Chapter 83

"Ah——"

A corpse howled mindlessly.

Suddenly, a hand emerged from the void and slapped its face hard.

The corpse howled even louder.

"It seems it has no self-awareness," Wuxiaode said.

"Indeed, their duty is to guard this place," the team leader also said.

The two of them slid down the terrace and soon reached the underground.

They walked straight through the crowd of corpses in the square.

A demonic hand stretched out and pushed hard in front of them—

The church doors burst open with a loud bang.

Inside, the entire floor was covered with long hands, and in the center, a vertical pupil was tightly closed.

The hands were densely packed, covering every visible area.

"Heavenly Ladder," Wuxiaode said softly.

"Yes, their power is exhausted, and they are all in a deep sleep now... I wonder what happened here," the team leader said.

"Look," Wuxiaode said.

At the end of the cathedral, the statue that was being worshipped moved slightly.

Is it alive?

The two of them were puzzled.

The statue held a black staff high and murmured, "Oh, Demon God, please descend here, cleanse all unrest for the Lord of Darkness, I beseech—"

In a flash, a demonic hand suddenly appeared, yanked the black staff out of the statue's hand, and took it away.

Another demonic hand emerged, stuffing a crystal into the statue's mouth.

—That was the magic crystal bomb the demonic hand had taken from the lizardman during the last battle!

The statue, now without the black staff and with a bomb in its mouth, could not continue the incantation.

The dark fluctuations that had just emerged quickly subsided.

The two demonic hands grabbed the black staff and hurriedly vanished into the void.

In the next instant.

Boom!!

A massive explosion echoed throughout the cathedral.

Wuxiaode and the team leader hid by the side of the church wall, listening to the explosions inside.

The team leader thought for a moment, took Wuxiaode's hand, and wrote a few words:

"Your hands are really dirty."

"Thanks," Wuxiaode wrote back.

"Don't misunderstand, it's a compliment."

"Thank you, thank you."

The explosion finally subsided.

The two of them looked inside the church and saw that the statue had been blown to pieces, leaving only a pair of feet standing on the platform.

—It should be safe now.

Thud!

A heart-stopping sound came from deep within the earth.

The hands in the church shook and opened their eyes.

A grand and profound voice echoed from deep within the earth:

"Who... is attacking the Holy Temple?"

Wuxiaode's face changed.

No.

How could this be!

It's the voice of the Cyclops!

I can't be wrong.

Could it actually exist deep within the earth of this world?

The ground continued to tremble, as if something was rapidly approaching the surface.

The team leader's face also changed.

"I can sense death approaching," she said, holding a soil escape talisman and whispering, "Xiaowu, let's go!"

"It's no use, we're too far from the surface, and there are monsters everywhere if we try to return," Wuxiaode said.

The team leader looked back at him, surprised.

As a warrior, how could he say such discouraging words at a time like this?

Wuxiaode said softly, "In the village, I found something that might be useful now."

He took out the small box from his pocket.

—The departed spirit had warned him to open it only when there was no other way out, or it wouldn't work.

Now…

The Cyclops is about to emerge.

It must be considered a desperate situation.

Wuxiaode opened the box.

Inside was a silver cylinder, which immediately emitted blue light like electric currents as soon as it was exposed to them.

Long hands were already emerging from the surrounding soil, carefully exploring the situation.

Suddenly, an electronic voice came from the silver cylinder:

"Emergency situation, preparing for teleportation."

As the voice sounded, the long hands burst from the ground, surrounding Wuxiaode and the team leader.

But in the next instant, everything took a different turn.

The silver cylinder emitted a high-frequency vibration, as if activating a program.

When the long hands surged from all sides, the device suddenly emitted a thick smoke and entered a burning state, with the direct result being—

Wuxiaode and the team leader disappeared.

And the device emitted its final electronic voice:

"Space jump complete."

…

Darkness.

In the darkness, a faint light appeared on the wall, illuminating a map.

Wuxiaode and the team leader, as soon as they appeared on the silver-gray teleportation platform, were immediately drawn to the map.

"Team leader, have you ever seen a map of the world when you were teleported here?" Wuxiaode asked.

"In fact, the first time I came to this world, I intended to find a world map, but maps seem to be a taboo here, and ordinary people can't get them," the team leader said.

"As a professional, the first priority when teleported here is to survive," Wuxiaode said.

"The second priority is to quickly kill the monsters and leave safely," the team leader said.

"So, this is the first time you've seen this map?"

"Yes."

The two of them spoke softly, as if afraid to disturb something.

In fact, this was a steel base, covered in thick layers of dust, clearly unused for a long time.

There was nothing to disturb.

But they were still hesitant and tense, even afraid to move their feet.

Until a few minutes later.

