Since becoming a vampire, Alex III has rarely encountered things he could not understand. Now, faced with a peculiar golden candle, he didn't know what to do with it.
"This thing! It may be beyond this dream world!" he thought. As a being formed by the dreams of many, he would have definitely noticed something if this candle were from dreams. He doesn't feel it at all; he has no clues.
Looking at the massive golden candle, he felt a hard palpitation. "Can it threaten me?" he was astonished.
He had never felt danger from anything in millions of years, but now, looking at it, he felt he could be in danger if he tried to destroy it.
Sitting down, he closed his eyes, trying to feel the world and discover some clues before doing anything.
...
Along with her humanoid academy, Lee has been a Dream Federation member for a few million years. They are still not full members, but they have benefited a lot from its library even as experimental members.
She hasn't been paying much attention to the dream world, only occasionally looking over it. Lately, however, she has been laser-focused on it. She discovered an invasion by the Candle civilization. She has no idea how, but they somehow infiltrated and corrupted the code.
Candle civilization is ancient; they use different power systems, but most consider them faith-based.
The major civilizations are mages, cultivators, demons, and gods.
Faith is a fringe power system used by few; on the surface, it is like the corporatist system, which uses the power of a corporation to boost the CEO, but there are many differences.
Gods are not faith-based, as they are part of the divine race. Faith-based civilizations can be anything: humans, even demons. They rely on a trickle of soul power that follows when mortals worship. Many faith-based civilizations are very interested in dreams, as they can provide soul power at a lower cost.
The corporatist system relies on strong individuals, while the faith system relies on the means of weak individuals.
The Candle civilization is obviously trying to steal Lee’s research results without investing anything.
"What should I do, Rachel?" Lee asked. She is only rank 11; conversely, the Candle civilization is an ancient rank 11 with many powerful entities.
"I can't help you! You should find a way for yourself," Rachel said. She has innumerable incarnations and hosts; if she helps every time, she won't have time for anything else.
Lee is not any different from her many incarnations. Sure, she is developing the dream concept, but so are many other incarnations. Rachel never puts all her eggs in one basket.
Lee is quite adept in concepts; she gained all the concepts of a rank 13, after all. After exploring Karl’s dreamland, she got many masteries to a very high level, even many great grandmasters. She can completely defeat anyone at rank 11 regarding soft power; she would lose to ancient rank 11 civilizations regarding hard firepower but win in delicate formations and these kinds of technical battles.
Having no easy way out, she started coding again; she would try to manipulate the dream world in a way that could expel the candle. As with normal worlds, once a world is infiltrated, it's extremely difficult to clean it; it's cheaper just to give up and receive compensation. However, Lee doesn't care about money; she wants Alex to be realized, so she will fight for the world to survive and be under her control, even if it costs a lot.
...
Alex opened his eyes; he didn't find anything.
"I'm going to create a new generation again!" he thought. He had no other way; the only thing he could think of was to wipe out the world and try to bury the candle again.
He didn’t know that even if he wiped it 1,000,000 times, the candles would return; they had already infiltrated the code. They may not yet dominate the main world, but they already control many subworlds and sub-timelines. Unless Alex manages to remove all theoretical timelines that candles hold, he cannot truly remove them. Even if he wipes out all humans, the candles could bring humans from past timelines to the main world. The only way to remove them is to start fixing the code.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
Bringing his hands up, Alex snapped!
“Bang!” The city was reduced to dust.
Just as Alex wanted to leave, he noticed something unbelievable. With a bright golden light, a portal to the past opened, and the intact city he just destroyed appeared again.
Wide-eyed, the golden candle shone before he could react, and the next moment, he disappeared.
…
Alex III looked around. It was dark, with nothing visible.
He couldn’t see even his hands.
“This is a subworld!” Alex III wasn't just sleeping these last millions of years. Now, he understands much more about the world.
But, looking at the nothingness that surrounded him, he frowned. He lacks the ability to jump through subworlds.
