Chapter 1964

Shiler glanced at the teleportation gate next to him, tilted his head slightly, and said, "If this production factory was operating as usual before, then where have all the Hwei people gone now? Don't tell me you didn't notice—there isn't a single living person on the entire planet right now."

Lord Batman had actually been thinking about this question for a long time. He pressed his chin with his finger and said, "The alien civilization uses Hwei to synthesize the materials they want, which is nothing more than intelligent life being able to self-reproduce and die, without needing to worry about harvesting. But if they exterminated all the raw materials in one harvest, then there would be no need to build this kind of planetary factory at all."

"In other words, the Hwei people weren't exterminated by the high-level alien civilization. Then who was it?"

Shiler looked down at his feet and said, "The answer is right below here."

"Wait, what's going on now?" Eddie stopped them and said, "Didn't you already win? Shouldn't we go back to the camp through the teleportation gate?"

"Clearly, things aren't that simple." Loki, who walked past him, patted him on the shoulder. Stark also turned back to him and said, "Even if the game is over, we need the truth."

Everyone followed Shiler to the massive crystal. Shiler pressed a button on the panel, the crystal descended, revealing an elevator with a transparent shield.

The group boarded the elevator, which slowly descended for about a dozen floors before stopping. As soon as the elevator door opened, a spacious research center appeared before them.

This was completely different from the temple style above; it looked entirely like a product of modern science. After the group got off the elevator, it immediately returned to its position, leaving no trace behind.

Walking forward, they actually saw a figure in front of a massive instrument.

When the other party turned around, they realized it was a red projection. Looking up, there was also a crystal above, only it was mounted with some projection equipment.

This figure was shorter than the average human height, only about 1.5 meters tall. Its limbs were slightly more slender than a human's, but it was also a five-fingered race. Its face was somewhat blurry, and its specific features couldn't be seen clearly, but it had two eyes and a nose.

The other party seemed unable to see the newcomers, or was just an automatic program left here. As soon as the group walked over, the other party started speaking, and it was actually standard English.

"Hello, victors. You must be very confused about what's going on. I exist precisely to answer your questions. You can call me Hwei; I am the projection of the last Hwei person."

"After years of excavation, my master, Roan, the owner of the largest technology company in all of Hwei, discovered the secret of this planet in the legendary deep well ruins."

"Despairingly, we are merely short-lived creatures created by other races to extract a certain rare element, because this rare element can only be obtained through this form of reaction. We were born for this and live for this."

"The fog has forever sealed the sky of this planet; we can never reach the depths of the starry sky. But after thousands of generations of research, we manufactured a teleportation gate out of thin air."

"But unfortunately, the appearance of the teleportation gate was an accident. The clansman who ultimately triggered this accident went to your universe and saw what a truly naturally developed civilization is like, what kind of vitality you have, and what kind of miracles you have created in the depths of the starry sky."

"He decided to return to guide us. With the help of your compatriots, he followed the coordinates of the teleportation gate back to this planet."

"When he returned, another fog disaster descended on this city. Countless compatriots walked toward death in pain. This made him feel deeply indignant, so he made a decision."

"He brought back an impurity from another universe that could dissolve in the Hwei people's blood and released it into the important water sources. Just like that, the production process was no longer pure."

"Our creator discovered this, and they didn't have more seeds to restore the pure bloodline. They wanted to purify the impurities, but my master started the machine. The impurities killed all the Hwei people on the entire planet and poured the crystal power gathered in their bodies into the machine."

"The machine brought you here, but please forgive us; we only need the strongest one among you, so we manufactured a game for you using the cities we left behind."

"That traveler who went to your universe told us that humans are always killing each other and distrusting each other, so he manufactured totems possessing crystal power. This is a trap."

"The person who uses the totem to pour crystal power into other people's bodies will also be simultaneously contaminated by crystal power. You killed everyone else, which proves you were also contaminated."

"And if you don't want to turn into powder and merge into the fog after a short life like us, you must go find them and obtain the method to expel the crystal power from them."

"And as a reward for victory, we will also open the gate to their land for you. We don't need you to kill them all, but you must live to see them."

"See if that high-and-mighty creator is truly saddened by the death of their creations, or if they have only regretted losing a piece of good farmland from beginning to end."

"If this is our destiny, please go to the depths of the fog for us and see if there are the stars we dream of day and night, and if we can one day reach them."

The projection disappeared.

The group stood silently in place.

"So this wasn't a task from the organizer at all," Thor sighed and said. "The hunters and priests and so on might have been arranged by the organizer, but this so-called totem curse was created by the Hwei people themselves. I was wondering how these two rules could be so incompatible."

"They did it to get the humans they dragged over contaminated, so they could run to the high-level civilization to stir up trouble for self-preservation."

