The Truth Behind the Disaster

Varrela Calendar Year One, Old Calendar 1801.

A plague suddenly broke out in Varrela City.

Hair loss, bleeding, vomiting blood, diarrhea...

Just like the disaster back then, that invisible force returned, once again afflicting the Lord's devout followers.

The Archbishop led the Church and all the believers in the city in prayer to God.

The Goddess responded to everyone again.

She once again performed a miracle, using steel city walls to block the outside foul air, protecting the believers within Varrela City.

Chen Fan silently examined the text in the holographic image. After One's summary and processing, the disaster scene described in the text was more detailed.

He could even personally feel the despair and fear that the world-sweeping disaster brought to people from these cold words.

It's just...

What about the history before Old Calendar 1800?

Chen Fan frowned and asked One: Why is there still only history from Varrela Calendar Year One onwards?

[This unit has searched all book information and still has not found any written records detailing the period before Old Calendar 1800.]

[Among all the books, only one book mentioned relevant information.]

What did that book say?

Chen Fan's eyes lit up, and he suddenly felt that a breakthrough was within reach.

[That was a prosperous era for humanity, but unfortunately, the prosperity is no more.]

...And then?

[That's it.]

One's tone was very certain.

[Only this one sentence, and it was found in a hidden layer of a book.]

As the words were spoken, a holographic image of a book had already appeared before Chen Fan's eyes.

Simple Mechanical Principles

Still only the book title, no author name.

Unlike other beautifully packaged books, this book titled Simple Mechanical Principles was very old.

It had neither a gorgeous cover nor any exquisite decorations.

The tattered, light yellow pages were directly exposed to the outside, and the font on them appeared somewhat blurred due to the passage of time.

Mechanical principles?

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow: The Church Library actually collected a book like this?

It was no wonder he was surprised. From the beginning until now, besides various theological texts, he had hardly seen any books related to natural science.

[It should be related to the content recorded in the book.]

[The author of this book... he attributed all the beauty of machinery to the Goddess, claiming that the Goddess created the intricate machinery.]

[However, putting aside those meaningless words, the mechanical and mathematical principles recorded in this book are still quite good.]

[At least it can be considered a nascent work of natural science.]

...

Good heavens, you can do it this way?

But don't say it, the effect is indeed good—in this world where the Church controls everything, it's already a blessing that it could be preserved safely.

[That sentence about the period before Old Calendar 1800 is hidden in the hidden layer of the last page of the book.]

Following One's guidance, Chen Fan took out the book from an unnoticed bookshelf.

He carefully turned the somewhat tattered pages, his eyes filled with emotion.

To inform future generations of the past glory, this should be the last obsession of the author of this book, right?

Looking at the book in front of him, a thought couldn't help but flash through Chen Fan's mind.

But unfortunately, after so many years, this book is still lying safely in the library—meaning no one has discovered the painstaking efforts of this anonymous author.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

He sighed softly and returned to the table with the book: One, what do you think is the truth of this disaster?

[The database of this unit cannot retrieve natural disasters related to these keywords.]

Chen Fan shook his head, feeling a bit troubled.

Mysterious power? Invisible things? A city-wide plague caused by foul air?

Chen Fan couldn't imagine such a subjective scene.

A perfectly good technological civilization, it wouldn't suddenly change its style to a fantasy one, right?

Wait?

Technological civilization?

The prosperous era that ceased to exist before Old Calendar 1800?

Several clues quickly connected in Chen Fan's mind.

He frowned tightly, trying to grasp the fleeting inspiration that was like a firefly.

"...Nuclear war."

After a long silence, he suddenly opened his eyes and squeezed out three terrifying syllables from between his teeth.

[Nuclear war?]

It must be, it's definitely nuclear war!

Realizing that the window paper in front of him was about to be pierced, Chen Fan's breathing suddenly became rapid: And it was a super-large-scale nuclear war!

The fireball hanging high in the sky is a detonating nuclear bomb!

Storms, gales, those are the shockwaves from the nuclear explosion!

The mysterious power invisible to the naked eye is the nuclear radiation produced by the nuclear bomb explosion!

The rain sent down by the Goddess should be some kind of medicine that can deal with nuclear radiation.

Chen Fan's eyes flickered with brilliance, and his emotions became agitated: As for the epidemic in the second year... I suspect it was a sequela caused by nuclear radiation.

As for the foul air outside the city, that's completely air filled with radioactive dust!

One was silent for a moment, seemingly calculating something.

[The calculation results are out.]

[The probability exceeds 80%.]

[Considering the information hidden in the interlayer, the probability can be increased to 90%.]

No, something seems wrong.

Upon closer thought, Chen Fan vaguely sensed some problems.

The timeline doesn't quite match up!

If the disaster was a nuclear war, and if the era before Old Calendar 1800 was truly a time of technological prosperity, then the person who wrote these words must have known the truth about the nuclear explosion. Why would they leave behind such obscure and idealistic descriptive language?

[If it was truly a full-scale nuclear war, those who witnessed the nuclear explosion should all be dead.]

One's words carried a hint of black humor: [So the descriptive scenes you see were likely passed down through countless mouths.]

[Coupled with the Church's embellishment and modification, it naturally became the current obscure version.]

Chen Fan's eye twitched slightly.

That makes so much sense, he was actually powerless to refute it!

Then...

Who was the object of their nuclear war?

The Goddess?

Just as the previous round of confusion was resolved, another wave of questions surfaced in Chen Fan's mind.

[There is a certain possibility, but there is a logical conflict.]

What?

[If the object of the nuclear war was the Goddess, in a sense, this confirms that the Goddess is an alien civilization that has mastered high technology.]

Is there a problem?

She can easily stop an ongoing nuclear explosion and can also deal with the radiation produced by the nuclear explosion. Isn't that technological level high enough?

[Barely.]

One's voice was somewhat disdainful: [But the logical conflict this unit is talking about is not here, it's further on.]

[If the object of the nuclear war was really the Goddess, and the Goddess is an alien civilization, why would She save the survivors of the nuclear explosion?]

...

Chen Fan immediately fell silent.

Yes.

If the other party was truly an alien civilization invading this planet, there would be no need for Her to waste energy saving people!

Could it be...

Was it really as he had previously imagined, that this struggling alien civilization wanted to seek "help" from a lower civilization?

[Stop daydreaming.]

[Besides a little human resources, is there anything else worth mentioning about the backward civilization you are in?]

[For a primary Interstellar Civilization, the value of these human resources is far less than the planet you are standing on.]

ps: Short and cute too.JPG