Fool

The Mysterious Ring had fallen into Aster's hands, which meant that in this world, the protagonist players had played in the game's storyline most likely did not exist.

In most MMORPGs, the protagonist was basically both the savior and the workhorse. They had to save the world once every major version update, as if they were the only person in the world doing any work—from taking on true gods and Angels head-on to finding cats and dogs or catching mistresses.

But now that the protagonist was gone, this became quite a serious problem.

The protagonist was established as a blessed of the ruler of the spirit world and was directly connected to a certain Sefirah—the particular Sefirah depended on the Pathway chosen by the player, but it did not affect the plot. This was also meant to explain why the player's strength rose so quickly. It was precisely because they were connected to a Sefirah that the protagonist could advance at a pace that kept up with the game's version settings. This also explained why the protagonist could repeatedly ignore the corruption of higher existences and challenge Demigods stronger than themselves: their status was elevated by the Sefirah. For the same reason, the protagonist's fate was difficult for higher existences to manipulate.

Unlike the players' righteous gang beatings in dungeons, however, the protagonist in the storyline had genuinely defeated bosses that theoretically required teams of four or eight all by themselves... Though NPCs had helped along the way, there was no doubt that this did not diminish the protagonist's strength.

But if there was no protagonist... that would be troublesome. It meant that the only ones dealing with [Holy Mother - Megose], [Shepherd - Mr. A], [Puppet - Shanks], and [Prince of Abolition - George Augustus] would be those NPCs from the storyline.

And without the protagonist, even if those disasters could ultimately be resolved, there would inevitably be heavy casualties. Aster remembered that around the end of this year—January next year at the latest—the 1.0 storyline would end, and Tingen City would face a massive, horrifying disaster... It was only because the protagonist joined the battle at the crucial moment and fought a bitter battle against the 1.0 version boss [Megose] that the disaster had not spread throughout the entire city.

"Let's take it one step at a time." Helplessly pinching the bridge of his nose, Aster put the ring on his right thumb—it fit perfectly. In the game's CGs, the protagonist had always worn this ring as well. The difference was that the protagonist wore it on their left thumb.

When he left the inn again and looked at the dim yellow sun on the horizon, Aster finally realized how much time had passed. It was nearly evening. The food provided by the inn was rather expensive and not particularly tasty, so he found a nearby café to settle dinner. The gravedigger's passive ability, [Necromantic Body], made him more capable than ordinary people of enduring debuffs such as hunger, but that did not mean he could go without eating.

"It should be in the early hours of this day..." Clutching the ring tightly in his hand, Aster closed his eyes in the room. Yet nothing happened until he fell asleep and woke again. If anything, he had slept exceptionally soundly, sleeping straight through until dawn on June 28.

Returning to the inn with the breakfast he had bought, Aster chewed on a sandwich while taking out the ring and placing it before him to think. "Something's wrong, isn't it? Why hasn't anything happened? Could the ring be fake? It shouldn't be. The interface even gave its item name... Or does it have to be obtained by the right person?"

The instant he swallowed the last bite of his sandwich, Aster saw a vast crimson color suddenly spread from the ring, swallowing his entire body.

In a luxurious villa in Empress Borough, Backlund, the capital of the Loen Kingdom, a beautiful blonde, green-eyed girl was stroking the cracks on an ancient bronze mirror.

"Magic mirror, magic mirror, wake up..." The girl kept trying, but after more than ten minutes, she finally gave up and muttered softly, "Father really was lying to me. He always told me this mirror was a treasure of the Black Emperor of the ancient Solomon Empire, a Beyonder item..." Before she could finish, the bronze mirror on the table suddenly burst forth with a deep crimson light, instantly enveloping her.

On the Sonia Sea, a three-masted sailing ship clearly behind the times was making its way through a storm. A dignified, steady middle-aged man stood on the deck, his body rising and falling with the ship's rocking as he effortlessly maintained his balance. He had bronze skin and blue hair, wore a black robe, and held a strangely shaped weather bottle in his hand. Bubbles sometimes churned within it; frost sometimes gathered into snow; sometimes, wind blew forth in visible traces.

"Still need ghost shark blood..." the middle-aged man murmured. At that moment, deep crimson light erupted between the glass bottle and his palm, drowning out everything around him in an instant.

Above the gray-white fog, Aster finally regained his senses. Before him stood three figures shrouded in the Gray Fog.

It worked! A brief surge of wild joy filled Aster's mind, but he did not show it. Instead, he quickly observed his surroundings.

...Klein had only just managed to calm the confusion and stabbing pain in his mind when he stared dumbfoundedly at the three unexpected visitors before him.

What was going on? What should he do? How was he supposed to handle this?

