Chapter 0 Twilight Has Arisen, Dusk Approaches - Part 2 (Free)

Zhuzhou, those strange beings that exist in every world, often have different forms, and even from the outside, they don't look like the same kind of creature at all. They are scattered throughout Xianxia, Wuxia, Xuanhuan, Fantasy, and even Sci-Fi worlds.

In other words, basically all other worlds have the possibility of Zhuzhou appearing—they are everywhere and very strong.

But no matter how they are distributed or what they look like, these strange creatures always call themselves Zhuzhou and do roughly the same things.

And, strictly speaking, Zhuzhou is not an aggressive creature that likes to attack proactively and launch attacks on adventurers for no reason.

On the contrary, Zhuzhou is a powerful super-life form that is very good at, and even very, very happy to protect weak races… so in various worlds, many weak races voluntarily join Zhuzhou's command, become its vassals, and accept protection.

So why do Zhuzhou become terrifying and difficult random Bosses in the eyes of explorers, annoying world-class meddling police?

The reason still lies with the explorers.

As the classic saying goes: Kill ten explorers, and you might kill someone innocent; let one go, and you're sure to miss one.

Explorers, a group with a fairly high moral ceiling, but a moral floor that is unbearable to look at.

As one of the great being's family groups who are all sick, everyone understands what they do in other worlds.

So whenever some people do some unacceptable pioneer behavior, the Zhuzhou, who originally had nothing to do with the current situation, will directly and angrily take action, intruding in various ways to capture or kill those explorers who act badly.

And Zhuzhou is obviously not an orderly and benevolent divine beast. It's okay if it doesn't take action, but once it does, naturally the explorers of the entire world will suffer together, retreating in embarrassment amidst the sky-filled explosions and divine light breath, or even being completely wiped out.

In this way, basically in any world with Zhuzhou, it will conflict with explorers.

So Zhuzhou has the reputation of a random world Boss and a meddling police force.

"So there are Zhuzhou in my hometown too?! And the believers are so strong, far stronger than the Zhuzhou dependents in other worlds!"

With this news that shocked Decimus unexpectedly, he was invited to his hometown, the 'former Holy Serpent Spirit Prayer Society secret base', 'now Rainbow Serpent Group Liaison Office' near the rural agricultural provinces in the central United States of America.

Here, Crossell, as the president of the Rainbow Serpent Group, personally conducted one-on-one communication with Decimus.

In any case, an existence at the peak of command can be regarded as the top tier of powerhouses in the current balloon, and Crossell could sense that Decimus's power was far stronger than he had imagined. It was just that the other party had a goal that had to be accomplished, so he didn't want to risk everything and took a step back to talk to him in a friendly manner.

In fact, even in the Pioneer Space, the number of Overlord-level explorers is not large. After all, [Pioneer]'s awakening time is not long. Crossell was precisely because he keenly noticed this 'big fish', so he abused his power as the NW Foundation executive to communicate with Decimus.

The result of the exchange between the two sides was still a win-win situation.

"I see! The [Creation Realm]... this is obviously a great existence that we have never contacted before, the original world of [Creation]!"

After receiving the entire message from Decimus's mouth, Crossell immediately became excited: "Better news than I imagined!"

"Lord Su will definitely be happy! This is the good news he has been waiting for!"

As a family group that has been subdued by Su Zhou, Crossell and others, in addition to cooperating with the Zhuzhao Group on weekdays to promote various plans that Su Zhou wants to carry out on Earth, are also responsible for continuing to conduct Void transactions and collect all kinds of useful intelligence.

Among them, information about unfamiliar great existences and 'original worlds' is the most important category. As long as Crossell can prove the authenticity of the information provided, then Su Zhou will not be stingy with rewards at all.

Even his true blood, the youth will not hesitate to give out—the blood of Zhuzhou containing the elements of immortal blood, is an irresistible treasure for a chaotic family like Crossell.

In the meeting room, Crossell subconsciously clenched his fists, revealing an obvious look of excitement.

Of course, Decimus was the same.

Unlike the delighted Crossell, the Pioneer explorer who exchanged information with him was shocked to learn everything that Earth had experienced in the past five years, and was deeply shocked by it.

"What?! There is also transcendental inheritance on Earth, and it's ridiculously strong?!"

