On a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean, the emperor sat on the top of a boulder at the top of a cliff, looking at the sparkling sea.
The sea under the setting sun is filled with golden ripples. The afterglow of the setting sun fills the sea surface and dyes the skyline orange. A few seabirds fly over the horizon, bringing waves of moist and salty sea breeze.
"It's so beautiful..."
The emperor couldn't help but sigh.
How long has it been since he looked at the sunset so carefully?
It seems that since he became an adult, he has been busy, busy studying and exploring, busy socializing and entertaining, busy thinking about various things. His schedule is always full, and he has never had any time that truly belongs to himself.
Looking at the orange-red sunset on the horizon, the emperor suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu.
A long time ago, when he was still young, he saw the same beautiful sunset in the monastery where he studied.
At that time, the old abbot of the monastery would always gather the children in the backyard at sunset every afternoon and tell them about various legends and historical figures. The most mentioned among them was undoubtedly the most famous figure in British history. The legendary King Arthur.
"...It is said that Arthur has blond hair that shines like the sun, a voice that is more melodious than the bard, and emerald blue eyes. He abides by the spirit of chivalry, is kind, upright, humble, benevolent, polite, and is good at independent thinking. , is an almost perfect knight..."
"...In the end, as a follower, Arthur, witnessed by the Holy See and many knights, pulled out the sword in the stone that represented the divine right of kings, became the chosen son, the new king of ancient Britain, and led the Knights of the Round Table to overthrow The powerful rule of ancient Rome..."
The old dean stood in front of the flower bed and told the legend of King Arthur in a leisurely manner, while the children sitting on the grass below listened with gusto and could not feel the passage of time at all.
"... During King Arthur's reign, he helped the weak and the poor. Under his wisdom and martial arts, Britain ushered in unprecedented unity and strength, and established a prosperous country. King Arthur was also called the 'Eternal King' ... Until now, there is still a rumor among the people that when Great Britain is in crisis, the descendants of King Arthur will once again pull out the sword in the stone and lead the people towards the future..."
The old dean adjusted his reading glasses, looked at the group of energetic children below, and said with a smile: "So, does anyone want to try to pull out the sword in the stone? Maybe the descendants of King Arthur are among you!"
The children immediately became excited when they heard the words, chattering one after another, and then ran towards the stone pillars in the open space in the backyard.
On the stone pillar, there is a knight's sword inserted, the blade of the sword is deep into the stone, and an inscription is carved on the hilt: Whoever pulls out this sword will be the king of Britain!
"I come!"
"I'll go first!"
"After that, I..."
"You are not allowed to jump in line. Those who jump in line are not qualified to pull out the sword in the stone..."
…
The boys chirped and ran to the stone pillar. They formed a team consciously and jumped onto the stone platform one by one, eager to draw the knight's sword.
However, even if the boys turned red and tried their best to suck the milk, the sword in the stone would not move at all.
The children were not annoyed. They didn't pull it out even once, so they lined up at the back and tried it over and over again happily, hoping that one time they would miraculously pull out the sword in the stone and become the "king" among the children.
While the children were having fun, the old dean walked to the corner of the flower bed. A boy with a handsome face was sitting alone on the steps here, reading an ancient book and enjoying the joy in the distance. The atmosphere is out of place.
"Ians, why don't you try it?" The old dean sat down next to the boy kindly and smiled at him: "You, like King Arthur, have beautiful blond hair and green pupils. Maybe you can pull it off." There’s a sword in the stone!”
When the boy heard this, he just turned his head and looked at the old dean with a serious look, then looked at the 'Sword in the Stone' surrounded by children in the distance, and said without any fluctuation in his tone: "It's too fake."
"What's so fake?"
"Whether King Arthur or the Sword in the Stone, they are all just stories made up by humans and have never really existed."
As the boy spoke, he raised his head and looked at the stone pillar not far away: "As for that sword, it is just an ordinary long sword poured into the cement. Even if someone can pull it out, it will only prove that someone with greater strength can destroy the cement with bare hands. Otherwise, it doesn’t make any sense.”
The old dean looked embarrassed when he heard this, and said with a wry smile: "You can understand it...but, since you know everything, why do you always arrive on time every time I tell the story of King Arthur?"
This question finally made the boy silent for a moment, and then he frowned and said, "It's incredible. Even though I know this is fake, I'm still fascinated by the characters in the story. I listen to it again and again..."
