The Catastrophe of the Past

Lu Yuanming knew he had glimpsed a few secrets of the Dark Matter World.

When the Material World where humanity lived fell into the Dark Matter World through dimensional descent, humanity itself wasn't the only thing that fell. Human civilization fell along with it.

It was easy to understand how humans, as sentient life, fell into this world. He and the people around him had all died once. Their souls had taken physical form, becoming humans in the Dark Matter World. That was humanity's descent.

The descent of human civilization was far more subtle. Take New York City, now in ruins like a battlefield, for example. It was part of the fallen human civilization, made visible. Then there were the monsters. They, too, were all parts of human civilization that had fallen into this world—only they represented its chaotic, dark, and malevolent aspects.

The Man-faced Dogs, Monster Spiders, and Bat Monsters all bore traces of the monsters found in certain regions and civilizations.

That was why these monsters could never be wiped out. As humanity and its civilization fell, the monsters would inevitably respawn, again and again, until humanity, human civilization, and even Earth had fallen completely into the Dark Matter World.

And that still wasn't all of human civilization.

Human civilization had accumulated over thousands of years, from its beginnings to the present. Its religions and myths, legends and epics, rich history, and urban folklore—all the way to the novels, films, animation, and comics with tens or hundreds of millions of fans that had emerged after the explosion of information in modern civilization—would all fall into this world with the descent into dark matter.

The knowledge of the Material World became tangible power in the Dark Matter World!

Lu Yuanming understood that deeply. His Colorless Light Particles were a concrete manifestation of knowledge from the Material World becoming power in the Dark Matter World. Now, the powerful piece of armor he had acquired was further proof.

That meant that as human civilization fell from the material plane to the Dark Matter Plane, it could gain power from the process—immense power—if it found a way to do so.

But whether it was humanity or human civilization, it was still insignificant compared to the monsters that existed in the Dark Matter World.

Through the fragments of human civilization's essence he had found earlier, Lu Yuanming had glimpsed the Unnamable Monsters in the Dark Matter World. Just seeing them—or even knowing of them—was enough to harm him. The sheer terror of it exceeded his imagination. It was already akin to the Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos.

They lurked in the wilderness outside New York City.

More precisely, they were outside the collection of fallen humanity and human civilization. An unknown force was keeping them from drawing near. Lu Yuanming guessed that some influence from the Material World still remained, and that they couldn't approach it. That was why they couldn't destroy New York City and humanity in the Dark Matter World—not yet.

But what if all of humanity and its civilization fell? What if even Earth fell?

Once these Unnamable Entities descended, humanity would face absolute destruction.

That would be the true end of the world!!

That was the secret Lu Yuanming had glimpsed.

The true apocalypse wasn't humanity and its civilization falling from the Material World into the Dark Matter World.

As Alfred had said, as long as they had enough crops to produce a steady supply of food, there wasn't much difference between humans in the Material World and those in the Dark Matter World. They might be called souls, but the only difference was that one was made of material elements and the other of dark matter elements. They functioned in much the same way, and could have children, too.

So this could hardly be called the end of the world. It would be no more than a massive social upheaval, with the added blow that the science and technology humanity had developed into an information civilization would no longer work. They would simply have to develop all over again in the Dark Matter World. As for the monsters... as he'd said, unless something like Godzilla appeared, with comparable size and strength, or supernatural Undead Ghosts emerged, the monsters were just enhanced beasts. If humanity organized itself, it could crush them as easily as bugs.

This wasn't the apocalypse.

The true apocalypse came from the wilderness of the Dark Matter World, from the Unnamable Entities lurking in the unknown!

"We have three years left."

Alfred had told Lu Yuanming earlier that scientists in the Material World had estimated the deadline for the descent: at most three years before humanity and its civilization fell entirely into the Dark Matter World.

In other words, under the most pessimistic estimate, humanity and its civilization would meet their end in three years.

Unless... they could escape!

They would have to get beyond the ring of Unnamable Monsters and flee deep into the Dark Matter World, far away—like escaping into deep space in the Material Universe.

Only then might human civilization survive!

Once Lu Yuanming had figured all this out, he immediately left the bank and ran toward the park.

Alfred was leading more than a hundred people in opening up new farmland in New York's Central Park. It was something he did nearly every day. He spent far more time farming than organizing the community.

As Lu Yuanming ran toward Central Park, he watched the community and thought about its situation. When he found Alfred, he immediately asked, "Alfred, what's outside New York City?"

Alfred was beside a field, discussing planting with an agricultural expert. Hearing the question, he answered casually, "You mean outside the New York City we're in? That would be the wilderness of the Dark Matter World."

"What's the wilderness like? Is it a vast, boundless land? An endless sea? Or a void like space? Are there living things out there?" Lu Yuanming asked again.

This time, Alfred caught the meaning behind his question. He told the experts to go help supervise the farmland, then took Lu Yuanming aside. "Did something happen? Why are you suddenly asking about outside the city?"

Lu Yuanming didn't intend to mention the monsters in the wilderness. The monsters he had seen in the dense fog were nothing like the ones in the city. They were like Star Terran compared to wild animals on Earth—worlds apart. And the most frightening thing was his instinctive feeling that discussing them directly was dangerous. The people who listened would be in danger, and so would the person speaking.

"I'm thinking about the long term. We'll inevitably have to go beyond the city," Lu Yuanming said.

That wasn't entirely a lie, so Alfred didn't think much of it. "We've done very little exploring outside the city. We did send out several groups over the years. Everyone disappeared, except for one group that came back—and their return led to a major catastrophe... Mr. Lu, New York City in the Dark Matter World wasn't this ruined at first. At least, it didn't look like a battlefield."

