Chapter 891: Info-Wars
<span style="font-weight:400">As the fastest of the forward groups, it only took Kruz’s group roughly twenty minutes of flying before they reached the area that Lana’s information had mentioned being the gate to the next level. Naturally, he noticed the looks of others who saw the gods flying through the air, but he didn’t pay them much mind. ording to the information Lana received through her divinity, there were quite a few gods in this world, though they did not oftene to this location.
<span style="font-weight:400">At the same time, there were parts of the information that he couldn’t really make sense of. For instance, there were numerous references to the void, a concept that Kruz wasn’t familiar with. The worst part of using Lana’s divinity for purposes like this was that she only read the mon knowledge’ of an area. While people in this area knew that the void existed, and had epted such as fact, knowledge on what exactly the void was would be far harder toe by.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was the same as knowing that a car existed without knowing exactly whatponents go into creating one. That was the dilemma that Kruz was facing at the moment, and why he was eager to travel to a more advanced area. Densely popted cities often contained more individuals with a better grasp of the world, making that information more easily essible.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Conserve your energy for now, Lana.</i><span style="font-weight:400"> Kruz sent her through a divine channel. <i><span style="font-weight:400">We can’t afford to use up all your divinity before we have the information we need.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Lana nodded her head in agreement. She knew how precious her own power was inrge-scale infiltrations. She disabled most of her passive abilities, even if they only consumed a small amount of divinity, so that she would be able to afford to use it on information gatheringter. The only ability she continued to maintain was the obfuscation that would prevent others from using their divinity or magic to spy on the group.
<span style="font-weight:400">Kruz closed his eyes and focused as the five walked through the ck stone tform, finding no resistance from the gate. Soon, they were in an entirely different region, the gravity having just slightly increased for them. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Get Borok to start producing the currency of this world. We’ll need it to purchase travel through the gates.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">There were clearly developments that had urred in this world since the first information that they had received from their own Keeper. For instance, the gates between worlds were no longerrge tforms that teleported groups all at once, but had instead be circr portals that people could walk through at their own pace whenever they connected. Such discrepancies showed the age of the original information.
<span style="font-weight:400">Unfortunately for Kruz, he wasn’t aware that his group had already been marked as suspicious.
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<i><span style="font-weight:400">Five gods?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> A young kitsune woman thought internally, keeping a smile on her face as she skipped down the street. <i><span style="font-weight:400">They don’t seem to match any of the retired deities in this area.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">The girl looked no more than twelve years old, wearing a frilly pink dress and carrying a matching bag under one arm. She had silver hair, and was humming to herself as she made her way to the store. As she did, she saw five more streaks of light in her peripherals. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Another five? There were only eight gods residing in the fourteenth floor of Fyor. Maybe some would havee to visit through the void, but then why are they flying to the gate?</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">She couldn’t be med for her suspicions, as gate travel was far less convenient than simply being able toe and go through the void. As she entered the store, one with a sign in the shape of a coin, a split eye on the face of the coin, she smiled at the shopkeeper. “Hello! Nice to see you again, sir!” She waved, moving over to look at the different items on sale.
<span style="font-weight:400">The shopkeeper, a felyn man appearing in histe thirties, furrowed his brow at the actions of the girl. He was familiar with her, of course, but the greeting that she used was one that had been established with their group. If there was nothing to report, the operative would enter the store quietly, grab some mundane item or sweets, and then leave with a polite thanks.
<span style="font-weight:400">The fact that she went to the sales counter after that greeting meant that there was something special. “Hmm…” She muttered to herself while looking over the different items. “It’s been getting more crowded around heretely. Maybe we should move away? No, I’m sure it’ll pass.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Although she seemed to be muttering to herself, the shopkeeper was keeping track of every word she said. <i><span style="font-weight:400">More crowded? Then there are visitors that are unexpected. And… two sentences of five words, so two groups of five.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">The shopkeeper had an amiable smile as he looked at the girl. “I haven’t heard of any major groups moving into the area. Perhaps it’s just your imagination, dear?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hmm.. maybe!” The girl nodded her head in agreement. <i><span style="font-weight:400">So there haven’t been any reports to indicate the gods would be here before, then?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> She thought her words over for a moment, grabbing a pair of discounted sweets. “I’ll just have to tell Grandpa about it when I get home!”
<span style="font-weight:400">To any observers, this was simply a casual exchange between a kind shopkeeper and a young customer. Only the duo knew the information that they were exchanging. The shopkeeper nodded his head with a light chuckle. “Do give him my regards.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Once the girl had left, the shopkeeper continued to tend to the other customers. He briefly brought his hands together, synchronizing his memories with his Virtual self.
<span style="font-weight:400">Within Virtual, the shopkeeper had a far more stern look, sitting at arge desk on a private server, hundreds of others seated at simr desks around him. Several of these people had begun typing out messages on their terminals, chronicling every vaguely suspicious group or phenomenon that they noticed.
<span style="font-weight:400">As soon as the memories came in, the man leaned forward to begin typing as well. “Two groups of five unknown deities sighted on their way to the fifteenthyer of Fyor, at Gate’s Rise. Querying for a report of their arrival. If there is no report, mark it as a high priority investigation.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Lana’s obfuscation was more than capable of protecting them from supernatural observation methods. However, when it came to being observed with the naked eye, it would only use more energy than it was worth to make others not aware of their presence. After all, they were seeking to blend in.
