“Are you telling a science fiction story?” Luo Jian asked Ying this, but it was not to ridicule him. He was simply just asking.
Ying shook his head: “No, no! It’s not science fiction, of course. It’s what happens in reality, but you don’t know how great and exciting this part of history is.”
“So you came here from the future?”
Ying continued to shake his head: “No, I do not belong to any time or space. Because I have been wandering for a long time, I have forgotten where I came from.”
After hearing this sentence, Luo Jian paused. He tilted his head slightly, glanced at Ying hesitantly, and asked tentatively, “Well…… did you build this chamber space, the Crimson Asura Realm?”
Ying laughed: “You finally asked something important. What I can tell you is that the Crimson Asura Realm…… I built part of it.”
“Just a part of it?”
“Only a part of it,” Ying said: “The other parts were built by several of my companions. Unfortunately, as I said before, all eight people died except me, so this chamber is not completely constructed, and I can’t continue building it on my own. I can only maintain its existence. As long as I sit here, the Crimson Asura Realm will exist here forever.”
This surprised Luo Jian, who has rarely felt his emotions fluctuate. He squinted at Ying and said, “Your group can create a world.”
“Of course, but it takes a lot of time. It’s not akin to some mythical gods who can create a complete world in seven days. We can’t do all that. We need a lot more time, probably about a few thousand years’ time.”
“Then why do you need to build this, to build this space?”
“This has something to do with the history of the future that I said previously. You interrupted me, but now I can continue the story. Where did I stop earlier?”
Luo Jian blinked and replied to Ying, “You mentioned human evolution and that these humans leave Earth.”
Ying laughed again and continued: “Yes, yes, human beings had exhausted all the resources of Earth. They concluded that Earth was no longer suitable for living things, so they left. That was about 100 million years ago.”
“If what you say is true, human technology would be quite powerful at that time, right?” A flash of inspiration suddenly hit Luo Jian. Henceforth, he thought of something and guessed: “Was the secret chamber’s space also created by the humans of the future?”
“Oh! You’re quite imaginative. You’re partly correct.” Ying parted his hair a little and revealed half of his face. Unexpectedly, Ying’s voice sounded as if he lived through plenty of hardships, but he had the face of a capable, young man, and his face even looked like a youth’s face.
Ying took a deep breath and continued to narrate: “In fact, the migration of human beings from Earth was not successful. They travelled through space using giant spaceships, and they searched for the next planet that they could survive on. This process lasted for a hundred years. Finally, they finally found a planet with sufficient conditions: the atmospheric environment, plants, and soil were suitable for human survival…… The planet was named ‘Polaris.’”
“Northern Polaris……” Luo Jian murmured to himself as he listened to Ying’s story.
Ying did not pay attention to Luo Jian’s mumbling. He paused and continued: “Unfortunately, there were aborigines on Polaris, commonly known to us as ‘aliens.’ They did not welcome the arrival of the Earthlings. They regarded the Earthlings as invaders.
“The aborigines on the Polaris were a group of ferocious beasts. The way they evolved was quite different from that of human beings. They didn’t have such powerful intelligence to craft technology and couldn’t use bombs, guns, explosives, and other similar technologies. But they possessed unparalleled biotechnology, and that is something really terrifying.”
“Biotechnology?” Luo Jian could not understand what this word meant very well. He voiced out a question to Mr Ying.
Ying answered Luo Jian’s question honestly: “As we are on the topic of biotechnology…… Do you know what materials modern Earthlings utilize to create suits of armour for themselves? “
“Uh……” Luo Jian hesitated for a moment and replied, “Steel? Tough fabric? Maybe they’d fix a GPS on their body? Or something like that? I’m not very clear about it.”
“Do you know what kind of armour the Earthlings will make for themselves in the future?”
Luo Jian frowned and thought for a long time: “You’re making things difficult for me. I can’t imagine that, but I have a feeling I can guess that our future technology is akin to that of some science fiction movies with heavy protective armour. Once someone presses a few buttons on the arm, a virtual display screen will pop out…”
Ying laughed again: “You are still very imaginative, and indeed that’s how it is. In the future, humans’ clothing and daily life are inseparable from electronic technology. Even in battle, there are all kinds of computers that can calculate the combat effectiveness and degree of damage using the technology’s incredible computing power.
“But the aborigines on Polaris were different. Their technology and biology were inseparable. Can you imagine that? They wore creatures on their bodies. Their armour was some sort of creature. Their warships, spaceships, and weapons were all made of life. These guys, no matter whether they were young or old, were good fighters. Almost all of them were soldiers. Even the newly born children would take up weapons and could strike you a fatal blow.”
“Yes, it was a battling ethnicity. In fact, their level of advancement in technology was not inferior to that of human beings, but the direction of their evolution was not quite the same. Moreover, this race has a strong sense of unity. Unlike human beings who are relatively scattered mentally, they will unite against outsiders. They soon defeated the invading Earthlings.”
Ying stopped speaking for a long time when he said this. He was silent and seemed to be thinking about something. Luo Jian said nothing at first, waiting for him to continue, but Ying refused to speak for a long time. Luo Jian could not help but ask, “What happened after?”
Ying shook his head and sighed, “Although human beings had failed and been expelled from Polaris, having tragically lost most of the human population, greedy human beings stole the biotechnology on Polaris. Human beings tried to use this biotechnology and their own technology to make weapons that were more superior…… In fact, we can ignore this part of history and not discuss it. The key point is that later, mankind had indeed created a very, very powerful weapon.
