Zongman: Evolution Paradise

Upon seeing Medea, who was as beautiful as an elf, Yukino Yukinoshita gave Jolyne a knowing look.

Saber showed no change in expression when she saw Medea, since she wasn't someone she knew. Medea, on the other hand, reacted differently when she saw Saber. Her eyes lit up, her breathing quickened, and she sensed the master-servant relationship between Saber and Yukino Yukinoshita, transmitting her thoughts to Jolyne.

"Master, if it's just an alliance, should I steal the enemy's Servant? That way we'll have two Servants..."

"Medea, she is my companion."

Jolyne flatly refused; Medea's question was utterly absurd.

Medea is arguably the number one Saber fan in the Fate world, contributing the famous "Saintess Humiliation" scene of binding and disciplining Saber.

Her hobbies include peeping at Saber with a crystal ball, making Saber figurines, and playing dress-up games with Saber. As for why she is so obsessed with Saber, Medea's reason is that "Saber is petite, strong, and hungry." The inexplicable reason sounds like a star-struck fangirl.

Even Medea, who was so obsessed with Saber, would never bring up the word "betrayal".

In a sense, she was just testing Jolyne's character. If Jolyne really chose to betray her ally because of her special nature, her score would undoubtedly drop below the safe line in front of Medea, whose pain was permeated by betrayal.

Seeing Jolyne's refusal, Medea showed no change in expression and walked straight to Saber.

"Saber, I have something really good here. Would you like to come to the next room with me?"

Saber's ahoge (cowlick) suddenly stood on end, sensing danger for no apparent reason. She looked at Medea warily and quickly shook off Medea's hand.

"I need to stay here to protect my Master."

"Hmm... As expected of Saber."

……

"Are you sure you're not a compatibility summoner? Why does she like Saber just like you?"

Yukino Yukinoshita moved closer to Jolyne, watching Medea's actions, and inexplicably felt that her Saber had been taken away again.

Jolyne glanced at Yukino and told her with pity, "The Fate world is basically full of Saber fans. You will encounter many more such opportunities in the future."

Compared to him, her Master, Medea was more interested in Saber, something Jolyne had anticipated. However, it didn't matter; it was enough to keep the eccentric Medea calm for the time being.

As for the future, if Medea falls in love with Jolyne, a married man, and is willing to give everything to help Jolyne win the Holy Grail War, Jolyne will naturally treat her sincerely, at least not letting her experience another painful betrayal in the Holy Grail War.

If Medea isn't interested in Jolyne, Jolyne doesn't care, as long as she serves her purpose. He summoned Medea not just for her sake.

"I'll leave for a bit. Miss Yukinoshita, please make sure they're settled. If everything goes smoothly, we can start clearing the area tomorrow night."

As Jolyne finished speaking, she took a step back and disappeared from her spot, causing Medea, who was trying to touch Saber's ahoge (cowlick), to stop as well.

"...A strange ritual, a strange Master."

Chapter 160 Medusa

Although Jolyne and Yukino Yukinoshita had not explicitly discussed the rules of the alliance in this game, they had developed a certain tacit understanding with each other.

Regardless, let's team up and clear out all the other players first. Then Jolyne and Yukino Yukinoshita can enjoy their "two-person world." Who will gracefully admit defeat then is a matter for later.

By summoning Medea as a Servant, Jolyne was confident that she could ensure Yukino Yukinoshita's dignified exit.

Just like Rule 5, which requires the Servant to die before one can voluntarily admit defeat, Jolyne could easily snatch Saber away, and Yukino Yukinoshita, having lost her Servant, could naturally admit defeat and settle the score directly.

Upon entering the workshop, the Jorogumo was already there, her spider silk piercing through the player's body, having already extracted all the information through the dream.

"Nobuyuki Sugo, player level 3, the only valuable enhancement he possesses is his elven bloodline, and his identity in the main world is an employee of the ALO development company 'RECT Manufacturing'."

Ai Haibara briefly explained and handed the detailed information she had obtained to Jolyne.

"This thing?" Jolyne recognized him immediately upon hearing the name and the job.

The disgusting character in Sword Art Online who attempted to assault the female protagonist Asuna successfully made it onto the list of "Anime Male Protagonists Viewers Most Want to Kill" based solely on this act.

"How strong is this company in the main world?"

Jolyne asked Ai Haibara and Jorogumo that there are too many companies in Sword Art Online, and their relationships are very complicated. Of course, Jolyne wouldn't actively analyze the relationships when watching the anime. She only knew that ALO is the abbreviation for the game world of Sword Art Online II: Fairy Kingdom.

"ALO Game Development Company is a subsidiary of the game company RECT. They are located in Tokyo and are quite powerful. Most of the games on the market are developed by them."

Ai Haibara explained simply that normal people can only obtain this much information. They haven't had any contact with it before, so how could they possibly know such details?

"Nobuyuki Sugo holds a very good position at ALO game development company. He's a senior researcher and highly valued... As for that company, my spider has already gone there, but there's been no news yet," Jorogumo chimed in.

