C1.32 —- Crime Record

 

Metropolis.

 

The once bustling streets were deserted, and Ai Li looked forlorn as she pawed through her food purchases on her way back to her place.

 

 

Her eyes glanced over to the television set by the side of the road, which was broadcasting the news without interruption.

 

 

Behind the glass of the store window, the picture quality of the TV wasn’t very clear, playing the same picture.

 

 

A satellite image from above the Blue Planet.

 

 

The real-time image showed a deep crack appearing on the surface of the Blue Planet, and it was still widening.

 

 

The image was eerie in the extreme.

 

 

Ai Li didn’t dare to look at it again, and timidly withdrew her gaze, her expression becoming more and more melancholic.

 

 

She really couldn’t understand what happened in the world, why everything changed overnight and became completely different, she didn’t know what to do.

 

 

Lifting up her head, Ai Li looked at the sky above her head, she just glanced at it and quickly retracted her line of sight, but still felt a burst of heart convulsions, she almost stopped breathing.

 

 

Simply because she felt a deep fear of the crack above her head.

 

 

A week ago, the crack suddenly appeared in the sky, no one knew how it came about, nor did they know what kind of result it would bring.

 

 

But in this prosperous modern society, the speed of information dissemination was always faster than normal, it only appeared less than an hour, yet all the television reports on the Blue Planet began to broadcast the same news, there was a twenty-four hours non-stop live broadcast of the same picture.

 

 

The image of the Blue Planet from the outside of space.

 

 

On the image, a crack almost ran through the top and bottom of the planet, so deep that you couldn’t see the end of it, was lying on the surface of the planet.

 

 

The darkness in the crack was so deep and boundless that just standing on the ground and looking up for a moment could make people feel inexplicable fear and trembling from their souls.

 

 

It was as if they were looking directly at the entrance to hell.

 

From space, it was like an open eye on this blue planet.

 

A cold, empty eye, that seemed to be watching the audience outside the TV, it was creepy.

 

 

And the strange thing was, no matter where you were, as long as you raised your head, you could see this crack, giving people a deep sense of fear.

 

 

All this was exactly the same as the picture recorded in the ancient legend before the descent of Kasmos.

 

 

Legend had it that after the creation of the world, the god of Creation, Kasmos, fell into a deep sleep, but He was always watching over mankind, overlooking their suffering.

 

 

On the eve of the end of the world, He would wake up from His slumber, open His eyes that had been watching mankind, and descend to earth to judge mankind’s suffering and sins.

 

Many believers in Kasmos were unwavering in their belief that only by offering enough suffering to the god could they be forgiven by the god in the Doomsday Judgment and travel to the next epoch.

 

 

Originally, many people took the legend at face value, after all, normal humans still shied away from this god who used suffering as a doctrine.

 

 

But now, looking at the incredible crack in the sky above, no one dared to question it anymore.

 

 

Not to mention that when the crack initially appeared, almost all humans on Earth heard the sound of agonizing cries, as if the god was mourning the suffering on earth.

 

 

That voice from the depths of the soul caused all humans to fall into unanimous sorrow and despair, and the collapse was not restored until the cries disappeared.

 

 

Ai Li thought of this and touched her cheeks in a trance, she still remembered how she felt when she couldn’t stop crying and almost fainted.

 

 

The pain of being desperate to the point of no return but unable to vent it was enough to send shivers down her spine.

 

 

Taking a deep breath to ease the tension, she quickened her pace, becoming even more fearful of the crack overhead.

 

 

That feeling as if she was sharing a feeling with some unnamable being was not something she wanted to experience a second time in her life, and her instincts told her that if she did it again, her fragile spirit would break completely.

 

 

“Kasmos-”

 

 

“The God of Advent! Hahaha!”

 

 

Just as Ai Li was walking forward with her head down, a maniacal scream suddenly came from the side of the road.

