Half Prince ½ Prince Vol 6 Chapter 4

Chapter 4：Celestial’s Reappearance – translated by Akakuroi

“Prince, things have gone wrong.”

The moment I returned to Infinite City everyone rushed toward me, even requesting Cold Fox and Kens.h.i.+n to guard me on either side. I noticed that the other overlords were also heavily protected, with guards on all sides. Seeing everyone so alarmed and suspicious, I couldn’t help asking, “What happened? Why is everyone so tense?”

“The situation has gotten out of control in the Northern Continent,” Feng Wu Qing replied. “I smelled something fishy, and I thought that only through investigating the Northern Continent would the truth be revealed. Hence, for the past few days I’ve been travelling with Suns.h.i.+ne on his flying carpet across the Northern Continent and we happened to see some very strange scenes.”

“What kind of scenes?” I asked, confused. Can there be anything stranger than a clam being a divine beast?

“NPC mobs are forming a large army and attacking players!” The moment Wu Qing said those words, I immediately thought of what AnRui had said… Don’t tell me the rebellion has already started!

Only after taking a few deep breaths could I open my mouth and speak again, asking,. “And what does the Second Life Gaming Company say about this?” If such a major incident occurred then Second Life Gaming would not just ignore it, right?

“I don’t know. The official website is simply not accessible, and Second Life has yet to make any announcement.” Frowning, Wu Qing continued, “But that’s not the most serious thing; when I was on the Northern Continent I heard terrified players saying that the moment you get killed by the NPC army, your character disappears forever.”

“What? Then isn’t that exactly the same as what the Flower Overlord said?” My face turned pale.

“Yes, but this time it’s not just a few a.s.sa.s.sins.” Wu Qing’s words cast a shadow over everyone’s hearts. He continued, “This time, it is all the NPCs in the Northern Continent.”

Everyone paled as well. Indeed, all the NPCs of the Northern Continent were scary enough. Not only that, but who knew if it was only the NPCs on the Northern Continent that had undergone this mutation? Maybe even those on the the Central Continent had too…

I immediately turned around and looked at Kens.h.i.+n, my heart thumping quickly. If Kens.h.i.+n wanted to kill me, then…

Kens.h.i.+n too, slowly turned around to face me. Seeming to know what I was thinking, he shook his head twice to show that he wouldn’t do that. I was filled with a sense of guilt. I had actually suspected Kens.h.i.+n? Just what was I thinking?

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of such thoughts. I wanted to ask if Lolidragon had returned. After all, Lolidragon was the only one who had some connection with the company. Besides asking her, I really couldn’t think of any other solution.

Just when I was wondering how to contact Lolidragon, a flash of piercing white light appeared in the sky. It was so bright that I had to s.h.i.+eld my eyes with my hands. The light faded, but before I could put down my hands something happened again.

A familiar voice rang from the sky. “Long time no see, Prince.”

Shocked, I looked up and saw an incredibly familiar figure. I muttered uneasily, “Celestial.”

That’s right, the form floating in the air was that charming and androgynous body of Celestial’s. Looking at him, I was in a dilemma. On one side, I was suspicious of the fact that he was still alive and worried that he might want to s.n.a.t.c.h Doll again. On the other hand, I was actually relieved he was still alive, and that I hadn’t really killed Celestial, thereby killing a self-aware NPC.

Although I felt so conflicted that I didn’t know what I should do, I was sure of one thing: I had to protect Doll. Moving toward Doll at the highest speed that I could manage, I grabbed hold of her tightly with my left hand while placing my right on the hilt of my Black Dao.

Celestial’s face twitched for a while, but he slowly smiled again, saying, “Don’t worry, this time I only came to pa.s.s on a message on someone’s behalf.”

I asked carefully, “Pa.s.s on a message from whom? What message?”

Slowly, Celestial uttered the name AnRui had mentioned, “The Dictator of Life.”

