Time Twister - 77 Uphill Situation

“You can exchange the magic crystals you have gained for one wish. It can be any wish, that is applicable for one person only. You can request to leave, to resurrect one of your dead elders, or gain momentary power up to Divine rank.”

When the people in the fortress heard this, their eyes shined, as if they were shown a way to survive this nightmare they were in. Even the viewers were surprised and a bit skeptical about the situation.

“You guys currently have 48,695 magic crystals; this is equivalent to two wishes. You have within 10 minutes to decide. You just need to touch the giant stone to make a wish. However, please be reminded that the audience will be voting whether they would agree to your wish~” When the voice continued with this statement, everyone was shocked, both those inside and those that were watching.

Everyone felt something bubbling in the depths of their hearts, and some didn’t even notice the change. However, those who had an affinity with the emotion and mind series realized something was different and began to alert the relevant authorities. Of course, this was a subtle influence of emotion.

Specifically, it’s the feeling of power, of control of one’s life and death, stemming from the element of Good Life/Death. Through the decisions and situations Xander had given to the people who were watching, the changes in their emotions and feelings were slow, but continuous until it reached the current tipping point – controlling the participant’s experience of life and death. Earlier, they already had a taste of that, by deciding what magic beasts should be summoned to fight them and what natural disaster should afflict them.

Even the government will be helpless with the situation, even if they were warned by those who managed to detect the abnormality. Can they stop roughly 23 billion people from acting their desires? With the aspect of anonymity and security, they were free to decide whatever their hearts desire…in this case, what they were manipulated to desire.

Going back to the Corde clansmen, they were also affected by the magic Xander cast, but it wasn’t to the point of suicidal tendency. They realized that it can be realized by one person only, so rather waste it on that, they decided to wish for the following: The fortress will be invulnerable and impenetrable for anyone below Divine class. Those were 2 wishes already. When they raised the wishes through the stone, after a few minutes of silence, a problem occurred.

A monotonous voice sounded out in the whole fortress, everyone inside hearing it.

“The three wishes have been submitted, one more than the maximum wishes to be granted. One has been rejected by the public. The wish of “the fortress being impenetrable for anyone below Divine class” has been granted. The wish “Save my strongest and one with the most potential descendant” has been granted. You have no more wishes.” The fortress began to transform into a structure made of a unique alloy of Adamantium-Parlite-Amiril metals, allowing complete impenetrability to spells weaker than a Divine-1 cultivator. The only weakness of this alloy is blunt force, which can cause it to bend, but not puncture. So it still needed to be supported by the spells of metal and earth element magicians.

Immediately hearing the robotic voice, these Corde clansmen cursed at those watching them. How could they be heartless? However, it wasn’t over. One of the mythic magicians disappeared under the eyes of his fellow clansmen, his face confused, yet relieved. When they saw the demigod who submitted the wish sigh in relief, the other demigods couldn’t help but surround him and question him angrily.

“Cadio! Why did you do that!”

“Hmph! You wouldn’t understand. I was leaving a way out for my bloodline to continue, and you should too as well! Do you really think the man behind this will let us go free easily? You’re thinking to naively!”

A few minutes ago, in Eteria.

When the wishes were submitted, once again, the snarky voice-over appeared, explaining the situation.

“Now, fellow viewers and watchers, you are to decide which among the submitted wishes are to be accepted, or rejected! You can agree to all, or disagree to all, totally up to you~ Don’t worry, it’s anonymous and completely secure~ be free to decide with your heart’s content!”

The three wishes were then showed the viewers, and the majority of them began to decide what to agree or disagree on. Accordingly, there can only be a maximum of 2 accepted wishes, so they began to cast their votes. Even though the governments had sent out notifications to everyone’s communicators, most of the viewers turned a blind eye to these and selected the choice that resonated with them the most.

After around 2 minutes, their votes were tallied:

The first wish was rejected. The second and third wishes were accepted, with both of the wishes barely passing the 50% mark. The voice sounded from their communicators once again.

