Chapter 572: The Harvest of Fortune
“Interesting. This must be the prototype of a field. These players have developed [Extraordinary Knowledge] to this extent?”
“Truly breathtaking. That said, this should be beyond what students can handle, right? Should we…?”
“Let’s talk about it later. Once we sign the Witch Contract, we can’t act freely.”
At this moment, many figures were hidden in the space above Magic Capital, silently observing everything happening there.
It won’t be long before extraordinary mentors from other extraordinary academies will follow. After all, in the face of such power, no one can stay calm.
So, soon, Magic Capital welcomed its guests.
“Look, the fastest one here is actually the birdman. Those wings behind are indeed not for show!”
These words came from an unknown witch’s mouth. After the extraordinary angel from Holy Angel Academy descended, she felt somewhat intimidated by such a grand scene and the extraordinary witches watching with amusement.
Even though her companions arrived, they did not bring her much sense of security; even her wings instinctively folded.
As time passed, once the extraordinary elves and extraordinary wizards from the three top academies descended, they felt a bit more assured. With that assurance, they naturally questioned the other side!
“Is this what your witches promised? This situation is beyond our expectations. Do you want all the geniuses to fail here?”
“Bald bird, watch your words. Our witches have never guaranteed anything in this regard. And geniuses? The so-called geniuses you talk about are merely parasites feeding on the fortune you’ve cultivated yourself!”
“You!”
The Holy Angel side was directly countered and didn’t know how to retort, while several extraordinary beings from other extraordinary academies secretly laughed.
But they couldn’t laugh out loud, as the insults included them too; it just happened that the unfortunate Holy Angel collided head-on with the witch’s provocative remarks.
“So what do you suggest we do?”
“Simple. We will adhere to the Witch Contract we signed, and you can try to deal with it by any means, but you cannot violently destroy this script’s node.”
“So, you witches don’t intend to act?”
“We’re not in a hurry. If you’re uncomfortable seeing us so relaxed… we can sign another Witch Contract as a temporary supplementary clause to the previous one. I’m afraid you wouldn’t be willing to do that~”
At this moment, the witches nonchalantly expressed the purpose of their visit.
……
“You are Tan Han, right? You are the first Child of Fortune we discovered. Honestly, your existence is a gift this world has given us!”
“You… are a player?”
Recognizing the current situation, Tan Han quickly adapted.
Just moments ago, she had gotten separated from Store Manager Shali. They were attacked by a strangely-shaped monster, but after she dodged, she fell into a trap and stumbled upon this place.
“Of course! As a Child of Fortune, you must be favored by the will of this world, right? You’re also an extraordinary being… So, you must have never tasted the bitterness of failure… Well, today! Let me show you what failure feels like, shall we?”
The player laughed to himself, not giving Tan Han a chance to speak further. He stood in the air, wielding the authority of the creator of this instance space.
With this authority, the player could create troubles for all those designated as “Instance Challengers” within the dungeon.
These could be traps, scares, simulated opponents, or pure attacks, among others.
After making simple adjustments, he created a few troublesome creatures for Tan Han, bringing her significant distress.
Facing unknown enemies and lacking the overwhelming strength to crush them, she quickly found herself at a disadvantage the moment they clashed. Now… just after a few encounters, Tan Han was already injured. As a result, she used her spell transformation to slaughter these monsters.
“Wonderful, wonderful! Now how about this one!”
If I were present at this moment, I would have noticed that the monster spawned by the player was the ultimate form continuously optimized under my relentless pressure, designed specifically to counter spellcasters!
While players were being crushed, they had to rack their brains to figure out how to deal with me. However, when they used these monsters, which still couldn’t cope with my figure, against others… the results were surprisingly good!
Tan Han, without gaining any information on her opponent, suffered a crushing defeat in strength, experience, and means all at once!
The monster she faced seemed to be born as a natural counter to spellcasters, leaving Tan Han without the slightest opportunity to retaliate.
“How does failure taste?”
“Failure’s… taste? Heh… Is this it?” Tan Han spat lightly.