Her ability only covers an area as small as Chiba, so it's impossible for her to broadcast Tokyo live through the spider. The reason for this is that the spatial intensity of the main world far exceeds that of Demon Slayer.

Nakime is able to create an Infinite Castle directly, expanding her power to the entirety of Japan. In contrast, Jorogumo, who is far more powerful than Nakime, cannot create an independent space in the main world and can only rely on the Infinite Castle produced by Paradise. Her power is also compressed to the Chiba area.

"It's alright, this is enough."

Xu Lun indicated that they didn't need to worry too much about whether those two companies had player influence.

Putting aside the fact that Jolyne killed Sugo Nobuyuki in Paradise, he probably wasn't an important person, given that he didn't even know who the players were before entering Paradise.

The reason for some curiosity was mainly that Jolyne wanted to see the so-called "doujinshi Na," after all, she was the one who had been at the top of the doujinshi charts for many years.

Asuna Yuuki's father is the CEO of the large electronics manufacturer "RECT", while Nobuyuki Sugo is a trusted subordinate of her father, Shozo Yuuki, and is also Asuna Yuuki's fiancé.

After reviewing the basic information and confirming that he was not a troublesome person, Jolyne took the unconscious Sugo Nobuyuki out of the workshop.

"Medea, come here for a moment."

"...Are these participants in the Holy Grail War?"

Medea noticed the Command Seals on the back of Sugo Nobuo's hand and looked at Jolyne with a strange expression.

"Hmm... Take control of him directly and use his body to summon the Heroic Spirit."

Jolyne revealed her plan: summoning Medea was not just about Medea, but about exploiting a bug in her ability to transfer the allegiance of Servants, allowing her to control multiple Servants simultaneously.

Since Sugo Nobuyuki hasn't summoned a Heroic Spirit yet, Jolyne can directly summon the Heroic Spirit he wants through his player identity.

In a sense, Jolyne did not lie to him; forming an alliance with the Heroic Spirits he summoned was also an alliance.

As for why he couldn't find the summoning item, it's probably because there are eight Masters in this Holy Grail War, but only seven Dragon Balls are available as summoning items.

Nobuyuki Sugo, bearing the wealth and power of Atram Gariasta, also had to bear the fate of leaving the stage early. Unfortunately, he became the one without Dragon Balls nearby, becoming Jolyne's treasure-delivering boy.

The only classes that have not yet appeared in this Holy Grail War are the Cavalry and the Berserker.

Jolyne took out the Dragon Ball and a mirror. The Dragon Ball was naturally Jolyne's, and no one said it could only be used once. The mirror was the relic used to summon Medusa in the original story.

Relic - Mirror in the Temple

Description: A mirror unearthed from a Greek temple.

Effect: Summons heroic spirits associated with Greek mythology who are willing to respond.

Usage conditions: Only effective in worlds that have Valhalla.

This relic refers to a heroic spirit associated with Greek mythology, rather than directly to Medusa.

In the original storyline, Kiri Sakura summoned Medusa using this relic. Now, whether she can summon Medusa through Sugou Nobuyuki's player identity depends on luck.

The magical brilliance of the Age of Gods has already appeared on Medea. The first step is to transfer the two Command Seals that Sugou Nobuyuki didn't use to Jolyne.

Although Medea cannot create Command Seals from Paradise with her bare hands, transferring them is no problem.

In no time, Sugo Nobuyuki's two Command Seals appeared on Jolyne's left arm.

After transferring the Command Seals, the next step is to control Nobuyuki Sugo to summon the Heroic Spirit.

Medea manipulated Sugo Nobuyuki's body, making him hold the Dragon Ball and the Relic respectively. The summoning began, the light dissipated, and a purple-haired figure gradually appeared in front of them, which made Jolyne breathe a sigh of relief.

The Rider class has been released.

"Are you my master?"

The Medusa in the present world asked subconsciously, and then she found that her Master, with whom she had a master-servant contract, was being controlled.

She wore an off-the-shoulder mini-dress, black over-the-knee boots, a choker that bound her swan-like neck, a snake-shaped mark on her forehead, and a purple eye patch that obscured her vision. Her knee-length purple hair, seemingly alive, was even darker than Medea's.

"As expected of Sister R."

Jolyne looked at the outfit and decided to have Saeko Busujima try it on when she got back.

The summoned Medusa stood quietly, with Saber beside her, who had already drawn her sword.

No one spoke, and Medusa allowed Medea to use her Noble Phantasm to complete the transfer of the Heroic Spirit's affiliation.

Noticing the extra energy depletion in his body, Jolyne returned Sugou Nobuyuki's body to the workshop for recycling and answered Medusa's question with a smile.

"That's right, I am your master."

Chapter 161 Existence

The existence of Heroic Spirits requires the consumption of magical energy. In the original story, there was a Master who couldn't supply the magical energy needed for the Servant to fight, which hampered the Servant's combat strength.

Due to the shortage of mana, the Fate universe also introduced a mana replenishment system that viewers love.

This involves using some kind of indescribable intimate contact to quickly provide magic power to Servants, and in the Fate universe, replenishing magic power has many other ingenious uses.

