Chapter 949 - 9: History Repeats? Uninvited Guests from the Otherworld

Chapter 949: Chapter 9: History Repeats? Uninvited Guests from the Otherworld

Even though it had only been a short while since he arrived...

After about one or two seconds, the deep passage woven from flowing Rune streams abruptly vanished.

They closed the gate over there, no longer maintaining it in an open state. The channel connecting the two worlds naturally disappeared along with it, as if it had never existed at all. But the impact on the people around had already been made; he could only use Mind Power to soothe them, directly finishing the field control—

The scattered cries of surprise in the crowd had just begun to ring out.

There was only the faintest sign of them rising in waves, but before they could surge into a tide, they were cut off like a hand closed around their throats.

"..."

"..."

Their eyes quickly calmed, then they turned back with dull reactions, neither entangled nor confused, as if they had completely forgotten what had just happened, seamlessly reconnecting to the actions that had been interrupted. Those who should be talking talked, those who should be hurrying on their way hurried on.

The young man standing in the very center of the street was naturally parted from the flow of people coming and going; everyone subconsciously walked around him.

Gu Mo’s mind wasn’t on this at all. He paid no attention to the situation around him, merely withdrawing his gaze and, at the same time, reeling back the seemingly endless Mind Power that had spread outward.

Because the information he had collected was already sufficient, he could confirm one basic fact: this Dungeon World did indeed belong to the world of "Campione: Godslayer." That was no surprise; it was originally the testing ground he’d chosen. Successfully entering this Dungeon World meant his hypothesis was correct.

The reason he chose this Dungeon World—

Was simply because he didn’t have many good options at the time.

Even though he’d now gathered enough elements and permissions for precise Dungeon World positioning, he still couldn’t open every Dungeon without restriction. Just like what Mikko saw on the "Book of Worlds," not every page in the book had the possibility of opening a gate.

Gu Mo felt that this situation—

Either meant the intel he’d collected was insufficient and he couldn’t establish enough connections.

Or those worlds themselves had very high Levels, and the system wouldn’t casually allow the opening of such high-Level Dungeons.

Or he was still missing some critical condition that he hadn’t noticed yet; it was even possible that the corresponding fantasy was just fantasy, without any corresponding real world behind it...

—All of these were possible. For the moment, he couldn’t say exactly which it was; he could only test things out by first trying the more reliable plans. After all, you have to learn to focus on the big picture and let go of the small stuff—just figure out what your primary goal is.

In any case, this was just a verification run. The main point was to confirm that from now on he could possess basic precise Dungeon World positioning capability; that alone was a huge profit.

As for the imperfect parts, the little details that weren’t quite flawless, those could be slowly nitpicked and fine-tuned later.

"It worked... but it feels like the worldline has already changed?!"

His figure appeared on the top floor of a skyscraper. Facing the wind blowing between tall buildings, Gu Mo looked down over the entire city from on high, a trace of doubt flickering in his eyes. But then he immediately remembered something, reached out with a light grasp, and the light in the void sketched itself into form—

He simply stood there on the rooftop, holding a rough and simple black Stone Tablet.

The Stone Tablet’s exterior was very ancient, rough, and crude, exactly the pattern depicted on that page of the book earlier.

This was a powerful piece of Holy Relics that Gu Mo had obtained a long time ago through something like a lottery draw from the system.

—The "Prometheus Stone Tablet."

The myth of the Fire Thief is known to all; the Holy Relic Stone Tablet bearing that concept, despite being only a mere Silver Level item, had a trait that was absurdly powerful. Because it could steal Divine Power: although the higher the Level of the enemy, the lower the probability of theft, as long as that probability wasn’t absolutely zero—

Then it definitely possessed a heaven-defying trait.

The original, proper body of the Holy Relics was naturally kept in his main body’s hands.

However, the replicated Holy Relic Stone Tablet he had projected now still had the same Effect and performance; it had even surpassed Silver Level in grade, directly reaching Gold Level.

You could call that a qualitative leap—a full major tier of advancement! A pirated copy being higher quality than the original, that was something else.

He gently caressed the Stone Tablet, his fingertips feeling its rough texture and warmth. Gu Mo felt a slight nostalgia for that period of time. It was by relying on this Stone Tablet that he truly ushered in his subsequent takeoff, using a non-Divine Body to steal the Divine Power of the Gods and so on.

And this Stone Tablet happened to be a product belonging to this very Dungeon World.

Since he’d drawn it in a lottery, he naturally became bound by a causal connection with this Dungeon World itself that was absolutely not minor... That was why he chose this Dungeon World as his target; he’d judged that the connections established between them were definitely sufficient to guarantee precise positioning.

Only now, it seemed...

The black-haired young man in white raised his head and looked toward the distant city skyline.

This world clearly had a modern Earth backdrop, the mainstream time-space of the 21st century. Everything was so familiar, brimming with vitality and vigorous life.

