Sorcerer’s Handbook

In the Deep Sea Dragon Palace, the invincible Extreme Cutting Carp Overlord Lord let out its final roar. Seven fissures began to form on the ground, each one on the verge of breaking open. If these fissures weren’t sealed, the water from outside would flood in, drowning the eight sorcerers fighting valiantly!

Thus, players had to sacrifice their lives to seal the fissures. But if all seven fissures were sealed without killing the Extreme Cutting Carp, it would still unleash its Miraculous Fury, overturning the Dragon Palace and resulting in a total party wipe!

Carp Sacrifice—this is the Epic’s berserk check mechanism present in every Ultimate Mode and Phantom Mode instance. It’s the ultimate test for player groups! If they fail, all their efforts would be in vain!

Ashe never expected that the random team he joined would reach the berserk phase so smoothly, with near-flawless performance from everyone. It was so seamless it was almost touching!

As the healing sorcerer with the lowest damage output, Ashe naturally had to be the first sacrificial offering. When his character was fixed at the fissure, bearing the pressure of ten thousand tons of water, his instance mission was complete. The remaining task of dealing damage was left to his teammates.

With the Extreme Cutting Carp’s health down to 12%, as long as Ashe didn’t leave the instance prematurely, which would trigger a berserk wipe, they were guaranteed to clear it.

“Finally, we’ve cleared this instance… With this achievement, I can challenge a Phantom Mode next…”

As Ashe was contemplating which Phantom Mode to tackle next, he suddenly felt his heart skip a violent beat.

Thump!

The heavy pulse echoed through his skull, reverberating in his brain. The peak of his heartbeat erupted, shattering his consciousness into fragments, slowly coalescing into a piercing ring in his ears.

The game pod detected Ashe’s abnormal condition and ejected him immediately. However, the light and air outside couldn’t soothe his convulsing nerves. Ashe felt as if his spine had been ripped out, his life, vitality, and will drained away, leaving behind an empty, agonized shell.

Thump!

Thump!

The heart loyally pumped vitality into his veins, attempting to reboot the poisoned central system. The right hemisphere of his brain joyfully deciphered the chaotic notes emitted by the low-energy performer, while the left hemisphere mobilized its entire gray matter to suppress the insurgent neural information flow. The frontal and temporal lobes cheered on as a supportive audience, all working to force his consciousness back into his shell—

Sigh.

With a long exhalation of turbid air, Ashe’s metaphysical self forcefully took command of all his underlying organs. The neurons that had been going berserk trembled in fear, the loosened screws tightened once more, and his body stabilized and rebooted.

Ashe sat upright, glancing at the game pod’s screen.

“Well, leaving the instance early and causing a berserk wipe… I’m definitely going to get flamed on the forums by my teammates,” he calmly narrated what was going to happen next, as if it were someone else’s experience.

It was Ashe’s first time entering “A Flash of Insight” in reality.

In the Virtual Realm, he would enter “A Flash of Insight” state whenever he faced a major crisis. For instance, during the car chase with Commander Demilo, he was in “A Flash of Insight” almost the entire time. Every action was as precise as a scalpel, allowing him to narrowly defeat Demilo.

In this state, Ashe seemed to pull his ‘self’ consciousness out of his body, observing everything from a third-person perspective with calm detachment.

And because ‘I’ and ‘myself’ were untethered, ‘I’ could completely disregard ‘myself’s’ pain, anger, sadness, joy, fear, and other physiological reactions and psychological emotions. It was like playing chess, making ‘myself’ a piece to be used to its fullest potential.

In fact, this state matched well with his operator codename. From now on, he would call this state “Observer Mode.”

Honestly, Observer Mode was quite good, and Ashe wished he could maintain it all the time. If he could voluntarily enter Observer Mode during instances, he could handle mechanics with zero mistakes even without a wheelchair. Forget Phantom Mode, even Ultimate Mode would be a breeze.

Unfortunately, he could only enter Observer Mode passively during critical and dangerous moments, and its duration was uncontrollable.

Once Ashe was out of danger, the ‘Observer thread’ in his mind would relax, and his overclocked brain would quickly downshift into power-saving mode—

Just like now.

“Ugh!”

Ashe groaned. The moment he exited Observer Mode, a strong sense of emptiness pressed down on him like a lead weight, making it hard to breathe. He felt as if he were submerged in the depths of the ocean, each cell and organ being crushed by the pressure of ten thousand tons of water, making him wish he could just pass out.

Struggling out of the gaming pod, Ashe could barely maintain his cerebellar balance. The world around him seemed like a still-wet oil painting, with every color leaving a heavy trail. The disruption in his visual cortex pushed his stomach pressure past the threshold, causing him to vomit his entire dinner.

