Li Chu dealt with Shen Tu Kou, pulling Wan Xing up from the ground. He initially wanted to settle the score with Xin Meng, but upon seeing him seemingly stunned in shock, he felt a bit proud. He thought about showing off a bit in front of him, demonstrating something real, hoping to scare him out of his wits.
So he continued to swing his large knife. Wherever the blade passed, everything turned to nothingness; the void grew larger and larger, the land, the cornfields, even the air formed a vacuum.
The picturesque blue sky, green leaves, and the small paths between the fields quickly vanished, leaving only darkness. If one faced that direction, it felt as if they stood alone in the universe, ready to fall at any moment, never to reach the bottom.
What was even more terrifying was the complete absence of sound, of light; even time seemed to stand still.
This was the end of days, nothing less.
Suddenly, Xin Meng felt a sharp pain in his wrist. He turned to see Qi Xiaokui, who was staring blankly at the horrifying scene, her face devoid of color.
“What would happen if we got sucked in?” she asked, her lips trembling, seemingly addressing Xin Meng but also sounding like she was talking to herself.
Xin Meng didn’t dare tell her about Shen Tu Kou’s fate.
Li Chu, in a fit of rage and intent on destruction, couldn’t stop himself now. It was as if he had become addicted, continuously swinging his knife in that direction. The darkness deepened, and perhaps due to the principle of extremes, a hint of white eventually appeared at the end.
That white was neither the light emitted by a star nor the hazy sheen of a pearl; it was lifeless, a dead white akin to cheap plastic.
The dead white grew larger, gradually replacing the darkness, and then the white became increasingly faint.
Finally, a small hole appeared in the almost transparent center of the white.
It was like poking a hole in a plastic bag; a breeze blew through, and one could faintly see shadows moving inside, accompanied by screams and howls.
At that moment, Qi Xiaokui stood before the darkness, gazing at the incredible scene, suddenly struck by a sense of absurd illusion.
They were originally characters in a play, yet now they stood before a screen, watching the curtain rise as others performed in the play.
Or perhaps they were watching each other, both believing themselves to be the audience.
In truth, they were merely the clowns in the play.
Unable to resist, Qi Xiaokui turned to look at Xin Meng. This was her first world to participate in; previously, she had been brought out directly from the main god space by Cheng Jiali and had never witnessed Li Chu and the others breaking the dimensional wall. She was a bit frightened and felt a sense of dread towards the weapon in Li Chu’s hand.
She recalled Xin Meng had said earlier that he wanted to destroy it, but… could such a terrifying thing really be done?
However, Xin Meng’s expression was blank, fixated on the broken hole, and no one could tell what he was thinking.
Wan Xing walked over, sneering, “Are you scared silly? Actually, the distance in every game is this close, packed together like a beehive. It’s just that without an opportunity, without Brother Li, we might spend our entire lives without knowing the truth.”
Xin Meng shot him a glance but didn’t respond. Qi Xiaokui asked, “With such a commotion, why hasn’t the system reacted?”
“Big?” At that moment, Li Chu returned, wiping the sweat from his forehead, scoffing, “The games in the computer are calculated in billions, and they are constantly being updated and replaced. New and old overlap. Don’t say destroying one; even if we destroyed hundreds, it would be like a few flakes of dandruff falling off a person, not raising any alarms.”
After saying that, as if fearing Qi Xiaokui and the others would lose confidence, he quickly added, “But this also gives us an opportunity. As long as we persist, one day we will make it suffer, revealing its true form. As long as we know where its mainframe is, I can find a way to destroy it! Shorten the time!”
He spoke with great certainty, and Xin Meng bit his lip, frowning.
“…” Qi Xiaokui didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t had a good life in reality; instead, the game had transformed her, so she didn’t harbor much resentment towards the game system, even feeling a bit grateful. However, she could understand others wanting to leave as soon as possible; after all, not everyone was like her, without attachments. Wanting to return to loved ones was understandable, so she hesitated to respond.
But Li Chu kept watching her and Xin Meng, waiting for their replies to confirm their stance. Xin Meng remained silent, and she guessed he might still be in shock, so she couldn’t afford to be silent as well.
After thinking for a moment, Qi Xiaokui decided to avoid a direct answer and asked, “Now that we’ve connected two worlds, what impact does it have on that world?”
Li Chu pursed his lips, not getting the answer he wanted, but he wasn’t in a hurry, “It doesn’t have much impact; it’s just a big hole. NPCs are restricted to this world and can’t come over; at most, they can scare the players.”
No one noticed Xin Meng’s lips twitching, revealing an extremely faint, mocking smile.
This kind of scene was something Li Chu and the others were used to. Generally speaking, once they broke the game barriers, they could use their still-active GM identities to traverse between different games. But the situation was different now; they hadn’t destroyed this small game world yet, nor had they met up with Zhang Jingli and the others. It wasn’t a good time to leave, so they planned to ignore it and just walk away.
However, at that moment, an unexpected change occurred.
