Abdullah, the author of the Necronomicon.
While it had been unclear exactly when he had lived, it had been certain that someone with such a bizarre name couldn't possibly have belonged to the current era.
So, when Orochimaru and Kabuto heard the person before them introduce himself, their shock reached its peak in an instant, eyes wide with astonishment as they tried to see through everything about the man in front of them.
Who would have thought that just moments after Orochimaru had been reading the Necronomicon, he would encounter the author in person?
"You... you're Abdullah? The author of the Necronomicon?" Orochimaru asked.
"Yes, why? Do I not look like him?"
The man at the doorway took another step forward, and the white glow surrounding him dimmed a bit, allowing Orochimaru and Kabuto to finally see his face clearly.
He was an elderly man dressed in a white robe, his head wrapped in a white turban with a distinct ethnic flair. His face was deeply lined like withered bark, and his long white goatee reached down to his chest.
This image of an old man wasn't particularly unusual, but standing at the threshold of the space's light, Orochimaru felt as if this man was more of a sage than the White Snake Sage.
With that in mind, Orochimaru blurted out, "Are you still human?"
"Haha..."
The old man chuckled lightly, then responded, "In essence, I'm not so different from you."
"But in my current state, I suppose I'm no longer human in the conventional sense."
This cryptic reply, much like the mysterious verses in the Necronomicon, had been difficult to understand. It had been very much in the style of Abdullah and his mad poetry.
But Orochimaru wasn't so quick to confirm the identity of the man standing before him—this name, unrecorded in history, had only ever been seen on the title page of the Necronomicon.
"Can you introduce yourself again?" Orochimaru asked cautiously.
"Abdullah Alhazred?" The old man smiled. "But first, let me correct you on one thing. Abdullah is not my real name."
"I've long since forgotten my true name, so calling me that is fine."
Another enigmatic answer, which caused Orochimaru to show a trace of dissatisfaction on his face.
The old man, however, paid no mind and began to recount his life story.
"I am an Arab. My father, Abdullah, was a renowned historian and archaeologist among my people."
"My childhood was carefree, and for a time, I believed I would live a happy and ordinary life."
"That was until my coming-of-age ceremony, when my father revealed to me the true mission of the Alhazred family."
"Our role, he said, was to be chroniclers of history, recording the hidden events of the world that were unknown to humankind and passing them down through generations."
"After my father passed away, I inherited the name of Abdullah and became the chronicler of history, the author of the Necronomicon."
"Abdullah in Arabic means 'Servant of the Great Lord.'"
"To this day, I still don't know who we are serving or for whom we are recording history."
"So, now you understand, Abdullah was never just one person. It's the title given to the chroniclers of the Alhazred family."
"The Necronomicon was not written by me alone, but by many generations, perhaps dozens, of Abdullahs."
The old man spoke with a calm tone, but his words had already left Orochimaru utterly astonished.
The book he had always trusted, hadn't been written by a single individual, but by multiple generations of chroniclers bearing the name Abdullah Alhazred.
This revelation was something he could never have imagined.
Even Kabuto, standing behind Orochimaru, was shocked. Although his understanding of the Necronomicon hadn't been as deep as Orochimaru's, he had been able to tell from Orochimaru's intense absorption every time he had read the book that it had been no ordinary text.
But to think that such a remarkable book hadn't been written by just one person?
"Haha, why is that so shocking?"
"I'm nothing like the great mage Eibon, who had enough life force and power to explore the unnameable."
"I am just an ordinary mortal, doing what I can to slowly uncover and record the truth of history through the efforts of generations."
The mention of Eibon again stunned Orochimaru—who had been this Eibon?
Noticing his bewildered look, Abdullah smiled faintly. "Eibon, ah..."
"He had been a chronicler from a time even more distant than mine, and he had authored a book called the Book of Eibon."
"Unlike me, he was a great mage from the city of Iqqua, with powerful magic and longevity, allowing him to explore places unreachable by mortals."
"The Book of Eibon documents entities such as the toad-god Tsathoggua, serpent people and the spider-god Atlach-Nacha."
"To my knowledge, the earliest version of the *Book of Eibon* was written on animal hides in the prehistorical era, in the Sumerian language."
"However, even in my time, that version was already lost. You stand no chance of finding it now."
"If you seek his knowledge, you might have better luck finding Eibon himself."
"Some say he fled to Saturn under the guidance of Tsathoggua, escaping persecution from rival mages."
"Others say his soul still wanders between Earth and the Dreamlands."
As the old man mentioned the great mage Eibon, even his face showed a trace of admiration.
But what puzzled Orochimaru more was the barrage of unfamiliar terms the old man had mentioned.
What is Earth?
Arabia?
What is the city of Iqqua?
What is Saturn?
What is the Dreamlands?
These strange words, which should have been simple to understand, had become incomprehensible in their context.
Orochimaru immediately voiced his confusion, and the old man pondered for a moment before responding solemnly.
"What I'm about to say, do not be afraid."
"The things I just described happened in my era, but your era is after mine."
"If we compare my time to the First Era, then your time is the Second Era."
"We are having a cross-epoch conversation!"
In a tatami room, Orochimaru stood solemnly before a blank wall, speaking these words with utmost seriousness.
"The First Era? The Second Era?"
Even before coming here, he had already concluded that not everything in this world could be measured by common sense.
When dealing with these extraordinary matters, if one tried to apply absolute rational thinking, the outcome would definitely not be good.
Therefore, compared to Kabuto, his reaction just now wasn't particularly intense, because from the very beginning, he was mentally prepared to accept anything.
