Chapter 286

Hearing the tomb guardian's answer, Duncan remained silent for a long time—the answer was so astonishing, yet somehow, he felt as if he had anticipated it…
“…The ‘Creator’ you keep mentioning, is that the Crawling King? Or…the Shadow Saint?”
“We usually call him ‘Navigator One,’” the tomb guardian slowly lowered his head, “or the Cluster Controller—but we also know the names Crawling King and Shadow Saint. This information was relayed by the Doomsday Survey Team from a certain point in time.”
The tall gravedigger paused for a few seconds before continuing in a soft, almost self-whispering tone, “We haven’t received any news from the Creator for a very long time.”
Duncan did not respond, his mind filled with chaotic thoughts. After a brief period of contemplation, he looked up at the body on the throne. “So, ‘Navigator One’ collected some fragments of the King of Dreams during the Third Long Night, and then, relying on his unique ‘replication’ authority, designed the Krit race as his assistants based on the King of Dreams… The entire Krit race was ‘created’ in this way? Including the Doomsday Survey Team?”
“Of course,” the gravedigger said calmly, “The world was still very chaotic back then. The Creator briefly released some mortals into the unformed sanctuary, but found that they could not survive, let alone be of use. Therefore, he could only seek help from beings as powerful as himself—Sarslokas, who died during the previous Genesis process, was the most suitable choice.”
Duncan listened quietly to the gravedigger’s account, the expression on his face becoming increasingly subtle. He suddenly realized that if this was true… then wouldn't that mean that all the Doomsday Preachers could be considered Sarslokas’ “offspring”?!
This strange and shocking thought flashed through his mind. Duncan suddenly paused, then couldn't help but think of something else—
Those crazy “Preachers” became excited and fanatical when they saw the Vanishing Line, calling it the “Promised Ark”… The main reason behind this was, of course, that the Vanishing Line had entered the subspace and returned intact, but could it also be… related to the fact that the current Vanishing Line was actually built on Sarslokas’ “ancient god spine”?!
Could the madness and fanaticism of those Doomsday Preachers actually be a stress response of some kind, a reaction of “offspring” approaching their “ancient god”?!
Once these startling associations appeared, they were difficult to suppress. Duncan’s thoughts instantly extended far away. After a long while, his attention finally gradually returned, refocusing on the throne and the headless body before him.
He recalled a sentence the gravedigger had said to him before entering the mausoleum.
“You said he doesn’t have much time left… you meant this body doesn’t have much time left?”
“He has been watching here for a long time, but the maintenance systems here cannot operate indefinitely,” the gravedigger said in a deep voice. “The ancient systems left by the Creator are all gradually failing. They have been in service for far too many years… This throne once served as a thousand and two hundred observation stations, maintaining the ‘existence’ of all the Krits, but now it has become the last observation station, and the throne’s operation is also approaching its end.”
Duncan suddenly frowned. “…What will happen when the throne stops running?”
The gravedigger was silent for a moment, then slowly said, “It means the complete collapse of the first pillar system left by the Creator—after that, the Fourth Long Night begins.”
The Fourth Long Night!
Duncan’s eyes changed slightly—after so many messy and fragmented clues, he had finally obtained such definite information for the first time, and for the first time, he had determined what the symbolic node was when the “Fourth Long Night” occurred!
Moreover, the gravedigger had just said that the ancient systems left by the Creator were “all” experiencing problems. The collapse of the throne was clearly only one of them, and Anomaly 001—the Sun—was undoubtedly another system that was on the verge of reaching its limit… This was consistent with the currently known situation!
