I really only stop

Hiding in the dark and keeping an eye on the movement of the caravan, the masked man came out from the shade of the tree after confirming that the carriage had disappeared from sight.

...It has been less than half a year since I left the holy land of elves.

Outlined emerald-colored complex patterns out of thin air and stuffed all the camouflage luggage into the storage space. Looking at the blue sky, Oedipus couldn't help feeling a little dazed.

The failed operation to save newborns that day taught me two truths, one is that mothers are invincible, and the other is that any struggle I have is futile.

Planning, observation, action, contingency and even [luck]... In that almost desperate operation, I had so many favorable advantages, the only reason for my failure was the overwhelming strength of the shady.

Whenever I thought I had grasped a slight flaw in Him and tried to find hope from that torn slit, He was watching me silently.He knew that I could only glimpse a greater truth of terror and powerlessness through that small slit.

…But amazingly, I didn't get punished for my desperate actions that day.My mother just looked at me meaningfully and asked if I wanted to find out the truth.

After I hesitated to answer 'yes', she easily let me leave the holy land of elves, and set off to explore around the world alone.

Is it reassuring that I won't run away, or is it convinced that I have nowhere to run?

The answer to this question is too terrifying, and it only flashes through my mind every time, as if staying for a second longer will lead to destruction.

With the seal I learned in the holy land of elves, it is not a problem for me to protect myself.But to avoid trouble, I put on this clown mask anyway.

In the beginning, I would take it off when I was alone, but now I don't have this thought at all.

To be under someone's gaze all the time, only to be able to make him smile through a comical struggle—in a way, this mask probably fits me better than the original face.

"...Then, let's start this meaningless [search for the truth]."

The hand that wanted to touch the mask was quickly put down, and Oedipus took out a casually bought notebook from his pocket, and quickly flipped through the contents.

There was undoubtedly something wrong with the state of the elves, and Mother never wanted to hide that.I even vaguely felt that she had been waiting for me to take the initiative to ask questions to achieve a certain purpose of hers.And I can only obey.

I will do what she wants me to do—is this considered [mature]?maybe.

Like a guessing game a human child plays with its mother, my mother gave me some hints before we set off.

Judging from the information my mother provided me, the elves have been closed in the holy land of elves for at least ten thousand years.The cause of this situation lies in the [disaster] ten thousand years ago.

The biggest disaster that almost destroyed the world. The image recorded in the book is an extremely evil dragon manipulating black flames, but I somehow think this is not the truth.

The reason is very simple. I think the disaster that can destroy the world should be the shady mother.At best, that dragon is just cannon fodder on the bright side. What can really destroy civilization can never be pure [violence].

With the skill of making me laugh I practiced when I was a child, I can still get along well in the outside world.Whether it's cheating or stealing, or stealing, I almost deceived the wealthy nobles in the human world.

I have to say that although they are a little stupid, their family background is really rich.Relying on the information I snatched from the nobles, I quickly pieced together some truths from ten thousand years ago.

The glorious era, 50 years of technological explosion, divinely-given documents—there are problems everywhere.

And the biggest problem is, [everything is fine now].

Incredible, right?Obviously, I can write a conspiracy theory of 10,000+ words with these three key words I found, but the whole glorious era full of mysteries is surprisingly simple to end with "The Dragon Destroyed Everything".

I want to laugh out loud, the reason for this funny situation is either that the person who wrote this history was tired of writing half of it and cut it in half, or that some existence with ulterior motives has altered the history and concealed the truth.

The most ridiculous thing is that the dragon that destroyed everything was sealed by a brave man who came out of nowhere?Am I reading a fairy tale?

It is impossible for any miracle to exist in the world. Others may believe it, but I absolutely do not believe it.For these eyes never saw any miracles.

Thinking about it this way, there is another piece of evidence for the speculation that the dragon is a cannon fodder.

Casually writing down his complaints in the notebook, Oedipus looked around the environment.

If you want to find the truth that is hidden by someone, you can only dig deep and keep exploring.

That's why I'm here.

The rumored place where the No. [-] Sky City of the Floating Kingdom, Seth, fell——a huge pit called the [Are of Heaven's Punishment] by people who don't know the truth in later generations.

