An illusory roar suddenly came, and the screen in front of him fell into darkness. The next second, Zhou Ming felt that all the sounds were moving away from him - the fan of the computer host quieted down, and the buzzing sound of the refrigerator not far away gradually subsided. The whole room fell into a strange silence, and the atmosphere around him... was changing.

And all this happened after he entered the words "inverse singularity" into the search box.

He blinked, pushed back his chair, and stood up from his computer desk.

The chair slid back silently, and he stood up without making any sound. A pen on the table was knocked to the ground and landed silently.

In those few brief seconds, Zhou Ming thought he had lost his hearing.

Then he realized that the problem was with his surroundings—the room was getting darker.

The lights went out, and everything in the room was gradually covered with a layer of chaotic shadows. Everything lost its color in the increasingly dark environment. The patterned curtains first turned into a grayish-white block, followed by his desk, chairs, and bed. Objects in sight turned grayish-white one after another, and were then gradually swallowed up by the thick, rising darkness...

It was as if the various units of a huge system were shutting down one by one. The "room" in Zhou Ming's eyes turned into a chaotic and dark space within a dozen seconds. When the surrounding walls disappeared, true darkness filled his vision.

Zhou Ming stood there, looking around. In the sudden darkness, he felt an inexplicable... familiarity, and a strange sense of security.

Then after a while, his "vision" seemed to adapt to the dim environment here. In the depths of chaos, some vague outlines attracted his attention.

Zhou Ming hesitated for a moment, then he associated something with the position and distance of those outlines, and immediately walked towards them.

In the depths of darkness and chaos, something came into his sight—several lifelike "models" floating at what should have been the end of the room.

The Lost Homeland, White Oak, Plunder, Frost...

There is also the "World Tree", Silendis, floating in the air and slowly spinning.

They float in this dark and endless space where everything seems to have died out, and seem to be the only objects left in this "world".

Zhou Ming stared blankly at these "collections" floating around him, his mind churning with thoughts and countless questions and guesses coming to his mind.

Why? What does this mean? What is this telling me?

Silandis, like a floating potted plant, was spinning in the darkness, as if it had drifted in front of him accidentally. Some of its branches slowly spread out in the void, as if it was sensing the surrounding environment, or as if it was just growing unconsciously. Zhou Ming looked at this small "World Tree", hesitated for a moment, and stretched out his finger towards it.

The moment he stretched out his hand, he noticed that his body had changed at some point - starlight replaced his flesh and blood, and dense river systems and brilliant nebulae filled his body like mist, and these stars were stagnant in his body, just like... the phantom of the ancient starry sky on the dome of the deep sea.

But the two seem to be different.

Zhou Ming looked at his arm in surprise, but before he had time to think more, his fingers had already touched a branch extending from the World Tree.

In an instant, a vast amount of information that was simply incomprehensible to human intelligence flooded into his "mind". In the storm of information fragments, he felt as if he had traveled through endless years and an endless journey in the blink of an eye - primitive gods, the first creatures, giant trees, forests, rivers, mountains, civilizations, memories...

Zhou Ming took a half step back, and the storm of information suddenly receded. He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw that Silantis was still spinning freely in the same place. The branches extending from the edge of the canopy occasionally whipped the White Oak, occasionally whipped Plunder, and occasionally whipped Frost...

Zhou Ming was stunned for several seconds before he came back to his senses. He looked at the scene in front of him and muttered in a strange tone: "Silantis, don't bully your roommate."

Then he raised his head and looked at the endless darkness in front of him.

Before the "room" disappeared, this would have been the wall where the shelves were, the end of his bachelor apartment, the barrier that trapped him here - the shell of his "cocoon".

But now the whole room had disappeared, and the darkness here seemed endless.

Zhou Ming hesitated for a while, then slowly stood up and walked towards the darkness, raising his hand and groping in the darkness ahead - he walked very cautiously, as if he was afraid of bumping into the wall in his memory.

Fortunately, he walked very carefully.

Because almost in an instant, he encountered an invisible barrier - something hard and cold blocked his way in the darkness. He felt his arm hit the barrier, and then he pushed hard, only to find that the barrier did not move at all.

The room disappeared, but the "cocoon" shell still existed, and he still couldn't leave here - the seemingly boundless darkness was just part of the hard shell.

