Chapter 9: Wanting to Run
When he received the Level 3 emergency communication, Joshua was with Ying and Lin, planning the graduation ceremony for the first batch of students at Winterfell Academy.
To be precise, Ying and Lin were planning, while a certain warrior sat in the dean's office chair, watching them bustle back and forth tirelessly—for the first time, Joshua felt like a high-ranking noble lord of the Count level, though he wondered if Israel up in the heavens would send a bolt of lightning down for exploiting child labor like this.
Still, this was a happy occasion nonetheless.
From the year 832 of the Falling Stars Era to the present, time had flown by. The youths of yesteryear had grown into adults capable of standing on their own, with strength around the Gold-rank. Joshua himself had leaped from the Gold Realm of the past to the current Mid-Legendary rank, becoming a man in his thirties approaching forty.
To be honest, the distinction between Mid-Legendary and High-Legendary was entirely a matter of personal judgment. Those who felt they had reached their limit and found it difficult to grow stronger on this path called themselves High-Legendary. Those who believed they still had potential to tap, with both body and spirit fully sublimated, called themselves Mid-Legendary. Joshua naturally felt he still had a long way to go, so even though his strength was already formidable, he still considered himself a developing... powerhouse.
The strength of the Winterfell Academy students, while not leaping as dramatically as their dean's, had progressed at an astonishing rate. Six or seven years of cultivation had taken a group of ordinary Northern youths with no foundation at all and brought them to the Gold-rank level. This rate of cultivation was no less than that recorded in the Grand Database from the Era of Radiance. Although it benefited somewhat from the Great Magic Tide, it was enough to prove the effort Nostradamus and the various mentors had poured into this.
The graduation ceremony for the first batch of students was scheduled for June 23rd. Joshua was listening to several mentors discuss the specific arrangements when he received the communication from Number 3. He immediately condensed an avatar at the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground and teleported directly over.
"The Decay Evil God, and nine missing Legendary experts?"
Joshua held Number 3 with one arm, intending to place her on his shoulder, but she refused, so the warrior ended up holding the Artificial Intelligence Girl like a plush toy. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "Indeed, the Steel Force suddenly erupted by this Evil God is abnormally strange. But considering that every Evil God was once a world that nurtured civilization, this isn't entirely inexplicable."
"Whether it's incomplete deification into an Evil God, or a collapse of form due to combat causing the Chaos Force to be reversed, neither is too strange."
The real question was: why had the Radiant Civilization, or rather, the Sage and the gods, hidden the whereabouts of this Evil God named 'Decay,' and carefully buried the information about this Evil God and the nine Legendary experts in history?
Joshua pondered for a moment but couldn't figure it out.
If this Evil God truly was the key to converting Chaos and Order, the origin that inspired the Sage, then there was no need to hide it. The war back then was so brutal; everyone fought their enemies in despair and pain. But if everyone knew that Chaos wasn't indestructible—that it could even be restored into normal Steel Force—how much courage would that news bring to the entire civilization?
Pessimists would see it as a fall into self-destruction, but optimists would see it as a good way to completely defeat the enemy. Joshua believed that, in a situation where even the pessimists had betrayed, most of the remaining people were optimists.
"Very important information. With these remaining records, we can trace the coordinates and routes of the nine Legendary experts who pursued the Evil God back then, find where they disappeared, and maybe even locate the Evil God's remains... Number 3, we really have your seventh-level authority to thank for this!"
Temporarily setting aside thoughts about the Decay Evil God, Joshua happily praised Number 3: "Those of us with sixth-level authority can't access this information at all. That's the downside of the Grand Database—without sufficient authority, even brute force can't retrieve the data."
Joshua was referring to an incident half a year ago. It was around the early stages of attempting to transfer the Database's archives. The rune team led by Baniel tried to bypass the authority settings of Information Hall 18 and brute-force the storage units, but they triggered the storage units' self-destruction protocol. This caused over twenty cylindrical storage units to have their data wiped clean, turning them into black stone pillars useful only for smashing things.
Later, Baniel and the others learned from the experience and planned to modify the Grand Database from the runic source. But according to estimates, this rune project would take about three hundred years to fully crack—by which time it would be faster to just cultivate and become a god.
Number 3, held in Joshua's arms, had been silent the whole time. She only looked up sharply when the warrior called her name directly: "Mm... ah. It's also thanks to you that I received Lord Ge Er's inheritance..."
After speaking somewhat haltingly, Number 3 lifted her head to look at Joshua's face. She studied him for a moment, then asked curiously: "Strange, Joshua. You said this was good news... but why don't you look very happy?"
With that, she flew out of his arms on her own, floating before the warrior to face him directly: "You're not trying hard to hide it—you were angry, furious earlier! But you were at Winterfell Academy just now, so it couldn't have been Ying or Lin who made you angry. But..."
Joshua, whose expression was indeed somewhat gloomy, raised a hand to signal Number 3 to stop guessing. He shook his head and sighed: "Yes, you're right. Just now at Winterfell, I had an argument with Nostradamus and the others. When I got your message, I dropped everything and flew over, but I was still a bit late."
Hearing the warrior admit it so bluntly, Number 3 even forgot to control her wings, making a 'flapping' motion. She blinked, a bit slow to react: "An argument? Why? Aren't you all close friends? The kind who share the same ideals..."
"Precisely because we share the same ideals and are close friends, disagreements lead to real anger."
Joshua conjured two chairs out of thin air and gestured for Number 3 to sit as he did. The warrior sat down, his expression softening slightly. After a long pause, he finally continued: "Actually, it's not a big deal... Number 3, you saw our battle against the Black Mist Mother Entity, right?"
"Yes, I saw it."
Number 3's chair was a size smaller than Joshua's, fitting her frame. After hearing the warrior's words, her thought core spun several thousand times, but she still couldn't see how this related to their argument. So she asked: "You worked together to seal it without injury... a brilliant battle. But why would that cause conflict between you?"
Joshua sat in his chair, silent for a long time. Finally, he let out a heavy sigh and said helplessly: "Because they want to run."
"To be precise, most of the Mycroft Legendary experts want to run."