Soul of Burning Steel

"Continent of Disputes Arrival", "Continent of Disputes·Glory", "Continent of Disputes·Dragon Calamity", "Continent of Disputes·Far Frontier", "Continent of Disputes·Advent", "Continent of Disputes·Embers".

The Earth Federation is a super-popular fantasy game, and the [Continent of Conflict] series has been one of the top ten most popular games in all diving games since it started serving the whole galaxy at the same time nine years ago, and has reached the top several times. , interlocking plot chains and a huge world view, since the third version of [Dragon Calamity], Continent of Disputes has had 180 million registered users, 40 million resident players and nearly 9 million people who log in at least every day. Four hours of loyal players, and then with the version change, some players left, and more players joined. This number continued to expand to double the previous level. There are millions of players at all times. Explore and adventure in this war-torn world.

In the era when Joshua lived, the world was unified and material resources were extremely abundant. Humans began to colonize space, and almost all low-difficulty manual labor was replaced by intelligent machines. Except for working four hours a day, most human beings had nothing to do. The time can only be passed by various entertainment or extracurricular studies. In this context, industries including games, live broadcasts, music variety shows, religion, and novels have begun to flourish, and [Continent of Disputes] can be said to be one of the best.

In addition to the superb production, the extremely detailed, as if a real world-like background is also part of its attraction. In the game, no plot or important items are isolated, they are interrelated and connected, an anonymous iron The sword may be the saber of a sword master hundreds of years ago, and it can lead to a huge task chain, and a seemingly ordinary murder case may involve the blasphemous cult priest behind it, the player plays a role in this world Adventure in the middle of the game means continuous surprises. You can choose to travel to the mainland to witness the customs, and you can also become a soldier and go through battles. As long as you want, anyone can find the game they want.

Generally speaking, this kind of game with a huge world view has hundreds of copywriters and professional designers to perfect the settings, and even this may not be enough. In fact, for most large-scale similar games , every time a version is changed and a new world plot unfolds, it means that some of the original settings are overturned, which is what players commonly call eating books. This kind of thing is not uncommon in the industry, and even everyone is used to it , because people's ability is limited, it is almost impossible to weave a perfect and self-consistent world view from beginning to end, even if it can, it will take a long time to deliberate, and the gain is not worth the loss.

But Continent of Disputes is different. Advent, Glory, Dragon Calamity, Far Frontier, God's Arrival, and Embers, the six version changes not only did not destroy the original setting, but instead expanded the world view again and again. real world.

In fact, if it is only this point, it is not surprising. After all, as long as they are willing to spend money and time, any first-class company can push the quality to this level, but what really shocked the industry and even the entire Federation is that the design All these plot settings and many vivid characters are actually only "one person".

one person.

Is this possible? No one dares to believe this kind of thing, even the most arrogant person dare not say that he can design and perfect all the world view and background settings of a game like [Continent of Disputes] by himself, not to mention the person who did not want to be named Mr. De also arranged the corresponding relationships, plots and task chains for tens of thousands of characters and forces. This kind of workload is calculated in T for the text alone. Even if a person spends his whole life on it It's impossible, it's a 'mission impossible'. For this reason, the Federal First News Channel even specially produced a program to interview the designer who did not want to be named.

Joshua has forgotten a lot about the content of the interview at that time. After all, most of the time during the interview was just boring slobber. There is a passage, which he remembers very clearly, which is a dialogue that appeared at the beginning of the interview.

"Structure, design? No... how dare I say that, it's not so much that I designed [Continent of Dispute], it's better to say that 'it' flooded into my mind—" Using a virtual image to receive an interview in the online world The mysterious designer murmured with such a wry smile: "Even inspiration is too far-fetched, I feel like I am just retelling, yes, 'retelling' a world, it runs naturally, and then it will happen naturally, that's all. That's all."

"He may not have lied."

More than ten years later, the warrior who was not far away from his former hometown closed his eyes in the stargazing fortress in the void, Joshua's ears still echoed what Israel said to him a few seconds ago if.

The seal of the abyss, the land under one foot, the era of starfall, the sanctuary thousands of years ago—these news, which were blocked by the Diamond royal family and many legendary powerhouses, have actually been caught by those enthusiastic textual research party players in their previous lives. If it wasn't for the invasion of the abyss, they might have found out the truth behind it long ago. Anyway, the two are so similar that it is impossible to restrain their curiosity.

Regarding the truth behind all this, Joshua has long guessed. He has lived in the current Mycroft Continent for a long time, and he is completely sure that this is a real world. To say that he has come to the world in the game, it is better to say that the information of the previous game comes from the world of Mycroft.

