The spatial fluctuations of the real-world anchor point surge like boiling water.
Lin Yi's boots rolled over the gray sand at the boundary between the virtual world and reality. Blood was still seeping from the wound on his left shoulder, but the star map on the two keys between his fingers was getting brighter and brighter, almost burning his palms.
"Brother!" As soon as Chu Yao's water element shield dissipated, she rushed over and grabbed his shoulder.
The girl's fingertips held a watery aura tinged with ice, yet it couldn't suppress the surging dark purple energy within his wound—the corrosive remnants of the Night Owl Chains. "Don't touch it!" Lin Yi turned his head away from her trembling hand, pressing the key to his chest instead. "Look at the key first..."
Long Wu's massive dragon body forced open the rift at the exit of the void, and his dragon tail, curled with his white beard, swung into the anchor point.
The old boxer's shockwave gloves were still hissing. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, causing the gloves to flash blue light wildly: "That madman's chains are poisonous!"
"Even my shockwaves can't cleanse him!" Before he finished speaking, he suddenly stopped, his cloudy eyes staring straight at Lin Yi's palm—the key there was emitting strands of starlight, just like Su Qing's staff, in rhythm with his heartbeat.
"Brother Dao." Lin Yi twitched the corner of his mouth, blood dripping from his chin onto the key.
He could hear the booming of his intracranial blood vessels, each beat like someone hammering his temples, but even clearer was the soft ticking of the key, so like the sound of the wind whistling through Su Qing's hair as she hummed an off-key folk song on the dormitory balcony. "Help me see... what is this?"
Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe was still smoldering.
His figure, which had been floating in mid-air, suddenly fell down. As soon as his withered fingers touched the key, he shuddered as if struck by lightning.
The cloud patterns on his Taoist robe instantly swelled into a golden net of light, and the trajectory of the star map was reflected in his cloudy eyes. His Adam's apple bobbed: "These patterns... are the reverse code of the origin of the Void Realm!" He suddenly grabbed Lin Yi's wrist, his nails almost digging into his flesh. "Look here!" He pointed his fingertips at the fine patterns on the edge of the key. "These aren't key teeth at all, they're abbreviations of the contract terms!"
Genesis Contract......\"
\"boom--\"
A muffled sound came from the depths of the void.
The shadowy figure's lightsaber suddenly dimmed, and his once solid body began to ripple with transparent waves, as if it were about to melt back into the void.
But his voice was clearer than ever: "He's right." The enforcer raised his hand, and the chains embedded in his chest suddenly burst forth with eerie green blood droplets, which condensed into a star map in mid-air. "Advanced civilizations foresaw this dimensional war three hundred years ago."
They divided the authority to restart the universe into seven parts, scattered across different dimensions… His gaze swept over the key in Lin Yi's palm. “The so-called ‘Seven Keys of Creation’ are actually seven passwords for the restart program.”
"Hahahaha!"
The piercing laughter was like steel needles stabbing into everyone's eardrums.
The Night Owl's consciousness squeezed out from the rift in the void. Within the dark purple energy cluster, its scarlet eyes were almost dripping blood: "Chess Piece!"
"You are all pawns of an advanced civilization!" His energy body suddenly expanded, distorting the space at the anchor point into a vortex. "They made you collect the keys, made you think you were saving the world—but actually, they wanted to use you to initiate a cosmic reboot!" His voice suddenly rose, like the roar of a dying beast. "And I!"
I want to end all of this sooner!
"Watch out!" Chu Yao's water element instantly condensed into an ice shield.
But the Night Owl's energy form didn't rush towards them at all—it crashed directly into the connection point between the virtual world and reality.
The dark purple energy spread like boiling asphalt, and wherever it passed, spiderweb-like cracks began to appear in the space of the reality anchor point.
Lin Yi felt the key in his palm suddenly become scalding hot, and the starlight in the star map surged wildly, as if it was absorbing something.
"He's detonating his sea of consciousness!" Xuan Mingzi's Daoist robes flickered wildly with cloud patterns, his hands trembling as he made hand seals. "The dimensional connection points will be torn to shreds, and reality and the virtual world... will both be sucked into the turbulent currents!"
Lin Yi's vision suddenly blurred for a moment.
He could hear his own heart pounding, once, twice, and on the third beat, the soft chiming from the key suddenly became clear—it was Su Qing's voice.
