"I dare to use my wealth and life to assure you that this is absolutely an ironclad fact!" Gerard waved his arms confidently on the other end of the holographic communication, his tone full of determined fanaticism, "The reason why the so-called 'Universal Web' collapsed in such a weird way, the ultimate mastermind behind the scenes is definitely our great Arcane Empire!"
Seeing his friend's excited look, Chris helplessly rubbed his throbbing temples and let out a long sigh, "So, in circles, we have fallen into your endless conspiracy theory rabbit hole again. He commented speechlessly, trying to pour cold water on the other party, "If I remember correctly, the last time you threw out such a sensational conspiracy theory, you were still analyzing why Mars human civilization suddenly collapsed."
"Isn't this obvious enough? Do you really naively think that the Mars people would just coincidentally and without warning suddenly die suddenly and be exterminated collectively just after Atlanteans announced its unconditional surrender?" Gerard retorted loudly without giving up, trying to prove the severity of his logic. Confidentiality, "This is simply a lice on a bald man's head - it's obvious! This is the Empire government using ruthless and iron-blooded methods to conduct an internal purge before all-out war breaks out to completely eliminate all possible unstable factors! But forget it, this is all in the past, this is not the core focus of what we are discussing now."
"Since you know that this is all trivial matters, why are you still clinging to it? The conspiracy theories about this matter have been completely abandoned and forgotten by the vast majority of rational people a few months ago. Why are you still so persistent and nagging about such a illusory matter?" Chris frowned and asked in extreme confusion.
"Because of intuition! I have a strong intuition that comes from the depths of my soul, and it tells me crazily that everything I speculated is the cruel truth!" Gerard stared at the screen, with a paranoid light in his eyes Blink.
Chris felt that the other party's idea was simply ridiculous. He immediately showed off his professionalism as Psychic Software Engineer and refuted it rigorously. "You are simply fanciful. Do you know how terrifying the underlying technology and high-dimensional magic logic that support the operation of that huge 'Universal Web' are? That's absolutely It is a miracle that has never been seen before and even surpasses the cognition of all known civilizations! It is no exaggeration to say that even including our current Arcane Empire, looking at the entire multiverse, who or which force can possess such heaven-defying power to forcibly cut off a super network covering the endless sea of stars and directly shut down?!"
Faced with Chris's impeccable technical rhetorical question, Gerard not only did not flinch at all, but proudly raised his chest and responded loudly with an almost fanatical tone of admiration, "If others can't do it, it doesn't mean that the supreme one can't do it. The Arcane Grand Archon can't do it! After witnessing with my own eyes the ultimate power displayed by the Floating City that covers the sky and is like the abode of gods, I now firmly believe that as long as the Grand Archon wants to do something, even if it subverts the common sense of the universe, he can do anything!"
Hearing that his friend moved out the legendary Archon and the Floating City, which can be called a miracle of war, Chris opened his mouth, but found that he was unusually speechless. For a moment, he didn't know how to organize his words to refute this point of view. In fact, Gerard's words accurately hit the softest and most shocking place in the hearts of all Empire citizens. After Floating City's terrifying power that destroyed the world and ignored all physical and magical defenses was revealed for the first time in front of the entire universe, countless Empire citizens fell into deep awe and worship.
It is no exaggeration to say that in today's Arcane Empire, every citizen with passion and ambition has had the same grand and crazy ultimate dream in countless late nights: they dream that one day, they can also own a majestic and magnificent Floating City of their own.
They fantasize about driving that invincible fortress of steel and magic, traveling through the vast sea of stars in the universe without any scruples, and wantonly exploring the countless unknown dimensions hidden deep in the cracks of time and space; they want to fight with those high above at the end of the sea of stars. The ancient gods engage in a brutal fight to discover new and strange species and splendid alien civilizations that have never been heard of before, to unravel the most profound new magical laws bit by bit, and finally reveal the ultimate mystery at the core of life and even the entire multiverse.