There is a connection between the world and the world. The knowledge from the sages in the Azure Orb tells many mysteries about the primordial fire, existence, and the world. In the multiverse, countless stars are releasing their own "ripples" to the outside world. The endless ripples stir each other, just A chaotic void turbulence was born, which blocked the connection between most of the worlds, but also made the connection between some worlds deeper.

Projection, linking, twinning, differentiation—and more common information transmission, such as a sage in a certain world accidentally created magic, and a sage in another world suddenly realized the mystery of magic, located in Australia raccoons learned to wash their food with water, and other tribes of raccoons on the other side of the world have learned the same trick. This connection cannot be explained by logic, it comes from a more fundamental source, from the resonance of existence.

Joshua usually doesn't think about these issues deliberately, because he has more important things to care about than these things, but now, the soldier seems to understand the reason why he is here, but when he continued to think deeply, he found the reason And flimsy. Soon, Joshua swept away these scattered thoughts in his mind. He knew that caring about what had happened in the past could not change the present and the future. The only thing worthy of his attention now was Israel Diamond About to tell his secrets, those that hold the deepest truths about the world.

"Speak, Your Majesty the Emperor." He said: "I am listening carefully."

"Here, in the void, you can't understand." Israel looked away from the Mycroft Continent below him, raised his head, and looked at Joshua: "You don't seem to be Not surprised—but that's right, it's you after all. What's more, you still have the inheritance of sages."

"Don't worry, although the Void Star Observatory is a remote fortress for the empire to observe the outside world, it is also an intermediary place that connects Fairy Town and the place you and I are going to." Powerful energy fluctuations began to overflow from the four walls of the secret conference room in this star observatory. The powerful energy caused the emperor's dark golden hair to fly, and it also caused Joshua's clothes to fly. Looking at each other, Israel nodded, and then looked up: "Queen, start teleporting."

"Listen to you." A slightly cheerful female voice sounded from all around, and Joshua also felt a familiar aura - it was the aura that belonged to one of the fairy queens that he had felt in Fairy Township not long ago.

At the very next moment, with an incomparably powerful traction force, a door glowing with dark black light opened in the middle of the conference hall, and beams of bleak light that could not be explained in words shone on Israel, making the legendary The figure of the strong man disappeared in an instant, and Joshua let the same light shine on his body. He felt an ancient force of time and space covering his whole body, as if it was going to bring him to A distant and deep space, unlike the previous teleportation, it seems that this time it does not require soldiers to actively enter, only need to be pulled passively.

But here is where the problem arises.

"Crackling—"

After completely covering Joshua's body, the dim light that was about to teleport him away like Israel teleported suddenly flickered for some reason, and then dissipated into scattered light sand all over the sky. Joshua was already closed She closed her eyes, but at this moment she opened them in doubt, and the unknown fairy queen raised her voice in surprise: "Hey hey hey—failed? How is it possible?! The world opened with my power The Domain Magic Circle can't even teleport you away?! Impossible, Israel and the old man mage not long ago can both teleport together, and your energy level cannot exceed the two of them!"

Shocked and talking to himself for a long time, Joshua could even imagine that the fairy queen was spinning around in a hurry, but then, the queen seemed to have found the key, and she asked cautiously: "Excuse me... this is Joshua, right? Excuse me, how much does it weigh?"

"—Probably, more than 100,000 tons."

Due to the fight with the demon lord Helm not long ago, Joshua was a little uncertain how much quality he had been evaporated by the opponent's stunt, but during the rest and recovery in the past few days, he has already relied on the strength of the Great Ajax Mountain Range. His resources have recovered a little, so there must be 100,000 tons. After all, his body is a solid body of steel.

"...You should go in by yourself..."

After a long silence, the Fairy Queen said in an inexplicable tone: "No wonder the magic circle shows a giant void beast several hundred meters high... I can't send you there."

After Joshua himself touched the dark-colored time-space door and disappeared in the teleportation, a faint voice came from nowhere: "So it's the type who looks thin in clothes..."

Unaware that he had been judged strangely by a fairy queen, Joshua opened his eyes at the end of the teleportation, looked around, and found himself in a strange space.

With the red light, scorching heat, rumbling and vibrating roar, and the ubiquitous magma rushing around the surrounding space, it only took Joshua a fraction of a second to understand exactly where he was. He raised a hand and smashed a thick arc of energy that had just leaped from his side, then turned his head to look at Israel who was beside him: "Deep in the heart of the earth?"

"Yes." Not caring why Joshua arrived later than himself, His Majesty the Emperor nodded: "A special space opened around the center of the earth—to be precise, it is the node of the seal."

After a short exchange with Israel, Joshua continued to observe the surrounding situation. There is no doubt that this is around the center of the earth. The viscous lava at the bottom of the mantle is flowing at an unimaginable crazy speed under the action of high temperature and high pressure, just like a river rushing down from a snow-capped mountain. Here, coke will be Compressed into diamonds, the fine gold will also lose its shape. Except for the legendary powerhouse, even the existence of the extreme level can hardly survive here, but it is such a harsh environment, but there is a huge spherical shape. Even though there are energy light arcs of thousands of meters long in the blank space from time to time, it is enough to prove its magic.

