Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"That's... ah!!! That's it!" Titus on the other end of the line was banging his head. "That's the Wild Hunt! It should be one of the royal courts in the wilderness. It's summer now, so the ones coming out should be from the Spring Royal Court. In that case, Eloda should be there. Are they angry? Could it be...?"

He banged his head even harder. "I see! It's the strategy guide! The strategy guide is too comprehensive, and your completion rate is too high! But this is not a game after all! This is not a hidden quest! This is... This is a real disaster. Don't stand in front of the Wild Hunt! Wait, I'll hang up first and call you back."

Chapter 178 Limited and pathetic things

The battle continued. Wen Yuan fired his eighth round at the Forest King, supporting Karin and the others who were still fighting outside the battle line.

"No." He put the gun aside. "It's just like shooting those cavalrymen just now. The first few shots were effective, but after being hit again and again, he was able to recover from the spot. The cavalryman who was sent flying by your sword just now is there now, and she has returned to normal."

The royal cavalry didn't charge. They were already waiting by the gate, guarding the golden tree. Shangluo couldn't recognize any of the ones who had been beaten. Now each cavalryman had recovered as before, with no visible injuries.

"Tsk, this is difficult."

Suddenly, the phone rang again.

"Sorry." Titus called back after what he called a moment, but in reality, it was only a dozen seconds later. "This isn't a situation you can handle. We're coordinating the First Legion to suppress the situation—I'm sorry, but the Internal Guard will take full responsibility for this. Because you followed their strategy exactly, we had no idea such a disaster would occur after executing it completely. If this were a game, then this would be a hidden mission. I'm just sorry."

"What should we do now?" Shangluo asked directly.

"Push back, the artillery will fire in five seconds. Those artillery pieces shouldn't hurt you, but they can only delay the Wild Hunt. First Legion, assemble. We'll take care of the rest. So, return quickly."

"Pah." Shangluo hung up the phone. He was a little angry. It must be said that even he was a little angry.

"Why did it happen like this!" He was getting angrier and angrier. "I did exactly what they said, why did it turn out like this?"

Wen Yuan patted his shoulder and said nothing.

"This shows that the Romans' control over the situation has reached a critical point." Han Xingzhi pushed up his glasses. "Rome no longer has the ability to avert disaster. They even need to confront the forces of the Wild Hunt head-on. Judging from the situation just now, there will probably be a lot of bloodshed tonight. Lots and lots of blood. By the way, big brother, didn't they say they were going to open fire?"

"Yeah." Shangluo responded.

"Where are the artillery? Aren't they ready already? Are they waiting for us to withdraw before they fire? But the Dragon Tooth soldiers' line is already breaking."

"I don't know." Shangluo looked up. "He said they couldn't hurt us. They probably opened fire."

"No, something's not right. Wait, where's the road? Where's the beast trail we took when we got here?"

Titus's telescope fell to the ground.

The divisional artillery batteries on the horizon had already opened fire, their roar shaking the very ground. Beasts, insects, and birds fled as if they had a premonition of the end of the world. Countless shells whistled through the darkness, a few leaving bright trails that fell to the ground like meteors streaking across the sky. The first shells had already struck the forest. Yet, they were engulfed.

There was no explosion, no light. Everything seemed to be swallowed by the forest, but nothing in the forest seemed to have changed. He had only heard Shangluo's description from a moment ago, and only then did he confirm that it was a characteristic of the Wild Hunt. But he still saw nothing.

"Wait!" Titus felt a chill on his back. In the silent forest, something seemed to be expanding. He walked to the trail, gently stretched out his hand—and then suddenly withdrew it. It was incredibly cold.

For a moment, he felt as if he had touched the coldest object in the world. The chill passed from his fingertips and pierced his spine.

This is the malice from the wilderness and the omen of a cold world.

"What on earth is this thing?!"

Before he finished speaking, something seemed to appear amidst the whistling sound of the shells: in the darkness, countless dark shadows shot back, following the trajectory of the shells. Titus saw clearly that it was the same shell from before!

He grabbed the intercom, and on the other end of the intercom was the artillery group behind him: "It's a counterattack! They're firing back! Run!!!"