 

 

Looking at the man on the street who was holding a thick canon and behaving abnormally, Ai Li’s face turned white with fear.

 

 

Her eyes trembled and she uneasily tightened the collar of the coat on her body to avoid him.

 

 

Ever since the crack appeared, the whole world had become strange.

 

 

People began to become terrified, the world order was broken, and w.ar once again appeared on the Blue planet.

 

Metropolis, one of the most prosperous cities, was plunged into chaos, with stores closed down and pedestrians in a hurry.

 

 

At first, it was only at night that people in despair would stroll through the streets and wail in agony.

 

 

Or it was the insane believers holding up the teachings of the Kasmos sect, clamoring that people could be saved before the end of time if they converted to the sect.

 

 

After all, according to the legend, when the eyes of god watching over mankind were fully opened, that was when god descended in judgment.

 

 

 

And according to the current rate of expansion of the cracks, completely covering the surface of the planet would be in a month, and then it would be the end of the world.

 

 

Until now, a week later, the crazies had begun to howl in the streets and alleys even during the day, searching for those who had not converted to the god.

 

 

That crazy man was one of them, and the number of people like him was gradually increasing.

 

 

Perhaps it was because human beings, who claimed to be the eldest of all living things, never expected that they would be so small, and could only wait for the end to come day by day, so there were a few people who were so desperate that they finally lost their mind and fell into insanity.

 

 

Ai Li really had enough of this crazy world.

 

 

She made her way back to her home without stopping, and didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until she had padlocked her door with a brass lock and several layers of valves and buckles were tightly fastened.

 

 

Still terrified, she put down the shopping bags in her hands, half unable to ease the panic in her mind, so she had to make a call to her boyfriend, Lin Qi.

 

 

Lin Qi was a detective she only met half a month ago. Although they didn’t know each other very long, they both fell in love at first sight. Now was the time for intense affection.

 

 

It was also only when she was with her boyfriend that Ai Li was able to relax from being so tense all the time.

 

 

She had been really tense lately, perhaps because her nerves, which were more fragile and delicate than even normal people’s, had made her incredibly afraid of the crack above her head, so tense that she was as nervous as a scared bird, and would turn white with fear at the slightest movement.

 

 

“…… Uh, brother Qi, okay, I’ll wait for you.”

 

 

After calling her boyfriend, she relaxed.

 

 

Her boyfriend was indeed very good to her, as soon as he heard that she was in shock he wanted to come over to take a look, which made Ai Li very touched, more and more sure that this was her good man.

 

 

“……”

 

 

Thinking of this, Ai Li suddenly fell a little silent, and she raised her eyes to look at the several albums lying in the room.

 

 

It was Jiu Shu’s album.

 

 

It had been a long time since she had heard from Jiu Shu, and even though she knew that this beautiful to the core singer wouldn’t have anything to do with her, Ai Li couldn’t help but feel love for him in her heart.

 

 

Even if she already had a boyfriend she couldn’t help but wonder over and over again if the fragile and pretty as if doll-like young singer was okay.

 

 

In fact, since the crack appeared, the worried Ai Li had already sent several letters to his address.

 

 

But none of them had been answered.

 

 

There was no news of Jiu Shu on TV either, but every time she listened to his songs, she would feel much more relaxed.

 

 

She often had insomnia at night, waking up in the middle of the night after dreaming about the destruction of the planet, and if it weren’t for Jiu Shu’s music accompanying her to sleep, she would have been hospitalized due to lack of rest.

 

 

Ai Li stroked the picture of Jiu Shu on the album, she actually knew that even if Jiu Shu saw the letter, it was unlikely for him to reply, after all, she was now acting just like those type of fans that were most hated.

 

 

Jiu Shu clearly hadn’t given her an address, but she’d begged the postman who’d once delivered mail to that prop master, You Xin, to print out a copy of the address information for her.

 

Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes with some sadness at the thought, Ai Li put the album in the player and listened to the music once more.

