After a couple of hours of flight, I disembarked the plane in Xi'an. My first goal in Xi'an was to get acquainted with the city itself, for the future. Even with my sense of direction, which intuitively leads me to the right place, I would get lost in a completely unfamiliar city. And when the city is also flooded with a sea of undead, it's not about figuring out directions, you'll have to do everything quickly and accurately.
The second, no less important, and possibly more important goal is to meet Lin Yun Er. I had several more nightmares where she was with another guy, it irritates me, makes me nervous and angry, but at the same time I understand that I don't even have the right to resist this now. Since we communicate with quite large intervals. If before I could confidently say that I knew her well, now I am not at all sure about it.
I didn't know her address, so I concentrated on my first task, just walking around the city and remembering the location of buildings and the general plan of construction. Yes, of course, there is a map, which I have already studied in detail, but a real walk around the city cannot be compared with simply contemplating the map; in reality, there are many small nuances that the map simply cannot convey. And naturally, I know that the city may change significantly by the time of the Xi'an catastrophe, but the location of the main buildings should not change.
The most important building in Xi'an was the bell tower, towering over the city in its ancient part, and also housing the office of the mage association. It is this tower that is the cornerstone of Xi'an's magical barrier, thanks to which, after a couple of years, more than a million people will be able to survive. They will be in a sea of undead, and this barrier will be their saving island.
The second important structure in Xi'an was its fortress walls. The inner ones, surrounding the ancient part, will become the last line of defense for people. They are the perimeter of the erected barrier. The outer walls, it will all start with them, with the attack of a single general, a dark tyrant, who is not even the strongest of the two tyrants. Of course, having assembled a solid team of strong high-level mages and with the support of other mages, they killed him, but he was replaced by several of the eight lords of the Chinese undead empire. Then there should have been complete chaos.
"You're probably eager to see this sea of corpses, you can hack and hack them! Wherever you attack, you'll hit!" - Asura's voice rang in my head. I stood on top of the outer wall and looked at the gray wastelands around; if it weren't for the day, they would surely be shrouded in the breath of death, which is necessary for the undead. I had no intention of coming here, but my legs led me here on their own. - "A huge number of souls will fall into our maw, and it will gain a new level, making us even stronger!"
"Ha... And you don't just want to hack, but also gain strength, right?" - I chuckled, leaning on one of the battlements, peering further into the wastelands.
"Hahaha! Hacking is good, of course, you know, when blood and guts fly in all directions, drawing intricate patterns on the ground, it's so..." - He seemed to have even lost his breath from excitement. - "A good, proper, and clean kill can be called art. But hacking is completely different; it's no longer an individual work that you carefully prepared for, as if an artist was painting a portrait, or a writer a poem. Hacking is more like an outlet, simple light work, repeating the same movements, consider copying the same work in search of a new vision and inspiration for the main work. Without test pieces, there will be no masterpieces; without hacking, there will be no strength for beautiful killings. So, hacking to gain strength is quite logical."
"And I see you've become a philosopher? You reason like that, even though I asked a simple question." - I grinned, smiling slightly.
"I just have a lot of time to think; someone isn't in a hurry to give me control of the body, right?" - Asura began to grumble, but I didn't answer him. Over the almost six months we've been communicating like this, I've gotten used to him, or something? And I stopped paying attention to him when he started saying something irrelevant. Soon he fell silent as always, and after a few minutes of silent contemplation of the endless wasteland of death, he added. - "Do you want to go down and test your strength in battle with the undead? To prepare, so to speak, for a future meeting?"
"Maybe, someday I'll go down, there's no need to do everything at once, right?" - I answered his question with a question. - "Or do you seriously think that we'll only end up here again before the catastrophe?"
"And will we?" - Asura asked with doubt in his voice. - "Because according to the original plan, we were supposed to set off with Mo Fan when he goes in search of the missing Xiao Hou, but now..."
"Now, Xiao Hou might just not get into that raid, and there will be no notification of death, and the Xi'an catastrophe will pass us by?" - I finished for him. - "I don't think that will happen. Even though He Yu is alive. Of course, this will greatly affect Xiao Hou's character, but they are both in the army, canon strives to happen. Figures in their pre-prepared places. It doesn't matter if the character is different, or the strength is greater, canon can still overcome it. Our main goal at the moment is that by the time of the catastrophe, Xiao Hou, and perhaps He Yu, will be under the jurisdiction of the Xi'an Military District. Then everything will go well."
"You're too optimistic; it depends largely on luck, not on our actions." - Asura objected. - "Many factors can influence where Xiao Hou will serve in two years, and character and strength cannot be simply excluded from the equation."
"You're right, but there is one option that guarantees that in two years he will serve here." - I smiled slyly, continuing to devour the wastelands with my eyes, although my thoughts had long been somewhere else, not even here, but in the future.
