Chapter 785 The Real Cheater

“ … I do.”

Osgiliath’s reappearance had been too sudden. There had been no warning at all and Chen Xiaolian, who was caught off guard, was stunned for a moment. Then, he nodded.

“He… how does he look like?” Osgiliath clenched his fists and stared at Chen Xiaolian.

“How does he look like? He had two eyes, a nose, a mouth…” Chen Xiaolian scratched his head, not knowing how to describe Du Wei’s appearance. “He can be considered quite handsome, I guess.”

Chen Xiaolian did not know why Osgiliath would suddenly react this way after hearing that name.

It was clear that Osgiliath and the first GM knew each other, but Osgiliath had seemed completely uninterested in the first GM’s clone.

As for Du Wei and Osgiliath, they should not know each other.

Although Du Wei had been the one to give Chen Xiaolian the first seed, he had not collected all seven. Naturally, that meant that Du Wei had never come to this third world before.

Osgiliath himself had said it earlier. It had been a long time and Chen Xiaolian and Miao Yan were the first group of people to come here.

“What is his surname?” Osgiliath’s voice sounded a little hoarse.

“I don’t know.” Chen Xiaolian thought about it for a while. “I don’t think he ever mentioned his full name to me. He only said his name is Du Wei. Oh, right! I know that he has a sister named Cheng Cheng.”

Osgiliath suddenly fell silent and he stared intently at Chen Xiaolian.

“So… you really know Du Wei?” Chen Xiaolian’s heart was beating profusely.

After a long time, Osgiliath released a lengthy exhalation before turning his head skywards. Then, he closed his eyes.

“Actually, as a ghost, you should have no need to breathe…” Chen Xiaolian blinked and popped a joke.

He could already tell that Osgiliath knew Du Wei.

However, he still did not know what kind of relationship was there between the two.

Osgiliath had entered the third world before the first refresh. Du Wei, on the other hand, did not go through the first refresh.

These two fellows. There should be nothing between them.

“Are they… doing alright?” After a while, Osgiliath opened his eyes again. When he turned to face Chen Xiaolian, his eyes shone with life.

“Probably… not too good.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head.

“The things I told you earlier, you must have heard. Those old monsters who are locked in the collapsed space together with Shen, Du Wei and Cheng Cheng are amongst them. Although I do not know if Shen had killed them already or not, once he escapes and complete his plan, all of us will die.”

“Du Wei and Cheng Cheng...” Osgiliath had spoken very softly, but his words shocked Chen Xiaolian.

“They are my children.”

“… … that… how is that possible?”

During that short period of time just now, Chen Xiaolian had indeed considered this possibility. However, he had quickly discarded the idea.

If Du Wei was really Osgiliath’s son, how could he not know that his father had died in the third world? Rather, Du Wei had believed that there was a traitor from the Development Team here.

Besides, both Du Wei and Cheng Cheng had red hair while Osgiliath had snow-white hair.

“I… I really didn’t think that Du Wei and Cheng Cheng would still be alive…” There was a hint of quavering in Osgiliath’s voice. “I had always assumed that they had already died.”

Chen Xiaolian smiled. “Looks like I don’t need to leave anymore.”

The gate before him disappeared as he kept the seeds.

“Sit down. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” Osgiliath let out a soft sigh. “This is a very long story.”

Chen Xiaolian nodded and sat on the ground.

Giving Chen Xiaolian a glance, Miao Yan sat down beside him as well.

Osgiliath closed his eyes. After a long time, he began speaking in a soft tone.

“As you two already know, I was once… a leading figure amongst the Players.

“But in the beginning, I was not as powerful as you all came to later know. At that time, I was just an ordinary Player. Every time I received the summon from the Development Team, I would enter the instance dungeon, fighting and killing for the sake of survival. I had to give it my all only to barely survive. Those were dangerous days.

“Until one certain day, I entered an instance dungeon.

“For the me back then, the difficulty of the instance dungeon was not too high. Coincidentally, a newbie was also assigned to the same spawn point as me.

“He told me that his name is Augustine.

