The Descent of Heaven

Ever since she could remember, Yinyin had lived in her family's garden. She still remembered two years ago, when she was six years old, sitting on her father's shoulders and taking a look at the world outside the farm. Her father had asked her how she felt. She thought for a moment, shook her head, and said that although the world outside was vast, it fell far short of the estate's garden. She also remembered her father laughing heartily and saying something else. She couldn't recall his exact words, only the general meaning: soon the forest, the mountains, and the plains out there would all become part of the farm, and they would have an even larger estate. And when that time came, she would go from being a farmer's daughter to a princess of a kingdom. At first, she hadn't understood her father's thoughts—not until she learned the word "ambition" from her tutor. Yet what still puzzled her was that the idea clearly didn't sound bad, so why did everyone want to escape from this place, to the point where her father had to take a child about her age hostage—and that person was her friend. Of course, that was merely one among many confusions. What puzzled her even more was: if the idea clearly didn't sound bad... why was it that from that day on, outside the fence remained that desolate wasteland, while inside the fence looked more and more like the outside with each passing day? When she opened her eyes again, what greeted her vision was a space of pure white. Gentle light shone upon her delicate eyelashes without feeling dazzling in the slightest. She gazed blankly around. She found herself in a pure white realm. "Where... am I?" An unfamiliar voice seemed to drift in from far away. "Welcome to the Lord God Dimension." Yinyin was dazed. She looked at the stranger who had abruptly appeared in this space, unable to process it for a moment. "...What?" "Cough... sorry." Wanting to keep the atmosphere from being too heavy, Chu Guang had intended to make a harmless joke, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he remembered that people of this world couldn't possibly understand the memes he knew, so he gave a light cough. Looking into those bewildered eyes, he straightened his expression and continued, "This is the Sanctuary." Yinyin looked at him blankly. "The Sanctuary?" Chu Guang nodded gently. "Yes." The confusion in her heart hadn't lessened in the least. Yinyin looked at him nervously and asked in a cautious whisper, "Then... who are you?" Chu Guang continued in a gentle tone, "I am the Administrator of the Alliance." The Administrator? Bewilderment was written all over Yinyin's face. She had heard of the Alliance, and seemed to have heard the word "Administrator" somewhere before, but she had no idea what he actually did. Come to think of it... Wasn't I dead? Memories shrouded in a white haze gradually grew clear in her mind. Slowly, she recalled the final second before she had closed her eyes. To save her best friend, she had thrown herself in front of Xiao Yang. The bullet struck her back and tore through her. The person walked up to her, about to finish her off, when someone suddenly rushed in and grappled with the assailant, both tumbling out the window together. And after that... There was no after that. "Xiao Yang, is she—" Knowing what she wanted to ask, Chu Guang looked at her and said, "Thanks to you, she is still alive. She's under our protection now." Yinyin let out a breath of relief. After a long silence, her lips trembled faintly, and she squeezed out a sentence in a tiny voice. "Am I... already dead?" Chu Guang fell silent for a moment, debating whether to tell her the truth, but after considering it, he nodded gently. "Yes." An expression of "as expected" appeared on Yinyin's face. To his surprise, however, she didn't show sadness; instead, she relaxed her tense shoulders and offered a faint smile—though it was somewhat lonely and strained. "So this is what dying feels like..." She looked at her hands, then raised her head toward the pure white ceiling, murmuring with a smile as if to herself, "It doesn't seem as painful as I imagined." Chu Guang didn't know how to respond to that. His memories of death were mostly things he had only experienced in dreams; perhaps his little players would have more to say on the matter. Pausing for a moment, he decided to answer her earlier question first. "Returning to the earlier topic: although your physical body has died, your consciousness has been preserved in a bionic chip... Its name is the Sanctuary, which is this very space beneath your feet. And that is why we are able to communicate face-to-face." The memories in her mind became fully clear. Yinyin nodded with vague understanding, then lowered her head after a moment. "The Sanctuary... is that where the Holy Son lives?" Chu Guang nodded, then gently shook his head. "The person who has been communicating