Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

"He wants to escape his powerful Mentor. As a High-ranking Powerhouse, they can indeed influence a person's Destiny to a certain extent, but it's impossible for them to block off every single path. That would render Prophecy meaningless..."

'This is so strange. Why is this happening? I don't understand... Could something have gone wrong somewhere? Let me check again...'

Jenkins was still muttering to himself, and Lloyd heard everything from outside.

Based on Old Zhan's earlier mutterings, Lloyd had a rough idea of what he was up to and had also learned a bit about this "Prophecy" of his.

It seemed to be a special kind of Divination with two distinct schools. One was short-term but correspondingly clearer and more specific; the other was long-term, yet also more vague and uncertain.

To Lloyd, it was like a villager living in a mountain valley who had met two Prophets.

One of them says, "It's going to rain here in three days, so remember to take waterproof measures. In four days, wolves will be on the prowl, so remember to bring your hunting rifle."

But this Prophet doesn't see the flash flood that will strike a week later, rendering all those previous efforts useless...

The other Prophet, however, simply says, "If you want to live, go east and head for higher ground."

But he doesn't say when you should go, how high you need to climb, or whether you'll encounter vicious predators on the way.

Right now, this outlaw named Hoyland was just like that confused villager, searching for his one shot at survival.

Jenkins had perhaps seen that path to survival, but he couldn't see the 'intersections' leading to it. The situation was now at a bizarre and awkward impasse.

It was like a major math problem where you only had the final answer but none of the steps showing your work—you definitely wouldn't get any points for that.

According to Old Zhan, this kind of situation shouldn't have been possible, at least in theory.

Lloyd wanted to give him a hand, but he knew nothing about Prophecy and didn't even really believe in so-called Destiny. He was willing to help, but powerless to do so.

Just then, he heard Old Zhan mutter again:

'My Prophecy isn't wrong, so why can't I find that path? Is the Mentor he wants to escape powerful enough to control his entire Destiny? But if that's the case, why can I see other outcomes?'

His tone was bordering on hysterical. It seemed if this continued, either his sanity or his Rationality was bound to shatter.

Lloyd felt he had to step in. He couldn't let Old Zhan suffer so much over some outlaw; he had to at least offer some guidance.

So he turned and glanced at the blood-red sapling beside him.

'At first, I thought the terrifying Mentor this Hoyland wanted to escape was the Advisor, who's now just a sapling.'

'After all, the descriptions mostly matched up.'

'But obviously, in his current state, the Advisor is the one whose fate is controlled by others...'

'Was my judgment wrong? Does this guy have another Mentor?'

'Or... did he provoke some other High-ranking Powerhouse?'

As Lloyd was pondering this, he suddenly heard Old Zhan call out to him.

"Oh, supreme Venerable Master, your humble follower begs for your enlightenment to clear away the fog and confusion before me..."

'Looks like the guy's mind has snapped. He's actually started praying...'

'Should I pretend I didn't hear him?'

Lloyd rubbed his chin. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to send a message to Old Zhan:

"What is it you wish to know?"

'Whether I can actually help or not, the least I can do is help him calm down.'

The moment Jenkins saw the words materialize before him, he was overcome with ecstatic joy. The Soldier piece on the chessboard began to sway left and right, hopping and jumping. He then quickly launched into a stream of gibberish, spouting a huge amount of technical knowledge about Prophecy that gave Lloyd a headache.

It wasn't until the very end that Jenkins posed his real question:

"I saw two possible final Destinies for him. In one, he dies from a bizarre cardiac arrest, cause unknown. The other outcome is very vague. I can't see it clearly. I only know that he is still alive, but I don't know how he manages to survive, or in what way he continues to live."

After speaking, Jenkins fell silent, merely bowing his head and waiting for an answer from the Supreme One.

But Lloyd, on the other side of the screen, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

'If you don't know, how am I supposed to know?'

'But still... "death from a bizarre cardiac arrest"... why does that sound so familiar?'

Lloyd was suddenly reminded of the terrifying ability of the Forgetfulness system, which could make a person forget to breathe and their heart forget to beat.

This led him to make a series of unfounded connections—

'This outlaw named Hoyland has a Mentor who is very similar to the Advisor, and as it happens, that High-ranking Powerhouse from the Forgetfulness system just recently became an enemy of the Advisor...'

'Considering the Advisor's fearsome reputation, the other party might not dare to seek revenge on the Advisor directly, so they're targeting his student instead?'

'That's certainly possible, isn't it?'

Although Lloyd had no concrete evidence to support his speculation, he hadn't received any commission from the outlaw, so he didn't have to be responsible for his conclusion.

In fact, this Hoyland was the infamous leader of the Free Style Association. While his crimes might not be too numerous to list, he was at least wicked to the core. His death would be for the best.

So he carefully chose his words and sent another message to Old Zhan:

"Hand him over to Wisdom."

This was Lloyd's carefully considered reply. It both maintained his persona as a powerful "Riddler" and helped Old Zhan solve his problem, while also conveniently dealing with a notorious outlaw.

And if his earlier unfounded connection proved true, and the High-ranking Powerhouse from the Forgetfulness system really did intend to make a move on this guy, then the high-ranking members of the Wisdom system would have the perfect bait.

All in all, it was an excellent choice. Everyone came out a winner.

As for how to hand the outlaw over to the people from Wisdom, that was for Old Zhan to figure out on his own.

When Jenkins saw this reply, he was utterly baffled, with no idea how the Wisdom system could be involved.

He had been completely absorbed in divining this "job" for some time and hadn't noticed what was happening in the outside world. He was still unaware of the great expedition from the Wisdom side.

But since the Supreme One had replied in this way, Jenkins simply decided to "Don't Ask Too Much." He immediately expressed his sincere gratitude to Lloyd and promised he would soon present a small gift to show his appreciation.

Then, his figure vanished from the chessboard as his consciousness returned to the real world. He sighed and murmured in a low voice:

"To think the Venerable Master has such a deep understanding of Destiny and Prophecy. The knowledge and power wielded by the Supreme One are truly hard to imagine... No! I dare not even imagine it!"