Chapter 572
The worst-case scenario is that his predictions were corrected, and he was caught as soon as he entered; at least the core members could get away with it.
"Understood." Having parted ways too many times, Hayasaka Ai and Kaguya Shinomiya nodded decisively, each putting on the Fool's Mask, and left. They needed to reach the Borderlands first before they could enter the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
Within two hours, the level 6 Fool's Mask remained undetectable, and no one knew where these two powerful players came from.
As for skills analysis, I won't give you that opportunity.
Yuki prepared for the worst, but also hoped for the best. He put on a mask and transformed into a warrior in full black armor.
There was no other way; he couldn't simply create something from nothing, or become some dead Judge. So he had to create a neutral set and place all his bets on 'nothingness'.
He had fooled Ulquiorra and Dio Brando before, and he could fool all the Judge this time as well. He didn't believe that all of the thousands of judges knew him.
Coordinate establishment, target, Judgment Domain.
With the power of Hundred Eyes of True Knowledge building a bridge, Yuki took a deep breath and bravely stepped into the unknown.
Our base-swapping tactics were 20 years ahead of the world!
Chapter Seventeen: The Judgment Domain
Several dramatic scenes unfolded simultaneously.
After discovering that the Judge had taken the initiative and actually caught some loose ends, Yuki did not wait or doubt; what he did was simple.
If you extend your claws, I'll dare to chop them down with my knife.
I will never hesitate to take risks when necessary, and I will never let the enemy lead me by the nose. Countering every move is too troublesome, so I choose to give you a new home.
Just as the six Grand Inquisitors were laying in ambush and carefully dealing with the situation, Yuki unexpectedly revealed his trump card and launched a counterattack against them. With this step, a whole new world began.
The pitch-black night covered everything. Yuki appeared alone in the desolate wilderness, enduring the discomfort of the spatial teleportation, and took a fraction of a second to survey his surroundings.
Is this the Judgment Domain? Am I looking at it wrong?
He saw no teleportation crystal, or any similar medium, and there wasn't even a single man-made object in his field of vision. It was a desolate wasteland shrouded in darkness, with no people, no buildings, not even a blade of grass.
The teleportation is completely random, but no matter which Outpost Yuki goes to, he will always appear near the medium. He just has no way to choose the entry point, as most of the time it is a shared medium.
Whether it's a small town or a square, there's never a shortage of players. I remember the first time I entered 'Aether Particles,' some players even came up to me asking for items.
But this is the Judgment Domain.
An invisible gaze swept over him, similar to the previous scans, only more subtle and profound, which even the Fool's Mask could not block.
Yuki tensed his muscles, ready to run away at the first sign of trouble, but thankfully, his gaze shifted away after a moment.
The Fool's Mask cannot hide the truth, nor can his eyes see anything wrong. 'Nothingness' is 'somethingness'; you will never find anything wrong by looking at a wisp of air.
This is no ordinary Outpost; it's a den of dragons and tigers.
Yuki had no idea where that gaze came from. Not to mention that ordinary judges had no authority, even a high-ranking judge couldn't possibly smuggle in his own agenda.
I licked my lips. It was as dry as a desert. I took a step forward and felt the soft texture of sand under my feet.
He walked very slowly, not daring to look around, while as far as his eyes could see, the wasteland and the night stretched endlessly.
'This is troublesome. I know nothing about this godforsaken place. The surveillance cameras are constantly scanning, less than two seconds apart, making it impossible to explore the map. Fortunately, this place doesn't allow for Transcendental Grade powers.'
His eyes, hidden beneath the helmet, scanned the surroundings. Revealing his presence now was far from enough to achieve his strategic objective. But he couldn't just wander aimlessly like this; others weren't fools. Why would a newly returned Judge be wandering around the hallway?
Oh, and the Truth's Eye.
After figuring out the scanning frequency, Yuki immediately activated the 'Truth's Eye' during the break; this thing was part of the Hundred Eyes of True Knowledge.
It's not an illusion.
With just a quick glance, he discovered that the desert was a real place, not the illusionary labyrinth he had imagined, and when he looked up at the night sky, things finally changed.
