Chapter 453 The Significance of the Expedition

Monica had already explained this to Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan—though she hadn’t witnessed that day herself, it was easy to guess what “Miracle Day” meant. It was likely when the world protection mechanism kicked in, replicating the souls of all living beings globally to create new bodies. Since these were brand-new bodies, naturally, there would be no existing illnesses.

There was quite a bit of knowledge involved, but to simplify it, the world protection mechanism just copied souls when generating this “real world.” Everything else, like bodies, was created independently, which involves the study of creation. Anyway, Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan didn’t comprehend it.

But it didn’t really matter; the event of Miracle Day itself was already enough proof. And even if that wasn’t sufficient to convince them, Ling Mo had an even stronger piece of evidence to provide—

“You all should have heard about the strange phenomena that appeared alongside the invasion incidents recently, right?”

This was something that started occurring just within the last month—especially when the invasion events would coincide with unexplained scenes. For instance, a certain area within the invasion zone might suddenly take on the style of the Dark Zone world, or it could be a direct projection of the Dark Zone world itself. But until now, no one had managed to confirm it.

What could be established was that those sights were most likely illusions that didn’t exist in reality. People who encountered such phenomena during the invasion tried to explore further, but they all concluded that those phenomena were essentially false appearances layered over normal things. For example, in an illusion, a building might appear to be in a state of collapse, but if you went inside and went up, even reaching a broken floor, you could still continue upward, only to encounter spatial distortion if you kept going.

Even space ability users didn’t dare to recklessly probe such situations, so no one had fully investigated those strange phenomena. Fortunately, these phenomena usually returned to normal in a short time and seemed to have a much smaller impact than the invasion events. Thus, everything was still in the observation phase, and even the Ability Bureau hadn’t decided how to handle it.

From Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan’s perspective, this phenomenon might well be a sign that the “real world” Monica mentioned was gradually merging with the genuine Dark Zone world. The “real world” they were in was collapsing, and it was highly probable that the Realm of Divine Presence would hasten in guiding players to enter the Dark Zone world to tackle this problem—Xia Xinyan had encountered something similar in her past life, like the various rewards in the Dark Zone world increasing, etc. Based on timing, it seemed to align with this period.

Each of these matters alone wouldn’t hold much persuasive power, but when analyzing everything collectively, patterns began to emerge. Of course, if someone still refused to believe the truth at this point, then Ling Mo couldn’t do anything about it.

However, he believed that those who reached this position wouldn’t be foolish enough to lack this level of intelligence.

After he spoke these words, everyone present indeed fell silent, seemingly lost in thought. Yet, what they were thinking about, Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan didn’t know.

After a moment, someone asked, “If that’s the case, does it mean the expedition should continue to be advanced? Since you have deduced these truths, when do you think is appropriate for the expedition?”

“In half a month.” Ling Mo had been waiting for this question. “We previously mentioned that the demons are continuously evolving. The demon group over in Shen City has even learned to establish dominance. At this rate, I believe it won’t be long before they possess intelligence comparable to ours. By then, it’ll be much more troublesome to restrain them.”

Pausing, he continued, “You all should understand that if the Dark Zone world is the true reality, then our current mission isn’t to exterminate demons to solve the invasion problem. Instead, it’s to reclaim our territory in the real world… well, maybe not reclaim, but find a balance with the demons. Given our current understanding of demons, exterminating them would come at a tremendous cost to humanity; at least, it’s not a good idea.”

Immediately, someone questioned, “Are you suggesting we coexist peacefully with those demons who only know how to kill?”

“That’s impossible. Even now, there’s a whole world separating us. Those demons can deal us such severe damage through invasion incidents; who knows what they’d do if we lived in the same world?”

…

Ling Mo glanced around. Most people still seemed to hope for the complete annihilation of the demons, which didn’t surprise him.

So he looked towards the door: “Let Guan Ling in.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the meeting room door swung open, and Guan Ling stepped in, standing firm. Instantly, numerous blood and flesh manifestations surrounded her, sprouting giant arms that surrounded everyone in the meeting room, plunging it into chaos.

“What are you trying to do?! Threatening us?!”

“Ling Mo! Do you know what you’re doing?! You’re going to make enemies of all factions?!”

“Do you really think this will make us submit?!”

…

Seeing that many were quite frightened, Ling Mo merely smiled: “Don’t worry, she won’t lay a hand on you. We just want her to demonstrate something—if everyone pays a little attention, you should be able to notice the differences with Guan Ling. If you think it’s impossible to coexist with demons, I can assure you that we are already doing it.”

Upon hearing this, the crowd gradually calmed down. Those arms were indeed just there to intimidate them and had no intention of attacking. However, upon closer inspection, they noticed this woman exuded a strong demonic aura, and it was easy to guess she possessed immense strength—but such power didn’t appear on the rankings, and her name had never been heard before.

Coupling Ling Mo’s earlier words, all the attendees couldn’t help but be shocked: “She’s a demon?!”

“Precisely,” Ling Mo nodded. “Guan Ling is a demon we encountered during this reconnaissance mission, but she possesses communication abilities and sensibilities akin to ours. Coincidentally, we found her being attacked at the time, so we intervened and saved her, forming a friendship. This proves that peace between humans and demons is possible. Therefore, I believe the objective of this expedition should not be to eliminate all demons but to attempt a negotiation with them—then deal with those unwilling to coexist in peace.”