Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam-Chapter 662 - 56: See the Rainbow, Eat the Rainbow

'Plane: Canopy'

'Environment: Unstable, Uninhabitable (Anomaly Coefficient: 59%)'

'Belief System: Argos'

Information flickered from the guild handbook before Ethan's eyes as the blood flowing from his wrist seeped into the metallized tree bark and into the soil, with the anomaly coefficient slowly rising back past 50%.

This is a mandatory course for every guild investigator. Most of their daily work involves assisting in patching up anomalies across various planes. The anomaly coefficient is defined by the guild through complex formulas to gauge planar stability. When the anomaly coefficient exceeds 70%, the plane is considered stable and habitable, prompting the guild to establish outposts on some habitable planes.

But once the anomaly coefficient falls below 50%, it means the plane has the potential to transform into a "Death Star." If investigators cannot find remedial measures before the anomaly reaches zero, they will witness a prosperous civilization heading toward destruction.

Several planes have already appeared in the guild's archives that failed to be defended; some were submerged by oceans, others occupied by incomprehensible anomalous creatures. To Ethan's view now, "Death Star" doesn't mean the absence of any life on the plane, but rather that it is no longer suitable for human habitation, with extreme risks even just to remain on it.

Just like right now.

The plague brought by mechanical monsters is spreading throughout the Kingdom's lands. Once cities fall, residents turned into mechanically mutated zombies—the anomaly coefficient of the Canopy will hit zero, and by then the guild is forced to halt research and exploration of that plane.

Attempting to recover the anomaly coefficient is a daunting mission.

According to guild research, once a plane starts turning toward instability, unless investigators can pinpoint the root cause, the plane is destined for a destructive fate—a concept coinciding with the "decay phase" proposed by the impostor Kadela, just that the Empire's plane situation is relatively special. According to the guild's measurement formula, it has undergone seven cycles of civilization destruction.

This is no good news for natives living on a decay plane, indicating that no matter their efforts, they cannot prevent the doom of their home.

Ethan isn't sure if this is the guild's propaganda strategy, but at least the data given by the guild shows that all known "native" organizations' self-rescue attempts have all ended in failure—and all successful cases have involved the guild investigators.

To this end, the guild headquarters instructors offer plans where every investigator handling a task should get as close as possible to the plane's core, often decay starts with core corruption, whereas managers of the guild have figured out another simpler and more aggressive method.

King of Gold is a standout among them—using golden radiation and golden masks to brainwash every living being in the plane, achieving absolute rule, thus ensuring the plane avoids a fate of decay, with anomaly coefficients of the planes ruled by the King of Gold remaining at a constant 100%. As long as the King of Gold's will exists for one more day, it will never be shaken.

Crimson Queen recorded a method of modifying rules in her adventure book, sealing the near-infinite energy Argos here, purifying his energy and channeling it into the Divine Tree at the plane's core, while adjusting it using one of the drafts she discovered during her adventure, ultimately transforming the Canopy into its current form.

She also annotated the huge risks involved in her adventure book, indicating each rule modification requires consuming a vast amount of energy—energy levels humans can never possess, including even them as guild managers.

Only the "Old Gods" can provide such amounts of energy. To ensure the smooth circulation of Argos' energy, she even used "ancient spells" found within the guild to modify Argos—the soft tubes and giant containers reserving blue fluorescence that Ethan saw in his dreams were all products of these modifications.

Ethan felt that it was no wonder Argos attacked the Crimson Queen immediately after breaking the seal, vowing to bring this world to an end.

Putting oneself in the position of someone who was tricked into a seal, bound with spells and exploited for a millennium's essence, surely anybody would boil with rage.

To Argos, the Scarlet is an undeniable enemy and in her adventure book, she unveils her actions involving Argos without restraint.

Ethan even felt the most puzzling part was that Argos calmed down quickly in front of him. Upon his persuasion, Argos no longer held on the idea of destroying this plane.

This can only imply that Argos is a magnanimous Old God, and for some reasons, Old Gods are willing to give him face.

Through experimentation, Ethan gradually understood the Scarlet's experiment.

Using game terminologies to interpret, it's like she wielded Argos' energy to unlock higher-level permissions for herself. "Canopy" obtained near-equal permissions as "Future Lindong," permissions that only true masters of consciousness space can control. It represents infinite possibilities; achievements go far beyond just fading out upon Summoner's defeat.

