Life Game In Other World
Chapter 417: The Mastermind Behind the Velora (Long - Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 417: Chapter 417: The Mastermind Behind the Velora (Long Chapter Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

"This is a Descending Ceremony."

He Ao calmly examined the intricate patterns surrounding him, his gaze profound.

"Descending Ceremony?"

Luo Luo’s face showed a clear question mark. As a Transcendent herself, she suddenly felt that her knowledge base was nowhere near He Ao’s level.

"Brother Hao Yi, what is a Descending Ceremony?"

Lin Chichi didn’t have as many concerns; she hardly knew anything and would ask directly if she had questions.

"You can think of it as a ’channel’ that allows a Higher Being from outside this space-time to forcibly descend into this world."

He Ao squatted beside the flesh-control platform, carefully inspecting the surrounding circuitry.

After entering the engine car, those black tentacles never appeared again.

This was an obvious protective mechanism; the train was very wary of those uncontrollable tentacles destroying the Ritual Array inside.

To be precise, the ’arranger’ of this ritual did not trust the tentacles belonging to the train.

Actually, from the moment He Ao boarded the train, he noticed that the train’s rules were somewhat too complicated.

Of course, it was understandable that a B-grade Transcendent item had extremely intricate ritual rules; after all, under such a bizarre Transcendent system, anything could happen.

So He Ao didn’t show any significant doubts.

Not until he saw the Blood Pool in the last car and the Ritual Array in the engine car.

No Transcendent item would embed a Descending Ceremony within itself to summon other Higher Beings; the simple intelligence of a Transcendent item couldn’t achieve such complex functionality.

Clearly, this train was a trap set deliberately by some existence, aiming to complete this Descending Ceremony in the main world.

"Higher Beings?" Lin Chichi reacted, "Are you talking about the Divine Beings in myth and legend? Do Divine Beings really exist in this world?"

After saying this, she suddenly realized she might have asked a silly question. In a world where trains can traverse space at will, covering thousands of kilometers in half an hour, why couldn’t Divine Beings exist?

"But, the Rese···" Luo Luo glanced at He Ao, "the information I’ve got states that there are no Divine Beings in this world···"

"It depends on how you define them. In a sense, a ’god’ is just a powerful Transcendent life form, indescribable and incomprehensible, having surpassed the realm of understanding for ordinary mortals. So it’s not wrong to consider them as ’gods.’

He Ao did not look up; he was meticulously tracing part of the circuitry within the car, faintly feeling that these lines could coincide with the ones from the red bead he got from Jin Ya.

But these two Arrays didn’t completely overlap; he was trying to decipher the significance behind their convergence.

Luo Luo nodded thoughtfully. The Research Institute’s data had not revealed any Transcendent life forms that particularly surpassed human cognition, but absence of evidence did not imply evidence of absence.

One of the tenets of the Research Institute is to ’always revere the unknown.’

However, at that moment, her curiosity about He Ao’s identity greatly piqued.

He Ao seemed to know many esoteric knowledge that even the Research Institute wasn’t aware of.

"So, this ceremony is the Descending Ceremony of a powerful ’Divine Being’?"

Lin Chichi looked worriedly at the terrifying blood-red patterns around her, "Does that mean we can still survive?"

If He Ao described the ’Divine Beings’ using that tone, it meant they might truly be powerful, beyond comprehension, beyond what even He Ao could handle.

If this was indeed a trap set by a Divine Being, then they might have no choice but to resign themselves to fate.

"Not necessarily."

He Ao shook his head; he had already segregated the overlapping part of the two Arrays, now unraveling the remaining Array.

The Descending Ritual Array before him presented a puzzling aspect, as it was exceedingly intricate.

As a ’Friend of the Divine,’ who had interacted with multiple friends among them, He Ao had a bit of understanding regarding their rituals.

All Evil Gods’ Ritual Arrays possess both simplicity and complexity.

The simplicity lies in the emblems pointing to the Divine Beings being very straightforward, usually comprised of simple designs, such as the God of Knowledge’s Septagram, the Witch of Desire’s heart shape, the Grim Reaper’s Eye of Truth.

The complexity lies in the stringent conditions for etching these emblems. The more precise the etching, the more perfect the ritual, and the more it pleases the Divine Being.

For example, his good friend particularly liked the Arrays set up by He Ao.

Emblems are the language of esotericism; the simpler the emblem, the more unique that Great Being.

It’s like a person’s title.

In ancient Central Earth, the Emperor stood supreme. Mention the Emperor, and people knew you referred to that specific individual.

