The moment he saw the half-molten quantum figure, Shen Feng let out a sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
Jingwei, who was beside him, quickly took a bottle of water from his backpack, twisted off the cap, and held it to Shen Feng’s lips, helping him drink sip by sip.
It had been several hours since he began the comparison. Shen Feng’s Silicon-Based Brain had been running at full throttle, even causing his body temperature to rise slightly.
Comparing the information gathered by his own eyes against his memories, Shen Feng had cross-referenced millions of people.
To him, this was a more than satisfactory result.
He considered himself extremely lucky to have found Li Yuanshan’s Quantum Ghost after comparing just a few million people.
"So, your guess was right. This ’Will of a Billion’ came from the Stone Statue Apocalypse Parallel Cosmos," Jingwei said while massaging Shen Feng’s legs and shoulders.
The so-called apocalyptic mission worlds were, in fact, Parallel Cosmoses; the two of them had figured that out long ago.
Shen Feng nodded in relief.
"That’s right. At least part of it came from the Stone Statue Apocalypse Parallel Cosmos... And that Space Wormhole isn’t just an ordinary one. To be precise, it’s a spatiotemporal wormhole that can connect two Parallel Cosmoses..."
At this, he felt his strength returning. He stood and gazed at the giant "Will of a Billion" Quantum Ghost tumbling through space, his voice turning grim.
"I don’t know what the hell this thing is, but now that we’ve found its origin, things won’t be so impossible anymore... Still, before we do anything, we need to find out why this world’s Salvation Army was annihilated and learn more about this ’Will of a Billion.’"
"We haven’t found the reason for the Salvation Army’s annihilation yet, but we have found their bodies. Want to come take a look?" There was a sorrowful note in Jingwei’s voice.
Shen Feng’s expression darkened. Although he had already suspected as much, he still felt a sense of helplessness. He nodded. "So they were killed by Quantum Ghosts, just as I thought... Let’s go take a look."
By now, more than half of the entire Reverse Dyson Sphere had been devoured and replaced by the Gray Tide under Shen Feng’s control. Even the ground beneath his feet had become a new Gray Tide construct.
And during this process of assimilation, Jingwei had gradually discovered numerous building structures within the Reverse Dyson Sphere, along with some of the secrets hidden inside.
These included a structure that resembled a command center, and... large numbers of corpses.
The building, hidden inside the Reverse Dyson Sphere, was clearly a command center.
Shen Feng used a Gray Tide passage to reach the building’s entrance and stepped inside.
He had seen the grim aftermath in sealed, quasi-military facilities post-apocalypse many times before, but the scene before him still made his heart sink.
Around a circular table sat dozens of men and women in Salvation Army combat uniforms, evidently in the middle of a meeting. All of them were looking toward the head of the table, their faces still frozen in expressions of anticipation.
At the head of the table sat a youth with refined features, seemingly in the middle of speaking.
But everyone’s actions had been frozen in the instant before their death.
They seemed completely unaware of death’s sudden arrival, even in their final moments.
After their deaths, some automated program must have caused the temperature inside the building to plummet to the cryogenic levels of outer space. As a result, all their bodies were frozen solid, like ice sculptures, and preserved to this day.
Inside his Nanometer Battle Suit, Shen Feng stared at the corpse of the youth, momentarily lost in a daze.
He couldn’t remember how many times he had seen the corpse of a Parallel World version of himself.
’The fourth time?’
’The fifth?’
’At first, it was shocking, and he’d been at a loss. But after getting used to it, he didn’t feel much of anything.’
’But he was a Parallel World version of himself, after all. Just as capable, and a hero...’
No wonder this world’s Salvation Army and their Commander had vanished right after building the Reverse Dyson Sphere. They were all wiped out right here.
Among the corpses of the high-ranking officers, Shen Feng even found this world’s versions of Li Tongchen, Vasily, and Nick.
Meanwhile, the Gray Tide, having now almost completely assimilated the Reverse Dyson Sphere, discovered other internal structures and the bodies within them. Some, not having been cryo-preserved, had already decayed into skeletons.
Clearly, the entire Salvation Army had been wiped out here.
"Jingwei," Shen Feng asked, "even though this world’s me and the Salvation Army were wiped out, you should have still been here. As long as you existed, the Reverse Dyson Sphere would have kept functioning normally and not let this world plunge into total darkness... If you were her, what would you have done?"
Jingwei rolled her eyes and said with a look of exasperation:
"Listen, you little brat, I’d help you protect human civilization, but only if I’m alive. It seems those Quantum Ghosts are extremely destructive to conscious entities. Obviously, my counterpart in this world is already dead."
Shen Feng nodded. He had suspected as much.
After a moment of grim reflection, he began to carefully inspect the scene.
The bodies were well-preserved thanks to the cryogenic temperatures. He could see no external wounds; their deaths looked more like they were caused by organ failure.
Evidently, they had just finished building the Reverse Dyson Sphere and were discussing their next move when they were suddenly attacked by the Quantum Ghosts, leading to their complete annihilation.
This must have been the initial source of the scattered Quantum Ghosts on Earth.
The Reverse Dyson Sphere must have its weak points as well.
A bitter smile touched Shen Feng’s lips at the thought.
It was a shame. This world’s "himself" had clearly exhausted every option, but in the end, he was unable to fight back against the Quantum Ghosts and was annihilated along with the entire Salvation Army.
Judging by the current situation, his counterpart in this world must not have gone through the crucible of the Water World Apocalypse, so he hadn’t mastered the technology of the Quantum Force Field Core.
Otherwise, a few ordinary Quantum Ghosts wouldn’t have been so difficult to deal with.
Shen Feng examined the bodies one by one. Most had died of sudden organ failure.
Suddenly, his examination brought him to a corpse at the far end of the conference table, seated directly across from this world’s Shen Feng. He couldn’t help but let out a soft, "Huh?"
This corpse was clearly much older than the others and had a large beard. Shen Feng didn’t recognize the face at all.
Judging by the state of the corpse, his death was completely different from the others. He seemed to have died of natural causes, and at a different time.
He must have come and sat here on his own, long after the others had died.
He was still wearing a heavy, worn-out spacesuit.
Shen Feng’s brow furrowed. He pulled a pendant from a necklace on the corpse’s chest.
It was a large, eye-shaped pendant forged from pure gold. The eyeball itself was made entirely of diamond, glittering radiantly and looking completely out of place.
Shen Feng recognized it almost instantly. It was a badge from the Purification Society.
He picked up the Diamond Badge and flipped it over, immediately seeing the letters engraved on the back:
Cthulhu.