White Cat Alice

Though Hill claimed to fear nothing, he was still troubled for several days, unable even to meditate. Every day, he wandered through the small forest outside the tower, staring blankly into the distance.

Then one day, while feeding the cat, the white cat lightly jumped into his arms, meowed a few times, raised her head, and gently licked Hill's cheek.

Looking down into the cat's sapphire-blue eyes, Hill smiled softly. Life was always full of accidents and twists, but the occasional little surprise was enough to lift his spirits and let him keep moving forward.

From that day onward, the white cat began coming into the Mage Tower to play. Though she still returned to the forest to rest, she was willing to stay by Hill's side during the day.

Then one day, Hill crouched before the white cat and asked, "May I know the name of this beautiful young lady?"

The white cat took a bite of the little fish Hill had offered. "Alice!"

What a fitting name for a cat! Hill silently sighed, stroking Alice's little head. "Hello, Miss Alice!"

Alice elegantly rolled her eyes at him, pushed Hill's hand away with a paw, and, carrying the dried fish in her mouth, lightly leaped onto the bay window and settled down comfortably.

From then on, Hill returned to his fixed daily routine, except now Alice was by his side.

When Adrian returned three months later, Hill had already completely settled down. He could even ask Adrian about his impressions with great interest.

"What a crazy race!" Adrian was practically losing his mind. "I thought Undead meant their lives wouldn't end! But they can actually revive! Their souls and bodies are separate! Their bodies seem to have been made by a God, and as long as their souls don't perish, they can reclaim and use them! The God of Space-Time's divine power is actually being wasted on making bodies for them!"

Hill pulled him up and said, "Don't waste your breath. Let's go to the study and tell Grandfather at the same time!"

Falan connected quickly. He had probably been waiting all along.

Adrian took a sip of wine, loosened his collar, slumped into the sofa, and said blankly, "Sometimes I think He's a Devil stealing divine power. Otherwise, how could He create such a race? They have no shame. The moment there's something to gain, they scramble for it like mad, and they'll fight each other over the tiniest benefits. Prince William's men are maintaining public order every day!"

Hill said, "Then they should be quite useful, right?"

"Extremely useful! They don't have even a shred of a professional's pride! Give them a little money and they'll do whatever you tell them. William had them build houses for commoners, and they were all willing to do it!" Adrian sighed. "I don't know where this God found those souls. They clearly act without restraint, yet they're all Neutral Alignment. I saw several Holy Knights of the Lord of Justice cast alignment detection on them! They were all either Chaotic Neutral Alignment or Lawful Neutral Alignment!"

Hill answered softly, "Because they haven't dealt with commoners, perhaps?"

"That's true! William seems to be puzzled too. It's all his own men dealing with the Undead! Speaking of which, they're quite easy to talk to. They even happily build their own houses!" Adrian said in confusion, "William arranged for them to live in a valley far away from both commoners and nobles. They have to walk a long way every day to build houses for commoners, yet they aren't angry at all!"

Hill silently thought, I'd be happy too! What kind of heavenly game lets you build a house as soon as you start playing? In that keyboard game I used to play, it took ten years before housing was added, and it crashed all the time, yet I still played happily!

Adrian continued, "I originally wanted to watch for a while longer, or go down and talk to them!"

Hill shot him a sidelong glance. "Are you crazy?"

"I saw that they got along fairly well with those spies who went to talk to them," Adrian said. "You just have to offer them something if you want to speak with them. It's not as though I can't afford it!"

"If you talk to them, Prince William will find out! Don't draw that man's attention! Grandfather is still in the capital!" Hill strongly objected.

"Yes, yes!" Adrian said guiltily. "It's not like I had the chance yet!"

"What happened?"

"I overheard them talking. They said some kind of test was about to end, and more people would be coming soon! I counted them. There are already over a thousand people, and even more are coming!"

Falan suddenly cut in, "Are they all professionals?"

"Yes, Teacher!" Adrian immediately sat upright as he spoke. Neither he nor Hill could speak when the communication device was activated, but a Magus could. They had forgotten that. Fortunately, Falan could only hear them. Otherwise, if he had seen Adrian's posture, Adrian would have been scolded.

"Another frightening thing is that they have an alchemical device that lets them communicate with one another. And it supports multiple people. Whenever something happens, almost everyone arrives in an instant. They can also directly notify William. Some of Edward and Charles's people were exposed that way."

"No wonder there hasn't been a single message from the royal capital." Falan was almost smiling. "It's fine. We can observe for a while longer. If there really are many Undead, I'll find an excuse to go over to your side."

Hill immediately said, "It would be best if you came soon."