"And what method have you come up with?" - Asura asked, with a slight doubt in his voice, he probably guessed what I was talking about.
"Xi'an Military University." - I said confidently. - "Back in September, I motivated him to strive for the university. I said there you will get more resources and become stronger. After that, as you should know, I repeatedly reminded him of this. I'm also willing to bet that he didn't just come with everyone to the Gun family tournament for nothing; he's looking for ways to become much stronger. Also, in our phone conversations, I repeatedly touched on this topic, gradually preparing him for it. But he won't go to a regular one; he has already tied his fate to the army, so he won't give up on that."
"You mean to say that now he should strongly desire to enter the military university? Are you so sure that he will choose Xi'an's?" - Asura asked with slightly less doubt and much thoughtfulness.
"That's more difficult." - I sighed, lowering my head. - "A couple of times the conversation turned to military universities, and I praised Xi'an's, but the question is whether he will listen to me or not. But here, we can hope that canon strives to be fulfilled, which means it will push him in the right direction."
"Aren't you relying too much on canon striving to be fulfilled? Couldn't it play a cruel trick on us?" - Asura asked a perfectly reasonable question.
"Yes, you are absolutely right, we need to be careful with this, but we cannot completely exclude it from our calculations either. It can help in situations like this, when we have to rely on luck." - I answered calmly, raising my head and looking at the wasteland again. - "If we do everything like this, if we lead everything to the point where the necessary result is achieved if canon is fulfilled, then we can use the momentum of canon, not canon itself. We will gain much greater power over what is happening if we do it this way, rather than as we initially wanted to use the existing events, simply maneuvering them."
"I see, that sounds good." - Asura remarked. - "You mean, we shouldn't watch the shamanic party from the side, collecting the discarded figures into a box; we should become players and play our own game. We should put the necessary figures into the box ourselves."
"No, you misunderstood me a little." - I replied, smiling. - "We shouldn't become players, no. We should become figures in this game."
"But won't all our advantage be lost then? In this case, will we be able to get what we want?" - Asura asked skeptically, thinking deeply about my words.
"You misunderstood me again. I'll start from afar." - I answered calmly, then paused slightly to gather my thoughts. - "In the world, there are two types of beings: players and figures on a chessboard. Figures are those who are controlled by players; they are the majority, a huge number. Among the figures, there are pawns, which are easily sacrificed, and there are queens, which are used as secret weapons. Players, on the other hand, are those who control the figures, move them, and sacrifice them for their own goals. There is, of course, a third type of being, and that is observers. They watch the game, picking up discarded figures, or those that are poorly positioned on the board, or perhaps just watching, considering themselves above all this."
Only, unlike chess, in reality, there is no clear distinction. A pawn for one person can be a queen for another, and in reality, just a regular rook. But this applies not only to figures but also to players. Even a pawn can become a player and lead its own figures. And one of the strongest players can turn out to be someone else's figure. A vivid example of this will happen in about five years. When the oceanic race, with the support of the southern emperor, begins to attack humanity. In this situation, the players will be Marshal Hua and the emperor of the ocean, but for the southern emperor, the entire marine race is just figures that he threw into the vanguard attack to weaken both sides.
Everyone in this world will strive for power, which means they will strive to become players and not be played as figures. And now, imagine a figure that does not strive to become a player? One that humbly walks as it is told, one that does everything it is told. Imagined? Good. And now imagine that it is not a figure walking as it is told, but it is told to walk as it wants, how about that? What if this figure pushes other figures to act in such a way that players have no other choice but to move them as this figure wants.
Life is not a game of chess; people are not perfect figures; they want to become players and take their destiny into their own hands. Real players are capable of manipulating others, turning them into figures. And what if a humble figure, without the ambition of a player, influences the figures in the players' game in such a way that it itself remains with the greatest profit? Won't this figure then be above all other players and figures? Won't it occupy the supreme position in this world?
Yes, I understand, it is incredibly difficult, but we have a chance, an opportunity, and the strength to become such a figure. We know what will happen next; we possess the momentum of the game. We understand what the players want, and what the figures hope for; we can push them in the right direction. We have not revealed our full strength to anyone; we possess several personalities, which means we are several figures. We have connections with the leading figures of the future game, which means we can influence them.
Our goal is not to interfere with others, but through others, by satisfying their needs, without attracting attention to ourselves, to gain power and authority that will elevate us to the top. When the time comes, this unique figure will turn everyone into its toys, sweep away all its rivals, place them on the board, and play a grand game that will lead to universal chaos. - I finished my speech, smiling from ear to ear; I had a feeling of complete satisfaction and dominance.
"Hey. Hello, haven't we met somewhere?" - A pleasant female voice broke me out of my thoughts, I quickly turned my head towards the voice. - "Oh, you're Jiaxing Yun, right?"