"Ughhh, my head hurts... It feels like it's splitting apart."
When Luo Ge woke again.
He had no idea how long he had been unconscious.
The first thing he saw was none other than a lock of his own white bangs hanging over his forehead.
Luo Ge found a mirror on a nearby workbench and examined his new look.
Aside from his hair turning white, the other wounds on his body had healed, and even his missing arm had miraculously grown back.
How strange...
Why had his hair changed color?
Although he found it baffling, Luo Ge did not consider it a bad thing.
In fact... it looked rather good.
He moved around a little, and only once his body had fully regained its mobility did Luo Ge have the attention to spare to examine his surroundings carefully.
First of all.
This was a completely sealed little room.
Its layout... resembled a laboratory dedicated to recording research.
A workbench stood across the middle of the room, covered with scattered parts and tools. Discarded drafts littered the floor in a complete mess.
There were signs of rummaging everywhere, as though someone had come here long before him.
Luo Ge casually picked up a design drawing from the floor and looked it over.
As for its contents, uhhhh...
Luo Ge felt bitter. It was truly obscure and incomprehensible. The complex schematics and wildly imaginative ideas might as well have been an unreadable script to him.
He could not understand any of it.
What caught his attention most, however, was the place where he had first woken up.
A teleportation magic circle was clearly drawn there-its patterns intricate and ancient, its lines faintly glimmering with residual mana.
Luo Ge recognized it at a glance. It was where he had been lying when he first woke up.
In other words.
He slowly closed his eyes and pieced together everything that had happened.
From encountering the Dragon God in the Red Dragon Mountains to jumping off the cliff, then falling into that teleportation magic circle as he plunged into the abyss.
He had escaped death and been transported away.
That sensation was hard to forget. At first, Luo Ge had even thought he was hallucinating.
Everything had spun around him.
While passing through a pure white space, he had encountered that fellow who called himself Hitogami.
Through Hitogami's advice.
He had learned God-Rank Healing Magic and successfully survived.
Once he had sorted everything out, Luo Ge understood it all at once.
"Survive a great disaster, and good fortune is sure to follow."
"But isn't my luck a little too ridiculous?" Luo Ge marveled inwardly for a moment, feeling that this was not simply a matter of luck.
Driven by curiosity.
Luo Ge began exploring the room more thoroughly.
After making a circuit, he discovered an unsettling fact.
This room had no exit whatsoever.
The walls were so thick that knocking on them produced only dull echoes, and a lone magic lamp shone on the ceiling.
The question was... how was he supposed to get out?
Luo Ge's gaze returned to the teleportation magic circle.
Since he had been teleported in, he should theoretically be able to teleport out. Besides, there were three magic circles in this room.
So he was in no hurry.
According to Hitogami, this room was something of an opportunity for him. In theory, it was like those martial arts novels from his previous life, where the protagonist fell off a cliff and obtained a secret manual for a powerful martial art.
Luo Ge guessed there must be similar treasures here that could help him grow stronger.
Next, he began examining every corner of the room even more carefully.
Soon, he made another discovery.
The owner of this room was called the Demon Dragon King.
Many of the things here were things he had left behind.
A small portion was in the Human Common Language, while most appeared to be in the Fighting God Language, the Demon God Language, and even ancient scripts he had never seen before.
Therefore, his most urgent task.
Was to learn other scripts so he could figure out his current situation.
And so, Luo Ge began studying diligently in the laboratory.
Perhaps the owner of this laboratory had once lived here for an extended period, as there was a considerable stockpile of supplies.
With the barrier's protection, none of the food had grown moldy or spoiled.
If he ate sparingly, it would last him at least several years.
The good news... was that food was not in short supply.
The bad news was... he could not leave for now.
But this did nothing to hinder Luo Ge's desire to explore.
He turned his attention to the bookshelves and soon selected several books specifically intended for learning other languages.
They covered the Human Common Language, Demon God Language, Fighting God Language, Beast God Language, Sea God Language, Heavenly God Language, and even the long-lost Dragon God Language.
Naturally, Luo Ge could not read them all in one go, so he only studied the written forms of three languages: the Fighting God Language, Demon God Language, and Beast God Language.
Learning the scripts alone took Luo Ge more than a month in total.
When he opened those previously incomprehensible books again, the meaning of the words suddenly became clear.
Then he noticed a detail.
Almost every book had a name signed at the end: Laplace.
"Laplace?"
"Hmm..."
Luo Ge kept feeling that the name sounded familiar, as though he had heard it somewhere before.
Oh.
Right.
Laplace had appeared in the bedtime stories Zenith had told him every day when he was little.
