Chapter 413: Chapter 400: Potential Enemy (2nd Update)

Who is our enemy? What a cliche line, but it sounds pretty cool.

The frontline reporter had already picked up her notebook and camera, wanting to record everything Silver Boss was about to say, but after he shook his head, she had no choice but to put them down.

She knew it might be time for Fanxing to perform.

“So, boss…are you also interested in the background stories and settings of Holy Spirit World?”

Fanxing’s eyes lit up when he saw the information-packed whiteboard; to someone like him who loved lore and settings, this relationship diagram was something super cool!

He was even willing to pay a hefty sum to buy this giant whiteboard and add it to his collection at home.

Thus, Fanxing might have thought that Silver Boss, who took the time to create this character relationship chart, might share his interest in lore and settings!

The feeling of finding a kindred spirit, and that spirit being a super big shot, sent Fanxing’s emotions soaring.

“I am interested in the settings, Fanxing… Now I need you to tell me, which factions might we become enemies with in the future? To be precise, which factions consider us enemies and might attack us like they did on Heichao Island?”

Silver Boss was also considering whether to spare some time to visit the libraries in Lionheart City and Queen Mei’s library to gather this intelligence.

But his proficiency in Holy Spirit language wasn’t enough; there were many books in the libraries that he couldn’t understand. Currently, the player with the highest level of proficiency in Holy Spirit language was…the Fanxing Scholar Squad.

The Fanxing Scholar Squad had already reached the Master level in Holy Spirit language. The life profession levels in the game were divided into Novice, Apprentice, Expert, and Master, with two more mysterious levels beyond that.

But as of now, no Holy Spirit player had advanced above the Master level in any profession, so those levels remained unlocked.

As far as Silver Boss knew, within the Dancing Nuclear Guild, there was only one Master level Alchemist named Lanlan, and another Master level Alchemy Engineer, Xia Shan… belonged to some other guild.

So for background stories, Silver Boss still needed to rely on Fanxing’s advice.

“I have a question. Mr. Lu, are you asking this purely out of interest, or to predict future game updates?” The frontline reporter had a hunch that Silver Boss might not be genuinely interested in the lore, but rather he ‘valued’ it.

“Out of interest, but don’t you think the game’s setting isn’t just a simple backdrop?” Silver Boss asked.

“So, it’s about…predicting subsequent version updates?”

The frontline reporter grasped what Silver Boss was hinting at; he wanted to use the lore of Holy Spirit World to predict the content of upcoming updates.

Things like new instances, new equipment, new mechanics, etc… This kind of prediction work, the frontline reporter had seen in some big guilds.

Usually, it’s right before game updates when the official sources release a bunch of news, and the guilds prepare based on that information.

For example, when a host of monsters with high fire damage was released, the major guilds started hoarding fire resistance potions and the like.

But predicting future versions based on the game’s setting, like Silver Boss was doing… well, the frontline reporter didn’t dare ask further, because to outsiders, this seemed like the behavior of a madman or a fool.

Many games’ lore is just there for show, but the frontline reporter sensed that Silver Boss had his own reasons for having this discussion with Fanxing.

Background lore wasn’t the frontline reporter’s area of expertise, so she just sat beside them and listened as Fanxing began his analysis.

“The Annihilation Legion, the Magic Thieves on Heichao Island; these two factions go without saying, right? The Annihilation Sect that branched off from the Annihilation Legion is likely to be the biggest villain in the game, and they’re the ones to blame for Fureya’s incident.”

Fanxing walked to the whiteboard and pointed at the photo of the Annihilation Legion, and then his finger moved towards the gods of the Holy Spirit Alliance, who occupied most of the space on the board.

“These gods of the Holy Spirit Alliance need to be courted to build our city; Silver Boss should know this.” Fanxing’s Scholar Squad wasn’t quite aware of the current status of the gods residing in various guilds.

But the invasion of Heichao Island has made the relationship between the gods and the Holy Spirits a bit delicate, as if feeling the plight of being friends with Conan; the gods expressed their fatigue.

“What Silver Boss wants to know, I guess, is about factions that haven’t appeared yet, and those neutral units that could potentially turn hostile. Let’s start with the Void Swarm, which poses the greatest possible threat.” When Fanxing mentioned the Void Swarm, there was only a symbol for it on Silver Boss’s whiteboard.

