As the pulling force of the spatial rift suddenly disappeared, Lin Yi's back slammed into some kind of warm barrier.
He staggered two steps, and the moment he looked up, his breath almost stopped—
Before me lies an ocean woven from light and shadow.
Countless translucent bubbles floated in the void, each bubble containing a different world scene: a metal city torn apart by purple thunderstorms, an ancient temple shredded by black vines, a grassland stained by a blood moon, and a blue planet with floating mechanical wreckage.
All the scenes are collapsing along the same trajectory—when their civilizations develop to a certain critical point, countless golden threads will emerge from the void, wrapping the entire world like a fishing net. Then those threads will begin to contract, shredding planets, life, and even time itself into fragments.
"This is... the Observer's 'Net of Order'." A familiar voice came from behind.
Lin Yi quickly turned around, and the Boundary-Breaking Blade was already three inches out of its sheath.
But when he saw who it was, the blade slowly fell again—the one standing there was not the game mastermind who was always wrapped in a gray robe in his memory, but a young man wearing a faded white shirt, with a clear and handsome look in his eyes that was somewhat similar to Lin Yi's, but a semi-transparent data stream wrapped around his left wrist, like some kind of shackle that had been forcibly embedded.
"Xuanmingzi?" Lin Yi frowned.
The young man nodded with a wry smile and raised his hand to press on the nearest bubble.
The mechanical world being swallowed by the golden net suddenly froze. "I am not a program, nor even a 'data life' as you understand it. Thirty million years ago, my civilization stood in your current position—chosen as a 'civilization proving ground,' filtered by the higher observers using the 'Infinite' game to select assimilated races." His voice trembled. "We refused to become the observers' 'piece of the puzzle,' so they erased the physical existence of the entire civilization, but sealed my consciousness into the system core, making me watch as the same tragedy repeated in every subsequent era."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He recalled Xuanmingzi's hesitant warnings and the occasional "error" messages in the early game system prompts—the root of all the conflicts was a sealed living person struggling desperately.
"So you guided me to awaken the mastery of space and time?" he asked, his voice heavy as if weighed down by lead.
“The Spacetime Dominators are a loophole in the Observer’s rules.” Xuan Mingzi pointed to the collapsing bubbles. “They need each civilization to actively choose ‘order assimilation,’ so they must retain the appearance of ‘free will.’ Spacetime ability users can touch the dimensional membrane and see the hidden truth—including the end of this cycle.” He suddenly grabbed Lin Yi’s wrist, and data streams burst with blue light at the point where the two touched. “But Night Owl won’t let you go too far. That so-called leader of the invaders is nothing more than a ‘cycle driver’ created by the Observers. His task is to make every awakened one believe that ‘resistance is useless,’ and ultimately, they will willingly crawl into the web of order.”
"boom--"
A violent tremor suddenly tore through space.
Countless dark shadows surged from the gaps in the bubbles, converging to form the face of the Night Owl, composed of purple particles of light. Its voice was like a shrill whistle scraping through metal: "You think you've escaped the chessboard? Look at these bubbles! Every era has its self-proclaimed 'saviors,' but in the end, they were all torn to shreds by the web of order?" Clusters of fragments of consciousness pierced Lin Yi's brow like poisonous needles. "Your faith link is the most fragile! If you waver, the master of spacetime will become the observer's new toy—"
Lin Yi's temples throbbed.
He could feel those fragments gnawing at his mental barrier. Memories flashed back to the starlight when he first awakened in the newbie village, to the back of Long Wu charging forward with the module in his hand, and to the blue light in Su Qing's hair when she was organizing the data for him.
He suddenly laughed, a laugh that held a sharpness that made even Night Owl pause in shock: "You're mistaken." He gripped the Boundary-Breaking Blade in his other hand, the power of spacetime condensing into a silver vortex on the blade. "I've seen worlds more desperate than these bubbles—but there were companions willing to shield each other, fools who knew the ending yet still chose to rebel." The moment the blade swung, all fragments of consciousness were shredded to dust. "The rules of the observer? The web of order?" He approached Night Owl's phantom step by step. "I am the master of spacetime, not their puppet."