"Now, on Earth alone, there are more than twenty Overlord Gods and hundreds of Demigods?!"

"Even, even there is already a True God who is now fighting with other God systems... other powerful civilizations in the universe a thousand light-years away?!"

"Our Earth is so strong?!"

One message was more jaw-dropping than the other.

And the combination of the three messages made Decimus, who thought he was knowledgeable, shake his head in disbelief, his heart filled with absurdity and a complex emotion that was difficult to express: "Actually, actually..."

The man smiled bitterly and said to himself: "I thought I knew my hometown very well, but I never really understood its full picture..."

"That's not strange, Mr. Decimus. Before you became a Pioneer dependent, you were just an ordinary rural youth. Although you were admitted to a well-known university, you became an explorer before you had time to continue your studies."

Having obtained unexpected gains, Crossell was in a good mood at this time. He sat on the chair, with his hands clasped in front of his chest and his legs crossed, smiling noncommittally: "You have returned to your hometown now to find the bloodline of your lover and relatives, and then return to the 'Creation Realm' to find the traces of your lover that were hidden by the 'Warring Sky' God system."

"As you know, on Earth today, a Demigod is powerful, but they cannot act recklessly... We can help you find it, but at the same time, you must also cooperate with us."

"Huff..."

Decimus exhaled and closed his eyes. After a while, he reopened his eyes and stared at the snake-like, effeminate man in front of him with sharp eyes.

He said in a deep voice: "What price do I have to pay?"

And the answer was surprisingly simple.

"When you are ready to go to the 'Creation Realm', return to Earth in advance and tell us—our Lord, the Primordial Zhuzhou, needs this information very much. He will like it."

"Just that simple?" the man asked in disbelief, and the other party's answer was equally straightforward: "Just that simple."

At this moment, Crossell and Decimus looked at each other, both feeling that the other was a lot more kind and friendly, just like brothers who had been separated for many years and reunited today.

——These explorers are indeed the best source of information. Such rare information is just common sense to them!

——They helped me so much, but only need such a small reward in return? When did the people back home become so generous!

Of course, this is not surprising.

Treating each other as suckers is the true essence of inter-world trade.

Soon, the two parties signed a contract.

Decimus was to help Crossell and the 'Primordial Zhuzhou' behind him to collect as much information as possible about all great existences and original worlds, with the known 'Creation Realm' being the top priority.

At the same time, he also had to cooperate with some adventurers who had also accepted the mission. In the future, if they met in other worlds, these explorers who had also accepted the Zhuzhou mission could not attack each other and had to cooperate.

And Crossell and the Primordial Zhuzhou side would help Decimus collect the information he needed, and help Decimus return to the Creation Realm and find his lover's whereabouts as much as possible without endangering their own safety.

For both parties, these conditions were extremely favorable.

"Speaking of which."

Decimus signed the mark representing his soul, and completed the contract under the witness of the Pioneer Space.

After that, he curiously raised his head and looked at Crossell, who was also very happy, and asked a question he had wanted to ask for a long time: "In the end, you are actually followers of Chaos, right? This aura, the Dragon-Serpent bloodline, can't be hidden at all."

"Yes."

And Crossell readily admitted: "The essence of Chaos followers is Chaos. We both worship Chaos and worship Zhuzhou. Isn't that obviously justifiable?"

Speaking of this, he stood up, shook hands with Decimus, and showed a slightly dangerous smile: "Fortunately, we recently cleaned up and became good people, otherwise, a guy like you might become a sacrifice for the Void Chaos Ritual!"

The matter came to an end here.

Crossell was anxious to go back and send this information to Su Zhou or Shao Qiming.

And Decimus, under the guidance of the personnel inside the Holy Serpent Spirit Prayer Society, came to the cadre room of their base to rest temporarily.

The room had a computer, TV, recorder, high-speed Internet, and all the necessities that modern human life required. The man turned on these instruments and then quietly browsed the videos, listened to the news, and obtained information about his hometown.

"...Indeed, I know nothing about Earth."

After a long time, Decimus, who roughly truly understood all the changes that had taken place on Earth in the past five years, couldn't help but sigh.

He felt lost for a while, and then became happy again.

"But that's nothing! This means that there are still many unknowns in our world!"

