The apocalypse begins with a dungeon game.

Chapter 126 The Five Elements: Earth Overcomes Water

Spanning countless years, from this day forward, Xiao Guai was finally able to maintain real-time contact with the others.

For Xiao Guai himself, that was the happiest and most joyful time of his life.

Having completely mastered the process of communicating with them, he skillfully and repeatedly anesthetized himself until he fell into a coma, and then woke himself up.

After repeating this process multiple times, the group, through the recording equipment, finally achieved an unprecedented level of consensus.

After a long period of busy work, Xiao Guai held a long string of grilled fish in his hand and placed it on the charcoal fire on the shore to grill.

The aroma of the marinade, combined with the high temperature of the flames, filled the air with an intoxicating fragrance.

The weather here is fine and sunny, and everything is peaceful and serene.

As he flipped the grilled fish noodles, he repeated the instructions Li Can and the others had given him.

"So, you mean you want me to study the dark matter particles on the other side of the river?"

"If one person's strength is limited, then seek out like-minded people to join in."

"From now on, until we gradually approach the time when you appear, perhaps the future Upper City will no longer need to be surrounded by barriers."

"The world is free; people can go wherever they want."

"Otherwise, when humanity faces a crisis in the future, and it's too late to escape, will it be too late?"

He listened to the audio playback on the radio, and the question-and-answer session continued back and forth.

Although it's not real-time communication, it takes some effort.

However, it is currently their most effective and convenient way of communicating.

The little monster seemed a bit hungry. It put the grilled fish slices in front of it, blew on them to cool them down, and then tore off a big piece in one bite.

Chewing in large bites.

The tender fish meat lingered in his mouth, filling him with a sense of satisfaction from being filled with food.

As he chewed, he removed excess fish bones and thorns from the grilled fish skewers.

After cleaning up, I took another big, satisfying bite.

Although Li Can didn't actually eat anything while inside his body, he was able to fully empathize with him.

He remarked with some emotion, "Is this the feedback you get when you control the supernatural? It's certainly quite comfortable. You don't even have to do anything yourself; the sensory experience is already at its peak."

[The idea of ​​building an upper and lower city after the initial encounter with the monsters—could it be inspired by our current state of being like parasites living inside their bodies?]

Shen Yuan and Yang Mo are true residents of the Upper City, having grown up there, so they have a lot to say about this.

After their verification, it was indeed similar to the feeling of being inside a strange body.

The monsters outside have eaten their fill, and this round of audio playback is coming to an end.

He patted the dust and grime off his palms. "Actually, you don't need to worry too much. I set off on my journey the moment you first appeared and disappeared."

"Until I found this place and settled down, I only went back to the human settlement once in all these years."

"I've been studying here the rest of the time."

"I didn't waste my time waiting here."

"After all, everyone would be curious about what's inside, let alone someone like me who especially loves exploring."

After a pause, Xiao Guai used the sharpened wooden stick left over from grilling the fish to draw on the ground, giving a simple simulation of his research results.

And provide real-time human translation and explanation:

"This line represents the great river behind us. It now acts as a break, dividing the world in two."

"I definitely wouldn't dare to cross the river directly across the bridge to see what's going on."

"But after living here for a while, I discovered naturally formed underground mines. Although the paths are narrow, you can go through them to reach the dark area on the other side."

"Currently, the space a certain distance below the ground is considered safe. Even if this dark particulate matter can engulf something, its capacity is limited."

"In the air, in the sky, it might be the boss. If I throw in a live fish or a big bird, it can decompose it in no time."

"But there is some mysterious energy underground that it cannot penetrate to the earth's core."

Even if it expands to a terrifying extent in the future, people will still have a way to survive; at least they can dig holes underground to live.

"However, what do you mean by saying that I will be the city lord of everyone in the future and will be in charge of everything? I have even installed a barrier in the ground of the upper city? Is the protection that strict?"

"I knew my destiny was in my own hands, not in the heavens. I'm a person capable of great things. Fate has been so kind to me; am I not the chosen one...?"

The little monster suddenly came up with this self-praise line full of chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) at the end.

This caused everyone inside his body to shudder involuntarily.

As expected, the flaws of perfect people in the lower city are common. No matter how long they have lived, how young they look, how slowly they age, or how many things they have experienced, their minds are still impaired.

Their brains are not developing, so they are no different from children.

The definition of a "perfect person" is not actually standard, and of course, the conclusion that they are defective is even more of a generalization.

On the Blue Star where Li Can once lived, humans were already the most advanced civilized species among all intelligent beings.

Isn't this what they've been calling a "defective product" for generations?

But is that really the case? Not necessarily.

The four were still pondering the descriptions of the little monster.

He stayed here for a long time and gained much more information than his own people.

These few sentences alone are enough for someone to feel their way across the river for a long time.

Now we can directly exchange information.

Yang Mo: [Now I understand. It's probably because the city lord was worried that some people from the upper city wouldn't give up and wanted to leave, so he dug a tunnel underground.]

[Then, although those substances are restrained by the soil, they can't withstand someone digging tunnels for them. Sooner or later, they will crawl through these tunnels into the city and begin to disintegrate humanity from within.]

Xiao Guai probably understood it that way too. After a moment of chuunibyou (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur), he added, "But now I can't take you to that underground mine to the other side of the river to see the night up close from above."

"Because I later discovered that even mine shafts have gaps, and they can spread inwards as long as there are openings."

At this point, an idea flashed through Li Can's mind.

He quickly grabbed it and began to comb through it, trying to straighten it out:

Among the Five Elements, there are metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

They are mutually supportive and mutually destructive.

Wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood.

Wood overcomes Earth, Earth overcomes Water, Water overcomes Fire, Fire overcomes Metal, Metal overcomes Wood...

It is known that earth controls dark matter particles, so does that mean that the essence of this thing belongs to the "water" system?

The river flows swiftly here, making the area appear even more vibrant at night.

The spread is faster than that of other areas visible in the distance.

Metal generates water, and earth overcomes water... To cut off its path, you must cut off metal; conversely, to enter it, you can make a full-body earth armor to form an external protective film.

With sufficient technical expertise, there is nothing that cannot be done.

If it's difficult to control the darkness over such a large area in a short time, and if the dungeon players still want to leave the city, the best way is to try taking this route.

Of course, if we could solve the problem once and for all and address the root cause, that would be a more complete and reliable solution.