Survival in an apartment, starting with a stroke of luck on a plane

But Lin Yu knew that this was only temporary.

The system is still failing, the cracks are still widening, and intruders are still pouring in.

The Balance Organization remains out of contact; its fate is unknown.

The situation is likely worse in other neighborhoods further away.

As for the divine body, Qingyuan has fallen into a deep sleep. The insectoid race has suffered heavy losses. Although the divine core has been re-restrained, no one knows how long it can be maintained.

All fronts are in dire need of attention.

All our allies are fighting.

And he is the backbone of everyone.

Lin Yu turned around by the window and sat down on the sofa.

Tangtang turned over, mumbled something, and fell asleep again.

Jinling jumped onto his lap, curled up in a ball, and made a soft purring sound.

Lin Yu leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes.

He was very tired.

Since returning from Mr. Fang's underground chamber, he hadn't slept a wink. Fighting airships, clearing mechanical creatures, battling skeletal behemoths, defending the line, and dealing with divine bodies... He'd been working non-stop for over ten hours, and even with his legendary physique, he was starting to feel the strain.

But he can't sleep.

Not at least not now.

He still has so much to do.

The defenses need to be reinforced, the survivors need to be housed, the Zerg losses need to be replenished, the Divine Body needs to be continuously monitored, Red Ghost and the other two need to be coordinated, and the information from Mr. Fang needs to be further verified...

And most importantly—he needed to figure out what exactly destroyed the core's consciousness.

If it's due to system failure, that's easier to understand; at least we know the cause.

But if someone did it intentionally...

That person was the most dangerous enemy he had ever encountered.

Because the ability to destroy the consciousness of a divine core across space without his knowledge is a power that has surpassed the legendary level.

At least a demigod.

It could even be higher.

Lin Yu opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling.

The light from the fluorescent lamp was a bit too bright, so he squinted.

"The 'variables' Mr. Fang mentioned..." he murmured to himself, "maybe it's not just me."

If system collapse is inevitable, then in the process, many "variables" like him will emerge—people or forces that do not completely depend on the system and possess independent power structures.

These variables can cooperate or oppose each other.

The final outcome will be determined by the interplay between these variables.

He didn't know what role he would play in this game.

Lin Yu took a deep breath and stood up from the sofa.

He walked to the gate of Xuandu Purple Mansion, pushed it open, and went inside.

A misty purple aura wafted towards us, carrying the warm scent of sandalwood.

The statue of the True Lord stood quietly in the center of the Purple Palace, its three eyes slightly closed, surrounded by a faint golden halo.

Lin Yu sat cross-legged in front of the statue and closed his eyes.

He didn't rush into cultivation, but instead first sorted out the information in his mind.

System failure is inevitable; the core will shut down within a month.

The boundary collapse has already occurred, with four large rifts hanging above the community, and countless worlds are merging with the player's world.

The Balance Organization has lost contact, and the Void Forces are now under unified command. The Divine Core's consciousness has been destroyed, and Qingyuan, after fusing her own consciousness with the Divine Core, has fallen into a deep slumber.

Thinking of Qingyuan, Lin Yu's emotions did not fluctuate much.

Ultimately, they are just partners.

She remained with the divine body for her own opportunity; he provided support to the Zerg and information, while she provided balanced energy and understanding of the divine body.

Mutual benefit, nothing more.

She fell into a deep sleep. For Lin Yu, the biggest loss was that the divine body lost a high-end combatant who could suppress the divine core, as well as the ability to guide the divine body's energy network.

As for personal feelings... not much.

Lin Yu suppressed these distracting thoughts.

The purple energy flowed along the meridians, slowly merging with the source energy, Samadhi True Fire, and Thunder Magic power within the body.

The enlightenment effect of Xuandu Purple Mansion made his thinking exceptionally clear, and many questions that he couldn't understand before now had vague answers.

He opened his eyes after cultivating for about two hours.

