Chapter 344: Visitor from Reality, Fate Investigation

Earth, Trading City.

As night fell, lights ignited across this super-city spanning the artificial island chain of the Pacific Ocean.

Viewed from high above, the entire city resembled a vast net woven from light.

Beams of different colors within the city outlined the contours of its seven major districts.

The white light of the Human District, the blue-green luminescence of the Sea-Dweller District, the red glow of the Heavy-Adaptation District... each hue represented one of the races of the Earth Alliance.

This city, too, had been jointly established by these seven races.

The Descent War of those years had caused Earth to endure a period of continuous climate disasters, energy crises, and waves of automation-induced unemployment.

Especially the emergence of the automation unemployment wave plunged many races into turmoil.

The advanced technology of the Moon-Eclipse Clan replaced manual labor, meaning ordinary human effort could no longer create value.

Ninety-five percent of traditional laborers could no longer generate income for themselves.

Factories no longer needed workers, logistics no longer needed drivers, and even basic medical diagnostics began shifting to Moon-Eclipse intelligence.

The creed that "labor creates value" collapsed utterly before the efficient machinery of the Moon-Eclipse Clan.

A wave of unemployment swept the globe, and society fell into chaos.

To solve this problem, the Human Federation and other races attempted to distribute basic income directly, using wealth created by machines to support the unemployed masses.

But this seemingly perfect solution soon revealed fatal flaws.

When people lost the meaning of work, society began to disintegrate.

Aimless crowds wandered the streets, and crime rates skyrocketed.

Compounding this was the latent crisis pressing upon the hearts of all living beings of the various races: the emergence of the next Descent faction.

During this phase, depression swept the globe, and suicide rates hit historical highs.

Humans who had lost their goals began fracturing into extremist groups, and social order teetered on the brink of collapse.

It was precisely within this cyber-environment that the virtual economy emerged.

After connecting to the Star Net, the network provided by the Moon-Eclipse Clan was initially intended only for more efficient communication between races.

However, after the Moon-Eclipse Clan opened up virtual gaming, the world welcomed a wave of economic recovery.

Everyone could connect to the Star Net via virtual devices, then freely access the virtual world through the Star Net, allowing their senses to experience alternative sensations within that realm.

Thus, many chose to escape the dullness of the real world and immerse themselves in the virtual one.

During this phase, the Moon-Eclipse Clan already possessed game pod technology.

Yet what they distributed to support the other races were still holographic neural access helmets.

Viewing the virtual equipment of that era from a modern perspective was like an ancient person using a smartphone to look at a feature phone.

The greatest contribution of the virtual economy to this period was that it gave people a sense of "being needed."

This feeling sustained social stability far better than money ever could.

Trading City, this artificial miracle built upon the Pacific Ocean, was precisely the intersection point between the virtual economy and the real world at that time.

Here, virtual assets could be exchanged for physical goods, and creativity could be transformed into cold, hard cash.

Virtual currencies from different games and virtual social software also experienced a revival during this phase.

This was also the pilot city for future development jointly established by the seven races at that time.

But in today's era, Trading City resembles the United Nations of Earth's ancient times.

Once harboring brilliant visions, it was later left as nothing but an empty shell.

By today, it is merely a single entry in history books.

This super-city spanning the Pacific Ocean also suffered the fate of being eliminated by the times; it has now transformed into an ordinary city where multiple races cohabit.

The first batch of residents in this city were basically the engineers, architects, environmental control experts, and others who participated in its construction at that time.

The current residents of the city are all descendants of those groups who participated in its construction.

At 3 AM, lights in certain districts of Trading City gradually extinguished.

Just then, a spatial distortion suddenly appeared above the city.

Like heat haze rippling through summer air, it was nearly imperceptible under the night sky.

Subsequently, this ripple tore open rapidly, space unfolding like a curtain pulled apart by an invisible hand.

Silver light flickered unstably along the rift's edges as a slender figure, wreathed in black malignant wind, slowly descended from the spatial fissure.

