The Daybreak Light Cone and the Unseen Hand of Fate

A conical, crystalline object floated in the air.

The crystal itself was nearly transparent, imbued with a faint sky-blue hue, and emanated a soft glow.

Behind its ethereal form, a blurred background hinted at white human figures.

This was a photograph of a Sundown Light Cone.

The name, as it happened, was derived purely from its shape—a luminous cone—and bore no relation to the ‘light cones’ found in science fiction.

Captured some time ago, this very photograph was now clutched by Officer Wei, who was sprawled beside Bai, ever-present when serious matters arose.

Bai, meanwhile, was utterly engrossed, using her paws to dig through a bag of chicken popcorn.

Each piece she unearthed was promptly snatched up, the crispy coating—tempting enough to make any child cry with desire—cracked open, and only the tender chicken within consumed.

It wasn’t that Bai was a picky eater.

Rather, in her current feline state, she was primarily interested in meat.

The outer batter offered no appealing aroma or sweetness to her palate.

Thus, having just encountered this novel food, Bai had dubbed them ‘chicken melon seeds.’

She cracked them open and ate the meat with the same meticulousness one would apply to melon seeds.

Officer Wei, watching from beside her, couldn’t help but interject, “Bai, wouldn’t it be easier if you just transformed into your human form to eat?”

After all, chicken popcorn was meant to be enjoyed for its delightful crunch.

Cracking it open just for the meat seemed entirely counterproductive, especially since the chicken breast inside wasn’t particularly flavorful.

“Meow?”

Bai tilted her head, gazing at Officer Wei, then lowered her eyes to the ‘chicken melon seeds’ she was meticulously cracking.

Her ears twitched, and in a flash of light, a small girl with long, milky-white hair trailing behind her appeared, now resting beside Officer Wei.

Her fair, delicate hands picked up a ‘chicken melon seed’—no, a piece of chicken popcorn—and brought it to her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

Mm-hmm…

It was indeed crunchy and fragrant, quite delicious.

So, Bai simply continued to lie there, eating in her human form, her pure, vacant gaze fixed on the distant wall.

What thoughts occupied her mind remained a mystery.

“Bai, could you take a look at this…” Officer Wei began, intending to resume their serious discussion, but her words were cut short by a small, warm, and soft hand.

Seeing her companion without food, Bai grabbed a handful of chicken popcorn, pressing her small fist against Officer Wei’s soft cheek.

Even in her human form, Bai retained the characteristic warmth of a cat-person; her body temperature was noticeably higher than that of a normal human.

Any fortunate human who held Bai’s hand would never experience the sensation of ‘icy cold hands.’

Feeling the warmth pressed against her face, Officer Wei had no choice but to accept her boss’s generous offering.

She stuffed all the food into her mouth, her cheeks bulging as she crunched twice before swallowing with difficulty.

“That… Bai, you…” Officer Wei tried again, speaking with renewed urgency.

Yet, before she could utter two words, she saw Bai’s eyes widen.

Bai then encircled the remaining food with her fluffy tail, pushed herself up with both hands, and shot Officer Wei a look that clearly conveyed, ‘If you eat like that, I won’t share any more.’

Officer Wei’s mouth twitched.

She resorted to rapid-fire speech.

“Bai, can you tell if you know where this thing is?”

Having quickly stated her request, Officer Wei pushed the photograph toward Bai.

Hearing that it was a search, Bai immediately resumed her languid posture, her soft cheek pressing against the floor, as she picked up the photo to examine it.

A crystalline, glowing cone…

What was this?

Bai tilted her head.

Did her companion want this?

Thinking this, Bai, controlling a transparent system panel that happened to be light blue, conjured a conical object.

She held it out to Officer Wei.

Despite her usual blank expression, one could inexplicably sense Bai’s desire for praise.

Officer Wei took the soft, unidentified material that had been created on the spot, sighing.

She found herself at a loss, wondering why communication was proving so difficult today.

What exactly was information?

For an informational lifeform like Bai, information wasn’t merely surface-level facts like what happened today, someone’s name, or their age.

Why is grass green?

Because of chlorophyll.

Why is chlorophyll green?

Because it absorbs red and orange light.

Why does it absorb red and orange light?

Because that is the nature of green pigment.

Just like this, an endless, nested series of questions about all things in the world, with layers of explanation, would eventually lead to the unexplainable bedrock.

This lowest layer constituted the foundation of all existence, the principles of operation, the information—or rather, the rules.

These rules, combined with energy, gave birth to matter, and under their impetus, the world began to operate.

As an informational lifeform, Bai’s will often represented fate.

Her current unconscious resistance was, in fact, fate’s resistance to impending events.

Put simply, continuing this line of questioning would lead to things Bai did not wish to happen.

