Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen wanted to integrate the Game Design Blueprint into his Divine Domain, but it was pointless. Due to the Tenfold Annihilation, his Divine Domain would be destroyed at every level. Over the years, the domain had been left to develop on its own, while the focus shifted to the Ancient God True Realm. Using the Game Design Blueprint there would be a meaningless waste.

Excluding the Divine Domain, there weren't many other options. The first was the Historical Dragon Nest, and the second was the Terror Park.

After years of development and countless artists from the Painter Sequence contributing, the level of the Terror Park spirit realm painting had already advanced to Sequence 1, becoming one of Rosen's hidden trump cards. However, the park had grown so powerful that even he couldn't fully control it.

If the Game Design Blueprint were merged with the Terror Park, it could enhance the park and strengthen his control over it. But figuring out how to do so was a challenge. Rosen left this problem to the 30 billion people of the Ancient God True Realm. Among so many people, there had to be plenty engaged in game design who could come up with the best solution.

After settling the miraculous treasure, Rosen got back to serious business.

Two days later, at the Starlight Grand Hotel, when Pompeii trapped Rosen with his field and fled into the spirit realm, reality in the Shining City had remained unaffected by the Dragon God's Roar Bullet.

Rosen waited at the Starlight Grand Hotel for two days before the World Government's Noble Council finally sent an adjudicator.

In the hotel's meeting room, the presiding seat at the table was occupied by Adjudicator Yurio Shueff.

On Yurio's left sat Pompeii 's only surviving grandson, Kubi Weber, a Sequence 3 architect. Over the past two days since Pompeii 's death, Kubi had stabilized the Shining Workshop, making him responsible for attending this hearing.

Rosen pushed open the meeting room door, gave a slight nod to the adjudicator, and took a seat on his right.

"Hereditary Duke Rosen, please recount the entire process of how you killed Pompeii Weber two days ago," the adjudicator said as he pushed a copy of the Noble Code toward Rosen.

"It's simple," Rosen began. "I inquired about Pompeii while in the Sky City of Divine Arms and decided to commission him to strengthen my Void Gallery, paying the deposit in advance. Then I traveled to the Shining City to discuss the enhancement plan.

However, Pompeii suddenly breached the contract, not only failing to compensate me but also unjustifiably refusing to refund the deposit. Naturally, I couldn't accept this and immediately lodged a complaint with the Noble Council.

That same evening, Pompeii barged into my hotel suite, directly activating his field to drag me into his game-world Divine Domain without reason, attempting to kill me. Unfortunately for him, he overestimated his abilities and was ultimately slain by me."

"You're lying!" Kubi couldn't help but slam the table, standing up in protest.

"Sit down," the adjudicator frowned.

Kubi, red-faced and fuming, clenched his teeth and sat down, knowing that offending the adjudicator at such a time would be disastrous.

"The Noble Code preliminarily deems your account credible," the adjudicator said, looking at Rosen. "However, since the deceased was a Sequence 1 artistic designer and hereditary duke with a status higher than yours, I must consider the possibility that you may be concealing part of the truth or have means to deceive the Noble Code.

Therefore, I need to further verify whether your statements are true. If you have any objections, you may raise them now."

"I have no objections," Rosen responded calmly.

The adjudicator began summoning the true power of the genuine Noble Code through the projection of the book in his hand. Not even a true god could lie before the book itself.

As the ritual array was set up, more of the Noble Code's power descended onto the projection.

Rosen repeated his earlier statement and personally assured that he had withheld nothing.

"Your testimony is completely true," the adjudicator declared as he dismissed the ritual array, his tone brooking no doubt. "You had the right to defend yourself. However, you cannot keep Pompeii Weber's extraordinary source material, nor may you lay claim to any more of his inheritance or retaliate against his relatives."

"I have no objections, but I'm curious—why did Pompeii break the contract?" Rosen asked, turning his gaze toward Kubi.

Kubi could no longer suppress his fury; if not for the adjudicator's presence, he might have attacked on the spot.

