Chapter 4: Games and Players
"Fortunately, that can't be done. You overestimate human nature too much," the old mage said in a low voice. "If you actually managed to pull it off, then forget the evil gods—humanity would annihilate itself within a decade."
Hearing this, Joshua wasn't angry—how could he not understand this principle? The precedent of the Siberia World was still fresh in his mind. The warrior naturally understood that before universal moral sainthood was achieved, popularizing overly powerful transcendent forces was completely equivalent to self-destruction.
But even self-destruction was better than being destroyed by evil gods. Joshua also knew that he had become somewhat obsessed in his preparations to resist the future invasion of evil gods, but if he didn't do this, what else could he do? Even if he eventually became strong enough to resist several evil gods, when facing the invasion of evil god minions, the people of the Mycroft World also needed their own power.
That was why Joshua was thinking about things like the perfect prime body. According to the most perfect plan in his mind, all of humanity would be transformed into core bodies made from the flesh of Void Behemoths as the main structure, covered externally by super-massive mana armor to create super void warriors. They could survive freely in the void, even if the world was destroyed, they would still live. Each person would possess combat power capable of destroying a modern civilization.
Unfortunately, void flesh was not controllable. Even with Joshua's mastery over life force, he couldn't forcibly control a Void Behemoth, a steel incarnation of the same level as himself. Otherwise, even if all the legends and gods in the entire world disagreed, he would definitely find a way to complete the transformation for all who were willing to accept it.
"Enough of this—anyway, my experiments regarding the perfect prime body and Void Behemoths are almost all completed. I was planning to end them soon anyway."
Joshua sat before the experimental table, his ten fingers interlocked and placed on the table. He spoke calmly: "As for now, we should talk about certain wide-area 'awakeners' matters."
"What awakeners?" Nostradamus was somewhat confused, but soon he understood—Joshua was talking about those superhumans who had awakened the authority of Steel Force. Thinking of this, the old mage raised an eyebrow slightly and asked curiously: "What's wrong? The number of awakeners appearing recently is very small, not yet at a level worth worrying about."
"I'm not talking about that... Anyway, as I said just now, I recently returned to the Siberia World for a visit."
Joshua's experiences were not hidden from his acquaintances. Basically everyone knew that he had recently gone to a world located at the center of the Void Great Maelstrom. The warrior said concisely: "In short, that newborn world has grown very large, but most importantly, the magic of that world has undergone a tremendous change—all superhumans of the Siberia World have sensed the appearance of a new dimension, and they call it the 'Shadow Realm'."
"What is that?" Nostradamus asked.
"Simply put, it's a world connected to everyone's shadows. Similar to the subspace or psionic space of some worlds, but it connects all shadows."
Joshua raised his hand, creating a light screen in mid-air. In the light screen, figures were leaping within shadows—they could use their corresponding abilities to shuttle between shadows, like teleportation. The warrior looked at the scenes in the light screen and said in a low voice: "Can the assassin masters of the Mycroft World do this? They are hailed as the masters of shadows, the kings of the night. If anyone could shuttle through shadows, it would definitely be them."
Nostradamus was silent for a moment, then shook his head: "...They can't."
He looked up, watching the various bizarre actions in Joshua's light screen: "Of course they can't."
"Whether assassins or killers, even master-level lords of the night, they merely use extreme speed or even special space-time magic to perform silent surprise attacks and assassinations. The vast majority of assassins use visual errors, exploiting the innate visual defects of humans and various creatures to hide themselves."
"Teleport using the power of shadows? Or even dive into shadows, completely hiding oneself? Even mages can't do it. Such magic simply doesn't exist."
Saying this, Nostradamus even let out a somewhat dry laugh: "Dive into shadows? Shadows are just an optical phenomenon. How could one possibly dive into them..."
"But it's real."
Joshua interrupted the old mage's words, reiterating: "A new dimension has already appeared in the Siberia World—the worlds around the Void Great Maelstrom are also showing this trend. It can be imagined that soon, the Mycroft World will also have a Shadow Realm."
"From then on, shadows will no longer be an optical phenomenon. They will become a brand new transcendent power... Nostradamus, the world is changing."
A long silence fell between the two. The old mage seemed to be thinking, while Joshua was patiently waiting.
The warrior had originally planned to wait a while before finding reliable and trustworthy people to tell them about his discoveries. But now, coincidentally, Nostradamus had come to him, saving him the trouble of seeking them out one by one.
