Chapter 306: A Fresh Start Without Side Effects

Chapter 306: A Fresh Start Without Side Effects

Endurance limit? Zheng Yichen really hadn’t considered such an issue brought by that series of functions. In his view, the more functions that came out, the more it would only make the people of this world unable to do without Magic Weapon Summoning Book. He hadn’t thought about the strong sense of threat those conveniences brought to some people!

But since Loris had already said so, Zheng Yichen had to set aside some of his new plans and carefully consider this possibility. Thinking it over carefully, he realized there were indeed many problems. Back on Earth, the related industries could develop so rapidly without the kind of endurance limit Loris described, purely because of the big environment the internet provided.

There were truly many online store platforms. As long as you had the ability and skill to compete with the big players in related fields, you could get involved. But what about the Otherworld? Who could interfere with the Magic Weapon Summoning Book?

Some things were too heavily monopolized. When the influence was too great and couldn’t be moved lightly, people wouldn’t just turn a blind eye and accept it. Instead, they would temporarily set aside all their prejudices, quietly gather together, and think about how to break this monopoly, to take down this monopolist!

After all, with such monopolistic development, as it went on, their vital lifelines would gradually be grasped by others. Moreover, they couldn’t go against this trend. Ordinary people might not feel anything, but for those who held great power, who could tolerate this?

Such a thing would have been stamped out long ago on Earth. It was only because some rules in the Otherworld weren’t like Earth’s that many big shots had been able to endure until now. If Zheng Yichen continued to roll out a series of functions that could clearly gradually seize their lifelines, that would really be too much. Be careful, or everyone might unite to take you down!

“Hmm, although I don’t really seem afraid, but if that’s the case, let’s keep the status quo for now, and not develop related functions,” Zheng Yichen said after thinking. If everyone really decided to come after him, he wasn’t sure if his identity as the Creator would remain hidden. What if it was exposed? He would not only face targeting from those in power but might also have his identity exposed during such targeting.

By then, human forces, the Sanctuary Church, plus the Dragon Clan teaming up to hunt him down… he would really have to consider running to the Abyss to develop. No doubt, if his identity as the Creator was exposed, the Sanctuary Church would definitely go all out! All because he was quite close to Witches… no, not just ordinarily close. Sometimes he even had a narcissistic thought: if he weren’t a dragon now, he might really have developed a negative-distance relationship with one of the Witches around him.

Ugh! This darn, yet increasingly hard-to-hate entangled transmigration!

Anyway, let’s ease up a bit. In any case, the major areas that could be involved in the Otherworld were pretty much commerce and Mercenary Quests. For other aspects, Zheng Yichen couldn’t immediately find operations he could intervene in. Other new operations weren’t directly related to the Otherworld either, but were innovative products like the Forum. “Hmm~ what about things not related to commerce and such, things those in power value highly?”

For example, games… you in power care about new models of commerce developed in the future being completely controlled by the Creator, thus affecting your rule. If that’s the case, Zheng Yichen wouldn’t continue reaching into this area; maintaining the status quo was enough. But other areas not involving this shouldn’t affect you, right?

“What are you referring to?”

A glimmer of light flashed in Loris’s eyes. This guy still hadn’t planned to rein in that troublemaking heart of his. With this kind of mindset, if Dan Marina were sitting here, she’d probably be grinning and patting Zheng Yichen’s head right now. It suited her taste too much. Loris didn’t have much objection either. At least having a positive, upward-looking attitude was definitely better than being negative.

“Uh, what do you think about the games those Ghost Maids play?” As soon as Zheng Yichen finished speaking, he was inexplicably stabbed by Loris’s gaze!

“Are you really in a position to talk about that?” It wasn’t that she wanted to needle him, but those Ghost Maids had really been ‘hooked’ by the ‘games’ Zheng Yichen introduced. During their daily work shifts, their condition was fine, similar to before. But during leisure time, they no longer had their former relaxation. Many rushed into the rest rooms like heading to a battlefield, ready to start a fight… playing Mahjong…

The losers got paper strips stuck to their faces.

