Chapter 383: The Final Chapter of Life, the Truth Behind the Reaper’s Descent
Inside the Sovereign of the Shadowed Night.
Bai Fu slowly walked up to the mysterious code floating in midair.
“Let me take a good look at what kind of magic you’re hiding!”
Bai Fu didn’t use her hands or feet—she steadily tossed an Apostle Vision at the mysterious code.
Though it was a reconnaissance skill, Bai Fu’s ultra-advanced detection skill, combined with her Extraordinary Vision passive, displayed an item info panel far more detailed than what a Player could get from scanning.
【Mysterious Code】
【Quality】: Rainbow
【Item Description】:
1. (Omitted, identical to Player scan result)
2. (Hidden) The shell of this program is forged from crystallized relics of the Void Old Days and Ethereal Realm Old Days. It cannot be cracked by brute force—any forced decryption will damage the data within the crystal.
3. (Hidden) The First Seekers of the Original Pact accidentally extracted partial content from within the crystal using True Spirit Essence from the Apostles, as follows——
[……]
Bai Fu skimmed the item description quickly, but upon seeing the contents attached to Note 3, she froze completely.
Even though she couldn’t fully understand it, the code looked far too similar to the code from the world she lived in before crossing over.
“Holy crap, don’t tell me this thing contains the complete source code of 《Beyond the Stars》?!”
If that was true… then the Reaper actually referred to the game developers?
Didn’t seem quite right either.
Bai Fu really couldn’t imagine her old world being capable of creating a game as ridiculous as Beyond the Stars.
Let alone the absurdly massive world map and the AI intelligence, just the life-support system of the game capsule and the vast time dilation between game time and real time were technologies far beyond her original world’s capabilities.
“I’ve still got to find a way to crack this so-called crystallized relic and see what the full code looks like.”
Her eyes flicked between Description 2 and 3 repeatedly.
She had a vague hunch—could cracking the crystallized relic require the use of True Spirit Essence and a Void Sovereign Core?
Eh—what a coincidence, not only did she have both, she had a lot of both.
Even better—she had already absorbed them into herself, turning them into a part of her body.
Try it!
Bai Fu placed both hands on the crystallized relic and simultaneously invoked the power of True Spirit Essence and the Void Sovereign Core.
When the two entirely different forces surged into the crystal, ripples suddenly spread across its surface, like stones dropped into a calm lake.
“There’s a reaction… but, it’s not enough.”
Bai Fu smiled. Not a big problem—she still had Yulia, Élisée, Hiye, and Jin Lu on her side.
With the arrival of Yulia and the others, the ripples on the mysterious code finally began to flow outward.
As the ripples pulsed, a flood of information surged into Bai Fu’s mind.
“This is the history of the Void Civilization and the Ethereal Realm Civilization?”
Bai Fu began watching.
She wasn’t particularly interested in how those civilizations grew and expanded across the vast universe—she had read too many such tales during her research into the Three Universal Civilizations.
What she was interested in was how they uniquely wielded the power they had mastered—those insights could significantly aid her in becoming stronger.
“The Ethereal Dimension didn’t originally exist—it was a ‘new world’ created by the Ethereal Realm Civilization after they became aware of the Reaper’s existence, pouring the strength of their entire civilization into its birth.”
“They planned to upload their entire civilization’s ‘minds’ into the Ethereal Dimension, leaving only husks behind in the main universe for the Reaper to reap. This way, they hoped to survive the Reaper’s descent and return to the main universe once it was safe.”
“The Eleven Apostles within the Ethereal Dimension were originally elected administrators, chosen by collective vote. Among them, the First Apostle was the most unique—she was the leader of the administrator group, and before entering the Ethereal Dimension, she had been a genius researcher of the civilization, hailed as the greatest in millennia. The Double Helix Tree, which serves as the core control center of the Ethereal Dimension, was her invention.”
Muttering to this point, Bai Fu glanced several times at Élisée, who stood nearby.
“Damn, so I used to be this OP?”
Élisée found it hard to believe. Over the long years, she had long lost all memories of her past.
