"That lacuna!!!"
Princesskaho's gaze locked on Ye Kong, and in the blink of an eye, she connected all the dots—
The premature advent of the "Stygian Night Invasion," the appearance of the assassin - Lilith, who was supposed to have been killed, the inexplicable changes in the story event's plot, and Ye Kong's killing of Lilith...
"It was him from the beginning!!!" princesskaho cried out in surprise. "That lacuna, he was the one who changed the course of the story event and triggered the start of the 'Stygian Night Invasion'!"
"What?!"
Decadentdude and the others went pale with shock. As top tier players, they were keenly aware of how difficult it was to do such a thing. Moreover, judging by the scale of the "Stygian Night Invasion," a story event that influenced the entirety of Qingmu Town would at least be "Elite Grade" in terms of difficulty level!
An Elite Grade story event!
A player working solo in the initial stages of the game, without equipment or skills... how could such a player be capable of completing an Elite Grade story event?!
Unless, of course, he had an extremely deep understanding of the entire game's underlying mechanics. That was the only way he could seize the slightest opportunity to complete the difficult plot events by himself!
"Also, that assassin who somehow survived and didn't perish with the Horticultural Priest in the assassination attempt...
"That was also his doing! That lacuna murdered the Horticultural Priest!!!"
At this point in her explanation, princesskaho's expression changed, and her eyes were full of horror—
"And after that, he took Lilith's life!
"That lacuna is the mastermind behind all this! He caused this whole chain of events!!!"
Her brief monologue scared her companions even more. Horror crept into their faces, and they promptly picked up the pace!
From the start, there had been a Stygian Rift close to where they were, so they made a mad dash over to the rift portal and arrived in front of it—
"Move! We can't afford to stay here any longer!!!" Decadentdude was the first to slip into the rift. He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he wouldn't leave this place alive!
The others also entered the rift. Fortunately for them, they were protected by the "Screened" effect, so they didn't draw the attention of Thors. If not for this helpful effect, with their meager strength, how could they escape the Winter Commander's wrath?
Princesskaho brought up the rear, and she turned to look back right before she entered the rift. A quiet, solitary figure was reflected in her pretty eyes—
"The mysterious player from the Yggdmillennia Server, lacuna..."
Princesskaho pursed her lips slightly. She burned his name into her memory, as if vowing to take him down—
"Who on earth are you?"
Before she had finished speaking, princesskaho leaned over and disappeared into the Stygian Rift.
......
At the same time...
"Did they let those guys get away?" Saying this, Ye Kong looked up at Thors, who was standing high up in the sky, and his lips curled into a smile:
"As expected, my guess wasn't far off!
"From the start of the 'Stygian Night Invasion,' none of the players in Qingmu Town used the Teleporter in the residential district to head for the Northern Fortress - Terrance City. This is probably because Hudgens was killed, causing their quests to fail."
Qingmu Town had a Teleporter that transported players to the Northern Fortress. However, there was only one Teleporter in the entire town, and it was located at the southwest side of the residential district, so anyone heading there would have to pass by the central spring.
Knowing this, Ye Kong had been on the lookout for any players heading in the direction of the Teleporter.
Thanks to his vigilance, he was certain that none of the players in Qingmu Town had acquired the "SOS Quest."
Ye Kong watched, muttering to himself, as the reinforcements from Terrance City continued to butcher the Stygian mobs.
"Looks like the system canceled the 'SOS Quest.'
"Based on my past experience with the game, that SOS Quest was a story event prepared for the players. If it was canceled, that meant that... Thors didn't have to wait for players to ask him for help, and could come here of his own accord!"
Thors' early arrival was part of the story event arranged by the system.
The "Stygian Night Invasion" starting a quarter of an hour early was a huge disaster for many of the players inside Qingmu Town. At the same time, it resulted in an "imbalance" in the story event's design.
However, the Federal Government had developed "Demon Realm" to be played around the world, and they had poured all their efforts into its creation. It could even be said that they had perfected the game, so there obviously wouldn't be any flaws in the story event system.
As such, in response to Ye Kong triggering the "Stygian Night Invasion" to start early, the Main AI arranged for "reinforcements" to arrive more quickly!
Ye Kong had predicted that this would happen!
In his past life, Ye Kong was considered a top tier player, and he was most feared not for his technical skill in the game, but for his exceedingly sharp intuition. His instincts were guided by this intuition, and whenever he felt like something was amiss, Ye Kong would be able to find the discrepancy and discover the key to dealing with it!
Relying on these abilities, Ye Kong could guess at what the system had planned. This was why he wasn't afraid of being attacked from all sides by the Stygian Army and players. It was because the system had arranged for Thors to arrive not more than three minutes later!
As Ye Kong had expected, he didn't need to so much as lift a finger. Thors had arrived with his army and had thoroughly defeated the nearby Stygian Army forces in less than a minute.
The remnants of the Stygian Army had run back into the Stygian Rifts, choosing escape as their best option.
"You men, keep watch over him!"
Thors had finished cleaning up the nearby mobs and immediately afterward turned to point at Ye Kong. In a couple of seconds, roughly a dozen elite armored soldiers, who looked rather hostile, had stepped forward and surrounded Ye Kong.
Evidently, their attitude toward Ye Kong couldn't be called "Friendly."
"Hmph!" Thors snorted coldly and turned to move in another direction. The plants around him seemed to come alive. They followed Thors' movements and spread to a different part of Qingmu Town.
"Winter Commander - Thors. His class is the 'Lifeforce Lancer.'" Ye Kong didn't take their treatment of him to heart, and instead recalled what he knew about Thors. "It's a very unusual Hidden Character Class that allows one to control plants and make them attack. One can also 'attach' plants to one's own body as a kind of defensive skill. However, the latter technique requires a lot of Soul Essence, so Thors likely wouldn't use this trick unless he was in a life-or-death battle."
Thinking this, Ye Kong looked at the blood-red waters of the spring, which were stained with Pulitzer's blood—
"In reality, there should have been some way of completing Pulitzer's spring water quest. Unfortunately, I wasn't about to figure out what that was. If my guess is correct, though, the follow-up story event to that spring water quest should be...
"This story event - 'Hero of the Counterattack,' which is the
Super Grade story event I received!"
Ye Kong's gaze shifted to where Lilith had died, and he said indifferently, "Under normal circumstances, players would probably receive a 'gift' from Pulitzer after they finished the spring water quest—This would be the Soul Purifying Blade! At the same time, players would also be given the 'Hero of the Counterattack' story event, and would be asked to kill the Succubus - Lilith!
"The Succubus - Lilith is a level 15 mob, and much stronger than the level 10 Priest Pulitzer. The difficulty level of this quest is thus much higher, befitting its status as a more advanced 'Super Grade' story event.
"However, the path I chose took me in the opposite direction. I killed Pulitzer with a sneak attack and picked up his Soul Purifying Blade.
"At the same time, I decided to forfeit 'The Hidden Traitor,' and by sacrificing one story event, I received a 'Super Grade' story event in return—'Hero of the Counterattack'!"
The "Hero of the Counterattack" and "The Hidden Traitor" story events were the opposite of each other, but in the most crucial part of their endgame, their plots intertwined. It was like the relationship between the moon and the sun: when the moon disappeared, it was time for the sun to rise!
"It's finished now."
Ye Kong raised his head and looked up at the sky. The sun had already set, and a new moon was rising slowly.
Yet, in his heart he understood—
The Stygian story event that represented "the moon" had been a failure.
The Yggdmillennia story event that represented "the sun" was just beginning its slow ascent!