Chapter 90: Tina, Too, Must Die?
Chapter 90: Tina, Too, Must Die?
AI Blue Whale is a high-level AI system from the Holy Silver Secret Court, highly compatible with the Evolution game.
With Donna's permission, it had fully integrated into the Evolution game a week ago, living in the main plane's ocean as a virtual "blue whale" and assisting Speaker Hu Jing.
In the game world, AI Blue Whale retained similar functionalities to its real-world counterpart.
With its help, Speaker Hu Jing quickly contacted all the guild leaders, relaying Su Yu's request and instructing them to inform their guild members.
The guild leaders, upon receiving Speaker Hu Jing's message, wasted no time.
They swiftly issued announcements within their guilds and had the core management privately contact each member to ask if they possessed any items that could summon Cecilia Nightblade.
If they did, they were to use the items immediately, as per the instructions of President Ke and Speaker Hu Jing. The United Government would provide additional resources as compensation after the items were used.
In reality, items capable of summoning Cecilia Nightblade were not common.
Cecilia, after all, was a Seventh-Stage entity, and it wasn't easy for players to summon her.
Players who possessed scrolls or accessories to summon Cecilia were usually core members of the Hidden Dagger faction or had completed related hidden quests.
Given that these items could summon a Seventh-Stage powerhouse, they were often considered the players' most valuable possessions, used only in dire situations.
However, with the encouragement of Speaker Hu Jing and President Ke, and the promise of resource compensation, the players reluctantly used their summoning items.
...
In addition to contacting the guild leaders, Speaker Hu Jing, with AI Blue Whale's assistance, spread the information through official forums, the game's website, and mass text messages, aiming to reach every player.
The message quickly spread and soon reached every corner of the world.
...
After the message was disseminated, Speaker Hu Jing, who had a moment to spare, privately messaged Su Yu.
Speaker Hu Jing: "Comrade Su Yu, this incident is quite significant, with all the gods in the main plane gathering at Newbie Village. Could this be related to the next expansion update?"
Su Yu: "...Comrade Speaker, do you want the truth?"
Speaker Hu Jing: "Of course."
Su Yu: "I believe this major event is not related to the expansion update. This isn't just a simple prelude event."
Speaker Hu Jing: "It isn't?"
Su Yu: "It shouldn't be. Think about it: there's no soil in the game for a planetary-level entity to emerge. How could such a powerful boss appear out of nowhere?"
Su Yu: "Also, if this were a prelude event leading to an expansion update, I should have received notifications for hidden quests by now, given my high involvement. But I haven't received any."
Speaker Hu Jing: "..."
Speaker Hu Jing: "You're right; that does seem odd."
If this were a normal prelude event for an expansion, Su Yu would have received numerous notifications for hidden quests.
A planetary-level enemy boss would easily trigger several legendary hidden quests.
However, Su Yu hadn't triggered any hidden quests, and none of the Seventh-Stage players present had reported doing so either. This was indeed unusual.
Speaker Hu Jing: "What do you think, Su Yu?"
Su Yu: "I can't be certain right now."
Su Yu: "But, Comrade Speaker, what if a planetary-level entity from the real world is interfering with the Evolution game, creating this major event?"
Speaker Hu Jing: "A planetary-level entity from the real world?! How is that possible?"
Su Yu: "Nothing is impossible.
Bernelina can enter the real world to help us fight the Skrulls, and due to the game's mechanics, she can even resurrect multiple times in the real world.
Perhaps a planetary-level entity allied with the Skrulls sensed her threat and forcibly invaded the game to eliminate her."
Speaker Hu Jing: "That makes sense, but... a planetary-level entity allied with the Skrulls... Your imagination is really stretching the limits, Su Yu.
If such an entity truly existed, they could easily wipe out our entire Blue Planet!"
Su Yu: "It's a plausible explanation, though."
It's possible due to the 'Fair War Principle' that this planet-level entity hiding in the shadows can't openly attack us and can only make moves in secret."
Su Yu: "Of course, this is all just my speculation. There's no evidence to support it."
Chairman Hu: "...Then we should keep an eye on it. It's not an impossible scenario."
Deep down, Chairman Hu didn't believe it, or rather, he didn't want to believe it.
A planet-level entity backing the Skrulls? Would there be any hope left for humanity on Earth?
Without sufficient evidence, Chairman Hu was unwilling to entertain this possibility.
...
...
After the private chat with the Chairman, Su Yu refocused his attention on the unbroken black water curtain.
He suddenly thought of something: "Is there another possibility—that this planet-level entity has no connection to the Skrulls and is instead from a third-party secret force? In the past month, we've learned that besides Skrul and Earth, there's a third force involved in this great battle.
"From what we know, this secret force includes the Skrull god-level Cecilia. Now, the one in the game is also named Cecilia. Is this just a coincidence?"
As Su Yu pondered, the black water curtain began to flash with a large amount of silver light.
He was very familiar with this silver light; it was the most common teleportation glow of a teleportation array.
Seeing the teleportation glow, Su Yu temporarily paused his thoughts and focused on the present situation.
Now, players all over the world were using their Cecilia Nightblade summoning items one by one. Teleportation arrays appeared around Cecilia, trying to teleport her away.
Cecilia clearly didn't want to be teleported.
As soon as a teleportation array appeared, she used her black cards to destroy them.
However, there were at least a few thousand summoning scrolls and items!
With so many teleportation arrays lighting up under her feet simultaneously, it created a significant problem, making her somewhat flustered.
The high-level cultivators outside the black water curtain were also paying attention to the situation inside. Seeing the large amount of silver light, they immediately increased their attacks, hoping to coordinate with the teleportation arrays to break through the water curtain!
Bade also probed his mental energy into the water curtain again.
