Mini World Game Console-Chapter 739 - 740 Notre-Dame de Paris

Sky Capital time, 12:35 AM, the entire internet was boiling over.

The sleep-deprived website maintenance staff, still burning the midnight oil, suddenly perked up. Self-media practitioners, losing hair from stress and chain-smoking as they fruitlessly racked their brains for content, began excitedly hammering at their keyboards. Meanwhile, many students and corporate drones, already asleep, woke up annoyed at having missed such juicy gossip; they scrambled out of bed, grabbed their phones, and waded through social media spoilers to watch the livestream recording.

It wasn't unusual for Ren Naiser to livestream; he had streamed "Hand of Fate" just a few months prior. Nor was it strange for Fairy Palace figures to surface online. A short while ago, the Nine-Tailed Fox had appeared in her own risqué MMD video, and its uploader had apparently been banned for a full 500 years.

But Fairy Palace and World Tree members openly slinging insults at each other *during* the livestream? That was epic!

This was an era where celebrity feuds over resources could dominate trending topics, and a prominent entrepreneur's casual remark could be endlessly dissected and criticized. This time, it involved an ancient cultivator from the renowned Eastern Fairy Palace and a Western World Tree Magician who had once saved the world. Their digital dogfight was the most captivating news since the New Year, rivaled perhaps only by the perennial amusement of Angel Zack getting thrashed again.

Ren Suo found that any social media group or online forum he opened was flooded with discussions about "Ren Han of Fairy Palace, the World Tree Magician, and the Gatekeeper of the Door of Truth."

While some doubted if this truly was Ren Han and the Magician, the majority were convinced—after all, this was Ren Naiser's livestream.

No nation on Earth could hack Ren Naiser's video stream; if anything, Ren Naiser was the one hacking *their* websites. Who else but Fairy Palace and World Tree could so brazenly interfere with Ren Naiser's broadcast?

Plus, the text captions had dynamic, real-time effects! They were ridiculously cool, shifting based on the sentence's tone!

Yes, it was Transcendent internet technology! A supreme chat realm that not even Xin Yue members could reach! Besides Transcendents, who else could achieve such black technology!

What excited people even more was seeing another side of these Transcendents!

Previously, mentioning Ren Han brought to mind the Sixth Generation Family Head of the Ren Family, the Great Cultivator who defeated the Shu Han Ghost Army, an ancient Heroic Spirit awakened by Fairy Palace from the Underworld due to his great merit...

In the TV series "Over My Dead Body," Ren Han, who only appeared in the final dozen or so episodes, fully embodied the Ren Family's distinguished air, living up to his ancestors' formidable reputation.

Ren Han built upon the legacy of his six predecessors. He took command over the heavens, vanquished demons by making pacts with deities, claimed the Immortal Throne to control The Six Directions, and wielded Taoist Magic to whip the wicked. His prestige resonated across the four seas. He was among the earliest traceable Transcendent Special Ones, and his untimely death before even reaching full adulthood was a source of great regret.

Many games featuring historical heroes also eagerly incorporated Ren Han, a popular character who could attract players effortlessly—some even gender-swapped him into 'Ren Han' in a blatant attempt to milk players' wallets dry. However, this malicious practice of gender-swapping Ren Han was soon shut down by the state.

Because, as it turned out, Ren Han was genuinely internet-savvy. And he possessed quite a temper!

When the Gatekeeper publicly discussed his "procreative history" on the live broadcast, Ren Han absolutely erupted, bellowing threats at World Tree!

The World Tree contingent was equally unyielding. Their strikingly handsome, white-haired Magician retorted sharply, openly and subtly deriding Ren Han's disastrous love life. Naturally, Ren Han refused to take this lying down. He retaliated, accusing World Tree of having chaotic internal relationships and deriding the Magician for his peculiar penchant for adding vanquished foes to his harem.

Emotions on both sides boiled over, and they challenged each other to a duel at the Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins. It seemed this confrontation would only end with the Magician's gruesome demise or Ren Han's inability to ever return to Fairy Palace.

