Chapter 875 - Our modus operandi

Ever since I found myself here, I have had a feeling like someone is watching me, and the more time passes, and I get an opportunity to examine things, the more I suspect it is the one winged wyvern.

With Rulers likely to interfere, I repeatedly wonder what the plan is. Currently, it seems that most of the attendees are used as hostages against the Rulers and used as a cover.

But even though this wyvern is clearly as powerful as a Ruler, I wonder if it could truly face someone like Wrath or Greed. That also invites the question: why neither of them killed the wyvern, be it alone or with some help, to move onto the next floor of Beyond.

One of the things that could explain it is that I suspect the wyvern had thousands of years to set up its domain and to make it incredibly powerful, to the point where challenging it within its domain would be suicide even for multiple Rulers. After all, I was told wyverns are domain specialists.

With the wyvern being killed by Pride for him to pass onto the next floor and the wyvern reviving, it is possible that the domain got heavily damaged, making the next challenges against the wyvern easier.

So, all of this is likely on a time limit. I do not think the Rulers will allow the wyvern to build up such a powerful domain again, here on Xyphos, and if pushed, I think they will sacrifice the attendees present.

It depends on how valuable Xyphos is to them and how much they might not want the wyvern to be free. However, they cannot move easily. At any moment, a certain cockroach can exit the Labyrinth with a new heart beating in her chest.

It is simply a huge mess, and I really wonder why the Ruler of Diligence would have done that.

I pause these thoughts and sigh. It is fun to blame it on him, I have to say. It is actually very fun. For a being as old as him, a few years of a few thousand people blaming him for stuff is likely nothing, bearing no consequence other than annoyance that he cannot use as an excuse to kill me or something.

I like games like these. The ones where I test how far I can push before there are consequences.

I am someone who calls himself proudly an asshole.

Still, I really do not envy him, considering what he has to deal with. If it were me, I know I would be much more radical and try to deal with it through sheer force. Yet, the Ruler of Diligence continues to try his best, following the code he must have set for himself after he became a Champion on Myrra’s and the matriarch Eris’s world.

Out of all of the Rulers I met, that ant is the most normal, and that is saying something, with him being a huge house pest. It almost makes me want to try to help him out of pity, and because I know, through his code, he would pay it back.

That is what I am thinking of, as well as about the wyverns’s domains. I wonder if these existed pre-system or if the wyverns became domain specialists after learning to bend mana to their will after the system spread.

Other parts of me watch Tacita, Dennis, and Fuci playing around, with all three of them using their speed to the highest.

Dennis is very fast in a single burst that takes him in a straight line, and that then requires some time to pick up his bearings. I suspect it is all stats and his skills stacked into that single burst, during which his thoughts cannot even catch up. I notice it, but when he moves so quickly, it is like he pre-programmed his body, as his consciousness cannot keep up and send orders during this movement.

There are advantages to that incredible speed, but weaknesses too, though he likely will not find many able to catch up to it. When he moves like that, his speed almost reaches Tacita’s level when she goes full out.

But in the end, that is it. It is a single, short burst. Tacita can keep up such speed for a dozen or so seconds. She can move around instead of shooting in a straight line, and her mind, or just her pure instincts, keep up with it.

Ridiculous, I say.

[Selective Adaptation - lvl 19 > Selective Adaptation - lvl 20]

Reading the notification that suddenly popped up, I use the tip of Veto to stab my arm again, watching as it locks [Selective Adaptation] once more.

As the dagger locks the skill, the skill tries to fight back and adapt. Even if it is only locked for a minute, I came up with a theory that after hours of repeating this process, I will continue to forcefully level it up by abusing this feedback loop. It even broke through the bottleneck, so it should become easier to level up now, and I have the time.

Xyphos is quite a big planet, I suspect bigger than Earth, yet we still quite often come across barriers with Easy difficulty attendees inside, making me suspect plenty of attendees were put not that far away from each other. The corporations, meanwhile, sneak around, mostly meeting with Hell difficulty attendees who move freely through the incredibly hot desert, but they rarely visit those locked inside the barriers.

I wonder what these five corporations think of this entire situation. Are they perhaps able to put pressure on the Rulers if they use the structures behind them, or do they just sit there quietly and hope things will not turn worse? And in the end, how could we abuse it to our advantage?

There are not many valuable things we might have, but there is one clear advantage: the system shop for tutorial attendees that is not available outside of the tutorial.

Surely there must be materials or specific items these people might be interested in. Maybe they would even be willing to give an attendee items they could sell, even if only at 10-20% of their value, just to get certain items or materials.

So, the adventures of Group 4 continue as we make our way toward the remaining members, who are now much further away than the previous ones.

The hours turn into days as we make our way there, not meeting with any enemy other than the heat and the corporations in their ships landing nearby to start a trade.

Our modus operandi is always the same.

We want information. As much as possible, and we are willing to trade Lily’s trademarked 3.2 healing marks.

Yes, marks, multiple of them, for better information, obviously.

Sometimes we ask about wyverns or gods, and even as such information is very valuable, we get bits of info for a few marks Lily places on some target they bring. In other cases, we ask for water and similar supplies, which we often share with attendees within barriers to make some progress toward the unofficial quest given by Diligence.

Of course, our trades always end in the same way.

