Just as Chu Guang anticipated, this monster from the void was not invincible.

Moreover, he realized something else.

No matter if the monster came from some corner of this universe or from the so-called Creator Universe by the precursor civilization, they were not qualified to look down upon this world—

They looked down upon each other!

When he swung the Nitrogen-Powered Hammer for the second time, striking the shoulder of the Death Lizard Giant with the force of thunder, the deep scales like a black hole instantly split open, and the shattered flesh spattered like shrapnel towards the corridor and ceiling behind it.

"Roar—!"

The Death Lizard Giant twisted its massive body, staggering backward, eyes as large as soybeans filled with terror.

It simply could not believe that the fellow in front of it, who did not appear much larger than other small pests, actually possessed such terrifying strength!

It's not just strength—

This fellow's reaction speed and its calm demeanor in facing it were too strong to seem like belonging to this universe.

Could it be—

He's from the void just like me?!

No time to think further.

The whistling iron hammer, enveloped in a fierce airflow, once again smashed towards its face in an instant!

It tried to fight back, twisting its body backward several times, dodging the fatal blow, and then its throat surged forward, spitting a mouthful of pitch-black phlegm down on that blue canister.

However, its little trick did not escape Chu Guang's eyes.

Watching the flying phlegm, Chu Guang's actions did not hesitate, the falling hammer smashed onto the ground!

"Boom—!"

The violent airflow was instantly released!

The entire corridor seemed like it had been hit by a 155mm heavy artillery shell!

The blast of twisted steel and shattered debris tore through the air, with the fierce airflow sweeping forward, evaporating the black phlegm in an instant, and then relentlessly crashing towards the jawing Death Lizard Giant!

"Whoo!!"

The face of the Death Lizard Giant looked as if it had been slapped, and its massive front half was lifted by the surging airflow!

As its front paws left the ground, the giant beast immediately realized the peril, panic-stricken to lower its body to protect its relatively vulnerable lower half.

However, its action was obviously a step too slow.

The blue armor pierced through the smoke, and just as it saw those steel boots, the iron hammer bombarded towards its abdomen like a cannonball!

There was simply no space to dodge.

It could only watch in horror as the iron hammer swept across, hitting its chest solidly.

"Boom—!"

The extreme compressed nitrogen, like a blunt Battle Axe, shattered its organs before its bones and flesh were torn apart!

This time, it couldn't even let out a wail, and its train-like massive body was ripped into two, crashing onto the shattered floor with a deafening sound.

The outcome seemed decided.

Watching the separated hind limbs, with only the forelegs drooped onto the ground, the Death Lizard Giant lost its former braveness, fear squeezed out of its bleeding throat.

"Whine—"

Chu Guang looked down at it, but instead of pleading eyes, he saw dark red granules emerging from its front half, twisting backward, attempting to regrow the lost half.

As for the back half separated from the head, it too sprouted dark red granules, but they did not persist long, and curled for a while before giving up without finding the head.

As he anticipated.

This creature's regeneration ability was not limitless, and the growth speed was significantly slower this time than before.

But this creature surely was ruthless, managing to regrow its lower half after a bisect.

Where was it getting the organic material required for growth?

"What kind of monster are you," Chu Guang said, staring at it.

The beast did not answer, only fixing those soybean-like eyes on him in terror.

The gaze seemed to say, you're the damn monster.

But Chu Guang didn't plan on arguing that point, tightening his grip on the Warhammer, he stepped towards it steadily.

"I suppose you won't speak human language."

Having Spiritual Energy would be good.

However, even if there was Spiritual Energy, communication might not be possible.

The Doma could communicate with plants on Gaia planet because they lived in that forest, but on Earth, they may not be able to communicate with lower Intelligence creatures.

Materialist explanation would say this special method of information transfer must be built on resonance, and there are various ways to form resonance.

Just as Chu Guang abandoned the idea of communication, raising his hammer ready to smash the monster into a specimen, the opening and closing mouth suddenly spoke human words.

"Don't... kill me..."

Chu Guang paused his action, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"You can speak human language?"

Seems this guy really got desperate.

"Your... language... is troublesome... I know a little."

Perhaps to earn some time, or maybe just to distance itself from him, the lizard twisted its upper body back, speaking with a hoarse voice.

"I've seen... quite a few... like you... You're the strongest..."

Chu Guang raised an eyebrow slightly, not caring about its small moves, he continued to ask with interest.

"You've seen many people like me?"

The Death Lizard Giant gasped as it spoke.

"Yes... some... are like you. Some, use swords, armor. They... all speak different words..."

This sentence carried quite a bit of information.

Chu Guang slightly furrowed his brow, staring at it as he spoke.

"You mean, you've been to many worlds?"

The Death Lizard Giant lightly nodded, its soybean silk-like pupils filled with disbelief and stared at him in shock.