“Oh, my~ what a close voting result~ Anyhow, let’s check the situation in the fortress! It seems the fortress had a major makeover, and the current situation is stabilized… but what’s this? In-fighting amongst the elders of the Corde clan? Could it be, the third wish was a wish done selfishly?”

The video zoomed into the fortress, viewing it from different angles, before shifting the feed to the inside of the fortress, where it seemed that the elders were surrounding the one that cast the vote, looking pissed off.

“Let’s hear what they’re discussing.”

“…You wouldn’t understand. I was leaving a way out for my bloodline to continue, and you should too as well! Do you really think the man behind this will let us go free easily? You’re thinking to naively!”

“My, my! So little trust for me? How about we check right now the mythic magician that left the battlefield, hmm?” the snarky voice commented dryly, and showed the interior of the headquarters of Corde clan, where lying on the floor one of the bodies was slowly wriggling before the person began to sit up straight slowly, waking from his slumber. He looked around, confused to where he was, and it can be seen he was headed outside the building, and into the garden, where there were people surrounding the headquarters but were 1-kilometer radius away.

The video cut-off at the point where the man was apprehended by the authorities of the Eta government and switched back to the Fortress.

“See? Don’t I fulfill my promises for real?”

________________________

Eta military unit, just outside the Corde clan headquarters. They were watching cautiously and alertly for the figure that was heading out of the headquarters and was moving to their direction.

After a few minutes, the man reached the border of the barrier and safely exited, but was immediately surrounded by the military and was scanned and taken to the military doctors.

After a few more minutes, test results came back; the person had lost his memories, completely removed rather than buried in the subconsciousness, making retrieval impossible. Not only that, his cultivation had regressed to Mundane class once again, surprising and confusing the magic researchers and military doctors present.

General Farm appeared on the screen facing the doctors who just submitted their reports a few seconds ago.

“Is there really no way to restore the cultivation and the lost memories?”

“With our current technological and magical advancements, no. The memories were completely wiped, and the brain was reset, so the previous connections made by the cells were gone. He only seemed to know his name and age, but that was all. The cultivation lost was the same; there were no traces of the previous cultivation level even existing in his body. However, his life essence doll seemed to contain the experiences naturally, so if he re-cultivates again, he would have a faster time reaching the Mythic class once again.”

“I see… report back for any anomalies concerning the patient.”

“Yes sir!” The military doctors saluted, before the communication was terminated.

In General Farm’s location, he was facing the leader, who was worried with the situation.

“Farm, how was the survivor? Were there any clues?”

“No sir, the person’s memory and cultivation were completely wiped out. It’s impossible to do a recovery.”

“… I see. Begin the bombing once the Corde clansmen in the fortress begin to lose. It might be our only chance to save their situation.”

“…Yes sir!”

__________________________

For the past 30 minutes, the Corde clansmen were now facing the 3rd set of waves of magic beasts attacking them, along with different natural disasters occurring. Half-way through, their placed AoE spells were no longer effective because the beasts heading to their bases were smarter and more ordered, allowing military formations and commands to be passed down.

The demigods and the Mythic class magicians had to act individually, as a pair, or as a small group to snipe, disable, or eliminate the monsters, and then gather the magic crystals. What was good was that the magic crystal quality had also improved, meaning they could easily recover their lost magic energy.

It was the end of the 3rd wave that caused some problems for them: Invisible enemies with the ability to shape-shift. Not only that, but they were also able to negate the spell damage if they shifted to a different space. They only managed to slay all 60 of them without a few sacrifices from the Mythic and legendary magicians present. The total count went down to 158 members left, including the elders.

The monotonous voice sounded out once again inside the space.

“27th wave completed. 1/4th of the total waves have been completed. Number of survivors: 158. Survival percentage: 63.2 percent. Increasing the difficulty from super easy to Normal mode. Decreasing elemental particle concentration. Increasing magic crystal drop count and quality. The following waves, all monsters are now impervious to Mythic-3 attacks and below. Increasing the number of natural disasters per wave to two. Doubling the number of magic beasts per wave. Improving intelligence of the magic beasts.” When they heard this announcement, their faces fell, and some even broke out crying.

