Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 175: Cause and Effect

"How is the Priest doing?"

Ron asked again, his gaze drifting toward George. The steady, unshakeable confidence that normally filled his eyes had given way to something rare — a flicker of genuine bewilderment. 'Damn it,' he thought, 'is this really what it means to have a Rookie King's luck?'

'What absolute horseshoe luck.'

They had spent four or five days grinding away at lesser enemies inside Kakh City — painstakingly careful, meticulously cautious — and had barely anything to show for it. This kid shows up once and walks out with a Level 2 Priest in tow. Did he have some kind of cheat? A golden finger?

Where was the justice in that?

"The Priest is no longer in life-threatening danger. He should wake up before evening. But, Master, what I'm more worried about is the front line at Kakh City — the Grand Witch Luna clearly has the ability to continuously create Fallen Soldiers. The longer we drag this out, the worse our position becomes!"

Hathaway said, her brow furrowed with worry. They had both noticed it. Over the past five or six days, between their two groups, they had killed at least twenty-odd Fallen Garrison Knights — and yet Kakh City kept churning them out like a monster spawn point. At this rate, they were going to lose.

For the first time in a long while, she genuinely felt like things were spiraling out of control. Why was a Four-Star Lord Mission so brutally hard? She felt like crying.

She had sacrificed so much for this mission — even let someone sleep beside her for a whole month, for nothing — and it was still going to end in failure?

"George, what do you think?"Ron let out a long sigh and turned his gaze to George.

George was a little startled. 'Seriously? You two are seasoned Four-Star Lords and you've got nothing? What am I supposed to do?'

Still, he had to play along with the logic of the storyline. He quickly analyzed the situation aloud: "The Grand Witch and the Mad Baron seem to have extracted something significant from the Victor Town merchant caravan. I saw the caravan's leader — he'd been tortured — but he's dead now. That doesn't add up. So, shouldn't we ask Sir Tuck whether his caravan was carrying out some kind of special mission?"

"Because based on my observations and analysis, that caravan should have returned safely about three months ago. Instead, it got delayed by two full months somewhere to the south, and ended up being captured just this past month. The bodies were fresh."

"And personally, I'd suggest we use whatever time we have left to start building a One-Star Temple. We have a Priest now — it would be strange not to have one. Unless you're planning to send Lord Joseph all the way back to Victor Town?"

Everything George said was based on what he had actually seen — straightforward observations, supplemented by his own analysis. Yet the moment he finished, both Ron and Hathaway went pale, as though he had just confirmed something they had desperately been hoping was wrong.

Without another word, Ron immediately left the fortress. Hathaway grabbed George and followed close behind. The three of them headed to a private room on the second floor of the tavern, and the instant the door swung shut, Ron slapped down a Four-Star Conspiracy Card.

As grey mist enveloped the room, Ron began urgently pressing George for every detail of what he had seen inside Kakh City — whether the bodies on the gallows truly showed signs of torture, whether the corpse in the interrogation chamber was indeed the caravan leader.

Even Hathaway pressed him with questions, asking and re-asking the same details.

When it was finally over, both Ron and Hathaway's expressions had settled into something pained and despairing.

They had confirmed it. Whatever they had feared — they had confirmed it.

"So what exactly happened? Do you two know something?"

George was getting anxious. 'Come on, you're the veterans here — if the sky is falling, you need to hold it up. My arms aren't strong enough.'

Ron gave a bitter smile and looked at George.

"Brother, things have gotten complicated. Messy. So we're going to have to work together — whether we complete the Four-Star Lord Mission or not no longer matters. What matters is finding a way to survive. The three of us need to cooperate fully."

"Hold on — you two are legends on the Chaotic Killing Battlefield, and you're saying that to me? That's flattering me way too much. Even now that I'm a Three-Star Lord, I'm not worth a single hair on either of your subordinates' heads!"

George was genuinely stunned.

"George, stop playing dumb. You've already gotten what you wanted — quit acting modest!"

Hathaway snapped at him, looking like a woman thoroughly beaten down by the cruelties of fate. And yes — she had completely cracked. She, who was always calm, always composed — she had absolutely cracked.

"So what exactly happened? Just tell me already!" George was genuinely desperate now.

Ron and Hathaway exchanged a glance. In the end, it was Ron who spoke, exhaling heavily.

"It's complicated to explain — and abstract. But combining what you just told us with the fact that the Mad Baron and Grand Witch's coalition isn't pushing north, isn't even actively hunting us — that level of restraint is deeply suspicious. So we have reason to believe that a Rookie Camp somewhere to the south has been discovered. The Mad Baron's forces are now gearing up to push in that direction — to farm it first."

"What? A Rookie Camp — to the south? You're saying the caravan was delayed for two months because they stumbled across a Rookie Camp, and that information was tortured out of them? So now the Mad Baron and Grand Witch's coalition is planning to march south, wipe out that Rookie Camp, seize enough Profession Cards to power up, and then come finish us off?"

