The tempered glass of the laboratory dome hummed and vibrated, and Lin Yin could clearly feel the power of the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny" drilling into his bone marrow from his fingertips.
The names he wrote on the pages of the book were like stars that came to life, leaping in the depths of his consciousness—Long Wu's insurmountable rage still burned in his chest, Chu Yao's smile before she vanished was like a warm brand, and even Xuan Mingzi's habit of stroking his beard was still vivid in his mind's eye.
"bite--"
Chu Yao's projection suddenly distorted into a string of gibberish. When it re-condensed, the data stream in her pupils was no longer a stable sky blue, but mixed with a piercing scarlet: "Abnormal energy fluctuations detected! An unknown consciousness is penetrating the reconstruction protocol at Mach 0.3!" She raised her hand and drew three ring-shaped light arrays. The defense system on the laboratory ceiling activated in response, and the laser net wove silver lines in the air.
Lin Yi's temples throbbed twice.
He could feel that the tremor of the world's origin was no longer pure—the power of rules that originally flowed like a clear spring was now mixed with sand and gravel.
"Location?" His voice was as deep as if it were made of lead, and his right hand unconsciously pressed against the spacetime rift at his waist, where his sharpest killing move lay dormant.
"System Core Area!" Chu Yao's projection suddenly split into three, each connecting to a different terminal. "It's tampering with the job evolution tree! Healers in City B can now summon tombstones, and swordsmen in City S have 'Gluttony' added to their skill bar!" The blue light blade that flicked from her fingertip slashed in the void, and suddenly the air rippled like an oil film, revealing half a black shadow—it was a fog composed of countless scarlet eyes, each eye replaying the scene of the collapse of the Destiny System: the star trails shattering, the laws burning, and the flash before the last main brain command dissipated.
“It’s a fragment of the Destiny System.” Xuanmingzi was standing at the laboratory door at some point.
His plain white Taoist robe was stained with gunpowder smoke, and he held half a piece of broken jade in his left hand. It was the last bit of his authority that allowed him to sever the connection with the original host's brain.
“I sensed it when I was cleaning up the system remnants…” His Adam’s apple bobbed, his gaze fixed on the dark shadow, “It should have perished along with the old world, but now…”
The shadowy figure suddenly let out a shrill cry like a baby's wail, and Chu Yao's light blade was corroded into black mist the moment it touched it.
The monitor on the right side of the laboratory was flashing wildly. On the screen, an office worker who was trying to customize his profession suddenly covered his face—his skin was growing scales, his nails were turning into beast claws, and the "custom" option on the job change interface had been tampered with to "forced fusion".
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted to thin slits.
He raised his right hand, and a golden hourglass appeared in his palm—when the [Eye of Cause and Effect] was activated, time slowed down in his eyes.
He saw the shadowy figure's "roots" planted at the node where the fate system was undergoing its final self-repair, like a poisonous fungus parasitizing a corpse, absorbing the power of the rules leaked during the reconstruction.
“It’s replicating itself.” He gritted his teeth. “Every time it alters someone’s fate, it splits into smaller consciousnesses.”
"Do you need me to cut off the source supply?" Chu Yao's voice was filled with static, and her projection was so transparent that the instruments behind it could be seen. "But that would interrupt the reconstruction, and at least two-thirds of the job changers would lose their newly gained freedom."
"No." Lin Yi pulled out the Dragon Scale Short Blade from the space-time rift—it was forged by Long Wu using his own reverse scale, and it was emitting a scorching dragon roar at the moment.
He could hear Long Wu's footsteps getting closer and closer outside the window; that guy was probably kicking away the wreckage blocking his way while cursing.
“Freedom is what they deserve.” He took a step toward the shadowy figure, his dragon-scaled short blade slicing through the void, tearing a blood-red spatial rift between the two. “I’ll hold it off. You and Xuanmingzi will be responsible for cleaning up the infected nodes.”
