Mythical creatures are not only “Fire Giants.”
To be more accurate, Fire Giants are just one of the “manifestations” of the myriad forms of mythical creatures.
During Lena’s selection process for her “Hunting” target, Renji could follow the Succubus’s perspective and see that besides Fire Giants, there were also giant ancient fish that dove into the deep sea, purple extreme birds in the thunderclouds, stone statue beasts that merged with the mountains, and shadow souls in the eternal darkness of the night in other worlds.
Although each mythical creature had a different form, their unchanging commonality was that after successfully incubating and descending into their respective worlds by occupying the “savior’s” body, they would forcibly reshape the world according to their own form, making the world’s creatures serve them.
The higher the level of the world, the stronger the mythical creature that occupied the player’s body, and the greater the degree of world transformation, the more miserable the fate of the world’s native creatures.
For example, the Fire Giant turned the world into a sea of fire, using creatures as fuel.
In the world of the Whale Spirit Ancient Fish, 90% of the continents were flooded by the sea, and the remaining 10% of the land was used to raise land creatures as feed.
The Shadow Soul plunged the world into eternal darkness, and under the wings of the Purple Extreme Bird, the world’s sky was an endless, sleepless storm.
These mythical creatures were like people who moved into someone else’s home and wanted to turn everything in the original world into the environment that was most comfortable for them. As for the world’s native creatures, they became tenants instead.
However,
Renji looked at the diary entry where Lena began her “hunting” in the world.
There was no raging fire, no boundless deep sea, and the world was almost no different from a normal world, with no signs of being “transformed.”
This was not because the mythical creature was merciful, but because the player’s “protagonist” body was too low-level, only at the “Disaster” rank, causing the mythical creature to be far from reaching the “Giant” level, and naturally did not possess the ability to transform the world.
To be honest, even at the lowest difficulty, the protagonist’s strength was only at the “Disaster?” rank, not even at the peak of Calamity, but around 60 or 70 levels, which was not even as good as many local faction leaders in Ashen Base. Renji found this a bit unthinkable.
Renji could only think that this player had chosen the “diplomat” strategy.
Indeed, there was such a strategy in the game, which was to continuously increase favorability, making the favorability of each faction extremely high, and then acting as a mediator to unite the fragmented world, ultimately joining forces to exterminate the Miasma.
However, male players like Renji generally disdain such methods and find it much more enjoyable to fight and become a ruler themselves.
Sure enough, when the player’s “protagonist” appeared later, it was a female character. This way of clearing the game was basically chosen by female players who did not like to fight.
Since the protagonist was a “diplomat” and lacked power, the descended mythical creature could not directly rule the world with pure strength.
This further confirmed Miyuki’s conjecture.
These behind-the-scenes creatures were probably extremely weak or even powerless. They relied entirely on the player’s body.
Once the player’s strength was weak, they had no choice but to evolve more intelligence to adapt.
Renji continued to look at the world of this “Calamity” level mythical creature.
For mythical creatures, intelligence was a “downgrade.”
It was as if this mythical creature was no longer a “deity,” but more like a person.
A schemer.
Although it was weak, the commonality and purpose of the mythical creature remained unchanged.
After descending, it wanted to build a nest and create a comfortable environment for itself as much as possible.
So, this mythical creature that occupied the player’s body did not choose to reveal its “true form.”
Instead, it continued to use the player’s appearance and disguised itself as the player in front of the native creatures, thus inheriting the player’s rights.
The player’s protagonist had low strength, but her reputation in the world was immense, especially since she successfully exterminated the Miasma and saved the world. Almost all the faction leaders were willing to help the protagonist.
Therefore, it used this condition to disguise itself as the player and establish its own empire.
The native creatures of the world had no objections to this and responded one after another, making the process extremely smooth.
Following Lena’s investigation, Renji also gradually learned about the history of this world.
Later, it began to slowly expand its empire’s power while secretly collecting children to become its nourishment for enhancing its strength. Every behind-the-scenes creature had its own preferences, and this one obviously liked children.
In this way, it didn’t take long for its empire to become the most powerful force in this world.
However, disguised as the “player,” it could deceive for a year or two, but as time went on, it would eventually be discovered by some native creatures and the leaders of the major factions who were familiar with the player.
But by then, it was already too late.
After establishing its own empire, it began its purge, secretly killing those native creatures who had discovered its secret and had deep feelings for the player, one by one.
Or, under the name of the “Emperor or Empress” it would frame these “native kings” with false charges, throw them into prison, or pretend to invite them to a banquet but poison them instead.
As Lena investigated more, her mood became heavier every second, and the anger in her eyes grew stronger.
This world might not be theirs.
But if Lena put herself in their shoes, if the behind-the-scenes creature that descended using Lord Ashen’s body did not transform into a Giant but continued to disguise itself like this mythical creature, what would happen to them?
The outcome would likely not be much different.
Those who were most devoted to Lord Ashen would be the ones used the deepest.
Just like in this world, those “Savior’s” contract holders were ordered by the disguised mythical creature to harm their former comrades, their life-and-death companions who had once fought together to exterminate the Miasma.
They didn’t know why the “Savior” would give such a command, but out of trust in the “Savior,” even if it went against their hearts and caused great torment, they would still swing their butcher knives at their comrades.
Upon seeing this, both Renji and Lena couldn’t help but think of Nova and Zero.
Their personalities were such that only Ashen’s commands mattered, regardless of what those commands were, even if it meant mutual slaughter.
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