I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

Is it really that exaggerated?

Duke looked very skeptical, because the floating city in their world was built by Lady Scarlet using the technology of the ancient magic empire, which directly proved that the floating city was not an untouchable creation of this world—of course, the Witch of Miracles herself is a synonym for miracles, which may prove the president's words.

However, Duke had also seen the core AI of the floating city, Zun, create a body for himself—presumably, anyone who had seen the mechanical dragon girl polishing her steel breasts would not feel any awe towards the establishment of the floating city.

However, in the face of Duke's questioning, the president shook his head, gave him a strange look, and said with certainty, "It seems that the floating cities in our worlds are very different in their core."

"What do you mean?" Duke suddenly became interested. "Does this mean that this city isn't a creation of magical technology?"

"of course not."

Even though the level and prevalence of magical technology in this city far surpasses that of the floating city in the parallel world, the things that make up this city are not the magical technology that Duke had always thought.

"Ha! These things were only transmitted to the Floating City through a certain interdimensional link when it was almost two hundred years old. The reason why magical technology was so prevalent was simply because these things were useful and suitable for the elites to control the lower classes." The guild leader laughed, taking out a magic phone from his pocket and showing it to Duke. "Simply put, in the first two hundred years after the founding of the Floating City, there was no such thing as magical technology in the Floating City."

The president paused, then pointed to the ground and took out a strange coin from his pocket, tossing it onto the ground.

The moment the coin touched the ground of the floating city's underground world, something astonishing happened. The originally flat and patternless ground suddenly transformed, with a vast star map lighting up on the surface, its dazzling starlight illuminating everyone's eyes.

Although the dazzling starlight only lasted for a moment, everyone present was an expert and naturally did not doubt that they had imagined it—the ground had indeed changed for a split second.

The president's voice broke the silence of the crowd:

"What makes up this floating city is a star map and the Little Prince's wish: to build a spaceship and take himself back to his homeland."

Duke stared in astonishment, and even the native inhabitants of this world, such as Zi Yuan and Norton, showed surprise. As the new generation, they had obviously never heard of such a thing, nor had they ever seen such an anomaly on the surface of the underground world.

How could this be? The development paths of the two floating cities were completely different from the very beginning?! The floating cities in this world are made up of star charts and the Little Prince's wishes, while their floating cities are built with magical technology... But if that's the case, why do these two floating cities, which are so different, face the same problems and have a constant stream of other dimensions connecting to them?

No.

Duke suddenly had a strange idea.

Perhaps the two floating cities were indeed established at different times.

If we call this parallel world World A, and the parallel world they came from World B, then we can call it World B.

So, it all started with the Little Prince, a traveler from another dimension, accidentally entering World A. In order to leave this world, she used a star map that could guide her home and her own power of wishes (her ability might be a Cecil Plus version, or a Cinderella-style all-powerful wish machine type) to create this floating city and begin to gather all the residents of the floating city.

Because of the miracles she performed, she gradually gained worship in the floating city and became a deity who was difficult to ascend to godhood.

Meanwhile, Lady Fei, already a powerful legend, somehow traveled to this parallel world and happened to witness the construction and takeoff of the floating city. At the same time, she also obtained the original star map of the floating city by chance—the same star map Duke had obtained the day before.

[Item Name: Star Chart]

[Item Description: A brilliant star map recording the sun, moon, and stars; the prophetic words guiding people to look up at the sky; the driving force behind the creators of the floating city; the sacred path upon which this great city was initially formed.]

[Item Effect: The divine authority initially formed by the floating city: "Stars".]

The system's item description states that this star map records the "prophet's last words," which is the "driving force" of the floating city's creator and the divine authority that the floating city initially condensed: "Stars."

Duke couldn't say for sure who the prophet and creator referred to by the system were, but it was simpler to say where this initially condensed divine authority originated—it was clearly not the divine authority held by the mute Ida, because the time difference was too great; this star map should have existed before the floating city was established.

The divine authority of the "stars" was clearly formed because of the little prince who came from among the stars.

Having witnessed the miracle of the floating city taking off in World A and obtained the "Star Map," one of the key pieces in constructing the floating city, Lady Fei quickly returned to World B. There, she made a deal with the ancient magic empire, which was on the verge of collapse, and obtained the Zun from it. Using the Zun as its core, she created a miracle.

The Witch of Miracles' current power may also be related to the miracle of building the floating city.

At the same time, she may have built the floating city with the aim of "becoming a god," but it was later intercepted by Ida.

The establishment of the floating cities in Worlds A and B may have occurred at different times, but the rituals, under the control of Lady Scarlet, were probably very similar, and both involved the star map. Although the framework of the floating city in World A was the power of the Little Prince, while the framework of the floating city in World B was magical technology and Lady Scarlet's legendary destiny, the final effects were probably quite similar.

Therefore, the AB worlds faced almost the same fate.

If these conjectures are correct, then another question arises.

"Then, when was the spellcaster driven away?"

Chapter 394 Different Paths, Same Destination

"Then, when was the spellcaster driven away?"

