Chapter 1156
Datuk
Chapter 1156 Datuk
The human Napoleon, or rather the Datuk, raised his head.
His gaze swept over the eleven masters of the Sea Lineage, a brief look of vigilance and scrutiny appearing between his brows, before lingering for a moment on the enormous Napoleon fish.
Finally, he shifted his gaze to Mu, his eyes suddenly narrowing, as if a judgment had been rapidly pieced together in his mind.
“My memory… is still stuck in the early morning when the Allied forces deployed their lines, Wellington was setting up defenses on the high ground, Blücher was approaching, and my guards were not yet fully committed to the battle.”
As he said this, he raised his hand and pressed it against his forehead, which was empty. Then he looked down at his waist.
"The French Imperial Crown... because of its absolute uniqueness, it cannot be replicated, projected, or imitated..."
His fingertips brushed across the void, as if touching a non-existent relic.
"The Sword of François I and the Triumphant Rainbow Bow..."
He touched his weapon and felt a sense of unease.
“The feel is wrong, and the aura is wrong too.” He raised his head, his tone calm to the point of being harsh. “They are all inferior replicas, lacking any real sense of fit. As for the Gribovar Cannon Array, the Flower City Dragon Flame, and Austerlitz’s Sunburst Power within me—less than one-tenth remains.”
He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield, and quickly understood the current situation.
“It seems I wasn’t brought back intact,” he said. “I was just a fragment of a shadow taken from a certain point in time, used to fill in a doomed ambush.”
As he finished speaking, he looked at Mu again, his gaze no longer merely scrutinizing, but carrying a hint of understanding.
“And the most direct evidence…” he said slowly, “is on you.”
His gaze lingered on Mu's aged yet profound eyes, as if he were seeing a higher order through the flames of war.
“Defender of the Kingdom of Heaven.” He uttered the title softly, his tone devoid of reverence, only revealing a clear assessment of the situation. “The one who summoned me has chosen a formidable opponent.”
The Datuk's attention never lingered on the Sea Alliance for long, nor did he glance at the Napoleon fish hovering on the other side of the battlefield.
The very existence of that thing was enough to make him uncomfortable.
The moment he stepped onto the battlefield, he realized that it was the product of some kind of correspondence.
That was another version of myself on a different timeline, distorted, magnified, and alienated.
That's why he didn't even bother to show his disgust—to admit that this thing was another version of himself from another world would be an insult to him.
He ignored anyone trying to intimidate him and instead focused his gaze directly on the defender of heaven.
"Your Excellency Mu."
His tone was calm, without any intense emotional fluctuations, but it carried the restraint and directness that only someone who has long been in a position of decision-making would possess.
“Since you are here, and all I see before me are inhuman Mudbloods, and I am here in this form, it proves that you are facing an enemy of humanity.”
"However, before you deal with these mud seeds, please allow me to selfishly ask you one thing..."
He paused, as if to confirm whether he really wanted to hear the answer.
"Waterloo... what was the final outcome?"
Then he added, his voice a fraction lower, but sharper.
"Has France achieved unification? Has the central government been integrated under the same banner?"
Mu did not avoid his gaze.
The elderly defender of the Kingdom of Heaven simply shook his head slightly—a small gesture, yet clear enough.
"It's very regrettable."
"The Battle of Waterloo was your only defeat; your army was crushed, and the expansion of the empire came to an end on that day."
The Datuk's gaze did not change immediately, but tightened slightly, as if he were comparing this result with the possibilities he had considered countless times in his mind.
"After the war, you were forced to abdicate. Multiple miracles with a central lineage locked onto your true nature. Your miracle wedge was also forced to be handed over to the reorganized new Fran lineage, and the old Fran lineage think tank was formatted..."
It is regrettable that the Francan Empire you established failed to unify the Central Plains, and the Old World returned to a state of division among powerful nations. The Francan-centered order you envisioned... ultimately did not materialize.
A brief silence fell between the two.
The wind blew across the battlefield, carrying away some noises that didn't belong to this moment.
The Datuk lowered his head, as if looking at the soil beneath his feet, or perhaps at a map that existed only in his memory. After a moment, he slowly exhaled, not with a sigh, but more like a tactical pause after accepting reality.
"I see."
He said this without anger or losing his composure; on the contrary, he appeared unusually calm. "So, the very position I'm standing in now speaks for itself."