“The weapon was made, but shortly after, humans found out that they had no soldiers worthy of it.”
Luo Jian couldn’t help frowning when he heard this and said, “Soldiers worthy of weapons? What do you mean?”
“The biotechnology on Planet Polaris is very interesting. Their weapons will pick their owners on their own accords. If the master’s ability is not strong enough, they will not be able to control that weapon. Naturally, their weapons will also not obey their orders.”
“Weapons also have self-awareness, right?” Luo Jian understood this. He thought for a while, but he could not help but take a glimpse at the red umbrella in his hand, which was obtained after thousands of battles.
“Yes, super biological weapons with self-awareness can not only evolve themselves into superior living weapons but also choose suitable masters to evolve together. If their masters are not strong enough to be equipped with the weapons, the weapons will eat or kill their masters.”
“After speaking to this point, you’ll understand after taking a look at your weapon in your hands.” Ying looked at Luo Jian. He fixed his eyes on Luo Jian’s umbrella. After a moment of silence, he went on: “The secret chamber space was originally called the ‘Transmigration’ (Transmigration) system, or ‘TR system’ for short. It was a system-like holographic virtual game similar to those described in some novels and movies. They put a lot of soldiers into this virtual world, and the system would build a variety of dangerous environments to train the soldiers’ physical fitness and ability, and most importantly, to train them to be compatible with their superior weapons.”
“So was this the origin of the chamber’s space? But how could the secret chamber pull us in…… People such as us…” In the end, Luo Jian was flabbergasted. He felt that his mind was slightly in a mess, and he even began to speak in a muddle-headed fashion.
“So that’s what happened next.” Ying unconsciously overlapped his hands. He swallowed some saliva to moisten his dry throat and continued: “In fact, the TR system was a failed product, but it was still very successful. When it was created, people found something unusual. They found that this weird system was not virtual. It seemed that due to some unforeseen mistakes with the combination of biotechnology…… yes, the so-called virtual spaces created by the system were not just virtual data…… People were placed there in reality. In the TR system, if you got injured and die, you’d really die.
“The human government quickly discovered their mistake. They believed that this strange system that could create another reality would bring unexpected troubles to mankind, so they temporarily sealed and suspended the ‘transmigration plan.’ But as you know, there are always people who will be different from others and look to seek trouble.”
“Did someone start the system without permission?”
“You’re almost right: There were some fellows with ulterior motives who recaptured the core of the system and activated it. But you have to know that this ‘TR system’ was also made by combining the biotechnology on Polaris, that is to say, this system is just like a weapon…… It also evolves itself. It even knows how to escape. I don’t know what happened afterwards, but in short, the TR system has come to Earth in the modern time after leaping over a hundred million years.”
“This is a disaster!” Luo Jian was stunned by the information.
Ying raised his head and looked at Luo Jian with his young face: “And you are at the epicentre of the disaster.”
“What about you? Did you follow this system and leap over a hundred million years to arrive here?” At first, Luo Jian felt that with Ying’s identity and how he remained in the system space together with the system, Ying had likely traversed across time together with it.
However, Ying denied Luo Jian’s deduction, and thereafter, he shook his head: “No, when the system leapt here across time, it did not bring anyone else. It did not bring with it warriors or aliens from the future.”
“How do you know all this?” Luo Jian felt even more incredulous. The information was like someone detonated tons of bombs on him, and he was absolutely shocked.
“I know all this because…… because…” Ying was stuck again. He was in great pain and grabbed a fistful of his hair with his hands. After hesitating several moments, he finally said, “That’s because my team and I found this high-end technology from the future. We found this system! Because it had leapt over a hundred million years in time, it had also consumed a huge amount of energy! It was almost completely destroyed to the point where it was beyond recognition. It was not able to move any longer, but its core was still intact!”
“Could it be that…… you…” Luo Jian’s eyes widened as he gazed at Ying, and an ominous premonition gradually surfaced in his heart.
“Yes, yes!” Ying once again grabbed a fistful of his hair with much force, as if he was trying to pull a layer of his scalp out. He said: “We discovered this terrifying technology from the future, but we were also very excited. We learned the advanced technology brought forth from the future, and we even tried to transform the core of the system until it went out of our control. And it became what it is today—and you know, in the beginning, we merely thought it was just a game. We had really wanted to make something like a holographic game!”
“And the holographic game you wanted to create has killed tens of thousands of people or even more!
“If you had ignored that system and let it rot in some corner in the beginning, I think I would still be sitting at home eating my food leisurely now! My friends wouldn’t be trapped in some inexplicable punishment chamber, waiting for me to rescue them!”
Luo Jian was unconsciously filled with wrath. He had struggled in this secret chamber for so long. He witnessed countless people dying and reviving, and it turned out that because a few inexplicable fellows wanted to create a game, it had evolved into what it is today!
Ying could not help but stretch out his hand to gesture a ‘stop’ action. He was breathing unsteadily, but he still tried to pacify Luo Jian: “Calm down! Luo Jian, I also didn’t wish for it to turn out this way, but reality had already solidified…… and what we need to do now is to think of how to salvage our situation.”
T/N: No doubt, we’ll have to delve deep into the origins of the secret chamber albeit it being slightly boring, like any other unlimited flow stories. But again, more unexplained stuff will be explained in the following chapters, so please look forward to it!
Unfortunately, Kitty has misplaced her laptop, so the edited chapters wouldn’t be up so soon. Please bear with my self-edited chapters for now, and if you spot any grammatical errors, please let me know. Thank you! This chapter is edited.