The Creators: From Night City

Page 388

It was as if someone had carefully placed this 'introductory book' into the hands of the most suitable person at the most opportune time, using a 'key'.

In comparison, the 'information' recorded in the World Stone was far too profound for him to comprehend, much like a third-grade elementary school student opening a textbook of advanced mathematics and being completely unable to understand a single detail.

The path to advancement for a [Forger] is very simple: the continued accumulation of concepts related to their own domain and the acquisition of information related to the world (knowledge of all things). Runes are obviously the most essential part of this, which can greatly accelerate their advancement.

The former enriches his existence and constitutes his strength, while the latter elevates his 'status'.

The latter needs the former as a foundation for support, while the former needs the latter to break through the barriers; the two complement each other.

Therefore, whenever Jiang Bing had free time, he would return to his workshop to study the runes.

Today, he can proudly declare: "I have mastered the runes."

Of course, these are just the 33 Dark World runes that have been discovered and fixed by predecessors.

The path of runes is endless, as are the number of runes and runewords, and the forms that runes can take are also endless.

The rune path in the dark world is just one branch of it.

Chapter 796 'Dictionary'

With his superior "vision", in addition to the 33 runes, Jiang Bing deduced dozens more runes from the World Stone, successfully extending the numbering of the known runes to 54.

This thing is somewhat similar to the periodic table of elements. The further down the list you go, the more difficult it becomes, the rarer it becomes, and the harder it is for it to survive.

Take the 55th rune that caused Jiang Bing's defeat, for example. He still cannot determine the domain it belongs to or what it represents, only that it is related to the concept of 'dream'.

Although he possesses an extraordinary status and a broad 'vision,' he is still far inferior to ordinary people compared to great beings like 'Anu,' the Azure Vision, and the Cartographer Acacia.

Therefore, if he wants to continue exploring the path of runes, he must find a way to broaden his 'vision'.

Or perhaps you can spend real money.

The Creator's database contains a vast amount of information about the path of runic creation, as numerous as hairs on a cow, as boundless as the ocean, and as numerous as toothpicks.

However, the prices of these beginner-level books, such as "The Way of Creation of Runes," "The Path of Runes: Three Thousand Years of Learning, Five Thousand Years of Simulation," "Creation Runes: From Beginner to Grave," and "World Building: From Beginner to Giving Up (Revised Edition)," were so expensive that Jiang Bing didn't even dare to look at them. He suspected that other "Forgers" at this stage must be eating stars like apples every day, otherwise how could they reach such a level of consumption?

Not to mention advanced knowledge like "404: How to Write a Non-Existent World", "108 Bugs in World Code: A Rune Debugging Manual", and "The Typewriter's Guide to Becoming a Spirit", he didn't even have the courage to look at the prices.

Other paths to creation are equally valuable. Jiang Bing glanced at several, such as musical creation, geometric creation, mental imagery creation, source material refining, meme narration, life evolution, spirit soul assembly, causal web weaving, and abyss programming. No matter how impressive they sounded or how complicated they were to use, none of them were prices that Jiang Bing could calmly review.

Jiang, who was promoted to official status in less than a year, was only concerned with lamenting his poverty and did not consider the possibility that the promotion cycle of other initial 'followers of the Creator' was calculated in epochs.

This group is truly a case of people with connections who have no self-awareness whatsoever.

He had no choice but to channel his grief and anger into motivation, and he struck the longsword in front of him even harder.

Since Jiang Bing was promoted to [Forger], his previous equipment has been discarded. The battle scenarios he is facing now are beyond the capabilities of ordinary weapons and armor.

To put it bluntly, anyone who can keep up with his fighting pace would have to be at least at the 'God's Armament' level.

Fortunately, he was a 'craftsman', so as long as he had the raw materials, he was not worried about not having the right tools.

Heavenly thunder ignites earthly fire, and from illusion and reality, golden lotuses bloom.

Each of Jiang Bing's hammer blows would trigger a series of images that could be described as miraculous.

After all, it was He who took action, forging a crystal of primordial energy and melting a simplified version of the primordial code.

The rune unexpectedly resonated with the Worldstone, which served as its vessel.

However, this did not surprise Jiang Bing, since the two were essentially from the same source.

Jiang Bing forged this weapon with the intention of slaying gods and demons from the very beginning. The overall design concept at the time was not fancy or ingenious, but only two words were consistent throughout.

Stack up materials!

This longsword, hastily forged during his exchange with Imperius, has undergone multiple optimizations, and its power has now reached a new level.

The blade of the World Stone is the best energy carrier, and the runes that Jiang Bing later engraved on the blade greatly enhanced its power.

As for how powerful it is, one can get a glimpse from the name of this weapon.

"dictionary"

This is the name of this sword.