"Their intentions are malicious," Loki evaluated. "The other party is already annoyed by the factory fire, and you rush out from the ruins of the factory and demand compensation. It would be strange if they didn't start fighting."

"And knowing that many individuals among humans are very strong, they still opened the teleportation gate directly to the other party's home. Isn't this clearly asking us to go over and commit a massacre?"

"It's not hard to understand, though," Bruce shook his head slightly. "Such a huge plan definitely couldn't have been created by one person or one family. Just the poisoning alone would require cooperation from almost everywhere. It seems this fog disaster has also caused them no small amount of trouble."

"Thinking about it is also quite terrifying," Eddie shrank his neck. "If fewer people die, a natural disaster will descend. Will some people die unjustly because of the natural disaster? When it descends, will their own relatives and friends be killed?"

"If it were all a natural phenomenon, that would be one thing; after all, there is no clear target for revenge. You can't shoot at the ground. But suddenly discovering that other civilizations are living well, and only you are so unlucky, is enough to make you angry. And then discovering that all of this is artificial—if it were me, I would want revenge too."

"What we heard from a God's-eye view is just a story, but what happened to them were countless painful partings in disasters. The longer a family's heritage, the more clearly they record this, and the more resentment they have. No wonder they would do this," Shiler said.

"Then are we going over?" Lord Batman looked up, clearly looking at that teleportation gate.

"The other side won't be easy to deal with," Thor frowned and said. "But I'm afraid the gate to truly clear the game is on the other side of this teleportation gate. We can't truly complete the game without going over."

"If the other side is truly a high-level interstellar civilization, I'm afraid a bitter battle awaits us."

Shiler smiled and said, "We are going over, but there's no need to go to war with them."

Everyone looked at him one after another.

Shiler looked up, his gaze passing through layer after layer of buildings, through the thick fog high above, looking into the depths of the starry sky, and said in an ethereal voice, "The Hwei people wanted to know if there were shining stars behind the fog that sealed them, while those civilizations that had already stepped out of their planets into the depths of the starry sky had long forgotten their longing for the stars when they were still ground civilizations, and thus unscrupulously erased the hope of intelligent life developing."

"But what they didn't know was that the starry sky is an endless realm, and there are still shining stars in the deeper reaches."

After Shiler's voice fell, everyone instinctively looked up. What they saw was not a closed ceiling, not hazy fog, not even empty cosmic space, but an indescribable, beautiful, and terrifying starry sky.

In a trance, Lord Batman heard the sound of a flute accompanied by the whistling wind, and the rumbling sound of drums approaching from afar. In that massive black palace, Lord Batman saw a tall golden figure.

A slightly immature voice sounded: "Shiler, why are you calling me again?"

Instantly, the illusion dissipated.

A small phantom appeared in mid-air, and countless pitch-black tentacles obscured all the light in the room. Everyone looked closely and saw that it was actually a young version of Bruce Wayne.

The difference between him and the two Batmen present, aside from the countless tentacles behind him, was that his pupils were completely pitch-black, with only a tiny point of golden light shining in the very center.

"A guy named Jerome is tracking me. He found books left by British missionaries about the Great Chamber in the cathedral. I suspect he might be trying to summon one of us, but I can't let other Outer Gods descend on Gotham."

Shiler narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "I can lend you the 'Necronomicon' so you can figure out who he's trying to summon, but you have to do me a favor."

"Damn it, you knew I was in trouble a long time ago. Fine, state your conditions. I have to kick that annoying hoof out before he completes the resurrection ritual."

Instantly, the originally bright silver-white teleportation gate turned black and was expanded by about ten times. Little Bruce's figure disappeared into the teleportation gate.

After a burst of hoarse roars and screams, everything returned to calm. When the group stepped into the teleportation gate, the scene before them could only be described as something that would make the town of Innsmouth weep and the town of Kingsport feel heartbroken.

When it was time to leave, Lord Superman and Lord Batman stood firmly together, sticking as close as possible, firmly expressing their desire to draw a line between themselves and this group of lunatics who all knew Shiler.

Now, everyone realized that this doctor named Shiler wasn't quite normal, and everyone who knew him was even less normal.

Not to mention that strange Outer God just now—since you all knew Shiler beforehand and were familiar with his character, you should have stopped him!

As it turned out, not only were they all Shiler's acquaintances, but they couldn't stop him at the start, and later on, they not only enjoyed it but also helped him do evil. Is this what superheroes are supposed to do?

The others silently classified everyone who had contact with Shiler into the ranks of lunatics.

Batman, who was on the spectator stand, looked at Peter next to him and said, "Are you coming?"

I am the father of the story, and also the child of the story. I am... Loki, the God of Stories."

Owen sighed and still dialed the video call for him. The next second, the face that appeared on the video was Shiler's.

Batman wanted to return the goods.