Chapter 308: Judas? The One Chosen by Fate

After dialing Vice-Chairman Li Long’s number, Li Xingyue anxiously explained the situation one by one.

She repeatedly emphasized Lin Xun’s potential and the importance of his being elected the Twelfth Disciple.

She did not expect Li Long to merely smile lightly and reply.

“Xingyue, I know what you are worried about.”

“Just as you said, if the New World’s Master wants to invite that undercover named Lin Xun to meet in reality, then is the time and place decided by us or by the New World?”

Li Xingyue was taken aback. “This… of course it is decided by the New World.”

“Good. Then let me ask you again. If the time and place are both set by the other side, how do you know the one who comes will definitely be the Master?”

Li Xingyue was left speechless.

“You are underestimating the Master’s vigilance. For that person to live until now while the authorities cannot even obtain basic information, we must admit they are indeed formidable.”

“Given how the Master always hides their head and shows no face, the probability of personally appearing is almost zero.”

“The initiative lies in the other party’s hands. If we can use Lin Xun as bait, why cannot the New World use an avatar as bait?”

Li Long slowly shook his head. “This meeting between the New World’s Master and Lin Xun may well be a probe.”

“On one hand, the reason for this meeting could be the accident that occurred during the selection. On the other hand, it could be a test under the pretext of a meeting.”

“Lin Xun has shallow roots in the New World, yet he suddenly stands out. It is perfectly normal to arouse suspicion.”

“If we use this to set up a sniping operation, we would fall right into the New World’s trap.”

“At the cost of losing an undercover who has already infiltrated and become a Disciple, and perhaps many more lives, our final result might be merely eliminating one avatar of the Master…”

“Would the organization make such a foolish decision?”

Li Xingyue had no words.

As the saying goes, where you sit decides how you think. Standing in the position of Lin Xun’s superior, she had always been thinking about his personal safety, a case of concern clouding judgment.

Li Long naturally considered the bigger picture.

If Lin Xun were a small and insignificant figure, indeed he could be used as bait for a sniping operation. Even if there were only a one-in-a-thousand chance to take down the New World’s leader, it would be worth it.

But Lin Xun has already become the Twelfth Disciple, an undercover agent who is now part of the New World’s upper echelon and can obtain lots of confidential intelligence in the future.

The authorities have infiltrated the New World for many years, yet no one has ever gone undercover to such a high level like Lin Xun.

To bet the life of an unprecedented high-level undercover on such a slim chance would make risk and reward disproportionate.

“Then uncle, do you mean we should simply let Lin Xun meet the New World’s Master?”

Li Long suddenly shifted his tone. “Xingyue, you are acting rather strangely today. With your mind, there is no way you have not thought of how to prepare for what comes next.”

“Hehe. After that Lin Xun completes the coronation ceremony, bring him to Yun Capital City and let me have a good look at him…”

—

After waiting a long while, Lin Xun finally received notification from his female boss.

Through the Book of Letters, Li Xingyue sent him a peculiar piece of Special Equipment.

[Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (Special Equipment): A handheld portable portal device developed by Aperture Science. In pistol form, it can fire two kinds of portals, one orange and one blue. No matter how far apart they are, as long as they are within the same dimension, the two portals connect to each other. Enter one portal to instantly arrive at the location of the other.]

[A blue portal has already been fired. Using it again will fire an orange portal, connecting the space between the two portals.]

[Firing one portal consumes 50 units of charging gel. Remaining charge: 50/100!]

His female boss told him that if there was danger when meeting the Master, he should not hesitate and should immediately fire a portal using this equipment.

Li Xingyue did not state what lay behind the already-fired blue portal. She simply reminded him that this Special Equipment had been applied for from headquarters and would need to be returned after the Disciple coronation ceremony.

From the description alone, Lin Xun’s thoughts ran wild.

“This thing is not only a life-saving tool, it is also a summons-for-backup device…”

“Huh… If I fire a portal in the game, can I enter the game from reality?”

His imagination took off, and he instinctively slipped into the mindset of a Fourth Calamity player searching for game bugs.

Coming back to his senses, it was already the appointed time with Amos.

[…]

[You follow the guidance of the Seat Pass of the Disciple Sanctum and arrive at Council Chamber No. 11…]

[Behind the host dais stands a figure in a black robe…]

[Amos: Let us hold off on meeting Vishnu. An audience with the Master is more important. Where are you right now?]

