Divine Seal

At this moment, inside the Pitch Black and deathly silent passage.

Using the Flashlight beam from his Mechanical Battle Armor, Zai Zong saw the huge, rusty mechanical door and the severely corroded signboard next to it.

On it, the anomaly number A-FBC-1000 was clearly written using some kind of engraving technique.

Unsurprisingly, this control room belongs to that branch of the same human family.

At this moment, Zai Zong couldn't wait to step forward, wanting to see the true nature of this anomaly.

However, he had already prepared himself for the possibility that the place would be empty or only contain bones.

After all, it seems that a very long time has passed in this parallel world, long enough that life has disappeared.

Moreover, even if there is any danger, his Mechanical Battle Armor will prevent those anomalies and people from seeing him.

So overall it's quite safe, like an observer's perspective.

Therefore, the Zai Zong fearless and has an explosive curiosity.

"Come on, brothers, let's witness some living history together. The creatures here come from a highly advanced civilization from the past."

As he spoke, Zai Zong arrived at the door.

Sure enough, the rusty mechanical door was tightly shut.

And because of the power outage, it is impossible to open.

Unless violence continues!

In addition, the sharp-eyed Zai Zong also spotted a skeleton dressed in security uniform by the door, with a gun in its hand.

"We have guns! Brothers, we have pistols! But are they still usable!?"

Zai Zong forward and tried to pick it up, because this VR Game claims that you can pick up anything you can see.

The pistol in front of them should be no exception.

However, as it turns out, the gun in front of them was indeed usable.

Zai Zong got close, the game entered a real-time rendered animation.

The game's protagonist slowly crouched down and picked up the gun from the skeleton's hand.

Under the Flashlight beam, dust swirled around the gun, the thick layer of grime obscuring its former shine and making it appear very old.

"Tsk tsk, so much dust. Can a gun that hasn't been maintained still be used? I hope it doesn't misfire or explode."

The game's protagonist put away his gun, and then Zai Zong regained control.

So he punched the mechanical door in front of him.

Suddenly, a loud crash occurred, raising a cloud of dust.

No matter how many times he did this, he always felt dashing and incredibly brave.

"Haha, this armor makes me feel like a war god."

With Zai Zong walked through the billowing dust and stepped into the control room.

At a glance, one can see a cylindrical, life-sustaining mechanical device in the very center.

Its surface is made of a smooth, mirror-like reflective material, making it impossible to see the inside of the cylinder.

"Damn it, I can't see inside."

Zai Zong arrived in front of the cylinder, he could clearly see the dimly Pitch Black environment of the control room through the smooth mirror surface and the light from his Flashlight.

But unexpectedly, he couldn't see himself.

Yes, this cylindrical surface reflects the environment, but it cannot reflect one's own image.

This left Zai Zong speechless.

Although many games are like this, the main character has a model, but the model cannot be seen in the game's glass or mirror.

If it were another game, Zai Zong would be understandable, since games need optimization and to reduce unnecessary resources.

But in the case of Only Game, something is a little off.

The production team had been very thorough in their work, so how could they have overlooked this detail?

Or perhaps they considered many possibilities, but overlooked mirror reflection?

The Zai Zong he thought of this.

"Well, it doesn't affect the gameplay anyway. If the mirror can't reflect the subject, it can't. The mirror in ' The Visage ' can't reflect the main character either."

So, Zai Zong stopped worrying about that and stepped forward to touch the cylindrical device in front of him.

The next second, the game entered real-time calculation mode.

This means the plot has begun, and maybe 1000 is still alive?

At that moment, Zai Zong became excited.

The viewers and fans in the live stream held their breath and stared intently.

At this moment in the game, the protagonist slowly reaches out his hand.

But before they even touched the life support device in front of them, a voice came from inside.

[I can see you. Hairless race.]

The game's protagonist was startled, and his hand, which was about to touch the object, froze in place.

Because the voice was extremely strange, it was not a language known to humankind.

The reason Zai Zong was able to understand was because there were subtitles in front of him.

The game directly translated the heavy, jarring tone from before.

"This is the language of the 1000 races? Holy crap, can he see me in there?"

Zai Zong frowned slightly. Was the invisibility function of his armor only effective against humans?

Soon, as if to dispel the player's doubts, the cylindrical device emitted another incomprehensible, deep sound in the game.

[Conceptual fine-tuning, mechanical absolute exclusionary protective gear, remove it; cognitive shielding ineffective, ineffective...]

