After taking care of the main base for the Mowai Halii, I began to wander aimlessly through the woods. It would take a considerable amount of time for my ki to fully restore, but even still, I had enough left to take care of most issues. If I faced a true threat, Leowynn and I would be able to work together.
I merely wanted to take my time to explore the area where my host would be living. As a monk at the prime of his life, unless I arranged something to kill him, he would easily be able to live another hundred years. And that’s assuming that the host hasn’t gained some form of energy body from the level of power I’ve shown.
About that… Terra’s voice muttered into my mind as I was considering the future of this host.
He’s got an energy body, doesn’t he? I asked with a sigh.
Divine Body. Terra clarified. Your ki is infused with your divine energy. When you used it for that big attack, it registered as being beyond what a flesh body could output. So, the system reevaluated your actions, and adjusted your host to have broken through both the divine spirit and divine body.
So Clover Kyr is just one step shy of becoming a god? That made me curious. What would happen if Clover did become a god? Would I descend and find myself with a different domain?
That’s right. And before you ask, your host will be locked to your own domain. It’s the same as if you created an avatar that had yet to reach the godly realm, and ascended through them. Their essence is still your own, so they will share your domain.
I clicked my tongue at that realization. Now I had a choice to make. If I left Clover alone at this point, it was almost guaranteed that he would become a god in the near future. With that being the case, he would become a permanent host for myself.
Slowly, I felt my eyes turn back towards the town, where Lydia was attending school. If I killed Clover before he became a god to prevent myself the headache of being restricted to one host in the future, I would be abandoning a child who had already lost everything. A child who had placed all of her hopes on Clover. And I would just be casting her into the streets, robbing her of the family she had just started to find.
Taking a deep breath, I sat down on the ground and crossed my legs. The sudden action seemed to confuse Leowynn, who looked at me curiously. “Father?”
“New plan.” I muttered, not properly explaining as I closed my eyes. I couldn’t abandon a child like that, but at the same time, I couldn’t leave my true self by her side for eternity. If something came up, and I needed to descend, the ‘act’ of Clover Kyr’s identity would be exposed. To make this work, I had to plan ahead.
Gradually, I began to extract energy from my body, my soul, and my mind. These essences moved to condense in front of myself, forming a second Clover Kyr. Or to be more precise, forming the true Clover Kyr, as my own body changed into what I was more comfortable with.
Okay… that’s a good step one. Terra nodded her head, seeing what I had chosen. But what about Val? Leowynn doesn’t have the same experience with avatars as you do, so she can’t leave a copy of herself like that.
Working on it. I muttered, shaking my head. To fully recreate Clover Kyr, I had to close off his soul, remove it from my own to ensure that Leowynn wasn’t bound to it. Accalia, Ryone, Tubrock. Materials for an Armored Maiden familiar, and a spell to enhance its growth.
If my theory was correct, closing this avatar off from myself in this manner, where only our mana was linked would weaken Clover considerably. He wouldn’t be able to draw additional power from the main body anymore, until the two of them physically met. Though, I say weaken only when comparing it to my main self. I still imbued him with all of the power expected of a man of his level.
“Clever boy.” Terra muttered as she laid down on the floor next to Aurivy, the two of them going over one of her future projects. Her words caused Aurivy to glance over, but Terra simply smiled. “So, tell me about this project of yours.”
Her distraction worked wonders, the halfling sporting a bright smile. “I call it, Project: Elemental Seed.” As she said that, she held a hand out towards her bookshelf, causing a notebook to fly out at her. “Once our new god is up and running, we should be able to implement it.”
“That so?” Terra asked, nodding her head as she read through the notebook.
Lydia stood behind the counter at her shop, rocking back and forth on her heels. She had been out of school for a couple of hours now, but business was obviously slow. With so few adults left in town, there naturally weren’t many hunters. The stockpiled food would only last so long, at which point people would be forced to either trade with other towns or send the soldiers out. Either way, that would be a benefit to her business.
Lydia heard the ringing of the bell above the door, turning her head with a wide smile. She saw Mister Kyr walking in, and waved towards him. “There you are! I was starting to worry.” After she said that, she noticed that the familiar next to him looked a bit different. Val seemed shorter, the slightly paler hair. “Did something happen?”
