America: The Cremator

Chapter 202 The Death of God and the K-Level Mystery! [9.6K views, please vote!]

Twenty minutes later.

Su Long suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the laboratory ceiling before realizing that after adding points to the entries, he had actually fallen asleep on the recliner.

Now the fatigue in my body has been swept away, and I am filled with a sense of fullness again.

He savored the sip of wine he had just drunk; not only had the taste changed drastically, but the enormous amount of sugar and energy had also completely filled the void in his body.

It was only then that Su Long realized that the IV tube and indwelling needle on the back of his hand had been removed, the needle marks had healed, and he no longer needed a medical dressing.

Stella was standing next to the recliner, her hands in the pockets of her white coat, staring intently at him.

Su Long sat up and stretched his stiff neck.

"Professor Stella, the way you're looking at me right now—it makes me feel like you want to carry me over there on the dissection table and cut me up like a specimen for research."

Stella raised an eyebrow: "With your monstrous physique, I really want to tie you to the table and dissect you properly."

"I checked your cell activity level, and it's not what a normal human should have."

"Tell me, what scale of war did you participate in in the Otherworld this time? It caused such a big commotion that even the National Guard was alerted."

Su Long leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling, his voice tinged with a hint of weariness: "Let me recall, this was the most intense and exhilarating battle I've ever experienced."

"I took down a B-grade monster."

He paused, then turned his gaze to Stella.

"There's also an A-grade weirdo."

Stella's eyes widened suddenly.

"What did you say? You killed an A-level monster?"

Sulong added, "To be precise, I forced it to self-destruct, and then I casually stuffed a bunch of fire into its self-destruct core, burning it to ashes from the root."

"That guy is insane. Towards the end, he even conjured a plasma ball with his bare hands, which almost vaporized me completely."

Stella gasped.

The A-level anomalies are so powerful that they could threaten an entire city.

Surong continued calmly, "But that's not all. When we escaped from the spatial rift, we were targeted by an even more troublesome guy."

"It's a plant-like monster with goat hooves and many mouths."

"To deal with that thing, the US military brought in two transport planes and dropped two large tactical bombs, first a thermobaric bomb, then a high-concentration radiation contaminant bomb, which finally took care of that guy completely."

Sulong recalled the swirling, dark red clouds and looked at Stella.

"Professor, you are engaged in experimental research, so you should be quite familiar with this area."

"I want to know, why is radiation more effective against the supernatural?"

Stella smiled when she heard the topic related to her research.

"Want to know? Then come with me."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the innermost operating area of ​​the laboratory.

Su Long stood up and followed.

On the worktable was a row of sealed glass jars soaking in strange black mud.

Stella opened one of the jars and used a long-handled steel spoon to scoop out two fist-sized lumps of black mud, placing them into two specially made large glass petri dishes.

"Pay close attention to the following comparison."

She then took a glass test tube filled with silver powder from the shelf next to her, removed the stopper, and sprinkled a large spoonful of silver powder evenly onto the surface of the black mud in the petri dish on the left.

The silver powder immediately reacted with the black mud.

A piercing hissing sound of corrosion filled the quiet laboratory, and large amounts of foul-smelling blue smoke rose from the black mud.

The lump of mud twisted and struggled violently, trying to expel the silver powder embedded in its body.

But the silver powder clung tightly to its spiritual structure, constantly eroding its vitality.

A few seconds later, the violent reaction gradually subsided.

About a quarter of the black mud turned into grayish-white powder, while the remaining part, though withered, was still slowly wriggling at the bottom of the petri dish.

Stella pointed to the petri dish and explained, "You can understand the destructive mechanism of silver powder as a dual destruction, both physical and spiritual."

"It can tear through the strange surface defenses and wear down their energy, but unless the dosage is large enough, it is difficult to achieve instantaneous and fundamental annihilation."

Then, she put down the test tube and turned to walk towards the safe in the corner marked with a biohazard symbol.

Enter the password to unlock.

Stella put on thick radiation-proof gloves and took out a heavy, sealed lead jar.

