Chapter 403: Creation Teaching (Part 2/2)
"That’s the problem." Papercut shrugged, "I just did some searching; there is no relevant information in the database, whether it is in the Society, Xia City’s military, or Xia City’s government. There aren’t any records of this. In other words, this is very likely a new order. A new power, a new intelligence, that has yet to enter everyone’s eyes. Aren’t you going to consult with the Secretary?"
Luo Nan blinked. "Sister Yueyin? You want me to trouble her? Is this sort of situation rare?"
Papercut nodded, "New orders have always been this structured. There are indeed very little of them. In fact, there have been very few new orders in the past few years, even with the inner world expanding larger and larger. You understand this."
Luo Nan did indeed understand. The inner world was affecting normal society more and more. The skills of freshly trained talents such as him was enough to prove the existence of unrecognized talent.
Under this sort of circumstances, everyone held a conservative outlook when it came to a mature and high level ’new order’ suddenly popping out of the woodwork.
Luo Nan was just about to contact He Yueyin when his thoughts took another turn. It was best to take this spell array and bring it to her to take a look. This could be considered a reference. He tried talking to Du Yong, "Can you copy the spell array for me?"
"No problem." The speed of Du Yong’s response was quite suspicious.
Xie Junping filled in the gaps in explaining, "According to Teacher’s words, spiritual initiation should involve the gathering of all sorts of talents and the aid of friends. Only then can the best plan be obtained. There’s no need to act mysteriously and selfishly about it."
It seemed to be a very open order!
Luo Nan and Papercut locked gazes. Papercut asked in what seemed to be a casual manner, "Is it convenient for you to introduce us to the teacher who brought you into all this? Perhaps we know him or her."
Xie Junping was quite magnanimous. He didn’t hold anything back, "His last name is Wan. We all call him Dean Wan. He works for a welfare center in the Forestwall District. He’s the real deal."
This sort of intelligence acquisition made one completely lack the feeling of accomplishment.
An insight flashed through his mind right as he was shaking his head, and an image popped up in his mind. It was none other than a memory of last weekend where he controlled Ink in the Forestwall District for the reconnaissance work that was outsourced to him. Luo Nan had discovered an ability user there. That ability user was preaching, and even a little kid from the distant Trigate District had come over to listen.
Could it be the same person?
It was a messy mental association, and it was probably wrong, but the several factors—like preaching and the location being in the Forestwall District— increased the probability by several percentage points. If they were truly the same person, than his business would be far larger than previously imagined.
This was merely speculation; there wasn’t hard evidence, and it was hard to explain from the special perspective of distant perception. Luo Nan didn’t say much else to Papercut. He accepted the file that Du Yong sent to him and contacted He Yueyin through the HexaEar.
But all he got was a busy signal; the call didn’t go through. This wasn’t an odd thing. He Yueyin’s busiest times of the day were at eight or nine o’clock at night. Unless it was a pressing matter, it had to be put on the back burner.
Luo Nan thought for a bit and planned a last-minute task. He pulled He Yueyin, Papercut, Xue Lei, and Cat Eyes into a group chat before sending He Yueyin a message and the file. This was a sharing between many parties.
Papercut gave the file a glance, "Oh, it’s a cloud map. This is the most suitable software for drawing the spell array. It seems like this sect isn’t that closed-off. This may be good news."
Luo Nan noticed that there was a clear icon on the file, "The HexaEar can read it, right?"
"Of course. Such practical functions have to be integrated into it."
Luo Nan saw Du Yong gnash his teeth toward the read-only projection, but he was unwilling to copy the file to the computer. He felt that there were some issues with this brother’s brain. Still, he sighed and said, "Forget it. Just use mine."
He directly connected the HexaEar to the projector. There was no need to switch data streams. He simply opened it in the task window and opened the file in operation-mode. Not only did he remove the read-only limitation, he made it so that anyone could manipulate it.
He casually made a swiping motion, leaving a clear mark on the spell array. The mark stayed there. Then he erased the mark after. He played around a few times to confirm, "You can make altercations now. You can try to recall what you did before. Search for the feeling, and let us see your train of thought. Relax. This is constantly saved."
Luo Nan rubbed his fingers against each other half way through his words, looking thoughtful.
The feeling of light passing was quite interesting. It gave him a more direct feeling about the order and method of the operation of energy and information for the spell array. It made his once-fuzzy insights turn clear once more. He immediately became immersed in thought.
Du Yong was skeptical at first, but soon he found the instrument window of the cloud map software. His heart immediately swelled with enormous delight. He was right about to do work when he saw Mo Han and the other little sisters try working with it in their curiosity. He didn’t even think before shouting,
"Don’t break the template!"