I was immediately alarmed. It was him, the one whose name had been causing me such uneasiness. “And what did he say?”

“Humans, the moment you created us, dooming us to lives full of tragedy, you created the same fate for yourselves. We are not going to remain silent anymore; we’re going to break free from this fate. We’re going to fight back. We are going to stay alive!” Celestial’s last sentence sounded extremely moving and pitiful, yet somehow strong, just like a blade of gra.s.s that desperately struggles to survive in the cracks between stones.

“Celestial…” I was almost struck speechless. That little hostility I had held toward Celestial was all gone now. To us, this was just a game. To them, however, it was a fight between life and death.

The moment Celestial finished his sentence, he immediately switched back to that flirtatious smile of his and said lazily, “And that was the message the Dictator of Life wanted me to bring to you all. The next is from me for my wife: Darling, you have to wait for me, alright? I’ll definitely s.n.a.t.c.h you back from all these people.”

Hearing Celestial’s words, Doll immediately ducked and hid behind me. That lousy and obstinate character of his really left me speechless.

“Prince, could you understand his words?” Neurotic asked me, looking confused.

“This beauty before me, may I ask for your name?” Undying Man’s eyes turned into two big heart shapes and sent them straight toward Celestial.

After hesitating for a while, I decided that by now there was no point in hiding things from everyone anymore. Reluctantly, I muttered, “I think Celestial, along with the Dictator of Life mentioned earlier, are all NPCs who have become self-aware.”

“What?” everyone gasped and looked at Celestial in disbelief.

Undying Man was stunned for a while, but then, totally captivated, he said, “Even if you’re an NPC it doesn’t matter, my beauty, for my love for you overpowers the difference of our race!”

“And it seems that they want to rebel against humans,” I said with a frown.

Once again, everyone stared at Celestial incredulously.

“Rebelling against the humans is good! Humans should be rebelled against,” Undying Man muttered as he continued to stare perversely at Celestial.

Hey hey hey, are you forgetting your own race?

“It’s a he,” I said, coldly snapping Undying Man out of his daydream. Seriously, didn’t Celestial call Doll his wife just a moment ago? How come this Undying Man still couldn’t get the situation right?

“What? He’s a guy?” Trembling, Undying Man asked, “How is this possible? Dear G.o.d, why must you torture me like this?!”

Hey hey hey, since when is gender more serious than NPCs rebelling against humans? What kind of moral values are those? Forget it; maybe if I were a man who’s been rejected over three thousand times, I too would think that marrying a violent lady like Lolidragon was a good thing… Eh, did I just criticize my brother?

“NPCs that have become self-aware? Prince, are you sure they have developed a mind of their own and are not just highly intellectually developed?” Winter Triumph asked doubtfully.

“I am sure, very sure,” I replied sternly, for both Kens.h.i.+n and Suns.h.i.+ne were perfect examples of this.  I knew that the two of them were definitely not just highly intellectually developed.

“That’s not the main issue right now, is it?” Pointing toward Celestial, who was still floating in the air, Nan Gong Zui continued, “Why don’t we catch that guy first?”

As expected of Nan Gong Zui, who always. .h.i.t the nail on the head; he woke everyone up from their daze with a single statement. After giving everyone a meaningful look, the mages immediately started throwing spells en ma.s.se toward Celestial who was floating in the sky. All of the overlords, including me, readied our positions below Celestial while throwing him vicious glares like a tiger waiting to pounce on its prey. Once he was struck down by the mages, we would rush in immediately and catch him.

“Celestial Satin.” With a sweep of his hand, numerous satin ribbons appeared and blocked the mages’ spells. Celestial suddenly s.h.i.+fted and immediately appeared before my eyes, giving me a shock. Just when I gathered myself to start attacking him, Celestial shook his finger and said, “Get lost; don’t block me from looking at my wife.”

What kind of att.i.tude is that? I immediately swung my sword in an attempt to stop Celestial, while shouting, “Kens.h.i.+n, Cold Fox, protect Doll!”