In that legend of the three heroes, there had been a great villain named Laplace.
Five hundred years ago, Demon God Laplace had launched a war against the world, declaring war on the entire world and announcing that he would destroy all humanity.
This Second Human-Demon World War had lasted a full hundred years.
In the end, the Demon God had been defeated by the combined efforts of the three heroes.
Although he was also named Laplace, unlike the vicious Demon God of legend, the owner of this laboratory, the Demon Dragon King, looked every bit like a scholar absorbed in his studies.
To gain a deeper understanding.
Luo Ge went to the research workbench, picked up a scattered design drawing, and examined it closely. His mouth instantly went dry.
A preliminary design for the Battle God Armor?
The Battle God? Isn't that the third-ranked powerhouse among the Seven Great Powers? An existence second only to the Dragon God? Could this be the armor the Battle God once wore?
Or is the Demon Dragon King the Battle God of the Seven Great Powers?
Luo Ge speculated inwardly.
Previously, because he could not read the writing, he had not understood the importance of this laboratory.
Now that he fully understood the situation.
Even Luo Ge was stunned.
It contained everything, including many sole surviving copies of works lost to the world. In any case, it covered specialized knowledge in practically every field in this world.
In this world, books were already extremely precious things, held only in the hands of nobles.
If any of the books here were put up for auction, they would probably cause quite a stir.
After an unknown amount of time... Luo Ge finally put down the book and stepped away from the bookshelf.
He went over to the workbench.
In the innermost drawer, he discovered something resembling a postcard.
The handwriting was neat and ancient, like instructions the laboratory's owner had left before departing:
"To the intruder."
"My name is Laplace. The world often calls me by titles such as Demon Dragon King, Dragon God, and Demon Dragon God."
"I bear the mission of defeating Hitogami, and everything here is part of the preparations I have made to defeat him."
"When you read this letter, it means my plan has failed, or... I am already dead."
"But your ability to enter this place has already proven your exceptional courage and resolve. You may freely use everything here, including the Battle God Armor... I only ask that you promise me one thing."
"You must tell Dragon God Orsted to make certain he kills Hitogami. This is my mission, and the mission he was born to fulfill."
"If possible, I have one more small, selfish request. You who have inherited my will, please assist the Dragon God in defeating the evil Hitogami."
Huh?
Defeat Hitogami?
By the time Luo Ge finished reading the letter, his brain had nearly crashed on the spot. The Demon Dragon King was actually asking him, a Human God Apostle, to defeat Hitogami.
Hitogami had said the Dragon God was evil and needed to be defeated.
Yet the owner of this laboratory, Demon Dragon King Laplace, said Hitogami was evil.
Who was he supposed to believe?
He could not tell. He really could not tell.
At first, he had thought this was a trump card Hitogami had left specifically for him to use against the Dragon God.
But now, it seemed to be something else entirely.
The owner of this laboratory was not someone Hitogami had left here, but an enemy of Hitogami. This was a trump card that Demon Dragon King had left behind for researching weapons to use against Hitogami.
Come to think of it... just how much hatred had Hitogami earned?
The Dragon God wanted to kill him, and this Demon Dragon King Laplace wanted to kill him too.
Just how many people in the world wanted him dead?
What exactly had that fellow done to incur the wrath of heaven and man alike?
Luo Ge had a headache now.
Even more absurdly... how had he inexplicably become the apostle of someone like that?
Sigh.
What fucking rotten luck.
So who should he trust, Demon Dragon King Laplace, or Hitogami, who had helped him...?
There seemed to be a choice, but after the Dragon God had nearly killed him, Luo Ge no longer had one.
After all, he could hardly seek out the Dragon God just to explain, "I'm actually not an Apostle of the Human God. This is all a misunderstanding."
Leaving aside whether the other party would believe him.
Luo Ge could not possibly gamble his precious life on that trace of goodwill in the other party's heart.
"Dragon God, Demon Dragon King, Hitogami..."
Luo Ge repeatedly murmured those three names, feeling as though he had accidentally stepped into a bottomless pool of muddy water.
Judging by the clues so far.
It was not hard to guess that the Dragon God and Demon Dragon King were on the same side. However... it looked very likely that the Demon Dragon King had already been killed by Hitogami.
While the Dragon God was still alive.
Overall, Hitogami's side held a substantial advantage.
"But..."
Luo Ge gently folded the letter and returned it to the drawer. "In this game between gods, what I need to do is definitely not favor either side."
"Instead, I need to build up my strength in secret, little by little. In any case, if I meet the Dragon God again, I need enough strength to survive first."