Chapter 176 A Thousand-Year Chess Game
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The chaos at the Syndicate ruins finally came to an end with Reji's Light Pillar Sword spanning a thousand meters.
The leap in levels was an unexpected delight. For him to reach level 71 in the game would have taken months, yet now he had achieved it in less than two short months.
It could be said that the Seventh Prince had truly sent him a big gift, not only delivering a genuine holy sword but also providing a vast amount of experience from the 50,000 Insect Demon-Monster.
However, for Reji, equipment and experience were secondary. He believed that the greatest gain was...
There was definitely someone in the distant Empire secretly helping him.
Reji had no doubt about this.
Moreover, judging from the insect eggs, this person had likely been making arrangements for a very long time, playing a grand chess game.
Previously, Reji and the demons were quite puzzled as to why there were genes belonging to the demon race within the insect eggs.
At that time, the Wisdom Demon speculated that the insect race might have been scavenging. After all, following the ancient human-demon war, countless demon corpses were left behind. The insect race had risen again by absorbing these corpses, which was why they had acquired some of the demon race's bloodline.
But now it seemed...
Reji was more inclined to believe that this was not a coincidence of the insect race.
It was more like... Being "artificially" guided.
This "Insect Demon" incident was the best example, as if the other party was conveying a message to him.
As long as he wanted, all the humans who had been parasitized by the "insect eggs," these creatures that simultaneously satisfied the dual criteria of monster and demon race, would be the best food for his rapid growth as the Hero.
In the eyes of outsiders, the human world that seemed to be infiltrated by the insect race was the pasture of that Queen. However, in reality, wasn't it also his own super experience pool?
This was like an open secret.
Reji could see from the expressions of the other apostles that they were completely unaware of this point.
Even the Wisdom Demon, Leo, believed that the previous Insect Demon Army was most likely the Seventh Prince's means of going down with the ship. It was just that the Seventh Prince was instantly killed, so the Insect Demons lost control.
And he, as the Demon King, had ordered the other apostles not to intervene and single-handedly used the power of the holy sword to annihilate the Insect Demon army in order to avoid exposing the demon race.
After all, only the companions who were closest to him and had accompanied him as the Hero throughout his growth would know about the ability of experience points.
The improvement of the Hero's strength was only a small part of secluded cultivation.
Constantly fighting, especially obtaining a certain soul energy from the enemies he personally killed, was the main reason for the Hero's rapid progress.
This tacit understanding was the best encryption method.
However, this also increased many doubts in Reji's heart.
Since this "companion" had the ability to contact the Wicked Demon back then, why didn't they contact him directly?
Why did they have to help him in such a covert manner?
The only reason Reji could think of was the same as why that Ghost old man couldn't tell him the name of the traitor back then.
An unspeakable curse.
As a sensitive individual, even mentioning a topic related to them would be detected.
So contact with him was forbidden?
Following this constraint, Reji tried to put himself in the shoes of that "secret ally." If he were them, what should he do now?
The answer quickly surfaced.
Since talking was not an option, leaving clues and hints was undoubtedly the best method.
Leaving... Clues that only the Hero could understand.
And were there such clues within the current Syndicate?
Of course.
Reji brought up the system panel that had popped up earlier.
[Earth's Engraving (Fragment)]
[Collect all fragments to activate the "Map" function]
[Currently collected (Can be activated) : 137/104] Stay connected with m|vl|e|mp|y|r
The initial goal of creating the Dungeon was to collect the stone tablet fragments scattered throughout the Syndicate.
In fact, the stone tablet fragments submitted by the Shadow Tribe and the Death Heralds when they entered the ruins were already sufficient.
However, at that time, his attention was drawn to the news of the Seventh Prince transmitted by Leo, so he temporarily put this matter aside.
Now... Reji stretched out his hand. The numerous fragments he had collected were now floating above his palm, enveloped by mysterious energy and constantly rotating.
Under Reji's intention to combine them, the spinning and dancing stone tablet fragments began to collide with each other rapidly. Smaller fragments were continuously devoured by larger ones, while the larger ones collided with each other, becoming intertwined and merging together.
This process was quick. After just ten or so seconds, the stone tablet fragments of various sizes and scattered divisions had formed a neat, complete, and intact large earth stone tablet in front of Reji.
The stone tablet emanated an ancient and timeworn aura, as if it had recorded countless years. When Reji touched it, the patterns on the surface of the stone tablet immediately changed, eventually transforming into a vast world map before him.
The various functions of the world map were exactly the same as in the game, still familiar to Reji. The map first presented him with a general layout of the world.
Firstly, the world seemed to be divided in the middle.
There was a long, huge gorge.
This gorge divided the world into two parts: North and South.
Located in the north, at the top of the map, was the Black Goat flag, occupying nearly one-third of the world's area. That was the Nox Empire.
The Empire alone occupied the upper half of the gorge.
Looking at it this way, this gorge indeed surrounded and protected the Empire very well, giving Reji a sense of a Great Wall?
Then, below the Great Wall Gorge were the other countries in the world.
Among them, the largest in area, leading the way, were the three great nations mentioned in the Syndicate investigation, below the Empire.
The Radiant Holy Nation.
The Court of Judgment.
And the Mage Nation.
These three great nations divided nearly seventy percent of the remaining two-thirds of the world's area.
As for the remaining pitiful thirty percent, they were small countries like Ilinor, surviving in the cracks.
After surveying the world's layout.
When Reji wanted to zoom in on the map to take a closer look at each country or region, just like in the game, a large area of "fog of war" would envelop it.
Areas he had not yet reached or explored were all obscured by the "fog of war." Among the vast black fog, only three places were lit up.
One was the Chaos Rift, a separate region divided from the world map.
The second was Ilinor.
The last and third was the Syndicate, located at the intersection of the three great nations, where he was currently.
Because the Syndicate was not considered a country.
It was a region.
Moreover, these stone tablet fragments themselves were scattered throughout the Syndicate, so when Reji zoomed in on the map and placed it over the Syndicate, the entire region's fog was illuminated. Reji could clearly see the full picture of the Syndicate.
It was precisely because of this that Reji was able to immediately discover the true secret of the Syndicate.
It was shown on the map, a huge hollowed-out area beneath the desert where he stood.
There, one could see densely packed... Crystals.
If one were to click on the prompt icon on the map, a panel like this would pop up.
[Star Spirit Crystals]