050: Exploiting Loopholes

"Don't you find it fascinating? In this chaotic era."

Don picked up the teacup on the table, his eyelids lowering slightly. "Miracles are different for everyone."

A Miracle Invoker performs miracles, collects miracles, sees the grand through the minute; it is a Sequence with a very high ceiling.

Slaves crave freedom, so gaining freedom is a miracle for them; someone terminally ill obtaining a life-saving elixir is a miracle; in an era starved of knowledge and wracked by chaos, the emergence of a stable, peaceful place that can teach them unimaginable powers—how could this not be considered a miracle?

Revealing the extraordinary to ordinary people who don't understand it is also a form of miracle.

"See, I haven't broken any rules." He spread his hands open.

Reasonable utilization. As long as no rules were violated, the Theater Core had no reason to stop him. After all, he was the user of this Sealed Artifact.

The War Bishop fell silent for two seconds, then the inexplicable look in his eyes rapidly dissipated.

The Theater Core withdrew its gaze directed this way. The War Bishop stood up, bowed to Don, and then silently walked out to continue carrying out the orders issued by the Theater Director.

Don took another sip of water before turning his gaze once more towards the massive celestial body outside the window.

That was a terrifying illusion cast upon the theater curtain. An illusion from an Angel-level Magician could even briefly deceive peers of the same level.

In reality, there were no suns or moons that large hanging in mid-air.

If one appeared, it would likely signify the descent of an avatar of some Evil God, or an existence above the level of a deity, into the real world.

After a moment's thought, Don ignored the steadily increasing pile of parchment on the desk. He walked out of his office door. Simultaneously, the surrounding buildings began to twist and change. Beneath the ethereal structures, flowers, grass, trees, and straight, clean roads paved with stone bricks began to appear.

A massive complex of buildings in an overall gray-black style was rapidly taking shape. Various whimsical structures rose from the ground—

Teaching buildings, dining halls, libraries, dormitories, sanatoriums, research laboratories… They seemed to be molded out of thin air by a giant hand, gradually evolving from the intangible into real existence.

Overhead, the countless celestial bodies began to shrink, slowly transforming into their normal appearances from the real world. A huge curtain drifted in the unreachably high sky. A dazzling sun hung in mid-air, like the newly risen morning sun, bringing light and warmth.

Soon, that supernatural state within the theater—with structures hanging in mid-air, surrounded by giant celestial bodies, the shadows of buildings looming indistinctly—vanished completely.

A gentle breeze blew, carrying the fragrance of flowers, grass, and trees in the air. The sunlight was warm. The buildings were arranged in an orderly yet staggered fashion across the open wilderness.

In an instant, it felt as if Don had returned to the campus of his memories.

"This will do."

Glancing around, Don felt quite satisfied.

This was planned according to the blueprints of his former university, optimized by the system—with extraordinary factors present, if modifications were needed in the future, there would be no need to demolish; rebuilding could begin immediately.

"Extraordinary abilities… used for people's livelihood, they are practically cheating."

As for the previous scene where all buildings hung in mid-air—frankly, people of this era couldn't appreciate that kind of 'humor'.

Don strolled through the campus. Around him, cleaners holding tools, and marionettes dressed as teachers and students, spontaneously, like wound-up dolls, began to proficiently play their respective roles.

Once this area generated specific coordinates in the Spirit World, he could potentially use other Miracle Invoker Beyonder characteristics besides the theater. He could even complete the Sequence 2 to 1 advancement ritual here without issue.

Excellent. The advancements from Sequence 5 to 4 and Sequence 4 to 3 he would have to handle himself. For the others, this theater could take care of them… Well, not entirely. If he killed a demigod marionette here, with the other marionettes acting as his audience, that should also satisfy the ritual requirements.

Then, could he just lie down for three hundred years using the residual power of the Darkness Pathway here? After all, he truly wasn't a native of this world. Strictly speaking, he was from something like a parallel timeline. Here, his 'coordinate' was the present, this tail end of the Fourth Epoch.

This was fundamentally different from Klein Moretti, that relic of the past era. He couldn't replicate the other's method of advancement to Scholar of Yore to obtain ritual feedback.

Don pondered thoughtfully.

"If that's the case, satisfying the requirement for Sequence 5 to 4 advancement—relying on one's own strength and planning—is somewhat troublesome. After all, I have the identity of Theater Director; these marionettes are essentially under my control."

Temporarily relinquishing the Theater Director identity, having the theater's demigod marionette fight him one-on-one… Or arranging for a demigod marionette to sacrifice itself—could that satisfy the ritual requirement?

After all, marionettes could be used as anchors. In essence, they were dead people. Marionettes that were still 'alive' should similarly qualify as components for the Sequence 5 to 4 ritual.

[Host, your ideas are sometimes really…]

"Praise my intelligence," Don said with a straight face.

How could this be called exploiting loopholes?

As long as it was feasible, it was permitted by the rules. What's all this talk about loopholes? It sounded so unpleasant… Of course, this was an unreplicable advancement process. After all, not many could produce a Sequence 2 Sealed Artifact capable of directly serving as a ritual component while still at Mid-Sequence.

[You're smart…] The system went silent.

Don glanced again at the system interface.

[Updated Mission Status.]

[Mission: 'Acting of the Marionettist']

[Having advanced to 'Marionettist', you have summarized certain Acting Rules. Please follow the Acting Rules and gradually refine the content of the Acting Method to increase the digestion progress of the potion.]

[Mission Completion: 22%.]

Rapid progress. This was likely related to the Wraith marionette in Father's possession and this theater.

After all, the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw was now also equivalent to his 'marionette'.

However, this 'marionette' had some ideas of its own. Furthermore, the audience was small, offering little feedback in terms of spirituality, unable to rapidly accelerate potion digestion.

No matter. Once people moved in, once there were more residents, the digestion speed would pick up.

Standing on a wide sports field, Don opened the 'Artisan' module.

This requested item, which he hadn't studied carefully before, now needed testing.

He had to see what kind of negative side effect this 'Sun Floating Upward' really was.

Retrieving the three-meter-long Sun Scepter from the 'Artisan', Don, as a precaution, also took out the enhanced chain—an item of demigod level.

If anything unexpected happened, he would use 'Reality Enhancement'.

"But the system said there was no danger the first time it was taken out."

Don swung the three-meter-tall Sun Scepter. This scepter was entirely made of gold—the system automatically supplemented corresponding materials based on the Beyonder characteristic used in crafting—and its Beyonder ability was 'Black Sun Light'.

That is, its main components belonged to the Sun domain.

Using gold was fine, it was just a bit too heavy…

(End of Chapter)