"Malaka!!!" The voice on the other end wasn't an operator, but a senior officer from the First Legion. After receiving Titus's report, he hung up and ordered the artillery group to move, but it was too late. Within seconds, the shells, having been deflected, flew back to their original locations, exploding across the artillery positions. Each shell, precisely deflected, hit the guns that fired it, like a boomerang, returning to the distance. Blazing fireballs exploded in all directions around the position.

"Sha~~~~" Titus froze in his tracks. There was no more sound on the other end of the line, only the blazing, raging fire. An entire artillery battery had been destroyed.

Slowly, he hung up the phone. He looked out at the forest. He knew that in the forest, where nothing seemed to be happening, something was happening that could change the world.

"Mayor Kelso." He handed over the car keys. "You, run."

"But Karin."

"I'll go get them all out. This isn't a place for civilians. As a civilian, you should stay away from the battlefield now. Run."

As he spoke, he began to check his gear. Pistol, rifle. The other Titus looked at each other and put on their hoods. They could feel the cold just now, but in times of crisis, there was only responsibility. Even if it meant being buried, they had to charge in. Because the world was watching them.

"Ding-ling-ling." The phone rang again on the walkie-talkie.

Titus, who was checking the equipment, signaled the other Titus to help him take it.

Dolphin squatted down and walked forward to pick up the phone.

"Yes, yes!!! Yes!!! Right now!" He handed over the phone.

"Who?"

"It's Her Majesty Queen Victoria! She told us not to retreat even a single step."

“We never intended to retreat.”

"No! She meant for us not to go in, but to observe from here. She said we should be here to witness the miracle. That's what she meant. We have to be here to witness the miracle."

"Miracle? Could it be..." He had vaguely guessed it, but that was a miracle he absolutely did not want to witness, at least not now, because the whole of Rome was not ready.

Ahead, a hail of bullets and gunfire descended. The Dragon Fang soldiers held their ground, while the Great Spring Spirits' formations advanced. The endless stream of immortal spirits was shattered by the machine guns, then reformed. Shattered again, then reformed once more.

Time and again, the Forest King was killed by Karin and others. But time and again, the Forest King recovered in the same place.

Shangluo stared ahead, searching for a flaw. Perhaps, though the hope was slim, there should still be some chance.

Suddenly, Han Xingzhi patted his shoulder:

"Brother, someone is looking for you. I'm transferring you in."

Anxious, Shangluo turned on the intercom. It was an unfamiliar female voice. It sounded a year or two older than him, around seventeen or eighteen, a near-adult voice.

"Are you Shangluo?" the girl asked on the phone, her voice steady and steady which was unusual for her age.

"Yes. What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Let the chief physiognomist talk to you." She transferred the call to someone else.

"I am Shang Buhuan, the chief physiognomist of the Lighthouse Project. I have an emergency to report to you. Please cooperate."

A familiar voice appeared in Shangluo's ears. This was the voice that had been surrounding him almost every day for the past 10 years.

"Understood. Go ahead." There were no small greetings, no unnecessary conversation. Shangluo listened quietly.

"Look up, gaze at the sky, and witness the miracle."

"Sky?"

Shangluo looked up at the sky——

The clouds dispersed. A massive structure, tearing through the night, emerged from the zenith. Mechanical gears, levers, cycloids, oscillators, and the brass of a clockwork filled the sky. In the very center of the zenith, a crystal shone with brilliant light, like the sun. Unlike Apollonia's red crystal, this one was golden.

The clockwork started, and the gears began to spin. First, the smaller ones scattered around the edges, then the larger ones began to rotate visibly. The meshing of the gears drove the levers, cycloids, and oscillators, which converged into a low roar.

boom--

A bell rang and the sky began to rotate. The sky of Zhonggou falls to the west, and another piece of land rises from the east. But that is not a strange territory, it is the human world, the earth. Egypt to be precise, the city of Alexandria. The city of Alexandria is gradually rising from the horizon to the center of the zenith. The lighthouse of Alexandria hung high above their heads.

[Lighthouse system alpha beta version, loading. Version number 0.85. 】

[The phlogiston circuit is injected and the spirit overwriting begins. 】

[Loading: "Aether War Chronicles."]

