Chapter 808 — A Visit to Sandbox One

"The exploration team reported this strange phenomenon as well," Selina said with a nod. "Throughout Nim Sanzhuo and the surrounding villages and towns, this uncanny stench of decay hangs everywhere. It is not very strong, but it covers a very wide area. The team never found the source of the smell, but the odors themselves seem to do no harm."

Gao Yang sniffed, and said casually, "Could it be that the vanished inhabitants of the sandbox are slowly rotting somewhere we cannot see, or in some state we cannot see?"

Hearing Gao Yang's words, Yuri's face twitched despite himself, and beside him Magnum instinctively swept his gaze around the vast, empty desert, his brow knitting tight. "This is really... are all Wanderers from Beyond as good at scaring people as you?"

"Just call me Gao Yang. It might help everyone relax," Gao Yang said, glancing at Magnum. Without waiting for a reply, he strode toward the entrance of the city-state. "Let's not waste time. We only have 'ten days.'"

Magnum and the others followed at once, while Gao Yang, walking on, quietly activated the settings deep within his consciousness and tried to reach the perception runes installed beside him in the real world.

He sensed those runes dimly, and through them he perceived the presence of Amber and Tyr.

But the feeling that came back was very, very strange, tinged with a dull, sluggish oddity, as though he were observing an extremely slowed world through severe delay.

So this was the effect of "time iteration"...

Gao Yang mused inwardly.

A tenfold time iteration was already enough to leave him able to perceive reality only vaguely, all but unable to communicate with the real world. Then under the thousandfold or even higher iterations of the past, the inhabitants of Sandbox One must have been utterly incapable of connecting with the real world.

Even when information exchange occasionally occurred, all they could receive were reality's messages, grotesquely distorted and blurred.

This sandbox was an isolated island...

With such reflections, Gao Yang led his three temporary companions into the city-state surrounded by yellow sand.

Buildings of earth-yellow or grayish-white stood along both sides of the streets, most with flat roofs and arched window frames. Bright red and yellow cloth banners hung between the taller houses, spanning above the streets and fluttering ceaselessly in the dry wind.

"This is a completely different style from that phantom town we saw before..." Magnum could not help saying.

Selina spoke up, explaining for Gao Yang's benefit as well: "Sandbox One is enormous. Besides this city-state of Nim Sanzhuo in the desert region, there is also Quietvale City in the forest region, Maple Creek City at the edge of the marshlands, and various other city-states and kingdoms... Under time acceleration this place has developed for over a thousand years, with millions of virtual personalities living and multiplying within it. The starting point of the sandbox's civilization was set in the Iron Age, which was enough for the inhabitants to expand their 'world' to a very large scope."

Gao Yang raised an eyebrow: "The starting point of civilization here was set in the Iron Age?"

"Yes," Selina nodded. "If it were set directly in the primitive era, the sandbox would need an extremely long span of years to develop a true civilization, and there would be far too much uncertainty along the way. Even with time iteration to accelerate it, the whole experimental process would be dragged out enormously. So we gave each sandbox a set of foundational data, including a complete history from the primitive era to the Iron Age, along with corroborating archaeological discoveries. This allows the virtual inhabitants and physical residents within the sandbox to enter the stage of civilizational deduction more quickly."

"...This really is a massive undertaking."

Selina seemed to catch a hint of deeper meaning in Gao Yang's tone and could not help feeling curious: "Is something the matter?"

"No... nothing I can think of for now," Gao Yang shook his head. "I'm just in awe of the patience and perseverance you all had when writing this thing."

Selina could not tell whether this was genuine praise or sarcasm, but just as she was about to say something more, a building that came into view cut her off before she could speak.

At the end of the sand-strewn street appeared a structure clearly taller and more magnificent than those around it, flanked and guarded by dozens of pale-gold sculpted columns and stone statues.

"Is that a temple?" Gao Yang asked casually, gazing into the distance.

"It matches the outline of the building reported by the exploration team," Yuri nodded. "It should be the city-state temple of Nim Sanzhuo."

Gao Yang was thoughtful: "A completely different style from the church in the phantom town."

"But the same 'deity' is worshipped inside."

Selina said softly.

The same deity was worshipped... yet because of regional cultural differences, temples of different styles had been built.

Once again Gao Yang realized how powerful Sandbox One was in terms of "verisimilitude," and how the civilization within the sandbox had developed step by step.

And as he pondered, they had already drawn near the temple.

At the temple entrance facing the street, Gao Yang saw the familiar relief, carved into a massive stone that stood in the plaza before the temple:

A giant palm, spread over the symbolic earth — the emblem of the Upper Narrators.

Gao Yang's gaze swept over the relief symbolizing the Upper Narrators, and he stepped past the great stone, preparing to enter the temple.

But at the temple doorway, his footsteps suddenly halted.

His eyes were fixed on a stone pillar at the temple entrance.

On the surface of that pillar, a line of text was starkly carved deep into the stone. The strokes were cut deep, yet the handwriting was messy and twisted; the depths of every stroke seemed to glisten with a dark red, as if soaked in blood. The mere sight of it seemed to convey boundless despair and madness. It was only one sentence —

The god is dead.

(Oh my god!!)