He raised his head and looked at Mu again, his gaze sharper than before, but he no longer questioned history.
"Since failure is inevitable, being brought here couldn't possibly be to make me walk that path again."
His gaze swept across the artificially pieced-together battlefield, then over the forces attempting to surround it with numbers and momentum. His tone was cold and clear: "It seems that this time, my role is not in victory."
The Datuk's demeanor did not seem to be controlled by Time Amber at all, which caused the faces of the Sea Alliance members present to change drastically.
This is one of the drawbacks of the Time Amber mechanism of the Beast of Error—the more powerful the historical projection you bring out, the greater the risk of it getting out of control.
Without this drawback, the Beast of Error would have long ago unleashed powerful bosses like the Four Lords, the Red King, and the Stars to conquer the world.
Unfortunately, this is just a fantasy. If He were to actually pull out the historical projections of these few fun gods, forget about conquering the world; it would be a miracle if He didn't get tricked to death by the fun gods.
Just as the atmosphere was spiraling out of control, Chamberlain stepped forward.
This extraordinary historical figure took a half step forward, his movement not hurried, but carrying a sense of deliberate intervention.
He had already sensed something was wrong; the person's mental state was unstable, and one could even say that it was veering off course at a dangerous pace.
If this deviation is allowed to continue, the "time-travel tool" of the Time Amber may drag them all down with it before it gets out of control.
“Calm down,” Chamberlain said, his voice low but with a habitual conciliatory rhythm. “You were summoned here not to be our enemy. Whether you accept it or not, we are now on the same side.”
His gaze passed over the Datuk and pointed in Mu's direction, his tone deliberately softening: "The man in front of you is the executor of world destruction, the angel of heaven, he is our common enemy."
Before the words were even finished, the air suddenly tightened.
The Datuk didn't look at him again.
He simply drew the pistol from his waist—[Triumphant Rainbow Bow].
The weapon's texture is clearly off; its weight, resonance, and feedback all have a hollow, weakened feel.
This is what inferior imitations are like, but that doesn't stop them from firing and unleashing their power. As one of the wedges for the Datuk's path to enlightenment, the [Rainbow Bow of Triumph] doesn't have as many fancy tricks as the [Lever of Heaven]. Its core ability is only one thing—striking straight to the source (intrinsic nature).
The moment the gunshot rang out, it felt as if the world had been pierced by a thin needle.
In the eyes of the Datuk, a symbol appeared on Chamberlain, the king of extraordinary history—[+].
If this spot is hit, Chamberlain's Information Integration Aspect will suffer massive [Information Deletion] damage.
What was fired was not a simple physical bullet, but a trajectory line compressed to the extreme, pointing directly at Chamberlain's [intrinsic anchor point].
It is an attack that does not need to hit the body; as long as it succeeds, it is enough to tear apart the stability of the opponent's information integration system.
Chamberlain's expression changed instantly.
He almost instinctively unfurled his own miraculous wedge as his own essence—[The Art of Appeasement, The Way of Soft Mist].
Miracles can be attacked in a variety of ways, including but not limited to attacking the information itself through miracle wedges, flood attacks, and world orbital cannons.
The protective measures against these miracles are equally diverse, including information firewalls, rate limiting, traffic distribution, intrinsic backup, and black hole world bubble frames...
Chamberlain's miracle, however, followed a different path.
A path that all its peers scoff at, yet they have to admit is one that "can indeed survive."
His approach is known as appeasement-style cyber defense.
When an attack comes, it will not choose to completely deny the connection. Instead, it will actively open the interface to let the attack in, and then perform redirection, obfuscation, degradation and sacrifice internally.
Some information is allowed to be breached, and some structures are allowed to collapse tacitly. As long as these losses do not touch the core, everything is negotiable.
Chamberlain had a similar wedge in Terra's history.
It is a miracle inherent in the city that is extremely dependent on political status, national structure, and social consensus, and it is precisely through this method that the city has survived many crises that could have destroyed the country.
Of course, the price is that the other extraordinary beings in the Mist City lineage will have to suffer even more.
His enemies mocked him as a turtle hiding in its shell, his allies loathed his hesitation and concessions, and everyone knew that this kind of lineage would eventually lead to his demise.
The dignified master of the Fog City lineage chooses to be a ten-thousand-year-old tortoise; this is simply... laughable!