The truth may be buried in it.

Chapter - 5 Monkeys at 3/50 (plus)

Combined with some reasonable inferences, I have reason to believe that in the [disaster] that destroyed the world ten thousand years ago, the No. [-] Sky City of the Floating Kingdom, Set, slept here.

Stretching out his hands to push away the wanton-growing weeds, Oedipus' eyes quickly scanned everything around him.

This is the bottom of the deep pit known as the "Pit of Heaven's Punishment". After thousands of years of baptism, the surface here has long been buried by soil and plants.The tops of the extraordinarily lush trees are flush with the grass on the edge of the deep pit. If one is not careful, the first-time traveler may step on the ground and fall into the bottomless abyss.

Even if I look up, I can only see the sky completely covered by the canopy of trees-for me, this environment is more comfortable.

The dense canopy and the deserted surroundings provided Oedipus with the best cover.At the bottom of the deep pit that no one knows, he can use the powerful seal ability of the elves at will.

[Life Sign·Detection].

As an eye-shaped pattern was outlined, huge life energy spread around Oedipus' body as the center.

Naturally, it is impossible to find anything in front, back, left, right, and the sky. The direction where Oedipus really focused his attention was actually [foot].

"——Then, the castle in the sky that once soared in the sky, but now ends up sleeping in the mud, what surprise can you bring me?"

"..."

"...No one is watching anyway, so don't force yourself to keep your emotions high."

------------

Facts have proved that Oedipus' speculation is correct.After several days of exploration and excavation, he actually found many relics from ancient times.

"...But, it's all rubbish."

Frowning and looking at the pile of scrap copper and iron he had dug out, even with Oedipus' heart, he couldn't help but sigh.

The more I explore what happened ten thousand years ago, the more obvious the feeling in my heart is that [someone is deliberately concealing the truth].

There is no other reason, the era of glory has been destroyed too cleanly.

Logically speaking, no matter how powerful the violence is, it cannot completely erase everything in a civilization from the world.Remains, relics, relics... even in the most complete destruction, these things will inevitably survive.

The deeper a civilization develops, the wider its spread.No matter what era there will be solitary people, they will stay away from the position of mainstream civilization and choose an unknown place to spend their lives quietly.And the traces of these people are also the most likely to be preserved.

Now, however, everything is gone.

It's like a maniac playing battle royale with people all over the world at the same time.Within the specified time, He not only found and killed them one by one, but also restored their hiding places one by one as if no one had come, which is totally illogical.

unless--

A gust of wind blew past, and the dense canopy of trees in the sky shook irregularly, like a huge wriggling shadow.

Letting the leaves slap on his face, Oedipus just froze in place, recalling the thought that popped up suddenly in his heart.

Unless...these people killed themselves...?

--------------

It is still the battle royale game between a lunatic and all human beings. From common sense, it is impossible for a lunatic to kill everyone and erase their traces of existence.

It's too outrageous, even with this perseverance and physical strength, it is impossible for a lunatic to have the omniscient ability to know everyone's location.

The only possible explanation is that all human beings erased their own traces of existence, and then took their own lives. In this way, the difficulty of making this battle royale hypothesis valid has been reduced by billions of times.

Everyone has a bomb hanging around their neck, and the madman is just the last one to push the detonation button - is it possible?

The facts derived from logical reasoning further disturbed Oedipus' thinking, and almost subconsciously, he stretched out his hand to support the largest piece of scrap metal he had dug out.

[...beep...beep. 】

A chaotic electric sound suddenly sounded with this movement, and Oedipus reflexively jumped out of the original position, watching this scene with great vigilance.

[...No response...Self-test on...Failed...]

[Experiment name... The development of the refuge space has been unattended for ... years. According to... regulations, the research animals were released immediately.You should immediately...]

Under the nervous gaze of Oedipus, the surrounding light suddenly flashed.A huge cage exuding red copper light suddenly appeared from the void, firmly imprisoning him inside the cage.

attack? !

Pulling out the dagger he carried with him from behind in an instant, Oedipus cautiously approached the red copper cage while being wary of the large scrap metal that had not moved.

