Chapter 73 - Red, White, Black and... Silver

Jack has a smile on his face as the doorway opens, the open door reveals a well-lit room filled with countless gold and silver objects splayed around the room. Jack steps forward into the room but a strange feeling comes over him as though he's being watched by something.

"Is this safe? It feels far too easy" Jack asks Xueli, this has all been far too easy so far he got trapped in a dungeon, walked down many hallways and ended up before a treasure room?

'I think it's fine, the statues shouldn't be golems and unless whoever made this room is an idiot and allowed a back entrance, what we see is what should be within the entire room'

Jack walks up to the first pile of golden objects that look like coins but he quickly develops a frown as his hands rifle through the pile of golden objects, he walks over to the next pile of objects with a frown still on his face.

"Umm, is this really a room that I'd like?"

He looks around the rest of the room, the many piles of gold and silver objects glitter in the light, the statues made of gold and silver look incredibly valuable but they're all of some ugly old man at the far end of the room there is a large piece of artwork painted on some animal skin with a large jewel in the centre.

Below this artwork are two items, one looks like a ball tightly wrapped up in paper and chains but is still strangely hovering in the air while next to it is a short white coloured dagger also covered with seals yet Jack cannot make much sense of these items as he walks over to this short bench.

'All this stuff smells valuable… isn't it?'

Jack sighs as he runs his hand through one of the piles of gold and silver items, letting them drop out of his hand like they're valueless because they truly are to him right now, it's just piles of seeds.

"Maybe if we had Mai with us, we could find out what these things are but the only thing valuable in this room seems to be the stuff beneath the paper on the table"

Jack is stopped just short of the table by an invisible barrier, on the floor there are lines indicating that some sort of formation is here and blocking the way.

The barrier shimmers as Jack runs his hands over it, a strange barrier with energy that he hasn't experienced before but it's still a barrier which he has broken through a few times before with a few different methods.

Placing his hands out before him, Jack circulates his qi and calls out a fireball… but nothing happens.

He attempts to circulate his qi yet again, it flows fine within his body but as soon as it attempts to exit his body it's like it's being blocked by something, the young man stands there dumbly with his hands held out with a serious expression.

"Why can't I use my qi outside my body? Is this related to that stupid physical contact system thing?"

'It's related to this realm… umm… it's like this, some treasures or powers stronger than the Saint realm are able to section off parts of space and create their own space with their own rules.'

"I see so it might be some of the rules made by whoever set this place up but is that really related to the system stuff, what is this system stuff anyway as it seems to be more than some game system?"

Jack feels around the barrier but nothing happens while the ring has no response, if he can't get through the barrier then his last option is to try dropping some of his blood on the barrier but Xueli seems strangely chatty.

'I don't actually know that much about the system things… It wasn't used very much in the beast realm before stuff happened but…' Xueli pauses for a moment while Jack stops moving around to listen, 'it wasn't created by a living entity, it sort of just appeared one day'

"Oh" Jack replies not knowing the implications of what she just said, "Well I hope I get to meet whoever made it and tell him that it sucks and needs more tutorials, should I put some blood on this barrier?"

'Un' Xueli responds with little heart, as though she's deeply in thought about things.

Jack bites his thumb in hopes it doesn't trigger the system, a drop of blood gathers on his thumb while Jack briefly looks at it but can't make any sense of it, it looks like normal blood to him still after which he flicks it onto the barrier before him.

The barrier shimmers brightly where the blood lands on it when, after a few moments, the barrier and the blood both disappear at the same time.

"Looks like it worked" Jack has a smile on as he walks forward, through the barrier but he can't shake the feeling that something is watching him much more intently than before as he looks around the room again but still can't see anything suspicious.

The artwork above the table is clearly visible where a strange old man that has silver skin with visible golden bones surrounded by 5 young men in golden bone armour giving them a sinister feeling, each of the young men have a different colour theme but each of them include the sinister scowl present on the older mans face.

'Why would it be a bloodline barrier…' Xueli mutters, but Jack ignores her as he walks toward the table.

The strange orb covered with paper seals is still floating there but Jack can feel it throb like it has a weird and boundless energy behind the seal while the white dagger is still sitting there unchanging.

"That jewel looks valuable" Jack looks up at the artwork ignoring the people, his focus is on the silver-gold, expensive looking jewel embedded within the artwork.