"...I know what you're thinking, but Joshua, what if this is just a mana mutation caused by the Great Magic Tide?"
After a long time, Nostradamus spoke again—this time, the old mage's tone returned to normal. He said with some force: "You can't always think of everything in the worst possible way."
"But what if it's not?"
Joshua said calmly: "We are legendary experts. We should plan for the worst-case scenario—if the appearance of the Shadow Realm is not some mutation of the Great Magic Tide, but a brand new, multiverse-level change like 'Holy Light', then do you know what that means?"
The order of light and shadow was broken. In the days to come, perhaps the boundary between reality and illusion would be blurred.
Thinking of this, Nostradamus crushed the armrest on the other side of his chair. The blood vessels near his temples were bulging, and pure liquid energy could be seen flowing within them.
The old mage closed his eyes tightly, whether in escape or contemplation.
"You should have seen the data in the Grand Database."
Joshua stood up, calmly reciting information that was among the most secret even in the Unified Grand Database's records: "The magic tide is a periodic mana fluctuation, generally a tidal cycle of one to three thousand years—and Mycroft was fortunate enough to experience two magic tides. Each time the magic tide arrives, it brings great development to civilization, along with the invasion of evil beings called evil gods."
"The first evil god recorded in the history of Mycroft civilization to invade with the magic tide was named 'Imbalance'. Its arrival caused the sun and moon to lose their light, the seas to boil, the balance of cold and heat, light and dark, life and death to be broken. Undead appeared on a large scale, and marine life was 90% extinct—a powerful psionicist sage whose name was not recorded repelled it at the cost of sacrificing life from most of the world. The price was that the existence of the undead has not completely disappeared to this day."
"As for the second magic tide, it happened to span the entire Era of Radiance. The number of invading evil gods was more than ten times that of the first, accompanied by countless minions and abyss demons—if not for the existence of the Sage, Mycroft civilization would have long become a dead, abyssal wasteland."
"And we are the third."
Joshua said in a completely emotionless tone: "Perhaps the last."
"Not just that."
At this point, Nostradamus finally stopped being silent. He opened his eyes and said softly: "The first magic tide added six major magical elements and aether energy to the Mycroft World, in addition to psionic energy. These energies could perfectly combine with mana, releasing powerful spells far superior to psionics—even battle qi was completed in the later part of that era."
As for the second magic tide, it goes without saying. From then on, the Mycroft World and even the entire multiverse gained a transcendent power called 'Holy Light'.
"Joshua, what are you guessing?"
Nostradamus suddenly looked up, staring into the warrior's eyes, and said in an extremely solemn tone: "Are you trying to imply... imply that the so-called Shadow Realm is also like this?"
"Nostradamus, I am not guessing anything."
Joshua's voice was as flat as a machine. He replied: "I am merely stating the facts that are happening and the records of past history—the appearance of the Shadow Realm means that the essence of some natural phenomenon has mutated. Shadows are no longer an optical phenomenon but a transcendent power. What does this represent, what does it foreshadow? Dare you imagine it?"
The multiverse is being changed, as if someone is carving marks on it with a chisel, and we don't know who holds this razor—
"...Of course I dare."
In response to Joshua's question, the old mage slowly stood up, exhaled a breath, and then said in a deep voice: "Scaring me with such grand and empty things is far too early. And no matter what the guess, it's too early to draw conclusions now. With so little information, nothing can be proven."
"On the contrary, Joshua, have you really been doing nothing but this kind of thing recently? Human perfect prime bodies, Void Behemoth flesh transformations, research on the Shadow Realm... all kinds of crazy plans. You're more like a mage than I am."
"Is this considered crazy?"
Joshua picked up a piece of paper from the experimental table. A series of extremely complex data flashed in his eyes, but finally settled into calmness. He looked up and said softly: "Actually, it's far more than this, Nostradamus."
On the report held in the warrior's hand was written a dense plan, containing strange terms like 'Upgrade of Restorative Pillar', 'Soul Collection Optimization of Soul Abyss Orb', and 'Reduction of Soul Loss from Resurrection'. At this moment, the warrior's face was covered by shadows, and no one could see his expression: "I am thinking, what exactly is this so-called 'game'?"
Then, Joshua von Radcliffe's voice rang out from the center of the Fourth Practice Ground, echoing throughout the entire demiplane:
"And what exactly does this so-called 'player' represent?"