Chapter 1906: Guidance

This thing...? Why did the coordinates go wrong!!

In the boundless deep space, a silver-gray triangular warship seemed to sail through a sea of fire, with massive golden flames blazing on its hull.

Inside the cockpit, Yalian gazed grimly at the invisible flames outside the viewport, his eyes full of irritation.

The flames had no effect on the hull, not even melting ordinary metal.

But the various setbacks along the way really made people uneasy.

This "barrier" encircled the entire solar system, looking like a firewall specifically meant to intercept pollution.

"Sir, maybe it was left behind by 'us' before we left? It was probably just casually set up, but I don't know why, and the coordinates in the records also went wrong."

Not paying much attention to this firewall, behind Yalian, a Fourth Stage Peak Creator couldn't help but glance at the current coordinates.

They were a full seventy hours later than the planned arrival time at Earth.

They had planned to teleport directly near Earth, but after the first teleportation they unexpectedly discovered that they had almost been teleported to another star system!

The coordinates were completely wrong; if it weren't for Andre being one of the coordinates, they could have recalculated Earth's position based on the stellar structure.

They simply doubted that they could find Earth at all!

"Maybe the earlier records were wrong, after all this place has long been abandoned. It's not an important location."

Behind Yalian, a squad member softly comforted everyone.

They knew, the closer they got to Earth, the more tense everyone became. After all, their true purpose was still to investigate the traces of that Death Star–level entity.

This was like a group of mice hearing a cat's call, timidly poking their heads out.

"That should be the case."

"But it's not all bad news—did you notice? This place is very quiet, with no abnormalities at all."

No longer obsessing over the coordinate issue, Yalian carefully examined the various information detected by the monitoring system.

In his view, the entire Milky Way was like a calm lake, with no ripples except for an anomaly that appeared a week ago.

This largely proved that the superpowerful being merely passed through here, not even delaying a second before directly "jumping" away.

"Yeah, Lord Yalian, actually I think I also don't have anything to worry about. The higher-ups are making a mountain out of a molehill."

"In a place where birds don't even poop, how could it attract that kind of existence? Moreover, it has nothing to do with a world destroyer."

"Since it concerns the Death Star, it's normal for the higher-ups to attach importance, but it seems there's no problem. Contact the human named Andre and tell him to prepare for our descent!"

"After running this far, we can't just make the trip for nothing."

As they spoke, Yalian, a Fifth Stage, couldn't help but a hint of inexplicable meaning flicker in his eyes.

"A low-level civilization is still fun to play with."

No longer thinking further, the squad members exchanged smiles and instantly understood the captain's meaning.

Since this place is likely trouble-free, having come all this way, they naturally ought to enjoy themselves thoroughly.

"When a god descends to the mortal world, what will they do?"

"Don't think that just because they belong to a Fifth‑Stage civilization and are considered high‑level beings within their own civilization, they still have to follow some rules in the Alliance civilization."

Therefore, after completing their mission, enjoying a bit of worship from a low‑level civilization is practically an unwritten rule of the Alliance.

Especially this low‑level world they are about to descend upon, which is not protected by the Alliance...

Just as several people couldn't help but consider what to play with after their descent, the scanning equipment monitoring the solar system suddenly emitted a faint beeping sound.

Yalian instinctively looked over, and saw that at the very core of the solar system, a signal representing a special warning lit up instantly.

"Beep, detected an old‑era converter, coordinates, solar system, sun, corona layer."

"Huh?!"

Yalian stared intently.

All they saw was, in an image magnified hundreds of millions of times, a blurry, triangle‑shaped artificial object slowly drifting above the sun.

In the vast, silent void of deep space, it stood out starkly and conspicuously.

"What is that..?!"

Long An outer city, behind the mountain.

"Captain Lin, are you looking for me?"

On the watchtower at the highest point of the rear mountain, Zhang Tie looked anxiously at Lin An.

Gao Tian was also summoned along with him; the night was deep, and seeing Lin An's silhouette almost blending into the darkness, both couldn't help but exchange a tense glance.

Their bodies still reeked of blood and gunpowder, as they had just been teleported back from other battlefields.

"Have a seat."

Lin An turned around, his face unusually bare of a mask.

Seeing the two somewhat nervous, he couldn't help but smile, gesturing for them to relax.

"How's the situation now? Is it still going smoothly?"

Hearing Lin An ask about his condition, Gao Tian, just having sat down, hurriedly replied:

"Very smooth! Captain Lin!"

"Across all major war zones worldwide, in the safe zones—whether official or private—almost no one dares to resist us. Our forces have suffered hardly any losses; aside from some cult remnants, I believe we can take over the whole world in at most two to three weeks."

While speaking, Gao Tian couldn't help but feel excited, his eyes toward Lin An full of admiration and emotion.

It's hard to imagine that, from the moment Lin An first proposed launching a global war until now, no one expected the situation to go this smoothly.