Zhou Ming stopped in front of the invisible shell. After knocking on it several times in vain, he gave up and turned around to look at where he came from.

All the furnishings in the room have disappeared, including the computer. Only a door still stands quietly in the depths of darkness. It is the only "exit" to leave this space.

"Who can explain this?" After being silent for an unknown period of time, Zhou Ming suddenly spoke up. He asked into the darkness. Although he knew that talking to himself might be a little silly, he still said seriously, "Is this some kind of 'answer'?"

No one responded to his voice in the darkness.

After a while, he continued, "Is this an explanation of the key word 'inverse singularity'? Or is this just some kind of unclear 'demonstration' to help me understand my own nature or what I can do?"

The darkness remained silent.

"Can anyone tell me in detail what you are going to do with a 0.002 second slice of the universe sent along the timeline? Where can I find my own manual?"

"Don't you have after-sales service? You've developed to the end of time, and you don't even have a user guide? Hello? Hello——"

"Is anyone here?"

There was no one, only him in the darkness.

In the long void after the hometown universe was torn apart by the great annihilation, the only remaining mind was still running aimlessly in this hard and dark "cocoon". The only difference from the long years in the past was that this mind realized for the first time that the nothingness around "itself" was so vast.

An unknown amount of time passed, and Zhou Ming felt that he might have stood meaninglessly in the darkness for a whole century before he finally sighed softly.

"There's nothing here..."

He muttered something to himself, then sat down in the darkness, ready to rest - even though his incredible body filled with starlight did not seem to feel tired.

And at this moment, when he was about to sit down, Zhou Ming suddenly caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye - he saw a very thin "bright edge" that was almost invisible to the naked eye suddenly floated across the edge of his vision and flashed by in the darkness.

He suddenly widened his eyes slightly.

It's a fine line.

The next second, he grabbed the thin line without hesitation. The slight stagnation in his hand told him that the line was real... not an illusion!

Zhou Ming raised his hand instantly, placed the thin thread in front of his eyes and observed it carefully. Then after a while, he began to try to find the source of the thread.

The thread comes from outside that invisible barrier... outside the "cocoon".

Zhou Ming stood up slowly, holding the thin wire tightly in his hand. He saw that the line, which was imperceptible to the naked eye, seemed to pass through the "invisible barrier" that he could not break through no matter what, without any hindrance, and floated lightly in the endless darkness outside. The other end of the line disappeared into the depths of nothingness. He could not see where it led to or what it was connected to.

Zhou Ming pulled the thin wire towards this side several times, but it seemed as if the wire would never reach the end. The slight resistance coming from the other side made him dare not continue to exert force, for fear of breaking the only "connection" with the outside world.

After a while, after some hesitation and thinking, he finally made up his mind, slowly raised his finger, summoned a small ball of green flame, and carefully brought the flame close to the silk thread.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the tiny flame seemed to be pulled by an invisible force and sank into the depths of the silk thread.

Then, his connection with the flame was severed.

Zhou Ming blinked. This unprecedented situation made him a little stunned for a moment.

His connection with the flame was broken! Completely, thoroughly, without any residue left!

Before today, even though there was a dimension between them like the deep ocean, his connection with the flame had never been completely severed!

Is it the problem with this thread? Or is it because of the invisible barrier?

Zhou Ming couldn't help thinking in his mind, but he only thought for a few seconds, and suddenly he felt his hand empty - the thin thread disappeared.

Then, before he could react, a low humming sounded from all directions, and then all the light and color suddenly returned to his eyes - as if the system units that had been shut down for a short time were back online, accompanied by dazzling light and shadow, the walls, windows, roof, floor, and all the furnishings in the room reappeared with a bang!

Zhou Ming was a little confused by this sudden change. He subconsciously took two steps back and held onto the grid of the shelf next to him with his hand. The branches of Silandis hung down and rubbed against his arm.

"You didn't even give me a little reminder... After all, it's my 'home'..."

Zhou Ming couldn't help but mutter, shaking his head and looking around to confirm the changes in the room. Then he seemed to sense something and suddenly looked up not far away.

Almost at the same time when he looked up, a voice sounded, echoing in the quiet bachelor apartment -

“Boom boom boom…”

Someone is knocking on the door.