novelraw Chapter 307: The New World’s Master
Chapter 307: The New World’s Master
[…]
[You follow the guidance of the Seat Pass of the Disciple Sanctum and arrive at Council Chamber No. 11…]
[Behind the host dais stands a figure in a black robe…]
[Amos: To be honest, I did not have high expectations for you at first.]
[Amos: In the best outcome I expected, you would merely survive the selection and enter the Elders Council early.]
[Amos: I truly did not expect you to exceed my expectations by so much and actually become the final winner… it feels like a dream.]
[Blood King: Thanks to your strong support, my Lord, your subordinate did not fail your expectations and became the final winner.]
[Amos: …]
[Amos: Among this round of Disciple selection there were Apostles already able to step into the seventh difficulty, and the selected chapter also had many unexpected incidents…]
[Can you tell me how you won?][Blood King: Reporting to you, my Lord, perhaps I was just very lucky. I kept my head down and held on… and somehow won?]
[Amos: …]
[Amos: The Twelve Disciples are divided into upper, middle, and lower seats. Though both of us are lower-seat Disciples, you and I already stand at the peak of power, beings others must look up to. Do not call me my Lord in the future.]
[Amos: Tomorrow you will be crowned as the Twelfth Disciple. There are some matters you must be informed of in advance…]
Within the New World organization there is a large number of grassroots Apostles hidden in the shadows. The organization’s upper echelon regularly conducts Offering Rituals to continuously draw blood from the bottom.
In the eyes of the leadership, these grassroots Apostles are both devout lambs and indispensable resources.
The New World presents unity outwardly, yet inwardly it is not as harmonious as it appears.
The law of survival within the organization is very clear, survival of the fittest.
The Twelve Disciples are not an ironclad whole. There is intense competition and infighting among the Disciples, and the reason is the scramble for grassroots Apostles.
The four upper-seat Disciples each fight their own battles and represent different factional powers.
The Elders Council forms its own camp, with tangled and deep-rooted influence. There are the forces of the three Grand Elders, as well as Apostles cultivated by each upper-seat Disciple.
Behind Amos stands the Third Disciple, Vishnu. Since Lin Xun was brought up personally by Amos, he naturally belongs to his faction.
The New World’s highest leader, the Master, also tacitly permits this internal competition. As long as it remains within reasonable rules, the Master will not intervene in the organization’s so-called positive competition.
What Amos described was more specific than the intelligence he had obtained from his female boss.
Not only did he explain the power distribution and general personnel composition of each faction, he also made clear how to carry out positive competition to herd more grassroots lambs.
Lin Xun finally understood why, despite the New World having existed for so long, there were still vacant Disciple seats.
Because the last Disciple war resulted in the deaths of three Disciples, those ranked behind moved up by one, and in the end the positions of the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Disciples were left vacant.
“Damn. Why do I feel like the New World is raising gu in a jar?”
According to Amos, only during the very first Disciple selection was the coronation ceremony presided over by the Master of the New World.
In the many Disciple wars that followed, as numerous Disciples died and new ones succeeded them, the ceremonies were all presided over by the three Grand Elders of the Elders Council.
The Master has always been mysterious. Some lower-seat Apostles, during their entire tenure until death, never had a chance to meet the Master once.
[Amos: That is the general situation. Tomorrow the organization will conduct the coronation ceremony for you, presided over by the three Grand Elders. All Disciples will come to witness.]
[Amos: You now need to set out immediately and follow me to meet Vishnu. Not in the game, but in reality…]
Amos suddenly stopped halfway through his words, and only after quite a while did he speak again.
Lin Xun could not know Amos’s expression, yet from the text of his replies alone he could sense the shock in his heart.
[Amos: What in the world is your background, kid?!]
With utter perplexity, he replied cautiously.
[Blood King: B-big bro, what do you mean by that?]
[Amos: The Master wants to meet you in reality and will personally preside over your coronation ceremony!]
???
Lin Xun was a little stunned.
Wasn’t it said that the Master was always secretive, rarely appeared, and had not personally presided over a coronation ceremony for a long time?
Why then did the Master suddenly pop up to preside over his coronation?
“Could it be that I have been exposed?”
Lin Xun furrowed his brow, then felt that this thought was unrealistic.
If exposed, he would face only two possibilities.
One, a New World purge. For an undercover infiltrator within the organization, they would rather kill mistakenly than let one slip.
