On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

Now, Lena is going to capture a mythical creature in order to obtain the Ashes.

The higher-level information she desperately wanted—answers about more of the truth, more information about Lord Ash—could only be provided to her by mythical creatures.

Although it was crazy, Lena wasn't going to her death, nor was it a rash decision. She had concluded the feasibility of this method after a week of observation.

Very simple.

Feasibility stems from the differences in the world.

During this time, Lena traveled to many worlds through the World Tree. She discovered that the levels of these worlds varied greatly, with some worlds having very low strength, even less than half that of their own.

Upon seeing this, Liao Ji instantly understood that this must be the "difficulty" that players choose before starting the game. Different difficulties will affect the concentration level of the world's turbidity, the number of monsters, and the number of save files.

In games like the highest difficulty level, only one save slot is allowed. This is extremely discouraging and unacceptable to many players, meaning that although players can "restart" and reload, the scope of rewinding is limited.

As the world starts with "low difficulty", the strength of the "protagonist" that the player cultivates after completing the game is naturally very low. When the creature behind the scenes takes over the player's body, the final mythical creature generated has a power level that does not fluctuate much with the "protagonist". This also shows that the abilities of these creatures behind the scenes are not as mysterious and unpredictable as imagined, which makes their "rank" in Lena's heart drop a lot.

This led Lena to finally make her decision. After expending a great deal of mental energy and undergoing numerous searches, she found an extremely low-level world containing only a giant creature possessing the body of a "Disaster"-level player, and thus began her...

Operation Godhunter.

Chapter 302 Methods to Protect Everyone

Mythical creatures are not limited to the "fire giant".

It should be said that the fire giant is just one of the many forms of mythical creatures.

As Lena searches for potential "god-hunters," Liao Ji, following the succubus's perspective, witnesses not only the fire giants but also other ancient fish lurking in the deep sea, purple polar birds emerging from thunderstorm clouds, stone behemoths fused with mountains, and shadowy spirits shrouded in eternal darkness.

Although each mythical creature has a different form, they all share a common trait: by occupying the body of the "savior," they successfully hatch and descend into the world. Then, based on their own forms, they forcibly reshape the world, making the creatures in the world serve them.

The higher the level of the world, the greater the extent to which mythical creatures occupy the bodies of stronger players can reshape the world, and the more miserable the plight of the world's native creatures becomes.

Fire giants, for example, turn the world into a sea of ​​fire, using living beings as fuel.

The world of the Whale Spirit Ancient Fish submerged ninety percent of the continents, leaving only one-tenth, which was used to raise terrestrial creatures as fodder.

The Shadow Spirit plunges the world into eternal darkness, and beneath the wings of the Purple Polar Bird, the world's sky is a perpetually sleepless thunderstorm.

These mythical creatures are like people who have moved into someone else's house, trying to transform everything in the original world into the most comfortable environment for them, while the native creatures of the world become tenants.

but

Liao Ji looked at the diary and saw that Lena had begun her journey into the world of "Godhunter".

There were no raging fires or boundless deep seas; the world was almost indistinguishable from the normal world, with no trace of being "transformed."

This is not because the mythical creatures are merciful, but simply because the player's "protagonist" body is too weak, only at the "Disaster" level, causing the mythical creatures to also fall far short of the "Giant Spirit" level, and naturally lack the ability to change the world.

To be honest, even on the lowest difficulty, the protagonist's strength is only at the "Disaster" level, and not even at the peak of the Disaster level, but only around level 60 or 70. He is not even as good as many other local leaders, which even Liao Ji finds a bit unbelievable.

Liao Ji could only conclude that this player was most likely employing a "diplomat" strategy.

There is indeed such a strategy in the game, which is to continuously increase the favorability of each faction to an extremely high level, thereby acting as an intermediary to unite the fragmented world and ultimately defeat the Chaos.

However, male players like Liao Ji generally scoff at this approach, finding it far less enjoyable than fighting and killing and becoming a ruler themselves.

When you see the player's "protagonist" appearance later, sure enough, it's a female character. This way of completing the game is basically for female players who don't like fighting.

Because the protagonist is a "diplomat" with little power, the mythical creatures that descended upon the world also couldn't rule the world directly through pure power.

This further confirms Anno's speculation.

These creatures behind the scenes may have extremely weak power, or even almost none at all; they rely entirely on the player's physical body.

Once the players are weak, they have no choice but to evolve more intelligence to cope in order to adapt.

Liao Ji continued to look at the world of this "disaster-level" mythical creature.

For mythical creatures, intelligence is actually a manifestation of "demotion".

It's as if this mythical creature is not like the previous "god," but more like a human.

A schemer.

Although it is weak, the commonalities and purposes of mythical creatures remain unchanged.

After arriving, it will do its best to build a nest and create a comfortable environment for itself.

Therefore, the mythical creature that occupied the player's body did not choose to appear in its "true form".

Instead, they continue to use the players' appearance, disguising themselves as players in front of native creatures, thereby inheriting the players' rights.

The player's protagonist is not very strong, but has great prestige in the world, especially after successfully defeating the Turbid Calamity and saving the world. Almost all the leaders of the forces are willing to help the protagonist.

