Shrouded Seascape

Charles stood next to Sparkle on the ruins of an island part of the Shattered Heart Isles. His remaining eye was wide open, and he stared agape at the woman wrapped in black bandages standing in front of him.

The Light God's words at the time finally had an explanation. His plan was to take His followers with Him to seek refuge in outer space, but He was deceived. The Light God crawled into the hole and fell straight into 002, ultimately meeting such a fate.

Charles gulped and asked, "Who deceived Him? Was it you?"

However, 005 immediately denied Charles' assumption. "No, as I said before, I am but a spectator. I do not interfere. If you want an answer to your question, then think about it—who are the ones doing everything they can to protect mankind?"

Sparkle, Charles, and 005 simultaneously turned to stare in the direction where SITE 6 once stood. The madmen of the Foundation were definitely capable of deceiving even a god.

"The Foundation? They actually managed to deceive the Light God?"

The corner of 005's mouth, which was covered in black bandages, curled up into an enigmatic smile. "The culprit was the Foundation, but not this batch. It was the previous batch."

"The previous batch?" Charles had trouble wrapping his mind around it. In the end, he retorted, "But the previous generation of the GK Council had fused to form the Light God!"

"That's right."005 nodded slightly."The first batch of the Foundation from the surface world had no intention of leaving the Subterranean Sea."

Just then, 005 raised her hand, and black debris emerged from the seawater, merging into several large black stone tablets.

There were some words engraved on the black stone tablet. "Written here are records of the second-generation Foundation about their predecessors. Read them for yourself."

Charles was familiar with the black stone tablets, and it didn't take him a long time to remember that T6 was using glossy black stone tablets to write her mathematical formulas.

"My dear colleagues, the fifteen years of research by our intelligence agency and myself have finally paid off in spades. We have finally uncovered the secret of what exactly happened to the previous generation of the Foundation.

"It turns out that they had been lying all this while; they had been deceiving everyone. They had falsely claimed to the low-ranking personnel of the Foundation that they just had to serve for a certain number of years, and they would be able to retire and return to the surface world.

"However, the execution point discovered in SITE 4, which is located in the Core (see Appendix 1), told us that their claims were all fake. Every single retiree was scammed and was mercilessly killed."

Charles recalled the crematorium disguised as an airplane inside the Foundation's SITE 4 up above the Core and the vast plain covered in ashes outside the facility.

"The key decision-makers of the Foundation's first generation had employed the use of something unknown to distort the memories of everyone in the Subterranean Sea, including themselves.

"I have enough reason to believe that the "something unknown" is related to 1189-1. The discarded hard drive discovered in Sea Region: 104-431 (see Appendix 2) proves that they had made contact.

"The intelligence we collected from the ruins of V9 told us that they've fabricated a brand-new history for themselves.

"They started believing that the Core is the surface world. They believed that 002 above the Core is a god from outer space that was responsible for the destruction of the Earth up above.

"They believed that they were humanity's last hope, and they believed that they had to find a way to defeat 002."

"According to the information discovered through the sea otters (see Appendix 3), they changed their goal upon getting convinced that it was impossible for mere humans to defeat 002 or even 003.

The previous generation of the Foundation had decided to take the remaining humans with them and leave Earth, which was no longer suitable for human life. Reaching new planets and creating a new home for humanity became their new goal."

"Based on the analysis above, I personally suggest that there is no need to execute the Pope of the Divine Light Order, Lylejay. His goal is doomed to fail. Even if the Light God manages to shatter His restraints, He'll end up going into the Earth's core and get close to 002, which would eventually bring about His demise."

"Do you guys still remember how scientists discovered bosons? It was through a collision! The collision between the Light God and 002 will allow us to collect first-hand data on a battle between gods, which will be immensely helpful in our analysis of the power of the gods."

"As for K9's concerns about the impact on the surface world, I personally believe that it is a bunch of nonsense. The Light God's power is only a few thousandths of 003's power. He is about to face 002, equivalent in power to 003, so I believe that this is a very safe experiment. Signed: Site-8 Research Department T6-1.

"So… the GK Council members that had fused to form the Light God were the ones who deceived the Light God?" Charles muttered, staring at the black stone tablets before him in awe of having just discovered an unbelievable truth.

"The Light God may have doubted others, but He'd never doubt Himself. In the end, He was deceived by the seven people who had fused to create Him."

005 raised her right foot wrapped in bandages and stepped into the seawater. "The first generation Foundation was aware of just how extremely fragile the humans on the surface world were.

"They knew that the humans there could not possibly withstand any invasion of whatever is in the Subterranean Sea. Thus, they vowed not to let anything from the Subterranean Sea reach the surface world, including themselves.

"So they modified their own memories and made themselves believe that the surface world had been completely destroyed. They made it their duty to restore the glory of mankind. To protect their colleagues on the surface, they did not hesitate to deceive even themselves, but they went a bit too far with it."

005 went silent, but Charles had been there, so she no longer had to tell him explicitly. The second-generation Foundation's prediction went true; the Light God fell straight into 002's embrace and ultimately perished in both body and soul.

005 walked over to Charles while stroking the black cat in her arms with one hand.

"Both generations of the Foundation have done everything in their own way to protect the seven billion people on the surface world. Now, it's your turn to do what they have done. What choice are you going to make, Charles?

"Are you going to let the fire of the Foundation die out?" 005 asked while walking in a circle around Charles.

Charles' mouth fluttered open to speak, but he immediately froze. He had no idea what to say. He remained in a daze for a long time until he finally looked up to stare at 005 walking around him.

"Why are you so interested in this? Does this have something to do with you?" Charles asked.

"Of course, it does. It has something to do with the bet between us. Remember what I said back in the Foundation's prison? I said that if you achieve victory against the Foundation, I'll grant you two wishes—two formidable wishes for a price."

005 stroked the black cat's head, and the cat opened Its mouth, spitting out two white balls the size of ping pong balls. The two white balls floated over to Charles and hovered in front of him.

"Two wishes. Say it, and I'll fulfill it if I can. For example, I can make you become even stronger than the previous Foundation, or… I can send you back to your original world."

Return to my original world? I can go back to those simple days? Charles unconsciously clenched his fist, but Sparkle's tiny hand in his palm made him relax.

Charles didn't answer outright. Instead, he carefully sized up the unique god before him, asking, "Why are you doing this?"

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