DKIE CH53.1: Midnight Song

That one sentence was like a sector gauge.

Five parts indifference, two parts insinuation, three parts supreme casualness.

The High Priest tried his best to control his breathing. Apart from that initial moment, no other abnormality could be seen.

He feigned some annoyance at being slighted. “I thought Your Excellency had important matters to attend to, and seeing as it was getting late, I decided to leave.”

He paused for a moment. “I wonder how your consideration of that transaction is coming along? There are still matters within the Holy Court, so I cannot stay for too long.”

He had clearly forgotten that not long ago, it was he himself who had suggested that they all stay a few more days with the elven race.

The Elf King did not give a direct reply. “The transaction for the Wisdom Fruit requires the approval of the Council of Elders. The priest can rest assured and wait.”

The last bit of cold smile in his eyes also disappeared.

The High Priest’s heart sank completely.

…

The night was late. The ferret was still licking its fur.

Ever since Luka had vividly demonstrated baldness with a hard-boiled egg, it now paid great attention to fur care.

Luka was still unaware of the ferret’s psychological trauma, and even less aware that his one basic attack had nearly earned him an ultimate move from the priest. At this moment, he was asking the Quill Pen which dark elf had been given the terminal.

“A friend of that snowflake dragon.”

“So it was him.” Luka had an impression. When he had dueled with Alec, the other had come to watch.

The Quill Pen suddenly said, “The trip went smoothly.”

When he arrived, the leaderboard was already displayed, with the Elf King’s name hanging high.

For a high-level dark elf, there was no buffer time at all; it was straight to battle.

At midnight, the statistics for the first day came out.

A total of three thousand nine hundred terminals had been distributed. The average game time per player was nine hours. A total of over three thousand eight hundred elves had tried it.

The only two who hadn’t participated were due to the terminals themselves malfunctioning.

“As of now, the rankings on the leaderboard are still fluctuating every minute, which means that elves are constantly trying to break records.”

Luka was very satisfied with this result. “Now the Elf King will have no more reason to refuse me.”

Just a crude little game had made every player who opened it lose their wits.

What could better prove the charm of the terminal than this?

He began to sketch out his future blueprint. “If everything goes smoothly, I will first develop a communication software, a web novel platform, and a short video platform.”

As for shopping, entertainment, and the like, since they would have to be accompanied by the development of the logistics industry, he did not plan to take it all on himself.

Leaving some cake for those who come after would better stimulate market activity.

“The web novel platform will mainly focus on writing novels. I will communicate with Lilian about it later. And the short videos can be linked with live streaming. Cullen should be very interested.”

Everyone gets a share of the wealth. They had helped him a lot in the past.

The Quill Pen found it hard to stop looking at him with an appreciative gaze.

At almost the same time, Luka suddenly turned his head as well, realizing that he had never asked about the other’s dream. “After you recover your strength, what do you want to do?”

As he spoke, he felt a little nervous, afraid he would get a response like “unify the continent.”

The Quill Pen fell silent.

After a long while, he finally spoke. “Don’t spend all day thinking about this and that. You’ve created so many things, it would be very tiring for even me to help you guard them.”

Luka mulled it over. Isn’t the subtext that he will help me protect my industrial chain?

He immediately smiled and patted the Quill Pen’s shoulder, even humming a tune. “Friends walk together for a lifetime.

Good brother, so loyal.

The Quill Pen moved his shoulder away with a blank expression, uttered a phrase about repaying kindness with enmity, and turned to go rest.

Luka scratched his head, puzzled. He was fine just now, why did he suddenly get upset?

Three days passed in a flash.

On the third day, before Luka could go see the Elf King, the latter took the initiative to come find him.

It was a vibrant sunrise. The Elf King’s pupils seemed slightly out of focus, and his fingers would occasionally pluck lightly at the air.

…From playing the game.

This morning, the Elf King had already ascended to the top of the leaderboard. During this period, the dark elf had been constantly trying to surpass him.

No matter how vigorous the dark elf’s spirit was, it was impossible for him to not put down the terminal for three consecutive days. Luka reasonably guessed that there was a group of dark elves behind him.

And that was indeed the case. It had now developed into a chaotic group battle.

The Elf King got straight to the point. “How does one control the desire to play games?”

Luka was surprised.

Competition was competition, but the Elf King shouldn’t lack this bit of self-control.

The Elf King frowned faintly. “It’s not me. It’s the elves who are still in school.”

Upon learning that he had used the school as the main pilot site, Luka almost failed to manage his expression.

Modern people have endless measures to control children’s gaming, like facial recognition, anti-addiction systems for minors, requiring ID cards in internet cafes, and so on…

And you just put the pilot right in the schools?

What kind of broad-mindedness is this!

The Elf King was still waiting for Luka’s answer.

In fact, collecting all the terminals would be a once-and-for-all solution, but he was unwilling to use such a simple and crude method.

