Chapter 5: Blissful Paradise
Nostradamus left with a belly full of doubts and frustration.
He had been invited to come and persuade Joshua, yet not only was he startled by the warrior's methods, but he was also forcibly fed a great deal of information that, while difficult to understand, was deeply unsettling upon reflection.
The old mage felt irritated, but powerless, so he simply went home to rest, leaving the entire research institute's staff in a state of constant dread, fearing that in the next instant, all the void flesh monsters created by Joshua would break free and throw the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground into chaos.
Meanwhile, Joshua sat in the central seat of the practice room, looking down from above at the neatly arranged rows of artificial human bodies and void flesh monsters. His expression was blank, as if lost in thought.
"Nostradamus clearly didn't understand what I meant by 'game' and 'player'... But that's normal, because there's no such culture in the Mycroft world."
Joshua turned his head. He continued to manipulate the Steel Force, beginning to optimize the losses in the systems of 'Soul Preservation,' 'Body Repair,' 'Resurrection from Death,' and 'Space-Time Teleportation.' The warrior's heart was calm. "But I do understand. And I also know that all of this is achievable."
Last time, Priest and the others ventured into the Dark Domain for an otherworldly expedition, but they encountered the Black Mist. If not for the Steel Force inheritance Joshua had left behind as a guardian, the entire squad would likely have been completely wiped out. Even so, out of a team of five, two died, their souls preserved by the Soul Abyss Orb, allowing them to be reborn.
Their rebirth provided Joshua with a wealth of practical data for his resurrection ability—the resurrection of Nameless was an exception, as that was a resurrection he personally controlled, fundamentally different from the resurrection achieved by the spontaneous operation of the Restorative Pillar.
Upon confirming that the Restorative Pillar, combined with the Soul Abyss Orb, could indeed resurrect Silver to Gold-rank individuals who had died within five minutes, Joshua couldn't help but think of a word.
'Player.'
Wounds could be healed quickly, and even death could be reversed—if, one day, Joshua's power permeated an entire world, and the Steel Force enveloped all of space, then the souls and lives of everyone in that world would be in his hands. He could arbitrarily digitize and virtualize any creature. He could control the flow of energy within the world, causing all sorts of strange natural changes, turning the entire world into a real game.
He could create one instance after another out of thin air, manufacturing thousands of secret realms, allowing humans to repeatedly challenge, grow stronger, and receive rewards. Through these rewards, he could guide the progress of civilization, the occurrence of wars, manipulating the beings of the world like chess pieces.
The creatures living within would naturally be players. They wouldn't die, because their bodies were merely shells; if injured, they could be discarded. Their souls wouldn't even need to exist within the shells, but would be preserved by Joshua in a safe place, controlled through projection or mental projection.
Thus, a game world—a world completely controlled by Joshua Van Radcliffe, under absolute dictatorship, where even life, death, and soul were not free—would be achieved.
An absolutely perfect heaven, an absolutely perfect hell.
Compared to 'Blissful Paradise,' the various control methods Fatlervi devised for harvesting souls were laughably cumbersome. Holding the authority of a world, yet repeatedly harvesting the souls of real beings in a real world—it was practically forcing rebellion, piling up the resentment of countless people... Joshua felt that if he just extracted a bit of soul from each player upon resurrection as a penalty for 'Resurrection Weakness,' then allowed everyone to reproduce freely, collecting the souls of those who died naturally of old age, in a thousand years, he would definitely obtain no less soul mass than Fatlervi.
And everyone in the entire world would be grateful to him, worshipping him as the Lord of All Things.
So, was this a mere fantasy, or a highly achievable goal?
Naturally, the latter.
Joshua stared at the numbers he had calculated—three thousand four hundred and sixty-seven days, plus eight hours, eleven minutes, and twenty-nine and a half seconds. With his current strength, he would only need this much time to gradually infect the entire world with his Steel Force, placing both the world and its creatures within a massive 'Restorative Pillar' capable of covering the entire world.
