A few minutes later, when Jake finally left Cho Min Ho's hideout, his face still bore a strange expression. What the Korean idol had just told him threw a wrench in his plans, enough to require some serious adjustments.
"Damn... An Oracle Hacker... Who would've thought?" Jake muttered, his voice heavy with fatigue as he leaped into the air, fading into the night sky.
[Objectively, I had considered this possibility when reviewing the Mirror World Archives, but I dismissed it because it was statistically insignificant.] Xi suddenly confessed, her tone carrying a hint of guilt.
Jake nearly stopped mid-flight, stunned.
"What?! You knew?"
[Don't jump to conclusions. Let me explain.] Xi quickly defended herself. [If I didn't bring it up, it wasn't because I wanted to withhold information. Remember, I had already sent you data on the Oracle Hackers a long time ago. Otherwise, you wouldn't have known right away what it was. So, in that sense, you're as guilty as I am.]
"Fair point," Jake reluctantly agreed. He had, in fact, known about Oracle Hackers for a while. Most likely since his second Ordeal. He just didn't know the details because it didn't concern him, and his rank was too low to care. "Go on."
[The reason I didn't reconsider this possibility later on is because the chances of encountering Oracle Hackers are still extremely low. Even though our Oracle System is currently disrupted by this enemy and I no longer have access to the Archives, I had already downloaded all sorts of data about them in advance. At least, the ones you're allowed to access. And guess what? Practically nothing. There's almost no info on the extent of their abilities, other than the fact that they pose a serious threat to the Oracle System and must be neutralized at all costs. Even for the Oracle, it seems to be a pretty taboo subject. But it's not like there's no information at all.
[From what little I could dig up, the appearance of an Oracle Hacker in an Ordeal is so rare that there's less than one per billion Ordeals. The probability increases in higher Ordeals, but in a Fifth Ordeal, it's practically unheard of. How could I have guessed that one would show up in one of the two participating Mirror Universes, a corrupt one to boot and that the other Mirror Universe would match this threat with another corrupted Oracle Hacker? What's even more absurd is that ours succumbed to Corruption just days after the Ordeal began, prompting Lucia and the other corrupted Players from our side to eliminate him out of frustration, effectively giving the enemy Oracle Hacker free rein.]
Looking at it that way... Jake had no choice but to admit that Xi couldn't have rationally predicted such a situation. The hypothesis that the Digestors messing around in their Mirror Universe had damaged the Aether Network or caused issues for Aas made much more sense.
"Well, what's done is done," Jake finally dismissed his dark thoughts, accelerating again as his flight path curved straight towards the upper atmosphere.
"That was close..." He winced, then snapped his mouth shut in surprise as no sound came out. 'Right, I'm in space.'
That ascent had put his body through more than he initially predicted. The Soulmancer King had warned him it would be dangerous, but he hadn't realized just how much.
Inspecting the state of his body once he was out of danger, Jake was horrified to discover that his skin was covered in deep lacerations that weren't healing, while most of his muscles, bones, and organs suffered from various levels of damage. "Various" in his case meant a skeleton reduced to powder or a heart turned to pulp. If it were any other Player than him, such a critical condition would have been a death sentence, the disintegration of their body and soul the only outcome.
'Besides me, I wonder how many other Players in this Ordeal could've made it this far.' Jake pondered grimly, shivering, though it had nothing to do with the cold of space surrounding him.
[No matter, now that the hardest part is over, we just need to do what we came here for.] Xi reminded him gently. [Time is ticking...]
Jake immediately forgot about his non-healing injuries and finally became aware of his surroundings, his consciousness expanding limitlessly with a pulse of his Oracle Scan. Not from his bracelet, but from his own spiritual energy, amplified through his Artifact Incarnation Skill.
At that moment, he finally saw the entirety of Klayr's corpse and grasped the full scale of its immensity. Of course, it also gave him the chance to see just how desperate the situation was...
'Are all these Ancient Designer-level beings this colossal...?'
[Another mystery to solve, one we'll only uncover by becoming stronger.] Xi responded with the same awe, though her emotional fluctuations sounded strangely off compared to her words.
Apart from the area covered by the membrane, encircling a zone that included part of the skull and extending down to the heart of the deceased Klayr, the rest of the body was blackened, as if it had been dipped in a sea of ink. The Corrupted Players directly facing it knew just how screwed they were, but from space, it was even worse...
'Let's hurry and convince the Sun and Moon Spirits...' Jake said solemnly before soaring off in another direction, his open wounds leaving a trail of unstoppable blood in his wake.