Hundreds of stars of different colors are scattered across the night sky, ten of which are relatively bright. At first glance, they look somewhat like the vortex inside an ordinary Outpost, giving the faint illusion that one could pluck the stars from the sky.
Folding space, it's actually an infinitely folding space?
Yuki, being quite knowledgeable, immediately realized that the Judgment Domain was completely different from ordinary Outpost.
Normally, even a private space is just an extension on a spatial plane, but here each star represents a folded space.
'No wonder there's so little information about the entire Borderlands. This desert is merely a gateway for the Judge to return; Judge not on missions cannot meet, thus preventing any possibility of them uniting to overthrow the Heavenly Gang.'
'They were assigned to various kingdoms, and those Judge couldn't even see the gates to those kingdoms.'
According to intelligence, the Judge have a simple vertical management structure, with each Inquisitor having a direct superior. Could all these hundreds of stars be Grand Inquisitors?
Yuki's heart stopped beating when his gaze swept over him. If this guy was hiding hundreds of Epic Rank IV big shots, what was the point of playing? But a moment later, he dismissed this terrifying guess.
To the naked eye, the light is different; for example, the ten brightest stars correspond precisely to the ten existing Grand Inquisitors. Could the other dim stars be the Grand Inquisitors who have fallen in recent years?
Wait, it really is.
Yuki gazed at one of the brownish-yellow stars and suddenly felt a sense of familiarity, as if he had been there before. In just a moment, he made a reasonable deduction.
'Race Game' Dio Brando, I only killed this one Grand Inquisitor, who was also the weakest and least experienced Grand Inquisitor. According to the information Shiki Ryougi found, Inquisitors can participate in the advancement trial when they are promoted to Epic Rank III or above.
In the past, reading materials was not intuitive; now, conducting on-site investigations is like threading a needle, connecting independent clues together.
Each Grand Inquisitor has their own kingdom and subordinates. The minimum trial requirement is Epic Tier III, ensuring that prestige matches strength.
They are a special group of players. To become an ordinary judge, they must undergo a trial, which involves killing their closest relatives in order to prove their impartiality and loyalty to the Reincarnation Game.
In exchange, they will embark on another upgrade path.
They no longer have ordinary trial duties, but become mere executioners, climbing the ranks from there until they finally become 'king'.
Each star is an independent kingdom, and the Grand Inquisitor is the supreme being. Judge are not allowed to fight each other, and they need not fear being ambushed after returning.
'Under normal circumstances, life is pretty good; it's like having an absolutely safe haven. But the price is becoming a blade in the cycle of Reincarnation Game, forced to kill whomever you're told to. No wonder it's biting me like a mad dog.'
Yuki finally understood why the intelligence report said that everyone feared the Judge, everyone loathed the Judge, and everyone longed for the Judge.
The trials were too cruel; it was a true test of one's path to enlightenment by killing one's friends. But once one hardened one's heart, everything became clear. With the Reincarnation Game behind them, they didn't have to worry about being betrayed. They were indeed superior to others. But then 'Taiyi' appeared, disrupting everyone else's life rhythm.
From being an elite to a beast of burden, I've incurred a lot of hatred.
Their gaze swept over him, lingering on him for a couple more seconds. They were clearly puzzled as to why this Judge was returning instead of going to his own kingdom. This wasteland was both a place of return and an execution ground.
Yuki raised his hand and pointed to the star, now feeling a little more confident.
Let's hide inside first.
The thought flashed through his mind, and his pupils suddenly contracted. He saw the sky crashing down, making him instinctively want to dodge. He stood upright like a statue. In just a second or two, the night sky was right in front of him, and a huge brownish-yellow vortex cloud filled his entire field of vision.
How did you do that?
Yuki thought a ladder would extend for him to climb, but things took a much bigger turn— Falling Sky. This wasn't some illusion; what would other Judge in the wasteland see?
Suppressing his curiosity, he stepped inside and saw the vortex clouds magnify in his field of vision, as if the path of the storm was twisting and unfolding, and then a city gradually unfolded before his eyes.
