Chapter 191 People from the Future

In the silence, I glanced at the movements at the Humanitarian Division's secret outpost.

The young girl, Lu Chan, was still busy. She infiltrated the cells throughout the stronghold, persuading the demon hunters to participate in the upcoming riot plan.

The persuasion process was quite smooth. She simply awakened the demon hunters' awareness of death, which had been washed away by the power of the reboot, and told them the contents of the plan. She also made no secret of the purpose of the plan, stating directly that it was to enable Chenlong to unleash his full power as much as possible, so that "their own ace fighters" could also find a way to exert their full strength.

Realizing that participation in the plan could potentially destroy this living hell, they agreed without hesitation.

During this time, I also need to prepare for my battle with Chenlong.

First, I must be prepared for the possibility that even if I obtain the method for fighting at the Humanitarian Division's secret base from Chenlong, I might not be able to use it. For example, what if his method turns out to be "using the 'Comprehensive Enhancement' ability to strengthen the space I'm in"? I don't have the "Comprehensive Enhancement" ability. Or even if his method is usable, it might not be entirely suitable for me, and I might only be able to utilize about 50% or 60% of my full strength.

In those less-than-ideal circumstances, I couldn't brute force my way through his "portal armor," so I had to find a way to defeat him even if I couldn't surpass his strength.

No, those are all excuses—I just want to conquer his "portal armor" on equal terms.

I care more about the process and means to achieve the result than the result of "breaking the enemy's capabilities".

Furthermore, part of the source of this idea may be his past statement that I "have great power but do not know how to use it." Therefore, when I found a way to break through his defense with overwhelming power, although his reaction, like a frightened bird, made me feel somewhat relieved, the result seemed to confirm his assessment.

What he said was true, and being picky about methods in a life-or-death battle went beyond the bounds of propriety. Therefore, if things were truly impossible, I wouldn't force it. I just felt, "If only it could be done."

I consulted Zhu Shi and Ma Zao for strategies, but neither of them could come up with a suitable one for the time being.

Lu Youxun, who was listening in, offered his advice as someone who had been through similar experiences.

“When you encounter an outrageous superpower mechanism, you shouldn’t try to find a flaw in the other party’s rules. Just use the method that works best for you,” he said. “If all else fails, you can try to destroy that independent reality space first, drive Chenlong into the real world, and then use overwhelming force to burn through his defenses.”

This opinion was echoed by the other two. However, the more they thought I couldn't defeat Chenlong under equal conditions, the more I wanted to challenge him. Perhaps this childish rebellious streak is part of my personality.

While I was thinking, I shifted my focus to the office of the head of the secret outpost of the Humanitarian Division. This experience was like being in one place while vividly imagining another place in my mind, and then opening and closing my eyes, the environment I was in became the latter, while the former changed to the imagined scene.

I walked over to the bookshelf not far away, took out the folder again, and browsed through various experimental materials.

Although I don't understand most of the content, this information and data are undoubtedly very important. My "firefly" has memory storage capabilities and can record images like filming videos. I can "copy" this precious information to the outside world in this way. I don't really care about this kind of content; I'm just taking what I can.

Moreover, there were a few entries that I could understand, like diary entries or notes, interspersed with some of the information left by Dr. Silver Mask. I became increasingly convinced that Dr. Silver Mask was investigating Ying Lingyun's secret—that he was not loyal to his true self.

This aligns with my impression of him. It's not that he looks like a traitor, but rather that compared to the ruthless and unscrupulous Ying Lingyun, his moral standards seem relatively higher.

Furthermore, as I delved deeper into the contents of his diary entries, I came to a greater sense of the differences between him and Ying Lingyun.

One section finally mentions Chang'an, stating:

"...The original body's wish is to resurrect its beloved, and it joined the Humanitarian Division for this purpose. The large number of modified humans emerging in society also seems to be related to this wish..."

"He also planned to harm his own son, but even if he were to be used as a living sacrifice in the resurrection ritual, he would never actually resurrect Silvermoon."

"Could it be that his mind has become so deranged that he can't even understand something like this? Or is it that Yin Yue is not actually dead yet, and that she left some kind of resurrection plan in her biological son, or even transferred her own soul into her biological son's body?"

"Impossible. Silver Moon was completely destroyed in the battle with its original body in the past. This is a fait accompli."

"Silver Moon has not left herself any contingency plan for resurrection, which Luo Shan has confirmed countless times."

This is clearly Dr. Silver Mask's diary entries. He probably never imagined that the encrypted data he hid in his computer would be discovered by me in this way.

However, it seems my previous suspicions were wrong; Chang'an did not have the backup plan of resurrecting Yin Yue.

So why did Ying Lingyun have Chenlong kidnap Chang'an?

I continued my investigation and found Dr. Silver Mask's diary entries left elsewhere.

"I cannot understand the connection between the main body's actions of creating a large number of modified humans in the outside world and his desire to revive Silver Moon, nor can I understand why he would go to such lengths for his own selfish desires."

"I can't understand his love for Silver Moon."

"Is it because I am him who became a scientist, and also him who never met Silver Moon? No, at least I understand what love is. However, his love was too crazy and twisted."

"If I met Silvermoon, would I become like him?"

There was also a photo tucked inside the document; it was a picture of a young girl.

The photo is taken at night along a roadside. A young girl in a white dress walks ahead with her hands behind her back, looking back at the camera. She has long, silver-white hair, golden eyes, and a dreamlike, beautiful face.

Is the girl in this photo the great demon Yin Yue who bewitched Ying Lingyun?

