How could it be – a Star Disk?

It took Roland a good while to come back to his senses.

Unlike the core of a Demonic Fallen, such things generally only appeared in pure magic creatures and God's Messengers. Ordinary martial artists were simply no match for them.

If the Martial Artists Association concentrated their forces and planned carefully, they might have a chance to kill such an enemy, but they would never casually hand over a Star Disk like this. Sending such a dangerous object that could potentially infect and erode others via express delivery was almost child's play.

If it wasn't sent by the Association, who could it be from?

Roland checked the sending address and phone number, both of which were fabricated. The only credible thing was the tracking number, which indicated that the item came from the same city. Clearly, the sender didn't want him to know their identity.

The problem was that this behavior wasn't very clever for the other party either. The express delivery company didn't verify the sender's true identity simply to reduce costs, but it would be easy to trace back if someone really wanted to. Could fabricating an address hide their tracks? In modern society, this was almost impossible. By investigating surveillance footage and questioning the delivery staff, it would usually be easy to pinpoint the target.

But Roland was hesitant to seek the Association's help to track down the sender.

From the result, the other party clearly knew his background and held some goodwill towards him, otherwise, they wouldn't have sent such a troublesome thing to the apartment building.

In any case, weakening the erosion power on his behalf should mean they were on the same side. Since the other party didn't want to be exposed, it might be better for him to maintain the status quo.

Roland rubbed his forehead, deciding to think about this headache-inducing problem later.

The more important thing now was to deal with the Star Disk in front of him.

He shifted his attention back to the box.

If the Star Disk came from a Rift Monster, then he could just fuse it directly. But what if it came from a God's Messenger? Wouldn't that mean…

No, that's impossible, Roland chuckled to himself. Being able to kill a Rift Monster was already an exaggeration. God's Messengers were not easy enemies to deal with. Even Fei Yuhan could only barely hold on. He shouldn't fantasize about such wonderful things.

He placed his hand on the Star Disk.

The latter seemed to revive from a standstill, and the blue-white light spots began to rotate again. The center became brighter and brighter until a brilliant beam of light burst out – up to this point, everything was normal, exactly the same as the several fusion scenes he had witnessed.

But the next second, the world suddenly plunged into darkness, and a massive amount of consciousness flooded into his mind, bringing with it unbearable pain!

Under the impact of this turbulent surge, Roland almost lost consciousness. It took him a long time to steady his mind. When everything slowly subsided, he opened his eyes again and found himself standing in a void. The snowflakes were still there, but after experiencing it for the third time, his brain seemed to be better at filtering out the irrelevant noise.

…Okay, so it really was.

Looks like he has to investigate the other party's identity after all.

He twitched the corner of his mouth and looked around.

Is it the cosmic background again?

Because the surrounding area was too empty, he couldn't be sure for a while. Compared to the last experience of consciousness fragments, this time it was obviously darker, as if the stars had hidden themselves.

It took Roland a long time to find a reference point from the sparse snowflakes – a dim light cluster that looked like it was about to go out, embedded in the black background, as small as a needle tip.

Following this benchmark, he found more light clusters.

Seeing this, he wasn't sure if he was in the universe anymore.

Because those light clusters were neatly arranged and evenly spaced, which didn't seem like something natural celestial bodies could do.

"I ask you, what is gravity?"

Just as Roland widened his eyes to observe, a voice suddenly sounded behind him, making his hair stand on end!

He turned around abruptly and noticed that there was a hazy shadow there at some point. The other party was erratic, as if it had no substance.

Obviously, this wasn't any language he was familiar with, and it was hard to even be sure if it was a language at all. Although he didn't understand why, he realized that the content mapped into his mind was simplified – it was as if the other party emitted a complex electromagnetic wave, but it was filtered out for the most part, leaving only what he could understand.

"Are you... asking me?" Roland asked cautiously.

"Gravity is the most revered force in this world," another voice replied in his mind, and the voice sounded familiar.

Roland couldn't help but roll his eyes.

First, a sudden appearance to give him a fright, and then a mysterious question. He thought he was also participating in this fragment, but he didn't expect to still be just an observer.

"Yes, it is universal, stable, and the grander and bigger it is..."

"It allows the fleeting to condense, and the void to take shape. Only in this way can life take root, and civilization can survive."

The voice gradually became rhythmic, as if singing praises.

"And the first force that every race recognizes is gravity – it is both a cradle and a shackle. The history of civilization's progress is a history of struggle to break free from gravity."

"From leaving the earth and flying into the sky to going to more distant places, it is all like this."

"Now, it has once again become our obstacle, and the last obstacle."

"The risks are unpredictable. I do not recommend implementing the Door Project."

"Every step forward comes with risks. You should be clear about that."

"Clear. So my suggestion has never changed from the beginning."

"But you still helped me complete it." The gray shadow flickered twice. "I have been waiting for this plan for countless millennia. Now, let it begin."

Wait, what exactly is the Door Project? And what does the last obstacle mean? Roland felt like he had missed some key information, but no matter how he asked or thought in his mind, the speaker didn't respond to his calls.

"…I understand."

"Buzz…"

As the voice fell in his mind, the snowflakes increased.

According to past experience, the flow of time should accelerate as the fragment nears its end, but without a reference point, it was difficult for him to make an accurate judgment.

Roland saw the light clusters begin to converge towards the center spontaneously, but their brightness decreased instead of increasing, and they soon turned pitch black. The remaining light clusters rushed into the darkness like moths to a flame, without any pause. It was impossible to calculate how many ultimately merged into it. This process seemed to happen in an instant, yet felt exceptionally long –

Finally, a limit seemed to be broken, and an incomparably dazzling red light suddenly bloomed in the darkness, sweeping across the entire world in the blink of an eye!

Its speed was much faster than light. By the time Roland reacted, it had already completed its sweep, and everything returned to its original appearance.

But Roland knew that this world was already completely different – a drastic change was taking place!

The first to give feedback was the gray shadow, which disintegrated like mist under this light.

Then came more death messages – they occurred in every corner of the darkness. Countless annihilations and withering rose and fell one after another. Roland couldn't see this scene with his eyes, but his mind reflected it truthfully: distant cities caught fire and burned, the orbits surrounding the planet disintegrated and separated, the fish in the streams stopped swimming, and the worms in the caves rotted into a pool of filth…

Even his body floating in the void began to change and distort.

Whether life was advanced or primitive, there was no difference at this moment.

The snowflakes also occupied his entire field of vision at this time.

When everything ended, the scene of the bedroom returned to his eyes. Roland endured the intense discomfort, gritted his teeth, and moved to the window. The warm afternoon sunlight shone on his body, and the vibrant street below made him breathe a sigh of relief.

It was then that he realized his cheeks seemed a little wet.

He probed with his fingers and found it was a tear stain.