This speed was just the baseline, because over these nine-plus years, Joshua's strength would certainly increase.
"If I use the Steel Force to seal the world's shell, preventing any information from leaking out, then the entire Mycroft world would be completely non-existent to the outside—just like how the Black Mist once blocked the information of the Alpha Sanctuary, preserving it from the siege of numerous Evil Gods."
Joshua picked up the number he had calculated, along with the entire experimental record. He gazed at the countless written records and calculation formulas on it, muttering softly to himself, "I can create a 'Blissful Paradise' completely isolated from the outside world. And within this paradise, everything is a game. Death, hatred, war, even sorrow can be completely eliminated. No matter what race lives in this world, even the most twisted soul can be assimilated and reformed."
"A thousand years, ten thousand years—as long as I don't die—even if I do die, the circulatory system can maintain this game forever."
Joshua clenched his hand and burned the experimental record.
Although it was merely a paper document, the information within was already stored in his private database. But this was a gesture.
Letting out a somewhat weary sigh, Joshua said nothing more. He closed his eyes and lay back in his seat. The warrior rarely allowed himself to relax, sinking into the wool padding—of course, this avatar was not some neutron star battle body, but an ordinary flesh-and-blood body. Otherwise, with that level of weight, the moment he relaxed, he would likely plummet straight through the dimensional barrier and fall into the void.
He closed his eyes, meditating in the absolute silence of the practice room.
Living as a recluse, dwelling in a false paradise—even if the vast majority of Mycroft people were willing, Joshua was not. Hiding underground, living like a rat, was not something worth celebrating for a warrior; it was a great disgrace.
But that didn't mean the concept of 'games and players' had no merit whatsoever.
"I can already resurrect, repair injuries, and teleport people to other worlds."
"Soon, once I perfect the development of the Perfect Primordial Body, analyze the source of the void flesh monsters' abilities, and have a basic template, I can fully perfect the Transcendent Modification System, granting ordinary people various special bloodlines and abilities. I can even allow them to absorb the flesh and energy of monster enemies, gaining 'experience' and thus 'leveling up.'"
"I can do it." Joshua opened his eyes, muttering to himself, "And if one can avoid death, it's naturally best to do so. However, the resurrection system can serve as a guarantee for adventures, but it cannot become a reason for them to act recklessly. Even for adventure squads, the number of resurrections must be limited—I'll use soul depletion as the reason. I'll tell them next time."
The Black Mist was the ultimate creation that the Sanctuary civilization had poured everything into. Its original purpose was to grant every individual of the Sanctuary civilization a mesoscale rune system, easily allowing a creature to ignore its innate racial talents and become a brand-new 'Artificial Divine Race.' For the Sanctuary civilization, which had sworn from the beginning to help all weak civilizations and break down racial barriers, this was a perfect fit.
And the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground was the supreme wonder created by the former Mycroft Radiant Era civilization. Its purpose was to connect countless worlds, completely ignoring the existence of distance. If properly utilized, the Mycroft civilization could, within a few hundred years, establish a vast multiverse empire, without ever worrying about communication or control issues over vast distances. Under the radiance of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, all realms would be united, and all beings would offer sacrifice.
These were two completely different civilizations, each conceiving a different path for themselves. There was no need to compare their merits or flaws, because each was a miracle among miracles.
But what if these two miracles were combined...
Countless adventurers, equipped with systems and Restorative Pillars, capable of resurrection and enhancement, able to be reborn in the home world even after death, could then be teleported via the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground to every corner of the multiverse. In that case...
Joshua exhaled—he interrupted his overly beautiful fantasy, waking from the dream.
Although the structure of the Black Mist had been analyzed over and over again in the joint laboratory of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, it would likely take several decades to create a 'Black Mist' controllable by the Falling Star civilization. Just compiling the controlling rune sets would require several legendary figures like Baniel and Barbarossa, along with all their disciples and grand-disciples, to spend twenty or thirty years just to sketch out the basics. If they didn't find a way to recruit and expand, the speed couldn't be increased.
