The Rules of the World

"Tell me, what the hell was that silver phantom of yours?"

"You’re allowed to have a talent skill, but I’m not?"

Inside the Elven army’s camp, Josh and the others sat around idly in a tent.

Josh looked somewhat depressed and embarrassed now, but more than that, he was annoyed. Looking at Akatosh, he recalled everything that had happened and asked the question.

Honestly, their current situation was rather awkward, and it was all because of Akatosh.

At some point, Akatosh had produced a strange silver phantom. It was enormous, enough to blot out the sky.

Then Akatosh used that phantom to swallow the frozen Smaug whole. It was the first time Josh had ever seen Akatosh devour prey.

Yet the scene Akatosh had created gave Josh an oddly familiar feeling.

Josh did not dwell on it too much. He could just ask the dragon later. But what Josh had not expected was that, after Akatosh finished all that, his body immediately began undergoing a drastic transformation!

The dragon, originally only a little over fifty meters long, rapidly expanded in an instant. As though he were being stretched, his body visibly grew amid a flash of silver light, turning him into a dragon over one hundred and fifty meters long!

That massive body, coupled with his mighty and violent appearance, made every resident of Lake-town tremble in fear.

Perhaps he had been too excited about finally surpassing one hundred meters in size, but once his transformation was complete, Akatosh immediately let out a roar toward the sky.

Under normal circumstances, Akatosh’s roar would not have been a problem. But this time, it left them all utterly stunned.

Akatosh was originally a magic dragon—in simple terms, a dragon with magical abilities. Throughout his long life, he had never stopped using magic.

So when Akatosh roared, he unconsciously infused it with his own magic power.

The result was astonishing. Akatosh’s magic power was also at the Sixth Tier. Even the power he released merely to vent had terrifying destructive force.

As his roar rose, the entirety of Lake-town collapsed with a thunderous crash in that instant. Flames even erupted in many places!

The most miserable one was Lake-town’s mayor. Whether it was fate or whether the man had simply been destined to die in this damned place, the flames formed from the magic that leaked out during Akatosh’s roar incinerated him so thoroughly that not even ash remained. The mayor’s lackey, Alfrid, suffered the same fate.

By the time Josh came to his senses, all of Lake-town was already ruined. The only thing worth being grateful for was that, despite Akatosh’s rampaging magic power, only two people had died. Everyone else had merely been injured. No matter how it was resolved, Josh’s face had gone black at the time.

Fortunately, Lake-town’s mayor and the secretary named Alfrid had not been popular in Lake-town. It would not have been an exaggeration to say they had been utterly detestable.

Their deaths did not make the residents of Lake-town particularly sad. Some of them even seemed to want to cheer—if their homes had not been so extensively destroyed in one go.

Josh was utterly helpless. Although the residents did not say a word, their expressions clearly showed that they were angry but dared not speak.

Josh could only restrain Akatosh first, then discuss the matter with Bard and have Bard convey his apologies.

After some discussion, Josh decided to use part of the money they would obtain from Lonely Mountain to compensate Bard and the other residents of Lake-town for their losses. Thus, the residents had nothing more to complain about.

Led by Bard, they headed toward Lonely Mountain with Thorin and the other Dwarves, while Josh watched Akatosh with a dark expression.

Akatosh seemed to realize that he had done something improper. He gave Josh a sheepish smile, then decisively shrank his body, which was over one hundred and fifty meters long, back into its young dragon form and darted straight into Josh’s tattoo.

Afterward, Josh considered whether he should simply head into Lonely Mountain to find Thorin and the others. But to his surprise, he suddenly sensed a force advancing toward them.

Curious, Josh immediately led Natasha and the others in that direction. They had no intention of spending the night in this ruined town.

In Josh’s memory, only three armies could be approaching from this direction now. One was the Dwarven army of Sauron’s cousin, one was the army of Orcs led by Azog, and the last was the army of the Elf King Thranduil.

However, Josh did not care whose army it was. There was no harm in going over to take a look.

As it turned out, Josh’s luck was quite good. The army he encountered was indeed the Elven army.

When Thranduil saw Josh, he was delighted. But after learning what Josh and the others had done, he was even more dumbfounded—Josh had not only defeated Sauron, but had also killed Smaug!