As soon as he finished speaking, another bell rang - the Lighthouse of Alexandria hanging high in the sky burst out with white light that was enough to illuminate the world.

Shrouded in white light, everything fell silent. No more gunshots, no more clinking of swords, not even the sound of a heartbeat, the kind you hear in true silence.

He could only feel a dizzy feeling. It was as if everything was shattering into colorful particles and then reassembling. Shattering into mosaic pixels and then reassembling again. Shattering into square voxels and then reassembling again -

The light faded, and the world returned to his view. Everything seemed the same as before, yet it also seemed different.

A blinding magenta square appeared on the ground before him. As he looked over, the square playfully trembled before returning to normal. His vision gradually cleared from the noisy scene.

The Dragon Fang soldiers' line, the Great Spring Spirit charging it, the laurel tree, the Forest King and Karin beneath it, and Wen Yuan, Lu Liang, Han Xingzhi, and Apollonia beside them—all remained the same as before. However, they all had a small, red, rectangular strip on their heads.

"Is this... a health bar???" Han Xingzhi touched the top of his head. "This is the health indicator! It's a health bar! Exactly the same as the one in Heroes' Tour! Wait, do you see that? There are two big ones in the center of the field of view!"

Shangluo also noticed that there were two "BOSS" health bars fixed above his field of view:

One of them is: [LV59: Eternal Shadow of Lake Nemi, the Forest King (Complete)]

The second one is: [LV59: Wild Hunt Army of the Changxia Royal Court]

The health bar wasn't standing still, but was slowly falling.

The Forest King beneath the golden bough also raised his head. While he was off balance, Karin pierced his chest with a sword, and his chest healed to its original state. However, his health bar dropped by 2%.

"Ahhhhhhh!" The Forest King roared like never before, "You! What have you done to me! What is that ridiculous thing on my head!!! You have turned me into... such a limited, pathetic thing!!! Blasphemy! Blasphemy! I curse you! I curse..." His verbal curse was interrupted by the attack.

Karin swung the sword through his chest, twisted it clockwise, and his health bar trembled violently, dropping by 5%.

Chapter 179 Filter

The 5% health bar shaved off. Behind it, another health bar emerged. The outer layer was red, the inner layer yellow. Since there were two layers, it was likely more than two. Three, four, five layers were possible—but it didn't matter.

As long as the health bar is lit, let alone five levels of health, I will kill even gods in front of you.

There was no cheering or celebrating. Emotions were a luxury for Karin, and her way of expressing excitement and joy was to raise her hand and chop twice more, grinding off another 2% of the "blood skin".

Meanwhile, at the front line of the Dragon Tooth Soldiers, Wen Yuan also observed another health bar.

With a bang, a destructive rainbow of light erupted as the incendiary rifle's bullets pierced the bodies of the three Great Spring Elves. Below the Forest King's health bar, the health bar belonging to the Wild Hunt Army of the Long Summer Court also dropped slightly.

"So that's how it is!" He put down his rifle. "Those elves are indestructible because their health bars aren't counted individually, but as a whole army!"

"Tsk," Han Xingzhi shook his head. "Why do I always feel that these crazy elves who were so terrifying just now are not so scary anymore."

This was indeed the case. The battle lines hadn't shifted in the slightest before and after the arrival of the white light. However, before the "lighthouse" descended, they hadn't considered how long they could hold out. After the "lighthouse" descended, all they cared about was how many people they could kill.

"I think I've heard of something like this." Shangluo thought for a moment. "It feels like drilling an oil well. When you don't know where the oil is, every day is a torment. But if you know the depth of the oil layer, you won't feel tired even if you drill through the crust in one go."

"You're right, there are indeed some," Han Xingzhi said in a low voice. "Boss, you know, the shallow mineral veins in the capital area have been mined for thousands of years. Even oil fields, which have only been developed in modern times, have actually been mined hundreds of years ago, and deep wells were drilled back then. Natural gas mining has been around since the Wei and Jin dynasties, when it was specifically mined as 'fire wells' to boil brine. It's because various resources were developed too early that we have such a headache when drilling everywhere now. Drilling oil wells is like gambling on jade. There are so many of the kinds you mentioned."

