Extraordinary in Reality Through Magic Games

501: Chapter 481 A Journey to the Church to Obtain the Method for Advancing to Epic StatusThe Gangnuo Empire possesses God’s Blessing and Epic-tier individuals; Lake’s existing reconnaissance methods cannot evade the gaze of top-tier Professionals.

The capabilities of the intelligence department established by Soren were gradually improving, but it still lacked elite power. Its infiltration of external empires and kingdoms was in its infancy; asking him to investigate the Gangnuo Empire would only yield rumors circulating among the common folk of unknown veracity.

While acceptable for reference, expecting high authenticity or access to classified secrets was likely unrealistic.

Tools like drones were sufficient for tracking the movements of the Ganno legion, but forcing them to perform JD missions was too much of a stretch.

To obtain valuable information, Zhang Mu had to make the trip himself.

Zhang Mu mastered the Shadow Technique; except for the vicinity of God’s Blessing or Epic-tier individuals, there was nowhere he couldn’t go, making him the strongest intelligence operative. The rarity was the number of people—only himself—while the territory of the Gangnuo Empire was despairingly vast, and the number of cities it contained was even more terrifying.

If Zhang Mu searched them one by one, it would likely take several years to get a general sense of the situation; whether he could obtain the ”secrets” he sought would depend purely on luck.

He didn’t have enough leisure time to search every city, so he focused his gaze on the Imperial Palace in the capital, where the empire’s top-secret intelligence was bound to be hidden.

Zhang Mu didn’t know how many God’s Blessing guards were inside, let alone their specific locations. If he were unfortunate enough to stumble near one, not only would he fail to get information, but he probably shouldn’t dream of leaving in one piece.

Infiltrating the palace was fraught with difficulties, but they had to be overcome. Without determining if Ganno planned to attack Lake, Zhang Mu couldn’t peacefully head to the Church Holy Mountain; he had to take the risk.

He set out overnight, not resting for a moment along the way, and successfully reached the Imperial Capital ten days later.

Not in a hurry to enter the city, Zhang Mu circled the capital once. After confirming that Ganno wasn’t so extravagant as to use God’s Blessing-tier guards for the city gates, he stepped through.

The location of the palace was easy to find.

Passing through the gates and standing on the paved stone streets, Zhang Mu’s gaze bypassed the staggered houses and buildings to see a castle whose height far exceeded the surrounding structures, its pointed roofs piercing the clouds.

After standing there and gazing for a moment, he maintained the Shadow Technique and reached the palace. After peering around and finding no trace of a God’s Blessing-tier presence, he walked toward the open palace gates.

The process was exceptionally smooth. Zhang Mu encountered no accidents or God’s Blessing-tier individuals along the way, navigating unimpeded into the archives where important documents were stored. After rummaging through the neatly arranged wooden cabinets, he finally found what he wanted.

After reading the documents, Zhang Mu understood. The Gangnuo Empire had intended to wipe out Lake long ago, but it was mired in its own troubles and couldn’t spare the energy for the time being.

The Gangnuo Empire was powerful and prosperous, capable of toppling kingdoms with a flick of a finger, but it was not invincible on the Saul Continent. Many empires were stronger than it, and no small number of neighboring empires held grudges against it.

In the past, they were constrained by Church prohibitions; neighboring empires couldn’t attack Ganno. At most, their Professionals targeted each other when entering dungeons. After the prohibitions were abolished, old scores were settled, and Ganno instantly plunged into the flames of war.

To Ganno’s east, two empires with deep-seated enmity quickly formed an alliance, gathering multiple First-Tier Legions and several God’s Blessing-tier individuals to launch a subjugation campaign on a scale intended to destroy the nation.

Comparing it to either one individually, Ganno’s strength was slightly superior, but the joint attack of the two nations was difficult to withstand. They suffered consecutive defeats, dozens of cities fell to the enemy, and nearly half of their territory was lost.