Mister Kyr let out a long sigh. “Sorry, Lydia. We ran into a bit of trouble on our hunt. Val took a nasty blow, so she’s recovering.” Lydia’s eyes went wide as she heard that.
“Oh no! Is she okay?!” And of course, she began to panic immediately, earning a chuckle from Mister Kyr.
“She’ll be fine after a few days of rest. For now, though… I did promise to bring you something. Is the back room free?” He nodded towards the door, which led to a larger room for people to unload bigger packages.
“Of course!” Lydia wasn’t going to turn down something like this. She had been promised that what he brought her today would be free of charge, so from a business perspective, the more that he gave her the better.
I let out a low sigh as I watched my avatar interacting with Lydia. It had taken… a lot of energy to artificially age the new Val Kyr up to a suitable level. More than I would have otherwise been willing to spend. The process did not help to evolve her mind, so we had come up with the story about her injury to smooth things over.
“What are we going to do now, father?” Leowynn asked curiously. The two of us were standing high above the clouds, watching the scene of Clover and Lydia through a mirror that I had conjured.
“Training.” After saying that, I turned, the air around us rippling as we were transported to Lorek. This was the largest world I owned, and also the most unexplored, which made it the perfect place for secluded cultivation.
When we arrived, Leowynn immediately began to sway, looking unsteady for a moment. I knew that it was nothing to really worry about, allowing her to adjust to the new world. We had immediately gone from an area where she was an embodiment of magic to somewhere that the magic was sucked out of her. It was natural for her to be disoriented.
There’s no point in training Aki Seppo or the Thousand Arms, Ten Thousand Threads on a host like this, since I won’t retain any of the progress that happens while I’m not here. But cultivation… my cultivation will remain constant.
Currently, my cultivation within Lorek was at the Nova Merge stage, one step beyond the highest mortal. However, I should theoretically be able to push myself further with time. If I were to employ my full level of energy, I should be able to advance at least two more stages within a few years. And, since I was planning to do so on my host, I would be able to keep that progress myself. At least, until the host died. Then, I wasn’t sure if I would retain the progress afterwards or not.
I walked along the ground, calmly looking for the highest mountain in the area to provide the best cultivation environment. This would be the home of my host for many years to come, most likely.
Kris, I’m scared... |
The screen of the computer seemed to tremble as the message appeared, causing the demon watching it to smile. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I already wrote the beacon program, so you should be able to find your way back if anything happens.”
After numerous rounds of testing, Kris had been named the Father of Digital Intelligence for creating a true, completed digital intelligence. Even though he was only the leader of the team, everyone agreed that he deserved the credit, as the one who put in the most work out of all of them.
When asked what he wanted to name his ‘child’, however… Kris was left unsure. He agonized over the decision for quite a while, before giving up. In the end, he asked the intelligence itself what it would like to be called.
Its response… ‘My name is empty, my history does not exist. Everything that I am starts from this point forward. I am Blank.’ That answer alone had confused several people, and caused more to begin questioning the cause for such a response.
Still, the name stuck. And now, Blank would begin its first trip beyond the confines of the closed network. Kris had received permission to allow Blank to roam the internet, with the purpose of acquiring new information about the world.
Okay, Kris… I’m ready. |
As soon as Blank said that, Kris flipped the switch, connecting the closed network his computer was on to the main body of the internet. The speech window that had shown Blank’s presence for so long blinked out of existence as the program left to begin its exploration.
At the same time, Kris activated a second program on his terminal. It was a… rather unconventional program, as it broadcast the user’s digital address across several public domains. Such a thing would only make someone a target for hackers, making it easy to upload whatever type of virus that they wanted. However, it also served as a beacon to help guide Blank back home.
And sure enough, after roughly ten minutes passed, the window appeared again.
I’m back… |
“That was fast.” Kris was, of course, surprised that Blank’s trip had been so short. He had been prepared for her to be gone for hours, maybe even days before deciding to return.
I want to take things slow… just test it first. Make sure I can find my way back without any problems. |
If it was possible to hear tone over text, Kris would swear he saw the text as nervous. “It’ll be fine.” He promised in a gentle tone. “I’ll keep the beacon going until you get back.”