Israel stood in the center of the space filled with red magma light. He raised his left hand. On his wrist was a simple and unpretentious gray bracelet that was shining brightly. One after another, runes containing infinite mysteries were The arcs of the bracelet lit up one by one. Just seeing these runes, Joshua subconsciously knew their pronunciation and meaning. The existence of this powerful ancient language is beyond logic and represents existence. It is the oracle that circulates among the gods.

All the runes lit up, and Israel clenched his left fist tightly. The gray bracelet came out of his wrist, and then it was automatically suspended in the air. The ancient lines on it were coming out one by one, towards As the space spreads in all directions, the chaotic energy light arcs that were originally scattered throughout the space were guided by these runes and turned into straight lines. Within a few seconds, a huge three-dimensional matrix array filled the entire blank space like this , the incomparably powerful seal pressure came from it, and even Joshua frowned vigilantly.

"What is this, Israel?"

"This is a legacy from ancient times."

Facing the soldiers' inquiries, His Majesty the Emperor lowered his head, staring at the earth's core not far away, covered by countless golden-red magma. He said in a low and calm tone without any emotion at all: "The resonance has begun."

As soon as the voice fell, it seemed to resonate. Suddenly, three huge magic circles that were almost identical lit up in the distance. They also surrounded the center of the earth, but the distance was so far away that they seemed to be separated by half a continent. There were four of them in total. The huge sealing circle occupies the four directions, as if it surrounds the entire center of the earth, and there is a stream of magic light that spans tens of millions of kilometers between them, connecting each other, and the huge runes shine with sacred brilliance, completely Close the heart of the earth.

"Four refuges, four seals. After three hundred years of being lost, countless survivors came out of the closed refuges. What they faced was their hometown that had completely turned into another world, and the onslaught of crazy monsters."

Watching the end of all the changes, Israel said softly, not just talking to himself, but also narrating to Joshua: "After a hundred years of fighting, the four major human gathering places have appeared on the earth one by one, and the beliefs of the seven gods of the human race It also spread unknowingly. At that time, my ancestors, the ancestors of the Diamond family who almost unified the entire northern gathering area, met the Fairy Queen and the God of Justice who came to the mortal world. He supported my ancestors to establish the largest kingdom on earth. But correspondingly, my family must also take responsibility."

"Is this the sealing circle deep in the center of the earth?" Joshua naturally knew what Israel was talking about. He frowned and asked, "What is it a seal? Wait..." Qiaoshua Xiuya suddenly remembered something: "That's right... the sages reshape the Mycroft Continent based on the corpse of the Fertile Evil God, isn't it?!"

"It's not that. How could the sages leave such hidden dangers? But it's not far behind. For humans, it's even worse."

With a soft laugh, Israel raised his head and looked around at this blank space that still had a place in the depths of the earth and would not be destroyed for thousands of years. He seemed to be happy because he was finally able to tell outsiders this heavy secret. Feeling relieved: "Look, Joshua."

His Majesty the Emperor stretched out his hand and pointed to the solid core of the earth that was exuding high temperature, and the countless ancient runes faintly floating around it: "This is the seal left by the gods of the previous generation."

"It distinguishes us from the heaven and the earth, and locks the will of the world firmly in the center of the earth——Since the day I don't know how many years ago, the star belonging to Mycroft fell, and it disappeared in the multiverse, Until you turned it back on not too long ago."

Joshua's pupils shrank slightly, and he finally understood what the doubts that had been lingering in his heart were all about! That is about the will of the Mycroft world! He had communicated with Karlis and Irgner. Even in the extinct world of Grandia, the nascent world will had prayed to him for salvation. He is the king of burning souls, the intermediary between the world and life, As long as he exists, he shouldn't be unable to detect the steel python on the Mycroft Continent!

It's not like Joshua hadn't thought about similar issues before, but the successive incidents interrupted his deep thinking every time, coupled with the fact that Mycroft Continent was a dead world, the warrior felt that perhaps the will of this world might have long been Dead——Kallis proved with himself that the tenacity of the will of the world surpasses any imagination of life. Even its steel python, which has been almost exhausted for a thousand years, can be revitalized by the injection of new flames. Then the world of Mycroft, which has obtained all the flames of the world of Grandia, should never continue to be silent.

It is also very strange that all the gods of the previous generation were silent. The father of nature could survive for so long under such a difficult situation. Why did the gods of the glorious era as the victors all disappear, leaving only the new ones? A generation of gods?

Until now, the answer is probably revealed.

