Rhode laid his hands down, quietly gazing at the spots of light fading away. After the final spot of light vanished, he turned around and left the room without looking back. Everything that he experienced here had ended, just like in the past, present, and future. The beginning of a phase meant the end of another.
Same went for everything else.
When Rhode returned to the meeting room, the four of them displayed awkward expressions. Arthur gaped, but didn’t speak a word. Ningmi and Ningjing looked at Rhode with complications. Serena let out a cough upon realizing their reaction, but when she was about to speak, Rhode raised his hand and stopped her.
“Alright, there’s no need to talk about the past anymore. I’ve heard enough and don’t wish for it to repeat. We need to get back on the right track. I suppose we don’t have time to waste on consoling and having a heart-to-heart chat.”
“You’re right.”
Arthur immediately composed his emotions for business. Then, he stretched out his hand and retrieved four crystal-clear crystals. Inside the beautiful crystals were countless, tiny, constantly revolving runes. They formed a strange, mysterious formula, flashing across the surface of the crystals. Rhode took the four crystals and clearly felt a pure energy exuding from within them. Arthur was right. Rhode didn’t understand the differences between Order and Chaos in the past, but now the crystals in his hands were the perfect representation of Order. Rhode sensed the power of Order coalesce within the crystals, as though they were dismantled furniture, which was then packaged and left right there. All he needed to do was to release it from the crystals and install them according to the steps. They would then become the most natural and perfect system.
“After you return, you will need to activate these crystals beside the signal tower, Mr. Rhode. Order within them will automatically complete the next step. You just have to check the system interface from time to time and ensure there are no issues with the merging of Order. Don’t worry, it won’t be a difficult task. We have injected corresponding knowledge in them. As soon as you activate them, you’ll receive the content in them, Mr. Rhode.”
“Why me? Can’t the other dragon soul heirs do it?”
Rhode knitted his brows. In fact, he wasn’t interested in managing the data of a world all day like a Game Master. Game Masters had shift rotations and weren’t even doing the job alone. Were they intending to let him manage the world alone for the rest of his life? Arthur showed a forced smile to Rhode’s question.
“I’m really sorry, Mr. Rhode. Everything including the search data fused with your body when you transmigrated. That is why only you can execute adjustments through the system. Of course, the other dragon soul heirs will also sense the subtle changes in Order. But with their abilities, they will have difficulties making adjustments and changes on a high level. Mistakes may even occur by accident if they aren’t careful. This is why we can only rely on you.”
“Only me… Frankly, I can’t guarantee that everything will go well.”
“Don’t worry about this. Apart from you, ‘No. 7’ can also assist you in this mission.”
“What’s that?”
For some unknown reason, Arthur suddenly mentioned a term which Rhode couldn’t understand at all. Arthur gazed at him, slightly surprised.
“It’s the program that we used to search, conform, and confirm the intelligence and rules of this world. Didn’t I explain it to you already? Mr. Rhode, when the program sends you back to the Dragon Soul Continent, it will also send the data with you, just in case. The data includes the program used to gather intelligence. We named it the ‘7th Generalized Intelligence Collection And Integration AI’. In short, ‘No. 7′. Judging from the current situation, it has already been activated. Didn’t you see it, Mr. Rhode?”
“… Why don’t I remember anything about this 7th-what program…”
Rhode scratched his head in puzzlement. He did have the system, but had never witnessed any so-called AI before. Not only that, but the system was also an ordinary one and didn’t come with any artificial intelligence that stuck around with him like in some of the novels. Arthur gazed dubiously at Rhode and at this moment, Ningjing spoke with some hesitation.
“By the way, Mr. Rhode. The AI has even given itself a name—Gillian. Does it ring a bell to you?”
“… Damn, her…”
Rhdoe’s expression turned strange. After sensing their curious gazes, he gave an awkward cough, suppressing his urge to instantly head back and pull that sly fox out of the hole by her ears. Then, he waved his hand airily and changed the topic.
“Yes… I’m aware. Alright, I know who to look for now. Let’s get back to the main topic. Do all of you really think that everything will be fine?”
“Mr Rhode?”