The corporations leave. Tacita appears within her field with more shiny loot from the ship she snuck into, and all of Lily’s healing marks get triggered by the scratches she has caused.

The 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality remains as relevant as ever, and the more we use this strategy, the more proficient we become.

After about the tenth time, I begin to suspect the corporations either do not share information with each other or they cannot. Although Sophie brings up an even more probable reason: it is possible that each group we meet acts as individuals trying to get some stuff from attendees 'off the record' which is why no one we meet talks about his buds doing this trade and marks mysteriously triggering.

Sometimes corpos notice the marks turned to nothing and return to complain, but even here, we have a plan.

Simply said, how could we help them? The trade is done. It is their fault for not restricting their test subject, and it caused damage to itself. We have warned them about how the mark triggers, and they have watched the process and confirmed the placement of a mark.

Not wanting to look for a fight, they leave because of the shadow of a certain black ant threatening corporations not to mess with the attendees.

Among the information we get is that Starless Sky was, as we already knew, one of the Godkings, the most powerful of the gods. The hierarchy generally ranks them as Godkings, gods, and then demigods.

Godkings are usually the oldest and the most powerful ones, with Starless Sky representing a concept of a sky without stars. In rumors, one of his powers makes navigation near impossible, and this is where we have a long conversation.

Sophie says it is because early civilizations used stars as marks to travel across vast distances. Tess mostly agrees, though she thinks that it’s because if there are no stars, there is no light, and without light, you can’t orient yourself.

They have a short, stubborn battle between themselves, fighting over that small distinction.

Once they are done, we theorize the extent of those powers. I suspect it might make teleportation near unusable and maybe have a mental component where you move in the wrong direction or have trouble estimating distances.

Dennis mentions it could affect time, even in some time dilation way, which causes most of us to look at him in confusion. He then calls us idiots, telling us that we often measure the passage of time by day and night, and without light, it might change. He gives an example of how, when you are inside pure darkness, the passage of time is nearly impossible to estimate.

Izzy asks if it means the Godking might slow down time or its perception of it, to which I share my experience with thought acceleration and such.

Our healer wonders if no stars means no heat, it being likely tied to the concept of an entirely dark, cold universe. And that mostly matches what I have seen before the game ended.

Another piece of information is that the Starless Sky died in a fight against a dozen or so Rulers during the System War, as they schemed against him because killing him offered incredible rewards. In the end, his death later led to the erasure of all elves, whom he was protecting with a few more gods.

Apparently, only the Ruler of Justice is rumored to be still alive from the group that killed him, while no longer bearing the position of a Ruler.

All this information makes my fingers tingle the more we learn.

And now we are, for the first time, meeting with the Aurate Consortium, and these people are clearly at a very different level from the previous corporations. Their ship is huge, heavily defended, and the mora woman who talks with us is accompanied by an Adjudicator entirely hidden under a black jumpsuit.

Tacita does not even try to sneak onto the ship and stands nearby, giving us a signal that it is impossible.

Mora, who introduces herself as Raga, continues in our conversation, "While I’m surprised you know that much about Starless Sky already, I have to disagree with the information you’ve mentioned and what the other corporations told you. According to our company records, Starless Sky died in battle against nine Rulers and not a dozen. He killed eight of them, with only the Ruler of Justice surviving back then. The Ruler of Justice then gifted the greatest shard of the dead Godking’s Elysian Frame to Pride before disappearing from the records."

"Did he by any chance die after challenging Pride?" I ask.

"Not to my knowledge."

"Weird," I mutter.

Lily brings confused Raga’s attention back to her as she asks one of the questions we prepared in the group: "What does bearing a god’s stigma mean?"

"Such information I am not able to trade due to our company restrictions, but I believe you might find a corporation willing to shine light on it," Raga says. "But... if Mister Nathaniel Gwyn would be willing to trade a 'black mana' orb with us, I might be able to share such information." As Raga says it, my own blank voice sneaks in to replace whatever fake name she says with "black mana."

"Kindness has black mana as well, get it on your own," I say.

"That is indeed correct, but we like to make comparisons between all of the users capable of using it, and so far we have been able to gather data from over 90% of bearers that appeared in..." Raga pauses and then smiles, "...let’s say a very long time."

"Still no."

"That is unfortunate. A mid sized vial worth of your blood?"

"No."

"One of your eyes?"

"No."

"A sample of your flesh, bone, and hair?"

"No."

“If the price is your concern, we can increase the scope of information we offer in exchange.”

"I just do not think I should share anything with you," I say after taking a glance at the Adjudicator.

Raga gives that typical mora smile, which feels even wilder, taking into consideration that she is twice as tall as any of us.

She gives a short bow. "In such a case, I will take my leave. I thank you for a pleasant conversation, and Lady Lily’s healing mark will not be needed this time. Please do not have a feeling like you owe us or anything, as it is not my intention. We shall meet soon, then."

Raga walks up to the ramp, and the Adjudicator stays behind with her head turned toward Lily, whom she was watching the entire time. At the top, when about to enter the ship, the mora turns around, narrowing her eyes in a mix of curiosity, surprise, and annoyance as she stares at the Adjudicator.

The mora hisses something, and a short pulse shoots from her, bouncing off the core set in the middle of Kindness’s clone.

Only then does the Adjudicator turn around and walk up, and under Raga’s eyes, enter the ship, after which she follows her.