Book 10: Chapter 2: The Vanished Apostle Abilities

In a large, empty room with white walls on all sides, the ten awakened Apostles gathered together once more. Qin Lun and Frank stood side by side in the left corner of the room.

They each wore a set of form-fitting white undergarments, made of a material similar to Earth’s cotton fleece, which felt warm and elastic and did not hinder their movements. From the scattered exercise equipment around, this appeared to be a recovery room.

Qin Lun clenched his fist and carefully examined his new body. Outwardly, he still looked human, but Qin Lun understood in his heart that this body was completely different from that of an Earth human.

According to the data provided by the Death Notice, his current height was about two meters and eighty centimeters. He had long limbs, smooth muscle lines, and his upper and lower body showed a perfect golden ratio.

Apart from him, the other nine Apostles all had light golden skin. Although their faces retained the original Apostles’ contours, they seemed to have been adjusted, appearing as if in the most perfect genetic state. Only the pair of soft, white, wing-like appendages on their backs, about the size of a normal person’s palm and resembling decorations, showed they were not ordinary humans.

Perhaps because Qin Lun had entered the negative gene sequence, he was the only one among the ten with light blue skin. The small wings on his back were pitch black, and he had a pair of protruding bumps on his forehead, like immature demon horns.

All ten of them had natural patterns on their faces, with varying positions and designs, quite similar to the war paint primitive people applied. However, while the others had milky white patterns, the pattern near Qin Lun’s right eyebrow was black.

“Sister Robin, do the people of this world… know about the existence of the Star Void?” After everyone gathered, the youngest-looking Apostle, Bobby, was the first to ask a question.

He had originally intended to say “natives,” but just as the words were about to leave his mouth, he suddenly remembered that their Team Channel had been shut down by the Shattered Starry Sky, and there might be monitoring devices in the room, so he cleverly changed his phrasing.

Hearing Bobby’s question, about half of the Apostles, including Qin Lun, unconsciously pricked up their ears. This was also their first time experiencing a Quest World with a World Exploration Degree exceeding 50%.

The information from the Star Void before entering this world gave them a sense of crisis, and they really wanted to understand the true meaning behind it.

They were all elite-level Apostles and fully understood that their Plot Identity was their strongest weapon. But now, having just entered the Quest World, they had already exposed their identities to the Plot Characters, which was obviously not good news.

“Hehe, there’s no need to ask Leader Robin about this question, let me explain!” Balin rotated his arm and said with a smile, “As long as the World Exploration Degree of a Quest World reaches over 50%, it basically has some level of connection with the Shattered Starry Sky. The more advanced the world’s technology or magic, the deeper this connection.”

“Hmm, Balin is right. After the World Exploration Degree reaches 50%, even a Shadow World is basically equivalent to an independent world, separated from the historical flow of the Prime Material World.” Robin nodded in agreement and added with a smile, “Actually, a World Exploration Degree of 50% means the Star Void has completely grasped the main historical thread of that world…”

“A 50% Exploration Rate means completely mastering the main historical thread?” Bobby was shocked and blurted out, “Then what about the other 50%?”

“The other 50% belongs to the unknown, meaning the point in time we enter is part of the world’s history that is about to begin. Everything that happens next is new history created jointly by us and the humans of this world!” Robin replied with a smile.

“But that’s not right. The prompt from my Apostle Soul Mark tells me the existing World Exploration Degree is 53.27%. What about the extra 3%…” Bobby frowned, his small face filled with confusion.

“Hehe, that 3% Exploration Rate is virtual. It’s an advance prediction made by the Star Void based on past historical data. It’s also the maximum amount of World Exploration Degree we can change and strive for during our stay.” Balin added with a laugh.

“Also, let me tell you one more thing: Quest Worlds with over 50% Exploration Rate aren’t always under the Star Void’s control. If they encounter an invasion by ‘external enemies,’ there’s still a chance they could fall below 50%. If that happens, this world would return to the historical flow of the Prime Material World.” Robin seemed to remember something, her expression turning somewhat serious.

Although Robin didn’t specifically mention what “external enemies” referred to, everyone understood she meant the Superstring Space. This conversation among the several of them revealed a great deal of information, causing everyone in the room to fall into thought for a moment.

Qin Lun also recalled the Nals World he had once entered during this conversation. However, the Exploration Rate of the Nals World was only a little over 5%, so it probably wasn’t a world completely controlled by the Star Void. In that world, apart from the gods of the Demiplane and Legendary Creatures, ordinary people had no knowledge of the Shattered Starry Sky or the Apostles.

He guessed that the two sides had probably reached some kind of tacit agreement and compromise: the Star Void no longer arbitrarily altered the history of the Nals World, while the gods and Legendary Creatures of Nals provided Apostles with plenty of trial opportunities for their Class Change, making it easier for them to obtain magic-based skills and enhance their combat strength.

Thinking of this, Qin Lun quickly realized an important issue. He raised his eyebrows slightly and turned to ask, “Leader Robin, since the Star Void completely controls Quest Worlds with over 50% Exploration Rate, does that mean Apostles can no longer enter the past history of these Quest Worlds?”

