The shadow reappeared. With the exception of Aita, all three hunters took a defensive stance. The green light turned into a human form, and he looked at these rare, living creatures in front of him suspiciously.

Aita wore a minimalist bodysuit full of futuristic technology, highlighting her sexy figure. The color of the costume can be changed according to the environment. During her previous battles with werewolves, she used this function to hide herself in the environment, and since she was a mechanical creature and had no taste, she would not be easily detected by the werewolves.

The costumes of the three hunters are in the style of the Middle Ages. It was made of unknown animal leather, and was embellished with various incomprehensible symbols. But they were holding an unknown automatic rifle, and the sense of disobedience was palpable.

These firearms were crudely made, not produced from an assembly line, and were made in small workshops.

The first to speak was Aita, who asked in English, "What country are you from?"

"Please speak Chinese, thank you. Shadow said.

Aita said, "Hello, guest from another world. ”

"I'm not good at all right now. Who are you?"

"My name is Aita. The three next to me were Thomas, Brian and Hooks. At the request of the Prophet, we have come to find your explorers. ”

"Prophet?" the phantom associates according to the noun, "... Forget it, are you human?"

"As you can see. ”

"I can't tell, but you do seem a little more reassuring than those monsters. Do you know where I came from?"

"Because you're not the first. ”

"Do you know what I'm up to now?" he spread his hands, revealing his greenish, translucent state.

"This is supposed to be a 'gift from the world', which will be explained to you later. Have you seen another person alive?"

The Shadow shook his head.

When Aita talked to this traveler from another world in Chinese, it was obvious that Thomas and the others were in a completely incomprehensible look. Aita's ability to parse and learn language comes from her highly intelligent mechanical body, and others, if they have not learned it systematically, naturally do not understand this.

Aita said, "Then please leave with us now." ”

She nodded to the three hunters, signaling that the negotiations were complete.

Thomas asked her, "The Prophet said there were two people, but we found only one." ”

Brian replied for Aita: "The Prophet said that two people could be found on this journey, not necessarily both of them. ”

Aita reconfirmed to the Shadow with a blank face, "Are you sure you've never seen any other living humans?"

"People who can move freely like you, no. In fact, I had already been killed before I was thrown in, but then my body inexplicably changed to this shape, and it was clear that the monster was not in the habit of catching living things. ”

"Okay. ”

"But," the shadow hesitated, "I think this one on the ground is a little different. ”

"How?"

The shadow pointed at Li Ben and said, "When I was hidden in the void, there was darkness in my perception. When I appeared in this world, I couldn't see anything because there was no light in the ice cellar. But this man was the only light source I saw at that time. ”

When Aita heard this, she pointed to Li Ben and said to the hunters, "Go check on that guy." ”

The hunters did as she was told.

"He's frozen," Thomas said, "and his blood has clotted into ice slag, and unless his abilities are awakened, he's just a corpse." ”

"Thaw him and see. ”

"Burn it with fire?"

"There's a kitchen up there, so boil some hot water for him to soak. ”

The hunters carried Leeben's body out.

Aita then turned around and asked the Shadow, "By the way, what do you call it?"

"Zhou Haomiao. ”

............

Li Ben was now immersed in a large cauldron, under which a charcoal fire was burning, and the three hunters were sitting and chatting. The Mole-Man was beaten into a sieve and lay miserably dead not far from them, and the werewolf cubs in the house were not much better, and the hunters had no sympathy for the monster.

Zhou Haomiao was also waiting on the side, and he asked Aita, "How much do you know about my world?"

"Technology, culture, history, pattern, all have an understanding. ”

"That's pretty much it's all clear. What the hell are these monsters?"

"Have you ever seen any of these creatures in your world?" Aita asked him, pointing at the Mole Man.

Zhou Haomiao said: "I don't have it in reality, but I have seen it in various myths and cultural works. ”

"Originally, there was no one in our world. The werewolf you slew was once nothing more than a creature in our imaginary story. The power that makes these fantasy creatures appear is what we call Chaos. Or it can be understood as, rules without rules. At the beginning of the birth of the universe, it was in a state of chaos, but in the process of growth, it will gradually evolve to a high degree of order, and the rules of physics, the various scientific theories summarized by human research, are the embodiment of order. ”

"In our world, human civilization was once extremely developed, and by the Kardashev level of your world, it is extremely close to the three-type civilization. However, the occurrence of the great collapse directly set back human civilization by 300,000 years. The main impact is that all the most advanced technologies have failed, interstellar communication has become extremely difficult, and in the face of the sudden appearance of unreasonable monsters, all human beings and other extraterrestrial intelligent life have fallen into chaos, and during that period of time, the original population of 20 billion on the planet we are on alone will eventually only be about 10%. ”

"We, creatures of the Primordial Order. Humans, as well as other animals, can easily die of torture once they are corrupted by chaos. The body, along with the soul, will be a part of them. ”

After listening to Aita's long description, Zhou Haomiao didn't know how to react, and he asked: "Is the Great Collapse a change in the cosmological constant?"