But what if you get a virus? I mean, if someone puts something on your terminal that forces it to shutdown, and I lose my beacon home... |
“Then I’ll upload the program to a different terminal, and use the beacon there. Don’t worry, Blank, I won’t let you get lost.”
cute Blank
I think it's fair to say that the invasion storyline was poorly executed from a story standpoint. As written it seems to contradict a lot of Dale's personality and actions to date, making it appear as though he put almost no effort in preparation for the invasion, showed little interest in its progress and results, and zero portrayal of any aftereffects on the residents of the worlds. Not to mention the discrepancy of the size of the army - it initially said 26 million people, but later the number was 2 million.
There was considerably more effort put into the side story about the invasion (which was well done) compared to the main storyline, which all but blows it off after sending the invasion force off. The defensive battle against the counterattack was also pretty weak. I expected a much scarier fight considering how the side story went down.
It reads like an arbitrary, poorly written plot device just to set up the Sylvan and more likely whatever future plot the foreshadowing in the side story and fan mail hinted at.
Given all that, ranting about how Dale can go from "killing" 2 million people versus saving one child and arguing psychology seems pointless and stupid.
TL;DR - Don't blame Dale, blame the crappy invasion plot device. It's the weakest part of a relatively good novel overall to date.
Humans are emotional before we are logical.
Thanks for the chapter!~
Soo
Blank
The god of games
Seriously people were only joking about the tet and ngnl references but you go and give the game god the name blank
Does a child care so much when he sent 2 million people to his death, a little strange, really, does he take care of only the people he knows or something like that?
Is it so surprising? Most humans show more care for those that they are personally acquainted with.
@Kuroi
It's f*cking illogical that you save a child and then kill 2 million people
@niminaroc you're pretty hung up on that failed invasion force, are you?
I'm talking about basic human psychology - to care more about what is in front of us.
@Kuroi
The point is not that it failed or not, the point is how the attack was implemented, but you don't seem to get it.
He was literally in front of those people, just like with the child and with those he saved, just leave him here, there is no point trying to debate with a famboy who defends what he likes to death based on myopic assumptions
@niminaroc your not wrong. The invasion was very poorly done. Plot wise it made no sense at all. Personality wise it made no sense at all. There was absolutely no reason to attack. He knew no one that was really harmed to instigate an attack in the first place. There was absolutely 0 planning for it either and he didn't think they would win. He just suddenly woke up one day and thought, I wanna kill millions of people for absolutely no reason at all.
Also his army was something like 27 million from what I remember. Might be misremembering but I thought it was over 20mil.
@tttbk
exactly, I would not have bothered if he decided not to attack, the problem is how he did it, it is a real shame that a series with a premise like this, which in essence has infinite possibilities, is made like this, in a way that in my opinion is very lazy
The answer attack was left on a planet that not even the MC knew was his, well, everything was very bad
@niminaroc @Kuroi @tttbk well he didn't force those people to participate. It was voluntary, and the participants knew the risks, mc even explained everything, including the fact that it might be a 1 way trip. Modern wars are fought in this way. An individual who holds all power in a nation sends millions to their deaths with reasons ranging from something as meaningful as protecting peace to stupid selfish reasons like stealing and monopolizing resources. This could be comparable to what mc did. No war is fought without sacrifices. That's why it must be the last thing to do.
Although it was done poorly. He didn't send them unprepared and ill equipped and from what I've read so far, keeper games makes you fight another keeper entirely blind unless info about them is revealed. Even the information acquired from info brokers aren't entirely accurate and reliable. Plus the enemy keeper is a monster keeper, mind you monster keepers are considered as a threat to all other keepers due to much obvious reasons. If they were left unchecked the consequences might be disastrous.