Instantly, the spatial rift behind it closed, as if it had never existed.

Overlooking the city's nightscape, the descended figure slowly raised the bone staff in its hand, while a mask formed of silver mist upon its Iron Face rapidly shifted expressions.

It finally settled on an expression of contemplation, as if weighing something.

A moment later, the expression on the mask changed to a smile.

Its form blurred, transforming into a streak of black malignant wind that vanished into the night, diving toward Trading City below.

It ultimately infiltrated an old, renovated apartment building.

On the balcony, an orange cat lazily licked its paw; inside the room, a game pod glowed with indicator lights, housing a player currently engaged in the game.

The original target of this malignant wind's gaze was the figure inside the game pod.

But upon seeing the form and Iron Face of that figure, the malignant wind suddenly stagnated, as if hesitating over something.

In the end, it chose the orange cat lying on the balcony.

The malignant wind silently drilled into the orange cat's ear; the feline's movements suddenly froze, its pupils contracting sharply into thin slits.

"Meow! Meow! Meow!"

"Meow~"

The orange cat first emitted abnormally violent cries, then immediately returned to normal.

It was as if adapting to the body; the initial chaos resulted from incompatible control.

Borrowing the cat's body, this uninvited guest began its investigation.

It lightly leaped down from the balcony, entered the room, and curiously surveyed the environment within.

After touring the room once, the orange cat lightly leaped out onto the balcony and began traversing the city by utilizing its intricate network of pipelines.

One day later.

Ming Hou, borrowing the orange cat's body, lay atop a skyscraper, squinting as he overlooked the cityscape bathed in fierce sunlight.

This world... was completely different from what he had imagined.

Before arriving, he had envisioned this as a world where powerhouses stood in great numbers.

Even beings of the lowest stratum should be able to tear apart the azure sky with bare hands, while great experts could effortlessly move mountains and fill seas.

The air should have been filled with dense fluctuations of spiritual energy.

Yet in this frail world before his eyes, the spiritual energy in the air was so thin it was nearly negligible, like clear water diluted ten million times.

His whiskers twitched slightly; Ming Hou still could not comprehend this issue.

"This world... it shouldn't be like this."

Setting aside environmental issues for now, the materials used in this world were also extremely inferior.

Take that towering giant tower in the distance, for instance; it was constructed entirely from a pile of fragile materials.

Placed in the Monster World, any random monster could easily tear it apart.

Ming Hou gently tapped the edge of the rooftop with his cat paw, sinking into deep thought, yet he could not figure out where exactly the problem lay.

This arrival stemmed from a failed gamble in the Monster World.

The one who gambled with him at that time should have been a member of the Reverse Black Tide Legion Training Camp.

Regarding this failed gamble, he had initially chosen to give up, after all, the power behind his opponent commanded rule-level forces stronger than the "Rules of Fate."

Constrained by the fact that the opponent was a member of the Reverse Black Tide Legion, he chose to withdraw and did not act against those Reverse Black Tide new generations.

But the resulting consequence was continuous backlash from Fate.

Logic achieved, rules activated, yet the result was erroneous.

If this continued, his very level of life would decline because of it.

To curb the backlash of the Fate Soul rules, he could only choose to launch an investigation in the capacity of a debt collector, hoping to recover the losses from the fate gamble.

But the Reverse Black Tide Legion was vast in scale; finding the race behind the personnel who participated in that gamble was not easy.

For this, he sought help from his clan leader, obtaining coordinates through a method of fate gambling.

In the end, he obtained detailed spatial coordinates.

What puzzled Ming Hou, however, was that these spatial coordinates were not located within the Monster World; the coordinates pointed to the void outside the Monster World.

The Rules of Fate clearly would not make mistakes.

To clarify the situation, he decided to personally launch a cross-space investigation, though mentally he had prepared for failure.

Possessing rule-level power stronger than "Fate," the world where the opponent resided must be rich in spiritual energy and rampant with powerhouses.

