Chapter 1

The day of the universe's life and death—what a majestic yet incredibly distant phrase. It could be easily written in stories, plays, and the poems of wandering bards. When it appeared before the public in the form of myths, legends, and heroic tales, hardly anyone would think that such a thing could really happen in the real world, in their lifetime, before their very eyes.

Tanagrus—Holy Spring Valley—New Outpost, Spring of New Era Year 3, dawn, no wind.

Ulanov gripped the weapon issued to him just days before, standing on the watchtower outside the outpost settlement. His gaze slowly swept across the winding giant vines in the distant jungle. The cold night wind from the valley kept his mind exceptionally clear.

The weapon in his hand was a long-range precision gun that fired magnetically accelerated crystal needles. The other, a close-range secondary weapon that fired magnetically confined plasma, hung on a weapon mount on his thigh. Neither weapon was a product of the Zolm civilization; they came from the nearest unmanned drone factory supply station. Since the various outposts had become self-sufficient in basic necessities, these supply stations hadn't been activated in a long time. Their most recent activation, however, was to distribute weapons and equipment to the local residents, something few had anticipated.

The Zolm civilization, having only recently achieved food self-sufficiency, did not yet have the capacity to produce modern weapons on its own. Therefore, these equipment that could fight against the Fengxiao derivatives had to be provided by the factory supply stations.

However, for the Zolm people, who had experienced the end of their home planet, the virtual ark, and interstellar migration, and were now pioneering on a completely unfamiliar planet, embracing challenges was a survival instinct. The annihilation of the universe and the end of a planet were not much different to them. If picking up a gun could secure a chance of survival, they would arm themselves without hesitation—as for the source of the gun, that was even less important.

Moreover, there was the elder son Zolm watching over this planet from distant space. As the younger son, humanity should naturally be even more fearless.

Ulanov flexed his slightly numb fingers and stroked the cold, hard barrel of the electromagnetic rifle in his hand. In the past three years, he had been active in various outposts as an engineering technician, designing waterwheels, mills, and agricultural tools. However, this experience of guarding the edge of the base with a gun in hand was not unfamiliar to him. He couldn't help but think of the things he had experienced in the virtual world, of the dream that had not been erased, where he struggled to survive on a world destroyed by nanite swarms as a member of the Gray Fox mercenary group…

He thought of the gray fox, the female commander with the gray ponytail, her eyes cold and powerful. Where was she now? With those powerful foreigners, preparing on another battlefield to face the ultimate challenge of this universe?

The sound of footsteps on the stairs came from behind. Ulanov turned around and saw an exceptionally tall figure coming up to the watchtower. It was Karl, who, like him, had been a member of the "Gray Fox" in the dream world.

After being reborn in the real world, Karl became a farmer and was sent to this new outpost with him, tending to the large fields on the west side of the outpost. But when the goddess conveyed her decree and the provisional government summoned combat personnel, he, like him, stood up and volunteered to be one of the sentries.

Perhaps they should thank that out-of-control dream world. Many people had experienced countless strange and bizarre lives in the dream world, and had been instilled with a large amount of useful and useless knowledge in a muddled way. Although the "awakening" was followed by a long and painful "consciousness sorting" process, it also gave the Zolm people countless excellent combat personnel.

With new limbs born from the Source Blood (yuan xue) that were almost perfect, and with the spirit tempered in the dream world, almost every Zolm person could fight when they picked up a weapon.

"It's not time to change shifts yet," Ulanov said, looking at the big man.

Karl's voice was a little muffled: "Couldn't sleep, came up early to take a look."

As he spoke, the usually taciturn strong man raised his head and stared blankly at the starry sky above.

From Holy Spring Valley, it was easy to find the most conspicuous "celestial body" in the sky, a crystal moon, the super-large integrated orbital station called the Crystal Nucleus Research Station.

On the lower half of this "moon" was a patch of red light, the eyes of the elder son Zolm gazing at this planet.

The elder son, who once coexisted with the home planet and spent day and night with humanity, lost his body in the doomsday event of falling into the sun, but the foreigners remade an consciousness carrier for him and fused him with the Crystal Nucleus Research Station. In the past few years, it was he who remotely controlled hundreds of Source Blood "holy springs" on Tanagrus, sending the souls of the Zolm people back to the real world.

Ulanov also looked up at the sky. He saw a large number of moving light spots around the Crystal Nucleus Research Station, each of which was a smaller space entity: some were warships, some were space fortresses. He couldn't help but say, "This planet is an important stronghold for the observers. There are a large number of armed satellite groups around the Crystal Nucleus Research Station. It should be much safer than other planets, right?"