Using a pair of long tweezers, she carefully picked out a dark gray metal block, no bigger than a grain of rice, from the lead can.

"This is an iridium-192 isotope block."

As Stella explained, she tossed the metal block directly next to the petri dish on the right. The metal block didn't even touch the clump of black mud before the mud stopped moving abruptly.

The once dark and vibrant sludge seemed to have been drained of all its life force by some invisible force. Its deep black color faded rapidly at a visible speed, turning into a pale grayish-brown.

Instantaneous inactivation.

Stella shook her head upon seeing the result, a hint of regret on her face.

"Although we know that radiation is extremely effective at killing the uncanny, unfortunately, we have not yet figured out the underlying principles."

"It's like a black box; we know the beginning, we know the ending, but we don't know the process."

"The first researcher to study the effects of radiation on the bizarre and deadly effects was a researcher named Paddington. He was very perceptive and noticed that ghouls emitted a slight amount of fly ash from their bodies in sunlight, and he began to conduct systematic research on this point."

"His research results ultimately proved that trace amounts of radiation in sunlight can cause some damage to the strange body structure, which led to human research on radiation to expel the strange."

Su Long stared at the petri dish and clearly saw the difference in the two methods of killing the strange creature. He subconsciously felt a chill run down his spine.

No wonder disaster response forces would directly request dirty bomb support when faced with such bizarre, infinitely regenerating entities.

Su Long withdrew his gaze and sighed, "The professor is definitely more professional; I still know too little about the supernatural."

After Stella's demonstration, Suron realized a very serious problem.

As the enemy's level increases, relying solely on stat points for damage output will eventually lead to a dead end due to the game's mechanics.

Like that fleshy plant covered in eyeballs, the mere sound of its wind chimes almost caused him to have a complete mental breakdown. If he didn't actively study the enemy's mechanics, he would always be passively beaten.

Surong looked at Stella, his tone becoming very serious: "I wonder if Professor Stella has the time to be my private tutor and give me a systematic refresher course on the relevant knowledge of the supernatural?"

Stella put the isotope block back into the lead container, locked it in the safe, took off her radiation-proof gloves, turned around and leaned against the lab table, her gaze sweeping over Su Long.

Stella smiled.

"Interesting. For a moment, I'm a little unsure whether the emphasis of this sentence is on 'personal matters' or 'tutoring'?"

Su Long didn't take the joke; he stood up straight with a serious expression.

"Professor Stella, I really need to learn. I'm increasingly realizing that I'm fighting in a state of complete ignorance."

"I only know how to kill them with my fists and bullets, but I don't know why they're here in the first place."

"What is the origin of these strange things? What are the principles behind their creation? Besides pure silver and radiation, what specific rules do they fear? And what is the spatial structure and underlying logic of that ghostly underworld?"

'

Su Long laid out all the questions that had been building up in his mind.

"I don't want to be unable to understand how a higher-level monster attacks next time. I want to figure out all of this."

Stella looked into Suron's earnest eyes.

The atmosphere in the laboratory became quiet.

She dropped her teasing act. Stella knew very well that the man before her had just gone through an unimaginable life-or-death struggle, and now his thirst for bizarre knowledge was stronger than anyone else's.

Stella straightened up and unbuttoned her white coat.

"If you really want these, then come with me."

Sulong asked, "Where to?"

Stella walked toward the laboratory door.

"A place that can answer most of your questions."

Twenty minutes later, Stella was speeding through the streets of Seattle in her Porsche convertible.

The roar of the engine echoed inside the car. Su Long sat in the passenger seat, one hand resting on the door, watching the street scene rushing past.

At this moment, the sports car drove away from the bustling city center and entered the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

The streets became extremely quiet, lined with tall oak trees. Every house here exuded a sense of history, and every resident was either wealthy or noble.

The sports car slowed down on Harvard Avenue and eventually stopped in front of the wrought iron gate of 1717 North.

Su Long pushed open the car door and got out, looking up at the building in front of him.

