Transcendent Gene
Chapter 216: Simulated Riftworld [2]

Chapter 216: Simulated Riftworld [2]

[The World is small to the beings who do not know its size. The King of the Mountain is no different from a God amongst mortals to such beings.]

Such were the words that appeared in their minds.

Shiro and Gio looked at each other with raised brows.

"The King of the Mountain?" Shiro echoed.

"Yeah. That should be..."

Gio’s eyes went to the peak that was still at least five or six kilometers above them.

Through the rushing wind and blowing snow, he could barely make out the silhouette of the monster that calmly stood there.

"Do we have to go up there and fight that thing?"

"I don’t know, but for the stele to call it a God...it probably isn’t an easy target."

"You’re right."

Shiro nodded in agreement.

"But we should still go fight it, right?"

However, Gio didn’t accept those words easily.

"That might be a part of what we need to do, but we shouldn’t rush into anything yet. The clear condition could even be killing the boss in a specific way, so if we just go and fight, we might mess everything up."

"Ohh..."

Shiro nodded, this time in understanding.

"Okay, so we have to find more clues. How do we do that?"

"How’d you find this one?"

"Walking around."

"Same deal."

Gio made a wry expression as he shrugged.

"That clue is only pointing us towards the King of the Mountain, so we have to go up that way, but the clues in Riftworlds are supposed to lead to other clues."

"So you’re saying that either we’ll find those clues on the way to the peak, or this is the only clue we get."

"Exactly."

It was rare for the black stele to be the only clue when it came to finding a clear condition, but it was certainly possible.

"Hmm..."

Gio frowned for a second.

"The clear condition is to kill the King of the Mountain."

He said it out loud, but received no response.

"The clear condition is to usurp the King of the Mountain."

He worded it somewhat differently. The air in front of him vibrated a little, only to return to its normal state.

’That was closer.’

Perhaps there were other clues hidden across the mountain, but the first one was enough to start guessing.

And when guessing, there were ways to see if one was hot or cold.

Gio’s words affected the world. He was close to the answer.

’We aren’t supposed to kill and we aren’t supposed to usurp, but...’

"The clear condition is to become the King of the Mountain."

Whoosh!

All of a sudden, it happened. Shiro jumped slightly and Gio furrowed his brows as light blue holographic screens appeared in front of them. The other students were probably experiencing the same thing.

[Objective: Become the King of the Mountain without usurping the current King’s position.]

"Oh, that’s not..."

Shiro frowned once he’d comprehended what the screen was.

"We have to take its position without using force? How are we supposed to do that? Do we communicate with it or some shit?"

Gio rolled his eyes only because it was instinct. Inside, he agreed with those words.

’We can’t converse with monsters. Even when they speak our language, conversation is impossible because the blood debt between our two sides is too great.’

Nobody had ever thought about quelling the violence through words. It simply wasn’t an option.

However, somehow, they had to find a way to put a human in the position of the King of the Mountain.

"This is why we look for clues."

Gio was the one who declared the clear condition early, but he understood that he was hasty.

"We would probably find out how we’re supposed to approach without hostility in the other clues that are around here. Declaring the clear condition doesn’t erase them, but finding them is still a pain in the ass regardless of that," he said.

"Sure," Shiro replied, "but what other choice do we have? It’s not like one of these monsters is going to come up to us and kindly let us know about what they have going on."

"Yeah, yeah. Let me complain in peace. From the beginning, our only choice was to go find those clues."

Shiro grinned happily when he saw the annoyed expression on Gio’s face.

"Don’t be so grumpy," he said, slinging his arm over Gio’s shoulder.

"Two brains are better than one, right? If we divide and conquer, it shouldn’t be too hard."

"I think we have like one and a quarter brains between us, actually."

"75, 75?"

"No. 120 and 5."

"Harsh!"

"Don’t act like you don’t know how to talk back."

Shiro grinned wider.

"Maybe, but we can save that for later. Should we split up for now?"

Gio hummed in acknowledgement.

"Mm. Don’t go too close to the peak. We don’t want to risk aggressing the King of the Mountain without knowing anything about it."

"That’s obvious. You don’t have to worry about that part."

Shiro said some words to ease his worries before saluting in farewell.

"Then, I’ll go that way. Let’s meet up here when we’re done."

Voom!

Whoosh!

Golden flames appeared at his feet, and in the next moment, he was blazing across the side of the mountaintop.

Gio went the other way, using his own Sequence to match Shiro’s speed.

’Sensing change won’t really help me here. I have to rely on myself.’

Every clue was connected to another one. As long as he could find one...

Gio was moving in the same direction he was when he approached Shiro. He rushed for five minutes, moving far enough away for the obsidian stele to vanish into the distance.

As his eyes went across the world, he spotted a shard of blue in the leaves of a nearby pine tree.

It didn’t take long for him to climb it and grab hold of that shard.

Voom!

As soon as it touched his hand, it exploded into a burst of light.

[The world is rich with tradition despite its seemingly bare nature. The smaller the world is for those living inside it, the richer their cultures become, isolated within the microcosm of their existence. By the Sacred Pine, they gather, awaiting the celebration of their world.]

’Tradition...’

Monsters were intelligent, after all. Even primate species on Earth had their own sense of intelligence, even if it wasn’t the same as humanity’s conscious thought.

The monsters with the lowest intelligence were still conscious enough to create their own traditions, even if their meanings and intentions were more primal.

’By the Sacred Pine, it says.’

The tree he was in was a pine. He was, in fact, on the edge of what looked to be a small pine forest on this flat part of the mountaintop.

’The goal is to become the King of the Mountain without taking the position by force. Now it’s mentioning cultures and traditions...’

Gio had an idea of where this was going, but he had no idea how it would really unfold.

Nevertheless, his first priority was to reach the so-called Sacred Pine.

There, he would find the tradition this clue spoke of.

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