Chapter 413: The Real Protection Association President Captured?
“Monroe, male, 43 years old, born in the year 23385. You were once a V7 explorer player, with rich experience in game world strategies. You were even invited to become a game architect, but you proactively declined…”
“Indeed, a firm rejection.”
At this moment, in a completely sealed special interrogation room, a slightly overweight middle-aged man sat in the central chair, his limbs restrained by symbolic shackles. He felt no surprise in revealing his identity information to the young man in front of him.
“I advise you to adopt a more serious tone! Mr. Monroe, you need to understand that you are currently a convicted traitor to civilization, or should I refer to you as the president of the Real Protection Association…?”
“All your efforts to arrest me only lead to a guy named Monroe. The real president of the Real Protection Association will always be active in every world you invade, not someone like me who is here for your interrogation.” Monroe said with a smile, showing not a trace of fear.
“But you must understand, whether you are the president can’t be denying away simply by your denial…”
“What do you think the Real Protection Association is? A disorganized social entity that will become uncoordinated without a leader? Don’t joke, that’s not funny.” Monroe interrupted, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
The person suddenly interrupted tried to retort but had to hold back, as his actions resembled more of listening. Clearly, behind him stood analysts or something akin to a think tank supporting his interrogation.
“Mr. Monroe, we’ve brought you here not to argue this with you. We are well aware that you are not the first president of the Real Protection Association, and I don’t think you’re the last one either. Even though this association hasn’t been established for long, I hope you can cooperate with our investigation.”
“Oh? So what do you want to learn from me? I’m quite curious about this question myself.” Monroe replied, looking unbothered.
“Why has the Real Protection Association betrayed its own civilization!”
“What is betrayal? I don’t understand, could you explain?”
“I ask you why you betrayed our civilization! Betrayed our world!” He reiterated with intense emotion, seemingly trying to create pressure, though with little effect.
“I don’t understand. List my crimes so I can know what betrayal is!” At this moment, Monroe’s tone became sharp, turning the tables to question him, startling the young interrogator into instinctively stepping back, which pleased Monroe enough to sit back comfortably.
“I don’t see it as betrayal, don’t you? The Real Protection Association has merely touched your interests; otherwise, I would be facing a global public trial right now, not sitting in this small little black room underground. You… are simply too scared to reveal the truth!”
“Those foolish masses who only know to follow the crowd wouldn’t bring any stability to society if they knew the truth…”
“Then you have no right to deprive them of that knowledge, and our existence is precisely to fight for such rights.”
“Yes, this was the original ideology of your Real Protection Association. Because of this, we didn’t target your association previously, but you tested the limits of our architects. You are no longer satisfied with the original ideals; now you are nothing but a rabid dog that bites everywhere, a group of true lunatics provoking war between civilizations!”
“Isn’t that what you are doing? You dare treat every world as a game for entertainment, letting the mentality of games take root in the depths of civilization, but… games are not the right path for civilization’s development. They are merely an art within civilization, a condiment, and not the entirety. You are deforming the entire civilization! You treat all the lower-level players as the fodder for civilization’s operation, you treat game architects as real people, but what about us players?!”
As Monroe’s words spilled out with passionate emotion, everything fell silent. The person in charge of questioning was stunned, while Monroe smiled contentedly, having managed to give the architects a piece of his mind, having released all that needed to be released.
But he was very clear that this wouldn’t awaken those high and mighty architects, and his actions might become a joke for them over tea.
Only a prick would wake them up. He knew his power was weak, and even the Real Protection Association was similarly weak.
Even if the association wrapped itself in the shell of “protection,” it had never truly protected those characters within the games. Even though Monroe was well aware that those characters were living beings, so what?
What he wanted to protect had always been the real players in reality!
Those who spent their whole lives in games from birth, through education, to graduation, and then becoming professional players.
Because of this, he felt helpless. He understood that any action from the Real Protection Association was futile, thus… he, along with the entire Real Protection Association, was seeking higher world clues within those game worlds, bringing disaster in order to reshape this decayed civilization, this broken world. Until they found that glimmer of hope, they, the Real Protection Association, would be the only enemies within this civilization.
For they knew clearly that a civilization without enemies would only rot faster.
As for if the unknown civilization or world they draw in was capable of destroying their civilization, he could only say, “Sorry,” to everyone.
There will always be those whose ideals will not conform to the status quo, and there will always be someone who leads a group of people to attempt to jump out of this decaying mire.
