Chapter 485: Ruins 29

The storm finally subsided, and sunlight heavy with moisture fell upon what was once a city landfill. Du Zhengyi stood on a rock amidst the rubble, gazing at the distant mountains, much like a piece of wreckage from a giant ship in the middle of an ocean looking toward the Other Shore.

After midnight, the city would be reborn, erasing everything that mad Mage had done here. Du Zhengyi felt this place was somewhat like the Cube beneath Qionglin; a city was just a much larger Cube. Back when he was on duty at Qionglin, he was sometimes assigned to analysis and observation work, evaluating just how insane the madmen in the Cube had become and observing their Magic behavior. He did not want to compare the current situation to those times, yet he could not spit out the bitterness in his mouth.

He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and held it in his mouth; the tip ignited with a spark of its own, and he exhaled a puff of smoke. Three shadows were slowly approaching him; he had discovered them long ago. If this were in the past, he could have handled it more easily. Some people pitied him for his current state, but in truth, he did not care at all. He had always worn shackles; the current ones were of course forced upon him, but the very first shackles were ones he had worn voluntarily. He accepted obligations, accepted duties, and willingly became the ox pulling the cart.

Not complaining. —Forget it, just thinking this sentence was already complaining. Du Zhengyi threw the cigarette in his hand onto the ground, suddenly feeling that he had really had enough, that he was thinking too much, and that he had been infected with the foolishness of Luo Qi.

He had seventeen ways to solve the problem. He could use high-energy-consumption Lightning Technique to carbonize everything he found displeasing, or he could use low-energy-consumption Teleportation Thrust to take them out one by one like a model worker. He could manipulate Climate Magic to use the recent stormy weather to flood every rat hole in this city, forcing out those puppets, madmen, and Luo Qi. He could set up Sensing Magic here, calculate every trace of Magic, and conduct a methodical search as he had in the past, finding every path Luo Qi had taken and digging him out.

But he was not in the mood for serious work today. Nor did he want to use high-energy Magic for this matter and send himself to the Critical Point to try his luck; he was likewise not in the mood for self-sacrifice today. Another day, perhaps; another day he would be fearless of sacrifice, just as he had been last time when dealing with Zhao Jiaozhu and the clownfish alongside Luo Qi.

He could be certain that Mage Xiang Qian and Liu Ziyi had already left the Sandbox; he had sensed the Magic Energy when the Sandbox passage was opened once. He raised his head, gazing into the void ahead. He did not formalize any Magic; he lacked the golden grids and automatically calculated formulas of Liu Ziyi. He could sense Magic itself; Magic echoed with his existence, and in the other layer of vision he opened by concentrating, Magic manifested in a different form.

Liu Ziyi translated spells, dismantled structures, and repaired calculation formulas; he also possessed these techniques acquired from school, and he himself had once corrected the Beacon for Space Magic. But there were other things, powers he was born with, that would cause the Magic World to naturally open for him—countless interfaces, countless underlying structures. Qionglin called this the Du Clan possessing the bloodline closest to the Ancestor; Luo Qi would call this genes. The Entanglement of the Gushan Guard acted as shackles bound to his innate power, but for the first time in his life, a lasting conflict had arisen between the Venerables of Qionglin. The Sandbox was brought by Fan Shi, and the way the puppets were used mimicked the organizational structure of the Alien—still the handiwork of Fan Shi. The Entanglement became fragile after several logical steps; an inconsistency had arisen between the actions of Qionglin and the guarding of Gushan. At this moment, nothing could restrain Du Zhengyi anymore.

Countless intricate structures flashed through his mind. When he was a child, he had once guessed that perhaps in the era of the Progenitor Mage, his ancestors could understand these magics. He could not make large-scale adjustments to these complex structures, but there were some operations he could modify.

For instance, revoking the barriers of the Sandbox and opening the fourth wall of this dramatic world.

A storm quietly began within the force field. Du Zhengyi watched the distant mountains, as if the graphics card of a game had malfunctioned; blue and red bars tore across the distant mountains like lightning. The distant mountains melted into a mosaic, and in another layer of vision of the Magic World, static electricity crackled and popped. This massive Magic realization made it difficult for the already out-of-control minds of the high-energy puppets to endure.

Not far away, someone let out a howl; high-energy Mages were instinctively attracted by high concentrations of Magic power. Like schizophrenics attracted to a Public Post Station, the three high-energy puppets approaching Du Zhengyi hesitated; the intense Magic aura burning at the edge of the Sandbox where the distant mountains were tearing apart strongly attracted them.

Du Zhengyi added the Secret Language he had observed from Fan Ning; all the tiny Magic flows occurring around him could not escape his senses. They had better play with Magic behind his back; no one would have any secrets in front of him. He had pondered Fan Ning's Magic while waiting for the storm to pass; it was indeed something he had never understood, perhaps a small amount of Secret Language held by the Fan Family—all old families had some secret Magic. He called out with these Secret Languages, and the Sandbox gave him a response, accelerating the process of the Sandbox opening.

One after another, high-energy puppets seemed to pop out from the ground, standing still one by one, and gradually running toward the burning walls of the Sandbox. A gap appeared vaguely. Du Zhengyi guessed that people outside must feel the violent energy changes by now and that it might already be in chaos. The first high-energy puppet to rush out might have already crashed into the arms of some Mage. He was not too worried about those Mages; there were high-energy Mages of all trades, several Battle Mages, dozens of Level 1 Great Mages, and Venerables present. He could imagine the chaos outside, but why did he have to clean up the mess every time? It was only reasonable for everyone to share the work.

He kept his distance from the high-energy puppets, gradually approaching the torn wall of the Sandbox, and finally stopped on a pile of rubble that looked like a small hill not far from the exit. There were six high-energy puppets, testing their way out of the Sandbox one by one; to their simple brains, they were likely rushing toward higher energy.

Immediately following this, a tremor came from underground. Du Zhengyi keenly captured the sound of numerous footsteps, and an iron door was pushed open with a boom; the flood from underground had finally found a gate through which it could crawl out.

Gradually, the puppets poured out from various exits underground, turning a blind eye to Du Zhengyi standing on the small hill. Du Zhengyi pondered that they were acting on instinct. The judgment of Luo Qi and Liu Ziyi was correct; the puppets were connected by Yajian, and hundreds of brains connected into a network had evolved an independent consciousness. Now, this conscious entity had found an exit for life, and the instinct for survival drove them to rush madly toward it.

Du Zhengyi looked down. Among the large group of ragged puppet zombies, he saw Luo Qi at a glance, running madly with the team, surrounded by zombies in front and behind. Even he himself was no different from the zombies, just as dull and sluggish, running madly at the same rhythm as the team.