For a moment, I couldn't tell if the photo was real or fake. The girl in the picture looked too beautiful to be human, and there was an indescribable sense of horror about it.

The concept of "beautiful to the point of being terrifying" might be difficult to grasp just by saying it. For example, some AI-generated images of beautiful women circulating online do look very beautiful, and many people might be able to recognize them as AI-generated at a glance, but they might not be able to immediately articulate what makes them look like AI.

If the beautiful women in these pictures were to come into real life and meet people face-to-face, they might create a conflicting feeling in those who encounter them: "They look human, but they don't look human at all," thus triggering the uncanny valley effect. And that's exactly how I feel right now.

This is a kind of beauty that "human beings in reality should not have".

I silently memorized the face and then investigated other information.

Confirming the appearance of the Great Demon Silver Moon was an unexpected bonus, but my main purpose in investigating the data wasn't to figure out Dr. Silver Mask's thought process, nor was it to memorize those difficult and complex experimental data. For me, the most important thing was to find clues related to the monster—or rather, related to the apocalypse.

Actually, I don't have that much hope anymore. This is clearly Dr. Silver Mask's own database, and Ying Lingyun neither put his important information here nor shared his secrets with Dr. Silver Mask. To find clues related to the apocalypse, I'll probably have to get closer to where Ying Lingyun is.

However, perhaps Asahi's jinxed nature manifested itself here, or perhaps there really is some kind of law in this world—the more a person wants something, the harder it is to obtain, while it is easier to be lucky when there is no expectation.

I actually found clues related to the apocalypse.

It was still Dr. Silver Mask's diary entries, and in one of them he wrote:

"I am quite different from my original self, as well as from the other 'possible clones.' Perhaps it's because I come from a possibility path that's too different from theirs, so my connection with other individuals isn't very good. There shouldn't even be a difference between the original self and the clones in the first place; the true original self should be the network of consciousness that connects all of us."

"Therefore, I possess a very clear self that none of the other 'possible clones' have. The original body, however, does not fully trust me and has not shared all its secrets with me through the consciousness network."

"The reason he combined me with the fragment of the divine seal was probably to observe the compatibility between myself and the fragment of the divine seal in depth. Even if there was some experimental accident, he could probably use the fact that my connection with the consciousness network was not complete to avoid being caught in the crossfire."

"It is precisely because of this 'flaw' that I can secretly do some dirty work without the original body's knowledge. For example, I can hack into the consciousness network like a hacker and investigate the original body's memories."

"I want to know where his cyborg technology came from, and where the Seed of the Heart came from."

"This can be said to be the foundation upon which the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau stands today, and also the original capital for ordinary people to resist Luoshan's rule in the future. It cannot be lost."

“I am well aware that the Humanitarian Affairs Department’s backers are only focused on consolidating their power, and they are not the best choice for ordinary people… But even so, the Humanitarian Affairs Department’s current research contains hope for the future. Even if that hope is forged with the blood and tears of countless innocent people.”

"...My intrusion was only half successful in the end."

"Fortunately, I didn't let the main body discover my tricks, and I even obtained some important information."

"First of all, the Seed of the Heart, which is the core material of the human modification technology, was indeed provided by a certain Great Impermanence. We don't know exactly who it is, but based on the existing clues, we can infer that the provider is likely a Great Impermanence outside of Luoshan."

"Secondly, although it is very hard to believe... the original body seems to have a means of communicating with people from the future."

"I checked the information I obtained through the intrusion over and over again. It was true, he really did communicate with the person from the future, and it was face-to-face communication. In his memory, the person from the future actually appeared in front of him and handed something to him."

"That was the prototype of human modification technology—calling it a prototype might be an exaggeration; it was at most some jumbled information and data."

"But no matter what, it's information from the future, and it seems to be related to some kind of strange thing that doesn't exist in this era. At that time, the original body already possessed extremely outstanding research and development capabilities, and soon after, he completed the cyborg technology with these future materials and data, as well as the Heart Seed provided by the unknown Great Impermanence."

"I wish I could know more about this person from the future... but unfortunately, the content of my communication with this person from the future is a 'secret within a secret' in my own mind. I have already exhausted all my strength just to know that they exist, and I am simply unable to find out their true identity."

"The only thing we know is that this person from the future who appeared before the main body calls himself the 'Blessed Monk'."

This concludes the diary entries.

—The Blessed Monk?

I had some doubts about the "people of the future" mentioned in this passage, but as soon as I saw the title "Blessed Monk," my doubts were completely dispelled.

The Blessed Monk—Asao—also referred to himself in this way.

Is this "person from the future" someone like Asaho?

Moreover, this person appeared directly in front of Ying Lingyun and handed over information that did not belong to this era...

I once suspected that Ying Lingyun possessed some means of communicating with the future, but now it seems my suspicions were misplaced. It wasn't that Ying Lingyun contacted the future, but rather that someone from the future contacted the present.

Like Asaha, did this "person from the future" arrive in this era by accident? Or does he have a reliable way to travel between the present and the future?

Where is he now? Why did you make Ying Lingyun develop the weirdo technology?

Since the reason why the Humanitarian Affairs Department and Ying Lingyun possessed the strange technology is this, can we exclude them from the "list of suspects who caused the apocalypse"?

No, perhaps it's too early to draw conclusions. In any case, they have all been connected to the apocalypse in some form. A deeper investigation is necessary…

Suddenly, I sensed that in the real world, a powerful fluctuation of magic at the Great Perfection level was rapidly approaching the Luoshan office.

—A sharpshooter has appeared.

(End of this chapter)