“He appeared very weak. So, I took care of him as we moved onwards. Although it was somewhat taxing, nothing unexpected happened until the final BOSS appeared.

“The instance dungeon was only a [B] class instance dungeon, but the strength of the BOSS far exceeded that level. Despite giving it my all, I could not defeat it. In the end, I suffered serious wounds and was on the verge of death.

“But as I was thinking to myself that I was going to die there, the newbie suddenly took action.

“I failed to even see what skill he used. He simply jabbed once with his finger and the BOSS disappeared with a flash of light.

“You two should be able to understand the shock that I felt back then. Someone whom I had originally assumed was a newbie actually possessed such unimaginably terrifying power!

“Back then, I thought that… I had encountered an expert who was playing the pig to bait the tiger.

“But what happened next surprised me even more.

“After the rewards were given and the instance dungeon ended, I found that I was not logged off. Instead… I was still in the Lower Plane.

“Staying in the Lower Plane outside of instance dungeons was clearly a privilege exclusive to high-level Players with Exclusive Accounts.

“The newbie, Augustine, then appeared beside me.

“It was then that he informed me. He was not a real Player or Awakened. He was the main controller of the world.”

“The GM… can participate in instance dungeons? Why would he do that?”

Hearing that shocked Chen Xiaolian somewhat.

He knew of course that the GM’s authority had been reduced by the Development Team. The first GM’s authority far exceeded that of the later generations. However, he had never heard of the GM entering instance dungeons and joining the game before.

This was the equivalent of taking up the role of both referee and athlete.

“He informed me that he just wanted to have some fun.” Osgiliath smiled. “Spending all those years just managing the system made him very bored. That was his first time entering an instance dungeon using the identity of a Player. Coincidentally, he met me there.

“When I started protecting him, he grew curious as to how far I would go. Even that final BOSS was something that he had secretly made harder. But even till the very end, I had chosen to stand in front of him.

“He told me that, although he did not find the joy of participating in an instance dungeon, he did obtain something more valuable… friendship.

“From that day onwards, we became friends.

“Augustine possessed the highest level of authority, not counting the Development Team. He was practically omnipotent. Not only did he grant me the identity of a high-level Player, he also directly modified the exchange function of my personal system.

“When you say modify the exchange function, you mean…” Chen Xiaolian stared at Osgiliath in disbelief.

“Free. No points are needed to redeem any equipment or strengthening items,” Osgiliath said.

“The f**k…” Chen Xiaolian grew speechless.

Seriously, comparing with others would only make one angry.

Originally, he had assumed that him meeting the GM after just clearing one instance dungeon was already good luck on his part.

But when compared to Osgiliath, his luck was not even worth a fart.

As an Irregularity, he did not have an Exchange System. It hadn’t been easy for the GM to provide him with a bootleg version that still required points to purchase spicy bars.

But Osgiliath didn’t need to pay a single point. Whatever that’s in the system, if he wanted it, he could take it. Chen Xiaolian dared not even dream of something like that.

That was the true definition of installing a cheat plugin.

Even when he was writing webnovels, when giving his main characters some cheats, he dared not give those main characters such a kind of cheat.

Chen Xiaolian raised his head to look at Miao Yan. As expected, her eyes were filled with one word: Envy.

“But Augustine did tell me that depending on the items provided by the Exchange System was not enough,” Osgiliath continued. “He told me that, only the mastery of this world’s source code could truly be considered as true power.

“So, he taught me how to read, understand and… utilize them.

“It was then that I truly became an existence that transcended all Players and Awakened ones and became known as Duke Tulip.”

“As expected… when compared to his successors, the first GM was on a whole different dimension.” Chen Xiaolian sighed.

“And then?”

“Even though the Development Team would continue to issue summons for instance dungeons, surviving was no longer a concern for me. Be it the monsters inside the instance dungeons or the Players on the other side, as long as I wanted to, I could easily kill them all.

“But, I am still not omnipotent.”

Osgiliath sighed softly. His gaze turned to rest upon Chen Xiaolian and Miao Yan for a moment.

