Historical Hollow

"Ugh—!"

Belen's agonized howl rang out as Necromantic Fire seared both his flesh and mind.

His face twisted savagely. Struggling against the Corpse Shell's restraint, he forcibly snapped his own fingers—

A Magic signet ring slipped from between them and shattered on the floor.

At the same time, his Personal Reality instantly overloaded and spiraled out of control, somehow suppressing the Necromantic Fire erupting from within him...

It also caused gray-black corpse spots to spread across his face, granting him strength greater than the Corpse Shell's!

He broke free, slammed open the room's door in panic, and charged out of the operating room—

Only to immediately crash into a gaunt corpse bearing obvious feline features.

He looked up. Another Corpse Shell standing at the doorway tilted its head at him, green flames burning within its hollow eyes.

It stood there coldly, as though it had been waiting for who knew how long.

Belen turned back in despair and saw Ron, whose skin was bluish-white like that of a corpse, strolling toward him. Nothing remained in his heart but fear and confusion.

He no longer dared to put on his former arrogant airs. His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor, looking up at Ron's indifferent gaze as his lips trembled.

"Magic, real Magic... You—how did you do it?"

How did he do it?

Ron glanced at the Dimensional Update Manual—

[Setting: Death's Blessing (Lv.2)]

[After loading this setting, you will gain all the Beyonder abilities of a Corpse Collector.]

Once Ron's player level had risen to Lv.2, his Potion Sequence had naturally advanced to Sequence 8 as well.

He had thus become a Sequence 8 [Corpse Collector], gaining a physique beyond that of a Corpse Shell, as well as resistance to death magic.

Furthermore, the Sequence 8 Potion had greatly strengthened the necromancy he had learned as a [Gravekeeper]...

It had to be said that the [Death] pathway was truly a well-balanced pathway.

At Sequence 9, as a purely spellcasting mage, he might still have been somewhat fragile. But at Sequence 8, he immediately gained a formidable Beyonder physique.

If not for his resistance to death magic and such a powerful physique, Belen's Magic just now might truly have injured Ron...

Then, it might have been impossible to say who would win and who would lose.

But now...

Ron looked at Belen sprawled on the ground like a dead dog and coldly made a throat-slitting gesture.

"Kill him."

In an instant, the two Corpse Shells moved. Rather than standing there dull and motionless as before, they lunged viciously at Belen under his despairing gaze—

Meanwhile, Ron calmly turned around, walked to the other side of the operating room, and politely knocked on the glass so covered in blood that nothing on either side could be seen.

"Would you like me to invite you over, miss?"

"Mm!"

Hearing that cold yet gentlemanly voice by her ear, the capable woman instinctively covered her mouth. Great beads of cold sweat slid down her forehead, and her heart pounded frantically with fear.

He found me... He found me!!

Damn it, Jiang Cheng, you idiot. Why did you have to play the good Samaritan?

You wanted to break up the fight and see whether you could save that old man Karen...

But did he need your help?!

No wonder Karen spouted nonsense on the association forum every day, claiming he was the Ashen Church's sole inheritor and never entering Ideal City's Inner City—

So he really was the inheritor of a secret cult!

What he used just now was genuine Magic... Magic!

In Ideal City's Inner City, that was an Authority privilege only High Ranks possessed—

High Rank magicians... they were people who had truly inherited the legacy of the Age of Gods, people bathed in the glory of the previous era!

Why was a powerhouse like that mixed up in a mission taken by rookies like us, pretending to be beneath some team leader from a megacorporation?

Bitterness filled her heart as thoughts churned through her mind, but nothing could change now.

She could only force herself, trembling with fear, to walk toward the operating room's main entrance and make her way before Ron.

Looking at the old magician before her, who said not a word, and listening to Belen's increasingly faint screams and the sound of the Corpse Shells tearing through flesh beside her...

Jiang Cheng swallowed, her face pale as she desperately squeezed a harmless smile onto it.

"Ha, haha... Hi? I didn't expect you to be here too...

"I-I was just passing by..."

What a clumsy attempt at looking harmless...

Still, she truly was harmless.

Ron had noticed her long ago. She had been sneaking along behind him the entire time.

Given what she had done earlier, she had clearly wanted to lend Ron a hand and save him from Belen.

