Chương 128: Interlude: An Unreadable Participant (Bonus Chapter!)

Kordon stood at the center of his domain while countless screens drifted through space around him. Some showed the predictable struggles he expected from the participants in his Tutorial. One screen floated closer. On it, a bloodied man sprinted through the swamp while shadowy creatures gave chase. Behind them, Richard Monger walked with the calm patience of someone certain his prey had already lost. Jackal Quipshade lounged in his recliner with a tub of popcorn balanced on his lap.

His ears twitched with amusement as he watched the chase.

"My bet is still on that one," Jackal said, pointing a clawed finger toward Richard.

"Skilled leader and manipulator who has access to System-enforced contracts? That's definitely someone who has been touched by the System." Kethra sat rigidly on their wooden stool, soot-dark robes unmoving.

"He butchered his own followers." Jackal crunched a mouthful of popcorn.

"And?" Kethra's head turned toward him. Jackal shrugged.

"What? In the grand scheme of things, killing a few humans to level faster in the Tutorial isn't unheard of. The System has selected worse in the past. At least Richard understands what it takes to push past a bottleneck."

"He has already formed too much negative karma," Kethra said.

"The weight of his actions will drag him down soon enough." Jackal snorted.

"Unless the System places a finger on the scale. But I see your point. Who's your pick?" Kethra flicked their eyes and another screen drifted closer. It showed a calm oasis beneath a bright sky. A man sat beside a bubbling pot, carefully measuring reagents before stirring them into his concoction.

"Him," Kethra said. Jackal stared for a moment, then laughed.

"The pot guy? No. Can't be. The System hasn't chosen a crafter in eras."

"That is one reason I believe it may be him," Kethra replied.

"The System is due for another Crafter Chosen. And the concoctions he makes are truly remarkable for an F-rank. Honestly, I assumed you would be the most interested in him." Kordon remained silent. He let the two intruding gods debate and guess at who the System deemed worthy of being its Chosen. The threads of fate were still in flux, but day by day, they continued to form a clearer pattern. Jackal kept watching the swamp screen as the bloodied man burst into a clearing.

A figure in white stood at its center, draped in a pearlescent cloak. The furry god shoved another handful of popcorn into his mouth as the shadow creatures lunged.

"Look at this fool just standing there," Jackal said around the mouthful.

"He doesn't even know what's about to hit him." Pale particles unfolded from the cloak, and the first shadow dissolved the instant it touched the swirling white. Then the second. Then the third, fourth, and fifth. Their bodies came apart as if they had never been more than smoke. Jackal choked and sprayed popcorn across the recliner.

"Oh shit! You both need to see this." Kethra's oasis screen drifted aside as they turned. On the display, the man in white crossed the stone platform and seized Richard by the throat with one hand. Jackal leaned forward, eyes wide.

"Where did that guy even come from? We've been watching this Tutorial for weeks, and I haven't seen this dude once." His grin sharpened as he looked toward Kordon.

"Have you been holding out on us?" Kordon remained silent but his thoughts tightened around that question. Just who is that? With a flick of his will, Kordon summoned the list of participants. Name, level, Race, Titles, Tutorial Score, Tutorial Store purchase history. Details of every participant should have been available to him. He was the Overseer of this Tutorial. The System hid certain aspects, but not the basics. The list flickered as he focused on the cloaked man.

Unlike every other participant entry in the Tutorial, this one showed only a single line. Name: Cade Whitehollow That made no sense, but Kordon kept his expression calm. Cade Whitehollow was the Coreless that the System had flung into his Tutorial for some reason. The same man who had disappeared weeks ago. On the screen, pale particles slipped into Richard's body and coursed through his channels. Kethra leaned forward, and for the first time since arriving, their composure visibly cracked.

"He's destroying the System Core!" Kethra exclaimed. Jackal's ears shot up.

"He's doing what?" Kordon watched as Richard's struggles weakened and a moment later, the Core unraveled. Then Richard's soul returned to the System. Or rather, what was left of it did. Kordon's eyes narrowed. The Core had been damaged so severely that only a fragment of the soul remained recoverable. Kethra slowly turned toward the four armed god.

"Yes, Kordon. Have you been obscuring certain participants to gain an advantage? It is your right as Overseer, but I must say, it is bad form." Kordon's jaw tightened by just a fraction but he remained silent. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Jackal sighed and leaned back, staring at Richard's limp body.

"Well, there goes my candidate. Shame. He was a pretty big asshole, but it isn't like the System hasn't chosen assholes before." He squinted at the screen.

"Maybe this Cade Whitehollow fellow is worth betting on instead. I'm going to keep an eye on him."

"That cloak is no ordinary System skill," Kethra said. Kordon looked at them. Kethra's gaze remained fixed on the screen.

"It did not merely counter Richard's shadows. It reduced them to nothingness. Then he used it to break apart a System Core directly." Jackal cocked his head as he looked at Kethra. Their voice cooled further.

"I suspect that skill is intertwined with a Law tied to destruction," Kethra said.

"A simple expression of one, perhaps, but a Law nonetheless."

"That is impossible," Kordon said.

"The first Law Vision is not granted until level fifty. The Integrated cannot connect with Laws until after their E-rank evolution."

"Ordinarily," Kethra replied.

"But special cases have appeared in past Integrations." Jackal's grin returned, slow and sharp.

"Or," he said, reaching for more popcorn, "the System is cheating for its Chosen."

