Second World

Jack recounted what he had done during the Tutorial phase. Leavemealone did the same, what he did is roughly similar to Jack's.

"There are such events?" Wilted said, a crease on her forehead. "Weird, once Apollyon erased them, they should have disappeared for good. It doesn't make sense for him to place such a backdoor system for someone to save those God and Goddess."

"So, there is something that you don't know? Some game creator you are," Jack teased.

"This is no joking matter," Wilted Tree chided. "You said those incidents were where the two of you gained your growth weapons and high fairies?"

"Yes, I got Peniel from…" Jack was turning to Peniel, only then did he notice the two fairies had been unusually quiet. When he looked closely, the two fairies wore blank expressions.

"Hey… Are you okay?" Jack asked Peniel.

She seemed to be awakened from a trance. She was lost for a bit before she answered, "Yes… Why wouldn't I be?"

Jack then realized what was the matter. Imagine if you find out your world and life was make-believe and you were created for the sole purpose of entertainment. The three players looked at each other in understanding.

"Look…, as I said, this world has become as real as it can be, so you are as real as us," Wilted Tree tried to console.

"What? Do you think we believe all those rubbish? Of course, we are real! It's you, players, who are not real," Peniel said as she flew to the door.

"Hey, Peniel…" Jack called out.

"I SAID I AM OKAY…!" She yelled. "Now open the door…!!!"

Jack hurriedly did as she asked. She flew out once Jack opened the door.

"I… I will go make sure she is okay," Carnelia said as she flew out as well, but she didn't look okay herself.

"Aren't you going to say something to her?" Jack asked Leavemealone.

"What can I say?" He asked back.

Seeing there was nothing he could do, Jack closed the door and sat back down.

"You are not going after her?" Wilted asked.

"She won't get far. She is tied to me, if she gets too far she will just get teleported back to my side," Jack replied.

"You are truly insensitive," Wilted complained.

"Why only me? He is the same!" Jack said, pointing at Leavemealone.

Wilted could only shake her head.

"Anyway, those incidents you two experienced are strange. It doesn't sound like something Apollyon would have done. Can I take a look at your growth weapon?" Wilted asked.

Jack took out his Storm Breaker and handed it to her. The weapon was bound to him, she won't be able to steal it even if she wanted to. Of course, Jack didn't think she would do so anyway.

Wilted observed the black longsword. "This isn't an alien entity. It was clearly part of this world," she said and returned the sword.

"Can it be another colleague of yours who did this in secret?" Jack asked. "Maybe he or she found out about Apollyon's intention and did something to hinder him as well."

"I don't think so, but I don't dare to rule that out as well. I did manage to gather some allies, though they didn't know the full picture until the world was changed. Anotherday is one such ally, he was one of the top ranged players whom my partner and I used to play with. He had been our quality tester during our game development."

"Ah, I do think I have heard his alias before, so he is one of the famous experts. No wonder he is good."

"Apollyon also gathered many allies who did his bidding. Most were his past students who worshipped him like a cult. But some of them were also my colleagues in Trigitech who worked on the game. Apollyon had enticed them with positions under him, where they would rule all the others under his name. They were the ones that formed the bulk of World Maker."

"A bunch of sick people then," Jack commented.

"It is indeed so," Wilted agreed.

"Well, what can we do now?" Jack asked. "How about we go after the last divine treasure? The Book of Creation?"

"That was also lost, but not lost in the sense that it went to a random SSS quest. The news of what happened to this book was rather special. Before the book was able to be linked to a player, an NPC stole it."

"Stole it? I thought natives… or NPCs didn't have an interest in loots? Is that your programming as well?"

"Yes, if NPCs keep on fighting over loots with players, won't the game become a mess? Still, I doubt this condition will stay as it is. As I said, I suspect the NPCs will evolve and one day they might probably fight over loots with us. Life always finds a way as it has proven in our past world. Anyway, a divine treasure is part of this world, not loots. If you take it out from the special space that you got it from without fusing with it first, NPCs who saw it would most likely try to steal it. After all, even the king of a country covets a divine treasure. The guy who successfully got the Book of Creation was stupid enough to do just that. The book was lost now, I doubt Apollyon himself knows the book's whereabouts."

"So, there is nothing we can do about the divine treasures. Master and the World Maker are also too strong for us to deal with at this time. What do you suggest we do?"

"Becomes stronger! Assemble more allies, whether players or NPCs. For player-wise, choose some trustable ones and let them know the stakes," Wilted said. "I heard you have a guild who placed top in Themisphere's guild ranking list, don't you?"

"I do," Jack answered.

"Make it grow as strong as you could. Player guilds will become important instruments during country wars. And because World Maker meddles with Liguritudum's politics, these country wars might happen sooner than expected. You have better prepared. If Apollyon managed to conquer all the countries, then our chance of beating him will be very slim. Try to train as many armies as you can."

"What's the point? The trained army can only be active inside a guild's territory. We can't even send them to attack other players' Guild Headquarters."

Wilted smiled upon hearing it. "Get your guild to level 3, then you can send your army to attack other Guild Headquarters, considering of course if the defending guild is also level 3 already."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Yes. Below level 3, guild headquarters are still in development. The trained units are to let them cope with assault from other guilds' combined attack. But after level 3, you can build multiple defensive structures, which render players' combined assault meaningless. At that time, there is no menace anymore if you just have to fight against players, so we set it so after level 3, a guild can send their army to invade other guild headquarters. But only the trained force of one guild is allowed. Once one guild does so, other guilds will not be able to teleport their forces to the same guild headquarter."

"Oh? So the trained forces are teleported directly to enemy guild headquarters ' territory?"

"Yes, you still won't be able to bring your trained forces out to the wilderness outside your territory, so you can't abuse them for monster grinding. However, aside from guild wars, if a country the guilds reside in issued an emergency, you can summon your guild's trained forces into the battlefield as well. That's why I told you to build your guild's army, as strong as it can be."

Jack nodded. "I understand. I will try my best."

"In that case, here," Wilted said and threw her a round shining item. Jack caught the item and found it to be familiar. It was the object Wilted had taken from the device when they saved Syndrillis. He used Inspect on it.

Time Pearl (Legendary Artifact)

Allow manipulation of time around the user, slow or increase time flow by up to ten times. Activation: 100 mana cores / 30 minutes (not usable for combat).

Guild Use: Allow the construction of a Time Chamber.

"Legendary! Hey, the manipulated time is even better than when I'm inside the Valley of Tempus!" Jack exclaimed after seeing the description.

"Valley of Tempus?" Wilted asked.

"Yeah, underneath that valley is a place that had its time slowed by seven times. I spent eight weeks in there and only eight days had passed outside."

"There is such a place?"

"Lady, I thought you created this world? Are you conning me?"

"I do not know there is such a place under there. It must be one of those secretive spots my partner hid. He was like that sometimes. He created something in the games that only he knows and hid it so deep in the program that other programmers know nothing about it. He said that when us game-designers play it ourselves, we will still get that sense of discovery. One thing for sure, if that is truly one of his secret spots, then he had hidden something good inside. Something even Master doesn't know about."

"Really?" Jack thought back to the special class the old man in the cave had offered him. Now he had to make sure to go back there when he reached level 50.

"Anyway, I give you that Time Pearl so you can utilize its true purpose. Its ability to manipulate time is all good, but if you constructed the Time Chamber, all of your members can utilize it."

Jack thought about it.. He could already picture what to use with this Time Chamber.