His condition has improved considerably, and his magical power has returned to its peak.

He stood up and walked out of the Xuandu Purple Mansion.

In the living room, Tangtang was already awake and was sitting on the floor building blocks.

Jin Ling, who was lying on the back of the sofa, called out when she saw him come out.

"Big brother, is the fighting still going on outside?" Tangtang looked up, her big eyes filled with unease.

"We're fighting," Lin Yu told her, "but we can't get here yet."

"Oh." Tangtang lowered her head and continued building with blocks.

Lin Yu walked over, patted her head, and then went to the window.

The scene outside the window is even more chaotic than yesterday.

There were more than four cracks in the sky—at least dozens of cracks of varying sizes, like a shattered pane of glass.

Behind each crack, one can vaguely see the scenery of another world: some are towering fairy mountains reaching into the clouds, some are futuristic cities with steel jungles, some are deserts with yellow sand covering the sky, and some are vast water worlds.

Countless worlds are merging with the player's world.

It's not just a simple spatial passage, but a true overlap—the rules of two worlds are colliding, merging, and eroding each other.

Lin Yu could sense that the energy composition in the air had become extremely complex.

Yesterday it was mainly void energy and abyssal aura, but today there is also immortal energy, magical elements, radiation energy, spiritual particles... all kinds of energy that he can name and those he can't name are mixed together, forming a strange hodgepodge.

This is not good news for players.

Players' power systems largely rely on system rules, but these system rules are now being diluted and impacted by countless external rules.

Low-level players have already started experiencing skill failures—Lin Yu just saw through the Queen's monitoring network that several gold-level players suddenly couldn't unleash their skills during battle and were torn apart by a monster that fell out of the rift.

Legendary-level beings are less affected because their power has partially broken free from the system framework and acquired its own rules and attributes.

However, for obsidian-grade and below, the impact will become increasingly significant.

This means that as the worlds become increasingly interconnected, the combat power of ordinary players will continue to decline.

The legendary class will become the true deciding force in the battle.

But there are too few legendary ones.

In the entire community, including himself, there are only four officially recognized legendary players: himself, Chi Gui, Ba Wang, and Liu Baiyu.

Four legendary figures are struggling to defend a neighborhood that is being invaded by countless worlds.

Lin Yu thought for a moment and took out a communication talisman.

He didn't contact Chi Gui and the others—those three were already busy enough, each guarding their own area. He contacted Mr. Fang instead.

"Are you there?"

After sending the message, about half a minute later, Mr. Fang replied: "In. The underground secret room."

"I came over here. I have a question for you."

"at any time."

Lin Yu put away the communication talisman and said to Jin Ling, "I'm going out for a bit. You watch over Tangtang."

Jinling cried out and flew down from the back of the sofa, landing next to Tangtang.

Lin Yu put on the Hun Tian Cloak and went out.

Along the way, he saw more "new residents".

They are not invaders, but beings from other worlds who are not hostile at the moment.

At the entrance of a convenience store on the street corner sat a young Taoist priest dressed in a blue robe, with a fortune-telling stall in front of him. The sign read, "Divine divination, no charge if inaccurate."

Next to him squatted a pure white fox with nine tails swaying leisurely behind it—a nine-tailed fox, a platinum-level demon, but at this moment it was eating a sausage it had found in a convenience store with great relish.

The Taoist priest saw Lin Yu pass by, looked up at him, and his eyes lit up slightly: "Fellow Taoist, please wait."

Lin Yu stopped and looked at him.

"This humble Taoist priest, Qingyunzi, comes from the Azure Netherworld." The priest stood up and performed a Taoist salute. "Having just arrived in this esteemed place, I am unfamiliar with both people and this land. I would like to ask you a question—what realm is this? Why are the rules so chaotic?"

"The player world," Lin Yu replied simply. "The reason the rules are chaotic is because many worlds are overlapping with this one."