Overturn all inherent human cognitions.

Making human concepts of "sky" and "ground" be reversed, or perhaps...

"Enough, Lindong, this is a public setting!"

Rowena's reprimand interrupted Ethan's thoughts, followed by a numb feeling on his wrist. Ethan looked down, only to find a cat had climbed onto his arm sometime, its tail curling around Ethan's arm, burying its face into the wound on Ethan's wrist.

It occasionally licked the wound area with its soft pink tongue.

This brought tremendous damage to the single person Rowena. Despite creatures indeed having a mutual habit of licking wounds, this scene felt somewhat amorous and increasingly suggestive.

In the process of licking were occasional soft chewing sounds, captivating the gaze of Other Shore and Miss Keroy.

They didn't know what happened, but the colorful candy beans popping out of Ethan's wrist wound looked very appetizing.

"Old Sen, what's the matter with you? Why are rainbow candy beans appearing from your wound?"

The black wolfdog stuck out its tongue, its eyes glazed over, while the cat on the arm buried its head even deeper, using its body to block the view of the Other Shore.

"This is an experiment."

Ethan explained. He had attempted to further modify the concept from the Crimson Adventure Book about "blacking out after defeat." Under the latest rules, people in this world would not bleed or suffer life depletion when injured; instead, their wounds would produce rainbow candies: red ones tasted like strawberries, orange ones like oranges, purple ones like grapes...

And as it turned out, even such bizarre and illogical rules were smoothly executed.

The only difference was that he did not rely on the energies of Argos and Old An. After all, this was just an initial attempt, and he did not originally intend to delve too deeply down this path. Yet, the progress was so unexpectedly smooth that he unlocked "administrator privileges" for himself with almost no magic power depletion.

The Divine Tree served as the control console for this plane. Once he established a link, he could rewrite the rules of this world.

This made Ethan fall into deep thought.

Scarlet mentioned in the Adventure Book that even when using Argos as a backup energy source, her first successful attempt consumed decades—it was under the Divine Tree's world that Olede I completed his conquest and rule. However, for the people nowadays, that history is so distant that they forget that the earliest people also engaged in battles of iron and blood; they would use blades and spears to slay their enemies and hang their foes' heads on stakes.

"How do you feel?"

Unlike the few whose sight was drawn by the rainbow candies, Old An's voice showed deep concern.

Argos from the rift also inquired, "Are you feeling unwell, such as chest tightness or shortness of breath? Or perhaps magic power exhaustion?"

"No."

Ethan's answer plunged the two Old Gods into silence.

He asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"Something's not quite right with you."

The Little Octopus, attached to Ethan's other arm, met his gaze for a moment. Then, while the cat's attention was diverted by the watchful Other Shore, it quickly used its tentacle to roll up a rainbow candy and pop it into its mouth.

A green candy, apple-flavored.

The sweet taste made the Little Octopus's eyes narrow into slits; it always liked sweet things.

After savoring for a moment, it concluded, "To be precise, very not right. To rewrite rules, one must pay the corresponding price; even we are no exception."

Anapolis said.

Argos's changes in form and energy, in its view, are the inevitable results of frequently altering rules. Even if forced, the side effects are evident in it, which is why they possess powers but never use them lightly. The more unnatural the modification, the stronger the price that must be paid.

In its view, having rainbow candies flow from wounds when creatures are injured counts as an outrageously absurd modification, to the extent that even if Ethan's appearance suddenly changed into that of a Minotaur or Ogre, it wouldn't be surprising.

What truly surprised them was that Ethan seemed perfectly normal.

"I understand what you mean."

This was also a puzzle for Ethan, and perhaps the answer lay with the cat currently indulging on his arm. According to the information divulged in the Crimson Adventure Book, this was all a part of the powers of the "Future Lindong." For Lindong, modifying rules shouldn't entail any repercussions.

So why did the corresponding situation occur with him too?

Could it be... because of his close relationship with Lindong, a part of the powers transferred to him?

Ethan moved his arm, positioning the cat to face him directly.

"Teacher."

"Hmm?"

The cat squinted its eyes lazily.

"Do you have anything to say?"

The cat raised its head, looking at him with bright red eyes.

After a long while, it finally spoke, "Ethan, delicious."