Sacred Souls: Genesis

Jiang Qiao was standing at the entrance of the invading plane.

It was as if time had stopped for everything around him, and everyone was motionless.

However, it was not time which stopped—both Jiang Qiao and Ocean Blue’s minds had been accelerated by several hundredfolds, with the latter’s consciousness landing in front of him.

The mind acceleration was an ability gained from Maker Mode, and Jiang Qiao was using it because he had something to discuss with Ocean Blue.

“There’s nothing alive left in the invading plane. Why would you suddenly press the pause button?”

Ocean Blue sounded impatient, as if she would whip out some blades in the next split second and dash inside that abominable invading plane and start a massacre.

“Didn’t we talk about this? Before you devour that plane, we have to adjust the world line.” Jiang Qiao pointed at Food Street which was in ruins, as well as the full-armed soldiers behind them.

If he didn’t correct the world line now, the entire Hua Nation would probably be in a state of emergency in the next morning.

Either way, everything would be left a complete mess.

“Fine, this might take around two thousand energy points.” Ocean Blue was rather sad to use those energy points since she would only gain around ten thousand energy points even after she devoured the invading plane.

“And I have to warn you… some of the players and humans were too severely affected, and not even the adjustment would work on them.”

At the same time, Ocean Blue’s hair was turning golden as she prepared to assume Maker Mode.

“Who would ‘they’ be?” Jiang Qiao asked then.

Ocean Blue forwarded a semi-transparent window to Jiang Qiao which listed eight names, but the first two that Jiang Qiao saw were Zhao ‘HappyGamer’ Mingwei and FreeMilk’.

“He was already on Food Street when the invasion began, meaning that he made contact with creatures from another plane with both his real body and his game character, and he would definitely remember everything even after adjustment. Meanwhile, the female priest had stuffed real-world cash into her backpack—she might remember everything too. Those are the two who are more heavily affected, whereas other players would only know that they participated in the Abyssal Hunt.”

“I know them… it should be no problem with just those two,” Jiang Qiao said.

“Then I shall get things started.”

Ocean Blue’s hair was now pure golden as she took to the skies.

The surface of the entire world began to tremble.

Around Food Street, chunks of debris from the orc carnage returned to their original places as if time was moving backwards, and all remains of the orcs disappeared entirely too.

Adjusting the world line was not reversing time, but to change everything that had happened so that it appeared as logical as possible.

Normal humans would never remember the invasion, and the injuries would be explained by something more reasonable.

As for the dead… there wasn’t any.

After all, the players were so efficient in killing invading monsters that they did not have the time to really attack civilians before they were killed.

Meanwhile, the players would also retain the memory of their campaign against the monsters at Food Street, although anything that connects that location to the real world would be adjusted.

Ocean Blue fell from the skies after the adjustment was complete, and Jiang Qiao caught her with his quick reflexes.

However, what he felt when he reached her wasn’t the softness and warmth of a girl’s body, but a heaviness that Jiang Qiao wanted nothing more to throw on the floor.

“You should go on a diet.” Jiang Qiao said, glaring at her.

“I’m in a spiritual state at the moment, and now’s not the time for that!” Ocean Blue exclaimed as she freed herself from his grasp, but her mental state appeared feeble and she did not even have the strength to walk.

It appears that adjusting the Rule Barrier had consumed considerable energy.

“Well, dinner time.” Jiang Qiao said what Ocean Blue loved to hear the most.

“Turn off the accelerated mind mode then!” Ocean Blue was anxious, since her mind could enter the canteen but her body couldn’t.

Jiang Qiao removed his mind acceleration as told, while everything on Food Street returned to normal as it was before the invasion, save for the fact that there was no one there.

Then, Jiang Qiao led Ocean Blue into the invading plane.

It was very barren. There was nothing—not even water apart from a single continent.

The ground was dried and cracked, and there was no sky, moon or sun to be seen for miles.

The air was also turbidly suffocating, but fortunately Jiang Qiao did not need to breathe as he was still a game character.

“Were there no animals here? Just those orcs?” Jiang Qiao asked, looking around. He couldn’t even find a plant, much less any animals…

In fact, it was likely that microorganisms could not exist here either.

“This is a fragment of a plane, meaning that most of it is incomplete.”

Ocean Blue headed to the center of the barren world, where a pale sphere of light appeared out of the ground and slowly wafted into her hands.

Jiang Qiao cast an inspection sell at the sphere by habit.

In Maker Mode, inspection spells permit most content edits. Moreover, it was a spell that all classes would posses from the very star, and it could read data of various items or monsters in the world of Sacred Souls, as well as other worlds.

The data of the sphere was promptly shown to him.

[Core Fragment of Other Beasts Plane]

[Completion rate: 20%]

[Energy points after consumption: ten thousand]

[Surface area: 22 square kilometers]

[Increases player limit by 100]

[Expands star map search range, activates Invasion function]

That was all there is to the description.

“Ten thousand energy points, making it a total of 10,231 energy points with the monsters killed before… but the most important thing is the increase in player limit.”

Even as Jiang Qiao calculated the profits from the Abyssal Rift he reaped as Maker and Sacred Souls GM, Ocean Blue had already eaten the world core fragment in one quick swallow.

Along with an audible gulping.

Then, in a moment of fancy, Jiang Qiao used the inspection spell on Ocean Blue.

[Ocean Blue]

[Race: Devourer God]

[Level: 1]

[Character description: Finally using an inspection spell on her, huh. Anyway, you have to be aware that she holds many secrets even if she can’t remember much. Still, she would probably start to recall certain things after she gulps down her first world core.]

[Note from Maker Jiang Qiao]

A Devourer God?

Jiang Qiao frowned when he read the race section.

Meanwhile, Ocean Blue’s cheeks were puffed. The world core in her mouth was crunching loudly as she chewed it a few times, and she suddenly made a face as if she remembered something.

Jiang Qiao seemed to see an exclamation mark pop up over her head right then.

Actually, it was not ‘seemed’—Jiang Qiao had really received a system message, telling him that he had started a hidden quest.

[Maker main quest: Project Raising Ocean Blue]

[Quest: Ocean Blue, the Devourer God, once commanded peerless divinity and power and ruled all of the star maps. The worlds she created were boundless, until she accidentally stuffed herself… actually, I have no idea why she had fallen to this state either.]

[That being said, her divinity and the world she created had yet to fade, but merely been flung across the star map as thousands of fragments. As such, collect the fragment of worlds Ocean Blue created in the past, and you would strengthen her divinity to receive Ocean Blue +1.]

[Quest reward: increased limit of player levels, obtain chance of receiving help from Ocean Blue’s former world—includes superpowered NPCs above level 100.]

It appears to be a quest Jiang Qiao had created in Maker Mode that he only activated now. Still, the quest content was very forthright in telling him about Ocean Blue’s past.

Nonetheless, what Jiang Qiao needed the most was increasing the limit of player levels! At the moment, the creatures he could create was Level 50 at best, and even the various worlds found in the star map was too low.

“Jiang Qiao, listen to me!” Ocean Blue appeared unaware that he had an additional main quest now, and he interrupted her just as she was prepared to explain more.

“Save it. I’m taking you to celebrate your leveling up with chicken chop.” He said.

“Alright!” Ocean Blue agreed without thinking.