The fog had thickened to the point where riding was no longer possible.
The two dismounted, cautiously making their way through the vast, white mist.
There was not a single living thing in Zone 97.
Everywhere, they could see black shadows devouring one another—some human-shaped, some not, some the size of a palm, and others several people tall.
Among them stood many tall black shadows, each looking no less formidable than those that had roamed the zombie world before.
But for some reason, these shadows appeared dazed and confused. They stood there motionless, as if they had not noticed the two intruders encroaching on their territory.
Even so, the two could not let their guard down.
They tried to remain quiet, inching forward little by little.
Perhaps due to the pollution from the shadows, Xiao Lu could vaguely sense that something existed deep within the fog.
It was a strange restlessness that made him eager to get closer, a maddening desire to pursue something, yet there was also a faint feeling of being suppressed.
Ahead was a rather ancient house.
Constructed of white stone, every pillar was adorned with exquisite carvings and decorations, the overall shape delicate and elegant. Even after hundreds of years, its beauty remained unscathed.
It was not hard to imagine that hundreds of years ago, this place must have belonged to some noble or celebrity.
Xiao Lu cast a glance downwards.
The shadow on the back of his hand, which had originally looked like a mole, had spread; it was now the size of a coin and was visibly expanding outward at a certain speed.
Since he stepped into Zone 97, the speed at which the shadow was eroding his body had quickened.
Wen Mujun was in a similar situation; as a native of this world, his body already bore traces of pollution.
“Let’s go, we need to hurry.”
The two entered the house.
As soon as they stepped inside, Xiao Lu frowned. The white mist in the air looked clean, but it carried a stench of decay and rot, as if even the air in this house had gone bad.
That vague sensation appeared below, and they followed the stairs down.
Gradually, their vision was completely consumed by white; the fog was so thick that everything around them was invisible. Even standing shoulder to shoulder, they could only see each other’s blurred outlines.
Their vision was nearly useless.
Xiao Lu felt he had reached the underground; it seemed to be a very spacious room, with echoes resounding beneath their feet.
A black shadow appeared ahead, looking quite conspicuous in the vast white mist.
It seemed to be a person, but they stood there stiffly, motionless.
Xiao Lu tightened his grip on the whip, cautiously approaching, but the other still showed no reaction.
The further they went, the more shadows appeared. They stood facing the center as if in pilgrimage, their posture even somewhat reverent.
Passing by one shadow after another, Xiao Lu and his companion finally reached the end of the room.
There stood a silver mirror, at least a person tall.
The upper right corner of the mirror was missing a large chunk, and it was covered in scars and stains; the surface was dirty, looking somewhat broken.
The frame was intricately carved, with complex and delicate patterns, seemingly telling some ancient myth. Yet the deities depicted looked strange, neither human nor beast, their overall outlines flickering, like something melting away.
Moreover, their fierce, devouring postures did not resemble the benevolent deities of traditional impressions; combined with the wisps of black gas emanating from the mirror, they appeared more like monsters.
Even a few glances would send chills down one’s spine.
In the mirror, Xiao Lu saw something that should not have been there—
A glass reagent bottle, its cap engraved with the logo of the Zhou Gu laboratory, marked “0.”
“Virus Zero!”
The Virus Zero was wrapped in a layer of black shadow, which seemed alive, writhing on the bottle, trying to envelop it completely, but it was as if an invisible force was tugging against the shadows. The shadows would cover a bit, then recede, repeating this cycle.
This mirror seemed to want to devour Virus Zero, while Virus Zero was resisting.
Why was this happening? Both the mirror and the reagent were inanimate objects, yet at this moment, they resembled a hunting beast and its prey.
“Care to explain?” Xiao Lu draped his arm over Wen Mujun’s shoulder.
Wen Mujun raised his hand and gently stroked the mottled mirror frame: “They are the cores of the world.”
“The core of the world contains the power of a world’s rules; they are the most critical existence of a world, connecting to its origin.”
“So this is…” Xiao Lu pointed at the mirror.
“This world is injured; its own rules have collapsed, and it seeks to gain power by devouring the cores of other worlds to repair its own damage.”
“So the cores you had me obtain in those previous worlds were all world cores?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want them to fall into the hands of a certain someone.”
“A certain someone refers to the master—”
“Shh—” A hand with black spots gently pressed against Xiao Lu’s lips, silencing the words he was about to utter.
Not just the back of his hand, but now black spots were also beginning to appear on both of their faces.
After entering this room, the speed of the shadows eroding their bodies had suddenly accelerated. It wouldn’t be long before they would become one of those standing shadows.
