There was no conspiracy theory as imagined, no bloody regime change, not even any supernatural disaster beyond his comprehension.
The truth was laid bare before him in a ridiculous and absurd way.
It was a farce born from individual despair that ultimately crushed an entire era.
The beginning of the file described an era full of hope.
[“After nearly thirty years of exploration and development, the ‘Destiny Apostle’ group and the otherworldly knowledge, resources, and technology they represent have gradually become important pillars recognized by nations, supporting the advancement of cutting-edge technology and special fields in society. Their strategic status continues to rise…”]
The text calmly outlined a Blue Dawn.
Destiny Apostles were no longer secret wanderers.
The materials they brought from other worlds, broken technical blueprints, even just differing understandings of certain physical rules, were meticulously analyzed and reverse-engineered in real-world laboratories, fueling twisted prosperity in fields like material science, energy technology, and bioengineering.
They were moving treasures, human self-propelled research libraries, precious assets fiercely competed for and wooed by nations.
However, the root of the problem lay here as well.
The file’s format subtly shifted, taking on a hint of criticism.
[“…However, the acquisition of power and the forging of character are not always synchronized. The Destiny Screening Mechanism emphasizes ‘adaptability’ and ‘potential’ over ‘virtue.'”]
[Over time, disparities in quality within the explorer group became increasingly pronounced. Some individuals, after obtaining powers and privileges far beyond the norm, experienced rapid mental inflation…”]
Shi Hanfeng’s gaze swept over these words. In his mind, he could almost imagine the scene: how some lucky ones, suddenly granted power, transformed from initial panic to arrogance, seeing the laws and morals of the real world as shackles for the weak.
They reveled in the freedom power brought, lost in the superiority of traversing worlds.
And the catalyst for tragedy came from outside.
[“…Especially noteworthy is that some foreign explorers of poor character colluded with a minority of domestic scum, using mission intervals and special means to evade supervision, forming small groups in the real world to unleash their twisted desires and violent tendencies, posing a serious threat to public security and citizen safety.]
[Due to their special status, conventional law enforcement struggled to intervene; even when discovered, handling the matter was often protracted and full of compromise…”]
Even among Destiny Apostles, there were still scum and villains.
Despite crossing worlds and witnessing countless possibilities, some people’s base natures only worsened.
The network they formed was a black web above ordinary rules.
Then, the file mentioned a youth whose name had been erased, referred to only by the cold code [Individual Alpha], with a chilling footnote: [His childhood friend (deceased) was one of the early victims; the incident occurred about two years before the ‘Great Annihilation’ event].
Yet Shi Hanfeng seemed to see a blurry figure, a boy perhaps once full of curiosity and hope for the Destiny Space, just like himself.
His tragedy did not begin with himself, but with the fall of a loved one.
The girl he cherished was just a casual mark in the countless atrocities of those scum—a faint light snuffed out in the silent darkness.
She was tortured to death, while [Individual Alpha] at that time was still an ordinary, naive boy ignorant of the future.
The gears of fate turned cruelly.
Two years later, [Individual Alpha] turned eighteen, awakened, and became a Destiny Apostle.
With access and deeper information, he finally learned of the existence of that dark organization and gained the ability to touch the fragments of the past tragedy.
One could imagine his feelings as he began secretly collecting evidence: anger, grief, and perhaps a fixation born of finally seeing hope.
He thought that as long as the evidence was solid and exposed, he could bring those beasts to justice and bring peace to the lost souls.
But he was too young, underestimating both the power of self-interest and the black network’s reach.
His actions were noticed from the very start.
What awaited him was not the dawn of justice, but even more frenzied retaliation.
The file’s description here was brief but full of human evil.
[“…During his attempt to appeal through unofficial channels and gather evidence, his immediate family and the victim’s relatives suffered a series of ‘accidental’ deaths…”]
Reality dealt him the cruelest blow. The evidence he collected vanished into oblivion, even becoming a blade turned against him.
He underestimated the vastness and darkness of that web, underestimated the ugliness of human nature in the face of profit.
Not only did he fail to shake his enemies in the slightest, he instead brought down relentless and total revenge.
His family, and the family of his deceased childhood friend, perished in rapid succession through various “accidents” and “misfortunes.”
Home destroyed, appeals unheard, faith and perseverance crushed utterly beneath overwhelming power and darkness.
The entire world lost its color, leaving only bone-deep cold and despair.
