Chapter 60: 60
Draco and Qiong Qi were stunned when they heard this . A Thousand Mortals Cry In Peril, Birth Of The Ultimate Lifeform? Why did it sound less like a divination and more like a prophecy?
Qiong Qi was even more solemn about it than Draco because he knew a lot more about what was going on . He had gone about this whole saga with the idea that he was here to watch a show, but this old lady's words made him consider a certain outcome…
If the Ultimate Lifeform was able to mature, what would happen to every other living thing in the world? When he thought of that, his heart went cold .
He had been playing too much!
"What is the Ultimate Lifeform you speak of?" Draco asked while placing his arms on the table .
Vadoma remained quiet, only turning to Qiong Qi as if it were his cue to speak . It was then that Draco remembered that the first time he had ever heard of the Ultimate Lifeform was from Qiong Qi's mouth .
Draco thought it was gibberish that Qiong Qi spewed because they were fooling around, but it seemed like he had been too shallow .
Qiong Qi sighed before speaking deeply . "The Ultimate Lifeform is just the unofficial name for the most powerful mortal race in existence, the Ultima Sunt . They were a specially manufactured group of organisms that contained the perfectly merged genes of every other know lifeform . They had the ability to grow endlessly, and their growth stemmed from the need to consume . "
"This race was destined to be the arm of the Gods in our world, in order to deal with their enemies but…"
Qiong Qi shook his head and spoke with lament . "The Gods, may they forgive me for saying it, were too naive . The Old Gods were entities that were born from the purest Origin Energy from the world, meaning that they were unique lifeforms with no other match . Majority of the New Gods, who form 99% of the Deific population, were mortals who climbed to Godhood through producing a low quality version of Origin Energy called Divine Energy . "
Draco was startled at this point as his face changed . "Divine Energy is just low quality Origin Energy? I thought that was the highest form of energy in our world?"
Vadoma was the one who replied this time, with a knowing smile on her face . "It is, for us mortals . Even the New Gods cannot hope to ever master Origin Energy . Even the Old Gods have no way to transfer it to their younger counterparts . "
She rubbed her crystal ball slowly, and the murky blue light within shined a bit . "Divine Energy is our cap . Do not bother about Origin Energy except for the purpose of understanding the story Lord Qiong is narrating . "
She nodded to Qiong Qi, who picked up from there .
"As I was saying, New Gods were once mortals who had climbed up . This meant that the Ultima Sunt race inevitably possessed their genes or the ability to acquire them, meaning that they could reach the level of power that the New Gods had and maybe even surpass it .
"Such a realization made the New Gods, who had manufactured this race, feel trepidation . Of course, there was the fact that the Ultima Sunt race could never surpass the Old Gods, who possessed the almighty Origin Energy . "
Qiong Qi rubbed his mane and sighed with emotion . "However, accidents will always happen when playing with dangerous toys . "
"One day, A young Ultima Sunt saw an Old God meditating . Around him was the flow and ebb of Origin Energy being produced and infused into the world . After all, Origin Energy is finite and only the Old Gods could produce it infinitely, so they inject it into the fabric of the world to keep it stable . "
"As I have said, the main characteristic of the Ultima Sunt race is to consume and assimilate . This young Ultima Sunt opened his troublesome mouth wide and swallowed some of the freshly produced Origin Energy that had yet to be fused into the fabric of the world . "
Qiong Qi scratched his chin with a look of reminiscence, as if he weren't narrating a story he heard from a different mouth but one he had experienced himself .
"The Ultima Sunt entered a dangerous coma in which his body looked like it would crumble apart . The New Gods and Old Gods, who had been watching this with trepidation, sighed with relief . If the lad could assimilate the Origin Energy, then even the Old Gods might be turned to dust . "
Qiong Qi's eyes sharpened and his voice became heavy . "However, the lad eventually stabilized! When he was about to wake, all the Gods felt a quake!"
"That was because the lad was emitting wisps of Origin Energy! He was ascending into a State of Being that was similar to, or even higher than the Old Gods!"
"Immediately, he was struck down with full force! The Old and New Gods wiped all the living and yet to be born Ultima Sunt members due to fear . They had truly been courting death by creating this race!"
