Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 1221: Getting Closer

The woman hurriedly tried to remember what had happened.

For someone at her level, suddenly regaining consciousness in an unfamiliar location with a gap in her memories was anything but normal.

There were abilities capable of manipulating memories, consciousness, and perception, but most were extremely difficult to defend against without specialized means. More importantly, anything capable of affecting her without leaving her aware that something had happened was almost certainly beyond her ability to resist.

That was the true source of her fear.

She forced herself to calm down and began carefully retracing her memories.

A name immediately came to mind.

Michael Norman.

She had been assigned to monitor his residence. Even with her relatively limited clearance, she knew enough about him to understand his importance.

Calling him the most brilliant individual Aurora had ever produced wouldn't necessarily be an exaggeration, whether considering the period before Aurora's introduction to the wider supernatural world or afterward. His growth was simply abnormal.

Unfortunately, Michael's relationship with the Federation was complicated. The two sides seemed to constantly find themselves at opposite ends.

That alone wasn't particularly unusual. Many powerful individuals and organizations outside the Federation's direct command had complicated relationships with it.

The Federation couldn't realistically expect every supernatural force within its territory to obediently follow its instructions.

Michael was simply a more troublesome case because of his potential. Someone progressing at his speed could very well become one of Aurora's future guardians. That made monitoring him necessary.

Recently, however, her assignment had become incredibly dull.

For several days, there had been practically no movement around the Norman residence. Michael hadn't appeared. Neither had his family.

Then, today, everything changed.

The woman suddenly remembered the building rising into the air before disappearing out of nowhere.

At the time, she hadn't immediately connected the phenomenon to Michael. She had simply recognized that whatever could casually remove an entire building was far beyond her ability to handle.

Her first response had been retreat, flying away as quickly as possible, when someone had appeared directly in front of her.

The woman's eyes widened as another memory fragment returned.

Yes!!! The one who had appeared in front of her had been Michael Norman!

He had appeared in her path without warning. She remembered him approaching and grabbing her by the collar.

And then... nothing.

Her memories ended there.

The woman slowly looked around the unfamiliar basement again. This time, the fear on her face was considerably worse.

As for Michael, he was already back inside the Mausoleum.

Although he would have liked to learn more about Aurora's current situation, there wasn't much he could do about it. His available sources of information were simply too limited.

Normally, Michael could have reached out to several people and slowly pieced together a clearer picture, but time was another problem.

The Origin Battlefield would reopen soon.

Michael sat near the edge of a mountain cliff, one leg hanging loosely over the side as he stared at the Mausoleum's night sky.

There were no stars.

Instead, enormous curtains of green and purple light stretched across the heavens, occasionally mixing with shades of blue. They shifted slowly across the darkness, illuminating the enormous world beneath them with faint multicolored light.

Michael watched them quietly.

"When I have time, I really need to create a force in the outside world."

His experiences in the Land of Origin had taught him exactly how useful having an organization under his control could be.

Originally, Michael hadn't thought particularly deeply about ruling an empire. To him, the territory had primarily been something capable of producing resources and supporting his development.

However, the longer he ruled, the more he understood that the benefits weren't limited to what the subjects received from their ruler. The ruler benefited enormously as well.

Information. Resources. Connections. Manpower. Influence.

There were countless matters Michael no longer needed to personally handle because others could handle them for him.

His current situation in Aurora was the perfect example of what he lacked outside the Land of Origin. Michael had returned after disappearing for several days and barely knew what had happened.

To obtain even basic information, he had been forced to grab a Federation agent and borrow her Association account.

If he possessed his own organization, things would have been completely different.

Of course, establishing something comparable to his empire in the real world wouldn't be easy. But Michael wasn't exactly starting from nothing anymore. He had thousands of undead, with an increasing number reaching Rank Four. He had several exceptionally powerful undead capable of acting independently, and most importantly, he had Jester.

With Jester's strange abilities supporting an organization from the shadows, Michael could already imagine how useful such a force could become.

There was also another possibility.

If Michael's suspicions regarding the Origin Battlefield were correct, then the Land of Origin itself might eventually become connected to the real world.

If that happened, Michael wouldn't even need to build everything from scratch. He already had subjects and an established power structure.

Combining those foundations with his undead would make establishing a genuine force in the wider universe considerably easier.

There was another reason Michael wanted to try it.

His Rank Advancement Task.

Michael still hadn't completely understood what the task expected from him. Creating a genuine force under his command in reality might finally allow him to confirm whether that was one of the requirements needed to progress it.

There was one problem with testing that theory inside the Land of Origin.

The Land of Origin was simply too large. It wasn't divided into countless separate realms, sectors, galaxies, or other clearly defined territories where influence could be measured on increasingly greater scales.

As far as Michael understood, it was simply one enormous realm that bordered on seemingly endless.

His empire might seem enormous from the perspective of those living within it, but compared to the Land of Origin itself? It was insignificant.

Even establishing an entirely new empire and rapidly expanding it would affect only an unimaginably tiny portion of the greater realm.

That made it difficult for Michael to determine whether his Rank Advancement Task required influence on the level of a world, realm, sector, or something else entirely.