Bai Fu continued: “Looks like the Double Helix Tree is even more impressive than I thought. Fusing with it is equivalent to obtaining the control authority over the entire Ethereal Dimension. And… I think I get it now—why you couldn’t continue merging with the Double Helix Tree after awakening as a Supreme God’s Disciple. It wasn’t because your path to apotheosis was cut off—it’s just that you are the creator of the Double Helix Tree. You instinctively disliked the one trying to fuse with it, so how could the Tree allow itself to be fused?”
Yulia nodded repeatedly. “Makes perfect sense.”
Bai Fu laughed and continued reading, trying to find a shortcut to fusing with the Double Helix Tree.
She didn’t find that—but instead uncovered numerous records about the Reaper.
The Ethereal Realm Civilization had tried every method imaginable, yet they still couldn’t escape their destined harvest.
They followed through with their plan. One day, a vast black curtain descended from high-dimensional space, covering all regions with intelligent life.
When the curtain faded, all intelligent life and traces of civilization were wiped clean from the universe—only a silent death zone remained.
Just as the Ethereal Realm’s people believed they had survived and could rebuild, an unimaginably terrifying Will descended upon the Ethereal Dimension.
They immediately sensed something was wrong and tried to escape.
But it was too late.
Reaping the husks left behind in the main universe took the Reaper an entire day.
But reaping the “minds” within the Ethereal Dimension? The Reaper did it in less than a second.
Descent meant death!
In the end, only the eleven Ethereal administrators survived.
They hadn’t done anything particularly different from the others—yet they were the only survivors.
Clearly, the Reaper had deliberately spared them.
But why?
The surviving administrators racked their brains but found no answers.
They shouted in fury, demanding explanations—but received none.
Which was to be expected.
The Reaper was a giant. They were ants. Why should a giant explain itself when destroying ants?
But even if one understood the Reaper’s logic, it didn’t mean they could accept it.
Led by Élisée, the eleven administrators swore to uncover the truth.
They first tried to return to the main universe to search for clues—but the Ethereal Dimension had been exiled by the Reaper.
They couldn’t go back.
Alright, since we can't return—then investigating within the Ethereal Dimension is still viable.
The Reaper had once descended upon the Ethereal Dimension, so surely they could find some clues here.
Élisée’s sharp intuition as a genius researcher really did uncover a problem during their investigation.
Given the Reaper’s abilities, it would’ve been easy to wipe out the husks in the main universe in an instant—just like it did with the Ethereal Dimension. Possibly even faster.
So why did the Reaper take an entire day?
Élisée concluded that the answer to this question was crucial—even more critical than why the Reaper deliberately spared them, the administrators.
【They were possibly looking for something, or collecting something】
So, what exactly was it?
Élisée convened a meeting of all the administrators.
The first thing they could confirm: the Reaper’s goal had nothing to do with souls. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have swept through the Ethereal Dimension so rapidly.
【What they needed was our bodies. And the most valuable thing within our bodies is...】
【Genes, right.】
Élisée’s conclusion: Genes.
Based on that, she worked backward and presented a complete hypothesis regarding the Reaper’s behavior——
The Reaper was researching the secrets of genes. The goal was most likely to uncover the final chapter of evolution—to make themselves into perfect beings.
But genes were far too complex. So complex that even with their tremendous technology, the Reapers still couldn’t compute a definitive path to perfection.
They had to confront one ultimate question:
What is perfection?
The Reapers didn’t know. They couldn’t calculate it.
So—they changed their approach.
If it couldn’t be calculated, then might as well play the odds!
In countless experiments, perhaps they’d stumble upon the perfect path by chance.
The Reapers’ experiment was this: seed intelligence throughout the universe and allow it to develop freely—observe how these intelligent species refine their own genes, and grope toward evolution across the endless dark.
The Reaper was conducting an experiment. Of course, they wouldn’t let test subjects rise up and threaten them.
So they established a “Crisis Redline”.
Once any civilization born from their seeded intelligence—or even an individual—approached a level they found threatening, triggering that Crisis Redline, they’d descend immediately and reap that civilization.
