Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!-Chapter 1812: Floor 30, Runeterra

-----

"Ohhh! If we had come when we were much weaker, maybe we could have enjoyed this place and learned more," Maria said with a smile, strolling through the grasslands. "All right, shall we take a trip to the city? I feel like the entrance is over there."

"Yes! It’s behind the castle," Ferleen nodded. "Also, this world is strong, so the upper floors don’t seem to launch large-scale attacks."

"I see, that sounds good," Maria replied. "I bet they infiltrated though."

"Most likely, but as long as they don’t harm or manipulate the world, it’s fine... right?" Emeraldine wondered.

"I doubt they would hold back so much. We’ll see how the city is," Maria said.

They walked through the grasslands, savoring the pleasant breeze, and eventually joined a large caravan heading toward the city along a long, paved road.

The people in the caravan looked somewhat annoyed at first when they saw the group, but their expressions softened the moment they sensed the immense reserves of Mana radiating from them.

"Hm, people with greater magical abilities are treated better here, I guess..."

Maria sat on a carriage, gazing at the scenery. She noticed many students from magic academies returning from missions, carrying large bags filled with creatures and materials they had collected.

Once they reached the gate, the guards sensed their Mana and let them pass without any trouble.

And once inside the walls, Maria and her family gasped.

It was a wondrous magical city!

Floating vehicles and houses drifted through the air, glowing crystals illuminated every corner, rivers of light flowed along the streets. No building here lacked an aura of magic power.

Mages soared on brooms for even the simplest tasks, and even the castle floated high in the sky.

"This is the Capital of the Azuregrove Kingdom," Ferleen explained. "Runecraft City has six different academies that specialize in various schools of magic, so as you can see, it’s the city with the largest concentration of magicians."

"That’s wonderful... Haha," Maria giggled.

As they wandered through the streets, they explored the sights, especially the bustling shopping district. They found magic weapons, armor, accessories, and materials of every kind.

The moment people sensed their immense Mana; they stopped what they were doing and bowed deeply.

"We greet the Great Arch Magus."

It seemed they were so intimidated they could only lower their heads... it almost felt like Murim in that regard.

"These guys are weird..."

After two hours of exploring and enjoying a pleasant lunch at a small restaurant, they made their way behind the castle.

Maria had spread her ghosts everywhere, but there were no signs of enemies or wrongdoing.

The security here was impressively tight as well.

"Well, I guess it’s fine. Let’s keep moving."

Once they reached the portal, they stepped through and continued onward.

It might have been fun to explore the world more thoroughly, but Maria couldn’t spare the time right now.

She had considered speaking with any god she could sense.

But oddly enough, there were no gods here.

Only supremely powerful magicians living on the moon.

"Maybe those are the ’Gods’ or something?"

Maria didn’t dwell on it long and moved on to the next world.

She had thought about unifying all the worlds, but in the end she had already assembled a massive army during her adventures in Murim.

And it kept growing larger as she defeated powerful foes and forcibly added them to her ranks.

Chasing down these evil organizations on the upper floors and turning them into undead was far less time-consuming and more convenient than trying to rally everyone together now.

It was also easier when they were in danger, they would feel grateful and offer their help.

But this was a world of extremely prideful magicians... she doubted it would be easy to convince so many brilliant, arrogant minds without a major confrontation.

And she wasn’t in the mood for that.

From Floor 30, she advanced to Floor 29.

Things changed abruptly and became incredibly strange.

As they crossed the dimensional membrane...

An electric zap surged through her entire being and everyone in her party.

When they arrived on Floor 29, they were met with bright neon colors everywhere.

The floor shimmered and twisted with pixels and advertisements.

The sky was the same, images, ads, and programs floating, moving, and interacting.

All sorts of portals to bizarre pocket worlds appeared, constructed from code... colors, letters, and numbers.

The sky itself was pixelated, constantly shifting with fresh information and ads.

And she felt strange—ethereal and translucent, glowing intensely.

Everyone did!

They had become neon-colored, trailing pixels as they moved and walked.

"W-What?! Another weird world!" Maria exclaimed. "What’s this now?"

"Welcome to Codeveil, outsiders!"

Suddenly, a program materialized in front of them, shaped like a talking paperclip.

"Ah, a proper welcome! Hi!" Maria said. "Could you tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Codeveil is an endless program! When you enter through the Tower Virus, you become program."

"Virus?!" Maria asked.

"It was not made by us, and it invaded our world through an ad an idiot clicked!" the paperclip program explained. "Anyway, I am just a program told to welcome people. You can enter these portals that bring you to different worlds in the great wide web, or Internet."

"What the hell? How is the internet a world?" Maria asked. "Wait, what world is this internet from?"

"No world, we just exist, a program, a world, internet! It’s all what it is, this is Codeveil," the paperclip said. "Anyway, here’s a link so you can go to the closest city from here."

"It’s not a malicious link, right?" Maria asked.

"It’s not!" The paperclip vanished.

"Huh..."

Maria rubbed her chin as she stared at the floating link.

And clicked it.

BBZZTTT!

"Ouch!"

She felt a sharp bite as something tried to invade her body.

It was a Computer Virus!

But it failed to infiltrate and exploded into black, pixelated flames.

"So it was a %$& Virus! Goddamn it! You son of a $%&!"

Maria cursed, but only asterisks came out of her mouth—she was censored.

"I can’t even swear in here?!" Maria complained.

"No, this is Codeveil," Ferleen laughed. "It’s a weird place. We didn’t stay long either, haha."

"You can find all kinds of weird stuff!" Melianna said. "There’s some lobbies where all sorts of strange programs of every shape and color hang out."

"You can even livestream here while playing in the Game Realms," Ferleen added with a smile.

"Games?!" Nyx wondered, her eyes sparkling like bright stars. "Mommy, mommy!!! Daaaad! I wanna play games!"

"Me too! Me too!" Celes nodded eagerly.

Both children had grown quite fond of smartphones on Azure Star and loved playing games on them.

They had been upset when their smartphones stopped working after running out of charge and losing connection to Azure Star’s internet.

"Hmmm... should we?" Maria wondered, rubbing her chin.

"Well, what’s the point if we don’t enjoy it a bit?" Lucifer asked.

"I agree. For just a few hours, why not?" Nia nodded.

"Hmm..." Maria sighed. "Okay... I’m actually quite interested. Is there something you earn here?"

-----