And Chris himself has made a vicious and even crazy oath to himself in his heart more than once: Even if he spends all his hard work and soul in this life, he will definitely and definitely have a Floating City of his own one day in the future!
However, as full as the ideal is, the reality is just as skinny. Chris knows better than anyone else how miserable and humble the real situation he is currently facing is.
The bottle of Dragon Potion he is now spending all his money on to buy is just a bottle of Third Tier, the "Third Tier" Potions, which is at the bottom of the contempt chain. This means that even if he successfully takes Potions and successfully crosses the sacred threshold, his innate qualifications on the road to magic can still be cruelly judged as "extremely mediocre."
However, the word "accepting fate" has never been in Chris's dictionary. There was a hint of frightening paranoia and determination in his eyes. He had long been prepared for the craziest psychology: in order to buy a bottle of the "Fifth Tier" top-quality Potions that could completely change his life, he was willing to be like the humblest slave, working hard to save for thousands of years without eating or drinking!
If this is not enough, after being successfully promoted, if it is absolutely necessary, he is even ready to continue to squeeze himself crazily for endless years. Even if it takes millions of years, he must save enough money to buy a Floating City at a sky-high price!
Currently, in the major online forums and academic salons of the Empire, countless people are fiercely debating a hot topic: How will this kind of Floating City, which can be called Divine Grade Creation, be used in the future? In the years to come, is it really possible that like today's magic cars, it will be completely popular and become the standard car for all high-end Arcanist. And Chris is firmly and enthusiastically standing in the camp of "will definitely become popular".
"Okay, okay, let's not continue wrangling on this illusory and grand topic," Chris shook his head and abruptly brought the topic back from the grand narrative of the universe to the cruel real life, "Tell me, what's going on over there lately? Have you listened to my advice and honestly saved all your monthly salary and achievements?"
"Of course not, how could I waste my good time on that boring miser game!" Gerard, a bachelor, denied it immediately and unabashedly, "Don't you recognize the reality yet? We are now living in an era of extremely dangerous total war that may end at any time! In this hellish world where we don't even know whether tomorrow or the accident will come first, who dares to guarantee when Empire's top brass will suddenly break up? Shameless, just start cruel and forced conscription for ordinary civilians like us who have no power?! I don't want to die in an alien wilderness with a bank account full of numbers and a bunch of people who can't even name it. The stinking, moving skeleton is fighting for its life! Therefore, before the worst misfortune comes, I must race against time and enjoy my limited life without reservation, and live every day to the extreme craziness and pleasure!"
"You are simply worrying and scaring yourself. In today's Empire, even the most ordinary citizens are all fighting Qi Martial Artist who have been baptized by the basic Battle Aura. As long as they undergo a brief round of military training, any civilian can be transformed into a soldier in an instant. "So, although theoretically speaking, Empire does have a huge operating space to implement Universal Compulsory Conscription," Chris analyzed calmly and objectively, "But I still firmly believe that the most extreme forced conscription situation is absolutely impossible to happen in the short term."
"Oh? Why are you so sure? Could it be that in this highly confidential military department, through some special channel, you secretly came into contact with some top-secret high-level insider information that ordinary people like us have no right to know?" Gerard immediately perked up and asked curiously. After all, his best friend is now actually serving Empire's core space fleet.
"That's not true. I'm just a low-level Psychic Energy programmer. How can I get access to that level of secrets? This is purely a conclusion based on my personal precise logical analysis of the current situation." Chris shook his head and answered truthfully.
"I know... then tell me, what kind of logic did you use to derive it?" Gerard continued to ask relentlessly.
