About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

"Old Chen, behind me!"

"Chi Xiao—Ugh!"

At the rear of the ship, Chen, who was in charge of the rear guard, had just killed a monster. Before he had time to pay attention to what was behind him, at the critical moment, a heavy triangular shield knocked the monster directly to the ground.

"Not quite the cruise you imagined, huh?"

"Yeah, the local residents don't seem to be in a good mood!"

The two covered each other and continued to maintain the formation at the rear of the team.

Suddenly, a twisted humanoid creature leaped from the bottom of the sea directly to the center of the deck. The tentacles extending from its body pierced through the hearts of several soldiers who had not reacted in time.

“####——”

The thing looked around as if it had intelligence, and then noticed Orson, who had been giving orders since the beginning.

“###——!!”

"Don't try to stop us, you little bastard. Just stay in the sea!"

Orson also noticed the sea monster. He roared and cut off the sea monster beside him. Then he rushed forward before the other party's next attack, cut the wound and sprinkled blood on the sea monster.

"Amiya, how's it going!?"

Orson leaned over the headset and shouted to Amiya in the control center.

"We're almost there, but—wait, wait a minute, something's not right with the coordinates. The radar positioning device seems to be inaccurate. We're almost there... Everyone, prepare for impact!"

In the control center, Amiya, who was using her mental power to control PRTs for navigation, suddenly realized that something was wrong. The coordinates that were clearly still several minutes away were now within reach.

There was no time to slow down, and now there was only one option left—

boom! ! ! !

With a loud bang, the Rhodes Island arrived at the place where everything ended and began.

08. Rest

"..."

Orson slowly woke up from the chaos. He held his forehead and slowly looked around.

The surroundings were covered in endless white fog. Neither the sea monster, Rhodes Island, nor anything else could be seen. All that could be seen was the pure white haze and the outline of a building vaguely appearing in the distance.

"Everyone... cough cough cough!"

Orson opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out of his throat was a sound so distorted that it was hard to hear the content, and a cough caused by the pain.

"..."

Orson touched his throat. The cloth that had been wrapped around his neck to cover the wound had been lost at some point. The scar he got in the North could be clearly felt at his fingertips.

After confirming that he could not make any sound, Orson slowly squatted down and reached out to touch the ground.

"..."

After another brief silence, Orson withdrew his hand and relied on his legs to barely stand up from the ground.

——I can’t use any Originium techniques… It’s as if they disappeared from the beginning.

Orson staggered towards the outline of a building in the distant fog. Although he had thought about using his Originium skills to investigate the situation of his companions, Orson, who had lost his voice and "tuning", had no way to explore the situation around him.

The fog seemed to have its own consciousness, tightly wrapping around Orson. The only direction he could barely see was the building directly in front of him.

It seems like this is the only way for me to go...

Orson walked towards the building in the distance, and the feeling under his feet gradually changed from shallow water mixed with sea water to a harder concrete ground.

The surrounding environment was extremely dead silent, and not even a trace of any life could be felt. Those Haisi who had attacked him madly before also seemed to be isolated and had no breath at all.

In a sense, this area might really be the "end". At least for Orson, who has now lost his Originium skills, this area is like the end of the world, far away and extremely lonely.

——It feels like it’s been a long time since it’s been this quiet…

Orson sighed quietly in his heart. It seemed that even time had stopped in this area. The only thing that made Orson know that he was still "alive" was probably the outline of the building in the distance that was getting clearer and closer.

I don’t know how long it took, it felt like only a few minutes, but it also felt like a whole lifetime. The "building" that had been extremely hazy before, the mysterious building called the "Promised Land" by the bishops of the Deep Sea Church, finally appeared completely in Orson's sight.

"..."

Orson's throat moved at what he saw.

The scene before my eyes was not a paradise island standing above the sea of clouds, nor was it an eternal city-state buried deep at the bottom of the indigo ocean. It had nothing to do with any "dream" or "religion".

That's right, the true face of the building that appeared before Orson, tearing through the white mist—

It is a "radar base station" constructed with modern steel and concrete, so realistic that it is almost chilling.

