Chapter 205

: Two Battlefields, New Journey (Part One)
Three days later, looking around, the tents in the camp were now only one-tenth of the original number. This was a brutal and difficult trial competition, starting with 100,000 people and now there were fewer than 10,000 remaining. The rest were either dead or taken away, there fate unknown.
Of course, staying here wasn’t meaningless, at least Han got to see many unheard techniques. All masters tried their best in order to survive.
Now, everyone who were left were all gathered in the largest tent in camp nervously waiting. Approximately a thousand of the dark guards were guarding the perimeter by the look of it.
On a central elevated stage, a white light suddenly flashed, and the dark net founder, Sansheng’s holographic image appeared. He looked around and slightly nodded.

The one-month-long dark net meet finally achieved its results, you are the elites among elites, that’s why you are eligible to be here.


Now, I will be fulfilling my promise, and tell you why there the dark net meet took place, as well as give you all a very important reward.

Gently waving, on the central stage appeared a second holographic image. In it, some people were placed in alloy-forged chairs, wearing helmets, and a light wave was quickly shot into their brains.
Sansheng deepened his voice and said,
First of all what I want to tell you is, the so-called death penalty and addition penalty doesn’t exist. The people that were taken away, they only had their recent memory erased and then sent back to their home planet.


Before the start of the dark net meet, I was determined and prepared to use the most brutal means to force out your potentials, but, alas, I gave up.


Of course, those people that died during their matchup, they are really dead. I feel painful for the loss of these elites, but I have no other option, because our goal is more important, and in order to reach this goal, sacrifices were inevitable.

Sansheng then paused here for a moment, and the atmosphere became a little relaxed. After all, failure will not result in death or involve family, this was good news.

In fact, I’m not the founder of the dark net, but just one of the people that maintain it. As early as the prehistoric civilization era, which was the era that the god race was still ruling the Milky Way, the galactic dark net already existed. It is an advanced and powerful deep web layout, being controlled by a complex system that we cannot comprehend.


In the beginning it was a god race member that discovered this deeper layer of the web. They recruited the most talented, even giving up on other fields of study in an attempt to control the dark net.


But they failed, and the god race who not willing to give up mapped out a crazy plan, directly abandoning their Milky Way base, grouping up their entire race, and expanding towards the fringe of space, in hoping to find the entrance to the dark net and then control it.


At this point, you might laugh at me, but I’m not lying, this is really what the god race did. This giant and crazy plan, costed them three entire eras, which was 30,000 years.

The crowd started to boil. Even these people were the weirdest freaks in the Milky Way, and not everyone was interested in the prehistoric civilization, the future of the Milky Way, or the galactic dark net. But Sansheng’s theory was really too bizarre, and everyone was willing to listen.
Sansheng waved his hand, motioned for silence, and then he continued,
What is the dark net really? I know, many people among you will say, the dark net is your tools of trade for making a living. Some people among you rely on selling illegal goods on the dark net to make a living, and some people rely on finding assassination orders or mercenary contracts.


But these, after all, are all things that floats on the surface of the dark net. When the dark net meet just started, I gave you 10 minutes to access the deeper level of dark net, you still remember that right?


You should remember, in the online world, the exchange medium isn’t galactic coins, but points, or some even more strange or demanding requirements.


If the simplest language was used, the dark net is more like a survival game. You perform trades in the shallow level of the dark net and there’s no problem, nor will you trigger any punishments. The Milky Way Alliance, or anyone, can’t obtain your transaction information.


But if you want to acquire higher level of goods, or become an even stronger warrior or technical expert, you will have to join this survival challenge. Unfortunately, it’s not just human beings that will take part in this challenge, but also the god race, and other intelligent lives that live in the universe.


The reason why the god race is that strong is because they are the oldest users of the dark net. If you want to know how magical the dark net is, its very simple. Look at the world you are in right now. Here, is a part of the dark net.