"I don't know why my grandfather refused!" Kubi gritted his teeth, his voice filled with rage. "But from now on, no artistic designer or architect will ever design or enhance extraordinary buildings for you. The Shining City doesn't welcome you. I will earn merits to petition the Noble Council for an eternal glory duel with you."

"If you're not afraid of death, I'll gladly oblige." Rosen casually handed Pompeii 's extraordinary source material to the adjudicator.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Kubi stormed out, fearing he would lose control and invite death if he stayed.

"Congratulations on resolving this safely," the adjudicator said with a smile once Kubi was gone.

"This is my token of appreciation," Rosen said, producing a Sequence 2 miraculous cloud the size of his palm and handing it to the adjudicator.

He had bribed this adjudicator from the very beginning.

Using his Hunter's Magic Eye and the spirit realm's deep web, Rosen had identified the adjudicator the World Government would send. Upon discovering that this person merely appeared impartial and was open to bribery, Rosen decisively chose to buy him off.

If he had faced an incorruptible adjudicator, he could still have manipulated the situation by exploiting flaws in the system to mislead the Noble Code.

He had debated whether it was necessary to spend a fortune bribing the adjudicator when there were other ways to handle things. But in the end, he decided it was worth it. If the adjudicator left empty-handed, the matter wouldn't have been resolved quickly, and Rosen also wanted to plant a useful connection in the Noble Council for future use.

After returning from the meeting room to his suite, Rosen hadn't been there long before the Starlight Grand Hotel manager arrived, all smiles.

Rosen didn't make things difficult for him. After checking out, he left the Shining City directly.

But this matter was far from over. He still hadn't figured out why Pompeii wanted him dead.

Unfortunately, Pompeii 's Divine Domain had been utterly destroyed, his divine essence shattered due to complete depletion of his lifespan, and his body transformed into a miraculous treasure by the power of the Hunt Authority. Rosen had gained no valuable information.

However, through surveillance with the Hunter's Magic Eye, Rosen discovered that Pompeii had a surviving divine avatar.

That divine avatar had also perished, unable to withstand the depletion of its lifespan. But fortunately, its physical body remained intact—perhaps Rosen could extract useful information from its brain.

He sneaked back into the Shining City, effortlessly breaking into the Shining Workshop and retrieving Pompeii 's divine avatar's corpse.

He tried extracting memories through blood reading and direct brain scans.

After a long effort, Rosen finally discovered why Pompeii had been so determined to kill him.

It wasn't due to those old acquaintances.

Pompeii had deep connections in the Kingdom of Divine Arms and had learned about Rosen's high-quality Sequence 1 weapon, Dragon God's Wrath.

Additionally, Pompeii had found out about Rosen's feud with Qinan.

Driven by a moment of greed, Pompeii decided to eliminate him. The withheld deposit was merely a ploy to provoke Rosen into making the first mistake. Once Rosen slipped up, Pompeii would exploit the situation within the bounds of the Noble Code to dispose of him and claim the Dragon God's Wrath as his own.

Even with the truth laid bare before him, Rosen couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

It was too easy—this information came far too easily.

Initially, he hadn't even expected to get the full truth, just some clues.

After all, divine avatars typically don't know too much about their true selves, Rosen thought.

Since divine avatars were weaker by one sequence level, if they carried all the knowledge of the true body, enemies would spare no effort to capture them and extract their memories, leaving the true body exposed and defenseless.

The earliest avatars were plagued by this flaw, which led to continuous improvements. The current avatars had long since become purely functional tools.

Yet Pompeii 's divine avatar seemed to know far more about his true body than it should have.

Rosen immediately cast Time Reversal on Pompeii 's divine avatar. As expected, rewinding to two days ago revealed a sudden portion of the brain's memory vanishing—clearly implanted by someone through some means.

"Such a grand scheme... Who's behind this?" Rosen wondered silently.

To silently alter the memory embedded in a Sequence 2 divine avatar's brain and bloodline was no easy feat.

