“Of course, we’re aware that you have lots of doubts because we have some questions of our own.”
Arthur, who didn’t fit the image of the Dark Dragon in Rhode’s mind, pushed up his glasses again and spoke in a gentle tone. Judging from his appearance, perhaps one wouldn’t think that he was a millionaire and the CEO of the B&M Company, not to mention how Rhode couldn’t imagine him as the Dark Dragon. At this moment, Arthur seemed more like the kind of professors who hid in their own world, researching unpopular specialties.
“Firstly, how much do you know about the Dragon Soul Continent?”
“Basically everything I know is from the background setting of the game listed on the official website.”
Rhode answered without hesitation. He crossed his arms and gazed at the four of them with his ice-cold expression as usual. It wasn’t because he was displeased with them. Instead, this was his behavioral reaction whenever he analyzed information or went deep in thought.
“But I heard from Alice that there seem to be hidden facts, especially between the dragon soul heirs and the Creator Dragons…”
“You’re right.”
Arthur nodded in affirmation. Then, he extended his hand and a mysterious and intricate three-dimensional map appeared above his palm. Rhode instantly recognized that it was the Dragon Soul Continent, made with the four main elements as the foundation, the Seven Fantasy Boundaries as the pillars, and the dragon souls as the walls and roof. The entire world was as though a miniature world inside an oval glass bottle.
“We’ve explained the background settings clearly. From a certain degree, it does seem to be the truth of this world. But… what I need to tell you is about everything that happened before.” Arthur spun his hand and the map began to operate on its own like a rewinding movie. Then, everything was gone, leaving behind a rich, flourishing, and beautiful land.
“You aren’t aware that war between Chaos and Order has been ongoing for years, so long that the dragons decayed and earth crumpled. In fact, we aren’t aware of why Chaos and Order broke out in a war. But the war happened and engulfed every corner of the world we live in.”
Arthur waved his hand and Rhode witnessed the beautiful earth being corroded by Chaos. Flares were erupting into the sky everywhere. The beautiful land was darkened by death and Chaos. Arthur watched the scene silently, before continuing.
“But Chaos was much stronger than we imagined. Back then, people tried to resist their attacks, bur failed to eliminate them. Order and Chaos were inseparable. Lacerated Order turned into food and energy that strengthened Chaos. We tried to come up with counter solutions, but they didn’t work. In the end with no solutions left to try, we left the continent in order to avoid the fate of death and destruction. We went far away, to a place the deadly Chaos couldn’t reach. We borrowed strength from the ‘Phenomenon Void’ of the Void Dragon, transmigrated, and opened up a new world at the end of the boundless Star Ocean. This was why we were called the Creator Dragons. But in fact, no matter if it was us, our followers, or the races living in Dragon Soul Continent, we’re nothing more than beings who left home to avoid war.”
“But Order continues to be unstable.”
At this moment, Serena continued Arthur’s statement.
“From the start we wanted to create a world of Order that has no connection to Chaos. But we realized that it was impossible. No matter how hard we tried, Order and Chaos were still inseparable. We need to search for regular rules within the broken Chaos and use them as the foundation to resist Chaos’s attack. But on the contrary, the foundation will immediately turn into Chaos and attack our world as soon as the rules are shattered. We foresee such a future and yet, we can do nothing about it. But… we discovered a secret rule among them.”
“Rule?”
“That’s right, we discovered that no matter what, the continent that we created will be destroyed eventually. And this thing in itself is a rule of Order. Chaos represents the uncertainties of chaotic situations, while Order represents the orderly end. We’re astonished that the fate trajectory of this continent will turn into a unique thread of Order that penetrates the entire fate. But it is also due to this that we came up with an idea. Since destruction is unavoidable, why don’t we crush this rule?”
Rhode narrowed his eyes.
“… So that was why you all decided to distort history?”
“That’s right, it seems like you’ve received the relevant information from Miss Alice. Backtrack history time and time again with choices that were completely different each time and use the massive amount of distortions to completely destroy the thread of Order. That is the only thing that we can do…”
“But this isn’t enough.”
This time, the two sisters said.