-

This is a Tudor Revival building.

The dark red brick walls are covered with ivy, and several pointed towers stand tall in the night sky, with huge stained glass windows embedded in the walls.

Su Long looked at Stella, his face full of confusion.

"Traveling all the way across Seattle in the middle of the night for tutoring in a place like this? Where is this?"

"Samuel Blackwood Archives of the Strange and Unusual." Stella locked the car door, walked to Su Long's side in her high heels, and looked up at the building.

"Samuel Blackwood was a rich man's son and a complete madman."

As Stella walked toward the door, she explained, "This man developed a fanatical obsession with the supernatural at the beginning of the last century."

"In the 1920s, he sold off a large portion of his family property and traveled the world, specifically to places plagued by war, plague, and strange sightings, to collect all sorts of strange-related documents and manuscripts."

Su Long followed behind her, listening to the man's story, and couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

Given the medical and transportation conditions of the last century, it's a miracle that this person survived the pursuit of the bizarre.

The two walked to the front door, and Stella pushed open the heavy oak door.

There was no eerie or terrifying atmosphere inside the door; the first floor was a cozy little room.

The wooden floor was polished to a shine, and the air was filled with the smell of coffee mixed with old paper.

On the right is a semi-circular wooden bar.

A staff member wearing a vest was sitting behind the bar, flipping through a book by the light of the bar lamp.

Upon hearing the door open, the staff member looked up, their gaze falling on the two people, and routinely extended a hand.

Stella took out an ID card with the federal emblem from her pocket and handed it over.

The staff member took the certificate, carefully checked the anti-counterfeiting marks and seals, then handed the certificate back to Stella and pressed a switch under the bar.

With a "click," the heavy iron door next to the bar popped open a crack.

Sulong followed Stella through the iron gate and officially entered the interior of the archives.

A huge brass statue stands in front of you.

The statue depicts a middle-aged man wearing a well-tailored suit, a monocle on his nose, a meticulously groomed mustache, and an extremely serious expression. He is also holding an open book in his hands.

Several lines of text are engraved on the brass plaque at the base of the statue.

Samuel Blackwood (1872–1947)

[A distinguished expert in the study of the bizarre.]

Stella stopped in front of the statue and pointed to the inscription on the base, saying, "He completed an eleven-year journey around the world."

"Upon returning to Seattle, he converted his private residence on Capitol Hill into a library to house a total of 389400 items and documents he had collected during his travels."

Upon hearing the astonishing number, Su Long nodded: "Nearly four hundred thousand items and documents related to the supernatural, that's outrageous."

Stella continued, "Later, Blackwood founded the West Beacon Society for the Study of the Strange and Unusual, and opened the library to all its members free of charge."

"As the association grows, more and more members, or exorcists who know about the association, will donate their collections and manuscripts here."

"In 1960, thirteen years after Blackwood's death, the private library was officially registered as a non-profit organization."

.

After saying that, the two walked around the huge brass statue, and Su Long finally saw the entire interior of the archive.

This is an extremely large circular space with a dome that is over ten meters high, and the stained glass at the top is pieced together to form a complex geometric pattern.

The walls are surrounded by solid wood bookshelves that reach all the way to the ceiling, densely filled with various yellowed documents, parchment scrolls, and heavy hardcover books.

In addition to the bookshelves, dozens of bulletproof glass display cases were placed in the open space in the center of the hall.

Su Long walked to the nearest display case.

Inside, there is a broken black stone slab, the surface of which is engraved with some twisted symbols. If you look at it for a long time, you will even feel that the symbols are slowly wriggling.

The label next to it reads: "[Rubbing of a sacrificial inscription unearthed from a Sumerian civilization site, suspected to record some kind of high-level, bizarre ritual involving the descent of flesh and blood.]"

He then turned and walked toward another display case.

Inside was a semi-transparent glass tube containing a dried vertebra, with black fungi growing in the crevices of the bone.

The label reads: "A bone sample extracted in 1934 from a ghoul infected with a Black Death variant."