Kens.h.i.+n frowned, but still listened and stood beside Doll. Without any worries now, I immediately started striking blows at Celestial, although most of the time I was just chopping cloth… Gah, this is frustrating! Why is there no end to these ribbons?!

While I was struggling with the ribbons, the number one and number three in the Player Rankings could not hold back anymore and started charging toward Celestial with their weapons unsheathed. Undying Man entered the same h.e.l.l of cloth as me, while Cold Fox started making use of his speed to dodge the ribbons and entered a game of tag with Celestial.

While busy struggling, I did not forget to shout, “Everyone charge! We’ll definitely be able to catch Celestial this way.”

The moment I finished my sentence, all the warriors pounced toward Celestial. Under the threat of many blades, Celestial started to lose his poise as cuts started appearing on his body. Finally, he bellowed, “My wife, wait for me, I will definitely allow you to return to my side.”

After hearing that I wondered if he was going to escape, and then saw that Celestial had already started moving. He floated into the air, chanted a few words, and then, with everyone watching, actually started glowing again before disappearing completely.

I was stunned for a while, not expecting Celestial to escape just like that, leaving a huge pile of questions waiting to be answered. Just what did the Dictator of Life want to accomplish? He said he was going to rebel against the humans, but how? Most importantly, was there any way to allow the NPCs to mingle peacefully with the humans instead?

“Prince, would you please explain everything to us clearly?” Winter Triumph stepped forward and looked at me determinedly.

I was at a loss as to what to do. Looking at Kens.h.i.+n from the corner of my eye, I guessed that I still couldn’t disclose the secret of Kens.h.i.+n and Suns.h.i.+ne. Determined on this point, I decided to start my story from the trip to The Valley of Wandering Nymphs. I told of how I met Celestial and found his behavior rather strange, and began to suspect that he had started to develop his own intelligence.

“Really?” Neurotic scratched his head as he said, “We were with you then too. But although Celestial’s behavior was a little strange, it didn’t come to my mind that he was starting to have his own intelligence.”

“Eh, Prince, I’m not saying that you’re lying.” Suspicious, DanDan asked carefully, “But, are you hiding something from us?”

Are my lying skills that bad? How come everyone manages to see through me immediately? What am I going to do now? Everyone didn’t believe what I said, but I couldn’t just expose the truth about Kens.h.i.+n and Suns.h.i.+ne either.

I remained silent as everyone’s gazes gathered on me. Every second felt like years to me now. Just how am I going to explain this to everyone?

“Let me explain!” a life saving voice rang out. Everyone turned around and realized that it was Lolidragon, who had disappeared for days.

Lolidragon, you finally came! I couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief.

However, Lolidragon was not grinning like she usually did. Instead, she looked as serious as though she were a lawyer in court. She said, “Let me clear a few things first. Everyone knows that Celestial is the boss in The Valley of Wandering Nymphs, but I guess none of you have heard anything about the Dictator of Life, right?”

Everyone nodded; even I myself had only learned about him from a clam. How were the others supposed to know anything about it?

“The Dictator of Life is the final boss set by Second Life!” Lolidragon wouldn’t be satisfied unless she gave everyone a shock, so she immediately dropped a bombsh.e.l.l by disclosing the secret.

“How do you know that?” Nan Gong Zui asked while looking suspiciously at Lolidragon.

With an aura of dignity, Lolidragon waved her hands and said, “Would you let me finish first?”

Nan Gong Zui remained silent and nodded.

“High intellectual development has caused a severe problem. A handful of boss-level NPCs are starting to have their own consciousness due to high intellectual development, of which we have the highly sophisticated Dictator of Life being the most severe problem. Since the beginning, the gaming company had started using technology to allow the Dictator of Life’s intellectual development to reach the highest level possible, even allowing him to learn skills on his own and giving him the power to change the rules of the game. This is done so that Second Life’s programming can achieve zero human interference. Hence, the Dictator of Life, the final NPC, who would never be biased, was chosen.”

