"Ding! You have killed player 『Royal Six Drops Are Light』."
"Ding! You have killed player 『Royal Serve You Done』."
"Ding! You have killed player 『Royal Carry Prince』."
"Ding! You have killed player 『Royal Sword Practice Nine Years』."
"Ding! You have killed player 『Royal Hair Knots』."
"Ding! You have killed player 『Royal Men Never Lose』."
"Tsk. So much useless chatter."
Seraphine shook her head with a cold laugh. Just as she was about to turn and leave, her innate Transcendental Perception gave an inexplicable thrum.
BUZZ!!
With the thrum, she suddenly detected miniscule quantum fluctuations radiating from the Royal players as they died and returned to their respawn points.
These quantum fluctuations were very familiar to Seraphine. Their source was the human soul.
In other words, these fluctuations were fundamentally soul vibrations. However, perhaps due to Brilliant Games' layers of shielding, these extremely weak soul vibrations, emitted at the moment of death for unknown reasons, were incredibly sparse and their information clarity was blurred and fragmented.
Seraphine realized it would take a significant amount of time to seriously integrate and reorganize this data to recognize it properly.
"Strange. Back at the Novice Square, I killed that player repeatedly, but I didn't detect any fluctuations like this."
Seraphine paced and pondered, rapidly sifting through the scattered soul information produced by the players' deaths.
"Could it be related to the Novice Square? Is it because a novice's soul hasn't fully 'logged into' the game? A pre-login state, affecting my Transcendental Perception? Or has my perception finally adapted to Brilliant Games enough to become sensitive to these quantum pulses?"
Right then, in the frozen snow over a kilometer away, a man clad in armor etched with complex electronic circuits suddenly materialized. He drew a bow and unleashed an arrow shimmering with the image of a golden three-footed bird. Trailing a spiral of superheated plasma, the projectile struck her squarely in the chest.
Solar Apostle - Optical Violence - Ancestral Archer: Level 90 Class Skill [ Golden Crow Arrow ].
BOOM!!
It was as if a brilliant miniature sun had suddenly risen upon the earth.
With a thunderous roar, layers of terrifying heat rolled outward, accompanied by the soul-piercing shrieks of the Golden Crow. The ground within a hundred-meter radius instantly melted and vaporized, collapsing into a massive pit of molten rock dozens of meters deep.
Seraphine stood at the scorching center of the crater. Her health bar flashed, and tens of thousands of hit points vanished in an instant.
At the same moment, a cold, female Caucasian player wearing a crimson wide-brimmed hat suddenly emerged. Her form flickered, blurring into five identical figures. Ignoring gravity, they stepped through the thin air, circling Seraphine with ghostly speed. Their ten hands, some clenched into fists, others extended as palms or claw-like fingers, were set to strike her body with lethal force.
Cosmic Vampire - Supernatural Domain - Blood Banquet Guest: Level 60 Class Skill [ Frost Fang Clones ]
Level 70 Class Skill [ Dracula's Sanguine Touch ]
Level 80 Class Skill [ Lamia's Gluttonous Caress ]
Level 90 Class Skill [ Queen Akasha's Blood-Drinking Ritual ]
Extra Skill [ Cellular Revolutionary ]
Extra Skill [ Thorny Rose Poison ].
Facing the multi-layered assault, Seraphine calmly activated the skill [ Startling Thunder Blade-Armor ].
BUZZ!!
The freezing air shimmered.
A hazy, radiant golden barrier manifested around Seraphine's body, etched with a complex pattern of countless razor-sharp thorns. The barrier made no attempt to block the incoming attacks, allowing the stranger's strikes, accompanied by surging tides of crimson blood and boiling black light, to slam into Seraphine's body.
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
As Seraphine's health bar flickered, losing over ten thousand HP, the female player and her clones were simultaneously struck by the counter-effect of [ Startling Thunder Blade-Armor ]. (For the skill info, see Chap 142)
CRACK!!
The clones exploded one by one, and the player's own HP plummeted. Seraphine delivered a casual slash, cutting her down where she stood.
"Ding! You have killed player 『Super Catherine』."
"Heh."
Turning her gaze toward the Royal archer, who had vanished back into concealment over a kilometer away, Seraphine let out a chilling laugh and activated [ Hellfire Crash ].
WHOOSH!!
With the roar of combustion and trailing a churning stream of fire, Seraphine shattered the sonic barrier, leaving a grey-white vapor cone in her wake. She crossed the kilometer distance in a flash, stopping at the exact spot where the archer had vanished.
A second later...
BUZZ!!