The old dean smiled happily: "My child, do you admire King Arthur?"
The boy looked at the old man in confusion: "I'm not sure if this can be called worship, because King Arthur does not exist. People always have selfish desires. No one can consistently abide by the spirit of chivalry like him. That is a person who only exists in the world. The perfect individual in human imagination... However, I want to try to become the real King Arthur, the strongest among mankind, and eliminate power and oppression in the world, and become recognized by everyone, respected by everyone, and absolutely just. The king will lead mankind on its own path in the great changes of the future..."
The old dean looked at the boy's serious expression with some surprise. After a moment, he stroked his head and said with a smile: "It's a great dream... However, if you take this as your goal, you will probably live very tiredly. Moreover, even if No matter how hard you work, you may not be able to achieve your goals in the end, because there will never be a shortage of people in this world who are better and harder working than you..."
The boy frowned when he heard this and wanted to refute, but after thinking about it carefully, he found that he could not refute it. After pondering for a long time, he reluctantly said: "Then... what should I do?"
Seeing the always proud and arrogant young man finally taking the initiative to lower his head and ask him for advice, the old dean felt particularly happy and hurriedly smiled and said: "It doesn't matter whether you become a king or not. What mankind really needs is not a person sitting on the throne. 'People' is an inspiring story. You just need to write your own story carefully."
"My own story? A story like the sword in the stone?" the boy asked.
"right."
The old dean nodded happily: "Just like you are looking forward to the story of King Arthur now, there will be thousands of children in the future who are looking forward to your story and will be proud to imitate you..."
…
"My own story..."
The emperor sighed, suddenly stiffened, and turned to look at the three giants who appeared quietly on the sea a thousand meters away. He couldn't help but reveal a wry smile: "It came so fast..."
Is his story a bit too short...
The emperor looked at the beautiful sunset on the horizon and let out a long sigh of relief. What he was thinking about was the monastery where he once studied and the old abbot: "I really want to go back and take a look..."
It's a pity that the giants will not give him a chance to be melancholy.
"Roar……"
Several more roars came in succession.
The other three giants also appeared in other directions of the emperor. The six giants surrounded him, all staring at him like hungry wolves.
"Hand over the stone of authority!"
A woman's voice suddenly sounded in the emperor's mind. It was obviously in a language he couldn't understand, but he could understand its meaning naturally.
"I see, there is such a means of communication..." The emperor breathed out and silently controlled the maze to take shape.
Since the story is short, let’s add one last wonderful touch before it comes to an end...
"The stone of authority is here. If you want it, come and get it."
The emperor threw the transparent box in his hand and glanced at the six giants respectively: "However, there is only one stone of authority. How are you going to divide it among the six of you?"
This is a very straightforward way to sow discord. For a giant, something like the power stone is equivalent to the biggest pursuit in his life. No giant can resist the temptation of the power stone. If you can use a stone to make six giants kill each other, Of course it is the most ideal result.
Unfortunately, it turns out it's not that easy.
After the emperor finished speaking, the other five giants all showed greedy eyes at the box in his hand, and had the urge to snatch it directly. However, the female giant shouted immediately, and with that sound, the other giants immediately They put away their greed and bowed their heads to the female giant to express their submission.
"It seems that not only is the female giant's ability rare among giants, but her status is also extremely high, superior to other giants." The emperor silently opened the communicator and said to himself: "What will happen next?" Everything is recorded and sent out after my body dies..."
"Order received." The AI's voice sounded in the earphones.
At the same time, Tianzi suddenly found that his body could not move, and he felt exactly the same as before when he was controlled by the giantess.
"It's this distance again... In other words, your limit control distance is only one thousand meters, and... when you control others, you can't move..."
The emperor turned around and saw that except for the female giant who stayed where she was, the other five giants were already rushing towards him.
The helmeted giant was the first to teleport to the emperor, reaching out and snatching the box from his hand.
At the same time, the giant who could create balls of light immediately stretched out a finger and fired a particle of light towards the emperor. The particle of light penetrated through the emperor's chest indiscernibly with the naked eye.
However, the imaginary explosion did not happen. The emperor's figure hit by the light particles became illusory until it disappeared. The light particles passed directly through the body and disappeared into the distance.
On the other side, the helmeted giant's hand that grabbed the box also threw it away.
This was not over yet. Immediately afterwards, countless giant mirrors rose up in all directions of the giants. They were stacked on top of each other and closely arranged, reflecting each other like a kaleidoscope. In each mirror, there was a figure, or six figures. The giant, or the emperor holding the stone of authority.
