Chapter 475

"I told you you couldn't hide it," Yuki clapped his hands and asked, "Then what are they fighting for? For the past few thousand years, they've been fighting Agent War; there's no need for them to get involved personally."

"It is indeed a suspicious point. The strength of each lineage is about the same, and there is no need for them to fight for power." Kong touched his nose. At the same time, dozens of clones were digging deeper into the clues.

"We found some incomplete records that say all the lineages unanimously decided to launch a war."

"A unanimous decision? Why?" Yuki glanced back at the corpses on the ground. These Divine Race looked strange, but none of them seemed like madmen.

Mutual destruction usually stems from a conflict of interest; there's no such thing as a unanimous decision to kill each other.

The Divine Torch, it must be this thing. Judging from the current situation, the Divine Race have long wanted the Divine Torch to appear.

Yuki seemed to have thought of something, looking at the distant planet shrouded in red clouds. He saw countless ribbons of light, like a dense net covering the world, so close yet untouchable.

Through Hiyori's words, Yuki already knew the information within the light band. It conveyed rules and required the Angels to abide by them. The Divine Race, being closest to the Divine Torch, were obviously more aware of the information conveyed by the light band.

Rules? Game rules?

Yuki and Sora exchanged a glance, realizing they already knew the answer.

"They unanimously decided to follow the rules of the game, but something unexpected happened?"

"I was wondering if the Divine Torch had been hanging there all along, and not just appeared because we came up here?" Kong paced back and forth, muttering to himself, "I found the records for other players, and the requirements for our predecessors' return are different."

That's for sure. A reusable instance needs to be divided into phases. For example, during the prosperous period of all races, you have to kill down to only five races. No one can do that.

"Can they return to their faction simply by helping it eliminate one or more races?"

He turned his head slightly and nodded gently.

That means they're similar to us, following the same rules of the game. So what are the basic rules of Great Game?

Yuki squinted and began reading the background story from the beginning.

The gods who created the world have long since departed, and for countless years, the various races of the Crimson Moon World have waged war to seize the 'Divine Torch' they left behind. This war is the most brutal and cruel game ever played, shattering the earth, causing lives to perish, annihilating races, and bringing joy to the gods. And now, this game has reached its final sprint.

The earth shattered, life perished, species perished, and the gods rejoiced...

War!

"The Angels's intelligence is incorrect. The Divine Race is also a participant in this game. The current rules were not set by them, and they also need to abide by the rules."

"Well, or rather, they also want to change the rules."

"So the Divine Torch appeared before our arrival, and the reason for its appearance was the Divine Race war among the gods, a war that shattered the moon and pleased the gods."

"But the war got out of control, or rather, the plan went wrong."

"Too many Divine Race have fallen, obscuring the passage between Earth and the Moon. The Earth should be the main stage. The battles between the hundred races may not be as intense as those among the Divine Race, but they will certainly be more brutal."

"You mean they're stuck, because they don't know how much blood will be needed to appease the gods, and the Divine Race dare not continue killing each other?"

"Pretty much, that's why we used the rules of the Great Game to invite more actors to the stage and use our blood to keep the progress going."

Two extremely intelligent people, through a question-and-answer session based on the available information, managed to figure out most of the matter.

What a cruel world, what cruel gods.

Yuki took a breath; he finally understood why the Divine Race wanted to turn this place into ruins. The plan was originally quite simple:

The Divine Race were closest to the Divine Torch, so they unanimously decided to fight amongst themselves to reveal the Divine Torch and, incidentally, determine which lineage would establish new rules. Just like now, the Divine Torch did indeed appear then, and the game was only a little bit away from completion.

This stage is actually no longer related to the Divine Race. There are still more than a hundred races at the end of the Agent War, so it's impossible for anyone to fight over it. They just need to watch the stage from above with the Divine Torch.

If one genocide isn't enough, then ten will do; if a million isn't enough, then ten million will do. Anyway, it's not like we're the ones dying. We can just get the Divine Torch and reshape the rules later.

"But they forgot that war will shatter the earth and leave corpses strewn across the land, but the very rule of 'war' is full of uncertainties. Starting a war is easy, but ending it is very difficult." Kong sighed. He had reviewed millions of words of battlefield records in a short period of time. Now that he had reached a conclusion, looking back, he realized that the war initiated by the Divine Race had ultimately spiraled out of control.

"Every lineage wants to be the victor, every Divine Race is a complete living being, war breeds hatred, and extreme hatred transcends the game, leading to a complete table flip."

They originally agreed on the rules of the arena, such as the God of War versus Death, which ensured both the intensity of the war to please the gods and a fair determination of the final victor.

But where is fairness in war? They cheat, they assassinate, they stop at nothing. In the later stages of the war, the Divine Torch did appear, but the accumulated hatred made it impossible for anyone to stop.