As Su Long looked around, he saw that the display cases, large and small, contained forbidden items that ordinary people could never come into contact with.

"No wonder you brought me here."

Stella walked over to him and pulled a notebook with a worn cover from the shelf.

"It's not as simple as you think. There is indeed a lot of information here, but a significant portion of the manuscripts were written by investigators whose minds have been severely corrupted."

"It's filled with a lot of insane ramblings and illogical hallucinations. You need an extremely high level of discernment to find any useful clues in this garbage dump."

Just as the two were talking, footsteps came from behind a row of tall bookshelves.

Although Su Long had extremely strong perception, he only noticed the movement when the footsteps were within ten meters. He immediately turned his head and his right hand instinctively rested on the gun handle at his waist.

An old man in a worn-out gray plaid suit slowly emerged from the shadows of the bookshelves, pushing a brass cart full of books.

The old man had gray hair, a slightly hunched posture, thick-rimmed reading glasses perched on his nose, and a measuring tape hanging around his neck.

He looked like an ordinary librarian, but Su Long could sense a kind of oppressive aura emanating from him that was definitely not that of an ordinary person.

The old man stopped pushing the cart, looked at Su Long and Stella through the top of his glasses, lingered on Su Long for a few seconds, and then asked in a dry voice.

"You two young people, what answers are you seeking by coming here at this time?"

Su Long didn't answer. He glanced at Stella out of the corner of his eye and found that she didn't react abnormally. Obviously, the old man was a staff member here.

He loosened his grip on the gun, his tone casual: "Nothing, I was just taking a look around."

Upon hearing Su Long's reply, the old man's withered lips twitched into a stiff smile.

"Just browsing?"

"There are too many things here, and they are too varied. Many of them represent taboos. If you look at them for too long, the words inside will eat your brain."

"Good luck, young man."

After saying that, he pushed the cart slowly into the distance behind a row of oak bookshelves.

Surong looked in the direction the old man had disappeared, then turned to Stella: "The spiritual pressure emanating from that old guy is far greater than that of the B-rank outside."

"A level one exorcist is much stronger."

"He was among the first investigators to be stationed here; he's lived long enough and seen enough."

After giving a brief explanation, Stella walked to a row of bookshelves several meters high and pointed to them.

"The answers you're looking for are all in this area, [History and Origin Deduction]. Take a look for yourself. I'll go find what I need."

After Stella finished speaking, she walked to the specimen area on the other side and began looking for items that might be helpful to her research.

Su Long withdrew his gaze and looked up at the huge solid wood bookshelves in front of him.

The shelves were crammed with documents of various materials, including parchment scrolls, thread-bound hardcover books, and even stone slabs engraved with hieroglyphs.

He casually pulled out a thick, heavy book from chest height.

The pages were yellowed, and the cover was made of the leather of some unknown animal, with the title printed in gold lettering—"An Investigation into Strange Activities in the Medieval Period".

The author is a British historian named Arthur Pendleton.

Sulong opened the heavy cover, revealing dense Gothic calligraphy interspersed with numerous hand-drawn diagrams.

This historian spent half his life compiling statistics on all the supernatural events recorded in medieval Europe, and meticulously documenting various data during the Black Death.

At that time in Europe, the process of disposing of corpses was extremely primitive. The streets were littered with corpses that were randomly discarded. Even the most basic deep burial was not possible, let alone modern professional crematoriums.

Logically speaking, such an environment, littered with corpses and pervasive with despair, would be the perfect breeding ground for bizarre flesh and vengeful spirits.

But the book's conclusion is unexpected.

Statistical data shows that throughout the Middle Ages, apart from sporadic S-level and A-level anomalies, there were no large-scale combined anomalies or disasters.

Pendleton gives his conclusion at the end of the book.

"Although the disposal of corpses was backward, the total amount of negative spiritual energy generated by humans was far less than the threshold for tearing apart the barrier between the present world and the underworld because the global population was extremely small at the time."

"That is why there is no trend of a large-scale outbreak of strange occurrences."

