When the plot-skips players into the game world-Chapter 978 - : 335

Chapter 978: 335

For a moment, Christina felt a rush of exhilaration—

Wow, is it really that exhilarating to be a pawn for big shots?

Even the “Future Star of Star Antimony,” Albert Lorey, had to bow and pay his respects to her!

…Although in reality, he was probably paying respects to Alice. But it still felt awesome!

And at this moment, her body was moving on its own.

“Ah, that’s right. I remember you…”

“Christina” suddenly realized and bluntly nodded, saying: “You’re that girl who was appointed to serve in bed, but because you talked too much, you were quickly bought away before anything could happen.”

…What?

Christina felt like she just heard some juicy gossip, and together with Aurora, they quietly perked up their ears to listen.

“Yes, you must be the spiritual body that follows Miss Aleister,” Albert said unashamedly, even puffing out his chest proudly, “The person I was chatting with was the greatest alchemist in the world, Bashir Valentine!

“I really wanted to spend more time with him… but that ceremony ended too soon. If possible, I would even want to spend a hundred years just in that ceremony! From discussing alchemy to witnessing the ‘Terra Split War’, to the establishment of Star Antimony, and even personally bidding farewell to that great man… Compared to such miracles, becoming a girl or a blood slave is completely trivial!”

“…I’ve heard you mentioned this before.”

Aurora realized: “But you never told me that you met Valentine I as a girl…”

“That’s normal,” Albert shook his head, “If it weren’t for that occasion and that identity, how could I, who was not even at the fourth energy level, have the chance to meet that great man…”

And Christina began to understand.

Miss Aleister, it seems, met Count Leipzig and Albert at the same promotion ceremony.

Clearly, not just Albert… even the great Count Leipzig was at a disadvantage. Otherwise, Alice wouldn’t refer to Count Leipzig’s codename in such a casual tone.

Though she knew Miss Aleister had defeated Count Doane and even resurrected her dead self, Christina still couldn’t fully grasp how powerful she was, especially since she also had a seemingly powerful bodyguard with her. It’s normal for a spellcaster who can resurrect from the dead and a high-born lady to have a bodyguard stronger than her.

Otherwise, why would she need a guard?

Now with Count Leipzig and Mr. Albert, she finally had a clearer understanding of Miss Aleister’s strength.

Catching her thought, Alice seemed surprised: “Wait, you don’t know who my master is?”

[…What? Should I know?]

Christina responded, somewhat perplexed.

“I thought, with your social experience at school, you definitely would have heard the name… Turns out you didn’t know from the start.”

Alice sighed and said to the two: “It seems my host does not know the identity of her benefactor. My words may be biased… so please help me explain.”

With that, she dove back into Christina’s heart.

And Christina’s consciousness resurfaced, regaining control over her body.

“…Where should I start?”

Albert hesitated, exchanged a look with Aurora, and then decided to start from the beginning: “When I first met Miss Aleister, she was with a gentleman on the Path of Adaptation, codenamed ‘Grey’. She was already able to fully control the power of the Shadow Demon at just the second ability level, which was said to be absolutely impossible. And that Mr. Grey also possessed the ability to control shadows.”

“…I might have already met that ‘Mr. Grey’, but as for the Shadow Demon…”

Christina hesitated.

She knew her mentor’s summoned demon should be the ‘Night Fiend’, that black crow. But she had no knowledge of demons, unsure if this was normal or if it could be mentioned.

—Perhaps the Shadow Demon is her trump card, while the Night Fiend is the demon summoned on regular days.

So, she closed her mouth, deciding not to reveal her mentor’s secrets.

Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com.

As for Mr. Grey, he should be the strong individual following the Path of Adaptation by her side.

And Albert continued narrating: “Later, I learned a terrifying fact… that Miss Aleister is actually an ancient Son of the Moon from the imperial era.”

“…Ah,” Christina nodded, “Yes, she is a very powerful Son of the Moon.”

That she could say—after all, Sons of the Moon need to feed on blood, and those bright red eyes are hard to hide.

“Her other identity, is the lover of the current Eternal Pope Evas.”

Albert replied.

“…Huh?”

Christina was somewhat puzzled: “That Eternal Pope? Isn’t he the Iron-Blooded Queen’s…”

“It is said that there is a conflict of stances between Pope Evas and the Iron-Blooded Queen,” Albert shook his head, “and his true loved one is Lady Alistair. Initially, constrained by his status, Evas might have been unable to refuse the marriage proposal from the Queen of Avalon… but now he is the Pope, and surely he can do whatever he desires.

“—That is to say, Lady Alistair is the lover of the first Eternal Pope in history. Her status is absolutely higher than any queen of a country, even higher than Valentine VII.”

“Valentine VII has passed away recently; it is now Valentine VIII…”

Christina softly corrected.