“I… fell in love with a woman, an Awakened.

“It’s very cliché, isn’t it?”

“… … …” Chen Xiaolian responded with a soft sigh. “The reason why certain plots are cliché is because it happens all the time.”

“Her name was Sophia, a red-haired girl. She had some freckles on her face. Although she was not the most beautiful person, she was very pretty. She always had this vibrant smile on her face.

“And she became pregnant with my children.

“But Players and Awakened ones were from two different worlds, after all.

“As a high-level Player, I can stay in that sandbox world outside of instance dungeons. Even so, it was impossible for me to stay there forever.

“Sophia, on the other hand, was an Awakened. It was impossible for me to bring her back with me to the Upper Plane.

“I found Augustine and told him about my decision. I hoped that he could help me abandon my identity of a Player completely and stay in the Lower Plane forever, with Sophia.

“He agreed.

“He modified the system settings for me and completely cut me off from the Upper Plane.

“I became an Awakened, capable of living together with Sophia. More, Augustine also helped us escape the control of the system, making it so we would not be summoned into instance dungeons again.

“Sophia gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl. We named the twins Du Wei and Cheng Cheng.

“Originally, I had assumed that this would be the end. The happiest of endings.

“I was wrong.

“Augustine was indeed very strong, possessing a very high level of authority. But he was not omnipotent.

“Modifying the Exchange System and teaching me how to read and understand the world’s source code. He had done all those without the knowledge of the Development Team. He skilfully covered it up so that I would not be discovered.

“Except… that last thing he did for me.

“He transferred my entire consciousness into my body in the Lower Plane. In the end, the Development Team managed to detect the abnormality generated by that action in the system.

“On the day my two children were born, they found me.

“Back then, Augustine’s actions were not exposed. The Development Team did not realize that he was the one who had helped me obtain a life in the Lower Plane. They simply assumed that Sophia and I had found a certain loophole within the system, allowing us to escape their control.

“The Development Team would not allow something like that to happen, but they were incapable of pulling us into the instance dungeons. They were also incapable of directly killing us with the system.

“And so, they issued a quest. There was only one objective, to kill me and Sophia.

“Aside from the Players who were forced to log in, the Awakened ones in the Lower Plane also received this quest.”

“That was the first attempt, but they failed,” Chen Xiaolian said.

“Yes.” Osgiliath nodded. “Having mastered the source code of the system, I had far surpassed the strongest power that Players and Awakened ones could harness within the system’s framework. All the Players and Awakened ones and even a high number of Electronic Guardians were defeated by us.

“Augustine did not take action. Firstly, he believed that I would not lose. Secondly, I wanted him to hide and not expose himself.

“At the time, we had believed that, by killing all the Awakened ones and Players, the Development Team would give up. At any rate, our existence did not pose a threat to them.

“But we never expected that the Development Team would personally take action!

“They created special bodies with wings on their back, looking like angels. Then, they logged in and personally fought us.

“They were the Development Team, the creators of this world. Their power… not even I could stop them. Sophia died to them while I myself was seriously wounded and was on the verge of death.

“The Development Team did not immediately kill me off. They wanted to interrogate me and find out just how I was able to escape their control. They even used the lives of my two babies to threaten me.

“Augustine was my friend. There was no way I would sell him out to the Development Team just to survive and live a life of shame. I braced myself for death, even the deaths of Du Wei and Cheng Cheng.

“But just as the Development Team was about to kill my two children, Augustine suddenly appeared.

“More shockingly, he actually… attacked the Development Team!”

Having said that, Osgiliath abruptly raised his head to look at Chen Xiaolian with an intense stare.

“Could you imagine… the shock I felt back then?”

“Shock?” Chen Xiaolian’s brows furrowed slightly in puzzlement. “I don’t see the problem. You said it before. The first GM was your friend. If so, what is so weird about him choosing to protect his own friend?”

“No… it’s not like that.” Osgiliath slowly shook his head.

“Originally, he should've been absolutely incapable of defying the Development Team!”