The strange tone of voice made Zai Zong raise his eyebrows.

"Wow, those are some really high-level terms. I don't quite understand them. What's this 'conceptual fine-tuning' and 'cognitive shielding'? Does it refer to invisibility?"

At this moment, the game's protagonist, who was frozen in place, twitched slightly and clutched his head.

Then, a metallic scraping sound rang out.

The mechanical helmet on his head was removed.

Suddenly, Zai Zong noticed that the smooth cylinder, which had previously failed to reflect the protagonist's image, was now being reflected normally.

However, due to the distortion, the main character's appearance is not clearly visible.

This scene left him somewhat taken aback.

Then Zai Zong realized that the Mechanical Battle Armor's stealth function had also worked on him.

I initially thought the production team hadn't considered this.

In fact, the development team did create it, but the effect of the armor was simply not visible to the naked eye.

Now that the helmet is removed, the invisibility function is naturally gone, so the figure can be seen.

"Damn, this makes perfect sense! In other games, they'd probably just cut it off immediately, but this one fits the setting so well!"

My Zai Zong liking this game more and more.

Now, after the protagonist removes the helmet, the cylindrical device once again emits the language of a non-human race.

[It's you? No. This isn't you. I understand now, he succeeded, the exchange was successful.]

You're so pitiful.

What's the meaning?

Zai Zong frowned slightly, completely bewildered by what he heard. But before he could think about it further, four dialogue options appeared in front of him.

1. Are you A-FBC-1000?

2. A hairless race?

3. Why is this protective gear ineffective for you?

4. (Remaining silent)

The Zai Zong ignored the fourth one first, and then chose from the remaining three.

He thought about it and realized that there was no need to ask questions 1 and 2.

There's a high probability that there's 1000 inside the cylinder, after all, it's his control room.

As for the 'hairless race,' it definitely refers to humans.

Therefore, of these four options, the third one is the one I can't guess.

However, the production team didn't create these "rhetorical questions" dialogue options just to fill in the gaps; they clearly had a purpose.

In short, just keep trying.

The protagonist Zai Zong chose number 3, and then spoke.

[Why is the invisibility effect of this mechanical protective gear ineffective against you?]

Yeah, why?

Is there anything special about you?

"That's what Zai Zong thought to himself."

In the game, the cylindrical device once again emits a non-human racial language.

[Our technology. Our creations. This is the armor we use to fight the Silurian.]

"What do you mean? This is something worth 1000!?"

At this moment, the Zai Zong was surprised.

Unexpectedly, this Mechanical Battle Armor that can instantly give someone the power of a bomb is actually the technology of their race, numbering 1000.

Holy crap, their technological civilization must have been incredibly advanced millions of years ago!

Furthermore, just how powerful were the ancient humans who wiped them out?

The Zai Zong surprise, but compared to him, the game's main character remained relatively calm. Aside from saying "This is impossible," he showed no other emotional reaction.

It fully demonstrates the protagonist's extensive knowledge and experience.

At this point, the dialogue options are updated again.

1. What is Silurian?

2. Are you A-FBC-1000?

3. A hairless race?

4. (Remaining silent)

Without hesitation, Zai Zong chose the first option.

The newly emerged term piqued his curiosity about what kind of existence it was, that could enable the most advanced civilization on Earth millions of years ago to develop such technology, which is still incredibly advanced even today, to fight against it.

Then, the protagonist spoke.

What is Silurian?

A piercing and unpleasant laugh rang out from the cylindrical device.

Human curiosity has always been a driving force behind the pursuit of death, both now and in the past.

At this moment, Zai Zong did not notice that the voices inside the cylinder had become fluent without him realizing it.

He just listened to what came next.

[This planet was home to many intelligent life forms in ancient times, but they lived independently and did not develop civilization. It wasn't until the third era of the Paleozoic Era, the Silurian Period, that a highly intelligent life form emerged and rapidly developed into a race and civilization. They were technologically advanced, capable of domesticating and modifying post-apocalyptic dinosaurs. They were bloodthirsty, slaughtering anything on the surface they could kill. Ancient Ape-men ancestors were merely prey to them, as they Ancient Ape-men.]

The cylindrical device paused abruptly, hesitated for a moment, and then resumed its operation.

[To fight them, the Ancient Ape-men spent a long time evolving into our subordinate species. We lurk in the darkness, strong and powerful. We possess advanced brains and creative abilities. We fight against the Silurian with our lives and blood. As for you creatures living in the sunlight, what use are you besides eating and reproducing?]