The four of them stared blankly at him, before exchanging glances with one another. Rhode spread his arms apart and looked into their eyes one by one. Upon sensing his gaze, they revealed unprecedented, helpless expressions. Then, Serena let out a sigh and spoke.
“That’s right, Mr. Rhode. This will not be enough and we’re aware of it. But we’re not personally there, after all. The only thing we can do is to strengthen the Order barrier and pray that it can defend against the attacks of Chaos for much longer. This is the only thing we can do. And it is our only choice.”
“I don’t think of it this way. In fact, when I spoke to her earlier, I suddenly came up with an idea and she supported me. If my idea can work, we can resolve this problem once and for all.”
That’s right. That was Rhode’s true thoughts. After meeting his younger sister, he seized the moment and thought about the situation. Then, he realized that the Creator Dragons’ solution was only a temporary and not permanent cure to the problem. Indeed, the strength of Order would solidify with the addition of these rules and might become much stronger. But this wasn’t enough at all. If this were for Earth, humans wouldn’t need to worry about this problem because earth was relatively safe in the universe. Apart from the acts of self-destruction from humans, the only external problems would come from either the sun extinguishing itself or getting hit by meteorites. Also, other than the meteorites that burned out of life in the atmosphere, the only catastrophic meteorite that could crash into Earth only occurred once in a few thousands years.
On the other hand, the current situation for the Dragon Soul Continent was as though it were facing constant meteor showers and from time to time, several devastating meteorites were also mixed among them. Apart from this, many people also sought death by attempting to summon more powerful meteorites and even ‘planets’ to destroy the continent. In this case, even if the strength of Order was as sturdy as a turtle shell, it would eventually crumple in one day. The four of them didn’t need to worry about this problem anymore. It wasn’t that they were cold-blooded, but since they couldn’t return, there was no point in worrying about it. But it was different for Rhode. He only came here as a mental projection through the enhanced connection of the signal tower. If anything were to happen to him, it wouldn’t be surprising that the rest of his afterlife would be spent in the Dragon Soul Continent. For his safety, he didn’t wish to live under the roof that would be crushed by a hail of meteors… When that happened, he would be busy robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“Oh?”
The four Creator Dragons lifted their heads instantly, gazing at Rhode curiously. They knew who was the ‘her’ that Rhode mentioned. They also knew that it wasn’t nice of them to do this, but… this was all that they could do. Their curiosity piqued immediately after hearing from Rhode that he had a way to resolve the problem once and for all.
“What ideas do you have, Mr. Rhode?”
“Firstly, I want to be sure of something. The Dragon Soul Continent should be just like what you described: a world wrapped inside an egg, with the dragon soul protection as the shell, right?”
Rhode asked sternly. In fact, he wasn’t too confident of this thought. After all, everything he knew was based on the game and now, since the ‘creators’ were here, it was most important for him to gather information.
“You’re right.”
Although they didn’t know what Rhode was building up to, they eventually nodded. But Rhode didn’t seem too assured yet. He asked again.
“Just to confirm, the dragon soul protection envelops the entire continent, including the four elemental planes, Seven Fantasy Boundaries, and hell, right?”
“Yes. The Seven Fantasy Boundaries and four elemental planes are on the main plane. But as the concepts of existence are different, it isn’t possible for people to discover their presence. As for hell… it is less obvious. They didn’t only make use of the dragon soul power to protect themselves from Chaos, but they also took advantage of the Order barrier. But in terms of strength, it is almost the same.”
“In this case… I think it will work…”
“What exactly are you trying to do, Mr. Rhode?”
Serena asked nervously, gazing at Rhode’s proud expression. No matter what this was the world that they created. If there were any accidents, they wouldn’t be able to return and make up to him.
“Simple.”
At this moment, Rhode seemed to be in a good mood. The edges of his mouth lifted uncharacteristically into a smile. He spread his arms apart.
“Since we can’t beat it, we can only escape. There is an infinite amount of Chaos and we can’t possibly win. In this case… Why can’t we build an ultralarge Dimension Gate and transport the entire Dragon Soul Continent to another world? Even though other worlds may also not be safe, compared to a continent flooded with Chaos, wouldn’t it be a great choice? If we transmigrate to a place similar to Earth where Chaos poses no threats, wouldn’t our future lives be much safer?”
The Creator Dragons were bewildered.
