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ArabicArknights: Soul Knights of Terra — Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Bugs are the Sacred Relics that Keep ChillyRoom Running
“What?!”
Everyone froze for a split second before absolute chaos erupted in the Vitality Hall. The testing began immediately.
Fourth was the most eager. He threw his hands out and immediately triggered his skill: “[Alien Swirl].”
A blood-colored black hole ripped open in the air, swirling with dark, ominous gravity. Minutes ticked by, and the crimson vortex simply refused to close.
“Holy shit! It’s really just staying there!” Fourth was ecstatic. With a mere thought, the swarm of blood-red flying swords he had summoned earlier didn’t vanish into thin air. Instead, they hovered and circled him like a flock of fiercely loyal metallic bats.
He tried to command the swarm to lift him. After a few clumsy, wobbling attempts that nearly sent him crashing into a pillar, the blades actually hoisted him up. He swayed dangerously but managed to lift off the ground, floating mid-air with a wildly arrogant grin.
“Hahaha! Look at me! I can fly!”
Third watched the hovering Blood Demon thoughtfully. He rubbed his massive deer head and muttered quietly, “Doesn’t that mean… I can just keep summoning?”
He activated his second skill again. With a heavy surge of natural energy, the ground groaned as another massive cluster of thick, fleshy vines burst through the floorboards, writhing and condensing beside him.
“Hold on… although it’s incredibly faint, I can feel a drain on my stamina.” Second quickly calmed down, closing her eyes to carefully sense her own internal state.
“It seems our game skills have mutated into innate physical talents. Because of that, the rigid system cooldowns from the game no longer exist,” she explained, her analytical mind racing. “But using them isn’t entirely free. It consumes the physical stamina or internal energy within our new bodies.”
She pointed a slender finger at Fourth, who was still doing aerial barrel rolls. “Just like Fourth right now. Maintaining those bats… er, flying swords, must be continuously draining his reserves.”
“That’s still insanely broken!” Fourth slowly descended, his boots touching the floor, though his eyes were still gleaming with adrenaline. “If we have enough blue potions… or if our stamina regeneration can keep up, doesn’t that mean Third could literally summon an entire army by himself?”
“Theoretically, yes…” Second turned her gaze to the towering Wendigo. “Third, can your summons stack? Can you bring out the same type of summon multiple times?”
Third closed his eyes, sensing the connection to his magic. His huge, terrifying antlers swayed as he shook his head. “It seems only one instance of my first and third skill summons can exist at a time. But the vines from my second skill… there doesn’t seem to be a hard cap on the quantity, as long as my stamina holds out.”
“And I remember your vines can also fire energy waves for ranged attacks, right?” Second confirmed, her eyes narrowing in calculation.
After receiving a slow, affirmative nod from the giant Wendigo, Second’s expression completely relaxed, replaced by a look of sheer amazement. She crossed her arms, looking around at the dense, writhing forest of toxic vines that was already threatening to overtake the Vitality Hall.
“Massive size, theoretically infinite numbers, capable of ranged energy bombardment, and they leave behind a highly toxic zone upon death… plus the complete stat enhancements and ice/fire enchantments provided by your first skill…”
She let out a long breath, her tone carrying a mix of teasing and genuine awe. “Tsk… after all that, our timid Third has actually become the heaviest hitter in the room?”
Suddenly the center of attention, Third shyly raised a massive, bone-chilling claw to scratch at his antlers. His voice was incredibly small, completely at odds with his nightmarish appearance. “But I don’t really want to fight anyone…”
Boss shook his massive, molten head. “You won’t need to do the dirty work yourself. Besides, it’s best if we keep your abilities hidden at this stage.”
“But knowing this gives us a lot more use in this world.” Boss looked around at his brothers. Himself, a Paladin transformed into a towering Flame Demon; the mysterious and calculating Necromancer; the highly versatile Vampire; and the Druid with world-ending potential.
The raw firepower contained within this small team had already shattered his initial estimates.
As Boss watched his brothers excitedly test the limits of their newfound biology, his mind began to turn.
Skill combinations… what exactly can my skills achieve now?
Boss’s molten body stiffened slightly. The thick, glowing lava that made up his facial features began to wrinkle and contort in deep thought.
Fourth, ever observant of his gamer brethren, noticed the abnormality immediately. Boss’s face looked like a crumpled ball of glowing magma. “Boss?” Fourth slid over and gently poked Boss’s arm with the cold handle of his scythe. “Why the silent treatment? Are you jealous of our infinite spam?”