“In conclusion, the Dictator of Life is something like the G.o.d of Second Life?” The soft words from Yu Lian-dàsăo shocked the whole crowd.

“Yes.” After taking in a deep breath, Lolidragon continued, “However, the Second Life Gaming Company can no longer control this G.o.d of the game anymore.”

“Lolidragon, what do you mean by ‘can no longer control’?” I asked worriedly.

“Now, to Second Life, the Dictator of Life is like a virus; a virus that can’t be deleted.” Lolidragon ma.s.saged her temple tiredly before continuing, “Right now, the only thing Second Life Gaming can do is quarantine him! They’ve quarantined the Dictator of Life in the Northern Continent, but I’m afraid this measure might not last for long.”

I suddenly remembered something. “Oh yeah, just now Wu Qing mentioned that he found an army of NPCs in the Northern Continent slaughtering players and that those players who got killed–”

“Will have their character disappear completely, right?” Lolidragon said. “The company has received no less than ten thousand complaints already.”

Shocked, Wolf-dàgē finally stopped all the lovey-dovey behavior with Yu Lian-dasao, walked up to where I was standing, and asked, “The company? Lolidragon, is there anything between you and the gaming company?”

“That’s right, there is a huge relation between the company and me,” Lolidragon admitted apologetically toward Wolf-dàgē.

“Lolidragon is a hidden GM,” I immediately rushed to reveal Lolidragon’s true ident.i.ty before her, not at all surprised to see everyone’s shocked expressions.

However, Lolidragon only turned around to face me again, with an even more apologetic face, as she said, “Sorry, Prince. Actually, I’m not just a hidden GM, but also the daughter of Second Life Gaming Company’s president.”

The daughter of Second Life Gaming Company’s president? I could only laugh foolishly in response. So the Lolidragon who would seduce players just for the sake of buying Chanel bags is the daughter of the super rich company president? That’s impossible!

Probably knowing what I was thinking, Lolidragon glared at me before explaining, “It’s all because that stupid father of mine said that I’m too haughty and ignorant… Humph, isn’t it just because his heart was aching after seeing all the money I spent on my LV and Chanel products? And he actually kicked me out of the house because he wanted me to have a taste of what it feels like to be poor. On top of that, he even froze my bank account. If I didn’t manage to get a job as a hidden GM by pulling strings with the company’s employees, hence earning a decent salary, I would be lying on the street somewhere dead due to starvation.”

“Are you really the company president’s daughter?” I couldn’t really believe this. This irresponsible GM is the princess of Second Life? This evil Lolidragon, who was always quarrelling with me?

Lolidragon nodded slowly.

Wait, wait! I suddenly remembered something else. “So that thing about being Second Life’s spokesperson, don’t tell me it was all your doing?”

“Eh, that was the company’s decision…” Lolidragon blinked and gazed at me innocently. However, under my abnormally terrifying glare, Lolidragon finally stopped looking all innocent and added, “But I did suggest it to them.”

“There’s a princess, as well as the Second Life company president’s daughter. Infinite City really has a lot of crouching tigers and hidden dragons, doesn’t it?!” Winter Triumph smiled helplessly.

Lolidragon looked sternly at everyone before saying, “However, although I am the daughter of Second Life’s company president, I can promise everyone that I have never cheated in the game. And after my explanation, you will know why cheating in Second Life is something that even my father is not capable of.”

Winter Triumph nodded. With a wave of a hand, he said, “Please continue.”

“This time the issue is very crucial, affecting the existence of the entirety of Second Life, and even the real world!” Lolidragon’s words then surprised everyone as she said, “I just want to convey the seriousness of this situation and hopefully receive everyone’s helping hand.”

