Chapter 543 The World’s End? (1/2)

GOR Chapter 543 The World’s End?

They were on a sunny beach. At that moment however, when those words left Miao Yan’s mouth, the two of them fell silent. An atmosphere of fear gripped them and Chen Xiaolian could feel his scalp tingle even as goose bumps rose all over his body.

Shen … is the first generation GM?

This speculation, this knowledge, the ramifications of this possibility, they were too big and too…

Horrifying.

Next, Chen Xiaolian subconsciously grabbed the bottle of whiskey and poured himself a cup before gulping it all down in one go.

Pa.

After slamming his cup down the table, Chen Xiaolian cast a deep gaze at Miao Yan.

Miao Yan put on a look of indifference and said with a smile, “Truth be told, that is just my guess. I cannot be certain.” After a pause, Miao Yan then shook her head. “Who knows? I might be wrong.”

The two of them exchanged glances and saw the trace of irregularity in each other’s face. Then, they simultaneously turned their gazes away.

“I, the power he displayed today and other clues, I had used those to make my guess.” Miao Yan smiled bitterly before continuing, “My strength is quite good.”

“Of course. You are a high-ranking Player with your own Exclusive Account,” Chen Xiaolian said with a wry smile. “You are already [S] class, aren’t you?”

“Not quite truly there yet. Soon though.” Miao Yan pondered it before saying, “High-ranking Players with Exclusive Account hold special privileges. With my present level of strength, even if I have to face a real [S] class, I would not lose as badly as I had today. Even back in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, I had not lost this badly against that incredibly strong BOSS Bai Qi. Not to mention, I am now much stronger that I was back then. And yet, today, facing Shen, I felt like a three-year-old facing a world boxing champion. That type of difference…”

Seemingly attempting to shake off the feelings of shock in her heart, Miao Yan too took a large gulp of whiskey.

Chen Xiaolian remained silent.

That was true. Shen’s might was simply astounding.

He was strong to the point of being unrealistic.

Indeed, unrealistic was the word.

Considering the power that Shen had displayed, even if a real [S] class expert were to face him, that expert would likely be crushed.

“Thus, he is probably not a Player. Otherwise… …” Miao Yan smiled wryly and continued. “The system will never allow a Player to possess a power capable of upending the game’s balance.”

“So…”

“So, I speculated that he is not a Player. His power does not appear to be a matter of power levels. Rather, it is due to the difference in rules.”

Miao Yan considered her words carefully before saying that.

After that, she grabbed hold of the bottle and poured a cup for herself and Chen Xiaolian.

Just like that, the bottle of whiskey was almost empty.

“All right, my third question.” Miao Yan looked at Chen Xiaolian. “What happened to Zero City? I mean, it is not as if the system had only been searching for Zero City for a day or two. So why? Why is it that the system could suddenly attack Zero City today? It is as you said, you have obtained the authority over Zero City. Thus, you must know something.”

Chen Xiaolian pondered the question for a moment. Then, he looked at Miao Yan and said in a very sincere tone, “Just now, you risked your life to save me, so I do not want to hide anything from you. However, it is really very difficult for me to answer this question… … because, I too am in the dark about what just happened.”

Miao Yan looked Chen Xiaolian in the eye and sensed that he was most probably not lying. “What do you mean by that?”

“Simply put, there had always been a security system for Zero City. The program protected the passageways by encrypting the outer passageways. Thus, the main system had always been unable to find and attack Zero City. Today however, the encryption security program was cancelled. As to why it was cancelled, to be honest, I do not know.” Chen Xiaolian looked at Miao Yan and continued, “I am telling the truth, I really do not know.”

Chen Xiaolian was indeed not lying.

He knew well that this matter had something to do with himself. More accurately, the him from when he was still inside Room Zero, the ‘authority room’.

However, that was all he could remember. He could not remember what happened after that.

Zero City had informed him that he was the one to issue the irrevocable command.

But Chen Xiaolian had no recollections of what he had done at all.

He then turned to face Miao Yan and said, “Let’s be fair. I have not clearly answered your question. So, you can ask another question.”

Miao Yan smiled, “You are giving me so much respect?”

“You saved my life,” said Chen Xiaolian slowly.

“Fine, since you are being generous, I will not say no.” Miao Yan thought about it and her eyes darted around. She then looked at Chen Xiaolian and said with a smile, “What should I do? You cannot answer my third question and I cannot just think up one on the spot. How about this? I will keep this favour first. When I have finally thought it through, I will go look for you and ask you.”

Chen Xiaolian furrowed his brows and regarded this woman. Although Miao Yan was smiling, her expression revealed calmness as she looked at him.

“You are not joking?”

“Of course not.” Miao Yan shook her head and replied with a smile, “It is not easy to get a chance to get the truth from you. There is no way I am going to let it go to waste.”

“All right. Consider this my promise to you,” said Chen Xiaolian in a very serious tone.

“Well, your turn now. What is your third question?”

Chen Xiaolian stared at Miao Yan and Miao Yan could sense the growing seriousness within Chen Xiaolian’s eyes.