It wasn't a folk song that was out of tune; it was the line she shouted through gritted teeth when she was surrounded by monsters in the dungeon, "Lin Yi, I can hold on"; it was the line she said with a smile when she helped him block an attack from an ability user in real life, "Brother, I'm not as weak as you think"; it was the line she lightly touched the back of his hand with her fingertips before she disappeared, saying, "Let me see... what victory looks like."
"Snap."
Something exploded in Lin Yi's mind.
He suddenly released his grip on the key, letting the blood drip onto the star map.
The runes on the key's surface suddenly lit up, forming a chain of light that pierced through the anchor point space and soared into the sky—where countless points of light were converging.
Those were job changers scattered throughout the real world, their job badges shining simultaneously, like stars falling to earth.
"A link of faith..." The shadowy figure's voice laced with laughter. His body was so transparent that the cracks behind him were visible. "So, the advanced civilization hadn't anticipated this..."
"Shut up!" Night Owl's energy body began to disintegrate, his scream mingling with the sound of space shattering, "You can't win!"
Restarting the program requires seven keys, and you only have two.
"No." Lin Yi raised his head.
His pupils reflected the specks of light from the sky, which grew brighter and closer, like countless stars falling into his eyes.
He suddenly smiled, a soft smile, but more resolute than ever before. "We possess... the will of all those who change jobs."
A rumbling sound came from the rift in the void.
Lin Yin could feel the beliefs of those job changers scattered all over the world flowing into his body along the light chain.
The pain subsided, his vision cleared, and he could even hear a boy from a newbie village a thousand miles away shouting "Go, Brother Lin!" He could hear the ancestor of an ancient martial arts family slamming his fist on the table and saying, "You brat, don't let us lose!" He could hear Su Qing's staff trembling slightly in the real warehouse, making a clear sound that resonated with the key.
"Activate..." Lin Yi's voice, mingled with countless different tones, surged towards the sky like a tidal wave, "Resonance of Faith."
The dark purple energy seeping from the spatial rift at the virtual anchor point suddenly stopped, as if an invisible hand had gripped its throat.
Lin Yineng could clearly feel that countless wills, some scorching, some resilient, and some gentle, were flowing into his sea of consciousness along the chains of light.
The clenched fist of the novice village boy, the teacup that fell when the ancient martial arts ancestor slammed his fist on the table, the stardust raised when Su Qing's staff trembled slightly—these fragments intertwined in his consciousness to form a galaxy, completely submerging the excruciating pain of the Night Owl's invasion.
He looked up, sweat dripping down his chin and landing on the key, which turned into tiny specks of light the instant it touched the star map.
"Chu Yao, protect Uncle Long." His voice contained dozens of different tones, yet it was surprisingly clear.
The girl remained in the lunging posture, her aquamarine pupils reflecting his star-like silhouette. Her fingers unconsciously clutched at the hem of his blood-stained clothes. She only snapped back to reality upon hearing the command, and the water elemental shield instantly solidified into an ice crystal dome around the three of them.
Long Wu's Shockwave Gauntlets suddenly erupted with a blinding blue light. The old boxer wiped the blood from his face, grinned, and revealed his yellowed teeth: "You brat, you've finally stood up for yourself!"
I'll back you up!
Xuanmingzi's Daoist robe suddenly reversed all the cloud patterns, and his withered fingers drew golden trajectories in the void. Each pattern precisely wrapped around the key in Lin Yi's palm: "The contract array requires blood as a guide!" Lin Yi didn't speak, but directly pressed the key to his heart. Fresh blood meandered along the star map pattern, condensing into a rotating six-pointed star between the two of them.
The shadowy figure had become so transparent that only its outline remained. He raised his hand and pressed it against the edge of the six-pointed star. As the lightsaber fragments merged into the array, the enforcer's voice carried a sense of relief: "The advanced civilization miscalculated... human nature."
The owl's consciousness suddenly exploded, and blackish-purple energy crashed into the ice crystal dome like a tidal wave.
Chu Yao's fingertips instantly turned white, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the water element shield. At the same time, Long Wu's shockwave gauntlets roared, and the two opposing energy waves blew away the gray sand beneath the three of them.
But Lin Yi's figure remained as steady as a rock. He could see the job badges of those job changers scattered around the world, flashing in rhythm with his heartbeat—the swordsman on Tokyo Tower slashed at the dark clouds, the druid in the Amazon rainforest wrapped vines around the collapsing spatial rifts, and even the elementary school students who had just changed jobs were holding wooden swords and shouting indistinct "Go for it!" from the classroom windowsill.
"Su Qing..." he murmured unconsciously.
His response was a familiar soft laugh.