They were under high stress, and now, their fighting force was reduced to 1/4 of the total count. What the others can only do was to support the fortress, or await their deaths if they failed. However, before they could even get over their feelings, another voice sounded out.

“Congratulations, you may now purchase additional weapon artifacts in the shop using magic crystals. These weapons can be brought out if you survive. You may access the shop through the giant stone.” The snarky voice sounded in every Corde clansman, surprising them. Weapons? Ones that can be exchanged for magic crystals? If we survive, we can bring them out? Their eyes began to glow once more, filled with hope.

When the elders saw the list of weapon artifacts available, they almost fainted in ecstasy. Some of the weapons here would actually improve their fighting force by almost 100%! However, the weapons were quite expensive. The cheapest one, the one that can provide 1-fold boost to Legendary magicians, was 15,000 Crystals.

The cheapest artifacts for demigods that can boost their power by 3 to 4-fold was around 300,000 low magic crystals. They saw that the crystals they had, roughly 90,000 crystals, consisted of medium magic crystals, each one equivalent to 10 low magic crystals. They would only be able to supply their 3 demigods with 3 weapons.

They’re left with a choice: Either supply their mythic-4 magicians with weapon artifacts, roughly 30 out of 65 mythic magicians, ones that can improve their magic output and firepower by 3-fold, each costing 30,000 low magic crystals, allowing them to exert a power of Mythic-8 with their attacks. After 4 minutes of discussion and voting, the elders decided to purchase weapons for their Mythic magicians, so that they can still function for the next few waves. If it reaches to the point where only Mythic-9 and above attacks would work, the demigods can take over.

Once this was finalized, they bought the weapon artifacts and equipped 30 of them with artifacts that boosted their abilities.

They continued to enlarge and fortify the fortress, adding another layer of defenses. The giant countdown reached 0 and once again, the monotonous voice signaled the 28th wave. When the demigods saw the monsters, they were surprised, because none of them were below Mythic class based on their magic fluctuations.

There were roughly 8000 of them, moving in an orderly manner led by their leaders. The demigods immediately slew the commanders so the magic beasts had no real leader directing them, thus making it an easy picking for them to win. The continuous wins for the next 35 minutes gave them confidence, even if some of them died due to the random natural disasters; however, the people outside watching looked worried for them.

This was mainly due to what the snarky voice said to them earlier.

“Oh wow, look at our contestants, managing to complete one-fourth of the total waves! Let’s make it harder shall we? Dear audience, you are going to decide which demigod boss they would face at the end of each 9 waves from now on! You have to vote once again! On your screen, a list of 30 magic beasts are shown, and out of those 30, you have to select the top 9 magic beasts you want them to face. Do note that every single one of these magic beasts was so vicious that they had to be hunted down collectively to ensure the safety of the planets~”

They all voted and hoped that the demigods would actually purchase weapons for themselves, but the situation turned into what they feared: they bought weapons for the rest of the mythic magicians. This was why it was going to be an uphill battle for them once the boss arrived for this set of waves.

And they were not surprised. On the 36th wave, there were only 2 monsters that were of the same species, the Dreadnought Hydra, A Demigod-9 magic beast. This magic beast had an elemental resistance for each element its head is attuned to, reaching up to 30% elemental resistance. Each attack it does is able to rival a Divine-1 magician’s pure attack power, while its defenses make it vulnerable only to Divine magicians.

When the demigods and the mythic magicians saw them, they were scared out of their wits. Immediately, they gathered and counted the number of gathered magic crystals: 30,000 high-grade ones, equivalent to 3 million low-grade magic crystals. From this, they immediately exchanged for 4 weapons that increased the fighting power of Demigods by 6-fold, allowing their 3 Demigod-7 and 1 Demigod-9 magicians exhibit a power of a Divine-1 and Divine-2 magicians respectively.