—Is this the 'end' that those bishops desperately want to reach? Is this the final place that can save Terra from the erosion of disaster?

Orson shook his head. At first he couldn't accept this guess, but soon he noticed something worrying.

His "understanding" of this building is not based on the identity of 'Orson', but the part that 'Doctor' has integrated into it.

In other words, this building, which at first glance seems so realistic that it makes people lose their illusions, is actually "strange" in itself for Terra today.

Whether it's the construction method, the materials, or even the structure - this building is not something that should exist on the world of Terra.

In other words, the building is a remnant of the "human age."

"Boom!!"

——!

Orson entered the building. As soon as he stepped into the building, the metal explosion-proof door behind him was immediately closed, like a hunting cage.

"..."

At this point, the only thing to do was to move forward. Orson was well aware of this, so after a brief moment of confusion, he calmed himself down and walked towards this overly "realistic" building.

The interior decoration style of the "radar base station" is not much different from the exterior. It is cold, solid, and as neat as a laboratory.

[Warning, warning, radar station detected life signals from the location, and is checking the intruder's vital signs - testing completed, 6% of the location's life is consistent with human, and passage is allowed.]

As we passed a room that looked like a checkpoint, an inorganic voice came from the speaker in the corner.

For some reason, the voice of that thing is somewhat similar to PRTs.

——Only 6% of humans...

After hearing the test results, Orson didn't know whether to laugh or complain. Although Kal'tsit had analyzed it a long time ago, being declared a "Chimera" without any justice like this still made Orson sigh.

He is not a pure human like the Doctor in the previous round, nor is he a pure "post-Terra life" like Kelshetallula. He is like a heretic caught in the cracks.

After passing the inspection room, Orson continued walking in the corridor, where some texts and pictures were posted on both sides of the road.

Orson had never come across those distorted and dizzying characters before, but when he focused his attention on them, he was able to understand the meaning of the letters.

Through the inscriptions on the walls, Orson learned about the significance of the building, including the origin of the Terra world.

Just as the doctor said to himself in his memory at that time, this world is the world after the "second round".

The "humans" who previously dominated this land have completely disappeared under the erosion of tens of thousands of natural disasters, and new life was born from the water. Due to different levels of acceptance of the energy of "Originium", they gradually became divided into "people" on land and "sea descendants" living in the ocean.

As for Originium - this thing was not produced by "excavation". To be more precise, the appearance of Originium was actually the result of "humans" using the most core scientific and technological means at the time to artificially promote its synthesis.

Like "alloys," "antibiotics," and "power plants," Originium is a product created by humans using elements found in nature.

The only difference is that the "Originium" itself does not consume substances that can be summarized, but rather an existence that is more closely connected to this land.

Originium is the crystallization of the planet's energy. People who failed to achieve nuclear fusion technology gave up the exploration of nuclear energy and instead chose to try to maximize the utilization of the world's largest energy source - the planet itself.

The purest primitive was extracted, and no one cared about this plan to plunder the planet itself, because the "harmless" high-energy mineral Originium was synthesized and excavated, and human science once again made rapid progress, and this was also the last "golden age" belonging to mankind.

Of course, this era did not last long. The arrival of natural disasters was unexpected by everyone, and large-scale environmental damage caused a sharp decline in the human population.

The Originium itself did not bring about a catastrophe for humanity, but it was the embodiment of the wrath of the land and the source of the world's attempts to kill any intelligent life.

By the time humans realized the horrific nature of the natural disaster, everything had become irreversible. The last thing they could do was to build this radar signal tower.

By the time humans realized that the use of Originium would render everything irreversible, the world they lived in had already become irreversible.

The desperate scientists wanted to analyze and deal with the disaster caused by the source stone minerals. They chose a place on the sea farthest from the disaster area and built a radar signal tower in this area.

The original purpose of this building was to analyze and track the birth trajectory of natural disasters and send signals to other humans so that they could avoid the catastrophe in advance.

