Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 611 2 The Prince's Magic Book (1)

It must be said that while the ability to create a fog of illusion might not be very effective in normal combat or under certain circumstances until he fully understands it, it is extremely useful against the living armor within the library. The living armor moves slowly and lacks intelligence, giving Han Zu ample time to activate it. More than an hour has passed, and Han Zu has managed to remain undetected.

However, in the past hour or so, to ensure the library wasn't damaged, Han Zu had less time to search for the next part of Carson's story—less than forty minutes. The first floor of the library was the largest, with at least dozens of large bookshelves and over thirty boxes containing various scrolls. Han Zu had only searched about one-tenth of it. But time wasn't a problem for Han Zu. He hadn't planned to rush back from Bastinburg; he had a lot to do, which he estimated might take several weeks, or even a month.

But Han Zu soon discovered that this method of making up for inefficiency with time would probably soon be unworkable, because there were other people inside the now extremely dangerous library.

In a reading room on the first floor of the library, Han Zu saw seven or eight people. These people were dressed somewhat similarly to the sentinels belonging to the Ferdinand family that he had seen when he first entered the main body of Bastinburg. However, unlike them, these people had specific devices on their clothing. These devices could generate a small-scale protective force field that could only cover a single person. Based on his perception and comparing it with similar energy fields he had encountered before, Han Zu roughly understood that this special small-scale protective force field was a protective device specifically designed to isolate other energies. Back when he was inside Infinite Corporation, Han Zu had seen researchers wearing similar equipment in some facilities researching special energy units.

This group was strange. Although they tried their best to minimize the noise they made when moving, they didn't avoid the living armored figures and skeleton soldiers; they simply stood still. The monsters, who should have attacked them on sight, seemed completely oblivious. Sometimes, even when the group stood in their path, they would deliberately avoid them. This caught Han Zu's attention.

Their protective force fields were ineffective. And the cognitive modification field had absolutely no effect on these monsters, who weren't even truly alive. Furthermore, they hadn't used any cloaking devices; the fact that the monsters in the library could ignore them meant they must be carrying something—perhaps something related to the mysterious energy of Bastienburg.

Han Zu observed these people, but using only normal vision, he couldn't find anything unusual. He couldn't glean much information, only that they were wearing armor obtained from Bastinburg and carrying weapons searched from various parts of the castle. It seemed they were different from ordinary sentries; they knew far more than the unfortunate souls he'd encountered before.

Using his X-ray vision, Han Zu discovered something interesting: these people all had runes painted on their bodies with special paint. These runes weren't large, just the size of ordinary characters, but there were a great many of them. Han Zu even found that one person's entire body, except for his head, was covered in runes.

After staring at the creature for a while, Han Zu suddenly remembered seeing similar runic patterns in the records about Carson he had found on the third floor of the library. Han Zu recalled what those patterns represented. The same runic patterns were on the cover of the strange magic book Carson had helped the Second Prince find. If his memory served him correctly, these people might have some connection to that magic book. They must have borrowed, or used, the power of that magic book to make the monsters in Bastinburg ignore them.

But Han Zu quickly realized something: according to the records he had seen, the magic book did not originate from Bastinburg. This led to two possibilities: first, the magic book actually originated from Bastinburg; second, there were other locations in this area besides Bastinburg that exhibited similar anomalies.

The former is easier to explain. In that case, if the power they use truly comes from that magic book from back then, it's very likely that the second prince gave it to Carson, and then the latter passed it down. But if it's the latter, then Han Zu has to think that perhaps, besides Bastienburg, the Ferdinand family might have other secrets.

Leaving aside whether Han Zu could destroy or control Bastinburg after his investigation, even if he could, if the Ferdinand family truly possessed a second, or even more, similar locations, then even if he could destroy Bastinburg, he still wouldn't be able to shake the Ferdinand family's foundation. Perhaps in the short term, the Ferdinand family would suffer a severe blow, and he might be able to take this opportunity to eliminate the current main faction of the Ferdinand family, led by Sebastian. However, after a period of time, the Ferdinand family could still rise again, which Han Zu didn't want to see. Because if the Ferdinand family still had room to maneuver, they were very likely to hinder him when dealing with Infinite Corporation in the future, or even stab him in the back. Perhaps their actions wouldn't harm Han Zu, but they would certainly be a hidden danger to his plans. Of course, he didn't have any plans yet.

Han Zu had no intention of supporting Christina's rise to power, nor did he possess the political acumen; he was also unaccustomed to such matters. Take his own "army" as an example: the reason Han Zu entrusted this task to Gloria was, in effect, a way of abandoning that option. In Han Zu's view, as his power grew, those armies became less useful. Even if they lacked self-awareness and possessed absolute loyalty, Han Zu simply didn't have the patience to manage them.

Even with Gloria, Han Zu did trust her, but more often than not, he used delegating power as an excuse to hand over troublesome tasks to her. The same applied to Garcia, whose betrayal was now largely confirmed. Han Zu didn't react much to Garcia's betrayal because Garcia hadn't taken anything substantial from him; he'd almost forgotten about the two Deathpath Hounds. As for the possibility that Garcia was helping Sebastian, Han Zu wasn't too concerned. His conflict with the Ferdinand family began with his disagreement with the Infinite Corporation's board of directors. Garcia might have exacerbated this hostility, but wasn't the primary factor. Long before meeting Garcia, Han Zu already had conflicts of interest with the Ferdinand family, though he only learned later that many members of the Ferdinand family were on the board. In reality, Gloria's role in deepening the feud with the Ferdinand family was probably greater than Garcia's.