"I used to be like a frog in a well, longing for the blue sky, but who knew that there was a huge underground world under the well? Now it's just returning to my hometown and starting a new exploration again. This is my duty, and it will only make me happy, not self-deprecating."

"And... Chris."

"Here, I seem to have found a possibility to save you."

It was raining in the sky, and the morning light was also emerging here. Standing by the window of the Holy Serpent Spirit Prayer Society's cadre room, Decimus looked into the distance, watching the golden morning light overflowing in the mist.

But just then, suddenly.

On the computer behind him, large patches of snowflake screens appeared.

Even mobile phones, radios, and anything that used electronic signals for connection began to crackle at this moment, and the screens turned white.

"What's going on?"

Not sensing any spiritual energy fluctuations, or even any anomalies, the man, who suddenly encountered such an unusual situation, vigilantly looked around, but found nothing.

In fact, it wasn't just him.

The entire Holy Serpent Spirit Prayer Society branch, the Americas, Earth, and even the entire solar system, all electronic network-related things experienced a moment of failure just now.

It was as if a rolling torrent of information, like a tide, had flooded all electronic equipment.

Those who felt surprised and uncertain were not only in the Americas.

Just when all Earthlings were puzzled, all kinds of electronic equipment that had previously experienced abnormal failures all returned to normal.

However, a large number of messy and strange symbols began to appear on them, with all kinds of unspeakable noises that humans could not understand at all.

But soon, some characters that matched the local language appeared in those strange symbols and sounds, one or two sentences that could be understood roughly, but fragmented and not coherent at all.

Immediately afterwards, large sections of fluent and smooth text and voices, even conforming to local accents, grammar, and even commonly used slang, were released from one device after another, with a very business-like friendliness.

[Language analysis completed, new language registration completed, stored in subspace database]

[Confirmed as a new civilization 'Earth']

[Net Road AI · Galaxy service module has been successfully loaded and will provide services to all intelligent civilizations and their individuals]

[The Galaxy Net Road service module is a single-galaxy terminal of the pan-universal hyperspace network maintenance system created by the 'Probability Science Consortium'. This module has experienced some irreversible data loss due to war and spiritual energy interruption, but it can still work normally and provide assistance for the development and survival of all intelligent life]

[Decline access to the Nihilism Order, Subspace Ephemeral Insect Race, Abyssal Doom, Oblivionists, Destruction Effects, Corrective Protocols, Veil Extinguishers, Silent Immortals, Eternal True Colors, and other extreme civilization/ideological individuals]

[Hello, Level 3 Comprehensive Civilization 'Earth']

[Welcome to this vast sea of stars]

...

At the same time, inside the Pioneer Space.

"You want to go to Earth? No, no, no, that place is too dangerous. What on earth is wrong with you that you want to explore that world?"

"Because the prefix of that world is the very rare 'Sealed Universe'! Do you know how rare and fun the prefix of a sealed universe is!"

"No matter how rare it is, the space doesn't give extra rewards. There are so many unknown worlds, why do you want to pioneer in a place where the danger level can be compared to the original world?"

Shao Shuangyue, who had returned to the Pioneer Space, was posting a mission with Jiu Ming in the First Central Trading Post in the 'Independent Trading World · Utopia'.

The trading post, which looked like a coastal town on the outside, had a large number of explorers of various sizes and races coming in and out. Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming were sitting on sightseeing chairs by the roadside, waiting for their mission to be reviewed and sent to the 'Notice Board', while listening with relish to various explorer secrets.

At this time, Shao Shuangyue was wearing her usual pilot suit and helmet, and her gender was completely indistinguishable. Instead, she looked like a typical space marine. Except that the pilot suit was generally shorter, allowing humanoid explorers to roughly guess the wearer's body data, the girl was completely impeccable at the moment.

On the contrary, Jiu Ming, who was happily drinking 'Tide Heart Fruit Squid Juice', a unique delicacy in the Pioneer Space, was dressed very coolly, revealing most of his upper body and ankles. He was swinging his legs at this time, looking very leisurely.

If his skin wasn't too white and his dragon pupils, dragon horns, and dragon tail weren't too obvious, some people might think he was a young priest or pharaoh in this ancient Egyptian outfit.

"I never thought that our Earth would have such an evaluation!"