When that thick necromantic mist had spread, Ron had seen magical light flicker by the window. She had clearly intended to step in then...

It was just that she was too weak. Before she could act, Belen had already struck Ron with his scythe.

...But it was precisely because she bore him goodwill that Ron treated her this way now.

Otherwise, he would have had the Corpse Shell he had just gained control of, which had been wandering outside the operating room, rush over, seize her, and tear her apart alongside Belen...

Besides... she had other uses as well.

Ron watched Jiang Cheng's performance impassively and shook his head, warning her in an even tone.

"There's no need to say any of that. I have no interest in killing an innocent person... But you must keep this secret.

"What happened here—I don't want to hear anyone speak of it after we leave. Otherwise..."

As he spoke, a cold flame suddenly ignited on Jiang Cheng's shoulder, frightening her into letting out a trembling scream.

But Ron lightly patted her shoulder, extinguishing the eerie green flame—

"I assume you wouldn't want Necromantic Fire to cling to you and burn you into a pile of ashes either?"

"O-of course not!!"

Jiang Cheng nodded frantically like a woodpecker. "My lips are sealed, Master Karen! Every teammate who's completed a commission with me on the forum praises me to the skies!

"Don't worry. Your secret is my life. Even if someone tortured me, I would never utter a single word!"

That was exactly the attitude he wanted...

Ron rubbed the ring on his finger and said, seemingly casually, "Very few people know my secret. In the past decade or so, you're the only one... Don't disappoint me.

"I'm old... and I don't like making too much of a fuss or seeing too much blood."

The only one in over a decade?!

Jiang Cheng stared at Ron in astonishment. Once she realized her life had been spared, a faint longing and greed inevitably arose in her heart.

As a magician, everyone pursued true "Magic."

And now, a being who truly wielded "Magic" stood before her—

How was she supposed to remain calm?!

This was a High Rank! She had become the only person in over a decade whom a High Rank magician had permitted to know his true strength...

Did that mean she had a chance... to go further?

After all, advancement was far, far more difficult for magicians than for Superpowered individuals.

Unlike the Superpowered, who merely needed to strengthen their Personal Reality and train their computational power, eventually advancing to a new rank as a matter of course.

Magicians... truly required ancient inheritances.

If she could build a good relationship with Master Karen, even a casual piece of advice in an everyday conversation might shatter the shackles that had trapped Jiang Cheng for so long...

As a fellow magician of the Necromancer School, Jiang Cheng absolutely could not let this opportunity slip away!

She swallowed and cautiously probed, "Master Karen... you've only just arrived in Ideal City's Inner City, right?"

He had taken the bait.

The corners of Ron's lips rose slightly as he said calmly, "That's right... I originally came to the Inner City to see what the ideal city people talked about on the forum was really like."

As he spoke, he sighed.

"But I'm old. In a new place like this, sometimes I can't even find my way to where I want to go..."

"I can be your guide, Master!"

Jiang Cheng immediately seized the opening, her tone earnest.

"My name is Jiang Cheng. I'm a teacher at Heavenly Hearing No. 1 High. I have a car and a house in District C, and I've lived in the Inner City since childhood—more than twenty years now. Wherever you want to go, I know the way!"

"...Then let's add each other as forum friends."

Ron tapped the Emerald Signet Ring he had prepared long ago, opened his brain-computer interface, and waited for Jiang Cheng to add him as a forum friend.

Watching Jiang Cheng fuss over him, only to be waved away and still look back at him every few steps with bright, eager eyes, Ron nodded in satisfaction.

Not bad... he had finally found a fairly reliable guide among the magicians.

After learning from Belen that no one truly believed the old magician possessed a Forbidden Codex, Ron's thoughts immediately began to shift.

Originally, after completing this commission, he had intended to discard Karen's identity and keep his distance from the magician community...

That way, he could avoid being discovered with the Forbidden Codex and becoming a target for possessing something others coveted.

But now that no one knew about the Forbidden Codex, Ron naturally had no need to slink out of the magician circle with his tail between his legs.

These magicians hidden in the shadows of Ideal City, with such immense influence, surely held many secrets.

The moment Ron saw the assassination commission targeting him, he understood one thing.

No matter how much he avoided those secrets and tried to escape the dangers lurking in Ideal City's shadows...

Those dangers would not let him go. They wanted to catch up to him at every moment!

