Darkness

They were supposed to be here for an exhibition, yet the first place they visited was the restaurant. Qi Chuan didn’t know what to say.

Su Mian, on the other hand, didn’t care at all. He was genuinely hungry, and that feeling only intensified the moment they stepped into the dining area.

It had to be said—the Yuansheng Group lived up to its name, and Boss Yu certainly lived up to his reputation. He was undeniably loaded.

This was evident just from the first-floor restaurant.

The massive dining hall didn’t look like a private kitchen; it fully met the standards of a high-end luxury hotel. There were master chefs from various countries; you only had to tell them what you wanted, and they would prepare it fresh on the spot.

If you couldn’t wait, there was a massive buffet area on the other side. Fruits and sashimi shipped from all over the world, prepared lobster and abalone, and roasts and skewers fresh off the grill.

One could even order expensive red wine to pair with the meal. If you weren’t used to red wine, there were various famous brands of white spirits, sodas, and more.

The most important part was that guests wearing the badge could eat whatever they wanted, completely free of charge.

To this, Su Mian could only comment:

“I kind of want to live here.”

At a long table in the buffet area, Su Mian gnawed on a lobster claw that wasn’t much smaller than his head, letting out a satisfied sigh.

Across from him, Qi Chuan covered his face with his hand, looking utterly speechless. “Can’t you show a little restraint with your eating habits?”

“What does it matter?”

Su Mian didn’t care. He didn’t think his eating was particularly rude. He might be holding it and gnawing, but he wasn’t making a mess. At least compared to that person at the opposite table…

“Hmm?”

His gaze swept over another table about five or six meters away, and Su Mian’s chewing slowed to a halt.

Seeing him stop suddenly, Qi Chuan was confused and instinctively turned to look. On a nearby table, another guest was also feasting greedily.

It was a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his forties, dressed in a sharp suit with a meticulously trimmed mustache.

The reason Su Mian stopped wasn’t just because the man had a mountain of food piled on his table, but because of his “tragic” eating style, which completely contradicted his sophisticated attire.

Yes, tragic—that was the only word to describe it.

For instance, he was currently eating a roast chicken. He was using his bare hands, tearing into it until his mouth and face were covered in grease, and even his clothes were stained.

The crucial part was that the roast chicken looked slightly larger than a human head, yet as he grabbed and bit at it with both hands, he managed to swallow the entire thing in less than a minute.

And…

“Did he just… not spit out the bones?”

Qi Chuan’s eyes widened in disbelief. Yes, the man hadn’t spat out a single chicken bone!

What the hell? Was he part wolf-dog? Is human bite force really that exaggerated? And just how hungry do you have to be to not even spit out the bones!

Moreover, this scene felt strangely familiar…

Instantly, Qi Chuan couldn’t help but recall the scenes he had witnessed in front of the restaurant earlier. A wave of intense nausea hit him, and the food he had just consumed began to churn violently in his stomach.

“Ugh!”

Finally unable to hold it back, and having no mood to wonder if this person had a problem too, the young man scrambled to his feet. “I’m going to the restroom!”

Qi Chuan ran off quickly. Su Mian ignored him, continuing to chew slowly while watching the strange man in the distance.

Not a Devilman.

Indeed, he didn’t feel any overly strange aura from this person; at least, the man was definitely human.

As for why he was eating so ferociously and swallowing bones… uh, maybe he was just really hungry? Or maybe the chicken was made so crispy that there was no need to spit them out?

Su Mian found it odd. He briefly debated whether to get one himself to see if it really tasted that good, but decided to pass.

Soon, he noticed that the number of people in the restaurant seemed to be increasing. Just a moment ago there were only three or four, but in the five minutes it took for Qi Chuan to clean himself up and return, the number had grown to over a dozen.

Qi Chuan was also puzzled. He looked left and right, bewildered. “Why are there suddenly so many people? Did no one eat breakfast?”

Su Mian didn’t answer. Mostly because he didn’t know how.

But vaguely, he felt something was off.

After filling their stomachs—though Qi Chuan had no appetite after his ordeal—the two left the restaurant.

Su Mian sensed something was wrong and wanted to find a moment to ask his other self if she had discovered anything, but as soon as they left, he was dragged to the second-floor exhibition hall.

“Come to think of it, Boss Yu is actually a Fourth Era enthusiast. That’s quite rare.”

There were several exhibition halls on the second floor, but the styles of the exhibits were basically the same: a style full of bizarre, chaotic, and absurd elements. This was the hallmark of the Fourth Era.

For example, when they first stepped into the hall, the first exhibit in the very first display case was a strange pottery figurine.

The figurine was about the size of a palm and was generally human-shaped, but it had four hands, all varying in size and length. All four hands were in a gripping posture; it looked like it originally held something, but now they were empty.

The key was the painted decoration on the figurine—patterns that were difficult to describe in words. Only the head could be vaguely discerned as having facial features, but this figurine had six eyes painted on it, with one even growing on the back of its head.

It looked extremely eerie, even sinister.

The most common finds excavated from the Fourth Era were these strange little figurines.

They were made of various materials: from common stone, bone, and ceramic to jade and even steel. There were also many strange composite substances that modern scholars still haven’t figured out.

But without exception, their style was filled with absurdity and chaos.

This was likely related to the destruction of the Fourth Era. The Fourth Era was known as the “Dark Era” or the “Chaotic Era.” Among all the eras, it is the one that modern humans find the most difficult to research.

Currently, the only certainty is that for some unknown reason, the Fourth Era lost its light!

Indeed, most of the remaining records of the Fourth Era mention terms like “The Sun Extinguished” or “Darkness Without Light.”

As for why the sun disappeared or was extinguished back then, or whether it truly vanished or went out, the records are very, very sparse. The few bits of related information are described very cryptically.

Su Mian remembered seeing it in a popular science book called Infinite Darkness: The Collapse of the Fourth Era while looking for books in the university library. It mentioned that a certain ruin contained a record of why the light disappeared back then. Translated, it read:

“The dog ate the sun, the cat swallowed the moon, and thus the world could no longer see light.”

Modern academia argued incessantly over the meaning of this sentence, proposing numerous hypotheses, but unfortunately, no one had evidence to prove their speculation was correct.

In Su Mian’s view, the phrase “The dog ate the sun” naturally made him think of a solar eclipse. But “The cat swallowed the moon” was truly baffling.

After all, he had only ever heard of the Heavenly Dog eating the sun; he had never heard of a Heavenly Cat swallowing the moon.

In the memories of my past life, I used T-Mall (Sky Cat) for shopping, though…

Of course, it could be a cultural difference. Perhaps in the Fourth Era, “The Cat Swallowed the Moon” meant the same thing as the Heavenly Dog eating the sun—representing lunar and solar eclipses.

But as everyone knows, both solar and lunar eclipses are merely astronomical phenomena and are very brief in duration.

According to current records, the darkness of the Fourth Era lasted for a considerable period. Moreover, it wasn’t just the light from the sun, moon, or stars that disappeared, but all light whatsoever.

This included natural light and all forms of man-made light.

It was a true age of darkness.