Chương 49

I saw everybody cheering for me from the walls, and they looked extremely happy. They almost couldn't believe their eyes. And I had to say, even in the deep night, with the sea of bones all around me — or maybe exactly because of the sea of bones all around me — I was cutting a pretty heroic figure. Maybe I should thrust this glaive in the air and get a little cheering going on here, I thought, a little vain about the whole thing. But I had just killed the enemy that was trying to destroy us. So why not indulge?

And yet, right before I could go through with this little plot of mine to be cheered at, something happened. There was a bit where everything slowed down and then drained of color for me. I could see Regulus jump down the walls, ready to come pick me up. But he was in slow-mo now. I had a good idea where this was going. Well — where I was going. I found myself on a leather chair with a cheering audience shouting and clapping.

"People, here's your hero," Lotheriel said with a strained face. He had called me here probably to run some damage control, if I had to take a wild guess.

"Well, John, wasn't that an unusual approach? Do you like pushing down women in the ground and mounting them like that?" Lotheriel laughed, and all the audience followed with him.

"I loved it," I said, smiling.

"I love when the undead are trying to sneak a level 30 undead through God knows what ritual into my tutorial and, you know, make my whole race go extinct because they somehow found a loophole to fuck with us." That gave Lotheriel whiplash, and the audience went silent, with a few people oohing in surprise and curiosity. Lotheriel put a hand on his desk and leaned over to me.

"You understand those are mighty accusations, and without any proof, you're going to make a fool of yourself, John."

"Oh, I need proof?" I said, feigning surprise. Lotheriel smiled so wildly it looked like the corners of his mouth were gonna leave his face.

"Of course you need proof. What show do you think this is? We don't just peddle fake news."

"Right," I said, nodding.

"Oh my God. Thank you for saving me from the embarrassment."

"Yeah, John, you have been embarrassing yourself a little. That was not a great way to win a battle. And what you did to that poor woman…" I kept smiling while Lotheriel described how a tragic Bryce had suffered so much at my hand because of my cruelty, and I let it go on for a while, and then I just said, "You know, Lotheriel, I actually have some surprise footage for you." Lotheriel laughed and snorted.

"What do you mean, John? We already have everything you could show us. Trust me, we have prepared a real compilation of it that our audience is going to love. It's going to show the true John and—""Well, how about I show some proof, right?" Lotheriel froze, frowning, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, some things were said to me in the cathedral, and I would love to hear your opinion on all of it. You're the host, right? Like, the official host of this tutorial. So here, let me… Wait a second. Let me see how I can share this recording." Stolen novel; please report. And before I could even open my streaming tab, a prompt appeared, saying: Share the recording. I had taken some time to cut it. But I immediately showed what the Liches had said during the boss fight at the end of the dungeon.

Lotheriel looked away from me and at his production team, shouting things that couldn't be heard, as if he had just muted himself. Then he quickly came back while the reel was still uploading, and he called me out.

"Well, John, where is this reel of yours? Didn't you say you have something to show us?" And finally, the scene played.

"Silence, little kitten," the level fifteen lich said on the giant screens that had appeared all over the studio and all over the tutorial.

"Finally, our entire plan has come to fruition. General Skullthrax said that you would fall for this, John O'Donnell."

"Oh, General Skullthrax" — now it was me talking — "who is outside of this tutorial, and part of the Sorvos Empire, told you about this, about me. Despite the fact that he really shouldn't have — not only much information about me, but a way to communicate with you, right?"

"It matters not, John O'Donnell. This Cathedral of Undeath is not available to the System's scrutiny at the moment. The System does not reach everything at every single time. It is fallible, and you will die — unfairly so." I heard gasps from the audience, and I crossed my arms in delight.

"So you're admitting that you're breaking System rules, right? Like, this is a straight-up admission that General Skullthrax is tampering with the dungeon to an extent that one might call illegal?"

"Sure." The Lich laughed.

"Will this realization make your death lighter?" And then it cut to us killing the Liches.

"So," I said as the reel wound down and Lotheriel's face had gone extremely pale, "it appears that we have proof that the Sorvos Empire tampered with our dungeon, that they could communicate with the undead in the tutorial, and that someone was also feeding them info about me, it seems. They must have had someone on the inside, right?" I said with a big smile toward the elf.

"A friend, perhaps." Lotheriel immediately woke up from his reverie.

"Are you trying to insinuate something?"

"Me? Oh, wait. I have another." Next, I played a small sequence of the imprisoned Zosma and her people. I had a way, thanks to the AI's media tab, to change angle. And that made the audience disgusted with the Sorvos Empire — capturing people early in the tutorial, thanks to the manipulations they had made upon the System. Then came the Vainglory fight, showing Alice's real side after she had gotten the heart from me, and how cool she had been.

Last, I showed tonight's duel — since Lotheriel had clearly not shown what I had said to Bryce — where I explained everything. But midway through that, Lotheriel tried shouting, "Okay, enough. We're having technical problems, folks. Sorry, but we have to turn this off and send John back." He looked at me in disgust and hatred. But nothing happened. This transmission has been taken over by the System AI. I crossed my arms and looked at Lotheriel.

"Oh, the System AI is taking over. Is something wrong, Lotheriel? Oh, no. Could it be that there was something found about your show?" Lotheriel suddenly rose to his whole ten feet of height — but the moment he did, he was frozen in place. The host of the show has just been indicted by the System. He shall be punished and executed once the full extent of his crimes is revealed, so that nobody shall ever perpetrate something like that again.

It was an announcement that came in the System voice, and it left everybody shocked. After that, I was sent back to my people with a big, big smile on my whole face. I was teleported straight onto the battlements and hugged by everybody, including Bluemont and his giant sombrero. There was not one ounce of booze in the man, and that's why I said, "Let's go drink." We had just received a notification. The tutorial had decreed that the first floor was complete. They couldn't get to Father Okonkwo anymore.

Humanity had won this floor. I looked up to the sky, and I felt weak now. I hadn't really fought much, but I felt tears going down the sides of my eyes from the exhaustion, from the happiness. Hundreds of millions — hundreds of millions — of people had just been saved, and I had no words to describe what I was feeling right now. And most importantly, all the people I had started with were still with me.

I looked at Lucas, at Tina, at Hailey and her undead-themed equipment, at Zosma — covered from head to toe in the rotten flesh of the undead — and at Regulus. Langdon came up to the group with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. I couldn't believe it. We had done it. We had survived.