Beneath the rusted armour was a piece of stone board.
The stone board was as big as a book.
Chen Xiaolian bent down to pick it up. He blew the layer of dust on it and used his hand to wipe its surface. He immediately sensed the unevenness of the surface of the stone board.
After having blown away the layer of dust on its surface, he saw that the stone board can be opened up on both sides. It was like a door hinge.
Chen Xiaolian shone the tactical flashlight upon the stone board’s surface and noticed what was on it.
Strange symbols had been engraved upon the surface of the stone board – it seemed like a form of language?
Chen Xiaolian felt hampered when he realized that he was unable to recognize any of the words.
That was puzzling.
Since he was sucked into the system and had obtained his personal system, he should no longer be facing any issues when it came to foreign languages.
No matter where he was in the world, the system would be capable of translating the language there for him. He would never face any problems in understanding different languages. The same applied to texts.
And yet, Chen Xiaolian was unable to make heads or tails out of the symbols on the stone board.
The symbols appeared to be neither pictograms nor cuneiform scripts.
Could it be the relic of some ancient civilization?
But that doesn’t seem to be the case…
Feeling puzzled, Chen Xiaolian turned open the stone board.
A symbol could be seen on the surface of the opened stone book. Seeing the symbol, Chen Xiaolian uttered, “Eh.”
This… seems like an emblem? Or is it a sign?
A sword and an axe were crossed together in the symbol.
It was clearly some form of emblem.
It appeared to be… an emblem for a guild or organization?
Several lines of text could be seen written beneath the emblem.
Chen Xiaolian found several special characteristics within those texts.
First, those texts were actually engraved onto the surface of the stone in a hasty manner. It seemed that the engraver had used the tip of a sword or dagger to engrave those texts. Some of them were crooked and jagged in appearance.
Second, the engraved texts were not all done by the same arm. The strength used when engraving those texts were different, some deeper and some more shallow. There were also differences in the arrangement of the texts – this stone book appeared to be some kind of recording device. The engraved texts in there were all over the place. Clearly, the styles of writing of the engravers were different.
Third, although Chen Xiaolian could not make out the symbols used in the engraved texts, he was able to differentiate them. They seemed to all be of different languages?!
Chen Xiaolian browsed through them and his eyes suddenly lit up!
In the lower left corner of the stone book were several words that Chen Xiaolian was able to recognize! Those were the words of this world – one of the minor languages used in Europe.
Thanks to his personal system, Chen Xiaolian was able to read the words there.
“We are the greatest guild! We have given everything we have!”
Looking at those words, Chen Xiaolian judged that they were written in a hasty and rough manner.
The last few words appeared crooked, seemingly from lack of strength.
The more he looked at it, the more puzzled Chen Xiaolian became. His finger slid across the edges of the stone book and he suddenly felt a thin but long groove at the side.
He kept examining the stone book with his hand and found that there was a hollow groove with a width of a cigarette and a length of over 10 centimetres at the edge of the stone book. Chen Xiaolian turned the stone book over and inspected it.
The hollow groove seemed very strange. It seemed possible to insert a card of sort into the groove.
Chen Xiaolian’s mind raced and he quickly crouched down on the floor and he began rummaging through the pile of armour on the floor.
After a while, he exhaled as he found what he was looking for beneath a damaged armour piece!
It was the armour on the owner’s right hand!
Tossing the armour of the hand away, Chen Xiaolian held the withered and cut off arm in his hand. He could see that the twig like fingers were holding something tightly.
It was a long-shaped crystal.
Chen Xiaolian flashed his tactical flashlight at it and saw that it was reflecting the light back with a strange glow. It appeared translucent. Under the illumination of the flashlight, a faint stream of light could be seen flashing inside it.
Chen Xiaolian pried open the withered fingers and retrieved the crystal. After inspecting it carefully, he pulled up the stone book. Finding the groove, he tried pushing the crystal inside it.
Ka!
The soft sound clicked out as the crystal slipped in perfectly into the groove. Its size was perfect!
The instant the crystal was placed into the groove; Chen Xiaolian saw a glow appear on the surface of the stone book!
It came from the symbol on the stone book, which suddenly shot out as a beam of light!
The beam of light fell onto the surface of the wall before Chen Xiaolian, creating an image on the wall.
This appeared to be… some form of movie projector!
Chen Xiaolian quickly became alert! Qimu Xi who was beside him exclaimed out in a low tone.
“Don’t say anything!” Chen Xiaolian held Qimu Xi as he stared intently at the projection on the wall.
Actually, it was not just a projection. It was more accurate to call it a 3D projection.