The president looked at Duke with some surprise. If Duke had asked the question earlier, the president wouldn't have been too surprised, simply assuming he was curious about the differences between the two worlds. However, Duke asked the question after learning about the history of the floating city's establishment.

"About two hundred years after the floating city was built."

"In other words, it's around the same time that these magical technologies entered the floating city, right? Your so-called 'precise calculations' weren't done using a high-tech magical calculator from another world, were they?" Duke raised an eyebrow. "Was the floating city in this world initially also a city composed of spellcasters?"

The president shut his mouth.

This was probably a taboo subject for him, but his attitude and the look of surprise in his eyes told Duke that his guess was correct.

The floating city in World A was originally a city belonging to spellcasters. That's why, after returning to World B and establishing the floating city, Ms. Fei built it into a city for spellcasters. Her goal was to completely replicate the floating city one-to-one.

Therefore, under the early intervention of Lady Scarlet and the later habitual operation of Monica and the floating city witches, the floating city in World B maintained its original development direction. On the contrary, the floating city in World A, after natural and barbaric development, underwent drastic changes in the two hundred years after its establishment, driving out the original masters of the floating city, the spellcasters.

So, it's understandable why the floating city in World A is in such a terrible state. Without spellcasters to control the alternate dimension, and without hosting a witch game to gather elite adventurers from across the continent to conquer it, how could the alternate dimension here possibly be under control?

The management of the floating city, which lacks spellcasters, has not even considered controlling the alternate dimension—at least for now, neither the three powers that control the floating city—the sheriff, the council, and the four major families—nor the resistance organization "Dawn" that is accumulating strength—have focused their efforts on this aspect.

Compared to controlling other dimensions, they crave and take for granted the powerful world rules.

Lady Fei, who stole the floating city from a parallel world, may not have achieved her goal, but she still managed to wipe out the original family... This time, Mikufans completely crushed ACFUN.

"It's really impressive that this floating city has lasted this long," Duke remarked sincerely. "I don't know whether to say you're lucky or unlucky."

"Perhaps it really is just good luck." The guild leader gave a wry smile. He sighed, looking unusually old, and said to Duke, Amber, and Cecil, "Mr. Duke, since the three of you come from a floating city controlled by spellcasters, then you must all be spellcasters, right?"

"Those two are..." Duke looked slightly embarrassed and looked away. "I can only be considered half... cough, why are you asking this?"

The sorcerer can, barely, and probably be considered a spellcaster.

“Then you must be careful,” the guild leader said softly. “Mr. Duke, you are now the only hope for Floating City. I will do everything in my power to protect you.”

"what?"

Duke didn't understand the old man's words at all and looked at him with a puzzled expression.

To be honest, this chairman of the floating city council definitely deserves the title of "riddler." Although Duke had previously used his intelligence and the information he had gathered from various sources to extract a lot of essence from the chairman's riddles and made an incredibly accurate (rough) prediction, it didn't mean that he enjoyed talking to the riddler.

After all, Duke himself is a riddle maker. When riddle makers meet, the amount of information and the level of comprehension in their conversations increase rapidly as the ease of filling in the blanks decreases. Even if they eventually manage to guess the truth from each other's riddles, it still takes some thinking!

Why bother thinking when you can know the truth directly?

But before Duke could signal to the president to speak his mind, he heard a strange crystallizing sound.

The moment they heard the sound of crystallization, the president, Ziyuan, Norton, and even Xiao Hei, who was lying on Amber's back, all changed their expressions. Amber and Cecil, of course, didn't feel anything... On the contrary, Duke suddenly remembered a video he had seen before.

He suddenly turned his head to look in the direction from which the crystallization sound came, and sure enough, he saw a kind of "beautiful" crystal in the once magnificent and clean streets of the underground world. They were spreading outward at a "slow" speed, almost no different from the walking speed of an ordinary person.

However, wherever they spread, both living and dead things are assimilated into strange crystals. Although they don't walk very fast, anyone who notices them can escape successfully. But as long as they keep moving forward, they will eventually cover the entire floating city.

In fact, Duke had seen these crystals in the video featuring Monica and Xiao He's mythical weaponry. In that video, these crystals had already spread across almost half of the floating city, making them one of the most terrifying "world rules" in the apocalypse!

Do you know what that is?

“I don’t know, but once these crystals appear, they must be removed as soon as possible, otherwise these things will spread endlessly!” Zi Yuan gritted her teeth. Duke then noticed that she was still wrapped in some gauze. Eleven days had passed since her battle with Amber. As a powerful dragonborn, her injuries from that time should have been healed by now—in other words, these seemingly serious injuries were inflicted in the last ten days. “Duke, you should leave here first.”

As she spoke, she donned the Mythical Armor: Purple Iris, intending to use the power she had just acquired to destroy the crystals. Norton also rolled up his sleeves, ready to fight alongside Purple Iris. However, at this moment, the guild leader shook his head, rejecting her idea: "Don't leave here. The three of you are spellcasters. In the current environment of the Floating City, it's easy for a new alternate dimension to establish a link with the Floating City."

"what?"