A wave of noise came from the hall again. This camp, is actually the dark net?
That means, the dark net is a set of real worlds that humans can freely enter and exit? Parallel to the vast universe?
Han who was one of the more whimsical ones among humans, at that moment, was also shocked by the dark net founder Sansheng’s words.
He remembered his recent encounter with the god race black smith’s skeleton, and then thought about what Sansheng said. The god race had long been studying the dark net, so everything seemed to have the answer.
Sansheng cleared his throat, and continued,
The things I just told you, we in fact learned of it recently as well. We have started encountering more and more god race members on the dark net.


It’s not an exaggeration to say, the biggest enemy our team is facing, is a god race enemy. So we need some help.


Originally we planned to ask the Alliance for help, after all the Alliance has the largest number of warlord elites and technical experts, but then we reconsidered and decided that this idea wasn’t crazy enough, so we thought about you all.


Look around you. Assassins, mercenaries, genetic biology experts, digital decoding pros, drug experts, all doing illegal activities. Among you people, there’s no normal person, either crazy or paranoid, or have some weird fetishes, or lack morality, and so on.


On the whole, you are the mutants among the tens of thousands of trillions of humans. What will happen after throwing you into the second layer of the dark net? We don’t know, but we will soon know.


Us dark net founders’ accumulated points for the past years is enough to give 10,000 people the opportunity to come in contact with the dark net on a deeper level. You, and the dark guards, add up to the total number of just 10,000.


Here I want to say one more thing. All these years, the dark guardians are young talents we found around the galaxy. They represent the Orthodox, and you represent the Unorthodox. I hope both don’t let us down.


About the second layer of the dark net, I don’t want to say more because there’s no use in saying it. I need you to experience it yourself.


In the Milky Way, there are two battle fields, one is the battle of the universe, and then there’s the battle of the dark net. If humans want to continue living on, they can’t lose either battle. What to do next, what are the rules, the dark guardians will tell you. Although they are very young, they have been working in the dark net for sometime now, so they are very experienced.


This is a big secret, and to be able to enter the second layer of the dark net, this is the reward I’m giving you all!

: Two Battlefields, New Journey (Part Two)
Right after the voice finished, before the people that were full of questions could ask anything, Sansheng disappeared again. Clearly, this time it was also his hologram image.
The dark guardians from all sides walked towards the people to gave out some brochures, and if there were any part they didn’t understand, they could ask the dark guardians.
Xiaoman smiled and came to Han’s side and handed over a brochure,
Wind Speaker, congratulation to you passing the selection, now we are colleagues.


Colleagues?
Han seemed a bit confused.
Xiaoman said sincerely,
Ya, after leaving this place, you will appear on the second layer of the dark net, and I will be there too. Although it’s impossible for us to see each other often, but we will be doing the same job, isn’t that being colleagues?


Now, just read through the instructions carefully. You won’t be able to bring these brochures back, it will self-destruct in an hour. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask me.

One hour or so later, Han walked out of the tent, found a tree. He lit up a cigarette, and smoked slowly.
Black Tower and Faint Blue also followed Han out, and the three gathered together again.
Black Tower scratched his head and asked,
Do you guys know what’s really going on? How come I’m still confused? This dark net thing is really fckin bizarre.

Han smiled,
What do you not understand?


There are tons that I don’t understand! The brochure said, we can go back home anytime, but how?


Just use the VR pod that you took to come here. That thing’s name to be precise is called a molecule capsule, capable of disintegrating everything in the cabin to the molecular level, and then initiating ultra long-range transportation. You can take the molecule capsule to go home, but now that we are already registered on the second level of the dark net, you must log in at least once every three months, otherwise you would be killed by the system.

Black Tower frowned,
This is kidnap! I have to go even if I don’t want to?

Han replied,
Well, it seems so.

Black Tower then said,
But logging in once awhile, what’s in it for us?