Below the Emperor were many ’kings,’ so when describing a certain ’king,’ one had to add his kingdom’s name or his title, such as the King of the Southern Region, the King of the Northern Region.

The more the need for precise descriptors, the more it indicates there are many individuals of similar rank, necessitating differentiation from others.

Of course, the actual usage of personal titles has many nuanced variations.

But in the context of esotericism, generally, the more complicated the emblem, the lower the status.

And the Ritual Array that He Ao was now looking at had an emblem pointing towards that Higher Being that was too intricate and didn’t seem to be for any Divine Being.

If it were an existence with a lower rank than the Divine Beings, that might explain it.

Using a B-grade Transcendent item as a vessel for its own Descending Ceremony suggests that its status is likely higher than B-grade, and He Ao could not recall any B-grade knowledge about using Descending Ceremonies.

B-grade is still within human purview.

However, anything involving ’Descent’ is associated with a being of mythic quality.

So, the result was quite clear.

"If not a Divine Being, then what is it?"

Luo Luo found herself a bit perplexed by He Ao’s ’not necessarily.’

He Ao looked up at her and Lin Chichi, speaking calmly, "You should be aware that knowledge itself carries contamination. The more secret knowledge you know, the more likely you are to attract the attention of Higher Beings. Are you sure you want to know?"

"I have no problem with that!"

Luo Luo nodded firmly, then she turned to Lin Chichi, "But···"

Before she could continue, Lin Chichi quickly said, "Brother Hao Yi, I’ve already been exposed to this stuff, and I’m already connected to that Higher Being. Knowing a bit more won’t make much of a difference; I can take responsibility for myself."

"Hmm,"

He Ao slowly stood up, giving Luo Luo a glance before continuing,

"Between humans and gods, there exists another mythological creature, ’Angels,’ some of whom serve Divine Beings, while others possess their own will.

"And the line between angels and humans is A-grade. In ancient times, A-grade was also known as angels."

"The process of ascending to an angel is extremely dangerous, and it’s very easy to turn into an indescribable, unfathomable mythical creature that brings unimaginable disaster,"

These points were He Ao’s summary of his own understanding, based on the knowledge he had seen in the underground library of Elijah.

Luo Luo didn’t quite understand, but she still took these words seriously and wrote them down.

"So this ’Descending Ceremony’ belongs to an angel?"

Lin Chichi quickly came to a realization.

"Yes,"

He Ao nodded gently. He didn’t know if there were ranks within the angels higher than A, but judging from the complexity of the pattern pointing to the unknown, the Descending Ceremony most likely belonged to a relatively weaker angel.

But no matter how weak, it must be at least Grade A.

He Ao backed up to the wall near the entrance and continued, "Whether it’s this kind of Descending Ceremony or a communication ritual, all rituals targeting Higher Beings must fulfill the three elements of the ritual: altar, sacrifices, and host.

"The altar is where the Ritual Array is drawn, responsible for establishing a channel and anchoring coordinates. The sacrifices are responsible for providing energy or appeasing the Higher Being, and the host is the overseer of the entire ritual, often also the initiator, serving as the hub of the whole ceremony."

"So the Blood Pool in that carriage just now was the sacrifices? And this place here is the altar," Lin Chichi summarized what He Ao had said, "But... it seems like there is no host."

"No, there is," He Ao leaned against the wall, "We are the ’hosts’."

Lin Chichi: "Ah?"

"To be precise, the ’players’ currently engaging in a game of slaughter in the back carriages are the ’hosts’ of this ceremony,"

He Ao explained slowly, "As the hub of the entire ceremony, the host determines the success or failure of the ritual. Once the host has self-awareness and abandons the ritual for some reason, the advent will fail.

"The one who arranged this ritual perhaps did so to control risks, or maybe there was no suitable candidate, so they made a cunning design.

"Set up an enticing ’trap’ that lures people in, then use a game of slaughter to incite those who step into the trap to kill each other.

"This game, in fact, is a special ’ceremony’. In such slaughter, everyone in the game will form a twisted obsession around the act of killing.

"This obsession leads the souls involved in the slaughter, becoming the ’host’ of the Descending Ceremony.

"As long as the game goes on uninterrupted and the passengers keep on killing endlessly, this obsession will persist, carrying the souls of the wronged dead, becoming a conceptual host with no self-awareness who only drives the ritual to proceed.

"And the corpses and souls of the deceased passengers will in turn become ’sacrifices’ to fuel the ceremony, killing two birds with one stone.

"However, we are lucky that at this moment, the accumulated sacrifices in this car are not enough to support the ceremony’s progress, so we don’t have to face an angel for now."

