Chapter 305 - 237: Zog’s Impulse Spending (Part 2)
"Yes."
"Somehow, I get the feeling the Church knew all along that the location could be pinpointed sooner."
Zog said as he paced around.
"But why would the Church do this? What’s in it for them?" Doudou didn’t understand. "What’s the point of risking a few seconds of the Mammon Sect’s brainwashing content getting out before pulling the plug?"
Zog couldn’t figure it out right away either, but he was sure those bastards at the Church had to know.
You could look down on the Church in many respects, but when it came to Magic, they were definitely at the forefront.
Zog paced for several more laps.
Doudou couldn’t take it anymore. "Can you stop pacing around? You’re making me dizzy. Maybe it’s just that I’m better than the Church."
"You’re saying you understand the Church’s Magic better than they do? Wait... the Church’s Magic?"
Zog suddenly saw the problem. "Doudou, how did you confirm that the Church’s Magic could pinpoint the location sooner?"
Because of the Magic Goddess, the Magic the Church used had always been different from common Magic. The effects might be the same, but the underlying principles were different.
The Church called their own Magic Divine Arts.
Those who didn’t join the Church couldn’t learn them; the Magic itself seemed to have been encrypted by the Magic Goddess.
No one had ever been able to figure out the effects of a Divine Art on their own. You only found out when it was used, or you had to take the Church’s word for what it did.
This surveillance Magic, however, was completely controlled by the Church. They would learn the location first, and only then would they notify Zog.
"You’ve figured out the principles behind the Church’s Magic?"
Zog asked in disbelief. This was something even Furin and El couldn’t do. ’Could Doudou be the hidden powerhouse at my side all this time? Or... did Doudou join the Church?’
He thought the idea of Doudou joining the Church was far more likely than Doudou’s skill in Magic surpassing Furin’s.
"I didn’t figure it out, but I didn’t need to," Doudou replied naturally.
"I can’t figure out how Divine Arts work. It’s an achievement of the High Level Magic Language. To create a copy-paste function for Magic models, the Mage Guild wrote a replication Magic using the Magic Language. You don’t need to understand the principles; it can just brute-force a copy."
"So you copied the Church’s Magic."
Zog never realized the copy-paste function he’d been using was such a hardcore piece of Magic.
"Yes. Then my team ran tests using various signal-hijacking methods. We found that we can absolutely pinpoint the location before the signal is successfully hijacked. You can just teleport over, and the problem will be solved."
"Yeah, except the Church’s people would teleport there first."
Zog now understood why the Church was doing this.
From the Church’s perspective, Zog had no way of knowing when the location would be pinpointed. He could only wait for their notification.
By knowing first, they could teleport over ahead of him, creating a time gap.
’So why would the Church want to arrive before I do?’
’There must be something about the Mammon Sect they don’t want me to know.’
’They’ll go first, clean up the scene, and hide whatever it is they need to hide.’
’That’s the most likely scenario.’
"No, no, no. I can’t tell the Church."
Zog rejected Doudou’s suggestion.
"Why? Do you want the city to fall into chaos again?"
"The Church is hiding something, and I want to know what it is. Besides, wasn’t our original plan to let a little bit of the broadcast air before shutting it down anyway?"
"That’s different. Before, we didn’t have a better option. Now we do."
Doudou looked at Zog, his eyes filled with disappointment.
As a Red Copper Dragon, Doudou had a naturally strong sense of justice. Add to that his otaku tendencies, and you had a top-tier, good-aligned Dragon.
If he had the chance to prevent a disaster, he would do so without a moment’s hesitation.
That was why he and Zog hadn’t gotten along well back in Zog’s "robbing" days.
To him, it looked like Zog was about to revert to his old self.
Zog didn’t answer directly.
He was conflicted.
’First, how can I get the location before the Church does?’
’Second, how can I do it with minimal impact on the viewers?’
’This is a rare chance to uncover one of the Church’s secrets. If I miss it, who knows when I’ll get another.’
’What if I find something that could bring down the entire Church?’
Zog wracked his brain, trying to find a solution that would let him have his cake and eat it too.
As he thought, his eyes fell upon a set of nesting dolls on a researcher’s workstation.
It was a limited-edition Dilu Beast collaboration set, no less.