with you all this time is actually named Luo Qian. He might have told you he was the Holy Son, but in truth, the Holy Son is someone else." She did not show anger at being deceived. As if she had long anticipated his words, she merely looked around and asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice, "Did he live in a place like this...?" "For nearly twenty years, yes," Chu Guang nodded gently, pausing before continuing. "In the end, he gave this place up to you." "Then what about him? Where did he go?" Yinyin's gaze searched around the room, as if trying to find the person who had communicated with her all along. "I don't know. That fellow might have been stung where it hurt by what I said; he ignored me the whole time. After finishing everything, he vanished from this space." Chu Guang looked toward the center of the room. A plain chair had sat there earlier, and that old man had been sitting on it. Pausing, he continued, "His data is no longer in this chip. Even that apostle... can no longer sense his presence. I'm inclined to believe he might have given this world to you as a gift." "Gave it to me..." "Yes." Yinyin looked at him in bewilderment. "Why... would he do that?" "No one knows. You might be the only person who interacted with him as a human being. I thought perhaps you would know the answer." "Something like that... how could I possibly know?" Yinyin clutched her head, pain coloring her expression. "I had so many, many questions I wanted to ask him too. I said I would believe him, but why did he turn everyone into that? What kind of Heaven requires doing those things to achieve? Can we... not go there?" In her dying moments, she had already understood everything. Why everyone had turned into monsters, why her father had really died, why those people had come to kill her friend... But she still wasn't clever enough. By the time she figured it all out, it was already too late. If she had realized all of this sooner, realized who the true culprit was, she could have shared the secret she carried with the older brothers and sisters who had lent a helping hand. Perhaps those tragic events wouldn't have had to happen, and that older brother wouldn't have had to die to save her and Xiao Yang. The only thing she felt fortunate about was one single fact: At that moment, she was standing beside Xiao Yang. At least at the end of her life, she hadn't committed an irreversible mistake—getting her best friend killed because of her own blind trust. "...Choice is something more precious than mere survival. Ever since the Alliance was born, we have been fighting for this right," Chu Guang sighed softly, unable to bear watching her sorrow, and spoke in a soothing tone. "We will try to find a way for you to walk in the original world again, but that will take some time. For now, you might have to stay here for a while." "If you recall anything, you can call my name." He was about to leave this space when Yinyin, clutching her head, suddenly looked up and called out to stop him. "Wait..." Chu Guang paused and cast an inquiring glance at her. "What is it?" "The mist..." "Mist?" Chu Guang frowned slightly. "Did you remember something?" Yinyin nodded slightly, her face pale. "I might have remembered... what that mist really is." That person had spoken of it to her before. And more than once— She softly recited the words from memory: "...The Eternal Heaven shall descend upon mortal lands when the gray mist rises, and all living beings enveloped by Heaven shall return to eternal peace and serenity." Chu Guang's pupils contracted slightly. He seemed to have guessed something... *** Jinhe City. The cold, deathly silent urban ruins. Watching the grayish-green smog gradually creeping across the abandoned buildings and the setting sun being slowly blotted out in the distance, the hunched High Priest Gomo frowned slightly, murmuring under his breath: "It is earlier than anticipated." Beside him, Qi Gahn spoke expressionlessly: "Isn't earlier better?" Unlike Gomo, his gaze remained fixed on the steel airship in the distance. Compared to the Church of the Torch's plan, he wanted to know how to defeat that behemoth. Even if Heaven descended upon the earth and made the sheep in the pen more docile, if they wanted to expand the scale of their tribe, they would still have to achieve it through foreign conquest. The north was undoubtedly the most ideal target. He had heard Boulder City had hundreds of thousands of people, encircled by towering mega-walls, which would serve perfectly as a natural pasture. Yet the problem was that those guys possessed such terrifying weaponry. Just a few hours ago, that towering steel beast had rained devastating firepower to the west of Pinecone Wood Farm. Even from a dozen kilometers away, he could still feel the earth and air trembling. Clearly— That ferocious firepower had been aimed straight at his Millurion, Kuru. To be honest, Gahn