Su Long stared at the words and began to think.

The size of the population determines the upper limit of pollution.

With a population of billions in modern society, the greed, fear, and despair generated every day and every second, when combined, would amount to an astronomical number.

No wonder the underworld is becoming increasingly active, and the frequency of rifts appearing is also increasing.

He closed the book, his gaze drawn to a black book branded with a silver cross.

The book's binding is extremely exquisite, with the title spelled out in gold lettering on the spine.

De Gould's Conjecture: The Existence and Death of God.

That's a pretty outrageous name.

Su Long pulled out the book and opened it.

In the preface, author Francis De Goer puts forward an extremely forward-thinking argument.

By comparing records of ancient and bizarre attacks from around the world, he discovered that the intensity of these ancient attacks was no different from that of modern ones.

The monsters recorded on clay tablets and bamboo slips were as destructive as high-level demons that now require heavy firepower from disaster response forces to deal with.

De Goll raised a question.

Human civilization has been able to stand firm against the supernatural by relying on the iteration of gunpowder weapons and the large-scale industrial purification of silver.

But in ancient times, without all of the above, and relying only on crude cold weapons, why weren't humans completely wiped out when faced with those flesh-and-blood monsters that were often tens of meters tall?

What mysterious force is secretly protecting the fragile human civilization?

Sulong flipped through a few pages and saw Degoer's derivation process.

This scholar summarized myths and legends from all over the world and found that whether it is the Heavenly Court in the East or the Heaven and Olympus in the West, there is a surprisingly consistent concept of supreme gods and the extraordinary realm in which they reside.

De Goer wrote a separate conclusion in red ink in the book.

"The ancient God and Heaven truly existed! They were not mere abstract beliefs; they protected humanity at all times and were the main force against higher-level supernatural forces!"

Upon seeing this, Su Long's expression changed.

Mythology is not just mythology, but also a record of ancient humans' struggle against the underworld with supernatural powers.

Then Su Long skipped the tedious arguments and turned directly to the last page of the book.

On the empty parchment, there is only a solitary question.

"If God truly exists, and once protected us from the invasion of the Otherworld."

"So, where is God now, facing the increasingly rampant and pervasive strangeness that infiltrates the world?"

Su Long stared at the question, somewhat lost in thought.

Yes, if there really are gods, where have they gone now?

The answer seems quite obvious.

Those gods were probably devoured long ago by even more terrifying monsters deep within the underworld.

Su Long shook his head, put the black book back in its place, and turned to walk towards the bookshelf opposite, where the label read "Geology and Space Survey".

The materials here are clearly much more modern.

Sulong pulled out a top-secret file sealed in a brown paper bag, the cover of which bore the joint security emblem of the old days between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Carbon isotope analysis of sedimentary rocks in the Underworld.

Untangle the cotton thread and pull out the typewriter inside to print the report.

This was a crazy operation that took place in the 1970s.

During the most intense period of the Cold War, the two superpowers surprisingly joined forces to organize a geological survey mission that went deep into the underworld.

Twelve top exorcists, escorting three geologists, forcibly entered the underworld and collected thirty-eight sedimentary rock and stratum core samples from different areas and depths.

The core of the report is a detailed data analysis table.

Geologists brought these rock samples from the Otherworld back to the present day and conducted rigorous carbon isotope decay measurements, arriving at a conclusion that shocked all participants.

The oldest core sample was dated to an astonishing 4.2 billion years ago.

This is quite close to the oldest rock record found on Earth to date—4.9 billion years old.

Su Long flipped directly to the summary page of the report.

"The expert panel unanimously agreed that determining the age to be 4.2 billion years does not mean that the Otherworld is younger than Earth."

"The survey was forced to stop because the team encountered an unidentified, high-level, and mysterious attack during their operation, preventing them from continuing their dive to search for older geological samples."

"We have good reason to speculate that the Otherworld is not a later-developed alternate dimension or hell in a religious sense."

"The other world may be exactly the same age as Earth."

