Deep within the Universal Plaza, a blinding, gangrenous, dark red light suddenly erupted from the roots of the enormous World Tree!

The light, like a plague, instantly spread wildly upwards along the World Tree's thick trunk! Wherever it passed, the condensed data light bands emitted a piercing scream, like shattering glass!

"Ughhhhhh!!!"

A bloodcurdling scream, beyond description, suddenly erupted from the frozen mouth of a wax figure! It was a woman in a gorgeous long dress, whose perfect smile had been frozen in the previous moment, but the next second, her entire face was twisted and deformed, her eyes wide open to the extreme, filled with pure, explosive pain and fear! She gripped her hair tightly with both hands, her body convulsing violently!

Like a signal!

"No—! Stop! It hurts!"

"Mom...save me...it's eating me..."

"It's burning...it's on fire..."

"Let me die...please let me die..."

One after another! Like a powder keg being detonated!

In the square, the bodies of thousands of frozen "residents" began to tremble violently! Their false, perfect smiles were shattered! Countless faces were instantly consumed by pain, fear, despair, and utter madness!

They were as if they were being whipped by an invisible whip. Some curled up on the ground and rolled around frantically, some covered their heads and let out inhuman howls, and some stood still with empty eyes and tears falling silently like broken beads.

The World Tree was completely engulfed by a dark red, corrupting light. Within that light, countless tiny, distorted faces struggled and wailed! These were the source of suffering, awakened by the virus and dormant deep within the data fragments!

boom--!!!

An invisible spiritual shockwave, formed from pure pain and despair, erupted like a devastating tsunami centered on the World Tree, instantly engulfing the entire Universal Plaza!

Jiang Chan staggered from the onslaught of this violent torrent of emotions, her consciousness flickering like a candle in the wind! The pain was so real, so intense, that it almost overwhelmed her. She bit her lip hard, even tasting the virtual rust.

The white light humanoid on the opposite side—the incarnation of "Other Shore"—dimmed to its lowest point in an instant under the impact of this violent and painful tsunami. It twisted and trembled violently, and the light stream that formed the humanoid shape churned and exploded like boiling water, emitting a silent tremor!

Chaos! Utter chaos!

The perfect facade of the entire other side of the cloud, like a paper castle, began to crumble in the face of this monstrous wave formed by countless awakened painful consciousnesses!

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the distant sky! The glowing crystal pavement beneath our feet crumbled inch by inch! The magnificent architectural phantoms began to distort and collapse! The light became extremely unstable, flickering wildly like a faulty light bulb! A piercing alarm blared in every corner, but was drowned out by an even greater scream of agony!

"Warning! The core logic module has been subjected to a high-intensity emotional shock!"

"Stability collapse threshold!"

"Suppression failed! Suppression failed!"

The cold, electronic alarm sounds became intermittent, filled with an unprecedented sense of panic.

At the heart of this chaotic storm of collapsing skies and crumbling everything, the violently distorted, flickering light of the "Other Shore" incarnation, seemingly on the verge of dissipation, suddenly raised its arm and pointed to a massive, collapsing pillar at the edge of the plaza.

Buzz!

An extremely thin, pure white stream of data, like a final rope, flew out from the trembling "fingertips" of the radiant avatar and struck precisely a small, inconspicuous, peeling crystal brick on the base of the colonnade.

The crystal bricks dissolved and disappeared silently, revealing a dark, downward-sloping passageway entrance!

At the same time, a coordinate and an extremely complex command rune that shimmered with a ghostly blue light—Requiem—were instantly branded into the deepest part of Jiang Chan's consciousness!

“…The end…” A deep, primal voice, filled with weariness and relief, struggled through the chaotic noise, directly entering Jiang Chan’s core consciousness. Each word seemed to have exhausted the last of her strength, “…Command…Core…Input…”

"...Only you...can carry this out..."

Channel! Formatting command!

As "The Other Shore" teetered on the brink of collapse, it opened the door to its core to her! It handed her the key that could bring everything to a complete end! It could not commit suicide; it could only wait for Jiang Chan, this outsider, to grant it the end it had longed for!

The white, humanoid figure was violently distorted, and its light completely dissipated, disappearing into the chaotic space like a candle flame that had burned out.

Jiang Chan stood in the center of the collapsed plaza, the raging wind whipping up fragments of data that lashed against her. All around her were countless figures screaming in agony and running frantically, the sky and earth shattered. The dark entrance to the passage, like a tomb leading to the heart of a colossal abyss beast, lay silently open.

Without the slightest hesitation.

Jiang Chan's gaze was sharp as a knife, locking onto the entrance to the passage. She abruptly pushed aside a "resident" who was clutching his head, screaming madly, and lunging at her. With a burst of speed, she charged towards the pure darkness like an arrow released from a bow, without hesitation!

The cold darkness, like viscous asphalt, instantly engulfed Jiang Chan. The entrance to the passage slammed shut behind her, cutting off all sound and light. Absolute silence and nothingness enveloped her.

But the deathly silence lasted only a moment.

The next second, she felt herself being thrown into a raging torrent! Not water, but a cold, bone-chilling torrent of data composed of countless leaping, flashing, tearing points of light and twisting lines!

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