When Wilted wanted to go over and embrace Chris, Jack stopped her. She looked at him in puzzlement.
"Use your Inspect. He is not who you think he is," Jack said.
Wilted did so.
*
Chris (Eternal Human), level: 81
HP: 3,850,000
Strength: 3,150
Dexterity: 2,920
Intelligence: 4,110
Endurance: 2,850
Reflex: 3,070
Wisdom: 3,830
Physical Defense: 3,480
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Magical Defense: 4,250
*
Wilted's Inspect was at advanced master, so she received more information than Jack.
"You… You are a native…?" Wilted asked.
Chris smiled. "You are correct. I am not the Chris you knew. I… or rather, my maker, left some contingencies in case unlikely things happened. I am one of those contingencies."
"What do you mean?" Wilted asked, confused.
"I see you brought the bunch I asked for," Chris looked at the players who came with Wilted.
"You are the one we talked to from the projection?" Jack asked.
"Come, let's find a more comfortable place to talk," Chris said and started walking. The fairies followed and continued to fly around him. They never stopped singing, but their voices didn't disturb the conversation. Their voices were more like soft background music.
Everyone followed after Chris. They arrived beside a small lake. Some normal-sized chairs and tables were there. The place felt like a leisure park. A small bridge carried people to a small island in the middle of the lake. A pavilion was on that island.
After crossing the bridge, they saw a large round table with twenty-five chairs. Chris sat on one while gesturing for the others to take a seat in one of the chairs. The fairies continued to dance and sing around the pavilion.
Wilted took a seat next to Chris. The others just randomly chose available seats. After they were all seated, the fairies brought cups for each of them. Paytowin sipped the liquid inside the cup and found it to be an exquisite wine. When he downed the entire cup, the fairies came over carrying a bottle and poured more wine into the cup.
"From the number of chairs, I guess this place was set up for your meeting with us," Jack started the conversation.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"That's right. I've been waiting for you lot to arrive for quite some time," Chris said. "I'm very happy when you two finally contacted me using that memory stone."
"I thought the projection from the memory stone was Chris' memory? Who are you?" Wilted asked.
"I'm exactly that. As I said, my maker left some contingencies. One of them was something that was activated in case he met his demise. That something would be me," Chris said.
When Wilted continued to show a confused expression, Chris continued, "After learning about Apollyon's scheme, the real Chris uploaded his memory into one of the programs inside the game. That program is me. In the case his presence was not detected when the world turned, I am activated. Chris continued to upload his memory into the game daily. So, the only memory I'm missing is the one from the day he died. In other words, I'm the closest thing you have to the real Chris. You can say I'm created in his image."
A sadness was seen in Wilted's expression.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you. I know you want to meet him very much. If it is any consolation, he wants to meet you very much as well. I know, because I am basically him," Chris said.
"It's not your fault. I know I was expecting too much. Our real world didn't have magic like this one. If someone died, they died. They didn't come back to life…"
"Why do you place yourself in this secluded place? Don't you get bored here?" Jack asked, trying to change the subject.
"I have everything I need here," Chris answered. "I have a portal that accesses all kinds of training dungeons, so I can keep up with average outworlder's levels."
"Average outworlder's levels? Aren't you a native?"
"I'm a special native. Although I'm a native, I have most of the features of an outworlder. I level up fast, and I am bound to the class I chose at the start, even if it doesn't show up on your Inspect. I have the Priest elite class."
"Elite class? I thought you would have given yourself a special class considering you are the creator. I mean, the creator's double," Paytowin said.
"Well, when my program was created, I was also given many limitations. One of which is that I can only get the priest class and will stay an elite class. The real me had the belief that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It prevents me from using my knowledge to give myself unfair advantages and cause imbalance to this world."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Wise man," Giant Steve remarked.
"Unlike Apollyon," Jack added.
"Unlike Apollyon," Chris agreed.
"I guess we need to bring you up to speed about what he had done. He had…"
"No need to. I already know. He got all the divine treasures and has activated the main story's ending where the underworld forces invade the upperworld."
"Oh? How do you know?" Jack asked.
"Like I said, I have everything here, including the means to see the outside world."
Chris pressed something on the table. A large holographic projection appeared above the round table. In that projection, they saw an army of players fighting the horde of demons. At the center of the demon's horde was a crimson portal Jack recognized as the underworld portal.
"This is the underworld portal in Hydrurond," Chris informed.
"Hey, those are Domon and Wong!" Paytowin pointed.
"A lot of the players are also our guild members," Jeanny said.
"Well, we did send our members to fight the demons from the underworld portals while the natives prepare for the arrival of the main underworld forces," John said.
The Everlasting Heavenly Legends was not the only guild doing that, John had called for the other guilds and many independent players to do so as well. The demons that came out of the normal underworld portals might be troubling, but they were not as powerful as the ones from the main underworld forces. By fighting these demons, players could increase their levels as well as stop the demon tides from causing too much trouble in the country where the underworld portal was located. This was at least until these underworld portals were closed.
The image in the projection shifted. It now showed a sea of demons much more terrible than the one from the previous image. The demon horde in this image was marching. Many strong-looking demons were within this horde. At the lead was a devil they all recognized. The lead devil was Satan.
