Chapter 1 Navigating the Dark Realm: A Beacon to the Firstborn Star

Hao Ren had never imagined finding it here, in this form.

The Creation Goddess not only knew of her own demise in advance, but she had even planned for this contingency. She had set everything up in such a remote star system, leaving the key to the path forward for those who came after—even though the key's ultimate purpose was to completely destroy her. This was all the more stunning.

Beyond the shock, Hao Ren was also deeply moved by this contest waged on the level of causality.

The Lord of Madness was rooted in the rules of the universe, so the goddess used the erasure of those rules as a weapon to fight against him. The backlash of the world's will would cause loopholes in the "Godslaying Era" plan, so the goddess left a set of beacons to ensure that the Creation Engine could function as scheduled… and all of these countermeasures had taken place before the events even occurred.

The Creation Goddess and the Lord of Madness were like two opponents locked in a fierce game of strategy, facing a blank chessboard. The battle had been raging long before the first piece was ever placed.

Lost in thought, Hao Ren couldn't help but shake his head. "However, in this battle of cause and effect, the Creation Goddess ultimately seemed to be one step behind. Although she left beacons to fill the loopholes, another crucial link in the Godslaying Plan ran into problems: when she fell, the Creation Engine wasn't completed in time. This was most likely the result of the Great Universe's will pushing back."

"No, Hao Ren," Vivian suddenly said. "Have you forgotten? The Creation Engine project has been restarted. You restarted it after coming to this universe."

"... Holy crap?" Hao Ren opened his mouth, and after a long time, managed to utter a curse word. A layer of cold sweat couldn't help but break out on his forehead.

This step was also part of the plan?!

"Good heavens, the games of the true gods are so thrilling and impossible to guard against," Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "If I couldn't quit, I wouldn't be willing to get involved in this kind of thing even if you beat me to death. If I were a normal protagonist, shouldn't I be slamming my fist on the table, flying into a rage, and declaring that my fate is mine to control, not Heaven's? Then, I would defy fate, quit my job, and blow up the Creation Engine or something?"

"Stop messing around. Try writing a resignation letter to Raven 12345," Vivian rolled her eyes at him. "You're working within the system, so don't think like an individual entrepreneur. Those protagonists who declare that their fate is theirs to control are the ones who didn't sign a contract. A guy like you with five insurances, one fund, and a year-end bonus can't slam the table."

Hao Ren frowned and thought for a while, then suddenly clapped his hands. "Damn it, I finally figured out what was wrong! Raven 12345 didn't give out year-end bonuses last year!"

Vivian: "..."

Salaman listened from the side, but he couldn't understand anything. He couldn't help but interject, "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Just a problem with foreign gods withholding employee benefits," Hao Ren waved his hand, then stared at the giant legion commander with a burning gaze. "Putting that aside for now, can those three crystals really find the Firstborn Star? I mean, even if the Firstborn Star fell outside the universe, can it be found?"

"I have full confidence in that," Salaman nodded. "Our mother left this beacon after deducing cause and effect. Its working mechanism transcends cause and effect—and naturally, it transcends time and space as well. You just mentioned that in the outside world, the Firstborn Star and the entire God-Kingdom have fallen into the 'Dark Realm.' This is enough to prove the accuracy of our mother's deduction back then, so the beacon's effect is worth anticipating."

As he spoke, Salaman sighed with emotion. "Actually, we were once at a loss. That was three thousand years ago, when Nakdal was suddenly attacked by rebels and fell apart. The Nakdal Crystal, as a beacon component, was also lost in the spatial turbulence, and one of the three beacon crystals was missing…"

Hao Ren whispered to Vivian, "Is that how you use 'three missing one'?"

Vivian poked Hao Ren's arm hard. "Don't interrupt!"

Salaman continued, "... But we firmly believe that the Nakdal Crystal still exists, because it only fell into the spatial turbulence, and was not destroyed by those corrupted freaks. With the blessing left by our mother, the Nakdal Crystal can certainly remain safe and sound. Now that two of the three crystals are in our hands, the only thing we need to consider is how to retrieve the crystal on Amantir—it must be retrieved intact."

"My drone legion can defeat those monsters on the front lines," Hao Ren frowned, feeling that this problem was a bit tricky. "But like you said, those monsters will jump over the wall when they're cornered. If they drag the entire fortress into a self-destruction, that would be a big problem: they're capable of doing that."

"How many drones do you have?" Salaman asked casually.

"Within this star system, there are more than twenty million..." Hao Ren replied, but as soon as he finished speaking, a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes. "Oh, it's up to thirty million now. Actually, this number doesn't mean much anymore. The main force of my drone legion is still outside the star system, and they're still rushing here day and night, multiplying as they go. The total number of armed units exceeds eight or nine hundred billion, and it won't be long before that number breaks through one trillion. But like I said, the quantity has long exceeded what's needed, and it doesn't mean anything anymore. Those monsters will still self-destruct when they need to, and they'll never have a harmonious and smooth ending just because they see that we have more people on our side. I'm afraid that as soon as hundreds of billions of drones show up, they'll just explode on the spot…"

Salaman felt that Hao Ren's words contained a large number of incomprehensible foreign terms, probably knowledge from another universe, which made it difficult for him to keep up. But with the wisdom of the old giant, it was not difficult to understand Hao Ren's meaning, and he deeply agreed with his conclusion.

