Chapter 12: Information
Liu Xiao casually hopped onto an electric bike and quickly left the university campus.
[Body Reconstruction - 1000 points (Reconstructs the most recent data-anchored body of a spiritually evolved intelligent being.)]
Skimming through the Galactic Order's merit exchange list, Liu Xiao found this entry. It seemed that even dead bodies on Earth could be revived. But...
[Data Anchor: The central system collects and stores biological data of any spiritually evolved intelligent being.]
[Intelligent beings who have not undergone spiritual evolution cannot have a data anchor performed.]
This was an endless loop. Currently, the only way for humans on Earth to achieve spiritual evolution was in the Origin Point. But once evolved there, they were bound by the Origin Laws. Without evolution, the central system wouldn't perform a data anchor, meaning dead Earth bodies couldn't be reconstructed.
This was the second time Liu Xiao sensed the Galactic Order's blatant malice.
The answer seemed to imply that beings who hadn't evolved spiritually weren't worth reconstructing—they were simply trash.
Gritting his teeth, Liu Xiao clenched the handlebars, and the electric bike surged forward.
Social order was already showing signs of collapse.
Outside a large supermarket, Liu Xiao saw crowds pushing shopping carts loaded with goods, rushing out without paying.
But it was understandable. People needed to survive. With no cashiers, no registers, and no police to maintain order, the concept of "order" itself had vanished.
Facing empty food shelves, Liu Xiao left helplessly.
This city, which had never truly been his, now felt even more alien.
Eventually, he found a small convenience store with its door smashed open. Inside, he grabbed some sealed bread, canned food, and bottled water, then sat on the roadside, eating in silence.
Just as he was starting to feel aimless, his phone buzzed with a new message.
It was a notification from a gaming group chat.
Surprised, he tapped the pop-up.
Someone in the group had actually sent a message.
"Anyone alive?" A user named "Hanjiang" asked.
"I'm here."
Before Liu Xiao could reply, another user, "Simi," chimed in.
"There really are living people??" Hanjiang continued.
"Don't even ask. So damn unlucky. I was just watching some chaos nearby when a stray bullet hit me. Straight through the artery. Couldn't stop the bleeding. Died in agony."
"HAHAHAHA, let me laugh first. You're worse off than me. Over here, we got overrun by monsters. Doubt anyone survived."
"Monsters? Hanjiang, you're in Guilin, right? Why would there be monsters at your spawn point?"
"Yeah, beats me. Things were going fine at first. We'd even started building, clearing land for farming. Then out of nowhere, these things came swarming in. We had weapons, but the monsters were just too strong. Wiped out in seconds. Even now, remembering that decapitation gives me chills."
"Damn, the Origin Point's that hardcore? Guess we had it easy."
"Simi, you're in Jinling?"
"Yeah, Jinling. After I kicked the bucket, my parents offed themselves to come back too. Probably for the best. But the city's a mess now. Total chaos."
"Over here's not too bad. Almost everyone died and came back. Just saw an ambulance driving down the street."
"Honestly, everyone dying and returning might be better. At least life stabilizes. Heard the military's not coming back—they're staying to do big things over there. Us civilians just handle logistics."
"The government definitely knows more than us common folk. How's the Origin Point so mystical? Feels like I'm dreaming—playing a game where I get one-shot by max-level bosses at the start."
"HAHAHA, same. And when I woke up, it's like another apocalypse game started IRL."
"Simi, now that you mention it... Look up."
"WTF?!"
"Haotian's manifesting?!"
"What's that mean?"
"Sky's been pierced!"
"What do those numbers mean?"
"Probably countries? Or planets?"
"Those are people." Suddenly, the group's top player, "Long Yue," spoke up.
This gaming group had only about 50 members, but they formed the core of a notorious guild. In any game they played, they were infamous—maybe not the strongest, but definitely the most warlike. Their leader, Long Yue, was ranked 8th in a national list of top guild leaders. His stats? Combat: 11/10 (overflow), Intelligence: 5/10, Management: 5/10, Diplomacy: 0/10. In short, he only cared about levelling and fighting.
