Bai Zhu continued reading Zhang Ye's diary. The more he read, the graver his expression became.
In the diary, Zhang Ye recorded his almost mythical experiences in the tone of someone writing a work report.
Back then, he had fought his way in from the edge of the region later known as the Dark Continent, sealing more than a dozen monsters along the way whose strength was no less than that of the Five Great Calamities.
He had treated those monsters as power-generating batteries, using their life energy to construct a colossal super barrier that covered the entire area of human activity.
That was how the Safe Zone came to be, where humanity could later multiply and establish nations.
Bai Zhu felt as though his worldview had been rubbed into the ground.
He had always believed the world beneath his feet had formed naturally. Only now did he learn that it had been built by an absurdly powerful man.
Zhang Ye was like a programmer using his life to patch holes, forcibly turning a hell-difficulty server into a beginner village where everyone could log in.
When he reached the middle of the diary, he saw several familiar illustrations.
There was a simple map of Ring Island, labeled "observation outpost."
There were several scattered black feathers, labeled "beacons, and keys."
Instinctively, Bai Zhu removed the assembled feather pen from his hair.
He stared at the pen, then at the illustration in the diary, and an absurd feeling rose in his chest.
All those so-called fortuitous encounters of his, all the treasures he had picked up, had simply been a complete handover package Zhang Ye had left behind.
"No wonder I kept finding crucial items every time I went scavenging."
Bai Zhu could not help but curse. "So the senior had hidden