“Do you want to join our Liberation Syndicate?” Meryl asked with a smile.
Even without Meryl saying it outright, Ming Yi had already noticed something. Back when she described the fate of the first generation, she had mentioned that many of them hadn’t died to Ravagers, but to faction wars.
Sure enough, wherever there were people, there was conflict. In a place this barren, where survival itself was hard, different groups would inevitably form for profit and survival, then turn on each other.
Cruel as it was, reducing the population was also one way to solve resource shortages.
And war was the fastest, most direct way to do that.
Seeing the serious look on the senior’s face, as if he were tensely thinking something through, Meryl gave a light laugh.
“You don’t need to be too nervous. I’m not trying to force you. It’s just that one of our Syndicate’s principles is to extend an olive branch to all who wish to survive.”
“You’re the third generation. Everything in this world is unknown to you. At a time like this, joining an organization and seeking protection is honestly the best choice.”
There was nothing wrong with what she said. Right now, with no one to rely on, it really would be hard for them to survive in a world like this on their own.
As for the Liberation Syndicate Meryl belonged to—even if they still didn’t know the details, one thing was certain. A group that had a high-combat team like the Loki Squad, and likely more than one, could never be some obscure little faction.
Ming Yi couldn’t sort out the pros and cons right away, so he looked toward the senior and senior sister.
The senior was still frowning in thought, while the senior sister asked openly and calmly, “Can you tell us more specifically about your society?”
“Of course.” Meryl smiled again.
“As I said before, after the first generation went through the initial bloody struggle and exploration, they gradually grasped the rules of this world. Stable groups and civilizations began to take shape. The Shatterborn searched for Blood Essence and protected the ordinary people under them, while the ordinary people developed and reproduced civilization under that protection.”
“The results of that reproduction—those born from unions between people, those born natively in the Shattered Realm—we call them ‘residents.’”
Hearing that, the senior finally understood the question Bailian had asked him when they first met.
“After years of exploration, years of large-scale conflict, and years of smaller clashes and adjustment, the first generation finally more or less settled their spheres of influence in Year 23 of the First Era. The world situation gradually stabilized as well.”
“It actually wasn’t that complicated. It was a very simple bipolar opposition—the Eastern Alliance and the Western Alliance, ruling Eurasia and the Americas respectively.”
“When that initial structure was established, humanity had already been worn down by years of war and struggle. The first generation’s population had dropped sharply to only a few hundred thousand. The massive casualties left both alliances with no will to keep fighting.”
“As civilization stabilized, the human population began to recover. With the first generation’s efforts, some items from their old society gradually started being reproduced and standardized. Human society slowly began to regain some of the scale it had in the outside world. At the same time, many newborn babies among the residents also awakened Corruption Artifacts and became Shatterborn. However—”
Meryl suddenly shifted tone.
“All of that continued until thirty years ago, when things finally changed.”
“In December of Year 69 of the First Era, both the Eastern Alliance and the Western Alliance were struck by a massive calamity. The two alliances were nearly wiped out. The population dropped again to just over a hundred thousand, and the number of Shatterborn left as fighting power was pitifully small.”
“Wait,” Xiao Chengcheng asked in confusion, “what kind of calamity could nearly destroy two major alliances that had developed for decades?”
“This...” Meryl hesitated, then said, “Sorry. That calamity is classified within every organization now. I can’t tell you about it yet.”
A trace of unreadable emotion flashed through Meryl’s eyes.
Ming Yi noticed it.
Even if it was classified, an S Class Corruptor like Meryl should count as upper echelon. She might very well be qualified to know what happened in that calamity.
But for now, that disaster had little to do with him, so Ming Yi didn’t dwell on it.
“Then let me ask something else,” the senior picked up where Xiao Chengcheng left off. “How many Shatterborn are there? What’s the ratio compared to ordinary civilians?”
“Before the calamity, the civilian population was close to seven hundred thousand. Even conservatively, there were several thousand, maybe close to ten thousand Shatterborn. But after the calamity...” Meryl paused. “Only a little over a hundred thousand civilians remained, and fewer than a thousand Shatterborn.”
Not even one in a hundred.
And among them, high-level Shatterborn had to be even rarer.
What kind of calamity could cause destruction on that scale?
A natural disaster? Or man-made?
Meryl continued, “Fortunately, just as human civilization was on the verge of being reset and starting over, the Shattered Realm changed. The environment of the entire world underwent a mutation.”
“Everything in the world became something the first generation had never seen before. There were many new high-rises, vehicles, and objects they had never encountered. These replaced the ruins that had barely changed for decades—though those new buildings and objects were still in ruins themselves.”
“And along with those changes came—the second generation.”
At that point, another doubt in Ming Yi’s heart was finally answered.
If this was an independent space that had existed for nearly a century, then why did the ruined buildings around them all look the way they had before he blacked out? Shanghai University a hundred years ago definitely hadn’t looked like this.
Not to mention his External Relations Department clubroom.
“I’m sure you’ve already guessed it. That’s right. The arrival of each generation causes one reset of the Shattered Realm. This is also the only connection between the Shattered Realm and the outside world.”
“The arrival of the second generation reshuffled every force in the world all over again. The already devastated eastern and western alliances quickly fell apart, and the world situation became a tangled mess once more.”
“And at that time, a young man from the second generation, not yet twenty years old, stepped forward. With overwhelming strength and iron-blooded methods, he quickly gathered a group of powerful Shatterborn and founded what was then, and still is now, the strongest organization in the world—”
“Our Liberation Syndicate.” Meryl spread her arms. “That man is our leader, the man hailed as the one closest to god in the Shattered Realm—Krishis Rothschild.”
When she spoke of that man, reverence appeared on Meryl’s face. At the end, she added one more line.
“He is also the only SSS Class Corruptor in the world.”
The only SSS Class Corruptor?
Ming Yi was startled. Was that the true ceiling of combat power in this world?
That said, there was something else that caught his attention—the leader’s surname.
Rothschild.
That had been an extremely famous family in the original world. Even if it had declined now, its glory was still undeniable.
Was that surname just a coincidence, or...
“The Liberation Syndicate isn’t devoted to unifying all the world’s factions. In fact, it’s the exact opposite,” Meryl continued. “We are devoted to maintaining balance among the world’s forces, recognizing each faction’s territory and sovereignty, and advocating for the end of war.”
“And this time, from his arrival to the end of the conflict, until the world situation stabilized once again, Lord Krishis spent a total of—”
Meryl paused, then spoke slowly.
“—only ten years.”