And he had just completed a global basic information search, confirming the basic background of this Dungeon World while also scanning the progression of the original plot. Yet now he suddenly discovered that it seemed everything had already been thrown into chaos.

"Is it because this thing is missing?"

Glancing at the Stone Tablet in his own hand, Gu Mo looked thoughtfully pensive.

Maybe that’s exactly what it is. After all, according to the original destiny trajectory, this thing was supposed to, during an accident decades ago, end up in the hands of the protagonist’s grandfather, then get passed around in circles, and finally land in the protagonist’s hands at just the right time, completing an important handover of fate.

And it was by relying on the powerful properties of this Holy Relic that the boy set off on the path of defying heaven and slaying Gods——

Question! With the mere body of a mortal, how could you possibly defeat the Gods in the sky?

Obviously you can’t. Unless this mortal’s biceps are strong enough to break the rules of physics, otherwise, even if the Gods on the other side just stand there and let the mortal Attack them, let him literally exhaust himself to death, they probably still wouldn’t feel a thing, not even a symbolic 1 HP deduction would show up.

So the only possibility is to cleverly make use of the Gods’ own Power to turn it against them and bring them down.

It’s precisely by relying on the "Prometheus Stone Tablet" that the boy protagonist in the story miraculously defeats the ever-victorious War God, seizes a miracle-like victory, and becomes a Godslayer... The story also starts from there, the huge vortex that makes both the world and the Gods turn their gaze, turning into a storm that sweeps across the entire world!

It’s just that——this is the classic hot-blooded route of the original plot.

Right now... it’s probably been cut in half.

After all, even though he doesn’t know at what point in time that damn System extracted the unowned Holy Relic Stone Tablet out of this world, what can be foreseen is that once this thing suddenly vanished from the world, the subsequent events naturally would no longer continue.

Kusanagi Hikotou’s grandfather never got his hands on it...

So of course it would never be handed over to Kusanagi Hikotou...

And the later event that sends Kusanagi Hikotou to Italy to return the Stone Tablet naturally wouldn’t happen either...

"The butterfly effect is kind of huge, but it’s not like there’s no chance to correct it..." Quickly locking onto the mutation in the main plotline, Gu Mo reached out and pinched his chin, thinking seriously. Even though it was obvious that the destiny trajectory had deviated massively, the point in time he’d entered wasn’t too late.

If he wanted, he could forcibly interfere with the probabilities shaping the world, and push the plot back onto the route he was familiar with. That was doable.

So——should he do that?

With that thought turning in his mind, he didn’t make a decision for the time being, and instead rode the Power of time, beginning to retrospect the progression of the world-line, confirming the changes brought about by the butterfly effect.

"Hmm?"

Gu Mo had originally planned to trace his retrospective observation further back into the past. In his eyes, past history was rewinding like a tape, rapidly reversing along a pattern, about to return to decades ago. His plan was to follow the changes in the trajectory upstream, to see when the Holy Relic Stone Tablet vanished from this world.

That should be when the damn System interfered with this world.

He also wanted to take a good look, from a third person’s viewpoint, at how the damn System interfered with the operation of the Dungeon World, and by what means... He was a bit excited inside; he’d originally thought it would be a long time before he could catch any trace of the System rules at work.

Only, the scene of past history rapidly rewinding along some pattern was just appearing in his eyes like that.

But right as it started——

The picture rewound to the moment when Runes were flowing, and the deep time-space channel was forming, connecting two different worlds... Gu Mo immediately caught an unnamed spacetime fluctuation emerging, spreading across the entire planet at a decidedly non-slow speed.

Through a macro Perception, he traced back this scene, and his expression shifted slightly.

Why does this feel exactly like what happened when Hiri came to the real world back then? Did some other uninvited guests seize this opportunity and cross over as well?

......

...

At the same time, likewise in a certain large city.

Skyscrapers lined the skyline, towering buildings were everywhere. Beneath the rows upon rows of massive structures, there were also gaps between buildings—little alleys filled with darkness.

Two figures appeared in an alley, staring in astonishment at this world before them. Through the gap of the alley, they could see that this was definitely a country with a highly advanced and developed civilization, completely different from any country on the continent they knew.

"So this is the Otherworld, huh? It really is a completely different environment. But anyway, whatever the case, at least we’re safe for now..."

One of the figures let out a long breath, as if he’d finally set down a huge stone in his heart, speaking like that. Judging from the voice, he was a very young man.

But in the next instant, his voice suddenly turned to shock, his words stuttering——

"D-De-Demon King, sir, y-your appearance...!"

He turned to look at the companion beside him, and was stunned in an instant, because he found that Demon King Satan’s outer form had actually become a fragile lifeform, completely shedding his Demon shell, losing the powerful claws, the sharp horns, and all those features!

He now looked basically no different from a human.

"The Magic Power of this world is kind of strange..." Demon King Satan frowned, still unaware of how serious the problem was.