My setting is above yours!

Chapter 22 Historical Void
"Ugh—!"

Painful howls came from Beren's mouth as necromantic fire scorched his body and spirit.

His face was contorted in rage as he struggled against the husk's grip, managing to snap off his own fingers—

A magic sign ring slipped from his finger and shattered on the ground.

His personal reality also instantly overloaded and spiraled out of control, actually suppressing the necromantic fire erupting from within him...

At the same time, it caused gray-black lividity to appear on his face, and he unleashed a power beyond that of a corpse!

He broke free of his restraints, frantically burst through the room door, and rushed out of the operating room—

But they immediately crashed into a emaciated corpse with distinctly feline features.

He looked up, and another corpse standing at the doorway tilted its head and looked at him, its empty eyes burning with green flames.

It just stood there, cold and indifferent, and no one knew how long it had been waiting.

Beren turned back in despair and saw Ron, pale as a corpse, walking towards her. Fear and confusion filled her heart.

He no longer dared to maintain his arrogant demeanor; his legs buckled and he collapsed to the ground. Looking up at Ron's indifferent gaze, his lips trembled as he spoke:
"Magic, real magic... How... how did you do that?"

How did you do it?
Ron glanced at the Dimensional Update Manual—

【Setting: [Death]'s Grace (Lv.2)】

[After loading this setting, you will gain all of the Corpse Man's extraordinary abilities.]

After Ron's player level increased to Lv.2, his potion sequence naturally also increased to sequence eight.

He thus became a Sequence 8 [Corpse Man], possessing a physique that transcends the mortal body and resistance to the magic of death.

In addition, the Sequence Eight potion greatly enhanced the necromancy he had learned as the Gravekeeper...

It must be said that the [death] path is truly a very balanced one.

At Sequence Nine, a pure mage might still be a bit fragile, but at Sequence Eight, one immediately gains a powerful and extraordinary physique.

If it weren't for his resistance to death magic and his incredibly strong physique, Beren's magic might have actually injured Ron...

At that time, it may be too early to tell who will win or lose.

But now...

Ron looked at Beren, who lay sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, and coldly made a throat-slitting gesture:
"Get rid of him."

In an instant, the two corpses came to life, no longer standing there woodenly and blankly, but instead, before Beren's despairing gaze, they viciously lunged at him—

Ron calmly turned around, walked to the other side of the operating room, and gentlemanly knocked on the glass that was covered in blood and grime, making it impossible to see inside or outside.

"Should I go and fetch you, ma'am?"

"Woo!"

Upon hearing that cold yet gentlemanly voice, the capable woman instinctively covered her mouth, large beads of cold sweat sliding down her forehead, her heart pounding rapidly with fear.

He discovered it... he discovered it!!

Damn it, Jiang Cheng, you idiot, why are you trying to be a nice guy like everyone else?
I wanted to try and mediate the fight, to see if I could save old man Karen...

But do they need your help?!
No wonder Karen talks nonsense on the association forum every day, claiming to be the sole successor of the Church of the Embers, and never even enters the inner city of Ideal City—

It turns out he really was a successor of a secret cult!
He just used real magic... magic!
Within the inner city of Ideal City, this is a privilege reserved for those at the 'Grand Rank' level.

Grand Magicians... those are the ones who truly inherited the legacy of the Age of Gods and basked in the glory of the previous era!
Why would such an expert infiltrate the tasks assigned to us newbies, and act inferior to the team leader of a giant company?

She felt bitter inside, and all sorts of thoughts came to mind, but she couldn't change anything no matter what she did.

She could only move towards the operating room door, her body trembling slightly with fear, forcing herself to stand in front of Ron.

Looking at the silent old magician before him, and listening to the gradually fading wails of Beren and the sounds of flesh being torn apart by corpses...

Jiang Cheng swallowed hard, his face turning pale, and forced a harmless smile onto his face with all his might:

"Ha, haha... Hi? I didn't expect to see you here..."

Actually, I was just passing by...

What a clumsy attempt to appear harmless...

However, it is indeed harmless.

Ron spotted her early on, and the girl tiptoed after him.

Given her previous actions, it was clear that she wanted to help Ron and save him from Beren's clutches.