The owl's particles of light began to dissipate, finally emitting a piercing shriek: "You will regret this! When the web of order envelops the earth—"
“It won’t have a chance.” Xuan Mingzi’s voice suddenly became firm, and the data stream on his wrist began to surge wildly. “This time, I will use my last authority to buy you time. Remember, the observer’s weakness lies in ‘observation delay.’ They need at least seventy-two hours to adjust the parameters of the Web of Order…”
Before he could finish speaking, Chu Yao's urgent alert suddenly rang in Lin Yi's earpiece: "Mr. Lin! Mr. Lan's spiritual pressure monitor shows that your faith power is fluctuating abnormally violently. He has activated the Hogyoku resonance and is locating your coordinates—"
Cracks appeared at the edge of the mirror space.
Lin Yi glanced one last time at the still collapsing bubbles, then looked at Xuan Mingzi's gradually transparent figure.
He knew that some conversations should be saved for a safer time, but at this moment he nodded solemnly to the air: "Next time, I'll bring Long Wu and the others to pick you up."
As his figure disappeared into the spatial rift, a bubble in the mirror space suddenly rippled.
The world there was no longer a collapse, but a young man in a white shirt standing side by side with a group of people holding weapons in front of a golden net, with the rising sun behind them.
As Lin Yi's figure fell from the spatial rift, the alarm in the real-world base was tearing through the air.
He knelt on one knee, his palm pressed against the metal floor, his knuckles turning white from the force—the mental struggle with the night owl had left a burning pain in his mind, and his temples throbbed as if a thin needle were drilling deep into his skull.
Chu Yao's voice crackled with static through the communication headset: "Mr. Lin! Mr. Lan's spiritual pressure monitor shows that the amplitude of your faith power fluctuation exceeds the critical value of 300%. He has already activated the Hogyoku resonance and is forcibly maintaining the connection channel—"
"Sizzle—"
Before he could finish speaking, a beam of dark blue light suddenly exploded beside him.
Aizen stepped out of the ball of light, his black vibranium suit collar half-open, the Hogyoku on his left wrist glowing with a dangerous purple light, its crystal surface covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
The usually composed superhuman was now beaded with cold sweat, his fingertips gripping the Hogyoku so tightly his knuckles turned white: "Don't speak! Your mental sea is like a sieve now, your faith power is leaking out. If the observer catches it—"
"It will be located by the Web of Order," Lin Yi replied, his voice two octaves lower than usual.
He looked up at the base's dome, where Su Qing's semi-transparent data form floated. The girl's hair swayed gently with the fluctuations of the data stream, and her fingertips danced like butterflies on the virtual screen. "Su Qing?"
"Analyzing the future projection data left by Night Owl." Su Qing didn't turn around; countless golden codes flowed in her pupils. "According to the residual information in the intruder's consciousness fragments, Xuan Mingzi..." Her fingers suddenly stopped, and a line of scarlet warning popped up on the virtual screen, "His true purpose is to let you inherit the 'Key of Order'."
The lights in the base suddenly dimmed by two degrees.
When Long Wu burst through the hatch carrying the electromagnetic cannon, he saw this scene: Lin Yi stood in the center shrouded in blue light, Aizen maintained his hand seal posture like a statue, Su Qing's data body was almost transparent into a fog, and what made his heart skip a beat was that a semi-transparent phantom had appeared at Lin Yi's feet at some point.
That's Xuanmingzi.
"Choose, Lin Yi." The illusory figure's voice was even softer than before, like a feather that could be blown away by the wind at any moment. He held a silver crystal that shimmered in his outstretched palm. "Destruction, or rebirth."
Countless fine, flowing patterns of light appeared on the surface of the crystal, each pattern corresponding to the fate of a world: some patterns ended in scorched earth, some in newborn buds, and some in fragments torn apart by golden threads.
Lin Yi stared at the crystal and suddenly remembered the collapsing bubbles in the mirror space—it turned out that the so-called "rebirth" was just the observer trapping civilization in a cycle in a different way.
“You said that the observer needs the appearance of ‘free will’.” He stared into Xuanmingzi’s eyes, where there was no mechanical game mastermind, only the weariness and resentment of thirty million years. “So this key is not a restart, but a way for me to actively send the Earth into the next cycle.”
