Dark Moon Era

Chapter 293: You Are Tang Ling

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Yes, change!

Everything was changing. Mankind was a special existence, but it did not mean they would not change. That night, mankind changed too.

Anyone who has experienced the change will never forget the feeling for the rest of his or her life.

It starts from the eyes. You feel everything starting to slow down but it wasn’t the environment; it’s you who is getting faster. Then, you will feel your body started to expand like exploding energy coming out from your body. When you kick away one of the rats that are attacking you, you will be shocked to see the rat burst into pieces with a single kick.

Yes, the rats are big but shouldn’t it be like kicking a dog? It isn’t easy even for a person to kick away a dog, yet such an outrageous scene happened.

You might find all these hard to believe, but it was just the beginning. Next, you realize that you can easily dodge the debris in the wind.

I am one of those who changed. I experienced everything myself, but I didn’t feel any joy or happiness. When the change happened during the apocalypse, all I felt was sadness and it continued to torment me.

The earthquakes continued, so the ground shook every several minutes. The shaking toppled over an iron rack beside us, so we had to let go of each other’s hand to dodge the falling rack...

Little did I know that that split would separate us forever.

She dodged the falling rack, but the three big rats that were behind her jumped on her!

I thought that since I had become something more than human, I could have brought her away from all this, but in the end, I failed to do so.

...

I originally planned to become a recorder of the truth. I wanted to pass this diary to the next generation and so on. I wanted mankind’s descendants to know what happened from someone who had experienced it all. I wanted them to know how my civilization got overturned.

In this vast and boundless universe, mankind is nothing but specks of dust. We are weak.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t free myself from the shackles of love. I can’t muster enough courage to record the cruelty that I witnessed at her last moment and what happened after that.

Even after I became something beyond human, I couldn’t find any trace left behind by my parents. All I heard were painful cries and wails in the ruins.

I was their son, but I was useless. I was helpless when it came to stopping the impending doom from the apocalypse. I couldn’t even send them away or see them for the last time and lay them to rest forever. The apocalypse robbed my right and made it into wishful thinking.

My words might seem calm, but the hatred and grudge in my eyes overflowed that night. I had no tears left to cry because my eyes were dry to the point that it hurt.

I try my best to describe the moment when the disaster happened. However, enduring the pain in my memories, my thoughts ultimately strayed. What I remember is just a tiny portion of the doomsday event. What I’ve described is just the tip of the iceberg.

I wonder what people will think in the future when they read my diary.

Do not be afraid, be bold and go wild with your guesses.

I guess your speculations will be the same as mine, the apocalypse was a deep conspiracy.

From the Purple Moon, to the meteor shower, to the monsters attacking humans and ultimately the natural disaster, everything seemed to be a part of a huge conspiracy, unfolding layer by layer.

On second thought, I discovered many traces of man in all the disasters. If the mastermind behind all this was indeed an intellectual being, I think I would have to call the mastermind a human. Destroying weapons with clear intentions, organizing mutated monsters to attack cities and causing natural disasters using some unknown methods...

I’m not writing all this under stress. What I write here is all the truth.

The fact that mankind’s weapons were destroyed proves that if the mastermind isn’t a being with intellect, the attack wouldn’t be this specific.

As for the mutated monsters falling under command, there were survivors who claim that they saw humanoid figures gathering in an organized fashion and commanding the attack. What were they?

The natural disasters were strange as they happened so suddenly and violently, yet they were controlled perfectly to the point that they did not destroy everything. At least, the superhumans like me were able to survive.

After that, I got some news saying that the destruction of human civilization did not start that night. It happened sometime before that night. Some rats and insects had already destroyed some towns and villages around the world.

However, the tiny disasters did not happen in Huaxia where the population was dense. They happened in other continents where populations were much more scattered, and in order to prevent panic and chaos, some news were hidden from the media.

After that night, everything was revealed and everyone sighed helplessly. It felt like the towns and villages were experiments to prepare for the real operation when the Purple Moon rose in the sky. This whole thing reeked of conspiracy and no one was able to wrap their heads around it.

Despite the terrible things that have happened, I still don’t believe that that night was meant to destroy mankind. If it was meant to destroy the entire civilization, the attacks, the disasters, and everything else could be a little fiercer. Then, mankind would never have been able to come back from the defeat.

Could things have been worse back then? Was it the best the mastermind could do? No, no one wanted to believe it. Judging from how things unfolded in an organized fashion, the mastermind or the organization behind it could have easily annihilated mankind that night.

All the disasters happened that night only. It became calm and peaceful after that, but...the changes in the world continued.

...

After a little over six months, I have been through a lot.