If this were before, she would have clung to victory, but after being educated… failure had become commonplace.
Seeing her current attitude, the player’s expression turned grim.
Because the tactics that used to work against other Children of Fortune now yielded no fortune from her at all?!
Clearly… the previous Children of Fortune, as favored children of the world, were all extraordinary entities within the world.
They practically walked the invincible route; for players, these Children of Fortune were truly… enviable!
But players wielding the power from outside the world broke the swaddling of those worlds, letting these Children of Fortune experience true cruelty.
All they needed was to let these Children of Fortune feel an unacceptably harsh failure or realize the truth, causing immense shock to their worldview, possibly leaving them in despair.
Then, they could directly harvest a large amount of fortune, which is what so-called game qualifications meant.
But now… not even a reaction?
The player manipulated the authority and violently threw Tan Han far away. Tan Han’s body rolled several times before crashing into an elevated pixel block.
This was a closed space, with no way for her to escape.
Yet she frantically contemplated a means of escape, even though it was merely a dead end.
She continuously employed all the means available to her, including… the power of the Great Knowledge Seed.
Earth Vein Identification Technique… this was the first method she thought of.
For such a nearly unreasonable, terrifying method, she was also fascinated.
However, after using the identification technique, the information did not appear, which led to her being crushed.
Ultimately, the prompts from the Earth Vein Identification Technique made her back shiver.
The infiltration of earth vein information in this space was so low that this ability could hardly query any earth vein presentation!
But “nearly unqueryable” did not mean “unqueryable.” Even in the void, where nothing existed, earth vein energy could exist; how could the instance completely eradicate it?
So after retrieving information about these monsters, the earth vein information suddenly matched something.
Then, information crazily presented itself. There was no need for Tan Han to look; this data directly appeared in the Knowledge Tree, merging with her memory, as if it were an instinct of cognition.
“It actually worked again… What is going on…” Tan Han muttered.
But the information kept appearing, and even included details about these monsters, weaknesses, and countermeasures.
This was naturally the Great Knowledge Seed requesting data synchronization from the Great Knowledge Tree due to inadequate knowledge reserves.
After all, I, the owner of the Great Knowledge Tree, was quite familiar with this stuff, as these were all failed products painstakingly created by those players targeting me.
With the aid of this intelligence, after Tan Han adjusted her state, she gradually reversed the situation of being crushed.
“Tsk… d*mn it, I’m not here to be your practice partner—d*e already!”
Seeing that the pixel monster gradually struggled to deal with her, the player also bit his teeth and roared in anger.
But at this moment, he didn’t dare to k*ll her for real, as the game qualifications he had harvested from this Child of Fortune were still in single digits. If he ultimately reported such results… he would be kicked out on the spot.
He might even be judged by those game architects when he returned! Judged for violating the game qualifications bill. Wasting such resources as game qualifications was absolutely shameful!
So, no matter how furious he was, no matter how much he tortured her, his bottom line remained… he couldn’t k*ll her!
But not being able to k*ll her… didn’t mean he couldn’t torture her.
He had many other ways to torment a girl; there were countless methods to drive her to the brink of collapse!
Maiming… disfiguring… insulting… abusing…
These were methods they had personally studied when learning how to harvest the game qualifications of Children of Fortune. Typically, once the fortunes of these heirs to destiny were fully squeezed out, these processes had to be undergone. This encompassed both mental and physical oppression, along with the insult and torment of their personalities, destroying everything they cherished!
This was the method of the players. Each of their game qualifications was smeared with the bl**d and tears of Children of Fortune; each of their reckless actions and laughter stemmed from the suffering and wailing of the fortunates.
These Pioneer Excavators were truly a bunch of butchers, even becoming accustomed to it. To maintain their sanity while facing life, even when they knew the truth, they would delude themselves into thinking this was just a game. Yes, just a game…
Thus, their mental stability was deeply flawed. They would remember the suffering experienced in this world, thereby anchoring their cruelty vented towards Children of Fortune under this “reasonable excuse.”
These Pioneer Excavators chose such a life and everything that came with it, leaving them unable to turn back.