had no love for those charlatans. After all, even if they had promised countless benefits, they were still Old Humans at the end of the day. Yet he had to admit his tribe truly needed their power. Compared to Old Human civilization, which had accumulated over thousands or tens of thousands of years, mutant civilization was far too young. Only the wisdom of the Old Humans could contend with such terrifying might. Occasionally, he had to compromise with reality. Knowing what made his chieftain anxious, Gomo sighed softly and said, "I don't think it's bad. The sooner Heaven descends upon the earth, the stronger our rule over this land will be... I am merely wondering if it might be too hasty." Gahn turned to him and asked, "What about that Luo Qian? Why don't you just ask him?" An awkward look appeared on Gomo's aged face. "...I cannot contact him." Gahn frowned. "Cannot contact him?" The final "ritual" was about to begin. The thick gray mist had already seeped into Jinhe City's urban districts, and soon this area spanning dozens of kilometers would be swallowed whole. At such a critical juncture, he couldn't reach that guy? Gomo hung his head, not daring to look at the chieftain, and said in a low voice, "It doesn't actually matter... The plan is already set. We just need to execute it step by step. It makes no difference if we carry out the final ritual ourselves." Gahn clicked his tongue and glared venomously toward the distant sky. "Not a single one of these two-legged livestock can be trusted..." He swore to himself: Sooner or later, he would slaughter them all! *** The Jinhe City region was like a boiling kettle, and the official forum of Wasteland Online was no different. When the brothers of the Jungle Corps posted Brother Chicken Slayer's battle record to the forum, replies of "666" instantly flooded the thread reporting the results. Though there were plenty of heartbroken gamblers who had lost their bets, the vast majority were onlookers marveling at his mastery and calling him badass. Fawai Kuangtu: "Chicken Bro is fucking awesome!!! (voice crack)" Stop Bullshitting: "Twenty-one! Incredible!" Makabazi: "Unlike a certain lizard—weak! (funny face)" Scavenger: "%￥#@!" Tail: "Wuwuwu, crying tears of envy! Sisi! Tail wants to class-change into an Astartes too! QAQ" Sisi: "Pats Little Tail, don't cry, don't cry." Meat Mountain Steamed Bun: "Hiss... A 2.5-meter-tall Tail with one-meter-wide shoulders? I can't picture that at all, ahhh!" Ao Ao Sesame Paste: "Ahaha... Rou Rou would be crushed to death, wouldn't he? (＊￣～￣＊)" Midnight Chicken Slaughter: "Class change NPC coordinates: Boulder Military Industries, Ibers! No cap, it really handles like a dream! (goofy smile)" Scavenger: "Damn it, you formed a raid and didn't even call me! T.T" Xiao Xiao Xiao Bookworm: "You're not even in our corps, why would we call you?" Scavenger: "Fuck! Are you really that heartless?" Qiangren Suonan: "Damn it, this bastard stole all the spotlight!" Model Prone Crawler: "Brother Rat, where are your little minions? (funny face)" Qiangren Suonan: "Picked them back up long ago. My respawn cooldown was only one day. (grin)" Model Prone Crawler: "6666!" Speaking of which, there was a little side story. When Qiangren Suonan dissolved into a beam of light and vanished from the battlefield, his little minions hadn't strayed far. It wasn't out of loyalty to their boss, but simply because rats weren't picky eaters, and the scraps and corpses left behind by the mutants were enough to feed them for quite some time. Thus, after grieving for merely a few minutes, the pack of rat minions threw a feast and started a party right where their boss had fallen in battle. And on the second day, right when the rat pack was happily gorging themselves, the Great Horned Rat—whose previous body they had just gnawed clean—suddenly returned. This move of "respawning on the spot" dumbfounded the whole pack of rats, who squeaked and prostrated themselves in worship. Although he couldn't understand what those rats were chattering about, Qiangren Suonan could distinctly feel that his image in the minds of his little minions had become vastly more divine and majestic. Wo Xiang Jingjing: "By the way, why hasn't this mist dispersed yet?" Ye Shi: "I keep having a bad feeling." Jieyan: "What feeling?" Ye Shi: "Going by standard RPG tropes, after clearing the trash mobs, isn't there supposed to be a boss fight or something?" Jieyan: "Holy crap?! You're already offline, don't jinx it!" Elaina: "Ye Shi is Perception type, I trust him. (funny face)" Fang Chang: "Yeah, that possibility definitely can't be ruled out. The Church of the Torch seems very sensitive about our research into antibodies that suppress Na fruit hyphae. If that mutant unit was their only backup plan, it would be far too sloppy." Mole: "And it's weird... What they really needed to eliminate was just that antibody carrier, right? Was sending