Chapter 486: Look Through History?

There were not much people in the square. A few seconds later, a Taichi practitioner, an old man in traditional Chinese clothes walked forward.

The old man sat down on the bench beside Chen Xiaolian and looked up at him. “Are you looking for me?”

Chen Xiaolian narrowed his eyes at GM.

He then exhaled and said, “I want to know how to resurrect Qiao Qiao.”

The old man knitted his brows and shook his head. “You are asking the wrong question.”

“What about it is wrong?”

“You should first ask me if there is any method of resurrecting Qiao Qiao,” said the old man coolly. He then continued, “You should not have asked me how to resurrect her first. Could it be you are certain there is a way to resurrect her?”

“… … …” Chen Xiaolian was silent for a moment. “Fine, is there a way to resurrect her?”

“No.”

The old man answered in a firm and direct manner.

Chen Xiaolian waggled his eyebrows and he stared at the old man. There was a suppressed air of dissatisfaction within his tone. “Since we began cooperating, I had done a considerable amount for you. The few instance dungeons that I participated in, I had ensured that no Players completed them. Even when you wanted me to go participate in a punishment instance dungeon, I had complied. There, I managed to get the base and allowed your double to enter it, giving it a sanctuary, thus guaranteeing your continued existence. That was the equivalent of you getting insurance.

“Since we are cooperating, I hope I can gain something in return for my efforts.

“I have done my best to achieve the things you requested of me.

“And now, I believe I have the qualifications and reason to request some things from you.

“My request is, the resurrection of Qiao Qiao!”

The old man sighed.

He patted the empty space on the bench beside him, indicating that Chen Xiaolian should sit.

Chen Xiaolian hesitated for a moment before moving to sit down beside the old man.

“I am just a manager who oversees the operations of the program, a program that manages, something like a GM. I am not the Development Team, I am not an omnipotent God. Clearly though, you do not understand that and actually think of me as a God.” The old man’s tone was very calm. “Chen Xiaolian, you should understand something. If dead Irregularities could be resurrected after their deaths, why would I help you and cooperate with you? If there is a way for me to resurrect you after you die, won’t this game become too easy?

“Do you think that is possible?”

Chen Xiaolian was silent.

“This world was created by the Development Team. Everything here, every life form, every existence, all of them is part of the program,” the old man said without any hint of emotion. “Once an existence is erased, it would be deleted. Restoring a deleted item… … do you think I can do it?

“Please understand. I am just something responsible for the maintenance of the program’s operations. Although I am part of the program, I do not have full authority over the program.”

Hearing that did not discourage Chen Xiaolian. Instead, he asked, “You mean to say, resurrection is not an impossibility? It is just… … a matter of authority? Who has the authority?”

“The Development Team,” the old man answered frankly. “The Development Team is the master.”

“… … …”

Chen Xiaolian became discouraged.

Development Team?

This was an accurate but useless answer.

Reaching that line of thought, Chen Xiaolian’s heart gave a pound – he decided to risk it.

“I have a question for you.” Chen Xiaolian stared at the old man. “Have you heard of Mr San?”

Originally, Chen Xiaolian did not intend to discuss anything related to Mr San with the GM.

Because he had gotten to know many things that not even GM knew.

For example, GM believed that Chen Xiaolian was the first generation of Irregularities.

However, Chen Xiaolian had found that Mr San and his group were likely to be an earlier generation of Irregularities.

Moreover, this cooperation between this GM and him may have occurred before with an earlier GM and Mr San’s group. However, they failed.

Thus, that GM was refreshed and its memories were reset.

After Chen Xiaolian found out about this, he had thought of it as an advantage for him.

At present, for the sake of resurrecting Qiao Qiao, for the sake of getting some information from GM, he had to risk this.

The old man answered.

“Of course. He is an existence that the system is constantly on the hunt for,” said GM coolly. “An Awakened who may have acquired a certain system BUG and is constantly attempting to escape the constraints of the system.”

“So, you have met him before?” asked Chen Xiaolian further.

“No.” The old man shook his head. “The system’s Electronic Guardians are constantly tracking him. If not even the Electronic Guardians could find him, how could I? I am just a low-level manager program.”

“In other words, you have no way of finding Mr San?”

Chen Xiaolian stared at the old man.

There was no hesitation on the old man’s face as he shook his head. “No.”

Chen Xiaolian frowned and slowly spoke up again, “Let us talk about the base then.”

He looked at the old man and said, “Back then, you had me participate in the punishment instance dungeon in order to find the base. That Conquerors Guild, what is up with it? How did you find out about the existence of the base?”

His expression became fierce as he continued, “You have held much information back from me. I believe I have the qualifications to ask about this.”

The old man slowly stood up. “You are thinking too much. Additionally, your thoughts are getting messy. I understand your desire to resurrect your companion. However, I can only tell you this, I don’t have the way to do it – as far as I know, this method simply does not exist. Maybe the Development Team could do it, but I believe it to be impossible.”

The old man glanced at Chen Xiaolian. “As for the other matter, I have no obligation to answer you. Do not forget, in our cooperation, you are not the only one who had to make sacrifices. I had provided you much in terms of benefits. For example, your present ‘base’. So, I have no obligation toward you.”

“I want information on the Conquerors Guild. Who are they? They are Players, are they not? I believe them to be Players! But if so, who was the one who exterminated the Conquerors Guild? Was it the system? Why would the system exterminated a group of Players? And then there is the Conquerors Guild. Why do they want to obtain a base? Did the system exterminate them because of the base?”

The old man had already turned and walked into the crowd of people.