 

 

The pleasant sound of music came slowly, instantly calming the tension that had been building up lately.

 

 

Strangely enough, many people had been begging for Jiu Shu’s album on the internet lately, but for some reason the number of albums had become very small, and even the scalpers who were hoarding them didn’t have much stock.

 

 

They simply couldn’t buy it.

 

 

It was as if it had been purchased away by some extremely powerful group.

 

 

Ai Li guessed that someone else might have discovered, as she had, that his music could soothe a tense mind, and oddly enough, it had to be the music from the CD.

 

 

Ai Li had tried online music on the internet and none of it worked to soothe the mind, which made her cherish the albums in her hands even more.

 

 

Without these albums, she, a person whose mind had always been sensitive and fragile, would probably have become the same as those crazy people wandering the streets under the mental oppression brought about by the crack.

 

 

The music continued, and Jiu Shu’s light voice seemed more and more holy and pure in the empty room, as if it was able to wash the soul.

 

 

“…… Jiu Shu ooooohhhh ……”

 

 

 

As the song reached its end, Ai Li suddenly cried out, god knew how much she wanted to see Jiu Shu again.

 

 

Although she had only met him for a short two times, Ai Li just couldn’t forget that beautiful youth, every knit of his brows and smile seemed to be right in front of her eyes, and every day, she would cry out due to excessive longing.

 

 

She really hoped that Jiu Shu was okay.

 

 

Dingdong – the doorbell rang, it was her boyfriend Lin Qi.

 

 

Ai Li hurriedly wiped away the tear tracks on her face, her eyes red as she opened the door and jumped into her boyfriend’s arms.

 

 

Lin Qi, on the other hand, wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and gave her a comforting hug, with a gentle gaze, he also liked his girlfriend, whom he had just met a short time ago.

 

 

He didn’t mind that he had been dismissed from the police department and had to start his own business, and now he had nothing to show for it, so it was rare that he met such a gentle and beautiful girlfriend.

 

After a little lovemaking, the two of them began to discuss the vacation in a few days.

 

 

That was a team building organized by the theater owner, and the usually stingy boss seemed to have been exhausted by this chaotic and tense metropolis. For the first time, he wanted to enjoy himself before the end of the world and invited all the theater employees to go on vacation in the forest.

 

 

The employees could also invite their respective loved ones and partners to spend the last happy hours before the end of the world together in this very famous vacation forest in the metropolis.

 

 

“You’re not allowed to be late then!”

 

 

Ai Li pouted to her boyfriend, she knew that her boyfriend was in the very stage of starting his own business when he encountered such an incredible thing as the end of the world, the firm closed down, and he spent the whole day in despondency, so she specially invited Lin Qi to go on vacation with her.

 

“Yes!” Lin Qi hugged Ai Li affectionately and together the two looked forward to their vacation in a few days, no one noticing that the crack in the sky above seemed to slowly widen a bit more after the album stopped playing in the room.

 

 

Whew – the weather in Metropolis had become overcast and uncertain at the turn of summer and fall, and a cool breeze whipped across the street corners, blowing up the corners of abandoned newspapers.

 

 

Televisions in store windows were still showing satellite pictures toward the deserted streets.

 

 

Snapping – it seemed that someone stood in front of the window and stopped, scrutinizing the TV screen, then raised his head after a moment of furrowing his brows in thought.

 

 

What came into view was a deep fissure, which could be seen at first glance, ripping open the gloomy sky and revealing the deep and horrible darkness within.

 

 

Compared to the fissure in the movie that ran directly through the ocean, this fissure that appeared in the sky out of nowhere seemed to be somewhere between the real and the imaginary, causing the government quite a headache.

 

 

No matter how many reconnaissance planes were dispatched, they were unable to enter the rift and could only turn around in the same place, and within a few moments, their fuselages would show signs of rust and fall down quickly as if they were being eroded by the years.

 

 

It was as if this was really a punishment from god, and mortals were simply unable to pry into its mysteries.

