Chapter 354: The Fertile Soil Era That Has Disappeared with Time
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“That great battle back then? An opportunity to glimpse the ascension?”
As there were some new terms that Su Mo had never heard of before coming out of Connie’s mouth, he was slightly confused.
The lion clan had thirty chances to enter the wasteland. Once, they had taken the risk and used close to 200 slots. Out of the twenty to thirty thousand people who had entered the wasteland, surprisingly, none of them had an individual strength rating of 3.
Out of all the foreign races on the entire wasteland, among those people who had entered the wasteland during the past thirty chances, less than ten thousand of them had achieved an individual strength rating of 3.
What did that mean?
It meant that the individual path to ascension using mystical abilities was a dead end!
If Su Mo formulated an arithmetic division formula to calculate the ratio, given the total number of people in those thirty entries, and the resulting number of people whose individual strength rating exceeded 3…
The numbers indicated an incredibly pitiful ratio that was chillingly low. Any person with half a brain would not persist on this path.
“Yes. After I gained the role of Saintess, more and more things from the lion clan’s inherited memories have started to surface. These secrets were certainly not accessible to me in my previous role, but now they’re all unlocked somehow!”
“I could grasp some hints previously, but I couldn’t access the specific memories. However, after last night, when I went out to sea, the beginning and end of the great battle was made clear to me.”
Connie looked like she was recollecting some memories.
She had examined the memories in her mind, and it was as if she had experienced everything from a first-person perspective. While it was not real, it certainly felt so.
“The memories indicate that this continent wasn’t a wasteland in the past, but rather a fertile land blessed by countless gods, where humans, foreign races, fishes and beasts, all had their own territories. Under the condition that they did not infringe upon the gods’ authority, while there was still some friction between the different groups, things still stayed under control and they did not go overboard.”
“During those days, every living being had the opportunity to witness the ascension, whether it was humans or foreign races.”
She had noticed an important detail!
Seeing that Connie was actually able to use her status as Saintess and also utilize a bug to obtain such important information, Su Mo was overjoyed.
It seemed that his decision was not only the right one, but it had also brought about hidden benefits beyond his imagination. Connie would not try to take the credit for this, but even he himself as the decision-maker had not foreseen this.
“All creatures? Are you sure that humans are included?”
“Yes, but that era might be different from what you are imagining, Leader. If humans wanted to ascend, they couldn’t do so using martial arts. They could do so by reading, relying on the gods’ favor, or by making achievements in certain fields, or sometimes even by doing something that contributes to the continent.”
“In that era, there was no such thing as a god-transcending item. As long as you had talent, worked hard, and succeeded, you could ascend to become gods of various things. In the long era of the gods, they became the new generation of guardians of the continent.”
Su Mo’s expression was one that held a trace of “yearning”. “This doesn’t sound too bad!”
“It’s much better than “not too bad”! In that peaceful era, every god had a lifespan of 1.2 million years, which meant that you’d basically be immortal as long as you ascended. Not to mention that you’d possess great power as well.”
“When they had free time, the gods could take on various forms and descend upon the continent. They might look human, or like a foreign race, or even a wisp of wind, fire, or even a cup you drink water with. Their happiness was simply unimaginable.”
“But….”
Su Mo smiled faintly. “But after a long time of peace, after everyone lost the will to improve and advance, their land was invaded, right?”
Connie nodded, “Yes. Their methods of ascension were too conservative and too peaceful. Before the arrival of foreign enemies, the whole continent didn’t seem to have any problems. Once there was an enemy invasion though… Not to mention ordinary creatures, even the real gods did not have enough time to react. They could only watch as the enemy invaded the land, turning a paradise that could feed countless creatures into the wasteland that it is now.”
“After the war, when the path to ascension was completely cut off, individuals could no longer ascend to become gods through their own efforts.”
“They could only do so with a god-transcending item. They could only become a new god and regain the authority of a god after obtaining a god-transcending item.”
Su Mo said, “What about the great battle? Can you remember anything?”
Connie shook her head. “I can’t remember, no, I should say there are no stored memories about this event, only an abbreviated description of the great battle that shook the wasteland.”
Looking at Connie’s honest expression, Su Mo nodded and asked a few more detailed questions.
Connie, without any deception, answered the questions according to what she knew.
Half a day later, after dispatching Connie, along with Moore, to wash the dishes and pots, Su Mo put on the Simba onesie and returned to the main deck, deep in thought.
At night, on the wasteland’s ocean, without the complications of disasters, Su Mo felt comfortable as he enjoyed the sea breeze.
By now, the sun had completely set, and the moon, which replaced it, quietly rose.
The sea was glimmering with light. It was like a scene from a dream, almost as if he had traveled back in time to the period that Connie had described as the “Fertile Soil Era!”
“If what Connie said is true, the arrival of so many generations of humans is more like…”
“An invasion?”
Resting his elbows on the guardrails, Su Mo quietly pondered the extremely shocking information that Connie had provided tonight.
Like Earth, this wasteland had previously been a suitable place to live.
