I Am Your Natural Enemy

The Doomsday Computer underwent some changes, which didn’t surprise the General Director, nor did it surprise the Old Celestial Master.

They both knew that in the tidal wave of Spiritual Qi Resurgence, everyone could only try to keep up—no one could hold it back.

Anyone who tries to resist is just a mantis trying to stop a chariot, destined to be crushed completely.

With their previous experience with the Netherworld, plus the fact that the second and third rifts appeared in quick succession, they had already speculated days ago that the next incident might be related to the rifts.

They just didn’t expect it to come so soon, and on top of that, for it to be a preview version.

Judging by the file size of the game on the Doomsday Computer, this Great Wilderness must contain a huge amount of content, totally different from the Netherworld.

The Netherworld is basically a barren wasteland—a fact proven in person; it’s like a large map, low-res textures, not much to do.

The preview version of Great Wilderness is just the opposite—the map may not be huge, but what’s inside must be jam-packed with content.

This means there could be powerful Creatures like the Night Vigil Deity, and probably plenty of other Creatures, other things as well.

The only thing is, no one knows where this preview version will start from.

The General Director checked through the latest summary of aggregated intel.

The biggest uncontrollable risk this month is that rollback player whose name he can’t even recall anymore—he only remembers the fact itself.

Since the Atomic Clock skipped almost ten thousand times in a flash last time, it genuinely seems broken now; it’s stopped ticking and completely lost time.

Wondrous items can indeed be damaged, just in a way that’s different from ordinary items.

Apart from what the General Director remembered as the biggest headache, there were plenty of other issues too.

The Evil Suppression Detention Center could finally unleash its true suppression effects—just in time for another prison break that was over as soon as it started.

The rift tomb in the Qinling Mountains was attacked.

A giant beast dwelling beneath the northwest deserts appeared.

The next day, when Scorching Sun Department’s people followed the tracks, they found only the beast’s fresh skeleton—its flesh and blood had vanished.

Somewhere in the Northeast, a suspected mountain demon has been appearing, calling out children’s names outside their doors at night.

Lately, Harbor City in Nanwu County has also seen things straight out of urban legends.

In Guanzhong County, a high-rise project dug up a huge ancient tomb while laying foundations. No one knows what they triggered, but it woke up the Tomb Master.

The most troublesome part is, when the Tomb Master died he had eight hundred elite followers. All those elites turned into Ghosts, slumbering in the tomb—now they’ve all been awakened.

In the sea just outside the region where Haidong Prefecture and Nanwu County meet—barely three hundred nautical miles from shore—sea beasts have been sighted lately.

Then, for some reason, that sea beast made its way to the Southern Sea Region. When it attacked a cargo ship, two sunken ships suddenly surged up from under the sea. The Ghosts on those wrecks fought it out with the sea beast underwater.

The day before yesterday, Fengdu saw a procession of Lost Souls borrowing the roads, a Night Parade of Hundred Demons—a suspected Nether Path appeared that night. By dawn, it was gone.

Up in Gaoyuan County, a herdsman, after a grave illness, transformed into a Heaven-Gifted Bard, now chanting a grand epic—part of which, recently translated, contains much never recorded before.

All in all, only in the past week, just the incidents submitted to the General Director—those deemed important enough for him to know—already number in the dozens.

There are even more cases with smaller impact—most involving Ghosts. Just counting, both involving injuries and not, there’ve been over seven hundred Ghost-related cases in the past week alone.

Scorching Sun Department has always been short-staffed; now they’re desperately stretched.

Guanzhong County has started recruiting Ghosts—not just because it’s convenient, but mostly because they’re out of options.

After all, handling Ghost cases isn’t something just anyone can do.

Sometimes things can be talked out, but if the wrong person has a bad attitude and says the wrong thing, it’s not unusual for the Ghost to snap on the spot.

The General Director carefully recalled all the various summaries and intel from the past week.

He had formed a rough judgment, narrowing the possible targets down to under ten.

Then he immediately called a meeting, having the in-house strategists begin analyzing all potentially involved places, people, items...

Half an hour later, seven targets were listed. Then, using the internal computers and big data, they continued to analyze.

In the end, aggregating all intel, Guanzhong County had a correlation probability of 73%, the Northeast 65%, Binhai County 58%...

Coupled with the intel from the Old Celestial Master, the General Director had a decent assessment in mind.

But their operations couldn’t rely entirely on this kind of non-factual probability—nor could they only go to one place. All seven high-priority targets had to be covered.

After the meeting and deploying the tasks, the General Director heard about Wen Yan heading to the Northeast. He thought for a moment and called Wen Yan, but the phone registered out of service. He immediately understood—Wen Yan was traveling the Nether Path again.

The only places Wen Yan could be active—unless inside a Domain, or on the Nether Path—there’d be no signal otherwise.

Since Wen Yan had just left the White Fox Clan Territory and resolved the issue without slaughtering everyone or wiping out the White Fox Clan, the General Director decided to pretend he knew nothing about it.