"The self-sacrifice of the gods of the previous generation... sealed the will of the world?" Joshua tried hard to digest this information, and he shook his head. This didn't mean he didn't believe it, but simply found it unbelievable: "Since it wasn't evil gods who eroded and corrupted, Then why would the gods and the clans seal their mother?"

The answer is simple. In fact, there was no need for Israel to answer, the soldier himself had already thought of the answer.

If this mother hadn't taken the lead, why would the gods and the tribes living on this land bother to seal their will to live in the world?

"Exactly, maybe it is because he believes that all disasters originate from human beings, maybe it thinks that the existence of life itself is the source of destruction, or it knows that it is dead, so it wants to fall into the abyss - there are thousands of reasons Tens of thousands, but there is only one result, the mother of all things wants to erase everything on the earth and restart the ecological cycle."

Israel's tone returned to calm, and he said in an indifferent tone: "Compared to us, it loves the Black Forest and the magical beasts that we bred when we were still in the refuge, except for the ones of the Mother Earth Goddess in the last era. A series of blood descendants, we have long been no longer regarded as their own children...but I can't say anything, because tens of millions of people can't accept that the ground under their feet is actually their enemy."

"If one day, the seal is lifted, then we only have three choices, kill our mother, be killed by our mother, or leave this world."

"An abandoned race..." Hearing Israel's somewhat helpless voice, for some reason, Joshua suddenly thought of the Astral Dragon. Whether it is the five-color dragon or the metal dragon, they are all powerful races from other worlds. Their world has encountered a catastrophe, so they escaped as a last resort. The soldier suddenly said: "They also know this, otherwise they They won’t launch the Dragon Calamity so inexplicably, wantonly attacking the human and elf alliance stronger than them.”

It seems that this is the case, the existence of the will of the world, the whereabouts of the gods, the many ruins buried in the earth, and the origin of the Starfall Era, all seemingly complicated mysteries actually started with a simple thing : The mother of creation no longer loves her former child, that's all.

Although the lost three hundred years of history have not been explained, the rest of the questions have been answered not pleasantly.

"Yes, the five-color dragons knew this at some point. They want to compete with the abandoned us for the dominance of the world, and then try to become the dominator of the Mycroft world, and they are completely accepted by it."

Israel showed a sarcastic expression: "Unfortunately, they failed, so they could only escape to the abyss. On the contrary, the Metal Dragon, which has always opposed it, got the right to continue to reproduce in this world. It's really ridiculous."

After finishing speaking, His Majesty the Emperor took a step towards the center of the earth. The high-temperature and high-pressure environment seemed to be completely non-existent to him, and the clothes on his body did not seem to be in the underground with thousands of degrees of high temperature, and there was no trace of scorching. Israel said as he walked, "That's why I disdain those people who run around like dogs. They don't know anything. This land is not worth conquering at all."

Israel kept approaching the center of the earth, and Joshua walked side by side with him. Israel did not stop. There was a fire in his eyes, which was hotter than the surrounding magma: "This land It has cultivated our ancestors, and also cultivated you and me, this is our hometown, but in the final analysis, it is not the destination of us and our descendants."

"Joshua, I see you differently."

Turning his head suddenly, Israel and Joshua looked at each other, and he said bluntly: "I am the emperor, and I need to manage this country. Before looking for the future, I need to be responsible for the present of my people. I Being bound in this land, you want to go to the starry sky, but you can't break the bond... But you are different, you have traveled to other worlds several times, and you have completed your goal perfectly, you know how to find a world with life , and understand what is the environment we humans need.”

"I got you."

Joshua narrowed his eyes slightly, and he couldn't help but think of the information Karlis told him: there are many world wills that need his help to eradicate the Chaos Seed parasitic in their bodies. There is no doubt that this is a job that needs to travel between different worlds. Apart from this, it is not difficult to find a future land for the many races in the Mycroft continent. Thinking of this, the soldier couldn't help shaking his head. He felt that everything seemed to follow a certain trend, just like what the mysterious designer who was interviewed by the government said in the Earth Federation, everything seemed to be running naturally, and then it would be a matter of course. .

"I have to say, Israel, you are the least emperor I have ever seen." Already at the top of the earth's center, feeling the scorching temperature, Joshua suddenly laughed for some reason, he calmed down. He said: "What you think and what you pursue are completely different from what I have known before. Maybe this is the difference between reality and illusion-I really admire it."

"Indifferent and timid people never know what success or failure is." Above the center of the earth, Israel, who did not understand what Joshua said, also laughed, closed his eyes, and then Open it again: "Those who dare not act will be ridiculed by the heavens."

"And I am a fighter after all, and courage and victory are my credo."

"Even if the opponent is this world?"

"also the same."

7000 words, yesterday's update was added, sent out together, ask for a monthly ticket, and then I will modify it later.