Of course, if he finds Garcia at a crucial moment later, Han Zu will still kill Garcia; there is no betrayal so small as to be tolerable.

As for Christina, Han Zu still didn't really trust her. The reason was that she had never mentioned anything about Garcia. Before Christina revealed her true identity and was still disguised as a secret agent of Infinite Corporation, she had met Garcia and him. So she must have known about the connection between Garcia and him. After Garcia began cooperating with the Ferdinand family, as one of Sebastian's more important deputys, she must have met Garcia as well. Although the discord between him and the Ferdinand family wasn't common knowledge, at Christina's level, she must have known about it. She must have known that Garcia had betrayed him. But after this meeting, she didn't say a single word about Garcia.

Forgetting something like that is absolutely impossible, so either Christina has some ulterior motive, or her coming to him is likely part of a conspiracy orchestrated by Garcia. Considering both of these points, Han Zu cannot truly trust Christina.

In reality, Han Zu didn't intend to actually destroy Bastienburg upon arriving. He didn't entirely believe Christina's claims about it; he knew she wouldn't lie completely to pique his interest. Therefore, Bastienburg must hold some secrets, but perhaps they weren't particularly important to the Ferdinand family, at least not as she claimed—destroying Bastienburg wouldn't shake the Ferdinand family's foundation. Han Zu guessed that Bastienburg did indeed contain some kind of secret, and it was indeed dangerous, but this danger might not be directed at the Ferdinand family; it was more likely aimed at him. Furthermore, from the very beginning, when Han Zu arrived at Bastienburg, even though nothing seemed amiss, Christina's display of fear suggested something was wrong. Christina's fear wasn't feigned; she was genuinely afraid of something, but perhaps it wasn't Bastienburg, or rather, not entirely.

Han Zu shook his head, stopping his wandering thoughts. The focus now should be on the teams that wouldn't be attacked by monsters. The investigation of Bastinburg wasn't finished yet; thinking too much about the future was pointless. Plans can't keep up with changes.

Furthermore, Han Zu had a hunch. He had already informed γ4 about the information Christina had mentioned regarding Bastinburg, and γ4 was currently trying to locate Bastinburg's position. Han Zu trusted these alien tin cans quite a bit; firstly, they needed his help, and secondly, there was absolutely no conflict of interest between them.

"Available node detected... has failed, node is unstable."

The contractor's equipment, which had been severely disrupted, suddenly returned to normal for a moment. Han Zu understood that this meant Gamma4 had roughly located Bastienburg, or at least had a clue. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before he received Gamma4's help. This reassured Han Zu considerably.

The squad was quite large, and there were many monsters around them. In addition, Han Zu did not know their objective at the moment, so he did not plan to do anything to them and prepared to continue searching the library. However, just to be on the safe side, Han Zu kept an eye on their location, hoping to find some useful information.

Like Han Zu, that team also did not leave the library. While avoiding the monsters, they searched the library. However, unlike Han Zu, their interest was not in the relatively intact books or scrolls in the library. Instead, they kept touching and looking at things. They were probably looking for some secret mechanism.

"found it!"

“Keep your voice down!!”

"Feel sorry.."

About half an hour later, the group stopped in front of the largest bookshelf on the far west side of the library. They seemed to have found something, and someone shouted excitedly. However, they were immediately silenced by the others in low voices. Their noise wasn't actually that loud, but in the quiet library, where only the occasional footsteps of living armor and skeletons could be heard, it was indeed quite jarring. Fortunately, that location wasn't on the patrol route of the monsters on the first floor of the library, and their timely silence meant no monster heard them.

"Click."

"Boom~~~~~"

Just seconds later, however, they pressed the mechanism, and the large bookshelf suddenly began to move. It slid backward, penetrating a meter into the wall, before moving up a level, revealing a wide passageway and a downward-facing corridor with stairs. Once the corridor was fully revealed, the torches that had been unlit on the previously dark walls suddenly burst into flames, the color of which was the same red as the two staircases Han Zu had seen outside the main castle—a truly eerie sight.

If the team members' noise hadn't attracted the monsters on the first floor of the library, then the sound of the secret door opening was a disaster. Not only the monsters on the first floor, but even those on the second floor were drawn by the sound. Han Zu could see even the slow-moving, fireball-casting skeleton mages moving towards the sound. But since there was no proper path, they fell directly off the second-floor railings. Several even died instantly from the fall.

"?"

Looking at these skeletons that could kill him by falling, a big question mark appeared above Han Zu's head. He began to feel that his caution towards those skeleton mages was somewhat foolish, just as foolish as those skeleton mages who could kill him by falling.

"Get down! Don't get surrounded!"

More and more living armored figures and skeletons, along with a giant centipede attracted from the next room, were rapidly approaching the hidden door. To avoid being surrounded, the group ran down the corridor and entered the dark stone archway via the stairs. Han Zu was also drawn to the area behind the hidden door, and with the monsters gathering, he couldn't continue searching the library for the time being. So, he quickly seized the opportunity to retrieve the temporary package he had hidden in the shadows. Then, before the surrounding monsters could completely block the hidden door, he charged forward, smashing through two living armored figures and rushing into the stone archway.