"There are only two words: clone." Chris took a deep breath and gave the answer seriously and accurately. "In the past few years, Empire's breakthroughs in 'Mass Clone Production Technology' can be described as rapid and terrifying. Therefore, according to the most basic logic of war resource consumption, in a long war of attrition, the Empire military will definitely give priority, and mass-produced clones who have no emotions and no fear are thrown into the most brutal meat grinder battlefield to serve as cannon fodder. Only when the production capacity of clones is completely exhausted, or the situation deteriorates to an irreversible Extremis, will it really be our turn as ordinary citizens to be forced into the line of fire."
"Your analysis is indeed to the point and well-founded." Gerard nodded in agreement, and then a complicated sneer suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth. You must know that the ethics of cloning technology, as well as the cruel and widespread use of clones in various bottom-line in vivo experiments and bloody interstellar wars, have always been the core and most controversial super political scandal since the founding of the Arcane Empire. During these long years, there have been countless fanatical social activist groups and protesters demonstrating on major planets, calling frantically for the government to grant clones basic human rights.
However, when the annihilation Cataclysm named "Darkfall" came without any warning, when the bloody, terrifying, and even heartbreaking cruel truth of the interstellar magic war that easily wiped out billions of living beings was exposed to all civilians without reservation. In front of their eyes, the attitude of those protesters who once held high the banner of morality suddenly underwent a strange and even dramatic 180-degree reversal - especially when the deadly Sword of Damocles named "Universal Compulsory Conscription" was literally hanging above their own fragile heads.
It is undeniable that in this huge Empire, there are still a handful of stubborn and die-hard idealists who are still clinging to their seemingly noble illusory beliefs at all costs. However, in this huge battle that concerns the life and death of the race, In the face of crisis, this feeble protest has long been drowned in the ultimate desire for survival. The so-called ethical scandal of human cloning can no longer cause any substantial damage to the operation of the Empire War Machine.
"Okay, the chat is over. I still have a lot of complex low-level Psychic Energy codes waiting for me to type. I must go back and continue working." Chris glanced at the time, decisively cut off the holographic communication, and refocused all his attention on the work in front of him.
"There are only seventeen years of hard work left. I am really close to that ultimate dream." He murmured in a low voice, tired but extremely excited, trying to use these words to inject a strong shot of chicken blood into his spirit that was numb due to long-term and high-intensity work.
He skillfully re-logged his consciousness into the high-end Psychic Energy encoding software: it was a pure, dead, pure white virtual dimension, with no other superfluous things to interfere with his sight except endless nothingness. Then, Chris took a deep breath and began to frantically squeeze out his refined Divine Power energy. In this pure white Void, he accurately wrote and weaved lines of Psychic Energy underlying code exuding mysterious fluctuations out of thin air.
Just after he had been immersed selflessly in the ocean of code for several hours, a harsh, high-frequency special prompt sound suddenly exploded in his mental mind, instantly pulling him out of his deep state of concentration. Chris was keenly aware of the anomaly, because he knew very well that it was still very early before his normal get off work time, and it was definitely a major emergency to be able to forcefully break through the notification of his work firewall at this sensitive time point.
Without any hesitation, he decisively exited the pure white virtual Psychic Energy programming space and quickly opened his heavily encrypted private communication mailbox.
In the brief moment when he saw the title of the email clearly, Chris's weathered eyes suddenly shrank uncontrollably to the extremely dangerous size of a needle tip. It was the ultimate announcement sent directly by the highest authority in the Empire: Arcane Empire's highest core knowledge base, Arcane Grand Library, has just completed an epic version update that is enough to subvert the laws of the entire universe. A crazy, great new era that allows all Empire citizens to possess and perform magic without any barriers has been roughly announced!
--Scene dividing line--
Early morning a few days later.
With heavy, even trembling steps, Chris trudged towards the towering Empire's official talent testing base located in the center of the city. Thanks to the precious and even priceless title of "Honorary Citizen of the Empire" that he had worked so hard to obtain, he had gained the unparalleled privilege of becoming one of the first batch, or even the very top few in the Empire, to be qualified to step through the door first to experience this subversive miracle.