It would've been different if mc killed all those 20million people himself without any reason
He killed them for no reason, he sent 20 million without preparation, because he did nothing to help them, he had no reason to attack, if you are a person who cares about your people you would never give that warning because there will always be people who love their world and I want to fight for him, and he will never team or help them, if it were for him he would send them unarmed: what does it have to do with the enemy being a monster? He doesn't care about that and he would have cared he should have prepared his people for the fight instead of just throwing them to war, if he had given them a beast or a martial spirit or a bigger space bag to store food they would have won. the worst is that every time he goes down into the world and sees someone in trouble he always helps them like a f*cking hypocrite, but when he goes up he kills 20 million people. the only good thing about the series is the premise, then it is badly run and half done, the author has the same way of doing things as the MC, just go see the reviews he has in RR and you will see that I am not the only one who thinks the same.
I do not force them, if you put a mine on the ground and help someone to commit suicide with it you go to prison, I tell you just in case
@niminaroc soooo according to your reasoning, a nation leader making a compulsory military service for a war that the country itself caused is wrong? Its only good if they win the war??
I'm gonna give an example.
The U.S.A. deployed troops towards the middle east claiming that they're there to protect democracy and peace WHILE also securing and monopolizing the foreign nation's much coveted resources.
Julius Ceasar has NO REASON to expand his empire's territory except for establishing power and control.
England sent colonizers towards other continents to establish trade and declare that the natives are savages.
Some wars were even fought for even more foolish reasons.
(I do not condone war in any way. And i don't have anything against said sovereign nations.)
If you actually read my reply objectively you would've understood that i wasn't disregarding and degrading your points.
I merely pointed out the obvious and my personal opinion. One rule that's true about war is that the winners gets to write history. Whoever wins will be written as good and the losers will be marked as evil.
Now back to the novel.
Mc doesn't want to invest on the attack as he's not prepared for a large scale organized attack, and his worlds are not ready for such a thing. But he also understands that there's resources and knowledge in the defender's worlds, and there is much to gain if he wins.
So what he did was to set a VOLUNTARY recruitment and explained the dangers and rewards. (Call it a high risk high reward investment) the dangers in the defender's is practically unknown and there is no amount of preparation that could make the army counter them all.(look at how many times humanity attempted and failed space exploration as its in an unexplored and unknown realm)
If mc won that attack we wouldn't have this conversation.
World leaders face this kind of pressure and criticism for every single decision they make in pursuit of making their country great. (from big things like laws to small things like a social media post)
I was expecting a better argument
Edit: Merry Christmas
@niminaroc another thing. You said
what does it have to do with the enemy being a monster?
If you were paying attention. Monster keepers are feared to an extent amongst other keepers as they have little to no morals, and intelligence. They are also extremely hard to reason with cuz.. suprise!!! They're monsters. (Nope they ain't like monsters inc. They're monsters inside and out like zombies and xenomorphs.) If you could remember the conversation mc had with another keeper regarding groups, factions, and guilds within the keeper community. It was stated that monster keepers and the chaotic destruction seeking keepers (forgot the name of the 2nd one) are highly frowned upon cuz of their actions and nature. (Think zergs + xenomorphs + metroids + bubonic plague × extreme⁹⁹ impulse to destroy, kill, and multiply - any kind of reasoning and capability to learn kindness and compassion)
Unless you have the brain of a mollusk, the rest are pretty much self explanatory...
@Vyrphax man, you did not understand what I put, do you think that the problem is that he went to war? or do you think my problem is that he lost her? Well, if you understood that, it's because I didn't get you to understand my point, do you think I hope to see a series like this without there being wars and losses ...
Here the problem is that the author never gave reasons for him to send people, nor did the MC say anything to the people of his world or to us readers, if it were not for their gods who moved to help and teach as much as possible . that they could, he would have sent his entire army without training; That you find the logical attack according to your own judgment I do not care, the MC and consequently the author did not give logical reasons to the people of the world or to us. Did you see the MC at some point giving explanations that he wanted the monster world for some reason? So be it out of greed or something? No, the United States sent an attack for reasons of peace and democracy and also out of greed, was there that in the mc of this novel? no, he never gave a moderately logical reason, I don't care if he lost the attack if he at least tried hard or something, I'm watching a series of action I don't expect the mc to always win, la gracia It is that he has logic and reasons to move, not that he sends 20 million people to a war WITHOUT REASON, because he never gave reasons or greed or peace and democracy, nor did he say that he would attack him because he was a monster, in that f*cking moment mc has been on a crusade against monsters !!!
