Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 259 You Need Some Volunteers

The appearance of the electric element made Winter realize that elemental spirits can be good or bad, and cannot be generalized. As a senior, the electric element set a good example.

"Very good, the deal is valid! You can begin preparations now."

The electric element also got excited by the exciting scene before him. After saying that, he didn't forget to raise an eyebrow at Winter—that's the benefit of being able to see through people's hearts. He saw through Winter's thoughts and all he had to do was go with the flow.

Moreover, he supported the relationship between Ethan and Winter from the very beginning.

"I've got an idea."

Winter licked her lips with lingering pleasure. The intimate gesture stimulated her thoughts, making her brain work at lightning speed. This seemingly simple action could make a magician's training twice as effective.

She means it.

If your spiritual practice reaches a bottleneck, you should have a passionate romance—she decided to include this insight in "The Magic of Fireball and Ice Arrow".

“We can hold a banquet and announce the plan to rebuild the Magic Network to everyone.”

Winter believed this was absolutely exciting news. For a long time, the academy's elemental shapers had blamed the destruction of the magic network for their inability to advance to the Saint level. In every period after the Second Era, professors had proposed rebuilding the magic network, but these proposals were ultimately rejected.

It wasn't just because of magic addiction; subsequent deans couldn't figure out how to repair the depleted magic network.

As times have changed, magic addiction has become an unfamiliar name to magicians today. They have only read about this disease in the books of the academy. There is only one cause of this disease, which is excessive exploration of the magic network.

To many people today, this is not a problem at all. As long as the number of people and the time spent exploring the magic network are strictly limited, magic addiction can be easily avoided.

"But this is certainly not good news for time travelers."

"Winter said."

Upon hearing this news, my first reaction was enough for Senior Electric Element to see through my deception.

She acknowledged the power of the electric element and changed how she addressed him from "street hustler" to "senior."

"You haven't attended the college's banquet yet, have you? The professors only gather all the students in the auditorium when important decisions are being announced or on major holidays each year."

Winter didn't mind such lively occasions. The bright, energy-storing crystal lamps, the long table full of food, and the chattering of her classmates made her feel temporarily less alone.

"That's it."

Ethan and Winter's only disagreement was about magic addiction. He didn't believe it was a condition that could be avoided by strictly limiting exploration time; in fact, it had never disappeared.

Agents from the Imperial Containment Bureau invariably develop the same symptoms when exploring contaminated areas.

Initially, there is lethargy, accompanied by mild nausea and vomiting, which can be relieved with short-term care. The next stage is being plagued by nightmares, and most people suffer from severe insomnia and have to rely on medication to fall asleep. In the final stage of the symptoms, all the nightmares are reflected in reality. They cannot distinguish between nightmares and reality, and they regard the people around them as monsters in the nightmares, becoming extremely aggressive.

In some tragedies, veterans suffering from this condition mistakenly killed their comrades, and there have even been cases of massacres of entire villages.

Eight years.

This is a boundary that the Containment Bureau has summarized through countless real cases. Once they have worked for this number of years, the investigators who are active on the front line will be forced to retire. In principle, the Bureau orders them to never set foot in the contaminated area again.

Of course, reality often doesn't perfectly adhere to the principles of the containment bureau.

The Empire's territory is so vast that investigators with more than eight years of experience exploring contaminated areas are veterans among veterans. Most investigators die in contaminated areas before they can retire. Therefore, once a contaminated area appears in a certain region, these experienced veterans will eventually have to be sent to the site to investigate.

For these retired veterans, the contaminated area holds a certain fatal attraction.

Even Mr. Jacobwell, the founder of the containment bureau, eventually got lost deep within the contaminated zone.

This is easy to understand for a modern person like Ethan.

Every human being in this world possesses an invisible value called "Rationality Value." The value varies from person to person. Each time a human enters a contaminated area, a corresponding amount of Rationality Value is consumed. Magic addiction is a manifestation of excessively low Rationality Value.