Lu Yuanming immediately thought of the monsters in the fog. "What happened?"

Alfred found a rock and sat down. Lu Yuanming sat beside him, and then Alfred began. "I mentioned before that we first discovered this piece of dark matter because a soul reacted to it. Afterward, we moved it to a secret research facility beneath New York. At first, the purpose of our research was immortality."

"Immortality?" Lu Yuanming asked, frowning.

Alfred wasn't bothered by his reaction. He continued, "Before this piece of dark matter appeared, humanity had no evidence of an afterlife, or of the existence of souls. That's a question everyone has to face: death. And since it happens to everyone, it's not really a problem. You just try to live longer, or invest in life-extending drugs, and so on. But once we saw and confirmed that souls existed, and learned that they could endure in the Dark Matter World, we couldn't stop thinking about immortality. So we started making plans for the Dark Matter World. We called the project Artificial Paradise."

"The world's richest magnates, capitalists, financial dynasties that controlled the global economy, senior government officials, economic oligarchs, and others provided funding, manpower, resources, and immense political support. As soon as New York City appeared in the Dark Matter World, we sent more than five hundred thousand people into the city. Most of what we learned about the nature of the Dark Matter World and about exploring beyond the city came from that period."

"Five hundred thousand people!? How did they get down here?" Lu Yuanming asked in astonishment.

Alfred didn't answer. He only shook his head slightly, and Lu Yuanming immediately understood.

This was the Dark Matter World, the world after death. There was only one way to get here: to die in the Material World. For five hundred thousand people to come down after dying outright was an unbelievable undertaking. And who knew how many social elites and researchers had been among them?

Seeing the shock on Lu Yuanming's face, Alfred knew he understood how the five hundred thousand had arrived. He continued, "Five hundred thousand people... to those of us who controlled the entire world, that was nothing. But before long, we stopped sending people down. At the same time, the first round of exploration beyond the city began. The reason was the food problem. We tried everything we could think of—science, religion, all sorts of things, even genetic engineering—but none of it could bring a single plant down. That meant the more people we sent, the faster they'd starve to death. So we had no choice but to send people into the wilderness outside the city, hoping to find native plants we could eat."

"But we failed. No matter how many people we sent, whether elite soldiers or agents, the moment they left the city limits, they vanished without a trace. Gradually, exploring beyond the city came to be seen as a death sentence. Even so, the people down here continued exploring on their own. They'd already arrived, and if they didn't want to starve to death eventually, they had to find a source of food."

"The city wasn't this ruined back then. There were more supplies inside, too. Though exploration beyond the city had reached a dead end, the tens of thousands of people down here could still live well. That is, until... one group of explorers finally returned."

As he spoke, Alfred's face paled. Lu Yuanming immediately asked, "And then? You only mentioned before that, based on the information they'd obtained and calculations in the Material World, people had theorized there was once a civilization on Mars. The explorers came back, and then what happened?"

"They weren't human anymore."

Alfred said, "I don't know what they were, only that they weren't human anymore. From what I know, three of them returned. We'd made them wear Spacesuits in case the wilderness outside the city was exposed to the vacuum of space or some kind of toxic environment. When they returned, the staff down here found records they'd written on their Spacesuits. That was how they used calculations to confirm that, in a certain direction outside the city, there was a Civilization Graveyard on an alien world. The three of them then entered the base where the people below were staying, and a terrifying disaster began..."

"Everyone was gone. We don't know whether they died or something else happened. Nearly five hundred thousand people vanished, including soldiers, staff, researchers... and the people above."

"The people above!?" Lu Yuanming asked at once. "They vanished too? What happened?"

Alfred trembled slightly and lowered his head. "I don't know. I wasn't directly responsible for any of it at the time. The government officials who were, more than half of the researchers and scientists, over a hundred wealthy magnates, the heads of more than five corporations, and their associates... they all disappeared. In the aftermath, people estimated that more than two hundred thousand people had vanished from the Living World."

"Wait." Lu Yuanming was even more confused. "Why do you say 'estimated'? If they died, they died. If they were gone, they were gone. Even if they simply went missing, you could check the records afterward and get an exact number. So why is it just an estimate?"

"Because we lost all memory of the people who disappeared. That includes their surviving relatives, their files on computers, and even every trace they'd left in human society. Everything was gone."

Alfred spread his hands. "It was as if they'd never existed. If not for the missing staff and vacant government positions, not to mention the missing heads of major corporations, we wouldn't even be sure those people had ever existed. Our simulations afterward suggested that all of them had either communicated directly with the Dark Matter World during the explorers' return or seen information transmitted from it. They vanished along with the five hundred thousand people sent to the Dark Matter World. Oh, and the outpost the expedition had built in New York City disappeared, too. We couldn't find any trace of it. It was all gone."

"After that catastrophe, New York City in the Dark Matter World became the postwar ruin it is now. We never sent any more official government personnel down. We also realized, all at once, that descending from the Material Universe into the Dark Matter World might be the end of humanity and its civilization. From that point on, our main research focus shifted from developing the Dark Matter World to stopping the descent into it. That hasn't changed to this day."

Lu Yuanming fell silent, carefully considering the catastrophe Alfred had described. He was certain that the terrifying disappearances were connected to the Unnamable Entities in the wilderness.

"Yes, the apocalypse..."

Lu Yuanming stood and walked toward the base, murmuring, "The apocalypse is coming."

"But the apocalypse isn't the descent into the Dark Matter World. It's..."

Lu Yuanming didn't say the rest.