"That world full of monsters, from the moment this planet was born, has been like a twin, clinging tightly to the back of Earth."

As Su Long read this text, he felt a chill run down his spine.

A twin world the same age as Earth.

The surge in population has led to increased activity in the underground world.

The gods who protected humanity in ancient times have disappeared.

These three pieces of information collided rapidly in Su Long's mind, and an unsettling outline slowly took shape.

The present world is like a cake served on a table, and the guards who originally stood in front of the table are all dead. Now, the monsters under the table are preparing to overturn the table and start their revelry.

"It seems you've seen something interesting."

Stella walked over to Suron. In her hand was an old diary, its cover covered in dried bloodstains.

Surong stuffed the file back into the brown paper bag and turned to look at her: "It's really interesting. I just saw a scholar's argument that God has been eaten by the supernatural as a snack."

Stella was not surprised by what Surong said and handed her diary to him.

"Then you should definitely take a look at this."

Then, Sulong took the notebook Stella handed him and found it was a survey about an unknown creature.

The leather used as the notebook cover has hardened, the edges are severely worn, and large patches of dark brown blood clots have formed on the surface.

Turning to the first page, the paper was brittle and yellowed, with a messy title written on it in pen.

Black Goat Cubs and the K-Class Weird

Below is a small signature: Alexander McLean, Special Advisor to the Federal Government on Paranormal Phenomena, Winter 1946.

Su Long continued reading down the pages.

"The destructive power of S-class anomalies on the present world has always been a focus of discussion among scholars from all walks of life."

"Each of their arrivals is accompanied by city-wide casualties, but after spending twenty years in the research archives, I discovered a sharp question that was deliberately avoided—above S-class, are there even more terrifying levels?"

"Among the S-class anomalies that have been observed and recorded so far, there are extremely severe gaps in the destructive power between individuals."

"In fact, this gap in strength already began to appear at the A-level."

"Some A-level monsters can easily wipe out an armored division, while others can only slaughter a few villages, and this gap is magnified infinitely when it comes to S-level monsters."

"Therefore, I joined several experts to submit a report to the federal government, requesting the establishment of a new, independent level, K (Keter), above the S level, in the existing disaster rating system."

"K-level represents the destruction of a civilization" or "severe damage to a civilization."

"This is a warning, a special classification for those super-limited anomalies that have already appeared or are bound to appear in the future."

"I hope this will awaken a sense of crisis in those politicians, making them face the real threats we face, instead of being obsessed with votes and the distribution of benefits all day long."

McClain later directly quoted a top-secret document.

"To demonstrate the necessity of K-class, I compiled ancient historical materials from all over the world and tracked down a super monster that has appeared at least five times in human history."

"It has appeared in ancient India, the Qin Dynasty in East Asia, the Roman Empire, the Battle of the Somme in World War I, and the Western Front in World War II."

"According to incomplete statistics, these five attacks have caused approximately three million deaths, either directly or indirectly."

Three million.

Su Long stared at the number. On average, each time this monster appeared, it took away 600,000 lives.

In the next paragraph of the diary, McLean describes the monster's features in detail.

"It presents a bizarre plant structure, with its body mainly scarlet or dark black, three thick goat hooves on its base, and hundreds or thousands of mouths densely splitting open on its main stem."

"This monster will indiscriminately devour any living thing in its field of vision, turning flesh and blood into nutrients, thereby endlessly growing stronger."

"This expansion is like an incurable plague; conventional force simply cannot eradicate it completely. It will continue to expand until its size becomes too large for its own skeletal and spiritual structure to support, ultimately leading to its self-collapse."

"Subsequently, its massive remains will transform into a swamp teeming with low-level, bizarre, and highly poisonous creatures, becoming a forbidden zone for the living for hundreds of years."

Su Long paused for a moment upon seeing this.

Plant structure.

Three goat hooves.

It has mouths all over its body.

Infinite regeneration and expansion.

This description is exactly the same as the giant monster he saw by Rattlesnake Lake a few weeks ago.

