Chapter 337: The Second Playthrough
As Ace spoke his question, he strode quickly into the somewhat unstable celestial river. The already thin power of fate seemed to be dissipating.
He dove headfirst into the starlight and shadows. A deadly suffocation and pulling force assaulted him. Ace sank slowly—sinking, sinking, and sinking some more.
Gasp!
Ace suddenly snapped his eyes open. The stars of the Pocket World swirled around him. The celestial river had vanished. Everything was so real and clear.
“Am I simulating a choice of fate, or has fate truly begun?”
For a moment, Ace was confused.
“Last time, I wasted too much time in the Pocket World and missed the critical window of opportunity. My trap setup was also too crude. This time, it will be absolutely different!”
Ace left the Pocket World immediately, leaving his divine clone behind, and returned to the starting point once again.
Shortly after appearing in the West Tower, the Councilors of the Magic Council rushed over to see him.
Ace looked at Daina, whose eyes were teary with a mix of shock and joy. He reached out and gently stroked her cheek.
Daina looked flattered and overwhelmed, stars practically shining in her eyes. She seemed unable to believe it.
Since escaping the Northern March Fortress, Ace hadn’t had any physical contact with Daina for fifteen years. Such an intimate gesture was beyond her imagination.
Subconsciously, she clutched the pendant on her chest tightly, the vitality within it surging.
This time, although Ace still couldn’t speak, he had the memories and experience from the last run. Plus, he had returned to the main world more than half a month earlier, giving him ample time to prepare.
He immediately organized personnel to set up an ambush along the Punishers’ inevitable route. He also recalled Ancestar and the others from the south to strengthen the defense within the city.
The regional Magic Councils in the Northern City-States were also mobilized by Ace, actively searching for traces of the Punishers. A Warlock who had been tailing the Punishers achieved a great merit by quietly leaking their movements to Ace.
Ace launched a preemptive harassment attack on the Punishers. Using “Elemental Disjunction,” he dissolved the female craftsman’s equipment, assassinated her, and took away the strange bow and arrow that couldn’t be destroyed by the spell. Unfortunately, since this was a premonition of fate, Ace couldn’t analyze what the strange bow actually was here.
Subsequently, Ace killed several Perception Heroes among the Punishers, lured the rest into the traps in the northern part of the territory, and sacrificed the entire Mining Town to wipe out the invading Punishers.
The severely injured Great Hero Karim was hunted down by Ace all the way to a crossroad ten miles from Milne City-State, where he finally died.
Ace returned to the High Tower Territory with light steps.
“This time, it’s definitely a perfect ending!”
However, nothing went as Ace expected. The entire territory had become a paradise for Shadow Demons. Abyssal projections had corrupted the place. Alex (Great Demon Alex) had killed everyone who stayed behind. Only Betty and a few others managed to escape on a Magic Ship and inform Ace of everything.
It turned out that shortly after Ace left, Alex arrived with an army of demons. Betty, Polina, Caruso, and others urgently organized an evacuation.
Ancestar, Arno, Daina, and Ollie fought to the death and were all killed in battle. To allow the Magic Ship to escape, Caruso transformed himself into a giant beast, desperately holding Alex back until he died.
Ace wandered through the territory, now transformed into an abyssal projection, his heart filled with agony.
“Last time, Alex didn’t appear. Why did Alex lead an all-out demon invasion of the High Tower this time? Was recalling Ancestar and the others a mistake?”
Ace fell into deep self-doubt and confusion. He had recalled Ancestar and the others thinking the Knights wouldn’t be able to resist the demons anyway, so it was better to consolidate their strength. He hadn’t expected to fail even so.
“It’s okay. This is all a hint from fate, just a possibility, not reality. Now I need to use this hint to figure out what that terrifying black shadow at Mt. Baal is!”
He took a detour to Mt. Baal, investigating thoroughly but finding nothing—no so-called terrifying black shadow, no tangible hatred.
Ace eventually shifted his suspicion to Alex. He launched a suicidal attack on Alex. Since the entire territory had been converted into an abyssal projection, Alex possessed the strength of a bottom-tier Legendary here.
Ace was easily crushed and killed.
Splash!
emerging from the river, he spat out several mouthfuls of water violently. He was certain Alex wasn’t the black shadow. Although Alex’s pseudo-Legendary power was despair-inducing, he didn’t have that thick ominous aura or the terrifying heart-palpitations of the black shadow.
“From a timeline perspective, the time I fled to Mt. Baal in the first playthrough basically matches the time I returned to the High Tower Territory in the second playthrough.
“In the first playthrough, Alex didn’t appear. This is very likely related to that heart-palpitating black shadow. During the time Ancestar was stationed at Mt. Baal, what exactly happened? Why didn’t the immensely powerful Alex show up, and how was that black shadow formed?”
The confusion in Ace’s heart didn’t diminish; instead, more questions flooded his mind.
He lay on the edge of the river, trying hard to calm himself. The river of intertwined starlight and shadows remained deep. Just looking at it, he could feel some ethereal yet decisive power.
The river seemed to be thinning. Ace didn’t rush to enter it to explore a new choice of fate. Instead, he activated the Eye of Truth (Pseudo), attempting to peep into its secrets.
Layered, dazzling rune structures appeared in Ace’s eyes. Under those extremely complex 3D rune structures, everything in the Pocket World was revealed down to the finest detail.
However, this “everything” did not include the mysterious river. Under the observation of the Eye of Truth (Pseudo), there was no river there at all—nothing!
Cold sweat broke out on Ace’s back, and goosebumps rose all over his skin.
“Does fate possess such a high level of mystery? The Eye of Truth (Pseudo) can’t identify it at all, let alone understand its principles. What exactly did I do to pluck the strings of fate, causing fate to favor me and grant me this opportunity to peek into the future? What method can I use to replicate this opportunity? Or even analyze its secrets?”
Ace let out a string of sighs. The world of magic was so enchanting, the supernatural so mysterious. Even knowing a crisis was imminent, he was still intoxicated by this miracle, seduced by the principles behind it.
The river was getting thinner and thinner. Ace stopped observing and hesitating. He strode forward, stepping into the river.
Starlight and shadows intertwined, swallowing Ace’s figure. A corner of the future seemed to be lifted. Great Fate was like a mischievous maiden.
She seemed to be teasing her lover, lifting the hem of her skirt slightly, only to cover it up tightly again immediately and run away fast, leaving behind only silver-bell-like laughter and her lover’s infinite melancholy.
Ace’s suffocation grew severe. Gasp!
He opened his eyes. The stars shone brilliantly, and all things in the world bowed at his feet. This was the Pocket World, the place where the third time began.
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