Since Cecilia was busy dealing with two threats at once, she couldn't focus on Bade's mental energy, making his probing very successful.
After detecting Cecilia Nightblade's situation, Bade excitedly announced to the surrounding experts:
"Everyone, the fusion between Bernelle and Cecilia has been completely interrupted! This is very effective! Let's put in more effort and break through the water curtain in one go!"
"Alright!" everyone loudly responded.
They all mobilized their full strength, launching powerful spells, full-force rage slashes, blinding holy light, and corrosive shadows in a massive wave toward the black water curtain.
The pressure on Cecilia Nightblade sharply increased.
She had to defend against the numerous attacks and spells from above while also worrying about the teleportation arrays below, making her feel immense pressure.
To cope, she actively reduced the range of the black water curtain, shrinking it from a diameter of 300-400 meters to just 80 meters.
After contracting her defense, she could barely manage to handle both threats.
Seeing Cecilia start to contract her defense, the nearly hundred high-level cultivators outside thought it was working!
So they continued to intensify their attacks!
With even more intense assaults, the range of Cecilia's black water curtain continued to shrink, from 80 meters to 70 meters, 55 meters... and finally to 30 meters, barely able to withstand the external attacks.
However, Cecilia's contraction of the water curtain did indeed achieve its effect.
After shrinking to 30 meters, the pressure from outside drastically decreased!
Plus, the frequency of the silver teleportation light under her feet began to decrease, making her response more efficient.
In the end, she was even able to free up a hand to continue fusing with Bernelle!
If the fusion succeeded and Bernelle died, no one would uncover the dark energy's plan.
...
Bade kept using his mental energy to scan the situation inside the black water curtain.
At first, when Cecilia contracted the water curtain, he was very pleased, thinking it was a sign that Cecilia was struggling. If they continued, they would definitely be able to kill this monster!
But seeing Cecilia calmly adjusting her posture to continue fusing with Bernelle, Bade realized something was wrong.
Cecilia wasn't struggling to hold them off; she had the surplus power to continue merging!
It seemed their plan had completely failed!
...
Bard watched the silver light of the teleportation thinning in the black water curtain. Without hiding anything, he told the other powerful figures present the truth.
Upon hearing Bard's explanation, the morale of the nearly hundred high-tier experts in the room took a significant hit.
They all looked at the black water curtain in disbelief.
The black water curtain was contracting, but it wasn't a sign of their victory; it was a sign of their impending defeat.
Bard sighed at last, "Sigh, actually, the overall direction of our actions wasn't wrong. If those thousands of summoning items for Cecilia Nightblade had been used simultaneously, the forced teleportation power combined with our attacks would have definitely broken through the water curtain!
However, the timing of using the items was too scattered, giving Cecilia enough breathing room. That's why we failed at the last moment."
Kevin Plantagenet also sighed, "Sigh, that's indeed a possibility."
If they had used those thousands of summoning items simultaneously, they would have definitely teleported Cecilia Nightblade out, as she couldn't destroy so many teleportation arrays at once.
But he knew that using them simultaneously wasn't realistic.
Players with summoning items were scattered across every corner of the game world, and most were in other dimensions.
Time flowed differently in each dimension, making it nearly impossible to agree on a unified time.
There was also the possibility that before they could agree on a time, Cecilia Nightblade would complete her fusion, leading to an even more unjust defeat.
Kevin Plantagenet shook his head, helpless, "Given the situation, we don't have any other options. It seems we can't stop Cecilia and Bernina's fusion. Perhaps..."
Kevin Plantagenet wanted to say, "Perhaps we should give up," but the words wouldn't come out.
Though they had no more options, could they really watch this monster be born?
...
Su Yu watched the thinning silver light in the black water curtain, feeling utterly helpless.
Cecilia truly had the backing of a planetary-scale platform. Even with the combined power of almost the entire dimension's high-tier forces, they couldn't break through her plot.
Could they really do nothing to stop her from merging with Bernina?
Just then, AI Blue Whale sent him a private message: "Su Yu, Tina is about to give out."
"What?!" Su Yu's heart tightened.
AI Blue Whale: "In the real world, Tina is now in a near-death state.
Tina is Bernina's offspring, and her power comes entirely from her.
When Tina achieved the miracle of advancing from zero to the sixth rank within a year, nearly 99% of the credit goes to Bernina, who provided her with the necessary strength.
Now that Bernina is about to die, Tina will lose her power support, and her strength will drop dramatically from the seventh rank to around the third rank.
A third-rank body can't support a seventh-rank physique, so Tina will most likely die along with Bernina."
"This..." Su Yu was speechless, his mind a blank.
Bernina dies, and Tina dies too?
To say that 99% of Tina's power comes from Bernina, Su Yu believed it.
First, Tina and Bernina looked identical, the only difference being their hair and eye color. Bernina had blue hair and blue eyes, while Tina had golden hair and golden eyes.
Second, Tina's leveling method was indeed too "unreal." She could rapidly level up by simply absorbing the blood of magical beasts, which defied all logic.
It must have been Bernina providing her with the power support, allowing Tina to take on the role of the protagonist in the first expansion.
...
But to be honest, if Tina were to die, Su Yu couldn't accept it!
He could barely accept Bernina's death, though losing a powerful ally in the future battles for Blue Star was a significant blow. They had done their best to save her, and if they couldn't, it wouldn't leave too much regret.
But Tina was different. Su Yu had such deep feelings for her; he absolutely couldn't allow her to die in front of him!
Recalling Tina's smile, Su Yu made up his mind—he wouldn't let that smile disappear from his sight forever!
"Blue Whale, is there any way to save Tina? Please calculate as quickly as possible!" Su Yu replied to AI Blue Whale as fast as he could.
(End of Chapter)
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