Falan replied, "The ones most anxious now should be Edward and Charles! They looked down on William from the beginning and used him to establish their authority. They never expected the person they drove away to become a divine envoy. The Gods indeed forbid humans from fighting each other or waging wars between nations. But William has the right to inherit Salar, and he is connected to a newborn God. No temple will interfere in this matter."

Adrian replied, "That's quite good. No matter who acted back then, they can all perish together now!"

"William may be a favored one of a God, or perhaps the future pope? But if Salar becomes a Divine Kingdom, a great many people will be in trouble." Falan was almost laughing aloud.

Hill silently thought, I wonder whether that William is the so-called God of Space-Time. Hill had read some web novels about summoning the Fourth Calamity before. Usually, it was about becoming a king and then becoming a God. If William was a transmigrator, he was probably a future God. No, he might also be a God's pawn. That system that could help him summon people might become a God too. In any case, Salar wouldn't have it easy in the future.

He suddenly looked up and asked Falan, "They say the king only has three years left? If Prince William brings the Undead back to the royal capital within those three years, can he directly inherit the throne?"

Adrian asked in surprise, "Do you think the Undead can form an army? That would take tens of thousands of them!"

Falan, however, said, "There are already over a thousand of them just for testing the stability of the summoning. The main group must number at least tens of thousands!"

Hill thought, Tens of thousands? If this really is an online game, one this interesting would probably attract hundreds of thousands at least, right? Those intelligent NPCs alone would be enough to draw people in!

He looked up and said, "Grandfather should start packing his luggage. If anything happens, he should leave immediately. I remember Grandfather's God of Contracts with the Salar Royal Family can be terminated at any time."

Falan replied, "That's right. At the Archmage stage, one must serve the Salar Royal Family. Only after becoming a Magus can one occupy a Mage Tower. If I no longer wish to be its master, I can leave at any time."

Adrian said gloomily, "This tower was originally supposed to belong to our school, yet all that effort was wasted."

Hill replied, "Life is still more important. Or do you want to become a devout Mage of a God?"

"Forget it!" Adrian said. "The Holy Kingdom of Salar... Heh. It's been over ten thousand years since a holy kingdom last appeared. Who would have thought Salar would have such an honor!"

Falan concluded at last, "Stop talking nonsense! I'll find a way to pass this information to Edward and Charles. Also, put away all important items. If war breaks out, I'll leave immediately! I have no interest in taking part in the royal family's internal conflict!"

Hill understood inwardly that if foreign enemies invaded, Falan would certainly stay and defend the country to the very end. But because the Salar Royal Family had harmed Falan's daughter, Falan would never involve himself in this internal struggle. Moreover, with a God involved, for the next few years—or rather, until this God of Space-Time raised His Divine Throne—all Gods would likely keep their eyes on Salar. Nearly all of Salar's commoners had faith, so they would certainly be very safe during this period. As for the nobles, Falan would not care whether they lived or died.

Before Falan cut off communication, he hurriedly added, "Grandfather should still come over as soon as possible! I need Grandfather's help too!"

Hill felt that these players probably came from a high-tech era. Otherwise, how powerful would the server host need to be for them to believe NPCs this intelligent were real?

From the moment he first encountered this distorted society, he had found the nobles' behavior disgusting. Their attitude of treating human lives as worthless would have been judged as psychopathic in Hill's world. Someone like Adrian, who merely looked down on commoners and servants but disdained harming them, was practically an exceptionally good person.

The gap in living standards between nobles and professionals on one side, and commoners and slaves on the other, was like modern society coexisting with the age of slavery. Every kitchen utensil in Hill's Mage Tower was an alchemical product powered by Elemental Crystals; there was not even an open flame in sight. Yet some plantation slaves could not even afford firewood. Terrifying class conflict was held down by overwhelming power.

Without the ability to rise up with a blade, and being only one person, Hill could only keep his head down and hide, pretending not to see. But once hundreds of thousands of players appeared—fearless of death and bold beyond measure—someone would definitely act whenever they saw injustice. Whenever they saw poor, innocent commoner children unable to read, someone would certainly teach them. This continent, which had maintained a slave society for hundreds of thousands of years, was finally about to become a pot of boiling mush.

If Hill had been among those players, he would also have opposed without hesitation those nobles who oppressed commoners. If it were only a game, who would fear divine punishment? Besides, how could human Gods possibly punish players who helped common people? Those commoners were the foundation of their faith. In the end, all those Gods could do was fight for believers. There were hundreds of thousands of professionals! Hill believed that even the God of Space-Time would be unable to stop the players from changing their faith. As long as the benefits were sufficient, even the players themselves did not know what they might do.

If someone as serious and cold as Falan came into direct conflict with the players, he would definitely be angered to death! Their way of thinking was something Falan would never understand.

Hill had once considered developing his territory a little, but he could give that up now. It would be better to bring Falan over and build another Mage Tower!