A couple of hours passed within the Tutorial. Kordon kept his attention on other screens, desperately trying not to focus on the enigma that was Cade Whitehollow. Just why is the System blocking this human's information from me? He turned his attention toward his selection for the System's Chosen. A frozen cave filled the display. Caylee Whitehollow stood before five others. The way she had moved through the Tutorial with such ease.

The way she had so confidently led her people through each battle with minimal losses. There was no way she wasn't the System's Chosen. She even denied a Core upgrade. Instead, she allowed the members of her party to take the boon after destroying the Tutorial Dungeon Core.

"This one remains a promising candidate," Kordon said. Jackal's chewing slowed as he looked over.

"Caylee Whitehollow? As in Cade Whitehollow?"

"The System does not provide familial relationships," Kordon said.

"You know this. And humans often share surnames without being related."

"Yeah," Jackal said.

"But Whitehollow isn't exactly as common as Smith, Li, or Garcia. There's tons of those in the other Tutorials I've visited." Kordon ignored him.

"She has led her team through a Tutorial Dungeon and has nearly completed her quadrant's Tutorial Quest. Only one captain remains. Her group should find the undead nuisance before the walls fall." Kethra did not look away from their own display. The soot-robed god had returned to observing the man in the oasis.

"The methodical nature of this one remains fascinating," Kethra said.

"He wastes nothing." Jackal sighed.

"He wastes my time. All he does is sit there in front of his pot. He doesn't even get his own ingredients!" Kordon said nothing. For a while, the observation domain remained quiet except for Jackal's occasional chewing. Kordon let the quiet stretch. He preferred it over questions about the Coreless who had disappeared weeks ago only to reappear without any warning from the System. Jackal sat up straight.

"Oh," he said.

"Now that's more like it." Jackal's chosen screen showed Cade Whitehollow standing near the treeline outside of a ruined encampment, speaking with Earl Cathan. At the center of the camp, Kharvaxis fed upon the corpses. Then Cade stepped out from the trees and broke into a run. Jackal's grin widened.

"Kordon." Cade's body erupted with red, orange, and yellow lightning.

"Kordon, can you please stop blocking his information?" Jackal asked, his tone suddenly serious.

"I need to see what System skill he's using now."

"It does not matter," Kordon said.

"That man will be dead soon." Jackal glanced at him.

"He may have defeated Richard Monger," Kordon continued.

"But Richard was only another human. Kharvaxis is a Lord I personally helped shape for my Tutorial. Not all of the Lords in the Primeval Quagmire bear my touch, but that is one of them." Stone projectiles tore across the camp with enough force to shatter trees and pulp lesser participants. Jackal watched in amazement as Cade dodged between them, white cloak streaming behind him.

"Kharvaxis was designed to challenge groups," Kordon said.

"A single F-rank human doesn't stand a chance, even if he has brushed against a Law." Kordon knew that Cade had killed two Lords before his disappearance. But those kills had been within the first few days, before the Lords could fully settle into their roles or absorb their treasures. Before the Tutorial began pushing its participants toward true conflict. He had been lucky, that was all. This time, the imbalance would correct itself. Kharvaxis abandoned its barrage when Cade closed the distance.

One massive claw rose and came down with enough force to crush him into paste. Kordon's thoughts stilled as Cade met it head-on. Somehow, Cade not only endured the blow, he met it with enough force to make the Lord's armor crack. Jackal slowly lowered his popcorn as he watched Cade's ascent onto the Lord's shell. Kharvaxis turned. Lightning gathered across its spiral shell before erupting in a concentrated blast that struck Cade directly. The screen flashed blue-white. When the light faded, Cade still stood.

Lightning crawled over his body, sank into him, and disappeared. Jackal stared.

"How the fuck did he take that head-on? That blast had enough Mana packed into it to fry any F-rank alive." Kordon did not answer. A moment later, Cade struck back with lightning of his own. Prismatic light bloomed along the weapon in his hands before he drove it straight into Kharvaxis' shell. The shell shattered. For a moment, Kordon simply stared. That armor was one of his finer pieces of work, crafted from the best F-rank materials the Tutorial would allow.

It was meant to grow with the Lord and endure coordinated assaults from dozens of humans at once. Cade broke it in a single strike. Thousands of fragments blasted outward. Lightning tore through Kharvaxis' exposed body. A spike of wood followed, punching through exposed flesh until it pierced Kharvaxis' brain. For several moments, none of the gods spoke. Kordon stared at the screen, mouth agape. Cade Whitehollow had killed Kharvaxis alone.

Then he saw roots dig through the Lord's corpse with unsettling precision as they drove directly for the Lord's Core. Kordon focused on it immediately, expecting the human to claim Kharvaxis' territory as his own. But no System prompt came. Instead, he watched in horror as the Lord's Core sank into the human's body. A moment later, it vanished. It was not destroyed, claimed, or absorbed through any mechanism Kordon recognized. It simply vanished from the Tutorial entirely. But that was impossible.

A Lord's Core could not just disappear. Except Cade Whitehollow had disappeared. So had the still missing Viscount of the Swamp, who should have been impossible to lose. Jackal's grin had faded completely. Kethra's oasis screen had been forgotten beside them. Kordon stared at Cade Whitehollow and forgot, for one disastrous moment, to hold his composure. His mouth hung open, and his four arms hung uselessly at his sides as every explanation fled his mind.

Beside him, Jackal sat frozen with one claw still buried in his popcorn. Kethra's ledger fell off of their lap. For several long seconds, the three gods watched Cade Whitehollow in absolute silence. Then Jackal finally spoke.

"Just what the hell is up with this guy?"