The projection shook…
There was a room and a man in armour leaned against the wall. His face and body were stained with blood. The armour he wore was horribly damaged; the chest part of his armour appeared to have been hacked open and something had pierced through his waist area. Blood flowed freely through his wounds and onto the floor!
One glance sufficed for Chen Xiaolian to recognize the background in the 3D projection. It was from this safe zone!
Looking at the man’s armour and the pattern on the armour, it was possible for him to say that… the withered corpse was that man!
The armoured man leaned against the wall and gasped for breath. He struggled to retrieve something – it was the stone book.
The stone book seemed capable of functioning as a form of video equipment. He raised it up and directed it toward himself. Due to that, the 3D projection became something like a selfie moment.
His expression was one of utter pain and despair. His eyes were filled with rage, grievances and… unwillingness!
The sound created from his rapid intakes of breath signalled that he was in a very bad state. Blood was still trickling down from his mouth.
Then, he began speaking in a whisper.
He spoke and Chen Xiaolian realized that he was incapable of understanding a single word!
He had never heard that language before. Not even his personal system could translate it for him.
The armoured man spoke hastily and continued to gasp for breath. Rage and bitterness was evident within his voice. As he spoke, he coughed out a mouthful of blood. However, he forced himself to continue speaking.
Chen Xiaolian noticed that there was also a faint roaring sound coming from the 3D projection and the projection itself seemed to be shaking.
It seemed as though the entire room was shaking.
After finishing what he wanted to say, the armoured man exhaled. However, he did not put down the stone book. Instead, he continued holding it in his hand and had his face looking at it.
As Chen Xiaolian was feeling disappointed, the projection flashed and the armoured man opened his mouth to speak again.
“My name is Kaiser, Player number XXXXXX…”
Chen Xiaolian was startled!
He understood this language! Clearly, this was a language from this world!
“In order to ensure that this message could be understood by whoever discovers this, I am using the language of this world that I have learnt to repeat what I have said earlier.
“Our guild is the almighty legion of Conquerors. We are the strongest, the most powerful guild in this world… or at least, we were!
“Today, this very moment would be the last moment of existence for this almighty guild.
“As the leader of the guild, I have had to witness how my fellow comrades fall in battle.
“This is the final note for this guild, which contains the final words of every members of my guild.
“We Conquerors will never fade away!
“I do not know who will find this book in the end. Perhaps you are a Player, or… an Awakened. However, due to the rules of the system, there is no way for me to tell you the shocking truth that we had discovered. The system rules will block off all such sensitive information.
“Thus… even though there is so much that I want to say, there is no way for me to do so…
“The only thing I can say is… perhaps, we have made a mistake!
“Everything was a mistake!
“From the beginning to the end, all of it was a mistake!
“And it is because of this terrifying mistake that me and my guild had to pay the price in blood. We had to give it all… until every last member had died fighting here! Our grievances, our rage, our unwillingness… perhaps, no one would ever discover it. Perhaps, it would be buried away forever in a remote corner of this world to rot and disappear.
“But… if there is hope, if this message do get discovered by anyone, then I will tell you only this…
“Don’t believe it… all of it!
“You must not believe any of it!
“Because what you think and what you believe might not even exist!
“I can only say ‘might’ because even until now, we had not been able to truly prove our deductions.
“As for me, my life is already coming to its end. I will soon be reuniting with my fellow guild members.
“Finally, to you who have discovered this message, I have left something inside this instance dungeon, a relic of our Conquerors Guild. If you are lucky enough to find it, it may prove to be of great use to you. It is a very powerful weapon and the key to opening it is the memory crystal that you are using right now.
“I had left the weapon outside. I hope that you will be able to find it.
“If… after reading this message and after successfully finding our relic, there is a favour that I want to ask from you.
“Tell… tell…”
His voice had gradually grown weaker.
Chen Xiaolian was unable to restrain himself from leaning a few inches closer.
The armoured man in the projection was already on the verge of death.
“Tell… … Gongsun Qi, tell… Umbrella… we were wrong, we… so laughable. ”
His words ended.
In the projection, the armoured man reached out with his hand toward the stone book – he was probably removing the memory crystal.
Then, the projection stopped.
Chen Xiaolian was shocked.
He felt his mind pummelled by gigantic, Heaven shaking waves!
A Player Guild?
Utter extermination of the guild?
Strange final note?
Don’t believe any of it?
All of it may not exist?
Relic? Powerful weapon?
And… he also mentioned…
Bai Qi and… Umbrella?
Mm, by Umbrella, he probably meant Mr San, right?
Chen Xiaolian was confused!