"The goddess said that the enemy might bypass the defenses in space and directly attack the mortal world on the ground," Karl said, pointing to his head, "From here, we are the biggest loophole."

Ulanov shrugged: "Whatever, anyway, the goddess also said that those who can infiltrate the mortal world are the lowest-level derivatives. As long as you have a good gun, you can still blow a hole in them with one shot."

At this moment, a streak of pale golden light suddenly flashed across the sky and flew quickly towards the outpost.

Ulanov subconsciously raised the muzzle of the electromagnetic rifle, but then put it down. Karl nodded beside him: "It's them."

The golden light arrived in an instant like a meteor. Within a few seconds, it came from the horizon to the front of the watchtower. Only after the light ball hovered could its true appearance be seen—in fact, it was three Einherjar warriors. Their golden armor floated with magic energy radiance, looking as if they had grown light-forged wings.

As if they had walked out of a myth.

These light-cast alien soldiers were reinforcements sent by the observers. Frankly speaking, Ulanov was really startled when he first saw these hollow armors: Although the Zolm civilization had a goddess belief from ancient times and also had "supernatural knowledge" in terms of divine arts, magic, especially necromancy, was quite different from their worldview. Using souls to drive a hollow armor had always been a classic horror trope in Zolm's traditional literature. Ulanov took a long time to reassure himself with the reasoning that "this is actually a robot made by another technology tree" so that he could face these hollow armors calmly.

Compared to facing these scary necromantic products, that Valkyrie was much more amiable—although it was said that the "Valkyrie" was also some kind of undead, at least she looked very beautiful…

The three Einherjar warriors circled around the watchtower, and then landed in the temporary camp next to the outpost. Ulanov then turned his attention back. He nodded to Karl beside him, indicating that he was going back to rest, and then walked to the ladder next to the watchtower.

Just as he stepped on the stairs, he suddenly felt a trance, and strange and mysterious pictures appeared in his mind:

He saw the cosmic starry sky extinguish one by one, and wriggling tentacles and eyes grew on countless stars. Huge and blasphemous dark structures stretched between the nebulae, slowly tearing the entire world apart. A wriggling, inexplicable substance overlooked everything from an infinitely high place, and in between all of this, he was alone, entangled by endless terrifying illusions.

These terrible scenes in his mind only appeared for a moment, and then disappeared. Ulanov felt his whole body trembling, and his steps could not help but stagger a few times, but the psychological quality he had tempered as a mercenary in the dream world allowed him to adjust immediately. He quickly regained his balance, and his gaze swept around—in his vision, countless large and small spots suddenly appeared on the metal watchtower railing, and the rifle in his hand also presented a disgusting texture like rotten flesh, but the satellite groups in the sky suddenly flashed, and his vision returned to normal.

He raised his head and looked in Karl's direction. The big guy was also looking at him, with a look of fear that had just receded in his eyes, and his forehead was covered with sweat.

"The time has come," they said in unison.

The piercing alarm sounded in the Holy Spring Valley outpost camp.

It sounded throughout Tanagrus.

In Holleta, in Aioi, in the Agent's homeworld, in Colo, on every ecological planet.

All the protective walls of the Watch Fortress were filled with blue and white radiance. Huge variable structures slowly opened, revealing the turrets and missile launch arrays hidden below. A rain of light-like beams poured out from every defensive facility of the fortress, and between the beams of light and rain of bullets, countless constantly flashing light spots could be seen—those were the flashes of the warp missiles briefly accelerating in space before entering hyperspace.

The artillery fire roared silently in the universe, and in front of the fortress defense line, that layer of dark horizon no longer existed.

Unspeakable chaotic space tore apart the horizon barrier. Countless wriggling black smoke, twisted frameworks that did not conform to three-dimensional perspective, and skewed and trembling celestial bodies poured out like crazy abstract graffiti, occupying the entire space and overlooking the entire battlefield.

Pong you, sanity check, understand?

"The horizon has been opened! Target entities can be observed!"

"All weapons online, protective wall enters wartime state, Annihilation Lance begins charging!"

"Derivatives observed, the number is... extremely vast!"

"Drone swarms have been released, S3 and S4 zones are under heavy attack!"

"The Guardian Legion's Third Fleet has arrived in S4 zone..."

The command center was like cold water poured into a hot oil pan, instantly busy to the point of boiling. Facing the frenzied and chaotic cosmic landscape that constantly filled her vision, Leah narrowed her eyes.

"The time has come to say goodbye, my old rival..."