VAP - Chapter 137

Chapter 137: The Intersection of Illusion and Reality (2)

“Reality,” as the name implied, was an ability attribute that allowed one to see the savage truth beneath an illusion. Possessing “eyes” that could pierce through illusions, humanity finally, stumbling and faltering, took the first step of resistance.

It took humanity seventy years to go from being farmed like livestock to escaping the hell of illusions and establishing defensive towers, and then to turning the tables by hunting low-level monsters while avoiding high-level ones.

Initially, humanity knew almost nothing about the monsters, but in the process of resisting, some information about this species gradually came to light.

They came from another world.

They were difficult to deal with, but not completely impossible to resist.

Their bodies contained special elements that could enhance the power of human ability users.

These monsters were intelligent. The vast disparity in their abilities led to a strict hierarchy. Low-level monsters could only barely change their own forms and had to follow the big bosses, while those born at the top of the pyramid could create realistic, city-sized illusions at a moment’s notice, farming millions of people.

Humans could kill the small fry, but they were helpless against the monster bosses and had to constantly migrate to hide, fearing their strongholds would turn into lands of illusion in the blink of an eye.

Constantly calling them “monsters” sounded rather improper. At first, someone started calling them Scarlet Beasts, and the name gradually spread.

The reason was simple. Although the true forms of the known monsters were bizarre and varied, they all, without exception, possessed scarlet eyes with no whites, as if rubies were embedded in their sockets.

And the teams of ability users, centered around the True Eye and responsible for hunting the small fry while avoiding the bosses, were called Hunters.

It was as if they had returned to ancient times, with humanity just one link in the food chain—hunting weaker animals while also being hunted by apex predators.

The world line of the entire small world was roughly like this.

Yue Du flipped to the next page and found… there was nothing.

In the interstellar world, the data had at least included information cards for the main characters. Although they had been basically useless, they were still provided.

This time, however, the Main System seemed to have completely given up. The character data section had no male lead, let alone a female lead; it simply and crudely added the host’s name: Ji You.

Other than that, the period Ji You was in, her identity and background, her life experiences—none of it was there.

Of all the times, the Main System chose this very moment to issue the mission:

“Ding! Please find the host Ji You within three years and complete the binding with her. This is a system mission. Completion will be rewarded with one thousand points.”

Yue Du: “…”

There had been a similar mission before, but back then, the host’s information had been complete, and she had been famous. The difficulty hadn’t been in finding her, but in getting close to her.

But this era had no internet, so Yue Du couldn’t connect to a network to locate the host. With only a name and no knowledge of anything else, how was she supposed to find her?

No wonder it gave such a long time limit of three years!

Yue Du was now completely in the dark. Although the Main System had provided data on the small world, she couldn’t be sure at which specific point in the world line she had arrived. She could only make a rough estimate for now.

The mushrooms before her were clearly the result of the Scarlet Beasts’ mental influence. For the environment to be affected to this extent, it was clear that humans in the outside world already possessed mental abilities and had begun to establish scattered strongholds.

For Yue Du, this was both a good thing and a bad thing.

The good thing was that she could fabricate her identity at will without worrying about being exposed, because communication between the various human strongholds was difficult, and it was common for them to be wiped out.

As long as Yue Du claimed to have escaped from a stronghold that had been completely annihilated by Scarlet Beasts, no one would be suspicious.

The bad thing was… it would also be very difficult for her to get any news about Ji You. If Ji You was a major figure at this time, it would be one thing, but if she was still unknown, finding her in thirty years would be a long shot, let alone three.

After a moment of thought, Yue Du’s expression grew determined. She finally stood up and left the mushroom forest.

It was worth mentioning that she contacted the customer service of the Main God’s space again, requesting to open the host version of the system store.

This time, the customer service representative was very rigid, asking stiffly, “Please provide an application report, stating your reasons, no less than one thousand words.”

Yue Du laughed in exasperation. “Although I’m a system, I’m in a human body. In this small world with its restricted abilities, I can’t practice inedia. I’ll die if I don’t eat or drink.”

Customer Service: “As a system, you should have the ability to acquire food from the wild.”

Yue Du glanced at her surroundings, which were even more ghastly than the mushroom forest.

She said: “Well, there has to be food for me to acquire, thank you.”

Not eating wild animals was a given. As for wild plants… sorry, but it felt like eating them would lead to an even quicker death.

In the end, the customer service representative compromised without a one-thousand-word application report. Yue Du obtained permission to open the host version of the store. If nothing else, at least her food and lodging were now guaranteed.

---

Due to the Scarlet Beasts’ mental influence, the outside world was even more extreme than the giant fluorescent mushroom forest.

Gigantic flowers and plants were everywhere. Their appearance was either excessively vibrant or dark and murky—all of them looked dangerous at a glance.

The ground was dark and sticky, and strange gray filaments floated in the air. One couldn’t make out their specific form without looking closely, but they gave the entire space a hazy, grayish tone.

