Chapter 314: Gaia's Divinity

Awaken Amber and complete the plane's ascension.

Wu Chang recalled Grace's words, his eyes slightly narrowing.

"I think you owe me some explanations—like what exactly this plane world is, and why you've been secretly monitoring Amber all along."

Marvella, sitting at a distance, spoke up: "We weren't monitoring Amber—we were protecting her."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and pointed at Grace.

"You were possessed by the Mirror Killer, nearly killing Amber in the Mirror World, and then you stupidly took her to explore the old classroom building."

He then pointed at Marvella.

"You knew a lot of the truth, yet you stood by and did nothing—I've never seen you lift a finger to help Amber."

"Is this what you call protection?"

Grace wrinkled her nose, displeased.

"The dangers Amber faced were destined for her. I entered the situation myself to draw the monsters' attention—not only reducing her risk, but helping you find them earlier."

"If not for me, how would the Mirror Killer have struck twice in one day? If not for me, how many more days would it have taken you to discover how to enter the real old classroom building?"

"I understand outsiders like you—you don't have much time, do you?"

Wu Chang fell silent, his eyes filled with thought. Grace's words seemed to make sense.

When Amber pushed the little boy off the classroom building, he had asked other teachers—they confirmed Amber had been involved in multiple injury incidents, though infrequently.

The intervals ranged from months to at least two weeks; two appearances of the Mirror Killer in one day was unprecedented.

As for the anomalies in the old classroom building, it was Marvella who told him and Erin—they had investigated and found nothing unusual, and they never risked letting Amber get near it.

Without Grace, finding the monster in the old classroom building would have been truly difficult.

But one thing didn't add up. He asked: "How did you know I'd show up? And how did you know I could solve the problem?"

Grace's face lit up with pride. "Because from the start, we recognized you. I told you—we share memories as a race. Your willpower is extraordinary, and the woman with you—she hits hard with that hammer."

"And we suspect you've found a loophole in the world, a way to bypass its rules through illegitimate means. If you can't help Amber, no one else can."

Wu Chang was speechless. Player misunderstandings were one thing—but now even the natives of the Abyss were mistaking him for cheating?

Still, let them misunderstand. What he cared about was his identity—derived from the colorful title "True Walker." Even Schultz, with his Omniscient Crystal, couldn't pierce it. How had these two Miracle Walkers discovered his true identity?

"How did you find out about me?"

Grace shifted her body, sitting on Wu Chang's lap, speaking in a suggestive tone.

"Because part of our bodies has always been in your hand. When we come close enough, we can sense its presence."

Wu Chang realized—he pulled out the False Miracle.

So it was you, kid, who drew the Miracle Walkers here?

Well, now it made sense—why the Great Miracle could see through his True Walker disguise, and why it could pierce his stealth.

But why did it have to rely on him?

"If you're protecting Amber, and you know how to trigger her inner demon—why not do it yourselves?"

In his experience, Miracle Walkers weren't weak—they'd been final bosses in two instances he'd encountered.

Marvella and Grace exchanged a glance, both smiling bitterly.

"Because we lack the ability. In this plane, we're just ordinary people."

They saw the confusion in Wu Chang's eyes and answered before he could ask:

"Because this plane world is Amber's dream—or rather, a world born from her inner mind."

Wu Chang gave her the classic "What the hell?" expression.

What? Had he heard correctly?

The Cursed Plane? Amber's dream?!

He'd speculated endlessly about the Cursed Plane and Amber's nature—he'd thought she was the world's will, or a god born within the instance like Cui Chengze.

He'd even guessed she was the primordial spiritual core that even the Omniscient Crystal drooled over.

But he never imagined this world was Amber's dream.

Dreams are usually chaotic, nonsensical.

Yet in Sigef City, whether through Wu Chang's own senses or repeated explorations by the four organizations, no inconsistency had been detected—it felt undeniably real.

A dream being a real, independent world? Not just improbable—it couldn't exist in the Wasteland Realm.

Simple: if a dream could forge a world, how powerful would its dreamer be?

Peak Level Three of the Abyss? Or Level Four?

Even if Wu Chang believed they had no reason to lie, he still couldn't accept it.

He frowned at the two Miracle Walkers. "I need more explanations."

Grace pulled out her phone, playing a video recorded from her perspective.

"I'm just an ordinary elementary schoolgirl now. The backstory's too long—I'm afraid I can't explain clearly, so I prepared a script."

As the video played, the girl in it read aloud from a standard Knox Elementary workbook, revealing secrets of the Cursed Plane.

The origin of the Cursed Plane traced back five years, when the Light Society's identity was exposed, and the Four Organizations of the Rational Realm grew deeply hostile toward them.

Their conflict plunged the Intermediate Layer into chaos.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Wu Chang immediately paused the video. The opening made him want to scream—it was like skipping an entire season of a TV show and jumping straight into the sequel's trailer.

