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Swoosh!

Golden spider threads slithered out from the players’ wrists, piercing through the rose petals, intertwining madly with the golden threads flying in the sky, weaving a massive diamond web that forcibly held up the collapsing sky.

“The collapse... slowed down?” Cao Youfeng stared at the scene in shock.

[H-how is this possible?!]

[A collapse is absolutely irreversible!]

[Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Even if the Lord God came today, there’s no way]

[What on earth happened?! What are these golden threads?!]

“It... it seems to be sucking my spiritual power?!” Cao Youfeng shouted.

Everyone looked down at their wrists in alarm. They saw a continuous flow of golden energy streaming along their veins into the spider threads, feeding the golden web holding up the falling sky.

“No, this doesn’t seem like spiritual power.” Tao Shi frowned, “My spiritual energy hasn’t depleted.”

“Then what is it?” Cao Youfeng asked.

What is it?

Tao Shi couldn’t answer. He wasn’t sure, but...

He turned his head to look at the ground.

“Yan, Yan-Yan...” Jian Hou stared blankly at the ground, trying to find that familiar figure.

“Impossible. Jiang Yan is already dead!” Lu Sha said.

By now, the forest, the muddy ground, the roses, and that refined black-haired, blue-eyed young man had all been swallowed up, leaving only a hellish, lava-like, churning dark red data stream and the scattering golden spider threads.

[Jiang... Jiang Yan? This... how is this possible?]

[But... these golden spider threads only appeared after Jiang Yan’s ‘divine descent’]

[Absolutely impossible! Jiang Yan has long been completely dead!]

[Killed countless times in the level two instance, body mutated, and finally swept into the collapse’s data flood... how could he possibly still be alive?]

“Don’t just say Jiang Yan was a suspected cheating real NPC! Even if he were the Lord God himself, getting swept into the collapse’s data flood would still cost him half his life!” Lu Sha’s eyes were bloodshot.

Yu Jia frowned, his fingers twitching in his pocket, but due to the instance’s loss of control, his manipulation of the puppet threads had clearly weakened.

“He’s dead! He’s dead! He’s dead! It’s all over!” Lu Sha laughed maniacally.

“Say that one more time about Yan Yan and I’ll kill you!!”

Jian Hou snapped and lunged forward, grabbing Lu Sha by the collar.

Lu Sha’s face twisted: “We’re going to die too anyway! But it doesn’t matter! As long as Jiang Yan is dead, our sacrifice is worth it! As long as he’s dead!”

“He’s completely dead! Completely dead now! Hahahahaha...”

As he finished, there was a loud “bang,” like someone popping a party balloon.

Immediately after, countless withered rose petals burst from the scarlet data chaos below, scattering through the sky.

“This... what is this?” Cao Youfeng stared at everything before him in shock.

Jian Hou looked at the rose petals dancing wildly in the air and muttered blankly, “This... this is... it’s Yan-Yan!!”

He instantly released Lu Sha’s collar and turned to dive toward the scarlet data stream, only to be yanked back by Tao Shi grabbing his collar: “Teacher Jian!”

“It’s Yan Yan!! He’s still alive!” Jian Hou cried excitedly.

“Impossible... this is impossible!!” Lu Sha said.

[No, no way, right? Jiang Yan is still alive?]

[Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Swallowed by the instance’s data chaos, how could he live?!]

[Don’t say another word! He doesn’t even have the chance to appear as a system NPC again!]

[But... this petal... isn’t this Jiang Yan’s item??]

“H-how could this be?” Yu Jia looked at the petal before his eyes in astonishment, “Maybe... it’s a data error caused by the instance collapse.”

After an instance collapses, its internal data loses control, becoming a mess of corrupted code. Sometimes, during the main system’s data retrieval process, errors can occur.

These petals might have reappeared in the instance due to such an erroneous command.

“R-right!” Lu Sha stared at Yu Jia viciously, “This happened before too... this proves even more that Jiang Yan is completely dead!”

“Hahahaha... he’s already become part of the main system’s corrupted data... completely dead! Completely dead!! Hahahahahaha...”

At that moment, several blue data chains tore open a path through the scarlet data chaos, shooting straight to the sky.

Like several beautiful blue ribbons, they fluttered in the wind filled with rose petals.

Then, within the dawn-like blue glow at the center of the data chains, a refined figure emerged.

Lu Sha’s laughter stopped abruptly, staring in horror at that familiar silhouette:

“This... this is impossible...”

“Yan, Yan Yan! Yan Yan!” Jian Hou flailed in Tao Shi’s arms, shouting excitedly.

“J-Jiang Yan? That’s Jiang Yan?!” Cao Youfeng looked fearfully at Tao Shi beside him.

Yes, fear.

The same fear as Lu Sha’s.

To be precise, everyone was afraid.

Except for Jian Hou, who didn’t fully understand the game mechanics or system logic, and was wholly immersed in the emotional high of seeing his friend seemingly come back to life.

The rest of the players, including Cang Rou, who owed Jiang Yan a favor and desperately hoped he was still alive, as well as Ding Wanyu, who barely counted as a newcomer, and even every player and real NPC watching the instance livestream, all wore the same expression of fear.

They stared at Jiang Yan in terror.

Amid the flurry of rose petals, within the blue data chains fluttering like ribbons, Jiang Yan stood.

Draped in a black divine robe that flapped sharply in the wind, his smooth black hair still obediently clung to his forehead and cheeks. His pair of ice-blue eyes remained crystal clear, like two blue glass beads.

There was no expression on his face.

Just like usual, his refined features held no distinct traits, plain as a bowl of boiled water, yet inexplicably, one couldn’t help but be drawn to him.