Unfortunately, there were no human strongholds near the mushroom forest.

Yue Du passed through a long-abandoned human city.

This place had probably been a small town once, with its own bustling times. Now, however, it was dilapidated and deathly silent. Huge plants burst through buildings and road surfaces, growing wild in the truest sense of the word.

There were no people in the town, but there were other animals.

Logically, if humans were having such a hard time, ordinary animals shouldn’t have been faring much better.

However, the Scarlet Beasts’ diet favored humans. Only weak Scarlet Beasts that couldn’t catch people would feed on other, lesser animals. As a result, the animals’ situation hadn’t changed all that much.

Before, they had humans lording over them; now, they had humans and Scarlet Beasts lording over them. What was the difference? They were going to be oppressed either way.

However, they were also affected by the mental influence, and it seemed their intelligence had changed somewhat.

Yue Du met the gaze of a bobcat up ahead. A faint light glinted in its bright yellow eyes, and it wore a very human-like expression of assessment. After a moment, it turned and slipped away without a sound.

It had become a proper spirit!

The situation was very similar to that of the mutated animals in the first small world, but there were still differences. The animals here couldn’t awaken mental abilities; at most, they became a little smarter, but they were still no match for humans.

The bobcat was just the beginning. Afterward, Yue Du encountered many other animals, all of which seemed quite clever. Some had even mutated to have bizarre features, like growing two extra legs, losing their tails, or becoming enormous.

The high frequency of these encounters made it clear that the former human city was now occupied by animals. Only the buildings remained standing, providing them with shelter.

She encountered a Scarlet Beast on the third day.

Yue Du was traveling when, one moment she was walking, and the next, the bushes ahead rustled, and the slender, tall back of a woman emerged.

Yue Du stopped, her eyes slowly narrowing.

The woman seemed to be heading in another direction, but she suddenly turned her head. It was, shockingly, the host’s face.

She raised her shapely eyebrows, a half-smile on her lips. “Why do you look so familiar?”

“…” Well now.

Yue Du expressionlessly activated the Silent Watcher.

Sure enough, under the device’s absolutely objective vision, the host’s figure instantly vanished, leaving only a creature half a person’s height standing there quietly.

Its general shape was somewhat rabbit-like, with long ears, and its entire body was covered in hard scales. A pair of scarlet eyes stared fixedly in her direction, observing her reaction.

This was a Scarlet Beast that was neither strong nor particularly weak.

Yue Du’s greatest hope at the moment was, of course, to find this small world’s host. The Scarlet Beast had somehow used a racial talent to perceive this wish and had constructed an illusion accordingly.

Illusions, of course, came in different types. One kind concealed the Scarlet Beast’s presence without altering the surroundings, while another was constructed based on the prey’s inner desires. The one Yue Du had encountered was clearly the latter.

But this Scarlet Beast didn’t seem very smart. The illusion it created was too abrupt to fool anyone.

The Scarlet Beast opposite her observed for a moment. Seemingly convinced its prey was mesmerized and ready to be eaten, it began walking toward Yue Du on its scaly legs.

As it walked, it slowly opened its mouth, its jaw gaping to nearly one hundred and eighty degrees, terrifyingly like a snake.

Yue Du remained motionless until the Scarlet Beast drew near. Then, she suddenly drew her light sword and thrust it into its open mouth. The tip pierced through its entire head, sending out a spray of scarlet blood.

The light sword had been brought from the previous world. In fact, bringing items out of a mission world was against the rules, as it could affect subsequent missions—if you brought a mecha from the interstellar world to a primitive society, what would be the point of the challenge?

But if one really wanted to bring an item along, it wasn’t impossible. This light sword had cost Yue Du twenty points.

Yue Du pressed the deactivation button on the hilt, and the blade of light extending from it dissipated. The Scarlet Beast’s body swayed and then toppled to the side.

It was dead.

Possessing the ability to create illusions, the Scarlet Beasts’ bodies were naturally not strong. The scales on its body looked intimidating, but their defensive capability was about the same as an ordinary scaled animal, perhaps even worse than a pangolin’s.

With a scholarly spirit, Yue Du studied the corpse for a while. She dissected the parts that were useful to human ability users and, quite inhumanely, skinned it, storing everything in her system space.

Once she reached a human stronghold, these things would come in handy.

On her journey afterward, Yue Du successively ran into several more Scarlet Beasts.

The strongest among them was only slightly more powerful than the first one, while the weakest could only disguise itself as an ordinary animal to attempt a sneak attack, only to be sent to the underworld by Yue Du’s sword in an instant.

After a long and arduous journey, Yue Du finally saw humans.

It was a team of seven Hunters. They surrounded a petite girl in a black cloak, their expressions filled with vigilance as they constantly watched their surroundings for any movement.

Following them, Yue Du arrived at a human stronghold—Pancheng Stronghold.

