Chapter 528 |
This mortal war — along with the movements of those who encouraged it and those who allowed themselves to be encouraged — served as an excellent touchstone. If everything was proven to operate without issue, then this trend of robotics would surely sweep across the entire Mage World.
Nehem was no longer in the Mage World at the moment, but with the establishment of the Bureau of Supervision, no one was happier than him.
Even someone as averse to trouble as he had once been actually volunteered to serve as the Holy Tower’s representative in the Bureau of Supervision.
For a long time, the development of the Mage World had resembled wild grass, growing freely and chaotically. This was not necessarily a bad thing — after all, their ever-increasing strength was undeniable — but it was also far from ideal. Extraordinary power required regulation; the stronger an individual became, the more they needed a complete, airtight system of rules to restrain them.
Such restraints were not meant to dictate what a mage must do, but rather to make clear what a mage cannot do. In the past, the Mage Net served a similar function, but its effectiveness was far too limited. The Mage World needed a more standardized set of “laws” to ensure long-term healthy development, preventing any irreversible catastrophes.
Even the stubborn Prometheus compromised this time, which went to show that the Bureau of Supervision could not possibly be the final step of reform. A series of new systems and departments would inevitably emerge afterward — though all such things required time. Fortunately, time was the one thing mages never lacked.
Wendy, seeing that the exploration robots had already vanished into the distance, understood that events were already in motion and could no longer be stopped. No longer worried, she simply said, “This time can count as a special exception. But in the future, if you want to deploy exploration robots again, you can’t ignore my vote.”
The highest leaders of the Bureau of Supervision were Croft, Laura, and Nehem. However, following the customary style of True Spirit Mages, they selected three agents to handle the bureau’s ordinary, day-to-day operations. These three were Adam and his two comrades — which, in a sense, made Adam the head of the Mage World’s secret service.
Adam and Avril smiled and nodded at Wendy before opening an enormous screen.
Even for a single Academy Continent, the amount of data was massive. But because the Bureau of Supervision was still in its infancy, and the Guardians and Watchers were still reviewing the mages qualified to join, all foundational work had to be done by the three “secret service chiefs.”
Fortunately, Adam had an endless Adam Legion behind him. He and his clones were unparalleled when it came to data analysis.
In an extremely short amount of time, the three located enemy mages who believed themselves deeply hidden. The clones opened additional windows, displaying every movement, every word spoken, every action taken.
“Almost all the old noble families have ties with the enemy mages. The only reason they’ve been able to hide until now is because those nobles sheltered them.” Wendy sneered and pointed at the screens one by one. “When we built the Academy Continent, these people were already restless. It seems three hundred years were enough for them to forget the fear their ancestors once felt. I think it’s time for them to withdraw from the stage of history for good.”
To mages, the old nobility were merely a minor chronic disease — their life or death was insignificant.
In the previous island era, their existence maintained a basic stability of social order, ensuring mages didn’t run out of new blood to absorb. But in the Academy era, they were no longer useful even for that. This war was the perfect chance for them to disappear. Only families like the Johnson Family — always low-key and firmly obedient to the Council — deserved to remain.
“There are factions among ordinary graduates who are sheltering enemy mages — that’s no surprise. They’re the weakest and most in need of outside help. But there are mage apprentices involved as well?” Avril frowned, unable to understand. Mage apprentices — even if they could only be called “incomplete apprentices” for now — had a status, strength, and worldview far beyond those ordinary people who couldn’t even enter the virtual world. Mages treated apprentices quite well; how could they dare to take such risks?
Silver light flickered in Adam’s eyes as data streamed across the giant screen. Just from observing, he had already calculated the next marching routes and battle locations of the three mortal factions. He replied, “They probably think the same way the free-faction mages did. They want to borrow enemy mages to do some dirty work, then kick them over to us afterward. But they’re still too naive. Some mistakes must not be made.”
He pointed to several regions on the map. “Have the Guardians watch these areas.”
Avril asked, “Are we stopping them from fighting?”
“No. No matter how fiercely mortals fight, they won’t wipe out their entire population. But enemy mages possess inheritances capable of producing monsters and even summoning beings from other planes. Once you detect such things, destroy them immediately.”
After Avril indicated her understanding, Adam turned to Wendy. “Have the Watchers monitor these sixty-seven Super Dimensional Mage Towers.”
“These are…?”
“These are the ones that once sheltered enemy mages. But don’t pressure them too hard — we only need to make them feel pain. No need to corner them like desperate dogs.”
Wendy nodded, then scoffed, “Desperate dogs? They wouldn’t dare. Otherwise, they’d have pressured the Council at the very start of the war.”
This was the convenience of exploration robots and the terror of big-data analysis. Intelligence that once required lengthy surveillance could now be obtained through simple calculation. Sixty-seven — a precise figure — derived from Adam’s analysis of resource allocation and personnel movements in the free mage towers stationed on the Academy Continent. The margin of error would not exceed five percent.
After task assignment, the Guardians and Watchers moved in secret, while Adam continued analyzing the mortal war.
At present, the combined forces of the three mortal factions exceeded two billion. Among them, those with higher education — graduates of various academies — numbered less than one hundred million. The remaining were the most ordinary mortals with no talent. These graduates and incomplete apprentices would have at least ninety percent casualties. Only through raw, bloody lessons could those who came after truly understand. But there was no need to be so harsh on the ordinary mortals. Their survival would better serve as a warning — a living demonstration of the consequences of opposing the mages and forgetting one’s place.
Two months later, the three factions each completed internal unification, selected their leaders, and divided the Academy Continent into three zones.
Five months later, the first three-way chaotic battle began.