Accompanied by Jingwei’s records, a magnificent panorama unfolded before Shen Feng’s consciousness, immersing him in the experience of becoming the "Shen Feng" of the Dark Apocalypse.
When the people of this world activated the Space Wormhole Generator, a wormhole portal appeared in space. But unlike the experimental wormhole to the Moon they had envisioned, this Space Wormhole led to an unknown parallel cosmos!
When the Myriad Wills emerged from the Space Wormhole and instantly devoured the astronauts on the space station, humanity finally understood that the so-called Space Wormhole Technology from the Obelisk was nothing but a trap.
But humanity was helpless.
The Myriad Wills, a super Quantum Ghost, was continuously passing through the Space Wormhole, its form growing ever larger.
According to Jingwei’s calculations, in just a few months, the Myriad Wills’ body would reach roughly the size of Earth, and then it would swallow all intelligent life on the planet in one fell swoop.
The only good news was that due to quantum uncertainty, while the Myriad Wills possessed a near-immortal quantum body, its consciousness was extremely chaotic, lacking any unified will.
At the same time, Quantum Ghosts were often drawn to energy and sources of consciousness, which meant they also had their own blind spots.
By shielding one’s own conscious and energetic fluctuations, it was possible to temporarily go undetected by the Myriad Wills.
After the initial chaos, this world’s Shen Feng and the Salvation Army he led immediately initiated a defense plan: use the Gray Tide to form a giant Reverse Dyson Sphere, enveloping the entire Earth to block the Myriad Wills’ perception and eke out a desperate existence right under its nose.
In that dire crisis, this plan was arguably the best and only solution humanity could devise.
No one knew when the Myriad Wills would fully emerge from the Space Wormhole and annihilate all of humanity on Earth.
It didn’t even need a unique method of attack; simply rolling across the planet’s surface once would be enough to obliterate all human consciousness.
This included the consciousnesses of super AIs, which would be destroyed twice—first by having their central databases burned out, and then by being erased on a conscious level.
However, while the plan had been proposed, it was difficult to gain the consensus of all humanity.
After all, in a sense, the plan was akin to the castration of human civilization.
Furthermore, the deep-seated distrust most ordinary people had for the Salvation Army was hard to overcome.
But to implement the plan as quickly as possible, there could be no interference.
Ultimately, with the unanimous agreement of the Salvation Army, the Reverse Dyson Sphere project moved forward rapidly. The world’s governments enacted suppression and control measures to ensure the structure’s swift construction.
This Reverse Dyson Sphere wasn’t simply a matter of piling up Gray Tide; it required an extremely complex design of internal patterns to absorb and mask energy, as well as shield Earth’s internal Consciousness Field.
The exterior of the Gray Tide was coated in a layer of a superconducting graphene construct, intended to hide Earth as completely as possible within the dark Cosmos.
According to the original plan, the Reverse Dyson Sphere would not only protect Earth Civilization and seal it off from the Myriad Wills super Quantum Ghost, but also absorb cosmic radiation, provide light and heat to the Earth within, and even control the weather.
Though the Reverse Dyson Sphere would temporarily confine Earth Civilization, it was also meant to foster a more mature, technological society.
But initial concepts are always idyllic. Once the Reverse Dyson Sphere was complete, the Salvation Army members stationed there were attacked by fragments of the Myriad Wills. Everyone was wiped out, including the super AI controlling the sphere, which was annihilated in the process.
The Reverse Dyson Sphere, which should have been able to convert light, failed to activate. It became nothing more than a sealed metal shell.
The Great Darkness had arrived.
Humanity plunged into utter madness and chaos...
Shen Feng’s consciousness withdrew from the database, and he slowly opened his eyes.
He now had a solid understanding of the causes behind the Great Dark Age and the role this world’s "Shen Feng" and the Salvation Army had played in it.
’His counterpart in this world had apparently also possessed a "True Apocalypse Game" system, but he clearly hadn’t gone through the Water World Apocalypse mission. His Gray Tide was still the initial version, lacking Beast Gold and a Quantum Force Field Core. The Space Wormhole Technology he possessed had also been obtained from the Obelisk on the Moon.’
’And judging by his personality, his control over the Salvation Army wasn’t particularly firm. He was more soft-hearted.’
’Otherwise, with my own personality, the moment I discovered a problem with the Space Wormhole plan, I would have terminated the project immediately, no matter how far along it was. I would have blown up the Wormhole Generator with a nuke if I had to, and then gone back to the drawing board.’
’After all, there are far too many sinister forces in the Cosmos coveting Earth and human civilization...’
Shen Feng looked at the body of his other self, frozen solid into a statue by the cold of space, and couldn’t help but shake his head.
’Too kind, too soft-hearted, too naive. Still just a rookie...’
He then approached the body of Big Beard, Cthulhu Ivanovic, still in his spacesuit. He picked up the leather-bound booklet in front of the man, gently opened the notebook, and began to read.
The notebook’s contents were written in a mix of English and Russian. To be precise, it wasn’t a log, but a confession.
In this confession, Ivanovic first expressed his profound love for human civilization and his determination to save it. Then came his boundless remembrance for the fallen Commander and the Salvation Army Warriors.
Through the confession, Shen Feng gradually pieced together in his mind what had transpired.
Once the Salvation Army’s Reverse Dyson Sphere was complete, Ivanovic, in his role as a Cthulhu, received a crucial piece of intelligence: strong electromagnetic pulses were a fatal weakness for the primary Gray Tide and would also attract Quantum Ghosts. He then activated the Purification Society’s sleeper agents hidden within the Salvation Army, who detonated dozens of Electromagnetic Pulse Bombs on the sphere’s exterior.
The Gray Tide-constructed Reverse Dyson Sphere was briefly disabled. Hordes of Quantum Ghosts roaming in space were drawn in, passing straight through the sphere to begin their slaughter on the surface of the Earth.
Among those sacrificed in the surprise attack were the Savior Army Commander, Shen Feng, and numerous other high-ranking Salvation Army leaders.
But what Ivanovic, in his role as a Cthulhu, had not anticipated was that after he killed the Savior Army Commander and the other leaders, plunging everything into chaos, he received a mysterious voice message.
The message had apparently been set to trigger automatically once certain conditions were met.
It contained only a single phrase, one word spoken by a deep male voice:
"Antichrist."
Upon hearing the voice speak that single word, it was as if countless sealed memories were unlocked in an instant. Ivanovic was suddenly awakened. A terrible truth made his entire body tremble, and tears streamed down his face:
He, Ivanovic, Cthulhu of the Purification Society, Apostle of the Whisperer... wanted to save this world!
He loved this world; he deeply loved humanity. His true identity was that of a Salvation Army Warrior, a sleeper agent deep within the Purification Society. He was a piece placed on the board by the Commander, the Savior, himself, waiting for the day he would be awakened to save the world.
That day had come.
And he had just killed the Savior with his own hands.