Chapter 201: Kazimierz

Sensing that the gaze had disappeared, Shiro cancelled his [Lord of the Mysteries], concealing his "true form" once more. To be exact, his [Supreme Magus] true form that came from the past.

Just to be sure, he used his past form to scare them even more. If he uses what he has right now... it won't achieve the same effect as it had now.

'They should be scared for a while.' He thought. "Everything got fucking ridiculous."

Shiro sighed as he thought of the problem right now. Turns out, Terra also suffers from the threat known as "Outer Gods". Moreover, it should be comparable to Romani's world.

Due to his ascension, he could now see new things. One of them is the [World Barrier], which can also be called as the [Fake Sky] of Terra. The former is something set up by the world itself, a protective mechanism, to shield itself from harmful external substances. Meanwhile, the latter is what Shiro called to the continuous corruption of the said "Foreigners".

To protect its denizens, the [World Barrier] changed everyone's perception about the sky; that everything looks normal... subjectively, that is.

There's a limit on the barrier's protection, hence some of Terra's atmosphere are already infiltrated by it. Due to the power's inherent nature, it basically has the effects of a [Divine Form].

With one look alone, a normal Terran would become crazy and be "corrupted" by the will of the Outer Gods. Their fundamental qualities that make up their "existence" will be forcibly altered, turning them into a will of the said foreigners.

Hence, the barrier shielded the common populace's perception about the sky.

Shiro fiddled with his [Dimensional Storage] for a while before taking out a lollipop wrapped in an orange wrapper. Taking it off, he then put it inside his mouth.

[Ordinary Candy (SS)]

Details: Confectionary made when a certain being is bored. Removes mental fatigue when taken.

A cool feeling appeared in his head as he wore the [Blindfold] again. He could already perfectly control its output, but it'll cause a slight fatigue, which is in contrast to just wearing something and be done with it.

"Hah... Let's just go to Kazimiers for now and deal with these later." He mumbled as he summoned forth [Motored Curassier] and rode it.

Zoom-!

*****

Kazimiers.

A country of knights. Here, the most noble profession is to be a [Knight] who would protect their country from foreign invaders. They symbolized bravery and valiance, at least until the modern era forced the country to change.

They don't have a strong economy such as Columbia, no strong military force such as Ursus, and their Feranmuts had withdrawn to the shadows. Furthermore, there was a special case of a knight retainer being filthy rich by investing his assets, pushing the other knight-retainers to do the same.

Due to this, the power balance switched from the aristocratic knights who defended their homeland to the rich people instead. With that, the former "Country of Knights" is now synonymous to a modern-economic country. A tournament, the Kazimierz Grand Major, was able established to generate more income during that time and have their own trademark.

There, "Knights" would fight each other in varying formats until a sole winner is crowned as "The Grand Knight".

In the end, the "noble" and "valiant" knights were reduced into a money-making machine...

Cardinal looked at the bustling sight of their capital city, Kawalerielki; being on the 20th floor had only enhanced this sight.

"It's different here."

After leaving her <Accelerated State>, she reviewed thousands of information present in their network. Even the three ruling organizations wasn't spared from her hacking, though she didn't go further as she saw 'something' defending their virtual data.

Cardinal sensed that it is something 'inexplicable', making her think that the Feranmuts of this country left something to defend their crucial data in the future.

Still, what she found out is enough. For example, the "Armorless Union", an organization made with assassins, is actually leashed to the Kazimierz General Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, she found out that they indeed possess their information, albeit they are insignificant in her eyes.

Their company, Nexus, had abruptly risen up in this world in under half a year. Of course, this attracted the attention of many forces. Spies, espionage work, assassination attempts... she and the high-ranking officers had experienced it.

With her intelligence and the chat group behind her, she managed to resolve EVERY single one of it.

Spies? Everything would be known after she casts the [Heart Mirror] spell.

Espionage work? Good luck in finding valuable intel when her highest officers are all <Top-Down AI> that she made.

Assassination attempts? Would a miniature anti-matter bomb in their base work?

Simply put, they hold the first mover's advantage due to the fact that Cardinal and Strea are both <Top-Down AI>. When their souls got materialized, they inherited the advantage over their processing speed.

Heck, they had even eliminated a few Feranmuts through the use of chat group items, deterring the world from having any evil thoughts against them—save for the few behemoths who are still looking for their bottom line.

That, and the strange creatures that are constantly targeting them.

"Boss, the Northern Sargon Branch was attacked just now. Miss Zumama successfully repelled them using the latest H-1 unit."

A report was reported to Cardinal's earpiece. It came from one of the twelve <Officials> who serves as the highest commanding officers under Cardinal. as always, he has this unhurried and lazy tone, something that he himself had developed since Cardinal gave them free reign over their early development.

This made them more humane than before.

"Mn. Alert the other branches and deploy the pre-planned units for now."

"Acknowledged."

Bzzt-!

Just as Cardinal thought that everything is over, another line connected with hers.

"Boss, Miss Strea caused trouble once again..." A tired female voice rang out from the opposite side.

Boom-!

A muffled sound came from her side.

"She's fighting as we speak."

Hearing this, Cardinal also let out an exasperated sigh which was heard by the woman in the line.

"It's your unlucky day today." She said.

"Sigh... I'll go handle this for now."

Beep-!

Thinking about the carefree Strea, she wasn't really surprised that she'll cause some troubles. Still, they had only arrived here two days ago. She thought that everything might go smoothly this time, but alas...

*****

Few moments ago...

Sharp metal needles surrounded Strea and her bodyguard. Dozens of men are all around them, pointing their weapons straight at the carefree girl in the purple dress.

"You think you can escape after everything you've done?!"

"Would you believe that everything is an accident..?" Strea asked.

"..."

The men went silent. They thought of how one of their members came crashing down straight at their base in the slums. The others had tried avenging that guy, but they are beaten black and blue until it alerted everyone in their underground group.

"I swear, him flying in your direction is unintentional! I was trying to throw him in the garbage dump, but he's much weaker than I thought."

For a moment, everyone else is dumbfounded...

*****

A/N: So... I forgot to address the special occasion yesterday. We're now at the 200th chapter!

TWO. HUNDRED. It's quite hard to believe that we reached this stage, actually. To be honest, I was once discouraged to write for a while due to some circumstances such as comments sh*tt*ng in this fic. I understand that everyone has two sides (or even more) in this regard, but it does hurt for me to see these, considering the amount of effort, research, and the likes that I put in here. I write each characters meticulously, trying my best to not make them 2D characters. Heck, I even went through hundreds of dialogues just to better characterize them...

Still, I would like to thank you guys who kept supporting me up until now. Truly, your encouraging comments makes me more at ease and satisfied. What's more, it kept my interest to explore each anime worlds better, which is kinda my dream back when I first discovered anime. You know, learning more information, going deeper in the details, changing the unsatisfactory plot of a certain anime... Lastly, seeing other people enjoying this work brings a smile to my face :)

To that, thank you everyone! Onwards to the 300th chapter milestone~!