...Fortunately, it's not an impenetrable material.

After a simple test, Oedipus finally calmed down temporarily.

Different from the general cage steel plate + steel bar structure, the cage in front of you is a mesh structure.This structure is highly resilient, and the small mesh holes ensure breathing while preventing the creatures in it from stretching out their claws to hurt people. It is generally used to lock up some animals.

The material is not special, it should be a kind of copper alloy.You can tear it apart whenever you want.

However, the contents of the cage are very interesting——

Frowning and looking towards the center of the cage, Oedipus couldn't help frowning.

It was the carcass of a fully dehydrated humanoid.

From the appearance, this is not a species with advanced intelligence at all.It scratched and bitten all around the cage, but until the end of its life, it couldn't find a way to escape from the cage, so it curled up in place due to thirst and hunger, waiting powerlessly for the arrival of death.

What did the electric voice just say about the 'refuge space experiment'?Is this the experimental animal of that plan?

Just after being sent into the so-called refuge space, the outside world was suddenly baptized by disaster.The self who has no one to take back can only stay in the experimental space forever-how sad.

I don't know what the situation in the refuge space is like, at least there is no trace of decay on the body of this [-]-year-old animal.Zoologists might be ecstatic about the discovery, but Oedipus was more concerned about what was hanging around the animal's neck.

A shiny spar pendant that looks to work.

Throwing the dead animal aside without hesitation, Oedipus held the pendant in one hand, and before he could take a closer look, a light blue light flashed across it.

[Refuge space development, the last experiment on live animals, the executor, first-level researcher Filin. 】

The screen suddenly lights up, and an old man with white hair and beard is looking directly in the direction of Oedipus, his eyes full of exhaustion:

[Since the emergency project was established, the refuge space technology has been keeping up with progress.Finally, it was time for live animal experiments. 】

[The content of the experiment is to let this monkey (the camera turns, a lively monkey stands on the test platform) um...it hasn't been named yet, anyway, let it live in a refuge space for 30 days, to test whether that space It is suitable for biological habitation for final verification. 】

[Of course, because there is a small space that is completely isolated from the world, the passage of time may be different.The 30 days I said is naturally based on the current world time. 】

[In order to find out whether there is a time difference in the refuge space, I will keep this personal terminal turned on from now on, and send it and the monkey into the refuge space. After 30 days, just look at the time stamp on it. I understand everything. 】

(The professor hangs the personal terminal around the monkey's neck, the monkey touches it curiously, and the screen shakes for a while.)

[Haha, you can play with it when you are bored—if you know how to operate it. 】

The cage was closed, and the monkey and the terminal were teleported into a space surrounded by fog.

On the first day, the trained monkeys successfully found the first day's rations from the supplies.The rations seemed to be mixed with sleeping pills, and the monkeys fell asleep after eating.

The next day, same.

……

No. 30 days, no one picked up the monkey.The monkeys continue to eat the spare food and sleep.

On the 350th day, the reserve food was completely consumed, and the monkeys began to show symptoms such as restlessness and mania.

On the second day, the monkey began to scratch around the cage, but failed.

On the 350th day, the monkey died.

Chapter - 6 Traces of 3/50

After the experimental animal was completely dehydrated, everything in the picture no longer changed.After watching the fast-playing clip in silence, Oedipus finally understood what he was holding in his hand.

The crystallization of technology from ancient times, the magical props that recorded the hidden truth.

After a long search and unremitting efforts, the legacy of the glorious era was finally in his hands.

"..."

The strange thing is that Oedipus doesn't feel the joy of successfully achieving his wish even though he has achieved his goal.

He just stared blankly at the small chip in his hand, his eyes lost, like a ghost aimlessly.

[Friendly reminder, this terminal is the private property of first-level researcher Mr. Fei Lin, please return it to the resident office after picking it up. 】

"—Huh? Who?"

Slightly taken aback by the clear female voice that suddenly sounded beside his ear, Oedipus subconsciously looked at his palm:

"It's you?"

【Yes, sir. 】

The terminal chip lit up, as if responding to Oedipus's words: