The moment the metal door closed behind him, Lin Yi's combat boots had already rolled over the cold-gleaming alloy floor of the central base.
The alarm sounded like poisoned silver needles piercing his eardrums. He could hear the medical team rushing around pushing stretchers in the left corridor. The smell of disinfectant mixed with the smell of burnt electronic components filled his nostrils—three hours earlier, when the Night Owl's clone attacked the rift, a half-meter-wide gap had been blasted open here.
"Su Qing, where is Chu Yao?" Lin Yi slammed his personal computer onto the control panel, and the holographic screen lit up, casting a shadow over his brow.
"Chu Yao needs deep data repair." Su Qing's voice came from the ceiling speakers. The next second, her data stream condensed into a semi-transparent humanoid figure in front of the control panel, with the ends of her hair still carrying the lingering blue light. "I have taken over the analysis system."
"A key fragment..." She tapped it lightly, and the suspended fragment suddenly unfolded, its internal dark patterns resembling a living snake. "It's repelling my scan."
The shadowy figure removed his tactical glove and tapped his knuckles on the control panel: "The sealing technology of an advanced civilization needs to be deciphered using their blueprints." He grabbed Lin Yi's personal terminal, his silver hair brushing against his epaulets. "Pull up the technical data from earlier."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly—he noticed that the dark figure's fingertips, pressed against the quantum computer, had fine calluses, like marks from holding a gun for a long time.
But there was no time to delve into it at the moment. He quickly brought up the holographic map, and just as the data stream began to flow out, Su Qing's fingertip suddenly disappeared into it.
"Wait!" Her voice rose a half-octave, and the outline of the data object subtly distorted. "These dark patterns... are resonating with the patterns inside the key!"
The red light on the control panel suddenly turned green.
With a "hum", the key fragment detached from the hovercraft and hovered in the center of the three people, the data stream of dark patterns and diagrams intertwining to form a golden net.
Lin Yi reached out and touched the layer of light net. A fine stinging sensation came from his palm, like countless tiny needles pricking him—not a pain response, but some kind of information drilling into his consciousness.
"Is it... belief?" His Adam's apple bobbed, and his memory suddenly flashed back to that rainy night in the beginner village.
He was cornered by the monster at the edge of a cliff, with hundreds of players below holding torches and shouting, "Brother Lin, hold on!" The shouts hit the cliff wall and actually shook off some of the monster's scales.
Su Qing's data body was completely solidified, and her pupils were filled with star-like light spots: "Each dark pattern is a fragment of the will of a world."
When job changers fight for the same goal, their convictions converge through the underlying rules of Infinite, ultimately manifesting as the energy of the key.
The resonance you generated in the starting area, the shouts of players during the ruins battle... all these are nourishment for this key.
The shadowy figure rested his thumb on his chin, his silver hair falling loosely across his forehead: "Advanced civilizations use this key not to filter out individual strength, but rather the cohesion of the civilization itself."
Lin Yi suddenly laughed, his laughter carrying the clear, bright feeling of the sun breaking through the clouds.
He picked up the key fragments, the metal chain leaving red marks on his palm: "So Night Owl had a backup plan—he thought he could monopolize this power, but he was wrong." He turned to look at the global job change coordinates flashing on the holographic screen, his gaze sweeping over each flickering dot. "This isn't just one person's key; it belongs to everyone."
"What do you want to do?" Su Qing's voice had a subtle fluctuation, like the surface of a lake rippled by the wind.
"Summon them." Lin Yi pressed the communication button, and the base's broadcast system instantly connected to all global channels for job changers. "Long Wu, recall the brothers at the Rift; Qingluan, have the people from the ancient martial arts families guard the teleportation point on the real side; all online job changers, assemble at the Central Plaza in three hours." He paused, his fingertips tracing the patterns on the key's surface, "We need to hold a ceremony."
Three hours later, the central square was packed with people.
The holographic projection projected the phantom of the key into the air a thousand meters above the ground, enveloping it in a purple light shield, like a small sun hanging overhead.
Standing on the podium, Lin Yi could see the flames dancing in the eyes of the players in the front row—there was a college student who had just changed jobs, clutching a beginner's sword; there was an elder from an ancient martial arts family, stroking a bronze sword sheath; and there was a programmer from a tech company, pushing a cart full of quantum computers.
"Everyone," his voice boomed through the loudspeaker across the plaza, "Three days ago at the bottom of the abyss, I asked you why you were fighting."
Some say it's for family, some say it's for dignity, some say it's for this world changed by games. "He raised the key, and the phantom trembled. "Now I want to tell you—every shout you uttered, every drop of blood you shed, every battle you fought with all your might, was feeding this key."
It is not a weapon, it is our belief itself.
Gasps of breath rose and fell across the square.
