"Perhaps there are other settings in the core, such as only allowing one person to enter and exit at a time. In that case, we can just wait for her to come out here."

Fang He didn't seem worried at all. He even calmly put down the black knife, sat on the ground, leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes to pretend to sleep.

Nineteen looked at him with utter incomprehension.

Aren't you worried at all?

What are you worried about?

"Xiao Cheng! She might be alone in the core. You don't even know what's inside. What if it's dangerous? Like, the kind that could kill someone?"

"Then what?"

"And you don't even want to go in and help her?!"

Nineteen found him utterly unreasonable. Was this a time to rest? Shouldn't they be trying to find a way in right now?!

“I’m anxious too, I’m extremely anxious.” Fang He lazily raised his eyelids. “But what can I do? I can’t just walk through the wall. After all, you said yourself that there’s no other way but to wait for the space to shift.”

"How could this be?! I'm out of options, but you have this black knife!" Nineteen practically wanted to grab him and pull him up. "Use it! Didn't you just cleave it open before..."

He suddenly realized something, and his voice stopped abruptly.

Fang He looked at him with a half-smile: "So this is your purpose? You're not Nineteen, you're also one of those clones?"

Nineteen's face suddenly darkened.

“You’re going in,” he said coldly, raising the gun and pointing it at Fang He’s forehead. “You’re taking the key with you.”

"A key?" Fang He ignored the gun in his hand, gripped the black knife, and stood up. "The key to the core?"

“You don’t need to know all that.” Nineteen watched him draw his sword.

The blade suddenly emitted a blinding red light, and something in the corner of the cubicle seemed to respond to it, suddenly trembling rhythmically.

The wall is cracking.

Through an invisible barrier, Fang He saw Xiao Cheng standing in the distance, almost completely enveloped in darkness.

There was also a black box floating above her head.

Immediately afterwards, the black knife in his hand transformed into a streak of light, piercing through the barrier with a whoosh and disappearing into Xiao Cheng's body with lightning speed.

The black box suddenly collapsed, radiating light that enveloped Xiao Cheng and vanished as if he had disappeared into another dimension.

The invisible barrier slowly disappeared, and Fang He frowned almost imperceptibly as he looked at Nineteen, who had instantly turned into ashes and scattered before him.

The surroundings were deathly silent; this area seemed to have been completely banished, leaving no trace of life.

He hesitated for a moment, then lifted his foot and walked in the direction where Xiao Cheng had disappeared.

There was nothing there.

He sat down silently in the deep darkness and began to wait quietly.

*

Xiao Cheng's eyes hurt from the dazzling lights, and it took her a long time to recover.

She looked at the lump in front of her with disgust.

It could barely be called a humanoid object, and it's hard to say whether it can be considered a living being. Its structure was rather haphazard, and it looked grayish-brown, as if it had been sculpted from cheap clay.

"You should pay your respects to me."

It suddenly spoke in an arrogant tone.

The voice sounded quite strange, making it difficult to tell whether it was male or female. The voice was unusually rough, and the way the person spoke was also different from normal people.

Xiao Cheng: "..." Greetings to your grandpa.

"So you've come to keep your appointment." It didn't delve into Xiao Cheng's rudeness, but continued, "It seems you've passed the little fish's screening, not bad. Being able to stand before me means you've also obtained the hidden key, very good."

"With courage and wisdom, you are qualified to become my new vessel."

"Your consciousness can exist in the instance in the form of a bizarre—or, in your familiar terms—NPC, like that little fish, until it finds a new vessel for me before your body collapses."

"Of course, as a favor in exchange for taking your body, I will grant you one more wish, anything."

"Is it okay for me to ask you to choose someone else as your vessel?" Xiao Cheng asked tentatively.

The shadowy figure: "..." Are you exploiting a bug here?

It completely ignored Xiao Cheng's question and continued on its own: "Any wish, such as letting them—any of them—escape this broken world, such as you replacing the system's mainframe, such as..."

"To end all of this completely."

Its tone gradually became seductive.

"Without a doubt, I know your every thought, I know anything you want, and I can easily get them for you, anything!"

"This is God!"

"And all you have to do is... promise me. Shed your useless body, and you will attain transcendence, and you will be able to share in the power of God from me."

Xiao Cheng felt she had found a contradiction.

"So what's the point of you having a useless body?" she asked, utterly bewildered. "Since your current form is already a transcendent and perfect form, what use is my body to you? To super-degenerate?"

The figure: "..." How come you're so good at grasping the key points?! Is this even the crucial point of the question?!

"This is crucial," Xiao Cheng said seriously. "You've elevated me to such a high position, and while I've transcended it, you've fallen into depravity. Is it really just for the sake of selfless dedication?"

The figure: "..." Is this some kind of sarcastic remark? This is definitely sarcastic!

“But since this is the bet, there’s nothing I can do.” Xiao Cheng sighed, feigning helplessness. She casually reached into the air and a contract covered in writing appeared in her empty hand.

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