesis Maelstrom."
This year was the first year Joshua van Radcliffe entered the Genesis Maelstrom.
The time of departure was approaching.