Just as this player prepared to initiate those processes in advance, the entire instance space suddenly experienced an anomaly!
The originally enclosed instance space became unstable at that moment. The undulating pixel blocks divided the orderly space into irregular areas, with too many places rendered full of holes due to the pixel blocks’ upheaval!
“What! What is going on here!”
Faced with such an anomaly, this player frantically manipulated the instance authority. He couldn’t remember having such authority, nor did he wish to destroy it all!
He hurriedly opened communication to inquire about the situation. Obviously, this was beyond their capability to handle.
“Hey… what’s going on? Why did the instance suddenly go out of control?”
“I don’t know; you’re asking too many questions! I’m giving a unified response—I’m investigating the cause now!”
At this moment, the communicator relayed the voice of the commanding player. However, it was evident the other side was equally flustered, lacking time to specifically address his questions.
From the tone of the other party, it was clear that it wasn’t just the space he controlled that had problems, but the entire instance space faced an issue!
At this moment, Tan Han also noticed this unusual situation.
“What an opportunity!”
Tan Han’s gaze shifted to the “black tunnel” that had caused her to fall earlier. The instance was now riddled with holes, presenting her a perfect opportunity to escape!
So she didn’t care whether those tunnels were dead ends; she knew that staying there meant certain d*ath!
And in the instant she left, a terrifying spell gathered on her hands. Before jumping into the unknown tunnel, she shot this spell fiercely at the player.
As she was swallowed by the deep void of the instance space, she only heard the terrifying sounds of the spell’s explosion. Before she could express her joy of revenge, she fell into another space.
“Hiss… took another tumble… Where is this?” Tan Han looked around, her expression a bit dazed. She had bet right; she was alive, but there were many new unknowns awaiting her.
Meanwhile, the player still in the original instance space was severely injured by Tan Han’s hasty strike.
The terrifying eruption of fire elements engulfed his entire body, and while he was facing a loss of control over his authority, he was directly blown away by the explosion!
The terrifying heat scorched his skin, and even his combat armor barely saved his life.
“d*mn you! I’ll make you pay! I’ll make you… ahhhh!”
The player pounded the ground in a rage, cursing vehemently, yet he still had to bizarrely shut off his pain perception. If he didn’t, he would truly go insane!
Moreover, the continuous pain from his burned skin would likely claim his life.
As this player struggled to get up, the communicator triggered a message from the commander.
“The cause has been found. The instance where we descended has been interfered with by an inexplicable force, leading to our authority being shaken and constrained… The situation is not good; it’s likely irrecoverable…”
“Preliminary judgment indicates it may be due to interference and balance from the world’s will. We’ve been restricted!”
“But don’t worry… we will still receive full support from the All Worlds Terminal. However, the following situation will be up to you…”
At this point, the commander’s tone even grew slightly unconfident.
Because the reality posed troubles much worse than he was currently conveying!
Their instance was heavily restrained by that force; their authority was severely eroded. This was a rare situation for them, but it was not without precedent. Therefore, they quickly arrived at a conclusion… this was the final counterattack of the world’s will!
He hadn’t anticipated they would touch this world’s limits so quickly…
However, he was also seeking solutions. If it came down to it, they would need to seek assistance from those game architects to debug the All Worlds Terminal.
At this moment.
Outside the instance.
“All right, the difficulty is back to normal mode. The rest depends on their efforts. I have things to attend to, so I’ll be heading back.”
As that figure vanished, all the extraordinary mentors present slightly breathed a sigh of relief. Not just from the three top academies but even the extraordinary witches from Witch Academy felt the same.
Because the one who had just acted was one of the heads of the Witch Academy!
She was neither the Headmaster Mei Linde, who had botched the grand weakening spell, nor the Beif Alanna, who loved violence and joy.
Among the witches in the Witch Academy, those unnamed witches were the true sources of fear for other extraordinary academies…
For they were so powerful that they looked down on stirring up storms in this main world; even the title of Academy Head was merely a nominal position.
Unexpectedly, this incident actually alarmed her!