While Albert stared at Christina, his voice gradually grew louder: “I once had the privilege to participate in a promotion ceremony together with His Holiness. I witnessed His Holiness radiating a light more blazing than the Sun, and knew that he was the recipient of the blessings of the Gemini Mirror… Even back then, I knew he would become a remarkable person…”

…I also finally understood what those experiments meant.

Albert spoke in his heart, lost in his memories.

Before he learned to read, he had learned to distinguish corpses from the living; before he understood the geography of Star Antimony, he had already understood the structure of humans. To him, Necromancy was a sacred art. It was art, and it was also truth.

Those blood and viscera were to him what mud and beetles were to other children; he stitched corpses together just as other children built sandcastles. To him, this was the best and most interesting game in the world, and he was naturally good at it.

Just like a genius star player!

But Albert was never prideful.

Because in his teens, he had already been discussing Necromancy with experts who could be his parents, or even grandparents, or great-grandparents. He had always lived in an environment of “I know nothing,” eagerly gathering all the knowledge he could touch, craving every progress he could make.

He craved recognition and hoped not to be seen just as a “future talent” expecting benevolence but to be an equal participant in discussions now—

Just to gain fame and recognition was enough. Albert thought so.

To become famous, to have people notice him, he did a lot of work. He continuously carried out “minor innovations,” pushing forward the technologies of predecessors into odd directions, then promptly registering patents and announcing them in newspapers, hoping these masters would take his work seriously—like whether the random lightning ability of a Lightning Undead could be precisely localized using antennas or brands; or whether an Earthbound Spirit could gain mobility by “making the haunt compact and portable”…

But no one ever noticed him.

In the most arrogant years of Albert, he even lied about other inventors’ work and deliberately engaged in patent disputes.

When reading academic journals, he saw a Necromancy master who had once taught him claim at an academic conference that he was creating a lizard-type Undead “capable of devouring arid land and excreting black mud”. Albert’s brain worked rapidly, and through the concept of earthworms, he created a snake-type Undead with the same function, registering his patent before the master completed his registration.

Then the entire academic community of Star Antimony was in uproar—although the master proposed the idea first, the earlier registered patent belonged to Albert.

Some argued that Albert was plagiarizing the master’s creation and publishing it first; others thought that inventing such a thing wasn’t done overnight, hence it was just a coincidence; there were even opinions that the master was abusing his authority by stealing Albert’s idea…

When Albert saw himself becoming the talk of the entire Star Antimony, he was thrilled.

He deliberately did not clarify the accusations, letting the speculation intensify. He even had already envisioned a convoluted narrative where the master and he would fight over the patent rights, become academic archenemies, and later, as the master was nearing his end, he would willingly apologize, resolving their conflict and becoming close friends—becoming a story told by others…

However, the master eventually publicly acknowledged that his invention was not as good as Albert’s—even if his invention had succeeded, its overly complicated production steps and instability made it necessarily inferior to Albert’s creation. Thus, he highly praised Albert’s invention and even privately sent him a handwritten set of experimental notes to help Albert further optimize the project.

—The master did not care about the disputes at all.

…That was the first time Albert felt what regret was.

He regretted his arrogance and baseness.

Then, Albert awoke from his madness, and in a strong feeling of emptiness, he grasped the true meaning of the Path of Dusk.

Since then, he changed his ways, wrote a long letter of apology to the master, and then quietly continued his research… until the invention of the “Armed Gargoyle” changed everything.

Unlike before, this time he became a person of importance entirely through his own ability!

Therefore, Albert dedicated all his energy, even ceased his research on Alchemy… at that time, he had already completed the Fourth Level of the Path of Dusk and the second ability level’s switch of the Path of Balance to become a “Calamity Stitcher.”

But because of his invested research into the Armed Gargoyle, he overlooked the progress in Paths and devoted all his energy to continuously fine-tuning the Armed Gargoyle to an extent invisible to the naked eye. Just the formula for the flesh-armor alone, he developed over sixty different versions. And the optimal weight formula for the firearms, bullets, and armor underwent countless mathematical calculations.

In the experimental field, he used various carefully crafted “high-speed aerial Undead” simulating Griffin Knights as targets, repeatedly having various Gargoyles attack them. Individual, small team, collective… after each round of attacks, he would diligently collect the data, then resurrect these Undead and Gargoyles, optimize them, and experiment again.

By analyzing the damage and piercing power, then repairing and resurrecting these Undead, he allowed them to undergo the next round of testing.

Besides these high-speed Undead, he also had the Armed Gargoyles attack regular Undead, armored Undead, and others to test their effectiveness against ground forces.

—Until he tested the optimized Lightning Undead, he suddenly realized there was something wrong with the experimental data.

These Armed Gargoyles seemed somewhat afraid of the lightning…