They had thought it would be a bitter struggle, an unavoidable fight to the death with their backs against the wall.

But who would have thought that the real battle had already ended completely the moment Lin An appeared at the conference?

Merely besides the excitement, Gao Tian seemed to have thought of something and hesitated a bit:

"Captain Lin, although things are going smoothly, what should we do next?"

"Actually, our manpower isn't really able to control so many areas; even if we relocated everyone here..."

They dare not question Lin An.

Gao Tian couldn't help but see a series of gruesome scenes flash before his eyes.

Yes, Faction: Long An indeed suffered no loss of manpower, but casualties were inevitable. Moreover, Lin An demanded the destruction of all spiritual energy nodes, which, to a certain extent, was extremely cruel for many survivors.

It is winter now.

Some Safe Zones incite the lower classes to rebel, even taking large numbers of ordinary people as hostages.

Some factions choose to loot all supplies, leaving only a group of lower-class survivors struggling to survive. Chaos, looting, slaughter, conflict—amid this war, the world seems to have returned to the early days of the Apocalypse.

At every moment, large numbers of survivors die miserably, just like in war, and it is always the lower classes who suffer.

Rebuilding order is not something that can be done merely by having power.

The current situation is the same as what they judged in their previous meeting; although Lin Dui, with thunderous force, directly eliminated the biggest threat among the escapees, it also made some survivors realize that those beings were not gods saving them at all.

But hatred is inevitable; those who lost loved ones in the chaos will inevitably resent the culprits of all this.

Even if Gao Tian makes the best plans, just thinking about the later integration of civilizations makes his scalp tingle, and he has no idea where to start.

"Lin Dui, you're not trying to start some faith, are you? I see many people now believe in you! I just came back from North America, and there survivors have already set up something called the Lin An Faith."

"Or, we could send out the people of Faction: Long An, just like in a dungeon, and directly create a Ling An Faith."

Scratching his head, Xiong Hanzi couldn't help but voice his idea; of course, he also thought Lin An felt the same way.

Now the ameba primordial fluid can be mass-produced, although the output is not enough, and it cannot be injected into those who are overly hostile toward Lin An.

But producing a batch of priests should be no problem.

However, contrary to both of their expectations, Lin An seemed not to care about these at all, and suddenly asked:

"Zhang Tie, Gao Tian."

"What is your belief, or rather..."

"Who do you hate the most, and what do you most want to do."

As the words fell, faced with Lin An's sudden question, the two couldn't help but stare in shock.

"Who do I hate? What do I want to do?"

Not understanding why Lin An would ask these now, but seeing his earnest eyes, Zhang Tie could only suppress his doubts and instinctively start thinking.

To be honest, he hates quite a few people; some scumbags, he doesn't even know how many he's beaten to death.

Since the Apocalypse broke out, Zhang Tie even feels that there are hardly any good people left in the world.

After a long silence, Gao Tian thought carefully and then spoke slowly:

"Lin Dui..."

"I don't quite understand your meaning. But if you ask me who I hate, it's probably those monsters, or maybe those people you killed."

"Alien Species, escapees, Zombie."

He raised his head and gave a bitter laugh:

"To be honest, Lin Dui."

"Every time I see someone die at the mouths of monsters, I feel extreme anger. Those Alien Species sacrifice our warriors; those escapees deceive people, taking pleasure in enslaving us."

"And those lackeys who work for the escapees, those who have power but only oppress humanity—scum!"

Clenching his fists, Gao Tian couldn't help but flash in his mind the image of rescuing that squad of Faction: Long An.

He can never forget the mountain of corpses he saw when leading troops to the capital, nor can he forget the humans who, under the control of escapees, were tortured to death and hung on poles.

Lin An nodded slightly and asked softly:

"What would you do if you now had greater power?"

Gao Tian startled, and instinctively replied:

"Like you, Lin Dui? Or even stronger?"

"Then I... I would probably... kill all the monsters! Let everyone live a good life, and I'll find... a girlfriend, and live a plain, ordinary life."

"Occasionally go hunting? I actually have no ambitions."

"Of course, maybe I'll moonlight as a superhero."

After saying that, Gao Tian gave an embarrassed smile; he was telling the truth, he had no authority or ambition. Frankly, as long as countries maintain peace and everyone lives safely, he wouldn't even mind returning to life before the Apocalypse.

The Apocalypse is too cruel; he has seen too many humans turn into "monsters."

After hearing Gao Tian's answer, Lin An gave no evaluation, merely turning his head to look at Zhang Tie:

"And you, Zhang Tie?"

"Me?"

"Then I hate a lot, Lin Dui. For example, those people at the hotel at the beginning—damn that ungrateful bunch of beasts!"

"Then there's the Wangjiang gang, who almost blew us up while we were defending the city! The Korean bastards, the Japanese beasts, the North American cults."