"It would be nice if that were the case, with the level of human technology at that time, it was very simple to re-determine the cosmological constant, and even if the cosmological constant was in a state of random change, human beings could automatically adapt to it. But the reality is that the rules of order change impermanently. The universe has been completely eroded by chaos, and even if we touch it lightly, we as creatures of the original order will instantly disintegrate and become incomprehensible beings. It has been 3,000 years since the end of the chaos, and now, humans are the only animals of the original order in this world that can survive in the cracks of chaos by their own strength. If you want to know more about the story, let's go back to a safe place. ”

"Gollum. ”

Bubbles bubbled in the water pot behind them, and the hunters dragged Li Ben out of the pot.

"Ahem, cough, cough..."Li Ben is now a soup chicken. He gasped for breath and immediately made an observation and analysis of the form in front of him.

Four people as well as one... Ghosts? Am I dead?

He reached for his abdomen and neck, and the fatal wound was gone.

What's going on? Were they the ones who saved me?

"Do you speak Chinese?" Aita asked.

"Hmm. You saved me?" asked Li Ben.

"It's mostly up to you. That person," Aita pointed at Zhou Haomiao and said, "I'm from the same place as you, so you should have a lot to say." Now, please leave this place with us. ”

"Where are you going?"

"Safe place. ”

It happened very suddenly, as if he came into this world, was killed by a monster, and came back to life inexplicably, and he didn't have time to understand what was going on.

There is no better option right now. Lee Ben knows this.

On the way, Zhou Haomiao said to Li Ben: "You don't seem to be surprised at all by the way I look now. ”

"I'm still alive after all. ”

"That's right. My name is Zhou Haomiao, what about you?"

"Leeben. ”

"Brother Liben, let's share some information. ”

"I don't know anything about the world. ”

"It's okay, just talk about the things in the original world. Zhou Haomiao retold the story he had heard from Aitana.

"The most critical question has not yet been answered. ”

"Indeed. Zhou Haomiao and Li Ben tacitly agreed.

The question is – why did they come into this world?

"To make sure, did you receive a flyer before you came into this world?"

"Do you mean this?" Li Ben took out a nearly shredded paper from his pocket, the contents of which were blurred after rain, ice, and thawing, but he could still make out a magic rabbit.

"I didn't expect you to keep it. ”

"Picked it up. ”

"It doesn't seem to be the same as my one. My request was to clip it in the book, and it just so happened that my bookmark was lost, so it became like this. What's that request?"

"Throw it away. ”

"It's really hard to refuse, after all, no one takes it seriously. ”

"Hmm. ”

Li Ben spoke concisely and rarely expressed his opinions, and Zhou Haomiao caused the conversation along the way, and there was no stubble of exchanges.

Zhou Haomiao said that he was a history student at Peking University, and the feeling when he traveled through was basically the same as Li Ben's hazy memory.

"I've seen other people from afar during the ascent, I don't know how the world is going over there, I have a sister in addition to my parents, what about you?"

Li Ben thought for a while and said: "It's useless to think about these now, follow them to understand the situation first, maybe there is a way to go back." ”

The group did not go out of the forest, but went deeper. The hunters protect them in a triangular formation.

Suddenly, Thomas, who was leading the way in front, raised his hand to signal a stop, and everyone held their breath.

By the light of the moon, Li Ben saw a thin humanoid creature standing among the dense trees, as still as a sculpture. His joints flexed in a strange reverse, his head on his neck turned 180 degrees, and his hair fell downward with gravity. His eyes were like black holes devouring all the light, and his mouth was open like a famous painting. In normal times, it would be an avant-garde stream of consciousness artwork.

Thomas saw him, and he saw Thomas and the others.

The joints of the humanoid sculpture made a rotten and violent grinding sound such as "crunch", and it moved one by one.

"It's over," Thomas said.

He took a deep breath and turned back and said, "You go first, only I can hold him back." After saying that, black smoke erupted again, and this time, there was no room for reservations.

Zhou Haomiao and Li Ben were shocked by Thomas's changes, and before they could ask questions, they were carried by Hooks and Brian from behind them, and they could see that their lower bodies were also wrapped in black smoke, and the rancid smell made the two of them speechless.

"Aita, can you keep up?" asked Brian.

"Let's go. Aita said.

The three of them didn't talk much nonsense, they ran away, leaving only Thomas, who was four-handed, on the scene.

The humanoid sculpture suddenly increased its speed as the three of them moved violently, running, rolling, bouncing, and constantly adjusting its perverted and twisted posture with joint-like joints, and pounced on Brian and them.

Thomas rushed to hug him, hoping to limit his movements in the same way he had fought the werewolves.

The spine of the sculpture propped up its head, protruding from its shell, and writhed wildly around the back of Thomas's neck, and the snake bit down, making a cracking sound.

"Ah!!!h

The thin shadow's movements were swift and firm, breaking Thomas's bones one by one. The corrosive black mist had no effect on him, sucking Thomas's spinal cord mercilessly, eventually turning his soul into an after-dinner dessert.

By the time the others had fled, and the thin figure had left Thomas's rotten and frail skin behind and followed them down the trail in the woods. This action lasted for half a minute, accompanied by a sharp roar, and the thin figure seemed to be frozen, returning to a completely still sculptural form.