Two, pretend to know nothing, let him remain within the organization to feed him false intelligence to mislead the authorities, or find an opportunity to turn him, making him a double agent.
The situation at hand fit neither of the two. Thus Lin Xun judged that he was not exposed.
Eliminate all impossibilities and the remaining answer becomes easier to infer.
The Master specifically wanting to meet him and hold the coronation for him most likely was due to the anomalies in the Easter Egg chapter.
Amos did not understand and was shocked by it, asking what Lin Xun’s background was, which Lin Xun could not explain.
But at such a time he absolutely could not show weakness, lest others notice a clue.
[Blood King: Bro, I am someone you personally brought up. What I can say, I will certainly explain clearly to you.]
[There are some things I truly cannot say. It is not that your little brother is deliberately hiding anything… I truly cannot say it!]
[Amos: …]
[Amos: Very well. I asked too much.]
[Let us hold off on meeting Vishnu for now. I need to report to the Master. Come back to the Disciple Sanctum in one hour.]
[The black-robed figure behind the host dais suddenly vanished.]
[Council Chamber No. 11 is left with only you…]
Seeing this, Lin Xun left the Disciple Sanctum, contacted his female boss, and reported the situation.
The phone rang once and was immediately picked up. Li Xingyue’s voice came from the other end.
“Lin Xun, you cleared the Easter Egg chapter?”
“How is it, are you hurt?”
In Slaughter Mode, dying in a wandering soul form reduces the upper limit of soul strength and naturally inflicts soul trauma.
His female boss did not know the specifics of the Easter Egg chapter, much less that in this selection once a Shell died it would be followed immediately by soul annihilation.
On the other end of the phone, Li Xingyue anxiously waited for Lin Xun’s reply.
To ensure Lin Xun would be safe, she had even applied within the organization for the extremely precious Escape Bookmark.
This bookmark is exceedingly rare. Only Apostles whose Invasion permissions have reached a certain level and who are extraordinarily lucky can have it appear in the Librarian’s trading list.
The probability of rolling an Escape Bookmark is far lower than winning a first-prize lottery.
“Team Leader, I have one good piece of news and one bad piece of news.”
At a time like this he was still keeping suspense.
Li Xingyue wished she could rush straight to Lin Xun’s rental room right now, hang him up, and interrogate him thoroughly.
“Out with it!”
When she applied for the Escape Bookmark, she had already prepared herself for the possibility that Lin Xun would not secure a Disciple seat.
The best outcome, of course, would be Lin Xun becoming the Twelfth Disciple.
The next-best outcome would be that although he did not achieve the maximum kill count, he still cleared the Easter Egg chapter and could smoothly enter the New World’s Elders Council.
The worst outcome would be using the Escape Bookmark to leave mid-competition… No. It would be Lin Xun’s stubborn temper acting up, and in order to repay her for striving for the Disciple seat, he would rather reduce his soul strength than exit the selection, leading to the final…
Now that Lin Xun could make a phone call and from the sound of it had not suffered any soul trauma, it meant the worst outcome had not occurred.
“Team Leader, the good news is that I cleared the Easter Egg chapter. Aside from the two hostile Apostles who escaped using Escape Bookmarks, I brought all the Apostles in the selection to justice and took them all out.”
“If nothing unexpected happens, tomorrow I can become the Twelfth Disciple.”
Li Xingyue’s eyes widened. The surprise came so suddenly that she did not react for a moment.
“You, you mean you eliminated all the contestants and became the final victor?”
“Mm, correct. To be precise, I missed the two who escaped at halftime.”
Li Xingyue collapsed into her office chair and let out a long breath.
She clenched her fists tightly and could not help but pump them twice.
That is as it should be. The person I, Li Xingyue, chose, how could he disappoint.
“Team Leader, you seem to be happy too soon. I haven’t said the bad news yet.”
Li Xingyue rolled her eyes. “You are already becoming the Twelfth Disciple, what bad news could there be?”
“Enough joking. I am buying a ticket to Yun Capital City right now to submit your application to join the Council.”
“At the very least I have to secure you the rank of Senior Councilor to match your achievements.”
Lin Xun was taken aback.
What other council could it be but the core body of the Apostle Security Council, the Apostle Committee Council.
Previously, the teammate in the Easter Egg chapter, that elite Apostle who had a necromancer Shell, Du Cheng, the Surveillance Division Chief of Jinling, was said to be about to enter the sixth difficulty.
