Chapter 1377: Secrets
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
The Miner took a sip of coffee, closed his eyes and seed to be choosing his words carefully. After a while, he said, “To be honest, our encounter was not a coincidence. Do you believe that?”
“What do you an?” Sheyan asked with a frown.
The Miner started explaining, “We’re all people from the Empire. Although we’re restricted by the confidentiality agreent, we can still ally together through tacit understanding, especially under the intentional arrangent of the Empire. Plus, we can obtain first-hand data, so 17 months ago, we found that the rate of increase of your Dow Jones index was rather shocking....”
“Wait a minute!” interrupted Sheyan, “If I rember correctly, isn’t the Dow Jones index sothing used for the stock market?”
The Miner smiled. “Yes, it is, but the colleague of mine who established this database has the sa na, so he decided to na the database so... This system can be used to make a general assessnt of a contestant’s improvent in power coefficient after each world. In general, the power of a surviving contestant will increase rapidly in the early stages after entering the Nightmare Realm, but after that, the rate of increase will rarely exceed the 9% threshold.”
There was a glimr in Sheyan’s eyes. “Then, how much was my rate of increase?”
“The comprehensive assessnt shows 18.4%. You can understand that as, every five worlds, your power will almost double,” answered the Miner very seriously. “This figure is almost the highest recorded outside of the Apostles.”
“Almost?” Sheyan narrowed his eyes, “In other words, there’s soone better?”
“I’m sorry, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but I can’t,” the Miner replied with a wry smile.
As he said that, he ford the shape of a gun with his right hand and aid it at his head.
“I believe there are also certain restrictions on you combatants. For example, using the active abilities obtained from the Realm in the world you originally live in should have very serious consequences. It’s the sa for us. If we divulge a secret, our head will explode like it’s hit by a .78-diater steel core bullet. So, in order to not give us sanitation workers more pressure, why don’t we change the subject?”
Sheyan shrugged. “Okay. I understand your difficulties. So after you guys found that my....Dow Jones index was doing pretty well, you took the initiative to approach ?”
“Correct,” confird the Miner, “Because according to our assessnt, the probability of you being a Chosen spoken of in the rumours is over 80%.... Your innate ability even works on the Realm!”
Sheyan grinned but did not make any comnt on the Miner’s statent. Instead, he took his cup of coffee and sipped it slowly.
“A Chosen is nothing special. They also need others to protect them in order to grow.”
If Sheyan’s party mbers were listening, they would surely know that he was talking about Sanzi. Even Sanzi himself would not find anything wrong with this statent. But when it fell on the Miner’s ears, he of course took it as a tacit confession.
He laughed. “A Chosen gets preferential treatnt from the Realm, so I’m sure they have more inside information than others, and there will be more benefits when we cooperate. That is the fundantal reason why I sought you out for a deeper cooperation.”
Sheyan glanced at the Miner and suddenly asked, “What is your relationship with the Big Ben Research Institute?”
The expression on the Miner’s face turned stiff. He paused for a long ti before he asked, “What do you an by this question?”
“I don’t claim to know everything about the inner workings of the Empire, but I do know so things. A group of people like you would never escape the ever-present eyes of the Big Ben Research Institute.”
The Miner remained silent for a mont before he replied. “We used to be the pawns of the Big Ben Research Institute, but we are now complete enemies with absolutely no hope for reconciliation.”
“Why?” asked Sheyan curiously.
The Miner answered flatly, “We have the protection of the Realm, but the royal family wished to have complete control over us. They captured our family and threatened us to make us disclose the secrets we know. If we do as they say, it will only result in our head exploding.... But if we don’t, our whole family would die. So, all of us who are still alive are coldblooded bastards who put our own lives above our entire family’s, and mortal enemies of the Big Ben Research Institute!”
“I see,” Sheyan nodded in understanding.
The Miner stared at Sheyan and told him seriously, “The people from the Big Ben Research Institute are inhuman and ruthless. They serve only the royal family of the Empire and will do anything in order to achieve their goals. If you plan to cooperate with them, you will undoubtedly be conspiring with hyenas.”
“Thanks for telling ,” Sheyan nodded. “Okay, so what do you want to know?”
***
“The Nightmare Realms....or, to be more precise, the Noah Realms. What do you think they are? chanical beings? Biological creatures? Or existences we can’t even begin to comprehend?”
