Chapter 1 The Announcement

Although Dream Corporation's announcement caused a great uproar, as the game's development and operations company, they certainly had the right to do so.

No matter how many people outside expressed their dissatisfaction about not being able to see the finals, it couldn't change the established outcome.

Two and a half days passed quickly, seemingly in the blink of an eye… The day of the finals arrived.

November 18th, evening, 11:40 PM.

As midnight approached, the number of online players in Thriller Paradise broke records, reaching its highest peak since the game's launch.

Basically, everyone who had created a game account in Thriller Paradise had already laid down in their game pods early tonight, setting their login time to sleep mode. Many people who worked night shifts even took leave to log in to the game tonight, just because the S2 finals were a match without replays…

…

At the same time, at Dream Corporation headquarters, the chairman's office.

Three men in black suits were standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, each holding a wine glass, leisurely looking at the night view of S City below.

In their wine glasses was a red, sweet, and somewhat viscous liquid.

Whatever it was… it definitely wasn't red wine.

"Hehehe… it's about to begin…" Woody said with a perverted smile.

Vincent, standing to his left, calmly replied, "The 'Council's' scheme… although not very precise, is truly unbridled…"

"Teacher," Seed said, continuing Vincent's words, "I feel like… they can only resort to such big moves because they can't come up with clever schemes…"

"Heh… don't be so blunt," Vincent said with a smile.

"Hehehe…" Woody also said in a malicious tone, "Perhaps the Scorched Earth Council isn't very clever in some aspects, but their authority and stance are still reliable."

Vincent shrugged and glanced at Woody, "Reliability depends on having absolute power in terms of 'strength.'"

"Hehe… speaking of strength…" At this time, Woody seemed to remember something, "'Doma' that guy… he was resurrected in the 'Main Universe' not long ago, right?"

"Oh… that 'God of Eternal Life'," Seed replied, "I've already observed it. Frankly speaking… it's pitifully weak now." He shook his head, "Compared to when it appeared in our universe more than half a century ago, Doma's strength has degraded by at least half. Even in the 'Main Universe,' a dimension filled with mixed energy, it can't restore itself to its peak strength."

"Hmph… as expected," Vincent said with a smile, "Doma's primordial spirit was severely damaged by the Primal Water Divine Sword to the point of near-disappearance. It was already difficult for it to leave a wisp of divine consciousness and escape into another dimension… Over the years, it hasn't had the support of the Zhen Shen Magic Cube (True God Cube), nor has it obtained any 'belief power,' and it was also sealed on the Rabbit Star, a 'low magic' zone… It wouldn't be normal if it could really restore its original strength."

"Hehehe…" Woody laughed again when he heard this, "But with the combat power of the various forces in this 'Twilight of the Gods,' if Doma participates, it will definitely become a qualified troublemaker…"

Just as he finished speaking, another person appeared in the office.

Vincent, Woody, and Seed all turned their heads at the same moment and looked at the figure.

"Why is it that every time I teleport near you, as long as you're talking, the first thing I hear is usually some kind of vulgarity?" Simon looked at his three old friends and greeted them with a complaint.

"Hehehe…" Woody didn't answer the question because it wasn't really a question. He said with a smile, "Referee, you should be very busy tonight, how do you have time to come over here?"

"I'm here to inform you of something," Simon replied.

"Oh?" Vincent was very perceptive and immediately said, "Could it be… the Council has another bad idea?"

"I won't comment on whether it's a bad idea, but it's good news for you," Simon replied, "The Council said that tonight, 'bettors' can enter the Main Universe to watch the match." He paused for half a second and changed his tone, "But… absolutely no interference is allowed."

"Eh?" Seed was stunned, "Mr. Simon, such an important matter… why are we only being notified now?"

"It's to be notified shortly before the match, to prevent some guys…" Simon said, glancing coldly at Vincent and Woody, "... from making some bad calculations in advance."

"Tch…"

"Hehe…"

The two of them turned their faces away, revealing a reaction that was thirty percent disdain and seventy percent guilty conscience.

"I know that no matter what… when you heard what I just said, you had already started calculating," Simon said, "So I'll give you another reminder…" His proud expression became solemn, "Considering that the referee's workload will be very heavy tonight, the Council has sent me some helpers."

"Some?" Vincent's first reaction was to test the number of people.

"Helpers?" Woody wanted to ask what their background was.

"They're all Titans, I can't reveal the number," Simon naturally understood what they meant, he replied calmly, "At this very moment, they, like me… are conveying the message to various bettors."

"They've actually mobilized a group of Titans…" Vincent said thoughtfully, "... this is interesting."

"Hehehe… in that case…" Woody said with a smirk, "… it seems that no one can mess around…"

"Based on the way you two are pretending, I will personally and especially take care of you later," Simon replied.

"Ah, ah~ Everyone doesn't need to be so tense, right?" Seed looked at the three seniors and said, spreading his hands, "It's just a matter of 'one minute'."

…

November 19th, 12:00 AM, game world.

The four teams that successfully made it to the finals: [Hell Frontline], [Useless Alliance], [Order], [Warring States], were all present and accounted for, fully armed and ready to go.

