Asho looked at the map of the Virtual Realm and asked, “By the way, Sonia, are you proficient in the Time faction?”
“Yes,” Diya replied.
“It is said that the Time faction is most effective for cultivation in the Time Continent. Is that true?” Asho inquired.
“Absolutely,” Diya nodded and reached out to touch the reverse-flowing golden rain that rose from the nearby vegetation. She said, “In fact, every drop of golden rain contains knowledge of time, or rather, all the time in the Time Continent is condensed in the golden rain. When I absorb the condensed power of the golden rain, almost all the knowledge of time in the golden rain can be converted into my faction’s realm. Compared to other factions, I can gain an additional ten to fifteen times the experience of the Time faction.”
“That’s amazing!” Even Asho, who had no talent, envied her. “But why don’t I feel an increase in my Time faction?”
The White Queen paused for a moment before explaining, “Because, as an observer, you have not crossed the threshold of the Time faction. When you absorb the white mist in the Sea of Knowledge, you can only allow the factions that have already entered the Silver Realm to gain experience. As for the factions you have not mastered, you cannot gain experience.”
Sonia explained more vividly, “The knowledge in the white mist and golden rain is like the voice of a professor in class. Only those who understand can hear it, while those who don’t understand will hear noise.”
Asho completely understood and thought for a moment before saying, “But the Time faction is too profitable in the Time Continent. As long as you walk, you can improve the faction’s realm… Sword Girl, do you have a way to enter the Time faction?”
“No way,” Sonia shook her head helplessly. “The best way to enter the Time faction in theory is to enter the Time Continent. But if you can’t absorb the knowledge of time from the golden rain after entering the Time Continent, it means you don’t have the talent, and no matter what you do, you can’t enter. The Time faction is one of the most talent-dependent factions, and hard work is meaningless. Talent determines everything, and envy is useless.”
“Don’t you envy it?”
“No, I don’t.”
“But I’ve already entered the Time faction,” Asho said, looking at the new “Time Faction: Silver Level” that appeared in his agent interface. “Now, it’s only you who hasn’t taken advantage of the Virtual Realm.”
Because of the connection of their bond, the experience gained by the witch in the Time faction would also be shared with Asho. Although Asho had no talent, as long as the witch fed him enough experience to cross the threshold of the Silver Realm, he would naturally be able to enjoy the benefits of being fed by the Virtual Realm.
Sonia’s mouth twitched, and she pretended to be angry, but this time she was really angry. She directly grabbed Asho’s neck in the front row and said, “You already know, so why don’t you help me think of a solution? For example, the last time with the Sorcery Spirit summoning ritual…”
“That depends on luck, and are you not afraid of experiencing ‘sincerity’ again and being forced to tell the truth for several days?” Asho retorted.
“How could my luck be so bad again?!”
The White Queen looked at the scene of their playful banter and silently thought to herself, “Diya, I feel that I am not suitable for their way of getting along. I am too old and mature. Perhaps if you come in person, you will be able to get along with them better.”
“No, absolutely not.”
“I only trust you.”
“I don’t want to interact with anyone else.”
The White Queen sighed, and at that moment, Asho suddenly let out a scream. They saw a figure suddenly appear in front of the car, and then—
Bang!
The car braked abruptly, and the three of them were almost thrown out by the inertia.
They turned around and saw that the person who had suddenly appeared had been cut in half by the car’s wicked blade and dropped to the ground like two pieces of cloth.
Asho immediately shifted the blame, “It’s your fault, Sword Girl, for disturbing me!”
Sonia retorted, “It’s clearly because you weren’t driving carefully!”
Diya said, “…Can we really just run over a Sorcerer’s projection?”
…
…
Congratulations, they did not kill anyone; they only whipped a corpse. In other words, the first Sorcerer’s projection they encountered in the Time Continent was not killed by them, but was run over by a car.
Not to mention their skills, they didn’t even recognize what a Sorcerer’s projection looked like and just ran over it carelessly… It sounded a bit like playing with people’s lives.
Unlike the Sea of Knowledge, the Sorcerer’s projections in the Time Continent do not stay in one place but move randomly, so it is very common to suddenly encounter them during exploration in the Virtual Realm.
