Chapter 605: The Last Shepherd

There is no time here.

There is no space either.

It is a pure, rational, grey void.

A cluster formed of rules hovers silently.

It has no form, no facial features, no emotions.

It is Chu Che.

Or rather, it is the incarnation of Chu Che after he abandoned his human body, becoming the Heavenly Dao.

Its perspective is looking down.

Piercing the dimensional barrier, it gazes upon that azure planet.

The new era, a hundred years.

On this planet, humanity has not been extinguished.

The Weird still exists.

They are like typhoons, like earthquakes, like volcanic eruptions, becoming an irresistible force, a natural disaster that must be written into textbooks.

The city's appearance has changed.

Between the skyscrapers, enormous physical barriers and rule isolation zones have been erected.

Anomaly Controllers are no longer a privileged class.

They are firefighters, paramedics, engineers working in high-risk environments.

Children who awaken Anomalous Power are calmly taken by their parents to the household registration office to obtain a Resident Certification, just as ordinary as getting an ID card.

Humanity's tech tree has been skewed.

They no longer frantically explore outer space, but instead devote all their energy to analyzing and applying the Weird's rules.

Heavenly Dao sees a young Anomaly Controller, in order to shield thousands of civilians during evacuation, being devoured by an S-Class Anomaly Domain.

His family did not wail in despair; they simply accepted the compensation calmly.

The next day, the neighborhood residents spontaneously organized, taking turns bringing food to the family and caring for their young child.

Heavenly Dao sees within a research institute, grey-haired scientists, by analyzing the fluctuation frequency of a harmless Weird, developing a new communication technology, completely solving the signal shielding problem inside the Anomaly Domain.

Heavenly Dao sees two formerly hostile nations, in order to jointly contain an S-Class Anomaly Domain crossing the border, sharing the highest-level Anomaly Controller archives, forming the first global joint task force.

The pressure of survival has twisted humanity into an unprecedented rope.

They have lost much.

But what they have gained is a more resilient civilization and stronger bonds.

Within the void.

That grey cluster of rules, internally, begins to undergo subtle changes.

The countless motes of light composing it begin to flow in reverse.

They are no longer dispersing disorderly, but instead recondense around an invisible core as a focal point.

It is as if an invisible hand is using these most primordial particles to carry out the most precise carving.

A pair of polished leather shoes appears first.

Then come neatly pressed trousers.

A spotless white shirt.

Those familiar gold-rimmed glasses appear out of thin air, precisely perched on a nose bridge that does not exist.

Finally, there is that warm, jade-like face.

Chu Che, has returned.

He stands in the void, pushes his glasses, the motion exactly as before.

He does not look at the world a hundred years later.

Instead, he closes his eyes.

His consciousness begins to trace back.

Against the river of time, upward, upward, and upward again.

Passing through the point where he became the Weird Editor's origin.

Passing through the rainy night of his mother's death.

Passing through the afternoon he entered medical school.

Finally, he arrives at a 'past' that never existed in his memory.

A completely different world.

In that world, the Weird has existed since ancient times.

Humanity struggles to survive under the shadow of the Weird; civilization teeters on collapse, and every chapter of history is written in blood and tears.

In the scene.

A man kneels in a ruined ancient temple.

His clothes are tattered, yet his eyes shine astonishingly, as if he is burning his own life.

Before him is enshrined an indescribable Weird statue.

"I wish."

The man's voice is hoarse yet resolute, carrying a determination that disregards consequences.

"I wish for all the Weird in this world... to completely disappear."

The statue remains silent.

After a long while, a cold, emotionless will directly echoes in the man's mind.

【What's the price?】

The man gave a bitter laugh.

"My life, my soul, my everything—I give them all to you."

【Not enough.】

The cold will continued to echo.

【To erase an existing concept, one must pay an equivalent 'possibility' as the price.】

【I can make all Weirdness in this world, from ancient times to the present, disappear, let history be rewritten, and let everyone live in a peaceful world without Weirdness.】

【But the price is that, at some point in the future, a brand-new 'Pandora's Box' will be opened.】

【A box capable of restarting the Weird era, even more terrifying than before.】

【It will be handed over to another human.】

The man's body stiffened.

He understood what this price meant.

He could gain a peaceful era, but at some point in the future, an utterly defenseless human civilization will face an apocalyptic crisis.

【If humanity continues to improve itself, constantly evolving in its struggle against Weirdness, perhaps it could still hold out.】

【But if a human who knows nothing about Weirdness, in peaceful times, were to reopen this box......】

【The result would likely be utter destruction.】

【Do you still wish to make a wish?】

The man remained silent for a long time.

In his mind, countless faces flashed—those struggling and dying horribly in the mouths of Weirdness.

His relatives, his friends, his compatriots.

He lifted his head, his eyes no longer hesitant, only a near-naive trust remained.

"I trust them."

"I believe that those living in a peaceful world will have beautiful hearts."

"They would never make...... a choice that leads to such a result."

"I make a wish."

【As you wish.】

Boom.

The entire timeline violently surged.

Countless causal lines were forcibly erased and rewritten.

Chu Che quietly watched all of this.

Watching the man who made the wish turn to ashes.

Watching that cold will, the existence known as the 'Wish Weird,' leave a coordinate in the river of history.

Then, Chu Che laughed.

He reached out his hand, as if to touch that Weird statue.

"So that's......"

"Thus."

The statue's visage, blurred in the dust of history.

But Chu Che recognized it.

Because it is him, an incarnation of his at a certain time point after he became the 'Heavenly Dao'.

And that so-called 'Pandora's Box'......

Chu Che lowered his head, looking at his empty palm.

The Weird Editor gradually appeared.

Everything, is a perfect closed loop.

He personally handed the right to choose over to humanity.

And humanity, through its actions, through those bloody cases, through Lin Fan's revenge, through Zhou Ping's judgment, through Lu Dou's martyrdom, through countless people's greed and selfishness...... perfectly proved one thing.

They need a shepherd.

They need an order, absolute and terrifying, that stands above them to regulate their endless desires.

Chu Che raised his head, looking toward that expanse of gray void.

"The operation was very successful."

He said softly, as if reporting to himself.

He is the first, and also the last, shepherd.

From beginning to end, always.

【End of book】