Hell’s Handbook

Light can never be for eternity. Only darkness can. But what humans love the most was the moment when light tore through darkness, even if that moment was awfully short-lived.

Su Jin didn’t know if humans liked light because it was rare, or because light made humans feel safe, but Su Jin also felt that saying light made humans feel safe was not the right way of putting it. On the contrary, the thing that made humans feel uneasy was actually light.

Light made humans able to see, and because they could see, they could feel joy or disgust, they could choose to get close or move away. Humans began to use one’s looks or exterior to decide if they liked something or not, and most people ignored the soul.

That was why, when light disappeared, humans were no longer able to make judgments the way they were used to. They became panicky and uneasy. They thought this uneasiness came from the darkness, but they had never considered the idea that… it was light that brought this problem.

When Carl caused himself to explode, the brilliance he created was almost impossible to imagine. Even a distance a few hundred light years away was illuminated. The darkness was gone and only Carl’s brilliance remained. This was a brilliance that not even the will of the universe was able to erase.

“I was hoping to reminiscence with you guys about the past, but you decided to blow yourself up just like that. How boring,” the will of the universe shook his head. The primordial star continued to float in the void in front of him because he had purposely protected it. Otherwise, Carl’s brilliance would have destroyed it.

The will of the universe sauntered into the primordial star and immediately took a deep breath. “How nostalgic. This used to be one of my vehicles.”

He had once descended upon the paradise that belonged to the primordial deities and this star was just one small shard in that paradise. But it still gave the will of the universe nostalgia.

He continued walking toward the core of the star and finally arrived at the main hall that was in the middle, but his expression instantly turned to one of absolute rage.

“The only one who can take away The Beginning from under my nose is that insurgent!” The will of the universe narrowed his eyes slightly, then smiled faintly as he suddenly gripped the air and the sound of something cracking came from all corners of the star.

The gigantic primordial star began to crumble and fall apart, as though some super bomb had gone off inside. The entire planet began to fall apart for seemingly no reason.

About half a minute later, the star began to expand rapidly and turned into many micro particles that flew into the universe. Each micro particle carried a terrifying power as it flew at the light of speed. There was enough energy for them to keep flying on and on, and they were probably not going to stop even after traveling thousands of light years. Everything they hit was destroyed.

The will of the universe remained where he was and looked at his surroundings silently. “Ah, I seem to have gone a little too far now. After taking on human form, I seem to have inherited those strange emotions as well.”

He shook his head in amusement, then said to the void in front of him, “Those fellows are geniuses, but it’s true that they aren’t very good at fighting. You are an old opponent of that guy, so please go and look for him!”

“It’ll be very difficult, but I will do my best,” an emotionless voice rang out as a child suddenly appeared before the will of the universe.

“As long as you do your best, that’s enough for me.” The will of the universe nodded, then looked into the dark distance again with a thoughtful look on his face.

Meanwhile, Su Jin had brought The Beginning from one universe to another and finally came to a stop when he reached a very quiet and empty universe. This universe had almost nothing on it, and Su Jin couldn’t sense the presence of any intelligent life.

The Beginning was still giving off that dazzling light. Su Jin covered it with maniacal power to do a deep scan of The Beginning and breathed a sigh of relief.

The method that the will of the universe had used could only detect the primordial star and not The Beginning. He didn’t need to worry about the will of the universe finding them.

He was filled with great sadness when he gazed at The Beginning. It had never crossed his mind that the core of The Beginning would actually be Kano Mai. No wonder he felt a sense of closeness when he first laid eyes on The Beginning.

“There’s no turning back.” Su Jin bowed his head as pain filled his heart. He was no longer a Handbook owner who didn’t know anything. His understanding of the world he was in had expanded greatly after he had access to the workings of the Handbook. So, he also knew that since Kano Mai had completely become one with The Beginning, there was no way to separate them.

Su Jin looked at The Beginning quietly for a long time, and when he snapped out of it with a start, The Beginning’s dazzling light was still shining on him.