This solo journey carried immense risk; he might even perish here.

But as one of the twelve Fate Lords of the Fate Clan, fulfilling the trajectory ordained by Fate was his responsibility.

This was also the source from which Fate granted him power.

With a heart full of apprehension, he set forth.

Yet the situation was completely contrary to his expectations.

It even made him fear that some problem had occurred during the spatial jump process.

Passing through the spatial rift, he discovered he had actually arrived in a world nearly devoid of spiritual energy.

It could not even be compared to the Monster World.

A world like this, by all rights, should be incapable of nurturing powerhouses or giving birth to rules.

No faction wielding rules would ever choose to survive in such a world.

Thus, he suspected he had arrived at the wrong place.

Yet the judgment of the Fate Rule had never erred.

The previous failure had nothing to do with the judgment; it was purely because the opponent's controlled rules were too powerful, preventing the Fate Rule from extracting any gains from the contest.

But since he was already here, he decided to investigate further.

Originally, he had intended to possess an intelligent being of this world to acquire its memories, thereby quickly understanding the situation here.

However, upon seeing the being lying within the coffin lid, he abandoned that notion.

Judging solely by appearance and form, the weak being lying inside differed little from the being that had once contested with him.

This discovery made him realize that this was indeed the world of that powerful clan.

Although he still could not comprehend why this world's environment was so harsh, nor why its beings were so weak.

Now that his target was confirmed, he planned to lie low in this world and conduct an in-depth investigation.

This was also the reason he chose not to act against the weak beings.

If, behind the beings of this world, there truly existed a deity controlling powerful rules, he hoped to resolve matters through negotiation.

Indiscriminate slaughter upon arrival would only be interpreted by the other party as a provocation.

Yet, a single day of investigation left him increasingly perplexed.

His tail swept gently as he continuously analyzed the absurdities of this world.

First was the combat system: technology.

In his eyes, these things called "technology" were nothing more than toys.

Iron boxes floating via magnetic force moved so slowly that not even a crawling beast cub from the Monster World could fail to catch them.

The so-called "energy weapons," if fired at an ordinary beast in the Monster World, would likely fail to damage even its fur or skin.

As for the materials used, they were even more unsightly.

The buildings throughout the entire city were constructed entirely from fragile, non-spiritual ore alloys and concrete; any random monster could smash through them with a single charge.

The vehicles on the streets had shells as thin as paper, and the bodies of the beings were pitifully frail.

Without the tempering of spiritual energy, their muscles were flaccid and their bones brittle.

Such beings, if placed in the Monster World, would likely be killed instantly by a mere bump from a "Firefly Insect"—a creature from the bottom of the food chain that lives by gathering nectar—as it passed by.

As for the growth system, based on the information he had gathered.

This world had not yet given birth to any cultivation system.

In such an environment, even if a cultivation growth system existed, the thin spiritual energy in the air would be unusable.

While traversing the city, he did hear a four-character phrase appearing with extremely high frequency: "Virtual World."

It seemed to be a kind of mentally constructed scene similar to an illusionary realm.

In Ming Hou's view, this was merely a group of ants, incapable of cultivation, using clumsy electronic signals to simulate a spiritual world—an act of self-deception, nothing more.

His ears twitched slightly as he continued to capture conversations from the streets below.

Two beings passing underneath were once again discussing content within the Virtual World.

A trace of mockery flashed in Ming Hou's cat-like pupils.

These beings, though living in the real world, were addicted to false illusions.

In the Monster World, even weak races would at least struggle to survive and strive to become stronger.

Yet the beings of this world were willing to live in a cage woven from illusions, lacking even the desire to struggle; how utterly tragic.

But upon careful reflection, he felt he could not entirely blame the beings of these minor worlds.

After all, with the general environment being this way, no matter how hard an individual struggled, they could not break free from the world's shackles.

Thinking thus, the question returned to its origin.

How could such a world possibly nurture a powerhouse capable of opposing the Fate Rule?