Ed felt like a spider, with Valhalla's castle at the heart of its web.
His daily work involves staying at the center of the spider web, observing all the things happening in all directions around him.
If anything unusual happens, he must focus his attention on it and handle all the expected or unexpected events.
People in this World of Disorder don't seem to have the habit of welcoming the New Year; everyone just goes about their business as usual, without giving this day any other meaning.
The Second Holy See has recently entered a very stable development phase, with the number of players in each town steadily increasing, and almost everyone having something to do.
Multiple player factions have emerged in Fir City, and this seemingly impregnable city is transforming into a loose and porous sponge.
Meanwhile, in the Graycast Corridor, his three "envoys" had already hitched a ride on a new trade route and were beginning their return to the Second Holy See.
Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction, and Ed even felt that he had become somewhat more relaxed lately.
Of course, he couldn't voice such complaints. The last time he thought that way, the Blood Corpse incident quickly followed, so Ed always kept his attention focused. One of his few ways to relax was to log into the official forum of the World of Disorder to see if the players had come up with anything new lately...
As the saying goes, once you start, you'll start again. [ Howling Pothos ], who broke his own legend of immortality by committing suicide, met his second death.
Back in the real world, the more he thought about it, the more stressed he became, and he eventually chose to log into the forum as well.
[ Howling Pothos ]: "Smuggling operations in Fir City are suspended for one day. There's no other reason; it's just that I died, and it will take about another day to re-enter the city."
As a lone wolf player in the top tier, he quickly received concerned replies from other players.
[ Do Some Farm Work ]: "You died again? What about your equipment...?"
"It's okay, I had a friend help me recycle it. It survived this time and can still be used."
"That's good. So how did you die?"
Antiya Lisi caught a glimpse of him from afar.
After [ Howling Pothos ] finished speaking, the number of replies below immediately surged:
[ Second-Class Biscuit ]: "No, you got glared at to death by the BOSS?"
[ Gill's Cuisine ]: "The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, huh? I'm starting to wonder if this boss is in a vegetative state."
[ Howling Pothos ]: "To put it in detail, he locked onto my location at a glance, then marked me, and then all the tree people in the city started chasing me... I ran for two hours but still couldn't escape."
"However, he does seem to possess instant-death abilities. The Rat King they painstakingly created couldn't even launch an attack against him; it simply waved its hand from a distance and died instantly."
[ Clear Soup Master ]: "No wonder a bright spot suddenly appeared in my field of vision late last night; it was you."
[ Howling Pothos ]: "Were you the one who chased me down last night?"
"No, no, I was in the South District at the time, which was far from where you were, so I didn't go. But all the treants around me were heading your way. I guess for treants who don't have the ability to think, this kind of marking is impossible to disobey."
[ That's Good Then ]: "What's the big deal? None of you are as miserable as me..."
[ Howling Pothos ]: "A competition to see who has the worst misery, huh? What's wrong with you?"
[ That's Good Then ]: "I've been leveling up my account these past couple of days, just planning to get a treant form to have some fun. But yesterday was the last day for the transformation, and when I logged in today, I was suddenly notified that my body was dead. Did someone break into the prison and kill me in the middle of the night? This is so bizarre!"
"My carefully nurtured Treant character is all gone now, I have to start all over again..."
Ed, who habitually observes players, also saw their conversation and instinctively knew there was a lot of information to be uncovered.
As the head of the province, Antiya Lisi's methods are naturally beyond question.
However, according to Seraphina and Willow's previous explanation of the hierarchy, as long as Antiya Lisi is still in the Middle Tier, it will be difficult for him to use the power of systems other than plants.
So how exactly did he manage to kill the Rat King with a wave of his hand?
Ed began to list out what he knew about Antiya Lisi in his mind.
First, there's the content of Motley's previous confession. Motley, who is known for his physique, stated that he couldn't defeat Antiya Lisi in a one-on-one hand-to-hand combat.
Ed had already noted this information down and categorized the archbishop as someone who favored Alienation himself and then using his physical body to fight.
But it seems that this is not his complete form yet.
Antiya Lisi can transform humans into Treant Hunter and control them. According to the information about Enzo previously reported by [ Howling Pothos ], this control seems to be constrained by design rules, and if the rules are violated, the target will die immediately.
So let's assume for now that Antiya Lisi possesses both a powerful physique and the ability to establish rules on a small scale. But how did he manage to kill the Rat King so easily?
Even in World of Disorder, there are still some rules governing the power system. For example, a person in a vegetative state cannot control animals, and a cyborg cannot sense Psionic Energy...
The Rat King wasn't Antiya Lisi's creation, so how did he...?
Thinking of this, a flash of inspiration struck Ed, and he once again focused on a detail that had previously gone unnoticed.
What did the Rat King do before it was killed by Antiya Lisi?
According to information observed by [ Howling Pothos ], the Rat King appeared outside the cathedral last night, then entered the cathedral by smelling the scent of living people and wreaked havoc.
A few minutes later, the Rat King rolled out of the Treant Hunter's private exit, meaning that the Rat King eventually entered the underground prison inside the church.
The cathedral's underground prison is usually empty at night, but last night was an exception, because a prisoner who had been captured three days ago was still undergoing "re-education" in the underground prison—[ That's Good Then! ]
So the game shows that his body was damaged because the Rat King entered the underground prison and ate [ That's Good Then ].
His body, which is about to transform into a treant, can be seen as a creation of Antiya Lisi.
In other words, the rules Antiya Lisi established for the Treants could be transmitted to other creatures through eating (most likely raw food), thereby expanding the scope of the rules he established.
The Rat King's death is easily explained: its charge towards Antiya Lisi would obviously violate a rule against killing the creator, so Antiya Lisi simply killed the Rat King instantly.
Ed, having deduced this complete logical chain, sighed deeply:
"Sigh, you really can't just eat anything. Even if you do, you have to cook it thoroughly..."