That fear was so pure, so desperate, that it transcended the disguise of age, like the last glimmer of light on the water before a drowning person sees before a ship sinks, cold and blinding!

That look instantly reminded Jiang Chan of the terrifying data scream she heard before uploading!

Time seemed to freeze for half a second.

The next second, the little girl seemed to sense something, or rather, the expression on her face triggered some kind of alarm. An extremely subtle, almost imperceptible white light swept across the little girl's head and feet like a scanning line in an instant.

After the light swept across, the chilling fear on the little girl's face vanished. A large, sweet, exaggerated smile, indistinguishable from the other "residents," was forcibly stretched across her lips, and her eyes instantly shone with a formulaic excitement.

She even imitated the adults around her, clumsily raising her little hand and cheering along, "Praise the other shore!"

The change was incredibly fast. If Jiang Chan hadn't witnessed it with her own eyes, she would have thought she was seeing things.

That's not an adjustment period! Absolutely not!

That's correction! That's overwriting! That's suppression!

Jiang Chan felt a chill creep up her spine. She stopped looking at the now "perfect" little girl and turned her gaze sharply to the enormous, radiant statue in the center of the square—the embodiment of the other shore.

It radiates light, it receives worship, it sustains this grand, false carnival.

Jiang Chan quietly retreated step by step, concealing herself even further into the shadow of the ornate colonnades at the edge of the square. The revelry continued, the cheers assaulting her eardrums as if they were tangible.

She needed clearer evidence, she needed to see what lay behind this perfect paradise! The celebration square was too crowded, too disruptive. She needed a quieter place, somewhere perhaps closer to the "bottom" of the system.

She remembered the guide of the light mentioning "exploration zones." She focused her mind and silently thought, "Take me to... unexplored areas. Places no one has ever been. The very edge of the starry sky."

A gentle notification sounded in her mind: "Navigating you to 'Stardust Frontier'. This area is a system exploration expansion zone; the environment is relatively primitive and has not yet been deeply optimized, so the experience may not be perfect. Confirm your destination?"

"Confirmed." Jiang Chan replied without hesitation.

The scene before her blurred, distorted, and reformed in an instant. A few seconds later, the deafening celebratory sounds ceased. She stood in absolute silence.

Beneath their feet lay an irregular, black platform, cold and hard, suspended in the void. Beyond the platform stretched an immeasurably vast and profound dark cosmic backdrop. In the distance, enormous and magnificent nebulae slowly rotated, emitting a dreamlike purple and blue halo. Tiny, luminous dust particles drifted slowly through the void like fireflies.

It's beautiful, magnificent. But it's too vast, too silent. A kind of...cold inertia permeates the air. The sense of "perfection" here is noticeably diminished, and that omnipresent membrane of "satisfaction" has thinned considerably.

Is this the edge of the system? Jiang Chan slowly walked on the platform, reaching the very edge and looking down. Below the platform lay an endless abyss of void. She tentatively stretched out a finger, touching the void beyond the platform's edge.

A strange resistance came from my fingertips, like pressing against a transparent wall that was extremely resilient yet incredibly cold. I couldn't penetrate it.

She began to try to explore this "fringe area" more proactively.

She focused her mind, imagining creating a tearing bolt of lightning in this void. The thought had barely formed when a blinding, twisted blue bolt of lightning flashed across the dark void ahead, accompanied by a simulated thunderous roar.

In that instant of flashing light, Jiang Chan keenly noticed that the trajectories of several luminous dust particles drifting nearby became extremely erratic for a brief moment! They were like disturbed electrons, suddenly and rapidly trembling irregularly! Immediately afterward, a thin, jagged red crack flashed and disappeared at the edge of the black platform beneath her feet! It was as fast as an illusion!

This is definitely not a rendering delay! It's more like... a brief overload or conflict occurred in the internal data flow or underlying structure of the system when it responded to her "disruptive" command!

Just as Jiang Chan's heart was racing with excitement at this discovery, a sudden change occurred!

Without warning, the light of the enormous and magnificent purple nebula above her head suddenly twisted and flickered violently! The entire space of the "Stardust Frontier" began to fluctuate and tremble violently!

Buzz—!

A low-frequency roar, so deep it was almost imperceptible yet so powerful it made one's consciousness go numb, began to resound.

The black platform beneath Jiang Chan's feet instantly crumbled! Not physically, but the data that made it up collapsed and vanished like a sandcastle!

She felt her body suddenly sink, falling uncontrollably downwards! plunging into that cold, empty abyss!

"Warning! Abnormal fluctuations in regional stability! Unknown interference detected! Executing..." The urgent prompt from the guiding light being rang in her mind, but it stopped abruptly halfway through!

Falling! Falling faster!

The surrounding scenery was being wildly pulled, deformed, and shattered! The magnificent nebula turned into twisted blocks of color! Glowing dust streaked around like shooting stars! Jiang Chan felt like a part thrown into a high-speed spinning drum, the intense dizziness and weightlessness tearing at her consciousness.

A few seconds? Or longer? My sense of time is completely distorted.

Bang!

It wasn't the sound of hitting something solid; it was more like stepping into thick, cold mud. The fall stopped.

Jiang Chan crashed onto a cold, hard, and rough surface. The surroundings were dark, with only countless rapidly flowing, multicolored ribbons of light darting through the darkness above and around her, emitting a faint humming sound.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!