The shadowy figure suddenly turned towards Lin Yi, all its scarlet eyes simultaneously fixed on his heart.
The temperature in the laboratory suddenly dropped by twenty degrees, and the hairs on the back of Lin Yi's neck stood on end—these things could actually sense that he was the core of the reconstruction.
"Chu Yao! Block my coordinates!" he shouted, his dragon-scale short blade slashing at the shadowy figure, but it only caused the black mist to surge, and a few strands instead slipped into his sleeve through the wound.
"Highest level of disguise activated!" Before Chu Yao's projection shattered completely, the last stream of data wrapped around Lin Yi's wrist. "Remember, it fears pure power of rules!"
"The power of rules?" Lin Yi suddenly bit his tongue, the metallic taste exploding in his mouth.
He placed his hand on the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny," and the pages automatically turned to the one filled with names. Those names suddenly transformed into golden chains. "So that's how it is..." he chuckled, and the chains darted toward the shadowy figure like living things. "Their will is the purest rule."
The shadowy figure let out a piercing scream, and the parts bound by the chains began to dissolve.
But just then, the laboratory floor suddenly shook, and Long Wu burst in, slamming open the deformed metal door, still carrying half of a deformed shield in his hand: "Boss! I just finished clearing out the scum on the outside—what the hell is this thing?" Before he finished speaking, the dragon pattern on the shield suddenly came to life, spewing out a ball of golden flame, which burned the part of the shadowy figure that was not bound by chains.
The black mist let out a baby-like wail, instantly shrinking to the size of a fingernail, and entered the spacetime intersection point in the center of the laboratory.
Just as Lin Yi was about to give chase, he saw Xuan Mingzi raise his hand and toss out the half-piece of jade. A clear light burst forth from the jade, temporarily sealing the point of convergence: "It needs time to reassemble, at most ten minutes." He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "But the essence of this thing is..."
“It’s an obsession.” Lin Yi stared at the gradually calming spatial turbulence, the dragon scale fragment on his chest still burning hot.
He suddenly remembered those job changers who had just gained their freedom—Xiao Nian's warmer smile from the healing light, the soft light emanating from Ivan's Mother Nest Core, and the tears of a player thousands of miles away as they trembled as they touched their new skill.
"At the last moment, the Fate System was probably unwilling to be replaced."
An alarm sounded outside the laboratory; the logistics team was cleaning up the altered job changers.
Long Wu leaned over and used his sleeve to wipe the blood from the corner of Lin Yi's mouth: "Boss, do you need me to go and pull that thing out? I haven't satisfied my rebellious spirit yet." He brushed his fingertips against the dragon scale short blade at Lin Yi's waist, and the blade immediately emitted a cheerful hum.
"No need." Lin Yi patted Long Wu on the shoulder and looked at the monitor screen in the corner of the laboratory—it was showing the footage of the Mother Nest Starship wreckage.
The core, now cracked, emitted a soft light, illuminating Ivan's breastplate from three hundred years ago, and the scratches on the mirror surface began to heal slowly.
“Let’s deal with the more important things first.” He looked down at his palm, where the shadowy aura still lingered. “Chu Yao is right, it fears the power of rules… and our rules have only just begun.”
In the distance, the light at the core of the mother nest suddenly blazed brightly.
Ivan, who was examining the wreckage, suddenly clutched his chest; the heat from the breastplate burned his skin through the armor.
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, a golden glint flashed in his pupils that he himself did not notice—as if something that had been sleeping had been awakened.
Suddenly, a crackling sound of electricity erupted from the monitor screen in the corner of the laboratory. Ivan's hand, which was clutching his chest, tightened abruptly. The bronze patterns on the breastplate seemed to have been doused with boiling oil, leaving a dark red mark on his palm.
His Adam's apple bobbed twice, and his previously chaotic eyes suddenly cleared—the fragments churning deep within his consciousness finally pieced together: the faint light of the Mother Nest's core, the flash of light when the Destiny System collapsed, and even the words the mainframe had spoken when the core was implanted three hundred years ago: "You will become the perfect vessel."