In the crowd, Long Wu slammed his chipped knife into the ground, making the ground vibrate: "Boss, just tell us what you want us to do!"
I'm good at killing people, but when it comes to instilling beliefs... I'd give it my heart!
"Pour your will, your obsession, your resentment—all into this key!" Lin Yi's voice suddenly rose, like a resounding war drum. "Imagine it as a mirror, reflecting what we most want to protect!"
The first to react was a little girl with pigtails.
She raised her bandaged hand, with the wooden bracelet from the beginner village still hanging on her wrist: "I want to save my mother!"
She was captured during the interdimensional invasion, and I'm taking her home!
The fluorescent glow of the wooden bracelet blended into the illusory image of the key, and the first ray of golden light appeared on its surface.
Next came a programmer in a wheelchair, his right leg severed at the knee, the metal prosthetic limb clanging against the ground: "I want 'Infinity' to truly belong to us, not just a testing ground for advanced civilizations!"
The cold light of the prosthetic limb merged with the flow of gold, and the patterns on the key began to flow.
Long Wu roared as he charged onto the stage, his rough hands slamming into Lin Yi's back: "I want to see all the bastards who dare to bully our brothers kneel down in this square and call me grandpa!"
His sword energy, mixed with hot blood, rushed into the key, and the phantom suddenly expanded, the golden light so intense that everyone squinted.
When the ten-thousandth voice rang out, the phantom of the key solidified completely.
It is no longer a fragment, but a complete key shape. Within the flowing golden light on its surface, countless scenes can be vaguely seen: the campfire in the starting village, the rain of swords in the ruins battle, and the defensive line built by players with their bodies in reality...
Xuanmingzi stood in the shadows in the corner of the square, his gray-white Taoist robe tinged with a warm yellow by the golden light.
His fingertips were hidden in his sleeve as he quietly pressed the miniature quantum computer in his palm—a hidden module he had buried in the game's main brain over three hundred years.
The data stream seeped into the air through his sleeve, precisely capturing every energy fluctuation of the key.
"If we could decipher this power..." He gazed at the fragments of belief dancing on the key, his Adam's apple bobbing, "perhaps I could break free from the shackles imposed on me by this advanced civilization."
As the ceremony ended, the key made a soft "ding" and automatically flew back to the tactical pouch on Lin Yi's chest.
He could feel that it was no longer hot, but rather like a piece of jade that had been warmed, trembling gently with his heartbeat.
"Next, let's split up." Lin Yi pulled off his tactical cap, revealing his forehead damp with sweat. "Qingluan will lead the ancient martial arts lineage to the Star Ruins, Long Wu will lead the battle division to attack the Abyss Tower, and Black Shadow and I will go to the Void Sanctuary."
We need the remaining three keys.
A dark figure emerged from behind the crowd, his silver hair gleaming pearly white in the golden light: "I can access the stargate system of an advanced civilization."
Their teleportation technology can shorten the journey by 70%, but it requires...
\"boom--\"
The key suddenly vibrated violently, the metal clasp of the tactical pouch popped open, and fragments shot into the air with a "whoosh".
Everyone looked up and saw a blurry image appear in the void: Night Owl stood in front of an ancient altar, with distorted spacetime turbulence behind him, and the fragment in his hand was oozing the same pitch black as the vortex from before.
"You think you can win just by uniting your beliefs?" His laughter was like rusty gears grinding. "Look at this—fragments of the First Will."
"When it merges with the key..." His fingertips traced the fragments, and the darkness suddenly transformed into countless sharp spikes, "The entire universe will tremble for me!"
The image suddenly vanished, and the key fell back into Lin Yi's palm with a "snap".
He looked down at the still-warm shards in his palm, then looked up at the crowd—those he had once protected were now holding weapons, their gazes more resolute than ever before.
"Time is running out." Lin Yi shoved the key into his tactical pouch and snapped the metal buckle shut with swift, clean movements. "Shadow, the Stargate system access procedure..."
"It's already being tested." The shadowy figure tossed over a silver disc, its surface engraved with runes of an advanced civilization. "I'll take you to the Stargate Nexus in three hours."
A sudden gust of wind in the square swept up a few fallen leaves, brushing past Lin Yi's ear.
He gazed at the stargate adjustment lights gradually illuminating in the distance, his Adam's apple bobbing—those lights looked exactly like the torches held by players outside the starting village.
(Next chapter preview: As the metal door of the Stargate Hub slowly opened, Lin Yi saw twelve crystal altars floating behind the door.)
The shadowy figure's voice came through the communicator: "This is the coordinate positioning system of an advanced civilization, but..." His words were cut off by a sudden alarm—the crystal of an altar was seeping out the same pitch black as the one in the Night Owl's hand.
)
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