<span style="font-weight:400">Unfortunately, the hardest moment for them to blend in was naturally the very first moments of their arrival, before they were able to spread out and form different groups. The shopkeeper watched his screen, seeing information appearing. However, it was not reports of the group’s arrival, and instead was about numerous other groups that all originated from the same area.
<span style="font-weight:400">With every simr report, the information was elevated to the next level, reaching those in the higher ranks. By the time that fifty gods had been reported in total, the news had reached the Grand Elder of the ns. At this point, the group had already been gged for observation, several of their images reproduced from memory to share with the rest of themunity.
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<span style="font-weight:400">I wasn’t having much luck scouring the various worlds with my World Sight, though such was to be expected. If anything, it would take a miracle to happen to find the invaders, which numbered over five thousand. I was primarily focusing on checking remote inds on Earth, seeing if they had spawned in one of those regions.
<span style="font-weight:400">As I was, the other gods and goddesses were idling around, waiting for some form of news toe in. Suddenly, the Terra sisters looked at their Virtual watch, which was blinking. After synchronizing, they jolted upright. “We’ve got a potential lead!” One of them shouted, the other one quickly reading out the energy that had been sent to their Virtual selves.
<span style="font-weight:400">“One hundred deities, all flying in groups of five, making their way through Fyor and moving towards the Fairy Gate. No signs of hostility, but they are unrecognized gods. Additionally, there may be groups following them and moving in simr groups, but that is an unconfirmed report due to them being mortals.” The other sister finished.
<span style="font-weight:400">Immediately, I shifted the focus of my mirrors to the fifteenth floor of Fyor, spreading my World Sight throughout the area. If the information wasing from Terra, then that meant that the ninjas had found them. Given the dy in information transfer, I had to assume that they would be near the gate soon.
<span style="font-weight:400">Now that I had a target to observe, it was just a matter of waiting. World Sight was an incredibly powerful detection-based energy that had no other uses aside from scouting. Unlike other energybinations, there weren’t different ways to use the energy other than to spread it over an area and observe the information it sent back. This made it particrly unpopr among Keepers, as they sought more versatile abilities. However, World Sight was able to observe, to my knowledge, everything in the world. More importantly, it could do so without being detected, unless the other party simrly possessed that energy.
<span style="font-weight:400">After roughly half an hour, I ‘saw’ a group walking towards the gate, which had just activated to connect to Kione. This group did not appear within my mirrors, which felt rather odd, but they were visible to my World Sight. As I observed them, I saw a girl from the group looking upwards, gazing in the direction that I had ced my mirror.
<span style="font-weight:400">Having been detected, it would be more suspicious if the point of focus were to suddenly vanish. So, instead, I had it remain in ce, as if performing a regr security sweep. I did, however, ce a number of barriers on my side of the mirror, just in case they had some means to attack me through it.
<span style="font-weight:400">“So, they all have three domains?” I asked in surprise. Given what we knew of UpperLevel, I expected to see individuals with more. Either this was a lower power guild, some simple advanced troops, or… they might have had some kind of system that forcibly sealed their domains. If that was the case, even my World Sight wouldn’t be able to vite the system.
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<i><span style="font-weight:400">Is everything alright, Lana?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> Kruz asked mentally, a smile on his face as he handed over a handful of coins to the gate attendant, preparing to walk through. They wouldn’t know until they were on the other side whether or not the next world was the one where the Keeper was staying. However, at the very least, they’d be able to probe the informationwork again to learn more about the ‘divine world’.
<i><span style="font-weight:400">It’s fine. There was a divine power probing at the observation field. It’s been here since we arrived, so… likely the localw enforcement monitoring world travel.</i><span style="font-weight:400"> If Lana still had her other passive abilities operational, she likely would have sensed that someone else had managed to acquire information about her, but that was impossible after taking those powers down to conserve energy.
<span style="font-weight:400">Kruz gave a small nod at that. It wasn’t the first time that they had entered a monitored zone since arriving in Fyor, though it was the first one watched by a god. However, given the importance of the area, it did make sense to pay special attention to this location.
<span style="font-weight:400">Once the group was through the portal, Lana’s eyes pulsed once again, a smile tugging at her lips. Sure enough, this area had far more information than the ce where they had first appeared. <i><span style="font-weight:400">I’ve discovered the method of entering the divine world, and it is something any god from our group should be capable of.</i>
<i><span style="font-weight:400">Oh?</i><span style="font-weight:400"> Kruz couldn’t help ncing back at her. Was the security of the divine world socking?
<i><span style="font-weight:400">All you have to do is say out loud that you wish to enter the divine realm, and the power of the Goddess of Travel will take you there automatically. Afterwards, saying that you wish to return to the mortal realm will bring you back to the point you departed from.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">When Kruz heard that, he gave a small chuckle. <i><span style="font-weight:400">Mara, you go to this divine realm, and see if the Keeper is there. Whether or not he is, return after ten minutes. Onlye back sooner if you encounter danger.</i>
<span style="font-weight:400">Mara gave a shy nod of her head, looking around before walking off to an alley and muttering to herself. “I wish to enter the divine realm.” She said, golden mist wrapping around her body and causing her to vanish.