an entire mutant army really necessary?" With an operation on such a grand scale, even if they had reached Pinecone Wood Farm, wouldn't the Alliance have had plenty of time to send aircraft to evacuate the key personnel? It would have made more sense to send a few more assassins. Commander Spring: "Hmm... Rather than saying the mist was covering the mutants' march, I feel more like the latter was covering for the former." Ye Shi: "What do you think it is?" Commander Spring: "How should I know... Anyway, brothers still alive, stay on your toes." *** As it turned out, even though he had died early, Ye Shi's jinx seemed to have proven true yet again. According to reports from the players stationed around Pinecone Wood Farm, shortly after the mist rolled in, the local residents had all fallen into a trance-like stupor. And this was even without the influence of the psychic interference device! Fortunately, the players had already used the device to overwrite the brainwashing on the 03 frequency; otherwise, the catastrophe from last night likely would have repeated itself. Having made preparations in advance, most of the survivors stayed inside their homes, and even upon entering that stupor, they merely stood or sat motionless. Disturbingly, however, the mist with a radius of over a dozen kilometers was slowly spreading further outward, and by dusk, it had already reached the fringes of Jinhe City's urban districts. The mist was gradually thinning, and visibility was returning, yet the area covered by this dense vapor was growing ever wider. Not only that, but the region occupied by the spore cloud was no longer confined to the ground; it was spreading skyward, even beginning to touch the edges of the cloud deck. This was what was currently taking place in Jinhe City. "...It feels like a pebble dropped into a lake. The height of the ripples is diminishing, but the rings are expanding from the center of the lake all the way to the shores." Aboard the Heart of Steel. Having listened to the captain's explanation of the current situation, Chief of Staff Vannus, who had rushed to the front from the rear, pondered for a moment before sharing his view. The captain frowned slightly. "What on earth are those charlatans planning?" Chu Guang, who had been staring out the floor-to-ceiling viewport in silence, suddenly spoke up. "I'm actually more concerned about another matter." Vannus looked at him and asked, "What matter?" Chu Guang continued, "What exactly is that Eternal Heaven?" Vannus fell into thought. At that moment, the bridge hatch opened, and Frost walked over from the doorway toward the group. "...Our aviation unit's reconnaissance drones patrolled several hundred kilometers to the south, and captured this." With that, she handed a tablet into Chu Guang's hands. Taking the tablet from Frost, surprise surfaced between Chu Guang's brows the moment he looked at the screen. Sweeping blankets of grayish-green mist shrouded the ground, with only the occasional mountain ridge or forest left unswallowed. Further south, the thick gray fog stood like an impenetrable wall, as if freezing the entire space in place. From the outside, it was impossible to see anything within the fog. Frowning slightly, he looked at Frost and asked, "Where is this?" "To the south of Jinchuan Province, in Haiya Province along the southern coast of the Central Continent. Our drone encountered signal jamming and electronic warfare attacks upon entering the airspace over Haiya Province, but our AI technology was superior, and it has already returned." As she said this, a trace of pride showed on Frost's face. Piloting drones was her forte, and electronic warfare was Eclipse's specialty. A bunch of amateurs trying to shoot down an aircraft under her control with half-baked tricks were far out of their league. Chu Guang, however, didn't care about these minor details; he had experienced the Church of the Torch's technology long before. What he cared about was another matter... "Since when did it become like this?" Staring at the screen in astonishment, the captain standing beside them voiced Chu Guang's question. Frost obviously had no way of knowing; she was just an android, after all, and shook her head with an awkward expression. Standing to the side, Vannus contemplated for a long time before speaking. "I reckon it must have been over the past few months, while we were fighting the Legion. Otherwise, with something this massive, it would have been impossible for not a whisper of wind to reach Dawn City." Chu Guang nodded. "My thoughts exactly." Yet this was merely a conjecture based on limited intelligence. In fact, even if those charlatans had completed their so-called plan long ago, they would have been entirely capable of keeping the news locked down within their own territory. Judging by their operating methods around Jinhe City, in the early stages they would promise local survivors