Becoming a Shadow in the New World

"Enough with the small talk, just show me the spell formula I'm editing this time. Why are you making it so mysterious? You won't even agree to post it online."

He was interrupted before he could finish speaking. The orcs' naturally volatile temper made Christopher's face contort with rage, and his fists clenched instinctively. But having lived long enough, Christopher was able to control his temper, but that was about it.

No longer giving Aoba Asagi a friendly look, she pulled up a few pictures on her phone and showed them to her.

Upon seeing these pictures, Lan Yu Qiancong's expression changed, as if she had seen something extremely shocking and morally reprehensible.

"How...did you...do that?"

"Uh... what's wrong, Miss Spellcaster? Do you find it difficult to complete the spell?"

"Yes, it's very difficult."

"But the images we sent to Miss Weaver were deciphered by her very quickly, weren't they?"

"These two difficulties are at the same level!?"

Thinking back to the photo from last night, Asagi couldn't help but exclaim. That one was just password protected, but this one is a heavyweight computer with two operating systems running together. How could the difficulty be the same? What kind of stupid client is this?

"But... but I don't think that would be difficult to apply for a patent in Netheril and have them recommend it to our compilers, would it?"

After glancing at the orc who seemed to realize something and was sweating profusely, Lan Yu Qiancong nodded.

The tactic of using reverse psychology is old-fashioned, but it's very effective.

"I can do it, but what about the compensation?"

"What does Miss Weaver want?"

"A set of family chess pieces."

This is what Aiba Asagi wanted; she wouldn't have taken such a risk if it weren't for this.

"...No problem, it's a pleasure to work with you."

"Then let's sign a contract with the Netherworld's God of Magic and the Magic Network, or you can choose another god if you want. I'll decide whether to sign based on the situation."

"I don't believe in God!"

Lan Yuqian narrowed her eyes; she began to doubt the other party's sincerity.

"boom!"

A loud explosion came from a distance, attracting their attention.

Chapter 116 Sibling Relationship, Lord of Netheril Doesn't Handle Matters

Flames shot into the sky as a violent explosion occurred inside the escort vehicle that had just left. Intense flames erupted from the vehicle carrying the escort personnel, instantly engulfing the entire convoy.

Large plumes of white smoke rose from the vehicles engulfed in flames, and the deafening explosion seemed to make the ground tremble.

"call out!"

Upon hearing the sound of the explosion, Nangong Nayue reacted quickly, disregarding Claire with whom she had been chatting happily, and teleported to the location of the explosion.

Upon arriving at the scene, Nangong Nayue was stunned.

Contrary to her expectations of the escorts being seriously injured and dying, what unfolded before her eyes was a bluish-purple magic that broke through the sea of ​​fire, carving out a path from the outside of the fire to its center.

In the center of the sea of ​​fire, at the end of this road, stood a slightly thin figure wearing a black coat, his back to Nangong Nayue. He exuded a calm and composed aura that seemed out of place with the sea of ​​fire, creating a striking contrast with the dangerous environment and giving the scene a unique sense of grandeur.

But at this moment, Nangong Nayue was not in the mood to appreciate this scene with its special artistic conception; she turned her gaze to the back of the figure.

Several tentacles extended from behind the black figure, on which hung dozens of unconscious men, all of whom Nangong Nayue had thought would die in the explosion.

"Um?!"

As if sensing Nangong Nayue's presence, the man who had been standing quietly in place, seemingly deep in thought, turned around. His upper face was covered by a black mask, and only the lower half of his fair face could be seen.

"Shadow!? How did you get here? Did you cause this explosion?"

Upon recognizing the person before her, Nangong Nayue's nerves instantly tightened. Recalling the explosion just now, Nangong Nayue naturally assumed that the explosion was caused by An Ying.

"Release my men!"

That's what they say, but Nangong Nayue herself didn't have any hope that the Shadow would let go of the guards.

If the explosion was indeed the work of Shadow, then Shadow definitely had ill intentions, and holding hostages would be advantageous to Shadow.

To Nangong Nayue's surprise, upon hearing her request, Shadow merely glanced at her disdainfully before manipulating the tentacles behind him to fling the security team members towards Nangong Nayue. Shadow then turned his head back, extending his magic to examine the vehicle in front of him.

Nangong Nayue hurriedly used spatial magic to teleport the security personnel flying in mid-air away, and then focused her attention on the shadows again.

Now, Nangong Nayue has taken back her earlier thoughts. Judging from the way Shadow didn't seem to care about the security personnel, the explosion probably wasn't caused by Shadow.

On the contrary, it is very likely that Shadow saved her men when the explosion occurred. So where did the explosion come from?

Nangong Nayue wasn't stupid; she quickly discovered that the explosion's epicenter was the vehicle transporting the orcs, thus deducing that the orc had caused the explosion.

The shadowy figure appeared here because of that beastman—no, it must be the organization behind that beastman. What does he know?