He reaches forward to touch it when Xueli talks, 'It should be valuable but be careful and don't touch it because….'

"Because?…"

Jack can just hear her speak those last few words when his hand brushes up against the artwork giving him a strange feeling like his mind has been detached from his body as the entire artwork responds like it's made of water and someone has dropped something on it.

A weird dropping sound echoes within Jack's ears and mind while his vision turns completely black like he's falling into a tunnel of endless water.

Strange eyes peer at him from behind the water as Jack feels like he's falling through this weird water tunnel but they don't do anything except look at him, the strange silver and black eyes. The falling feeling stops as Jack's body is suspended in the middle of the watery tunnel when a booming voice echoes through the area.

"Champion, do you seek fortunes? Do you seek experiences? Do you seek power? Do you seek the world?"

Various visions sweep by Jack's eyes as piles of treasures and weapons, legions of soldiers and weapon then finally a vision of the Earth appears but Jack doesn't feel excited by any of these visions because this isn't the first time he has experienced visions of temptation.

"Warrior, do you seek the power to destroy your enemies? Do you wish to have the power to tame those around you, including the shadow rabbit?"

Visions of Jack encountering some enemies such as those from the Shadow Sect and those Shadow Elves, the countless ants and creatures from below while a larger figure is entirely shrouded with shadows but Jack can see that vines seem to be coming out of the creature that is far too big to even see the top of.

"Warrior, will you join the Dongshu family and spread the eternal glory of the Dongshu family to all others?"

The booming voice coming from the end of the tunnel stops, replacing it with a giant silver and gold eye staring at Jack through the darkness as if waiting for his response.

Jack just smirks, "Is that it? You sound like something from those demonic orbs…"

The booming voice sounds once again inside the tunnel like a mighty being is speaking from far away, "Insolence, all are beneath the might of Dongshu Family, you do not carry the mark of Dongshu and have given up the chance to acquire it so are given a choice, submit or perish for choosing not to submit!"

The giant silver-gold eye at the end of the tunnel look down at Jack like a giant eye judging him as its energy invades his body, Jack can feel the strange silver and black energy enter his body giving the weird energy an ancient yet demonic feeling while some silver and black chains shoot out of the eyeball tying Jack up forcing him into a powerless pose as he's stuck within this space.

A large illusory seal appears to hover above Jack's forehead, the pattern of a moon while an ancient-looking character appears in the middle of the moon it's just hovering a few centimetres from his forehead but strangely, Jack's forehead is also glowing as the stars light up one by one.

The first star lights up in red causing a dragon roar to resound in the tunnel, the second star lights up in white as a phoenix cry sounds in the tunnel while the demonic qi doesn't make any noise as the black star appears on his forehead as a fourth star of silver briefly lights up but disappears just as quick.

A last type of energy comes from deep within him as it throbs deeply within him and acts as a binding force for all these disparate types of qi. He isn't sure where this energy is coming from, but he is certain that it's coming from that thread of divine sense.

The energies flowing around his body are doing different things as the phoenix qi cleanses the impurities from his body, the dragon qi is rampaging around flushing out anything unnatural and attacking anything new while the demonic qi is strangely under control as it absorbs the demonic energy that infiltrated his body.

Jack feels a resonance with this energy deep inside him and holds onto it, a tiny layer of energy develops on his skin in the colours of the qi flowing around his body while Jack feels a formless energy flow into his body from that little piece of dirt.

The enormous pressures coming from the eye above press down on him, forcing Jack to grit his teeth, trying to fight it with every ounce of strength in his body as the illusory seal comes closer to his forehead. The stars on his forehead glow brightly as he fights the seal, if it lands on his forehead it means being marked as a slave.

The pressure bears down on Jack's body, but that's not the only place that it's bearing down on.

In the real world outside the barriers that surround the planet, they visibly buckle under the pressure causing disturbances everywhere as creatures and things respond to the powerful pressure coming from above even some more sensitive people take notice of this disturbance and look out into the sky.

Jack uses everything available to him to fight against the feeling but he can't resist the pressure as his knees buckle forcing his arms out almost feeling like he has to give up but a vision of Jessica enters his mind and he can feel that energy from flow via that strange thread that connects him to Jessica.