His roar caused all organic life within fifty meters of him to disintegrate into atomic-form dust.

Bryan and Li Ben, who were 600 meters away, were shocked by this roar and lost their sense of direction, and Aita directly suffered a short downtime.

After relieving themselves, Hooks and Brian lifted the black fog, put Li Ben and Zhou Haomiao down, and as soon as the two landed, they lay on the side and retched violently, coughing and wheezing.

"What the hell is that? Is it a product of your culture? And you don't look like a human being. Zhou Haomiao was full of doubts.

"We call him the Twister, and compared to werewolves, creatures that can be described in detail from mythology, these curious beings have no reason at all, they are completely unknown. As for what you look like when you see Thomas, I was going to let you know later, but since you ask now, we won't hide anything. Aita said.

"Listen up. ”

"What do you think we people can survive by? technology, weapons, wisdom? These things are useless in the face of chaos, and magic must be defeated by magic, and only chaos itself can fight against chaos. In order to gain the power of Chaos, humanity must make sacrifices. Thomas They are one of the few human beings who can maintain their sanity in the erosion of chaos, and we borrow the power of the gods in ancient mythology to pray and sacrifice to these originally illusory existences, so that human beings can borrow the power of chaos and become 'chaos hunters', which is the fundamental reason why the human race can survive. ”

"Will it be like that if you use the so-called forces of chaos?"

"It varies from person to person. This kind of power will bring great pain and suffering when acting on humans on the side of order, and if you are not careful, you will become a monster with the same madness of soul and body. But you visitors from the other world are different, when you arrive, you will receive a gift from the world, and it will also give you different abilities according to each person's differences, and generally it will take a while to awaken and then master it. In contrast to the usual Chaos Hunters, you will not have any negative effects when you use this power. ”

Li Ben and Zhou Haomiao are not fools, and it is obvious that the hunters used the so-called chaotic power to save them, and whether what Aita said is true or not, they will not panic because of their strange appearance.

"Barely acceptable. You're not an ordinary person who can keep up with them, are you? And where the hell is this place?"

"Let's go first, it's not far from our base camp now, and I'll explain it to you on the way. ”

Li Ben was silent thinking about and digesting this information, quietly listening to the conversation between Zhou Haomiao and Aita.

On the way, Aita informs them of the fact that their bodies are intelligent machines, and explains that the soul really exists, that the human body and the soul belong to the same order, and that the essence of borrowing the power of chaos is that the body changes to chaos, and the soul maintains the purity of order.

However, this knowledge is difficult for visitors from other worlds to accept and understand for a while, who are deeply influenced by materialist concepts.

Now Li Ben and the others are located in a nature reserve that was originally set up by humans. There are countless flora and fauna here, and according to the plan of naturalists, it forms a perfect self-circulating ecosystem. But now, it's the domain of mythical creatures, mixed with strange and curious existences.

"Can't the rest of humanity unite to build a city fortress that belongs to humanity. ”

"There have been many people who have done this, and the end has been destroyed without exception. To sum up, in addition to the unpredictable chaos and the necessary economic and material development capabilities, the threat of the ancient gods and marauders is also a major factor. ”

"What are the Old Gods and Marauders?"

"There's a lot more you need to know, and more about Chaos will tell you later. Now, here we are. ”

Zhou Haomiao and Li Ben looked around, this place was no different from the forest they had walked in before.

I saw Hooks walk towards a tree and pat the tree, and the tree opened its eyes.

"Hester. ”

"Oh, welcome back. What about Thomas?" the tree spoke, looking at Brian.

Brian shook his head.

"What happened?"

"Twister. ”

"Well, that can't be helped. Have you accomplished the task that the Prophet has given you?"

Brian took out a wolf head from the big pocket he had been carrying, and looked back at Li Ben and said, "The materials have been obtained, and the people have been found." ”

"That's good. As the tree finished speaking, the branches and leaves of the tree began to shrink, and the earth and roots on the ground tumbled, and finally the tree changed into a man, and at his feet was the gate of Aita's tribe.

Aita led Li Ben and Zhou Haomiao into the underground world.

It's a huge underground cavern, spacious enough for horses to run in some places, and narrow enough for one person to pass sideways. On the top of the cave, long wires are hung from nails, which are connected to electric lights for the illumination of the cave. A stream meanders deeper into the stream, lined with large black tents that resemble yurts.

Li Ben and Zhou Haomiao could feel the peeping eyes behind those tents.

Zhou Haomiao asked, "How many people live here?"

Aita replied, "We have about 300 people, which is considered a medium-sized tribe, and the Chaos Hunters, like Thomas and them, have less than 20 people, and there are more than 100 ordinary adult men, who are responsible for the cultivation of food. ”

On the innermost side, a square tent, slightly smaller than the other round tents, was the abode of the prophet whom Aita had been talking about.

"Do you need to do anything when you see the prophet you speak of?" Zhou Haomiao asked.

"No, red tape is too extravagant in this environment. Go inside, I'll have to tell Thomas's family about him. ”

Li Ben and Zhou Haomiao glanced at each other and pushed open the curtain of the tent.