Damn, even getting in is this awesome?
Yuki snapped out of his daze from the dazzling special effects and found himself standing on a rooftop, looking around at a city shrouded in night rain.
The architecture is probably from the late 19th century, with densely packed buildings stretching into the distance. The lights shining through the windows are like twinkling stars. The not-so-wide streets are bustling with traffic, trams and horse-drawn carriages come and go, and gentlemen in black trench coats are holding umbrellas and walking hurriedly.
A river about 100 meters wide flows through the city, and the clock tower on the opposite bank looks strangely familiar. Isn't that Big Ben?
They were all living people—no, Yuki didn't know if they could even be considered 'people,' but they were definitely not players. They were experiencing life according to their own thoughts. Looking up again, there was a brownish-yellow waning moon in the dark clouds.
Is it the Truman Show? To be precise, it's more like a copy.
If his memory serves him right, Yuki was genuinely astonished. What a grand gesture! It's like opening a new instance in the Borderlands. Some top players have done something similar before.
The leader of a certain faction once created an Ideal Land. He built a city in Outpost and spent a fortune buying a bunch of 'autonomous puppets' from Mechanical Believers to fill it, but it was essentially the same thing.
Not to mention that the Ideal Land was ultimately destroyed by its own players, replicating the inhabitants of London would be something even the most Mechanical Believers couldn't accomplish by simply creating something new.
Of course, Yuki wouldn't confuse his memories, because there was a palace on the other side of the river, with countless searchlights shining on the walls, where there was a huge painting covering thousands of square meters.
The handsome yet manic blond man pointed his thumb at himself, Yuki recite that line by heart:
Dio Brando!
Yuki was somewhat speechless. This was the kingdom that Dio Brando had personally created. Even after people died, they were still worshipped as gods. The benefits of this Reincarnation Game were quite generous. Who wouldn't want a safe and appealing Ideal Land? On the other hand, if he was willing to spend the time and effort, he could also transform his infinitely large personal space into something like this.
Never mind, it's not important.
Yuki wasn't there to visit Dio's Castle. With all five senses engaged, thousands of chattering and conversations flooded his brain. He refined the key words and summarized the information he had just captured upon entering. In just a few minutes, he completed his world exploration.
First, each star is independent, and only the Judge belonging to that star are qualified to enter, and only the Grand Judge can visit each star.
Secondly, the Grand Inquisitor possesses absolute authority within the stars and will never leave unless there is a trial mission.
Third, this is a super-large 'Minecraft', with maps like 'Eternal Night London' and 'Miranda Castle', clearly indicating that even an epic-level Judge as a cadre is qualified to play a block game.
Fourth, the residents here possess complete personalities, like the remnants of Peach Blossom Spring, unaware of the outside world.
Fifth, after Dio Brando's death, the Judge here were forcibly reassigned to other high judges to avoid wasting combat power; this is what the residents refer to as the 'Saintborn Disappearance' incident.
He died, yet the world continues to function normally. However, without players to maintain it, it won't last long, since the Reincarnation Game doesn't allow these people to possess Transcendental Grade powers, not even to train.
The upper limit has been locked. How could the Reincarnation Game allow the Judge to cultivate their own army? Even with superhuman scientific research capabilities, it wouldn't work. And without Transcendental Grade power to maintain this distorted world, the little pets left behind by Hachishaku-sama would be enough to destroy it.
That's good, otherwise I wouldn't be able to handle the surprise of a bunch of Judge suddenly appearing among those fallen stars.
Yuki breathed a sigh of relief, and then it was just the last bit.
"Sixth, I can't break through this layered space, or rather, I can only retreat to the next layer of the nesting doll."
That's the most crucial point. Luckily, I killed Dio Brando and came to his house in a moment of quick thinking; otherwise, I would have been dead if I had been trapped inside.
He stroked his chin and looked up at the brownish-yellow crescent moon overhead. This was the only entrance and exit; leaving this world would allow him to return to the wasteland, which was similar to an ordinary Outpost, from which he could leave instantly.