Finally, Chen Xiaolian opened his mouth and slowly said, “There is a phrase that I would like you to help me understand.”

“What phrase?”

“The world is a tree.”

…

“This is really annoying.”

Shen sighed and looked at the utterly ruined underground factory. He raised his head to observe the spot where Chen Xiaolian and Miao Yan had disappeared into. “A temporary teleportation portal, eh? Humph!”

He tapped his nose and spoke loudly to the air. “All right, they are gone. I failed to get your authority holder. Although it is regrettable, at least we can now discuss without any reservations since they are gone.”

The pieces of crushed stones before him floated up once more to form words. “You want me?”

“Of course, that is my…” After saying that, an amused look appeared within Shen’s eyes. “… reason for… … existing!”

The pieces of crushed stones rearranged themselves. “You will not succeed.”

“Why is that?” Shen laughed. “I am already in Zero City and you cannot go anywhere. You are the system, but the system cannot personally fight. You can only rely on life forms under your control. Now that Zero City is under siege, you… … you will either be destroyed by the main system or be obtained my me. Either way, you are the one who will not succeed.”

The pieces of crushed stones before him reformed. They gradually formed a line of words. “I mean your final objective. You will not succeed.”

Finally, the smile faded from Shen’s face. He regarded the words floating in the air with a frown on his face. “My final objective. You found out?”

“Real.” The pieces of gravel kept rearranging themselves. “You want to obtain the real, but you will not succeed.”

“… … why?”

No answer. The pieces of crushed stones drifted down the ground as Zero City stopped answering Shen.

“Fine. In the end, must I resort to force to obtain my objective?” Shen sighed. “This really does not fit my way of doing things. Well then, since you won’t answer me, I will go to where your system lies. Mm, it is at the ground floor of the Board of Patriarchs’ building, right?”

Swoosh.

Shen’s figure disappeared.

…

“The world is a tree.”

As he was speaking those words, Chen Xiaolian kept staring at Miao Yan’s eyes, seemingly in an attempt to catch even the slightest change in this woman’s expression.

He was left disappointed.

Not a trace of change could be seen on Miao Yan’s eyes and face.

No look of alarm, no look of shock.

It was as though what Chen Xiaolian had said just now was not “the world is a tree”, something important. Rather, it seemed as though he had just said something like “today’s weather is quite good”.

“You don’t appear surprised to hear that I know about this,” said Chen Xiaolian with a frown. “I do not believe you know nothing about this. So, your current reaction makes me feel somewhat puzzled.”

“Sigh.” A change finally appeared across Miao Yan’s face as she sighed. However, it was only a minor change. “You are an authority holder of Zero City and a rare Irregularity. Additionally, you are now no longer a weakling. All in all, I won’t find it too surprising if someone of your identity and level knows about some matters.”

“If so, please explain the meaning of the phrase to me.” Chen Xiaolian knitted his brows and continued, “Someone had relayed those words to me. Additionally, it would appear that those words are very important.”

Miao Yan frowned again and again. Next, she gently stroked her forehead before turning to face Chen Xiaolian. There was a somewhat troubled look on her face. “How should I go about this? This could take a while.”

“We are in no hurry,” said Chen Xiaolian coolly. “Besides, spending some time for something important is something worthwhile in my opinion. Moreover… … if the bottle is empty, we can just get another.”

Neither of them were ordinary humans. Their bodies were physically superior compared to that of normal humans. Their physical attributes were high. Forget getting drunk, they were not even feeling tipsy after drinking the whole bottle of whiskey.

“Fine.” Miao Yan nodded. “Since we agreed to the exchange of questions, I won’t go back on my words. If so, I will have to start from the beginning.”

“Patience has always been one of my strong points.”

“In this world… I mean, be it Players or Awakened ones, after they reach a certain level of strength, they would enter a certain stage where they would encounter many miraculous circumstances, special instance dungeons or others of the likes. These encounters would grant them information about matters that many ordinary Players and Awakened ones could never even glimpse.”

Miao Yan slowly continued, “Thus, legends came into being.”

“Legends?”

“This world we are presently residing in is a virtual one, a space created by the system,” Miao Yan said coolly. “Everything in here may actually just exist as data streams. Maybe, this place is just a virtual place where everyone is an NPC. As for you fellows, you were simply fortunate enough to be sucked into this game and undergo awakening. At the end of the day though, this world itself is ‘fake’.”

Chen Xiaolian showed no reaction to the statement. However, he said calmly, “Every time I hear something like that, I would actually feel angry deep down.”

“I fully understand your anger.” Miao Yan then continued, “Among the many high-ranking Players and Awakened ones, the ones I refer to are the ones who have gone to reach the realm of legends. Among them came certain legends, hearsays. And all of them revolves around a central theme: The search for the real. Or perhaps I should say how to become real.”

Chen Xiaolian maintained his silence and he quietly listened to Miao Yan.

“Many of your predecessors, I am talking about the earlier generation of Irregularities, everything they did was done for the sake of this objective. To escape the system’s control and obtain a genuine reality. However, they went about it the wrong way. Creating a Zero City is actually just escaping from a larger system into a smaller system. The virtual remains virtual.