Centered on her, a radiant white field, composed of ten thousand strands of razor-sharp blade-light, suddenly manifested across a fifty-meter radius. This was a blade domain constructed purely of extremely dense blade-energy.
Within the domain, countless streaks of white blade-qi zigzagged and crisscrossed around Seraphine at extreme speeds.
SKREE! SKREE! SKREE!
Under the devastation of ten thousand keen blades, the arrogant archer, who had remained hidden nearby instead of fleeing, was shredded along with the surrounding air and earth. Within two seconds, everything within the fifty-meter radius was sliced into dust.
Battle over.
Every Royal Guild player present had been annihilated.
However, as Seraphine stepped out of the fifty-meter circular pit carved by her blade domain, she paid them no mind. Her attention had shifted entirely to the soul information radiating from the fallen players.
Though the data remained thin and fragmented even after aggregation, Seraphine's terrifying deduction abilities still unearthed significant findings. Among them were glimpses of the real worlds behind these players, their respective Earths.
Naturally, these Earths bore different names: Plangu, Terra, Gaia, Aquamarine. Yet, regardless of the name, the volume, mass, topographical features, local species, and celestial coordinates of these planets were all identical to the Earth.
Interestingly, the majority of the fallen Royal players hailed from the world known as Plangu.
So Seraphine guessed that the Royal Cold Youth might be a Plangu human.
After all, compatriots gravitate toward each other, and they are easier to control offline. Thus, when recruiting, he likely leaned toward choosing Plangu humans.
Beyond this relatively minor data, Seraphine suddenly unearthed a piece of information that left even her profoundly shocked.
This information was the time data of those Earths. (For the time data, see Chap 41)
To be more precise, it was the time data of the parallel universes where those four Earths were located.
Based on Seraphine's research, she discovered that within the same universe, time data remains consistent between any two points, regardless of distance, be it 100 million, 10 billion, or even a trillion light-years. There isn't the slightest variation.
But how could she know the conditions trillions of light-years away?
Simple. While her clone was busy exploring Brilliant Games, Seraphine's main body had been traversing space. She had already reached the depths of the River of Primordial, approximately 1.8 trillion light-years away from the New Milky Way.
It was during this long journey that Seraphine noticed something. Despite the vast distance, while the fine structure of space-time showed clear local variations, including time dilation, vortices, and complex fluctuations, the macro-level global time data remained perfectly consistent. There were no numerical discrepancies.
Numerical differences in time data only appear between parallel universes of different quantum natures. These differences essentially represent the distance between parallel universes or their degree of overall similarity.
So, why was Seraphine shocked by the time data of the parallel universes behind those fallen Royal players?
Because the data was identical.
Exactly the same.
This meant that Plangu, Terra, Gaia, and Aquamarine all existed within the same parallel universe. They were simply separated by vast distances.
What truly stunned Seraphine was that this time data also perfectly matched the data of her own universe!
In other words, Plangu, Terra, Gaia, and Aquamarine were all tucked away in some corner of the very universe Seraphine inhabited. This was more than a little eerie.
"A mere coincidence, or is there something more?"
For some reason, Seraphine suddenly wondered about the octillions or nonillions of Earths behind the countless players in all 999 servers of Brilliant Games. Was their time data also identical?
She suspected this sudden, piercing doubt came from her mysterious and inexplicable Transcendental Perception.
Returning to the question, if the time data of those countless Earths were not identical, why would these four specifically happen to be in the Prime space-time? And why did she happen to encounter them? This coincidence was far too deliberate.
However, if those octillions or even nonillions of Earths were indeed all within the Prime space-time universe, then the implications were explosive. It meant that a number of Earths, far exceeding the total number of planets in the entire observable universe, all existed within this massive universe of unknown size and a recorded age of 13.7 billion years.
But how was that possible?!
In this universe, aside from the ancient Earth in the God of Hunger's memory, the Earth in her own dimensional unit cell, the Earth in the second solar system within the old Milky Way's dark matter halo, and the Earth-like planet on the edge of the New Milky Way, Seraphine had traveled 1.8 trillion light-years without seeing a single other Earth.
So, if these quadrillions of Earths truly existed in this universe, where exactly were they hidden?
Driven by this baffling mystery, Seraphine activated the Eye of True Revelation + Chaos Calculation + Transcendental Perception. Combining the three powers, she began a collaborative deduction.
BUZZ!!
Time passed slowly. Perhaps due to the severe lack of information, it took ten full minutes of deduction before Seraphine arrived at a somewhat clear answer:
[ There is an 82% probability that the time data of the Earths behind all players in the 999 servers of Brilliant Games is identical. ]
"An 82% probability, that's significant."