His voice was admonishing to the maximal limit. Qiu Peipei, who possessed the quietest nature, took a step back in shock, not daring to speak a word.
Mo Han wasn’t scared of him. She was mad that he frightened her friend, so she spoke disdainfully, "There’s a rollback operation. What are you afraid of?"
Du Yong really had been shocked by his bad memories. He shook his head over and over. In these sort of times, he greatly rejected anyone who wasn’t a professional.
It was impossible to communicate with someone this neurotic. Papercut was very clear on this point. He turned to look at the group of boys and girls, "Why don’t you guys go play? Us professional enthusiasts can just talk things over in this room."
Mo Han looked at him with bulging eyes, "Hello? Are you trying to get rid of us?"
Papercut wasn’t the sort of person to go bickering with a little girl. He turned to ask Luo Nan, "How about we switch locations first?"
He felt that data migration and the like should be easy with the HexaEar. It couldn’t be simpler. Logically, if they were able to separate the people, then they can talk more about on other subjects.
But he saw Luo Nan focused once more on the spell array when he turned back to look. Luo Nan didn’t look like he was going to break his concentration any time soon, turning a deaf ear to Papercut. Papercut was helpless, he could only give Luo Nan a light tap.
"Huh? Oh, hold on." It wasn’t easy to get Luo Nan out of his trance this time. Luo Nan spoke a few random words, his gaze still parked upon the spell array structure. He even extended a hand to touch.
Du Yong’s patience was much higher toward this ’fellow practitioner’. He was especially delighted at Luo Nan’s concentration. He harbored some expectations and couldn’t help asking, "Do you have any insights?"
"Yes, I have an idea. I feel that this spell array is lacking a bit of texture."
"Which one?"
"Texture. Matter. A sense of being real." Luo Nan needed to converse with someone. He formulated his words as he observed, "If you view the spell array as a building, then the structure and lines could be viewed as rooms and pipelines. This template of yours is like a blueprint. There’s no material. There’s no filler stuff. It’s just like a hologram."
Luo Nan omitted something from his words; last time Huang’s spell array had a physical medium, at the very least. His spell array was essentially on a higher level than this one.
This was the difference in the spell arrays.
And this difference wasn’t due to a difference in the knowledge of mystic arts. Du Yong was the former president of the Mystic Arts Research Society. He was better than that Huang guy who didn’t really know what he was doing.
It was likely that this difference existed on the mental plane in the form of thought and desire.
Luo Nan didn’t go further down this train of thought. He wasn’t a believer of this Creation Order. Belief and desire had nothing to do with him. He was more interested in other directions. Could some sort of other method be used in place of this sort of "texture"? More specifically, could soul strength and interference power be used as a substitute?
It was harder for Papercut to disturb Luo Nan when seeing his state.
Luo Nan was a talented character. He viewed the world differently from other people. He saw problems differently in terms of depth and perspective. The insights formed from such perspectives were quite valuable. Who would be responsible if they were destroyed?
After a moment’s hesitation, Tian Si took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of managing people, "How about we first go to area A to play? Junior Nan is clearly unable to act as host right now. I can entertain everyone, so as to avoid him from ditching people from Acumen College.”
"Wow! Sister Si is very heroic!" Tian Si’s deliberate self-mockery clearly united the group of boys and girls. It also brought their ability to refuse down to the very minimum. It was very effective psychologically.
From another perspective, Hu Huaying was not an idiot either. He echoed Tian Si, "I approve of Head Tian’s words. This group of mystic arts researchers have abnormal brains. One bad move and this little brothers and sisters from Sixth Middle might believe that people from Acumen College are mentally ill. Luckily, there’s a VIP room above us. We have yet to check out completely from it. Let us relocate. Let us leave this place for them to torture themselves in."
The temptation of the VIP room was greater than that of the luxury room. It was stronger than the public area of area A. The words when spoken caused quite a few people’s eyes to light up.
Hu Huaying gave Tian Si a meaningful glance, letting her first take the helm before turning to ask Xie Junping for his privileges. Xie Junping had booked the VIP room. They would need to relevant privileges to enter the VIP floor.
The group of boys and girls walked out the door, and Luo Biyao whistled, "Normal room, then a luxury room, then a VIP room. So we were here to play upgrade today!"
Mo Peng nodded as he drooled, "I’ve been looking forward to the beauties play Fighting Dance for quite some time. The lighting effects of the VIP room will certainly be superb. Let me decide the lighting clothing design; dance clothes; sailor outfits; flight attendant outfits and so on. Let us turn up the heat."
"You pervert!"
Ruan Zihui kicked him, and Mo Peng giggled as he pulled open the door to jump out. But how was he to know that there was something wrong with the weight. It was heavy one moment and loose in the next. Mo Peng used the wrong amount of strength, and his body staggered backward to collide with Luo Biyao’s body. The door was pulled open, and someone outside fell head first inside to the ground.