Upon hearing this, Zai Zong's mind went blank for a moment.

Silurian period?

Although he wasn't very good at history, he knew that this was a very, very long time ago on Earth.

It predates the Jurassic period, which saw the existence of dinosaurs, by more than 200 million years.

What did 1000 just say?

Are they technologically advanced?

Holy crap! Did Blue Star already have such an extraordinary modern civilization during the Silurian period?!

Even earlier than 1000 years ago, their race?

The reason why the 1000 were born was to fight against the Silurian.

No wonder.

No wonder their technology is so advanced.

How can one confront an advanced civilization that existed from the Silurian period and continued to develop until the emergence of Ancient Ape-men?

A: Develop the same technological capabilities as them.

Therefore, the race with 1000 races appeared.

Thinking of this, Zai Zong couldn't help but feel a little horrified.

"My goodness! How many advanced civilizations are living on this Blue Star in the game?"

"I hope there wasn't some advanced civilization in the Cambrian period above the Cambrian period too, that would be truly terrifying..."

At this moment, the game's protagonist calmly spoke.

[I am deeply sorry for the grave crimes committed against you by the ancient humans, but I am not from this world. I want to know what the situation is like here now, and what is happening outside?]

"Huh? The protagonist's identity has been exposed?"

Zai Zong frowned slightly, feeling that it might be a bit too early.

But the sound of the cylindrical device made him pause in surprise.

[I know you're an 'outsider,' I can see that disgusting 'thing' on you. It's laughable; ancient humans were just as clean as we are, it's because of 'it' that you became filthy, twisted, and repulsive.]

[As for what you want to know about what happened here, just look around. Isn't it obvious? The filthy human race has been wiped off the face of the earth.]

As soon as he finished speaking, dialogue options reappeared in front of Zai Zong.

1. Why did humanity become extinct?

2. Who is 'it'?

3. Does the Federal Bureau of Control still exist?

4. What has the world become?

Zai Zong chose the first one.

For no other reason than that he wanted to know all four options.

But faced with a difficult choice, he really didn't know which one to choose, so he decided to follow the simplest method and start from top to bottom.

If you miss an option, reload the save and start over!

So the protagonist immediately spoke.

Why did humanity become extinct?

Upon hearing this, the cylindrical device let out another piercing laugh.

Even through the game, Zai Zong could hear the mockery in those words.

[You humans, in some experiment concerning the spirit and soul, discovered the existence of 'it'. Furthermore, you discovered 'it's' true form deep beneath the Chicxulub Crater.]

[It's laughable to think that in ancient times, you succumbed to temptation and accepted 'it,' committing sins etched into your genes. You attempted to erase your memories and return to a primitive way of life to forget 'it,' to forget this sin. Now, you've rediscovered 'it,' realizing that 'it' has always existed within your consciousness and has never left.]

[You were afraid, you wanted liberation, so you were wiped out, and you did it with your own hands.]

[Extinction is the only thing your race has done that benefits the world.]

Before Zai Zong could react, the game's protagonist spoke first.

[Could this experiment on Mind and Soul be the Pneuma (Soul) Project? The FBC's mission is to perpetuate humanity; they couldn't possibly have made such a decision! Without humanity, what's the point of continuing the lineage? Therefore, it must be this so-called 'it' that influenced humanity!]

At this moment, the dialogue options reappeared before Zai Zong's eyes.

1. Who is 'it'?

2. Does the Federal Bureau of Control still exist?

3. What has the world become?

Seeing these three options, you almost don't need to think, just choose option 1.

So, the protagonist, somewhat agitated, immediately began to loudly question the cylindrical device.

Tell me, who is 'it'? Or rather, what is 'it'?

The cylindrical device paused for a moment, then spoke mockingly.

[This is a question that all intelligent life on Earth wants to know. The Silurian of 500 million years ago called it 'life-catalyzing inorganic matter.' The Titania Watchers called it 'gene-editing base stations.' And we call it ' Cognitive Contaminant.' Only you humans, delusional enough to believe 'it' can bring immortality, foolishly worshipping 'it' as a deity, calling it...]

[Divine Seal.]

Due to space limitations, there's one more chapter dedicated to the boss battle. The remaining truth will be interspersed within the boss battle, revealing stories from ancient times and the current state of the world. However, not everything will be revealed, as some details need to be reserved for Brother Banana and the next game.