You can say Monroe is extreme, but every time the architects relying on the All Worlds Terminal conduct their “game development,” isn’t there the potential for the civilization to be irreparably ruined?
“I heard your association encountered a being called the Catastrophe Witch in ‘Sinful Star,’ right? She is a traveler from beyond this world?”
“Hehe… I see ignorance in your eyes, but your eagerness to ask me this question shows your anxiety, which means we’ve struck gold.”
“Your association is simply crazy!”
“Crazy? Why? That witch, as far as I know, displayed no threat to you, so why are you so wary of her? Is there something I don’t know?”
“Hmph, sorry, this matter… um, are you sure you want to know?” The person in charge of the interrogation originally did not want to be explicit, but halfway through, he suddenly changed his mind.
“Looks like those behind you do want me to know, so spill it! Let me see what sort of mess our association has gotten into.”
“Fine, it’s okay to tell you… the witch, officially known as the Extraordinary Witch race, is a powerful existence that wanders across the Void. She appears in a humanoid female form, possessing high intelligence and strength. Currently, our knowledge of the Extraordinary Witch comes entirely from indirect rumors…”
“Indirect rumors can make you this nervous?” Monroe scoffed.
“Outside the Void is vast and boundless; any information that can be explored and recorded is worthy of attention. You can imagine the void graveyards of civilizations countless times stronger than us, with epitaphs written at the expense of entire civilizations, containing only a few snippets of information, one of which specifically warns to be cautious of the Extraordinary Witch, and what kind of existence the Extraordinary Witch is!”
“Impossible!” Hearing the heavy description from the young man in front of him, Monroe’s first reaction was disbelief!
“Nothing is impossible; you should pray that the so-called witch you seek is not the one described here.”
“Why wasn’t this important information brought up earlier!”
“Who do you think you are? Worthy of us revealing such highly classified information to you? Also… the High Architecture Council has passed the proposal to abandon the ‘Sinful Star’ world, and follow-up work is already in preparation. Your final plan will also fail.”
“Ha… forcing you to activate the High Architecture Council and even abandon an entire world, then even if I d*e, it’s worth it. I remember that this world still has the Excavation Plan that hasn’t progressed, right? Back then, your evaluation of this world was that this hidden secret is a resource of the same level as the All Worlds Terminal, which should make you hurt for a long time, right?”
“And so what? Now ‘Sinful Star’ has opened the final destructive excavation plan, and the notification for the shutdown carnival has been issued. Even if we abandon it, we will still extract the last bit of value that can be squeezed out at this moment.”
“Very much in line with my expectations of you; your ugly faces truly make me nauseous.”
“You don’t have the right to say that about us.”
…
In the Small World.
“Hand that girl over to us! You people from the Real Protection Association can only run, can’t you?”
At this moment, the open-world game ‘Sinful Star’ sent out an abrupt shutdown carnival announcement, leading to the All Worlds Terminal issuing a multitude of game qualifications, causing the number of players in this world to surge directly.
And the previous hidden task guide about this game became the most likely task to end the game!
In an instant, a large number of high-level players flooded into this world. With their means, they quickly found some leads on the “Catastrophe Witch” and traced her interpersonal relationships.
Eventually, they locked onto the young girl named Qiu Ruxin, and they further discovered that this girl had connections with people from the Real Protection Association, and the information that the Real Protection Association had come into contact with the Catastrophe Witch was also leaked.
This ultimately led to the current situation.
The members of the Real Protection Association were besieged by more Excavators, one by one of their strongholds was uprooted, and the original villa was directly blown apart, leaving these members of the Real Protection Association to flee with Qiu Ruxin.
While they dragged this useless burden, they desperately ran away.
From this, it was clear how deeply rooted the Real Protection Association’s branch was in this world, otherwise, they wouldn’t be dodging so many Excavator pursuits time and again.
But it was evident this time they were truly near the end of the road…
“Hey! I’m not saying, but you really can’t contact that Catastrophe Witch? If she were to take action, we wouldn’t be in such a predicament!”
“There is… but such means are not to be used unless absolutely necessary…”
“Now is the time of absolute necessity! Otherwise, we’ll all d*e! If you fall into their hands, it’ll be worse than d*ath! Do you understand?!”
“I understand!” Qiu Ruxin gritted her teeth at this moment, her right hand tightly clenching the green Tear of the Wild Plant, which was the item used to summon Sister Xiao Han.
Sister Xiao Han had said that as long as she held it tightly with both hands and prayed, she could complete the summoning ceremony… but she didn’t know what to pray for; it should be something like a summoning phrase… but Sister Xiao Han only briefly explained this aspect!
