Chapter 422: Chapter 408: Transmission Beacon (2nd Update)

Thorne was directly pulled into the instance lord’s dorm by Jiang Qiao, and as he scanned the five Knights surrounding him, he felt a bit pressured.

Although the assassination of Queen Mei was a play directed by Jiang Qiao, the effects were too realistic, so much so that it was difficult for the Knights to interact with Thorne kindly when they saw him again.

But that was limited only to the dangerous glint in the Knights’ eyes, as Thorne still found a chair in the lord’s dormitory garden and sat down.

“Do you guys want to establish connections with the various planes on the star map?”

After listening to Jiang Qiao’s commission, Thorne sat down and came to this conclusion.

“Strictly speaking, we just want to… lure some wild gods from the star map to Biland Island. There should be such gods on the star map, right? Those without a plane of their own, wandering through various planes?”

“Yes, many.”

A pale white glow condensed in Thorne’s hand, and when the light dissipated, he placed a mechanical component with a breeder’s style on the wooden table in front of him.

“What is this?”

Jiang Qiao picked up the mechanical component Thorne had placed on the table. This part contained powerful energy. If fed to Hai Lan, it could yield about 60,000 to 100,000 points of Creation Energy.

The shape of the mechanical component resembled a perfectly square box, reminiscent of an ancient Divine Artifact left behind by those races in science fiction works where technological evolution comes from archaeological finds.

Such a high-precision instrument was clearly the work of the Sanctuary of Creation, which confirmed that the Breeders were a faction that had split from the Sanctuary of Creation.

“My teleportation beacon.” Thorne then took out an ancient… scroll, utterly mismatched with the high-tech component, and handed it to Jiang Qiao.

Jiang Qiao wasn’t sure of the material the scroll was made from, but it was definitely an ancient record. He opened the scroll and used Hai Lan’s memories to translate it, discovering… it was a user manual.

“It’s a Sacred Object, created by the rare cooperation between the Alliance of Gods and the Sanctuary of Creation… It connects the big and small planes of the star map. There are many copied models in the Sanctuary of Creation. This one of mine is among the prototypes,” Thorne explained.

“The usual rule where the prototype is stronger than the mass-produced ones? Let me see… Let me explain the function of this thing.”

Having read the instruction manual, Jiang Qiao began to understand what this teleportation beacon was for.

“Once activated, it’s like opening a teleportation formation to Biland Island on the star map? It will attract people from all corners of the star map… to Biland Island?” asked Jiang Qiao.

“That’s just the basic function. My teleportation beacon can limit the power threshold of the teleportees. To put it in Holy Spirit terminology, it’s like restricting the level of the teleportees. You can set the level cap to fifty, so only lifeforms below level fifty can pass through this beacon. Moreover, whether a teleportee can use this beacon has to pass my review, which I can grant to you. Remember, this is a feature only available with prototypes,” Thorne explained, though it was unclear whether he was boasting or simply recounting facts to Jiang Qiao.

“That’s too convenient…”

Jiang Qiao could rephrase Thorne’s explanation in the style of a game.

The teleportation beacon is like an upgraded version of the open recruitment system, which is open to the entire star map.

Some foreign NPCs would teleport into the city built by the Holy Spirits through the beacon and move through the city as tourists.

As the game planner and official system authority, Jiang Qiao could vet requests from these foreign NPCs. If NPCs like those from the Obliteration Legion or Void Swarm, or other potentially hostile characters that could wreak havoc on the city, Jiang Qiao could exclude them preemptively.

“Eternal*Thorne, there are some things you shouldn’t hide.”

The previously slumbering Black Ash Knight suddenly peeked out from a pancake box with two pairs of glossy black eyes fixed on Thorne.

It seemed as if he had deliberately concealed his presence before Thorne arrived.

“Hide what?”

Upon hearing the Black Ash Knight’s reminder, Jiang Qiao realized that he knew nothing of Thorne’s past, only that he had served in the Obliteration Legion.

“I didn’t hide anything; you just didn’t ask,” Thorne paused before continuing, “It’s nothing serious. My true identity on the star map is actually that of a fugitive, wanted by the Sanctuary of Creation… a fugitive.”

“Then… if I activate this teleportation beacon…”

If Jiang Qiao remembered correctly, the manual indicated that each teleportation beacon was unique–so unique that those who received its transmission could sense who the owner was.

“All the Bounty Hunters on the star map who want to drag me back to the Sanctuary of Creation will swarm here, I guess. It’s hard to avoid high popularity,” Thorne scratched his stubbled chin, “I joined the Obliteration Legion in the past to evade their pursuit. In earlier years, I even stayed on the home star of the Void Swarm. I just haven’t had a chance to see the sights at the Core of the Abyss. But now, being sheltered by the Devouring God feels pretty good as well.”

Incredible, this master swordsman really lived off the various calamitous forces on the star map.

“Are you sure this thing can limit the levels of the teleportees?”

Jiang Qiao certainly didn’t want the beacon to be activated only for a bunch of monsters above level hundred to pop out.

