They traveled through time at the same time, but the villainous scientist

Chapter 427 Sadako's Arrival
Zhang Qi picked up the newspaper. The headline under the photo used a slightly exaggerated font, typical of that era.

The report describes how amazing a girl named Shizuko Yamamura is and how her superpower of predicting the future sparked a craze.

Unlike the original story, Shizuko Yamamura did not commit suicide due to media scrutiny and public pressure regarding her superpowers. Instead, she married Professor Ikuma...

Oh? I see...

Zhang Qi suddenly realized that this was neither a simple illusion nor simply resentment affecting reality.

This desolate town, transformed into a Showa-era setting, along with the ancient well that appeared and disappeared before, and the eerie skinned scarecrows, together constitute a "realm" independent of the real world.

An alternate dimension forcibly created around the resentment and obsession of Sadako Yamamura.

That's why this newspaper recorded such content, because it was the root of all the tragedy...

Zhang Qi released his grip, letting the newspaper be swept away by the night wind, tumbling and drifting on the empty street before finally disappearing into some dark corner.

His mind raced, connecting all the clues.

In the movie "The Ring," Sadako's abilities, though bizarre, are mainly manifested in mental attacks and the spread of curses, but she has never shown such a grand and thorough ability to distort reality.

Creating a small town, or even a larger independent space, and being able to "erase" the entire Central Continent Team from reality, far exceeds the capabilities of "Sadako" as he knows them.

If it's not a movie... then is it the original novel?

The thought flashed through his mind.

Because he needed to enter the God's Space, he had his counterparts from other worlds collect information on various film and television works for him.

This includes the original novel series of "The Ring".

That book series also has a more widely known translation—"The World Around Us".

The novel's initial content is similar to the movie, both revolving around Sadako's cursed videotapes.

However, in the later stages of the novel, the story's setting was moved to the distant future.

In an effort to simulate and predict the future of human civilization, a group of scientists used a supercomputer to create a vast virtual world and greatly accelerated the flow of time within it. That world was called "Ring."

During the long evolution of that virtual world, an unexpected programming error occurred, and a bug with self-awareness and terrifying abilities was born.

Its name is Sadako Yamamura...

If that's the case, then everything seems to make sense.

If this is the "Ring," a virtual world, then it's not surprising that Sadako, as a bug in this world, has the authority to modify the world's rules, create things out of thin air, and erase data.

Those skinned scarecrows could not be ignited by the Samadhi Fire, nor could the High-Frequency Blade easily cut their scythes, perhaps because they were endowed with special "attributes" at the underlying data level.

This hypothesis is extremely tempting because it could perfectly explain all the strange phenomena we are witnessing.

However, after a brief moment of thought, Zhang Qi rejected this conclusion.

If it were just a virtual world, it would be impossible for him not to notice any clues.

The [Bio-Regenerative Armor] itself is a product that surpasses modern Earth technology. Its built-in sensory system and information processor are more sensitive to energy flow and data flow than imagined.

No matter how realistic a purely digital world may be, it is fundamentally different from the real world in terms of its underlying logic and energy composition.

Moreover, Sadako isn't the only strange creature in this world...

Just as I was pondering this...

"Boom..."

A deep, muffled sound came from the depths of the earth, like the beating of a giant heart.

Then came the second sound, and the third sound. "Thump...thump...thump..."

The entire town began to tremble slightly with the heart-pounding sound.

The tangled, dark red biological tissues on the walls of the houses lining the street seemed to have been infused with life, writhing and multiplying at a visible speed. Their color deepened, turning from dark red to an ominous black. Countless tiny buds emerged from the surface of the tissues, dancing wildly in the air like thirsty tentacles.

An indescribable pressure descended from nowhere.

That was not physical pressure, but a crushing force from a higher-dimensional being originating from the very source of life, on a lower-dimensional being.

The air became viscous, the light was distorted by an invisible force, and the surrounding scenery began to sway slightly and irregularly.

He suddenly looked up and gazed towards the center of the town.

In the center of that block, covered by countless writhing tendons, darkness was gathering.

It wasn't the kind of shadow formed by the blocking of light, but rather "darkness" itself, like a black liquid with substance and mass, flowing in from all directions and coalescing into a huge, ever-expanding, and indistinct black shadow.

The shadowy figure expanded at an alarming rate, quickly surpassing the surrounding two- or three-story Japanese-style buildings, and continued to climb upwards.

It has no fixed form; it is merely a pure, dark aggregate that devours all light and hope. Yet, from the depths of that darkness emanates an indescribable, profound resentment directed at the entire world.

That was malice powerful enough to freeze even the soul.

Just as this enormous black shadow was about to fully take shape, and its terrifying, domineering aura reached its peak—

A line of cold, emotionless text appeared in Zhang Qi's consciousness like a brand.

[Warning: Encounter with a special entity, a "Demon King-level Evil Spirit."]

[Emergency Mission Triggered: Exorcise the Source of Resentment.]

[Mission Objective: Defeat the Demon Lord-level evil spirit—Sadako.]

[Mission Rewards: 1 A-rank side quest, 8000 reward points.]

"Um?!"

Upon seeing the sudden mission notification from the main god, even someone as resolute as Zhang Qi couldn't help but have his pupils contract.

He was taken aback.

It wasn't because of the content of the mission, but because of the unprecedented evaluation standard—"Demon King level".

Since entering the God's Space, he has encountered all sorts of enemies, from ordinary zombies and aliens to powerful vengeful spirits like Kayako and Mizunuma Mimiko.

This is the first time the main god has used the prefix "Demon King"...

In other words, besides genetic locking, there is another set of rating standards...

The exceptionally generous reward further underscores the terrifying difficulty and importance of this mission.

High risk, high reward. The Supreme God never engages in unprofitable ventures. Such an astonishing reward only proves one thing—

The "Sadako" before them possessed overwhelming power far exceeding that of any enemy they had ever encountered before.

In the blink of an eye, the gathering darkness ahead finally stopped expanding.

It stands silently like a black mountain towering in the center of the town, exuding a suffocating pressure.

At the very top of the darkness, it began to "flow" downwards, like melting wax, gradually outlining a blurry human figure.

The silhouette of a woman...

(End of this chapter)