Chapter 388: I will die first

The "Gods" in the void went to dinner, while the "chess pieces" they carefully selected had just stepped onto the chessboard.

The practice began.

On the 180th day, Jon finally understood the mysteries taught to him by the void and learned the most basic magic to call the holy light.

He called it "Psionic Power."

Having spent so long awakening under the "guidance" of the god, he knew very well that he was by no means gifted, and the god must have taken a fancy to something other than talent in his soul.

'You are not that one-in-a-million exception.'

'But, it can also be you.'

In order to practice the mission entrusted to him by the new god Kelin, he began to walk on the edge of the city, deep into the corners behind the bright and beautiful.

That is the "lower sewer" of the Universal City, a labyrinth composed of abandoned pipes, intricate climbing frames, and rickety metal shed roofs.

The air here is always filled with the fishy rust smell of machine oil, and the sour stench of chemical waste that cannot be decomposed. And besides that, the despair of seeing no sun and stagnant air makes this place suppress a damp and dull suffocation.

The sky overhead is cut into pieces by the steel bones of the upper city, and only at midnight, when those never-extinguished holographic billboards perform a short system restart, will a few wisps of turbid moonlight pass through the layers of gaps, spilling onto this forgotten land like pity.

He had never thought there would be such a place.

But he should have thought of it long ago, the higher the tower, the higher the shadow it must cast.

And Jon, who entered here, was also shocked for the first time; it turned out that he, who could use a "free refrigerator," could already be considered lucky, and there were many people in this world who hadn't even seen what a refrigerator was, and didn't even have the chance to go online to curse him.

Of course, no bank was willing to provide loans to these people, and naturally they didn't install any prosthetic bodies.

At this time, Jon recalled the oracle that the new god "Kelin" descended to him through the void 180 days ago—

'If you want to get salvation, you can't just save yourself!'

With a hint of humble piety, he didn't tear his throat to shout the voice of despair like others, or immediately raise the banner of resistance.

He was like a raindrop that moistened things silently, merging into the small puddles that were buried deep under the steel labyrinth and could not be illuminated by light.

This is his mission!

In a corner of a shed that creaked from being soaked by acid rain, a five- or six-year-old Gray Man girl was curled up on the cold metal floor, coughing up black phlegm with iron filings due to "Rust Disease."

Her father was a man who lost his left arm due to a work injury, and the meager compensation couldn't even save himself; he could only hold his child in despair, trying to use his body temperature to futilely retain the last trace of warmth flowing from his daughter.

They are the people the Federation and the company want to eliminate.

After creating unimaginable wealth through the power of the Gray Men, the huge and useless population has become a burden.

Machines are more efficient, cheaper, and save huge maintenance costs than them, and there is no risk of rejection when replacing prosthetic bodies.

Only by unloading these burdens left by history to the Federation can they go to the stars lightly, and build more magnificent giant cities in the sky before they return to the wasteland era again because of resource depletion.

Perhaps the Gray Man civilization will cease to exist.

But a new civilization will be born on the remains of this giant whale.

Perhaps respecting the fate of these poor people is also a choice, their pain will not last long, because they are the last generation.

But Jon chose another path.

He wanted to use his soul to emit that weak and hot ripple before the Gray Man's civilization and inheritance were completely strangled, letting those materialists who lost themselves in the void wake up!

He walked up silently, and under the vigilant and desperate gaze of the father, squatted down gently.

He didn't speak, just stretched out his right hand, which was still flesh and blood, and covered it on the girl's hot forehead.

A wisp of faint but incomparably pure pale golden halo slowly seeped from his palm, through the gray skin.

This light is different from the cold and dazzling neon in the upper city, its warmth carries the temperature of life, just like the real sun.

A miracle happened.

The girl's violent coughing gradually subsided, her rapid breathing became relaxed, and the face that had turned sickly yellow due to high fever gradually returned to normal.

Her father was dumbfounded, opened his mouth wide, but couldn't make any sound, only turbid tears rolled down from his bloodshot eye sockets.

When Jon withdrew his hand, the girl had already fallen into a deep sleep, her breathing stable.

"Thank you... my benefactor, what do you want? I can give you everything I have!"