The stomach acid burned his throat, but it also slightly stimulated his willpower. Ashe took a few deep breaths, finally rebooting his operating system, reconnecting all peripherals, and barely restoring basic motor functions. However, the virus still severely slowed his processing speed, making Ashe doubt his efficiency was better than that of 1% of his peers in the Gospel.

There weren’t many people on the gaming floor; most were in their gaming pods. The night sky outside the window was clear, and tonight’s Vamora was peaceful. Ashe looked around but couldn’t find any suspicious individuals who might have cursed him.

He struggled to the front desk to seek help, only to find the receptionist slumped in her chair.

Her eyes were vacant, her face expressionless. The lips that once greeted Ashe warmly were now a cyanotic blue. If it weren’t for her occasionally fluttering eyelashes and the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, Ashe would have thought she had become one of Harvey’s clients.

“Miss Petillo?” Ashe called out tentatively.

The receptionist seemed to try to focus her gaze on Ashe, but it appeared that just controlling her eyeballs exhausted her remaining energy. She couldn’t say a word, and her eyes were devoid of any light, like a broken doll.

This wasn’t the first time Ashe had seen someone in this state.

On their first day in Vamora, he had seen a whole carriage full of such broken people.

But the Senhaeser district was in the heart of Vamora, not the white mist-thinned outskirts—white mist?

Ashe quickly turned his head to look out the window, rubbing his eyes to make sure he really saw a clear night sky.

He ran over and opened the window, letting the refreshing night wind kiss his face.

The moon hung high, the Stars twinkled, and from his vantage point in the city on the second level of the Senhaeser district, Ashe could clearly overlook the myriad lights of Vamora.

The air was so clean it was almost sweet, and the visibility was so high that it made him want to take out an infrared lamp and aim at distant buildings.

“White mist,” he murmured, “is gone?”

“I never thought I’d be on a mission in Vamora, let alone see the white mist of Vamora disappear one day.”

A few hovercars flew past the chaotic intersection. Even with the assistance of an autonomous driving system, Vamora’s traffic had inevitably come to a standstill under the horrific impact of the entire city’s paralysis. The streets were filled with collapsed citizens, as if someone had pressed a mysterious button that put the whole city to sleep.

“But isn’t this a bit of an overkill?”

In one of the hovercars, a young man in a red hat chewing gum remarked, “Paralyzing all of Vamora just to catch a few people.”

“Shut up, Leite,” Cleos said, her eyes red and her nose sniffing. “We’ve got the advantage, so let’s not push our luck. Finish the task and leave, and give Vamora back to them.”

The two speakers were none other than two of the top ten Red Hat captains in the country, ‘Weeping Sand Red Cap’ Cleos and ‘Deadshot Red Hat’ Leite.

Leite was the Red Hat captain of Modora, and the two First-tier Cities adjacent to Azura were Modora and Vamora, which is why Leite was involved in this operation to capture Ashe.

Cleos had always wanted to claim the credit for capturing Ashe entirely for herself. She had repeatedly stated in internal communications that she would soon capture Ashe, so other Red Hat captains who were further away decided not to interfere. Only Leite, being the closest, insisted on coming to share some of the glory, leaving Cleos with no other choice.

Besides the two Red Hat teams, two firms were also accompanying them tonight.

Happy Family Firm needed no introduction; their ability to control smart home devices was useful anywhere. The other firm, however-

“No one has come out to intercept us so far. It seems Senhaeser really didn’t have any defenses,” Leite said, pulling up a Holographic Screen. “The final payment has been sent. It was a pleasure working with you.”

“Pleasure working with you too,” a voice replied from the screen. “‘Time Dissonance Firm’ is committed to providing the most comprehensive concealment services for our clients. We look forward to your next commission. Since the task is complete, our employees will now withdraw.”

Time Dissonance Firm, ranked first in Modora and tenth nationwide, was the key to the success of tonight’s operation.

At its core, their raid tonight was a well-executed conspiracy that caught Senhaeser completely off guard.

And the biggest fear of any conspiracy is being discovered in advance.

But in the Kingdom of Gospel, foreseeing a plot against oneself is quite simple.

For example, if the Senhaeser patriarch asked the Gospel Book each day, “Will there be a major threat to the family’s safety today?” tonight’s raid plan would have immediately fallen apart.

What Time Dissonance Firm provided was the service of concealing plots and deceiving the Gospel.

Although the Gospel Book faithfully records everything that has already happened, there is some room for manipulation regarding unimplemented schemes still in the mind. For instance, if their original plan was to launch the raid on the 19th, Time Dissonance Firm could make the Gospel Book believe the plan was set for the 22nd, thus preventing the Senhaeser patriarch from finding the correct answer in the Gospel Book.

This service comes at a great cost, of course. When the Gospel Book makes an error, it compensates tenfold or even a hundredfold in points, depending on the losses of the consulter. But the Gospel doesn’t take losses lightly; each mistake allows it to learn, making it exponentially harder to deceive next time.

