A Man Beyond His Time

Green World time, four months later.

Hei Zi's whereabouts had been discovered by the Human Race. He fled to the Ape-man Tribe where he'd once been sent before escaping.

This time, Hei Zi had brought the ape-men a number of surprises—things he'd carefully prepared to make himself seem mysterious and powerful.

The extremely sharp fruit knife he'd stolen from the laboratory, a little solar-powered flashlight that could light up on its own, and various other trinkets with little practical use were what Hei Zi had relied on after escaping.

Using these things to fool the others, Hei Zi became the chief of the Ape-man Tribe.

Although the primitive ape-men of the Green World were foolish, they were no weaklings in a fight. With brute strength, they could hold their own for several rounds against the Human Race, who wielded wooden and stone weapons.

After hiding among the Ape-man Tribe for several months, Hei Zi was still spotted by a Human scout.

Once word got back, many people among the Human Race clamored to take revenge on Hei Zi.

Among them were Shu Zi, Xiao Hua's relatives, and some who'd once followed Hei Zi when he left.

Only when those people came to Shu Zi did they realize they'd been used. Hei Zi had merely used their corpses to pave his way forward. They hated him even more than ordinary tribe members did.

Besides, the Human Race had already established itself and needed to expand its territory. The ape-man settlement in its path was an obvious target.

So, after leaving some warriors behind to guard Fang Mountain, Shu Zi led more than a hundred of the finest warriors north toward the Ape-man Tribe.

At first, neither Hei Zi nor the Ape-man Tribe took them seriously. After all, the Ape-man Tribe was a large community, with more than a thousand ape-men.

And as the local inhabitants, the Ape-man Tribe had the advantage of familiar terrain. It could use areas only its members knew well to defeat any invaders.

Night fell.

Shu Zi and more than a hundred warriors lay in wait around the Ape-man Tribe's settlement. The wind was strong that day, but fortunately it blew to the right. They were not upwind, so their scent was unlikely to give them away.

Before long, a scout returned with a report: most of the ape-men in the settlement ahead were asleep, and only a few were keeping watch.

"Where's Hei Zi?" Shu Zi asked quietly.

The scout shook his head. "I didn't see him."

"Let's attack together." In the end, Shu Zi decided to strike directly.

A few minutes later, the once-quiet ape-man settlement was filled with the sounds of battle. Flames roared through it, shooting high into the sky and lighting up the surrounding area for several kilometers.

Hei Zi fled in panic. He hadn't expected the ape-men to lose so quickly!

This place was done for. Those people had been so cunning, using their superior intelligence to launch a surprise attack on the ape-men.

The ape-men fought mostly by instinct. The Human Race might have been physically weaker than ape-men who spent all day foraging in the woods, but when they'd just been woken up in the middle of the night, the ape-men were still groggy. They were no match for armed humans.

What's more, the Human Race had the God Bow!

Hei Zi couldn't help but resent the Heavenly God who had once saved him. Why had other people's gods given Shu Zi such a useful weapon, while he was left scurrying around like a rat?

He was a person favored by the gods, too!

After muttering a few filthy curses, Hei Zi gritted his teeth and kept running.

He still had a chance. As long as he could make it to the next ape-man settlement, he could keep using his trinkets to fool the others and remain a man above the rest.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow suddenly whistled through the air and struck Hei Zi in the shoulder.

The pain made Hei Zi stumble, and he nearly fell. He looked back and saw someone in the flickering firelight, holding the God Bow with a commanding air.

It was Shu Zi! The man he'd wanted to kill, but hadn't managed to.

"Damn you! Xiao Hua, damn you! And you, too! Why didn't I kill you back then?" Hei Zi ground his teeth in fury. He scrambled backward, trying to get out of range of the bow.

But a second arrow came at once!

Thud! The arrow struck Hei Zi in the right leg.

Hei Zi cried out in pain. Then a third arrow flew straight at his chest, aiming to take his life!

Hei Zi twisted desperately and narrowly avoided a vital spot. The arrowhead plunged into his abdomen, and its tremendous force sent him hurtling backward.