The sword on the forging table had 49 runes hammered into it by Jiang Bingsheng. Although it didn't form a rune word, the final forging result would definitely be more terrifying than a rune word formed by 49 runes. The 'craftsman' guaranteed it with his skills.

After all, Jiang Bing's plan was to inscribe all the runes he had comprehended onto the sword, achieving the state of 'the sword is the world'.

Although this idea is still in the early stages, the power of 49 stacked runes alone is enough to reach an insane level.

As for how powerful it is, let's just say that if Imperius's appendix is ​​cut off by this sword again, his belly will never grow back properly, and he'll leak half a bowl of noodles every time he eats them.

Diablo, even if he were stabbed twice, would have to buy a standing ticket and flee back to hell overnight. Baal, on the other hand, would rather jump off Mount Arreat than have this weapon stab him in the waist.

There's no other reason than it hurts too much.

After all, compared to the physical injuries, the disruption and annihilation of the primordial information caused by the 49 world runes is the real 'fatal wound'.

To put it simply, if an entity that is not of sufficient rank is cut down by this thing, it will not only die, but it is also very likely to be completely wiped out on the spot, to the point that the concept of death no longer exists. The information collection of its own existence will be disturbed into a mess, and it can no longer form the concept of the original individual.

The essence of this thing is a 'circuit board' engraved with various fundamental rules of the world, a wonderful tool unique to the 'Creator' faction.

In a way, calling it a higher-dimensional "Tetanus Blade" wouldn't be a problem.

Of course, it's not powerful enough right now, but as Jiang Bing continues to deduce the runes and inscribe them on the sword, one day it will be able to make anyone who gets cut pregnant and anyone who gets stabbed disappear from the bank.

Jiang Bing swung the hammer for a while, hammering the 50th rune into the back of the sword before ending his daily pastime. He then notified Heiml to lift the protection and left the workshop.

'Land' immediately sent a packed work schedule.

As the saying goes, conquering the world is easy, but governing it is difficult.

After Arasaka withdrew from Night City, all of his assets, including but not limited to Arasaka Tower, Arasaka Beach, and Azure Mansion, were smoothly taken over by [Anti-Entropy] with the help of Arasaka Michiko, and a structural power vacuum appeared in the entire city within a few days.

Meanwhile, [Anti-Entropy] needs to extend its influence into all aspects of Night City, including politics, finance, people's livelihood, infrastructure, gangs, the sex industry, and the media industry, in a short period of time.

During this period, various companies took advantage of the gap between the fall of the old king and the ascension of the new king to make their move on Night City. These small actions are also key issues that [Anti-Entropy] needs to eliminate.

Fortunately, although these underhanded tactics are disgusting, they cannot affect the overall strategy of [Anti-Entropy] in managing Night City. With the assistance of the Night Group and the North American doves of Arasaka, the overall power transition has been relatively smooth.

Grand Steward Gloria has been riding high lately, but her excitement isn't due to the increased power of [Anti-Entropy] after unifying Night City, but rather because the successful construction of the "Domain" AI has greatly relieved her work pressure and freed up a lot of her time.

She finally has time to sit down and enjoy a cup of afternoon tea, relax, or do some leisurely activities that put her in the spotlight and make a name for herself in front of others.

For example, he personally hosted a banquet to entertain the head of the Meta Group, who was introduced by Rogge, in a high-class business dinner.

Chapter 797 Regretful Past Actions - Jack Weir

Taiping Prefecture, the renovated Grand Empire Department Store, [Anti-Entropy]'s first large-scale shopping mall complex in Night City.

3rd floor, banquet hall.

Although the Meta Group is one of the seven major clans of the Wanderers, it is by no means a country bumpkin compared to the other six clans.

Having already undergone capitalization early on, they were essentially no different from a large corporation. As a direct descendant of the family and a senior executive of the group, Emily Mehta was, in theory, a well-traveled and experienced person.

But she had never seen natural organic strawberries the size of a baby's fist, or cherries of similar size.

These crops, grown in the newly established geothermal energy greenhouses of [Reverse Entropy], are absolute luxuries in a time when even a jar of wild honey can fetch 50 euros.

Not to mention the other dishes on the table.

Just looking at this table of food, Emily Mehta was even more excited about the upcoming collaboration.

"The Meta clan owns its own ports and has an absolute leading advantage in maritime and stratospheric transportation."

Emily Mehta put down her glass of orange juice and explained her team's competitive advantages to the head of the Gloria administration.

"If I remember correctly, KLORS is the global leader in the logistics industry."

“But they are too greedy,” Emily Mehta argued.

"Klau Logistics is a typical example of European family and bank-type capital. They value not only short-term profits, but also the ecological dominance of other industries brought about by monopolizing transportation."

Emily Meta said sincerely, “Meta Corporation is different. We want to befriend Anti-Entropy, and the model of cooperation between Adcardo’s people and you is our goal.”

Gloria fell silent, her eyes rapidly scanning the reference materials provided by the 'domain'.