If you make eye contact with an Old God like Old Ba while exploring a contaminated area, all your sanity will immediately drop to zero.

Theoretically speaking, the most fanatical followers of evil gods are all severe addicts to magic. The world they see may have long been different from that of ordinary people. What appears bizarre and distorted to ordinary people may actually fit the aesthetic of addicts.

Many magicians recorded at the end of the First Age who suffered from magic addiction were not inherently evil, but rather they had lost the ability to distinguish between the magic network and reality, believing that they were still fighting monsters in the dangerous areas of the magic network.

According to Ethan's information, the depleted sanity will not recover over time. The inhibitor developed by the Containment Bureau can only suppress the symptoms, and the lower the sanity, the less effective the inhibitor becomes.

Then, Ethan discovered what made him different.

His "character panel" did not seem to have a sanity value. Whether he was meeting with Old Ba or Old An, his mental state was extremely stable, and he did not show any of the symptoms summarized by the Containment Bureau. He was able to get a baby-like sleep that night.

As for Winter's mental state, Ethan speculated that it was probably due to the blessing of her "future version".

After his meeting with Sincarlo, Ethan's view of the world changed dramatically. He felt that all signs indicated that "Future Winter" was likely the final boss in the game, and only an existence of that level could control time.

Ethan glanced at Winter instinctively and found that she was also looking in his direction, smiling with narrowed eyes, as harmless as a kitten.

Hmm, upon closer inspection, it doesn't quite look like it. How could the final boss be so cute?

Based on numerical theory, Ethan believes that the Contaminated Zone or Magic Network is similar in design concept to game dungeons. Players can obtain important knowledge and equipment from these places, while sanity is used to limit players from entering dungeons too frequently. This is common in large-scale online games, where dungeons that provide high-level equipment for the current version often have a weekly limit on the number of entries.

If this theory is correct, then sanity should have a way to regenerate naturally; otherwise, this would be the worst setting, and if there were a player forum, it would be flooded with thousands of angry posts.

However, for some reason, this world became a scrapped project, and no players came. Naturally, the natives of this world were unable to develop a way to restore their sanity.

And now, he has arrived, but he is not the only one.

In a sense, time travelers are like players, having gained the right to experience things first.

Ethan thought of the alchemy associated with potions and suddenly gained a deeper understanding of this path of the "believers".

Alchemy, elemental mapping, and magical weapon forging are extraordinary paths that can be taken without faith in any god. From a game perspective, these are secondary professions that every player can learn, and they do not contradict their predetermined path. Most potions that restore sanity are products of alchemy.

"Teacher, has anyone tried using special materials from contaminated areas or the magic network to brew potions?"

Upon hearing this, Winter immediately cast a look of humanistic concern upon him.

It was a terrible idea; even she thought it was crazy.

She shook her head. "The biggest taboo in alchemy is the misuse of unknown materials, which can easily lead to unexpected and serious consequences." Using materials from contaminated areas to brew potions?

If the Alchemists' Guild found out about Ethan's idea, they would definitely... well, upon closer inspection, those high-level alchemists couldn't beat Ethan, and no one in the Empire would dare to fight him, but they would definitely send an elite lobbying group to persuade Ethan to give up this crazy idea.

"They are very cautious about developing new potions. All groundbreaking formulas must be reported to the Alchemists' Guild in advance. After discussion by the masters and risk assessment, they can be approved. Furthermore, experts must accompany the potion maker throughout the process. For dangerous projects, they must go to remote areas, such as the deepest part of the North, to prevent damage to the city and large-scale casualties if the potion fails."

This uninterrupted narration left Ethan speechless.

Winter rarely spoke such a long sentence in one breath, and she showed no sign of stopping. With a blank face, she repeated in a monotone tone, "Yes, I have learned my lesson. I will definitely follow the association's procedures in the future and will never use dangerous alchemical materials in the capital..."

"Teacher, what have you been doing?"

"It was just an accident that the roof of the Alchemist's Guild was blown up."

A blush crept onto Winter's face, and she became coy. "That day, I happened to get some original fluid from the containment bureau, so I suddenly had the idea to try it out."