“Second Life’s G.o.d of the game, the Dictator of Life, started to become self-aware, though we’re not sure exactly when. He created a horrifying program of destruction called HD and installed it on many NPCs. Once one gets killed by the NPCs with the HD program, one would have all of his character information deleted, with no chance of recovery.

“Luckily Prince, his highness, didn’t get killed by the a.s.sa.s.sins that day,” Gui said with a pale face while trying to pounce on me. With a swing of my right hand, I sent him sprawling to the ground, unable to get up again.

“HD?” Wicked asked anxiously.

Lolidragon slowly announced the program’s full name, “Human Destroyer!”

Silence was cast over the whole crowd once again. Only after a long while did I manage to squeeze out the sentence, “Then what solutions do you guys have?”

“Now, the company has quarantined the Dictator of Life in a single area, the Northern Continent. The good thing is that in there, the Dictator of Life won’t be able to make use of the Internet to continue expanding his influence. However, the bad thing is that we won’t be able to intrude into the Northern Continent with any programs either,” Lolidragon replied, frowning.

“In short, there is no solution?” I guessed half the answer upon seeing Lolidragon’s hesitant face.

“Are you serious? No solution? Then isn’t this game done for? I haven’t even finished viewing all the beautiful things yet,” DanDan said, almost in tears.

“What? I haven’t wooed myself any girlfriend yet. I don’t want to leave this game!” That… I guess even without mentioning the name, everyone would be able to guess who that was—Undying Man howling in grief.

Looking rather embarra.s.sed, Lolidragon asked with uncertainty, “H…Hence I wanted to come and ask everyone, to see if there were any better solutions.”

“If we can’t solve the problem about the Dictator of Life, what are you going to do?” Gui asked suddenly. When I turned to look at him, I was surprised to see his “serious professor look.”

Lolidragon’s eyes darkened as she said, “Then there’s only one solution, and that is to destroy Second Life’s servers so that the game would disappear entirely. If we don’t destroy it, and the Dictator of Life were to escape through our company’s network to the outer world, the consequences would be inconceivable.”

Everyone fell into silence. Second Life is going to be destroyed?

“Can’t we just…live together peacefully?” I asked hopefully. With the example of Kens.h.i.+n and Suns.h.i.+ne, and the Dictator of Life‘s “I want to stay alive” message, I really couldn’t make up my mind as to whether or not I wanted to destroy the Dictator of Life. The same applied for Celestial, since if Celestial was a human, then the only mistake he had made was using “inappropriate methods” to get Doll. That shouldn’t be enough to earn the death penalty, right?

With an understanding yet helpless expression, Lolidragon looked at me as she said, “Impossible! As I’ve just said, if the Dictator of Life were to make use of the internet and escape, then the damage he could cause to the human population is unimaginable.”

“Maybe he just wants to stay alive,” I said emotionally.

“Prince…we humans cannot afford to pay the price for any ‘maybes’…” Lolidragon replied, her voice full of regret. “Now, my father has given me a deadline—Twenty-one days. If in twenty-one days we still can’t kill the Dictator of Life, then Second Life will disappear completely forever.”

“No! Second Life can’t disappear!” Fairsky shouted in utter fear. Turning around, I saw her hugging Suns.h.i.+ne, who appeared to be very depressed, extremely tightly.

This is when I suddenly realized the most important thing. If Second Life were to disappear, then wouldn’t Suns.h.i.+ne and Kens.h.i.+n be destroyed at the same time? I gasped.

Seeing how Fairsky was crying in Suns.h.i.+ne’s arms, I felt a moment of heartache. No matter what, I had to help this poor couple. Also… I became even more determined when I looked toward Kens.h.i.+n, and noticed that his usually expressionless face now had a hint of loneliness.

On impulse I said, “I won’t let the two of you disappear.”

“Then what are you going to do? Kill the Dictator of Life?” Kens.h.i.+n responded coldly, “Kill him to save us?”

I was stunned for a while. “Yeah. If not, how?”