The man knelt on the ground trembling, offering his most humble knees and dignity to this silent helper.

However, Jon helped him up, just shook his head gently, and conveyed the teachings from the new god in a calm and firm voice.

"No need to thank me."

"The one who healed her is not me, but the power gathered by the hope in all our hearts."

"Everything is Kelin's will."

"If anyone else needs help, please tell them to call this name silently in their hearts."

He did something different from the ancient god's envoy "Kyle," he didn't use this power to hunt down the salesman who sold him loans, or the doctor who installed prosthetic bodies for him.

They are indeed "predators" on this steel jungle wasteland, but standing at the height of a god, they are all not wrong, they are just observing the law of the jungle in this world, just one of the common people.

He didn't even teach the CEO of the company who banished him to the depths of this steel ruin—the "Iron Hand" who managed one of the "high towers." Whether it was Iron Hand, or Kyle who killed Iron Hand, or the savior who killed Kyle, they were all different people in the same ecological niche.

They need to be judged.

But it shouldn't be done by him, but by the people behind him.

This will be a war of one ideology against another, he doesn't want to be the savior of the Gray Men, but to let every Gray Man become his own savior.

Only in this way can he truly change the destiny of all Gray Men, instead of leading them into the next cycle full of hypocrisy and lies in the name of holiness.

This is the mystery he realized from behind the void outside of time, together with psionic power...

Five years passed in a flash.

The "Gods" behind the void had just started to enjoy dinner, while the "chess pieces" they carefully selected had already completed the transformation of their souls.

For a steel city floating in the eternal gray fog, these short five years were just a meaningless number rotation on the neon billboard.

However, under the bright and beautiful skyscrapers of the Federation, in the shadows that never saw the sun, some things changed silently.

Jon, while repeatedly savoring the sporadic teachings from the void in his mind, learning how to control the miracle power he understood as "psionic power," used this power to help those marginalized people who, like him, were eliminated by this material-first Federation.

His good deeds and those miracle powers that could not be explained by the rules of the material world attracted his first batch of true followers.

They were not careerists, didn't even have strong abilities, just the most thorough losers living at the bottom of this material-first Federation.

Among them were workers who were laid off, bankrupts with huge debts, or homeless orphans, and people waiting to die tortured by illness.

The wheels of the era rolled over them, leaving only dust of blurred flesh and blood, but Jon saved them, giving them help within his power. Even in the eyes of those "sober" people, solving problems with magic was absurd, and even evil.

It's just that the Federation had been peaceful for too long, and had forgotten the catastrophe brought by the ancient god a century ago.

They were still mechanically commemorating the past, cleansing the believers of the ancient god, and warning future generations to be vigilant against the pollution of the void, but this huge sieve was already riddled with holes, and more of those filtered out were innocent people cleansed in the name of the void.

This is a very useful tool.

When someone tried to raise specific questions, saying he was a believer of the void evil spirit could make him disappear logically, along with the questions he raised.

But this also buried hidden dangers.

When fake pollution was stuck on the filter as pollution, real pollution would mix into the water source silently.

It was precisely because of the expansion of the cleansing and the perfunctory executioners that Jon could receive "real things" from behind the void.

At that time, he wasn't even a transcendent.

But this no longer mattered.

The ancient god is dead.

The current void is the era of "Kelin"!

And the Federation born under the curse of the ancient god "Moke" did not evolve immunity to this new god.

Especially, his lifespan had come to an end, regardless of whether there was Kelin or not, he was going to die like a dying old man.

All Kelin could influence was where the people living on this planet would go after the Federation ended like the Wasteland Alliance.

Under the unremitting efforts of the God's Envoy Jon, the whispers from behind the void finally stepped onto the stage of Gray Man history again.

They regarded Jon as the envoy of the void.

In the teachings they passed on by word of mouth, they believed that all the pain they suffered was the price paid for their ancestors abandoning spiritual faith.

And now, this silent envoy walking in the shadows made them feel that they finally found the way home in the boundless void.

They still longed for equality.

But perhaps, material is not the only way to achieve this goal.

Especially after experiencing countless lies and betrayals, they witnessed the miracles of the true god "Kelin" with their own eyes!