"Yes... wait, you mean... you've never been? Other universes?"

Chu Guang wanted to say no, but quickly realized that might not be accurate.

He had been through it.

In fact, he was originally from beyond, only his flesh didn't crossover alongside him.

"I don't quite understand what you're saying, but if you tell me what you know, I might consider sparing your life."

The Death Lizard Giant suddenly twisted its mouth, as if the monster before it was no longer a threat.

However, that lasted only a moment.

It seemed to have thought of something, and its eyes became wary again, unwilling to say any more.

"...Then I have nothing to say to you... Goodbye... ugly upright ape... the hairless kind."

This seemed to be the most vicious curse it could come up with, although it sounded utterly powerless.

Rather than a few harmless curses, Chu Guang cared more about the hint of information revealed in its previous sentence.

This creature meant... it had been to many different universes?

That sounds a bit absurd.

But Chu Guang quickly thought about South Gate Two and his own situation.

To talk about absurdity—

Is there anything more absurd than the presence of "players?"

Just as he was pondering, the granules twisting at the Death Lizard Giant's wound stopped growing.

The energy sustaining its regeneration seemed to have finally run out, or perhaps the entity hiding behind it thought it no longer meaningful to continue. It took its last complete breath.

Chu Guang watched it with a slight frown, not relaxing his guard just yet.

After all, no one could be sure if this was some kind of clumsy trick.

The dust floating around gradually settled, and the sound of hurried footsteps came from the other end of the corridor.

Several players in heavy exoskeletons rushed over from the elevator entrance, followed by two officers from the Guards Corps.

Seeing the chaotic corridor, the three scrapped power armors cut to pieces, and the lizard that had stopped breathing, the expressions on their faces were more striking one after another.

There was shock, bewilderment, regret at missing a hidden task, and unexpected disbelief.

"Damn!"

"I haven't even made a move yet!"

"The boss was taken down in an instant?!"

"Brother Guang, you're awesome!!!"

"Damn it! My chance!!"

"Your what?"

The players were noisily chattering, while the two NPC officers were completely dumbfounded.

Clearly, they hadn't expected the Manager to be here, nor had they expected this monster that even Stage Five Awakeners couldn't handle to be resolved by this person.

Although out of duty they wanted to remind the Manager to be mindful of safety, no matter how you looked at it, saying anything seemed redundant.

Just then, the sound of chains being pulled came from the safety passage.

With the alarm being dismissed, the researchers waiting in the safety passage immediately raised the fire shutter and returned to the utterly disordered corridor.

"My god... Was a nuclear bomb dropped here? Uh... Chu, Chu Guang?!"

Seeing Chu Guang standing in the "epicenter of the blast," Yin Fang, who was the first to return to the corridor, was completely dumbfounded. With his mouth open, he was at a loss for words.

Taking off the visor of his helmet, Chu Guang smiled at him, shot a glance at the people behind him, and spoke in a gentle tone.

"I hope no one in the research institute was injured."

"No..." Yin Fang shook his head, noticing the three bodies in the corridor, his Adam's apple moving, and he lowered his head to say, "…I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for. Raise your head and chest."

With the warhammer in his hand stowed behind him, Chu Guang looked at Yin Fang, whose face was filled with guilt, and the group of researchers who had barely survived, and continued speaking.

"You've already done very well, reducing personnel losses to a minimum in the face of an unprecedented safety situation. This evacuation can serve as a model for other research institutes to learn from. You should feel proud."

Yin Fang: "But..."

"Risk prevention is not about eliminating risk. No one can eliminate risk. If every researcher has to apologize for unforeseen situations and take responsibility for losses beyond their duties, then there's no point in conducting research; just sitting in an office writing reports would be the safest."

Walking to the side of the safety passage, Chu Guang dusted off his shoulder gently and spoke in a calming tone.

"I will have the aftermath handled, including pensions and compensation. Don't be too hard on yourself. If I were to strictly prohibit experiments, I wouldn't have approved the establishment of The Seventh Research Institute in the first place."

The Pioneer Civilization indeed advised someone not to attempt breaking the Fourth Wall, but the Pioneer Civilization is not the Alliance's parent. The destiny of human civilization ultimately has to be managed by humans themselves. We cannot expect an ethereal "father figure" to clean up our mess.

Relying on that entity to take real responsibility is less reliable than relying on the Family Meeting to take command of everything.

This is like nuclear testing; those who have played with atomic energy to its fullest warn others without nuclear weapons not to mess around. The experience of those who have come before certainly should be listened to, but interpreting "don't mess around" as "don't do research" is utter nonsense.

Chu Guang was more inclined to believe that as long as a box was placed there, someone would open it.

If it's not opened by human civilization, it would be by other entities in this universe. The final outcome is no different.

Humans cannot truly escape destiny. In most cases, they are simply avoiding choices, handing over control of their fate to others rather than owning it themselves.