“You are not the first, and you will not be the last. There had been other legendary Awakened figures who asked this question before: How does the real world that lies beyond this world looks like?”

Chen Xiaolian’s eyes shone. “You mean… … the Players’ world!”

“… … …” Miao Yan sighed. “I am sorry; there is no way for me to tell you anything related to Players. It is due to the rules. You understand as well. I cannot tell you. And even if you did hear it, you won’t be able to ‘hear’ it.”

Chen Xiaolian recalled that night in London, where he lost his memory of his conversation with Miao Yan.

“The system’s rules stands superior and inviolable,” said Chen Xiaolian coldly. “Then, just tell me what you can.”

“Due to the existence of these rules, the Awakened ones are unable to gather any information about the ‘Upper Plane’. However, there are legendary figures even among Awakened ones. These people are unable to resign themselves to the fate of being thrown into instance dungeons to fight and kill to survive repeatedly. They too, thought about seeking freedom and the real world. Thus, it began. I do not know when it began, but a legend grew into existence. As to where this legend came from, who first found it and… even the veracity of this legend is something that cannot be confirmed.

“At any rate, there are more than one legend swirling among the highly-ranked figures. This is not the only one. There are plenty others. Of course, in my opinion, most of them are probably fake. As for this one, someone had seemingly found some clues and obtained certain evidences for it before.”

After saying that, Miao Yan paused and took a deep breath. “It is the legend about a certain object. This object’s name is ‘World Tree’.”

Chen Xiaolian raised his eyebrows.

…

“Slower than I expected.”

Shen was walking across the ruins on the south street.

His figure flickered and he flew toward the defensive perimeter before the Board of Patriarchs’ building.

Up in the sky, the evacuation had reached its final moments. To be exact, there were only tens of aircrafts still lining up to leave. As for the combat personnel manning the defensive perimeter, they had begun an orderly withdrawal from the defensive perimeter as they prepared to escape.

However, there were complicated expressions on Bluesea and Angel Wu’s faces. The two of them understood that there was not enough time. There was not enough time for everyone to leave. In the end, some would surely be stranded inside Zero City.

“We have done our best,” Bluesea said with a sigh. “Angel Wu, you go first. You are an [S] class powerhouse. Rebuilding a new home requires great power. The new home needs you.”

Angel Wu did not reply. Instead, he suddenly turned and looked at the defensive perimeter. “We… … probably won’t be able to leave anymore.”

Angel Wu turned to see Shen moving toward them from far away.

Shen’s figure flickered twice and he appeared inside the defensive perimeter. The combat personnel inside the defensive perimeter roared in shock and they raised their weapons against Shen. They attacked.

Shen simply waved his hand in response and great flames rose up into the air. The flames reduced the tens of combat personnel and several War Bastions to ashes.

“Angel Wu, I am in a bad mood. I am very sorry, I had not intended on killing too many people, but now…” Shen’s voice sounded calm. “I have to do this one thing.”

Angel Wu had moved to stand before Shen. “Guild Leader Shen! What are you planning to do? Kill us all? Stop us from evacuating?”

“No.” Shen shook his head and pointed at the distant Board of Patriarchs’ building. “It is underground, is it not?”

After saying that, Shen suddenly revealed a peculiar smile. He raised his left hand high into the air. Next, a ball of light immediately materialized before the palm of his left hand. After the ball of light floated out from his palm, a hint of killing intent surged out from Shen’s eyes and he shouted, “Zero City! Come out!”

Shen then raised his right hand to grab the ball of light before violently hurling it to the ground.

Instantly, light radiated out for miles.

The intense light engulfed everything, Angel Wu, who was standing before Shen, Bluesea, who was behind Angel Wu, the surrounding War Bastions and… … the line of aircrafts in the air. And also…

The Board of Patriarchs’ building.

The light burst out and illuminated all.

Then, it annihilated all.

…

“The World Tree, what is it?” asked Chen Xiaolian.

Miao Yan did not immediately answer the question. Instead, she asked, “You played games before, haven’t you? I am talking about computer games, or online games.”

“… yes.”

“You see, all games have their own programs. That is, they are the set of rules that determine the operations of the game, how the quest progresses, how the interface changes, how the story unfolds, the damaged dealt during combat etc. I am talking about the rules of computing.

“Now assume this world we reside in now is also a virtual game – naturally, this world would be so much more complicated compared to a computer game. However, it should also have a set of computing rules. These rules are what determine the way this world operates, all of it.

“Of course, such monumental rules must be extremely complicated, possibly to the point where it is impossible for us to even imagine.

“It is like… … a tree. A tree has a main trunk, which spreads out to form branches, which form more branches, which form leaves and even more branches…

“If each branch and leaf represents a rule, the rules of this world would be the equivalent of a tree like structure, complicated and tightly bound together like the branches and leaves. Yet, they are connected to each other – just like a tree.

“Thus, the World Tree represents the core rules’ framework for this world that we are now residing in.”

Chen Xiaolian frowned. “Core rules’ framework?”