Wuxiaode took a deep breath and said, "We still need to confirm."

"Yes, we must confirm," the team leader said.

"Then—"

"Let's go and take a closer look."

"Okay, together?"

"Together."

The two of them slowly moved to the wall and looked at the world map together.

Silence.

No one spoke.

After a while, Wuxiaode took an uneasy step back, suddenly realizing his back was drenched in sweat.

He looked at the team leader.

Her eyes were full of shock and horror, unable to recover for a long time.

This world map was not particularly unusual.

The oceans and continents were not marked in great detail, and due to its age, many parts had become blurred.

At the bottom, a line of small text read:

"World Map."

Yes, it was indeed a world map.

It was the world map of this other world.

But—

If it were used to mark the real world where Wuxiaode and the team leader lived—

There would be no discrepancies.

Two worlds.

Completely identical.

What is going on!

Wuxiaode took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, before turning to look at the buttons and text on the wall.

Switch, power, communication, monitoring, solar charging, passage protection door…

Yes.

The text in this world was exactly the same as in the real world.

The continents were also exactly the same.

Why?

Wuxiaode hesitated, then reached out and pressed the button labeled "communication."

Drip…

A noisy sound came from the speaker on the wall.

"Hello, is anyone there?" Wuxiaode asked.

The team leader also turned her head, looking attentive.

The two of them waited quietly for a while.

There was no response.

Just as Wuxiaode was about to reach out to turn it off, a hoarse male voice suddenly came through:

"There is no tomorrow, no tomorrow, no tomorrow…"

He repeated it three times, his voice filled with indescribable despair and loss.

"Hello, hello? Who are you? I've been teleported here through spatial technology. How can I contact you?" Wuxiaode asked urgently.

The hoarse male voice, as if not hearing, said in a dazed manner:

"All humans should be dead, but I always hope that a few people managed to survive this catastrophe."

"This is the last message."

"The current time is the 2125th year of the Divine Era, summer, July 22nd."

"Listen, if you are human, you can naturally receive this message through various electronic devices."

"Please find the identity cards we left behind—"

"If you obtain such a thing, go to the following address:"

"Latitude 32°20′ N, Longitude 64°45′ W;"

"Underground: 135.12 meters."

"It will not be affected."

"Go there."

"Whatever you do, do not leave that place until the new era arrives—"

The man's words were again drowned out by static.

"Hello, hello! Don't go!" Wuxiaode said urgently.

But there was no response.

Wuxiaode wanted to continue communicating, but the team leader tugged at his sleeve.

"What?" Wuxiaode asked.

The team leader's face was strange, unable to speak for a long time, but she looked at Wuxiaode's waist.

Wuxiaode looked down.

The canteen—

Yes, when they entered the underground, he had taken a canteen.

"Are you thirsty? I haven't drunk from it yet, you can have it," Wuxiaode said, taking the canteen and handing it to the team leader.

The team leader silently took it, looking down at the canteen in her hand but not opening it to drink.

"What's wrong?" Wuxiaode was puzzled.

He looked at the canteen and saw the team leader using her hand to trace the words on it.

Those words…

"Sealed energy liquid, United Era 2035, March production, shelf life one year."

Wuxiaode suddenly came to his senses.

He opened his mouth wide, unable to close it, and said in a daze, "No way…"

The team leader, looking down, said softly, "The man said—"

Wuxiaode said, "He was in the 2125th year of the Divine Era, summer, July 22nd."

"So you didn't actually communicate with him," the team leader said.

"It seems it was really a message, from the 2125th year of the Divine Era, summer, July 22nd," Wuxiaode said.

"And the current era is the United Era 2035, March," the team leader said.

"Our world's time is based on the Fuxi Empire, as it is the oldest country," Wuxiaode said.

"We are in the Fuxi Era—completely different from them!" the team leader said.

This statement did not comfort Wuxiaode, nor did it comfort her.

Both of them realized something.

—The truth about the other world was right before their eyes!

"The general urged us to dig underground, and we found a refrigerator, a broken mech arm, and a 92027-type advanced humanoid combat mech."

"Digging… is the simplest way to find relics from the past era."

"We were teleported to a place created in the Divine Era—this message proves it."

"That means—"

"We, in the United Era 2035, dug up a mech from the previous era, the Divine Era."

Both of them fell silent.

It was truly astonishing.

The team leader said, "But this doesn't explain the map…"

Yes.

Even though they knew the other world had two eras, the past and the present, why was the map of the other world identical to their own world's map?

Wuxiaode walked to the map and examined it again, muttering, "We need to figure out where we are, and then…"

"Then what?" the team leader asked.

"Go to the Fuxi Empire of this world—go to the capital, and see what's different!"