"You… will not… win!" Jack yells through gritted teeth as a strange figure appears behind him unnoticed by him, it's like a giant made from the various energies escaping from his body within this space that must be disconnected from the secret realm.

The pressure suddenly increases on him again this time the silver-gold eye looks much more sinister and silver-black instead of silver-gold while outside in the real world, a gigantic figure of a finger appears pressing down on almost the entire planet causing the barrier outside to flex incredibly and smashing a weird pink blob into the barrier itself but it luckily holds.

A figure within a field of flowers surrounded by butterflies frowns as another butterfly lands on his finger, "You won't spoil my plans but how did someone summon that family? Where did they get summoned from?".

The figure known as 'A01' or 'godly entity' or 'overseer' countless names for the being in charge of this 'game world', disappears from the spot within the field of flowers and appears within the game world in the blank space that is between the game world and the 'moon' where Jack is.

"I will not submit!" Jack yells as the figure behind him reaches forward, a giant arm made of energy appears within this space and reaches forward grabbing a hold of the eye grabbing it and pulling it away from the end of the tunnel. The eye struggles as the silver and black colours blend into the arm from the figure behind Jack, the eye cannot fight against the arm as its energy seeps into Jack.

"No did the residual soul tell you our secret? If you take our energy we will no longer have power and the main family will know we lost the Jade Palace, let go!"

Jack doesn't respond to this as his mind is trying to concentrate on the energies coming from deep within him, the silver and black energy is splitting apart as the black energy combines with the demonic qi already within him causing a new grey-black star to appear while a silver star appears next to it slowly becoming stronger; in colour and effect.

The little bird appears on Jack's shoulder causing the eye to go wide, "No why do you have Frynhilde? Who are you?"

Jack squeezes his fist causing the giant arm to squeeze the eyeball tightly as it screams, "Noo!" over and over again.

The eyeball becomes increasingly transparent but suddenly it laughs, "HAHAHA, you think you'll be saved after this? You'll know the might of the main family after this, Peri…" suddenly everything cuts off as Jack's vision returns to the artwork on the wall, the jewel is much paler than before but Jack has a cold sweat going down his back.

'Those things are booby-trapped, I hope you didn't touch it because they try to enslave non-permitted people' Xueli speaks in a normal tone.

"Didn't you feel that? I was just in some sort of battle with a giant eyeball"

'You have just been standing here while the outside has been sounding really weird, did you really touch it?'

In the space between the two places, the entity known as 'A01' is raising both of his hands panting, outside the game world the barriers surrounding our solar system has been enhanced multiple times over blocking out nearly all outside communications… the event that 'The Prophet' was alluding to. He looks toward the game world and the 'moon' before heading toward the 'moon'.

In the outside space, a giant sword has appeared and slashed at the barriers, but it didn't have any effects as the residual energy sinks back into the background.

He looks down on the hellish moonscape in disgust before appearing outside the grey opaque barrier that surrounds the 'Jade Palace', easily passing through the barrier and appearing over the large courtyard where 'Princess' has emerged from one building awaiting the finish of the event entering the pavilion where 'a01' appears shortly after.

"MASTER!" All the various attendants kneel to greet 'A01' while 'Princess' merely lowers her head toward him.

"No need for that, I am just here to check on the stupid Easter Event, how is it going? Did all the spots get filled? Do they like the events?"

"Overseer, I thank you for the opportunity to leave my training school and oversee the Royal Treasure of the 'Jade Palace', all the spots have been filled and they are enjoying the events now but some have complained about its 'active' nature"

'A01' waves his hand causing countless screens to appear within the air showing everything that is going on with the competitors inside the field, only 6 people are serious searching for rabbits while the rest are just walking around and talking with each other.

'A01' is laughing as he watches the people on the screen attempt to catch rabbits with various low level methods such as ropes and chasing after them while 'Princess' is looking over the screens searching for something but she can't seem to find it.

"Am I allowed to send a letter to my family to let them know that I'm fine?"

"We are located in the outer expanse, by the time they receive the letter we will have moved location," 'A01' dismisses her concerns, "besides you cannot leave until you fulfill the agreement with me, you cannot break those terms that we both agreed upon"

'Princess' responds with a pleasant smile after which 'A01' continues to watch the screens but unknown to the strange entity, she has a sinister smirk on her face for a moment as she looks over the screens as if she's looking for something yet again.