Chapter 2418 Concealment <TOC> Chapter 2420 Number 01’s Story
Translator: SumTLMan
“…After reviewing the mission reports you all have submitted recently, I see that they were quite well done. Remain cautious and remember not to act too hastily.”
“The sacrifices you made to the Qwest World have been highly praised. Among all the emissaries from the Four Directions, you are the only one who has not been detected. Ha, the other bases are too overconfident. You’ve done well. It’s important to be cautious and meticulous to successfully complete the mission. However, even though the Southern Region is considered a lesser domain, there are observers paying attention, and about that person…never mind, my situation prevents me from discussing him further. Just remember, do not be too ostentatious.”
“Another member of the Orderly Guild was targeted, it seems they have become aware of your actions. Perhaps, he has had his eye on you for a while.”
“Don’t feel burdened. I’ve been with the Orderly Guild for many years and understand their rules. The Orderly Guild won’t interfere excessively. Moreover, the observer has his own missions, and your actions have not yet exceeded his tolerance threshold. As long as you maintain your current pace without being aggressive, he should turn a blind eye. But, make sure the mainstream of the Southern Region, especially the Extreme Sect, does not discover you.”
Angel opened a series of letters.
Angel also realized that this unnamed member of the River Legacy Society, who had been communicating with Number 01 for a long time, likely had another identity as a member of the Orderly Guild.
As for the “observer” repeatedly mentioned in the letters, Angel was somewhat familiar with the term; he had seen it in the Culuoli Chronicles. The observer is a wizard dispatched by the Orderly Guild to various worlds to monitor things that are out of control.
Because wizards radiate across many planes and worlds, not all observers are legendary; in some remote worlds, even a formal wizard could become an observer. However, in high-energy worlds, the observers are definitely beyond legendary. The Wizarding World of the Four Directions, including the Southern Region, belongs to the high-energy worlds.
Since he is from the Orderly Guild, he knows about the observers but cannot speak freely due to his situation. He could only subtly hint to Number 01 not to be radical, proceeding step by step is enough.
Angel then opened several letters from the “Chaostream” void merchant group, which were mostly similar, revolving around back-and-forth feedback on mission progress and the current situation reports from Number 01. Occasionally, there were mission assignments, but these missions were beyond Angel’s understanding.
What Angel wanted to understand the most was about the River Legacy Society itself and the soul forces in the Qwest World, but very little about them was mentioned in the letters.
Due to the overwhelming number of letters from Chaostream, Angel decided to use a reading spell to assist in reviewing them. By quickly scanning through the letters with the reading spell, without delving too deeply, just extracting the core points of each letter, the task became much easier.
It only took a few minutes to finish reading the remaining letters.
After reading the letters from Chaostream, Angel’s brows furrowed slightly. He noticed something seemed off about Number 01.
Initially, due to a lack of understanding about Number 01 and the River Legacy Society, Angel didn’t notice anything unusual in the letters. However, as he read on, he began to sense some peculiarities.
The correspondence from the River Legacy Society returned as normal, praising Number 01 for his caution and advising him to proceed slowly, stay low-key, and not let the organization’s experiments be destroyed in haste, nor to attract the attention of the observer.
The reply sent by Number 01 seemed normal as well, assuring them not to worry, and he would not act recklessly. In the letter, Angel also noted that Number 01 had outlined a medium to long-term plan——
“I received your reply last time. The twenty-year plan you have drafted is feasible. The higher-ups also appreciate it, deciding to allocate one-tenth of the resources that were going to the Northern Territory Laboratory to your laboratory, including some magical creature organs that are considered rare even in the Source World.”
It was this “twenty-year plan” that made Angel sense something amiss.
Although Chaostream did not mark the date of the letter, the content of the letter and the details on the pulp paper suggest that this letter probably arrived recently.
This is strange because not long ago, Number 03 personally admitted that their experiments were nearing the end and they would likely withdraw from the Southern Region soon.
Despite Number 01 appearing steady and composed in the letter, in reality, he had ramped up the aggression, compressing the so-called “twenty-year plan” into just a few days.
Such contradictory behavior indicates that there must be something fishy about Number 01.
Apart from discovering that Number 01 might be a traitor to the River Legacy Society, Angel also found a piece of intelligence in the letter from the Chaostream:
“The Lord of the City reminded you not to forget to perfect the core of Number 00. Besides the core maintenance during the interval period, also pay attention to letting Number 00 move around regularly to keep it in a warm-load state, which is also beneficial for Number 00 itself.”
From the moment Angel entered the laboratory, he maintained high vigilance, precisely because of the possible existence of “Number 00.” It turns out, Number 00 really exists.
According to the content of the letter, Number 00 might have always been inside the laboratory. The only thing slightly different from the initial guess is that Number 00 seems not to be a living person but some kind of mechanical creation?
What slightly puzzled Angel was where Number 00 could be. Through the main control node, he didn’t find the existence of Number 00.
Could it be that Number 00 was taken out by Number 01? For the sake of the Nest?
Angel shook his head, not delving deeper for the time being, and put aside the letter from “Chaostream,” picking up the letter sent by “Sparkling” Trading Group.
The letter from the Sparkling Trading Group was mostly informational, belonging to the inquiries made by Number 01 to Sparkling.
