Death... and me

Chapter 4283: Scheme

There was a place in all the Array Guild Branches where the Array Masters could test out their Arrays without worrying about things going out of control. The branch in the Wangamiglia Sect was no different. The facility itself spanned several kilometers and was surrounded by a protective array capable of withstanding explosions from Level Three Arrays.

With such a safety net in place, many Array Masters preferred to come here to test their own projects. Once again, pretty much all knowledge about Arrays was available in the Guild Network, so there wasn’t much of a point in trying to hide your work. Someone else most likely already tried it anyway.

That was the place Rean went to take a look. He had no interest in testing any of his ideas, though. He just wanted a slav- new helper to work with him in the building of his own airplane.

’Even Law Gods barely stay in the air for long, such is the energy expenditure of flight. Kentucky could fly for longer if his cultivation increased, but his resistance can’t match what a normal airplane from this place can do,’ Rean thought. ’It would be even worse if we required him to fly as fast as possible. That won’t work.’

As the third biggest sect of the Besgol Region, the Arrays Guild Branch that you could find inside it was obviously quite popular. It not only received the disciples and elders of the sect, but was also open to Array Masters from the city and its surroundings.

Rean walked through a corridor with transparent walls. The facility had several floors, and it allowed one to watch everyone who was working in their specific rooms. Some had several Array Masters, others had some lone wolves practicing their own things.

The Arrays Guild used a very nice system for Array Masters to learn more. You could make it impossible for anyone to see inside your room, but for that, you had to pay Godly Crystals. If you did not turn off the transparency, the rooms were free for use.

Rean’s eyes scanned everything, searching for a specific type of Array Master. ’First, he can’t be an ascender. All ascenders are old monsters, and they would never accept becoming my slav- free helper. It has to be a Level Two Array Master who was born in the Celestial Plane.’

The problem was that such an Array Master would already be quite old, considering how hard it was to cultivate in the Celestial Plane. From what Rean saw so far, the youngest Aura Gods were usually over fifty years old. Anyone below that age would be considered quite a talent, so it would be even less likely that Rean could get one of those.

Rean sat down in a waiting room at the center of the Array Testing Facility. Many Array Masters gathered there to discuss their work, becoming quite a popular location. Rean didn’t talk to anyone, though. He just kept looking around, paying attention to the various Arrays that were being created.

Array Masters came and went, testing rooms were taken and vacated. The flux of Array Masters never stopped, be it day or night.

’Hum... maybe I’m looking at it the wrong way...’ Rean thought. He had been looking at the youngest Array Masters who were at Level Two. He thought it would be easier to recruit one of them since he was an ascender... which turned out to be wrong. They didn’t even bother talking to Rean when they heard he was only a Level One Array Master. Being an ascender mattered little to them.

It wasn’t only the younger ones; even the older ones didn’t care about him. There seemed to be a very high hierarchy here.

So... Rean changed his approach and decided to look for something completely different. With a new idea in mind, Rean took another look at the various testing rooms as he walked through the corridors again. Then, his eyes finally found someone pretty interesting. ’That guy...’

Inside a testing room, an old man was trying to craft a rune, but sparks of Lightning Element kept coming out. The circuitry rune broke in the end, and the old man sighed. Then, he took the materials for another rune and tried again.

He didn’t notice Rean stopping in front of his testing room. Once again, all rooms were transparent, which allowed others to observe if they were being used for free. Yet, Rean was the only one who seemed interested in the old man, and there was a good reason for this.

*Ding, ding, ding...*

*Puff!*

"Ah!" The old man was taken aback by the sudden sound. He set the room’s protective array to refuse any visitors, so he shouldn’t have heard anything. That made sense. Even if the rooms were transparent, you couldn’t just intervene in someone’s work. Array building was a delicate process, after all.

The man looked at his rune, which also broke because of his surprise. He turned around, his expression dark. Only then did he see Rean there, and the old man walked over to open the protective array that impeded anyone from entering the room. "Who the hell are you? How did you even manage to activate the alarm? I set it to not disturb!"

Rean smiled in response. "It isn’t all that hard. You just need to give it a good kick."

"Uh?!" Only then did the old man see that the door device was sparking nonstop. "You broke it?! Don’t you know that you have to pay for anything you break in the guild? That’s why they made these testing rooms for fucking sake. Let me guess, you are another fucking ascender and lived a life of a king in your great void, and now you think you can do anything you want here."

"Of course not!" Rean shook his head in response. "I am an ascender, but I’ve never liked the idea of living like a king. I was quite famous, though. Hum... I don’t think it matters right now. Anyway, there is a reason I stopped you."

The old man was just about to report Rean with his Ring Communicator when Rean said something that caught his attention. "That rune you were working on, you completely missed the third and seventh conduits’ connections to the core of the rune. That’s why the rune was breaking. I didn’t want you to waste more materials, so I had to do it to catch your attention."

"Third... and seventh conduit?" The man looked back. "I’m pretty sure they were connected. No, wait, how did you even see it from here?"

"I didn’t," Rean shook his head. "That was just the conclusion I reached after seeing you failing the previous rune."

Then, Rean patted the old man’s shoulder. "There is no need to be sad, though. I can help you there. I just need the help of a Level Two Array Master in a little project I’ll start soon."

The old man was skeptical. "Sounds like a crook trying to pull me into a pyramid scheme. What are you getting at? No, wait! Level Two? Are you blind? Why would you come to me then? I’m not a Level Two Array Master at all!"

"Exactly!" Rean’s smile got even bigger. "Just looking at your work earlier, I can tell for certain: You are an absolute shit when it comes to rune crafting. To say you lack talent is already a huge compliment. As an Array Master, you are a great dancer, and I haven’t even seen you dancing yet. That’s how bad you are."

A few veins began to pop out of the old man’s head. "Are you looking for a fight?!"

"Of course not!" Rean patted both his shoulders now. "I’m here to change your life... in exchange for your help, that is."

Yes, it totally looked like a pyramid scheme invitation...