Lin Yi suddenly turned his head.
In the void, a semi-transparent figure is coalescing from the starlight.
That was Su Qing, her hair tips adorned with the same starlight as the key, and the hem of her school uniform skirt still bore the scorch marks from being burned by supernatural powers in reality, yet it became whole the moment it touched the light chain.
Her fingertips gently touched the back of his hand; the temperature was lighter than she remembered, yet it brought tears to his eyes: "Brother, the key in your hand is trembling."
"You..." Lin Yi's voice suddenly choked.
"I am data remnant, and also their will." Su Qing tilted her head and smiled, just like she used to do on the dormitory balcony. "Advanced civilizations set the Seven Keys as the restart password, but they don't know... when enough souls resonate, the password will become—" Her fingertip touched the star map in Lin Yi's palm, "Choice."
A clear and melodious sound came from the depths of the void.
Lin Yi suddenly closed his eyes, and the galaxy in his sea of consciousness began to spin.
He could "see" the locations of the other five keys: the bronze key sleeping beneath the Arctic ice cap, the pearl key in the ruins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the jade key circulating in the Dunhuang murals... Their vibrational frequencies were resonating with the two keys in his palm, as if being pulled by invisible threads, passing through the barrier between reality and the virtual world, and converging towards the anchor point.
"Frequency locked." Su Qing's voice mingled with the clear chime of a key. "Seven keys united, not a restart... but a witness."
When the phantom of the seventh key appeared in mid-air, the entire anchor point space suddenly became so bright that it was impossible to open one's eyes.
The seven star charts connected to form a ring of light, completely shredding the remaining dark purple energy of the night owl.
Lin Yi felt a warm power rising from the soles of his feet; it was the embodiment of the beliefs of all those who had changed jobs, flowing down his spine and into his heart.
He heard Xuan Mingzi gasp and saw Chu Yao's water element shield stained with starlight, and even saw runes he had never seen before appearing on Long Wu's gauntlets.
The light band at the very top suddenly tore through the void.
The ancient city, which floats deep in the void and is said to be the "abode of the gods," finally slowly opened its gates, which had been closed for three hundred years.
The reliefs on the city walls came alive in the light, depicting scenes of job changers from various dimensions fighting side by side; the steps beneath the city gate gleamed with a bluish-green light, each step engraved with the script of a different civilization—but Lin Yi didn't need to see them; he could hear them saying: "Welcome, Chosen One."
"It worked?" Chu Yao's voice was trembling with tears.
"Not yet." Su Qing's figure began to fade. She glanced one last time at the floating city, then at Lin Yi. "Go to the outer perimeter of the Mother Nest." Her fingertip gently tapped the key to his heart. "They're waiting for you."
Before she finished speaking, she transformed into starlight and merged into the chain of light.
Lin Yi looked down at the key in his palm. A small engraving had appeared on the star map, like some kind of coordinate.
The rift in the void suddenly trembled again, and he could feel the energy fluctuations in the direction of the mother nest rising sharply—a signal that the interdimensional army was regrouping.
"Let's go." Lin Yi put the key into his spatial ring, turned to look at the still-dazed crowd, and said, "Back to reality."
Long Wu's gauntlets clicked open, revealing new gears. He winked at Lin Yi: "I knew this brat could do it!" Xuan Mingzi's Daoist robe finally regained its calm. He made a hand seal, and the rift at the exit of the illusory realm reformed into a stable teleportation portal.
Chu Yao sniffed, and the water element shield automatically wrapped around Lin Yi's wound. This time, he didn't dodge.
The moment everyone stepped into the portal, Lin Yi glanced back at the floating city.
The city gates were still slowly opening, and in the light shining through them, it seemed as if countless figures were waving to him—there was Su Qing, there were shadowy figures, and there were all those who had sacrificed for this war.
But the next second, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Outside the mother hive, the previously defeated interdimensional fleet is rearranging itself into a death formation, with the energy cannons on the flagships glowing a chilling red light.
At the very front of the fleet, a familiar dark figure stood on the command platform, holding half a broken key in his hand—the remnant consciousness of Night Owl.
"Brother?" Chu Yao's voice came from the portal.
Lin Yi withdrew his gaze, a cold, hard smile curving his lips.
He touched the spatial ring on his chest, where the weight of seven keys and the beliefs of millions of people lay dormant.
"Here it comes," he whispered, then stepped into the portal.
The spatial rift at the Void Anchor Point closed behind him, but it couldn't stop the increasingly close battle cries coming from the direction of the Mother Nest.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com