Seeing the nesting dolls gave Zog a sudden flash of inspiration.
"What if we build a fake Magic Vision Headquarters and essentially layer it over the real one?"
"What do you mean?" Doudou didn’t understand what Zog was getting at.
"Two headquarters, two signal sources, providing video feeds simultaneously. All the configurations will be identical. We’ll migrate the Church’s surveillance Magic to the fake system and put our copied surveillance Magic on the original video feed."
Zog laid out his idea.
"Ohhh—"
Doudou got it. "So when the Mammon Sect hijacks the original feed, it won’t affect the other feed’s normal broadcast. And you’ll get their location first."
"Exactly. I’ll go first and confirm what’s actually there. Once I’ve checked it out, I’ll replicate the Magic the Mammon Sect is using and fake an attack on the new signal source to let the Church know their feed has been hijacked. This way, I can find out what the Church is trying to hide, and it won’t affect the viewers."
’My plan is perfect,’ Zog thought.
"That... actually seems doable."
Doudou considered Zog’s plan for a moment.
"But there are two problems. First, if you’re going to swap the video feed, what do you replace it with? It has to be something the Church won’t realize you switched."
"Er..."
Zog was stumped for a moment. That was indeed a problem. The replacement video couldn’t trigger the brainwashing Magic Array; otherwise, there’d be no point in swapping it.
"What if we don’t swap the video? We use their original video, but destroy all the Magic Arrays the moment it airs?"
"Impossible. We’ve discussed this before. We don’t have the ability to instantly destroy all the Magic Arrays at once. Besides, we don’t even know all the locations where the Mammon Sect has set up Arrays. What if the ones they revealed last time were only a fraction of the total?"
Doudou shot down Zog’s idea immediately.
"Tsk."
’So annoying.’
Zog scratched his head.
’If not for brainwashing, what else would the Mammon Sect want to broadcast?’
’Something to promote their doctrine?’
Zog didn’t even know what their doctrine was. He couldn’t exactly rush to the Mammon Sect’s lair, learn their beliefs, and film a new video on the spot.
’Or maybe a video exposing the Church’s dirty laundry.’
Judging from the last video, the Mammon Sect was definitely hostile to the Church and had it in for the Magic Goddess.
Unfortunately, the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend.
’So what kind of content could I make to expose the Church’s secrets?’
"Ah, don’t worry about it. I can solve the video problem. I’m sure I can come up with something if I think on it."
Zog pressed on, "Didn’t you say there were two problems? What’s the second one?"
"The other problem isn’t technically difficult," Doudou said, his expression subtle. "It mainly comes down to your attitude."
"What do you mean, ’my attitude’? If it’s not a difficult problem, then of course I can solve it."
"To make it undetectable, you’ll have to run a second Magic Vision Headquarters with specs and configurations identical to the original."
"Right."
"Then you can’t really call it a ’fake’ Magic Vision Headquarters. It would be a completely real, second one. And this ’real’ one..."
Doudou paused before finishing.
"Is very expensive."
Zog was suddenly at a loss for words.
’Running an entire, separate system would indeed be expensive. Extremely expensive.’
’The key is that it wouldn’t generate any revenue. It would be purely, one hundred percent, setting money on fire. A huge pile of money.’
’Reverse Scale!’
’And what’s worse, there’s no telling when the Mammon Sect will make their move. The second Magic Vision Headquarters would have to stay online continuously until they do.’
’Damn it. Suddenly, he was starting to hesitate.’
’Maybe I should just forget it. There’ll be other chances to uncover the Church’s secrets...’
Just then, Doudou twisted the knife.
"’Then of course I can solve it.’ A certain Dragon said that himself not thirty seconds ago."
He even started whistling after he said it, as if asking Zog, "Now what are you going to do?"
Zog’s eyelid twitched. He ground out a few words in the Dragon Language through clenched teeth. "Fine. We’ll do it. If I say we need another Magic Vision Headquarters, then we’ll have another headquarters. Do I look like a Dragon who’s short on cash?"
With that, he turned and walked away, his stride noticeably less forceful.
Having made the momentous decision, Zog prepared to go back to bed.
When he returned to the Zog Group Headquarters, he suddenly saw a somewhat familiar figure standing out front.
It was a doctor wearing a bird’s beak mask.