Jon never asked for any return.

When those who were helped knelt down in gratitude, he would always repeat the same action, helping them up one by one, and sowing the teachings Kelin passed to him into their dried-up hearts.

"My power comes from each of us, so we must treat each other well, especially those who entrust hope to us."

When someone asked in confusion why the new god didn't require them to absolutely obey the god's will like the ancient "Moke," Jon would gaze at them with those increasingly deep eyes and speak the truth he found under the dust of history.

"The ancient god 'Moke' fell precisely because He and His envoy Kyle forgot where their power came from after mastering transcendent power, betraying and enslaving the mortal compatriots who truly gave them power."

"We cannot make the same mistake as Him."

Facing history, he made a choice different from Kyle and the Gray Men who killed Kyle, he frankly faced and admitted the mistakes of the pioneers.

That brand-new teaching was like a thunderbolt, splitting the Gray Men's old cognition of "gods" and "void."

It was simple and plain, but contained a power that pointed directly to the heart.

Just like that, in the sixth year of the ancient god's death, Jon's prestige spread quietly like vines. It expanded under the shadows of the Federation, encompassing all the rotten flesh and soil, and developed and grew silently and steadily.

Gray Men began to organize secret gatherings.

Not under the leadership of the prophet, but spontaneously formed organizations.

The locations were sometimes at the intersection of steam pipes deep underground, and sometimes under the bridge holes that were completely covered by the superstructure and where even acid rain couldn't fall.

In those dim corners, Gray Men were no longer metal bodies riddled with holes, they found their names again, as well as the dignity they had lost.

And at the same time, Jon taught the method of controlling "psionic power" to those Gray Men who trusted him selflessly.

He guided them on how to feel the flame called "hope" in the depths of their hearts through meditation, and guide it out to warm every soul around them that was freezing. Even if there was none, it didn't matter, their piety would become the power of another psionic user, and that person would eventually use this power to help them.

Not only that.

Under his call, people supported each other, healed each other, and helped other believers in need. In this huge and loose collective, everyone was both a seeker and a giver, both a believer and their own savior.

A mutual aid group called "Spirit of the Universe" was born in the shadows that neon couldn't shine on.

At first it was just a fragile flame, but soon it turned into a spark, illuminating the deepest part of every alley.

Once upon a time, that was the most dangerous place in the Federation, and every corner that the camera couldn't reach was controlled by gangs.

And now, it had become the root of fear above the tower.

With the growth of the "Spirit of the Universe," this power rising from the humble finally aroused the vigilance of the Gray Man Federation, even though they were dismissive and full of disdain for it at first.

After all, even the most powerful Mages need to eat, and no matter how they recite those god-like things, they can't stop the growth of company profits.

Until one day, someone noticed that the mortality rate in the slums had actually dropped, and the proportion even exceeded that of neighborhoods with perfect medical care.

And what made them even more afraid was that these bottom-level people who should have been rotting in the gutter were no longer harming each other, but united under a name called Kelin.

This was undoubtedly dangerous.

The Federation's guards regarded this sign of "spiritual revival" as the resurgence of the "Moke cult" and defined it as the number one enemy threatening the Federation.

A major cleansing against spiritualists thus opened in the silent night.

Soldiers equipped with the latest model exoskeleton prosthetic bodies boarded the most advanced floating cars, pouring into the slums they usually didn't go to like a tide.

Heavy alloy boots trampled the accumulated water on the ground, and the scarlet tactical goggles on their helmets pulled out ominous light bands in the dim alley.

They were like cold machines, without warning, and without questioning.

Doors were brutally smashed open by high-frequency door-breaking hammers, and any family reported by neighbors or informants for "abnormal behavior" would be dragged out without mercy.

Occasional sporadic resistance was quickly drowned in the rapid gunfire.

In order to curb the spread of the "virus," the Federation's highest level also adopted unconventional means—such as cooperating with those gangs they usually looked down on the most.

They used the privilege of exempting crimes to exchange for the intelligence in the hands of the latter, or even drove those villains to do work that was inconvenient for them to come forward, and turned a blind eye to the collateral damage.