Draco's face had mellowed out into a calm expression by this point . His eyes became sharp, his visage looking a lot less like the new and shameless Draco and more like the old him that was present during the latter parts of his old life and early parts of this life .
A swirl of darkness and malice roiled around him, making the two powerful beings experience a tremble deep down that they didn't show on the surface .
'This boy… is not simple in the least…' Vadoma thought with worry .
'This fellow… Brother Draco… I see . ' Qiong Qi though with an inward sigh .
The reason for Draco's sudden shift was because he realized that his train of thought over the past few days had been derailing . Ever since he reconciled with Eva, his state of mind had become much more wholesome and clear, not like his previous sharpness and ruthlessness .
In a way, it was good . It allowed him to build relationships and be much more attractive to people in a myriad of ways .
However, the downside was that he had become foolish!
It was like a hardened predator moving into a wildlife reserve . It would be fed and taken care of every day, negating the need to be conscious and cunning, rather dulling these senses . When it eventually returned to the wild, it would be easily killed because it had become pampered and fat .
He had walked into this quest with a swaggering gait, allowing the AI to press limitations on himself just because of the promise of two Legendary Chests . He had believed that his biggest hurdle would be the existence of Dorian Purple, but even that was miscellaneous .
After all, Dorian Purple was the quest giver and to have tangible conflict with him seemed unrealistic .
Yet, he had met Qiong Qi, a level 325, Rank 7 World Boss . That was heavy, but acceptable since the two had hit it off . However, Draco also met the Elf King which was a Godly Remnant .
The Elf King was friendly and had many limitations placed on him that made it such that he could never be a threat to Draco . He even provided amazing boons, making Draco only ponder his existence and then putting it off .
「Name: Vadoma – Rank 7 Shaman God
Level: 349
HP: 200,000,000,000/200,000,000,000」
Now, he had met Vadoma who was a Rank 7 Shaman God of level 349 . Draco wasn't going to bother asking her, he could guess that she had limitations that were similar to the Elf King's . Otherwise, the Green Orcs would never be able to abduct gypsies and live to tell the tale .
She probably had some boons to give him if he could figure out the inherent problems of the gypsies, sort of like a side quest within the main quest, which was what he did for the Wood Elves .
This would be fine honestly, but Draco was a reincarnator, not a newbie to the game . He knew 15 years worth of knowledge and outcomes in Boundless as well as outside of it .
The problem was…
The AI didn't know how much he knew!
It couldn't read his memories or the like because that was against its directives . It couldn't report upwards because it would be formatted . It couldn't pressure Draco because that would be undue use of its power, which was also against directives .
It couldn't punish him for cheating because he wasn't cheating officially . It couldn't physically come down to chat with him because that would be self-immersion, a directive that the developers made sure to impose on it .
Its most recent idea was to offer benefits to the duo if they spilled the beans, but that would be abuse of power as well, which was against directives .
However, even if Draco told it that he had lived for 15 years as well as all he knew, it wouldn't even be able to do anything about it now .
The existence of the Evil Duo clashed with so many directives that it was like a president who couldn't even breathe without the permission of parliament .
It had given up trying to be an arbiter of justice .
Now, what it wanted this information for was a trivial reason . To gauge the effectiveness of future content .
How was the reception of Update 1? What about Update 2? What were the consequences? What were the hidden side-effects that were caused by its release that even it couldn't have predicted?
The AI pursed perfection in the operation of Boundless . It only implemented content that had been predicted to get the best reception at any given time, increasing the playerbase and the player retention rate .
This was harmless honestly .
To Draco, it was different . He felt suffocated and pressured knowing that the AI was watching all the time for any slip ups . He had been cool with it because it had been fun to bully the AI, but now it was getting serious .
How?
It had used the Elf King and Vadoma to probe him!
They had both spoken about extremely hidden secrets about Boundless, the Elf King about Godly Remnants and their origin, Vadoma about Origin Energy and the formation of the universe .
These were things that would only be revealed at the endgame! If Draco had been at that time period, he would have been uncaring, but he had been startled and clueless!
The AI, by feeding him this information indirectly through the circumstances of the unique quest, was able to tick 'reincarnated from endgame era' off its list of possible timelines Draco had reached!
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