"I see." Qingyunzi suddenly realized. "No wonder my transmission talisman is completely useless here; it turns out it's a rule conflict."

He paused, then asked, "Fellow Daoist, do you know how long this overlap will last?"

"I don't know," Lin Yu said. "It might continue indefinitely."

Qingyunzi's expression changed, then he gave a wry smile: "That's troublesome. My sect is still in the Azure Netherworld; if I can't return..."

He shook his head, sat back down behind the fortune-telling stall, and seemed to have accepted the reality.

Lin Yu didn't talk much and continued walking forward.

After walking a while, he saw a group of knights wearing silver armor, about twenty of them, standing in front of a residential building and confronting the players inside.

The knights' armor was emblazoned with a golden cross emblem, and they carried longswords and shields. Their auras ranged from gold to diamond, with the two leading knights being epic-level.

Opposite them were a dozen or so players of varying levels, the highest being Platinum.

"These heretics!" a knight shouted. "They wield blasphemous power! They must be purified!"

"Who the hell is a heretic!" someone yelled back. "This is our world! You're the invaders!"

"The rules of this world are chaotic, and evil gods run rampant. We have come here to purify it on the orders of the Holy Lord; it is the will of Heaven!"

"God's will—"

The two sides were on the verge of a fight.

Lin Yu frowned.

He didn't want to get involved in this kind of thing, but if a fight broke out, it would cause a huge commotion and might attract an even more powerful being.

Moreover, although these knights are only of epic rank at most, more than twenty elite knights working together, along with their holy light power, are simply unstoppable for platinum-level players.

He walked over.

"Get out of the way." His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable air of authority.

The legendary aura was released, and although it was only at the initial stage, it was already overwhelming for beings of epic level and below.

The knights turned around at the same time, and their expressions changed slightly when they saw Lin Yu.

"Who are you?" The leading knight gripped his longsword tightly, holy light flowing across its blade, but his hand trembled slightly—he couldn't withstand the legendary pressure.

"The residents here," Lin Yu said. "Everyone in this building is an ordinary person. There are no heretics like you're looking for. If you want to fight, go outside, don't do it in the residential area."

The knight commander's face turned pale and then red. He tried to be defiant, but the legendary aura pressed down on him like a mountain, making it difficult for him to even breathe.

"...Let's go." Finally, he gritted his teeth and said this, then turned and left with his knights.

The players breathed a sigh of relief. Some tried to come over to thank him, but Lin Yu waved them off and continued walking forward.

He didn't like being thanked, nor did he need it. He simply didn't want to see pointless killing on his own turf.

But this also made him realize a problem—as more and more worlds overlap with the player's world, beings with various stances, beliefs, and rules will continuously pour in.

Some will choose to observe like Qingyunzi, some will be hostile like these knights, and some may try to establish their own power in this chaotic new world.

The player world is becoming a battlefield where heroes vie for supremacy.

The players are just one of the factions.

Mr. Fang's underground secret room remains unchanged.

The fluorescent lights hummed, and the system topology diagram on the wall was dimmer than yesterday—the central sphere of light had shrunk, and dozens more of the surrounding light spots had gone out.

Mr. Fang sat behind a long table with a glass of cold tea in front of him. Seeing Lin Yu enter, he gestured with his chin: "Sit."

Lin Yu sat down opposite him.

"I have a few questions," Lin Yu said, getting straight to the point.

"ask."

"First, to what extent will the world overlap? What will it ultimately become?"

Mr. Fang took a sip of tea and slowly said, "Based on the current trend, eventually all the worlds connected by the system will completely overlap. Not just spatial channels, but true fusion—the rules, geography, and living beings of all worlds will all be superimposed."

"Overlay?"

"Yes. Imagine overlaying one world map onto another, and another, and so on, hundreds or thousands of times. The final world will encompass the geographical features and rule systems of all worlds," Mr. Fang said. "Of course, the rules will conflict and devour each other, eventually forming a new set of hybrid rules. In this process, countless lives will die, and countless civilizations will be destroyed."