As for himself, perhaps it was pure chance—being in the task transmission cooldown period, or hiding in the jurisdiction of Qiming Star just in time—that allowed him to escape.
But sometimes, surviving is more painful than death. To him, the world was now ashes, suffused with the scent of enemies.
Then came the next mission’s arrival.
And the irony of fate is that sometimes, extreme despair itself becomes a powerful attraction.
[“…Based on extremely limited residual fluctuations and subsequent intelligence from related worlds, it is inferred that in the following Novice Quest World, Individual Alpha’s extreme despair, hatred, and destruction-oriented state of mind unintentionally matched the resonance criteria of a high-dimensional Outer God with a ‘wish-fulfilling’ tendency (or an existence of similar rank)…”]
A dead-hearted person met in another world a “god” who delighted in witnessing and even personally driving death.
It was a perfect disaster.
[“…Individual Alpha reached a transaction with the unknown entity, using his own existence as the core wager, and obtained immense power to interfere with reality for a limited time…”]
In that unknown Novice Quest World, Individual Alpha’s soul, saturated with hatred and despair, became a beacon in the darkness, attracting the gaze of an unnameable Outer God dwelling outside dimensions.
It was not pity, but curiosity toward a rare delicacy.
Faced with the only possible path to revenge, Individual Alpha hesitated not at all.
He wagered his existence, soul, and everything else in a deal with the Outer God.
His original wish was both mad and grand—to bury the entire sinful human civilization with him, to let all fall into oblivion for what he had suffered.
But he overestimated the value of his stake.
In such a being’s eyes, a single human soul, no matter how strong the hatred, was not enough to destroy an entire race.
The transaction was forcibly downgraded.
[“Leveraging this power, Individual Alpha, after returning to the real world, unleashed a targeted ‘Curse of Fate Annihilation’ or ‘Conceptual Erasure’ (specific form unknown, effect equivalent).]
[The targets: all individuals and their protectors, enforcers, and registered Destiny Apostles globally directly or indirectly linked to the persecution of himself and the victims, as well as all those recorded in the archives…”]
In the end, what he obtained was a one-time, limited Adjudication Right of Equal Fate.
Upon returning from the mission, wielding this terrifying power from the Outer God, Individual Alpha cast an indiscriminate curse.
All registered Destiny Apostles on Earth at that time, regardless of whether they participated in the atrocities against him or their moral standing; all personnel directly or indirectly involved in the persecution and cover-up actions, and their core relatives on his list—
Their lives were forcibly linked by that transdimensional power in the same instant, and then, like a lit fuse, burned to the end together.
That day later became known in classified archives as the “Day of Silence.”
The file’s final section was marked in bold:
[This incident is collectively called the ‘Great Annihilation.’ Ninety-nine percent of registered explorers worldwide died instantly at the same time, along with the abnormal deaths of countless field experts and high-ranking individuals.]
[This directly led to stagnation or even regression in many cutting-edge technology fields, ruptured key industry chains reliant on otherworldly materials, and caused many already decoded but not yet fully assimilated technologies to become extinct…]
[The era’s scientific and economic progress was forced into an emergency halt, even drastically reversed. Social resources shifted massively toward basic security and internal stability…]
Shi Hanfeng could almost see the scene of that day: without warning, across the globe, those Destiny Apostles of noble status and extraordinary power, and many high-ranking figures, dying instantly in bizarre ways.
The ensuing panic and chaos, the technological regression, and industrial collapse that followed.
The latter part of the file regained its initial detachment, describing the subsequent impact.
[After the pain came reflection. Following the ‘Great Annihilation,’ nations worldwide reached consensus: the selection and cultivation of Destiny Apostles must never repeat past mistakes. Power must be accompanied by thought, potential tied to character.]
[The Protection Law for Minors, comprehensive social-school-family supervision mechanisms, and quality education for eligible youth, permeating everyday life, were all elevated to strategic imperatives.]
[The core goal was not to create moral saints, but to ensure that every future explorer awakened met at least a baseline of not being evil, minimizing the risk of destructive power upon awakening…]
[The full process, details, and lessons of the ‘Great Annihilation’ were designated as an Archive of Supreme Warning, to be made public to all subsequent awakened explorers, so that future generations might heed its lessons.]
The glow of the screen dimmed.
Shi Hanfeng slowly leaned back against the soft, comfortable gaming chair.