Although there were guards and councilors who did this before, such systematic cooperation was undoubtedly an unprecedented precedent.

Out of fear of the void, they trampled on the rules they set themselves before the Spirit of the Universe sect crossed the line.

And even Kyle, who was scolded by them as "doing all kinds of evil," had never been in the same boat with predators.

A father who had just regained hope for life because his son was healed was targeted just because he couldn't produce medical documents to prove his innocence. That night, he and his family were covered with black hoods and disappeared into the floating car hovering outside the alley.

And the old man who witnessed this scene just questioned why they bypassed the court to arrest people, and was immediately judged as an "accomplice," stunned by high-voltage electricity and taken away.

Those who had been helped by Jon became the first victims, even though many of them were not Kelin's believers at all.

Their existence itself was evidence of "mind over matter," and for the materialist-worshipping Federation, this ideology was almost fatal.

At least for the shareholders of the Federation, it was so.

Fear, like a plague, shrouded this land that had just seen a glimmer of light again. Although this was not Jon's original intention, it was no longer up to him to decide.

Moreover, he, who was stepping from middle age to old age, gradually understood that kindness could win the sympathy and unity of his own people, but could not win the recognition and compromise of the enemy.

Only hotter flames can punish burning evil, and only more thorough violence can end another violent machine.

They must launch a more thorough revolution!

Just like the wastelanders who united back then, joining hands to end Kyle's tyranny, now they must unite like the great pioneers to stop this machine that is out of control!

Fortunately, his "Lord" is gentle.

He didn't let him, who had been doing good deeds all his life, play this villain, but left the power of choice to him and the people standing behind him.

Is it to die peacefully with a riddled body in silence, or to burn vigorously once more before that useless flesh rots!

For His will—

Or rather, for all those Gray Men who can hear His voice, or those who can't hear but can feel the heat of the soul!

Every one of them is their own savior, every one of them is Kelin!

This is what Jon realized in the fiftieth year of his life.

He, who was getting old like his father, suddenly remembered the man who prayed before nightfall, remembered the wish he made at the beginning, and finally realized the destiny that truly belonged to him.

He should have realized it long ago.

It turned out that the respected Kelin had already told him the final answer before everything started, but he had never understood the overtones in those whispers—

"... I will die first."

Facing the guns surrounding him and those fierce-looking but cowardly threats, Jon had a relieved smile on his old face, without any regret.

His god had never deceived him from beginning to end, nor had He ever left his side.

He not only lovingly satisfied the wish of a tiny mortal, but also prepared a curtain call he had wished for before the wave of the era began vigorously.

'Praise my Lord.'

'Our meeting... must be one of the most beautiful miracles in this universe.'

Unarmed, he opened his arms, looking at the exoskeleton soldiers who kept retreating because of fear, and read out the last, and most powerful, sentence of his life, a spell that did not contain any "psionic power."

"Do it, my child."

"I forgive you."

"Because after that, I will go to His kingdom."

"Bang—!"

A crisp gunshot tore through the silence of the confrontation and also scared one of the "gods" who had just returned from dinner.

That was a teaching assistant working in the Kelin Tower.

As one of the duty personnel left in the Kelin Tower, his task was to restart the void after the energy of the void was restored to prevent the loss of important data.

However, he never expected that when the void lens opened again, what he saw was a corpse lying in a pool of blood!

That person was Jon, chosen by Kelin!

Those stupid materialists actually shot and killed him!

They had just taught him the technique of using transcendent power, and he actually died like this!?

However, those soldiers wearing armor didn't end up well either, they were quickly burned to ashes by the flames falling from the sky.

The furious psionic users regarded the death of the "God's Envoy" as the fuse for the breakdown of negotiations and launched a desperate counterattack!

Jon could still restrain them when he was alive, letting them use transcendent power to treat compatriots suffering from hardship. And now, I'm afraid only the gods in the void can persuade them to stop the war against the Federation and the company!

And since Kelin in the underworld didn't stop them—

That means everything is the god's will!

In a sense, they were indeed not wrong, from the first day Jon met "Kelin," their respected Kelin had already foreseen this day.

However, this bloody scene still scared the observer behind the void.