Once these words were spoken, the truth became clear...

No, the truth is even more elusive.

"What does that mean? The spellcaster will attract entirely new alternate dimensions to establish links with the floating city? Could it be that the floating city drove away all spellcasters back then for this reason?!"

"Yes."

This time, the president readily admitted it, and then added:

"So, I don't really understand why the floating cities in your world are in such a much better situation than ours... You seem to be very lucky too."

Chapter 395 Advance Drill

"Two hundred years after the establishment of the floating city, an alternate dimension established a link with the floating city. From that alternate dimension, the administrators of the floating city at that time obtained the magical technology that you see today. That's right, from then until now, we have only known how to use these magical technologies, but not how to use them. We can only use and maintain them, but it is difficult to improve or even repair them."

"Among this batch of 'magical technologies,' the most important one is a 'prophecy machine' that is still running today. It accurately predicted and easily solved a problem that had plagued the floating city authorities for two hundred years. After confirming its credibility and effectiveness, a large number of testing targets were put on the agenda."

"The divination machine worked day and night, overloaded, and with its help, the floating city entered a period of rapid development. But at this time, the first concentrated outbreak of the connection between the floating city and other dimensions arrived. At that time, a large number of other dimensions and a large number of strange world rules descended upon the floating city, which destroyed the existing order of the floating city."

"The prophecy machine was one of the few trustworthy trump cards the floating city had at the time, and it was highly anticipated. It did not disappoint, providing two options and reasons for each."

"One option was to find a being who might become a god, so that He could sit on the divine throne and ignite the divine fire, thus securing the floating city's position. However, this path was not feasible, because the little prince, who was unable to become a god at the time, had already occupied the floating city's divine throne, and the floating city had tried everything but failed to ignite the divine fire."

"The second way is to drive away all spellcasters. Spellcasters themselves attract links between other dimensions and the floating city. The principle behind this may have been explained by the prophetic machine at the time, but it is now impossible to verify."

"The first path sounds like a better option, but it's not perfect either. Because of the connection between the floating city and the other dimension, the gods born in this city are completely different from those born on the continent. The fully formed one... might attract the connection to the other dimension more easily than ordinary spellcasters, thus causing the end of the world."

"The second path is obviously a slow death that only treats the symptoms and not the root cause, but because the first path was completely impassable in the floating city at the time, they ultimately chose this path."

"Of course, the process was not smooth. At that time, most of the managers of the floating city were spellcasters, and they naturally did not want to be driven out of the floating city... But the fact was that they had no choice but to accept it. Rebellious organizations sprang up like mushrooms after rain, formed a huge force, overthrew the original floating city government, and killed and expelled almost all the spellcasters in the floating city."

"Those rebel organizations are now the four major families, the sheriffs, and the council. And with the frenzied spellcaster hunt coming to an end, the floating city has indeed temporarily escaped the concentrated outbreak of the first interdimensional link."

"But this temporary measure cannot last for a thousand years."

Duke was deeply impressed by the president's account, and he knew and was thinking about far more than the president had said.

The two paths provided by the divination machine are precisely the situations in worlds A and B.

Due to the historical issue of the Little Prince's usurpation of the divine position, the floating city in World A had no choice but to expel the spellcasters, for whom they paid a price. The floating city in World B lacked the Little Prince as its founder, so after Ida rapidly ascended to the divine position, he helped stabilize the situation. His unique circumstances meant that the floating city's deities remained incomplete, maintaining stability for a thousand years.

But does the resurrection of Ida's humanity and the fusion of humanity and divinity mean that the complete mute is being filled in?

No wonder Carol was so anxious in the Babel Tower witch game, and then went to great lengths to send Duke to a parallel world... even sending Ida, who shared his fate, to the parallel world. As the lord of the floating city, she must know some inside information. The moment the mute completes their transformation will be the moment the floating city faces its doom.

And there's one more thing.

Was World B really as peaceful as it appeared on the surface?

The rules of the alternate dimension that the floating city in World A faces are very different from the witch games that the floating city in World B faces. At least Duke had never heard of the crystal-level witch games he was facing. If a witch game is filled with such things, no matter how strong an adventurer is, they will be instantly killed. Witch games with such world rules are completely unreasonable!

The previous alternate world, with its layers upon layers of muddy tentacle monsters that required observers to access, the Pandora's box filled with malice and negative emotions that could directly trigger one's inner emotions, and even the gate that didn't devour gold... the alternate dimension linked here seems far too chaotic and brutal. It's simply not in the same style as the witch games in the B world, which are at most dark fairy tales.

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, those legendary witch-like games, are always a minority in World B, but they're everywhere in World A. Judging from "The Little Prince," there should also be two parallel universes in different parallel worlds. Could it be that these legendary universes are incompatible with World B and can't connect with the floating city?

This possibility exists, but it is clearly not high.

Then there's Carol and the others' attitude of being on high alert.

"The Floating City Lord's Mansion is probably hiding a lot of things... Our world is probably not as peaceful and prosperous as it seems on the surface. Perhaps the end of the world, which we all share, is just around the corner."