"Ultimate Hidden Task?"

At the moment she saw the word "ultimate," Bai Fu was taken aback.

Although she had a vague feeling that this old relic was unusual when she discovered it, she still didn't expect it to be this extraordinary!

Ultimate.

If she remembered correctly, this was the first time she had seen a task in the game titled "ultimate."

It's worth noting that since the official launch until now, the total number of tasks released by "Above the Stars" has easily exceeded ten billion.

If this isn't some kind of April Fool's joke, or a prank, or a small Easter egg from the game developers, then...

Well, for now, let's listen to the story of the Reapers as told in the task!

Following the task instructions, Bai Fu operated the old relic 003, and soon, an unknown white particle floated out from the opened old relic 003.

The particle gradually unfolded before her, transforming into countless smaller particles. These particles merged together, constructing images and sounds through continuous motion, narrating a story from an ancient past for her.

A certain year, a certain month, a certain day.

A person who called themselves a Recorder of the Primordial Era narrated their ongoing experiences through a special device developed by their civilization.

Just like the conclusions of the Void Civilization and the Void Realm Civilization Bai Fu had seen before, the Recorder's civilization was also invaded and ultimately cut off from the Main Universe, exiled outside the Main Universe, becoming the "Old Days."

Bai Fu had been curious about what kind of invader this was, but she had searched through all the materials she could find and even used connections to obtain the highest authority from the Radiant Host of the Rebirth Empire, yet she still found nothing.

Now, this question finally had an answer.

The Recorder of the Primordial Era directly revealed the true identity of the invaders.

"We have never seen their true appearance. We gave them a name, the Reapers."

"In fact, using 'they' to describe 'them' might be somewhat inaccurate."

"Because even at the moment of our civilization's demise, we still didn't know whether 'they' were a single entity, or a civilization, or many similar civilizations. Our understanding of them is a vague impression derived from what we have seen ourselves and the intel collected through one 'epoch' after another."

"Now, it is my turn as a Recorder from the Primordial Era to tell you the story of 'them' and us."

"'They', the Reapers, are doing something that to many of us might not be unfamiliar—"

"Cultivating civilizations!"

"The Reapers cultivate civilizations like farmers growing wheat."

"Every universe is a wheat field for 'them', and each 'epoch' 'they' plant many civilizations in these 'fields'. When the civilizations mature, 'they' harvest the civilizations 'they' have planted just like farmers harvesting wheat."

"To us who are treated like wheat, this is cruel, but from the perspective of the Reapers, they are simply harvesting mature wheat, doing the most ordinary of things."

"By now, you might be guessing when the Reapers would step in to harvest civilizations, right?"

"Unfortunately, even having personally experienced a harvesting event, we, just like the civilizations before us, still haven't fully understood the mechanism that triggers the Reapers' descent. I can only broadly classify it into the following three scenarios."

"First, when the level of civilization development surpasses a certain red line."

"Second, when the number of individuals aware of the Reapers' existence in a civilization exceeds a certain red line."

"Third, when an individual within a civilization takes an action that provokes the Reapers."

"It's worth mentioning that the third scenario exists only as speculation, with no instances to support this conjecture."

"From my personal perspective, I find this point meaningless. I do not believe the Reapers would be provoked by 'wheat.'"

"'They' are gods high above, thousands of times more real and concrete than the gods we previously worshipped or fought against."

The Recorder went on to say many more things.

Most of them were about the situation when their civilization was harvested and why he wanted to record these things.

The former was written very briefly because the harvest by the Reapers was indeed instantaneous. Many people were not even aware of what had happened before being destroyed in the disaster.

The reason he wanted to record these things was his hope to break this cycle; the wheat also longed to break the limits and truly grow freely one day.

At the end of the record, the Recorder mentioned another question that puzzled Bai Fu.

Why did the Reapers not completely eradicate the "wheat field," but instead took out parts from the "wheat field" and cast them outside the field?

The Recorder believed there were two possibilities.

One, the Reapers found it interesting to do so. They took segments of one civilization after another with the aim of creating a civilization museum for observation.

Two, the Reapers intentionally left traces of previous civilizations, using the clash between the prior civilizations and the newly planted ones to nurture more intriguing civilizations.

"I cannot determine which is the true answer. Everything is left for you as the Listener to judge."

The white particles reformed into one and fell back inside the old relic 003.

When the phenomenon vanished, Bai Fu received a task completion notice, gladly gaining 100 attribute points and the [Listener] title.