“We discovered that even though this can destroy the thread of Order that ‘this continent will definitely demolish’, the continent will enter a state of confusion if there isn’t a brand new future. This shall also be the premonition of Chaos. We are powerless in this aspect. We have experimented all the ways that we came up with in our world. This is all that we can do and it is far from enough. Eventually we decided to head to the other worlds, seeking solutions. For that, we built the Deepest Labyrinth and the Dimension Gate connecting to the outside world on the deepest floor. But I guess you’re also aware that the Dimension Gate is a one-way portal. Anyone who passes through it will not be able to freely return to that world. In response to that, we set up the signal tower. It will abstract energy from this continent and release powerful energy undulation to the outside world. Through this way, if we manage to find a solution from the outside world to rescue this continent, we can try to scan and reconnect the signal undulation, relying on our strength to return to this continent.”
“I see. I think I understand why I appeared in this place now.”
Rhode nodded. It wasn’t hard to understand, just like the relationship between the phone signal and base station. The higher the rate of work of the base station, the larger the range of the phone signal and the easier for the phone signal to be connected. There would surely be a way to return since the Creator Dragons could freely exit to the outside world. In fact, Rhode didn’t transmigrate back to the real world. Instead, he was only here as a projection connected from the powerful signal of the signal tower. Moreover, this place also wasn’t in the real world and was more like an inside reflection.
“But the truth isn’t as simple as we imagined.”
The young sister, Jess, said with a depressed tone.
“If we pass through the Dimension Gate in our true bodies, we can indeed return to this world quickly. But without our energy source, the entire continent won’t be kept hidden and last long enough under the attack of Chaos. When that happens, the continent will be destroyed by Chaos, even if we found a solution to rescue it. The continent will turn into absolute Chaos. We can’t even time-travel back to the past and restart everything. For this reason we need to ensure the safety of Dragon Soul Continent. So… We abandoned our bodies and selected the dragon soul heirs to inherit our powers and maintain the continent, while we transmigrated to this world using our spirit.”
“Due to the space turbulence, there was a certain error in our arrival to this world. Arthur came first while we came after. We can’t maintain our form for too long as spirits, which is why we chose to live in humans of this world to live and grow like ordinary people.”
“Then, we discovered that even though this world was also full of Chaos, it wasn’t as compromised as our world.”
Arthur continued her words.
“Chaos in this world doesn’t have its own conscious and mind. It is simply a natural presence, while humans build their very own Order. Order has been destroyed time and time again, but was quickly rebuilt by them. We are deeply interested in this totally different civilization system, which was why we decided to conduct our research here to find a solution to rescue our world.”
“I understand what you meant.”
Rhode nodded to Arthur’s words. Then, he knitted his brows dubiously.
“But… what has this got to do with you guys making this game? Frankly, judging from your goal, you guys should be researching topics like nature, science, human philosophy, et cetera…”
No matter what it didn’t seem too reasonable or logical to relate game development and rescuing the world. The four of them looked at one another and smiled. Then, Serena said.
“In the beginning we had a deep interest in the game itself. Then, we were surprised that we could borrow the civilized technologies of this world to create an actual virtual-reality world. This was why we had this thought: If we could turn our world completely into comprehensive data and present it in the form of Order, would we stand a chance in resisting the attack of Chaos? For that we began our experiments, borrowing the civilization of this world and using our knowledge to create the game, the Dragon Soul Continent.”
Serena smiled.
“I think you may or may not have noticed the importance of Order. The most important thing to Order is the rules, Mr. Rhode. As a top player in the past, you should be aware of that. Even though the level of freedom in the Dragon Soul Continent is really high, there are a lot of rules and systems in place, right?”
“You’re right about that.”
Rhode nodded. No matter how real a game was known as, it wasn’t as though one was playing in ‘The Matrix'[1] and came up with a virtual-reality world to dominate the world. In the game—level, experience points, MP value of spiritual power, health, success rate of forging, et cetera—all of these could be presented by data. The data itself was the rule. One would level up after gaining experience points and the relationship between the mastery of skills and damage output were all fixed rules.
“Now that you’ve awakened dragon soul powers, you should have noticed that the dragon soul protection of this continent is really primitive, where Order can only be strengthened through the abstraction of spiritual powers from the dragons’ worshipers. But this isn’t enough. We imagined if the continent could be like this game, where several rules and concepts were merged with the continent as one, and everything had been turned into data by Order, we could use many different ways to abstract spiritual powers and strengthen Order. For instance, whenever people increase their strength, masteries and likabilities in one another, their every action will solidify the Order barrier of the continent, allowing it to display its formidable strength! This way, Chaos will not easily invade the Dragon Soul Continent anymore…”
Rhode’s expression changed slightly.
“So… what you meant was… you are trying to transfer the system of the online game into the real world of Dragon Soul Continent?”
[1] A 1999 science-fiction action film.