Lin Yu remained silent for a few seconds.

"Secondly, was the destruction of the divine core's consciousness an effect of system failure?"

Mr. Fang put down his teacup, glanced at Lin Yu, and asked, "Are you talking about that ancient god's divine body?"

"You know that?"

"The seventh level of access allows us to see a lot of things," Mr. Fang said. "The destruction of the divine core's consciousness is not a direct consequence of system failure. System failure only leads to the loosening of rules; it doesn't directly destroy the consciousness of an ancient god's core."

"What is that?"

"There are two possibilities," Mr. Fang said, holding up one finger. "First, external force intervened. Some being crossed space and directly attacked the core of the divine core's consciousness. Anyone capable of this would be at least a demigod, and possess a profound understanding of the divine body's structure."

He held up his second finger: "Secondly, the consciousness of the divine core itself is problematic. It may not have naturally fallen into dormancy, but rather been sealed by something. System failure caused the seal to loosen, and the sealed entity awakened, destroying the original consciousness."

Lin Yu frowned.

Both possibilities are terrible.

The first possibility means that an enemy at the demigod level or higher is operating in the shadows. The second possibility means that something unknown is hidden inside the divine core, and what Qingyuan suppressed with her consciousness fusion may only be the surface.

"Third," Lin Yu continued, "do you know who's responsible for the unified command and control of the void forces?"

"I don't know," Mr. Fang shook his head. "But I can tell you one thing—the Eternal Night Council and the Hand of Ashes had already begun contact before the system crashed. There was some kind of agreement between them; I can't find out the specifics, but what's certain is that they've been waiting for this day of system crash for a very long time."

waited for so long.

Lin Yu kept this information in mind.

"Fourth," he looked into Mr. Fang's eyes, "what exactly do you want? You've told me all this, helped me understand the situation, but what is your purpose?"

Mr. Fang remained silent for a long time.

The hum of the fluorescent lights sounded particularly jarring in the silence.

"I want order," he finally said. "After the system collapses, the world will descend into chaos for a long time."

Many people will die in chaos, and many civilizations will be completely wiped out. I have lived too long and witnessed the rise and fall of too many civilizations. I don't want to see another world completely destroyed in chaos.

"So you want to support a 'variable' to establish a new order amidst the chaos?"

"Yes," Mr. Fang did not deny it, "and you, of all the variables I've observed, are the one most likely to succeed."

Why me?

"Because you don't rely on a system, you have an independent civilization, the backing of ancient gods, your own territory, and..." Mr. Fang paused, "...you don't have much ambition."

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow: "Having no ambition is a virtue?"

"In such times, yes," Mr. Fang said. "Ambitious people will expand and conquer in the chaos, ultimately triggering a larger war."

A person without ambition will only guard their own little corner of the world and protect those they care about. The order established by such a person is the only stable one.

Lin Yu did not respond.

He didn't know if he could be considered "unambitious." He certainly didn't want to conquer the world, but if anyone threatened those he cared about, he would not hesitate to take action.

"I didn't promise you anything," Lin Yu said. "I'm just getting information."

"I know." Mr. Fang smiled slightly. "I don't need you to promise anything. You just need to be yourself."

Lin Yu stood up, preparing to leave.

"Wait a minute." Mr. Fang called out to him, took a metal box from under the table, and pushed it in front of Lin Yu. "This is for you."

"What?"

"Some information. Basic information about various worlds, their power systems, and major forces. After the system collapses, this information will become increasingly difficult to obtain, so knowing some in advance will be beneficial."

Lin Yu opened the box, inside was a thick stack of papers and several memory crystals.

He flipped through the top few sheets of paper, which were covered with various world maps and power distribution diagrams, marked in great detail.

"Where did you get this?"

"Seventh-level access grants access to the system's global database," Mr. Fang said. "Before the system crashed, I downloaded everything I could."