There are still some benefits. To say it simply, in the past when you were dwelling on the first level of the dark net, you were always doing business with other humans right?


Yep, whoever wants to hire me, I will work hard if the price is right.


Now that we are on the second level of dark net, the rules have changed. In addition to trading with other people, now you can trade with the dark net. In simple words, if the dark net gives you a mission, you will get points if you complete them.

Black Tower wondered,
Can the points be spent like galactic coins?


Of course not, but it’s a lot more valuable than galactic coins. You are a mercenary, you will need armor and weapons right? Now, other than buying it from the blacksmith, you have another option, and that is to use the points to buy from the dark net.


Of course, you can also exchange points to take other people into the dark net, allow them to gain the opportunity to enter the second level, just like what Sansheng did to us. You can even use your points to give the dark net access to a star area. All in all, on the second level of dark net, points are everything.

Black Tower started smiling and said,
It does seem a little interesting. To be honest, the things inside the dark net system, there are indeed a lot of things I like.

Han deepened his voice,
I guess you still don’t understand the deeper level meaning here.


What meaning?
This time it was Faint Blue that asked.
Han frowned and said,
To survive.


What does it have to do with survival? I feel like the dark net is more like a game.
Faint Blue was puzzled and asked.

Maybe you guys have heard, the prehistoric civilization, also known as the god race, are coming back to the Milky Way soon. The difference in strength between us and them is like the gap between earth and heaven. If we don’t close this gap, the humans will soon perish by the god race. If we can exchange more valuable things from the second layer of dark net, maybe we can hold it for a little longer.


Of course, the god race will also desperately move forward in the dark net, and it’s because of that pressure Sansheng felt, that’s why he selected us and to join the second layer of the dark net.

Faint Blue nodded and said,
I get it now, this is also a war, the war behind the war. Whoever can get more resource from the dark net, their race will develop to be more powerful, and the more powerful the race is, the closer they are to becoming the overlord of the universe.

Black Tower very simplistically said,
What’s the point of becoming the overlord? How boring would it be if there are only humans left in the entire universe.

With concern in his eyes, Han said,
You are right, but don’t forget, even if us humans don’t have the ambition to become the overlord of the universe, there are still so many civilizations in the universe, so many intelligent species. What if they want to become the dominant race, what would happen?

Black Tower blankly stared for a moment, and said,
Then that will be bad, they want to dominate, then we will be the stumbling blocks, and be eliminated.

Han shrugged his shoulders and said,
So, the cruelty of the universe is, even if we don’t have the ambition to rule, we still have to join the battle for dominance, in order to survive.

Silenced for a few minutes, Faint Blue said,
Although you say so, but I still don’t want to kill. In addition, the universe is so big, and there are so many races. Take the god race as an example, although they have the same origin as us, but they are already enemies who have developed to such a high level of civilization, and have fought in the second level of dark net for so long. There might be god race members that already entered the third level.


But us, we just came into contact with the real dark net, and we only started competing with other civilizations now. With such a big gap, I’m afraid that we can’t win.

Han lowered his voice and said,
In my opinion, even if we lose, at least we tried once. Otherwise, why did we bother coming to this world? Every soldier will ultimately die, you wish to die standing, or die kneeling?

Faint Blue was suddenly stunned, he no longer spoke and seemed to be reflecting.
And the redneck Black Tower began to get excited after hearing Han’s words, he shouted about going to the second level of the dark net right now to meet these god race people.

You name it, what do we need to do now?!
Black Tower stood up, with arms on his waist he said.
Han whispered,
Of course we leave this place to go home first. After all, preparations are needed. We log onto the dark net with molecule capsules. According to the rules, it’s not that Sansheng gave us invites and we can be qualified to go to the second level of the dark net for sure. We still have to pass the dark net’s assessment.


Okay! We will do that! After we all passed the system assessment, us brothers will regroup!
Black Tower clenched his fists and said.