Listening to this, Lin Chichi felt a chill down her spine and found the world a bit horrifying. She was somewhat relieved that she wouldn’t have to face the terrifying-sounding ’angel’. She wasn’t even sure whether to consider her luck good or bad.

But having met He Ao, she should take it as a significant stroke of fortune amidst misfortune.

After pondering for a moment and calming her emotions, she asked softly, "So what is the purpose of the person behind the scenes who arranged this ceremony?"

He Ao looked calmly at the control panel, "To come to this world."

The pattern under his feet was similar to the pattern on the control panel, both pointing to the unknown angel.

Ever since returning from the ritual, He Ao had been contemplating a question.

The exotic beasts or Transcendent beings in the relic were not lacking in wisdom—for example, the creature that had lured him into the illusion, masquerading as Liu Nan, had exhibited scheming far beyond ordinary people.

So hadn’t these Transcendent beings noticed ’ordinary people’ who arrived in the relics at irregular intervals?

The humans in the relic had long been extinct; lively human beings themselves were a rare sight.

Now he knew that the remnants of powerful Transcendent life forms had long discovered the existence of "Explorers" attempting to reach the relic and were trying to find the main world to descend into it.

Due to some reason, the Velora had acquired the ability to cross space, so an "Angel" from a relic captured it, arranged the Descending Ceremony, and then took advantage of a certain proximity between the relic and Central Earth to send it into the main world.

Whether this Angel was insane or not was unclear, but given its direct use of living human lives as ceremonial materials, it was most likely insane.

If it truly succeeded in descending, considering that the highest level in Central Earth at present was only B-grade, the whole world would probably turn into a purgatory.

Indeed, enemies never grant one time to develop peacefully.

He Ao gazed at the patterns on the wall. There was still the last part of the ceremony that hadn’t been deciphered.

The factions currently fighting outside, including the Research Institute, World Tree, Moonlight, and even Daybreak, probably had no knowledge of the setup inside this vehicle.

Each of these factions, counting the Angel arranging the Velora, had their own schemes and arrangements, where the weakest could bring out B-grade combat power, and at the highest level, there was even an Angel involved.

The powers of several factions intertwined, forming a dense and complex web.

He Ao had to find a perfect breakout point in this massive web to tear apart the entire network in one go.

His gaze returned to the last part of the Ritual Array, the most difficult part to decipher. He had lost all references and could only rely on the not-so-abundant knowledge of mysticism in his mind, to forcibly understand it.

"Brother Hao Yi, may I ask you a question?"

Just as He Ao fell into thought, a small query suddenly came from beside him.

"Hmm?"

He Ao turned his head to glance at Lin Chichi.

"When I was discussing earlier events with Sister Luo Luo, I heard you call Jin Ya the ninth player,"

Lin Chichi asked cautiously, "But we only have eight players in total. Six passengers and two staff members. The Murderer’s side has a steward, passenger number five, Ruoti, and the Chef, totaling only four people. The good side is us three, and the third party is Jin Ya, making eight people in total."

"No, there’s one more," He Ao shook his head, "it’s the steward."

Then he explained in the face of Lin Chichi’s puzzled look,

"After the Murderer died, they left behind the Murderer’s, the steward’s, and Ruoti’s props. Everyone’s prop was only in one piece, including the chef and the steward. The Murderer, at the very beginning, got a chance to kill someone before the game started.

"So, the real steward was killed by the Murderer before the game even began, and then he disguised himself as the steward. The steward we met afterwards was actually the Murderer in disguise.

"And the steward and the chef are very likely to be the ’victors’ from the previous game. They gave up the direct approach to break through the passage and chose to continue playing the game, thus given the vocational identities.

"Judging from their actions, they are supposed to have restrictions, unable to interfere with the game at will. However, they are all murderous at heart, and no matter what they were before, now they are all pawns of the Murderer.

"So the Murderer’s faction has a total of five people. They are the Murderer, the steward who was killed early on, passenger number five, Ruoti, and the Chef, making Jin Ya the ninth player."

"Awoo! Got it! Brother Hao Yi, you’re awesome!"

Lin Chichi nodded rapidly like a pecking chicken.

"What made you suddenly think to ask about this?"

He Ao asked quietly.

"I was just trying to sort out the clues we’ve had all along, to see if there’s any breakthrough," Lin Chichi looked at He Ao with confusion, "Is there a problem with that?"

"No," He Ao shook his head, "It’s just that something suddenly occurred to me."

Why does this game insist on having a ninth player when there are clearly only eight spots?