Chapter 77 The Reason for the Release

The moment Ou Xiaolu attached himself to Booth, he sensed Booth’s recent situation, the changes that had taken place over the past few days, and everything else that had occurred in that time. At the same instant, Ou Xiaolu’s own abilities, as well as the entire game system, were brought over as well.

When time resumed, Ou Xiaolu swung his left arm, and a layer of violet mist enveloped him and the girl behind him, Xiaoyou. The pursuers chasing after them immediately realized something was wrong. They raised their small wooden wands and unleashed beams of light in various colors towards Ou Xiaolu. But when the lights faded, all they saw were shattered wooden stakes; nothing else remained.

In a place where the pursuers couldn’t find them, Ou Xiaolu was pulling Xiaoyou along at a rapid pace. He still couldn’t be certain they were safe, so he dared not pause for a moment. After finally reaching a spot devoid of people, Xiaoyou looked at Ou Xiaolu and said, “Are you the one Booth said was coming to replace him?”

Ou Xiaolu looked Xiaoyou up and down, noticing she was completely different from how she’d been at Booth’s side. Now, a blue radiance emanated from her, inside and out. Ou Xiaolu couldn’t quite understand it, but he asked, “What did Booth tell you?”

“He said things have gotten out of hand, that he might not be able to resolve it, and he’d need to call someone in for help. If that person arrived, it would be obvious, and when that happened, I was to give this to you.”

As she spoke, Xiaoyou handed him the Sun Coral Egg.

Ou Xiaolu took it and found that something was written on the back of the Sun Coral Egg—a description of the current situation.

It turned out Booth had encountered the most troublesome problem one could face when exploring a world: the world had developed self-awareness.

This was not uncommon; most large worlds possessed a faint trace of self-awareness. They knew who the protagonist was and would direct all good fortune towards them. Of course, true sentience was much rarer, and a world that wished to become its own independent entity, as in this case, was even more unusual.

Originally, Booth’s exploration of this world would not have triggered a reaction from its self-awareness. Unfortunately, Booth brought along a being outside the scope of the game: Xiaoyou. Had Xiaoyou been an ordinary person, it might have been fine; but she possessed either a special bloodline or extraordinary potential, which immediately activated the world’s consciousness.

That wasn’t the worst of it. The real issue came when Ou Xiaolu projected several more characters into the world, culminating in the arrival of the Red-White Queen, which fully awakened the world’s consciousness.

At this point, the world’s consciousness formed a plan: it would use Xiaoyou’s body as a vessel, inject its entire awareness into her, and turn itself into a person.

By doing so, the world consciousness could wield the power of the entire world, as well as Xiaoyou’s abilities. If it played its cards right, it could even break out beyond the world’s boundaries and become a new player. For the world consciousness, this meant gaining a path to freedom, so it was determined to succeed.

Booth had no way of handling this. He was just an avatar, authorized only to explore the world. Even if he defeated the world consciousness, it would simply relocate and start over. All methods of entering and exiting this world lay in the hands of the world consciousness; even if Booth and his companions retreated, rebooted the world, and tried again, the consciousness would still have its eye on them.

Ou Xiaolu didn’t own many large worlds, so he couldn’t afford to abandon an exploration of one so easily. Besides, a self-aware world could be a considerable source of profit.

Ou Xiaolu pondered for a moment, then turned to Xiaoyou. “When did you first get discovered and hunted by them?”

“About four hours ago. I followed Booth to meet a detective. The detective was fairly capable and had discovered some clues. We followed the trail to a tower, and that’s where the attack began.”

“Did you see anything particular?” Ou Xiaolu suspected Booth had uncovered something significant; otherwise, the pursuit wouldn’t have been so relentless.

Xiaoyou appeared gentle and frail, but she actually had some potential and had witnessed quite a lot. She had accompanied Booth throughout his investigation of the tower, so when Ou Xiaolu asked, she quickly recounted everything that had happened.

Since they were infiltrating, they only circled around the outer perimeter of the tower, yet even so, they discovered a great deal. For example, the tower was filled with magitech—technology guided by magical energy, such as magical clocks and the like. All of these were present inside the tower.

Moreover, the tower housed many people, none of whom seemed as though they belonged to a world on the verge of the end of magic. Most possessed substantial magical power. As Booth put it, he could easily take down one at a time, but if there were more than five, he’d find it difficult.

Ou Xiaolu could see this too. If Booth could really fight a hundred at once, he wouldn’t have called for help at the critical moment.

“There must be more. What else did you discover?”

“We noticed that beneath the tower, there was a pool that looked like mercury.”

“You managed to infiltrate that far?” Ou Xiaolu was surprised. Most buildings kept their lower levels strictly confidential. If Booth really brought a girl into the depths and escaped, Ou Xiaolu would have to question the intelligence of the enemy.

“No, I got separated from Booth by accident, and he found me using the Sun Coral Egg. While he was searching for me, we stumbled across the pool.”

“So you found it by accident while he was looking for you, or you wandered there yourself?”

Xiaoyou thought carefully. “I think I wandered over there by accident, and no one stopped me along the way.”

“That makes sense. You were able to enter the tower likely because the world consciousness allowed it.” Ou Xiaolu sighed deeply. “How did you escape?”

“While we were fleeing, some people started chasing us. Booth seemed to sense something then, opened up a nearby room, and released a man and a woman from inside. The woman wasn’t anything special, but the man had a bunch of pets—all extremely powerful.”

“No wonder. You must have encountered the world’s protagonist. Although the world consciousness wanted to capture you, its inertia and instinct towards protagonist plotlines caused it to miss the best chance for pursuit.

Do you remember where the detective was? For your safety, I think we need to revisit our plans.”