Just like the insectoid demons and similar creatures in all games, Fanxing thought that this entity was also a strong contender to be the ultimate villain, but there were few traces of the Void Swarm on Heichao Island. Instead, it was the traces of the Abyss, which stood in a position of absolute neutrality, that were more prevalent.

While listening to Fanxing’s analysis, Yin always felt that this was not what he wanted to hear until Fanxing casually mentioned something towards the end.

“I think the Eternals also have the potential to become villains, but let’s continue discussing the Annihilation Legion…”

“Hold on a second, did you just say the Eternals are also among our enemy factions?” Yin interrupted Fanxing’s analysis.

Whether it was the Annihilation Legion or the Void Swarm, the Holy Spirits could overcome them by increasing the player server population limit, but the existence of the Eternals was like a thorn in Yin’s side.

That’s because the combat power demonstrated by the mentor NPC Thorne from the inner world was truly terrifying. Without any exaggeration, all the players in the top hundred of the Holy Spirit ladder could call Thorne their teacher.

Thorne’s superiority was on a purely technical level.

And that was with Thorne wielding sticks and branches. If Thorne were fully armed with legendary weapons from the Holy Spirits, he would become a very troublesome enemy.

What’s more troublesome was that according to Fanxing’s account, there wasn’t just one Eternal… were there?

“Most of the material for my recent ‘Holy Spirit Frustrating Moments’ series comes from Thorne. The online gamers even call him the King of Material, but I don’t think he would become a villain.” The frontline reporter had a knack for reading people and felt she was equally accurate with NPCs.

She simply couldn’t believe that the lackadaisical swordsman would turn into some major villainous character.

“It’s unlikely for Teacher Thorne, but the issue is with the race of the Eternals. I found a book related to the Eternals in the Holy Spirit Library, but most of its content was erased and undecipherable. However, from the parts I could read, it seems the Eternals come from a very powerful organization, not much inferior to the Pantheon Alliance. Their only archenemy is… the Devouring God, that is, us.”

Fanxing pointed to a picture of Thorne on the whiteboard. Thorne truly was a lone figure, with no one connected to him in his network; he was placed alone in the corner.

“According to the setting, only Holy Spirits can harm Eternals. Thorne appeared in the arena because he craves a duel with the risk of being killed. But what about the other Eternals? They may not necessarily want to die, right?” Fanxing’s words plunged Yin into a long silence.

“They call Thorne the beta dog version of the Holy Spirit on the forums. If all wild monsters were as strong as Thorne, the game of Holy Spirits would be downright unreasonable, right?” The frontline reporter still found it hard to believe that a monster like Thorne would spawn in the wild.

He would most likely only appear in special challenges within the inner world.

“What are the chances that other Eternals possess combat skills as formidable as Thorne’s?”

The more Yin thought about it, the more unsettled he became. He truly wasn’t afraid of the Annihilation Legion. The General named Deris, who had shown up at this stage, boasted combat strength that was nothing more than a high-attack, high-HP boss that players could overcome with numbers.

Thorne was completely different; he was like an invisible assassin. If he wanted to kill a player, it would be effortless, but there was no way for players to kill him.

Once he had equipment and weapons far superior to those of the Holy Spirits, if he became an enemy, it would be like… a nightmare for the Holy Spirits.

As the atmosphere in the room grew heavy, Mo Shigui chose this moment to interject.

“Yin, check the messages on your phone,” Mo Shigui said.

“Messages?” Yin took out his phone and saw a notification from the “Holy Spirit * Cloud Gamers” app.

“Holy Spirit * Cloud Gamers” incorporated all the functionalities that Holy Spirit players wanted, such as an embedded Holy Spirit forum, push notifications for related short videos, guides for bosses, NPCs, and equipment, job strategies, and a whole range of other features.

Since the launch of this app, most Holy Spirit players chose to install it.

The message Yin received was… the Holy Spirit World was about to welcome a world-level event.

“The knighting ceremony of Queen Mei… The ancient queen will reclaim her rightful throne. Holy Spirits who fought alongside her, head to Lionheart City tomorrow at noon to enjoy a moment bathed in glory…” Yin read out the content of the notification.

“Tomorrow at noon, Coach Song, what time is your flight tomorrow?” Yin remembered that his team members were scheduled to take a flight tomorrow.

“Eight o’clock in the evening, we will make it in time.”

As an experienced player, Mo Shigui had no intention of missing any major event in the game.