Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 339 - 258: The Builders

Chapter 339: Chapter 258: The Builders

When He Ya and the Judge arrived, 1721 had long since vanished without a trace, leaving only an empty square space.

"What did you just do?"

The Mechanical Maid immediately began questioning.

She had only felt an unprecedented burst of energy, tearing through space, forcibly opening a breach in its own Conscious Space.

The torn space at the entrance had not yet been fully repaired, and the fractured void was visibly healing itself.

This altered the image of Duan Mingyuan in the Judge’s mind, from a human to a terrorist carrying dangerous items, who might at any moment blow up the entire Conscious Space.

"I helped a young man realize his life’s dream,"

Duan Mingyuan, looking at the rift that had swallowed 1721, reflected.

Time flew by, and he had grown from an ignorant high school student into an age where he could mentor others. Yet, this was his first time attempting to help someone like this, uncertain whether, as an ordinary person, he could bear another’s life as those grand villains in RPGs did.

In Duan Mingyuan’s view, villains often had the hardest roles to play.

Heroes only need to fight monsters to level up, or sneak into villagers’ homes to steal their treasure chests for gold to buy high-end equipment. Villains, in addition to being the targets for heroes to chase, must constantly scheme to overthrow a nation and come up with a reason that allows players to empathize from the bottom of their hearts, even to the point of sympathy.

This was a great test for Duan Mingyuan.

"What was its life’s dream?"

He Ya asked softly, feeling that things were definitely not as simple as Duan Mingyuan described.

She had also been shocked earlier, almost thinking Duan Mingyuan was about to blow up the entire Conscious Space. On reflection, ever since she’d known Duan Mingyuan, he had always presented himself as a doctor or an assistant, dealing with healing, saving people, or revitalizing planets. This was the first time she had witnessed Duan Mingyuan using his Ability for destruction.

The one piece of good news was that 1721 had disappeared.

Its main body and those dispersed "bacteria" in the prison had been packaged together and sent into the rift in space, disappearing without a trace on the other side of the fissure.

"Its ideals are quite lofty. Its short-term goal was to kill me after escaping from prison. In the long run, it intended to destroy Blue Star and spread the existence of the Digitalized World to ensure that when the day of destruction came, the ’black hole’ would obliterate this place as well,"

"...How can you talk about these things without changing your expression?"

He Ya even detected a note of admiration in Duan Mingyuan’s tone, as if he were introducing an ambitious young person to someone familiar.

These were indeed lofty ideals.

Far greater than most lives she knew, even the swarms in another Star Zone had never thought to destroy the entire universe. For such a newly born youth, this was indeed commendable...

Huh?

He Ya’s train of thought broke.

How had she also been led astray by Duan Mingyuan?

This was probably Duan Mingyuan’s most peculiar charm; on the surface, he appeared to be a perfectly ordinary person, yet his thought patterns were very unique.

"So, you sent it into the rift in space out of a desire for revenge,"

The Mechanical Maid summarized based on Duan Mingyuan’s narration.

It did open up a new line of thinking for her; she had always been trying to eliminate 1721 entirely, but transporting it elsewhere, or sealing it away might be simpler approaches.

"No, this is an affirmation of the young person."

Duan Mingyuan felt that the Judge must have misunderstood him; he wasn’t angry, nor was he acting out of revenge. Since 1721 had set killing him as its next life goal, a lengthy upgrade process was inevitably required.

Although the young man had plenty of ideas and even possessed the talent to become a hero, he had hardly developed his own gifts and energy.

As the old saying goes, young people should not be too eager for success. The battle was still too far off for 1721.

Duan Mingyuan looked forward to the day when 1721 would fully develop its talents. By then, he would be able to understand which path the energy deep within the "Black Hole" actually took.

Just like the Judge.

Once it was fully grown, Duan Mingyuan could understand everything about it through the changes in energy.

"Now that 1721’s issue has been resolved, we should find some time to settle down and talk about the Digitalized World."

Duan Mingyuan felt his work on the Prison Planet was coming to an end, and he didn’t plan to refute Eisenberg’s theory.

All the information he had learned so far about the "Black Hole" indicated that the "Cocoon" within it was incredibly powerful. Once it realized the possibility of taking energy away from the "Black Hole," people would face an apocalyptic fate.

"The Strongest of All Time."

Such a label seemed quite fitting for it.

If one were to follow the pattern of current works, the strongest contemporary often pales in comparison to the strongest of all time. As Duan Mingyuan said, nobody knows what the future holds, and perhaps one day, people would indeed need a shelter within the Digitalized World.

However, the present state of the Prison Planet was still a long way from a true shelter.

Firstly, the bridge between the real world and the Digitalized World should not become a one-way passage.

Then there was the matter of environmental transformation. Since it was to be a shelter, more and more ordinary residents would live there in the future, and those sections built to torture prisoners were clearly unsuitable for civilian settlements.

Even more crucial were the basic tutorials.

The Digitalized World, though seemingly very similar to reality, followed a set of rules closer to a virtual world, which were much simpler and more convenient than those in reality.

Just like a moment ago, he only had to stand still to help 1721 whip up a set of beginner’s equipment.

"In short, we are here to help you build this place,"

"You?"

The Mechanical Maid’s eyes were filled with doubt; it was hard for her to imagine a Terrorist who could blow up the entire Conscious Space claiming to be here to help her build a home.

Was Duan Mingyuan planning to turn this into a missile base?

"Not just me, the strength of one person is extremely limited."

Duan Mingyuan deeply understood this, much like how his knowledge in networking and gaming was far less than Jiuyue’s, who often surfed the web.

Jiuyue had astounding discipline; she could sit in front of the computer and play games all day without rest, while Duan Mingyuan struggled to endure more than two hours.

Apart from aging and not having as much energy as before, it was also because someone kept throwing junk around in the game, which always forced him to leave the computer momentarily and stand by the window to gaze at the distant scenery.

They didn’t do it on purpose.

Duan Mingyuan always consoled himself this way.

"I’m prepared to solemnly recommend to you an excellent builder; her talent in this area even makes me feel inferior,"