The phantom's shoulder trembled slightly.
"Boss?" Long Wu's electromagnetic cannon slammed to the ground with a "bang." He rushed over in three steps, his military boots making a dull thud on the metal floor. "What's this old bastard up to now? Should I blast him with one shot?" He was about to raise his hand when Lin Yi gently pressed his wrist down.
"Long Wu, go and activate the quantum shielding device." Lin Yi didn't turn around, his gaze fixed on Xuan Mingzi's face. "Chu Yao, cut off all external links, only keep internal communication open."
"Understood." Chu Yao's projection appeared on the other side. Her data stream was much more disordered than usual, and a few charred sparks even appeared at the ends of her hair. "The highest level of data encryption has been activated. The information delay between the base and the outside world has now increased to 0.3 seconds—enough time for you to make a decision."
Su Qing finally turned her face, her eyes gleaming with an unnatural pale blue (the emotional manifestation of the data entity): "According to the calculations, if you accept the Key of Order, Earth's civilization will enter a 'perfect cycle'—no war, no hunger, no interdimensional invasions... but the free will of all life will be compressed to 17%." Her voice suddenly tightened, "Including us."
"Including you?" Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.
“Including me.” Su Qing nodded, the blue light at the ends of her hair dimming. “Data life will be formatted and become part of the cycle. Long Wu will forget the passion he felt during each charge, Mr. Lan will lose the urge to develop new spiritual pressure techniques, and Chu Yao…” She looked at the projection on the other side, “will become a program that can only execute instructions.”
The base fell into a brief silence.
The hum of the ventilation duct suddenly became clear, Long Wu's military boots left a half-groove on the ground, and Aizen's Hogyoku cracked open with a "crack".
"So that's why you guided me to awaken the mastery of time and space?" Lin Yi looked at Xuan Mingzi again. "Because you know that only a true free will would reject this seemingly perfect 'rebirth'."
The illusory figure laughed, the data stream on his wrist finally dissipating completely, like a silver snowfall: "Thirty million years ago, my companions stood here too. Some chose to accept, some chose to rebel..." His figure began to fade, "But you are different from them. You have witnessed the warmth of companions shielding each other, you have witnessed the 'fools' who knew the outcome yet still rebelled—"
"So I choose the third path." Lin Yi suddenly reached out, not to take the Key of Order, but to press it against his chest.
He could feel the power of faith surging through his veins. It was Long Wu's shouts before each charge, Su Qing's focus when organizing data, Chu Yao's elation when cracking code, and Aizen's obsession when developing new techniques—these fragments condensed into a small sun in his sea of consciousness, burning the stinging pain left by Night Owl into ashes.
Before Xuanmingzi's phantom completely dissipated, it took one last look at him.
There was relief, satisfaction, and a hint of expectation in his eyes.
"The Hogyoku resonance is 67% complete." Aizen suddenly spoke, his voice trembling with suppressed emotion. The cracks on the surface of the Hogyoku had spread to two-thirds of its length. "But your faith power... is actively drilling into the Hogyoku?"
Lin Yi looked down and saw a pale golden light seeping from his palm.
The light seemed to have a life of its own, drilling into the Hogyoku along Aizen's wrist and gradually filling in the cracks.
He recalled the bubble in the mirror space—a young man in a white shirt and people holding weapons standing in front of a golden net, with the rising sun behind them.
“Because what I want is not a restart,” he said softly, his gaze sweeping over Long Wu, Su Qing, and Chu Yao, finally settling on the purple-tinged Hogyoku. “It’s to break the cycle.”
The Hōgyoku suddenly emitted a blinding light.
Aizen's pupils contracted in the bright light. He could clearly see that the golden particles of light contained tiny fragments of starlight—fragments of faith belonging to each of his companions, which were reshaping this psychic core, which should have been shattered, in a way that transcended existing rules.
Outside the base, far beyond the dimensional membrane that observers cannot monitor in real time, a silver crack is quietly opening.
Deep within the rift, a crystal that was extremely similar to, yet completely different from, the Key of Order was resonating with Lin Yi's heartbeat, trembling in unison.
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