“It’s not a program.” He opened his eyes, the golden light in his pupils shifting like a living thing, but his voice was clearer than ever. “It’s a projection of the ‘essence of existence’.” He raised his other hand and placed it on the monitor screen. When his fingertips touched the image of the core of the hive, the light on the screen suddenly resonated with the golden light in his pupils. “Just as I was once a vessel for the will of the hive, this dark shadow is a vessel for the old rules. To sever it, we must find the fulcrum on which it anchors itself to reality.”
"Fulcrum?" Long Wu's voice boomed from the laboratory doorway.
The half of the shield he was carrying clattered to the ground, and the reverse scale pattern on his muscular arm was growing wildly along the veins—the spatial rift that had been calm just moments before was now like a hornet's nest that had been stirred up, with countless twisted monsters squeezing out of the rift: some had shark mouths with butterfly wings, some had countless eyes bulging under their skin, and the one in the front row had just stretched out its claws when it scratched five deep, charred marks on the alloy wall of the laboratory.
"Boss!" Long Wu drew his dragon-scale short blade from his waist with a backhand motion. The blade hummed and shattered the scabbard. "These things are tearing space! If we delay for another half minute, B City will be ripped open!" Before he finished speaking, the leading monster pounced in front of him, its foul-smelling saliva dripping onto his shoulder armor, sizzling and corroding it with blue smoke.
Long Wu's neck veins bulged, and the reverse scale pattern instantly covered his entire face. He roared to the sky, and the sound wave shook the glass of the laboratory dome, causing it to fall down in a rustling sound—it was the roar of a dragon belonging to the bloodline of a true dragon, carrying the pressure of crushing all inferior creatures.
The monsters' movements suddenly froze, and the one in the front row even collapsed to the ground, its eyeballs bulging out of their sockets.
Taking advantage of the moment, Long Wu leaped up, his short blade drawing a golden arc. The instant the blade touched the monster, dragon flames, imbued with the power of the Reverse Scale, erupted forth.
"Go back!" He stepped on the monster's head with one foot, his short blade plunging deep into its heart. The monster, scorched by the dragon's flames, let out a sharp wail, its body beginning to curl back into the crevice. "This is my territory, I won't tolerate your wild behavior!"
Lin Yi's gaze swept between Long Wu and Ivan, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the cover of "The Book of Re-establishing Destiny".
The pages of the book were burning hot in his palm, and the names he had written on them resonated with his heartbeat—Xiao Nian's healing light, Ivan's nest core, and even Long Wu's appearance, who always stood in front of him despite his cursing.
He suddenly laughed, a soft laugh, but with a desperate, resolute edge: "Anchor point." He turned to Ivan, "Can you locate it?"
Ivan's fingertips remained pressed against the monitor screen, golden light creeping along the screen's texture towards all the electronic equipment in the laboratory.
“In…” His pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints, “In the original birthplace of the Destiny System.” He looked up at Lin Yi, “Three hundred years ago, an advanced civilization planted a ‘seed’ in the seabed of the Bermuda Triangle. That place is both the origin of the system and the final anchor of this dark shadow.”
"Let's go." Lin Yi put the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny" into the space-time rift with his backhand. The Dragon Scale Short Blade had already returned to his hand—a wisp of the dragon flame that Long Wu had just unleashed was now wrapped around the blade, as if conveying some kind of tacit understanding.
He strode towards the laboratory door, patting Long Wu on the shoulder as he passed by: "This is yours."
"Don't worry." Long Wu wiped the blood from his face (he didn't know if it was from the monster or his own), and a semi-transparent dragon shadow condensed on his back from the Reverse Scale. "I can smash a hole in the Mother Nest Starship, can't I handle these scum?" His dragon shadow opened its mouth, and the dragon flames it spewed directly sealed the entrance to the rift. "Hurry up! If that thing gets away, I'll skin you alive!"
