D.I.O

Chapter 234

Chapter 234

*** Editor Blade ***

The Dream Celestial Dagger, a treasured item that Manbo had given Yongno, gave its user the power to send their mind beyond their current world while they slept. They could enter another person’s dream, explore the Spirit World, the Celesti, and even the Netherworld—the world that could normally only be entered upon dying.

“Of course, this is my treasured item, and your ability has developed in a completely different direction from my own, so it’s impossible to fully use all the functions of this dagger. But if you try to enter a world that you’ve entered regularly, you can slip into it without much difficulty.”

“A world I’ve entered regularly?”

“Yes, like Dynamic Island.”

The Noblesse had already completed the foundational DIO connection network systems on Earth, so a user’s individual DIO connector was nothing more than a trigger—a switch that connected a user to DIO. However, the process of sending one’s spirit to the outside world by uttering a single magic-pattern keyword was an achievement in magic that even great mages would find extraordinary.

‘This is a very peculiar sensation, like the absence of a remote control… Right. If the sensation I get from a DIO connector is like I’m turning a TV on with a remote control, then this feeling is closer to like that of manually turning on a TV.’

When Yongno sent his spirit high into the sky, he detected a spiritual force field covering all of Earth. Millions of spirits were soaring into the spiritual force field, which looked like a huge upside-down funnel. The wandering spirits, which didn’t seem cognizant of their surroundings or existence, were users who were accessing DIO right at this moment.

‘But… wait. If I do it this way, I can’t get far, right?’

While wondering what he should do, Yongno soared higher into the sky. It was normally difficult for a person to control their body in the spirit state. Yet Yongno, who was being guided by the power of the spiritual force field, found himself sucked in and then flung out of Earth’s atmosphere and into the wider expanse of outer space. Since he was no longer in a solid state due to having taken on the state of a spirit being, the speed at which Yongo moved was frighteningly quick. The speed of movement was no longer throttled as his material state was no longer confined and restricted to the laws of nature.

‘The moon… I see, Dynamic Island isn’t a program but a real material space. It’s just that DIO is free to transform into whatever it needs to be because it’s a space filled with magic materials.’

Surprisingly, the spiritual force field efficiently funneled the spirit bodies to the far side of the moon, which was a curved space with countless craters and mountains due to the collision of many asteroids and meteors over the course of billions of years. Over there was a huge rectangular golden object.

Its outer surface gleamed with a golden color, looking like a giant gold bar that had been cut in half. The golden object was 3,000 kilometers long, 1,000 kilometers wide, and 100 kilometers tall. It was larger than most countries on Earth.

Whoosh.

Yongno observed spiritual bodies easily penetrating the golden object’s surface and entering within, which meant it was permeable to spiritual bodies. Aside from that, the golden object seemed extremely hard, so even if it were hit by a meteor or any physical object, it probably wouldn’t even be scratched. Moreover, the object had various spiritual-powered defensive layers, which protected it against outside spiritual interference. Only preapproved spirit bodies were able to enter the object without any difficulty.

After Yongno entered the object…

‘This is amazing.’

He arrived in front of a gigantic mountain of jewels, which extended as far in each direction as the eye could see. Yongno knew the jewels’ true identity. Commonly used by users in the form of gem points, the jewels were treasured items called Anyform Stones. Anyform Stones, also called Chintamani, could take on any shape and characteristic. It was an extremely rare resource that was not commonly found in the entire universe. Additionally, Anyform Stones were an essential material for making Transcendent Weapons. The amount of Anyform Stones that Yongno saw in front of him showed just how powerful the Noblesse were.

‘In other words, a large part of DIO’s world is made from these Anyform Stones.’

Anyform Stones made up the bodies of users, the bodies of monsters, some items of S-class or higher, flying shuttles, the DIO stat systems, Master Skills, and even Master Weapons… DIO operated with the backing power of Anyform Stones, unlike Illusion—the first user training system, which was backed, supported, and operated by the highest-level gods in the universe. Without Anyform Stones, DIO wouldn’t exist. This was also the reason that the Empress of Magic, Jenica, who had largely operated as an independent existence, partnered with the Union.

‘But it’s not a consumable, so it’s likely that the Anyform Stones are constantly being rented out for various different purposes and uses.’

As Yongno approached the mountain of Anyform Stones with these various thoughts running through his mind, a jewel the size of his head flew in front of him. Considering that the other users’ Anyform Stones were only the size of a human’s thumb at best, Yongno could easily tell that a considerable number of resources were being allocated to the existence of his DIO character.

Bam!

The large Anyform Stone instantly grew and transformed into the figure of Merlin, a mage wearing a red robe and a wide-brimmed hat. Then a magic circle rose, and the background changed.

“Log in.”

Merlin looked around curiously inside the housing unit he had purchased in DIO. The login process he had just undergone was almost—no, it was exactly the same as a regular login. The only difference was that he could feel the process directly…

‘So, it’s true that the Noblesse won’t know that I logged in.’

Merlin’s movements wouldn’t be recorded in DIO’s system if he didn’t use the official DIO connector. This meant that he could conduct experiments that he wouldn’t have dared to conduct under the Noblesse’s normal omniscient surveillance system.

