“Feng Bujue?” Before Jue-ge could speak, the two people rushing toward him exclaimed his name in unison.

They had originally intended to attack as they charged over, but upon realizing the target was Feng Bujue, they hurriedly stopped and withdrew their hands.

"Oh, it's you guys..." Unlike Gui Xiao and Ye Zhi's astonished reaction, Jue-ge remained calm as ever when he saw them. After casually uttering this sentence, he continued to activate his data vision to search for a path.

"Hey! Your reaction is a bit too calm, isn't it?" Gui Xiao immediately exclaimed excitedly, "Do you know what kind of situation this is?"

"I know," Feng Bujue's tone remained unchanged. "And I probably know more than you do."

"What?" Ye Zhi asked, "Do you know the cause of all this?"

As an ordinary person who wasn't chuunibyou in the slightest, and a woman to boot, Ye Zhi was in dire need of someone to explain the situation unfolding before her eyes and alleviate her unease and fear.

Unfortunately, Feng Bujue was in no mood to soothe anyone's emotions at the moment. He stated very directly, "In simple terms... an AI named 'Destiny,' which is the system of Thriller Paradise... launched a dimensional invasion of our world not long ago. At this very moment, the reality we are in is merging with the main universe of Thriller Paradise... hence the temporal distortions, monsters everywhere, and other phenomena."

"This... how is this possible?" Clearly, Ye Zhi's worldview made it difficult for her to accept such a statement.

"It's not a question of possibility, but rather whether you accept it or not." As Feng Bujue spoke, he had already locked onto a faintly visible data line and began walking in that direction.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Seeing that he was about to leave, Gui Xiao quickly asked again.

"Of course, I'm going to find Destiny and stop her actions." Jue-ge replied coldly, his steps unwavering.

"Hold on! Explain yourself clearly!" Gui Xiao had no choice but to chase after him and ask, "How did this dimensional invasion suddenly happen? How do you know all this?"

"I don't have the time, nor is it necessary, to explain it to you in detail." Feng Bujue didn't even turn his head, replying as he walked, "Even as we speak, the entire world is undergoing changes. Every second wasted means countless humans and other living beings will die..." He paused, then added, "Hmph... of course, that sort of thing is already unimportant. Once the universe fusion is complete and 'Destiny' becomes the new god, it'll all be over... At that point, a single thought from her could wipe out all life in the universe."

"Then..." Gui Xiao was, after all, a chuunibyou. With his way of thinking, he found Jue-ge's explanation relatively easy to accept. "...I'll go with you!" As he said this, he turned back and shouted at Ye Zhi, who was still standing there at a loss, "Sister Zhi, let's go with him. At least there will be more people to..."

*Hiss—*

Just as Gui Xiao was about to say the word "altogether," a light sound of something cutting through the air suddenly swept past.

In an instant, Ye Zhi's body was severed at the waist.

A second later, she lowered her head in astonishment, watching her body separate and fall from her abdomen...

Reality is bloody.

Death in reality is not concealed by white light.

Ye Zhi, or rather, Ms. Ye Zhi, the mid-level employee of Order Studio with the game ID [Ye Zhi], was killed in that instant by a very ordinary slash. Her internal organs and blood flowed out of her body, spreading across the forest floor... And her shocked, pained, and terrified expression froze on her face, deeply imprinted in Gui Xiao... or rather, Ma Junxiao's eyes.

This scene left Gui Xiao frozen in place.

Although he had seen countless deaths in the game, in reality, when he saw someone he knew die so easily in front of him... he still reacted as any normal person would.

His brain, upon receiving this shocking scene, seemed to crash, temporarily ceasing to function.

Then, like a rewind, the most recent short-term memory was retrieved...

Just a dozen minutes ago, Gui Xiao was still in a break room at Order Studio, enjoying the air conditioning, listening to Sister Ye Zhi complain about how boring and tiring it was to do logistics and write reports for them team members.

At that time, the world was still normal. It was such an ordinary and dull day.

But after a flash of white light without warning, everything changed...

When they came to their senses, they had arrived in this desolate wilderness. After encountering several monster attacks, they were surprised to find that they could use some of the abilities they only had in the game. Thus, the two of them cautiously moved forward, trying to find the cause of all this.

They encountered some monster attacks along the way, which made their nerves extremely tense, until... they met Feng Bujue.

Who could have imagined that in the dozen seconds that Gui Xiao and Ye Zhi were distracted by the conversation and let down their guard, Ye Zhi would be killed by an attack from who knows where...

Our brains will activate a self-preservation mechanism when we experience some major changes. "Coma," "temporary loss of consciousness followed by memory rewind and recovery," "self-deception," and "short-term memory loss" are all common forms of protection. Most people can survive under the protection of this mechanism and slowly accept reality... But there are also some people who, either due to mental fragility, or due to the intensity of the shock, or due to long-term severe physical and mental abuse... will eventually suffer from mental illness.

"Ah!" Fortunately, Gui Xiao pulled through. After a brief period of stupor, his thoughts finally came back online, and he instinctively screamed.

*Hiss— Hiss—*

The thing that took Ye Zhi's life wouldn't care about any of this. It was still approaching, bringing with it bursts of air-splitting sounds.

If it were [Swallowing Sky Gui Xiao] in the game, he would be able to see a monster of this speed at a glance and destroy it with ease; but at this moment, Ma Junxiao, who was standing here... was not only inferior to his in-game self in terms of strength, but also psychologically far behind.

