[WORLD-SHATTERING DISCOVERY]
"A truth buried by eons, a history rewritten by victors. You have pierced the veil of forgotten ages and grasped a fragment of the world’s lost genesis."
▸ Hidden Milestone Achieved: [Uncover a top-tier World Secret]
▸ Designation Added: [Seeker of Lost Truths]
- [The Fifteenth Thread]
- 100 Scenario Points
- 10,000,000 Aura Coins
- [Fragment of the Sunken Abyss Map (1/3)] – "A chart of impossible geography, showing currents that defy reason and depths that swallow light. This fragment points to the location of the Trench of Forgotten Songs, a graveyard of lost civilizations and dormant horrors within the ocean’s deepest abyss."
[Title: History Breaker] – "You see the cracks in the world’s story. Your actions have a greatly increased chance of altering fixed events, unraveling destinies, and discovering truths that should have remained hidden."
"With understanding comes burden. This knowledge makes you a threat to those who built their power upon these lies. Tread carefully."
...A top-tier world secret, huh?
Is it talking about the truth of the convergence era? Yeah, probably. After all, Virion himself confirmed Ossian’s words about history being a lie and some(big) part of the fault lying in ourselves.
My eyes scanned down to the rewards, my brows furrowing almost immediately.
"...The Fifteenth Thread?" I muttered aloud, a wave of confusion hitting me.
Aren’t we jumping forward a bit too much? Where are the initial twelve threads? Shouldn’t it have been the third thread after the 1st and 2nd?
I thought it over, the system’s cryptic nature gnawing at me. However, as I continued to think, a cold and unsettling guess began to form in my mind.
The first two Threads had been brutal, vivid simulations of my own death. One in a forgotten tomb, the other in a storm of corruption, by my... father’s very hands.
They were horrifying lessons I never wanted to relive.
If the first was Thread One and the second was Thread Two... then suddenly jumping to the Fifteenth could only mean one thing.
...The 12 in between weren’t much different from the first two Threads. Or more like, I kept dying in a similar or the same manner as them. Or they weren’t as important as them.
"Yeah..." I sighed. That could be possible. And it makes a twisted kind of sense, too. And it seems like... I had another horrific death-vision to look forward to.
"...Heh." I chuckled dryly, already dreading the headache and the surreal experience that always accompanied a new Thread.
Taking a deep breath, I moved on and skipped past the Scenario Points, the title, and the absurdly large sum of Aura Coins—a part of my mind was already calculating how rich I was now—and my gaze landed on the next reward.
[Fragment of the Sunken Abyss Map (1/3)]
Another Forbidden Zone? And this one... deep in the ocean?
My mind raced, pulling up everything I’d ever read about the world’s known deadly places. The Shattered Peaks, the Ashen Wastes, the Forest of Death... there was one in the ocean, the Maelstrom of Tears, but it was said to be partially conquered by the Nereid Kingdom. The names didn’t match at all.
Trench of Forgotten Songs?
I’d never heard of it.
Hm....! ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ NoveI(F)ire.net
I paused, my eyes widened as the logic settled in.
If you thought about it, it kind of made perfect sense. Land could be explored and mapped a lot more easily. But the deep ocean? The crushing pressures, the eternal darkness, the things that could evolve down there unseen for millennia... It was the perfect place for secrets to stay buried, for dimensional scars to remain hidden from the world above.
Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were dozens
A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold ran down my spine. The Abyss wasn’t just a metaphorical concept; it seemed it could be a very real, very deep, and very wet place too.
’I think I found a perfect topic to discuss with Master in our next meeting,’ I mused, already anticipating Virion’s mix of cryptic hints and exasperated sighs.
And speaking of the ocean, my thoughts drifted to that other deep-sea mystery I had acquired: the cautious little guy currently taking up space in my inventory. The expensive, enigmatic egg I’d won at the auction.
Is it even gonna hatch?
It had been... quiet ever since that incident. After the initial drama of naming Seren and that bizarre, world-shaking phenomenon that followed, we’d both heard it. A tiny, high-pitched, yet somehow utterly arrogant voice echoing in our minds.
It had spoken those words and then immediately fallen back into a deep ’sleep’. But according to Seren, who seemed to have a better sense of these things, it was awake and active inside its shell, just ignoring us.
Although I had half a mind to smack it open right then and there, I remembered the astronomical price I’d paid and reluctantly spared its life. I’d even tried a little acting, pretending I was going to ’smash’ it or abandon it, but the little guy hadn’t fallen for that either. It was really stubborn, I’d give it that.
...Hmmm. Let’s keep being patient.
I sighed, letting go of the frustration. Some things couldn’t be rushed. I had to believe my investment would pay off, that it would surely come to life someday. Until then, it was just another piece of potential waiting in the wings.
I think I finished the inspection.
Then, it was time to jump into practice - learn the Mind’s Thread. And if I could somehow use it with Veil of the Nameless’s voice-changing effect in tandem, I could act like a true mental communicator, throwing my voice directly into someone’s head without moving my lips. I could even mimic other people’s mental voices, creating confusion or sending false orders. The possibilities for mischief and survival were endless.
A slow grin spread across my face. Yeah, that sounded a lot more fun than brooding about ocean trenches and future deaths.