Malicious Transfer

"Holy shit, you, you spit it out right now!"

After staring at his Career Panel for ten minutes, Ming Yuanwu grew a little anxious.

The golden rivers continued to flow, and the panel continued to suck in. He felt as if his body was a funnel, water flowing in from above and spraying out from below, until nothing was left.

"Brother, brother! At least leave me some!"

But the Career Panel greedily absorbed everything, leaving nothing behind. All the Power of Faith that Ming Yuanwu had at his disposal was absorbed, and Ming Yuanwu couldn't even stop the Celestial Rail.

Ming Yuanwu and Heavenly Soul were both out of options.

Three days later, he finally went to find the goddess of brothels.

Before Ming Yuanwu could even voice his question, the Goddess of Light smiled and introduced him to a deity.

"Come here. This is Clotho, the Ninth-Generation Goddess of Life, who has only held her divine position for less than two hundred years. You may get to know her."

Ming Yuanwu looked over. There stood a girl in a plain-colored robe. Her robe was light green, without any patterns or decorations. Her hands were wrapped with weaving thread, which spun between her fingers, weaving something unseen. Her eyes were calm and undisturbed.

Ming Yuanwu glanced at it twice, not forgetting that his main quest was to become stronger and return home. He turned to the Goddess of Light and spoke:

"Um, mine--"

The Goddess of Light interrupted him directly:

"You two chat for a bit, maybe you can become partners? The Fourth-Generation Main God is here, I have other things to attend to, I'll be leaving now."

The next instant, the Goddess of Light vanished. Ming Yuanwu, still in his mortal body, could not see the trace of her departure.

"Um..." Ming Yuanwu hesitated and looked at Clotho.

Clotho looked him up and down, but his expression remained blank, as if he had facial paralysis.

"You've held the divine position for several days now, so why are you still a mortal? Where has your share of Power of Faith gone?"

Ming Yuanwu's heart tightened, fearing that his collusion with the Evil God would be discovered, and his palms became slightly sweaty.

Ignoring Ming Yuanwu's nervousness, Clotho continued emotionlessly:

"Let's forget about the partner who maliciously transferred premarital assets."

Ming Yuanwu: "..."

Suddenly I understand why the Evil God called the Scholar opposed the Divine Court.

"So, you're not native to the Land of Darkness either, and like us, you accidentally fell in?"

Layton sat calmly in the empty room. His voice could not travel there, but the fluctuations formed by his Divine Power constantly reverberated, conveying his words to the listener.

A group of formless creatures were observing him, and Layton could clearly sense them.

The bodies of those beings existed between spirit and data, like compressed nebulae, moving slowly in his perception. They had no fixed shape, but each nebula radiated a unique energy fluctuation.

"Of course, I was once an ordinary civilian from a planetary civilization. I've only been here for half a year, and I've already reached this level."

The creatures watching nearby exchanged bewildered glances and then ended their call with Layton.

"He wasn't lying; the surrounding terrain suggests that the most recent activity by a highly humanoid being occurred more than a month ago."

"That's not a reason. What we need to figure out is why we're here. Secondly, most of our technology is unusable, and many civilians have already died."

"He means cooperation. Should we cooperate with him?"

"I think it's possible..."

Layton, seeing that the guys had stopped communicating again, knew they had entered into an encrypted call, and began to ponder to himself.

This civilization has a simple name: its Survival System is called [String]. It is very powerful and has a unique social structure.

Members of lower and middle-level civilizations still possess physical bodies, but the bodies of members of higher-level civilizations become a mixture of spirit and data, capable of moving freely in reality, existing between the virtual and the real.

I don't know what their special skills are, but Layton is truly impressed by these guys. Not long ago, they destroyed an area of over a billion kilometers around them, including Layton's own region. This is the first time I've seen something so outrageous.

If the Survivors in the area hadn't already fled in their Warships, they would all be dead; anyone who came would die.

The gist of it is that [String] encountered a monster much stronger than a level 10 Lord, and most of the civilization's weapons were unusable, so it released a Black Hole, which then expanded without limit.

I almost made Layton wet himself. I teleported away and discussed it with the Scholar. Now I'm back to discuss cooperation.

"Aren't Black Holes supposed to expand indefinitely? How come you weren't swallowed by Black Hole?"

He didn't know much about Black Holes, but he knew that once they formed, they would suck in everything around them; even light couldn't escape at close range, let alone mortal beings.

The translucent creatures stopped communicating, and after a moment, one of them answered his question:

"At the time, our civilization was facing a crisis, and most of our weapons were unusable. We decided to deploy a [Dark Star], abandoning the lower and middle-level members while the higher-level members fled. However, the [Dark Star] inexplicably stopped expanding when it reached about ten thousand standard Fixed Star masses, so our civilization retained a small portion of its population."

"That's probably because they absorbed Abyss [Abyss] and were then punished by it."

Layton replied calmly.

New civilizations are arriving on the outskirts of every region, and the World Channel has been buzzing with activity lately. Some regions have been wiped out, while others have formed alliances, with information flying everywhere.

Every civilization that wanted to explore outwards, like the first Survivors to leave the area, was troubled by the [Abyss]. Creatures that went in or messed with it were all infected.

However, based on the spatial and strange nature of the [Abyss], people suspect that the method for connecting different areas is hidden within the [Abyss], since this underworld creature is likely to be encountered in all areas.

"[The Abyss]...?"

The translucent creatures began to converse again. Layton couldn't understand them, but he could bypass their blockade and directly sense their emotions, which shifted from initial suspicion and wariness to a loosening of their inclination towards cooperation.

Having spent so much time in the Land of Darkness and the heavens, it's normal for Layton to have a few tricks up his sleeve.

"We still have to cooperate," one of the groups concluded. "This place is too eerie. If we try to explore it on our own, we don't know how many people and resources we'll have to sacrifice."

"That's right. The most urgent task is to modify the foundation of the technology. There are many types of energy in the environment, which are extremely unique. Our equipment needs to be recalibrated, redesigned, and remanufactured. This will take time and manpower."

Moments later, Layton and [String] reached an agreement.

"Indeed, the Scholars were right; Technology Side civilizations are the most cooperative."