Angel discovered that Number 01 and Number 03 were somewhat different; Number 01’s communication with the Sparkling Trading Group only began recently. To be precise, it started from the beginning of this year. ——Since the Sparkling Trading Group had the habit of marking the mailing date on the envelope, one could clearly see the date of each letter.
Why would Number 01 start intensively consulting the Sparkling Trading Group for information this year?
With this question in mind, Angel began to browse through them.
Since there weren’t many letters from Sparkling, Angel quickly finished reading them.
The letters contained a wealth of information that spanned a wide range but ultimately revolved around a central theme: the Peach Heart Theater.
Number 01 had inquired in detail to the Sparkling Trading Group about the known information of the Peach Heart Theater, including the circumstances of its past descents, the entire process of entering the Peach Heart Theater, the currently known registered actors of the theater… and so on.
From the intensive inquiries of Number 01, Angel could discern that he seemed to have a keen interest in the Peach Heart Theater.
This interest, evident from the phrasing, had surpassed a certain limit, suggesting that Number 01 also wanted to participate.
The Peach Heart Theater is said to be the manifestation of the will of a pinnacle extraordinary being. Number 01’s desire to participate, if merely as an audience member, might have been fine, but it appeared he wanted to become an actor?
The fate of actors in the Peach Heart Theater was essentially to end in death.
Was Number 01 seeking death? Or did he believe that he could deliver a perfect performance on the stage of the Peach Heart Theater?
Angel didn’t understand Number 01’s thoughts, but the information about the Peach Heart Theater was indeed valuable and might be useful in the future.
Beyond the information about the Peach Heart Theater itself, Number 01 sought more information about… the Nightmare Plane.
The reason for involving the Nightmare Plane was that, according to Totoro’s prophecy during a Star Observing Day, the ticket booth for the Peach Heart Theater would appear in the Eternal Night Kingdom. The Eternal Night Kingdom now contained a large number of strange domes, which were related to the Nightmare Plane.
Angel was also interested in the extent of the Sparkling Trading Group’s information on the Nightmare Plane.
However, it turned out that the Sparkling Trading Group didn’t know much… or rather, it seemed that the Sparkling Trading Group was hesitant about something, daring not to directly discuss matters of the Nightmare Plane.
They only repeatedly advised Number 01 that it would be best not to get involved in matters of the Nightmare Plane, where unparalleled great horrors existed.
In the end, the Sparkling Trading Group also hinted, “The Nightmare Plane itself is a Miracle, but even Miracles would wither there.”
Angel didn’t know if the “Miracle” mentioned by the Sparkling Trading Group was the same as what he imagined, but he learned something: the Nightmare Plane was feared by all wizards in the Southern Region, as well as in the Source World.
It was a secret world.
A world that should not be explored lightly.
As for the domes of the Eternal Night Kingdom, the Sparkling Trading Group did mention: the Wizarding World is a high-energy world, the Will of the World is balancing, so there’s no need to worry too much about the Nightmare Plane’s invasion, and moreover, there are observers monitoring. Therefore, if the ticket booth appears in the Eternal Night Kingdom, as long as one does not actively step into a dome, safety should be guaranteed.
However, the Sparkling Trading Group did not mention another situation: what if the ticket booth appears inside a dome? What then?
Of course, this was not for Angel to worry about.
Angel carefully held and copied each letter from the Sparkling Trading Group and the anonymous letters after reading them, deeming many of the pieces of intelligence within to be extremely useful, particularly the information about the Peach Heart Theatre. Previously, Rhine had considered setting up a temporary market at the midpoint between Eternal Night Kingdom and Paramjit Plateau when the Peach Heart Theatre descends, though it was unclear if Rhine still harbored this thought. Nevertheless, gathering more information on the Peach Heart Theatre would undoubtedly benefit the Savage Grottoes.
After finishing the letters from the Sparkling Trading Group, Angel turned his attention to the last few unsigned letters.
…
Ten minutes later, Angel placed the last letter on the desk, his expression somber and his eyes reflecting a complex mood.
The content of these letters was not voluminous, all revolving around inquiries directed to an unknown secret entity concerning ‘The Lord of the City’ and hidden intelligence.
Having read these letters, Angel understood why Number 01 displayed a façade of compliance while secretly opposing the River Legacy Society headquarters and why Number 01 had suddenly become more radical.
The context of the matter wasn’t complex, originating from a particular bloodline——
Number 01 was a bloodline wizard, belonging to a very extreme traditionalist school that pursued the Bloodline Limit. His desire was for each of his primary bloodlines to be the best of the current era.
To achieve this goal, during his apprenticeship, Number 01 never misused any bloodline, solely in pursuit of finding the one most suited to him.
Eventually, he discovered the bloodline of the Uya Giants. Upon merging with the Uya Giant’s bloodline, he immediately felt a surge of strength within himself, which reaffirmed his determination to pursue the ultimate potential of bloodlines.
After becoming a formal wizard, Number 01 embarked on a new quest for fresh bloodlines. In his pursuit of the ultimate potential of bloodlines, he discarded many superfluous ones.
After more than a century of search without finding a suitable one, Number 01 explored a hidden ruin and discovered a magical creature sleeping within a crystal coffin.
As a bloodline wizard, Number 01 could distinctly feel a fatal attraction to this slumbering magical creature. He felt his bloodline boiling, clamoring, and yearning.
At that moment, he realized he had finally found the bloodline he had been seeking for centuries.
Chapter 2418 Concealment <TOC> Chapter 2420 Number 01’s Story