This seamless escalation of trash talk into a formal challenge thrilled the livestream audience! Now, everyone was hotly debating the outcome: Would Fairy Palace and World Tree intervene to mediate? Would Ren Han thrash the Magician? Or would the Magician bring his harem to overwhelm Ren Han in a group fight?

Amidst all this, one idea became deeply ingrained in every viewer's mind: the Gatekeeper of the Door of Truth was protected by Supernatural Organizations.

That was Ren Suo's objective.

Ren Suo hadn't orchestrated this elaborate, information-dense spectacle online merely on a whim to prank the entire world.

He simply understood clearly that the combat stages of the "Door of Truth" trial would likely all unfold on Earth.

This meant other ordinary Transcendents could potentially interfere in the Gatekeeper's battles. In the first stage's battle, Little Bald Guy and Ba—neither of them Seekers—had already appeared. They had no direct conflict of interest with the Gatekeeper, but their friendship with other Seekers was reason enough to fight.

After this livestream, the Gatekeeper and the Door of Truth had undoubtedly become sensational topics. The Seekers he encountered next might not be solitary individuals; therefore, organized armies could very well be dispatched to attack the Gatekeeper.

Ren Suo wasn't afraid of battling armies. In fact, as a Fourth-Stage Cultivator, he was keen to personally test their capabilities as tactical weapons through direct combat. However, this game was no child's play. Ren Suo would, naturally, go all out and strive to minimize the game's difficulty.

Such considerations hadn't mattered before. But now, the World Tree Magician had openly declared his protection of the Gatekeeper, who had descended to the Human World for the Door of Truth trial. If any nation wished to deploy large-scale armies, they would have to consider World Tree's stance—and possibly even Fairy Palace's.

Ren Han was clearly furious, yet he hadn't descended to thrash the Gatekeeper. Instead, he'd picked a fight with the Magician, implying that Fairy Palace also tacitly supported this trial.

Ren Suo was confident that military intelligence departments worldwide would meticulously analyze his orchestrated performance.

The more they deliberated, the more hesitant they would be to act.

As the ancient story "Bian Que meeting Duke Huan of Cai" illustrates, game strategy, like medicine, has three tiers of approach: prevention before any issue arises, treatment before an outbreak, and targeted remedies after an outbreak.

Had Ren Suo known Ren Naiser would stream in segments, he could have employed the optimal strategy: having World Tree announce beforehand something like, "A Trial Participant from World Tree will soon descend to the Human World." He had mistakenly assumed Ren Naiser would only upload the video after everything concluded.

Now, he had resorted to a middling strategy. During the global livestream, through the public spat between the Magician and Ren Han, he conveyed that Supernatural Organizations would shelter the Gatekeeper, thereby discouraging nations from pursuing any uninitiated plans of action.

The lowest-tier strategy, of course, would be to passively wait for others to marshal forces against the Gatekeeper and then react defensively, meeting soldiers with soldiers and floods with earthworks. However, thanks to Ren Suo's performance, the world's nations were unlikely to move against the Gatekeeper—at least, not overtly.

While Ren Suo continued his Cultivation, he had his Cloning access the internal network. He found that while discussions abounded, not a single serious analytical article had yet appeared—hardly surprising, as the livestream had concluded less than half an hour prior.

After thinking for a moment, Ren Suo began drafting a speculative paper titled "Analysis of the Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins."

This was a bit of foreshadowing he had intentionally planted. Since the Magician and Ren Han were generating so much buzz, most Researchers would undoubtedly focus on them or on the relationship between the Door of Truth and World Tree. They likely wouldn't pay much heed to the "Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins," the dueling ground casually mentioned by the Magician.

Furthermore, since Ren Suo had entirely fabricated the term, they wouldn't find any existing information on it even if they searched.

The title was pure invention, conjured from thin air.

"The Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins are likely related to the major extinction event that happened 65 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period..."

"Extrapolating from present knowledge to understand the past, we can boldly speculate that a revival of Spiritual Energy occurred during the Cretaceous Period. Demon Cultivators must have proliferated then, with the Dragon Clan holding a position of supreme reverence...

