Chapter 72

Information that the “Apocalypse Element” was Luo Shang quickly landed on the desks of several big shots.

Plans fell and rose like snowflakes, and resolutions on how to handle the Luo Shang incident piled up, filling the room. Everyone knew that the Lady of Life Church had completely collapsed this time. Even their god had been grabbed by Luo Shang and taken back to the Reincarnation Space by his accomplice. This cult had thoroughly lost its foundation.

Without the Supernatural Abilities granted by the Life Lady, they had devolved into an ordinary fraudulent cult, and next, they would completely disappear under the pursuit and blockade of the state apparatus.

Currently, the core issue regarding Extraordinary matters lay with Luo Shang himself and the mysterious Reincarnation Space behind him.

What did Luo Shang himself want to do?

Was he truly satisfied with his current life?

Information about what he had done after waking up in the hospital was quickly unearthed. Guests who had been dragged to the Recognition Banquet were one by one invited for tea, released afterward, and the collected information was classified at the highest level of secrecy.

As for those around Luo Shang—Su Mingyao and Su Bingyao, as well as Li Qingshu, Su Tiancheng, and the others—there was no movement toward them. This was because Luo Shang’s requirement was that his life remain exactly as it was. If they made any rash moves against the people around him, it might cause differences in their behavior, which would instead destroy the effect that Luo Shang wanted.

Even the guest samples from the Recognition Banquet were those with distant relations to the Su Family, the type who didn’t usually interact much with Luo Shang.

They cautiously conducted investigations without disrupting the micro-environment around Luo Shang, thereby compiling them into documents.

Finally, lacking conditions like mind-reading, Su Mingyao’s rebirth, and Luo Shang’s desire to follow the plot, they arrived at an inconceivable conclusion.

“Luo Shang’s personality is not as stable as it appears to us.”

This guess was correct. No matter how mild he appeared, he had ultimately come out of the Reincarnation Space, so his mental state was somewhat unstable to a certain degree.

“He not only has a particular obsession with maintaining normalcy, but also a certain degree of masochistic tendencies!”

This statement was completely wrong.

However, based solely on the situation presented in their documents, this was indeed the only conclusion they could reach.

Luo Shang was clearly strong enough to make people tremble, yet he forced others to treat him as if he were in a weak position. It was hard not to think that he had masochistic tendencies.

And those things perfectly matched what the psychological experts analyzed would happen if Luo Shang had not entered the Reincarnation Space and had simply woken up from the hospital after a serious injury.

This could be explained as Luo Shang striving to maintain the normalcy of his daily life.

This information was naturally not hidden from Roland, who served as the Captain. When he first looked at the documents, he found it unbelievable, followed by intense relief. In Roland’s view, Luo Shang was fair-skinned and clean, with a cute appearance and pure temperament; he looked exactly like a spoiled rich second-generation heir raised with indulgence.

However, this time it proved his mistake in judging by appearances. Luo Shang was precisely the greatest Apocalypse Element!

Recalling his previous rude words and actions toward Luo Shang, and the scenes where he had fooled Luo Shang as if he were a fool, Roland broke out in a cold sweat afterward, thinking that this person was truly polite.

At the same time, Roland was also glad that he had been recalled before he could do anything to Su Mingyao. Otherwise, by offending Luo Shang’s brother Su Mingyao, his ashes would probably have been scattered in the river that very night.

He suddenly had a bold idea:

Perhaps it was exactly because Luo Shang discovered that he had targeted Su Mingyao and wanted to take some actions against him—deviating Su Mingyao from his daily life—that Luo Shang released his aura as the Apocalypse Element to summon him back, thereby avoiding direct conflict?

Thinking of Luo Shang’s insistence on the “normalcy” of his daily life, Roland felt it might really be the case…

And Luo Shang’s later performance against the Life Lady Cult was also a direct attitude.

Although on the surface, the entire world was calm and peaceful, in reality, dark currents had long been surging. It was just that the government was stepping in to maintain the superficial peace, not letting those changes disturb ordinary people’s lives.

And in corners invisible to ordinary people—on the dark web, in certain secret websites—the existence of Extraordinaries and Anomalies was never a secret. There were also laboratories specifically researching these phenomena and people.

The emergence of Extraordinaries first affected not the lives of the populace, but the military sector.

No Extraordinary had ever appeared who could single-handedly withstand a nuclear bomb, which was why modern Extrordinaries could contribute at most on the level of special forces soldiers. They couldn’t sway the grand scheme of things, so the various nations’ reactions were muted. Everyone simply maintained a tacit silence.

But ever since Luo Shang burst onto the scene, the absolute power he had demonstrated elevated him, in their assessments, to the level where one man could influence an entire nation.

This shift was bound to alter the global landscape. Yet when they searched outward, they found that foreign agents, the dark web, and all manner of information brokers might as well have been blind and deaf. There was zero knowledge of anything related to Luo Shang. Even when they tossed out some vague, bait-like messages beyond the wall, those were swiftly scrubbed clean, as if they had never existed.