When the thick fog of the dead spread out, Ron saw magical light flickering by the window; she was clearly trying to help at that moment…

However, his strength was too weak, and before he could even make a move, Beren slashed Ron with his scythe.

...But it is precisely because this person has goodwill towards him that Ron treats her the way he does now.

Otherwise, the corpse that we just subdued and was wandering outside the operating room would have rushed over, grabbed her, and torn her to pieces along with Beren...

Moreover... this guy has some other uses.

Ron watched Jiang Cheng's performance indifferently, shook his head, and warned in a calm tone:

"Enough of this talk. I have no interest in killing an innocent person... but you must keep this a secret."

What happened here, I don't want to hear from anyone after we get out, otherwise..."

As he spoke, a cold flame suddenly ignited on Jiang Cheng's shoulder, startling her so much that she trembled and screamed.

But Ron gently patted his shoulder, extinguishing the eerie green flame—

"I imagine you wouldn't want to be entangled in the flames of death and burned to ashes, would you?"

"Of course!!"

Jiang Cheng nodded frantically like a woodpecker, “Master Karen, I’m very tight-lipped! All the teammates who have completed commissions with me on the forum have nothing but praise for me!”
Rest assured, your secret is my life. Even if someone tortures me, I will absolutely not utter a single word!

That's exactly the attitude I'm looking for...

Ron rubbed the ring on his finger and said, seemingly casually:

"Few people know my secret, and you are the only one in over a decade... Don't let me down."

As people get older... they don't want too much conflict or bloodshed.

The only one in over a decade?!

Jiang Cheng looked at Ron in astonishment. After realizing that he had survived, a trace of desire and greed arose in his heart.

As a magician, no one is without the pursuit of true "magic".

And now, a being who truly wields "magic" stands before her—

How can she possibly calm down like this?!
This is a Grand rank! She's become a Grand rank mage, the only person in over a decade to be tacitly acknowledged as having his power... Does she have a chance... to go even further?
It's important to know that it's far more difficult for magicians to advance in their careers than for superpowered individuals.

Unlike superpowered individuals, who can improve their personal reality and enhance their computing power and eventually reach a new level, they are not superpowered.

Magicians... really need an ancient tradition.

If he could build a good relationship with Master Karen, even a casual suggestion during a casual chat might be enough to break the shackles that had bound Jiang Cheng for so long...

As a fellow necromancer, Jiang Cheng was absolutely unwilling to let this opportunity slip by!
She swallowed hard and tentatively asked:
"Master Karen...you've just arrived in the inner city of Ideal City, haven't you?"

Hooked.

Ron slightly curled the corners of his mouth and calmly said:

“That’s right… I originally wanted to come to the inner city to see what the ideal city described in the forum is really like.”

He sighed as he spoke:
"But as I get older, coming to such a new place, sometimes I can't even find my way to where I want to go..."

"I can be your guide, Master!"

Jiang Cheng immediately seized the opportunity and said sincerely:
"My name is Jiang Cheng. I'm a teacher at Tianting No.1 High School. I own a car and a house in District C. I've lived in the inner city since I was a child, and I've lived here for over twenty years now. I know exactly where you want to go!"

"...Then let's add each other as forum friends."

Ron clicked on the emerald ring he had prepared beforehand, opened the brain-computer interface, and waited for Jiang Cheng to add him as a forum friend.

Looking at Jiang Cheng, who was fussing over him and then being waved away, but still glancing back at him every few steps with a joyful look in his eyes, Ron nodded in satisfaction.

Not bad... I've finally found a reasonably reliable guide among the magicians.

After learning from Beren that no one really believed the old magician possessed forbidden books, Ron's mind immediately began to race.

Originally, his plan was to abandon the identity of Karen after completing this commission and keep his distance from magicians...

To avoid being discovered for possessing prohibited books, and thus being targeted by others for the crime of possessing a valuable treasure.

But now that the forbidden book is unknown to anyone, Ron naturally doesn't have to slink away from the magicians' circle like that.

These powerful magicians, hidden in the shadows of Ideal City, must possess many secrets.

The moment Ron saw the assassination commission targeting him, he understood one thing.

No matter how hard he tried to avoid these secrets and escape the dangers lurking in the shadows of Ideal City...