Unfortunately, neither the newly awakened Bai nor the mortal Officer Wei understood the true implications.

Officer Wei painstakingly explained what the object in the photo was, its function, and briefly outlined the current situation.

Bai scratched her ear.

She hadn’t foreseen any danger in the future world, but since Officer Wei was asking, she would certainly take a look.

The intelligent Bai immediately connected this to the fluctuations that had swept across the entire sky two days prior.

With such detailed descriptions, she could now pinpoint the exact location of the Sundown Light Cone.

Her glowing ears twitched, and Bai pointed to the location of the Sundown Light Cone on the world map: the Gibson Desert in Australia.

Meanwhile, the joint organization’s online meeting was still embroiled in heated debate.

“If you hand over the item from the Arctic or the one from Africa, this matter can be easily resolved,” the American Representative declared, after half a day of ‘thorough discussion.’

“Impossible!”

“Impossible!”

“Impossible!”

Three resounding rejections rang out in unison as the African, Central Continent, and European Representatives collectively shot down the American Representative’s proposal.

Ordinary people might not grasp the danger of these six super-anomalies, but how could they not?

The Arctic anomaly had been cast into a hundred-ton solid iron block, then submerged into the deep sea beneath the ice.

Such a containment method almost screamed of the danger posed by this anomaly, known as the Disaster of Immorality.

In fact, this anomaly had only been used once in recorded history, approximately 600 years ago.

At that time, the Arctic had possessed a landmass roughly one-fifth the size of Iceland.

There had been no sea-level drop, no tsunamis, no strange phenomena—only an island that vanished without a trace.

The African anomaly, known as the Spear of the Hunting King, was similarly guarded by a joint international effort, contained near the lava lake of Mount Nyiragongo.

No one was permitted to approach, and preparations were always in place to cast it into the volcano at any moment.

The reason for such extreme vigilance was simple: the Spear of the Hunting King possessed the property of species extinction.

It had been used twice in history.

The first time, the extinction scale was limited to a specific subspecies.

However, the second time it was deployed, the scale expanded to an entire species.

Following that, the item was suspended near the volcanic crater.

No one knew if its next use would escalate the extinction to a genus, a family, or even greater.

With stringent oversight, the vigilance of the joint organization, and the prophecies of the Akashic Records, those present had maintained a degree of security regarding these overpowered items.

However, it now appeared the Akashic Records was potentially invalid, and immediately afterward, the American Representative proposed acquiring these two items.

While they claimed it was to resolve the current crisis, who could truly feel at ease?

In the original timeline, despite widespread apprehension, the American Representative ultimately revealed the reason for their confidence to resolve the crisis: their contained anomaly, Cokate the Sacrificial God.

Cokate’s ability was remarkably simple: forced equivalent exchange.

Sacrificing one item to strip another of equivalent power naturally fell within the scope of equivalent exchange.

Ultimately, under the surveillance of various nations, they sacrificed the more easily obtainable Spear of the Hunting King, directly destroying both the Spear of the Hunting King and the Sundown Light Cone.

After all, the Disaster of Immorality was exceptionally difficult to retrieve.

But that was the original timeline.

To ensure the world’s safety, they had been compelled to disclose Cokate the Sacrificial God’s ability.

Now, however, the situation had not escalated to such a critical degree.

America would not readily reveal Cokate the Sacrificial God’s ability, especially since gaining the trust of those present would necessitate exposing the countless dirty dealings performed with this anomaly during America’s rise to power.

Thus, as the representatives squabbled and worried amongst themselves, the Central Continent Representative received a document and set down his large enamel teacup.

The Central Continent Representative announced that they possessed special intelligence channels, which had provided the Sundown Light Cone’s location, precise to two decimal places of latitude and longitude.

In essence, they had its exact coordinates.

This sparked a wave of surprise and suspicion among the other representatives.

The entire Australian branch was unreachable, so how had the Central Continent obtained this information?

Their doubts persisted until the Central Continent Representative offered a light explanation.

“Anomaly characteristic: confidential.”

Oh, an anomaly, they thought.

In that case, no further questions.

Such illogical entities made attributing anything to them perfectly reasonable.

Since the precise location was now known, was there any longer a concern about a lack of solutions?

The representatives quickly reached a consensus, deciding to dispatch a joint team to investigate, recover, or destroy the anomaly.

[Ten Thousand Whys: All cats, get ready.]

[Ten Thousand Whys: Bai wasn’t wrong, we have a job!]

[Melancholy Cat: I’ll lead this time.]

[Melancholy Cat: We don’t need too many people, but we need to depart immediately—Yun Juan, Gao Xin, and Plant Cat, come with me.]

[Ten Thousand Whys: Alright then, those called, prepare yourselves.]

[Ten Thousand Whys: Good luck!]