Too many Divine Race perished, separating Earth and the Moon. Few spectators remained who should have been enjoying fine wine and watching the battle on Earth. Even the Moon was blasted to pieces.

Once they finally woke up from their daze and a winner was decided, the progress stalled.

The Divine Torch appeared, but it couldn't take that final step because the connection between Earth and the Moon was severed. The Divine Torch couldn't see the war between the hundred races on Earth and couldn't advance further. They dared not continue fighting, for who knew if even if only one member of the Divine Race remained, that person could touch the Divine Torch?

No one is willing to do the foolish thing of planting trees for future generations to enjoy the shade, so they can only wait for new actors to fill in the role.

"No wonder they're hiding, no wonder they're trying so hard to make us fight amongst ourselves. Their contact with the Elves and Dwarves isn't to delay things, it's to speed things up."

Yuki clenched his fist, his eyes flashing as he looked at the shocked Ikaros, Slott, and the others around him.

In this final scene, the supporting characters cannot be too powerful, otherwise they will overshadow the main characters. The best solution is to incite internal strife among the five tribes, causing bloodshed and making the Divine Torch accessible.

At that point, Marcus, who has been hiding, will be the first to seize the spoils of victory.

Now that we've figured out the enemy's plan, dealing with it is quite simple.

"Pass the message on to other races. Now there's no need to search for clues or suspect each other. Find those bastards and appease them with their blood..."

The command abruptly ceased, without warning, without any energy fluctuations, merely a familiar and fleeting sense of ambiguity.

Spatial movement?

Yuki shut his mouth and saw ripples spreading through the space.

In the blink of an eye, the warships overhead disappeared, the red clouds vanished, and a vast palace came into view, at least several hundred meters high, with countless thick, round pillars stretching as far as the eye could see.

The walls are composed of spiraling bands of light, which upon closer inspection resemble DNA strands, densely packed and quite spectacular.

Yuki's pupils contracted slightly as he looked around. The indistinct clone in front of him transformed into a disheveled young man.

He had dark circles under his eyes, and wore a simple T-shirt and gray jeans, making him look more like a shut-in. The boy blinked, as if he couldn't understand why his Epic Metamorphosis into a 'Game Players' had failed.

The clones merge? All those who know the secret are drawn in?

Looking to the side, Slott and the other humans, clad in power armor, were bewildered. The Battle King Worm, resembling mantises, trembled wildly. Ikaros immediately entered combat mode, while dozens of mechanical soldiers formed a directional formation. The mechanical angel in the center had three pairs of steel wings; this was no ordinary soldier.

The Netway Will?

The Machine Race has a Hive Mindset, Yuki deliberately had them guarding the area because all information would converge on the Netway Will and spread throughout the entire race in a nanosecond. Yuki had never seen His true form.

How is that even possible...?

Pupils contracted. Even though Yuki was a man of considerable experience, he had never encountered anything so indescribable. Even with the sudden and unexpected spatial confinement, how could the Netway Will be brought in?

It wasn't even there.

A deathly silence fell. Everyone stared at each other in disbelief. Even the Netway Will, with the highest computing power, had crashed. It discovered that all its data circuits had been severed, and apart from the elite soldiers around it, it could no longer contact its race.

"That's a fallacy. Even if you're trapped in subspace, you can still contact the database after a few tries."

Yuki couldn't answer His question. As an Epic Tier II player, he found it difficult to explain the phenomenon that transcended space and time before him, and quickly looked around.

Besides the palace, pillars, and bands of light, there were also many mummies, strangely shaped, clearly Divine Race. Some wore shackles like prisoners, while others were well-equipped, like trapped Adventurers.

The Jail? But why two completely different identities?

Yuki was thinking, a round of applause suddenly reached his ears.

Slap slap

Clear applause erupted, and everyone slowly turned around. Something incomprehensible happened again.

Originally, this strange building contained nothing but light nets and countless cylinders, but then a long staircase appeared on the right.

At the top of the steps stood a stone throne, upon which sat an incomparably handsome blond youth, every inch of his skin and every muscle meticulously sculpted.

He held a wine glass, looking down at the masses with a calm and composed expression, his brows revealing an elegant arrogance, but he seemed out of place in this strange environment.

Everything is under control?

Yuki understood the micro-expression, and while observing the unknown, he regained his composure.

"'God of War' Marcus?"

"Exactly." The young man wasn't surprised; if he didn't know this, he wouldn't have received the invitation.

It really was Him.

Yuki breathed a sigh of relief, then his expression turned strange.

That's incredibly efficient! He had just finished discussing with Kong who the leader of the Divine Race was and received the final answer when he was immediately drawn into this strange space, as if some condition had been triggered, and that condition had activated a certain passive ability.

If the other party was eavesdropping, they couldn't have escaped detection. Yuki may have seemed bored, but he was actually observing his surroundings. Besides, the Netway Will was far away at the core of the fleet; why would he be involved?