What secret warranted such a costly effort to conceal?

After pondering for a moment, Rosen began dismantling Pompeii 's divine avatar corpse.

He crafted Pompeii 's skin into a canvas and melted his flesh into paint.

Then he applied the finishing stroke, using conceptual realism to create an exquisitely lifelike portrait of Pompeii .

The painted Pompeii came to life, stepping out of the canvas with shock and fury as he glared at Rosen.

He hadn't expected Rosen to torment him even after death.

Rosen knew full well that no matter how realistic the painted Pompeii appeared, it wasn't the real Pompeii . Its memories were limited to what Rosen had imbued during the painting process. If Rosen didn't know the truth, this counterfeit wouldn't either.

The painted Pompeii was merely bait.

Taking the painting, Rosen slipped into the spirit realm, diving straight into its depths.

Although Pompeii had perished, with even his divine essence erased by time, traces of his history were likely still preserved deep within the spirit realm. Rosen intended to use the painted Pompeii to lure out those historical remnants and resurrect the real Pompeii .

However, after several days, Rosen gave up. He couldn't find any trace of Pompeii 's history.

If individual life histories were that easy to locate, wouldn't painters be able to casually resurrect the dead?

The trail seemed completely cold, and Rosen had no better solution at the moment.

He still possessed a drop of Sequence 3 Ancient God True Blood, but he was reluctant to use it just yet.

Over the next few days, Rosen covertly ransacked the Shining Workshop.

Yet he found no clues whatsoever. Frustrated, he finally used the Ancient God True Blood to enhance the Time Prophecy Painting.

Prophecy-based painting skills did possess impressive foresight abilities, but they were easily disrupted.

After all, painters weren't specialized in prophecy like those Sequence experts who spent their entire lives mastering it.

Under the enhancement of Ancient God True Blood, the Time Prophecy Painting began evolving as Rosen wished.

[Prophecy Painter: Miracle Skill]

[Miracle Attribute: Allows you to create prophecy paintings using all foresight-related authorities]

[Miracle Traits: Prophetic Miracle, Unique Under Heaven, Eternal and Indestructible]

Building upon the foundation of the Ash Painter, Rosen had now become a specialized Prophecy Painter.

This miracle skill, like Ash Painter, influenced his extraordinary source material. While Ash Painter granted him additional source material to blend into the Mental Canvas, Prophecy Painter significantly enhanced the extraordinary source material within his divine brush.

Previously, he could only use the Time Authority for prophecy paintings.

But now, he could incorporate the Authorities of Fate, Evolution, Time, Nightmare, and History into his work, making the resulting prophecy paintings five times stronger.

Rosen picked up his brush and swiftly created a prophecy painting.

The scene depicted Pompeii 's divine avatar corpse, beside which crouched a figure cloaked in shadows.

Undoubtedly, this was the person who had altered Pompeii 's memories.

However, when Rosen attempted to paint the true face beneath the cloak, he found it impossible.

"I invoke a prophetic miracle: the cloaked figure will appear before me," Rosen declared.

The miracle trait Prophetic Miracle possessed a terrifying theoretical power—the ability to make any spoken prophecy come true.

Of course, the crucial caveat lay in those words "theoretical power." Whether the prophecy materialized depended entirely on one's strength.

His miracle prophecy undoubtedly failed, but he continued various attempts.

Finally, when he declared that the cloaked figure would return to the Shining Workshop, the prophecy succeeded.

Building on the successful miracle prophecy, Rosen created another prophecy painting.

This time it went unexpectedly smoothly—the painting depicted the cloaked figure appearing in Pompeii 's residence at the Shining Workshop.

Since a fulfilled miracle prophecy was destined to come true, the accuracy of the prophecy painting naturally increased significantly. Although the cloaked figure's true identity remained unknown, Rosen could now pinpoint where the figure would appear in the future.

He immediately used data transmission to silently infiltrate the Shining Workshop.