"Explain to me—why are we talking about a Wasteland Realm instance, and suddenly you're dragging in the Light Society, the Intermediate Layer, and the Rational Realm? Can you at least give me a recap?"

"Even if I can follow, anyone else watching this won't understand."

Grace blinked, at a loss for words, and turned helplessly to Marvella.

Marvella adjusted her glasses, assuming the posture of a history teacher. "The story's long. We must begin with the earliest anomalies in the Rational Realm's Public Zone."

Wu Chang interrupted: "No need for that much detail—summarize briefly, preferably in one paragraph."

Marivela: …

"To summarize: The Light Society has been conducting secret experiments in the Intermediate Layer to fully control the Rational Realm. A Wasteland Realm player accidentally stumbled in, plucked the fruit, and exposed the Light Society's existence—since then, the Light Society has become a semi-exposed organization."

Wu Chang clicked his tongue; that was a bit too condensed.

But he noticed the video mentioned the Light Society's existence was only exposed five years ago, and Marivela had just said it was because a Wasteland Realm player had intruded and stolen the fruit of the Light Society's research.

That was the Light Society's secret research facility, not a public toilet—how could a Wasteland Realm player enter the Intermediate Layer, then break into the Light Society's secret facility and pluck fruit? That player could not possibly be unknown.

Add to that the five-year time marker—back then, only one player stood out.

Wu Chang ventured: "The Wasteland Realm player you're referring to… wouldn't it be Painter?"

Marivela paused, then said: "Though there's no definitive conclusion on the intruder's identity, according to our intelligence, it was him."

Wu Chang nearly laughed out loud—he'd finally found the reason Painter had been stuck in the Wasteland Realm and refused to go to the Rational Realm.

Who knew Painter had this history of conflict with the Light Society? Classic case of dogs biting each other.

Wu Chang said: "I understand the general situation. Continue." Marivela halted the video and proposed: "Since I've already begun explaining to you, I'll handle the rest myself."

Marivela's reasoning was sound, but Wu Chang saw the excitement in her eyes—he couldn't shake the feeling that stopping the video wasn't for convenience, but because she'd caught the teaching bug.

He'd heard Amber complain more than once that Marivela was the worst teacher at Knox Elementary for dragging out class.

These two Miracle Walkers were getting too deep into their roles.

Marivela picked up from the summary and continued with Amber's story.

She had just said the Light Society had established many secret research facilities in the Intermediate Layer.

Their goal: to artificially cultivate divine seeds.

Awakening divinity is extremely difficult—ninety-nine percent of beings in the Abyss's second layer cannot awaken divinity on their own; they must absorb the divine essence left behind by dead gods.

The Light Society somehow discovered a method to condense imagined divinity.

They roamed across various layers, abducting native inhabitants to use as experimental subjects for hatching divinity.

!

They injected imagined divinity into these subjects, then used all kinds of stimuli and screening to fuse the imagined divinity with the subjects, forcing the subjects to hatch the imagined divinity into reality.

When the imagined divinity matured, at the instant it became real, the Light Society would harvest the matured divinity.

Hearing this, Wu Chang suddenly understood—no wonder the few individuals who appeared in the Light Society all bore names from Blue Star's gods and wielded similar powers.

He'd previously wondered whether the gods of Blue Star's mythology had truly existed, and whether their divine essence had been left behind on Blue Star, waiting to be collected.

Now it seemed those divine essences were merely imagined by the Light Society.

Since the topic had come up, Wu Chang asked: "Did Painter harvest a matured divine seed?"

Marivela shook her head: "He stole the device that condensed imagined divinity."

Wu Chang's expression turned strange—this wasn't just plucking a fruit; this was uprooting the entire tree.

Leave a little room for future encounters, Painter—you bastard.

His conflict with Joy was merely a dispute over treasure; Painter outright stole it. By that measure, Painter's conflict with the Light Society was even greater.

Seeing Wu Chang had no further questions, Marivela continued.

After seizing the artifact, Painter exposed the Light Society's existence to divert attention.

At the time, the Four Major Organizations didn't know the Light Society's true strength. Learning that such an organization, capable of reliably harvesting divinity, had been hiding beneath their noses, they immediately panicked.

The Four Major Organizations demanded to inspect the secret research facilities, check whether the Light Society had violated Abyssal human rights, and announced they would take appropriate measures depending on the severity.

Including but not limited to confiscating tools of the crime, sealing the crime scenes, detaining personnel involved, and seizing all related records as evidence.

The Light Society, by then, had grown strong enough to refuse cooperation—and so both sides clashed in open battle, suffering heavy losses.

It was during that battle that the Four Major Organizations realized many talented individuals who had quietly vanished over the years had secretly joined the Light Society.

During the outbreak of battle, the Intermediate Layer and the Rational Realm descended into chaos; the chaos spread to the secret research facilities, and many experimental subjects who had prepared in advance escaped in the confusion.

Among them was Amber.

But Amber differed from the other escaped subjects—her existence was exceptionally precious. The imagined divine core within her was Gaia, the Earth Goddess, Mother of All Gods.