She frowned in deep thought. "If the evolution of a few or a dozen Earths within a single Gravitational Primeval River is a common, rule-based phenomenon, then the total number of Primeval Rivers in the universe might be far beyond imagination. There could be septillions or even hundreds of octillions of Primeval Rivers. But in only 13.7 billion years of history, could the universe have expanded to such a colossal size?"
With this doubt in mind, Seraphine began her deduction once more.
BUZZ!!
A few minutes later, another answer surfaced in her mind:
[ The probability of this universe expanding within 13.7 billion years to contain septillions of Gravitational Primeval Rivers is 0.0000000001‰. ]
"One in a trillion, the chance is practically zero."
Seraphine hesitated. "The universe is likely not that large, so where do those octillions or nonillions of Earths truly exist?"
Driven by this immense mystery, she began her deduction once again.
This session lasted much longer. And yet, she received no answer.
There was a high probability that the countless Earths and human civilizations were not from quantum parallel universes; it was very likely they all existed in this universe. However, the probability of this universe being large enough to house them was virtually zero.
How could such a blatant contradiction be explained?
...
Deep within the boundless expanse of the material universe.
The original Seraphine, colossal as a primordial creation deity, gazed silently at the distant, shimmering cosmic void. She felt an overwhelming sense of alienation, a strangeness that left her feeling lost.
At that moment, the [Infinite Attributes] system suddenly activated.
BUZZ!!
Seraphine immediately employed her Authority of[Change], once again forcibly influencing the operational state of the system.
BUZZ... BUZZ... BUZZ!
The attribute interface vibrated violently. The displayed numerical values spun erratically, blurring, dispersing, and re-coalescing.
An instant later, the system stabilized.
[Host: Seraphine]
[Physical Strength: 30 Billion Galaxies]
[Soul: 30 Billion Galaxies]
30 billion Galaxies, equivalent to the total mass of 30 billion Milky Ways. This approached, or even reached, 1% of the total mass of the entire observable universe.
"This time it increased a hundred and fiftyfold. Not bad."
Standing in the vast, ethereal void, the magnificent Seraphine opened her hand, large as a galaxy, and clenched it into a fist.
BUZZ!
Centered on her, hundreds of silver ripples of super-space-time energy, broad enough to match the diameter of a Supercluster, erupted. They expanded with a thunderous roar, surging at quadrillions of times the speed of light, sweeping through every direction of cosmic space.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
For a moment, the universe boiled. Great realms collapsed, and the cosmos shuddered.
The overlapping tides, capable of shredding and vaporizing all macro and micro matter into fundamental particles and heat, erupted from Seraphine's palm. They ravaged the two-billion-light-year expanse of the void for nearly half a minute before slowly dissipating.
As for the countless galaxies that once drifted within that massive stretch of space, they vanished in that half-minute of total annihilation, ceasing to exist.
Thus, due to a single playful clenching of Seraphine's fist, the vast universe gained a super-void whose diameter rivaled the KBC Void.
This was not a specific technique. It was merely a minor venting of her terrifying Strength. It was a small test of integrating 30 billion Galaxies worth of Strength, Grand Unified Field control, the Dirac Sea, and deep interference with the Endless Scale Net.
The surge of pleasure from this explosive attribute growth pulled her mind back from the deep confusion caused by the universe's unknown nature.
"If the mystery can't be solved for now, then put it aside."
Seraphine shifted her focus back to the memories of the God of Hunger race. Specifically, she "viewed" the history of the Houiste Federation, the rise of the ancient Earth Civilization.
In those ancient historical panoramas, the Holy Emperor had launched a Great Spatial Expedition, conquering the entire galaxy in just ten thousand years. From North to South, East to West, they annihilated countless civilizations. Every alien race blocking the path of the ancient Earth conquerors was denied any chance of negotiation, ruthlessly exterminated.
During this period, the ancient Earth's technology grew at a staggering rate. In just ten millennia, the civilization's overall technical level soared from being far inferior to the Mercury Race to nearly rivaling the Didrogutin.
The Holy Emperor himself, in that same span, ascended from a Stage Seven Milky Way Overlord to the High-tier of the Sage domain.
What did this kind of evolutionary speed imply?
This could be understood by stripping away practical combat performance and focusing on a purely mechanical calculation of destructive magnitude:
A standard High-tier Sage is 1 million times stronger than a standard Low-tier Sage. A standard Low-tier Sage is 1,000 times stronger than a standard Stage Ten Milky Way Overlord. A Stage Ten Overlord is roughly 100 times stronger than a Stage Seven Overlord. (For the power system and rankings, see Chap 59; for the numerical gaps between levels, see Chap 75).