Although this Sorcerer’s projection died too quickly, they were still able to confirm his faction from the dropped Sorcery Spirits. He should be a weak fire Sorcerer, which means he practiced both fire and bitterness. In total, they dropped two two-winged Sorcery Spirits and three one-winged Sorcery Spirits. As the first business in the Time Continent, the profits were not bad.
No one had a demand for these Sorcery Spirits, so Asho thought for a moment and asked, “Do you have a way to exchange Sorcery Spirits for other resources in reality? Before you joined the team, our distribution method was to divide the value of the unused Sorcery Spirits, give the valuable ones to Sword Girl to sell for money, and leave the worthless ones for me to exchange for special resources that only I can use.”
Diya shook her head, “I’m not convenient to exchange Sorcery Spirits in reality. The unused Sorcery Spirits will continue to be distributed according to your previous method. However, as compensation, can I read the Sorcerer’s Manual first?”
Asho’s eyes lit up, “Can you also read all the Sorcerer’s Manuals?””Really?” Diya blinked but shook her head, “No, my success rate of reading Sorcerer’s Manuals is about 80%, and not all manuals can be read. For instance, those particularly abnormal, disgusting, or bizarre Sorcerer’s Manuals, I simply cannot accept no matter what.”
“Observers can read all Sorcerer’s Manuals, though.” Sonia said nonchalantly, patting Asho’s shoulder, “Even those manuals you can’t accept, he can read with relish. Isn’t that amazing?”
The White Queen clapped her hands on the surface but had already secretly increased the threat level of the observer in her heart. Since entering the Virtual Realm, the observer’s behavior had been too amiable, and he was even a bit confused, not even knowing many common sense things that Artificers should, to the point that people forgot he was a terrifying sorcerer capable of tracking, dominating, and defeating them.
The reason Diya dared not face the observer herself was largely because the observer had once completely defeated her in her realm of thought.
Facing an existence that couldn’t even be surpassed in thought, Diya was so scared that she only dared to hide behind the White Queen.
Now Diya was even more afraid—the soul that could read all Sorcerer’s Manuals might not be of high moral standing, but it was definitely without limits, a thousand times more evil than the most wicked villain in fairy tales.
Asho, however, didn’t notice that Sword Girl had lowered his reputation quite a bit and thought for a moment before saying, “No problem, then you, the witch, can have priority in reading the Sorcerer’s Manuals. Give me the ones you can’t read… Wait, give me the Sorcery Spirits that Sword Girl doesn’t need, and the manuals you can’t read. Why do I feel like I’ve become a trash can?”
“Of course not,” Diya immediately said, “It’s because we don’t have the ability to utilize these resources, so we have no choice but to give them up. But you, the observer, can efficiently use these resources, which is a testament to your strength!”
“So you should be more confident.” Sonia’s eyes narrowed, and she hummed cheerfully through her nose, “Remove the ‘seems like’!”
While speaking, Diya picked up a fallen Sorcerer’s Manual. This manual was edged with gold, and its cover featured a black flame flower. When she opened the first page, she quietly activated the “Mask Sorcery Spirit.”
Personality Split – Mask Remodeling – Temporary Mode: Ever-Changing!
Diya’s hair began to show various colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, all were present, thankfully without causing light pollution. At first, the colors were quite bright and clear, but gradually they became murky, like poor-quality paint poured into a puddle, mixing into a dirty dark red.
Not only Asho, who knew the inside story, but even Sonia could see—Diya was not relying on her flexible values to read the Sorcerer’s Manuals, but through some miracle.
This was why Diya, without any formal Artificer education, was able to become a two-winged Artificer and step onto the Time Continent—most of her Artificer knowledge was obtained by reading Sorcerer’s Manuals in the Virtual Realm!
Even though she didn’t have Asho’s exploratory ability, she had spent a full two years in the Sea of Knowledge, intermittently reading more than forty Sorcerer’s Manuals. Although her knowledge system wasn’t as organized as Sonia’s, she had mastered the basic knowledge needed to venture through the Virtual Realm, a thoroughbred combat-oriented alley cat Artificer.
An alley cat might not be as strong as a house cat, but its survival ability was in no way inferior, and might even be superior.
Before turning to the last page, Diya stopped and handed it to Asho, “Do you want to take a look too? Every Sorcerer’s Manual might have information worth noting. If you’re willing to let me have this manual, just stop before you read the last page.”
Asho had no objections, took it over, and after a while, suddenly exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I feel like I saw someone we know inside.”