The only difference is that the one by Rattlesnake Lake, before it could expand to the limit of self-destruction, was hit on the head by two tactical bombs from the US military and turned to ashes.

Su Long continued reading.

"Based on the fragmented records of it in myths from various places, I gave this monster a name—the young black goat of Senting."

cubs?

Su Long frowned.

The monster, over fifty meters tall, which forced the US military to use its highest-level tactical nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons to bombard the area, was given the nickname "Cub" by this author.

He immediately turned down the page and saw the reason why sakudon was given this name.

"The time it appeared on the Western Front during World War II was the only time in history that it was forcibly wiped out by modern firepower."

"When the Nazi German army used three heavy artillery divisions, it paid an extremely heavy price to blow them up."

"They collected fragments of the monster's active tissue on the edge of the battlefield and sent them to an underground laboratory in Berlin."

"After the war, we seized this research report. German scientists' studies of slices showed that this monster had a structure similar to biological cells."

"Furthermore, all of its characteristics are derived from the continuous division, proliferation, and development of the same single cell."

Sulong continued to roll backward.

The last few pages of the diary were written in extremely messy handwriting.

"Based on data from the Berlin laboratory, I have put forward a hypothesis that might lead to being sent to a mental hospital."

"This monster, known as the Senting Black Goat Cub, was already at a high-ranking A-level danger level in its initial state."

"When it has devoured enough flesh and blood and its size has swelled to that of a peak-sized dog, its destructive power is comparable to that of a mid-level S-class dog."

"But—it could very well just be a cell that accidentally fell onto some indescribable, bizarre creature!"

"A single cell falling into the world can unleash a catastrophe that slaughters millions—what if the original organism that provided that cell were to actually descend upon the earth?"

"I have no intention of creating panic, but this is by no means alarmist."

"If the mother goat known as the 'Senting Black Goat' truly exists, it will undoubtedly be classified as a K-class goat."

"Once it crosses the barrier between the underworld and the present world, what we will face is not the survival of a city, but the restart of human civilization."

"I am deeply worried about the future."

"A great deal of evidence suggests that the monsters that dwell in deep space or at the ends of hell are far more ancient and enormous than we imagine."

The diary ends here.

Behind it were large, blank pages.

Su Long closed his old notebook, looked up, and finally understood why, even when the US military mobilized its most advanced heavy firepower to bombard the ground, the officers' faces showed little joy of victory, but rather a deep sense of apprehension.

They knew what they had bombed.

Stella stood beside him, holding a stack of newly found documents.

"Finished watching?" Stella asked.

Su Long handed the diary back to her.

"I've finished reading it. Alexander McKlain, this author is a genius."

Stella took the diary and followed Ya to put it back on the bookshelf next to her.

"He is indeed a genius. Back then, he single-handedly pushed forward the concept of K-level despite the pressure from all the higher-ups."

"Unfortunately, he disappeared mysteriously during a survey mission in a remote area the year after he finished writing this diary, leaving no trace of his body."

Sulong recalled the scene he had seen at Rattlesnake Lake and turned to look at Stella.

"Professor Stella, when I was breaking out of the Otherworld, I accidentally detonated an Iridium-192 irradiated mine, which blew up a fleshy plant covered with pearls."

"Then, a gathering ball squeezed out from the spatial rift from which we escaped."

"After the mercury ball came into contact with human blood, it grew into a monster that was fifty meters tall, with three goat hooves and mouths all over its body, within just a few minutes."

"The U.S. military ultimately used two tactical aerial bombs, codenamed 'Bomb Mound' and 'Shroud,' to completely eliminate it."

Stella turned around and stared directly into Su Long's eyes, her face full of shock.

"Are you sure that's a black goat calf?"

Su Long said with certainty, "The physical characteristics described in Sui's diary are exactly the same, and that thing is just like what is said in the diary. It can't be killed at all; its activity can only be completely erased at the cellular level."

The lobby of the archives fell silent.

The bronze statue of Samuel Blackwood still stands in the doorway, gazing out at the deep night.