One million x one thousand x one hundred = one hundred billion.
Theoretically, the Holy Emperor increased his combat power by one hundred billion times in just ten thousand years.
Compared to Cadelon, who took a full thirty thousand years to increase her combat power from a standard Stage Ten Overlord (Single-Star Destruction level) to a peak Stage Ten Overlord (Over 900-Star Destruction level), the Holy Emperor's evolutionary talent was hundreds of millions of times greater. It was simply terrifying.
Against him, the six races of the galactic core looked like insects or flies in terms of talent.
Even Seraphine, "observing" this history, couldn't help but feel admiration:
"This kind of super-evolutionary talent is as ridiculous as stepping on your own left foot to fly into the sky."
As for how the ancient Earth civilization developed technology so rapidly? Where did they acquire such high-efficiency, FTL warp technology?
Because the panoramas were too blurred and fragmented, even Seraphine couldn't fully comprehend it. However, from the disjointed traces, she speculated that the ancient Earth's continuous technological explosion was likely related to the Fugitives of the top-tier civilizations from previous eras, hidden in the depths of super voids. (For this setting, see Chap 132).
Though it remains unknown how these ancient remnants accelerated the development of the ancient Earth civilization to such a degree.
It is also unclear how they evaded the cold gaze of the God of Hunger race to cross countless hundreds of millions of light-years and arrive at the ancient Earth's galaxy. However, through deduction, the vast transformations of the ancient Earth civilization eons ago were indeed deeply connected to their presence.
"Did they view the ancient Earth civilization as the 'Hope for the Future'?"
Seraphine mused with interest. "Or were they casting a wide net, nurturing numerous promising groups to eventually counter-attack the God of Hunger race? Perhaps the ancient Earth was not their only choice?"
No one answered her.
These Fugitives from previous eras were hidden far too deeply; even Seraphine could only find vague hints within the memory panoramas to make her guesses.
"This River of Primordial is so long; it feels truly endless." Seraphine slowly raised her head, looking toward the distant, unknown void. "So... where exactly is the ancestral home of the Houiste people located?"
...
Plangu.
In a suburban manor far from the bustling city.
"What!"
A pale, beardless, and effeminate middle-aged man smashed a thick mahogany table with a single palm strike. He looked at the burly man standing respectfully before him, his cold, shrill voice betraying unconcealed shock:
"Nine of you, all first-Ascension, couldn't capture that Great Demon King Seraphine? Nine of you! What use are you?!"
"Uh... well, Chief Cao, it's like this." The burly man looked up, his expression awkward but his tone genuinely puzzled. "That person's Damage value is ridiculously high. Me and the others... almost no one could survive a single direct hit from her blade."
"Fine, fine."
Chief Cao waved his hand impatiently, his narrow, blade-like face dark with irritation. "Iron Hammer, you're dismissed."
The burly man named Iron Hammer nodded quickly. "Yes, yes, sir. I'll take my leave now." He bowed and exited the house, softly closing the door behind him.
A short while later.
In the largest aerial anti-gravity city on the Plangu continent, Sky-Piercing City, within the prime, high-priced district of the bustling city center, lay a massive, royal-style manor.
Within an elegant courtyard in the manor, Chief Cao, who had previously been so arrogant toward Iron Hammer, now stood with utmost deference beside a handsome young man in opulent robes.
This young man was Prince Leng Kangan of the Plangu Xyrin Empire, whom Chief Cao served. He was also the leader of the Royal Guild in Brilliant Games—『Royal Cold Youth』.
"Your Highness, previously, a descendant of my family, 『Game Over You』, personally witnessed the suspicious hacking behavior of 『Great Demon King Seraphine』 and immediately reported it to me offline." (See Chap 139).
Chief Cao bowed, his tone incredibly humble. "Afterward, because Seraphine's movements were too erratic, I employed fifteen mystics and fifteen quantum fate-diviners to perform a metaphysical coordinate lock on her. We finally cornered her outside the [Alien Nest] instance on the third planet of the twenty-fifth star system, sector seventeen, Royal Galaxy."
"However... my subordinates failed to capture her. They were slaughtered to the last man. I beg Your Highness for forgiveness!" Chief Cao fell to his knees and struck his head against the ground.
"No matter. Rise." Leng Kangan waved his hand with composed grace, signaling for the other to stand.
Once Chief Cao had risen, Leng Kangan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his voice clear and cold:
"Twelve hundred years ago, when Plangu was still in the Bronze Age, Brilliant Games suddenly appeared. Since then, it has continuously and profoundly transformed, one might even say completely warped, human civilization across every domain: culture, economy, science, technology, society, religion, politics, law, and ideology."
