Wu Piwu and A Shenjilan both felt that things had exceeded their imagination.
It wasn't about the Pseudo-Beings, the Lizardmen, or some even more terrifying truth, but rather the government's response.
From the very beginning, the greatest enemy they anticipated was actually the government.
A Shenjilan, being a part of this scene, naturally held a deep respect for the government.
On the other hand, Wu Piwu confirmed the threat of the government from a standpoint of strength.
This world was a modern high-tech world, equipped with military mechas, and the level of technology was even more advanced than that of the twenty-first century when he had first fallen into slumber.
With his current strength in such a world, if he truly opposed the government, he would be taught a lesson in no time.
Not to mention, he couldn't even defeat the mecha that was descending alongside the helicopter.
This was a fact that had to be acknowledged.
The mecha was nearly eight meters tall, and while its output was unclear, it could fly.
Both arms were modified with modern thermal weapons, likely machine guns or even powerful weapons like the Vulcan Cannon, and its entire body was forged from alloy steel.
If it also had some sci-fi level laser swords or laser guns, how could he possibly contend with it?
The idea of dismantling a mecha sounded very manly and impressive, but one needed the strength to back it up! Therefore, both Wu Piwu and A Shenjilan believed that the greatest threat came from the government, and whether through the live broadcast or having everyone write down their accounts, it was all to force the government not to directly eliminate them.
However, the situation suddenly exceeded their expectations.
“... We confirmed the existence of a certain entity eleven years ago.” The old man said with a heavy expression. “At that time, we were still using the second generation of Tianwang, and due to certain reasons, the nationwide big data analysis of the second generation Tianwang was delayed and had vulnerabilities...”
The old man looked somewhat embarrassed, while the officer beside him sneered.
A Shenjilan sighed heavily, and Wu Piwu, filled with curiosity, asked, “What do you mean? The second generation Tianwang is worse than the first generation?”
The old man, the officer, and A Shenjilan all wore awkward expressions.
A Shenjilan was somewhat better off; he immediately explained, “No, in terms of algorithms and computational scale, the second generation Tianwang completely outclassed the first generation. However, back then, it should be said that for about twenty years or even longer, our system encountered some issues.”
Wu Piwu nodded, “Was it a civil war? Or something else?”
The officer suppressed his embarrassment and said solemnly, “No, it was too ‘free.’ With over a thousand genders in chaotic revelry, combined with the old faction's certain authoritarianism, the new generation's certain authoritarianism, and the ultra-new generation's certain authoritarianism running rampant, even the various selected political parties of the government became deranged. What was originally a well-implemented monitoring and big data screening was rendered nearly obsolete.”
Wu Piwu was stunned for several seconds before silently nodding with an expression of understanding.
The old man continued, “Thus, during the second generation Tianwang period, we did not discover these entities in a timely manner. This lasted for about ten years, or even longer, until eleven years ago when this chaotic revelry slightly improved. The new president issued repatriation orders and bans, etc. We were tasked with improving the computational model of the second generation Tianwang and reintegrating big data supervision. It was then that we confirmed the existence of a certain entity.”
A Shenjilan immediately asked, “Is it the Pseudo-Beings!?”
“Not just the Pseudo-Beings.” The old man said with a pained expression, “These entities have a very important characteristic: once they are ‘killed,’ the entire world will erase all traces of their existence. The only way to confirm their past existence is through the process of elimination, including records depicted in writing by others, interactions that others had with them, and so on.”
“Through big data elimination, we confirmed that approximately one hundred and fifty thousand people had disappeared globally, and based on the composition of these missing persons, we confirmed that these entities could be divided into three levels.”
“The lowest level is the Pseudo-Beings, the next level is the Lizardmen, and the highest level is the Illuminated Ones. Their intelligence and functions increase accordingly. By the time of the Lizardmen level, they are already indistinguishable from ordinary people, blending in among us, and even taking on important government functions!”
Wu Piwu remained silent, listening quietly, while A Shenjilan immediately shouted, “In other words, you knew about the existence of the Pseudo-Beings eleven years ago? Then why didn’t you make it public? Why didn’t you take action?”
The old man sighed and said nothing, while the officer, with a serious expression, replied, “Because we couldn’t kill them.”
A Shenjilan looked at the officer in shock, and the officer continued to explain with a stern face, “Since the launch of the third generation Tianwang, we indeed confirmed their existence through elimination. At the same time, we found traces of their existence through big data analysis and identified some of the most likely Pseudo-Beings and Lizardmen disguised as monsters, but we have tried.”
“We couldn’t kill them, no matter what method we used—physical, electrical, kinetic, explosive, nuclear, chemical, viral... They are truly and absolutely immortal, because we can’t even break a tiny bit of their skin; all attacks against them can be completely ignored.”
The old man took over the conversation, “To test their abilities and find out how to kill them, we sacrificed at least tens of thousands of people, luring them into traps, into the desert, and directly launching nuclear weapons... It didn’t work, none of it worked, as if they didn’t exist at all!”
Wu Piwu recalled the sensation he felt when he killed the Pseudo-Beings and that one Lizardman; if he hadn’t used his blood qi, he wouldn’t have been able to attack or touch them.
Instead, he would have been dragged into their bodies upon contact, and what would happen then was hard to say.
It turned out that this dragging sensation was not merely physical; according to their words, it seemed that all scientific means were ineffective? That was truly terrifying.
The old man continued, “In our research on Pseudo-Beings and related monsters, we confirmed that there are a total of over sixty large cities worldwide with populations exceeding five hundred thousand that have disappeared. Then we discovered that our world has shrunk by about three percent...”