People say time heals wounds and washes everything away. Time really did wash everything away, but it didn’t heal the wounds in me.

My wounds started to scab, but beneath it, it was still bloody. My words were calm, but I can’t possibly describe how much pain I was in. Sometimes, I want to give up. I want to rest forever. I want to immerse myself in the dream of the old civilization and never wake up.

Now, everything has become tougher to the point that we lived like primitives on this planet and the environment has started to become scary and unknown.

Still, we must survive! After that night, the survivors knew staying alive became a duty, a duty to prolong mankind’s existence in this world. So, I can only reminisce about the past in my dream.

I want to dream tonight. I might be able to dream about someone that I’m familiar with, and if I’m lucky, I might be able to see my parents or even her. I want to tell them some good news.

I’m already a Purple Moon Warrior.

In this new era, the superhumans that survived have been given a new title by the people—the Purple Moon Warriors. We are warriors that fight fearlessly and tirelessly even under the devilish Purple Moon.

If I can live a long life, I want to be an observer of the era. I want to record the start of this new era from the day it started, the difficulties, the fights...

******

Tang Ling looked up and closed the book with a clap as he started to breathe heavily.

He was not tired at all. The body techniques and the tender herbal bath eliminated his fatigue, but he felt so heavy that he could barely breathe.

Tang Ling thought he was a calm person and even cold-blooded at times, but somehow, for some unknown reason, when he learned the truth about why the era changed and how the old civilization got destroyed, he resonated with it and could not free himself from the burden of it.

Is it normal for me to be this sensitive?

Tang Lind doubted it heavily as if the concern came from his bones.

I’m so concerned. Is it because of my missing memories?

‘The Purple Moon Chronicles’ was somewhat thick. It still had many important things about the Purple Moon era after that such as how to define a Purple Moon Warrior and what were the differences in ranks; what were the other occupations in the Purple Moon era and where the super-advanced technology came from.

However, Tang Ling had lost the mood to continue. He looked at Boss Huang who shot him a profound gaze like countless secrets were hidden in his eyes.

Nonetheless, Tang Ling somewhat resonated with the profound gaze from the bottom of his heart. At that moment, he realized Boss Huang must know a lot more about the truth. He wiped the water and sweat off his face and asked gravely, “Boss, is it a conspiracy?”

“Yeah,” Boss Huang answered without a doubt.

The change of era was a conspiracy? Who did it? Whose invisible hands were those that toppled the world?

“Extraterrestrials?” Tang Ling raised a curious brow.

“Bullsh*t.” Boss Huang was not joking with his answer either.

“Then? Who can it be? Why did the mastermind destroy civilization? Isn’t it cruel? Why?” Tang Ling bolted up from the tub in anger.

“Who is it, you ask?” Boss Huang also stood up. He sauntered to the window and gazed into the sea which had turned black due to the darkness of the night as he went silent. The little ember in the smoking pipe flickered while the smoke rose and almost enveloped Boss Huang whole.

“Didn’t you read? The diary said it isn’t about destruction. And what if I told you the one who did this is one of us? Will you believe me?” Boss Huang suddenly sounded frivolous, but he did not look at Tang Ling as his eyes were glued to the window.

Tang Ling almost choked on the answer and nearly threw up! Boss Huang might as well not have answered instead of giving such a vague answer that would make people scratch their heads.

It was then that Boss Huang turned around, his eyes suddenly becoming sharp. “Trying to pry the truth of the world out of me? Do you think you have the right to do so now? Discussing this with you is like saving the world with an ant. What a joke!”

“I didn’t say I want to save the world,” Tang Ling grumbled.

“Shut up. Since you aren’t going to save the world, there’s no point for you to know the truth. To live a long life is to learn how to tone down your curiosity at appropriate times. If I were you, I’d seriously consider reading what’s next in ‘The Purple Moon Chronicles’. I think the latter is much more practical for you.

“Look at you. I guess you don’t even know what is a rank 1 Purple Moon Warrior and how they measure the ranks of a Purple Moon Warrior. You really have some balls, kid. You know nothing, yet you’ve stepped on so many people’s tails and have gone through ridiculous amounts of fights. What are you if not lucky?” Boss Huang stopped Tang Ling and expressed his thoughts.

Tang Ling’s expression changed for the worse. “You...know who I am?”

“You are Tang Ling, aren’t you?” Boss Huang spat a ring of smoke out and glared at Tang Ling. “Do you think I’m stupid? Or do you think you are an idiot?”

As he spoke, he strode over to the desk and took several newspapers out of the files and tossed them at Tang Ling’s face.

“Your lousy disguise can’t escape my eyes.” This time around, that hint of anger was replaced by his sleazy cunning smile.