Eternal Night

Chapter 799 What the hell?
Wu Pifu cautiously led the three small animals and a golden tree forward, but along the way, apart from the slightly eerie mirror and the constant illumination of a large amount of fluorescent light, he did not encounter any enemies or attacks.

Crucially, his sense of danger remained completely unaffected, as if it had been blocked, or as if there was no danger at all.

But how is this possible?

Even if Wu Pifu wasn't good at deciphering, he could easily see the danger of this eerie place.

The birds and beasts in the forest, and all sorts of giant insects, are no pushovers. Even though Wu Pifu had only been there for a day, he could tell that the law of the jungle in the entire forest was incredibly cruel and outrageous. Heaven knows how strong the killing and hunting desires of the creatures here were. He had seen and sensed at least tens of thousands of killings.

It is important to understand that life has a cycle; it needs to reproduce and grow. Unless it is cloned life, mechanical life, or life that is split and replicated using advanced technology, the natural world should not, and cannot, engage in such fierce battles, because subsequent life cannot be born and continue so quickly. Such a natural world would soon decline.

But all of this common sense doesn't apply to this world.

The life here is enormous, its vitality so vigorous that it transcends the ordinary; simultaneously, it possesses an insatiable appetite, a strong urge to kill, a propensity to reproduce, and a rapid growth rate…

One could even argue that this world itself is so vibrant with life that it seems almost alive, and that every blade of grass, every tree, and every living thing here is like a treasure from heaven.

With such a strong appetite and hunting instinct, many creatures here can even suppress their fear of death to a certain extent, such as that centipede. So, given that, seeing such delicious fruit that they crave from the very essence of life, why would they stay quietly outside this mirrored land?

No matter how you look at it, the only possibility is that this mirrored land is too dangerous, causing countless wild beasts that rushed forward and followed to die there, to the point that they have remembered the danger of this place through genetics.

Wu Pifu sensed and confirmed repeatedly, but still could not find the source of the danger in this mirror-like place.

"Or have we all misunderstood?"

As Wu Pifu walked forward, he muttered to himself, "There's actually not much danger here, but that fluorescence is actually a high-tech creation, similar to ultrasonic rodent repellents. It can make wild creatures ignore it or not want to get close, and only intelligent beings can see it?"

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

Beelzebub immediately shouted, "Look closely! This protective shield on our bodies has been flashing violently from the very beginning, which means the attack started a long time ago. It's just that we're currently protected by the Pokémon System, which is why we haven't been harmed at all!"

Wu Pifu had naturally seen it long ago, but he was a grandmaster of martial arts, and had even taken a half-step beyond that level. His control over his body and mind was already superb, and he could easily detect even the slightest discrepancy. However, he did not find anything unusual.

Regardless, Wu Pifu had already entered and was not far from the fruit, so he naturally couldn't give up.

One person, three small animals, and a golden tree bonsai walked toward the fruit they all coveted.

But as they drew closer to the fruit, the mirrored land finally reacted. All the mirrors began to deflect, facing Wu Pifu and his group directly. The protective shields on the three small animals and the golden tree bonsai shook even more violently.

Something's coming!

Wu Pifu suddenly looked up at the largest mirror in mid-air. As soon as he finished speaking, a large amount of fluorescence began to converge on that mirror.

Immediately afterwards, a strange message echoed across the mirrored land. Although it wasn't spoken, Wu Pifu, the three small animals, and the golden tree all received and understood it.

"A perfect self, a perfect future. All you need to do is discard your imperfect self and embrace a perfect future."

"……What!?"

Wu Pifu exclaimed in surprise.

None of the three little animals or the golden tree answered, while Wu Pifu muttered to himself, "This is... an advertising slogan? What the hell is this?"

Then, they saw a mass of flesh and blood fall straight down from the largest mirror. Wu Pifu immediately felt a metaphysical connection between himself and that mass of flesh and blood. He couldn't explain it, but he could feel it.

"Could it be... that something good is about to happen again!?"

Wu Pifu's first thought was of Adam, whom he had met in the previous world. Adam was truly a benefactor, as both Adams had brought him great opportunities.

As for the so-called perfect self here... whether it's undergoing a complete transformation or becoming one's own sparring partner, it's like finding a pillow when you're sleepy!

Under Wu Pifu's expectant gaze, the piece of flesh began to take shape in mid-air, rapidly transforming into a human form. However, it failed to transform successfully by the time it hit the ground. Then... with a splat, the piece of flesh turned into a pile of rotten flesh, which twisted and writh on the ground, transforming into tentacles, internal organs, mouthparts... all sorts of bizarre things that looked like something out of a nightmare, both disgusting and terrifying.

"The perfect you, the ever-more perfect you, the ultimate perfect you—welcome the perfect and pure you!"

This information spread once again.