Although only a few days have passed since the epic update announcement that detonated the entire Internet, at this moment, Chris is overwhelmed with emotions and mixed emotions deep in his heart. He is even completely unable to use any known language to accurately describe his complex and entangled emotions at this moment.
For this humble dream, like an ascetic who never saw the light of day, he spent decades searching and accumulating morbidly. He thought he would be one of the few winners who could finally climb to the top of the pyramid through endless suffering. However, just when he was about to get through it, the sacred privilege that he had dreamed of and even regarded as the ultimate meaning of life was suddenly generously and cheaply extended to everyone in the Empire.
Before formally meeting the female supervisor who was solely responsible for the awakening test, Chris was like a puppet whose soul had been drained, mechanically and numbly cooperating with the security personnel to complete a set of tedious and rigorous multiple identity verification and precise Divine Power scanning procedures. Throughout the long queue and security inspection process, his brain was always in a weird state of panic and trance, as if everything around him had become unreal.
"Please forgive me for asking... Is this true? I... can I really transform into a real Arcanist right away?" Chris swallowed dry saliva with difficulty, and asked the female supervisor in front of him in a hoarse voice, even with a slight tremor.
"Of course it's true. This is the will of the top management of the Empire. There is absolutely no need for you to question or worry," the female supervisor reassured her with a gentle smile that was professional yet refreshing.
"But... but what about the magic talent? Isn't this no longer a fatal obstacle that can be sentenced to death?" Chris continued to ask in disbelief. You must know that it was that damn "talent" that had tortured him for most of his life.
"As for this question, the answer is both yes and no," the female supervisor patiently explained for him this mystery that has troubled countless people. "In the first deep soul awakening procedure that is about to be carried out for you, the total amount of basic magic power that your body can instantly burst out and successfully contain will still be strictly determined by your innate magic talent. However, this is definitely not the end. Immediately afterwards, we will help you Carry out the critical second surgical transformation. In this step, Empire will generously give you a unique and noble magical bloodline. This heaven-defying bloodline power is like an absolute trump card. It will overbearingly and forcibly guarantee that you will at least be able to successfully break through to the 'Third Tier' level in your future practice path.
"However, you must clearly understand that this does not mean that you can sit back and relax from now on. How many long years will it ultimately take you to climb to that level, how powerful your terrifying combat power can be at the same level, and your ability to regenerate magic power. Speed and extreme micro-control performance, these key indicators that determine life and death, will still be cruelly determined by your innate talent for practicing law, your mastery of high-dimensional knowledge, and most importantly - your absolute acquired hard work."
"I see. I completely understand." Chris nodded heavily, but the confusion in his eyes had been completely replaced by a kind of fanatical flame.
"Now that you know all the rules, let's start this sacred test immediately," the female supervisor said ably.
She guided Chris to a complex magic array and asked him to solemnly place his palm firmly on a test Crystal ball that exuded a dark and deep light.
"Huh?" When the light inside the Crystal ball stabilized, the female supervisor, who had always maintained absolute calm, unexpectedly let out a rare low, even slightly shocked exclamation.
"What's wrong?! Did something fatal go wrong?!" Chris's heart suddenly rose to his throat, and he kept asking in panic like a frightened rabbit. He was extremely afraid that he had been infected with some weird curse, causing this new awakening method that had been perfectly popularized to be completely ineffective on him.
"No, you misunderstood. There is nothing wrong. It's just that... the test results show that the 'willpower' value you are born with has actually reached a terrifying 2." The female supervisor announced the result seriously, even with a hint of awe.
"Is this... is this value bad?" Chris asked confused.
"On the contrary. This is a value that is high enough to make most people completely despair and even shudder." The female supervisor took a deep breath and patiently explained to him.
"Is the maximum score for this value 3?"
"No, the limit is 10."
"The full score is 10, but I only have 2? You call this ridiculously high?" Chris couldn't believe his ears.
