Pirate Kingship

To the north of the Sunset Desert lies the Northern Continent, where knowledge is most active yet chaotic. Among the fifty powers near the Five Great Lakes is a small country called the Lake Light Kingdom.

On the surface, it seems no different from an ordinary human realm. Mortals live in confusion, are born, grow old, get sick, and die, never venturing beyond their own villages or towns in their lifetimes.

However, ninety-nine percent of the people do not know that this place is not truly a human kingdom, but merely a vast human farm nurtured by activated knowledge.

In a lavishly decorated room within the Royal Palace.

A handsome young man, who seems to be the Prince of this country and holds the Order of a Fourth Order Mythical Creature, is quietly reading a book.

At the very moment when the [Lake Light Knight] Lancelot was pierced by the Sword in the Stone and utterly perished.

Woosh!

A streak of rainbow light suddenly shot from above the young prince’s head, transforming midair into a hefty tome. The pages, illusory yet detailed, recorded the entire chronology of his life down to the smallest detail.

Yet, until a moment just a few days prior, the young prince’s record abruptly ended, replaced by an old, yellow-brown bookmark.

The bookmark was densely inscribed with the myth of [Lake Light Knight] Lancelot:

"Lancelot is the son of King Ban and Queen Elaine. Abandoned by the lake when still an infant, he was raised by fairies within the lake, earning him the first title ’Lancelot of the Lake’..."

Suddenly, the bookmark emitted a foreboding blackish-red glow, swiftly infecting the young prince’s "Life Book."

Not only was the book itself tainted, but the handwriting also transformed into the biographies of Lancelot before death, after death, or resurrected by activated knowledge.

The youth’s appearance began to rapidly change, as if another person was trying to forcefully emerge from within him.

"Fath... Father King! Spare me, don’t...don’t!"

The young man’s terrified cries for mercy didn’t leave the room.

After just a couple of whimpers, the "Life Book" was entirely stained in black and red by the bookmark.

His face was completely replaced by the one of Lancelot emerging from within.

His body expanded, and in just a few breaths, he transformed from the somewhat slight physique of a youth back into Lancelot, the First Round Table Knight [Lake Light Knight].

The life book above his head quietly dissipated, with only an old, blank bookmark gently wafting down to the desktop.

Lancelot panted heavily, as if the panic of death still lingered within him:

"Huff, huff, almost truly died.

That’s right!"

After some time, his complexion shifted suddenly, reaching to pick up the bookmark on the desk, murmuring to himself:

"How did I die this time?"

The bookmark is obviously extraordinary; it is a [Cursed Object·Duplicate Bookmark]:

"Write detailed information about yourself on the bookmark, then insert it into someone else’s Life Book. You can infuse your existence into another’s life, and no one will detect any anomaly.

For instance, become their blood brother, become their son, or even become their daddy...

Should your original body die, you can still revive using the information on the bookmark, directly replacing the target in the form of ’activated knowledge.’

This is equivalent to copying and pasting consciousness!

However, there exists a critical issue here.

That is, after copying and pasting, indeed, an identical activated knowledge emerges. So, what is his current relationship with the original copied object?"

If Byron were here and saw the description on this bookmark, he would certainly have a lot to say.

He once played a game called "Living Brain Cells."

The protagonist awakens in a world destined for doomsday, impacted by a comet, with the countdown already begun.

Humanity’s only hope is to launch an Ark into space, carrying human consciousness, extending their species in another form.

Similar to this world about to be deluged by the Great Flood of Spiral Annals.

The protagonist struggles through hardships, finally launching the Ark successfully from the deep-sea base, and "uploading" his consciousness as guided.

But he only then realizes, consciousness can only be copied, not transferred!

The so-called consciousness he uploaded is merely a copied and pasted cloned consciousness, while his original consciousness remains in the dark, cold deep sea.

The protagonist ultimately succumbs to despair, dying a sorrowful death.

And that consciousness clone on the Ark lives a blissful, heavenly life intertwined with a beautiful woman’s consciousness clone.

The reasoning is similar, the real Lancelot body had long perished, and the resurrected activated knowledge doesn’t know how many times it has died.

The current [Lake Light Knight] Lancelot has become the Nth new clone, a new individual altogether.

Incidentally, he has forgotten everything that happened at Distant View Port completely.

Only remembering he prepared to leave a few days ago to steal the world’s foremost beauty [Radiant Queen], cautiously creating a backup beforehand, then inexplicably dying and returning.

Clearly, within the Round Table Decision, only a mere layer of the [Sword in the Stone] was unsealed, not yet reaching the extent of a single slash destroying even Lancelot’s legend altogether.

Allowing him, to some extent, to escape death.