It had to be said this stuff was really easy to get addicted to, especially in this world with few exciting entertainment activities. It was even more popular. At least from the few times Loris passed by the Ghost Maids’ rest rooms, she saw that scene. Her formerly well-behaved, obedient Ghost Maids were now mostly led astray. Back in Kaja, when Dan Marina had nothing to do, she would drag her and Irene to make a circle. Annie?

She seemed quite keen on it too.

“Ahem, why would I be embarrassed?” Zheng Yichen coughed lightly, somewhat awkwardly saying. He was well aware of the situation with those Ghost Maids, but… but… how could one be embarrassed about play?

“I plan to open some game modules on the Magic Weapon Summoning Book later, board and card game types.” The structural difficulty of such games wasn’t high. As long as the rules were set, you just played within the rules. It was far from being like those Online Games or large single-player games, which involved too many aspects. Zheng Yichen would evaporate all his brain juice alone and still couldn’t create them.

In contrast, board and card games were simple. Even games like Minesweeper could be made. After all, such games were considered small games. As long as the rules were set, they could be made.

“Wait a month,” Loris didn’t agree to Zheng Yichen’s proposal. “There’s already enough going on. Aren’t you worried the Magic Weapon Summoners will suffer from indigestion?”

“A month then a month,” Zheng Yichen nodded. It wasn’t him who couldn’t play, so he wasn’t losing anything. Since that was the case, he wouldn’t consider developing new functions during this time. He’d just focus his attention elsewhere. The Magic Arms didn’t need excessive updates for now either. The proficiency all Magic Weapon Summoners had to grind now was already giving them headaches.

Previously, their demands for updates were purely because the structural intensity of the Magic Arms wasn’t enough back then, and proficiency was easy to grind fast. Now, most of the proficiency was stagnant. These people were too busy trying to raise their Magic Weapon proficiency to have time to idly, just for the sake of it, demand updates for new Magic Arms. The main battleground for Magic Arms had long shifted to Low-level Magic Weapons.

And the most comprehensive ones were the Low-level Magic Weapons. No need to overthink the Magic Arms matter. The development of new functions also had to stop. The production of the Power Core continued at the original pace, no need to speed up. As for Potionology research, Zheng Yichen already had some insights now. With a little follow-up processing, he could get real results. Alchemy? Engineering? Hmm, currently stuck at a bottleneck, but existing knowledge was sufficient.

The rest was just slow, steady improvement.

Later, relying on knowledge from Earth, he had already pushed it to a current upper limit. Potionology was pretty much that feeling too. This one wasn’t like something cultivated based on Earth knowledge; it was a rare instance of Zheng Yichen being self-reliant… hmm, half and half, because his own abilities offered too much convenience in Potionology.

Since these three disciplines temporarily didn’t need much consideration, that left the last one… the Life Domain.

“Oh oh! You’re finally willing to develop in this area? I’ve been waiting impatiently!” The next day, hearing Zheng Yichen had intentions of development in this area, Annie, who was playing with two dice in her hand, brightened up and directly threw the dice into her Personal Space.

“Uh, just to learn, to understand first.”

“Trust me, Life Domain research is definitely a very interesting thing.”

“And the thing most likely to make people obsessed and twisted,” Irene said coolly from the side, making Annie glare at her lightly, but she didn’t refute Irene’s words. Life Domain research wasn’t like magic research, where you could proceed as long as your attitude of delving was sufficient. And with magic, even experiments wouldn’t involve too much on the physical level.

But Life Domain research was different. It involved all living beings. Therefore, while researching, it was easy to become firmly captivated by the related research. That rich variety belonging to the Life Domain—the more you researched, the more you would immerse yourself in it, constantly approaching the edge of taboo… no, in this world, Life Domain research itself trod on the line of taboo. Even without crossing over, it still involved taboos.