"Correct." A hint of helplessness at ignorance flashed in the eyes of the female supervisor. According to the top-secret law information she has mastered, which can even be said to touch the bottom of the universe, even those high-altitude 'Tenth Tier' supreme True God who can easily crush the galaxy, most of them only have this level of willpower value!
Chris was completely shocked and speechless, and his mind went blank. "So... what does this really mean? Will I get any special treatment?"
"This means that you will be honored to receive generous special resource subsidies and key training from the highest level of the Empire government," the female supervisor replied firmly.
"There is such a good thing?!"
"I advise you not to be happy too early. You must understand a cruel reality: this heaven-defying high-dimensional willpower will only truly explode into its terrifying and devastating benefits when your cultivation level truly breaks through to the 'Sixth Tier level' or even higher into the realm of God." The female supervisor calmly poured cold water on you.
"There is absolutely no way this can stop me from moving forward," Chris retorted proudly and Haki. After being labeled as a "mediocre waste" for a whole life, he finally, at this sacred moment, discovered some kind of abnormal and absolutely extraordinary talent in himself! This sudden extreme ecstasy naturally made him feel extremely excited.
"Very good, just keep this fearless fighting spirit," the female supervisor encouraged him appreciatively, and then led him into a Chamber of Secrets with endless luminous runes intricately carved on the ground.
As a blinding light flashed crazily, Chris felt a strong sense of space tearing. The next second, he disappeared out of thin air and suddenly appeared in another mysterious space filled with countless Ancient Magic books.
He had no time to carefully examine the luxurious environment around him, because the moment he landed, he keenly sensed that a mysterious and mysterious power of high-dimensional laws was acting crazily on his body and soul in a domineering and irresistible manner!
After experiencing a long, even torturous few minutes, he suddenly felt that something incredible deep in his body seemed to be completely ignited.
"Is this... is this the intoxicating magic power in the legend?!" He greedily felt the power, his voice trembling crazily due to extreme excitement. Then, he couldn't wait to conduct a practical test.
"Lumos!" He chanted loudly and unfamiliarly yet enthusiastically.
A weak light, which could even be said to be extinguished at any time, Blink with difficulty in his palm, and then completely collapsed and disappeared. However, for Chris, this was enough. His mood at the moment could be described as being driven into madness with excitement, and it was impossible to describe the ultimate ecstasy in his heart using any mortal language.
You know, he has crazily and obsessively memorized the entire basic syllabus for the first grade of a top magic school like Hogwarts. Those obscure spells and complicated Magical Theory have long been deeply engraved in his bones.
He took a deep breath, forced down the ecstasy in his heart that almost burst him, concentrated all his energy Divine Power into one point in horror, and then sang hysterically loudly again. "Lumos!"
After three difficult and failed attempts, when he made his fourth attempt, a ball of light that was pure, stable, and exuded a soft light finally perfectly condensed and formed in the center of his palm!
Looking at this tiny ball of light in front of him, Chris suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed like a completely out-of-control lunatic. Hot tears poured down his weathered cheeks like a flood that burst a dam. He stared at this inconspicuous and even ridiculous floating ball of light, as if he was looking at the most precious and unique treasure in the world.
"I am Arcanist... I am finally a real fucking Arcanist!" He roared crazily in a hoarse voice.
Plop!
However, the cruel reality immediately gave him a heavy blow. His legs suddenly lost all strength, and his whole body collapsed and fell to the cold floor. A weak and terrifying feeling of exhaustion, as if his soul had been completely drained, swallowed him up like a Abyss tsunami.
"As expected... the magic power reserve in my body is pitifully small," he slumped helplessly on the ground, breathing heavily and muttering in a low voice. However, even so, the ecstatic smile that bloomed on his old face because his dream came true has not faded at all.
Just as he was lying on the floor like a puddle of mud, struggling to regain his strength, a thick Grimoire book exuding an ancient and mysterious atmosphere suddenly flew out of the bookshelf on the side and landed accurately in his palm.