"Da da da……"

The footsteps were exceptionally clear amidst the sea of ​​fire. Retracting his magic, Shadow turned and walked out along the path he had cleared with his magic.

"Lord Shadow, have you discovered anything? Could you please inform us?"

Seeing the black figure about to pass by her, Nangong Nayue no longer hesitated and took the initiative to ask.

It's obvious that Shadow knows more than she does now. Anyway, all the factions have lifted the warrants for Shadow's arrest, so asking Shadow about this is just like conducting a public survey, which isn't against the rules.

Unexpectedly, Nangong Nayue spoke up. Sid stopped in his tracks and subconsciously turned to look at Nangong Nayue, but instantly realized what was going on and revealed a smile that seemed to find it interesting.

What to do? In his plan, he would not say a word the whole time, and would only leave Nangong Nayue with a mysterious and unpredictable figure.

No, since we've already turned back, we have to say something. Let's use the original Diavolo Order setting.

"It's just a rat in the dark trying to crawl out of the sewer."

"I wonder what these so-called rats are..."

"You don't need to know."

With a mysterious smile, Sid continued walking.

"It's just a game I play to pass the time."

A dense, almost viscous magical energy suddenly rose from Sid's body, knocking away the silver sword that was being shot at him. The knocked-away silver sword fell into the ground.

"Shadow! What did you do to Sid?"

Claire pulled her sword from the ground and angrily pointed it at the shadowy figure standing there, surrounded by immense magical power that emitted gusts of wind pressure.

"Claire, calm down. Isn't there some misunderstanding here?"

Nazuki-chan, who was standing nearby, was terrified by Claire's actions and quickly stepped between the two to prevent a conflict from breaking out.

“There’s no misunderstanding, Shadow. What exactly did you do to Sid? Why did Sid faint as soon as you appeared and hasn’t woken up yet?”

Pushing Nangong Nayue aside, Claire continued questioning Shadow, her eyes revealing a hint of murderous intent as she spoke.

After the explosion, seeing that Nangong Nayue had teleported away, Claire originally planned to leave with Sid as soon as possible.

But when she turned around, she found that Sid, who had been standing to the side, had somehow fainted. She didn't think much of it at first, assuming that Sid was just frightened by the attack earlier.

It wasn't until she had tried everything, even using a portion of the Phoenix's Tears, and found that nothing could awaken Sid that she realized something terrible might have happened to her brother.

After questioning Aurora within her and receiving the answer that it was likely caused by the appearance of shadows, she hurriedly ran away. She dared not gamble that the coma was temporary; what if it were permanent?

"What! Sid has fainted?"

Upon hearing what Claire said, Nangong Nayue turned to look at An Ying, hoping he could give her a reasonable explanation.

So... I just fainted, why are you all making such a big reaction?

Looking at the two people in front of him, Sid rolled his eyes behind his mask.

He merely used slime liquid to create a puppet model to achieve the Shadow Power level, placing it in place and adding a little magic to maintain its shape and mimicry.

This doll is so lifelike that unless someone stabs it in the heart, no one could possibly tell that it is made of magic.

The downside is that this doll is an inanimate object and cannot be controlled; it will fall over if touched while it is in place.

Incidentally, the inspiration for this technique came from Natsuki-chan's magical body. In order to perfectly replicate it, he observed Natsuki-chan for almost a month before copying down the magical trajectory of her body.

Sid shrugged as he silently watched Claire, who was poised to fight and whose eyes were filled with anger.

Well... it doesn't matter. At worst, he can just get another "Sister-Brother Harmony" achievement. He's wanted to complete this for a long time, and it'll help cure his sister's recent crazy symptoms.

It should be noted that the scene of a Shadow-level power user needing to beat up his own family members for some reason had already been included in his Shadow-level power achievement list. This was a famous scene from anime in his previous life.

Although usually, this kind of character either gets redeemed or evolves into a big boss later on, it doesn't matter... He's confident that his sister won't find out.

After much deliberation, Sid made up his mind: he was going to beat Claire up to vent his frustration at being dragged into Rias's rankings by Claire for no reason. He had lost 3.4 million Zeni, enough for him to be a Pochi for a whole morning. As for the extent of the beating…

We should go all out and beat my sister so badly she has to be hospitalized for a while. Otherwise, I always feel that with her erratic behavior, she might go crazy again and cause me trouble.

Forget it, I can't bring myself to do it right now. I'll wait until my sister really goes crazy before I break her legs. That way, when Claire comes out of the hospital, her shaky nerves will probably be distracted by something else.

"I personally hate the idea of ​​'why' because it's really boring. Since things have already happened, instead of thinking about why they happened, we should think about how to solve them first. It's not too late to think about it after things are over."

Sid walked over to Claire, his voice not loud, but clear enough to reach Claire's ears.

"Now, there are two possibilities for your brother. One is that his coma is temporary and he will wake up once I leave."