Chapter 2367 - 1177: The Yandere Arrives

Chapter 2367: Chapter 1177: The Yandere Arrives

After these days of cramming, Dorothy basically looked and acted like a local now, so she wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of Spirit Ruins People.

She’d already learned the principle behind the phenomenon of Spirit Ruins before—that is, the erosion of reality by the Spirit World. When powerful creatures from the Spirit World invade reality, the Strength of the Spirit World seeps over with them, ultimately fusing with the real world and forming a special space like a ghost or an inner world, something in between reality and illusion.

And Spiritual Realm Creatures that have just come from the Spirit World into reality can also use the Spirit Ruins to complete their transitional adaptation to the present world. After all, the Law of reality differs from that of the Spirit World; they need a period of adaptation and transformation before they can become powerful again.

It’s like how a fish you just caught can’t be thrown straight into tap water; you have to mix in a bit of river water for it to actually stay alive.

And this adaptation period is also when Spiritual Realm Creatures are at their weakest. At this time they’re like bugs turning into cocoons, starting a second incubation and waiting to be reborn from the cocoon, so this phase can also be called the incubation period.

Because of this, the locals of the Mechanical Wilderness are extremely wary of Spirit Ruins. Basically, as soon as a Spirit Ruins appears, people are immediately sent over to blockade and eliminate it. Otherwise, if you just leave it alone, once that Spiritual Realm Creature completes its incubation, it’ll be very hard to find or kill it afterward.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything. There will always be some Spirit Ruins that, due to various accidents, slip past detection, and the Spiritual Realm Creatures inside them manage to survive the adaptation period and successfully gain a physical body.

These creatures are what people in the Mechanical Wilderness call Spirit Ruins People.

Likewise, "people" here is just a general term; it doesn’t strictly mean humans. Lots of Spiritual Realm Creatures have freakish shapes and looks and don’t necessarily have a humanoid form.

And among Spirit Ruins People, naturally, there are good ones and bad ones. After all, the Spirit World contains both positive and negative energy. Some Spiritual Realm Creatures born from positive emotions are actually like fairies—pure, untainted, and harmless to humans and animals.

It’s just a pity that such Spiritual Realm Creatures usually can’t be bothered to invade reality, so the ones that actively try to invade are mostly those terrifying monsters bred from negative emotions.

So you can’t say every Spirit Ruins Person is a villain, but at least seven or eight out of ten could walk straight into a horror movie as the main character.

Yeah, as everyone knows, the "main character" in a horror movie usually refers to the antagonist.

So naturally, the reputation of these so-called Spirit Ruins People isn’t going to be any good. Even though the Alliance seems to have blocked information about their existence, stuff about Spirit Ruins People still pops up on Sky Net from time to time—urban legends and such, most of which are basically ghost stories.

You can even just directly think of Spirit Ruins People as Evil Ghosts who escaped from the Underworld.

And now Bahamut was saying that she herself was a Spirit Ruins Person.

Dorothy could understand that. After all, this was the Warship Girls wife she created with her own hands; obviously she couldn’t be a native born and bred in the Mechanical Wilderness. And the most feasible way for a game to turn into reality really is to become a Spirit Ruins Person.

It was just that Elsa, as a genuine, native local, found this a bit hard to accept.

"Then how can you be an Inspector? A Spirit Ruins Person can be trusted?"

Angel Sister couldn’t help asking.

In her impression, Spirit Ruins were the great enemy of the Alliance. Every year the Alliance had to invest massive manpower and resources to suppress them, and now suddenly there was a Spirit Ruins Person serving as an Inspector. This was like finding out your own General was from an enemy country—completely absurd.

Yeah, looks like this Alliance really is doomed sooner or later.

The Rebel Army leader Miss thought to herself.

Bahamut just smiled at this.

"Tell me, is there a possibility that your Alliance was actually founded with the backing of the very Spirit Ruins People you talk about?"

Miss Shipgirl looked down at Elsa from on high and said this.

Angel Girl: "....."

Elsa fell silent. She really wanted to say it was impossible, but after a brief rational thought, she realized it was actually quite plausible.

After all, the history of how the Alliance was founded had always been glossed over and vague.

In school they only briefly said that in the old era, the Winter Empire perished amidst Calamity and Curse, and that Survivors rebuilt the Alliance under the leadership of the Church of Machinery pioneers.

At that time, anyone could figure out that after an Empire that once ruled the whole world collapsed, with a giant whale’s fall bringing life to all things, what should’ve followed was a chaotic era of conflict among all the major powers. To unite again after that? That’d be extremely difficult.

And the Empire had been so powerful yet still couldn’t survive the Calamity. How did the Alliance, a bunch of Primitive people whose technology all came from post-disaster archaeology, manage to grow stronger instead?

Well, the most likely explanation is that the founders of the Alliance, those predecessors, received support from some ineffable mysterious Strength.

Spirit Ruins People, huh...

Thinking it through, the special phenomenon of Spirit Ruins really did only start appearing after the Empire’s fall, when Calamity rampaged unchecked.

And at that time, the Alliance’s predecessors could barely protect themselves, let alone suppress Spirit Ruins. So who knows how many Spirit Ruins People were born in that era.

Only, considering most Spirit Ruins People are evil, they should’ve caused no end of trouble for the Alliance’s predecessors back then. Something like that ought to have been recorded in history—so why...