The Day-Night Cone’s Awakening and the Missing Akashic Records

Legend has it that eons ago, a powerful deity held dominion over the cycle of day and night.

Under the sunlit day, plants would burgeon wildly, while beneath the moon’s glow, insects would swarm forth from their nests.

People suffered immensely, their lives a perpetual struggle.

Witnessing this, the deity was moved by compassion, sacrificing themselves to seal their immense power and restore the natural rhythm of day and night.

This sealed divine power coalesced into a crystal, said to bestow the deity’s might upon its bearer.

[Ten Thousand Whys: Of course, this is merely a local legend. The true reason I’m telling you this story is that it fully explains the abilities of the Sundown Light Cone.]

Within the Pact group chat, after Dr. Cat finished recounting the legend, Officer Wei promptly chimed in to elaborate.

[Melancholy Cat: The Sundown Light Cone can manipulate the alternation of day and night.]

[Melancholy Cat: Under its controlled cycle, plants would grow rampantly during the day, and insect infestations would erupt at night.]

[Melancholy Cat: Therefore, even though the current day-night cycle still appears normal, the abnormal growth of plants and the unusual behavior of insects all point to one thing: this overpowered anomaly has gradually begun to take effect.]

Why were these matters suddenly being explained to the cats?

Let us rewind time a short while.

Perhaps due to a resonance caused by their shared nature as anomalies, the few leaves sprouting from Plant Cat’s head suddenly began a secondary growth spurt, becoming exceptionally lush.

They grew so profusely that they almost completely enveloped her small head, forcing her to style her own leaves.

Initially, this peculiar phenomenon wouldn’t have drawn much attention.

However, it was immediately followed by a riot among several contained insect anomalies.

As has been mentioned many times before, even beast-type anomalies merely act according to certain rules; they possess no intelligence of their own.

In Bai’s words, they have no soul.

For ordinary members of the Countermeasure Bureau, this might not have seemed significant.

But for the higher-ups, who were aware of the six overpowered anomalies, the simultaneous riot of plants and insects immediately raised suspicions about Australia’s Sundown Light Cone.

Now, the only lingering question was why the Akashic Records, the most ’embarrassing’ of the six overpowered anomalies—a completely non-aggressive, passive prophecy book, only listed among the six to make up the numbers for Europe—had shown no activity.

The Sundown Light Cone, an item whose activation directly impacts the entire globe, should, by all accounts, trigger a reaction from the Akashic Records at the slightest disturbance, prompting a notification to the joint organization.

Had the Akashic Records unexpectedly failed to react this time, or was the notification simply not relayed to the Central Continent?

Global matters demanded utmost seriousness; even a mere premonition or a guess warranted investigation.

After all, it was just a matter of asking.

Thus, as soon as the matter was reported, it immediately garnered attention.

Following inquiries to the joint organization and the Australian branch, something amiss came to light.

The joint organization promptly verified the situation, confirming its truth.

This indirectly revealed that it wasn’t a lack of notification; rather, Europe’s Akashic Records had genuinely shown no reaction.

This led to the fundamental reason for today’s small meeting: inquiries from various continents to the Australian branch, which yielded no results.

The Australian Countermeasure Department had completely lost contact.

The Akashic Records had predicted events for hundreds of years without error, fostering a deep trust among everyone.

So, initially, there was still some doubt, but now, genuine panic had set in.

So far, it was only a problem with plants and insects, but who could guarantee it would remain that way?

Insects and plants were always merely side effects.

The Sundown Light Cone’s true cataclysmic power lay in controlling day and night.

Should the Sundown Light Cone, whose current state was unknown, undergo a change—a reversal of day and night, eternal night, or eternal day—it would signify that the anomaly, which had been concealed for nearly a millennium, could no longer be contained.

Eternal day and day-night reversal might be manageable, but an eternal night would almost certainly spell the end of human civilization.

While existing technology might be sufficient to establish ecological preserves for a small fraction of survivors, by the time these were built and operational, a civilization that had lost 95% or more of its human population would be indistinguishable from one that had perished.

To prevent such an outcome, finding the Sundown Light Cone—and regardless of what had transpired, shutting it down or directly destroying it—was the most urgent priority.

[Yun Juan: Why are these dangerous things kept separately?]

After explaining what had happened, Yun Juan asked curiously.

[Melancholy Cat: Precisely because they are dangerous, they are stored separately.]

[Melancholy Cat: On a side note, there are two reasons why the Sundown Light Cone was placed in Australia: first, it was discovered there; second, if anyone there absolutely had to try using it, they’d be the first to suffer the consequences.]

Yun Juan tilted her head, pondering the Australian environment, where countless small creatures beneath every rock could potentially poison someone.

She nodded thoughtfully.

[Gao Xin: So, is there a plan for explaining all this to us cats?]

As expected of the pair who had established their close bond several versions ago, the two cat-girls asked questions in perfect synchronicity.

[Ten Thousand Whys: Actually, there aren’t any concrete plans yet.]

[Ten Thousand Whys: The main reason for explaining this to you cats is so you can be ready to deploy immediately if a plan is made.]

[Ten Thousand Whys: The higher-ups are currently in an emergency meeting.]

After repeated attempts, contacting the Australian branch remained fruitless.

The helpless joint organization immediately convened an emergency meeting, even foregoing an in-person gathering for an immediate online conference.

They were currently locked in a heated, irresolvable argument.

“I can guarantee with absolute certainty that the Akashic Records showed no reaction whatsoever.”

“In fact, ever since it gave that inexplicable garbled prophecy last time, the Akashic Records’ energy level has been gradually declining.”

“To this day, its energy fluctuations are almost nonexistent.”

The European branch head, a man of middle-age appearance, spoke with a bitter expression, indicating that this was not his fault.

This was true.

The Akashic Records had indeed declared itself defunct after predicting Bai’s destiny.

How could an anomaly predict the fate of Bai, an immensely vast informational lifeform?

After glimpses of a vague fragment of the future, all of the Akashic Records’ energy was drawn into the vortex of destiny, serving as the impetus for its own progression.

“Let’s set that aside for now.”

“The main purpose of this meeting is how to resolve this incident!”

The Secretary-General’s head was pounding.

He was due to retire in a few months, only to encounter such a mess.

“We have submitted proposals multiple times regarding the destruction of the overpowered anomalies held by various nations.”

The American Representative seemed indignant, but his words were nothing more than a joke.

Anyone who actually believed him would be truly foolish.

Who knew what his true motives were for making such a suggestion?

They had even proposed taking custody of all anomalies themselves back then.

It’s worth noting that anomalies have existed for a long time, but the Countermeasure Bureau is only a few decades old; before that, everyone fought their own battles.

“Heh… Even your hindsight is off the mark,” the Central Continent Representative scoffed, not bothering to hide their disdain.