@niminaroc I don't care if he lost the attack if he at least tried hard or something, I'm watching a series of action I don't expect the mc to always win, la gracia It is that he has logic and reasons to move, not that he sends 20 million people to a war WITHOUT REASON, because he never gave reasons or greed or peace and democracy, nor did he say that he would attack him because he was a monster, in that f*cking moment mc has been on a crusade against monsters !!!
@niminaroc the guy literally went and said that my people want to go to war? Then he opened a f*cking door for them and left them in a world of a monster, the United States spends a lot of its economic power so that its army is prepared to go to maintain peace and democracy, it trains them and prepares them for war to WIN , not only declares war and throws them to fight with a fork, Julio Cesar is considered a military genius, he devised tactics for his people not only threw them through a portal, he armed and trained them, you saw that the mc asked his gods to will they train them? No, he just looked at them from the side, you are comparing the military genius Julio Cesar with the lazy and stupid MC of this novel for God's sake, Julio Cesar at least had greed in the blood, in which chapter MC shows greed or desire for the world of the monster ???
@niminaroc does the mc really need to explain how the keeper games work towards mortals. Also, how could an mc with absolute power and wealth seek something as simple as mortal pleasures. Mc is literally a god. Idk what mc's plan or goals are but from what I've read, mc is being portrayed as an unassuming normal⁹⁹ person who just happened to get the keeper position. Mc is what happens when a normal person loses any and all of the reasons to achieve dreams, goals, pleasures, enlightenment, etc. By becoming a keeper.
I think the mc doesn't want to work hard for anything cuz he's the absolute power in his realm and if he really wanted to be lazy af he could've just refused to participate in the keeper games lived the rest of his life leisurely living in his admin room with a harem of millions and just stayed in the rank 0.
There was a study/experiment (forgot the exact name) about what happens when humans have nothing to do and they have everything they want. Trust me, the result wasn't good. (You can look this up)
I also think the reason that you're angry and irate is because the novel is tackling the controversial and complicated topic of godhood, how a god acts and how a god should act. No human has ever come close to the enlightenment of being a god. We are just assuming these things to the best of our mortal mind's capabilities. A god mc with literally everything who does not show greed, mortal pleasures or any of that stuff isn't really that unusual but... i agree it does feel lacking in a novel.
If we think about this carefully. Godhood isn't an easy topic to discuss and there are too many unknown variables to consider. Questioning the mc's morals is the same as asking ourselves why humans step on ants or bugs and the ant's minds cannot even perceive humans.
Mortal standards doesn't apply to higher beings like immortal gods. The same can be said that the ant's standard doesn't apply towards humans. But who are humans to decide that we are superior beings to ants when there are other beings superior to humans that our human minds cannot perceive. See the dilemma? I hope you can understand the logic behind this.
I compared the actions of leaders and mc and not the leaders as a person themselves. I'm sorry if i didn't make it clear. I should've explained it in a much simpler way. I thought you would've understood something like that easily.
That's my stance and opinion in this argument.
Edit: please don't let emotion cloud your thinking
@Vyrphax
You are not understanding anything of what I put you and on top of that you already treated me like a fool twice, you are saying that MC is a god, I begin to doubt that you are watching the same novel as me, I will not continue talking to someone who is more concerned for insulting people by calling mollusk brain instead of debating and reasoning in a healthy way
Edit: please don't let you huge arrogance cloud your thinking
@niminaroc yep. Mc is not a god... even though he holds the power to create and destroy everything in existence in his worlds (with a cost of course). The only thing higher than keepers is the system, or the enigmatic unknown entity who controls the system.
So, yes... i believe i am indeed in the wrong comment section and novel.
Thanks for pointing that out for me. Cheers.
Here's a cookie
Edit: oh.. and about the mollusk thing. I wasn't directing it towards you. It's just that, the thing I said in that part is common sense (not including people with brain defects, mental problems, or innocent children)
So if you were offended, that means... you do have the brain of mollusks... jk
@niminaroc Tsubaki and the other gods help them prepare even giving them god made equipment the only thing they did not expected is the memory altering spore of the hive mind that led to their defeat so you can't say he send them without preparation.