“Do you know any summoning phrases? Anything will do.”
“Summoning phrases? How would I know what a summoning phrase is! You ask me, who should I ask? How can you ask me about summoning the Catastrophe Witch?!”
Just as she was complaining like this, suddenly an explosive trap erupted. With a terrifying explosion echoing, the person carrying Qiu Ruxin was thrown to the ground.
Even Qiu Ruxin fell to the ground, rolling several times before painfully colliding against a stone.
“Ugh! Mmm…” Qiu Ruxin couldn’t help but let out a low groan of pain.
Such an anomaly was enough to seriously injure an ordinary person; not to mention she crashed into a stone afterward.
The intense pain and dizziness washed over her, and she could only vaguely hear some voices coming from afar.
“Run! Keep running! Do you really think we’ll be your dogs like before?”
The first person to catch up unleashed a series of low-damage but highly insulting blows to the one who was down.
Some others hurried over to check on Qiu Ruxin’s condition.
Upon inspection, they discovered the amulet she had tightly gripped in her palm.
He forcibly pried the amulet from Qiu Ruxin’s hand; no matter how she struggled to retain it, she couldn’t resist the current Excavators.
“Is this important to you? Tell me the whereabouts of the Catastrophe Witch, and I might consider returning it to you.”
“You… wish… ah!”
“I’m not negotiating with you!” At this moment, he stood up and stepped down on Qiu Ruxin’s wrist, causing her to let out a cry of pain.
“Still so stubborn for someone who doesn’t need to worry about you?”
“Hehe… Sister Xiao Han… will k*ll you all!” At this moment, the dizziness in Qiu Ruxin’s head was completely dissipated by the intense pain.
Never had she wished so desperately for power; if only she had strength like Sister Xiao Han, even half… or even a tenth… she wouldn’t be this miserable…
But she still clearly remembered her “mission.” If she did not initiate the summoning ceremony, Sister Xiao Han might… never arrive here…
“Sister Xiao Han? Oh~ you’re talking about that Catastrophe Witch, right? Hehe, so you do know! Hurry up, since you think she’ll take revenge for you, quickly tell me how to find her, or… I’d like to see if killing you will make her show up!”
“If you k*ll me… you will never see the Catastrophe Witch you speak of…”
“Oh? You’re giving in? How… if you d*e can she still stay calm?”
“Sister Xiao Han is not from this world… she has already left. In this world… besides me… no one can bring her here!”
“Hehe… good, I’d like to see how you’ll bring her! Hurry up! Otherwise, I don’t mind killing you!”
“Crazy! Get away! If you dare to k*ll her, I’ll go after you to the end!” Seeing this maniac about to k*ll the most crucial lead for this hidden task, someone nearby immediately stepped forward to threaten.
“Heh… Just scaring her a bit. Come on, prove your worth; let’s see if it’s worth us chasing you for so many days!”
“Cough cough…” At this moment, Qiu Ruxin coughed, a hint of bl**d spattering from her mouth, as the fall had caused her lip to bleed. Fortunately, her internal organs were mostly fine, with no internal bleeding.
“Give me the amulet; it’s… an important tool for summoning, and only I know how to use it…”
“Hope you don’t play any tricks.” He snorted, handing the amulet over.
When Qiu Ruxin saw the amulet coming back, a glimmer of hope flashed in her eyes.
This time… it was truly a desperate situation… Sister Xiao Han, please don’t deceive her…
At this moment, she sincerely held the pendant tightly with her bloodied hands, bowing her head and whispering: “Sister Xiao Han… please respond to me… just like when we first met, when you unexpectedly appeared by my side…”
Qiu Ruxin still did not know any so-called prayer words, but what she spoke was her deepest yearning at this moment.
At the moment she closed her eyes and prayed, a wave of extraordinary aura released from the pendant, and a complex runic ceremony unfolded in an instant, with intricate and mysterious patterns being drawn out by an unknown power.
Before long, the summoning ceremony of the Reverse Summoning Spell was completed, and such a change immediately caused the Excavators to instinctively step back a few steps, as this bizarre situation was something most of the Excavators had never witnessed.
In the face of the unknown, most people would instinctively respond with caution.
At this moment, they were all staring with curious wide eyes, observing the unfolding, and no one dared to step forward to interrupt the ceremony.
Some Excavators were on high alert, as if waiting for a world boss to finish its entrance animation, without making any move.
Until a powerful energy gathered to form a portal, a figure suddenly emerged.