“I am an insurgent and I’m also someone who has powers beyond the Handbook, so I will definitely find a way to separate you from The Beginning.” Su Jin took a deep breath. Was it really impossible just because the Handbook said so?

He was an insurgent as well as someone who possessed powers beyond this world. His mission was to surpass any rules this world was bound by. If that was the case, then couldn’t he create a way to separate Kano Mai from The Beginning?

Once he had worked that out, he felt a little better inside. But he had a new problem now. What was he going to do with The Beginning? The Beginning was a dazzling light with a floating ball of light around it, plus it was at least ten meters in height or so and he couldn’t keep it inside his Handbook. He couldn’t possibly carry it everywhere he went, right?

Just when he was racking his brains for a solution, a beam of light shot out from The Beginning and formed the shape of a woman. It was Kano Mai.

“Mai!” Su Jin lit up for a moment before he realized that there was no emotion in Kano Mai’s eyes at all. She looked like a puppet.

“Checking permissions.” A beam of light shot out from her hand and scanned Su Jin’s body before disappearing again. “Permissions confirmed. Priority granted to Su Jin. Su Jin confirmed as only authority.”

“Carl gave the permissions to The Beginning to myself right at the end.” Su Jin guessed just as much. At that moment, Carl had already given up all hope, but The Beginning was still the last bit of light he could see even in his despair. He didn’t want The Beginning to land in the hands of the will of the universe at all, so he chose to give The Beginning to Su Jin. At the very least, Su Jin’s mission was aligned with the gods from the first cycle.

“What can you do?” asked Su Jin.

Kano Mai, or rather, The Beginning stared at Su Jin, then shot a beam of white light into his consciousness so that he could immediately see what The Beginning was capable of.

“I have full control over those rune creatures. That’s going to be very helpful,” Su Jin nodded. When Carl and Phyge were fighting the will of the universe, the rune creatures had not been involved. It turned out that right from the start, Carl had never thought that the rune creatures would be able to defeat the will of the universe at all, and so he hid them inside The Beginning. All the rune creatures were intact and undamaged.

Using these creatures to fight the will of the universe or geniuses like Jing Hua and his companions was definitely not going to work. But this was going to be useful against ordinary gods that Su Jin was going to deal with in the future, except that they needed to be improved.

“Continue to send the rune creatures into various Challenges, do not make any changes to the way they learn, but do not interact or fight with any owners. Just gather necessary items and information from the Challenge,” Su Jin said to The Beginning.

While it seemed like the rune creatures would learn and improve faster if they fought with owners, Su Jin felt that this would expose them earlier to the Handbook’s universe. If the owners somehow found a way to deal with these creatures early on, the creatures would not be as useful against them anymore.

Of course, back then, Carl and the other gods had only one hope, and that was The Beginning and the rune creatures. So it made sense that they would want the rune creatures to become powerful as quickly as possible. But things were different for Su Jin. Carl and Phyge were no match for the will of the universe at all, but Su Jin himself was the greatest source of power that could fight the will of the universe head on. The Beginning was merely something to support him, just like how the will of the universe had Hell’s Handbook.

“So, on the surface, it looks like we’re on par?” Su Jin laughed bitterly. But that was true only on the surface. When he compared himself to the will of the universe and The Beginning to Hell’s Handbook, the former were both not quite mature enough. If they really had to fight one another, Su Jin and The Beginning were going to get thrashed for sure.

What Su Jin really needed now was to set up his own temple of gods, but without a suitable shard for him to build his own planet, he couldn’t set up a temple. He looked up and asked The Beginning, “The Beginning, do you know where I can find some star shards? I need them to have spatial abilities.”

The Beginning’s eyes lit up, then she nodded and said, “While the rune creatures were gathering information, they discovered seven such shards. Do you want me to send you the location of all seven shards?”

“Seven shards?!” Su Jin was shocked. This Carl… he had information about star shards but he didn’t tell him anything? But Su Jin didn’t blame him. Carl wasn’t obliged to give him any information or help him to find anything, after all.