To nurture her to maturity, the Light Society spared no effort, using several already-matured divine essences as stepping stones—and every resource in her specific research facility was devoted solely to her.

This meant the Light Society could ignore all other escaped subjects, but had to recapture Amber at all costs.

Amber carried a matured Gaia divinity—against ordinary Abyss Layer Two players, she might escape using her abilities, but against Light Society players who possessed divinity, she was utterly outmatched.

The Light Society quickly locked onto her. Just as she was cornered, she encountered the Miracle Walkers.

The Miracle Walkers were willing to help her escape her predicament, even willing to grant her the power needed for revenge—but in return, they had only one demand.

Their demand was the same one they had once made to Wu Chang: merge with them, and lead the Miracle Walker race to rebirth.

Wu Chang, hearing this, frowned: "Is there any way to undo your fusion?"

Marivela said calmly: "No. I know what you're thinking, Mr. Xiao En—our situation with Amber differs from our situation with you."

"We need each other. We require a powerful vessel to revive the Miracle Walker race and return us to our original world. She needs us to gain freedom and the power to seek revenge."

"We respect her will, and we will give everything for her. Between us, it is equality."

Wu Chang felt the next answer would be rude, but he asked anyway: "Then why did you attack me?"

Marivela: "Because our assessment concluded that transferring your abilities to Amber would greatly benefit resolving her predicament. For her sake, we had no choice but to act against you."

Wu Chang grimaced. Right—answer was indeed rude.

In other words, from the very beginning, the Miracle Walkers never considered him equal—or entitled to choice.

Speaking of their devotion to Amber, Marivela continued with Amber's story.

Since the Light Society only cared whether the divine seed matured, they didn't care whether the experimental subjects lived or died.

After all, no matter the subject's condition, they were destined to die at harvest time.

Since the subjects didn't matter, they hesitated not at all—no matter how brutal or cruel the methods, they doubled down without restraint.

The cultivation method, which was even more like raising a gu than raising a gu, made Amber's combat power extremely formidable, but the price was that Amber's inner heart was riddled with countless holes and flaws.

If these flaws were not patched up, as Amber grew stronger, she would be unable to resist the erosion of the Abyss aura, and before long her will would collapse and she would fall into madness.

To mend Amber's spiritual flaws, the Miracle Walkers expended tremendous effort and crafted the dream world she now inhabits.

The city of Sigve within the dream world was modeled on a city where Amber had once lived.

When Amber was abducted by the Radiant Society, she was just about to enter elementary school; at the time she had a happy and complete family, and she greatly looked forward to the life of starting school.

Precisely because of this, the Miracle Walkers used Knox Elementary and 26 Garden Street as symbols of Amber's spiritual flaws, hoping that by leaning on the life she had once longed for, they could heal the psychological trauma she had suffered in the secret research institute.

According to the Miracle Walkers' plan, Amber would live a new life in the city of Sigve; she would become the object of everyone's protection, every person would be full of goodwill toward her, and she would spend a complete and beautiful childhood.

A beautiful childhood would subtly and imperceptibly patch up her spiritual flaws, while at the same time allowing this fictional world to merge with her Gaia divinity, granting her Authority, and the boundless possibilities that exist above Authority.

The plan was beautiful, but the Miracle Walkers underestimated how important the Gaia divinity seed was to the Radiant Society.

During the incubation of the Gaia divinity seed, the Radiant Society used several mature divinities as nourishment; these mature divinities were not only meant to hasten ripening, but also buried hidden thunder within the Gaia divinity.

The Radiant Society sensed the formation of Amber's inner world, and that the Gaia divinity was about to slip from their control; to stop them, the Radiant Society detonated the hidden thunder.

This act caused the plot to completely slip from the Miracle Walkers' control.

To shape a true world, the Miracle Walkers employed a special power; this power could not only mend mere spiritual flaws, but could even restore a dead world.

Such tremendous power meant that once Amber's inner world took shape, it possessed its own rules; they could not only not interfere, but would also be affected by the world's rules.

Within the inner world Amber is an ordinary person; they merged into one with Amber, which also prevented them from unleashing the power of the Miracle Walkers.

They could only watch helplessly as the hidden thunder exploded, transforming the warm and harmonious inner world into a sinister and eerie place haunted by misfortune.

The spiritual flaws, which originally could have been mended simply by enjoying the beauty of childhood, became flaws that could only be patched up by defeating the monsters they had personified.

The loss of control of the spiritual flaw monsters utterly ruined Amber's life, causing her to be passed through more than ten foster families; every time her life had just begun to improve, it was utterly destroyed by misfortune.

After patch after patch, Amber's spiritual flaws not only failed to improve, but kept expanding.

If this continued, Amber's will would eventually collapse; once her will collapsed, she would no longer be able to bind the Gaia divinity, and the Radiant Society would be able to follow the hidden thunder they had planted to find the Gaia divinity.

(End of this chapter)