These dangers won't let him off the hook either; they'll try to catch up with him every moment!

So, it's better to cautiously join in and personally discover what Ideal City truly holds...

Perhaps... we can find a lot of useful information inside.

—For example, right now.

After confirming that Jiang Cheng had gone far away, Ron controlled the husk to hunt down the mindless zombies wandering in the large laboratory, while taking out the bloodstained notebook from his pocket.

This was the notebook that Ron hadn't finished reading yet; he had instinctively hidden it in his clothes when he was attacked.

He was very interested in the contents of the notebook, which reminded him of what Deyn had told him.

The so-called void, and the monsters that appear in the void...

Is this the reason why the ideal city government, which clearly has the ability to transform the entire planet, is trapped in its current situation?
He opened his notebook with great interest and continued reading—

On April 26th, I succeeded... The magic of the finger bones can indeed break through the limitations of the Ideal City and reach the extraordinary!
I must report this; Minister Olde will promote me!

Seeing this, Ron was somewhat taken aback.

This guy actually succeeded... He became a superhuman just by using a finger bone from a wronged person and an unknown ritual?
Ron couldn't help but feel admiration when he recalled the fear he felt when he first became the gravedigger and his supernatural powers went out of control.

Isn't he afraid of things getting out of control?
On May 7th, Minister Alder sent me other monsters captured from the historical void...

Although their names could not be found in the records of the previous era, they were said to be the producers of the main ingredients for the [Death] pathway potion.

He asked me to use these monsters as raw materials to stitch them together with the test subjects, and to transform them into superhumans through the [death] pathway, just as I had done before.

Isn't this super easy? I'm sure I can do it!

So, the so-called void is a "historical void"... Will monsters from the past enter the present through the historical void?
For this reason, the Ideal City has not yet been able to cover the entire planet.

I feel like Ron is to blame for this. If he hadn't founded the Potions Era, Ideal City wouldn't have suffered this undeserved disaster.

However, an unknown monster...

Ron's expression was strange, but his admiration for this fearless supervisor grew even stronger.

The finger bones from the corpse shell are one thing, after all, they are the main material for Sequence Nine, and with good luck, one might actually have a chance to become an extraordinary being.

But these unknown monsters, which are the main materials of the [Death] sequence... are definitely not sequence nine!

At this point, luck can't solve everything...

These test subjects will all absolutely turn into out-of-control monsters!

Ron was certain in his heart as he looked down:
[May 10th, it failed... Why did it fail?]

They suffered severe rejection and then mutated into incomprehensible monsters!

But when I performed the ceremony myself, there were no problems at all, and I became a superhuman immediately!
This matter is giving me a headache from anxiety. I can only try to see if there's anything usable left in their mutated bodies...

On May 18th, the organs found in their bodies were indeed far stronger than those of ordinary people, and sewing them into the bodies of superhumans could indeed bring unimaginable power...

But won't something go wrong? Was the rehabilitation Minister Old asked me to do to that high school student a bit too much?
They say that's the ace player who's fighting for the company's ranking this time... Doesn't an ace player always get out of control?
Damn, this is really worrying. I've even started having auditory hallucinations lately. I hope he won't cause any big trouble during the college entrance exam...

It's definitely out of control... But how could the monster's supernatural organs be sewn into a high school student's body?

Noah Pharmaceuticals' experiments are truly inhumane and outrageously barbaric...

Ron frowned, a chill running down his spine.

Moreover, this ace player, who has been transformed, will definitely participate in this year's college entrance examination.

Unexpectedly, in the college entrance examination hall, if he wanted to get a high enough ranking, there was such an enemy waiting for him...

He continued reading:
[May 21st, my head hurts so much! Why do I keep feeling like someone is talking in my ear? And where is this sound of running water coming from? I made sure I turned off the main water valve!]

Minister Old has made me hold another promotion ceremony, instructing me to reuse the corpses of those monsters to promote some genetically bred toys...

What's the point? They're just human toys sold to be played with; what good are modifications?

June 1st, I was wrong, I was wrong... The previous era, everything from the previous era, is off-limits and cannot be touched!

The emptiness, the emptiness, is the echo of the apocalypse...

The end of the world is coming!

(End of this chapter)