Due to Dream Corporation's restrictions, during the S2 Finals of the Peak Brawl, all other script modes on the server will be closed except for the competition mode, so… at this time, no one can queue for a script except for the twenty members of those four teams.

In other words… all the other players are now concentrated in the login space, conference rooms, or the mall, waiting to watch the livestream.

At the moment the midnight bell rang, the players from the four teams simultaneously turned into white light and entered the finals queue.

Perhaps it was because this was the only queue loading on the entire server, the loading speed was extremely fast. Almost instantly, the players had entered the script world.

Then… the script's opening CG appeared on various livestream screens in the game space.

[Ling Yun Ai Ai Jiu Kui Lin] (Auspicious Clouds Hover, Nine Leaders Descend)

[Xue Yu Xiao Xiao Mo Shou Lai] (Bloody Rain Falls, Demon Head Arrives)

[Shi Xu Yin Guo Gu Zhang Jian] (Time and Karma, Between the Palms)

[Zhu Jie Shan E Shui Ren Cai] (Who Judges Good and Evil in All Realms)

In a pitch-black scene, these four opening lines of verse sounded first.

Among the audience, some players with good memories remembered that the finals of the Peak Brawl S1 also started with these four lines.

However, the following content was somewhat different…

[Ming Yuan Ling Bian Feng Yun Qi] (Nether Abyss Spiritual Change, Winds and Clouds Rise)

At this point in the narration, the scene suddenly appeared.

The black and white camera constantly switched, focusing on corpses.

They weren't ordinary corpses, but the corpses of the Nine Leaders of the Undead…

Of these nine NPCs who appeared in S1, most have died or gone missing.

And next to those corpses stood a figure…

At first glance, it seemed to be a human female. She was wearing a white dress, slender, with waist-length hair draped behind her. But if you looked closely… you could find an anomaly on her, which was… that the part of her nose and cheeks had no flesh, as if the middle section of her face had been transversely cut off, exposing the bones of her nose and face.

[Dou Mo Po Xu Gui Shen Jing] (Fighting Demons Shatters Emptiness, Ghosts and Gods are Startled)

Seconds later, the narration recited the second line.

This time, the scene showed a scorched earth; beneath the gloomy sky were rivers of sulfurous blood and mountains of corpses and bones.

And in that hellish landscape, a demonic figure wrapped in black gas… was walking towards the camera.

[Si Jie Shi Xu Jin Li Sui] (Four Realms, Time and Order Shattered)

The third line of poetry followed closely, and the scene switched again.

This time, the camera focused on a dilapidated courtroom.

The courtroom was empty, and it seemed to have just experienced an earthquake of magnitude seven or higher… the ground was full of rubble and debris, a complete mess.

On one side of the courtroom wall hung a very conspicuous, huge clock… At this moment, the clock face was shattered; the hour and minute hands… were both pointing at twelve o'clock.

[Zhu Shen Qing Yun Jian Huang Hun] (All Gods Fall, See Twilight)

A moment later, the last line of opening verse was heard.

Immediately afterwards, the scene returned to darkness once again…

"What's going on?"

"Hey… what's next?"

"Where's the match footage?"

People thought that the CG had finished playing, and that they could start watching the match next.

But… a full minute passed, and whether it was the big screen in the mall, the touch screen in the login space, or the screen in the conference room… it was still a black screen, and the voices of the match commentators had not yet been heard.

Buzz—buzz buzz buzz—

A minute later, accompanied by a noise that sounded like radio interference, a face appeared in the livestream…

"Greetings, humans." The owner of that face looked to be in his forties, a Caucasian male with neat sideburns and a clean face, wearing a tall top hat and a bow tie. "Nice to meet you, I… Link, am a Deriver."

Link politely introduced himself, then continued in this gentle tone to say something very frightening, "Perhaps you will find the request I am about to make somewhat abrupt, but I must say…" He paused for half a second, then continued, "Please… die here."

Before the words faded, a sudden change occurred.

Just as the players hadn't figured out what was going on, cracks appeared on the dome of the game exchange (i.e., the mall space)…

This wasn't an isolated phenomenon happening in "one" mirror space, but was happening simultaneously in all phase layers, in all regions.

The audience gathered in front of the large screens in various mall spaces, preparing to watch the match… all noticed this sudden change at the first moment.

Originally… not seeing the livestream of the match had already surprised them very much, but what was happening at this moment… was completely beyond their understanding and imagination…

"How is this possible?"

"Am I seeing things… is the game space collapsing?"

"Hey! What's that?"

"There… there are things coming down from the cracks!"

Some players with good eyesight had already seen… above the torn dome, in the jagged data cracks, there was a dense group of strange shadows… pouring out…

They were a group of tall, humanoid creatures with a layer of purplish-black leathery shell covering their bodies. Their heads resembled aliens… arched, with long necks; their torsos were strong, their forearms were narrow and long, their hind legs were curved like beast feet, and… their backs had a pair of huge, gossamer-thin fly wings.

[Warning, game space is being invaded by derived data.]

[Offline, disconnect protection mechanism is not functioning normally.]

[Emergency plan activated, all player system limits adjusted to 30%]

[Please stay away from threats under the protection of guard robots, and take action with your own safety as the top priority.]