So, it was better to cautiously join them and learn for himself what Ideal City truly hid...

Perhaps... he might find plenty of useful information within.

—Just like now.

After confirming that Jiang Cheng had gone far away, Ron controlled the Corpse Shells to hunt the mindless walking corpses wandering through the vast laboratory while taking the bloodstained notebook from his coat.

It was the notebook he had not finished reading earlier. When he was attacked, Ron had instinctively tucked it into his coat.

He was very interested in what it contained. It reminded him of what Deng Yin had told him.

The so-called Void, and the monsters that appeared within the Void...

Could they be the reason Ideal City's government, despite having the capability to transform the entire planet, was trapped in its current circumstances?

With great interest, he opened the notebook and continued reading—

[April 26. I succeeded... The magic within the finger bone truly can break through Ideal City's restrictions and touch the Beyonder!

[I have to report this. Minister Alder will promote me!]

Ron could not help but feel stunned when he saw this.

This guy had actually succeeded... He had become a Beyonder with nothing but a Wronged Dead's finger bone and an unknown ritual?

Remembering the fear Beyonder Loss of Control had brought him when he had first become a Gravekeeper, Ron could not help but feel admiration.

Wasn't he afraid of losing control?

[May 7. Minister Alder delivered other magical creatures captured from the Historical Hollow...

[Although I couldn't find their names in the records from the previous era, they are said to be producers of the primary ingredients for [Death] pathway Potions.

[He ordered me to use these creatures as raw materials, stitch them together with test subjects, and imitate my old method to turn them into Beyonders of the [Death] pathway.

[Isn't that extremely simple? I can definitely do it!]

So the so-called Void was a "Historical Hollow"... Monsters from past eras could enter the present era through Historical Hollows?

That was why Ideal City had been unable to cover the entire planet.

It felt like Ron himself was to blame for this. If he had not created the Potion Era, Ideal City would not have suffered such an undeserved calamity.

Still, unknown magical creatures...

Ron wore an odd expression, his admiration for this death-defying supervisor growing even stronger.

A Corpse Shell's finger bone was one thing. It was a Sequence 9 primary ingredient, so with enough luck, someone might truly have a chance of becoming a Beyonder.

But these unknown magical creatures, which were also primary ingredients for the [Death] Sequence... were definitely not Sequence 9!

At that point, luck alone could no longer solve the problem...

Every one of those test subjects would absolutely turn into monsters that had lost control!

Ron was certain of it as he continued reading.

[May 10. I failed... Why did I fail?

[They suffered severe rejection and mutated into incomprehensible monsters!

[But when I conducted the ritual myself, there was no problem at all. I became a Beyonder directly!

[This has made me so anxious that my head hurts. I can only see whether there is anything useful inside their mutated bodies...]

[May 18. The organs extracted from their bodies are indeed far stronger than those of ordinary people, and stitching them into the bodies of Superpowered individuals really does grant power far beyond imagination...

[But will this really not cause problems? Isn't the modification Minister Alder ordered me to perform on that high school student a little too excessive?

[He said that student was the trump card for winning the company a ranking this time... But don't trump cards lose control too?

[Damn it, this is making me so anxious. I've started hearing things lately. I hope he doesn't cause some huge problem at the College Entrance Exam venue...]

So they had indeed lost control... But the Beyonder organs of monsters were actually being stitched into a high school student's body?

Noah Pharmaceuticals' experiments were truly inhuman—and far too reckless...

Ron frowned, a chill running through his heart.

Moreover, this modified trump card was definitely participating in this College Entrance Exam.

He had not expected that, if he wanted to achieve a high enough rank at the exam venue, an enemy like this would be waiting for him...

He continued reading.

[May 21. My head hurts, it hurts so much! Why do I always feel someone speaking in my ear? And where is this sound of running water coming from? I clearly shut off the main water valve!

[Minister Alder wants me to conduct an elevation ritual again. He wants me to make use of those monsters' corpses and use them to elevate some toys bred through genetic selection...

[What is the point of that? They're just flesh-and-blood toys sold for others to play with. What use is modifying them?]

[June 1. I was wrong, I was wrong... Everything from the previous era, from the previous era, cannot be touched without Authority!

[The Void, the Void is the echo of the Apocalypse...

[The Apocalypse is coming!]