Chapter 499 - 431: The Rule’s End and a Layer of Haze

Chapter 499: Chapter 431: The Rule’s End and a Layer of Haze

Vilanko immediately sent a voice communication to Dream Ship One.

The message was straightforward: Robert was to decelerate and change the rocket’s direction, then relinquish highest control authority to allow the North Star Aerospace Agency to take over.

After the message was sent, a long time passed without a reply.

Vilanko’s heart sank. He knew Zhang Minglu and Guan Tong might have been right—Robert truly harbored malicious intentions.

He hastily sent several more messages, demanding an explanation.

Shortly after he sent those messages, Robert unexpectedly initiated a request for a real-time voice call.

Vilanko accepted the request.

The moment the voice call connected, he immediately demanded, "Robert, why are you doing this? Have you forgotten you’re an astronaut for Soloma? Outside of work, we’ve been friends for nearly twenty years. Are you trying to spread the Crimson Fear to me?!"

After a moment of silence on the communicator, a somewhat hoarse voice spoke.

"Vilanko, you don’t understand. I’m trying to help you."

Even though his tone was vastly different from usual, it was undeniably Robert’s voice.

Vilanko was utterly bewildered. "Letting me get hurt by the rule is supposed to be helping me? What does that even mean?"

"To help you find release, Vilanko," Robert said. "Otherwise, on the day the demons truly descend, you all will only endure more, and more terrifying, suffering."

The tone and content of Robert’s words were so perverse they gave Vilanko and the others goosebumps.

"What the hell are you!" Vilanko roared. "The Robert I know would never say something like this!"

Beside him, Zhang Minglu jumped in with a question. "Demons descending? When you say ’demons,’ are you referring to this rule? The Crimson Fear has already been defeated and dispersed by our Ascender. This rule will be over soon, so why do you say we’ll endure more suffering?"

The channel fell silent for a moment. Only a faint crackle of static grated on everyone’s anxious nerves.

Guan Tong was also on the shared connection, and Robert’s words left him deeply puzzled.

’Could the power behind this rule—what Robert called a "demon"—have long-term consequences for humanity?’

’This type of threat would be a serious problem. The Parasite, a long-term threat coexisting with mankind, had already caused immense harm. If some "demon" was added to the mix, the situation would only grow worse.’

After a silence of several tens of seconds, Robert’s anguished voice sounded over the communication channel.

"The demons can’t be destroyed. The one you went to such great lengths to defeat was merely a low-level being... They told me... they’ll find us, find our home planet, and make us pay the price..."

His words left everyone stunned.

Vilanko looked aghast and shouted, "Robert, be clear! Are you saying there’s a... a whole race behind this rule? That we only defeated one individual? And this race will come for revenge? Is that what you mean?!"

"...They’re too terrifying."

Robert’s voice was a dazed mumble, as if speaking to Vilanko, yet at the same time, only to himself.

"Don’t you all understand yet? Humanity is too weak in the universe. The power of the demons alone is enough to destroy us, let alone the Fire Thief who can capture demons and stuff them into rules. The only thing awaiting humanity is destruction. Rather than perish in extreme agony, it’s better to choose a comfortable way... How I wish I could go back to when the first rule was announced. To die in my sleep would have been such a blessing... That was the Fire Thief’s greatest generosity to humanity, but we had to foolishly struggle against fate..."

"He’s insane! The man is completely insane!" Vilanko took half a step back, his face aghast. He seemed terrified by Robert’s words, finding it impossible to imagine an astronaut with such outstanding mental fortitude uttering such desperate ravings.

"He must have been too deeply affected by the Crimson Fear, which made him despair," Zhang Minglu said. "Robert, we can’t possibly feel what you’ve been through, but we can help you."

Vilanko refused to give up just like that. He snatched the microphone. "Robert, snap out of it! We can help you! First, relinquish control of the Dream Boat. We’ll remotely pilot the spacecraft and bring you home. We’ll use every method possible to treat the harm you’ve suffered. For the sake of our friendship of all these years, you have to trust me!"

Even now, he was still trying to use an emotional appeal to win Robert back, but Guan Tong felt it was already too late.

’Zhang Minglu had been right about one thing. They couldn’t possibly feel what Robert had experienced. None of them had tasted just how real the horrifying scenarios created by the Crimson Fear were.’

’Guan Tong himself had only been through two brief scenarios. And even though he’d snapped out of them in time, the images still replayed in his mind from time to time. Even when you knew they were fake, because everything happened on a deep level of consciousness, the brain still stored them as genuine memories.’

’Only the one experiencing it could know how painful that felt.’

’Then he considered Robert. His group of astronauts had been affected by the Crimson Fear not long after landing on Terra Star. Although Robert himself had become a source of the infection and survived, living was probably a form of torture for him. The "demons" he spoke of were likely still tormenting him with terrifying visions from time to time.’

’The fact that he had lasted this long without going insane... even if the "demons" had deliberately let him survive to serve as a vector for spreading more fear, it must have been predicated on his own iron will. Otherwise, he never would have lasted long enough to become a source in the first place.’

’It was, one could say, an unsolvable checkmate created by the corrosion of Crimson Fear: if your Resistance was low, you were driven mad or scared to death. If your Resistance was high, you might come into contact with the Wailing Furnace and become a source.’