 

 

“……”

 

 

The dark-haired young man with snow-white complexion withdrew his gaze and once again looked at the TV set in the store with a calm gaze.
 

What was in front of him did surprise him a bit.

 

 

Having only just been resurrected from a state of death, the moment he opened his eyes he realized that this small world was about to be destroyed, it was really a joke that could be called grotesque.

 

 

 

[Hmph, this is the disaster you’ve brought about!]

 

 

[Look at how much trouble you’ve brought to the hero and heroine of this world! Doing away with the object of discipline early will be beneficial to both you and me!]

 

 

Jiu Shu’s expression was bland as he continued to walk in the direction of his villa in the city center, not paying the slightest attention to the system.

 

 

Now that the system only had the function of a mouthpiece left, listening to this pathetic guy’s incompetent rage was quite interesting to Jiu Shu.

 

 

[Don’t think you can do anything to me just because you’ve mastered the soul contract! We’re on the same rope now!]

 

 

Jiu Shu almost laughed out loud, when the enemy was too weak, even threats became extra funny.

 

 

[Are you talking about a rope that can ban you at any time?] His tone was light.

 

 

[You! Hmph! You can gain so much energy just by killing the object of punishment! I don’t believe you’re not moved!] The system’s voice was gloomy, yet filled with arrogance.

 

 

[Oh.] Jiu Shu finished replying just as he arrived home, casually banned the system and walked into the house.

 

 

The system that was still angry and wanted to say something exploded with streams of data all over its body, feeling an unprecedented shame.

The system really couldn’t understand how it had fallen to this step by step, obviously in the past, this taskmaster was like dough in his own hands, but as a result of a lack of attention, he had turned into this solid appearance now.

 

 

On the contrary, it put itself in a dilemma.

 

 

The system thought hatefully, everything was because of Him!

 

 

Why couldn’t that damned god stay asleep! He caused it to be unable to get in touch with its own kind at all now, and now it was actually forced into this situation by a mere human.

 

 

This human! In the past, his slightest offense would be punished by it to be trapped in a chaotic and silent subspace for introspection, or to randomly die in a small world with all kinds of miserable deaths, and at first he would still make a mess, but then he settled down.

 

 

The system also thought that he had been taught to be obedient, but he didn’t realize that he was born with a rebel bone, and once the main system was slightly weaker, he would pounce on it like a vicious dog and tear it apart.

 

 

Simply hateful!
 

The system recalled its past glory, and became more and more unable to endure the current suffocating status quo.

 

 

If it had known earlier, it wouldn’t have done those little maneuvers before.

 

 

god knew how this damn taskmaster knew about the loophole in the soul contract, and was able to catch the loophole where it first breached and brought danger to the host, successfully turning the active party of the soul contract into himself.

 

 

If it was still as powerful as before, this power of breaching the contract wouldn’t have been able to sanction it at all, but now that the taskmaster’s power was already on par with his own and the soul contract was starting to loosen, it was only then that he seized the opportunity.

 

 

The system hated so much that it felt like it was dripping blood, cursing to itself, while Jiu Shu just glanced at it faintly and stopped paying attention, no longer having much interest in this system whose IQ had become low.

 

 

Now to him, the system was purely a tool to cross the worlds, it no longer posed any threat, but the fact that he couldn’t completely kill it at this point made Jiu Shu slightly upset.

 

 

But it didn’t matter, he still had a long time to spend with the system.

 

Recovering his thoughts, Jiu Shu began to look through the information on his computer, a lot of big events had happened in this world during this week’s blank time.

 

 

All of them were caused by that crack in the sky.

 

The pressure of the god leaking out from the crack had obviously brought about a catastrophe to the human beings living under the sky, and their sanity value was dropping, until the time of the real arrival of the doomsday when everyone would fall into madness, and there was nothing they could do to recover from it.