"Roar!"
The giant that had just emitted light particles roared angrily, and once again fired light particles towards the image of the 'Emperor' that was closest to it.
"Bang!"
The mirror shattered under the impact of the light particles. However, the direction of the light particles that broke through the mirror was deflected and shot towards the other mirror at extremely high speed. Following that, a continuous sound of shattering was heard. The shattering of each mirror would be heard. Let the direction of the light particles deflect once.
In the end, after a tortuous trajectory, the light particles rushed towards the female giant from a tricky angle.
"boom!"
The next second, an explosion sounded.
However, this attack failed to hurt the female giant, because the shield giant temporarily applied a shield to the female giant at the last moment.
"Welcome to the labyrinth of the God of Light..."
"You are here as a guest, and I will be the one to entertain you for the rest of the time..."
The emperor's voice echoed in the mirrors from multiple directions, layer upon layer, as if he was everywhere.
The giantess had been observing all the mirrors around her attentively. The moment the emperor spoke, she suddenly pointed to one of the mirrors.
The giant wearing a silver helmet instantly moved to the mirror and punched it.
"Bang!"
The mirror shattered again, and this time the giant's fist brushed against the corner of the emperor's clothes. Unfortunately, it was still a moment too late, allowing the emperor to escape again.
"Teleport... Then how about trying this..."
The emperor's surround sound sounded again.
The female giant quickly pointed in another direction, and the silver-helmeted giant was about to teleport again, but the moment it moved, a burst of dazzling bright light suddenly erupted on several mirrors in front of it.
Under the strong light, the silver-helmeted giant instinctively closed his eyes. As a result, he only teleported a small distance, which was not as far as taking one step.
"Sure enough, your teleportation must be within 'line of sight' before you can activate it. Once it interferes with your line of sight, the teleportation will be ineffective..."
The emperor's voice sounded again, and he was teased continuously, making the giants involuntarily become anxious.
"Don't be impatient, we still have enough time to get to know each other..."
"Then, please share your secrets freely in the world of mirrors..."
…
The Blood Emperor stood on an island thousands of meters away from the Emperor, looking through the telescope at the illusory giant palace on the sea in front of him, which was like a mirage.
Half an hour had passed since the emperor trapped the six giants in the maze. During this period, no sound came from the maze, and no signals could be detected. He could not imagine what was happening inside.
On the surrounding sea, more and more surviving players came from nearby and slowly gathered around. They all looked at the giant palace in the distance in shock.
They had already learned the general situation and heard about the choice made by the emperor. While sighing and admiring, they were also worried about the next development of the situation. Can the emperor survive? How long can this maze last?
Until a certain moment, the mobile phones of everyone present, all of which were turned on, simultaneously received a message with no source indicated.
Everyone clicked on the message in confusion, only to find that it was a half-hour long recording.
"The authority stone is here. If you want it, come and get it..."
"Welcome to the labyrinth of the God of Light..."
"You are here as a guest, and I will be the one to entertain you for the rest of the time..."
…
After everyone listened for a few words, they realized that it turned out that all the sounds that happened inside the maze had been recorded by the emperor and sent to everyone.
What surprised everyone was that these recordings contained a lot of information about the giant's abilities!
Although the giants have demonstrated their abilities many times before, because at that time the players were the ones being hunted from beginning to end, there was no chance to go back and test the strength of the giants.
Until now, the Emperor finally had enough opportunities to fully explore the abilities and weaknesses of these giants by using the cover of the Light God's Labyrinth.
The value of this piece of information is simply beyond imagination!
Most players are ecstatically listening to the recordings and collecting all useful intelligence.
However, in the distance, the Blood Emperor silently looked at the content displayed on the meter in his hand, sighing in his heart.
The meter in his hand is connected to everyone's bracelets, and can directly monitor the vitality of everyone nearby through the bracelets.
And just now, the only vital sign number in the area ahead quietly returned to zero.
At the same time, in the Fool Game, all online players in the City of the Rising Sun received a system announcement.
[The Lord of the City of the Rising Sun, the Emperor, has died. 】
[Start the city lord replacement process. 】
[All residents of Rising Sun City are invited to elect a new city lord between the two deputy city lords, 'Smile' and 'Devil'. After seven days, the person with the highest vote will automatically obtain the position of Rising Sun City Lord. 】
(End of chapter)
