I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

"Zone 0," Li Wu said, his voice not loud, but clearly audible on the open platform.

Gu Yuan leaned against a stone pillar with his legs outstretched and one hand resting on the hilt of his sword at his waist. His posture was so casual that it didn't seem like he was talking to thirty people.

"Yes, Zone 0," he said. "To be precise, Zone 0 existed before the official launch of the Origin Realm; it wasn't part of the Zone 36 system."

"Who built it?" Hua Zitong asked.

"Erlin".

Upon hearing the name, Li Wu's brow twitched slightly.

Erling, his career mentor!

The founder of Arcane Archers, the discoverer of the Thirty-Six Secret Texts, or rather, the creator of them.

He spent six months in the Arcane Wasteland, speaking with the remnants of Erling's will countless times.

That old, gentle voice is still clearly etched in his memory.

"Erlin built Zone 0?" Li Wu stared at Gu Yuan. "Why would he build a test zone?"

Gu Yuan did not answer immediately.

He looked up at the starry sky above, where the stars hung quietly and motionless in the darkness.

"Do you know what the Realm of Origin is?" he asked in return.

"A game," Zhui Feng blurted out from the side.

Gu Yuan chuckled, not mocking, but there was an unsettling quality to his smile.

"You all think it's a game?"

"Isn't that right?" Zhui Feng asked, feeling a little guilty.

"It was never a game."

Gu Yuan's tone was calm, as if he were stating a fact that had long been confirmed.

But these words carried an astonishing weight in everyone's ears.

Hua Zitong's heart skipped a beat.

She is a reborn person, and knows this world better than most people present.

Even she never considered the possibility that "the Origin Realm is not a game".

"Then what is it?" she asked.

Gu Yuan sat up straight, his gaze sweeping across Li Wu's face, then at Hua Zitong, and finally landing on the twenty-odd people who had chosen to remove their panels.

"Filter".

Two words.

The platform fell silent again.

Zhui Feng opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Ye Feng stood behind Hua Zitong, his usually calm face showing obvious confusion for the first time.

Shadow frowned, his fingers unconsciously reaching for his waist before he remembered.

His dagger, along with all the equipment on the panel, disappeared.

"Filter." Li Wu repeated the word.

His mind raced.

Filter.

What are we filtering?

Who to screen?

"You mean," Li Wu said, enunciating each word clearly, "that the purpose of the Origin Realm is not to entertain humanity, but to select certain individuals from among them?"

"right."

"Why pick them out?"

Gu Yuan looked at him but didn't say anything.

Hua Zitong continued, "Choose the strongest person."

Gu Yuan nodded slightly.

"Select the strongest human," Hua Zitong continued, "and then?"

"Then send them to fight a war."

After saying this, Gu Yuan stood up.

He brushed off non-existent dust from his armor, walked to the edge of the platform, and turned his back to the crowd.

The starry sky stretched out infinitely before him.

"A battle for the survival of humanity."

This statement was like a stone thrown into calm water.

"Survival or extinction?" Zhui Feng's voice rose. "What survival or extinction? Humanity isn't going to go extinct."

"Are you sure?" Gu Yuan turned around.

Zhui Feng's words got stuck in his throat.

Li Wu remained silent. His perception of the laws was capturing every detail in Gu Yuan's words.

The laws governing this person's body were extremely stable when they spoke, without any emotional fluctuations.

He wasn't lying.

"Explain yourself clearly," Li Wu said.

Gu Yuan turned around to face the crowd.

His gaze swept over everyone present, finally settling on Li Wu.

"The Realm of Origin was created by Erlin."

"I know," Li Wu said. "He is the progenitor of arcane archers, one of the thirty-six secret runes..."

"No," Gu Yuan interrupted him, "Erlin is not only the progenitor of arcane archers. He is the creator of the entire Origin Realm."

"Thirty-six districts, thirty-six anchor points, thirty-six spatial rifts, awakening altars, a class system, a level system, and everything..."

He paused for a moment.

"He designed it all by himself."

The air on the platform seemed to freeze.

Li Wu's mind went blank.

A person?

The entire Realm of Origin?

There are 36 regions, each with its own complete world view, terrain, monster system, quest chain, and equipment system.