Before Fate became a huge hit, "mana replenishment" was a respectable term, but after the Saber mana replenishment incident, the term has been used in many works.

Players like Jolyne and Yukino Yukinoshita summon Servants that also require magical energy. According to Rule 2 of Paradise, the amount of magical energy is determined by the player's constitution and intelligence.

Jolyne has a Constitution of 23 and an Intelligence of 26, both of which are basically double those of Yukino Yukinoshita. She can withstand the normal magic consumption of Medea and Medusa without any problem.

As for the consumption of Noble Phantasm release, Jolyne has not yet tried to supply two Servants at the same time.

Medea's Noble Phantasm is a short blade called "All Signs Will Break the Rules," which can directly reset any life form based on a magical contract or created using magical power to the state before the magical power was used.

Simply put, once this Noble Phantasm is unleashed, the contracts based on magic will be nullified, and any life forms created with magic will be instantly destroyed. Medea broke the contracts between Sugou Nobuyuki and Medusa directly using the power of this Noble Phantasm.

Medusa possesses three treasures: the Reins of the Hero, the Self-Sealing Dark Temple, and the Other-Sealing Blood Temple.

In short, the Reins of the Hero is a simple ultimate move that summons fantasy creatures to launch a combined offensive and defensive attack, making it a wide-range anti-army Noble Phantasm.

Self-Sealing Dark Temple is Medusa's eye patch, used to control the power of the Petrifying Eye.

In contrast to self-sealing, there is a barrier technique called Other Seal: Blood Temple. It uses a magic circle to steal the life force of the living beings in the area. Once activated, it directly dissolves blood to absorb magic power.

Jolyne calculated the magical energy consumed by her body. Medea and Medusa, who were beside her, had changed into normal human clothes and were dressed like members of the Black Organization.

Because she needed to control the power of the Mystic Eyes of Petrification, Medusa still wore her Noble Phantasm eyepatch and stood quietly beside Jolyne. She didn't react much to the fact that she had been summoned and then had a different Master, and simply accepted that she had become Jolyne's Servant.

Although Medusa appears cold, she is actually afraid of trouble. Her personality is not so much that she is taciturn, but rather that she thinks too much and keeps it to herself.

Compared to Medea's attitude towards her Master, Medusa is completely loyal, even to the point of self-abandonment, and will abandon her own thoughts for the Master's orders.

Overall, she is a Heroic Spirit with psychological issues, just like Medea.

However, there are some differences between the two. To use the affection level as an analogy, Medea is the type that is difficult to raise first and easy later, as long as you raise the affection level to 70, she will automatically add the remaining 30 points. Medusa, on the other hand, has an initial affection level of 60, but it is more difficult to raise the affection level later, which is easy to raise first and difficult later.

"There are only eight Servants in total, and we already have three of them."

Yukino Yukinoshita looked at Medea and Medusa beside Jolyne, then looked at Jolyne strangely, feeling that the victory of this Holy Grail War had already been predetermined.

Jolyne glanced at the time. It hadn't taken much time to defeat Sugou Nobuyuki, and night had just fallen. She cautiously said, "Although we have a great advantage, we still need to be careful of that high-level player. We can't stay at the Emiya residence forever; other players might come knocking."

Since the Fate world seems to fully accept the existence of players, presumably many players have already visited the world within the Fate universe.

As one of the attractions in Fuyuki City, Emiya's residence always gives you the feeling that if you stay there, you'll inexplicably bump into other players.

"How about coming to my home, given my status?"

Yukino Yukinoshita suggested that the identity she was given by Paradise was Fujimura Taiga. She thought she could get home by following the places she visited most often on the mobile app, but she ended up at Emiya's mansion and even summoned Saber through the Dragon Balls there.

Jolyne pondered and realized that she really had no recollection of where Fujimura Taiga lived, since the only times the protagonist's guardian appeared in the scene were at school and the Emiya residence.

"Let's go to Fujimura Taiga's house."

Jolyne agreed, and the combination of two Masters and three Servants quickly found a detached house in less than two blocks nearby.

It is suspected that Fujimura Taiga bought the house nearby so that it would be convenient for him to go to Emiya Shirou's house for meals. Apart from the bedroom, there are not many traces of life there.

Sitting on the sofa, the night was still dark, and Jolyne was considering whether she should go back to the Matou residence.

Being an ordinary person in the Fate world is very dangerous, and Matou Sakura is currently an ordinary person. Getting too close to her might lead to some dramatic or ridiculous situations.

After all, there are too many loopholes in the rules of the park that can be exploited. If ordinary people cannot be made aware of the supernatural, then why not use ordinary people's killing methods? Gas explosions, building collapses, the lives of ordinary people are as fragile as cicadas in summer. Or even use supernatural methods to kill ordinary people before they can react. I don't know if the park did it on purpose or by accident.

Jolyne was somewhat bothered by Paradise's comment, "Disguise your identity well." If it was just because the summoning item was within the disguised identity, this reminder seemed a little condescending.

For a player, finding the key item to unlock the next stage in an unfamiliar game is a basic skill, isn't it?

"Disguise your identity well."