Volume 5, Chapter 22 – The Nature of This World

At the same time, when Yunchou successfully activated the Throne-tier Template, Tianyin had just finished driving back the Abyssal Lord.

Yes.

Under Tianyin’s single strike, the Abyssal Lord, who had been so menacing just a moment ago, turned into a mass of black mist and vanished completely.

As the Abyssal Lord disappeared, the crimson eyes that had filled the air and those seemingly endless tentacles it had brought with it all vanished without a trace in an instant.

『What is going on… The Abyssal Lord… is gone?』

Even though she really did not want to accept it in her heart.

But the truth was laid bare right in front of her.

That was right.

The Abyssal Lord had disappeared.

Under her attack, it had just inexplicably vanished.

『Samael… Can you sense the Abyssal Lord’s presence?』

「Xiaoyin… I don’t know where the Abyssal Lord went either…」

Tianyin’s question only earned her Samael’s rather regretful reply.

『Eh… You don’t know either… Then why did the Abyssal Lord… suddenly disappear…』

「I don’t understand either, Xiaoyin… but I feel there is no way the Abyssal Lord would just leave like that… if it suddenly left like this, that would be far too unlike the Abyssal Lord’s style…」

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『Mm… I think there is something wrong here too… Maybe the Abyssal Lord will seize the chance to ambush us when we let our guard down…』

By now, Tianyin was no longer that silly, adorable little thing she had once been.

After going through so many things, Tianyin was slowly moving toward maturity as well.

『Samael…』

「Mm?」

『The Abyssal Lord’s appearance has to be connected to Yunchou… But I really cannot understand how Yunchou managed to get involved with the Abyssal Lord…』

As she recalled how Yunchou had acted before, that deliberate lateness, then deliberately taking the stage last, and the pile of nonsense he had spouted once he appeared…

Now that Tianyin thought about it carefully, she suddenly had the feeling that Yunchou had actually been stalling for time.

『Samael, tell me, if the King of Knights was already badly wounded, could Yunchou kill him?』

「That is impossible, right?」

Samael’s tone was full of disbelief at Tianyin’s conclusion.

「No matter how good Yunchou is at schemes and calculations, he still cannot kill the King of Knights. After all, the King of Knights is Throne-tier, there is no way he would be killed by someone as weak as Yunchou… mm… Wait a moment…」

Samael, who had been speaking so confidently, suddenly stopped at the end.

「Xiaoyin… If the Abyssal Lord is working with Yunchou… Then as long as they make use of a sneak attack… Yunchou is not completely without a chance to finish off the King of Knights…」

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『Wuu… Samael, you are saying that if the King of Knights is careless, then Yunchou might be able to kill him?』

As they spoke, the mood surrounding the topic grew heavier and heavier.

『Samael… If Yunchou really might be able to kill the King of Knights, then what kind of method would let their ambush succeed? The Abyssal Lord should have been held up by us…』

The moment Tianyin said that the Abyssal Lord was being held up by them, Samael’s voice suddenly rang out and cut her off in a hurry.

「Xiaoyin… This is bad, we need to hurry and find the King of Knights, there is danger on his side!」

『Danger?』

Tianyin was a little puzzled.

At the same time as Samael activated the power of Original Sin and began to sense the King of Knights’ Throne-tier presence, she started explaining to Tianyin.

「Since according to you, Xiaoyin, Yunchou is an extremely dangerous person, then he will definitely have thought of a way to obtain the King of Knights’ power…」

「What we guessed before was that the Abyssal Lord’s sudden attack was Yunchou’s method. However, the Abyssal Lord’s ambush alone is far from enough, because we have one Throne-tier on our side.」

『I get it… If Yunchou wanted to obtain Throne-tier power, he was never planning to rely just on the Abyssal Lord… He would come up with a plan to take action himself, right!』

In an instant, Tianyin grasped the key point hidden in Samael’s words.

「That’s right! Xiaoyin, what we need to do now is hurry and find wherever the King of Knights went, damn it… That fight the Abyssal Lord just had with us was only meant to stall for time… Even the King of Knights was probably someone the Abyssal Lord deliberately let escape!」

At the same time, just as Tianyin and Samael worked out these key points, time for the entire world truly did come to a halt.

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“Sigh.”

A faint sigh rang out, and in front of Tianyin, that huge Light Orb she was so familiar with appeared once more.

“Xiaoyin, it is already too late.”

From within the halo of the great Light Orb came a rather regretful voice that sounded right by Tianyin’s ear.

“Too late? Wait… System, why did you suddenly appear in front of me again!”

The instant the System’s Light Orb appeared, time and space both strangely fell into a motionless state.

In this strange scene, Samael, who had been controlling Tianyin’s body, naturally fell silent as well.

So the one speaking with the System’s Light Orb now was naturally Tianyin herself.

“It is already too late… Xiaoyin, do you really still not understand what I mean by too late?”

“I…”

Her heart ached a little, and she also did not want to accept what the System was saying, but… The System had always given Tianyin the impression of being all knowing and all powerful.

So even though she really did not want to believe it in her heart, Tianyin still ended up accepting what the System said.

“So… System, you suddenly descended here just to scold me?”

“It is not like that, Xiaoyin.”

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At this moment, the System no longer had that teasing attitude it usually wore when it met Tianyin.

Now, whether it was its tone of voice or the feeling it gave Tianyin… Everything about it seemed unusually serious.

“I have paused time for the entire Main World this time, and even the whole Subworld… This is openly and fairly, and it complies with all settings. It is not like before when I met with you and only briefly stopped the time in a small area of space.”

“Wait, wait, wait…”

What the System suddenly said left Tianyin a little dazed.

“System, what is this about time and space… Isn’t a method like that something you can use however you want?”

“Use however I want?”

At those words, the System’s Light Orb let out a laugh that sounded unusually bitter.

“Can I really use it however I want? Xiaoyin, I think you should understand that the nature of this world has always been that of a so-called game world…”

“And since it is a game, then even though I am an all powerful System… to a certain extent I am still constrained by the so-called game rules, so Xiaoyin, I hope you can understand this…”

“And there is a reason why my descent this time is openly and fairly.”

“A reason?”

“Yes, and that reason is… the update of the game world.”