 

 

As Jiu Shu watched the chaos of many cities on the screen, with people looting stores and killing and setting fires, his fingertips rubbed the corners of his lips subconsciously.

 

Kasmos awakened ten years earlier than in the movie, it seemed to be related to the subject of punishment.
 

Thinking of this, Jiu Shu began to check the recent status of the subject of discipline, after seeing the word ‘missing’ in the registered residence information, he drifted off for a moment then quickly regained his composure.

 

 

He remembered that he had mouthed to the subject of discipline that he would be back soon before his death, but it seemed that that fellow You Xin couldn’t read lips.

 

 

So much so that people thought he died in the amusement park.

 

 

Or it was an unnoticed death.

 

 

Everyone just thought he was missing, and after reporting to the police, no one paid any attention to this prop master who was all alone.
 

He died quietly.

 

 

He didn’t even come back to life like in the movie, as if he was in despair and had no desire for revenge.

 

 

All that was resurrected now was the god named Kasmos, the object of punishment no longer existed.

 

 

“……”

 

 

Jiu Shu felt a bit of a tightness in his chest, and after a long while, he calmed down and thought about it, and began to look up information about the hero and heroine.

 

 

When he saw that the male and female main characters were preparing to pair up and go to the vacation forest, Jiu Shu frowned slightly, noticing that the plot inertia in this world was very strong.

 

 

Even his previous adjustment of the vacation spot to another nearby resort didn’t stop the plot.

 

 

He had purposely lured the theater owner into booking a vacation at the resort hotel with special tickets before, but now, it seemed like the end was near, and the theater owner had decided to make a rare splurge by booking the resort forest in the original story.
 

In the original, all the people in the theater died, leaving only the object of punishment and Ai Li.

 

 

So …… Would the object of discipline also be resurrected as in the original?

 

 

Jiu Shu’s black slightly curly hair plastered in the arc of his jaw and he stared at the computer screen for a moment and then suddenly realized that something wasn’t right.

 

 

This vacation forest wasn’t right, the surrounding area had been surrounded by densely packed cameras, surveillance dead ends were also dotted with patrols, as if in the middle of the forest there was some kind of ulterior secret.

 

 

It was nothing like the sparsely populated resort in the original novel.

 

 

Jiu Shu quickly hacked into the security system of this forest and looked at the surveillance images on the screen with a thoughtful gaze.

 

 

The surveillance screen was a heavily guarded underground base.

 

 

And in the middle of the underground base, there was a familiar altar, exactly the same as the altar that sacrificed Kasmos in the movie, except that what was placed on the altar was not those bloody and muddy pieces of meat in the movie, but a tape recorder that was playing music.

 

 

 

Turning up the volume, Jiu Shu heard his own voice.

 

 

“…… Maybe we’ll meet again …… Hug each other ……”

 

 

This was Jiu Shu’s first song, from the modified original owner’s lyrics, slightly childish, but full of the original owner’s naive fantasies of love.

 

 

On the other side of the screen, through the special bulletproof glass, experimenters in white coats were looking worriedly at the altar not far away.

 

 

“These albums are no longer enough …… The crack is still expanding.”

 

 

“Have those sacrifices arrived yet?”

 

 

“Your …… Excellency, do we really have to do this? They’re all innocent people!”

 

 

One of the female experimenters wearing glasses seemed to dominate the project, arguing with a man in a suit next to her.

 

 

“If it’s for the continuation of all mankind, then their sacrifice is worth it!” The man’s voice was cold, but you could tell he looked a little guilty with his brow furrowed and his fists clenched.

 

 

“…… Yes.” The female experimenter eventually retreated in defeat.

 

 

And in the villa, Jiu Shu looked at the surveillance, and then looked at the album on the altar, as if realizing something, his lips pursed lightly, and the appearance of the altar was reflected in his dark pupils.

 

 

Perhaps it was time to go see the specifics.

 

---

TN:

See ya tomorrow ✌️