Eternal Night

Chapter 626 A Strange Faction Shift

(PS: I got home late today and only just finished writing the first chapter. I'll continue writing, and I estimate there will be one more chapter. That will be two updates today.)

The matter has been mostly resolved. Normal updates will resume tomorrow, and extra updates will be possible the day after. Thank you for your understanding.
"...Young Master Wu, you're spacing out again?"

Wu Pifu jumped, looked around frantically, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn't some blank white ceiling, nor was it dozing off in class, nor was it some messy, awkward rebirth scene. Instead, he was standing in a super huge library, with three "people" behind him, one of whom, a rather slender figure, was speaking to him.

The Wheel of Time, the leader-level elimination and annihilation force, the first squad, the captain... Wu Pifu?

In an instant, a large amount of information naturally appeared in Wu Pifu's mind. It was not information input, but rather that this information seemed to have existed in his memory before, and now it was just familiar and recalled.

He, Wu Pifu, is a member of the Time and Space Spirits, and the most special time traveler among them (?). He has been exceptionally talented since childhood. After undergoing the most scientific, rigorous, and hellish training that is most suitable for time and space combat, he became a member of the Time and Space Wheel Elimination and Annihilation Force, the highest military organization of the Time and Space Wheel that all Time and Space Spirits worship, cheer for, and are fanatical about. Moreover, he is a member of the highest-ranking team within it.

This was just the beginning of his extraordinary life. After joining the leader-level elimination and annihilation force, he swept through the enemy ranks, subdued all the unruly ones, and eventually became the captain of the first squad of the leader-level elimination and annihilation force...

Wu Pifu was so embarrassed that he wished he could dig out an underground villa with his toes.

What kind of wishful thinking is this about a protagonist living a life with cheat codes? What kind of arrogant and domineering Young Master Wu is this?

And being called "Young Master X" or "Young Master XX"... isn't that fucking embarrassing? Every time someone calls you that, it's so embarrassing you want to bang your head against the wall, okay?
Wu Pifu stood there for a long time, covering his face, until all the memories in his mind had been integrated. Then he looked at the "people" behind him and said, "Let's go, let's go get our mission first."

The Spirits of Time and Space are an extremely ancient race, so ancient that their existence has faded into obscurity over countless millennia. They are a civilization from thousands upon thousands of epochs ago.

The form of this civilization is vastly different from that of humans. It is a delicate life form with an image resembling lines. Although one can still vaguely see its features, its appearance is clearly not human.

Wu Pifu is now a member of the Time-Space Wheel faction, so even though he is a 3.5-meter-tall human in the eyes of these Time-Space Spirits, they are not surprised or doubtful at all, and regard him as one of their own. The memories that Wu Pifu gained out of thin air are also a passive attribute of faction switching, which allows him to integrate into the faction without any hindrance. That's not all, these line figures are actually similar to humans in his eyes. He can not only distinguish their differences, but also distinguish their expressions and emotions.

There were five Line People in total. Including him, this first squad only had six people, but it was the strongest squad of the leader-level elimination and annihilation force. According to his memory, the entire Time Wheel was much weaker than he thought. The strength of these five members was only slightly stronger than that of the superhumans, and none of them were even ascended beings.

This isn't right. How can this be considered a time-space wheel that makes many origins tremble in fear and dominates the river of time?
Wu Pifu sensed something was amiss, but he still remembered the instructions Zhi had given him and immediately sought out a mission.

"...Literally speaking, the biggest drawback of this title is that if the mission cannot be completed, you will never be able to return to your own camp."

Zhi said to Wu Pifu, "For example, if the faction you switched to gave you a mission to destroy humanity, would you do it? Of course, there are loopholes in this. For example, you could kill a monster called 'human,' which is a way of exploiting a loophole. Anyway, you're not actually responsible for the mission issuer of the faction you switched to, but for the title itself. Or, to put it another way, you could delay, act as an inside agent. Although you can't complete the faction mission, you can help humanity obtain all the faction's secret information, and then let the human faction destroy your faction. Once your faction is gone, it's like the faction has been restored, right?"

"but……"

Before Wu Pifu could even get excited, Zhi immediately added a "but": "The faction you're joining now is the Wheel of Time and Space, which contains several potential 'traps' that are currently unconfirmed. These traps will undergo strange changes due to the flow of the River of Time and Space. First, the Wheel of Time and Space is a time-space island ring set up by the Absolute Root of Time and Space. What if you can't accept missions after joining? After all, the Absolute Root of Time and Space has been completely transformed, and you won't even have anyone to communicate with. However, this might be relatively easy to solve: your missions will be issued to you by the title itself, which is the best-case scenario. The second possibility is more troublesome..."

"You've encountered people from this faction with whom you can communicate, and there's more than one... After all, the Chrono Wheel exists on an absolute spacetime, so traversing spacetime is instinctive for it. If that's the case, then your experience must be quite interesting..."

Now, Wu Pifu is in the second possibility that he has inferred.