Robin looked back at Qin Lun, a flicker of appreciation in her eyes. “The Shattered Starry Sky dispatches Apostles into any alternate space-time world, and maintaining the Apostles’ existence in the Quest World requires consuming a large amount of World Origin every day. So the timing of entry is crucial.”

“You probably noticed before that every time Apostles enter a Quest World, it’s always on the eve of a major Historical Plot about to begin. For Quest Worlds with a World Exploration Degree over 50%, the Star Void has basically already sent Apostles to experience all the major Historical Plots.”

“Among the core members of large teams, there’s an unconfirmed piece of intelligence: the Star Void cannot send Apostles into the same Historical Plot a second time. The same rule applies to the Reincarnators of the Superstring Space. In other words, it’s impossible for us to go back to the past and fight ourselves. Does that explanation make sense?”

Qin Lun nodded. This explanation was quite similar to his guess, but he still wasn’t entirely free of doubts. “Hmm, I understand generally. But if the plot we are experiencing now has no historical template, then what is the basis for the Main Quest given by the Star Void? Just its advance predictions?”

“I’ve only experienced one Quest World with over 50% Exploration Rate myself. Regarding this point, there’s also no definite answer, only a corresponding speculation.” Robin furrowed her willow-leaf-like eyebrows and rested her chin on one hand.

“From my past mission experiences, the Main Plotline of such worlds should change as events develop. The mission content, difficulty, and rewards will appear in stages. Compared to normal Quest Worlds, our actions as Apostles have a more direct impact on the Main Plotline…”

“Alright, that’s basically all I know about this topic. Since the Star Void has some connection with the humans of this world, and we don’t need to hide our Apostle identities, we can definitely ask them for more information later.”

Robin clapped her hands with a smile, diverting everyone’s attention. “The Star Void hinted that our original combat laws no longer seem suitable for this world. Please observe your physical conditions first!”

The Apostles glanced at each other and then focused their consciousness into their Apostle Soul Marks. Qin Lun also concentrated his attention on the Death Notice.

Upon careful observation, Qin Lun found that the prompt from the Shattered Starry Sky was absolutely correct. His Storage Space and Apostle equipment were unusable. Most of his body’s bloodlines and combat skills had turned gray, falling into an unusable state.

However, after fully immersing his consciousness into the Apostle Soul Mark, he discovered several surprising situations.

His equipment skills were indeed all sealed. Even the high-level Magic Core condensed within his Soul Sigil was covered by a layer of law film, isolating his consciousness. However, two things connected to his Soul Mark, due to their biological characteristics, were not completely sealed.

One was the Legendary third-tier treasure he obtained in the Divine Comedy World—the Holy Crown of Thorns. The other was the quasi-Divine Artifact “Merimith’s Placenta.”

Qin Lun’s heart stirred. He threw a glance at Frank beside him, quietly took two steps back, used Frank’s tall body to block himself, and extended the index finger of his right hand forward.

As his consciousness activated it, a slender, emerald-green vine quickly extended from the tip of his finger. This vine, like a living thing, coiled and spiraled at the tip of Qin Lun’s finger, completely following his conscious guidance, giving him a feeling of being connected by blood.

A smile appeared at the corner of Qin Lun’s mouth, and the vine instantly retracted into his body. Due to the change in combat laws, the mana pool inside him couldn’t be used, so he couldn’t activate the Holy Crown of Thorns’ Thorn Clone ability.

Furthermore, because they were on a spaceship with no green environment around, the Holy Crown of Thorns’ “Green Gift” could no longer feedback life force to Qin Lun.

However, the Sacred Pool of the Holy Crown of Thorns could still be used. He could create Holy Thorns at will, just like having another set of blood vessels and tendon networks inside his body.

Qin Lun hadn’t yet thought of how to use this ability. The deliberately created Holy Thorns were very fragile and definitely couldn’t be used in the kind of intense battles he was used to. It was simply like giving him an additional, rather insignificant, supernatural ability.

As for “Merimith’s Placenta,” it actually gave him a very pleasant surprise. With this thing, his safety factor greatly increased, equivalent to having an extra life compared to the others. It had finally revealed its true value in this world.

After touching these two items with his consciousness, Qin Lun thought of his two other abilities. With a slight hope, he focused his consciousness on his eyes again. The innate abilities brought by his Demon Bloodline and Elf Bloodline were restricted, but he still didn’t know if the two Eye Techniques connected to his eyes were also completely restricted.

After checking all the body skills he originally possessed, Qin Lun’s face finally showed a look of surprise. He raised his head to look at his other companions and found that they also wore expressions of disbelief on their faces.

Now they somewhat understood what the Shattered Starry Sky meant by “this world’s combat laws contradict the original laws, performing equivalent substitution.” Their original combat skills were indeed sealed, but they weren’t completely unusable; they had just transformed into another form.

No wonder the Star Void prompted them to familiarize themselves with their new bodies and combat modes as soon as possible after entering the Quest World.