Chapter 1171: Guilt and Remorse
After what seemed like an eternity to Jiang Fei, Miluya finally returned to his side.
“Big brother…”
“…”
Jiang Fei took a quick look at her and continued staring at the ground.
He had no idea what to say to her. The Celestial NPCs that Miluya had killed could become a threat to him in the future, but at least at this point in time, some of them were still his allies and even his master was one of them. Now, they were all dead. Thanks to Miluya. If anything else, he should be seeking justice for their deaths.
But with his current abilities, was he even able to do that? In the presence of Miluya, Jiang Fei would not be able to do as much as raise a finger before she completely wiped the floor with him. Not to mention that they also shared a close bond with each other, and Jiang Fei still adored the little girl very much. Even though the very same little girl had teleported herself all over the Overworld and murdered every Celestial NPC that she could find, Jiang Fei still found it very hard to bring himself to fight her.
“Forget it, just go. Leave me alone!”
Jiang Fei waved his hands, shooing the little girl away.
“En…”
Miluya only nodded in response, before tearing a hole in the s.p.a.ce-time fabric with a finger and returned to the Celestial Realm.
“Aih!”
Jiang Fei let out a sigh and delved again into his thoughts.
When the daily gaming timer finally ran out, Jiang Fei was logged out from the game.
“Honey are you awake yet?”
Jiang Fei woke up to find a smiling Bella entering his room.
“Oh, hey… What brings you to my room?”
Jiang Fei felt awkward talking to her. After all, he was somewhat responsible for her parents’ death. His guilt made it hard for him to meet her gaze directly.
“Hehe, I’ve been stuck in the Medical Bay for too long, so I thought I’d make up for all the time not spent with you right now!”
Bella clingingly wrapped herself around his arm. The demon princess seemed to have become much more clingy after stepping out of the Medical Bay.
After a quick wash, Jiang Fei found himself still not ready to face Bella alone. He was afraid that the girl would pick up on his awkwardness, so he decided to get the other girls and inspect the construction of their new base together.
Jiang Fei’s efforts at misdirection may have been effective on Bella, but still fell short in getting past the attentiveness of both Ariel and Nina, who were both quick to discern that something was troubling.
But luckily for Jiang Fei, the two thoughtful girls did not outright point out his abnormal behavior. They both chose to instead keep this to themselves for now and ask him about it later should the opportunity present itself, and hopefully help him resolve whatever it was that was bothering him.
And just like that, the day went by without a hitch. Bella was not as sensitive as Ariel or Nina and missed all the signs. Coupled with the fact that it had been quite a while since she had last seen him, she was only fawning affectionately over him the entire tour and still did notice Jiang Fei’s awkwardness.
And after successfully enduring an entire day of walking on eggsh.e.l.ls, Jiang Fei was relieved to be able to log onto the game again.
Logging into the game felt different to Jiang Fei, as he was entering a familiar place with detached feelings. While the other players were still all going about clearing quests, farming mobs, and enjoying the game as usual, he was the only one player with the knowledge that the entire High Human population went extinct!
Every High Celestial NPC on the Overworld is gone, and there would no longer be any forces to stop players from taking over and becoming the dominant force in the game.
Jiang Fei used a portal and returned to the Celestial Realm. The players were all rapidly expanding their territories, relentlessly hunting monsters and turning in dropped monster cores to the altars for the experience points reward and safe zone expansion.
“Seven Stars Warrior, any news about the Primordial Celestials yet?”
Jiang Fei asked casually. Although he still had no idea how to properly face Bella, but after getting a whole day to let things sink in, he was no longer as perplexed as he was before.
He realized that no matter how much he revered Ou Yezi and the others as his elders and how kind they were to him, they were all still nothing more than fictional characters with advanced artificial intelligence coded into them. After spending a day agonizing over their deaths, Jiang Fei slowly found it getting easier at accepting reality.
Miluya’s unexpected onslaught might have caught him off guard, but he was already planning to hunt down and erase the remaining Celestial NPCs anyway!
“Nope!” Seven Stars Warrior shook his head.
As per Jiang Fei’s request, he had dispatched many guild members out on many scouting missions, but none of them seem to have encountered any Primordial Celestials yet.
“En, you guys carry on. Let me know immediately if something turns up.” Jiang Fei nodded.
Jiang Fei was no longer interested in the ongoing Battle of the Heavens, but had instead made hunting and reducing the number of Celestial NPCs in the game his number one priority.
But little did he know that after the events that transpired yesterday, an enormous number of NPCs had been already been extracted out of the game by the Unknowns during the server shutdown time.
Miluya’s Celestial NPC genocide yesterday had implanted a deep fear of deletion amongst the Primordials. And in their desperation, they chose to side with the Unknowns, even if it meant giving up their free will. Although the Unknowns had previously threatened them many times with death before, their objective was to extract as many Celestials NPCs from the game as they can for their army of androids and were not likely to kill them so easily.
The Unknowns had only killed about seven NPCs as an example of resisting extraction, a number too small that it was not persuasive enough for the Celestials to consider submitting themselves to the rule of the Unknowns.
But before the Unknowns could get to them, came this little girl out of nowhere. She might seem young and timid, but was many levels more vicious than the Unknowns, wiping them all out without as much as a warning!
Many NPCs died without the slightest idea of why they had to die, leaving the surviving Celestials with an intense feeling of injustice for the murder of their kind.
Under the looming pressure of impending doom, more and more Celestials decided to choose survival over freedom, and entered an unholy pact with the Unknowns.
So when the server shut down that very night, a colossal number of the Celestials were extracted out of the game. More than half of the two hundred or so surviving Celestials left the server!
Only the underlings of the three Elemental Lords remained. Without their master’s permission or orders, they did not dare try to desert themselves, even though they too were scared.
Jiang Fei was oblivious to the fact that half of the remaining Celestial NPCs had already been extracted and was still scouring the entire Celestial Realm searching for any trace of the Celestials or Miluya.
Meanwhile, deep inside the Hall of Kings, the three Elemental Lords have gathered there and were holding council with each other.
“Sister, do you feel it?” asked Ragnaros the Firelord.
“Yes, our brownnose of a brother is dead.” replied Therazane the Earth Mother.
“Ah. Our eldest brother died a long time ago. Our seventh brother died by the hands of our second brother, whom we all slew him together. And now, even that a.s.s-kisser is gone…” sighed Neptulon the Tidehunter.
“Let’s leave the past alone. Don’t you all think that the third brother’s sudden pa.s.sing seems rather suspicious? I fear that there could be something happening behind the scenes that we are not made aware of.” Therazane said. Her thick brows frowned hard as she became deep in thought.
“I think you’re all thinking too much into this. Isn’t the little doll still doing fine? All we have to do now is to sit back and wait. Once everything is almost finished on that end, we’ll just swoop in and reap the rewards.” said Ragnaros nonchalantly.