Chapter 146: Chapter 126 Heading to Hell_1
Before Duanmu Huai embarked on his mission, he reflected on the history of Star Ocean Online.
As per the history of Star Ocean Online, during the 20th millennium, human civilization reached its peak, a period popularly recognized as the Golden Age of Humanity. Humans practically ruled the entire Milky Way during that time, having colonies on numerous celestial bodies of varying sizes.
The crisis of mechanized intelligence, however, marked the end of the Golden Age; coupled with the conspiracies of the Chaos Evil God, the human empire began to wane rapidly. Interference from the subspace storm cut off communications between humans and most of their colonies, plunging even the solar system humans inhabited into a state of turmoil.
At this juncture, the Emperor rose to the occasion, pulling the failing human empire back from the brink of catastrophe. He created genetic prototypes and led an army in a vast expedition, reclaiming the colonies lost after the Golden Age, to restore the glory of humanity.
However, Horus’s rebellion dealt another significant blow to the human empire. After a few millennia, it was on the verge of destruction. Eventually, a desperate, last-ditch measure known as the Black Hole Plan swept across the entire Milky Way.
Within all this, there was one critical factor to note.
Although many human colonies survived, the civilizations of these colonies were at different development stages.
Indeed, many human colonies outside the solar system fell into a state of atrophy and regression after losing contact with the human empire during the late Golden Age. Over time, many colonies regressed to the point of having almost no difference from primitive societies. In fact, when the Emperor brought his fleet to these colonies, he found many planets in the stages of either primitive or feudal societies. Nonetheless, the human empire at that time didn’t take these colonies very seriously, perhaps the Emperor intended to slowly develop these colonies after the grand expedition, but the rebellion disrupted those plans…
Therefore, even though the human empire had the capability to send churches into the sky, many of the colonies were considerably primitive.
Following the Black Hole Plan, the human empire was destroyed, leaving these colonies to develop on their own.
Consequently, the development of many colonies varied significantly, ranging from primitive societies that hadn’t progressed for tens of millennia to interstellar civilizations embarking on space exploration.
Another intriguing fact was that, possibly due to the residual impact of the Black Hole Plan, many colonies in the galaxies considered their own planets to be Terra, the origin of the Human Empire. Indeed, during space exploration, players would encounter countless planets that claimed to be Terra—numbering in the hundreds or perhaps thousands.
Of course, none of them was the genuine Terra.
The player who first discovered this secret task of advancement happened upon a civilization in the midst of development—that civilization had achieved space exploration within their star system. But, they encountered an issue at a research base on one of their planets, accidentally connecting to subspace.
And then…naturally, the base was annihilated, everyone in it perished.
The player arrived there, responded to a distress signal, being an adventurous soul, dived into the base, battled fervently and even ventured into the subspace connected to the base. When the task ended, he gained a completely new advanced profession.
Compared to many challenging advancement tasks, this task wasn’t very difficult. In essence, it followed a template of “I don’t know who I am, I don’t know where I am, I just know that I’ve to fight fervently”——in short, just kill everything that obstructs your way.
The reason Duanmu Huai chose this mission was due to the special effect of this advanced profession— it could absolutely exterminate all demons.
Typically, subspace demons couldn’t be killed. Even if defeated in the physical world, they would merely be reborn in subspace. This was similar to how the demons Duanmu Huai had encountered before. Regardless of how relentlessly Duanmu Huai fought, the demons were merely “banished” from the physical world and returned to subspace—they weren’t annihilated.
However, this advanced profession allowed players to exterminate the demon—thoroughly, in both the physical world and subspace.
This sent shockwaves through many players. It was implicitly understood which was more significant—banishing or killing. An offer was even extended by a professional gaming team to that player for a trial.
But then…there was no ‘then.’
On hearing the offer, the player was so excited that he told his parents he was forgoing university to become a professional gamer. His proclamation was met with a swift and effective joint beating from his parents, leaving him incapacitated for life. In the end, all his gaming equipment was confiscated, let alone undergoing the trial. He even made the news as a negative role model, serving as a warning to high school seniors to study diligently and not to be distracted by online gaming…
Thus fell a powerful being who could genuinely slay demons, defeated by his parents’ wrath.