Boss snapped out of his trance. He raised his head, the flames in his eyes burning with a sudden, manic excitement.
“I was just thinking… since our skills no longer have cooldown limits… can I… exploit a bug?”
“A bug?!” The moment that sacred word left Boss’s mouth, Fourth’s eyes lit up like spotlights. He slid right up to Boss, striking an exaggerated, theatrical salesman pose.
“A bug! The absolute sacred relic that keeps ChillyRoom’s servers running! My highly respected Mr. Flame Demon, please, enlighten this humble gamer with your genius idea!”
Boss completely ignored Fourth’s dramatic routine. He turned his burning gaze directly onto Third, who was still standing in a daze, and spoke in a commanding, unquestionable tone.
“Third. Hit me with your summons.”
“???”
Invisible question marks practically popped into existence above Third’s deer skull. His eyes widened in absolute panic. “Huh?! Hit you, Boss? No, no way!”
Fourth rubbed his arms, taking a large step back from Boss with a look of utter disgust. “I misjudged you, Boss! I didn’t expect you to be into that kind of extreme masochism. No matter how desperate you are to feel something, you can’t ask your own brother to whip you!”
Second, who had been watching the exchange from the sidelines, froze. A second later, her eyes widened as the realization hit her like a freight train. She gasped, pointing at Boss. “Wait… don’t tell me you want to…?!”
“Exactly!” Boss confirmed, a terrifying, jagged grin forming on his molten mouth.
Fourth looked back and forth between the two of them, throwing his hands up in frustration. “Hey! What kind of encrypted server chat are you two having? Can you spare a thought for a teammate whose IQ occasionally drops offline?”
Third just blinked. “?”
Second suppressed her rising excitement and fired back a question. “Fourth, what is the exact effect of Boss’s first skill, [Energy Shield]?”
Fourth answered automatically, relying on years of muscle memory. “Activates a shield that absorbs all incoming damage, and converts that absorbed damage directly into ener—”
His voice abruptly cut off. His jaw dropped.
“In other words…” Boss crossed his massive, burning arms, his voice echoing with absolute certainty. “As long as I keep the [Energy Shield] active and continuously take damage, theoretically, not only will I not consume my own energy to maintain it, but I will actively convert the enemy’s attacks into an infinite battery of stored energy!”
He paused, letting the sheer absurdity of the game logic wash over his stunned brothers.
“And because there is no cooldown time anymore… as long as the attacks don’t stop, my shield can be maintained forever. The energy will just keep stacking!”
“I can use that infinite energy pool to spam my other skills, or… simply exist in a permanent, peak state of limitless power!”
“I… holy shit!” Fourth clutched his head. “Boss, you’re a monster! That kind of bug is straight-up illegal!”
Second nodded vigorously, her mind already running the calculations. “If this hypothesis holds true, Boss will enter a state of absolute invincibility. Short of a literal god descending to one-shot him, he could walk sideways across Terra and no one could stop him.”
Fourth snorted. “Please, Boss could walk sideways even without the skill. The guy doesn’t even have legs anymore.”
Third finally caught up to the conversation. He looked down at his horrifying, spiked flesh-vines, then back at Boss. “So… if I attack you, you won’t actually get hurt?”
Boss looked at the gentle giant, his molten eyes filled with dark encouragement. “Exactly! Third, don’t hold back. Beat the absolute hell out of me!”
Reassured, Third didn’t hesitate this time. He mentally commanded one of the massive, enhanced flesh-vines to rear back and lash out at Boss with terrifying speed.
BANG!
Under the horrified gazes of the group, Boss was launched backward like a cannonball, crashing violently into the far wall of the Hall.
“Holy shit!” Fourth screamed. “Boss hadn’t even activated his skill yet! Third, what the hell are you doing?!”
“I don’t know! He told me to hit him!” Third panicked, his antlers shaking wildly.
“Cough, cough! I’m fine…”
A wave of intense heat washed over the room as Boss pulled himself out of the rubble. The lava field expanded around him, rapidly repairing the cracks in his molten armor as he rushed back to the center of the room. “I just need to activate the skill first! Let’s try that again!”
“O-okay.”
Third commanded a vine to lash out again, much slower this time. The moment the spiked flesh struck Boss’s glowing barrier, Boss felt a massive, refreshing surge of pure energy flood into his core.
“It works!” Boss let out a booming, rumbling laugh. “Harder!”