But when he heard the words from Abdulla, even Orochimaru, who rarely thought along normal lines, couldn't maintain absolute calm. Because this was no longer just some trivial truth, but the real origin of this world!
"You mean you and I are not merely from different times? Or are you saying you and I aren't even from the same world?"
"If we're not from the same era, how many years apart are we? And if we're not from the same world, where is your world?"
"Tell me! Tell me everything!"
At this moment, Orochimaru was like a mad seeker of truth, greedily asking the old man standing on the steps before him.
The old man didn't hesitate and began to answer his questions.
"Strictly speaking, you and I are neither from the same time nor the same world. But you and I do share one identity, and that is being earthlings."
"Earth."
Orochimaru repeated the unfamiliar word, his mind fully occupied, pondering the meaning of the term.
"While it may appear flat to us, our world is not a two-dimensional plane, but a three-dimensional sphere."
"This three-dimensional sphere is called Earth, and in the universe, every world is essentially a large sphere."
Before the old man could continue, Kabuto, who stood behind Orochimaru, interjected with a question.
"Wait!"
"You say this world is a sphere, but why don't I feel the curvature of the ground when I walk on it?"
To Kabuto's question, the old man chuckled lightly and explained, "In the ancient times of my world, people had the same thoughts as you."
"But you must understand, this world isn't just the size of a ball, and it is vastly larger than a courtyard or a village."
"The Earth is far bigger than you can imagine, and human beings are too small to perceive its curvature. But if you often observe the harbor, you'll notice that as ships approach from afar, the sails are always visible before the hull."
Kabuto's face showed shock upon hearing this explanation. As a frequent spy operating near harbors, he had long observed the phenomenon the old man described, but he had never seriously considered its cause.
Now, after the old man's explanation, it seemed to make perfect sense. There was no other plausible explanation.
Compared to Kabuto's surprise, Orochimaru wasn't too startled after hearing the old man's words. Because in his previous research, he had vaguely suspected that the world was not a flat plane.
Now, after the old man's introduction, he was certain that this world was like Earth. After a moment of thought, he asked, "So, you're saying you're from a place on Earth?"
"Yes, you're sharp." The old man praised Orochimaru. "In fact, not all the land on Earth is connected in one piece."
"We call large areas of land continents, and smaller areas islands."
Orochimaru nodded thoughtfully but quickly grew suspicious again. "How do you know about our world?"
Without any change in his expression, the old man replied directly, "As I mentioned earlier, I am not a living human in the traditional sense."
"Ever since I found myself in this world, though I'm not sure how I got here, I can observe everything happening here."
"Not only do I know that your world is a world of ninjas, but I also know your name is Orochimaru, and that you are a follower of Yog-Sothoth."
"Interestingly, my beliefs are in Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu, which are very close to yours."
Orochimaru nodded, tentatively accepting the old man's explanation. If he didn't believe it, this wild 'author-meets-reader' scenario couldn't be explained otherwise.
So, he continued asking, "What is your world like?"
"Hmm—"
"In the First Era, the connection between our world and yours was not yet severed. Our cultures were interconnected."
"At that time, humans couldn't use supernatural powers, but they could wield the power of technology."
"The power of technology?" Orochimaru questioned.
Although he believed in the power of technology, he ultimately saw technology as something that could enhance ninjutsu. Without ninjutsu, what could technology really do?
"Technology can accomplish far more than you can imagine."
"For example, when you ninjas throw kunai, at most you can hold eight kunai in both hands at one time. The accuracy depends on the individual, and after throwing, you need to pick up the kunai again. The frequency and amount of kunai you can carry are limited."
"But in our world, for long-range attacks, we don't use throwing weapons. We use a weapon called a gun."
"With just a pull of the trigger, a gun can fire projectiles with similar power to kunai at a rate of 12 to 15 shots per second."
"Not only is the reload speed and ammunition capacity far superior to kunai, but the learning curve is also lower. A child could easily use a gun to kill a group of adults."
"For larger-scale weapons, our world has something called missiles. These weapons have incredibly long range. Your ninjutsu requires you to see the target to cast, but missiles do not."
"The longest-range missiles can even be launched from one country to another, capable of wiping out an area as large as your Konoha in an instant."
"We also have a weapon called a nuclear bomb, the most powerful weapon in our world."
"A nuclear bomb's delivery system is similar to a missile, but its blast radius is typically several kilometers, and the temperature at the explosion's center can reach millions of degrees Celsius."
However, the greatest threat of a nuclear bomb isn't just its immediate explosive power, but the nuclear radiation that remains afterward, making an area unsafe for years or decades.
"Due to their overwhelming power, nuclear weapons are strictly controlled in our world to prevent the collapse of civilization. Thus, nuclear bombs are rarely used."
"So, in the First Era, the ninja world experienced something akin to a nuclear bomb attack, transforming its biomes and mutating its living organisms."
The old man continued speaking without hesitation or pause, as though these incomprehensible truths were simple facts.
If all of this was mere imagination, it would be impossible to speak so fluently.
A gun a child could use to kill adults?
Missiles that could destroy Konoha?
A nuclear bomb capable of releasing millions of degrees of heat and affecting an area for many years?
Was this power really something humans could control?
After hearing the old man's explanation, he suddenly felt that ordinary people without chakra might possess unimaginable potential. Given enough time, could the common people of this world research such technology and eventually replace ninjas?
And most importantly, why did the ninja world suffer something similar to a nuclear bomb attack?