“There’s no time for idle chatter. This world is almost out of control. If you want to leave here, bring the mirror and Virus Zero to me, and I will use the power of the rules to send you away.”
Xiao Lu looked at the silver mirror with a puzzled expression. Bring the mirror out?
But wasn’t the mirror right in front of him?
“Look closely…”
“The true body is inside the mirror.”
Following his words, Xiao Lu looked at the mirror. Before he could see clearly, he felt a hand gently yet firmly land on his back, suddenly pushing him towards the mirror.
Strangely, Xiao Lu did not feel the impact; it was as if he had passed through a cold water surface, plunging into a deep lake.
“I’ll wait for you…” Another voice echoed faintly.
When he opened his eyes again, Xiao Lu found himself standing in a desolate, empty white world. Above him, around him, and beneath his feet, everything was white.
There was not a single person around.
That rascal had just thrown him into the mirror like this!
Scattered at his feet were some odds and ends that at first glance looked like trash, but upon closer inspection, they were rather peculiar.
Among them were a scepter embedded with a huge gem, a tiger talisman, sci-fi buttons, and an unknown leather-bound spellbook… These items varied in style, clearly not products of the same world.
The only commonality was that regardless of their original colors, they had all turned gray. It was as if they had been drained of all energy, leaving only empty shells.
Xiao Lu thought he probably knew what these were; they were all cores that had absorbed all energy.
How many other worlds had this one destroyed to break free from the system’s control?
He looked into the distance; he could see the figure of Virus Zero in the mirror, but when he truly stood in this world, it was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, Xiao Lu felt a chill run down his spine; he sensed that something was watching him.
He looked around but found nothing amiss.
Xiao Lu did not want to comfort himself by saying this was an illusion; he instinctively wanted to leave his original position.
But at that moment, he was shocked to discover that he could not move his body. It felt as if he were trapped in a small space filled with cement, which was slowly drying, intending to imprison him here forever.
The black shadows quietly spread from beneath his feet, extending irregularly in all directions like flaunting tentacles. Then they suddenly closed in, wrapping Xiao Lu’s body within.
A sense of pressure and suffocation hit him simultaneously.
Xiao Lu felt like a bug caught by a mischievous child. That child, with a naive yet malicious smile, tightened their fingers, using their overwhelming power to crush all his resistance.
Pressure surged from all sides, greedily attempting to devour everything about him.
Xiao Lu had no time left to think.
His shell seemed to turn into something formless, powerful forces surged into his body, and he could only use his fragile soul to confront this boundless impact.
Xiao Lu sensed the greed and triumph emanating from the shadows; they seemed quite pleased with their prey that had delivered itself to them, preparing to feast.
At that moment, what rose in his heart was not fear, but anger and disdain.
Like a king of the jungle being provoked by tiny ants.
In the midst of darkness, a ghostly green mist suddenly appeared, charging towards the shadows with great momentum.
The ghostly green mist tore at the shadowy cage like a frenzied beast, and the shadows, which had once held absolute advantage, were no longer invulnerable.
The shadows shook violently, quickly revealing gaps, on the verge of collapse.
The mist continued to tear, brutally shredding the shadows.
The terrifying shadows, in the face of the green mist, were as fragile as paper.
Then the green mist arrogantly rose, swirling in this white world, dyeing the pure landscape with large patches of green.
Xiao Lu found that his vision overlapped with the green mist; he seemed to transform into the mist, and this strange sensation left him momentarily dazed.
In that moment of daze, he felt he was standing at a very high place, looking down from a strange perspective.
A black-haired boy with an unfamiliar face, yet somewhat familiar demeanor, knelt respectfully on the stone floor, looking up at him, his lips moving as if saying something.
Unfortunately, this scene had no sound, and soon, the boy vanished.
At this moment, the green mist had captured its target.
It turned out that the true body of this world’s core was merely a small mirror, no bigger than a palm, with no patterns at all, and a dull gray that made it inconspicuous. It formed a stark contrast with the previous grand, ancient, towering mirror that exuded an ominous aura.
Could this be considered excessive beautification?
The black gas from the small mirror overflowed, entangling the Virus Zero trapped beneath.
How to describe that scene…
Perhaps Xiao Lu’s perspective was too high; looking down from above, he could only think of it as two elementary school kids pecking at each other.
It was rather cute.
But he showed no signs of mercy; the green mist enveloped the two cores still bickering like schoolchildren, taking them all away in one wave.
“Don’t you think you should explain something?”
After emerging from the mirror, Xiao Lu pressed Wen Mujun against the wall, pinning him in the corner. He placed his hand against the side of Wen Mujun’s face, blocking any escape route.
oh hooo
A kabedon?!