Chapter 112 The Clock Tower [Time Rift: A Promise Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold Loading, please...]
The great catastrophe never came...
This hypothesis echoed in Du Yu's mind, sending chills down her spine.
Monsters, disasters, suffering—if all this despair is just the beginning, then one day humanity will be unable to trust even the world it depends on for survival—that will be the end that destroys everything, where even meaning itself ceases to matter.
When that day comes, will there still be any point in persisting?
Negative thoughts vanished quickly and didn't linger. Du Yu had already begun to ponder the meaning behind the young "Chen Xingzhi's" words: the great catastrophe didn't suddenly descend, but rather it had always been there, only now that humanity had finally seen it.
This explains why humanity has yet to find the cause of the Great Cataclysm—because there is no need for a cause; the Great Cataclysm, or rather, the extraordinary world, has always existed.
But a new question arises: what is the opportunity that will make everyone "see" it?
Why did both the original world and the fictional world, two vastly different worlds, experience a major catastrophe?
Chen Xingzhi...
An inspiration struck him like lightning, and Du Yu suddenly stood up, staring intently at Chen Xingzhi: "You said the Great Cataclysm never came... but someone once told me that she caused the Great Cataclysm."
"cause……"
The younger version of Chen Xingzhi had a dazed look in her eyes, as if she were lost in some memories. Du Yu stared intently at her reaction—the person who said that he had caused the great catastrophe was none other than the middle-aged version of Chen Xingzhi!
Back in the Tai Sui instance, Chen Xingzhi, wearing a strange device, told Du Yu in person that the rumor from his previous life that "Chen Xingzhi dug up something he shouldn't have dug up, causing a great catastrophe" was true and not just a rumor.
Now, this younger version of Chen Xingzhi claims that the Great Cataclysm never happened? What is Chen Xingzhi's current state? Are the younger and middle-aged versions just different in appearance, or do they even have completely different memories?
"A flood is about to submerge the dam, and an ant accidentally makes a hole in the dam—was the ant responsible for the devastating flood? Or was the ant the cause of the devastating flood?"
Du Yu quickly understood the meaning of Chen Xing's analogy—the cataclysm was not caused by her, nor did she have the power to do so. However, her actions in certain aspects acted as a catalyst, accelerating the arrival of the cataclysm.
From this perspective, it's not entirely wrong for Chen Xing to say that he caused the great catastrophe.
But here's the question: before the arrival of the extraordinary factors, Chen Xingzhi wasn't even a superhuman. So what did he do to accelerate the arrival of the Great Cataclysm?
This is as absurd as a primitive man claiming he successfully extinguished a black hole in a galaxy.
Moreover, since I transmigrated to this world after my death, what exactly is Chen Xingzhi's superpower? Why are there traces of her in the deep dream, the Tai Sui space rift, and the secret laboratory in the Cross Prison? Chen Xingzhi is just outrageous; she seems to be everywhere.
But after saying that about the flood, the young Chen Xingzhi acted like an NPC who had completed a task, ignoring the questions from Du Yu and Lin Qi. He nodded to himself, said, "I should go do my experiment now. You guys wait here," and took a step back. The door to the rest room clicked shut.
"Hello!"
Du Yu suddenly stepped forward, but for some reason, even though she perceived Chen Xingzhi as just an ordinary person, she was a step ahead of her. Du Yu's outstretched hand slammed against the iron gate, making a dull thud.
"ah?"
Linqi behind him let out a gasp, and Du Yu turned around and also noticed that something was wrong with this space.
When Chen Xingzhi first entered, everything in the lounge was normal, but when he left, the corners, the ceiling, the floor, and the edges of the room became illusory. The juice from the freshly crushed green apples, which were just about to expire, was still sticking to his hands, and the mushy pulp fell to the ground and disappeared like bubbles.
"Whoosh—"
The protective suits in the wardrobe spontaneously combusted without fire, and everything in the room looked like an old photograph that had been there for hundreds of years, turning dim and yellow at a visible speed.
Du Yu watched as the protective suit was burned to ashes by an invisible fire. The ashes floated up and fell back down, forming a black hole with blurred edges. Occasionally, a few images would flash through it, like an old photograph that had been burned by a cigarette butt. The charred edges formed a hole through which one could travel from two dimensions to three dimensions and glimpse a corner of the real world.
"I feel like we can go through this hole, want to try?"
Du Yu was speechless for a moment. She realized that Linqi was not modest at all. He said he "didn't really want to live." He really didn't want to live. He could easily come up with a crazy idea to die.
"Do you even know what's inside? You just jumped in?"
Du Yu frowned and observed for a moment. The space that had undergone the mutation did not make her feel dangerous. On the contrary, it made Du Yu feel a strange sense of familiarity—just like the fake transit space modeled after Jinling University in her previous life before she entered the Tai Sui instance.
Thinking of this, Du Yu had a sudden inspiration and brought up the system panel. Sure enough, in the task section, the task section that was supposed to be "weekly tasks" but had not lit up since then lit up.
[Ding-dong, you have a new weekly task. Please complete it as soon as possible~]
[Time Rift: A Promise Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold is loading, please wait patiently~]
As 166 had said, weekly missions are all carried out in spacetime rifts, so even if something happens there, it won't affect the main body. Du Yu glanced at the progress bar that suddenly appeared on the black hole, and wasn't in a hurry to leave.