Seeing the researchers regain their confidence, Chu Guang paused for a moment and continued speaking.

"However, the results we've seen have somewhat exceeded our expectations, and I hope you will write a report for me on the situation that has occurred, and also work on improving the experiment facilities in light of this attack. For example... providing necessary physical extermination methods. This time it was the Variants; next time it might be a virus or something else."

"Additionally, recently, during a Guards Corps visit and investigation in the City of Dawn, some unusual phenomena were discovered. It is currently unclear if these phenomena are related to the tests from the Perforator, so I hope you will assist the Guards Corps in their investigation."

"Understood!" Director Dai nodded solemnly at the Manager and then instructed the staff in hazmat suits to move forward and retrieve the creature lying in the corridor.

This monster had crawled out of the Perforator, presumably the so-called "presence stuck in the wall."

If they could extract tissue samples from it, perhaps it would help them unveil what the void actually is.

Then, at that moment, the unexpected happened.

A researcher used a dropper to extract a small amount of blood sample, scanned it under a portable sample analyzer, only to find the lens completely dark, seeing nothing at all.

Initially, he thought the instrument was broken, so he borrowed a colleague's instrument, but the observation results were the same.

No matter how he adjusted the magnification options, all he saw was pure blackness, not to mention blood platelets or tissue cells floating in the liquid, not even a tiny bit of impurity was visible.

"Strange..."

He murmured, following his principle of investigating thoroughly, switched the optics to radio mode and pulled the magnification directly from 1000 to the maximum—100,000!

At this magnification, he could even see the twisted chromosomes inside the cell nucleus.

Yet, to his shock, the lens was still pitch black, with nothing visible.

"Damn it..."

If visible light penetration was insufficient, meeting some obstruction could be understandable, but he had already switched the visible light source to transmission electrons, and the result was still entirely dark, which was absurd.

He even had the illusion that the thing he was observing didn't exist at all.

Or perhaps, it was some kind of substance that was divided and subdivided at the atomic level, fundamentally unobservable with their current observation means.

Such things naturally exist in the universe.

For instance, "dark matter."

These invisible, untouchable things don't interact with electromagnetic waves in any form, almost unaffected by forces other than gravity.

The academic circles during the Human Alliance Era proposed the use of "quark-gluon plasma" to interfere with gravitons, then use gravitons as probes to scan dark matter, but unfortunately, such an idea was too forward-thinking, and the Human Alliance's technology had not yet reached the skilled level to use gravitons for such fine work.

Nonetheless, although "quark-gluon plasma" did not shine in the field of high-energy physics, a series of by-products produced from its research have been widely applied in various domains.

For instance, phase guns, deflection shields, anti-gravity devices, and the hyperspace engine that marks the pinnacle of Human Alliance's aerospace technology, although they use nuclear fusion reactors, essentially use "quark-gluon plasma" as a medium to interfere with gravitons.

Of course, this is all off-topic.

In any case, when the researcher discovered that the monster's blood seemed to be some kind of "high-density" dark matter, he immediately ran over to Yin Fang and Director Dai with a ghost-like expression to report his discovery.

Yin Fang and Dai Huaian both paused, showing a ghost-like expression on their faces.

"Dark matter... How could this be."

Although this stuff is omnipresent in the universe, with total mass far exceeding that of visually perceptible material, its density is extremely sparse, neither generating nor emitting any electromagnetic waves.

As everyone knows, human eyes can see things because the photoreceptor cells in the eyes can distinguish specific wavelengths of electromagnetic waves.

If this thing were really dark matter, they wouldn't be able to see it at all.

Moreover, since dark matter is unaffected by strong and weak forces, it fundamentally cannot aggregate into an observable stable structure.

It would pass like quicksand through the surfaces of all visible objects, drawn by gravity into the cores of massive celestial bodies, then split into solitary particles, scattering along gravitational curves, ultimately vanishing into the intangible.

Of course, this is only a hypothetical possibility, and in fact, dark matter fundamentally cannot aggregate—

As the two were still baffled, an even more unbelievable scene unfolded.

The black liquid in the test tube and lying in the analyzer's petri dish suddenly became transparent.

Without waiting for everyone to react, they seemed to lose all force constraints and suddenly vanished into thin air.

Surprised screams echoed one after another.

"This is..."

Looking at the samples disappearing into thin air, Dai Huaian was completely stunned, while Yin Fang standing next to him suddenly turned his gaze to the giant lizard corpse split into two.

The same seemed to be happening over there.

Before everyone's eyes, the massive body gradually faded, lightened, hollowed... ultimately collapsing like a sand castle, turning into dust, and disappearing into the void.

The towering [waves] staggered against the wall, staring wide-eyed as the monster that had taken out three of his good brothers vanished into thin air in the hallway as if it had never been there.

"Holy crap..."

When did this game become able to automatically clean up corpses?!

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