Chapter 478: Ruins 22

Du Zhengyi had already grown accustomed to not thinking too far into the future. He did not dwell too much on how many layers of meaning there might be in the message Xiang Qian had brought for Liu Li; if he did not find Luo Qi and bring him safely to the outside world, then everything else would be meaningless. Recently, all sorts of people had been appearing around them, and he was already used to it. He also had a premonition that if Luo Qi could escape the scrutiny of the Tower, he would immediately become a piece of fat meat chased by the entire Magic World. There were infinite possibilities within him, like a mine that everyone would want to come and dig at a few times.

Right now, this small world was boiling as if it were about to explode, and his only hope was that Luo Qi could find a hole to crawl into before the storm hit. The problem was location; this city was neither big nor small, and most buildings had underground sections, so he had to narrow down the search range as much as possible. Once the storm stopped, it would be best to be able to approach him immediately; that might be the gap between two attacks. In any case, the lunatic driving the storm prevented them from leaving and also prevented most attackers from launching attacks; everyone had to wait for the storm to pass.

He might have to rely on Xiang Qian's help, or in other words, he could only act under Xiang Qian's supervision. After thinking about it with a bit of composure, he could be certain that Luo Qi would definitely look for the secrets of this Sandbox. When finding Luo Qi, there was a high probability of stumbling upon some secret, whether big or small. Thinking of this made him want to sigh; Luo Qi was just that annoying, and he was also like a rolling magnet, adsorbing all the scattered parts wherever he went. Sooner or later, Luo Qi would use these parts to piece together a terrifying monster, and he had more than once suspected that the name of that monster might fucking be "Truth." The problem was whether Xiang Qian or Liu Ziyi were suitable to witness these fragments of truth; the last encounter with the Ancestor Mage still left him with lingering fears, and he gradually began to calculate that when he finally found Luo Qi, it would be better if she were not present.

He could feel that the Old Mage had been observing him, even though she looked very relaxed. She might sympathize with him, and also sympathize with Luo Qi's plight; women were always more prone to sympathy, but no one knew to what extent sympathy could influence a person's actions. They would lend a helping hand at certain times, but at the same time, they would report everything to the Tower. So even though Xiang Qian had spoken the words Liu Li wanted her to relay, which was almost an admission of her own stance, he still hadn't told much of the truth. She must have noticed.

"Do you think Luo Qi will find a way to look for the Magic Crystal here?" the Old Mage asked, her tone revealing a hint of disapproval. In a standard test, looking for the Magic Crystal was an act of cheating and would generally be punished. The Underlying Magic Protocol in the Sandbox would at least protect the Sandbox, as this was the foundation of all Magic here. Their earlier act of dismantling the Communication Magic had triggered a series of self-protection and punishment measures in the Sandbox. If one wanted to explore the deeper Magic core, even if Luo Qi and Liu Ziyi were both leaders in their respective fields of Magic, the feasibility of success was not high.

"I didn't say that," Du Zhengyi said.

"You just said..." Xiang Qian hesitated, recalling their conversation just now.

Du Zhengyi revealed a smile; at least in this part, he was being honest. "Luo Qi's understanding of Magic theory is very limited. Even if the Magic structure here were completely opened up for him to see, it is unlikely he would understand it. My meaning is, he might go to the City Library." Xiang Qian was completely stunned, her face showing a defeated expression. "The Library?"

"This is a human city. If he is digging around here, he will be digging for the secrets of the ruins, not the Magic secrets of the Sandbox," Du Zhengyi explained. "He is very familiar with human cities; I guess he will probably go to the library."

"Is there a library here?" Xiang Qian thought hard, her eyes almost rolling to the top of her head. "I don't remember; it seems I have never noticed."

"I haven't noticed either," Du Zhengyi admitted, "but now that I recall, I haven't seen a single book here. Not in the abandoned cars, nor in the residential buildings. In other words, I don't remember seeing any documents with historical value."

"It seems we Mages are a bit hostile toward history; do we even tear up other people's history books?" Xiang Qian rolled her eyes and said, "Even if there were some, we probably wouldn't look at them closely."

Du Zhengyi thought for a moment and shook his head with some firmness. "I am certain I haven't seen anything that reveals historical details. This place is like a mineral water bottle with the label torn off; it's just a bottle of water, no year, no brand, no place of origin."

"A Clearing Magic with an index target could achieve this," Xiang Qian said, pondering the workload involved. "Perhaps we really did do this at the beginning. Tearing off the details of this city, changing it from a specific scene to a general scene, to train our Battle Mages in the ability to conduct urban warfare with humans. Removing the details might be to avoid causing discomfort to some Mages; for example, Mages like Luo Qi who have deep ties to humans might have... er, arguments... with the Supreme Committee afterward."

"It is also possible that this was a simulated city we created from scratch, and there was really no need to add unnecessary details. Perhaps the Mages who originally created this place just didn't have the patience to design books, nor the patience to carve words on stone tablets. Some human simulation game scenes are just like this; rough games have no details, while in exquisite games, even simulated books can be read," Du Zhengyi said. This was a bit of inspiration brought to him by playing games with Luo Qi recently.

"So... if traces of text are found, it would precisely prove that this place was not manufactured by us," Xiang Qian said. She looked at the small puppet still "crashing" on the side. "Was it also sent out by Luo Qi to check whether there is any text on the Obelisk? Luo Qi is really persistent. Is he that concerned about this?"

"Is it because humans were oppressed? Is it because someone was oppressed?" Du Zhengyi smiled slightly. "Of course. What he cares about most in his heart is fairness; perhaps no successful Great Mage has ever truly experienced the taste of being humiliated like he has. The scars of growth are often carried for a lifetime; as long as he has the chance, he will definitely try to figure out where this city came from."

"If that's the case..." Xiang Qian pondered, "then this Sandbox might really be helpless against him. His behavior will be different from all the behaviors predicted by the Sandbox, and all the preset paths will have come to nothing."