Read Novel Full Chapter 481 481: Xman
Chapter 481 481: Xman
The profile opened in front of Gabriel a second later.
At the top of the screen, the player's public information was displayed in a clean format.
[XMan]
[Level: 17]
[Guild: None]
[Player Ranking: 48,921]
Gabriel looked at the numbers quietly.
Some players liked showing this part of their profile. Others kept it hidden. It depended on the person. Most who left it public did so for one simple reason. They wanted attention from guilds. A decent level, a respectable ranking, or even a useful class could attract recruiters if the right people noticed.
But XMan was the complete opposite.
He was buried near the bottom of the ranking board.
Gabriel understood immediately why no one on the forum had taken him seriously.
This world had always worshipped strength. It did not matter whether someone sounded smart or not. If they were weak, most people would laugh first and think later. A level 17 player with no backing talking about hidden worlds and Soul Keys was exactly the kind of person the forum would treat like a clown.
His eyes moved lower. The rest of the profile was plain. No flashy title. No guild banner. No list of achievements proudly pinned for display. Just a few account details, some old post counts, and a recent activity section.
He clicked it open and the list appeared.
XMan had been active before, but not recently. He scrolled through it and quickly noticed that the last time the player had replied to anything on the forum was several weeks ago. That was odd.
Most lore obsessed players never stayed quiet. They were always posting theories, arguing over quests, or writing long nonsense threads that nobody asked for. But this one had gone quiet.
He tapped the desk once with his finger.
"Interesting."
Still, he did not go to the direct messages immediately.
If XMan had truly posted useful things before, then the better move was to search the profile properly first. Messaging too early would only waste time if the player turned out to be another fool repeating random rumors.
So he opened the profile search bar, typed the same two words again, and searched.
A flood of old posts appeared at once.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he began reading through them one after another.
The first was from a discussion about hidden quest chains.
XMan: Found old lines in ruined chapel. Mentioned "three soul keys" and a "silent crossing." Not sure if it is part of a quest or something bigger.
Reply 1: Bro is making up content again.
Reply 2: You see one broken wall and start writing fanfiction.
He ignored the replies and opened the next one.
XMan: I think the keys are not dungeon rewards in the normal sense. I think they are tied to sealed locations. If three are gathered, a path opens.
Reply 1: Source?
XMan: Fragments from multiple ruins.
Reply 2: So no source.
He leaned back slightly and kept reading.
XMan: There is a line I found repeated in two separate places. "The third key does not claim treasure. It claims passage."
That made him pause again.
"Passage?"
The same word had come up before.
He opened another result.
XMan: If Soul Keys are real, then there should be three fixed acquisition points or at least three key lineages. Not random drops. I think one is tied to nobles or high ranking story figures.
His fingers paused over the desk. When he saw the words noble or high ranking story figures, the first name that came to his mind was Henry.
He had extracted his key from Henry's corpse.
That post alone made XMan sound less like a fool and more like someone who had actually been connecting clues.
He kept going.
Most of the profile search results were like that. Old posts. Buried comments. Half ignored theories. But the more he read, the clearer the pattern became. XMan had clearly spent time gathering bits of hidden lore from different ruins, tablets, and forgotten quest texts.
Some of the posts even mentioned possible locations.
XMan: One clue points toward a drowned shrine. Another toward a ruined gate beneath the Valerian Kingdom castle. The third location is unclear.
Reply 1: You need sleep.
Reply 2: Or medicine.
He clicked the next one.
XMan: I do not think the keys lead to loot. I think they lead to a place. Another world, region, layer, or map beyond the current one. The wording is too consistent to ignore.
He frowned slightly.
The replies XMan got were stupid, but the actual content kept getting more interesting.
He kept reading deeper into the old posts.
Some of the research was sloppier than others. Some were clearly rushed. A few made jumps that were too big. But overall, the player had done real digging. He had to admit it.
For a low level nobody with no guild, this was impressive.
He clicked another old comment.
XMan: Everyone keeps asking where the proof is. The proof is hidden in fragments because the game does not dump important lore in one place. You have to piece it together.
He almost agreed with that.
Realm of Ascendency had always worked like that. Important things were rarely handed out cleanly. Most players only cared about levels, loot, and strong classes, so things like this got buried unless someone obsessed over them.
XMan: If I am right, then finding one Soul Key without understanding the other two will be useless. The keys probably have to be brought together in sequence.
His interest deepened. He scrolled further down and found a string of older forum posts where XMan had argued with several players at once.
XMan: Mock all you want. Soul Keys exist. Three are needed. One clue points beyond the current world map.
Reply 1: Nobody is mocking. We are laughing.
Reply 2: Stop posting fake lore.
Reply 3: Touch grass.
He closed that one and rested his hand on the desk.
This was enough, so much that he felt his head ache slightly.
He had seen what he needed to see. XMan was not fully reliable yet, but he clearly knew more than the average forum idiot. More importantly, he had noticed patterns that matched the little Gabriel himself had already learned.
That meant there was real value here.
At last he opened the direct message panel on XMan's profile and typed a short message without wasting words.
[Hi. Can we meet?]