"We once considered sending a commando team to forcibly land on Amantir in the midst of the chaos, taking advantage of the situation to seize the Amantir Crystal," the giant legion commander said. "But doing so is fraught with difficulties. The tight defense on the surface of Amantir is one thing, but the biggest problem is that the Guardian Legion doesn't have enough troops—we simply can't organize an offensive battle sufficient to push the front line to Amantir."

"The troop problem has now been solved," Hao Ren also thought of the same approach. "Drones are sufficient. Oh, by the way, does the Amantir Crystal have spatial restrictions? For example, can it not be put into a different dimension, can it not pass through spatial rifts, and so on?"

"There are no restrictions in this regard. Do you have a plan?"

"If I can be sent to the Amantir Crystal, I can 'load' it back," Hao Ren said. "But as you said, that place is heavily guarded. After all, it's the enemy's base camp, so it's not that easy to get in."

Salaman thought for a while. "If it's you… it might be feasible. You are small in size, and the various facilities on Amantir are designed according to the size of the Guardian Giants. For a long time, the opponents that those freaks have faced have also been giant races like us, more than ten meters tall—they have no experience in defending against small humanoid creatures, and they have no awareness in this regard. Moreover, I have a detailed structural map of the core area of Amantir here, with many 'paths' that are suitable for you."

Hao Ren's eyes lit up. "That's feasible."

"But there are still some troubles..." Salaman looked at Hao Ren with some embarrassment. "No matter what, you have too few people. Not counting those drones, I only see two of you—that little fish shouldn't be combat power, right? In this way, even if the Lord of the End Throne takes the risk of acting as bait himself, it would be extremely risky for you two to venture deep into Amantir alone."

Hao Ren was reminded by this and quickly brought up another question that he had been concerned about: "By the way, let me ask you something: what's going on with the divine power blockade in this X-cluster? What exactly is its detection mechanism?"

Salaman really knew about this. He showed a pensive look on his face, and nodded after a moment. "Alright, it won't hurt to tell you. The divine power blockade is one of the protective measures set up by our mother to resist enemies invading the Holy Land from the outside. Because this place is crucial, the lives of any non-native species in this star system will be intercepted and attacked by it. However, in the rebellion that broke out three thousand years ago, the defense line was breached from the inside, so this blockade line ultimately failed to come in handy. As for its detection mechanism..."

Speaking of this, the giant legion commander couldn't help but show a hint of suspicion on his face. "I'm starting to suspect that there's something wrong with this detection mechanism… It uses 'life sequence' as the detection mechanism. Only life forms that are in the origin state, that is, 'closest to God,' can pass the detection, but you actually brought a fish..."

Hao Ren was stunned, and then he couldn't help but laugh. "No wonder. It turns out that its detection mechanism has nothing to do with divinity, but directly detects the life sequence... Legion commander, don't be surprised. If you talk about the life sequence of 'that fish' alone, I'm afraid it's higher than both of us."

This mystery was finally solved. The detection mechanism of the divine power blockade was based on the life sequence. Vivian was a life created directly from the blood of the Creation Goddess, so her life sequence was naturally extremely high. Dou Dou was the "end of life" of a universe, so her composition was not too low either. As for Hao Ren... he used to be a human, but after signing a contract with Raven 12345, he directly became the so-called "side of God." This was a change on the conceptual level, and it was equivalent to raising his life sequence.

And the rest of his companions at home obviously could not meet this "passing standard."

Vivian was very curious about this detection mechanism. "Why is it based on life sequence? Isn't it more convenient to detect based on divinity?"

"It's very simple. When the Creation Engine starts, the divine sequence of the entire universe will become invalid," Salaman gave the answer. "The true gods will disappear, and the corresponding divinity will also disappear. Although divine beings like us can survive, we will become 'mortals.' At that time, if we still want to continue to fulfill our mission in the Holy Land, the security system here can only use the life sequence as the basis for detection. In fact, the divinity storm blocking the X-cluster will also change after that, transforming into a powerful but non-divine pure energy flow. The divine resonance used by the End Network will also be downgraded accordingly, completing the so-called 'de-divinization'... But this process is too complicated to explain."

"It must rely on divine power when starting, but it needs to be 'de-divinized' after running," Hao Ren rubbed his chin. "I see, I understand the necessity of this detection mechanism. So, do you have a way to turn off this detection mechanism—or temporarily open a few 'back doors' for me?"

Salaman hesitated. "We can't turn it off, because this is one of the highest security measures, but if you want a few 'access permissions,' that's easy to solve. You want to..."

Hao Ren smiled slightly. "I have a few more helpers—they've been slacking off in the base long enough."