The reason is unknown, but Yuki is not flustered. As an Epic II player, he is not just anyone. He looks directly into those golden eyes.

"So you were indeed monitoring our every move, or are the Angels, as servants of the War God Lineage, never the primary threat from the start?"

The young man nodded slightly and smiled in response, "It wasn't surveillance, but you're very clever, acting unconventionally, so I had no choice but to invite you here as a guest."

This is indeed illogical. A normal person would have led a fleet to deep space long ago, but this guy is actually stopping in place to do archaeology. This is definitely not one of the scenarios the think tank envisioned.

"No need to rush, you've already touched the truth. This efficiency is truly astonishing. However, there are a few points I'd like to correct." Marcus tossed his glass into the air and raised his right hand.

"First, although I don't know who you were communicating with, you made me wait a long time, until that subtle connection disappeared, before you sent out the invitation."

Yuki's expression changed slightly. This Marcus actually managed to discover 'Shared Reading'. You know, this thing allows Yuki to listen to the Angels's strategy seminar in real time. No wonder he discovered that he was the mastermind behind it all.

The biggest drawback of Shared Reading is distance and time; it requires a 30-minute cooldown period for every 10 minutes of use. If a pattern is detected, it's actually quite easy to prevent.

"Secondly, the biggest reason for separating you is not to defeat you one by one, but because I need space to manipulate things."

"You're very confident." Yuki interrupted, finally understanding why Hiyori had said the angel was getting increasingly agitated.

According to previous intelligence, the Divine Race have control over their lineage servants. This control may not be absolute, but it certainly has an impact.

He pulled out his Dragon Spear and activated Epic Metamorphosis; trying to silence him wasn't going to be that easy.

"Honorable guest, please be patient. I am about to correct your most serious mistake, as well as the source of my confidence."

Bang!

A gunshot rang out suddenly, and a crimson bullet flew out of the barrel, hurtling toward Marcus with the Roar. However, visually, the bullet did not travel an inch further and solidified outside the barrel.

Yuki narrowed his eyes, and without him saying a word, the people around him quickly raised their weapons.

High-temperature melting anti-ship gun.

Thermomagnetic rifle.

Whether it was Ikaros, the Netway Will, or an ordinary human warrior, whether it was a physical attack or a beam cannon, everything that flew out of the barrel froze. The young man on the throne propped his head up, not moving an inch.

No wonder they dared to spout so much nonsense before the war started; they actually had something to offer.

Yuki rarely encounters enemies who can explain themselves. Arrogance without strength is foolish, and this person is clearly not foolish.

Marcus gazed at the people in the hall, enjoying their futile shooting, and extended his ****.

"Third, we didn't come away empty-handed from that upheaval, nor were we as foolish as you think; we must have gained something along the way."

What did I gain?

With a slight twitch at the corner of his eye, Yuki glanced at the Netway Will that was practically smoking from its CPU, and at Sora who had suddenly realized something. His mind raced, and he arrived at the answer almost simultaneously.

The Divine Torch, it is the power of the Divine Torch, no wonder it silently and imperceptibly swept us across space; they can mobilize the power of the Divine Torch.

"Rejected! With such power, the Divine Race would have already annihilated us." The Netway Will was the first to disbelieve. As a purely logical being, the word 'show mercy' was not in its dictionary.

"It's simple, they can't do it. It's a matter of degree." Yuki's expression was not good as he muttered to himself, "I see. The power of the Divine Torch is the rule, and we have violated the rule He set."

The investigation has reached a point where the answer is almost within reach: the power of the Divine Torch is the rule. They have found the answer and triggered a pre-set rule, which is why the Netway Will was drawn in, and why Marcus left no trace.

He didn't need to monitor him at all, and he never even left this place. 'The one who obtains the final answer will be sent here' must be the established rule.

What turn-based game? I anticipated his predictions, and he anticipated mine.

Yes, Yuki originally intended to fish for trouble. As long as Marcus didn't kill him instantly, his appearance would become the primary point of contention.

As he expected, Marcus did appear, but not as he had anticipated. The Divine Race had gained some of the power of the Divine Torch during the upheaval, and He used this power beyond the intelligence to its Limit.

His red eyes scanned the surroundings. The mechanical soldiers were still attacking, wasting their energy in vain. Yuki sighed, but his face remained expressionless.

"If I'm not mistaken, these rules also bind you, otherwise why would you be rambling on like this?"

Yuki held the gun steadily, seeing the look of surprise on Marcus's face.

"Mr. Rod, you are smarter than I thought. That's right, the rules apply to both of us. There's no such thing as a guest arriving while the host is away." The blond youth nodded, when suddenly a second gunshot rang out.

Bang!

The sound of this shot was even louder. Yuki immediately unlocked Hunting Mode and attacked with full power, the increased output propelling the bullet forward several meters.

"That's right, rules can be broken, but neither of us has the power to do so."