"Someone once said that without Brilliant Games, human civilization might not even have invented the steam engine by now."
Leng Kangan smiled. "To play a game... and have it drive physical evolution. Haha, it sounds as absurd as a fairy tale. But reality often develops in such magical ways. After players bring their in-game strength into reality, while they can't replicate those wondrous skills, their raw attributes still allow them to effortlessly flip cargo-laden hovering cars, mentally hypnotize and control a hundred thousand soldiers, heal severed limbs in a second, sprint faster than the speed of sound, ignore missiles and bombs, strike with the force of a nuclear blast, or even leap straight into space."
BUZZ!
The air vibrated as an invisible telekinetic force manifested. Dozens of meters away, a porcelain cup filled with hot tea was lifted by an unseen hand. With a whistling sound, it flew steadily into Leng Kangan's outstretched palm.
"Regrettably, for all its power, Brilliant Games does not grant players immortality. Even the most elite players cannot exceed a lifespan of two hundred years. Sigh."
After a sigh, he ignored the scalding heat and drained the tea in one gulp.
He continued: "But no matter how absurd it seems, since it exists in reality, it must have a genuine foundation and a stable operational mechanism. Furthermore, a game as vast and real as a true world must have one or more purposes."
A hint of confusion crossed Leng Kangan's handsome face. "So, what exactly is the goal of Mr. Coo, the one who designed and built Brilliant Games?"
"For over a millennium, Coo has never appeared in person, leaving behind not a single trace," Chief Cao whispered. "Could he be hiding... some kind of conspiracy?"
"Haha. That's exactly why I'm leading the guild to complete the [Throne of Deification] quest," Leng Kangan said with a light smile. "I want to see exactly how deep the limits of Brilliant Games go. I want to see... if immortality is truly possible."
Hands clasped behind his back, he turned and walked slowly out of the courtyard. Chief Cao followed closely, asking softly:
"Your Highness, regarding that Seraphine, what are our plans?"
"Abnormalities always hide a secret. While this Great Demon King Seraphine isn't the only player in the history of Brilliant Games to clear an instance solo at a low level," Leng Kangan said composedly, "based on nearly ten thousand years of records for Server 375, no such character has appeared before."
He narrowed his eyes. "This person undoubtedly holds an untold secret. Extracting that secret might provide me with some assistance."
Leng Kangan looked at Chief Cao and ordered: "Continue organizing the mystics and quantum fate-diviners to track and locate Seraphine with precision."
"Once she's located, launch a lightning ambush to capture her. If nine first-Ascension players aren't enough, send a thousand. If that's still not enough, deploy a Star Destroyer fleet. Killing her is pointless; we must trap her. Then, have high-level illusionists, telepaths, radiant star-singers, consciousness mages, hypnotic fanatics, mind controllers, and sonic hexers perform deep interference on her spirit, thoughts, consciousness, and soul. Squeeze everything out of her."
"Even if you can't get the information immediately, find out which planet she's from and her real-life identity and address. Once we have that, if it's a planet the guild can influence, it'll be easy. If not, contact other guilds and arrange a trade of interests. You know what to do next."
"Your Highness's foresight is flawless! Truly a divine mind!" Chief Cao grinned wickedly, bowing in response. "I understand perfectly, Your Highness. We'll give her an offline unboxing!"
...
Server 375.
On the edge of the vast Royal Galaxy, deep within a colossal, crimson spiral nebula.
Level 200 Instance: [Sanguine Ruins]— Nightmare Mode.
Across the surface of a star-sized sea of blood drifted ten million gloomy, ancient temples seemingly constructed from vengeful souls, white bones, organs, and gore.
Inside these temples reeking of slaughter, violent and relentless battles raged on.
Holding a massive, grotesque blade inlaid with the shrunken head of an Alien God, Seraphine walked leisurely through boiling blood pools, white Bone Temples, rotting flesh canyons, and spectral forests.
A fifty-meter radius centered on her was filled with restless, layered waves of brilliant, razor-sharp blade qi.
Thousands of hideous Blood Demons, wraiths, rotting corpses, and bone monsters screeched as they swarmed the domain, desperate to tear her to shreds.
Yet they barely managed a few steps before their health bars were obliterated by the relentless blade qi, dissolving into a flood of experience points flowing toward her.
Honestly, ever since acquiring the [Abstruse Truth of the Blade] skill, she hadn't even bothered to swing her weapon.
With the Blade Domain active, every mob that dared to approach met a bitter end.
Seraphine's current farming efficiency was nothing short of terrifying.