Thus, they understood. This was Luo Shang’s stance.

He didn’t want the world situation to change because of him. He didn’t want anything around him to change because of him.

To date, only the government of his own nation knew about this. They alone were aware that within their borders lurked a “nuclear weapon” capable of redrawing the world map.

“This is Luo Shang’s trust and respect toward us…”

Luo Shang could have kept it from them, staging the scene as an accident or something similar without exposing himself. He could have quietly watched everything unfold, reshaping the world from the shadows.

But he hadn’t done that. Instead, he had revealed his existence to them, letting them know he was operating in their midst.

It was a mark of respect, a gesture of goodwill.

By informing them, he ensured they wouldn’t unwittingly provoke him with some careless action and suffer total annihilation at his hands.

It was just like a tiger leaving claw marks on a tree—other predators would steer clear of the area.

For ordinary Extrordinaries, revealing their supernatural abilities to the state was self-preservation, ensuring they weren’t caught in friendly fire after joining the regular forces. But at Luo Shang’s level of power, informing the state was a favor to the nation itself, sparing it from accidental harm at his hands.

~~~

In a certain underground secret chamber, an elderly man sat quietly listening to a subordinate’s report.

“Based on the data analysis, Su Shang—that is, Luo Shang—underwent his transformation right around the time he was discharged from the hospital after his severe injuries. People do experience psychological shifts after brushing with death, changes in personality. But Luo Shang’s change went beyond that; he also gained a supernatural ability.”

“Judging by the timeline, the only window was during that hospital stay when he entered the mysterious Reincarnation Space.”

“As for the Reincarnation Space itself, we haven’t collected any network data on other Players yet. According to statements from Luo Shang’s teammates, there may be only one Player in the entire Native Plane: Luo Shang himself.”

“Our speculations about the Reincarnation Space are as follows: 1. It can grant supernatural abilities to ordinary people. 2. Time flows differently inside the Reincarnation Space compared to our world. 3. It hosts visitors from other worlds. Luo Shang’s two companions appear to be of ordinary human origin, but we can’t rule out that their true forms are something else. Case in point: the deity worshipped by the Life Lady Cult manifests as a white branch, with a phantom projection resembling a young human woman. 4. Players within the Reincarnation Space engage in competition and cooperation…”

“Let’s set those aside for now. The only way we have to make contact with this mysterious space is through Luo Shang—but that depends on his willingness.”

So spoke the Chief Strategist, listening to his subordinate’s briefing.

“First question: Our Nine Tripods have been shattered—three of them. Was that truly because the world was destroyed three times? Or was it some powerhouse from beyond our world that smashed them?”

“Second question: Why did Luo Shang return?”

“He was operating outside our world before. This plane’s level of supernatural power is far too low for him.”

With those words, the Chief Strategist picked up sheets of paper from the desk, each covered in dense physical formulas. These were calculations from experts in kinematics, human biomechanics, and physics, tallying the energy expended by Luo Shang, Chen Guyi, and β-62 in their various actions.

Even the energy contained in Chen Guyi’s single sword swing, and the control he exerted over it, surpassed anything current technology could manage. It was unimaginable just how formidable Luo Shang must be, to command such deference from Chen Guyi.

What exactly was this “Lord of All Entropies” that the God of Life had addressed him as?

Their own universe had the concept of entropy too—a measure of disorder in matter. But could a mere metric like that truly be mastered?

Venturing into conceptual domains like this bordered on the realm of creation itself…

Someone as powerful as Luo Shang should find no value in this plane whatsoever—save for the bonds of family.

From his actions, it was clear that Luo Shang’s real family had long since passed away. The “family” who raised him showed him no particular kindness after their biological child was found—a far cry from the way they once treated Su Shang.

Could this faint trace of familial affection be the reason a powerhouse like him had lingered here?

No, that couldn’t be it.

Evidently, Luo Shang had forged far closer bonds in the Reincarnation Space than with his so-called “family.” His partner was there as well, yet this time he had returned without them.

That left only one possibility.

This world must hold some tremendous benefit that drew Luo Shang in.

Something hidden beneath the surface—unknown to them—that could elevate his strength. A spiritual treasure, perhaps, or a secret realm. Only that would explain why he put up with those “family” members, working so hard to maintain the status quo and stay here quietly!

For it to captivate a creation-god-level powerhouse who had achieved mastery over concepts… whatever it was, it had to be extraordinarily tempting.

Could they find it first—and claim it for themselves? At this thought, the Chief Strategist’s mouth began to water uncontrollably.

Without the crucial knowledge that Luo Shang wanted to follow the plot, their guesses about his motives had gone completely astray.

Not that they were entirely wrong. After all, completing the plot really did benefit Luo Shang.