To this day, there were still some monsters in this world, alive and hidden in certain secret places. These monsters were not naturally produced. Their origins came from some twisted individuals conducting Life Domain research. The simplest kind of monster had a quite succinct name—’Stitched Abomination’.

“But don’t worry, if problems arise, I’ll help correct you.” Seeing some worry appear on Zheng Yichen’s face, Irene gently raised her hand. A black vortex-like ‘gas mass’ appeared on it. At first glance, this thing looked like a black hole from a Computer composite image. Just looking at it gave Zheng Yichen an inexplicable sense of horror.

Prevent? Zheng Yichen’s tendency for multifaceted development was strong. His unreasonable ‘assimilation’ ability characteristic also gave him potential for development in these areas. Why would she interfere with someone else’s progress?

“What is this thing?” Zheng Yichen shifted his steps slightly to the side, very warily staring at this black-hole-like gas mass.

Annie also watched the thing with interest. “A fluctuation I haven’t felt before. A new magic you developed?”

“Sort of. Strictly speaking, it’s a use of Mana combined with Spiritual Power,” Irene nodded and shook her head.

“Your style remains as ever,” Annie said sincerely. To what heights had Irene’s magic research developed? Others, even many Witches, needed to use Magic Rune Arrays to release magic. But Irene had long started to break free from the limitations of Rune Patterns, shifting to a purer use of power.

“Hey hey, don’t ignore me,” Zheng Yichen, who had been watching their conversation reach a pause, couldn’t help but shout out. He hadn’t spoken earlier because their topic made him feel awed without understanding; the level was too advanced. Better not speak carelessly to avoid being accidentally looked down upon. “What exactly is the effect of this thing? Does it suck everything in like a black hole?”

“No, this is a Mental Magic attack. It can easily shred the consciousness of the target. Don’t worry, I will control it precisely. The result will only shred some of your recent memories. There’s no possibility of recovery. So you don’t need to worry about personality influences from going down a wrong path.”

“What the!? It can operate like that too?” Zheng Yichen’s impression of Mental Magic was formless and intangible. Yet Irene produced something that looked like some highly destructive attack magic form. One could imagine the dumbfounded reaction of someone who sensed the threat and tried to defend, only to get this thing slapped on their face. With consciousness shredded, that person would basically have their True Spirit return to the River Styx, dead as a doornail.

“Don’t ignore me either. What is a black hole?” Hearing this new term, Annie said discontentedly from the side. She had been trying to make her presence felt for a long time. They were both existences like Witches. Irene knew about it, so why didn’t she? And it was just a term. As the longest-living one here… not knowing felt somewhat embarrassing.

“A very, very black hole,” Zheng Yichen said seriously, but got a big eye-roll from Annie. Although she didn’t know what this term was, Zheng Yichen had just looked at the gas mass in Irene’s hand and called it a black hole. That thing was clearly not something like a hole or a cave.

“It’s when a high-density mass is compressed further, producing a powerful attractive force,” Irene didn’t say gravitational force, because she also learned this term incidentally while learning writing from Zheng Yichen. She had conducted related tests, but progress wasn’t great so far. However, using magical power, she could produce similar magic. But that kind of magic had existed before. This term was just a better description for those types of magic, provided one understood the term.

“What’s so special about that? Many magics can do that, right?”

“The nature is different,” Irene shook her head. She didn’t need to explain the difference between the two to Annie in too much detail. Explaining would only satisfy her curiosity, with no substantive meaning. It was better to talk to Zheng Yichen. Maybe he could take the opportunity to mention some other novel content, giving her some inspiration.

“In short, you have absolutely no need to worry about going down a wrong path. There are many people around you who can help correct you. They can all ensure you have a fresh start without any side effects.” After dismissing Annie the ‘old-timer,’ Irene spoke very calmly to Zheng Yichen, saying words that made his heart feel cold…

After witnessing her unique method of correction, Zheng Yichen was filled with vigilance. Going down a wrong path was the worst… Couldn’t they use more normal methods?