When the explosion resounded over the capital, Winter was also stunned. When the high-level alchemists rushed to the scene, her face was blackened by smoke, and most of the roof of the association building was gone forever in the explosion.

That was one of the few times that Winter publicly apologized.

She is a person of principle.

She would never apologize for pranks that were premeditated. The angrier the target of her prank, the more accomplished she felt. But sometimes, unexpected things would happen, such as Professor Wapol's hair or the Alchemist Association roof being blown off.

She still felt apologetic for these unexpected acts of disruption.

Ethan couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

The past of winter was nothing short of an epic of lawlessness.

She pranks professors at the academy, blows up the rooftop of the association building in the capital, and no one can punish her because of her magical talent and status...

It's just like being a player!
He suddenly felt that Winter was more in line with the players' mentality than he was, and only players would ignore the rules set by the Alchemy Guild and arbitrarily combine those dangerous alchemical materials.

In the virtual world, they can blow up the Alchemy Guild building seven times a day.

It's blown up, so what?

Ethan could imagine what the players thought of the association's rules, but it seemed that only in this way could they figure out more potion recipes more quickly, and as long as one player's experiment succeeded, it would be equivalent to all players mastering the recipe.

"In short, even if you really intend to do it, don't do it in the academy's alchemy classroom, go to the no-man's-land on the island."

Winter looked worried; she was genuinely terrified by that explosion and hadn't done it again in all the years since.

She asked curiously, "Why have you suddenly become interested in alchemy?"

"I suspect this might be the direction to completely cure addiction."

After understanding the principles of addiction, Ethan suddenly felt that the disease was no longer so scary.

If your sanity points drop to zero, just find a way to get them back; that's much more reliable than the "eight-year retirement" restriction.

However, this is only theoretical; there is still a considerable distance to go before it can be put into practice.

"Teacher, how are the effects of new potions usually defined?"

Ethan thought for a moment and said, "For example, if we successfully brew a new potion that doesn't explode, how do we determine its function?"

"Give it to death row inmates."

Winter said, "The Alchemy Association has always cooperated with the Imperial prison system. Potions with unclear effects are first used on death row inmates after passing animal experiments. Theoretically, the families of those death row inmates will receive a large sum of money."

"Theoretically?"

"Actually, I heard that the money was all taken by the prison authorities, and the association doesn't bother to verify whether the money actually reached the prisoners' families... When I was still in the association, the fatality rate of potions was not high, only about one percent, but many of them would cause changes to the body of the user and even caused some prison riots."

Some prisoners became incredibly strong after taking the magic potion, tearing open the iron bars of their cells with their bare hands. Other prisoners were able to control their body size and sneak out of their cells when the guards weren't looking, attempting to escape.

But that was a game between the jailers and the prisoners, and Winter didn't care.

At this point, fragmented whispers entered their ears, and with the appearance of the whispers, a red flesh-and-blood coating invaded the room.

After eavesdropping for a long time, Bazartos finally found an opportunity to break in.

A woman with seven eyes walked slowly over, stepping on a carpet of flesh and bacteria. "We can provide you with volunteers."

"Old Ba? What brings you here?"

This is the real world, and Ethan can hardly imagine how many passersby's sanity he's wiped out along the way.

“I took your advice and decided to transform this place into my incubator. I have just completed the formalities, and the college has decided to hire me as the teacher of the ‘Introduction to Art’ course.”

The interview process was much simpler than He had imagined.

He only said two sentences throughout the entire process:

I am Bazatos.

I want to be the teacher of this course.

He was prepared to be tested on professional theory and was confident that he could answer any question the college interviewers asked, no matter how tricky the questions were.

His understanding of art is flawless; only Ethan in this world can truly connect with him.

He even came up with a name for the course—The Art of Flesh and Evolution.

However, the interviewer did not ask any questions until the very end.

These humans seem rather dim-witted, but fortunately they have no objection to Him becoming their teacher.

(End of this chapter)