"...Perfect my ass!!" Wu Pifu roared in fury, "I'm human, a pure-blooded human! What the hell did you create?! This is what you call 'perfect me'?!"

"The perfect you, the ever-more perfect you, the ultimate perfect you..."

The information seemed to get stuck, repeating itself endlessly, and clumps of flesh began to fall from the surrounding mirrors, then splatter onto the ground and turn into these grotesque chunks of flesh.

Wu Pifu was truly broken down this time. The key was that he could really feel that metaphysical connection in the dark, as if these pieces of flesh were really him.

He roared and picked up his death-defying sword, hacking away in all directions, annihilating all the chunks of flesh and mirrors. Within five steps, nothing was spared; anything touched was destroyed, anything grazed was gone. After one round, a large empty space was left in the mirrored area.

"The perfect alpaca!"

Wu Pifu cut off the largest piece of mirror, half of which was annihilated, while the remaining part was held in his hand and smashed to the ground.

"Look carefully! I'm human, a pure-blooded human! It's so clear in the mirror, what exactly are you cloning?! Come on, clone something that's at least human, or this isn't over!!"

Unfortunately, the mirror seemed to have no intelligence at all; the previous information was more like a kind of echo. Even after Wu Pifu smashed the entire mirror, no real cloned human body appeared.

Instead of being smashed and destroyed with a single, deadly blow, the mirror underwent a series of changes. Each broken piece twisted and transformed into biological-like tissues, rather than minerals, metals, or glass. However, these biological tissues were too abstract and had been completely fossilized.

As Wu Pifu crushed the fossilized biological tissues, nothing remained on the mirror. Only the powdered biological tissues emitted a dark aura, but before they could even get close to Wu Pifu, they vanished into thin air.

“Wait a minute, Wu Pifu, this is…” Beelzebub shouted.

After calming down a bit, Wu Pifu nodded and said, "Yes, I see it. It's negative... but not entirely negative. It's more like a mixture of negative energy and some kind of extraordinary energy..."

Beelzebub immediately said, "Can you analyze it? You shouldn't be afraid of the negative effects, how about absorbing a little to analyze it?"

Although Wu Pifu was not afraid of negativity, the feeling of absorbing negativity was not good. However, this was the only extraordinary power he had seen in this world, so he did not hesitate. He grabbed another piece of mirror shard and began to smash it until it was smashed into this kind of pitch-black aura and special negativity. Then he reached out and absorbed a small amount of it into his sea of ​​consciousness.

"...Pain, pain, pain..."

"...No, this is not the perfect self..."

"...It's out of control, there's no such thing as perfection, it's out of control..."

"...The power of will has exceeded its limits; the mind of a living being cannot bear or withstand it. It's over, it's over..."

A large amount of chaotic information appeared in Wu Pifu's consciousness. It was as if he had a short but intense nightmare. After the negative information was completely digested, he frowned and said, "The information is too chaotic, but it should be the remnants of information from before the destruction of this civilization. Because of the strong obsession, and the fact that the more strong the obsession of this civilization's supernatural system, the more powerful it became, it was preserved and distorted into this mirror image."

"It seems that this civilization achieved some kind of technological or extraordinary achievement, something that allowed it to continuously iterate and perfect itself, like an experiment or something else. In the end, it went too far. They were either absorbed or couldn't handle the perfection, and the entire civilization perished. As for that fruit..."

Wu Pifu looked at the fruit with a strange gaze: "It seems to be the final and greatest obsession of this civilization when it was completely destroyed. It is similar to the extreme yang born from extreme yin, the beauty born from terror, the final fantasy of all the members of the civilization. Under its extraordinary power, it came to life and turned into this fruit that represents perfection. After eating it, it seems to make the life that eats it approach perfection... I don't know any other information. There is too much and too messy information."

The three little animals and the golden tree bonsai all looked longingly at the fruit. Beelzebub rubbed his feet and said, "Should we still eat this fruit? It feels like we're eating a soul..."

"Eat, why not."

Wu Pifu, however, made a clear distinction: "This is the manifestation of their last desires and obsessions. What does it have to do with the soul? It's rebirth amidst destruction, or hope amidst disaster. Whatever it is, eat!"

As he spoke, Wu Pifu no longer held back. Now that he understood the origin and threat of this mirrored land, he naturally had no more worries. He didn't even look at the disgusting "perfect" chunks of flesh that kept appearing, and rushed to the center of the mirrored land in a flash.

Then, he plucked the fruit.

The roots attached to the fruit resembled both bone and flesh, connecting to the final structure of the Mirror Land. As he plucked the fruit, the roots crumbled and dissipated, the buildings crumbled and dissipated, and the surrounding mirrors and those grotesque flesh and blood all began to crumble and dissipate...

In the blink of an eye, Wu Pifu found himself standing in a desert surrounded by forests.

Like a dream, this is the mirrored land of tombstones representing the end of a civilization...

Disappeared.

(End of this chapter)