However, for some reason, this place, which had been far more advanced and developed compared to Earth, was “invaded”.
Some gods were killed. Others had escaped or fallen into deep slumber. Most of the authority had been taken back by the game, which administered the wasteland.
In this process, humans seemed to have played the role of…
Invaders!
Humans were treated like an endlessly growing crop of weeds. Every time the humans who were transported into the wasteland died out, the game would seize another group from elsewhere, and continue to transport them into the wasteland and force them to survive and endure the disasters.
The humans may have had miserable lives, as even they themselves likely did not know that they were considered as invaders. However, in the game’s plotline…
Humans were equivalent to the Fourth Disaster!
Connie had no idea where the game came from, or what it wanted. Su Mo, on the other hand, knew more, as he had become the God of Cooking by accident.
“There are three possibilities.”
“First, the game is from a fourth-dimensional world, and is a “program” set up in this three-dimensional world, just like how antivirus software is installed into computers, and is specifically tasked with cleaning up the worlds that can ascend.”
“As there used to be gods on this wasteland, and they used to have authority, it is very likely that they were close to succeeding, but ended up being targeted by the game, which was acting as a sweeper, and put down.”
“The gods fell, and even this continent suffered an unprecedented blow!”
“The second possibility concerns the Dark Forest Theory.1 The gods on this Wasteland had exposed their own coordinates and were being watched by enemies who were also three-dimensional, but far stronger than them.”
“The enemy arrived and started a chaotic war, looking to profit from it, and as a result the gods on the Wasteland either ended up dead or injured, or had fled from the wasteland. This enemy doesn’t possess the absolute strength to suppress everything, so in order to obtain all of the authority, they could only retain this intelligent program we call the game. They constantly captured three-dimensional creatures, and cornered the remaining gods so as to obtain the rest of the authority.”
“The third possibility…. They’re raising pigs!”
“When the pigs had been fattened up, it was time to slaughter them. It was just that some accident happened in the process of slaughtering those pigs, which resulted in the current situation.”
Su Mo had known Zhong Qingshu for so long that he ended up incorporating her “perspectives and conclusions theory” into his own thinking patterns. Now, in the process of analyzing the situation, Su Mo gleaned some insights.
Based on the information known so far, only those three possibilities could be deduced for the time being.
To be further informed of the truth of this wasteland that had disappeared with the passing of time, he had to first obtain the details of the battle from the beginning to the end, or he would have no way or place to start.
All three theories, no matter which one, posed a serious test and problem to the human beings now living on the wasteland, and even to Su Mo himself!
The enemy was hiding in the darkness, and the game was just a program that they had left behind.
Out of the trillions of human beings spanning various generations, none had succeeded in overthrowing it.
It was even allowed to continue capturing new humans and resetting the wasteland scenario so that its set objectives could be completed.
Even if the game was defeated, it did not necessarily mean that the enemy had been thwarted.
However, if he did not find a way to clamp down on the game, there would be even more disasters in the future, and humans would have absolutely no chance of survival!
“I must find a way to get more than 51% of the authority equity as soon as possible, so that I can go head-to-head with the game. Otherwise, when the real enemy behind the game appears, someone as glaringly extraordinary as me would be quickly extinguished!”
“At that time, even if the mysterious system can save me, all these ordinary human beings from Earth, my sister, my parents… I’m afraid they’ll all be destroyed!”
Su Mo rapped on the steel guardrails and listened to the thumping sounds. When thinking about the future, Su Mo’s heart was filled with anxiety.
Ordinary humans were still thinking about how to overcome seasickness, how to survive, and how to safely reach the New World.
High-level humans were secretly plotting methods to take on the foreign races and how to restore their once dominant position on Earth.
If Su Mo went on to tell those people rashly that their enemy was the game and the people behind the game…
For humans, whose technology was still stuck in the Middle Ages, this would achieve nothing except exposing Su Mo to his hidden enemies.
With great power came great responsibility!
Su Mo would have to shoulder everything himself!
“Tonight, all the foreign races must be killed! None of these treasure chests can escape!”
Having found another new enemy, Su Mo did not panic, but instead felt a surge of motivation!
Su Mo put his scattered thoughts to the side. As he listened to the radar scan results reported by the OS every two minutes, Su Mo steeled his gaze and strode back into the bridge.
Connie’s performance during the day was very good. In fact, it was so good that even Su Mo did not expect that these “enemies” would perform so well.
The Third squad hanging behind Hope One comprised about 5500 troops.
Under the control of the Five Royal Clans, they did not rush over rashly, but rather just followed behind, like an experienced hunter, to make sure they would not lose track of Hope One.
They were waiting for support from the other two teams. A total of twenty thousand troops planned to swarm over and take over Hope One in one fell swoop, taking down the Golden Lion King as well!
What they did not know was that Su Mo was also waiting for them!
According to the distance between them and the First squad, as well as the unit’s travel speed, they would only arrive here at 4am at the earliest.
Considering that they still have to recover and regain their strength, it was likely that the attack would be launched at 6am tomorrow, which was at dawn.
It was also…
The moment Su Mo would reap his harvest!