If he could avoid getting stuck and successfully clear a sixth difficulty chapter once, he could enter the official core body, the Apostle Committee Council.
It is said that aside from specially recruited personnel, every Councilor in it is at least a sixth difficulty Apostle, truly top-tier elites.
Councilors also have levels, Councilor, Senior Councilor, the nine Directors, and the highest rank, the Chairman.
It is said that the threshold for election as Senior Councilor is the seventh difficulty. For him to become a Senior Councilor would be an unprecedented fast-track promotion.
Do not think that being the Twelfth Disciple in the New World yet only a Senior Councilor on the official side is somewhat low in status.
One must know that Lin Xun is still undercover within the New World, an operative who has not yet come ashore. To become a Senior Councilor is already the most exceptional of exceptions.
If he can ultimately help the authorities eradicate the New World and successfully come ashore, then whatever position he receives would not be unreasonable.
Since he is still undercover within the New World, suddenly being elected a Senior Councilor will already draw the attention of those with an eye for these things.
The organization might even have to arrange some public special tasks for him so that he has the corresponding qualifications to be exceptionally elected.
“Three years and then another three years. When will I be able to come ashore? If I keep going like this, will I end up becoming the boss of the New World?”
A shiver ran through Lin Xun. He hurriedly shook his head to cast off this absurd thought.
“Team Leader, there really is bad news… Perhaps for the organization it is good news.”
Li Xingyue frowned, finally certain he was not joking. “Speak quickly.”
“The Master of the New World wants to meet me in reality and will preside over my Disciple coronation.”
Clatter.
Li Xingyue’s phone fell to the floor. She hastily picked it up.
“You, you mean the leader of the New World wants to meet you? And in reality?”
“Yes. Amos did not tell me the exact time and place. He only told me to re-enter the Disciple Sanctum in one hour. No, there are 52 minutes left now.”
“No. It is too dangerous.”
The words burst out of Li Xingyue’s mouth.
She knew that if Lin Xun met the leader of the New World in reality, it would be an excellent opportunity for the authorities to carry out a sniper operation.
The New World’s Master has always hidden their head and shown no face. The authorities do not even know the Master’s nationality or whether the Master is male or female.
They only know that the Master’s strength is incomparably powerful. If planning a sniping operation targeting the Master… before a truly powerful Apostle, the strike power of all modern weapons is hardly worth mentioning.
Apostles have many methods to hard-counter and evade, even ignore the massive power of modern weaponry.
Only Apostles can defeat high-level Apostles.
Leaving aside whether the operation would succeed, many people would inevitably die, and Lin Xun would be the first to bear the brunt.
Even though Lin Xun has the advantage of multiple Shells and multiple lives, before the Master who commands the entire New World, such overwhelming strength is enough to flatten all supposed advantages.
An uncontrollable thought even rose within Li Xingyue, to have Lin Xun immediately abandon his undercover status and withdraw from the New World.
Given Lin Xun’s potential, if he can grow well, he will certainly become the strongest of Apostles, a powerful Apostle second to none, even able to eradicate the New World’s Apostles by his own strength.
But would the organization, in the face of such a tempting opportunity, choose to trust her judgment?
“Do not act rashly yet. Wait for my message.”
Without allowing further argument, she hung up and wanted to call her uncle, Vice-Chairman Li Long, to ask what to do.
In her view, the New World’s Master’s strength is an irresistible force. Only the Vice-Chairman of the Council or even the Chairman could resolve this.
Yet her fingertip hovered and never pressed the call button.
“If I explain the situation to my uncle…”
“If my uncle also agrees to use Lin Xun as bait and forcibly carry out a sniping operation targeting the New World’s Master, what then?”
“Would I still have a chance to oppose it?”
“But if I do not tell my uncle, how am I supposed to resolve the present dilemma?”
Li Xingyue pressed her lips together and looked around the empty office.
Outside the window the street was still a river of cars, bustling and clamorous.
Yet she truly felt a profound loneliness and powerlessness.
She clenched her fists so hard that her nails sunk deeply into her palms and drew blood, without even noticing.
—
After a long hesitation, Li Xingyue finally pressed the call button.
She had already made up her mind.
If her uncle’s thinking ran counter to hers, she would protect Lin Xun without fail.
At worst, have Lin Xun give up the Disciple seat and withdraw from the New World.
No one understands Lin Xun’s potential better than she does. Killing the chicken to get the eggs is the most foolish decision.