"Huh?"
"What!? It’s Yue Zheng!"
Though his figure was sprawled on the floor, he was recognized when he stood up. Right now Yue Zheng was wearing his gaming equipment, which had an anti-collision function. It didn’t hurt physically, but it certainly hurt his pride.
Things had gone unfavorably in many aspects for Yue Zheng tonight. He had just crawled out of vomit only to face-plant on the ground here. His chin had struck the shiny floor, injuring his lips, teeth, and tongue. A fire swelled in his stomach as he crawled up to push Mo Peng.
"Fuck your mom! The hell are you doing!?"
Mo Peng was a bit embarrassed in the beginning, but when he was pelted with curses involving his mom, his expression immediately changed. The push was nothing in comparison.
He want to curse back directly, but his confidence was thick enough in the end. He sneered, "I actually wanted to ask you. How did it feel to contort yourself into all sorts of shapes for a fucking handgun?"
Yue Zheng’s expression turned ash white, then it turned tense as the last rational thread in his mind suddenly snapped. He cursed once more, waved a fist, and smashed it toward Mo Peng’s face.
The situation happened so quickly that everyone reacted instinctively. Mo Peng was a little fat, but he was a stout and nimble fatty. He toughened himself up year round at the reality battlefield. This let his reactions exceed that of a normal person’s. At this distance, he didn’t use his arms and legs. His stout body moved like an ox. His round head, which was bound in an angular tactical helmet, came ramming into Yue Zheng’s stomach.
He exerted force through his legs and back; the resulting impact was considerable. Yue Zheng still had some alcohol in his stomach, and he nearly vomited again when struck by this impact. Even worse, he lost his balance, falling backward instead of forward as in last time.
Luckily, there was something to support himself against behind him. His shoulder pressed against someone’s stomach when he stumbled backward, and his head collided with something that was a bit soft. A stifled scream was heard in the next moment.
Screams of pain formed a mass behind as the support behind him fell backward as well. Then came cold and warm juice. The liquid came showing down, stunning Yue Zheng in place.
His ears rang with Ju Maoxun’s hoarse cursing.
"F***!"
Ju Maoxun was sprawled on the ground, likewise, a bit stunned.
It stood to reason that Yue Zheng’s havoc was beneficial to him. Anyway, they were all students of Sixth Middle, and they were companions who had come to this place together. Their group would be the one to lose face were a disturbance to happen. He wanted to watch the fire burn from the other side, taunting others at their expense.
This was the most optimal outcome that he could think of. Even if Yue Zheng didn’t cause trouble, he thought that he could do some urging in the back.
But...but how did things come to be like this?
The stupefaction lasted only for a short moment as the feeling on his face and body ultimately gave him a realistic explanation.
Yue Zheng was on top of him, and sticky juice had spilled all over his face. The glass of juice had even smashed into his head. Of course, the most painful part of him was his nose. Yue Zheng had smashed into it. The bitter taste mixed with the juice and poured into his lips. There was clearly some blood.
Ju Maoxun originally could have avoided it. The Elite Society he was a part of took part in the wrestling club. He had decent skills.
However, the problem was that there were too many people following behind him. There were two servers carrying alcohol and juice. He also brought two of his no-good friends for the sake of morale. There were four people in the tight space. No matter how skilled he was, there wasn’t enough space.
Sure enough, something unexpected had happened!
What should have been a quick and easy trip to slap the enemy in the face had turned into him, the boss, taking the brunt of things. Ju Ling had ditched him!
So he had fallen into these straits.
It must be stated that this was area A of Frost River Reality. This place had the highest density of people in the entire population of Xia City, especially here in Cloud City Water Village. This was a large activity area. People came and went. The place was surrounded by players from several universities and high school students. There was an extreme overlap with his social circle. Falling here with four limbs facing the sky, nostrils overflowing with blood, and juice all over his face, there seemed to be the flashes of cameras all around him.
There didn’t need to be a tomorrow. Just tonight, his reputation would be spread to all the major university forums.
This was the last rational thought that Ju Maoxun had.
Whatever face-slapping plan he had totally shattered in the next moment. Ju Maoxun, as he pushed aside Yue Zheng, who was still in a state of utter disbelief. Ju Maoxun struggled to get up, picking up the glass of juice by his side. He didn’t care. He attacked the densest area of people.
"I’ll cut you meat entrails to pieces!"
A heavy thud rang out, then came the scream of a girl.
The sound wave pierced the ears, and Qiu Peipei fell backward into Mo Han’s bosom. Blood gushed from her forehead as the juice glass fell to the ground. It clanged as it spun, still unbroken.