They headed to battle, coordinating with one another. However, their elements were resisted by the Hydras, so their attacking power was quite lacking. It was still enough though to kill them after wearing them down for 15 minutes. However, two of the Demigod-7 magicians were seriously injured, and would need to recuperate. The number of demigods was now in the single digits. Morale was low.

Once again, the countdown appeared, but this time, there was only 480 seconds from the original 600. The monotonous voice sounded once again inside the space.

“36th wave completed. 1/3 of the total waves have been completed. Wish system improved: now it affects 3 people instead of just one. Improving magic beasts’ fighting experience based on the past waves. There are 72 waves to go.”

The elders did a quick headcount and saw they only had 140 people left, including the two injured elders. Things were not looking well for them. Before they can act even further, Xander’s voice rang in their minds.

“I am honestly surprised the population has not decreased to double digits. However, I never planned to allow any of you to survive long enough to win the game~”

“You all know, the kid you subjected to VR torture? He told me that I should spare the lives of the legendary magicians. I told him I would, and that if they died, they would awaken in their bodies with their memories completely erased, and their cultivations were gone as well. They would only know their names and age, and nothing else. I even did him a favor that they would be randomly placed in different countries and islands to live out their new life.”

“So, legendary cultivators? What are you waiting for? Kill yourself and be free of the impending torture reserved for the upper echelons~” his giggling voice sounded off in every person in the fortress, turning the faces of the elders into an ugly shade.

Immediately, tens of explosions sounded off before they could even react. When they looked outside of the hall where the giant stone was placed in, there were bits of flesh that were scattered around, and a faint aroma of blood. Most of the elders shook their heads. They weren’t sure if the being was lying to them or was really telling the truth. However, it seemed most of the legendary magicians had reached their breaking points.

Of course, Xander was actually telling the truth. Once they were killed, they returned to their bodies after their cultivation had been stripped off and their memories removed, before being teleported away into different countries and islands all over Eteria, off to fend for themselves.

Those who were watching were confused, distraught, and even mad at the mysterious Homer Simpson. They believed that the legendary magicians killed themselves because they couldn’t handle the stress anymore, leading to the mass suicide.

There were now only 65 clansmen in the space, including the 10 elders that survived. The rest were Mythic magicians, who were confused and were stressed to the point of committing suicide as well.

However, the demigods quickly calmed down the populace. They knew the real game was about to start for them, and one wrong move would kill them all.

____________________________

In the International underground meeting room, discussions were restarted.

“General Farm, when will the bomb be launched? You truly take the lives of your citizens lightly, eh?”

“The bombs will be launched when the people in the nearby areas have been completely evacuated from the 10-kilometer vicinity of the Corde headquarters. We are also aiming for an opportune time to launch them.”

More whispers and chatter continued in the room, and Ms. Brightcroft had to call the attention of the people once again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as you all know, we have witnessed the mass suicides of the legendary magicians of the Corde clan 3 minutes ago. This coincided with a developing situation that you all might be interested in.” The noise quickly died down, the faces of the men and women present becoming serious, listening intently to what she had to say.

“We have received numerous reports from different countries in the past 3 minutes that there were unidentified men and women appearing from the sky, gently falling down to their cities. When they cross-checked it with the identities that they had, they were quickly identified as Corde clan members, however they had lost all their memories and their cultivations, recalling only their name and age.”

“We can then assume that this person, Homer Simpson, still has a bottom line, and was going to focus only on the targets at hand: Mythic and Demigod powerhouses of the Corde Clan. We have not heard of any response from their Divine magicians, so we assume they are M.I.A.”

“Because of the actions demonstrated by the outsider, it would seem to show that he can still be bargained with.” After saying this, the talks, screams, objections, affirmations of the members of the international committee were out and about in the meeting room.

Ms. Brightcroft sighed, and knew this was going to be a long night.