The Almighty Ring

The last words of Miluya were: “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Stay well, big brother! Farewell.”

Jiang Fei did not know what to feel then. To be honest, he really liked the little girl and if she had not grown so fast, Jiang Fei would actually see her as a little sister that he never had. Now that he had learned the truth about her, Jiang Fei felt more and more devastated.

“Beep. Program No. 709 activated,” 0543’s voice blared in his mind. This time, her voice was extremely monotonous.

“Executing program…”

“Captain, if you are listening to this, I can only assume that all Celestial tier NPCs in the game have been dealt with. Please forgive me once more for moving behind your back. As your support system, my task was to make sure that no harm to befall on you. Even so… I am not omnipotent. The most I can do is to stop the enemy. That is why I have proceeded with my plan to delete the NPCs in the game.” 0541’s voice ranged in his head again. The nostalgic male husky voice triggered Jiang Fei to stand on his feet.

“You stupid idiot!” Jiang Fei roared in the next second, smiling yet crying at the same time.

The Miluya incident was not the first time he had gone behind Jiang Fei’s back. The incident which led to Phoenix’s death was also indirectly caused by 0541. Back then, Jiang Fei and 0541 had the means to help her control her irrepressible powers. However, at the spur of the moment, 0541 had decided to allow Phoenix to die. Even though it was unethical, Jiang Fei could not say anything against it since without Phoenix’s death, Ariel would not have been born into this world.

Unlike 0542, 0543, or even future A.I support systems of the future, 0541 had existed for a vast number of years. His A.I programming and intelligence had evolved so far that it had granted 0541 a human-like personality. Furthermore, after supporting Jiang Fei for so long, it had grown attached to him, like brothers-in-arms.

For everything 0541 had done, it was ultimately for Jiang Fei’s own good. Some of his deeds, of those that Jiang Fei would definitely disapprove of, 0541 had accomplished then without Jiang Fei’s own knowledge. 0541 had concluded that getting Jiang Fei involved in his decision would hinder Jiang Fei’s own progress to power.

Jiang Fei knew all this and even though he could not deny that he was not truly on board with everything 0541 did, Jiang Fei was still reminiscing the past, when 0541 was still around. The nostalgic feeling only grew stronger after he learned of the 0542’s betrayal and 0543’s uselessness.

When 0541 was still running things, Jiang Fei had never felt more capable of doing this. Never would 0541 deny his request, the way 0542 and 0543 would. The words “Sorry this… sorry that…”

It was like a mantra for him now. Whenever Jiang Fei was trying to do something, both 0542 and 0543 would recite that mantra and deny Jiang Fei of his request.

“Captain, I am now ready to face my punishment for breaking the protocol. I do not have much time to say but heed this. Be careful of Akatziris. She would soon be your… BSHHHHH.”

The message was cut short, replaced by a loud static noise.

“What’s going on?” Jiang Fei roared. 0541’s last words were too important to miss out.

“Captain, the content of the program is deemed as a violation to the system protocol. It has been deleted.”

0543’s reply made Jiang Fei frown madly. Just when Jiang Fei was thinking about 0543’s uselessness, she had proven it to be true by actually allowing the content to be deleted!

“F*ck you!” Jiang Fei roared. Due to the violation of protocol, the entire message by 0541 was deleted. Jiang Fei could not even playback the previous part of the message!

“Be careful of Akatziris? Why? Who would she be?” Jiang Fei muttered.

“Could it be that she would be your enemy?” Isabella gave her own speculation. When 0541 was sealed away, Akatziris was still Jiang Fei’s pet. That might explain why 0541 would say something like that. Perhaps 0541 knew something about Akatziris.

“I disagree,” Sylphy chimed in. As Isabella’s “enemy”, she would always try to disprove anything that Isabella says.

“I want to hear an explanation,” Jiang Fei demanded. He did not care about the family feud as 0541’s message was the pressing matter at hand. 0541’s messages had proven to be extremely helpful.

“Darling, hear me,” said Sylphy as she rushed towards Jiang Fei and pressed Jiang Fei’s hands into her cleavage. At the same time, she puffed out her chest and glanced at Isabella, as if she wanted to show off something.

“0541’s message was only prompted after Miluya had killed all the Celestial tier NPCs. That means something. It would be impossible to have Akatziris still inside the game when all those NPCs were killed. 0541 must have calculated that event and set the message trigger moment at the precise moment. 0541 was sealed away when Akatziris was still in the game so, I hypothesize that 0541 knows that Akatziris would be extracted out of the game and perhaps even knew that Akatziris would become one of the leaders of the Unknowns.”

“That makes sense.”

“With that in mind, perhaps Akatziris knew something that we do not!” Nina chimed in.

“Exactly,” Sylphy added.

“But we could not really jump to that conclusion without first knowing the last part of 0541’s message!” Ariel refuted. 0541’s choice of words was clear. To be careful of Akatziris was to imply that Akatziris would become a threat.

“Are we still going to maintain this alliance with Third Sister?” Isabella asked promptly. Although she did not want to admit it, Sylphy’s statement made sense. Still, Akatziris was a potential threat. Be it as it may, Akatziris was still her sister, if possible, she would not want to fight a member of her own family, especially since she learned that Akatziris was the last surviving member of her family.

“I say we maintain our current status quo until we could clearly discern that Akatziris is our enemy,” said Jiang Fei hesitantly. Jiang Fei could not put a finger on their relationship. It was coming back and forth between ally and enemy. They were not close enough to be called an ally but not hostile enough to be called an enemy. Both of them shared a common enemy and to truly make a stance against them, he would need to be in good terms with Akatziris, especially since the Unknowns had garnered the alliance with the Mutants and even the European Church.

The discussion reached an end even though there was a true result. Things were left hanging when Jiang Fei was already tired. The moon as high in the night sky and after a quick, moody dinner, Jiang Fei headed to bed and logged into the game.

Since the psychic manipulation attack on him, Jiang Fei dared not enter the game. However, since the physical game server was in his possession, he had nothing else to fear. However, there was one glaring matter, there were no Celestial tier NPCs left in the game. There was no more content for him to unlock anymore. All in all, he had lost the drive to actually play the game.

Even though he was already set to never set foot into the game, what Nina added in then, about something Akatziris knew, coerced him back into playing the game.