Chapter 1164 Edge Of The World
While Jake was upgrading his Lumyst Aura and Cho Min Ho was discovering the existence of an enemy Oracle Hacker along with the death of their own, another ma.s.sive group of Players led by Nyx and Eris were on the verge of a major discovery.
Throughout their journey, the band, initially just a few hundred Myrtharian Nerds, had swollen in numbers by rallying lost Players. It had now become a formidable army, counting several thousand Myrtharian Nerds and at least ten times more factionless Players.
Under the unparalleled charisma and beauty of the crazed twins, everyone had been forcibly drawn into the grand "quest" to find their "husband". At first, everyone found strength in numbers.
The fact that they managed to thwart the enemy"s sporadic a.s.saults with almost no losses was the most compelling proof of their strength. However, since that morning, the ambushes had stopped, coinciding with their entry into one of the most remote regions of the continent.
Here, there was no trace of life, no vegetation, just barren land of black salt, dry and cracked. The air held no moisture or wind, and the sky was cloudless. The sun was free to bathe them in its light un.o.bstructed, yet it brought no warmth.
Instead, they faced a biting cold. With every breath, the exhaled air froze instantly, forming a mist of ice that could freeze their own saliva if they carelessly kept their mouths open for too long.
The only redeeming factor was that the total absence of wind made the air not only dry but static. At least, thanks to this climatic quirk, they didn"t have to worry about trudging through snow or having their visibility reduced by a blizzard.
Still, the last few hours of marching had been brutal. Their Player const.i.tution granted them extraordinary vitality, but with their powers restricted by the laws of Twyluxia, this trek had turned into an obstacle course, making some long for the battlefield.
If the present Myrtharian Nerds hadn"t protected them by helping them endure the environment, at least half of these Players would have perished or been forced to give up. It was all the more infuriating because the two twins, who had dragged everyone into this exploratory madness, showed no signs of guilt.
In fact, the closer they got to their goal, the more excited their expressions became.
"Almost there... We"re nearly there~," Eris sang out, hopping along merrily, while the Players walking behind her cursed their luck, spouting colorful expletives in unintelligible languages.
When everyone was pushed to the limit, they were quickly reminded that the Oraclean language they all spoke flawlessly for communication was actually no one"s native tongue. In the end, it was rare for two Players to come from the same planet, let alone the same country.
As for the two love-blinded twins, they followed their instincts without a doubt, continuing to march resolutely northward. Few natives knew if this world had an end, but their impromptu expedition was about to provide an answer.
"That"s... unexpected," Eris coughed wryly a few minutes later, stopping in front of a "world"s edge" quite different from what she had imagined.
"Our fate darkens... again," Nyx sighed dramatically.
Back on Earth, flat-earthers were long regarded as crackpots, but conversely, Twyluxia had been proclaimed from the start by the Oracle System as a flat world. The Players who had been drawn into this expedition to the edges of the continent had no idea what to expect, but surely, the view unfolding before their eyes wasn"t it.
An abrupt end overlooking a void, akin to their Floating Islands, would have been preferable.
"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Skorgeld bellowed in his gruff voice, stopping in front of some kind of membrane.
There were no other words for it.
The frozen black land they had been wandering in seemed to extend indefinitely, but Eris, and then he, in turn, had b.u.mped into something spongy. Without this collision, they would have continued walking unaware that the vision projected before them was an illusion.
Several intrigued Players began to probe the membrane with their mental senses to no avail. If they hadn"t touched it with their own hands, they would have doubted its existence.
Thinking of a possibility with heavy implications, the most astute Players then manually explored the illusion membrane to see how far it extended. Some did so by flying, others by climbing and sticking to it like spider"s suction cups.
Soon after, the verdict was in. After climbing for a few kilometers without apparent end, they had already determined from its curvature that it formed a large dome probably enveloping all of Twyluxia. In other words, the entire sky was fake!
It was a shocking discovery!
However, after some calculations, they calmed down. The curvature was very slight. The sky"s limit was most likely tens of millions of kilometers above them. The membrane at the top didn"t necessarily behave like the bottom, and the sun and moon might not be fake as they had begun to suspect.
"So, what do we do now? Do we give up?" A Kintharian hesitated, tempted to bury himself underground for a well-deserved nap. For the moment they had not tried to break through it, but it seemed tough.
The approving glances from the other Kintharians and Throsgenians present immediately betrayed that his suggestion was highly appreciated. The Myrtharians and Beskyrians present were also skeptical, but not to the point of giving in to laziness.
"Pictorus, do you think you can deactivate this membrane, or is it too much for you?" Eris asked enthusiastically to their sole "fake scenery" expert.
The Myrmidian painter stiffened, but since his opinion had been solicited, his instinct pus.h.i.+ng him to seek victory at any cost forced him to genuinely engage with the topic. Internally, he cursed the young woman who had so cunningly phrased her question to force him to act.
Without enthusiasm, the warrior approached the membrane slowly, a strained smile on his chiseled, olive-toned face. Under the watchful stares of the crowd of Players, he began to examine the "canvas" stretched before him carefully, then murmured in a relieved tone,
"The membrane is in poor condition. The surface texture still holds, but almost everything that made this "canvas" magical has corroded."
To the painter, this work of art was like a painting once rich in color, from which a good part of the original paint had been burnt off and removed. While to others the illusion seemed flawless, he saw only a tarnished work. When the colors were still there, they were faded, tinged with gray, and pervaded by a decidedly malevolent alien energy.
His first instinct was to think of the Digestors, but he dismissed the idea immediately. What made these monsters so calamitous was precisely that the Corruption they spread was inherently difficult to detect. Without a proper detector, which were exceedingly rare among Evolvers of their rank, only the behavior of the victims allowed them to realize their influence when the Corruption was at a low stage.
In contrast, this evil energy was far from discreet, not trying to hide its existence.
"Yet, this membrane seems to be doing its job well," Skorgeld grumbled morosely. If they hadn"t b.u.mped into it, they would have noticed nothing.
Guessing what the Beskyrian and other Players were thinking, Pictorus shook his head,
"That"s precisely the problem. We shouldn"t have been able to run into it. If it were so easy to touch this barrier, other natives would have tried, and we could easily have found information about it. Instead, without being taboo, no native we questioned was able to tell us what the edge of the world looked like. There are almost as many theories and legends as there are living beings on Twyluxia, but the prevailing answer was that among those who had tried to reach the edge of this world, none had returned.
"It coincides with what I detect. In addition to this flawless texture, there was originally a much more advanced array that would have made us lose our sense of direction and memory well before. The natives who came here before us must have wandered in this frozen black salt land until their deaths. In case you haven"t noticed, this cold not only chills us but also saps our vitality and mental strength."
Many other Players nodded, having long noticed. A drain this slow was not a concern for them, but it was different if their stay here ended up being prolonged.
"In that case, what do you suggest?" Eris pouted, the solemn expression of the painter boding ill.
After all that long-winded explanation, the twin sisters really hoped he had an answer. What he had revealed might have seemed ominous, but to them, it was actually a rea.s.suring sign.
After all, what better place for Corrupted Players who could snap at any moment? If they were already certain that Ulfar was on the other side, now they had no doubt whatsoever.
Expecting, with bated breath, that the Myrmidian would dissuade them from crossing the barrier, that it would be suicidal, their jaws dropped to the ground when Pictorus nonchalantly tore through the "canvas" with his bare hands.
"Told you. The membrane is trashed…"