‘Hmm, I wonder how Miho and Eunhye are getting along. Youngmin will probably mediate, but I feel like the two are strangely wary of each other…’

Merlin shook his head as if trying to shake off these passing thoughts, then he entered deeper into his housing unit, heading into his designated lab space.

‘I can’t create Pathway to Hell here. I feel like the effect would be maximized if I made it here, but DIO’s system would immediately notice the complete disappearance of a soul.’

The death of a soul and the status change of a soul were two completely different issues. Monsters perished in DIO every day, but there was never a case where a soul completely died. Moreover, no matter how limited the Noblesse’s control over DIO was, the Noblesse would immediately start an investigation if a soul were to completely disappear.

Clunk! Whirl!

Merlin entered his lab and turned on several pieces of equipment. His pet, Quiet Heaven, who appeared out of nowhere, approached Merlin while softly flapping its impressive red wings.

“Huh? When did you arrive? I didn’t even hear the notification sound that usually rings when you log on.”

“I logged in using a different channel. Can you keep it a secret? I don’t want any higher-ups knowing.”

Hearing Merlin’s calm explanation, Quiet Heaven was momentarily taken aback.

Nevertheless, Quiet Heaven gave out a sigh before stating, “Tsk. You’re smart, but you think too much. I have a contractual relationship with them, but I’m not their subordinate.”

“Still, it seems like you’re constantly reporting to them.”

“Reporting? I just made some deals with them, nothing more.”

“Aren’t you planning on selling me out?”

“What? Is that what you thought? Well, I’ve never passed on any useful information to them.” Quiet Heaven smirked and turned its head away.

Merlin, knowing that Quiet Heaven was feeling embarrassed and somewhat slighted, didn’t ask any further questions.

“I accessed DIO through an illegal route. DIO’s system won’t recognize that I’ve logged in, so it isn’t possible for me to utilize the whispering or party recruitment function, or even to summon my Master Weapon, Master Skill, or any Divine object.”

“You mean you’ve found a way to fool the Noblesse’s eyes? No, wait, why do you even have to do that?”

“Well, obviously, it’s because I’m planning to do something that they won’t appreciate.”

Saying so, Merlin stepped into a huge cylindrical object. The metal cylinder’s outer and inner surface was covered with all sorts of magic characters. The cylinder was something that Merlin had specially commissioned Aidelin, who had reached the level of a Master weapon producer, to build. After Aidelin completed the cylinder, Merlin imbued it with various magic effects.

“Huh? Hey, why are you crawling into the extractor? Are you itching to die?” Quiet Heaven, who was watching what Merlin was doing, yelled out in fright.

The huge cylinder that Merlin was presently inside was a device that separated the individual magic materials that magic weapons or minerals were comprised of. The extractor would extract whatever item placed inside it into its most basic parts, so why was Merlin entering such a dangerous device?

“Tsk. Just sit back and observe. Do you really think I’d walk into my own death?”

“So, you’re saying that you’ll be completely fine?”

“Well, I guess there is a possibility that I’ll die, but…”

“There’s a possibility that you’ll die?!”

Seeing the bewildered expression Quiet Heaven made, Merlin shrugged his shoulders. “What of it? This body will come back to life if it dies anyway.”

“That’s true, but… ugh. The utter recklessness and fleetingness of users’ thoughts and conceptualizations of their own lives are becoming more severe day by day. Anyway, let’s see what kind of great experiment you have in mind.”

Merlin laughed when he saw Quiet Heaven plop itself down in front of the extractor, showing that it was interested in what he was planning to do. Then Merlin sat cross-legged in the middle of the extractor and changed his gear to his usual swimming attire. In other words, Merlin took off everything except his underwear.

Whirl!

When the extractor began to operate, the inner section separated from the outer section and started to rotate. However, since the part of the ground where Merlin was presently seated didn’t rotate, his body wasn’t turning.

‘Until now, it was only a hypothesis, but now I know for certain. Even if it’s a world created by transcendents… DIO is largely just a magic program. Is it because most of the Noblesse are great mages?’

Of course, there were cases like Lionel, who was a dragon and a Grand Master of martial arts, but existences like him were exceptions rather than the norm. Dragons, who were born with an innate talent for magic, usually walked the path of mages.

“Ugh!” Merlin suddenly groaned aloud.

It was not because he felt a sense of pain though. After all, users were beings who did not feel pain. However, the mana that made up Merlin’s body was affected when the rotation speed of the extractor reached its peak.

‘I must hold on as much as I can. If my mana and internal energy rotate uncontrollably, the experiment will fail, and I’ll die.’josei

Mana tended to follow the flow of its surroundings. It was just like when a person put their hand in a bucket full of water and moved their hand repeatedly in a circle. Even the surrounding untouched water would be affected by the surrounding flow of water and swept into the resulting whirlpool. Of course, under a moderate flow of pressure, a user’s mana would not normally be affected because of their magic resistance stats. However, the extractor’s rotational speed limiter was off, so its mana rotation speed surpassed the limits of Merlin’s magic resistance levels.

The mana rotation speed within the extractor, which was equipped with special materials and designs and further strengthened with various magic items, continued to increase gradually.

If Merlin had been forcefully placed within such an extractor, he would have destroyed it and escaped. However, he wasn’t planning on destroying the extractor he had spent a lot of time and money on building, especially since this experimentation was something that he had voluntarily committed to.