The Stan world fused with the Green Forest world and the Cow Plain world, leaping straight to second place among the lower-layer worlds.
Three days passed.
The newly fused world, once riddled with friction, had gradually grown more harmonious. Orcs, humans, and elves possessed vastly different temperaments and ways of life, so the three races still largely kept to their original territories. Only a small number of people could move freely between them to manage the enormous new domain.
Kas was perfectly suited to this task, given his extensive experience running a town.
Of course, the Stan world now held at least a million souls, which made governing far harder for Kas. He spent every day frazzled and exhausted. By contrast, the true ruler of the Stan world, Ye Chui, enjoyed a much more leisurely existence.
Ye Chui took his trial team into two more trials. Thanks to their fearsome reputation, however, the trials had become effortless. The moment any participant learned Ye Chui’s team was present, they surrendered at once. Even the most stubborn warriors did the same. It was not cowardice. They simply understood that staying meant certain death, so why persist?
After rendering the trials pointless, Ye Chui found it increasingly difficult to earn points.
He therefore decided to enter a battlefield.
Contests on the Godsin Continent took two forms: trials and battlefields.
Failure in a trial meant death for the individual. Failure on a battlefield meant destruction for the entire fragment world. Warriors who fell there brought catastrophic thunder strikes upon their home, plunging it into disaster.
Victory, however, brought blessings. Enough victories could eventually allow a fragment world to ascend to the middle layer.
Yet just as Ye Chui prepared to join a battlefield contest, Kas returned in haste from the central city, where he had gone to trade goods. He found Ye Chui and the others enjoying a pleasant hunt and barbecue deep in the elves’ green forest. Yes, Ye Chui’s idea of “preparation” was to relax with a grand cookout.
Kas arrived breathless, drooling over the sizzling, golden-brown game on the fire, and declared, “Trouble. Something huge has happened in the lower layer.”
“What is it?” Ye Chui asked lightly, tearing off a roasted beast leg and passing it to Kas.
Kas took a bite, chewing as he spoke. “Two days ago Golden City suddenly invaded the Mine world of the dwarves. The Mine world is essentially one gigantic meteor-like rock, with dwarves living inside the caverns they carved out, so Golden City has never been able to annex it directly. But it looks as though the Mine world cannot hold out much longer. Hmm, this leg is delicious. What meat is it?”
“A white deer with a single horn on its head,” Green replied, tending the food.
Kas nearly spat out his mouthful. “A uni… unicorn? Is that not the sacred beast the elves regard as a divine incarnation?”
“Shh,” Debbie quickly hushed him, raising a finger. “We saw quite a few of them anyway. Killing just one, the elves will never notice. And this meat really is exquisite, far better than sea demons or fourth- and fifth-tier magical beasts.”
“Besides, we killed it by accident. You cannot blame us,” Ye Chui added, pointing toward Shalemei, who wore an expression of guilty (yet blissful) indulgence as she ate the roasted unicorn. “Shalemei wanted to test her 98k, and the unicorn happened to charge straight into her bullet.”
Shalemei nodded vigorously. “Exactly. It hit the bullet head-on, perfectly centred. Definitely not my fault.”
“These unicorns are just too stupid,” Guni chimed in.
Kas: “…”
Could you at least pretend to feel bad?
“Anyway, enough of that. Tell us more about the Mine world,” Ye Chui said, waving a hand. “You rushed back here, so something important must have happened. Did the Mine world ask us for aid?”
In the current lower layer, only the Stan world could stand against Golden City.
Only Stan could resist their invasion.
“Yes. I met several dwarves in the central city. They begged me to arrange a meeting with you. Clearly they hope you will save them.”
“Are the dwarves not very close to Golden City? Why this sudden hostility? This is tricky. We are strong now, but Golden City will probably still be hard to handle,” Ye Chui mused, tearing off chunks of unicorn meat and eating them.
From the orcs he had learned Golden City’s great secret: the divine artifact.
What exactly was the divine artifact? What did it do? The people of Golden City possessed agility beyond elves and strength beyond orcs without ever unlocking their power. Was that due to the artifact?
These questions fascinated Ye Chui. He had no wish to clash with Golden City unprepared.
Yet Kas’s next words stunned him.
“Those dwarves said they are willing to trade the divine artifact for the protection of the Stan world.”
“…What?”
…
Ten minutes later.
In the hall of the original Stan town’s mercenary guild, Ye Chui and his companions received the five dwarves.
The dwarves were all very short yet extraordinarily sturdy, with huge hands, rough features, and thick beards. At present they looked anxious, pacing back and forth.
When Ye Chui appeared, one of them rushed forward and dropped to one knee. “Mikus, son of Sola, pledges my service to Lord Ye Chui. I come on behalf of the dwarf king.”
The others knelt likewise and gave their names.
“Mikus, please rise,” Ye Chui said. He sat on a stool and asked curiously, “You possess a divine artifact?”
“Yes, Lord Ye Chui.” Mikus had prepared lengthy praise, but Ye Chui went straight to the point. “My father Sola was the greatest dwarf forger. Thirty-four years ago the Golden King invited him to Golden City. Since then he never left the Golden Pavilion, repairing their damaged divine artifact. Other dwarves were occasionally permitted to visit and assist him.”
“Hang on,” Debbie said as she walked in. “Uncle Mikus, how old are you?”
“I am thirty-five. Why?” Mikus looked baffled.
“Nothing, nothing,” Ye Chui said quickly, exchanging a glance with Debbie. Dwarves truly were different from orcs. He continued, “You say you have a divine artifact. Did you steal Golden City’s?”
“Of course not. Golden City’s artifact is their highest secret. Any outsider who learns of it faces execution by the Golden King. That is precisely why they are now invading our Mine world,” Mikus replied.