And the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground—so many ruins hadn't even been sorted out yet. Not to mention the shortage of at least nine hundred large computing matrices, special buildings like the 'Hainamut Prophecy Hub' had long since been reduced to nothing. To truly perfect it completely was not something that could be accomplished within a hundred years.
How could the Evil Gods allow them to peacefully develop for a hundred years?
"That's the biggest problem—the Evil Gods. If the Evil Gods are not eliminated, given their frequency and speed of sweeping, I'm afraid there won't be many civilizations in the entire multiverse that can grow and develop."
Thinking of this, Joshua sat up a bit straighter. He called up a light screen on the experimental table, manifesting a model of the World Star River.
Although the deep-space observation hosted by the Seven Sacred Mountains last time had only observed the World Star River where the Falling Star civilization was located, without scanning other vast World Star Rivers, the void model was already very large, showing billions of points of light clustered into clusters of galaxy-like flashes, hanging in the void.
At the very center of the Star River was a long, dark rift, and at the lower end of this rift was a giant void maelstrom.
"The invasion of the Evil Gods is actually controlled by someone, isn't it?"
Gazing at this model of the World Star River, Joshua couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.
Evil Gods are chaotic beings. Even without the Great Magic Tide, they should be roaming freely throughout the entire multiverse. And if it were a true chaotic Evil God attack, the 'wounds' they created, the worlds they destroyed, would never be so concentrated, nor would they form such a regular dark rift.
Furthermore, Joshua now knew that one hundred and sixty million years ago, the entire multiverse didn't even have any Evil Gods or Void Behemoths. This further proved that Evil Gods are not natural existences in essence. Perhaps, like the Holy Light or the newly emerged Shadow Realm, they are a 'Transcendent Path' artificially created.
But what good does guessing this do?
Even if this were the truth, could they escape a battle with the Evil Gods? And even if they escaped, how could the mastermind behind the creation of the Evil Gods let them go?
The Radiant civilization was destroyed after completing the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground. The Sanctuary civilization also suffered a fatal blow before completing the weapon modules of the Black Mist. Both were nearly simultaneously invaded by multiple Evil Gods and layers of the Abyss... Joshua didn't intend to defend the Radiant Era. Not to mention that he was essentially a transmigrator, even if he identified with the Mycroft civilization, it was the Falling Star Era's. If the sages of the Radiant Era were foolish and self-destructive, what was there for him to deny?
But based on the information he had obtained so far, it could be inferred that there might be a mechanism within the entire multiverse that could discern the progress of a civilization. If a civilization developed to the point of being able to ascend to a multiverse-level civilization, Evil Gods would be dispatched to destroy it.
And during the Magic Tide period, the rate of progress for many civilizations would accelerate rapidly, causing numerous civilizations to collectively approach this boundary. Hence the illusion that the Magic Tide caused the Evil Gods to act.
Joshua believed that many legendary figures had thought of this, just as he had. None of them were fools. They were all beings who could advance to the legendary realm, becoming super lifeforms, in an era approaching a medieval, pre-modern mana-industrial age. What he could think of, other legendary figures and deities could also think of. So, after sealing the Black Mist, everyone was deep in thought, or had found a few friends to brainstorm countermeasures.
Nostradamus, a legendary figure, was called over by a few research mages and just came? How could that be? It was because he wanted to come, and happened to have an excuse, so he came. And the reason he left was because he knew that Joshua was also planning for the future, but found that his own expertise didn't match, and he couldn't help Joshua with the subsequent research, so he left.
In short, Joshua planned to treat the External Exploration Team as a pilot unit for his experiments on humans and various Transcendent powers, allowing them to exchange their exploration contribution points and authority. Then, he would modify the corresponding shortcomings and decide whether to promote this system to the entire world.