With a piercing scream, Hei Zi fell off the cliff.

"Chief, he fell. He can't have survived!"

"Search for him. I won't be at ease until I see his body!"

Shu Zi led a few men in search of a path down the cliff.

Hei Zi's arrow-pierced body slammed into the ground. The enormous impact destroyed the last of his life in an instant.

Blood seeped from his head, clouding his vision.

"Dead... Am I dead?... God, save me! Save me!"

His throat was blocked by the blood pouring from it. Hei Zi could no longer make a sound, and could only scream silently in his mind.

Huang Si had been watching nearby the whole time.

He had come here to see Hei Zi one last time.

This man had reached the end of the road.

"I can already see your soul a little," Huang Si said softly. "So you must be close to death."

Hei Zi thought: A voice? He heard a voice. Was it God? Had God come to save him?

A gurgling sound came from his throat as he tried to speak. But it was only the sound of blood and bubbles.

"Actually, I've kept you around until now out of a little personal interest." Huang Si casually shaped a body for his own use, then sat beside Hei Zi to watch the death of the only person among the Human Race in this world he'd ever paid so much attention to.

In Huang Si's eyes, Shu Zi, Xiao Hua, and the countless members of the Human Race were not particularly remarkable. Whether they lived or died, whatever became of them, he saw it all as part of the course of history.

But, regardless of morality, Hei Zi was someone he'd found unusually interesting. Hei Zi claimed to be favored by the gods, and in a sense, he wasn't wrong.

"Do you know why you're going to die? Why you lost?"

Why? Hei Zi roared silently in his mind. Isn't it because of you? Because you didn't give me a divine weapon or favor me, I ended up like this!

Hei Zi's soul was beginning to show signs of leaving his body. Huang Si could even see the emotions rippling through it.

Huang Si had no intention of intervening. He simply continued speaking calmly:

"It's because your thoughts and actions were beyond your time."

"You're clever. You know how to make use of every resource at your disposal."

That had been true both during the comfortable life in the Earth Realm and after he'd left.

"You were an oppressor. You were the seed of religious terror. You fooled the masses and spread the lie that kings ruled by divine right. If you'd been born a few thousand years later, you would have fared much better."

"However, this is a primitive society."

Huang Si wrapped his arms around his knees and looked at the distant starry sky. The stars in this world were beautiful, too.

"Primitive tools and low productivity mean that human communities can't produce enough surplus value to exploit. If there's no surplus value, then a class system founded on exploitation, hoarding, and oppression can't be established."

"Back in the Cultivation Department in the Earth Realm, robots grew all your food for you, and you only had to harvest it. In a sense, you were being provided for. The Human Race had surplus value that you could exploit."

"But once they escaped with you and lost the life they'd had in Eden, your deception and oppression couldn't last. Sooner or later, the others would leave you."

The night wind swept past them, rustling loudly as it blew away the blood that had been clouding Hei Zi's eyes.

Perhaps it was the last rallying of his strength before death. Hei Zi struggled to lift his head and look toward Huang Si.

His throat rasped. Then, at last, he forced out a few broken words:

"So... that's what you look like... Then tell me, are you God? Tell me, are you truly a god... or... just an illusion I'm seeing as I die..."

Huang Si looked at him and said, "I'm an ordinary person."

At this wholly unexpected answer, Hei Zi's body gave one more feeble twitch, then went completely still.

Huang Si watched Hei Zi's soul rise from his body and gradually fade away.

He reached over and closed Hei Zi's eyes.

"Not assimilating you is my way of showing you respect."

Respect for an interesting soul.

The second volume begins.

Starting with the second volume, each chapter will be at least 2,000 characters long. Otherwise, it's hard to figure out where to split things up.

I'm not cutting corners. The story really is hard to divide into sections because the plot moves so fast. When I aim for over 3,000 characters per chapter, the story always gets cut off in the middle, which is a hassle. Setting the minimum at 2,000 characters gives me more flexibility. Updates will still be the same: one chapter in the morning and one in the evening. On days with two updates, the second won't be later than 9 p.m. Usually, it'll be around 8.