Hell’s Handbook

Carl and Phyge led Su Jin on a tour of the primordial star. In order to allow as many gods from the first cycle to hide here, they had maximized the use of space on the planet. Besides the large hall in the middle, the rest of the planet was covered in little caves that resembled a slum. It was hard to believe that a god would live in such a place.

But now, these little caves had no gods in them. Throughout the years and cycles, they had left the planet one after another to collect resources and information for the launch of The Beginning. No god who had left the planet was allowed to come back. All of them would eventually be discovered by the Handbook and killed.

The heartless flow of time seemed even more heartless to these gods from the first cycle. It tortured the lives of these people who were from the same era as the primordial deities and made it even harder for them to live day after day.

Su Jin sighed. He couldn’t imagine what he would do if he were one of them. Would he have made the same choice as them? Would he have agreed to sacrifice himself for the sake of a small chance of success in a future he couldn’t foresee?

“It sounds a little silly, but we’re talking about the creatures that existed before the first destruction of the universe. They had much fewer desires compared to the creatures that exist today. In fact, I feel that when a new cycle has new creatures, the Handbook adds several negative emotions into them during the creation process. Perhaps it was because our resistance was too aggressive, so the will of the universe realized that lives had to be controlled,” Carl smiled sadly.

Su Jin nodded slightly and said, “I’ve noticed that too. Us humans are considered more normal, really. The owners from some of the other planets are practically the embodiment of cruelty.”

Carl glanced at Su Jin, then asked, “Let’s talk about you. How did you escape the Handbook’s detection and tracking?”

Su Jin smiled and said, “I don’t know either. When I became an insurgent, I didn’t attract the attention of the Handbook. Perhaps I got lucky!”

Carl and Phyge exchanged glances. They knew that Su Jin was lying to them. The Handbook was a system that would not make any mistakes. It was probably easier to defeat the system than to introduce a bug into the system. Also, the Handbook would become even more sensitive to insurgents when a current cycle was reaching its end. Once discovered, the Handbook would target them continuously until they were dead. While they had heard of all sorts of miracles through the ages, they had never heard of any insurgent who could completely escape both detection and destruction from the Handbook.

They continued moving along and came to the middle of the hall. A pure ball of light floated in front of Su Jin. Its brilliance was incomparable, as though all the beauty in the world could not match up to it.

“This…” murmured Su Jin.

“This is The Beginning, a super system that can compare to Hell’s Handbook that has been left behind by the gods of the first cycle. Only its existence can defeat the will of the universe and Hell’s Handbook,” said Carl proudly. And he had every right to feel proud.

Su Jin stared in wonder at The Beginning. This brilliant ball of light was actually a system that could fight the Handbook? He couldn’t imagine how anybody could create something like this.

“So… those rune creatures?” Su Jin had to tear his eyes away from The Beginning for a moment to ask the other two.

“Ah, those are The Beginning’s masterpieces. They are a lifeform that are completely outside of the Handbook’s powers, but all the power systems and biological systems that exist within the Handbook have been input into them. You could say that they are a nemesis to anything the Handbook could create,” said Carl confidently.

But Su Jin fell silent. Those creatures were powerful, but it was a little too much of an exaggeration to say that they were a nemesis to anything the Handbook could create. The rune creatures had failed to completely destroy owners whenever they appeared, which meant that they were still too weak to do that.

“Thank you for letting me see so much,” Su Jin thanked Carl and Phyge.

Carl smiled and said, “There’s no need for that. If it was possible for the both of us have a friend somewhere out there in the vast universe, you would definitely be our best choice.”

“Because we’re both a thorn in the flesh for the Handbook and the will of the universe?” asked Su Jin with a chuckle.

“Haha… the enemy of an enemy is a friend, no? That’s something the people of your cycle say, right? And I agree. Regardless of what race you are or what status you hold, as long as you are against the Handbook and the will of the universe, you are our friend,” said Phyge.

Su Jin nodded, then asked a different question, “I’m looking for a shard of a star with spatial abilities to create my very own planet. Do you have any information that could be useful to me?”

“Are you… are you going to create your own temple?” asked Carl excitedly.

Su Jin nodded. Carl said, “What a pity! You are probably the only insurgent with any hope of doing that, so we don’t have any advice for you on that aspect. But with regard to the shard you’re asking about… we could be of some help.”

“Oh?” Su Jin was pleasantly surprised. He didn’t expect them to be able to help.

Carl flipped his palm over and a rock about the same size as his palm appeared in front of Su Jin. Su Jin stared at the rock puzzledly for a moment, but he quickly sensed spatial abilities coming from the rock.

“This… this is a shard from a star with spatial abilities?” asked Su Jin brightly.

Carl nodded with a faint smile, but he added, “It is, but if you’re looking to create a planet that can move like the primordial star, I’m afraid this little thing won’t be of much use. But you could use its frequencies to search for others like it, and I think you would find other such pieces much more easily.”

“I see.” Su Jin wasn’t very discouraged despite what he heard. It was unrealistic to hope that he would get a suitable shard right away, so getting something that would reduce the time he needed to search for such a shard was more than good enough for him.

He took the rock from Carl and thanked him, “Thank you so much. If we get the chance in the future, let’s help each other!”

“Of course! As the only other insurgent in the universe, it’s only right for us to help one another,” Carl laughed heartily. He was a magnanimous leader to begin with. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have become the leader of the gods from the first cycle and have absolutely nobody betray him until now.

Su Jin did not intend to stay here for too long, since he had other things he wanted to do. Before leaving, he said, “By the way, the rune creatures don’t seem to have any emotions or much sentience, so I think it’s best that you think about this part a little more carefully. It’s very easy for them to be discovered from the way they gather information and all that.

“I was able to locate your planet after I discovered them, so if the will of the universe discovers them…” Su Jin didn’t need to finish his sentence for them to know what he was trying to say.

The two gods exchanged glances. They knew about this sentience problem, and they were also trying to figure out what to do with it. But they also had not fully decided how to develop these rune creatures, so they could only allow them to keep getting more and more powerful before running some sentience tests.

A colorful glow surrounded Su Jin as he prepared to leave, and as he flew away, he suddenly remembered something and yelled back, “By the way, I’ve got a primordial deity friend named Kano Mai! If you run into her, please help me to take care of her!”

With that, Su Jin left the planet completely. Carl and Phyge were too stunned for words. They didn’t expect Su Jin to know Kano Mai.

“Do you want to ask him to stay for a while? I think the reason why the Handbook hasn’t discovered him has something to do with the primordial deities. If we let The Beginning analyze him, we’ll definitely get some answers,” Phyge said to Carl.

Carl hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. “If we wanted him to stay, we should have said so before he left. We won’t be able to catch up with him now. Besides, he’s extremely powerful. If we end up getting into a fight, we might not get what we want.”

“If only Arutus were still around…” Phyge shook his head and sighed.

Meanwhile, Su Jin was feeling a little down. The elder gods had all been destroyed, and Kano Mai was still nowhere to be found. He was getting extremely worried.

Just then, the image of an extremely brilliant ball of white light appeared in his mind. He shook his head, wondering why he would suddenly be reminded of The Beginning.