Duncan’s brow was already tightly furrowed, his thoughts churning in his mind—
Judging from common sense, when the first “collapse” occurs in a series of interconnected and complex systems, a chain reaction will inevitably follow. In other words, when the throne here stops running, the Sun’s malfunction and complete shutdown will accelerate…
The beginning of each Long Night is initiated by the great collapse of the previous Long Night, and the Third Long Night is no exception. The throne collapses, the “Nameless King’s Mausoleum” ceases to operate as the last Krit observation station, and the Sun will accelerate its collapse in a series of subsequent malfunctions, until it is permanently extinguished, and the entire world falls into darkness…
The gravedigger in front of him clearly knew many things, some of which even exceeded the era in which he lived, exceeding the current timeline. This information… perhaps came from those “Doomsday Survey Teams” who had set off long ago, monitoring the entire sanctuary in the timeline…
Thinking of the “gravedigger” who had brought him here, Duncan’s thoughts couldn't help but spread out again:
This “gravedigger,” and the mausoleum he guarded, had existed in this chaotic crevice for ten thousand years, but based on what Vanna had revealed, the “Nameless King’s Mausoleum” seemed to have never engaged in such rational and positive communication with the outside world as it was today. In the eyes of the world, this mausoleum was a chaotic and dangerous “Anomaly 004,” but now it seemed that the gravedigger and everything in the mausoleum were clearly very “normal”…
Duncan’s thoughts suddenly stopped. He turned his head thoughtfully, looking at the tall gravedigger standing beside him.
…Was it really normal?
Could it be that, like those “unspeakable things” he had encountered before, only he could understand and see all this? And for other “Listeners” who were guided into the mausoleum, was the gravedigger and the ancient plaza ruins at the end of the tunnel completely different?
Duncan recalled the “cognitive deviation model” proposed by Ruen at the recent gathering. After a moment of thought, he couldn't help but ask, “Do other people who enter the mausoleum see the same things as I do?”
“…I will try my best to deceive their eyes and ears, and cleanse their memories of those harmful parts before they leave—mortals should not see too many things, it is harmful to them.”
Duncan slowly nodded. The gravedigger’s answer did not fully meet his expectations, but it had indirectly confirmed his guess.
The world he saw was different from the world in the eyes of ordinary people, and the more it involved the fields of “anomalies” and “strange phenomena,” the more significant this “deviation effect” became.
Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, temporarily setting aside these chaotic and complex questions. After a brief silence, he suddenly asked, “How much longer?”
The tomb guardian turned his head. “Hmm?”
Duncan raised his head, pointing to the dark and towering throne. “I mean, how long can this throne last?”
“I can’t be sure. I am just a caretaker, and the scholars who understood this complex system disappeared a long time ago. The only answer I can give you is… soon.”
“What will happen to this body after the throne stops running?”
This time, the tomb guardian did not answer, only shaking his head in silence.
Duncan did not pursue the question. He and the gravedigger stood together in silence, in the ruins illuminated by the twilight sky, for an unknown amount of time. Then, Duncan suddenly asked, “I heard the bells… is it because this place is on the verge of its limit? Were you actively calling me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Duncan turned his head, his expression doubtful and solemn. “What do you want me to do?”
To his surprise, the gravedigger shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I am just a caretaker. Those who understood everything, who knew everything, disappeared a long time ago,” the gravedigger looked into Duncan’s eyes and slowly said, “But I still remember one thing… I only remember one thing.”
He turned around, his gaze looking towards the distant open ruins, towards the phantoms that occasionally emerged from the edge of the plaza, hurriedly passing through many gates, flashing through the timeline, and softly said:
“When they had just set off, a message came from the most distant, most impossible boundary of time, arriving here almost in an instant. A Doomsday Surveyor who claimed to have reached the end sent a sentence—
“He said, twilight has fallen, and the fire thief has ignited this world.”
Duncan was silent, hiding all his emotions in eyes as deep as still water as he listened to the gravedigger’s account. No one knew what he was thinking at this moment.
But the gravedigger obviously didn’t care. He just continued calmly, “I don’t know what you will think after seeing everything here, nor do I know what you will do on a certain day in the future, and I don’t even know what impact what I tell you today will have on your future actions or decisions.
“My duty is to guard this station, and to periodically activate it according to the ancient agreement, allowing it to conduct limited data interaction with the outside world… We are a race that was carefully designed and created. Each of us only exists to complete limited and necessary work, and bringing you here does not strictly fall within my duties.
“But those responsible for assigning work are no longer here, and there has been no news from the Creator for a long time. I think I should at least… do something.”
“…I understand,” Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. The expression on his face had relaxed at some point, and then he looked at the gravedigger and nodded slowly and seriously. “Thank you for telling me so much. Knowing these things that once happened is already a great gain for me.”
“That’s good.”

(End of Chapter)