“I stake my life on that,” Thorne’s voice became extremely serious, losing the listless feeling it had before.

“Then let’s try activating it here.”

Jiang Qiao placed the palm-sized teleportation beacon on the ground, while the combat power of the five Knights also increased as they absorbed the power of the creatures from Black Tide Island.

Now, the Lion Heart Knight had reached level eighty, Queen Mei was slightly behind at level seventy-nine. It was just a shame that such pure-blooded descendants of the Devouring God with a lord-level character are so rare in the star chart.

With the five Knights and Queen Mei present, along with Jiang Qiao in his creator state, even if any creature above level hundred were to break into the instance lord’s dormitory, it would simply be delivering itself.

After all, this was Jiang Qiao’s territory.

“Using either the mother crystal or Divine Power Crystal to fill that groove can activate it, which would need about ten lord-level mother crystals a day… that’s the right term, lord-level mother crystals. For Divine Power Crystals, around two hundred,” Thorne looked as if he hadn’t used this thing in a long time.

Jiang Qiao, unsparing, poured all two hundred Divine Power Crystals into the groove under the piteous gaze of the Lake God.

The teleportation beacon began to glow, and soon after, a plethora of complicated text options appeared before Jiang Qiao. These were the texts of the breeders… Hai Lan’s memory contained such texts, as her memory held all the scripts of civilizations in the star chart.

After limiting the level of the teleportation beacon to below sixty-five, Jiang Qiao chose to first make the teleportation request known to hundreds of surrounding planes.

About half an hour after the teleportation request was sent out, Jiang Qiao hadn’t received any response… This made Jiang Qiao look suspiciously at Thorne.

“Not everyone knows about my Bounty Order. You need something else to attract them,” Thorne said.

“Something else?” Jiang Qiao could only be considered a country bumpkin in the star chart, who knew what the ‘city folk’ wanted there.

“Weapons forged by the Devouring God,” Thorne took out the Underworld Flame Knife Jiang Qiao had given him and said, “After the fall of the Devouring God, everyone in the star chart considers her Divine Fragments to be absolute treasures. One reason is to steal the power of the Devouring God, and the other is… they want the weapons personally forged by the Devouring God, as well as her followers who were endowed with her Divine Power.”

Jiang Qiao understood this; the God of Casting had spent a lifetime just to strengthen a single piece of equipment for the players. He hadn’t expected that weapons from the holies would also be so hotly sought after in the NPC circles of the star chart.

“Let me ask again, the coordinates of this place… they shouldn’t be exposed, right?”

According to the information Jiang Qiao obtained from the breeders, the communication between the many distant planes in the star chart was tremendously difficult, and it was unknown how many planes there were outside the jurisdiction of the Sanctuary of Creation. However, each plane was under the scrutiny of the Pantheon Alliance since the highest echelons of the Pantheon Alliance were one with the laws of the star chart.

The laws of the Pantheon Alliance wouldn’t pose a threat to the players, but Jiang Qiao didn’t rule out the possibility of the Sanctuary of Creation deciding to eliminate Biland Island and the holies.

“It won’t be, prototype,” Thorne once again assured, “otherwise, I wouldn’t have been free in the star chart for so long.”

Jiang Qiao still didn’t believe Thorne’s answer when, at that moment, the teleportation beacon finally started to receive a trickle of applications.

“So detailed… hm?” Jiang Qiao, reading through these applications, realized they were like identity proofs. The applicants stated which faction they belonged to, what race, their ages, levels, names, and even the current plane they were in–Jiang Qiao could see all of this information on the applications.

“The Sanctuary of Creation is the most advanced technological civilization in the star chart. To use their teleportation beacon, the most basic requirement is registration, even if the space pirates would register their information on it,” Thorne explained.

“Your reputation seems quite poor in the star chart?” Jiang Qiao remarked after checking some notes added by the applicants in their applications.

The remarks were full of curses in various languages, such as Void Swarm swear words, Eternals’ swear words, and god-specific swear words and the like.

“I don’t think so… huh? These guys are still alive; well, they are Eternals after all,” Thorne noted, seeing some familiar names flash across the teleportation beacon.

“Are these Eternals stronger or weaker than you?”

Jiang Qiao had already seen applications from two Eternals on the beacon.

“Definitely weaker, they wouldn’t be a match for me even after ten thousand years, since they used to be my apprentices,” Thorne responded confidently, which, to Jiang Qiao, sounded utterly impregnable.

“Interesting.”

Jiang Qiao looked at the gradually increasing number of applications. Many had various reasons, mostly those who wanted to greet Thorne and drag him back, and others questioned whether there was really a relic of the Devouring God.

And more… they all claimed it.

This gave Jiang Qiao the idea of an intriguing game mechanic to construct. Thorne was not someone just anyone could challenge at this stage–even players had to queue up for a long time.

If you NPCs want to fight Thorne… then you’ll have to defeat the players first.

“Let me think about how to implement it, looks like I’ll be busy today,” Jiang Qiao began to study what other functions this teleportation beacon might have.