Ye Chui suddenly understood. “The dwarves helped repair the artifact. Now Golden City invades because they no longer need dwarves. So…”
“Exactly. The artifact has been fully restored,” Mikus confirmed. “Three days ago, when it successfully activated, my father was killed by the Golden King.”
“Three days ago? The very day we annexed Green Forest and Cow Plain. What a coincidence,” Green remarked.
“There are no coincidences,” Mikus shook his head. “In truth my father completed the repairs long ago. But he knew that once it was done, the dwarf race would face annihilation. So he kept claiming problems remained, delaying again and again. Three days ago, when he learned of the Stan world’s rise, he decided the moment he had waited for had arrived.”
At this, Mikus’s eyes grew moist.
Ye Chui and the others exchanged glances. The old dwarf had placed all his hope in Stan. When the Golden King slew him, he had probably died with a smile.
Resha asked, “Then what is this divine artifact you have?”
“My father foresaw the Golden King’s intentions. More than ten years ago, on my first permitted visit to Golden City, he secretly passed me the blueprints. For over a decade the dwarf race has studied them in secret, attempting to forge a new divine artifact capable of rivalling Golden City’s.”
“A divine artifact can simply be forged like that?” Ye Chui asked in surprise.
“Its construction is not actually difficult. Dwarves are born master craftsmen. We can forge anything with ease. Though the artifact is complex, after more than ten years of study and experimentation we have perfectly replicated one identical to the original in Golden City,” Mikus declared with proud satisfaction.
“If you possess a new artifact, surely you can fight Golden City yourselves. Why seek our protection?” Debbie asked, puzzled.
Mikus flushed slightly and scratched his thinning scalp. “The artifact is indeed complete, but… it will not function.”
“Will not function?” Everyone in the hall stared.
“Yes. The structure itself poses no difficulty for dwarves. But the core component, the thing called ‘divine order’, cannot be created through forging alone. Without it, the artifact we built is merely useless scrap metal.”
“…”
The dwarves offered the divine artifact in exchange for protection, yet their version was defective. What value did it hold?
Sensing the subtle shift in their expressions, Mikus hurriedly added, “Dwarves excel at forging, yet our grasp of magic is mediocre. Divine order is a power that transcends both magic and rules. We have heard that Lord Ye Chui is masterful with magic creations. Perhaps, perhaps you could unravel the mystery of divine order.”
“That is quite a clever idea,” Kas said with faint mockery.
Mikus grew agitated, bowing his head in restraint. “The survival of the dwarf race hangs by a thread. This is our last hope. If the lords of Stan believe saving the Mine world too dangerous, we will accept your refusal without complaint.”
“No need to rush. I never said we would not help. But I must examine your artifact first,” Ye Chui said quickly. He was deeply curious about the divine artifact and wanted to see what it truly was.
Hope flared in Mikus’s eyes. “Truly? Wonderful. We carry it with us even now.”
“You brought it here?” Ye Chui and the others exclaimed in shock.
Mikus explained, “The Mine world is under invasion. We barely escaped, so naturally we brought the artifact with us. To be honest, whether you aid us or not, we intended to leave it in your hands. If the dwarf race perishes, at least someone might one day avenge us.”
Mikus had come with little expectation of success. Help or not, they meant to entrust the artifact to Ye Chui so he might one day possess the means to crush Golden City and avenge the dwarves. Thus they held no fear that Ye Chui might seize it without fulfilling his side.
“Show me the artifact at once,” Ye Chui urged.
Mikus pointed to the space ring on his finger. Each of the other four dwarves wore one as well.
“Lord Ye Chui, please take us to where the celestial pillar stands in the Stan world. The artifact must fuse with the celestial pillar to exert its power.”
…
More than half an hour later.
Deep within the Green Forest, the Stan world’s celestial pillar shone down through the dense trees. The surrounding area had been cleared, the forest felled to create open ground. Ye Chui planned to build a plaza here in future. The site was heavily guarded, with his Ultron puppets waiting unseen.
Now the dwarves worked busily beneath the pillar, removing strangely exquisite magic creations from their space rings and assembling them. Some sections required hammering to ensure smooth connections. A handful of Stan’s highest officials stood around, watching the assembly of the divine artifact with reverence and curiosity.
At first Ye Chui’s expression was one of wonder, but gradually it turned peculiar.
He rubbed his head, tilting it as he muttered, “The divine artifact… why does it look so much like a computer? That part is the monitor, that bulky section must be the hard drive. Oh, that glittering thing like a heart, that seems to be the processing core, rather like a CPU. And those cables connecting to the celestial pillar… they feel just like network cables.”
When the dwarves finally completed the assembly, the resemblance to a computer could not have been stronger.
“The artifact requires no magic to start. It draws energy directly from the celestial pillar itself. Every component now functions normally. Only the divine order core is missing, preventing full activation,” Mikus said, wiping sweat from his brow as he explained to Ye Chui.
Debbie and the others examined it curiously. They soon noticed Ye Chui’s strange expression. He stood deep in thought, nodding occasionally.
Debbie asked, “Ye Chui, what is it?”
“Hmm. I think I know what divine order actually is,” Ye Chui said, sounding uncertain.
The others started in surprise. His companions looked delighted. Lord Ye Chui had not let them down.
“What is divine order?” Debbie asked.
“It is the operating system. This thing is identical to a computer. Of course it cannot boot without an OS,” Ye Chui replied, using words the others did not understand.
Resha asked, “…Little brother, do you know how to activate it?”
“The artifact’s system is naturally no ordinary system. I could create a system disk, but it probably could not run Windows 10 or anything similar. It has no optical drive either. However…” As he spoke, Ye Chui pulled his pad from his pocket, eyes shining brightly. “I wonder whether my pad magic guide book could serve as the divine order.”