certain benefits, baring their fangs only once the locals could no longer survive without them. And during this process, flora and fauna corrupted by Na fruit would spread across the land, while pervasive hyphae eroded nearly every inch of soil. Add in the influence of the psychic interference device. By the time the domain known as Heaven fully unfurled across the land, the local survivors would have long become the church's captives. It was only natural that no word had leaked out. Had the Alliance not possessed numerous merchants and mercenaries from Jinchuan Province, and had players not already traveled south, they might have been kept entirely in the dark until Jinhe City had fully become part of "Heaven." Chu Guang looked at Frost. "What is the Council's opinion?" "The Council considers this an unquestionable state of emergency, and..." Halfway through her sentence, Frost swallowed the words on her lips. Chu Guang knew what the unsaid half of her sentence was. All the suffering here was inextricably linked to the conflict a century and a half ago. Even if Ideal City was not the direct cause of this catastrophe, as descendants of the Ministry of Production, they still bore an inescapable responsibility for what was unfolding here. Yet now was not the time to assign blame. Skipping past this heavy topic, Chu Guang continued: "Our researchers believe that spore release is the third stage of biological evolution for the Na fruit fungus colony. Extrapolating from current experimental findings, infected individuals enveloped by the gray mist will progressively enter a stupor within twelve to seventy-two hours." "Those who have never consumed Na fruit will also be slowly poisoned within this domain until their immune systems are breached, ultimately becoming part of this domain..." "And this is the essence of 'Heaven.'" If swallowing Na fruit was initially a voluntary choice for the survivors, by the third stage—the "Descent of Heaven"—it had nothing whatsoever to do with the word voluntary. The originally docile fungus would forcefully shove the spores it continuously secreted into the respiratory tract and mouth of every living organism. Whether the local survivors accepted it or not— The Eternal Heaven spoken of by the Church of the Torch would descend. Organisms enveloped by Heaven would be permanently freed from all suffering, but the price was losing themselves, living as breeding beds for the Na fruit fungus, manipulated by the psychic interference device to carry out menial labor. Aside from the more powerful mutants, chosen apostles, and the Gestalt Organism they were currently designing, no creature could survive long in this domain. Until the technology for the Gestalt Organism was ultimately completed, this place was without a doubt a living hell. Watching Frost, whose electronic pupils had slightly dilated, Chu Guang continued: "According to Heya's research findings, this genetic sequence is, after all, a fragment spliced from mutant slime mold DNA. Referring to the broodmother in Qingquan City, spores are inherently a medium used to transmit information. Thus, it can be deduced that something akin to a broodmother must exist in this region." The Sanctuary was a decentralized network without a single core, but Heaven descended upon earth was different... It was a pseudo-utopia built purely of biotechnology. The Sanctuary, which did not exist on earth, was its spiritual core, while its physiological core was bound to be hidden in some corner of this land. It was the core of everything— It issued commands to all the hyphae, sustaining this Heaven. Frost looked at him earnestly and asked, "Where do you think it is?" Chu Guang looked at her and said, "Most likely, Champion Group's biological research institute in Jinhe City... What do you intend to do?" Frost said sternly, "I will advise the Council to employ strategic weapons to destroy it. The harm caused by this research project has far exceeded the scope of a regional threat." Having seemingly expected her to say that, Chu Guang sighed softly. "The underground research facility there is rated as a nuclear bunker, like an unnumbered vault. What weapons do you plan to use against it?" This was something he had seen in the memories of the apostle named Yul; that elevator was extraordinarily deep, requiring a substantial wait just to reach the surface. Frost froze. "Ah..." Without waiting for her to analyze alternative plans, Chu Guang pressed on. "We need that artificial broodmother. Only by understanding it can we solve it. Our people will go and seize it, but the mutants there certainly won't let us have it easily. I need you to provide the necessary support." Having apparently received authorization from somewhere already, Frost agreed without hesitation upon hearing this. "No problem. We will provide all necessary support." "This is no longer just your threat." "It is ours as well."