Therefore, it used this condition to impersonate players and build its own empire.

The world's native creatures had no complaints about this; on the contrary, they responded enthusiastically, and the process went extremely smoothly.

Following Lena's investigation, Liao Ji gradually learns about the history of this world.

After that, it began to slowly expand its imperial power, while secretly collecting children to nourish its strength. Each behind-the-scenes creature has its own preferences, and this one clearly prefers children.

And so, not long after, its empire became the most powerful force in the world.

However, it can deceive people for a year or two by disguising itself as a "player". But as time goes on, it will eventually be discovered by some local creatures who were once familiar with the players and the leaders of various factions.

But by then it was too late.

After establishing its own empire, it began a purge, secretly eliminating those native creatures who had discovered its secrets and had once shared deep feelings with the players.

Or, in the name of the "emperor," these "local kings" would be falsely accused and imprisoned in dungeons, or they would be pretended to be entertained but actually poisoned to death.

The more they investigated, the heavier Rena's mood became in the diary, and the more intense the anger in her eyes grew.

This world doesn't belong to them.

If Corena puts herself in that position, what would happen if the creature that descended through the body of Lord Ash didn't become a giant spirit, but instead continued to disguise itself like this mythical creature?

The outcome will likely be similar.

The more loyal one is to Lord Ash, the more likely they are to be exploited.

Just like those "saviors" in this world, they are disguised mythical creatures who are asked to harm their former companions, their comrades-in-arms who fought alongside them to fight against the calamity.

They didn't know why the "savior" would issue such an order, but out of trust in the "savior," even if it went against their conscience and they had to endure great torment, they still had to swing the knife at their comrades.

Seeing this, Liao Ji and Lena couldn't help but think of Jiu You and Zero.

Their personalities are such that they obey only their own orders, no matter what those orders are, even if it means killing each other.

Dealing with Styutia is equally simple.

Just like the Imperial Army Commander in this world, who helped mythical creatures "execute" many of his former comrades.

Like "them," except that because he is a female player, the genders have been switched. This male commander of the Imperial Army has always been a character who admires female players.

Therefore, the choice of the creatures behind the scenes is very simple: if they love each other, they will grant each other's wishes. In their eyes, love is a low-level behavior and is insignificant.

The Imperial Army Commander, believing he had found love, was willing to give everything for it, becoming the most useful weapon for the creature behind the scenes, clearing away many obstacles.

The price, perhaps, is merely intercourse each night.

even

When Lena infiltrated the palace of this world and found the creature behind the guise of a "savior," she found many naked men in the creature's room, all of whom had been drained of their life force and had fallen into unconsciousness.

Clearly, the entity behind the scenes is not content with simply winning people over; it also wants to enhance its own power.

Even when engaging in group sex and seeing their love defiled, the original "contractors" still chose to endure it, including that commander.

There are even many "contractors" vying for the "savior's" favor.

Lena felt incredibly nauseous and disgusted.

But she could understand.

It's like, in their world, if Lord Ash really did show a similar attitude of "favor," those contractors would flock to him, not caring about anything else.

After receiving the poison of "love," even if later, when the beings behind the scenes of this world issue a demand that the empire's citizens select thousands of newborns each year as "tribute," the ministers will forcibly carry it out.

Yes.

In this world, all newborns are "drawn by lot" from birth. Once they draw the lot to "serve," the Imperial Army will take the newborn away, regardless of how much the parents plead and scream.

As for where to go.

It's like now, handed over to the "emperor" for his enjoyment.

"Commander Dean, the count is complete. 13948 babies were transported this time and are already in storage."

"Yes, I'll go and report to Lady Eileen."

Just as Commander Dean was about to turn around, his subordinate soldier, who had just been reporting, suddenly turned ruthless, pulled out a dagger from his pocket, and stabbed Dean in the heart.

Unfortunately, Dean seemed to have anticipated this and quickly turned around and subdued him.

"why."

"Bah! You lackey! That's how you took my brother away back then! Dean, wake up! That wasn't the savior he once was, that was a demon! A man-eating devil, you!"

Before the angry soldier could finish speaking, Dean snapped his neck.

Dean's eyes held pain and confusion, but these quickly turned to numbness and a self-hypnotic quality as he murmured, "Lady Eileen wouldn't... Lady Eileen must have some reason, she must have."

Before he could finish speaking, a powerful burst of energy suddenly erupted from the depths of the palace, startling Dean awake. When he looked down into the ground where the energy had erupted, the panic in his eyes deepened.

Because that was their Lady Eileen's bedroom.

Even though this superpower was beyond imagination and something Dean had never seen before, his loyalty to Lady Eileen made Dean not hesitate to set off immediately to provide support.

When Dean arrived, he found that the once magnificent palace of Lady Eileen had been reduced to ruins by the dark matter storm.

The cause of all this was a person floating above the ruins.

Succubus?

"Who are you?!" Dean asked the powerful succubus nervously.

Lena ignored the native and focused intently on Lady Eileen, who was clearly caught off guard by her sudden attack and was now showing signs of fear.

No, it's the creature behind the scenes that's parasitizing "Eileen's" body.

So they can feel "fear" too?