Lin Yi paused, looked back at the crack enveloped in dragon flames, and then at Ivan, who was using golden light to repair electronic devices—this man who always said he was "just a failure" was now like a star that had been rekindled.
He suddenly felt a tightness in his throat, but he just nodded forcefully, turned around and rushed into the corridor.
The seabed of the Bermuda Triangle is quieter than you might imagine.
When Lin Yi's spacetime rift tore open the seawater, even the bubbles didn't have time to rise before they were compressed into fine mist by the power of the rules.
The metal platform beneath his feet gleamed with a ghostly blue light; it was a "seed" left behind by an advanced civilization. The runes engraved on its surface pulsed as the shadow approached—each pulse causing the distant rift to tremble violently.
"Found it." Lin Yi's voice was exceptionally clear in the confined underwater space.
He drew his dragon-scale short blade, the blade pointing directly at the ball of light in the center of the platform—the ball of light was enveloped in a dark shadow, as if undergoing some kind of eerie fusion.
"You think you're in control?"
The ball of light suddenly spoke, its voice identical to Lin Yi's.
Lin Yi's movements suddenly froze.
The short blade was still ten centimeters away from the ball of light, but it felt like it had struck an invisible wall, making his hand go numb from the shock.
He stared at the churning black shadows within the ball of light, and suddenly saw clearly the image in those crimson eyes—it wasn't the collapse of the fate system, but himself.
The ecstasy of awakening as the master of time and space, the passion of establishing the time and space legion, and even the moment just now in the laboratory when his eyes reddened at Chu Yao's disappearance.
"You are just the beginning of another template." The shadowy voice continued, each word like a hammer blow to Lin Yi's consciousness. "Advanced civilizations never need a single option, but infinite possibilities. And you..." The ball of light suddenly expanded, the shadowy figure enveloping Lin Yi's face, "are just the next 'Destiny System' they have chosen."
Suddenly, all the runes on the seabed lit up with a red light.
Lin Yi took a half step back, his lower back pressing against the cold metal platform.
He could hear his own heart pounding violently, which sounded particularly jarring in the silent seabed.
The names he had written into the "Book of Destiny Re-established" began to flicker in his consciousness again, this time not as warm stars, but as sharp thorns—he suddenly remembered the golden hourglass he had picked up in the corner of the starting village on the day of his awakening, when the game descended into reality.
"Impossible," he whispered, his voice trembling.
The warmth of the Dragon Scale Short Blade emanated from his palm, a reminder of what Long Wu had said when he forged it with the reverse scale: "My life will be yours from now on."
He looked up at the ball of light, the gold in his pupils gradually masking his wavering. "They chose me, but the rules..." He gripped his short blade tightly, "are up to me."
The dark figure within the ball of light suddenly let out a shriek, as if sensing a threat.
Lin Yi took a deep breath and was about to swing his blade when the spacetime rift in front of his chest suddenly vibrated—it was the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny" resonating.
He looked down into the crack, where a corner of a page was visible, the words "Lin Yi" glowing, and next to it, densely written, were all the names he had memorized.
"Their will is the rule," he said softly, as if speaking to the ball of light, or perhaps to himself.
The dragon flames on the Dragon Scale Dagger suddenly surged threefold, and the moment he swung the blade, all the runes on the seabed shattered into stardust.
Meanwhile, in a laboratory thousands of miles away, Long Wu was grabbing the last monster by the neck and shoving it into a crevice.
He caught a glimpse of the underwater scene on the monitor and suddenly froze—a phantom seemed to have formed behind Lin Yi in the scene, and the outline of that phantom was very similar to the light deep in the spacetime rift that he had seen every time.
"Boss..." he muttered to himself, as the monster in his hand took the opportunity to bite his wrist.
Long Wu swung his arms while cursing, but as he did so, he noticed that a very light gold line had appeared on the markings of his reverse scale.
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