Encouraged by the success, Third increased the force. Two, then three, then five massive vines joined the assault, whipping and slamming into Boss’s shield in a relentless barrage.
Fourth stood on the sidelines, watching the bizarre spectacle unfold. He opened his mouth to speak, then slowly closed it.
A Wendigo is aggressively whipping a Flame Demon… Why would I ever have a dream this weird?
In the center of the storm, Boss was experiencing pure euphoria. The energy was pouring into him at an exponential rate. He maintained his defensive field, feeling the raw power overflowing his internal capacity. He tried guiding a portion of that excess energy into the colossal lava arm floating behind him. Instantly, the flames wreathing the phantom limb erupted into a blinding, roaring inferno.
“It worked! It’s actually viable!” Second recorded the data frantically, her eyes shining.
Fourth was literally dancing with joy. “Hahaha! Invincible! A perpetual motion machine combined with god-mode! Damn it, if I had known the game logic would break this hard, I would have mained Paladin too!”
Seeing that Boss could handle the pressure, Third commanded even more vines to join the firing squad. Caught up in the hype, Fourth excitedly began hurling his explosive blood-bottles at Boss’s head.
The concentration of energy gathering inside Boss was becoming terrifying. Scorching, white-hot flames began to jet out from the cracks in his dark lava body. He was glowing so brightly he looked like a miniature sun trapped inside the Hall.
“Holy shit! Boss, you’ve turned into a walking flashbang! I’m going blind! My eyes!” Fourth threw his dark cape over his head to shield his vision, conveniently forgetting that as a Blood Demon, he wasn’t actually weak to sunlight.
Second ignored Fourth’s dramatic wailing. She took a step back, shielding her eyes from the intense heat, her tone suddenly dropping into genuine worry. “Boss, the energy is stacking too fast! Can your physical vessel actually contain all of this? Are you reaching your limit?”
Boss fell silent for a long moment amidst the barrage of attacks. He carefully sensed the raging inferno threatening to tear his body apart from the inside out.
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded incredibly strange.
“I think… I’ve accidentally exploited another bug.”
Fourth peeked out from under his cape, horrified. “There’s more?! Boss, did the God of Bugs personally possess you today?!”
“Yeah,” Boss muttered, sounding entirely utterly bewildered by his own existence. “My skill converts incoming damage into energy. Right now, there is way too much energy inside me. My body is literally on the verge of exploding from the overload…”
He paused, letting the sheer stupidity of the game’s physics engine sink in.
“…But the system seems to be judging my own internal explosion as a form of incoming damage.”
He stated the final conclusion, leaving the entire room in dead silence.
“So, the excess energy exploding my body… counts as damage. That damage is instantly absorbed by the shield… which converts it into new energy. Which then tries to explode me again. It seems… I’ve accidentally created an infinite, self-sustaining loop.”
Fourth’s jaw practically unhinged. He stared at the glowing deity in the center of the room and muttered, “Good grief… the laws of thermodynamics are just toilet paper to you, aren’t they? What kind of bullshit perpetual motion machine is this? You’re literally stepping on your own left foot to fly to heaven…”
Even the usually unflappable Second stood frozen, her eyes flickering as she processed the broken logic.
Third, however, raised a very practical concern. “But Boss, if this energy is just infinitely piling up inside you and you can’t vent it fast enough… isn’t that completely useless? Actually, it sounds incredibly dangerous.”
“No…” Second suddenly interrupted, her voice trembling with a terrifying realization. She snapped her head toward Boss. “You can use it, right, Boss? You can vent it all at once!”
Boss looked back at her, the white-hot flames in his eyes burning like a supernova.
“Are you talking about… that?”
“Exactly!” Second nodded sharply, her tone absolute. “That’s the only move that can handle this output!”
Fourth threw his scythe onto the ground in protest, glaring at the two of them. “Hey! I’m a Sarkaz Blood Demon! I’m not a Liberi! Why do you two insist on speaking in bird-language riddles to me?!”
Boss turned his blinding, molten face toward Fourth and slowly gave him a thumbs up.
“Then keep your eyes open, Fourth! Witness my transformation!”
[Rhodes’s Note: “Stepping on your left foot with your right foot to ascend to heaven” is a comedic reference to a famous, physically impossible martial arts trope (Cloud-Ascending Ladder) where a master gains infinite upward momentum by stepping on their own feet mid-air. Fourth is using it to mock the absurdity of Boss’s infinite energy loop.]
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