Oh no! I'm surrounded by female ghosts!

Su Ming lay leisurely on the chair.

He held a cup of coconut juice in his right hand and swiped his phone screen with his left.

He is reading the history of human development since the day of destruction.

According to human records, the first person to enter the ranks of true gods was Yu Mengnian, the second was Bai Xinglan, followed by Wen Qi, Shen Wanyu, Xu Qinghe, and Tang Tang.

Over the past century, humanity has produced a total of six true gods.

These six righteous gods established six cities, supporting the crumbling human civilization amidst the ruins of the apocalypse, and becoming the only salvation and faith for all survivors.

People praise God's grace, believing that the prosperous age will last forever.

But in reality...

These six cities have long since fallen.

The survivors were deliberately left behind by the old gods.

This is the first colossal lie told by the Old Gods.

For the past century, all humankind has been instilled with the same belief from birth: that the six righteous gods saved humanity, defeated the invincible Old Gods, and won hard-won peace and survival.

Textbooks, historical records, inscriptions on city walls, and folk songs passed down orally all celebrate this great victory.

The lights of the six cities burned eternally, and the sounds of people filled the air, giving every survivor the firm belief that humanity was rising again and would eventually return to its former glory.

Seeing such a record.

Su Ming let out a long sigh and looked around.

What comes into view is a scene of great prosperity.

The wide, flat streets are spotless, skyscrapers rise from the ground, and glass curtain walls reflect the glow of the sunset.

As dusk falls, the neon lights along the street illuminate one by one.

Although the previous commotion caused most people in the city to stay at home, making the city seem somewhat empty.

But it still did not disrupt the peaceful and prosperous scene.

But this tranquility felt so fake it was almost suffocating.

All the survivors agreed that they had defeated the Old Gods.

Little did they know, they were living in a false illusion of peace.

The so-called future is nothing but a self-deceiving bubble.

Since the day of destruction, for the past century, human technological civilization has not only failed to progress, but has instead regressed and become increasingly distorted.

A hundred years ago, human technology had reached its zenith.

They can use their technology to explore outer space, even set foot on the moon, and have developed the prototype of artificial intelligence.

But with the arrival of Doomsday, the apocalypse shattered thousands of years of technological accumulation by humankind.

Countless cutting-edge technologies, precision instruments, and scientific research materials were burned and lost, directly severing the lineage of civilization.

Thus, an absurd phenomenon emerged.

Survivors in later generations unearthed technological remnants from the ruins, calling them "ancient technology" and adoring them.

Today's surviving humans are no longer capable of developing entirely new technologies; being able to piece together and repair the remnants of ancient technology is already a huge breakthrough.

In addition, over the past century, more and more humans have awakened their abilities and called themselves superhumans.

This group of people pursued their own extraordinary powers almost pathologically, and despised all technological creations.

And so.

This seemingly prosperous city of Yanlang has already undergone a drastic and distorted transformation in its very foundation.

Upon closer inspection, the city is riddled with an unsettling sense of division and contradiction.

The shell of the old civilization and the sac of the new civilization—the collision between the two is hidden in every street, alley, and building.

In the distance, skyscrapers rise from the ground, their exteriors made of brand-new tempered glass and alloy panels.

It was a modern building that had been replicated by humans in the last hundred years. It was clean, orderly, and brightly lit, and looked extremely splendid.

But if you look down, you can see that the ground floor of the high-rise building is covered with a dense network of old cables.

The pitch-black wiring, like a twisted spider web, was wrapped around the brand-new steel frame.

The crude combination of old and new civilizations creates a strong sense of absurdity and incongruity.

On the roof of the tallest building in the city, there is a huge GG sign.

The GG card celebrates the blessings of the six gods and highlights the supreme glory of humanity's rise.

However, the projection device frequently stuttered and flickered, the image tore and the colors were distorted, and it would occasionally burst out with a burst of dazzling white noise, making this praise seem somewhat ridiculous.

The streets and alleys vividly demonstrate the distorted nature of the disconnect between civilization and reality.