George felt his head swimming. He knew there were ten Rookie Missions this cycle — but he had never in a million years imagined one was this close.

"That's essentially it. Of course, we might be wrong — but once Level 2 Priest Joseph wakes up, we'll have our answer."

Hathaway then asked: "George, how long have you been in this mission?"

"About eighteen months."

"Good. Do you know when your father Anson escaped from Kakh City?"

"Roughly twenty months ago, give or take. I'm not entirely sure."

"Good. George — do you know that your father Anson had an older brother named Dave, a younger brother named John, another younger brother who is the current Mad Baron Mark, another younger brother named Hanson, an older sister named Luna, a second sister named Danny, and several other illegitimate siblings and cousins?"

"Wait — are you saying these people are the origin of the ten Rookie Missions this cycle?"

George's mind snapped into focus.

"Congratulations — you guessed correctly." Hathaway said it flatly, then pressed her fingers to her temple and rubbed, a bone-deep exhaustion spreading through her.

Ron continued: "Twenty months ago, after the catastrophe that tore his family apart, your father Anson fled Kakh City in the dead of night. He took your mother Fila and your sister Penny, intending to escape to Weir Province. They were robbed along the way, which is how they ended up settling here — all of that you know."

"But what you may not know is this: on that same night, your uncle Dave also fled Kakh City. He fled in the opposite direction — toward Juniper Province. His carriage carried his wife Katherine, his son Joffrey, and his daughter Anna."

"In total, that night — or rather, during that period — ten carriages escaped from Kakh City and scattered in every direction. That is where this cycle of Rookie Missions began."

"As for where the others went and what became of them, we won't get into that now. What matters is your uncle Dave. He fled over a hundred kilometers before he was forced into a hidden valley to escape bandits — a place almost too perfect, like something out of a fairy tale. He thought it was a chance to rebuild his life. But an old illness resurfaced, and after suffering for several days, he died — bitter and full of regret."

"His son Joffrey had no choice but to take his mother Katherine and his sister Anna on a desperate struggle for survival. We have access to this information back at headquarters — because veteran players can observe the development indices of Rookie Camps and choose to join them. Honestly, six months ago, Joffrey's camp development index was still the clear frontrunner—"

"Wait. This Joffrey — is he the player holding the top rank on the Rookie List?"

George suddenly connected the dots, and the breath caught in his throat. The gravity of the situation hit him like a wall.

If that player had clawed his way to number one, how rich must his camp be? And if the Mad Baron and Grand Witch's coalition managed to overrun it, they would grow exponentially stronger.

But then another thought struck him.

"What about the other Rookies? There were supposed to be ten of them."

"One didn't survive last winter. Two more didn't make it through this spring. Another five switched to backup storylines a few months back — they'll continue wandering and lay the groundwork for the next cycle of Rookie Missions."

"So the only two Rookie Camps still active in this mission are yours and Joffrey's."

"Don't tell me Joffrey's side also has eight Four-Star players competing with you two for Kakh City?"

George's mind raced ahead, half-joking. If that were the case, they could potentially join forces — there might still be a slim chance of victory.

"Eight Four-Star players — yeah, right. His side doesn't even have a Three-Star Lord. Once the black-robed witch locks onto their position and the Mad Baron's army marches on them, Joffrey's Level 4 Camp will fall overnight. Eight players — that's at least sixteen Profession Cards. What a fat piece of meat to carve up." Ron let out a cold, furious laugh.

"But something doesn't add up. If both my mission and Joffrey's share the same backstory, then why have we already entered the final battle phase while his side has had no trouble at all? Wouldn't headquarters want to force an early settlement for them?"

George quickly spotted a contradiction in the logic.

Hathaway shook her head. "George, don't get lost chasing the wrong thread, and don't mythologize headquarters. The reason Rookie Missions have all these messy, seemingly irrational rules is precisely because there are too many unknown variables — things no one can predict. This isn't a dungeon run. There's no backend database scripting outcomes. The natives aren't NPCs — they have their own thoughts, their own agendas, their own intelligence networks and methods of analysis. We have to integrate into this world to complete the mission, and in that process, loopholes appear, bugs happen, and sometimes things collapse beyond repair. That's just how it is."

"This particular mission storyline has been running for several hundred years — a new Rookie Mission cycle every three years or so — and it still can't escape unexpected new situations. Every rule you find bizarre, stupid, or illogical was forged from painful, hard-won lessons."

"Because this world is real. It's living. It constantly changes. If you treat it like a game, the only thing you'll get is an answer carved in stone while the river runs on."

"Right now we have no way to contact headquarters, so we can't relay this situation to them. Ron and I can only explain things based on what we know. Understood?"