He nodded meaningfully again. "I think I understand. I was a little scared just now. But now I'm not afraid at all. The book says that fear comes from the unknown. Now everything is known, and the known health bar eliminates all the unknowns, so there's nothing to be afraid of. It looks like there's more than one health bar, but as long as it stays there, you can just keep hitting it. If you keep hitting, you'll eventually kill it."

As they spoke, Karin and the others had already whittled the Forest King's health bar down to below 90%. The Dragonfang soldiers' suppressive firepower caused the Wild Hunt's health bar to plummet like a faucet, and there was no stopping it—the King's health bar was constantly depleting, while the Dragonfang soldiers had endless ammunition!

[This is really... Ahahaha. Ahahaha.] Apollonia sighed and laughed dryly, "If I had known this earlier."

"What? Is there a problem?" Shangluo asked.

As far as this matter is concerned, there's no problem. You can see that even the Forest King himself is afraid—but the problem lies behind it. I thought the Romans would never use it, but I didn't expect them to go this far. Once they take this step, there's no turning back.

"why"

Because, you've mentioned this before, haven't you? You explicitly mentioned that the Roman Heroes' Pilgrimage feels very much like a dungeon run, or more directly, a game. This is because it essentially shares the same underlying logic as video games: both use "mechanics" to simulate the impact of the "user" on the world. What is this so-called mechanism? It's a filter.

Apollonia gave an analogy:

You don't understand Latin, do you? But if someone who knows Latin is interpreting for you, you can enter the world of Latin through the "filter" of translation. It's this "mechanical" filter that the Romans sought to overcome from the beginning. Through this filter, they were able to comprehend the infinite mystery with their limited consciousness. In other words, they reduced the infinite mystery to a dimensionality, flattening it within human cognition, and then eliminating it using human methods.

“This is actually pretty amazing!”

Of course. Harnessing nature with human-woven reins is as significant as the first time humans rigged the steam engine: "Why temper steel a hundred times to make it soft?" Compared to today's rapid progress, everything in the past pales in comparison if calculated in terms of "output value." Yet, there's a saying: "As machines change, so do people's hearts." The Romans used dimensionality reduction to solve their problems, but fate has its price. New methods create new problems. You've arrived at a good time; a time of vibrant growth and prosperity is just around the corner.

"I seem to have a premonition."

[Oh~~wait, your reinforcements have arrived. 】

In fact, Shangluo could see it without him saying anything, because there was a health bar floating in the air in the jungle behind, getting closer and closer.

Titus's team entered the scene. Everything they saw was just as they had expected. The five Titus immediately threw themselves into the battlefield. As soon as they entered, one of them was pinned to the ground by the archers of the Great Spring Elf. A white light flashed behind him: he had respawned.

Titus himself stood silently beside Shangluo, but there was no trace of joy of victory on his face.

"Ah." Suddenly, he remembered Shangluo next to him. "Don't worry, I'm not worried about you. You've done a great job. Now it's only a matter of time to deal with these Wild Hunt troops. The Forest King looks very healthy. But don't worry, I just called for backup, and we'll be able to handle it soon."

"So what are you worried about?"

"I don't know. It's precisely because I don't know that I worry. Perhaps the people in Alexandria have more foresight than I do, but their worries are more practical and harder to shake off. Even though the Forest King is frightened, we're not much better off. Oh?"

His eyes lit up. "It seems that even Elodai was frightened. Was that fire portal earlier constantly sending out armies? It had already stopped when I arrived."

"It had already stopped before you arrived. After the Lighthouse system went online, no new elves were deployed to the battlefield."

Even so, behind the door, one could still see a neatly arranged line of elves, standing silently, awaiting the Summer Palace's mistress's orders.

"It seems we won tonight—of course, you won most completely. Congratulations on completing the hidden mission. I guess the Lighthouse system will pop up an 'achievement' for you soon. After this, you're welcome to come to Alexandria next time. I guess Alexandria will be very different by then. But objectively speaking, the Lighthouse system is really fun. If I didn't have a mission to complete, I would like to spend all day playing games in it. It's a pity that this is my job. Games have become work, so I can't relax anyway."

Chapter 180 Legionnaires