"Bro Long!"
"Bro Long's here! Congrats on dying and coming back!"
"Piss off. You think I'm like you? I teleported back."
"Huh?"
"Spiritual evolution, get it? My squad took down five Saber-Toothed Beasts, roasted and ate 'em. I ate one's head, and bam—spiritual evolution. Every evolved person gets a number, like the ones on that sky leaderboard."
Liu Xiao believed Long Yue. The system had mentioned that absorbing energy crystals was one way to evolve. Apparently, consuming the spiritual essence of evolved creatures worked too.
"Bro Long, hey." Liu Xiao decided to stop lurking.
"Xiao! You bastard, lurking this whole time?" Simi exploded. "Welcome to the Undead Legion."
"Piss off, ghost. I teleported back too," Liu Xiao retorted.
"Not bad, Xiao," Long Yue replied. "What's the situation in Qiantang? How'd you evolve?"
"Qiantang's got a forest with lizardmen from another galaxy. Killed one, got an energy crystal. Used it to evolve." Liu Xiao summarized.
"Wait, that works? We got system prompts for killing Saber-Toothed Beasts—bonuses for cross-tier and cross-domain kills—but to evolve, you had to eat their spiritual essence before they died. Once they're dead, it's useless. Out of five beasts, only two of us evolved."
So that's how it worked. Dead creatures' spiritual cores returned to their original bodies, but if they weren't fully dead, their essence could be consumed. The energy could fuel one's own spiritual evolution—but if the essence was already gone or insufficient, evolution wouldn't trigger.
"What's your number? We'll stay in touch when we go back," Long Yue asked.
This put Liu Xiao in a tough spot. If he revealed his number, everyone would know he was ranked first globally.
"I'll contact you. Busy right now—lots of deaths in Qiantang, some people I knew. They're gone for good," Liu Xiao deflected.
"Got it. My number is..." Long Yue shared his without hesitation.
"Simi, we're obsolete," Hanjiang lamented.
"Yeah, feels like that game beta—when the servers opened, and we couldn't log in while they all got in and we were left behind."
"Tell me about it..."
In an unfamiliar world, information was everything. The more you know, the further and faster you could go.
...
On the road, Liu Xiao's electric bike sped like the wind.
Two crying children blocked his path, forcing him to stop.
This was the entrance to a district kindergarten. The gates were wide open, with unconscious guards and teachers lying at the entrance.
Dozens of children sat in the playground, crying weakly—too exhausted from hunger to wail.
Liu Xiao took the hands of the two kids in the road and led them back inside.
"Big brother, Mommy and Daddy never came to get us," the little girl on his left said hoarsely, her teary eyes looking up at him. "The teachers are asleep too."
Liu Xiao crouched, patting her head. "Mommy and Daddy are just asleep. They'll wake up soon."
The girl brightened, turning to the other kids. "See? I told you they'd come!"
Liu Xiao scanned the area. At least 40 children were here, and 7 or 8 were in bad shape. Their parents were likely migrant workers with no elders in Qiantang—effectively orphans unless their parents returned soon.
He dialed 110, 119, 120, even 12345. No one answered.
What now?
He wasn't a saint, but he couldn't leave these kids to starve or die of thirst.
Even if he knew that across Qiantang, hundreds of thousands of children might be in the same plight—far beyond his ability to save.
Just as panic set in...
[Intelligent Being 87242-82231-25241-2241, accept telepathic communication request? No merit points required.]
Liu Xiao froze. The system could function as a phone?
Accept.
[Hello.]
The voice echoed in his mind, as if someone stood beside him. But the awkward English threw him off.
[Detected non-native language usage. Enable translation? No merit cost.]
"Hello." Ignoring the prompt, Liu Xiao replied in English—he'd survived high school exams, after all.
[Nice to meet you.]
Liu Xiao narrowed his eyes. What kind of opening was this?
"Nice to meet you, too."
[How are you?]
"Fine, thank you. And you?"
The classic English textbook exchange.
[F*ck, you're Chinese! Password confirmed.]
Finally, the other side dropped the terrifying middle-school English act.