"She's gone. Can you continue telling me about the clock tower?"
Linqi frowned, clutching her chest, her eyes darting around searching for an exit. These eyes finally landed on Du Yu. Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, the surprise and doubt in her eyes lessened considerably. She sat back down on the sofa, one hand stroking her chin.
"Hmm... how should I put it? Let me start with how I got in here."
According to her father, the first twenty years of her life were unremarkable. Born into a social welfare institution with a mid-level number, she was assigned to an advertising company in District 04 after adulthood with mediocre grades. She worked there for several years without much success, and just as she was about to pay off her student loan interest, she met a missionary from the Society for the End of All Things.
It is one of the three major evil god sects in the lower city, alongside the [New Sun] Church and the [Ocean Research Center] of the [Pure Sea Lords]. It is also one of the most fanatical and low-profile among the cultists.
They do not believe in any gods, but instead fanatically worship the gray fog outside the City of the Sun. This group of cultists believes that there is a mysterious and great being in the gray fog, which is incomprehensible, unseen, and irresistible to humans.
Upon hearing this, Du Yu had a strange thought: if we set aside the part about worshipping the gray fog, the views of the "All Things Will Perish" group of madmen were almost identical to the doomsday theory. If the latter was not influenced by them, then the spread of the doomsday theory also owes something to these cultists.
Of course, as a high-quality worker who had received a systematic education in the city, Linqi—at that time she hadn't changed her name to Linqi yet—didn't listen to the words of the missionaries of the "Society for the End of All Things." In fact, if she weren't afraid of getting into trouble, she would have contacted the sheriff to report them.
The junior missionary went on and on about how despicable the tycoons were, how the parliament was a mere figurehead and the sheriffs were nothing more than the tycoons' dogs. What truly piqued Linqi's interest, however, was a casual remark from the other party: "The tycoons have destroyed the world, yet ordinary people bear the consequences."
One hundred years ago, while humanity was celebrating its successful moon landing and enjoying space travel, a cataclysmic event quietly struck. Humanity's self-proclaimed glorious civilization was destroyed in the blink of an eye, and for the next century, humanity struggled to survive under the threat of the gray fog.
In the City of the Sun, this is common knowledge even among the illiterate people in the lower city. Yet the members of the [Society of the End of All Things] believe it's a cataclysmic event for the tycoons? How could humans possibly do such a thing?
When Du Yu heard that Lin Qi had resolutely abandoned her peaceful life and joined the "All Things Will Perish" for this reason, she couldn't help but doubt the truth of her description of herself as "a bit too curious."
Is this just a matter of being "a little too curious"? You must be bursting with curiosity to do something so reckless!
As the deadline approached, Du Yu's urge to complain grew wildly. She recalled for a moment and shook her head: "I've never been to any other cults, but in the [All Things Will Perish], apart from a very small number of people, most of them are liars eyeing your wallet, madmen immersed in nihilistic ramblings, and, well, a group of fools whose blood boils from being deceived by lies."
Du Yu's lips twitched, and he resisted the urge to ask, "Which category are you?" and continued to listen to Lin Qi's story.
After joining the "Society of the End of All Things," Linqi quickly became very successful and found the information he wanted on an abandoned hard drive.
According to the records of the [Society of the End of All Things], the Great Cataclysm did not come without warning. While most people were unaware, various forces engaged in open and covert struggles over the central AI, Yuanfu. Ultimately, perhaps due to time constraints, the forces reached an agreement to jointly divide the area where the central AI server was located.
These forces are the precursors to the major conglomerates of the Upper City. What's even more intriguing is that, before the struggle for control of the central AI, these forces seemed to have joined forces to conduct a secret experiment.
This part is not recorded by the [All Things Will Perish] Society. While searching for clues, Linqi was arrested by the sheriff through the internet. After betraying all the [All Things Will Perish] Society members he could without any remorse, Linqi received a reduced sentence and was sent to the Cross Prison.
"Sigh, I was dragged down by those good-for-nothings who only know how to cheat people out of money. Otherwise, my mental strength would barely reach A, and I might not have been assigned to the Cross Prison."
As he was about to be released from prison, he sighed with genuine emotion, which made those around him secretly retort. "You underestimate yourself. Ordinary people can infiltrate cults like you, like a fish in water. In the end, you not only successfully quit the cult, but you can also betray all the cult members."
Linqi's words provided a lot of information and gave Du Yu a lot of inspiration. She nodded and changed the subject: "After saying so much, you still haven't mentioned the clock tower. I can see the clock face on the clock tower clearly, why are you so surprised?"
"What's the rush? We haven't even finished talking about it yet."
Linqi sighed again, a familiar melancholy returning to his brow: "Perhaps I've been exposed to too much stuff from before the Great Cataclysm. I have a premonition that the moment I see the clock tower in the prison, I'll know it's a relic from before the Great Cataclysm, and that it possessed extraordinary abilities even before the Great Cataclysm..."
"I suspect that this clock tower must have been a key prop in that experiment that destroyed most of the world and caused the cataclysm."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