Taking a deep breath and drinking the squid juice in the cup, the satisfied Jiu Ming put down the empty cup and said with emotion as he looked at the busy exchange street in front of him: "Originally, only fellow villagers whose mother world was Earth would return to Earth, but recently, more and more people have been going to the Earth universe to carry out missions."

"A lot of exploration doesn't happen on Earth."

And Shao Shuangyue's electronic voice came from the white, armor-like pilot suit: "The universe is so big, not many explorers go to Earth... but it's mainly because Earth's danger level is very high. Currently, only teams with a rating of A or above and individuals with a strength reaching the Commander level are likely to be sent to Earth for exploration."

As a super mecha pilot, Shao Shuangyue naturally knew that the mech pilot was at their weakest when they left their mecha.

But unexpectedly, Shao Shuangyue discovered that as long as it was a slightly thick armor or pilot suit, it could also be regarded as a mecha and strengthened by her power.

Even not just armor, even carriages, bicycles, and even unicycles, skateboards, and four-wheel drive vehicles could be strengthened by her power!

Since that was the case, things were much simpler—as long as she wasn't in a safe place, she would always wear this pilot suit.

"That's right,"

Jiu Ming agreed with Shao Shuangyue's words: "Almost everyone has failed—I remember that except for the 'Celestial Realm' team, who were accepted by the Europa Concorde Bureau because of their consistent orderly and kind stance and inheritance similar to the Crystal Sky, becoming an extra team and completing the 'explore a space-time gate' mission, basically all the explorer teams were chased very embarrassingly."

"Speaking of which, I remember that I was also responsible for capturing several members of the 'Beast Swarm' team. These guys intended to go to the Tianchi Realm, but instead of taking the proper route, they had to sneak into my nest... Explorers are truly merciless, rummaging through boxes and cabinets to steal things wherever they go, and they take it for granted, calling it 'searching for supplies', which is disgusting!"

"Hey." Facing the rather indignant Jiu Ming, Shao Shuangyue couldn't help but complain: "You are also an explorer—and we often do this kind of thing, okay!"

"Oh, then it's okay."

The reason why Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming returned to the Pioneer Space was mainly because of their brother Shao Qiming's mission.

Exploring the many space-time gates on Earth that were of unknown depth and potentially dangerous, leaving behind a large number of immortal and divine civilization relics and messes, although the local forces on Earth couldn't do it, it would definitely waste a lot of resources and experience, slowing down development time.

Since that was the case, it would be better to directly post missions in the Pioneer Space and entrust those explorers, who were not afraid of difficulties, hardships, danger, or fatigue, and were representatives of the multiverse chaos, to explore the minefields.

The conversations they had just heard were the scene of an explorer who wanted to take on their mission being dragged away by their teammate.

"Ah, when will we meet the right tools?"

Patting the knees of her exoskeleton armor, Shao Shuangyue couldn't help but sigh with regret: "Explorers are bad, but most of them have brains. It's really difficult..."

And Jiu Ming shrugged and said: "If it really doesn't work, we can only set the reward a little higher... What's going on?!"

Suddenly, the entire Central Trading Post shook violently, causing the young man, who originally wanted to stand up and throw the cup he had finished drinking into the trash can, to sway and almost fall.

Although he quickly stood firm afterwards and floated in the air, this sudden violent tremor still made him and many explorers feel inexplicable: "What happened? Does the Pioneer Space also have earthquakes?"

"Could it be that someone is fighting in the First Central Trading Post?"

But in fact, it wasn't just here.

The entire Independent Trading World · Utopia, and even the entire Pioneer Space, had trembled slightly just now.

In the multiverse, countless silver radiation lines that penetrated endless time and space flickered slightly, as if there was a bad contact, under a slowly spreading dim yellow halo.

That was the reason why the entire Pioneer Space had begun to shake.

And just when many explorers, including Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming, were puzzled and on guard.

A steady and concise voice that all explorers were very familiar with came from the endless light ball suspended above Utopia.

That was the voice of the 'Pioneer Space' itself.

[——Pan-Multiverse Crisis Alert——]

[The multiverse seal axis has been observed to be shaking]

[Warning! In order to resist the multiverse shock, the Pioneer Space will suspend all outgoing dispatch missions. All explorers will be sent back to their mother universes via the same route in twenty hours]

[Return time, to be determined]

[——Twilight has arisen, dusk approaches——]