The Elves could all clearly sense Sauron’s aura. When Sauron had appeared earlier, Thranduil had felt it. But not long afterward, he discovered that Sauron’s aura had become abnormally weak, as though he had suffered grave injuries. Then it fled at once, until it disappeared entirely!

The aura had come quickly and vanished just as quickly. Thranduil had even suspected that he had sensed it incorrectly.

But now he knew that it had not been a mistake at all. It had been done personally by Josh, the one he himself had nominated to become Elf King!

How terrifying was that? Thranduil stood there in a daze for quite a while, but his composure eventually brought him back to his senses. After immediately arranging a room for Josh and the others, he went off to deal with other matters.

Legolas left with Thranduil as well. Without another word, Josh dragged out that bastard Akatosh and gave him a thorough scolding, naturally not forgetting to ask some important questions.

"Talent? That thing was a talent? Why do I feel such a familiar sense of déjà vu?"

"If even a mouse can become a Godslayer, why can’t I make something that’s absolutely no worse than his?"

"…"

Josh fiercely rubbed his brow. This dragon really was shameless. What was Godslayer, and what was this thing of yours?

Even copying someone should be done properly, shouldn’t it? But Josh could not be bothered to criticize Akatosh. After all, Josh himself was an expert at imitation, and now one imitator had run into another.

"Tell me, how did your research into that information go?"

"I’ve already figured it out. I have to say, Josh, this world really left me dumbfounded."

"Oh? Let’s hear it."

Josh was immediately interested. Deciphering a world’s rules was something he had truly never encountered before.

Even when he used to read novels, he rarely learned about such things, because their protagonists had been far too powerful—so powerful that they could directly destroy the rules, or simply learn them from the very beginning.

People like Josh, who had accidentally intercepted a world’s rules, were extremely rare. The thrill of deciphering a world also stirred Josh’s heart.

But Josh suddenly noticed that Akatosh’s dragon face seemed somewhat solemn, carrying an indescribable feeling.

"What is it?" Josh asked curiously.

"Nothing. I was just lamenting how unlucky the people of this world really are."

"Why?"

"You know that Titan the Void drove mad, right? Or rather, that big boss who chose to fight violence with violence when dealing with worlds infected by the Void?"

"You say that as if you aren’t a Void creature now." Josh shrugged, then nodded seriously. "Of course I know. I’m fairly familiar with that guy. Why are you bringing him up?"

Akatosh rolled his eyes at Josh. "Do you think I’d say such nonsense for no reason? It’s because this world’s rules resemble that guy’s methods somewhat. Of course, I’m not talking about what he did after being driven mad, but about the way he dealt with those infected worlds."

"You mean…?"

At that moment, Josh suddenly realized the seriousness of the matter. He was not stupid. With a hint like that from Akatosh, if he still could not understand, then Josh might as well stop trying.

Simply put, Sargeras’s approach to infected worlds was to wipe them out directly—simple and brutal.

It could also be compared to a computer infected by a virus. Rather than using antivirus software and slowly removing it, he chose the simplest and most brutal method—formatting the entire thing!

Although that was highly effective, everything stored on that computer would be gone as well.

"Of course, this world isn’t quite that cruel. It merely took certain measures to keep itself running normally and reduce the burden its living beings placed on it."

"Things like Orcs, and fallen, dark beings like Morgoth and Sauron?"

Josh stroked his chin. If that was the case, then everything seemed explainable.

What kind of person was Morgoth? He was a god in the truest sense of the word. Even if it was only within this world, his status was there.

What could interfere with or influence a god’s descent into darkness?

The simplest answer was the influence of this world’s rules, and the purpose was to reduce the number of living beings in this world!

At first, Josh could not understand why such rules would exist. Would it not be better for the world to remain peaceful?

But after Akatosh explained it, Josh understood. "Haven’t you noticed that the living beings in this world coexist far too harmoniously? If there were no common enemy for them to resist, then this world would likely find it difficult to experience a war in the true sense of the word. So…"

"So under the influence of the world’s rules—or rather, after the world’s rules actively altered things—Morgoth, Sauron, and creatures such as those dragons, beings labeled as darkness, appeared. Is that right?"

"Yes. It must be said that the rules of a world are the most cold-blooded and the most terrifying things of all."