However, when scientists finally succeeded in mastering the ability to track and warn of natural disasters, they suddenly discovered one thing - there were no "humans" on that land who could receive these warning signals.

"..."

Orson, who learned about this history from the terminal, had a serious expression on his face. The humans who once lived here, perhaps like the Integration Movement, wanted to change something, but the time left for them was too short, so short that they couldn't change anything.

——If the function of this building is just to 'monitor' and 'publish'... then it has no meaning to us now.

The reason why Orson felt solemn was not only because of the history of the end of the people who had passed by, but also because he was nervous about the function of this building.

Until now, Orson had been suppressing his fear. He forced himself not to think about the current situation of his companions who trusted him and came with him. He only wanted to find a way to prevent Terra from falling into destruction in this building that "could end everything."

Orson closed the terminal in the corridor and followed the instructions all the way to the central area of the radar signal station, which was also the area where the signal was released.

"—"

Here, Orson saw a skeleton leaning against many instruments.

Scattered around the bones were a number of miscellaneous life-support devices and injection instruments, while a portable terminal was placed on the palm of the hand.

Orson connected the terminal to a power source. There was no password inside. Perhaps its owner had deliberately disabled it so that others could see everything recorded inside.

After realizing that the people at the signal station were the 'last survivors', the remaining people began to try to research ways to 'crack the Originium'.

We created Originium, but we failed to realize its significance—this is our original sin as humans.

Although humans can no longer remain in this world, we still have an obligation to atone for the sins of future life in this world... We cannot allow the existence of 'Originium' to continue, otherwise the wrath of the 'God' will once again appear on this land.

The diary-like words in the terminal recorded the final goal of these remaining scientists - to destroy all Originium.

What followed was a record of various experimental data. Since some of these scientists had participated in the synthesis of Originium, their research on the process of 'eliminating Originium' went relatively smoothly.

Cracking the Originium requires a 'set of equations'. Before their physical bodies perished, the scientists had basically solved this set of equations. Once it was completely completed, they could use the broadcasting function of the radar signal station to cover the entire planet and eliminate all Originium.

However, there was a variable in this plan - all the data in the equation had been analyzed, but only a tiny value was missing.

"DNA sequences of organisms other than humans that are susceptible to Originium"

It was just a lack of blood from creatures other than humans, that was all. But it was precisely because of this thing that these people were unable to redeem themselves from their "original sin" until the very end.

——So, there are so many life-support devices around this corpse... He is not afraid of death, but is just waiting for another "life", a new life that has never touched the Originium and has never carried the "original sin" to arrive here and complete the final step of human self-salvation.

Orson bowed slightly in respect to the skeleton. He was unable to witness his mission, but their efforts were eventually passed on.

Orson walked to the instrument not far away that was still glowing faintly. A pure Originium was embedded inside the machine as a power source. Like a heart, the Originium kept beating. Orson also took out a vacuum tube that had been sealed for a long time from the Originium, injected his blood into it, and reinserted it into the analytical instrument.

Beep, beep, beep

The green light came on and the words "Cracking equation ready" appeared on the screen.

"..."

Orson glanced at the disaster radar warning map not far away. The warning icons of the impending disaster were almost spread across the entire Terra continent.

Let's put an end to everything——

Orson flipped the switch that sent the signal.

In an instant, his vision turned pure white.

"You really didn't hesitate at all, Orson."

The Doctor appeared in the void and said with a smile to himself.

"After all, I'm very concerned about everyone's situation... I want to get it done quickly and go over to check on the situation."

Orson said, rubbing his hair embarrassedly.

"Haha, that really fits your answer—Hey, Orson, you're going to die?"

The doctor's expression was smiling as always.

"Ah... probably. After the energy of the Originium dissipates, this wound will probably get worse."

Orson touched his neck.

"But—I feel like I'm already very happy, Doctor. I've met so many people, received so much unconditional love, and helped you achieve your goal of saving the world... Hehe, I feel like I'm already pretty amazing."

Orson gave a somewhat shy smile.