This Is Humanity

According to Legendary, humanity possesses Three Essences.

It smells so good!

The Skill possessed by Heavenless Heretic directly addresses one of the fundamental aspects of human nature.

To make things easier for the other party, Bai Zhi did intend to lend them his Perfect Skill, since the other party had already shared their Skill information with him; it was simply a basic Equivalent Exchange.

However, Heavenless Heretic's Skill has a hidden limitation: it cannot Perfect copy Skill of a higher Level than itself. Therefore, in the end, the only Skill that Bai Zhi temporarily lent to the other party was Shadow Escape.

"So you used this Skill to copy a copy of yourself?"

After reading the introduction to this Skill, PrayerUnderDreams chin and nodded thoughtfully.

"That's right."

Heavenless Heretic glanced at Bai Zhi and sighed.

"On the third night, I went to the Supermarket and met Black&White there. He told me about the suspicion against me for attacking the Night Owl that day... He arranged the whole plan afterward, and I just carried it out. It was just routine notifications afterward. I was just a heartless Tool Person. I really lost out this time."

"Only trash has no use. You should be thanking me. After this mission is completed, your System Rating for this mission will be at least A-rank or higher."

Bai Zhi pulled out an Apple from somewhere, took a bite, and spoke softly.

"What's wrong with Tool Person? Others don't even have the right to be Tool Person."

"... I feel like I've been subtly mocked."

PrayerUnderDreams's lips twitched slightly.

"Me too... but thankfully I wasn't used as Tool Person."

Night Owl glanced at Heavenless Heretic Tenja, who was emanating an unpleasant odor, and looked on with relief.

... It's too dirty.

Heavenless Heretic: "..."

"So you were already planning this back then?"

Recalling what Heavenless Heretic had said the next morning about losing something at the Supermarket, Zither-Drum Harmony Kazumi's expression became rather strange.

"It's just an insurance policy, and it's uncertain whether it will be useful in the future... After all, I didn't have enough clues at that time."

Bai Zhi took a bite of the Apple and continued the conversation.

"As for what happened next, you basically know everything. I had Heavenless Heretic fake his death, and then he borrowed my Skill to go to that hall with you at night. We took advantage of the chaos to leave the Apartment area and then went to find that group of Player who practice Dual Cultivation. His Skill saved me a lot of effort."

"... That's indeed the basic situation."

He pulled another large, dark, unidentifiable piece of something from his hair, his eye twitched violently, and then nodded Heavenless Heretic.

"[The Magic Tuxedo] is a high-tech prop, and coupled with the suspicion and provocation, my sudden death could affect the judgment of those 'Chef,' leaving them completely bewildered... Considering all these factors, I am indeed the most suitable candidate for this mission. However, I didn't find them; they found me. This is because there were indeed cases of Player escaping from the Apartment, and it took me a lot of effort to gain their Trust."

"So, what have you learned these past two days?"

He thoughtfully tossed over a Kitchen Knife, and Bai Zhi nodded.

"Listen to me, it's no use anymore, just shave all your hair off."

"... The world operates in a state where all humans live in fully sealed Apartment like these, because the entire world has been completely invaded by supernatural Anomaly. Only Apartment made of Special Material can protect common humans from harm. The Player in this world have utterly failed."

Looking at the large Kitchen Knife in front of him, after a moment of silence, Heavenless Heretic gave up on continuing to pull things out of his hair and began to speak.

"There are many kinds of Anomaly, the simplest and easiest to understand being those with intelligence and those without. Before the world was destroyed, the humans of this world made a deal with the Anomaly. They voluntarily handed over all the Player and chose to live a humiliating life... In addition to these humans who live their entire lives in Apartment without ever seeing the light of day, there are also some Breeding Farm and Food Base scattered around the world, which provide these Apartment with the essential survival materials for humans."

"... Just to survive, you selfishly choose to give up the very thing that protects you?"

Zither-Drum Harmony frowned.

"Is this what humans are like?"

"You need to understand one thing: the Players possess Supernatural Power are the ones who truly control the direction of this world. If the Players themselves disagree, do you think common can represent Player? This isn't selfishness; it's self-sacrifice."

Bai Zhi glanced at the Zither-Drum Harmony indifferently before answering her question.

"That's right, that's humankind."

"..."

"In short, due to the enormous upheaval that occurred in this world 20 years ago, all the elite Players known through the Anomaly were completely wiped out. The self-sacrifice of these Players ultimately ensured the continuation of human civilization in this world."

Sensing the change in the atmosphere at the table, Heavenless Heretic gave a wry smile.

"But precisely because of this, the Player' Strength in this world is almost completely wiped out. Because all humans are being monitored, if a new Player fails to hide themselves and is discovered by the Anomaly or those Fallen Player, they will become food for those Anomaly to grow stronger and be served on their dinner table... But as you all know, this is almost impossible."

"Because of a system -Mandatory Quest..."

Meng Qi exhaled.

"Although they can keep it a secret for a while, they can't keep it hidden forever... But eventually, some people did escape, right? Or perhaps there were Player left behind to begin with."

"Yes, there are still Free Player in this world... even if they live like rats in a sewer."

Shinmu Tenjaku sighed.

"Thanks to the Skill of a handful of Veteran Player who survived that Great Purge, through hiding and concealment, this world still retains a tiny glimmer of hope... however small it may be."

But it is also a hope.