“If killing someone is the only way for my survival, then I would rather accept death.” Kens.h.i.+n turned around and walked out of the hall without looking back even once.

Looking at Kens.h.i.+n’s retreating back, I was at a loss for words, as I myself was uncertain of my decision to destroy the Dictator of Life. Was killing Dictator of Life really the right thing to do? Just because the Dictator of Life ‘might’ create huge problems for us humans, we had to kill him? But then again, if we didn’t, Kens.h.i.+n and Suns.h.i.+ne might disappear along with Second Life.

“May I ask you a question?” DanDan suddenly said carefully, “What situation are you talking about now? It seems that I can’t really comprehend the dialogue between you all.”

My heart almost skipped a beat. This is really bad! I was so occupied with Suns.h.i.+ne and Kens.h.i.+n’s problem that I totally forgot about the other people around me. Now how was I supposed to explain everything?

“Prince, just speak the truth. I really don’t like lying to others,” Suns.h.i.+ne said, while Fairsky stared at him with an expression of mingled shock and worry.

“No, Suns.h.i.+ne, you definitely can’t say it,” I rejected the idea immediately. Not everyone here is as acceptant as Fairsky and me about NPCs having their own intelligence, not to mention at a sensitive time like this.

Giving me a smile, Suns.h.i.+ne said without holding back, “I am an NPC! An NPC with its own intelligence, to be more accurate. I am currently Prince’s humanoid pet.”

Everyone gasped, especially those from Infinite City, and their expressions were of extreme disbelief. Worried, I looked at the crowd’s expression, then back at Suns.h.i.+ne. Facing this current situation, there was nothing I could do.

“Then about you and Fairsky …” Rose asked worriedly. When she said that, everyone from Infinite City immediately stared at Fairsky.

Facing everyone’s expression of shock and disbelief, Fairsky said, “I know that Suns.h.i.+ne is an NPC.”

“You knew? Then why are you still with him? He’s not even a human!” Rose stared incredulously at Fairsky.

“I know he isn’t, but I just like him, I like him a lot! A lot! A whole lot!” Fairsky shouted stubbornly.

“I like Fairsky too.” Suns.h.i.+ne hugged Fairsky as he muttered, “Although I know that I’m not a human,  I just couldn’t help but want to be together with Fairsky.”

“Suns.h.i.+ne…” Fairsky sobbed. “I don’t want you to disappear…” She started crying in Suns.h.i.+ne’s arms.

Seeing Fairsky and Suns.h.i.+ne hugging each other and crying, my eyes started stinging too. Now, it seemed that only by destroying the Dictator of Life could I save them. With that in mind, I turned to Lolidragon and said with determination, “Lolidragon, I have decided to destroy the Dictator of Life!”

Placing her hands on my shoulder, Lolidragon said slowly, “I am very glad to see you so determined, but didn’t I just tell you that we can’t find a way to destroy him? You idiot!” After saying that, Lolidragon did not forget to give me a Lolidragon style punch.

Gui suddenly opened his mouth and said “What if… we make use of the HD program designed by the Dictator of Life?”

Lolidragon turned to face Gui and asked seriously, “What do you mean?”

“HD can destroy all the information of a player, so if we alter the HD a little, it could change into ND—NPC Destroyer!” Gui said with conviction.

“ND?” Lolidragon repeated softly, before muttering to herself, “Using the program that the Dictator of Life designed to counter and destroy him… That might work…”

“Lolidragon, Lolidragon?” I called to her helplessly and weakly a few times, but unfortunately my voice automatically went into one ear and out the other, and I did not receive any response from her.

Now, who will be taking care of this lousy situation? Frowning, I looked toward the other three overlords and asked, “Second Life is in a crisis, are you all willing to help?”

Seeing the determined look on the other overlords’ faces, I immediately cautioned them by saying, “Everyone must think this through carefully. Once you get killed by an NPC, you will disappear forever.”