The room was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat, steady, but stronger than ever.
Xu Chaoyun held his breath, watching his expressionless face, and cautiously asked,
“…Finished reading?”
“Yeah.”
Shi Hanfeng replied, his voice emotionless.
“How is it? Isn’t it… pretty damn messed up?”
Xu Chaoyun smacked his lips, wanting to comment, but found any words paled before the weight of the record.
Shi Hanfeng didn’t directly answer right or wrong.
In that tragedy, it seemed everyone had their own stance and helplessness.
Was Individual Alpha wrong?
His initial demand was so simple—just seeking justice.
But his final choice caused even greater injustice, bringing disaster to countless innocents.
Were all the Apostles and powerful figures who perished deserved to die?
There were surely those uncorrupted, even striving to do good with their power, yet they too became collateral.
In this tragedy, there were no victors, only sorrow in different measures and irreversible loss.
Who was right?
Who was wrong?
It was already a question with no answer.
He was not a judge, nor needed nor able to pass judgment.
To him, this record wasn’t a story demanding a verdict, but an instruction manual.
It explained why this world had become as it was, the origins of the extreme protection laws, and clearly marked the hidden currents and dangers lurking below the surface, enough to swallow everything.
Power, rules, human hearts.
Individual Alpha had the potential to awaken, but lacked the strength to protect those he loved.
After obtaining power through hardships, he found the rules of reality did not stand with him, even becoming shields for his enemies.
In the end, he chose to borrow the power of an otherworldly Outer God, trampling all rules in the most extreme way, taking revenge, and dragging an entire era into the grave.
And himself?
Shi Hanfeng looked out the window.
The city bustled under the sunlight, traffic weaving—a scene of prosperity.
But beneath that peace and prosperity lay a history so tragic and absurd.
It wasn’t a noble sacrifice as imagined, nor a heroic war against a terrifying enemy, but stemmed from the evil of a handful of scum and the systemic complicity and failure that finally twisted a desperate, innocent man into a vengeful wraith, taking part of the world’s future down with him.
He didn’t want to judge whether Individual Alpha’s decision was right or wrong.
He only wondered—if one day in the future, misfortune struck, and he or those he cared for became the playthings or sacrifices for swollen Destiny Apostles—what would he do?
Would he, like Individual Alpha, bargain with monsters, seeking the attention of some otherworldly being, gambling everything for destructive power?
No.
Neither.
Shi Hanfeng took a slow breath, the cool air filling his lungs but unable to lift the heaviness in his chest.
He craved power, originally for self-preservation, to survive in the Novice Quest World, and out of curiosity to explore the unknown and experience different lives.
But now, that desire had become more concrete—and even stronger.
He wanted power not just to face monsters and gods in other worlds.
More so, to have enough weight in this unpredictable sea of human nature to control his own fate—to say no.
To prevent those he cared about from becoming the price of others’ wantonness.
To avoid being driven into the same despair as Individual Alpha, forced to make such a maddening choice.
So that when injustice or darkness threatened, what he held wasn’t powerless rage or prayer, but a fist strong enough to shatter it, or a shield sturdy enough to protect what he treasured.
The problem isn’t power, but the people who wield it.
If you don’t want to be buried by others’ mistakes, the only way is to have enough strength to correct them, or at least shield yourself from them.
Even now, with current training, most Destiny Apostles were rather gentle—almost salted fish—but who knew if someone inside would suddenly go crazy and make headlines.
He had no intention of entrusting his life and safety to others.
“I’m heading out.”
Shi Hanfeng suddenly stood up, his voice calm once more.
“Huh? Where?”
Xu Chaoyun was still mired in the weight of the file, not reacting for a moment.
“I have some Gold Coins brought back from the Novice Quest World. I want to exchange them for funds.”
Shi Hanfeng put away his personal terminal, the screen going dark, the last trace of pale blue light fading into his arms.
“You go ahead and train. I have a suggestion—given your aptitude, swordsmanship will surely be your main focus, but don’t be rigid in the early stages. Carry a gun for self-defense, at least until you master the Hundred-Step Flying Sword. As for me…”
He paused, his gaze drifting across the wide sky outside the window, as if already seeing the entrance to the next world.
“Preparing for the next mission.”
Xu Chaoyun watched his back heading toward the door, opened his mouth, but in the end asked nothing, merely opened his terminal and began consulting the omnipotent group chat—do official channels sell firearms?
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