Many strongholds were established using the architecture of past cities, and Pancheng Stronghold was no exception. It was hidden within the former city of Pancheng and housed several thousand people, making it a relatively large stronghold.

The entrance to the stronghold was a theater.

The Hunter team stopped in front of the theater. A man in a black trench coat with a serious expression circled them a few times, then waved a hand. “No problem. Go on in.”

After a while, another team arrived. Their inspection process was roughly the same as the previous one, but they seemed to be more familiar with the gatekeeper, exchanging a few pleasantries before entering.

Yue Du understood what to do.

She noted their attire, picked out a set of clothes of a similar style and texture from the system store, and changed into them. Then she deliberately aged and dirtied the outfit, making herself look much more disheveled.

After doing all this, Yue Du walked toward the dilapidated theater.

The man standing by the door raised his voice: “You—wait a minute!”

Yue Du obediently stopped.

This person must be a Reality ability user, which was why he was guarding the entrance, preventing Scarlet Beasts disguised as humans from sneaking in.

He sized Yue Du up nervously. Only after confirming she was human did his expression soften.

“You’re not from our stronghold. Where did you come from? What’s your name? Do you have identification?”

Upon hearing this, Yue Du put on a sorrowful expression. “My name is Yue Du,” she said. “I lost my identification. I came from an underground stronghold to the southeast… You probably wouldn’t know of it. There were very few of us.”

Underground strongholds were usually small, with few people and even fewer ability users. No matter how well-hidden they were, they were easily found and annihilated by Scarlet Beasts.

But in this era, it wasn’t uncommon for a stronghold to be wiped out. Humans had long grown accustomed to such partings.

The man shook his head sympathetically. “Go on in. First, find the office to get your identification, then just register.”

Yue Du: “Thank you.”

She walked through the theater’s main doors. As she passed through the doorway, it felt like passing through a film of water that wasn’t wet. It rippled gently before quickly becoming calm again.

The entrance was enveloped in an ability user’s mental barrier. It seemed Pancheng Stronghold’s security was quite high.

Yue Du went to get her identification. It was called “identification,” but it was really just a piece of cardstock where one wrote their name, gender, facial features, and date of birth in a standard format, which was then threaded with a thin string to be worn around the neck.

If one was an ability user, information about their ability would also be added.

“You’re a Reality ability user?”

The girl in charge of registration was surprised for a moment, then said happily, “That’s great! With you, our stronghold now has four Reality ability users.”

Yue Du gave a faint smile—the kind that was gentle, but just enough to let the other person perceive that her spirits weren’t high.

The girl was taken aback, then suddenly remembered that the person before her came from a wiped-out stronghold and had likely just experienced a tragic parting. She immediately fell silent.

The two talked for a while, and before the identification was even ready, the newcomer’s tragic past was already firmly established.

Seeing that the time was right, Yue Du asked the girl if she had ever heard or seen the name Ji You, explaining that it was her lost relative.

The girl said: “Ji You? I don’t recall. Wait a moment, let me ask my colleague.”

No one at the registration office had any recollection. Another girl enthusiastically offered to help check the records, telling Yue Du to come back and ask again in a couple of days.

Yue Du knew in her heart that the host couldn’t be in this stronghold. After all, the host had been consistently beautiful in every world, making her extremely recognizable. The people at the registration office wouldn’t have forgotten her if they had seen her.

Since they had no memory of her, it could only mean the host wasn’t here and, in all likelihood, had never been here.

Sure enough, when Yue Du returned a few days later, the young woman at the registration desk said she hadn’t found the name.

Yue Du wasn’t discouraged.

She spent half a month staying briefly in Pancheng Stronghold, during which she exchanged the Scarlet Beast parts she had collected for currency.

In human settlements, Reality ability users were extremely popular. They were the core of any Hunter team, as they were the most skilled at seeing through the Scarlet Beasts’ illusions.

Using the Silent Watcher, Yue Du presented herself as a “Reality” ability user, and teams soon began extending olive branches to her.

Having a Reality ability user was an extra guarantee of returning alive. What team wouldn’t want that?

But Yue Du’s story remained consistent. She apologized, explaining that she wouldn’t be staying long, as she still had to set out to find Ji You and had no intention of participating in Hunter activities for the time being.

Everyone expressed their understanding—although they really wanted to persuade her to give up.

Reality ability users were a treasure to humanity. In this day and age, wouldn’t it be better to find a stronghold, settle down, and occasionally act as the eyes of a team? What if she went out wandering around and ran into a Scarlet Beast all alone?

However, Yue Du always maintained a gentle but firm attitude, so no one tried to persuade her anymore, because they all knew it would be useless.

Yue Du stayed in Pancheng Stronghold for half a month.

During this period, she discreetly gathered a lot of information not found in the data files, including the location of the human stronghold closest to Pancheng.

It was the underground stronghold with the largest known population, and it was also Yue Du’s next destination.

Get instant access to all the chapters now.

Previous Table of Contents Next