【I think, that one-day gap between the curtain falling and their departure... was them taking inventory of the experiment’s results. To see if any unexpected perfect gene had emerged.】
【Clearly, the Ethereal Realm Civilization still didn’t satisfy them. So they quickly began a new round of seeding.】
【I speculate, the reason they didn’t erase every trace of the Void Civilization and our Ethereal Realm Civilization was to observe whether sparks of inspiration might emerge from the contact between different generations of intelligent life.】
【Evolution of life requires inspiration, too.】
Élisée’s hypothesis left the other administrators utterly stunned.
They tried to refute it, but upon further scrutiny, they realized this explanation accounted for everything they had encountered so far.
So this was the truth?
They were just a batch of experimental samples?
But if that was true—how could they even talk about revenge?
The Reapers had set the redline. If they crossed it, they’d die. But if they didn’t, they’d never be able to take revenge.
Didn’t that mean revenge was fundamentally impossible?
That truth was despair itself.
But just as despair began to spread—Élisée offered a new perspective.
No, things couldn’t be that simple.
The Reaper’s goal in planting civilizations was to perfect themselves.
In that case, there’s no way the civilizations they planted were just scattered randomly.
【I don’t believe they would scatter intelligent species vastly different from themselves at random.】
【They already didn’t understand what perfection meant. Doing that would only blur their path further. Even if their planted civilizations found a “perfect” path, would that path really be perfect for them?】
【Therefore, I believe that what they call “random chance” actually occurs on a pre-defined “platform”.】
【My view on this “platform” is—those intelligent species they seeded, including us, must share a considerable portion of genetic similarity with them.】
【And that—is our chance!】
Under Élisée’s leadership, the eleven administrators began trying everything they could to contact newly-born intelligent life outside.
They wanted to guide them in decoding their genetic secrets, and from there deduce weapons that could be used against the Reapers—so that when the Reapers descended again, they could be attacked.
Even if they couldn’t destroy the Reapers completely—they wanted the Reapers to see their rage!
Élisée’s idea was solid.
But the moment she made contact with those intelligent species from the outside—she and the other administrators were struck by a devastating blow.
An invisible attack fell upon them.
All related memories were wiped—not just the hypothesis, but even their original intentions and goals.
From that day forward, the eleven administrators became the eleven Apostles.
Years later, some of the Apostles, driven by subconscious influence, left the Ethereal Realm and descended upon the main universe.
The data within the program ended there.
Bai Fu blinked.
After reading the records found in the Relic of the Old Days 003, dropped by the defeated Void Sovereign Gui Ji, she had long questioned why the Reapers would plant civilizations and what the redline was for.
Élisée’s speculation answered all of that perfectly.
But even if it all made sense, Bai Fu couldn’t conclude Élisée’s theory was correct—because Élisée had no proof.
However, the fact that their memories were suddenly erased later on suggested that even if her guess wasn’t entirely right—it definitely struck a vital nerve.
“Now the question is—why did the Reapers only erase Élisée and the others’ memories, instead of erasing their existence entirely? And why would they allow this Mysterious Code containing the truth to exist?”
“Did they just think leaving it behind didn’t matter? No... if they truly thought it didn’t matter, they wouldn’t have bothered to erase Élisée’s memories in the first place.”
“Is there a possibility...”
Bai Fu looked at Élisée.
Élisée blurted out: “The ones who erased our memories weren’t the Reapers?!”
Bai Fu nodded. She thought so too.
Only the introduction of a third party could make these contradictions make sense.
So now a new question arose—
If the truth really was as they suspected, then perhaps they actually had a chance to survive the Reaper’s next descent.
To protect themselves—and allow the main universe’s civilization to endure.
Whatever that third party's motives were—it was someone worth allying with.
“Quick, see if this program has anything else recorded!”
Yulia urged anxiously.
Bai Fu responded with a grunt and re-invoked the Void Sovereign Core and True Spirit Essence.
In the next second, a mechanical voice echoed in her mind:
【Insufficient Privileges】
“？”