He... arrived at the very beginning of the Chronosphere, perhaps even at the upper reaches of the spacetime river before the Chronosphere was even established!
The absolute source of spacetime may not even have yet engaged in battle with the relative source of spacetime!
"Judgment in progress... Judgment complete. Citizen Wu Pifu, please search for information related to the Time Spirit Civilization and search for clues to its destruction. This is a time-limited mission that can only be completed while you are in the Time Spirit Civilization camp. The mission reward will be based on all the information collected. (Hint: This mission is extremely valuable, and the highest reward may include extremely rare items.)"

"Judgment in progress... Judgment complete. Citizen Wu Pifu has discovered an extremely rare scenario. The following task is now issued."

"I am the leader of the Heavenly Pride, and you are like ants seeing the blue sky when you see me!"

"Wu Pifu, you are a peerless genius among the Spirits of Time and Space, but you are hiding a secret. Your past life was actually human! After you were reincarnated as a Spirit of Time and Space, relying on the memories and techniques of your past life, you ascended step by step to become an invincible genius among the Spirits of Time and Space. For a time, you were full of pride and enjoyed the perfect life of beautiful women throwing themselves at you and heroes bowing down to you."

"But you know, all of this is only temporary. Soon, the strongest ascended being among the spirits of time and space will become the absolute source of time and space. After that, all the geniuses and heroes will have to lie low. The source is set, and everything will be beyond redemption. And you, the leader of the new generation of geniuses, although not an ascended being, have defeated several peerless figures who were ascended beings. You are unwilling, you are in pain, and you decide... to raise your fist to the sky!"

"You must let all the spirits of time and space know that you, Wu Pifu, are the true prodigy! You must make even the one with the strongest sublimated body acknowledge that you are the strongest!" "Let them see you as if you were an ant seeing the blue sky!"

"Challenge the various ascended forms of the Spirit of Time and Space. You will receive mission points for each ascended form of the Spirit of Time and Space you defeat, and you will receive rewards based on your final score."

Wu Pifu immediately started cursing.

The first judgment was the voice of the mainframe, which is normal. The mainframe often issues tasks based on his situation, and so far it has not tricked him. Moreover, the mainframe has always collected information on the destruction or loss of past civilizations, which is indeed correct.

But the other judgment was just too damn bizarre. What does it mean to be the leader of all heroes? What does it mean to live a perfect life where beauties throw themselves into your arms and heroes bow down to you?

No way, where the hell did they get these lines from that arrogant, domineering protagonist of some low-brow novel?!
It makes him seem like a war maniac, the kind who would kill an entire family at the drop of a hat.

"...This kind of artificial intelligence malfunction cannot be allowed to exist!"

Wu Pifu muttered in a low voice.

The five members following behind him exchanged glances, and one of the male Time Spirits whispered to the others, "Young Master Wu seems quite annoyed..."

"That must be it. Alan has declared that he will directly launch a time-space challenge against anyone who dares to act as our team's logistics personnel!"

"Shameless! They're already ascended beings, yet they still dare to bully us mortals. Doesn't the Ascended Being Alliance do anything about it?"

"How can we manage them? The Ascended Body Alliance is an alliance composed of Ascended Bodies from the clan. Do they manage themselves? Aren't they just siding with each other? Besides... Young Master Wu really went too far."

"Judging from what Young Master Wu said... it seems he intends to kill Alan as well?"

"...It's possible. Young Master Wu's style is to kill the whole family."

Damn it!
Wu Pifu had deep doubts about his decision to switch sides. He felt that he had been tricked by Zhi and that he was an idiot for having to endure such strange humiliation.

The team hadn't walked far in the library when they saw thousands of Time Spirits making a ruckus ahead.

The Time-Space Transfer Zone is where teams of all levels accept Dream World Time-Space Missions. They travel to various time points in the Dream World via the Time-Space Wheel to complete missions, receive real feedback on civilization and the world, and obtain extraordinary resources and necessities.

As for why such an important occasion would be held in a library, Wu Pifu's memory suggests that the Time and Space Spirits seem to be a civilization that is very keen on recording information. In the Time and Space Spirits' vocabulary, the meaning of "library" is roughly the same as that of a cathedral, temple, or monument, as Wu Pifu knows, and it even incorporates the meaning of buildings such as Zhongnanhai, the White House, and Buckingham Palace.

As Wu Pifu's team arrived, the clamor of thousands of Time Spirits in front of them immediately subsided, and then the crowd automatically parted to create an open space. Wu Pifu was puzzled, but he still walked up, while his team members, used to it, stepped forward with pride.

(Is it possible to accept faction quests at the counter in front? So, according to the known method, I should prevent quests from coming to me and instead make myself choose the quests. This way, I can limit the quests to a certain range so that they won't be impossible to complete. However, during this period, I should try not to attract the attention of the higher-ups of the Chronosphere, because judging from the title, "A quest issued to you by a key figure, leader, or supreme leader of this faction" is actually a quest with three different difficulties. What I need now is to keep a low profile, keep a low profile, and keep a low profile...)
Thinking about all this, Wu Pifu walked towards the counter, and then...

A glowing, skeletal figure blocked his way.

"Wu Pifu! The foremost prodigy of the new generation!"

"Today I will show you what it means to be a prodigy and what it means to be invincible!"

"Come on, you weakling, the so-called top genius with no real reputation, I'll let you hit me once!"

Wu Pifu remained silent for a while, then subconsciously looked at his title slot...

The title of "commoner" is still being used!

(End of this chapter)