NOVEL WEB chapter 25
Chapter 25, Dangerous Worldview
“No, now is not the time to rest.”
After An left, Mu En suddenly flipped over and sat up in bed, disregarding his still somewhat weak body, and moved to the desk nearby.
According to his memory, he rummaged through the drawer of the desk and pulled out a blank sheet of paper, then picked up a quill and dipped it in ink.
“The current plot has completely diverged from the original storyline, which means that all future events are unknown to me.”
“The original book holds no reference value anymore; I must rely on myself.”
“First, I need to set a goal.”
Mu En pinched his chin, thought for a moment, and then began to write in relatively neat handwriting on the paper.
1. Survive.
2. Avoid the ‘thousand knives and a thousand cuts’ ending.
3. Become stronger.
“These are my current three goals.”
Surviving goes without saying; after all, he was a man who had died twice if rounded up, and to this day, he still felt uneasy about death.
Even though this world was not friendly to him, the yellow-haired villain, he still wanted to live seriously.
“Next is the ending predicted by the precognitive dream…”
With the shattered ending now completely out of reach, it seemed that the timeline was inevitably heading toward the fate of being cut to pieces by someone.
But…
Mu En pondered for a moment, then picked up his pen and added a few more lines after the second point.
→ Not apologizing to the protagonist may prevent this ending.
→ The apology to the protagonist was merely a speculation based on the words of a mysterious figure in the precognitive dream; it may not be a necessary condition, and the timeline might still be diverging from the ‘thousand knives and a thousand cuts’ ending.
→ The black book is unreliable.
“…”
Mu En thought for a moment and then crossed out the last line.
He dared not take the gamble.
“So, does that mean the current state is Schrödinger’s thousand knives and a thousand cuts?”
The more Mu En thought about it, the more his head ached.
“Ah, no, there’s too little information; no matter how I think about it, it’s just grasping at straws.”
The root of the problem was that the precognitive dreams provided by the black book were too vague, and there were no other clues.
Mu En didn’t even know whether this foresight was something that would inevitably come to pass no matter what he did, or if it would change according to his actions.
“Forget it, I won’t think about it anymore. What I should do now is to first accomplish the most important goal at hand.”
Mu En’s gaze lingered on the third line.
Become stronger.
This was the most pressing matter.
No matter how unfriendly this world was to him, a yellow-haired villain, it was still a magical world where strength reigned supreme.
Power was the foundation of existence.
Without power, he would only face death as before, with no choice but to trade life for life.
“The most important thing is…”
Mu En gritted his teeth, his expression sour:
“I absolutely do not want to be trampled on by a woman again!”
He recalled the painful experience of being pinned down by Celicia, at her mercy. Although it was quite pleasurable on a sensory level, his pride as a man would never allow it!
Even if the other party was Celicia!
……
……
“As for how to become stronger, as the son of a duke, there are countless means to gain strength, but unfortunately, those are all too conventional, unable to bridge the gap with the main cast.”
The original owner wasted too much time; despite studying at the Saint Maria Magic Academy for a whole year, now Mu En could only recall a single illumination spell!
“How ridiculous! Did that guy sleep through class every day?”
How could anyone sleep at this time!
Mu En wished he could travel back and slap that version of Mu En Campbell, making him experience the harshness of society in advance.
“Fortunately, the physical condition seems decent, at the late stage of the first rank.”
……
In this world, the classification of power systems is somewhat complex.
But it can roughly be divided into:
The martial system, where warriors cultivate fighting spirit.
The magical system, where mages cultivate magic.
The faith system, where clerics draw power from deities through faith.
And the divinely favored, who are born under the blessings of the gods, receiving divine gifts.
Aside from the inherently determined divinely favored, the former three are the most basic paths. There are actually many offshoots, but those are not within Mu En’s range of choices.
For example, an assassin who offers sacrifices to an evil god through prayer to gain temporary power is known as an evil priest.
This is one of the offshoots, capable of quickly gaining power, but after all, it involves making a deal with an evil god, and the fate of evil priests… often does not end well.
—
In fact, the Dark Priest is merely a branch of the clergy; it’s just that they worship evil deities.
……
From the current perspective, the power system doesn’t seem too complex. At least, for the sake of convenience in memory and distinction, before becoming a crowned-level powerhouse, almost all power systems are divided into five tiers, each with its own unique moniker.
For instance, the first tier of the martial power system is called Body Refinement, while the first tier of the magical power system is referred to as Mercury.
But the differences aren’t significant; they are merely alternative names.
The real reason for the complexity can be attributed to two factors:
First, in this world, there are no rules stating that a seemingly soft and adorable priestess, who casts Holy Light spells daily to save lives, cannot secretly push her martial prowess to the extreme, capable of slaying dragons with the teachings of her faith.
There are also no rules preventing a frail-looking mage, who casts spells from a distance, from suddenly pulling out a staff larger than you and beating you to a pulp when you get too close.
Indeed, the paths are not limited to one; there are many more routes to take.
Take the assassin from earlier, for example. Not only did he showcase martial skills of at least the third tier, but he also employed gravity magic and, in the end, revealed the trump card of a Dark Priest!
It can be said that, to some extent, a single realm cannot adequately represent a person’s strength, for you have no idea how far they have traveled on another path.
The second reason… can be termed an external factor.
In this world, there are deities.
True gods, evil gods, demon gods—there are countless, chaotic in number.
Aside from gaining power through stable faith, what these deities love to do most is bestow blessings upon those they deem worthy.
These are the favored ones of the gods.
In other words, the official wholesale cheat codes set up by the author.
For example, Celicia has the blessing of the Snow Goddess.
As for the protagonist, by the later chapters of the original book, she possesses blessings from various deities, reaching a terrifying double-digit number. It can be said that she has connections with all sorts of gods, almost like a gender-swapped Sun Wukong, able to call upon divine assistance at a moment’s notice.
The abundance of deities isn’t particularly noteworthy, for some reason, they cannot directly interfere with the mortal realm; at most, they can project a bit of their power.
But the real issue is that no one knows what type of person the deities favor. The blessings do not manifest externally before they are used, so the beggar you inadvertently provoke on the street might suddenly conjure a nuclear bomb to send you sky-high!