Among the questions the Miner asked Sheyan, this was the one that left the deepest impression.
At the ti, Sheyan had no answer for the Miner, because this was sothing he had never thought of, a territory he had not ventured into.
The Miner obviously did not expect Sheyan to have an answer for him either. He simply told Sheyan, “According to our research, the Noah Realms are very strange biological existences made up of a mixture of chanical parts and organic flesh. They possess strong self-healing ability, but require assistance from helpers for certain key components of their chanical structures, just as crocodiles needed Egyptian Plover birds to help them clean their teeth.”
“Originally, these helpers should have been created alongside the Noah Realms by the great power that designed or manufactured them. The Noah Realms and the helpers should have a symbiotic relationship, like ants and aphids. The ants care for and protect the aphids from predators and parasites, while the aphids produce a sugary food for the ants. But, for so reason, these helpers were currently nowhere to be seen, so in order to avoid their own demise, the highly intelligent and independent Noah Realms started producing enhanced humans, while at the sa ti, select those who can replace the helpers among the contestants. This is the origin of the Chosens.”
After hearing the Miner’s analysis, Sheyan was imdiately able to judge that it was not a lie, because the analysis was too reasonable and thorough. Soone who did not have a deep understanding of the situation would definitely not be able to say these things.
So, in return, Sheyan told the Miner so of his experiences.
After thinking for a while, the Miner said, “Since we can be certain that the Realms are unique living creatures that have terrifying power – so terrifying that they can travel through ti – we can easily infer that the amount of energy they spend must also be extrely terrifying. Therefore, according to the law of conservation of energy, the Realms should also need to absorb a terrifying amount of substances from the outside to maintain their activities, as well as their living necessities.”
“You’re right,” Sheyan nodded. “From what I know, the Empire has to provide a shocking amount of minerals, fuel and various other materials to the Realms.”
The Miner flashed Sheyan a grin which made him feel extrely uncomfortable, as if he was mocking Sheyan for being ignorant.
“That’s just what it looks like on the surface, Mr. Seaman. You’re making a big mistake if you really think that the Nightmare Realms can’t do without the supplies from the Empire! If the Realms could be so easily controlled by the Empire, they would have long beco the Empire’s servants and be split apart! In truth, the materials provided by the Empire for the Realms are only like seasonings in the kitchen. With them, the Realms would live a higher quality life, but even without them, they can still survive!”
Sheyan was shocked when he heard the Miner’s claim, because if the information he gave was true, then Sheyan could imdiately foresee a problem. That was, since there were multiple Realms, and if there were limited living resources, then the distribution of living resources must be an issue!!
The most straightforward example can be found on the Earth. The reason World War I and World War II broke out, when distilled down to its essence, was none other than to gain possession of the limited resources on Earth! As for the more recent war in Iraq, it was pretty blatantly for the sake of oil!
When he thought of this, Sheyan hesitated, but in the end, he could not help asking, “If your theory is true, then the relationships between the various Noah Realms are not as peaceful as we think?”
“Peaceful?” the Miner scoffed and said mockingly, “Mr. Seaman, you should be one of the few who have benefitted the most from the Realm Battlefields. However did you get such a naive idea?!”
“When a contestant dies, they will be reclaid by the Realm they belong to. All the rewards you get after you kill a contestant from another Realm are created by the Noah Realm you belong to using its precious source energy! You can consider source energy as a kind of life force that can be replenished. If not for the sake of encouraging you to kill more contestants from other Realms, why would it go to so much trouble?”
“Then... what’s the purpose of a Realm War?” Sheyan asked in shock.
“A low intensity Realm War, of course, is for the sake of speeding up the growth and evolution of the contestants,” answered the Miner.
“But a high intensity Realm War has taken on a whole new aning.... You can assu the Noah Realms to be like aircraft carriers. They have no attack power, or maybe, they’re restricted by so sort of rules which prohibit them from directly attacking each other, so their destructiveness cos entirely from the fighter jets they carry. In other words, the strength of a Noah Realm is reflected in the strength of the contestants under it! If my guess is right, the high intensity Realm Wars have beco an arena for the contest between the Noah Realms, where a powerful Noah Realm will use its strength to gain more living space and survival resources for itself!”
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