Luka thought for a moment. “Let me try.”

He modified the magical structure on the spot. Having spent a long time with the Quill Pen, Luka had accumulated a deep theoretical knowledge.

Since he didn’t have to touch the core, the whole process was completed quickly.

After the Quill Pen checked it for errors, Luka began to update the game to version 2.0.

The new version of [Fish Leaping Over the Dragon Gate] added a health value setting—a total of five hearts. Each heart represented one life, and one heart could only be restored every ten minutes.

Also added was a mission achievements section, to satisfy the players’ collector’s instinct and sense of accomplishment.

The Elf King witnessed this scene with his own eyes and was not very satisfied with the change. “It’s enough to just limit the younger elves.”

Luka coldly refused. “Protecting minors is our shared responsibility.”

He made no mention that this was to prepare for players to gain extra lives through sharing in the future, getting him free promotion.

Seemingly sensing something, the Elf King gave Luka a deep look but didn’t say more on the issue.

He had other business today. “The network is indeed more influential than I imagined.”

In reality, such a small game would hardly make a splash, but now it had them in its grip for two days.

After admitting this, the Elf King’s gaze swept past Luka. He extended his hand, and the ferret jumped over.

“I’ll take him for a while,” he said.

Luka nodded. To continue developing, he had to rely on the Tree of Wisdom. But it was impossible to complete the entire operation with just the elven race. For this, the Elf King and the Saint would inevitably have some negotiations.

The ferret should have a way to contact the Saint.

But he didn’t need to consider any of this.

Luka had the air of a hands-off boss. After the Elf King left, he didn’t forget to make a dismissive flicking gesture towards the treehouse several hundred meters away.

“What do you think that High Priest’s mood is right now?”

The Quill Pen said lightly, “Do you even need to ask?”

Being left hanging for several days, and then the Elf King coming to find Luka himself—it would be strange if he wasn’t panicking.

Luka felt happy again after hearing this.

The misfortune of his enemies greatly increased his happiness index. He now felt motivated to work.

“Let’s study the magical framework.”

Academic research was the most time-consuming. What Luka wanted to create most was undoubtedly a chat software.

For a person with connections like him, it couldn’t be more useful.

To achieve this, at least a thousand magical frameworks needed to be arranged and combined to form an independent magic system.

The Quill Pen couldn’t refuse the words “us” and tried along with him.

From sunrise to sunset and into the night, the two finally cobbled together a barely decent system. At first glance, it looked like a Transformer made of Tetris blocks.

All that was left was to draw the inscriptions and then activate it.

At the moment of final verification, Luka raised his voice. “Wait!”

The sudden shout startled the Quill Pen.

Luka: “Come on, bow with me first.”

A programmer’s final step: pray to the server gods for their blessing.

“?”

The Quill Pen would certainly not do something so foolish. He immediately activated the inscriptions.

Light immediately flowed through the joints of every framework. Both of them unconsciously grew tense. It started out smoothly, until, about a third of the way through, two magical frameworks suddenly dimmed.

Different magical elements collided. The framework began to loosen. No matter how tightly Luka clenched his fists, it was useless.

Click.

Like dominoes, in the blink of an eye, the entire magic system collapsed.

A day’s work, wasted.

“…”

Luka said faintly, “I told you we should have bowed. It’s too late for regrets now.”

The Quill Pen’s eyelid twitched. Who’s regretting?

He had no energy left to fix it today. Having worked for too long, Luka’s mind was now muddled. Seeing that the moonlight was nice, he suggested going out for a walk.

The pristine, unpolluted primeval forest was a sight unseen in the city-states.

Breathing in the fresh air, Luka was about to go straight up, flying to the cobblestone path above his head.

The Quill Pen lightly pulled the tip of his wing. “Where are you going?”

Luka turned around and said, “People strive to go higher. When you go for a walk, you don’t walk far, you walk high.”

This was the correct posture for a walk.

The cold wind in mid-air was chilly. The Quill Pen looked down. “Well said. You go out for a walk because you’re in a bad mood. You jump down, and all your troubles are gone for good.”

Luka couldn’t be bothered to argue with him and found a place under a gap in the leaves to sit.

The sky above was full of stars. He couldn’t help but remember the first song he had heard in his childhood memories.

Luka casually sketched out the image of a translucent piano.

Of course, it was just a fake piano. On the surface, he was playing it, but in reality, it was all produced by magic.

An extremely simple melody drifted out. Luka, acting as a teacher for Yu, said, “Want to try? I’ll teach you.”

The Quill Pen was dismissive. A virtual object, did he still need to be taught? He reluctantly copied Luka’s previous movements.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star…”

As he played haltingly, the Quill Pen looked up. Beside him, Luka was singing to himself, “How I wonder what you are.”

The clear, youthful voice was a hundred percent match.

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