It was definitely a scheme by the God of Trickery.
Well, it was about time for his own debut.
Standing in front of the paratrooping capsule, Duanmu Huai gathered his thoughts. The radar had just detected a subspace explosion. Though he did not know how long ago it happened, at least from what he could tell now, the base had likely become a domain of death, much like the ill-fated settings of many sci-fi movies.
Only by going there would he know for sure.
With this thought, Duanmu Huai entered the capsule. A restrainer swiftly descended, clutching the shoulders of his power armor, securing him tightly. The next moment, the capsule burst out from beneath the warship like a cannonball, howling through the atmosphere, hurtling towards the steel base below.
The heavy, sturdy drop pod punctured the dome of the base and landed hard inside the Steel Base. Followed by the sound of jet propulsion, the tightly closed hatch slowly opened. With his War Hammer in hand, Duanmu Huai stepped out, vigilantly eyeing the front.
Before Duanmu Huai, lay a dimly lit steel hallway, with bloodstains and corpses scattered around. Red alert lights flickered, making a harsh beeping sound.
Hmm, at last, it feels a bit familiar.
Seeing the scene in front of him relaxed Duanmu Huai somewhat. After all, this felt like his familiar battlefield, especially in those space stations invaded by Chaos or among the Spaceship Wrecks, full of similar scenes——— Well, frankly, this was the kind of battlefield he was used to.
So, which way should he go next…….
While thinking, Duanmu Huai moved forward, recalling the forum post he had seen by a player. It was mentioned that the subspace explosion in the base was no accident. Instead, a scientist in the base was misled by a demon and chose to believe in the Faith Demon, intentionally opening a channel to subspace. Well, such heresy is everywhere, and if found, must certainly be put to death immediately.
Just as Duanmu Huai was deep in thought, suddenly, a humanoid monster charged out from around a corner. It was dressed in human soldier’s armor, but its face was distorted and pale, much like a moving corpse. Duanmu Huai barely bothered looking at the monster before stretching out his left hand, grabbed it by the head, and smashed it on the wall beside him!
The next moment that monster’s head smashed against the steel wall, instantly splattering it into pieces.
“As expected, it was corrupted by subspace.”
Duanmu Huai glanced at the bloody body, scoffed, and moved on. Due to the suppression of the real-world, unless Subspace Demons reach a certain level, they have difficulty manifesting physically. Therefore, at the early stages of a subspace explosion, most demons would inhabit different living beings, twisting their souls and minds, mutating them into monsters for battle.
Of course, these monsters aren’t particularly strong or threatening.
At least not for a Judge.
Then, accompanied by a beastly roar, Duanmu Huai saw several twisted soldiers approaching. They held weapons, their eyes aimed at him like madmen before they pulled their triggers.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!!!”
A series of guns went off, but unfortunately, none of the bullets could even so slightly scratch Duanmu Huai’s Power Armor. Duanmu Huai, instead, quickened his pace and charged directly at the soldiers, attacking him and abruptly lifted his War Hammer, and swung!
The whistling War Hammer flung the three soldiers obstructing him, they flew like unwanted and discarded rag dolls and smashed harshly into the nearby wall, instantly falling silent.
However, it wasn’t over yet.
A sudden flash of red lightning, and a small-sized monster appeared out of thin air in front of Duanmu Huai, cackling as it jumped at him. But Duanmu Huai didn’t even turn around, just stepped back, causing the small monster to be struck by the back armor, before being stuck between him and the wall. With a slight force, there was a “snap,” and the monster sandwiched in between stopped reacting, resembling a squashed bug.
“These demons don’t seem to be very strong.”
Duanmu Huai turned around and looked behind – the demon that he just squashed had already turned into ash and disappeared into the air. Seeing this, Duanmu Huai frowned slightly. Given his experience, these demons were relatively weak. Although the player who posted the mission didn’t specify the strength of these demons if they were just this weak, they could hardly fulfill a hidden promotion requirement.
Or could it be that these were only the outermost layer of demons?
Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai withdrew his thoughts and looked ahead.
Never mind, he will find out as he proceeds.