He was not the unfathomable Kelin after all, didn't have time to think about where the flames came from, and didn't know where these lunatics would end up!

Maybe—

They will destroy their own world!

After all, they did master that power to destroy the world, just as Mentor Moke once saw in the 178th Void, they once let the light of stars bloom on the ground by methods other than magic!

"Saint Xisi is above..."

The teaching assistant muttered to himself and took a step back, suddenly waking up, he hurriedly ran downstairs and called Miller, who was about to leave after finishing his work.

Learning about what happened behind the 178th Void, Miller almost rushed to the scene immediately, and then was shocked by this scene as expected.

"What happened over there?!"

"No, I don't know! It became like this as soon as I came back..." The teaching assistant said with a pale face, his eyes full of panic and unease.

He didn't have the ease of Kelin.

Even if Kelin might not blame him, he didn't want this void to be unlucky in his hands!

Miller's expression was equally solemn at first, but soon, he saw a clue from the corpse, and the shocked look was gradually replaced by a burst of ecstasy.

He was stunned to find that judging from the appearance of this God's Envoy, during the time they were drinking and having fun, the world behind the void had actually advanced more than twenty years!

Regarding the appearance differences of Gray Men at different ages, there were records in Mentor Moke's observation notes, and they were published in the form of papers in the second-rate journals issued by the Great Sage Tower.

"Sage News" was not interested in such irrelevant things, after all, such details were only useful to researchers of the 178th Void.

Miller happened to have read this paper, so he immediately realized the problem.

"Time... accelerated?!"

That teaching assistant also realized the problem.

This Jon didn't die shortly after "Kelin" contacted him, but died more than twenty years after their first meeting!

"It seems that the connection of the void was completely broken once when we didn't pay attention, and now it is after the connection was re-established..."

After realizing this, the expression on the teaching assistant's face also changed from horror to surprise.

The seeds they sowed were not strangled in the cradle, but on the contrary, he withered at the dawn after blooming and bearing fruit!

Seemingly confirming the two's guess, the gray lens emitted a stronger light with the cooling of Jon's corpse!

Just like that, in the horrified eyes of all researchers, the diameter of the void lens began to expand rapidly, from one meter to three meters, and finally stabilized at a full five meters!

Not only that.

What expanded was not only the size of the channel, but also the constantly splitting perspective!

At first they could only glimpse a palm-wide hazy world with the help of the "holy object" on Jon's chest, but now that single perspective spread into thousands of different perspectives at a speed visible to the naked eye like splitting soap bubbles!

After Jon died, all the Gray Men who followed his footsteps became Jon, and they all became the apostles or eyes of "Kelin"!

"Saint Xisi is above!"

This time even Miller couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

Because he soon discovered that the changes behind the void were far more than what he saw at this moment, and there were more amazing changes hidden behind the constantly spreading perspective—

Shortly after Jon fell, those angry Gray Men seemed to have evolved a brand-new power that had never existed before!

They no longer needed to communicate through language, and no longer needed rituals to synchronize their spirits.

Under the catalysis of strong anger and sadness, every one of their souls was like a plucked string, producing a resonance stronger than ever before with the souls of all compatriots!

Miller could "hear" it.

Because that was the basis for the Academy's Mages to establish spiritual resonance and information exchange with the creatures behind the void!

That was not any kind of language, but it transcended all audible or tangible words in the universe. It was just that it was the first time he saw that this kind of resonance didn't necessarily have to cross the void, it could also be established in the same universe!

They were not only able to hear the soul resonance from the void.

They were also able to hear the voices from each other's hearts!

"Incredible..."

Miller muttered to himself, then suddenly looked at the teaching assistant on the side, shouting with an excited voice.

"Quick! Go find Prince Kelin! Also! Let the time flow behind the void slow down!"

"Yes!" The teaching assistant responded in a panic, then greeted other researchers on duty downstairs.

Miller stared at the void, watching the cluster of constantly fissioning fields of vision, his pupils flashing with excitement.

He had a strong premonition!

From behind the 178th Void, they might have discovered something quite extraordinary! ===== CHAPTER 389 =====

From behind Void Realm No. 178, they might have discovered something quite extraordinary!