Chapter 578 - 355: Giving the Soul Ascenders an Eye-Opener

Chapter 578: Chapter 355: Giving the Soul Ascenders an Eye-Opener

Zog had barely settled into his seat when a question from behind him left him a little puzzled.

’What do they mean, "Why can you sit here?"’

’Are chairs not for sitting?’

He turned around and—whoa.

The group’s avatars were the founding Monarch of Sutton, the Legendary Emperor Loman, a first-generation Pope of the Church, and a bald man who was probably a younger version of Soron.

’When you’re out and about, your identity is what you make it. Customizing your avatar is free, after all, and they really shot for the stars with these.’

’It seemed they were modeled after beautified portraits, though. To say they weren’t perfect likenesses would be an understatement; they were practically unrelated to the originals.’

So how did Zog recognize them? Because he had seen both the real people and their portraits, of course.

In contrast to these glamorized celebrity avatars, Zog, with his baby dragon face, looked utterly ridiculous.

When he turned his head, the group opposite him stared blankly for a moment before they all lost their composure.

"Pfft..."

"Hahaha!"

"Dude, seriously, how did you even come up with this avatar?"

"It’s hilarious. This is the most unique look I’ve seen so far."

"I can’t, I have to get a picture. Is that okay?"

The group chattered away. Judging by their excitement, they couldn’t be very old.

"Sure, of course," Zog didn’t refuse.

Then, the person with the Pope avatar summoned a prop that looked like a camera lens, fixing it in mid-air before coming over to stand with everyone.

Zog even played along and struck a pose, sticking his tongue out.

It was hard for anyone to remain vigilant when faced with someone in a baby dragon avatar making such a moronic expression.

’This will make it easier to get information out of them later.’

’It’s called tactics.’

After the picture was taken, Zog finally asked, "What were you guys saying about this chair earlier?"

"Oh, we reserved these seats. Normally, they should be locked so no one else can interact with them. It must be another glitch. No big deal. The whole space has been updating recently, and there are all sorts of little bugs everywhere," Sutton I explained.

"Oh, I see. My apologies, I didn’t know."

Zog looked again at the chair he had been sitting in. There was indeed a line of text on it indicating it was reserved. He hadn’t noticed it before, thinking it was just a printed pattern.

’So, was it really a glitch?’

Sutton I tried to sit in a random seat but was blocked. "Ah, it’s working again. I thought we could sit anywhere now. When is this update ever going to finish? This on-and-off problem is getting really serious."

Judging by his tone, he was quite unhappy about it.

’Working again?’

’Zog didn’t think a bug would just suddenly fix itself. Even if it could, it should at least require a reboot or something. It should at least go through the motions.’

’He had a more logical guess.’

’Perhaps it was because his method of connecting was different from that of the Soul Ascenders.’

’He was using the legitimate method from the Divine Race’s knowledge base, not the Soul Ascenders’ bootleg way of hijacking people for processing power.’

’In that case, it was highly likely that many of the restrictions in this Consciousness Space didn’t apply to him.’

’Right now, he was probably like a Ghost in the Consciousness Space, or some kind of admin with elevated privileges.’

"Are you new here?" the one with the Emperor Loman avatar suddenly asked. "Otherwise, how could you not know something as basic as reserving seats?"

"Y-Yes," Zog acted just like a tense newcomer who had just arrived and knew nothing. "This is my first time connecting. This place is magnificent."

"Your first time? Then where’s your mentor?" Emperor Loman pressed.

’It seemed the Soul Ascenders had a rule that a mentor must accompany you on your first connection.’

’That’s a bit tricky.’

Zog’s mind raced.

’Where would he get a mentor? He had, however, accidentally killed a Soul Ascender.’

’Wait, killed one?’

Zog immediately put on a mournful expression. "My mentor was killed by the Church’s minions. I used the equipment he left behind to find my own way in."

Hearing this, the "historical figures" all looked embarrassed.

"Sorry, we didn’t know."

"My mentor was so good to me, practically a father. But then the vile Church found him. Even at the most critical moment, he was thinking only of my escape..."

Zog continued to embellish his story.

’He could already tell that these guys in front of him weren’t very mature.’

’It was quite a contrast.’

’Here was an underground cult plotting something as grand as creating a god by artificial means, yet its members weren’t all the stereotypical, insidious, evil Cultists with their heads full of bizarre schemes.’

’Instead, there were many who liked famous historical figures, had their own hobbies, were easily fooled, compassionate, and lacked much real-world experience.’

And after listening to Zog’s story, these guys were extremely empathetic, especially Emperor Loman, the one who had been questioning him. He wore a look of regret and apology. He’d probably dream about this moment tonight, wake up, and slap himself while lamenting what a terrible person he was.

Under this emotional offensive, the group had already begun to trust Zog. They took on the responsibility of mentors and started explaining the key points for entering the Soul Ascension Sanctuary.

Soul Ascension Sanctuary was what they called this Consciousness Space.

From them, Zog learned a lot of useful information.

This so-called Holy Sanctuary was a grand domain built by dozens of generations of Soul Ascenders.

Its purpose was to create a beautiful world for all Soul Ascenders to live in, even if that world wasn’t real.

Here, they could conduct many experiments that were difficult to perform in the real world, and they had indeed achieved quite a few results.