[Blood King: At home.]

[Amos: …I am asking which city you are in.]

Lin Xun’s heart tightened. He took out the prepared cover story.

[Blood King: In Hang City.]

[Amos: Very well. At midnight tonight, use this item to have an audience with the Master.]

[You obtained Guderian’s Hearthstone (Item)!]

[Guderian’s Hearthstone (Item): A strange hearthstone inscribed with a directional teleportation magic array. Using this item will teleport you to a designated location. Teleportation time is 10 seconds. Any movement or damage during this time will cause the teleportation to stop.]

Lin Xun frowned. This Master was indeed as mysterious as the rumors said. The meeting place was not disclosed and he was required to use such a method to meet.

“But if we are already using a teleportation item, why did Amos ask me where I was?”

After bidding farewell to Amos, Lin Xun did not remain in Wen City.

Instead, after informing his female boss, he set out for Hang City.

He estimated that the teleportation item might have a distance limit. To be cautious, he chose not to linger in Wen City and to use the item in Hang City instead.

Wen City and Hang City are not far apart. By high-speed rail, it is only two and a half hours.

This secret meeting with the Master was not reported to anyone. Even the Heavenly Punishment Unit in Hang City knew nothing about it.

Hang City’s greenery work is excellent. The green belts along the suburban roads are like a primeval forest.

Lin Xun found a people-scarce ‘primeval forest,’ plunged into it, and when the appointed late night hour arrived he switched Shells.

[You possess the Shell of the Corrupted Earth Giant!]

He thought it over cautiously and finally decided to use the toughest Earth Giant for the meeting.

In case conflict erupted during the meeting, the Earth Giant would undoubtedly last the longest.

The Greedy Wolf Star Lord’s Shell was fine, but it was not durable. That was not even the main reason. The most fatal problem was that this Shell looked exactly like Lin Xun himself.

After possessing the Shell, he materialized a cloak, mask, and other equipment to conceal his figure.

After confirming repeatedly that he would not expose any clue to his appearance, he used the teleportation item.

In the center of the palm-sized stone was a spiral-shaped blue rune.

After using the item, the hearthstone bloomed with azure light and a complex magic array formed under his feet…

His vision went black, and then there came the vertigo of rapidly descending in an elevator.

When the dizziness faded, the surroundings had changed dramatically.

Before him was a vast banquet hall. Underfoot was a dark red handmade wool carpet. On the long banquet table were various silver tableware and candelabra burning with firelight, with the sole absence of food.

Hanging on the wall at the far end of the banquet table were a greatsword in the shape of a cross and a kite-shaped shield. Below them was a fireplace fitted with a metal grate.

All around, the walls were adorned with precious silk tapestries, making Lin Xun feel as though he were in the residence of a medieval Western lord.

Suddenly, a mottled painting hanging on the wall caught his attention.

On a long stone table, thirteen ancient Westerners were partaking of a meal. The other twelve were either restless, shocked, angry, agitated, or tense, while only the one in the center wore a lonely, melancholy expression.

Lin Xun recognized this famous painting, which depicts Jesus sharing the final meal with the Twelve Disciples, The Last Supper.

“Do you have some knowledge of the New Testament?”

As Lin Xun examined the painting carefully, a voice came from the far end of the banquet table. One could not tell whether it was male or female.

He turned around sharply to see a blurred gray-robed figure sitting at the far head of the banquet table, though he could not tell when the figure had appeared.

Lin Xun narrowed his eyes and scrutinized the figure. It was as if a veil of mist lay between them. No matter how he looked, it remained a blur.

A chill rose in his heart. He knew this was the New World’s leader, the Master.

With respectful expression, Lin Xun cautiously replied, “Master, your subordinate knows a little.”

The Last Supper is the scene of Jesus going to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover for the last time and sharing a meal with the Twelve Disciples.

However, Judas betrayed Jesus, and the scene is frozen at the moment Jesus told the Twelve that he knew one of them would betray him.

Each Disciple reacted differently, especially the flustered Judas…

The Master said, “Judas, Judas… Do you know which-numbered Disciple Judas was?”

Lin Xun’s pupils constricted sharply. The Judas who betrayed Jesus was the Twelfth Disciple…

Did the Master already know he was an undercover sent by the authorities?

No. If the Master knew he was an undercover, there would be no need to meet him alone.

Could this be an attempt to trap him?