The city's main roads are smooth, clean, and well-organized.

But the alleys on both sides offer a completely different view.

The old residential building stands crookedly, its walls covered with dark brown mold and cracks.

Numerous illegally strung and haphazardly connected electrical wires and light tubes are hanging on the exterior of the wall.

Many awakened superhumans disdain any technological creations, and instead move swiftly through the streets and alleys in lightweight, specially made martial arts suits.

They believe in the supremacy of strength. Although they despise all mechanical aids, they still secretly use these devices to try to modify themselves and gain greater power.

The ordinary survivors in the alley mainly rely on these fragmented ancient technological artifacts to make a living.

Someone pieced together an old fluorescent light from a hundred years ago and hung it crookedly above the door, barely dispelling the darkness.

Some people repaired the broken small mechanical devices to use for moving goods and making a living.

Night fell at that moment.

As night falls, the true extent of Yanlang City's divisions is revealed.

The upper-level areas of the city are dazzling and bustling.

The streets and alleys of the lower urban areas, however, are dark, desolate, and lifeless, shrouded in a heavy grayness and decay.

One up, one down; one bright, one dark; one prosperous, one declining—two completely different scenes forcefully tore the entire city in two.

It can only be said that human civilization has now fallen into a distorted and vicious cycle.

The extraordinary pursue power with all their might.

Ordinary people are desperately searching for ancient technology.

Well, how should I put it?

It really has the beginnings of cyberpunk.

Su Ming had always believed that such a civilization only existed in his imagination.

But unexpectedly, one day it actually appeared before my eyes.

This is not the evolution of civilization, but the inevitable distortion of a post-apocalyptic civilization.

The glittering neon lights conceal the decay at the bottom, and grand lies shroud the cruel truth.

They hate the Old Gods, yet they are also extremely obsessed with the power they bring.

They despise the old humans, yet they frantically dig up the remnants of ancient technology from them.

It is likely that the other five cities are in a similar situation.

So Su Ming finished the last sip of coconut juice.

All the history recorded by human civilization today is false and has no credibility whatsoever.

Therefore, Su Ming had no way to look ahead.

He could only look forward.

The Gate of All Things is also analyzing the situation along this future line.

But there's too much falsehood here.

It requires a great deal of discernment and analysis to find the real substance within it.

This is a massive undertaking.

Fortunately, the Gate of All Things has many brains and sufficient computing power.

After taking one last look at Yanlang City within Yu City, Su Ming turned and left.

In this city, Shen Wanyu left herself a message.

This information is the oil painting on the Anthem of the Deep Sea.

It's likely that they left behind information in the other five cities as well.

This information is something that only they can understand; they cannot understand it.

Therefore, Su Ming is going to visit the other five cities.

I'll make a decision after I've read all the information they left behind.

a few days later.

Su Ming sat in a courtyard house in Beijing.

This capital city exists within the Dream City.

In the past few days, he has already visited the other five cities.

The city within Qicheng is Ninghai City, and Su Ming discovered an anomaly at Heng'an Middle School in that city.

The school's wall of honor is complete, but Wen Qi's photo is conspicuously absent.

This anomaly is quite intriguing.

The city within Qingcheng is Yunshan City. Su Ming discovered a small knife hidden inside a teddy bear's belly in Anju Garden in Yunshan City.

The city within Tang City is Dajiang City. Su Ming found a love letter in Tang Tang's room.

He read the contents of the love letter; every sentence was a young girl's longing and imagination for her other half.

The city within Xingcheng is Chang'an City. Su Ming found a broken pocket watch that had been out of service for many years in Bai Xinglan's room.

Finally, he arrived in Dream City.

The city within the Dream City is the capital.

At the entrance of the courtyard house where Yu Mengnian lived, there was an ever-burning lamp that would never go out.

At this moment, he sat quietly in the courtyard, pondering to himself.

Oil paintings on the ship, a blank wall of honor, a doll with a hidden knife, tender love letters, a shattered pocket watch, and a solitary lamp that burns eternally.

What do they actually represent?