He had merely accidentally touched those three crimson stars, and then these three people had appeared before him.

"Your Excellency, where is this?"

"What do you want?"

After a brief silence, two of them had already spoken, asking their questions. The same Loenese, the same tense feeling. The one who had not spoken stood with his arms crossed, calmly watching him. And crossing one's arms was clearly a gesture of self-protection and resistance!

As his thoughts raced, Klein decided to try guiding these three victims who had been pulled into the world above the Gray Fog and obtain valuable information!

Here it came, here it came... Aster did not stare fixedly at the great existence who had pulled the three of them Above the Gray Fog. After observing for several seconds, he lowered his gaze.

"An experiment." The calmest figure gave a low chuckle and replied.

Just as expected! At least for now, the plot should still be able to proceed normally. The only difference was that I had taken the protagonist's place!

Hearing that familiar line from the game's storyline, Aster tried his best to suppress the excitement and nervousness in his heart, maintaining the silence and calmness he had shown from the beginning. He still did not speak. Then he heard a clear female voice laced with fear and anxiety: "Your Excellency, is the experiment over? Can you send us back now?"

Heh, how could he let you go back so quickly... Justice was still so inexperienced at this point... Completely different from the mature version in 7.0... As for the Hanged Man beside her, he was as quiet as ever. Who knew what he was imagining again... Aster shifted his gaze to the silent middle-aged man, evaluating his two future colleagues with the lofty mentality of a player.

The girl who had asked the question was tall, with long golden hair and a gorgeous dress. The silent middle-aged man had bronze skin, an average build, and messy short blue hair.

After a brief silence, the existence who might have been the instigator gave a light laugh. "Of course. If you formally ask, I can send you back right now." This answer clearly made the girl lower some of her guard. She became noticeably more animated, casting her gaze toward Aster and the middle-aged man as she considered what she wanted to ask.

At that moment, the Gray Fog around them churned violently. In an instant, they saw towering stone pillars rise all around them and a vast dome spread above. The entire structure was magnificent, grand, and majestic, like the king's hall of giants from legend. Directly beneath the dome, amid the surrounding Gray Fog, stood a long bronze table. Ten high-backed chairs stood on each side, with identical seats placed at the front and rear. On the backs of the chairs, brilliant gleams and restrained crimson light outlined strange constellations that did not correspond to reality.

That mysterious person was already seated high at the head of the long table. The girl and middle-aged man sat directly opposite each other in the two chairs closest to the head, while Aster had been pushed to the very end of the table, sitting face-to-face with the mysterious person.

Aster did not find such unequal treatment strange, because in the storyline, the protagonist had sat in this very position as well.

Seemingly frightened by such a great miracle, the girl remained silent for several more seconds before hesitantly speaking. "This... is truly amazing... It is practically a miracle... It makes one yearn for it. If I could also... Sorry, what I mean is, how can one become a Beyonder?"

As she spoke, she subconsciously glanced at the mysterious existence at the head of the table, then cast another look at the gentleman seated at the very bottom. Ever since he had arrived Above the Gray Fog, he had not said a word, making her suspect he was mute. He ought to be a tall man, dressed in a rather common Loen formal suit, with waist-length black hair and a somewhat cold, gloomy aura.

"You're from Loen, right? If you want to become a Beyonder, join the Church of the Evernight Goddess, the Church of the Lord of Storms, or the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery."

"Although most people never encounter anything Beyonder-related in their lives and thus suspect the churches are the same, and even many clergy members within the major churches think similarly, I can tell you clearly that Beyonders still exist in the tribunals, the courts, and the execution agencies. They are still fighting the dangers growing in the darkness. There are simply far, far fewer of them than there were in or before the early Iron Age."

It was the middle-aged man seated opposite her who answered. The girl, however, seemed to have known something already and swiftly refuted him. "Sir, I know everything you said, and even more—for example, the Nighthawks, the Mandated Punishers, and Machinery Hivemind. But I do not want to lose my freedom."

"Every power comes at a price. Every blessing requires payment. Whatever you gain, you are bound to give something in return." Aster, seated at the very bottom, finally spoke for the first time since arriving Above the Gray Fog. It was not that he was trying to act mysterious; he had simply instinctively treated this scene as a plot cutscene that could not be skipped. Only after the girl's rebuttal just now did he realize that this was not a game and that he also had the right to speak.

As Aster weighed his words and tried to make his speech better fit the storyline, he also considered what he could and could not say. He needed to demonstrate the superiority of his intelligence network without revealing too much that he should not know, while also ensuring that he did not offend the one seated at the head of the table...

At that thought, Aster turned to the mysterious person who was watching their conversation with great interest. "Sir, how should we address you?"

"The Fool," the mysterious person answered calmly.