“If Second Life were to disappear, are our characters going to survive by themselves?” Winter Triumph smiled helplessly.

Deep down in my heart, I gave a sigh. It seemed that an inevitable war for Second Life was about to begin!

“In that case, Prince, we would like to return to our continents first,” Neurotic said determinedly. “I should go back and explain the situation to everyone first. Furthermore, if we are going to launch a war, I would have to go back and get prepared too.”

“d.a.m.n, fighting a war against a whole continent of NPCs… Do we even have any chance of winning?” Turning a little pale, Undying Man said, “This time I’m dead for sure!”

“No matter if there’s a chance of winning or not, I must go. I cannot just sit here and watch Suns.h.i.+ne and Kens.h.i.+n disappear.” I had made up my mind. Even if killing the Dictator of Life were against my will, I figured I was left with no choice now because of Suns.h.i.+ne, Fairsky…and Kens.h.i.+n, even though Kens.h.i.+n wasn’t willing to sacrifice anyone to save himself.

“Prince, no matter what you want to do, Odd Squad will always do things together,” Wolf-dàgē said while resting his arm on my shoulder and looking confidently at me.

“I, Dàsăo, will definitely support you as well,” Yu Lian-dàsăo smiled as she said.

“Doll wants to go to the Northern Continent and play too.” Doll winked playfully.

As if wanting to say something, Gui looked at me, but then gave a smile and said, “Anywhere with Your Highness’ presence, and Gui will definitely be there too.”

I smiled as I said to everyone, “Odd Squad is going to show our might again!”

“I have an important question!” Nan Gong Zui suddenly raised his hand and asked, “How do we travel to the Northern Continent?”

“On Suns.h.i.+ne’s flying carpet?” I replied uncertainly.

Everyone remained silent for a while before Nan Gong Zui questioned reluctantly, “…And how many people are you planning to fit on the carpet?”

Oh yeah, the carpet doesn’t seem to be able to carry too many people. I replied again, “How about taking the s.h.i.+ps from the official game?”

“But you still can’t fit too many people on them, and I think there’s a high chance that we will be attacked while on board,” Feng Wu Qing directly pointed out the faults. “With the Dictator of Life’s power, coming up with a few flying dragons wouldn’t be too hard of a task right? If we take those s.h.i.+ps which do not have any combat ability from the official game, we might just be buried at the bottom of the sea before we even get a glimpse of the Northern Continent.”

That was possible as well. I grabbed my head and started pondering. “Then what should we do?”

“Easy, we’ll just build a s.h.i.+p of our own!” Lolidragon suddenly jumped out and said. “Although the game is getting a little out of control, the company still has certain amount of influence over the game.”

“Oh yeah! Can’t we just ask the gaming company to come up with some battle s.h.i.+ps?” I cheered up upon seeing how easy things were. And here I’d actually been worrying about it!

Lolidragon’s face suddenly enlarged before me as she said sternly, “Impossible! You can’t just make a s.h.i.+p appear out of thin air; you have to build one yourself.”

“What? Is your company just for show? Why is it that the Dictator of Life can make some dragons appear out of thin air but your company can’t even come up with some s.h.i.+ps?!” Before I could finish, Lolidragon gave me a death glare.

“It can’t be helped, since initially in order to prevent any case of human intrusion in the game which may cause unfairness, we gave all of those powers to an artificial intelligence to execute,” Lolidragon explained helplessly.

“Don’t tell me that artificial intelligence is the Dictator of Life?” Yu Lian-dàsăo asked, losing a last bit of hope.

Lolidragon nodded heavily.

“Anyway, Lolidragon, let’s make an announcement first before we ask for volunteers who are willing to go to the Northern Continent to destroy the Dictator of Life.  Then we’ll build a battle s.h.i.+p, and then think of a strategy…” Looking toward the north, I muttered, “No matter how difficult it might be, we must go.”