"March 7th, sunny, Lu Ji is really beautiful... I hope to share a desk with her."
"April 1st, the big exam is truly terrifying. I still have more than a year, yet I keep hearing many classmates and teachers whispering about it... Hm, there’s also some talk about the end of the world, sounds like a prank."
"May 18th, it’s a day worth remembering, Lu Ji spoke to me..."
The black diary cover was hard, and inside was a kind of pale yellow paper; the first half was just the daily life of an ordinary boy.
Zhong Shenxiu flipped quickly through it, reaching the last few pages.
"September 9th, doomsday theories are everywhere, but even if it’s the end of the world, students still have to attend class... I heard there’s a bunch of crazies or maybe Prophets compiling something called the ’Original Scripture.’ Are they joking?"
"October, I... I saw meteor showers, black meteor showers! My God... Mrs. Sun next door actually peeled off her skin right in front of me, turning into... a zombie? This can’t be real; I must be dreaming..."
"October, I don’t know the date, the radio is filled with desperate news, could the world end because of this? I found a strange frequency, there’s a guy claiming to be a Prophet, broadcasting the ’Scripture’..."
"It’s probably November, I haven’t heard the Prophet’s voice anymore, maybe he’s already dead, the apocalypse has truly arrived, human order has completely vanished... I haven’t written in the diary for a long time, I’ve been trapped here too long, I need to go out... Hm, the Prophet’s words were correct, I need to record the ’Original Scripture’ I’ve seen, they might be useful..."
"Mid-level Family – Faceless Spirits, belong to Spirit-contaminated monsters, unharmed by real firepower, they like to kill in dreams... The massive sleep death attacks mentioned in the newspapers before, could it be their doing?... Hm, moving on, the hosting ritual is, collecting ninety-nine different people’s dreams, consuming its specific organ while asleep to obtain the same, dream-entering powers, consumption is just the first step of digestion, afterwards you still need specific processes to host..."
"Suddenly, I realize I’ve done something foolish, first off, I can’t acquire the traits of the Faceless Spirit, and then... I only remember a small part of the ’Original Scripture,’ I lack the accumulation of rising from a lower minion to a mid-level family member... According to the ’Scripture,’ directly performing the ritual to host a mid-level Family member will only turn me into a monster..."
Zhong Shenxiu looked at the diary, his eyebrows furrowing bit by bit, "The black meteor shower, is it the source of the apocalypse?"
Based on his knowledge, he could guess that this black meteor shower was not simple, even, it could be part of an Evil God’s power and essence!
’It scattered and turned into a meteor shower, contaminating the creatures of the entire world, even not just creatures, but all concepts... Everyone has a part of this trait within themselves, so most creatures have mutated, the survivors are only ordinary people because this trait has turned recessive...’
’Because they share the same source, is that why they can hunt each other, consume and host traits?’
’Why would this Evil God divide itself?’
’I seem to have forgotten a critical piece of information...’
Zhong Shenxiu massaged his temple, grimacing slightly.
Rachel entered, looking around, her eyes showing disappointment.
"This diary records a part of the ’Original Scripture’..."
Zhong Shenxiu lifted the diary in his hand, "The latter part, about hosting the ’Faceless Spirit’..."
The light in Rachel’s eyes dimmed even more, "The latter half, huh... Did you find anything good to eat?"
Zhong Shenxiu searched a few more rooms with her, except for the occasional encounter with a few living corpses, there were no other surprises.
However, Rachel handed a pocket watch to Zhong Shenxiu, "After all those canned foods, this is a gift for you."
Zhong Shenxiu caught it casually, noticing the pocket watch was exquisitely made, its surface inlaid with gold, but of course, in this post-apocalyptic world, gold that could not be eaten or used was without any value.
Upon opening the watch cover, however, the twenty-four divisions inside made Zhong Shenxiu feel something was off.
’Although not twelve divisions, this world divides a day into twenty-four hours too...’
Rachel returned to the lower level with a disappointed Zhong Shenxiu, meeting their leader Zola and handing over their findings.
"We don’t need food, we don’t need medicine, of course, we don’t need precious jewelry, we only need two items, one is the source stones, the other is the ’Original Scripture’!"
Zola reiterated the rules once again, glaring hard at Rachel.
’This captain, does she understand Rachel that well?’
Zhong Shenxiu suppressed a smile, handing the diary to Zola since he had memorized its contents.
"’Faceless Spirit’?" Zola pondered for a moment and handed the diary to one of the team members.
He had black hair and ordinary features, easy to forget in a crowd.
At that moment, he spoke in a deep voice, "Regarding the ritual for the ’Faceless Spirit,’ we’ve already had records..."
’His name is... Joz, could he be a Demon Hunter?’
’Yes, a normal team should have at least one, how come his presence is so low?’
’Could it be, this is his special ability, to reduce presence?’
Zhong Shenxiu’s mind raced.
"Although it’s repetitive content, it’s still not bad..."
A smile surfaced on Zola’s face, "As expected of an unexplored region, just a casual search yields results..."
"Continue... There must be many similar fragmentary texts here, surely there are contents we haven’t collected yet."
Just then, two people hurried over, Koro and a team member named ’Axinger.’
"Captain... look what we found."
He waved a map in his hand, excitedly saying, "We found an engineer’s residence, he worked in the factory area, responsible for energy... This is the map of his factory! And it documented a recently stored batch of source stones, at least 100 standard units!"
Zola’s eyes immediately brightened.
A standard unit of source stone, when used in a three-dimensional mobility factory, could meet the inflation needs of all scavenging teams for nearly three months!
And it wasn’t large, only the size of two adult fists.
One hundred standard units were undoubtedly a considerable fortune!
Zola asked without hesitation.
"In the factory area, inside the warehouse."
Demon Hunter Koro replied calmly, "We got our hands on the map, and according to the engineer’s diary, there might be other good things there."
"The day is already turning dark."
Zola looked outside at the sky, hesitated, then began arranging, "We rest tonight, set out tomorrow... Rachel, you patrol tonight, you can have an extra supply of canned food!"
"No problem, I want fruit cans."