The so-called great extinction event might not have been a mere natural disaster but could be linked to Spiritual Energy depletion, chaotic Spiritual Energy tides, or Spiritual Energy contamination... 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Dragon Race Cultivators, having evolved to occupy Earth's surface and dominate land, sea, and air with their physical forms, still faced inevitable, widespread decline during this great extinction...

Alternatively, perhaps before disaster struck Earth, the Dragon Race Cultivators had already relocated a segment of their population to other Dimensions.

In the Didra Plane, the Inner World created by the Great Lord demonstrates the possibility of hidden sub-Dimensions attached to primary Dimensions.

Millennia later, ancient Cultivators such as from the Fairy Palace unearthed the Inner World of the Dragon Race. We cannot ascertain if there are still members of the Dragon Race inside, but it seems that the Cultivators of the Fairy Palace refer to that Inner World as the Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins. For them, the Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins was merely a battleground. It seems that neither of the two Supernatural Organizations intended to develop it into their own world.

Did the Dragon Race self-destruct, or were they eradicated by humans, such as those from Fairy Palace?

Why haven't these powers claimed the Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins, instead using it merely as a battleground? Has it perhaps collapsed and become entirely uninhabitable?"

Ren Suo certainly didn't expect this paper to earn him Research Points. However, in his capacity as the Gatekeeper, he planned to leak some information to subtly corroborate the existence of "Dragon Race Cultivators" and the "Dragon Witch Ancient Ruins."

It didn't need to be an exact match; just a point or two of similarity would be enough for the internal network to acknowledge Ren Suo's wildly imaginative paper.

This was one advantage of his side gig as a Minor World player: it could contribute to his main "career" in various ways.

The paper didn't need to be perfect. He intentionally left some flaws and gaps for Gu Yueyan to review and correct.

Sometimes, relationships deepen when one relies on the other for small, seemingly insignificant tasks. Shouldering every burden alone might only make the other person feel unneeded.

With that settled, Ren Suo had his Cloning continue with household chores. He himself exited the Cultivation State, donned Pandora's Magic Box, and confirmed that the spinning disc icon was indeed absent from the "Door of Truth" interface.

"Game information update complete. The Gatekeeper may now ignite the Second Prime."

"Trading privileges updated."

Ren Suo hadn't yet spent the Truth Points earned from the first level. He naturally planned to wait for the updated trading privileges before making any purchases.

However, after a moment's thought, he decided to assess the second level first.

Although Ren Suo had already formulated a general upgrade path for the Gatekeeper, he also needed to consider the specifics of each level. If a level proved particularly challenging or possessed unique characteristics, Ren Suo would, of course, have the Gatekeeper undergo specific Strengthening tailored to it.

With a soft rumble, the Door of Truth materialized and settled.

Ren Suo looked up to find himself inside a magnificent cathedral. The interior space was vast, with enormous stone-mullioned rose windows adorning both sides of the second floor. Sunlight streamed through these rose windows, casting patterns on the black-and-white diamond-patterned floor, creating an atmosphere as sacred as a divine blessing.

To the south, a giant circular window depicted Jesus Christ giving a blessing, surrounded by virgin maidens. Its dazzling colors and meticulously crafted stained glass created the impression of a brilliantly flickering star.

Sacred. Magnificent. Grand.

The nearby worshipers recoiled at the sight of Ren Suo, gasping in surprise. Ren Suo listened intently to their conversations but couldn't understand the words, only vaguely recognizing the general language family.

But that didn't matter. Unlike landmarks such as West Lake's Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, such an opulent and majestic cathedral was a rarity, making it highly recognizable. The presence of many tourists from diverse backgrounds indicated it was a famous attraction. The security guards shouting the loudest were speaking French...

Moreover, right in front of Ren Suo was a tour group from the Mysterious Country. One tourist's backpack sported a small flag reading, "Bienvenue à Paris."

He only recognized the last word, which he assumed meant Paris.

"Notre-Dame de Paris?"