Chapter 370: Clue To the Eternal Archives

“It’s just a little over a day until the event is over. What should we do now?” Princess Leah asked in slight annoyance.

As a matter of fact, it was not just heralmost every first-rate Player who managed to get inside Steel Earth were left in a troubling limbo.

Indeed, they were stuck.

After Edward’s party had destroyed Iron Commandment, the Boss of the fourth stratum, the teapot automatons reverted to neutral units (with Xi Wei taking control of the stratum). In fact, when Players entered selected buildings, they would stick to offering their services, making the fourth stratum a place to rest for the Players as well.

But that was also the reason why the Players lost the clue to proceed into the fifth stratum.

At first, there were Players who had suggested that the clue must be hidden somewhere in the city and therefore strolled randomly around, but even they were becoming desperate now that things had come to this.

In the cross-shaped building at the center of the fourth stratum, Edward’s party was trading looks with other top Players inside the room of heavy-metal fairytales.

They intended to discuss any clues or information about Eternal Archives—the fifth archive.

However, with everyone present appearing to have no intention of speaking out, it seemed that none of them knows what to do now.

“We shouldn’t have destroyed Iron Commandment just like that back then…” Edward couldn’t help sighing feebly, feeling somewhat regretful.

Still, there was a chance that Iron Commandment knew nothing about the Eternal Archives, not to mention that it clearly caught some serious bug to the point that it could not communicate. But as usual with people and their mindset that prefers all sorts of flukes, they would only ever prefer the road not taken, hence believing that ‘it would have been so much better if I did that instead of what I did.’

“It’s useless to say that now, and everyone had agreed to destroy Iron Commandment anyway.” Princess Leah promptly stood out to smooth things out as the air in the room became depressing. “Instead of regretting, let’s try our best to think whether we’ve missed some tiny detail all the way from the Faint Crystal Stratum to this place.” While the Players did not assert equality, the System basically kept everyone in the same status but with few exceptions.

Princess Leah was one such Player, and while she did not usually show it, her rank was more or less quite high amongst the Players, which was why she was the best person to smooth things over.

“You’re right.” Edward slapped himself firmly to muster his spirit. “The God of Games wouldn’t put up an unsolvable puzzle —the answer must be hidden in front of us!”

Even as he spoke, everyone turned to stare at the lake that depicted all of Steel Earth and racked their brains.

Xi Wei, who saw that sight with Divine Eye was left between laughter and tears.

If he really did have any clues about Eternal Archives, he would have been fine telling the Players about it directly since they were his believers and his employees in the first place.

The problem was that Xi Wei himself didn’t know a thing about the Eternal Archives.

Yes, even though he had assumed control over the fourth stratum of the Elven Synchronized Intellect Nation (SIN) and analyzed most of the weapon, he still had not the faintest idea about the Eternal Archives.

In fact, the Eternal Archives was only mentioned once in the records of the Fourth Stratum control terminal, and there were no useful clues.

At the same time, Xi Wei was certain that the Eternal Archives existed.

As mentioned before, after having learned about the previous strata of Faint Crystal, Deep Wall, Dark Sky and Steel Earth, Edward found that a small part, or indeed the most vital part of SIN technology was hidden even after he had studied most of SIN itself. Therefore, that part of the information must have been recorded in the Eternal Archives.

Moreover, after taking control of the Fourth Stratum, Xi Wei sensed that there was something irregular about the Elven SIN. While SIN itself was like an exquisitely made machine, it appeared unable to work normally as if it was missing a few gears and bearings.

But no matter how Xi Wei scrounged around, he couldn’t find the missing parts.

And now, Xi Wei could only pin his hopes on the Players, wishing that they could find a flaw in the high elves’ designs to uncover the Eternal Archives.

As such, he would be fine spending some divine power to help them in the ensuing effort.

“Hmmm?”

And yet, while Xi Wei kept most of his attention on the Players in Steel Earth, the small portion of his attention that he diverted elsewhere caught on to something unusual. “Was that an earthquake? No… that’s…”

16

Quickly turning away and assigning a third-rate Player in the vicinity of the phenomenon, Xi Wei’s sight found the epicenter along with the Players’ movement.

It was a steel giant of enormous proportions!

When it came to size, the tortoise colossus that carried a small mountain was already massive enough. This giant, however, was three times taller than the tortoise colossus when it stood up straight!

Additionally, it was holding what appeared to be a greatsword—but from the looks of the magical inscription and runes over it, it was obvious that it was a frightening gigantic magitek weapon.

“Tch. That thing moves very quickly… it would reach Crookes within four hours at most if it continued on like this.” Xi Wei’s ball wrinkled, feeling that this year had really been inauspicious.

If they can’t activate the Elven SIN—that was, the tortoise colossus itself, the giant might directly cut off the tortoise’s head!

Should he evacuate all the Players away from the Elven Sin and assign them a new quest against the new foe?Xi Wei was left in a dilemma right then.

Even so, that was when Edward, who had kept his eyes glued to the lake reflection looked up, and his face suddenly erupted in delight.

“I’ve got it! The sun! It’s the sun!” He exclaimed excitedly. “This stratum is clearly Steel Earth, and yet there is a sun up in the sky! There is definitely something weird about it!”

“The sun…” The other players stirred, with all of them looking up to the sky as well.

At the same time, Edward, who had thought of it first had already summoned his black fire dragon and streaked into the air…

“Sun? What sun?” In his divine kingdom, Xi Wei did a double take. He adjusted the angles of his God Eye several times, but he couldn’t find the sun that the Players were talking about.

Soon, he understood.

Could the high elves had deliberately developed some bounded field or magitek coating, just to stop the gods from peeking into the core of their weapon?!