No.

Now, more than ever, he was even more captivating.

And this strange, inexplicable charm only magnified the players’ fear.

[Why... why? How could he still be alive?]

[BUG... Yes, a BUG. It must be a data glitch caused by the instance collapse, releasing Jiang Yan, who’d already been recovered by the system as an NPC. Yes, that must be it.]

[But... isn’t post-collapse recovered data just junk? H-how could a system NPC appear from that?]

“It’s over. Ruined. We’re finished.” Lu Sha staggered and collapsed to the ground in despair.

The puppet threads at the back of his head, having nearly lost control due to the players no longer holding the controlling item, had already spread to his central nervous system, affecting not only his emotions and judgment but also beginning to consume his mental and physical strength.

Yu Jia noticed something was wrong, but by now he had completely lost control over the puppet threads.

In-game items were bound to the player’s soul, driven by spiritual power.

A player unable to control their own item had never happened before.

What was going on?

Was it the effect of the instance collapse?

Or...

Yu Jia looked fearfully at Jiang Yan floating within the blue data chains, then looked up at the golden spiderweb holding up the crumbling instance sky. His throat bobbed slightly.

“What... what exactly is he?” Cao Youfeng asked Tao Shi, terrified.

“What exactly is he?”

In the Dawn Guild’s highest meeting room, the moment the instance collapse began, the guild’s upper management had been seated there, anxiously planning a rescue.

But at this point, the situation inside the instance was entirely beyond their control.

At the moment Jiang Yan appeared in the livestream, a female player wearing a black business suit and pencil skirt, with silver-rimmed glasses, slammed her hand on the table and questioned the figure seated in the center: Spade K.

“Body altered by the instance, killed over and over inside it, and then swallowed up by the collapse’s data mess, yet still alive. This isn’t a power even a real NPC favored by the Lord God could have. What is Jiang Yan?” the woman shouted.

Spade K sat cross-legged in the main seat, still dressed sharply in a black suit, cartoon shark headband on his head, a cup of milk tea with a straw beside him.

He gazed silently at Jiang Yan’s bland yet mesmerizing face on the massive water screen in front of them, unmoved by the high-level members’ questioning.

“We need to know the truth,” the woman said urgently.

Her words represented the thoughts of the entire Dawn Guild leadership.

When the guild leader remained silent, another man, slightly plump with greying hair and beard, spoke in a deep voice.

“Is this the will of the Lord God? Or has the main system’s problem grown even more severe?”

Spade K stayed silent.

“Ordinary players don’t know the main system has entered an irreversible failure state. Not even the Lord God can do anything, but we know.”

“Since twenty-five years ago, the main system hasn’t fulfilled a single wish for players or real NPCs. All so-called points became nothing but fuel to keep it running.”

“In these twenty-five years, no one has been able to make a deal with the system to leave the game.”

“All players and real NPCs can only waste away inside the instances, day after day, until they’re devoured by them, becoming fuel for the system.”

“And now, it’s even started pulling in ordinary people who haven’t made wishes or signed contracts.”

The old man’s voice was low and hoarse, like an old whetstone.

His cloudy eyes stared firmly at Spade K as he said, “If the records are correct, Jiang Yan is twenty-five this year. So, Guild Leader, what exactly is he?”

Inside the meeting room, everyone fixed their eyes on Spade K.

After a moment of silence, Spade K let out a light chuckle.

“What is he?”

“No rescue operations. Tell me, in a situation like this, what kind of being could possibly withstand an instance collapse?”

—

"Host! Host, can you hear me?!"

In a daze, Jiang Yan once again heard 663’s noisy voice by his ear.

The vanished physical sensations became clear once more. At this moment, he felt as if he were soaking in hot spring water that emitted a rose fragrance.

"Host! Jiang Yan! Jiang Yan!!"

"Tch! Keep it down, I can hear you..." Jiang Yan frowned and said.

663 let out a long breath of relief and said, "Thank goodness! You suddenly disconnected just now, scared me to death!"

"You’re the one who disconnected." Jiang Yan looked at the continuously collapsing skyline and said.

From the moment he was swept into the crimson data turbulence below, he lost connection with his personal system 663. He thought it was because he was about to be erased, so the main system cut off his link with the personal system.

He watched the heads around him explode and shatter like chewed-up candy, finally dissolving into the crimson data stream, and he waited for death to arrive.

But until he lost all sensations of his body, the expected pain of being torn apart and crushed never came.

What replaced it was a sense of etherealness—familiar yet unfamiliar.

Jiang Yan felt like a pool of water, completely merged into the surging chaotic current.

He didn’t know how much time passed, but suddenly he felt his vision lighten, and in the next second, his sight returned.

He watched everything inside the instance from an unknown angle in third-person view: the collapsing sky, the ground turned into an abyss, the players fleeing helplessly with nowhere to escape...

What happened next felt more like an instinct engraved into his soul.

No main system tasks, no personal system prompts—he instinctively understood the use of the "power of faith" accumulated by the divinity system.

He instinctively wove a golden web infused with faith to hold up the sky. Instinctively drew endless "power of faith" from the players’ bodies to supply the golden net in the sky...

Everything came from instinct.

And during this time, other than vision, he couldn’t feel any other senses, to the point that he nearly forgot he should have any.

Until just now, when 663’s voice echoed in his ear.

At that moment, the inexplicable third-person view disappeared, and he finally saw his current situation clearly.

"This... what is it?"

Jiang Yan looked at the few blue data chains floating beside him and asked.

"Well this is the system’s original code," 663 answered truthfully.

"What?"

Next