"Is this... the sacred Grimoire that belongs exclusively to me?" The previous female supervisor had already introduced all kinds of core common sense to him in detail. Chris opened this heavy book religiously and carefully as if treating a god.
"[Haste Magic]? Isn't this... the perverted 'Vector Manipulation Conversion' that I once read in a certain unpopular high-level academic paper?!"
Chris was so excited that he fainted on the spot, because he was keenly aware that the potential of his innate magical attributes was simply terrifying and heaven-defying.
Although there was a turmoil in his heart, he still struggled to suppress his almost violent emotions. Because he knew better than anyone else that this was just an insignificant beginning, and he still had a long, long way to go on the magical road ahead of him that was full of thorns and blood.
Due to a severe overdraft of magic power, Chris lay in embarrassment on the floor like a useless person for too long. In the end, the responsible female supervisor directly used strong spatial means to forcefully summon him back, and silently handed him a precious bottle of the best magic power restoration potion. Chris drank the potion in one gulp with embarrassment and a blush on his face.
After recovering a little strength, he quickly entered the next critical process. He was tightly fixed in a huge operating cabin that exuded a cold metal texture and various complex instruments, and he underwent an incredible bloodline Fusion transformation surgery while he was awake.
Before the operation, the professional Arcanist asked him what kind of magical bloodline he wanted to inherit. Chris did not hesitate for even a brief second and decisively chose the most orthodox and pure [Archmage] career branch. He had not even the slightest interest in those weird sub-careers such as priests, Ranger, or stereotypical paladins.
The strange thing is that after this fate-changing operation, he didn't feel any obvious changes in his body. Then, the female supervisor solemnly handed him a special mysterious magic weapon that looked like a precision watch. According to the core's official top-secret instructions, this specially made watch has the ability to jump through space, and it will violently transport the wearer directly to a dangerous different-dimensional space.
There, he must brutally and crazily slaughter a large number of horrific Magical Creatures like a killing machine. Every time he completes a bloody kill, he will magically obtain a kind of illusory energy called "skill points". These precious skill points can be used to unreasonably forcibly improve the basic core attributes of his body - of course, the most important thing is to forcibly expand the upper limit of his poor magic reserve!
"This ridiculous setting... sounds like a cheap RPG virtual reality game played with a helmet, forcibly moved into the cruel real world!" Chris was so shocked that he couldn't help complaining.
"Essentially, it is such an unreasonable thing." The female supervisor replied calmly.
Hearing this affirmative answer, Chris once again felt a wave of terror in his heart. Only now did he realize deeply that in such a short period of time, Arcane Empire's exploration of magic systems and law control had pervertedly developed to unfathomable and terrifying levels.
"This detailed booklet comprehensively records all the survival rules that you must remember about that extra-dimensional space," the female supervisor professionally handed him a thick guide. "Be sure to keep this watch properly. The reason why you can get a special separate watch This privilege is entirely based on your title of Honorary Citizen. If it were ordinary citizens, they would have no choice but to go to the officially designated crowded public areas miserably to undergo that kind of cruel concentrated trial, just like being chased away."
Chris nodded solemnly, feeling grateful in his heart that he could enjoy this special VIP treatment. At the same time, his sharp brain also quickly made a guess: this exceptional preferential treatment was definitely not just because of the illusory title. It was most likely that Empire's senior management valued his perverted hidden willpower talent of up to 2 points, and thus secretly gave him such secret special care.
After finishing all the tedious procedures, Chris rushed back to his small apartment like a violent whirlwind. He couldn't wait to delve into the survival booklet crazily and be fully prepared for the upcoming cruel trial. The magical road to heaven that he had longed for and dreamed of for most of his life was now truly and unreservedly displayed at his feet.
Because of this, he will never allow himself to waste even a tiny second of time!