*Tss tss—*

In the blink of an eye, two bloody marks appeared on Gui Xiao's left arm and back, respectively.

Fortunately... his physical and energy strength were much greater than Ye Zhi's. The same attack could kill Ye Zhi, but it couldn't cut through his body.

"Haah... haah..." After gasping for breath twice, Gui Xiao finally recovered from the shock and calmed down a little. The pain from the wound instead made him more awake, and his attention was more focused. "Don't be afraid... I'm strong... I'm strong..."

He repeated this sentence in his mouth, using this self-suggestion to relieve his fear.

Several seconds later, Gui Xiao's vision finally captured the thing that was attacking him—it was an unknown creature composed of thread-like objects. In motion, it was like a set of "cat's cradle" strings being straightened, maintaining a chaotic yet orderly form in constant change. At the moment of launching an attack, it would pop out a section of "string end," using ultra-high-speed "whipping"... If the attacked party's hardness was not enough, it would be cut open.

"Ah—"

Once he saw it clearly, there was nothing to be afraid of.

In a burst of angry roar, Gui Xiao flashed forward, getting in front of the monster. With a fist full of energy, he blasted the opponent into dust with one blow.

However, this didn't change anything...

Ye Zhi was still dead. Her body, severed at the waist, collapsed on the ground, and the internal organs and large amounts of blood that flowed out emitted a strong odor in the humid environment.

The shock just now had made Gui Xiao ignore these things, but now, the scene and smell in front of him made Gui Xiao's stomach churn, and he immediately vomited dryly.

A moment later, when he wiped away his tears and sweat and looked up again, Feng Bujue... had long since disappeared without a trace.

Gui Xiao couldn't even be sure whether the Feng Bujue he had just seen was real... How much he hoped that all of this was just a dream, a nightmare he wanted to forget forever.

…………

At the same time, elsewhere in the mountains, Feng Bujue had found a new spatial rift in a cave.

A few minutes ago, he didn't stop because of Ye Zhi's death or Gui Xiao's shouts... He didn't even look back at them.

This wasn't because he was cold and ruthless, but because he knew very well—right now, the way to save them and everyone else was not to turn back, but to move forward.

Fighting only the "things in front of you" cannot save the entire universe.

Only by finding Destiny can he save and correct everything...

However, no one can accompany Feng Bujue on this journey to find "Destiny."

First of all, he is different from others when it comes to "crossing" through space-time. When others pass through a spatial rift, they will arrive at another fragment space connected to the rift at the current point in time, but Feng Bujue... as Sid said—"No matter where you go, you will get closer and closer to 'Destiny'"; that is to say, even if someone enters the same rift as Jue-ge at the same second, they are very likely to be transported to different places.

Feng Bujue had confirmed this through his data vision the last time he passed through a spatial rift... that's why he said that he "didn't have time and it wasn't necessary" to say anything more to Gui Xiao and the others.

Secondly, even if Jue-ge intended to have others temporarily follow him and provide assistance before his next crossing, not everyone would be able to help.

In the end... the strong in the game world are just ordinary people in reality. You can't expect these people to immediately become qualified warriors after gaining some abilities.

It's like giving a real gun to a player who plays live-action CS and then sending him to the battlefield. No matter how well he plays the game, when it really comes to risking his life, it's a different story...

People like Feng Bujue, who have already dealt with many life-threatening things, are undoubtedly a minority.

*Buzzing—*

Soon, Jue-ge jumped into the spatial rift in the cave and made his second teleportation.

When the sensation of teleportation faded, he arrived in a modern city.

He recognized this place... it was S City.

At this moment, the city was completely unrecognizable. Monsters from the main universe were rampaging everywhere, indiscriminately destroying all people and things that came from different dimensions than them... There were explosions, cries, and all kinds of unknown collision sounds everywhere.

"Whoa~ Scared me." Just as Jue-ge had stood still, a familiar voice came from behind him, "Where did you pop out from?"

Feng Bujue turned his head, looked back over his shoulder, and saw Snow... and about thirty men in black suits.

This large group of people was standing in the middle of the road. Except for Snow, the rest of the guys were wearing sunglasses, all staring in the same direction, giving off a sense of being on the set of *The Matrix*.

"What are you guys doing here?" Feng Bujue immediately asked.

"Definitely not waiting for you." As Snow spoke, he raised his chin, signaling Jue-ge to look to the other side.

Feng Bujue looked in the direction that the other party was facing and happened to see a humanoid creature with wings on its back and horns on its forehead flying horizontally out of an intersection dozens of meters away, flipping over several cars that clearly still had passengers inside.

That wasn't all. At the same time as that creature appeared, a figure jumped down from the top of a building about thirty stories high next to the intersection...

This "person" was blood-colored, like a skinned corpse, and its skeletal outline was different from ordinary people, extremely tall and agile.

*Boom—*

When the figure landed, it stepped out a huge circular pit in the asphalt road, but it didn't seem to mind the impact of the fall.

"If I'm not mistaken, those two are Samodir and the Blood Corpse God, right?" A few seconds later, Snow spoke again, "Heh... Although I don't know why these guys from the game suddenly ran into reality..." His words actually carried a bit of playful laughter, "...but I don't really dislike this kind of thing either."