The sheer scale and complexity of these things combined exceed what any single organization could accomplish.

Did one person do it?

"You're joking," said Chasing Wind.

"I didn't." Gu Yuan's tone was serious. "Erlin isn't an ordinary person, he is..."

He hesitated for a moment, choosing his words carefully.

"He is the last person on this planet who truly understands the essence of the laws."

"Before him, there was a civilization on Earth that possessed cryptic texts, higher languages, and even higher levels of power. But that civilization was destroyed."

"Destruction?" Hua Zitong pressed, "Destroyed by what?"

Gu Yuan took a deep breath.

"Starbreaker".

It's another unfamiliar word.

Li Wu searched his mind; his memory was excellent, but he couldn't recall the word from either his past life or his present life.

What is a Starbreaker?

"A kind of...existence." Gu Yuan seemed to have difficulty describing it accurately. "Not human, not monster, but closer to a natural phenomenon. They feed on planets, plundering all the resources and energy on them."

"Feeding on planets?" The immovable voice came from afar. He had chosen the first option and was blocked outside the invisible wall, but the voice could still reach him.

"That's right," Gu Yuan said. "The Starbreakers will descend upon a planet and spend decades to hundreds of years devouring everything usable on that planet."

"Minerals, energy, water, even the atmosphere. Once they've used it all up, they'll leave to find the next planet."

"What will happen to a planet that has been eaten by them?" Hua Zitong asked.

"A dead rock is worse than the moon."

"Wait a minute," Li Wu suddenly said, his voice a little strained.

He was thinking of something.

"The Starbreakers have arrived."

It is not a question.

Gu Yuan nodded: "They're here."

"So, that battle you were talking about..."

"It's about fighting the Starbreakers."

silence.

A long silence.

Li Wu closed her eyes.

Countless thoughts churned in his mind, but the first one that popped into his head seemed absurd to him.

He has always treated Origin Realm as a game.

Upgrading, fighting, building cities, and participating in guild wars were challenging and rewarding for him, but ultimately, he always believed that it was just a competition in a virtual world.

We won; we're number one in the virtual world.

If we lose, we can always start over.

But now someone is telling him that none of this is a game.

The Realm of Origin is a filter that selects only the strongest humans.

Those chosen will fight a war that will determine the survival of the entire species.

"Did Erlin know the Starbreakers were coming?" Li Wu opened his eyes.

"He didn't just know," Gu Yuan said. "He saw it with his own eyes."

"Saw it with your own eyes? He's not..."

"He was the last survivor of the previous civilization."

This statement stunned everyone.

Gu Yuan continued, "There was once a highly advanced civilization on Earth. They mastered the power of laws and established an empire that spanned the entire planet."

"But the Starbreakers came and wiped that civilization off Earth. The entire civilization, all its people, all its buildings, all its knowledge... all vanished."

"Only Erling survived. He was the strongest user of the laws in that civilization and escaped the Starbreakers' purge with his own power. But he was also seriously injured and his lifespan is short."

Gu Yuan's voice echoed in the vast starry sky.

"So, in the last few decades of his life, he did one thing."

"The Realm of Origin," Li Wu said.

"Yes, the Realm of Origin," Gu Yuan said. "He used all his power and knowledge to create this world. It's not for playing with, but for training humanity."

"train?"

"The Starbreaker returns every so often. Erling calculated that the next return will be about fifty years after he created the Origin Realm."

"In other words..." Hua Zitong quickly calculated.

The Realm of Origin has been operating for twenty-one years.

The first year was the opening of Zone 1, and now it's the twenty-first year.

"Twenty-nine years left," Li Wu said for her.

"No." Gu Yuan shook his head. "The Starbreakers have already arrived ahead of schedule. Their vanguard has established a base on the moon and is scavenging resources on the outskirts of Earth."

This information matches the record in the memo.

Li Wu's heart sank.

"The humans on Earth now..."

"We can only live within the radiation range of the thirty-six spatial rifts," Gu Yuan said. "The energy of the spatial rifts can temporarily block the invasion of the Starbreakers, so humanity has built anchor cities around each rift. But this is only temporary."

"Until when?"

"Until the main force of the Starbreakers arrives. The advance troops are just there to scout ahead; the real Starbreakers are far more terrifying than this."