Activating the Hunter's Divine Eye, he locked onto everyone inside while concealing himself under the enhanced stealth of the Wolf Totem, hiding within Pompeii 's residence.

Two days later, a cloaked figure appeared soundlessly in Pompeii 's study.

The figure was visibly displeased. He had recently received unsettling news: Pompeii had a habit of leaving behind hidden records. If anything dangerous surfaced, it could spell great trouble for the organization.

Forced by this concern, the figure returned to thoroughly search Pompeii 's belongings.

As the cloaked figure rummaged through the study, the Death Broodmother appeared like a ghost behind him.

Her syringe-like oral appendage swiftly pierced into his mental sea, injecting the sole Eight-Turn Soul Egg to parasitize him.

But just as the cloaked figure's divine essence was about to be enslaved, transforming him into a death spirit, his divine essence suddenly ignited, reducing the Soul Egg to ashes. In the final moment, the cloaked figure used some unknown method to commit suicide.

The Death Broodmother landed on Rosen's shoulder, aggrieved, and shared the memories collected during the Soul Egg's parasitism.

The cloaked figure was a Sequence 3 titled demigod, serving as the director of the Star Empire's Intelligence Bureau.

However, that was merely a surface identity—he was also a staff-bearer retainer of the King Organization.

Unfortunately, due to the abrupt self-destruction of the figure's divine essence, Rosen's obtained information was incomplete.

Still, he confirmed that Pompeii was a staff-bearer knight, and the cloaked figure's superior was identified.

Despite being a staff-bearer retainer, the cloaked figure had never obtained the staff-bearer tarot card he coveted.

Pompeii was in the same position—he wasn't a true staff-bearer knight either.

They were merely candidates, dreaming of becoming official retainers. Because of this obsession, the cloaked figure's memories on the matter had been easily captured by the Soul Egg.

Now that the cloaked figure was suddenly dead, the King Organization would undoubtedly be aware.

Rosen quickly searched through Pompeii 's study but found nothing of value.

Since the cloaked figure had taken such a risk to return, Pompeii must have left something behind.

If not in the study, where could it be?

Rosen took out the portrait of Pompeii he had painted.

This portrait contained all the extracted memories from Pompeii 's divine avatar. If Pompeii had a specific habit for hiding things, the painted version of him was the best chance to find it.

Half an hour later, Rosen arrived at the mayor's office.

In a miniature model of the Shining City on the desk, he found a chip left behind by Pompeii .

Rosen immediately retreated to the Secret Tome Chamber, waiting to see if anyone else would show up.

The chip was a memory storage device for virtual systems.

Connecting it via cable, the Main God Computer successfully read all its contents.

It contained only self-recorded videos of Pompeii , revealing everything he knew about the King Organization.

The King Organization had a true god, but based on Pompeii 's assessment, it was unlikely to be affiliated with the World Government.

The World Government's true gods had too many means to control a mere Sequence 1 like Pompeii .

While Sequence 0s were bound by the Noble Code, true gods were exempt since they had been its true authors.

Without the true gods' approval, no law crafted by jurists held any weight.

It was precisely because the King Organization's true god was an outsider that they had sought to recruit Pompeii .

Pompeii didn't know the identities of the Staff-Bearer King or the Staff-Bearer Queen, but he did know that the candidates for Staff-Bearer Knights included himself and two other Sequence 1s, while the candidates for Staff-Bearer Retainers were three Sequence 3s.

The organization was also persistently seeking the Fallen Tarot Cards.

As for why Pompeii had targeted him, it was because Pompeii possessed a projection of the Staff-Bearer Knight Tarot Card.

Through this projection, Pompeii had detected the presence of tarot power unrelated to the King Organization on Rosen.

When Rosen arrived in the Shining City, Pompeii abruptly breached their agreement.

However, Pompeii had underestimated Rosen's strength.

Failing to seize the Holy Grail King from him, Pompeii lost his life instead.

Now, the King Organization had undoubtedly set their sights on him.

(End of Chapter)