Translator: La0o9 

In the past, the languages and accents of all humans were the same.

Humanity was born from the earth, they were originally just apes who gained sentience by borrowing the guidance of the Divine flame's knowledge, the first generation of humanity even obtained terrifying strength from it.

But after the Divine flame was taken back, the G.o.d who held the Divine flame returned to his throne in heaven. Humanity's offspring gradually stabilized to become mundane, their overall abilities were restrained to a certain limit.

The original human who brought the Divine flame to humanity had now ascended as a G.o.d, his descendants of the Central clan professed themselves as the children of G.o.d, becoming the chief of the Central tribe. They were the leader of humanity's largest tribe as well as the surrogate leader of humanity as a whole.

“The so-called Tower of Babel incident was in fact the great migration of humanity” inside the phone booth, Rip explained: “In the beginning, humanity all gathered in a single region, which made the language and culture of the tribes similar in many aspects. However, as humanity continued to prosper and thrive, there was no longer enough s.p.a.ce to live, various resources also started to become scarce”

“What naturally followed would either be war, or the ma.s.s migration of humans to other regions. It was during such circ.u.mstances that the Tower of Babel incident occurred”

“After the Tower of Babel incident, humanity became scattered all over the world. As their living environment became different, the original language also started to change. First was speech, followed by writing, customs, culture, everything started to differ. But it was also this change that truly allowed humanity to become the lords of this world”

“This diversity of culture allowed humans to continue maintaining and prolonging their timeline as far as they did, despite the lack of both technology and supernatural powers”

“For that reason, we need to ensure that the Tower of Babel incident occurs no matter what”

“Then what exactly was the Tower of Babel incident?” Constantine breathed out a puff of white smoke and lazily asked with a cigarette in her hand: “And don't tell me it's the same thing as the one in the bible, we both know that's nothing but the derived product of an anomaly”

“Naturally not, we only named them the same because they both ended up with the same results” Rip replied: “With the correct point of view, all of us know that 'G.o.d' is nothing but an illusion, but 'he' was still an anomaly that caused the timeline to veer off-course, the side-effects naturally couldn't be completely avoided”

“The Tower of Babel incident was believed to be the earliest instance of a 'containment breach'. At the age of beginning, the Divine flame granted wisdom to humanity, and there was a great altar that wors.h.i.+pped the Divine flame being kept in the Central tribe. According to legends, the Divine flame itself was in fact a grid that spread throughout the entire world, which anyone could borrow to travel to any place in this world, including the past and future”

“It was through this that Suiren – also known as Prometheus, the ent.i.ty who borrowed the Divine flame grid – managed to obtain knowledge of the future, becoming the progenitor and guide for all humanity. He ultimately ascended as G.o.d, thus taking back the Divine flame”

“For some reason, these secrets were discovered, leading to the greed of certain tribes. They cooperated with one another in an attempt to rebel and kill this generation's Central tribe chieftain, take down the altar, and retrieve the Divine flame. This led to the Divine flame grid going out of control and scattered humanity to every corner of the world”

“This is a top-secret doc.u.ment kept inside the SCR Foundation. Very few ever managed to even see this doc.u.ment, let alone read it. Sometimes, I even suspect that the Divine flame grid is the real S-1-1” Rip explained everything he knew, including some of his speculations.

“Then have you ever considered that this isn't the correct version of humanity's history?” The Doctor waved the Sonic Screwdriver in his hand, which was giving off a strange noise, then smiled: “This is a great timeline upheaval, perhaps a lot of things have been silently changed without our knowledge. It wouldn't even be strange for our memories to already be in a deluded state”

“Access to this information is strictly regulated by the E5 council, protected by an S-cla.s.s anomaly. There should be no issues with this information at all” Rip affirmed this, but a hint of doubt flashed through his mind right after his declaration.

That S-cla.s.s anomaly was provided by a member of the E5 council, so if there were any mistakes with this information, that would mean there was a traitor in the E5 council.

Suppressing this doubt in his heart, Rip kept feeling like he had forgotten something, but as he was unable to recall anything exact, he attributed this feeling to a side-effect of the timeline alteration.

“Alright, what we need to do now is to foil the Raptor group's plan. They're manipulating a portion of humanity in the shadows, which they would most likely use during this incident to access the Divine flame grid, using it to spread their modified 'air' to every corner of the world, causing a global upheaval of environments”

“This is one of the few possible futures I've managed to observe”

With some trembling, the phone booth landed in the wilderness. Its camouflage functions instantly kicked in and hid in plain sight as the Ultra s.p.a.ce-Time Squad disembarked.

After putting on some simple disguises, they headed for the Central tribe that was just a bit further away.

As the most powerful tribe, as well as the original tribe of humanity, this place was, without a doubt, the current most prosperous location of humanity.

Merchants from various tribes had brought their specialities or slaves to this great city, which also acted as the center for all human cultural exchange. Philosophers from all over traveled here to promote their schools of thought, or to simply spread their views of the world.

At the gate of the city, a simply-dressed young man with his black eyes opened wide was staring straight at a woman in fancy clothing who was standing a short distance away.

As he juggled a bone coin in one hand, another young man quickly approached, practically sticking to him and spoke in a tone that everyone understood: “Women from the Central tribe are great right? Let's introduce ourselves, I'm Huo, what do you say about coming with me when Cloud Path opens?”

“Mi You” the first young man's gaze continued to stick close to the woman, not separating from her for even a second.

“How unexpected, an esteemed guest from the Mi tribe” Huo spoke with a tone full of admiration.

For the last few years, the use of surnames that represented a tribe was no longer restricted to only the chief, exceptional members of the tribe or those who had come from a distinguished lineage were also granted the use of surnames, so while it was still quite uncommon, having a surname wasn't as rare as before.

As Mi You didn't seem too old, Huo believed him to be one of the tribe's young masters. Huo then put his arm around Mi You's shoulder and asked curiously: “I heard that the people of the Mi tribe are the eternal enemies of undead, Mi You, have you ever seen an undead?”

“Hm, have” Mi You didn't talk much, he only glanced shortly at Huo before glancing back towards the woman who was disappearing into the crowd.

Pus.h.i.+ng Huo's arm away, Mi You brushed his back a bit with his hand before swiftly going after the woman. After a short glance, Huo also followed Mi You's footsteps.

The woman wasn't walking particularly fast, but she soon arrived at an alleyway, which Mi You quickly followed into.

Boom.

With a loud noise, the rocks on the wall to Mi You's side were abruptly blown open as a lanky hand reached out from within, grabbing him.