In another world, Lu Mingfei is learning card making.

To Lu Mingfei's surprise, after going through this ordeal, Jing Shu, who was usually quite mature and composed, showed a significant emotional fluctuation—especially towards the scepter-like object in his hand:

It's clear that if she hadn't wanted Lu Mingfei to examine the item, she might have unleashed her dragon breath or something else and destroyed it completely.

"...By the way, what is this?" Lu Mingfei held the scepter upright to examine it, confirming that the blackish substance at the bottom was actually ash from the charcoal fire. "Or rather, what does it represent?"

"In that world's terms, its name is 'Compassion'—to understand its origins, we might need to read through the overall background of that world..."

Jing Shu carefully placed the scepter aside, making sure no dirt fell to the ground. Then she opened her large backpack and pulled out a...

World map?

Jing Shu held Lu Mingfei in her arms, breathing deeply the air around his neck. Although Lu Mingfei felt this behavior was a bit too ambiguous, he could only sigh and turn around and hug Jing Shu back as he felt her almost spasmodic muscles slowly relax and soften.

……

To discuss this compassion, one must talk about the religion from which it originated, the "Cult of the Holy Maiden"; to talk about the Church of the Holy Maiden, one must talk about the country it was in, the "Empire"—and to talk about the Empire, one must talk about the historical context in which it was founded.

Therefore, to avoid potential misinterpretations due to preconceived notions when reading from the back, Lu Mingfei chose to start reading from the very beginning, in chronological order.

Fortunately, Jing Shu had already completed this part of the work in that world, which saved Lu Ming the trouble of sorting through complicated historical documents.

That world was likely an Earth that had "gone astray." The exact time when it went astray is impossible to verify. When the empire was established, it destroyed most of the achievements of the previous era in the humanities, including calendars, culture, poetry, and so on. However, there are records of exactly where it went astray:

Human genes.

It is unclear when exactly, but the genes of humans—more precisely, 'human males'—underwent a change known as 'awakening'.

The specific cause of this change has not yet been determined, but the results of the change, especially in the human body, are quite clear:

Later empires divided these changes into five levels, with the first level being a change in hormone levels, which would cause changes in muscle mass and redevelopment of some parts of the body.

The effects of the second level begin to interfere with a person's mental state, manifesting as paranoia, paranoia, emotional detachment, and a strong addiction to sexual relations.

Starting at level three, a qualitative change occurs: as the body undergoes further changes, this addiction intensifies to the point where it cannot be suppressed by reason, becoming an almost compulsive 'impulse.' In later empires, only those at this level and above could be called 'human.'

The main characteristic of Level Four is a complete subversion of morality—selfishness; to obtain that pleasure, they would not hesitate to kill their own children, fathers, or...

Lu Mingfei didn't want to look at this section of descriptions and cases anymore. He quickly flipped through two more pages to the description of level five, while urging Jing Shu to describe the next level:

The fifth-tier "Awakened" are called "Degraded Humans" by the Empire's resistance forces, while in the Empire's official description they are called "New Humans," and the Holy Maiden Church refers to them as "Saints." Only a very small number of Awakened can reach this level, but their performance is undoubtedly "powerful" in keeping with their rarity:

The awakening of genes has already been able to interfere with the brain, and changes in the pituitary gland hormones can lead to a radical change in their appearance—of course, without a doubt, it won't make them tall, handsome, and elegant; rather, it's quite the opposite:

They are short and stout, with short, thick limbs, small eyes, and a face full of flesh. Their abnormally high hormone levels cause their skin to break out in acne and pimples, and they constantly emit an indescribable but repulsive stench.

Beyond their appearance, however, their physical abilities will be greatly enhanced, and even their overactive brains will enable them to acquire extremely high levels of knowledge.

Even though they spend at least sixteen hours a day tormenting (although they are indeed doing that, Lu Mingfei thinks "torture" is a more appropriate word) others, leaving them only one or two hours to study, they often become highly accomplished scientists and scholars...

"Huff—"

Well, the descriptions and photos of these Level 5 Awakened individuals hadn't broken Lu Mingfei's composure yet, but seeing the devices they invented and their 'usage instructions' really made him lose his nerve.

He considers himself to have a good ability to learn: as you can see, within moments of the emergence of the comprehensive network, he had already accepted the existence of this virtual screen and was able to use this device quite skillfully;

Putting that aside, just considering his tolerance for gore, he felt it was alright—

In Prototype, with so many zombies and mutants, buildings with beating hearts, or the "path of flesh and blood" created by the protagonist as he cuts through everything, Lu Mingfei never felt uncomfortable. He could even observe the beating of a heart while thinking about whether to buy a bottle of energy drink or a bowl of instant noodles...

But these images and words were completely different from everything he had ever encountered before:

It doesn't describe severed limbs or piled-up corpses, but rather bodies that have been modified by "people"—Lu Mingfei wasn't sure if the person who did this could still be considered human.

A living person is injected with a dangerous drug that causes one or more parts of their body to swell excessively. Then, pieces of flesh are cut off from them, carving a "blood and flesh rose" out of their body.

The skin and flesh of a living person are cut open down to the bones, and then the bone is cut away to create "exquisite" patterns on the femur, hip, arm bones, and other parts of the body.

To prevent the pattern from being scratched or restored, the living would repeat the above process every now and then—or, they would simply cut off all the flesh from this point to the extremities of the body, exposing the pattern so that they could play with it from time to time…

Such behavior goes beyond the scope of simply committing evil.

Moving forward from there, the most "inhuman" thing Lu Mingfei encountered was nothing more than Prototype—but even in Prototype, Lu Mingfei faced large-scale armies and numerous tanks and firearms, and the most he did was devour people alive, not this kind of thing...

Lu Mingfei was at a loss for words and couldn't find a suitable description.

In his previous imagination, someone like Alex Mercer, who would kill someone simply for being provoked, was already extremely excessive. But this kind of behavior, treating people like toys...

It was completely beyond his comprehension.