"Damn, and the capital's military, which targeted us in the trials! Outsiders treating us as enemies is one thing, but even our own people do this!"

Scratching his head, Zhang Tie seemed to be burning with anger:

"Lin Dui! And the Soviet folks! Though Tir pleads for mercy, so it's fine."

His swearing is totally different from Gao Tian, who harbors more hatred toward monsters.

Xiong Hanzi, as he spoke, couldn't help but wave his arms and kick his legs while cursing the scumbags he had encountered.

"Belief? He has none. His belief is that he cannot stand to see the weak bullied, which always reminds him of himself. He hates so many people—damn them all, they deserve to die!"

Seeing Lin An listen to their answers and then remain silent, Gao Tian felt a wave of doubt:

"Lin Dui, you asked these... what are you planning to do?"

Still no answer.

Just as the words fell, Lin An suddenly stood up, turned, and looked toward the distant, brightly lit Faction: Long An.

"What to do..."

I want to do something, but first I need to know what I should do.

Before the two could be bewildered, they didn't know what Lin An was saying.

The next second, Lin An slowly opened his mouth:

What you hate is not wrong; they are indeed our enemies.

But.

Six months ago, when I first entered the alien species' world, I clung to a resolve to die, wanting to stop the alien invasion.

They are our enemies.

After entering, I killed an alien, impersonated him, then used his wife and children to blend into the alien community.

Do you know what he was doing before he died?

Turning around, Lin An's gaze was calm, as if stating a trivial matter:

He carefully held the food he had found, afraid to lose it. He was hungry, blood flowing all over his body, yet he couldn't bear to eat a single bite.

I killed him, stripped his skin, at the moment he was overjoyed, just before returning home.

Later, his wife, to help 'me', went to beg her brother to let me blend into the alien city.

To avoid exposure, when she saw me off and held me, I crushed her heart, then killed that small alien.

Before she died, she couldn't believe why the person she loved would personally kill her.

After that, I entered the Stellar Battlefield.

They are my enemies.

So I killed all the test-takers. Each one was the hope of their own civilization—these civilizations' emperors, leaders, the strongest of their races—all wanting to do everything to survive, to bring back more resources, more points so their kin wouldn't suffer disaster. Among them, there was a group of Fourth Stage beings who, from birth, were cannon fodder, meant to die in the missions.

I don't understand them, nor do I know their stories. But I know that these Fourth Stage beings whose names I can't remember are also struggling like us to get to this point.

Their emperors can kneel for their civilization; their leaders can, to survive, abandon dignity.

Among those Fifth Stage beings, there was a Fifth Stage girl named Lilier.

Their civilization spared no effort to help her become Fifth Stage. She originally thought she could complete the mission, letting her people survive.

But she died; she was captured by a stronger Fifth Stage being and made a prisoner, then I ate her.

She begged me to spare her, she told me how much suffering her civilization had endured and how many had sacrificed themselves to send her here.

Those who sacrificed for her included their previous generation's leader, her teacher, and the strongest of their civilization.

After a brief pause, Lin An looked at the two squad members who had suddenly frozen, and calmly asked:

"Gao Tian, do you think they are monsters?"

"Zhang Tie, do you think everyone I killed are bad people?"

As if asking and answering himself.

Before the two could turn pale and not know what to say, Lin An, as if asking and answering himself, slowly spoke:

"Zhang Tie, do you still remember that batch of military you hated most? When Long An was just established, you always shouted to kill them all; we simply declared independence, so we wouldn't have to endure their anger."

"They targeted us, they feared us, they didn't trust us, and even planned to eliminate us."

"But the same people—Lin Zhan died, Lihao died, they detonated a nuclear bomb, letting Zhang Yong bring a letter to find me."

"I actually never told you what that letter contained, and Zhang Yong didn't know either."

While speaking, Lin An smiled and shook his head silently.

"He told me not to go save them, he hoped I wouldn't hate them."

After his words fell, Lin An fell silent.

Actually, after he returned, it wasn't that he couldn't save the people trapped in the capital; it's just that no one needed him to save them anymore.

The alien species sacrificed many people, but more died in resistance, or rather, to cover the retreat.

"Lin Dui... I.."

"Nothing, Zhang Tie, I just want to say something."

"That is, there are no monsters, no bad people."

"The aliens died, the fugitives died, the military died, those who opposed us, those who were our enemies all died. But did we win?"

As if reinforcing his own conviction, Lin An, after speaking, turned around and looked at the night sky.

Most people actually find it hard to realize who they should truly hate, who is really their enemy.

Gao Tian and Zhang Tie's thoughts represent most people; they think simply, believing the enemy is the enemy, the monster is the monster.

That's correct, but not enough.

"If we truly regard these people, these monsters as our enemies, we will never... be able to kill them all."

Condensing belief?

No, it should be guidance, ultimately letting people realize the truth.