Although the Meta clan is considered the most successful clan among the wanderers, it doesn't even rank in the middle among the major corporations.

In the field of space transport, the European Space Agency is far ahead, while ocean shipping is the domain of International Electronics' deep-sea submarine transport fleet. Stratospheric transport and air transport are flourishing and highly competitive.

The Meta clan's market share was merely enough to make a living.

Besides logistics, their supporting industries include powered armor research and development, mineral trading, finance, and, ironically, labor dispatch.

Despite having many businesses, they can only support the entire clan. In this highly competitive and globalized environment, their current revenue capacity is still insufficient for expansion.

They lack their own core competitiveness.

"Excuse my bluntness," Gloria said, browsing through the negotiation points analyzed by the 'domain,' ignoring the rules and regulations and skipping the useless preamble, choosing to get straight to the heart of the matter.

"Meta Group's biggest advantage over [Anti-Entropy] is its proximity."

"Compared to other logistics companies, Meta Port is the only port that can be reached directly from the Badlands by land."

Emily Metar's eyes lit up.

“Cooperation is fine, but we do need new channels to ship our products around the world.” Gloria had no intention of engaging in any insincere pleasantries or testing the waters. After all, her time was extremely precious, and wouldn't it be better to go back and get some beauty sleep after the negotiations?

"But Meta Group must send more people to ensure the safety of transportation on this section of the road in Arizona."

“No problem,” Emily Mehta agreed without hesitation.

"However, clearing customs by land is a big problem. As far as I know, the border checkpoints in Night City have restrictions on bulk goods leaving the country by land."

“Besides, I think you want us to transport more than just some organic food.” Emily Meta had done her homework before coming and had thoroughly studied the details of Anti-Entropy’s flagship products.

"The Night City Trade Act 71 stipulates that endangered animal products, organic furs, and heavy weaponry that do not comply with international environmental protection regulations will be subject to temporary controls. Small-scale shipments can be smuggled through channels, but large-scale shipments...?"

Gloria put down her knife and fork, raising an eyebrow in response to the other party's probing.

“Ms. Emily, I don’t know if you have heard the news, but our beloved Mr. Jefferson Peralres has suddenly fallen ill and will no longer be able to serve as mayor of Night City. Night City will have to restart the process of electing a new mayor.”

"I really didn't know that, Ms. Gloria. When did this happen?"

A change in the position of mayor of a city is definitely big news, but Emily Meta was quite curious that she was unaware of this information.

"tomorrow"

Emily Mehta's heart skipped a beat; she nearly cut her finger with the knife in her hand.

The other party's words revealed to her that [Anti-Entropy]'s control over Night City was so absolute that it could be described as all-powerful.

She was as shocked as if a typhoon had passed through her heart, but she still maintained an impeccable business smile on her face and said, "Then it seems there are no obstacles to our cooperation."

The Meta clan is indeed the best partner for Anti-Entropy to extend its influence across the world under the current circumstances; otherwise, Gloria would not have organized this banquet at all.

As Emily Meta said, most logistics companies are backed by major capital forces, such as the European Union, the Russian Federation, or the emerging technology giants in Africa that have risen in the last 40 years, or even religious ideological aggregates. Compared with them, the Meta clan is indeed the cleanest one.

Of course, the other party is more suitable for cooperation because their overall strength is very weak. Weakness is sometimes a sin, but sometimes it can become an advantage.

For example, it may be easier to control, or it may be easier to be acquired.

Unaware that she had been targeted, Emily Mehta excitedly raised her glass to Gloria, inviting her to celebrate the initial cooperation agreement reached between the two parties.

Truly high-end business is actually simpler to do. Once the higher-ups confirm the intention to cooperate, the subsequent tedious and detailed paperwork will naturally be handled by subordinates.

Gloria smiled and raised her glass in response.

"cheers!"

At the same time, in the same place, on different floors.

On the second floor of the Grand Empire Department Store, in a private room of the "People's Canteen"—a place clearly named by Jiang Bing in a fit of wicked humor—several glasses were clinking together.

"Cheers!" Panan and Judy shouted the loudest and were the happiest.

Of course, judging from past events, the most energetic one would be Jack, who always had a radiant smile. He was undoubtedly the 'atmosphere engine' at every party.

“Hey, Mr. Jack, what’s wrong with you today? You’re all grumpy and sullen. This isn’t like you at all,” Vincent teased his friend.

"Didn't Misty already accept your proposal? What, has she changed her mind?"

Misty, sitting next to Jack, simply smiled and offered no explanation.

Today's gathering can be considered a 'family dinner'.

Vincent brought his girlfriend Parnan, Jack brought his fiancée Misty, and Valerie chose to bring Judy.

The two of them have been getting along very well lately, and Judy is an acquaintance of the others, making her the most suitable among Valerie's several "lovers".