After destroying the second ritual stone formation without any unexpected incidents, Germain stood in place, taking stock of his spoils.
"Remains of the Drowned Sailor."
"Remains of the Enchanting Siren."
"Wriggling of the Deformed Limp Stalker: Consume one type of Grudge tool to summon Wriggling Claws from any location, striking the target and leaving a lasting mark of bleeding and poison."
"Four teleportation lanterns. (Currently twenty-four in total.)"
Just as before, Germain left one lantern beside the shattered stone formation.
There was no particular reason — perhaps it might be useful later, so he simply left it there.
This became the thirteenth teleportation point he had lit, situated right next to this special teleportation point of the ritual stone formation.
Germain still had two special teleportation points left to activate. One was with the Gaseous Lifeform, Ai, and the other should be where the final ritual stone formation lay.
Ging, as he had done after they defeated "The Collector," carefully examined the ruins of the stone formation before standing to the side with his hands in his pockets.
"Don still hasn't shown up," he said. "Not long ago, we agreed not to worry about his situation anymore, but now… I can't help but suspect there's another possibility."
Germain already knew what he was trying to say.
He nodded and replied, "We'll talk about it later… If things really develop the way you and I are thinking, we'll have no choice but to act."
He had already considered the same possibility — Ging, as Don's descendant, had merely voiced it out loud.
Ging nodded in return, once again agreeing with Germain's judgment.
The current situation was like an arrow drawn, ready to be released. They could not allow the "God of Flesh and Blood" to swallow both the eastern and western shores of Lake Mobius.
If that happened, humanity would lose its future — reduced to livestock within the prison of the Six Continents, surrendering their fate into the hands of demigods.
Germain, Ging, and Bisky, who had stayed behind in the Ancient Labyrinth, had no desire to see such an irreversible situation unfold.
Besides, they had already destroyed two-thirds of the ritual stone formations.
It was far too late to even think about withdrawing from the operation now.
The "God of Flesh" and its faction would never allow them to simply walk away from the Western Shore… or from the Dark Continent.
And so, Germain and Ging once again set out on their journey, heading toward the last remaining ritual stone formation — the one farthest from the Ancient Labyrinth.
The four-wheeled carriage sped along, moving almost as fast as a roaring train.
Even so, heading diagonally toward the southern part of the Western Shore took a great deal of time.
From early March, they drove at full speed, and it wasn't until the end of the month that they finally drew near the red-circled location marked on the map.
This time, Ging and Germain were alone in the carriage.
That strange sensation from before — where Germain seemed both present and absent — was gone.
He remained utterly calm.
Calm, calm, calm, and still calm—
Ging, on the other hand, began to feel something was off.
But no matter how he tried, he couldn't put his finger on what exactly was wrong.
Meanwhile, Greed Island was anything but calm.
One of the current Game Masters, Tsezguerra, scanned the collected data, his white eyebrows lifting in surprise.
"So many?" he said in shock. "Are these numbers accurate?"
"They are," came the reply. "I've already confirmed with Eta and Elena, and Ickshonpe's calculations verified it. There's no mistake."
The brawny Razor crossed his arms, the muscles in his forearms and biceps hard as forged iron.
His brows furrowed deeply as he spoke.
"Since the end of February, this phenomenon has been appearing one after another. As the numbers grew, we had no choice but to take it more seriously."
From the end of February onward, whether they were staff or players, anyone inside Greed Island could suddenly fall into a strange state.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't entirely "sudden."
According to their investigation, there were always certain conditions and warning signs before someone entered this peculiar state.
More accurately, there were two entirely different states.
When someone on Greed Island experienced an intense stimulus—something that shook their mind to its core—they could fall into one of two extremes.
One was a dark red, ominous glow known as "Torment."
The other was a silver, radiant brilliance called "Virtue."
No matter which appeared, it would influence the emotions of everyone nearby, triggering a chain reaction.
The two states brought completely opposite effects to the person involved.
"Torment" clouded the mind and weakened combat ability.
"Virtue" strengthened one's resolve and boosted their fighting power.
Once these cases began to occur frequently, they stirred up a huge uproar among the player base.
Discussions on the forums grew heated.
Naturally, the players assumed it was some hidden feature of Greed Island Z.
Aside from complaining that the Game Masters hadn't posted any update notice, most were actually excited—debating possible trigger conditions and ways to exploit them.
Some even found the whole thing quite fun.
Later, with their boundless resourcefulness, players managed to figure out that Greed Island had been hiding one of their stats—"Mental Energy."
This stat was the key to triggering the states.
Only when a player's Mental Energy dropped to zero—or some critical threshold—could they enter one of the two states and maintain it for a period of time.
In most cases, the odds of triggering "Torment" were much higher than "Virtue."
That was only natural.
After all, "Virtue" offered massive benefits, even providing buffs to teammates, making it an excellent mechanic for group battles.
Of course, if "Torment" was triggered instead, the situation could turn dire in an instant.
Still, there were reliable ways to quickly dispel "Torment."
One such method was through "Exorcism."
Because of this, during this period, Abengane and Hina became even more sought-after than before.
Unfortunately, their exorcism abilities had long cooldowns—nowhere near enough to meet the rapidly growing demand from players.
Greed Island Needed More Ways to Respond
"Razor, what exactly is causing this phenomenon?"
Tsezguerra had been observing it for some time now.
Only the administrators like them knew the truth—this was not some hidden game mechanic.
Even the staff members themselves could accidentally trigger it if they weren't careful.
In other words, this was an indiscriminate Nen ability attack, one that covered every living thing on Greed Island.
The moment Razor saw the signs in both states, he almost immediately guessed the source.
He went to confirm it in person.
Sure enough, at one of Greed Island's lantern teleportation points, he found strange patterns glowing faintly on the ground, their lines converging like countless rivers flowing into the sea.
He had already discussed the matter with Grandma Linne, and they had come to a rough conclusion.
The teleportation lantern left here by Germain was continuously spreading his influence across the entire island.
"Torture and Virtue" — that was the manifestation of his influence, and almost no one could escape it.
Razor didn't directly answer Tsezguerra's question.
After all, Tsezguerra was not yet a core member of Greed Island, and there were many things about Germain he simply couldn't be told.
Still, Razor suspected that the time for secrecy was drawing to an end.
When that moment came, whether he wanted it or not, Tsezguerra would learn everything.
*******
Support me on my patreon and read upto 20 early chapters.
https://www.patreon.com/c/Unique_Writer