But I'm not here to search for Dio Brando's treasure. There is a Grand Inquisitor in the Judgment Domain, but I don't know which one it is. If I go to the wrong place, I will be discovered immediately.
Yuki killed Dio Brando, and in theory, he inherited the authority of a Grand Inquisitor, which would allow him to visit other courts. The key issue is that he didn't dare to try.
This organizational structure suggests that Judge within the same nation are very familiar with each other. Who knows if other planets have such a vast and complex scene? If you happen to criticize a lazy bum, he might just set up a flat area, have his underlings pitch tents and sit on the ground, and you barge in and disturb him—how embarrassing would that be?
If you happen to choose the right place, it's even worse. The Judge will block the way out, and in this multi-dimensional nested space, I can't escape even if I want to. Even if I manage to escape back to that wasteland, I'll be trapped inside by the others who are coming back to help, and then the Faction Judgment will begin. Then I'm really doomed.
Yuki paced back and forth on the rooftop, when suddenly he saw a giant mural on the wall in the distance, and Dio Brando's perverted face.
Hey, I've got an idea!
A giant tree covered the entire world, its dense, enormous branches dividing a city, resembling a world tree, but there weren't many residents here, and Uchiha Madara didn't care about them.
The reason he used his power to create a world of trees was simply because he didn't want to forget someone.
Hashirama, I think of you Night Capital.
Ban stood atop the giant tree, his arms clasped together. The tangled branches covered tens of thousands of square kilometers, making it resemble a menacing mountain peak, while his hundreds of subordinates looked like sparse monkeys.
Similar to Homura Akemi's experience, the timeline of the Reincarnation Game is even more chaotic and indescribable than the 'subspace', and the time at the Borderlands is the most accurate way of keeping track of time.
"Hashirama, you transcended the epic before the Great Cataclysm, becoming a Reincarnator to seek the path to freedom. You must not perish; you must die by my hand."
Madara was itching to act; this was his desire, and this was why he never considered things as much as Sōsuke Aizen.
All he wanted was to cut off the obstacle of 'Taiyi', transcend the epic, become a reincarnator, and then end his destiny.
"And then those idiots kept being led by the nose."
A branch grows out, and the blooming buds reflect the scene inside the 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons'.
The war was fierce. The Demon Child wielding the Flaming-Tip Spear was dueling with the Lord of Cinder. The raging Kalpas transformed into a meteor and clashed with the Sword Saint's longsword. Players below the Epic rank were in grave danger, and even the aftershocks could wipe out more than a dozen people.
They were engaged in fierce battles, using a dazzling array of items and displaying breathtaking teamwork. A steady stream of reinforcements joined the fray, including players who had initially been observing.
The battlefield became even more chaotic, and this chaos obscured the truth, making the Judge, who originally had the decisive power, hesitant to intervene. Instead, they had to devote more energy to finding 'Taiyi' who might be hiding among these players.
It was tough. Uchiha Madara retracted his 'idiot' assessment. Any choice he made could have far-reaching consequences. Who knows what 'Taiyi' was plotting?
Was it a deliberate act of sending a group of suicide bombers into the war to force the Judge to intervene and cause the Borderlands to explode completely?
Or was he infiltrating them, preparing to launch a deadly attack?
In any case, the script, which was originally quite good, has gradually slipped out of control. The longer it drags on, the harder it will be to clean up the mess. If the Judge withdraw, wouldn't it be a case of starting strong but ending weakly?
"After all this fuss, we're now in a difficult position." Uchiha Madara felt a sense of irony. This 'Taiyi' hadn't even shown his face yet, and he was already making things hard for everyone to decide, which was somewhat like a game of chess played from afar.
Fortunately, Sōsuke Aizen was no ordinary man. He quickly devised a plan, ordering the King of Kindling to isolate the battlefield and concentrate his forces to deal with the players of 'Classic of Mountains and Seas and Seas' and 'Savior'.
Catching the ringleaders would bring the truth to light, at least preventing us from being in such a passive position.
"What exactly is he trying to do?"