As a being brought into being by the belief of many in the world, he is protected; he exists in all timelines and subworlds, even those such as this one, which is nothingness.
“That thing sent me to an empty subworld because it cannot destroy me, so it can only send me away!” he thought with frustration. That thing must be strong beyond belief to send him to a subworld forcefully.
He felt an amazing power coming to his body from nowhere when thinking of a way to get out. He felt he could rip apart the boundary between time and the world. With one thought, the darkness was cast away, and he returned to the Golden Candle City.
Still hinting with bright light, the candle lit up with horrifying flame; it was ridiculous, such a massive flame from a relatively small candle.
Alex III felt the heat; the next moment, he felt burning!
“Sunlight?” he felt terrified. It was obviously night, but the candle was like the brightest sun he ever saw. Even as an ancestor vampire, he began to evaporate.
He was locked in space, unable to move at all. A second later, he was reduced to ashes.
…
“Got it!” Lee smiled. The candle’s code was hidden because it avoided using its power, but after it killed Alex, Lee was able to locate exactly where it was.
“Troublesome!” she sighed. It has already corrupted 20% of the world, all on Alex’s side. Fortunately, it hasn’t yet spread to the other part of the dream world.
It also means that because its control is concentrated on Alex's dream world, its effective control is 40%, near the 50% mark, which would have been the point of no return.
The good part is that because it's below 50%, it's still possible to save the world; the bad part is that parts of Alex's dream world must be cut away, as some parts are too corrupted and are lost.
She sighed and began coding. She is still the world's master; she controls all legitimate coding authority. Candles corrupted the code, but their codes are not legitimate and are not recognized by the world’s legitimate laws. As long as the world core recognizes her as legitimate, the invading forces always have to fight from down, as underdogs, spending many times as her to have the same effect.
Her code started having an immediate effect.
The golden city and its surroundings were ripped apart and disappeared, and the surrounding soil filled the empty space. Big chunks of land all over the world began disappearing.
…
Alex III looked at the empty space before him; he was just looking at the golden candle city, but it suddenly disappeared.
“What's going on?” He was truly disturbed by recent events. He doesn't understand anything that’s happening.
…
Lee also reverted Alex’s timeline a bit and revived him. The master of a world can easily control the lives and deaths of all mortals living inside.
If Alex III were immortal, however, it would have been different.
Even though Alex III is a vampire, therefore immortal, he is still technically considered mortal. Only those having at least complete laws are truly immortal.
Alex III’s life is the same as the dream world, but he still depends on it. Lee could easily change the code, lower the vampire's lifespan to 1 second, and kill him.
Looking at all the corrupted parts isolated and contained in a subworld, Lee felt a headache. The easy part was isolation; the hard part was curing the corruption.
Even though corrupt codes are harmful to her, they are not technically bad for the world. The world could survive with corrupt codes; only it might act strangely and contrary to its creator's settings.
If Lee cut off all corruption, many parts of the world would lose their operating codes. It would be such a big mess that even someone with Lee’s masteries would have trouble fixing it.
The lack of some codes would eventually lead to the infiltration of chaos and eventual destruction. Even if no chaos, the lack of some codes would lead to the destruction of even existing ones, which would lead to the world's destruction.
Lee needs a replacement for the codes she wants to remove.
She only detected where the codes candles corrupted were, not what exactly they were. To detect everything quickly, world-fixing equipment could help; Rachel could detect all immediately with her pieces of equipment. But Lee doesn't have those.
“Let's seal them!” Lee thought. She cannot fix them, so it's best to let them be until she can prepare appropriately.
Coding with quick speed, she erected many layers of wall between the two. These laws are sufficient for a few million years until the world gets realized.
After realization, however, the corrupted parts also would be realized and be an integral part of the world recognized by the world core; then, she would have to fight candles on equal playing ground.
She decided to fix it before that happened, so she brought many from her humanoid academy to help quicken the process.
As for how the candle civilization responds, she hopes they give up after seeing her work so hard defending this world. Nearly no one would go to battle over a single world.