Time Dissonance Firm, which used to be firmly in the top five several decades ago, has now fallen to the tenth spot, reflecting the rapid evolution of the Gospel.

However, until Time Dissonance Firm is completely eliminated, every service they provide means a group of people is about to face an unexpected blow.

“Confirm the mission target,” Cleos said into the radio. “Ashe Heath, whoever captures him, the credit will be split seventy-thirty. Seventy percent goes to me.”

“Next are Annan Dolan and Banjeet Dolan. Although they have no criminal records yet, they are close to Ashe, and they might present themselves as criminals during the upcoming Weaving Festival. Tomorrow is the day the second ranking list is released. We need to detain them for 48 hours under the pretext of assisting in the investigation. If anything happens, we can arrest them immediately.”

“This wasn’t the deal!” a voice from a nearby hovercar shouted. “Ashe goes to the Red Hats, Annan goes to the Firm!”

“After the second ranking list is out, if Nabistin doesn’t issue a bounty for Annan and Banjeet, I will release them. Then, your Firm can handle your own disputes.”

The affairs commissioner muttered something but ultimately lacked the courage to confront the Red Hats.

After Cleos turned off the radio, ‘Deadshot Red Hat’ Leite glanced at her. “Are you trying to protect the Purple Moth?”

“My target is Ashe Heath,” Cleos replied. “Not Annan.”

“But she can create chaos that could affect the Weaving Festival. What if—”

“Wouldn’t that be even better?” Cleos sniffed and laughed. “Capturing just one Ashe could make me the number one Red Hat. Unfortunately, I have to share the glory with you… But if another Ashe comes along, I’ll be the top Red Hat for the next fifty years!”

“The world is about to end, and you still care about rankings?”

Cleos hesitated and said, “But… I’m a Red Hat… Of course, I care about my ranking…”

Leite was silent for a moment, then waved his hand. “Forget what I just said… But keeping Annan safe won’t be easy.”

“Annan is still a law-abiding citizen. Who would dare harm her?”

“There’s someone in the car behind us,” Leite said calmly. “Don’t forget who dispelled the white mist that had Entangled Vamora for hundreds of years. The secret guard from Nabistin is a judicial disaster that even the Gospel Book cannot constrain.”

Through the rearview mirror, Cleos could see the armored guard sitting in the car behind them. Dressed in full Black Knight armor, not an inch of skin was exposed, and even the eyes were hidden behind a mask.

It sat in the backseat like an ancient tombstone.

Since gun sorcerers became the mainstream in combat, armor was relegated to the dustbin of history. Almost no sorcerers would wear such heavy armor unless they were stubborn adherents of ancient traditions.

And the secret guard, indeed, inherited centuries-old traditions. They were the most loyal shield and the sharpest blade of the Yisuo Royal Family. Since their appearance, they walked the Kingdom of Gospel as dark sentinels. No one knew who they were, and some even doubted if they were human—given that they neither ate, drank, excreted, nor entertained themselves. Many sorcerers believed that the secret guards were, in fact, animated suits of armor.

These walking armors represented the highest authority of the Yisuo Royal Family.

Not only did they represent this authority, but they could also directly mobilize royal resources to achieve any goal—such as dispersing Vamora’s white mist.

Neither the Firm nor the Red Hats had the ability to disperse the white mist.

A few days ago, Leite and Cleos were waiting outside Vamora, hoping Ashe and his group would leave voluntarily. It was then that the secret guard approached them, claiming it could disperse the mist and assist in capturing Ashe Heath.

Dispersing the mist covering an entire city without causing harm is no ordinary miracle; it could only be a Divine Intervention granted by the Gospel.

Indeed, after the Red Hats and the Firm were ready, the secret guard summoned the Gospel Book. After some operations, the white mist of Vamora disappeared.

Cleos couldn’t imagine how many Gospel points this Divine Intervention cost. Perhaps if she spent a century’s worth of savings, she might afford it, but she would never waste points so lavishly.

The points that a Sanctuary sorcerer might not earn in a lifetime were easily spent on what was essentially an environmental cleanup. Only the wealthy royal family could afford such extravagance.

Cleos initially thought the secret guard was representing the Yisuo Royal Family to capture Ashe and Annan. However, the secret guard shook its head, indicating it would not interfere in the capture.

It had another mission this time.

“To be honest, the secret guard really helped us,” Cleos said. “Dispersing the white mist not only paralyzed all of Vamora but also ensured that Senhaeser’s patriarch, who should still be in a Dream, couldn’t return without the mist as a medium. For at least an hour, we’ll only be facing a Senhaeser without a commander.”

“In return for the secret guard’s help, we’ll make as much noise as possible, drawing all of Vamora’s attention to us. This way…”

“The secret guard can more easily find its target,” Leite finished.

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