From the opposite void, several massive figures began to emerge, their eyes wicked, claws like hooks gripping the hole. With a fierce tug, the hole expanded from the size of a watermelon to that of a mountain, and two or three Western dragons squeezed through, flapping their bony wings, soaring over the darkness, heading this way!
Li Chu’s eyes widened, “How is this possible!”
Qi Xiaokui and Cheng Jiali screamed in fright, and Qi Xiaokui grabbed Xin Meng and ran, with Xin Meng following suit but glancing back from time to time.
“Brother Li, what’s going on?” Wan Xing was utterly confused; he had never seen such a situation. How could NPCs come over?
Aren’t they supposed to be unable to cross worlds?
The enormous figures of the dragons brought immense pressure to everyone, causing chaos. But Li Chu reacted quickly, immediately drawing his large knife and swinging it fiercely at the dragon that descended like a mountain.
As expected of a weapon capable of tearing the dimensional wall, with that swing, the dragon disintegrated silently, just like everything that had vanished before, its data completely disappearing from the system’s database.
Xin Meng stopped, pulling Qi Xiaokui over, watching the scene unfold.
One dragon was eliminated by Li Chu, but two remained; one continued to entangle with Li Chu, while the other charged towards Wan Xing, forcing him to roll on the ground to evade, looking quite disheveled.
However, the chaos didn’t last long. Li Chu dealt with his dragon and then went to help Wan Xing. With that weapon in hand, everything was as easy as cutting through vegetables.
Qi Xiaokui witnessed it all, and Xin Meng’s expression gradually darkened.
During Li Chu’s use of the large knife, he increasingly felt a threat—not from his mind, but from a concrete data point—he finally detected the energy briefly leaked during its use.
This knife could harm him, or rather, it could kill him.
He couldn’t even touch it directly.
Xin Meng’s expression turned grim. After thinking for a moment, he ultimately whispered something in Qi Xiaokui’s ear, who hesitated for a moment before nodding.
Everyone’s attention was drawn to the dragons, so no one noticed this moment. Li Chu and Wan Xing, who were attacked, suffered varying degrees of injury, while Cheng Jiali, who was as fortunate as Xin Meng and Qi Xiaokui, immediately rushed over to check on their injuries.
Qi Xiaokui and Xin Meng exchanged glances, feigning concern as they moved closer, while Xin Meng stood still, watching every move of the group.
“Damn, what the hell is going on! Ugh… it hurts like hell!” Wan Xing touched his face, where he had almost been clawed open by the dragon.
“Pah!” He spat out blood and complained to Li Chu, “Brother Li, this dragon can fly! It flew over! Next time, let’s play a game where it can’t fly.”
He spoke as if it were as easy as opening a watermelon.
Li Chu snorted, sitting on the ground with a serious face, “Did you forget we’ve seen flying demons before? We’ve never seen one that could break game restrictions. Alright, I’m not seriously hurt; go check on Old Wan.” The last sentence was directed at Cheng Jiali.
Cheng Jiali hurried to check on Wan Xing, while Qi Xiaokui remained squatting beside him, asking, “Could it be that the system has discovered us?”
Li Chu initially wanted to send Qi Xiaokui away, but hearing this made him follow the train of thought, causing him to miss the opportunity. By the time he reacted, he found a dagger pressed against his neck, and Qi Xiaokui had taken the large knife from his waist.
At the same time, Xin Meng suddenly charged from behind Wan Xing and Cheng Jiali, delivering a kick and a knife hand, directly taking down both of them. He then lunged at Li Chu, while Qi Xiaokui grabbed the large knife and retreated, and Xin Meng engaged Li Chu in combat.
With Xin Meng’s current skills, taking down Li Chu was no problem at all. But the issue lay precisely with Qi Xiaokui; she had no idea that Xin Meng couldn’t touch that knife, nor did she realize that the knife couldn’t harm players. Instead, she thought that since the knife was so powerful, using it would surely yield great results, and she directly threw the knife to Xin Meng!
At that moment, Xin Meng had one hand gripping Li Chu’s neck and the other fist striking his face, leaving him no time to catch it. The knife sliced through his elbow.
He felt a sharp pain throughout his body, and his forearm fell away along the knife’s edge, dissipating into data in the air.
What a powerful knife!
Xin Meng’s face turned pale.
It was this moment of hesitation that gave Li Chu the chance to fight back. He kicked Xin Meng away, quickly getting up from the ground, instinctively looking for a soft target to grab, aiming to seize Qi Xiaokui. With Xin Meng’s arm injured, he failed to catch him, allowing Li Chu to succeed.
He forcefully grabbed Qi Xiaokui, pulling her in front of him, twisting her wrist holding the dagger until it dislocated, seizing the knife and pressing it against her neck, stepping back a few paces to distance himself from Xin Meng.
Xin Meng, considering her safety, could only stop.
“Good, I’ve known for a long time that you two were suspicious!”
At that moment, Li Chu’s gaze fell on Xin Meng’s missing forearm, and his eyes widened in shock.
“You… you’re not a player, you’re an NPC?!”