Lin Xun, feigning sincerity, continued to answer, “Master, your subordinate knows. He was the Twelfth Disciple.”

He was already prepared to materialize the Special Equipment at any time, open a portal, call reinforcements, and flee.

The Master shifted topics and continued, “The Easter Egg Bookmark for the Disciple selection was provided by me. The Blood Sun world was also the first chapter I entered back then.”

“At that time there was no Apostle Security Council and no New World.”

“Unfortunately, in my first entry into the game, I only obtained an S interpretation rating…”

“Can you tell me how you obtained an SS rating in Chapter 323… or perhaps an SSS rating?”

Lin Xun had long prepared himself for this.

The anomalies in the Disciple selection were certain to draw the Master’s attention.

According to the Master’s account, the provider of the Easter Egg chapter had an S rating. The chapter flow would surely have been generated based on the Master’s experience.

The large-scale anomalies could only indicate that an Apostle who participated in the Easter Egg chapter had once obtained a higher rating in the Blood Sun world.

As the final victor in the Disciple selection, he was the most suspicious.

The cover story that Lin Xun and his female boss had prepared was to deny until the end: the Apostle who had obtained the highest rating died in the Easter Egg chapter, and he had only survived by lying low until the end.

However… he changed his mind now.

The Master clearly had doubts about his identity. If he were a lucky waste who merely clung to life until the end, then as someone of doubtful identity and no value, he might well face the Master’s blade.

Only by demonstrating his own value could he gain a foothold in the New World where the law is survival of the fittest.

Even if the Master saw through his identity, he could leverage this to inspire the Master to consider turning him, thereby winning room to maneuver.

“Master, I once obtained an SS rating in Chapter 323.”

The Master seemed somewhat surprised. “Oh? Speak in detail and let me hear…”

Because the Master had also experienced Chapter 323, Lin Xun could only speak nine parts truth, half part falsehood, and leave the other half unmentioned.

He focused on the plot concerning encountering Dan. He said that because he had a life-saving item, he accidentally stumbled into a hidden map beneath Saint Rance and thus encountered Dan and was forced to join a special oath…

He used the life-saving item as a cover to conceal his most important trump card, Thousand Faces, Ten Thousand Forms.

Without a life-saving item, he would have sunk and died when facing Dan.

Relating the experience of meeting Dan rationalized the anomalies that had occurred in the Easter Egg chapter.

“Very good. You did not conceal it…”

“If you had concealed the experience of meeting Dan, I would not hesitate to kill you.”

Lin Xun secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew that because he had been candid, he had dispelled most of the Master’s doubts.

“Follow Vishnu well from now on. I very much look forward to your performance in the next Disciple war…”

“All right, stand down.”

With a wave of the blurred figure’s hand from behind the veil of mist, a familiar magic array appeared at Lin Xun’s feet again, and his figure vanished from the banquet hall.

After he left, the gray-robed figure stood up.

Staring at the place where the magic array had disappeared, the figure murmured softly, “Could you be the one chosen by fate?”

“If you can reach the game’s final chapter, then let us have another good candid talk…”

—

The next day’s coronation ceremony arrived as scheduled.

The coronation ceremony was not conducted in reality, but within the Disciple Sanctum.

After the coronation, Council Chamber No. 12 within the Disciple Sanctum became his pasture for herding lambs.

As the master of Council Chamber No. 12, he had the authority to contact the other eleven Apostles and the Elders Council through the Disciple Sanctum.

Lin Xun himself had no lambs to herd, but because he had taken out most of the contestants in the Easter Egg chapter, he could inherit the masterless lambs under those who had fallen.

Those lamb resources would all be handed over to another hidden institution within the New World, the Rectification Society, to be distributed uniformly and then given to him.

The Rectification Society is a hidden institution that answers directly to the Master. Ordinarily it is practically invisible most of the time. Only during resource and power handovers does it appear in obedience to the Master’s will.

According to Amos, although the usual coronation procedure had the other Disciples and the three Grand Elders present, it was still relatively simple and straightforward.

This is because the seats at the back for the Disciples have changed hands many, many times…

However, this coronation was extremely grand, all because the long-unseen Master appeared again.

Even if they saw only the Master’s Shell within the game rather than the real person, many Apostles wished to enter Council Chamber No. 12 to witness the coronation.

Precisely because the Master had rarely appeared and now personally presided over the coronation, many began to suspect that Lin Xun’s background was not simple.