“What do you mean?” Wu Piwu and A Shenjilan asked simultaneously.
The missing population was understandable, and the number of Pseudo-Cities was also comprehensible, as it was a government-scale statistic and inspection.
However, the world shrinking by about three percent... was completely incomprehensible.
The old man gestured with his hand, “The Earth, our planet, this is our world. Please forgive my imprecise wording; in terms of the universe, it is naturally an insignificant bit of space, but for our planet, a three percent reduction in space is significant, and this space just happens to be the total area of the eight large cities that have disappeared.”
A Shenjilan could hardly believe it; he shouted, “The cities have disappeared—does that mean the land has also disappeared!?”
“It’s not the land; it’s the space!” The old man said with a heavy expression. “If it were the land, then the disappeared cities would leave behind an infinitely deep pit reaching the mantle or even the core, but that’s not the case. Instead, the space in that area has vanished. This is the result of calculations by over a hundred scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, along with the third generation Tianwang system. Other things might deceive us, but mathematics will not!”
“Our world is being slowly devoured by some existence we cannot imagine, and the Pseudo-Beings, Lizardmen, and Illuminated Ones are merely the front-end tentacles of this terrifying existence!”
At that moment, the helicopter landed at its destination.
Wu Piwu and the others got off the helicopter and found themselves at a heavily guarded military base, where not only soldiers were patrolling, but also mechas.
A Shenjilan immediately said, “We only flew for such a short time; this is still in the city, right?”
The old man said nothing and walked ahead, while the officer led the three of them to follow.
He said, “Yes, we are still in the city, as we used full-shadow simulation for camouflage. What is seen from the outside are just buildings.”
A Shenjilan asked as he walked, “Why? Building a military base in the city doesn’t make much sense.”
The officer replied, “From a conventional standpoint, it indeed doesn’t make much sense. However, if we are to study the existence of Pseudo-Cities, we must be here.”
The old man, without looking back, said, “Mr. Wu, the main purpose of establishing this military research base is to study the disappeared cities, that is, the Pseudo-Cities. This time, it is both to reveal the truth to you and to hope to confirm the existence of the Pseudo-Cities through your abilities, expand the range, and gather other data.”
The three followed the old man and the officer into the military base.
Inside, it was also heavily guarded, and they passed through at least a dozen types of monitoring instruments and scans along the way.
The old man spoke as he walked, “These methods can only detect the anomalies of the Pseudo-Beings, but still cannot kill them. They have already killed no less than five researchers or five soldiers within this base. We are powerless against the Lizardmen and the higher-level Illuminated Ones.”
Everyone quickly descended into the depths of the military base.
Along the way, the old man seemed very busy, constantly signing documents for people who came to find him, while also receiving three phone calls, during which he spoke a lot with the person on the other end.
When they reached the elevator going down, the old man wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “The mess you’ve caused is quite large; the presidential office is in chaos, and the emergency affairs coordination meeting is clamoring to execute you...”
A Shenjilan weakly said, “They... wouldn’t really execute us, would they?”
The old man laughed heartily, “How could that be? Let them play their games; a bunch of fools. If it weren’t for them...”
What followed was the old man’s moment of frenzied venting.
Before long, the elevator stopped, and everyone exited the elevator to find personnel already prepared with biohazard suits, weapons, search equipment, and so on.
The old man and the officer donned their biohazard suits with the help of others, and A Shenjilan did the same.
Only Wu Piwu refused the biohazard suit, and even Jiujing also refused.
The officer said sternly, “Wu, you don’t know what’s down there! We’ve lost over five thousand exploration team members among them; you...”
Wu Piwu waved his hand, “No need, wearing this thing, I won’t be able to kill the Pseudo-Beings.”
The old man and the officer exchanged glances and nodded slightly.
Then, the two led the way, accompanied by several researchers, and continued to delve deeper underground with Wu Piwu and the others.
After walking down the corridor for no more than fifty meters, the front suddenly became vast and spacious.
A gigantic, bottomless pit appeared before them, and at this point, the surrounding walls were all natural rock walls that had not been constructed.
That was not the most exaggerated part; the most astonishing part was that in this bottomless pit, there was a crackling plasma coverage layer completely enveloping the entire pit.
“We have discovered over sixty similar pits worldwide, all beneath super large cities. What lies beneath, we have no idea, as we don’t even know if we have sent personnel to explore.”
The old man said with a serious expression, “It’s not just personnel exploration. To be honest, who established this military base, when it was established, how many people we sent in, how many explored, how long the plasma protective net has been active—these are all unknown to us, and I... have only been here to oversee operations for less than two months.”
A Shenjilan looked at everything before him in shock.
Wu Piwu’s expression was equally grim, for he saw a scene different from others.
The rock walls here were covered with blood and flesh tendrils, extending upwards from the pit.
The plasma continuously scorched these tendrils, yet a small portion still reached above the plasma, almost covering the rock walls here.
Meanwhile, some blood and flesh tendrils had already extended into the base, occasionally swelling, and a human-sized mass of flesh would fall into the pit along the tendrils.
Wu Piwu was about to speak about what he saw when suddenly, the crackling plasma layer extinguished.
Everyone was momentarily stunned.
After at least two or three seconds, the old man shouted, “Not good! Tianwang is malfunctioning!”
Immediately afterward, the entire ground began to shake, as if an earthquake had suddenly arrived.
In Wu Piwu’s eyes, a large number of blood and flesh tendrils surged out from the pit.
They were about to be engulfed by these tendrils!
(End of Chapter)