Lin Yu closed the box and put it into his storage space.

"Thanks," he said.

"You're welcome," Mr. Fang waved his hand. "This is an investment."

Lin Yu didn't say anything more and turned to leave the underground chamber.

On his way back to the apartment, Lin Yu encountered many more creatures from different worlds.

A futuristic warrior in mech armor is confronting a giant dragon that has fallen out of a crack. The mech's energy cannons and the dragon's breath are locked in a fierce battle, while the surrounding buildings have been razed to the ground.

A group of primitive people dressed in animal skins were roasting meat over a fire in the community garden. They were using stone knives and axes, but each of them possessed considerable power—the lowest being at least Platinum level, and the leader even reaching Epic level. This was a highly skilled primitive tribe, with extremely strong individual combat abilities.

There was also a woman in a gorgeous long dress standing on the roof of a building, singing in a language that Lin Yu couldn't understand.

Her singing voice had a certain magic; the surrounding air seemed to ripple with her voice.

Lin Yu sensed that this woman was at the initial stage of the legendary level—just like him.

Another legendary figure has been added.

And they're not players.

Lin Yu didn't go up to talk to him, but just observed him from a distance.

The woman didn't seem hostile; she was just singing, perhaps adapting to the rules of this new world.

The number of legendary items is increasing.

As the overlap between worlds deepens, more and more legendary or even higher-level beings from other worlds will enter the player's world.

At that time, the power of the four players will be greatly compressed.

Lin Yu quickened his pace and returned to the apartment.

He needs to digest the information provided by Mr. Fang as soon as possible and formulate a new response strategy.

But as soon as he entered the door, he sensed that something was wrong.

The air in the apartment... has changed.

It's not a change in temperature or smell, but a distortion at the spatial level.

It's as if something is trying to infiltrate from another dimension.

Lin Yu's pupils contracted slightly.

He immediately activated his senses and scanned the entire apartment.

Tangtang is safe in the room. Jinling is safe in the living room. Xuandu Purple Mansion is stable, and the small world is stable.

But there was an extremely faint spatial fluctuation on the ceiling of the apartment.

It was very faint; if his senses hadn't been enhanced by both the Heavenly Eye and the Night Raven, he wouldn't have been able to detect it at all.

Someone is trying to break through the spatial barriers of the apartment and sneak in from above.

Lin Yu kept quiet.

He pretended not to have noticed anything, walked to the sofa and sat down, then notified the Queen of Insects via mental connection.

"There are spatial fluctuations above the apartment ceiling; it could be an intruder. Send an elite team to the roof to stand by."

[Understood. Ten heavy beetles and twenty sword beetles have been dispatched to the rooftop.]

Lin Yu leaned back on the sofa, closed his eyes, and pretended to rest.

But his perception remained fixed on that fluctuating point on the ceiling.

The fluctuations are slowly increasing.

The other party was very careful, grinding down the spatial barrier little by little, as if cutting flesh with a dull knife.

This method will not trigger a space alarm, but it is very slow.

About ten minutes later, a small crack appeared in the ceiling.

A hand reached out from the crack.

The hand was very pale, with long, thin fingers and black nails that gleamed with a faint, cold light.

Then the other hand.

He grabbed the edge of the crack with both hands and tore it open with force.

"Sizzle—"

A gap, about the width of a person, was torn open in the spatial barrier.

A figure jumped down from the crack and landed on the living room floor without making a sound.

It was a woman dressed in a black bodysuit, with a black mask covering her face, revealing only her eyes—dark red, emotionless eyes.

Her aura... Legendary Level 1.

Just like Lin Yu.

After landing, the woman did not act immediately, but first observed her surroundings.

Her gaze swept over Lin Yu, who was "sleeping" on the sofa, paused for a moment, and then turned to the entrance of the small world—the golden vortex.

Her goal is a small world.

Lin Yu sneered inwardly.

They're here for the small world again.