Dottore’s expression froze.
He looked in surprise at the spot on the god-creation platform where Dai Gan had suddenly vanished.
“Playing hide-and-seek?”
Dottore kept his hand extended forward, a smile playing on his lips.
The energy barrier he had set up didn’t show a single ripple.
The lightning arcs on the platform were still crackling, and residual Electro element from the Gnosis buzzed in the air near the breach.
He couldn’t possibly have escaped.
…
After a while, Dottore, having searched everywhere without finding a trace, froze on the spot.
His crimson pupils shrank abruptly, and his breathing beneath the mask became chaotic for the first time.
“Impossible…”
A low voice escaped from behind his beak mask, carrying a raspy note of disbelief.
He slowly pulled his hand back and looked down at Scaramouche, who lay quietly on the ground, his arms reattached, slowly recovering.
“You actually managed to escape?”
After a brief moment of disappointment, he suddenly let out a low chuckle.
The laughter grew louder, tinged with a morbid excitement that caused his mask to tremble slightly.
A moment later, he pressed his hand to his chest.
“Spatial teleportation?
No, it’s not such a crude, unrefined technique.”
Trash technology relying on spatial waypoints, energy mediums, and preset coordinates couldn’t escape his grasp so easily.
An almost greedy light swirled in the depths of Dottore’s crimson eyes.
He walked back to Scaramouche’s side, his fingertips lightly tracing the patched seam on Scaramouche’s shoulder.
His tone sounded as if he were speaking to himself, yet also declaring to an invisible audience:
“Look, Scaramouche.
Another fascinating specimen has appeared.
More enticing than a Gnosis, more mysterious than the branches of Irminsul, more captivating than all my test subjects combined.”
Scaramouche opened his eyes, watching Dottore act crazy.
The self-healing ability granted after Dottore’s modifications had dragged him back from death’s door, though he still couldn’t move.
“Don’t you agree, Scaramouche?”
Seeing Scaramouche regain consciousness, Dottore stood up, turned to face the tightly shut mechanism and the exit blocked by layers of energy barriers, a dangerous curve curling on his lips.
“How heartless, leaving without even saying goodbye.”
“But it doesn’t matter, Mr.
Dai Gan.”
“You can run once, but you can’t run forever.”
“I have plenty of time, and plenty of methods.”
“After all, what I’m best at is dissecting those secrets people least want me to know…
bit by bit.”
Dottore looked up toward the ceiling of the domain shrouded in energy.
In his crimson eyes lay the madness of guaranteed conquest.
“We…
will meet again soon.”
Scaramouche slowly sat up, looking at the wrecked god-creation platform.
A bad premonition suddenly flared in his heart.
Forcing his battered body up, he asked, “Dottore, where is the Gnosis?”
Dottore suddenly fell silent, then asked in confusion, “Scaramouche, we have found a new research target.
Shouldn’t you be happy for us first?
Why care about data irrelevant to the experiment?”
Hearing this, panic and trembling appeared in Scaramouche’s voice once more:
“Dottore!!!”
“Then you tell me!
I betrayed the Fatui and acted alongside you for so long!
What about the Gnosis I staked everything on to attain godhood?!”
***
About a day later.
Freezing wind and snow poured in through the open palace doors, only to be blocked outside the inner hall by an invisible barrier.
Simply put, Dai Gan pushed the palace doors open, and then politely shut them behind him.
After a few steps, Dai Gan stood motionless in the middle of the shockingly empty hall.
According to game settings, this was the center of power in Snezhnaya, the Tsaritsa’s abode.
A new map unlocked after he claimed his sword a few days ago, which should also be the location for submitting his quest.
Yet right now, as far as the eye could see, there was only an empty throne and several ice pillars radiating chill.
Dai Gan looked around, then opened the quest guidance.
[Quest Objective: Hand over the Gnosis to the Cryo Archon]
[Quest Location: Arrived at Quest Location]
[Quest Reward: Variable EXP]
“Where…
where is this person?”
Dai Gan looked toward the empty throne.
The Tsaritsa had never even shown her face in the story; did she not have a model?
This was his first time encountering such a situation.
Ever since he transmigrated, quests were issued by fixed NPCs and could be submitted upon completion.
The daily commissions after joining the Fatui could just be turned in to Katheryne.
But this time, why was it to hand it directly to the Tsaritsa, who hadn’t even shown her full face in a promotional video?
“I can’t even hand this to Katheryne…
All she ever says is ‘Ad astra abyssosque.'”
In the story cutscenes, the Tsaritsa only ever made cool appearances hidden behind icy mist; no one had ever seen her in person.
“Tsk…
let’s look around first.”
Dai Gan shook his head.
Like a ghost, he wandered around the palace.
He passed through long corridors and walked through quiet courtyards—places that had never appeared in story cutscenes.
“What a godforsaken place.”
Just as he turned past an archway sculpted from ice crystals, a faint but distinct sound caught his ear.
*Rustle…
rustle…*
Is that…
sweeping?
Dai Gan’s steps paused.
He looked up.
In his field of vision, the ice crystal floor ahead was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting his expressionless face.
[Ambient Sound Prompt: Palace Maid performing daily cleaning]
The system thoughtfully provided a line of small prompt text.
Dai Gan looked at the narrow yet empty corridor, frowning.
“What a joke!”
He stepped forward, ignoring the background sound, and continued exploring the map.
…
In the corridor, palace maid Elena was dripping with sweat as she watched the Harbinger walk away.
Once Dai Gan’s figure vanished, Elena’s fear-stiffened body went limp, and the half-broken broom in her hand nearly dropped to the ground.
“Sob…
so scary…”
Dai Gan had passed by her like a cannonball.
She hadn’t dared to raise her head, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a pair of military boots caked in mud and snow, stopping right beside her feet.
It was that lord.
Everyone in the Snezhnayan court knew about that eccentric Harbinger who held no seat, took no salary, yet refused to leave.
“Waaah, if you’re just passing by, why did you have to step on and break my broom…”
…
Dai Gan circled around and eventually returned to the conference room where they had held countlessly many meetings.
Twelve chairs were arranged neatly.
Click to sit.
“System, am I glitched?”
If the Tsaritsa had no model, she had no collision box.
Without a collision box, there was no quest trigger point.
“System, I’m talking to you,” Dai Gan asked in his mind.
“In this situation, can I just throw the Gnosis onto the throne to count as completing the quest?”
[Denied.
Quest items must be handed over in person.]
“Terrific.”
Dai Gan took two more steps and finally stopped before the throne.
He stood right before it.
Opposite him, the Cryo Archon was also looking at him coldly.
This impolite fellow had barged into the palace without a word, and then, facing her questioning, ran off without saying a single word.
After making a full loop around the palace, he returned with broken broom splinters clinging to his left foot.
What on earth did this mean?
No wonder her subordinates called him a freak.