Chen Xiaolian did not hesitate to give chase. He followed the old man and kept asking, “Why would the system kill a group of Players? What forbidden rules did those Players break? System killing Players, does such an act comply with the rules? Also… … back then, how did those Players get hold of the base? Since there is a BUG like the base, there must surely be other BUGs in the system!

“This means that not everything is under the control of the Development Team! Since not everything is under their control, why can’t Irregularities be resurrected?”

The old man maintained his silence and continued walking onward.

Chen Xiaolian grabbed his shoulder. “You cannot just keep your mouth shut! You should at least reply me with something!”

The old man then turned his head back and looked at Chen Xiaolian. “You want to know?”

“I want to know!”

“It is not possible to tell you much about it because I too do not know much about it.”

“Then just tell me how much you know!”

The old man stood still.

He stared right into Chen Xiaolian’s eyes and said, “Fine. Next, I will start talking about some matters. Some would be comprehensible, some will require your effort in understanding it. Due to the rules of the system, I cannot say too much. If I do, it would be stopped by the system directive. Thus, even though you heard it, you would end up not remembering it… … it involves issues related to the Upper Plane.”

“Talk then.”

The old man took a deep breath. “Firstly, this program is not unchanging. It has undergone at least one or more updates. Or should I say, upgrades?

“In the very beginning, there were no ‘Awakened ones’ in this program. The reason the Development Team created this world was to give the Players a game world. You could say that the earliest version of this game program only caters to Players.”

Chen Xiaolian nodded. “I understand. Back then, when I participated in the punishment instance dungeon, I had already found out about this. The game has undergone upgrades and updates before. In the earliest version, there was only Player mode. Later on, Awakened ones appeared, causing the implementation of an upgrade, bringing about an Awakened mode. Those two modes were put together and made compatible.”

“Very good, you have understood the first one. Now, we will be delving into a few questions. I will only be talking about it. You will need to find the answers yourself.”

“… … …” Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath and cast a scrutinizing look at the old man before saying, “Go on.”

“The first question: If, in the beginning, there was only a Player mode, one where Awakened ones do not exist, how could Awakened ones emerge later on?

“Was the emergence of Awakened ones a development inherent to the game world? Or were they actually created by the Development Team for a certain purpose?

“After the emergence of Awakened ones, the game program was upgraded to host the Awakened mode, allowing Awakened ones to participate in battles and even fight against Players… … the new versions and etc…

“The upgrades, the updates… there are two possibilities. Have you ever thought about it?

“The first possibility. The emergence of Awakened ones was something that the Development Team deliberately put into motion. The new versions, upgrades and updates were also deliberately put in by the Development Team.

“The second possibility. The emergence of Awakened ones was a development inherent to the program and not something the Development Team wanted. However, the Development Team had no choice. In order to maintain the continued operations of the program, they had no choice but to create instance dungeons with Awakened mode.

“Guess which of these two possibilities is the truth?”

Chen Xiaolian was dumbfounded.

He subconsciously blurted out. “Which one?”

“I do not know.” The old man simply shook his head. “I cannot find the source of this issue in my databanks. I simply do not have the authority to access those information.”

Chen Xiaolian’s eyes suddenly lit up. “When did the first Awakened emerge?”

“I do not know.”

“Then, who is the first Awakened?”

“I do not know that either.”

Chen Xiaolian fell into a state of silence.

After the pause, he suddenly raised his head to look at GM. “Fine, let me ask you another question… … let us not bother with who the first Awakened is. According to the information that you have access to, among those who are still alive, which Awakened is the oldest?”

The oldest surviving Awakened.

This question…

The old man looked at Chen Xiaolian. “You want to personally investigate this matter?”

“Since there is no way to find out who the earliest Awakened one is, might as well start by checking the oldest surviving Awakened.”

“That is a stupid idea.”

“I know. Assuming the earliest Awakened is no. 1 and the oldest surviving Awakened is no. 10,000, even if I do find him, I might not be able to find out who the no. 1 is. However, I can at least ask who no. 9,999 is. Next, keep going forward with this method. Even if I don’t find the first one, I will still be able to gain some valuable information.”

“That is why I said that is a stupid idea.” The old man shook his head.

“After their deaths, Awakened ones can be refreshed into ordinary humans… … this is the Awakened mode,” Chen Xiaolian said quickly. “This mode is something the Development Team added into the program after the emergence of Awakened ones. So, I need to find out what the situation was during the creation of the Awakened mode!

“If Awakened ones can be resurrected, why can’t Irregularities?”

“Let me give you a suggestion.” The old man pondered a moment and said, “If you want to look through history, looking for the oldest surviving Awakened is likely pointless. You might as well go to… … Zero City.”

“Zero City?”

“Zero City’s main control system must surely have a great deal of information on the founders of Zero City stored up in it. Perhaps, by going there, you would be able to find the true history… however, I cannot enter Zero City.”

Chen Xiaolian’s eyes lit up. “This is your real objective! Using this opportunity, you want to get me to enter Zero City to find out the information about this matter?”

The old man suddenly turned around and walked into the crowd.

This time, Chen Xiaolian did not give chase. He noticed that the old man’s expression had changed – GM had left.

Chen Xiaolian stood at the end of the street and pondered silently. Suddenly, his mobile phone rang.

He glanced at the unfamiliar number on his phone.

“Hello?”

“Chen Xiaolian?” a familiar voice called out.

Chen Xiaolian hesitated a moment before responding, “Mr Bluesea?”

“It is me. I think there is a need for us to talk. There is an issue that I need to discuss with you.”

Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath. “What a coincidence, I also need to meet you for something. Please arrange for your men to pick me up. I will meet you in Zero City.”

…