History has proven that appeasement is tantamount to waiting for death.
He declared, "I brought peace to an entire generation"—but what awaited him was the rearmament of the Berlin lineage.
The Munich Agreement has set the Chongqing family tree soaring!
On this timeline, Chamberlain, the king of anomalous history, pacified the entire human race under the control of the Sealings, so his tortoise shell is even thicker than that of the real Chamberlain on Terra.
Boom-!
The air seemed to be gently crumpled, and the reality in front of the bullet softened, collapsed, and deflected layer by layer. The originally straight trajectory was stretched, blurred, and lost its direction as it approached him, eventually turning into a cloud of misty afterimages without any killing intent, which dissipated between the two.
Before the echoes of the gunshots had completely faded, Chamberlain, the king of extraordinary history, had already realized something.
Time Amber has brought them an uncontrollable old man!?
After firing that shot, Datuk's body trembled slightly, and the sanction of Time Amber descended.
When the historical projection that is pulled out is powerful enough to violate the framework of the Time Amber with free will, the Time Amber will also impose corresponding sanctions.
This can be considered a kind of indirect protection mechanism, and it is also to prevent the "big daddy" from getting completely out of control.
At this moment, the Datuk, who was being punished by the system, felt as if his internal organs were being squeezed by an invisible hand.
His throat tightened, and then he spat out a mouthful of bloody foam with a blank expression, as casually as if he were spitting out mud and sand from his mouth.
Then, he raised his head, his gaze returning to Chamberlain, the king of extraordinary history. There was no anger or loss of control in his eyes, only a condescending indifference that he had long been accustomed to.
"Noisy mud-bearers."
"They're nothing but parasites that live on by devouring other civilizations," he continued, his tone flat but his words sharp.
"When I'm speaking, when is it your place to interrupt, you lowly creatures?"
At this point, the Datuk didn't even glance at Chamberlain again. His gaze swept past this extraordinary king of history and slowly swept over the lords of the Sea Lineage in the council chamber, those monsters and aliens who called themselves kings. His gaze was as indifferent as if he were inspecting a row of misplaced utensils.
"As for you, a bunch of inferior and defective products, do you even dare to point fingers at me?"
"You—!" Chamberlain finally couldn't hold back any longer.
That low growl, almost squeezed out between his teeth, carried the shame and anger of having his dignity ripped off in public. If he wanted to, if he made up his mind, Time Amber could have easily banished this uncontrollable old man back into the cracks of history. Even if it came at a price, it would have been much better than letting the situation continue to spiral out of control.
However, just before he was about to give the order, a huge, shadowy figure slowly emerged from the side of the council chamber.
The immortal Napoleon fish has finally stepped forward.
The massive body covered in thick scales swayed gently in the water, with a deliberately lowered posture. Its compound eyes moved, its gaze passing over Chamberlain and landing directly on the Datuk. Its tone, however, was surprisingly slow, even carrying a hint of what it perceived as sincere composure:
"Enough!!!"
"You and I... are actually not that different."
His voice spread through the sea and the afterimages of time, carrying a meaning that was a mixture of rationality and self-persuasion.
"We are all people who have been pushed onto the throne by the times, and we are all beings chosen by history."
“You are the emperor of mankind, while I… have only gone a step further. You should not deny your former self just because of the change in form.”
When Napoleon Fish said these words, his tone even carried a hint of earnestness, as if he genuinely believed that this was a reconciliation that transcended form and time, a second chance for them to stand side by side given by fate.
However, the long, cold barrel of the [Triumphant Rainbow Bow] was steadily pointed forward in the Datuk's hand, and the dark muzzle did not hesitate at all, pointing directly at the huge fish shadow that made him instinctively feel nauseous.
The Datuk didn't even speak immediately.
He merely narrowed his eyes slightly, as if reconfirming some absurd fact, before a faint, chilling smile curved his lips.
"……Same?"
He repeated it in a low voice, his tone calm, yet as if he were chewing on some nauseating word.
"When have I ever looked like this?"
His gaze swept over the Napoleon fish's bloated body, slimy scales, and mutated organs inch by inch, his eyes filled with undisguised disgust. He spoke with a tone of disdain and mockery:
"You and I are the same?"
The muzzle was slightly raised and locked.
"You too?"